Posted August 13, 2019 What will you do? >>>>>>>>>>>>SLUG UPGRADE | MORE BUBBLE >FREAK | RUN His eyes snap as open as they can get when he sees the deranged man slam all his bubbles and Lara’s bullets with a swoop of a weird tentacle. Scratch that, a single bullet from Lara's gun manages to Maybe it’s the aggressive nature of Saiken’s version 1 mode. Or maybe it’s the fact that he sent- what, three waves of explosive bubbles at this prick? And NONE of them did any damage? He has the audacity to taunt them all, with the highest pitch laugh he'd ever heard from a man. It'd scare him if he weren't already completely and utterly pissed off. “Do you really think you bullets and knives will save you? You idiots! I’ll have each and every one of your heads!” Idiot? Idiot? Did he just say what Utakata thought he said? That taunt is the last thing Utakata is going to tolerate today. But in this form, what can he do? Sure, it can heal his wounds, it can give him a boost, but at this range? This won't do. Utakata can feel a wave of rage rushing through his body. For a second, he thinks that anger will hide the physical pain of what's about to come. "Like. Hell. You. Will." His voice may be louder than usual, but at this point everything is already loud. Everything is chaotic. His voice is just another piece of nonsense in the sea of insanity going on at the gateway. He refuses to let this man take away the life that this sudden change in scenery just managed to save. Like hell this man is going to kill him. Like hell this man is going to harm a hair on anyone's heads. Hell. No. He feels a rush of pain, as if every skin cell on his person is on fire. Failing to suppress a yelp, soon enough it doesn't matter anyway. ... Lara backs up twenty steps when she sees the aura around Utakata completely engulf his body, to the point where he becomes almost unrecognizable. The form she sees in front of her is something she has never seen before, not even in the different missions she had been on during her time in the X-Dreamers. What on God's green earth, she thinks to herself. But she manages to keep her composure and take a good look at what she's seeing. The only thing that reminds her that it's Utakata is the silhouette of his hairstyle, but otherwise, she blinks. The red and black form appears to have six tails, and it doesn't appear to be wearing some sort of clothing. Where the hell did that loose kimono go? As confused as she is, she finds herself oddly intimidated by it. The beast lets out a feral wail, making his tails lash out just a tad. This causes Lara to take one more step back, she keeps her grip on her gun nice and firm, refusing to let go of it. It appears that Utakata lost some of his control, but he doesn't appear to go for any of the other team members. She thanks her lucky stars when he appears to just rush forward, ignoring everyone else in the vicinity and attempting to come at the man. He seems to disregard that after Fiddlesticks' missile that the grass is on fire. He disregards everything and everyone around him and attempts to lash at the man. She aims another shot at the man's body, hoping that it hits. She also, deep down, hopes with everything she has that Utakata doesn't get hurt. Six-Tails: Unleashed! Share this post Link to post
Posted August 13, 2019 Rimuru Tempest - Trying to be badass Rimuru nodded at the kimono’d man’s response and reaffirmed his grip on the newly made sword. He darted passed the taller man; the pink barrier that had been shielding them had evaporated away and charged at the tentacled non-human. One of the tentacles pierced through the air towards him, Rimuru dodged by rapidly returning to his true form, and then transforming back to the side. He wasn’t the only one who had charged in; the white insectoid had produced twin photon swords and was skilfully parrying the extremely durable tentacles. “How are they so strong that even photon blades can hurt them!?” Rimuru thought, aghast. “Well if that’s the case maybe the only thing that can hurt it really is itself!” His train of thoughts continued. Changing his stance, he moved his sword below his waste; gripping it with both hands. Ducking under the next tentacle Rimuru shifted right and sliced upwards, emitting a spark of electricity to activate the blade. The effect was even better than Rimuru had hoped. The blade extended once again, as it had when Rimuru accidentally stabbed yukata-man, and following the arc, cleanly sliced up and through the tentacle. Rimuru paused in his step to admire his work, the blade returning to its original size. He was caught off guard though, when a powerful explosion detonated just ahead of him. Rimuru didn’t have time to defend himself as the blast catapulted him upwards into the air, if he were still human, he would have been eviscerated by the heat alone. As he spun through the air, Rimuru grew out his pair of bat wings to stabilise himself, but in his haste his sword had flown out of his hand. As it careened back down to the ground Rimuru shot out a sticky thread to catch it, but the thread missed and Rimuru lost site of the blade. Rimuru clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked down, unfortunately the explosion hadn’t seemed to have done anything, save disrupting more earth and singing the dirt. “Ah! Oh no! I’ve lost the sword. If an explosion like that didn’t work on him, will my magic even have an effect!?” He asked himself, angrily clutching his head in anger at his own incompetence. “If sensei were to know that I dropped my blade he’d never forgive me!” He cried out in anguish. Share this post Link to post
Posted August 17, 2019 ((Before anyone asks for the six-hundredth time, yes, the missile has gone off. It went off when Dimitri countered it (which just made it detonate early, as I showed with the image on Discord), which would be Doc's most recent post before this one.)) Typheus had flown way out of range of the blast zone. He heard it go off - the massive boom, the shower of earth and dust that the force had kicked up, the surprised yelps - but not much else; then he was clocked in the wing by something big. Expecting the impact to be debris, he over-corrected his balance to try and dodge it only for something to land in his outstretched claws. Human?? All he caught was a mass of blue with some white and yellow on it. It flopped like a living thing, clearly unconscious and smoldering a bit. Suspicious of what that might mean, he killed his speed and spun around, ready to deflect any tentacles chasing him, yet there wasn't one; apparently those things still had size limits like everything else and the ones in pursuit had shrunken back to help their owner. Lowering his altitude to a safe distance to place the human onto the ground first (not questioning the... tights?), Typheus darted back, returning to the scene of the battle. The grass that hadn't been on fire wasn't spared now, and the soot of what had been grass was now scorched white and black. A small, slightly-sunken epicenter of what is best described as melting earth sat just feet from the aggressive human; it looked like the tentacles that had been chasing the mechs had shrunken back to shield against the blast of force and heat. Frustratingly, that meant the missile literally did nothing to him. Fiddlesticks was appropriately fifteen to twenty feet from where she had been standing, not picking herself up immediately. Her face and front glowed as brightly as her extremely-annoyed red eye. He had only seen that once, where she had to break up a standoff between the two of them and a number of Superiority models; being half-molten (again) was not a great situation for her. Oh, Fidds... he mentally sighed. A quick couple of glances showed that everyone else wasn't much better off: the much lighter combatants had traveled a good distance, possibly okay, but no one appeared dead. That was good at least. Surely there were some burns, but it was nothing that this fancy multiverse base couldn't fix, right? That bird-masked lady seemed to know exactly what to do with Yusei, and Duke didn't have tetanus, somehow. Massive burns should be nothing. He practically laughed aloud at the thought. What a casual way to think of an explosion in your face. Despite the temporary interruption, it just seemed to make the tentacled man angrier, which resumed the fighting as before. One of the other men behind Twilight pulled a similar look, glowing and sprouting tails as well. Typheus hovered and glared for a couple of seconds just to make sure he wasn't going to pull anything funny, but rather than that, the man decided to charge over the searing earth toward the tentacle human. Initially thinking of how stupid that was, the Superiority model told himself that at least he'll distract his target and keep those tentacles away from Fidds. Another glance at her confirmed that she was still holding very, very still, waiting for her hull to cool down, so he landed next to her, one knee on the ground so he was less conspicuous yet still ready to fend off any tentacles that came their way. He watched the battle for a bit, the dying sizzle of the grass quickly drowned out by the sounds of combat. Studying the movements of the tentacles, he noticed that the human controlling them used them as shields twice, and they were tough, yet they moved fast and seemed to easily change momentum; they were more trying to pierce their assailants than swinging or hitting them. Maybe they were very light? If they're light, and I can move fast enough... I can't prove I can move fast enough if I had simply moved out of range... thrashing might work... He pondered the sudden idea, which was the sort of brash, reckless thing Fiddlesticks would do without thinking, but hey, maybe all it needed was some thought and it'll be enough to work. Typheus stood back up, keeping his wings flared, and waited for a good opening. Right when the blonde is distracted... there! The mech burst into a run, kicked on his thrusters and shot forward, claws wide and aimed for the human. He initially had the element of surprise, but missed by a margin of a few inches when a tentacle interrupted the path ahead and he was forced to fly to the side; at worst he singed a few hairs on the way past from having to push thruster fire that way. He uttered his curse silently, now knowing that the tentacle-human will see him coming. He let his momentum carry him out of range, spun around, and shot back toward the human, but now a tentacle was ready and swiftly knocked him down into the ground. The impact dazed the machine, but he picked himself back up anyway and tried to dodge the tentacle; nope! It hit him again and this time he let out an audible snarl as it sent him tumbling back along the ground. Thoroughly annoyed, Typheus tried to dodge it for the third time, this time distancing himself from the fight so he was out of reach and had plenty of time to calculate how to do this. The tentacle wavered just ten feet in front of him, almost like it had its own mind, waiting for him to move again. What is it humans say? 'Third time's the charm'? He looked at all of the empty space above the tentacle: plenty of maneuvering room for both of them, but it meant he'd have to pull the tallest, shortest dive he could in order to get the human. Let's see if it's true. He launched off, the tentacle quickly reengaging with him. He ignored it, focused more on his target. In retrospect, he would have been able to grab the human just fine had he not relied on him being so distracted. Maybe it was the fact that Typheus' flying was too loud and obvious, or maybe the tentacles did expand the human's senses, but either way the mech's swipe wasn't as successful as he hoped; at the same time, he wasn't sure how successful it had been. All he knew is he hit something, he wasn't holding something afterward, and he was spinning through space and half of him was stiff. It was only after he flew forward at full speed for a couple seconds did he feel something slip from under his right side and his thoughts came through a bit less garbled. The first thing he noticed as the bright red notification about hull damage in multiple areas, the most alarming on being the area the stiffness slipped from, which was just next to his computer. Alarmed, Typheus switched to sporadic flight, trying to dislodge whatever weighed down his right side, but it was stubborn. He then tried to look at the rest of him, but he couldn't twist or pivot anywhere. It was like he was skewered through, from ankle to wrist, with two wings caught - blast it all, it was a tentacle, wasn't it?! One probably tried to spear him but only caught half his body and was now stuck there. He had to get out of range! Immediately the mech diverted course toward the sky, going straight for the stratosphere. Once this gnarly thing was pulled away from him, he would have to try a different tactic. 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Posted August 17, 2019 (edited) ` Mikleo - Dining Hall [Tea and Biscuits] - [Sorey is doing The Thing] "Like me," Mikleo echoed. He put to fingers to his lips and looked down at the table, absently focusing on the wood grain. The Cryptics were scholars, too, but from how Tien phrased it, it sounded like they were like that by nature. He himself was curious, but sometimes he wondered if it was nature, or if it was thanks to Sorey that they both had such a passion for history? And about sentient spren and non-sentient spren... Seraphim were, for the most part, sentient -- but if the definition were expanded to other spiritual creatures, then the concept of a world invisible to humans did seem quite common. Why was that? "I think seraphim too are content to live in their own realm, now... Although they tend to be solitary, with my village being an exception..." His voice trailed into a mutter, but before he could hear Tien reply, a shout came from across the table. Mikleo jolted and his attention snapped to the source of the outburst, where Sorey held hands with the caramel haired girl. The seraph relaxed his shoulders when he noticed there was no need for alarm. He glanced at Tien, who was jumpy enough to nearly leave his seat at the event. How come he was so easily spooked? "Oh. He's just doing the thing where he lets people hear seraphs." Mikleo shook his head and ran a few exasperated fingers through his hair, brushing at the circlet hidden within his bangs. With overzealous Lailah and troublesome Edna, this was bound to be a total disaster. While reaching for a cookie, his eyes drifted to the mugs of steaming hot tea. Well, if Sorey wanted their presence known... ~~ Sorey - Dining Hall [sorry, sorry!] - [tea with ev, tien, towa, chikako, lailah, mikleo, edna] Sorey didn't quite expect Evonna's reaction to be quite so loud. Eyes still shut, he winced at the curse and his focus wavered. His brow scrunched and his lips pulled back into an nervous grin -- maybe this wasn't the best way to introduce his friends after all? It was easy for Alisha to believe him because she wholeheartedly believed in Seraphim in the first place, despite her nonexistent resonance. "It's alright, Evonna! I take that as I sign that you can hear us. Wonderful!" Having gotten up and moved to stand behind the two, Lailah nodded to herself in satisfaction. Sorey's abilities were developing quite well. He barely needed to hold his breath anymore, but just a little more and perhaps Evonna could see them, too. Excited, she clasped both her hands around Sorey and Evonna's to let the girl know where she was. "Cause we are ghosts," Edna added with a smirk in reply to Scarlet, even though the only humans who could really hear her were Sorey, Tien, and Evonna. "We're here for revenge..." Placing the heel of her boot on the edge of the table, she leaned back in her chair and balanced it precariously on two legs. "OoooooOOOoooOOoooo... " She and Mikleo made eye contact and the younger seraph held back a laugh that sounded like a snort. Taking the cue, he reached across the table. He touched the porcelain of one of the mugs of tea and in the span of an instant the liquid went from piping hot to frozen slush. Cracks of frost formed over the surface of the table and the icy aura even froze the other cups, dropping the air's temperature a couple degrees. Sorey wanted to say cut it out, guys, but resigned to continue his job as a spirit medium. Edited August 17, 2019 by TehUltimateMage Share this post Link to post
Posted August 18, 2019 Location: Base Dining Hall People: Evonna, Chikako, Sorey, Towa, Mikleo, Edna, Lailah "Oh," Mikleo says, "He's just doing the thing where he lets people hear seraphs." Ah. So Evonna was just startled by Lailah’s voice. She wasn’t screaming because of a threat. Tien isn’t going to be attacked by something else. He doesn’t have to run. He’s fine. He’s safe. It’s fine. Tien sits back down carefully, panicked heartbeat slowing back to normal. Lailah is wrapping her hands around Evonna’s. She’s not covering her safehand either. Tien looks away quickly, feeling his cheeks heat up with embarrassment. The smallest seraph--Tien didn’t pick up her name--cracks a joke that makes Mikleo stifle a laugh. The corners of his eyes crinkle, and Tien’s mind involunatarily pulls up the image of Mikleo putting his fingers to his lips a few moments ago, and now the flush in Tien’s face is for an entirely different reason. Oh, that is the absolute last storming thing he needs right now. Fortunately, Mikleo’s display of powers is enough to distract Tien from his appearance and focus more on his abilities. Temperature control? That’s not a Surge I know of...wait, right, different world. So that’s part of the water distinction...I wonder if it applies the other way, to heating things up? And if we were in a humid spot, could he-- "OoooooOOOoooOOoooo…" ...And that’s Fractal, who’s slid into the center of the table and has apparently decided to get in on the whole messing-with-people thing. Tien hides his grin behind a hand at the reaction Fractal provokes when she mimics the seraph’s drawl. Now there’s something they could use… Share this post Link to post
Posted August 22, 2019 What will you do? TEA | COOKIE PUNCH | >>YEET "...A-are you all right, Evonna? You look as if you've seen a ghost..." Evonna wants to scream "HELL NO", but the words catch in her throat. Instead what exits her vocal cords is a small squeak. She looks around the room to see if anyone else can hear her, but either they don't know what's happening or they think this is all normal. She'd never been fond of the idea of ghosts, as a kid she always thought the ghosts of her birth parents were haunting her because she was with a different family. So to say that the idea of touching this boy's hand and seeing ghosts terrifies her is a complete understatement. Chikako is laughing her little ass off. Good to know someone finds this crap funny, she bitterly thinks to herself. Evonna can feel her pulse pounding in her ears. None of this, absolutely none of this is normal. She has brief thoughts going back to her childhood, where she would run to her parents' room griping about ghosts. Where Jehan would have to share his nightlight for a week because Evonna was just too scared to sleep without turning the bedroom light on. "It's alright, Evonna! I take that as I sign that you can hear us. Wonderful!" The voice she heard initially is almost comforting. But the next voice she hears? Not so much. "Cause we are ghosts. We're here for revenge...OoooooOOOoooOOoooo... " In response Evonna utters a whine of fear. Chikako is laughing much harder than before. The room feels suddenly colder, as if someone had brought in a weather spirit or something even more sinister. But the kicker was the repeated moan from Tien's direction. Evonna lets out an unholy scream, grabs one of the cold cups and throws it out the window. She immediately clings to Sorey, burying her face in his shoulder and refusing to look up. She says rather incoherent things in French, completely shaken up by the whole ordeal. "Evonna, you two just met," Chikako teases. Then Evonna hears her sigh. "You alright?" Evonna lets out a low whine in response. "...Welp. I guess you'll get used to it eventually, but..." Evonna doesn't think she'll be able to sleep for the next week. Share this post Link to post
Posted August 27, 2019 (edited) Lightpon ~ Stealing's not bad if you return it! So the purple-green impostor man just looked up and helpfully informed her that all these rooms were empty. Great! Great!.... Of course, there's still the problem of actually finding a room. Beckoning to her buddies, she carefully tiptoed around the imposter-man and his pile of woodshavings, then opened the closest door beside her. Plain white sheets, plain white curtains, a desk, a chair, and a wardrobe. No shelves！？Light pressed her lips to a pout. And no windows in here either. "Next!” she announced out loud, marching to the next white-wooded door. Behind her, Louise and Kurata exchanged a few whispered words, looking at her with the same sort of expression one would use for someone who just announced they were bringing a shipment of meat through tyrannosaurus territory. Unaware of this, Light looked into the second door to see.... Pretty much the same set-up in this room as the one she left. Geez.... Huh, wait, maybe the wardrobes would have shelves? Then I can only worry about a window. Unfortunately, the wardrobe only had a wood bar in it. Light pursed her lips, then left the room, heading to one across the hall. Maybe I'll have better luck there? ... And unfortunately again, this one didn't have a window either. Light sighed, stepping back out and looking down the corridor. She really didn't want to talk to the impostor-man any more than she had to, there was something eerie about him and what she could only call his eyes. So instead, she looked back at and opened the door in front of her, face splitting into a grin as light streamed in through a window across from her. No shelves in this one either, though. At least she knew to keep to this wall of doors! Mood lifted slightly, she started opening doors along that wall to check for shelves--one of which she closed quietly upon seeing a room full of stuff and a person wearing some sort of contraption on their head while peering at a screen. Woah, he looks like he's doing something really important. Better not bother him... But geez, how many rooms do I have to check? As Light made her way down the doors, Louise and Kurata stayed behind and exchanged muttered words--and in the former's case, rolled eyes--before following Light down the hallway. Eventually, she opened a door to see a grand bookshelf occupying part of the wall. Face-splitting grin back on, Light spun around and loudly announced to her summons "I found one! You can all drop the stuff in here!" Edited September 1, 2019 by Pyrowings Share this post Link to post
Posted August 31, 2019 (edited) Stan - Infirmary [she's awake!] - [time to explain the usual] The girl had finally awoken. No signs of any problems -- just the usual disorientation from waking up in an unfamiliar place. “Welcome to the Gateway to the Starry Skies, honey. You’re even prettier when you’re awake.” Stan gave her a wink and a cheeky little smile, ignoring Raine’s incredulous stare. The half-elf had almost forgotten that Stan greeted every woman with a pick-up line — although this time, she thought she could feel a subtle strain behind his words. It appeared that she wasn’t the only one relieved at their success. “We’re in the infirmary, to be exact,” Stan continued. “Comparing your wounds to the story of what happened at the rocks, it’s likely that you sustained massive blast damage before getting teleported to our world.” The man glanced toward Hibiki. “Unless, there’s more to the story of what’s going on out there at the gate itself. Which, wouldn’t surprise me at all.” (Yeah, and if there was another Nata out there right now causing blast damage at the gateway, Nata 1.0 was on the way and could easily set them straight with a few explosive punches to the gut. Stan didn’t even want to waste a single brain cell worrying about it.) “Where’s the young man?” Raine interjected. “That beast from earlier, too.” “Good idea, Raine!” He grinned, and would have given her a friendly -- if not condescending -- pat on the back, if she weren’t on the other side of the room. “We should get that guy back here so we won’t have to explain the multi-worlds-in-peril thing twice.” From what he knew about his fellow agent, she was probably trying to wrangle them up so they wouldn’t cause havoc in the base, but also, Stan didn’t care. Let them do what they wanted. Raine shook her head. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, the healer rose from her chair and leaned on her staff for support. Once she shook the fatigue out of her limbs, she made her way to the door at a more normal pace. Stan would do a half-hearted job of looking, which meant that if she wanted it done right, she would have to do it personally. "Well, in the meantime, how are you feeling?" Stan asked the white-haired girl, pulling his attention away from the silver-haired woman. ` Mikleo - Dining Hall [Tea and Biscuits] - [Ghost Prank] The water seraph knew that their combined efforts would be more than enough to unsettle the girl, though maybe Edna overdid it a little. He didn't expect the human to grab one of the frozen cups of tea and throw it at the window, where it bounced off the glass and dropped to the floor. While he was having second thoughts, Edna herself seemed to be enjoying the trouble immensely, grinning at Evonna's overreaction and the puzzled and worried expressions of the other two girls. Lailah just put her hands together in disapproval, her lips drawing into a straight, concerned line. Sorey winced from the scream fired at point-blank range, shattering his focus and shared resonance. He snapped his eyes open just as Evonna lunged for him and buried her face into his cloak. Unsure over what to do now, the shepherd awkwardly wrapped his arms around her and pat her on the back to try and calm her fearful mutterings. "Come on guys, quit causing trouble for her," Sorey sighed, speaking through a cloud of caramel colored hair. "Sorry... It's alright, Evonna. They're not going to hurt you. They're nice people, really." Mikleo gave a shrug, trying to chase away his guilt. Darn that earth seraph's bad influence, causing him to play along. During the prank however, he noticed that the humans here -- other than Tien -- didn't respond to the seraphim, but they did turn their heads when it was Fractal's turn. The snowflake-like spirit mimicked Edna perfectly, as if she were using an arte to echo the sound. They could all see and hear her, then... "So, Fractal can repeat what we're saying to the others," Mikleo thought out loud. "It's not that different compared to having you or Sorey relay our words, but it does let people hear our original voices. Interesting." Edited September 1, 2019 by TehUltimateMage Share this post Link to post
Posted August 31, 2019 (edited) General Grievous - Disproportionately Slighted and Enraged “Do you really think you bullets and knives will save you? You idiots! I’ll have each and every one of your heads!” The General ignored this sentence. Honestly pathetic, like something a spoiled prince would say. The enemy reacted as expected; with elevated force. Two of the tentacle-appendages lashed out at the General, who rolled forwards as they both impacted the ground where he stood. For just a moment, he noted Utakata's strange transformation. I might want to ask how that's done later. Seems useful. Then, the world was blanketed in fire. Grievous' metal shell kept him safe, with neither the heat nor the shrapnel doing him any harm. He looked back to see where it had come from, and noticed something red floating away in cinders. The tattered remains of his cape. They... They destroyed my cape... I shall not suffer this insubordination any longer! He swiftly climbed along one of the tentacles as it drew itself back towards its wielder, and the General used the momentum along with his own powerful actuators to leap forward at a great speed towards his target. While he landed, his second pair of arms grabbed and activated two more lightsabers, preparing to strike from every side. "Defend yourself, or be cut down!" Grievous exclaimed, as he rapidly spun all of his lightsabers in an effort to intimidate and throw the blond-haired aggressor off-guard. Edited August 31, 2019 by Coryn02 Share this post Link to post
Posted September 1, 2019 (edited) Location: Base Dining Hall People: Evonna, Chikako, Sorey, Towa, Mikleo, Edna, Lailah Tien feels a twinge of guilt as Evonna clings to Sorey, clearly terrified. He knows what that kind of fear feels like, and it’s not funny once it starts being genuinely scary. He raps a hand lightly where Fractal rests on the table as a warning, and she slides onto his hand and up his arm. They probably should have kept to themselves, kept it secret, but it’s rather too late now. And nobody knows about the Radiants, what all this means, and they’re already sharing powers, and-- And maybe he’s reading too much into it, but he swears there’s a tone of wistfulness in Mikleo’s voice as he muses on Fractal’s abilities. Tien checks his money pouch to see how much Stormlight he has. A fairly decent amount; the last highstorm wasn’t very long ago, and the glow in his spheres is strong. Plenty for a little bit of indulgence. So Tien smiles at Mikleo and says, "I think I can do a little more than that." He stands from his chair to get a better angle of everyone. He looks at each seraph in turn, eyes widening slightly as he Memorizes them, and takes a sharp breath to bring in Stormlight. A soft glow starts to rise from his skin, but it’s not there for more than a moment before he breathes out, releasing a pearlescent mist of Light. Tien Lightweaves the seraphim. Subtle work, a single thin layer; he’s only showing what’s already there. He doesn’t need to gesture with his hands to make the illusion work, but he does anyways, subtle gestures and twitching fingers. The Light settles over the three of them. Tien immediately starts feeling nervous, wondering if that was a mistake. If he should have asked, maybe clarified what he wanted to do, or even still kept it secret. Too late now. He’ll have to deal. He taps his forearm, where Fractal hums. "You mind transcribing?" Fractal hums. "That is fine." Edited September 2, 2019 by Pachimew Share this post Link to post
Posted September 1, 2019 Adolin Kholin, son of Highprince Dalinar Kholin -- Gateway to the Starry Skies [9000 pounds of horse] - [excuse me hello] Adolin wasn't sure if the sound coming out of his mouth was a scream or a roar. He was falling -- he was on Sureblood -- Sureblood was falling. The rhyshadium was as stupid as he was sometimes, trampling over a literal army to get to him. While he appreciated the gesture, it didn't change the fact that they were surrounded, nor did it prevent the parshendi forces from pushing both horse and rider off the edge of the chasm. He didn't know how far the bottom was. Rather than worrying about his own fate in the Tranquiline Halls, he found himself preoccupied over his horse. A man in shardplate, even damaged, could survive a fall. A rhyshadium? Might break all its legs at once, if it tried to land on its feet. The chasm darkened around him, then suddenly settled into an ambient brightness reminiscent of dusk. Adolin didn't question the change too much at the time; he was still yelling and he was still falling and he was still on his horse and his horse just crunched something under his hooves, nearly jolting Adolin off his saddle from the strength of the impact. No more war cries, no more rhythmic chanting. Relative silence. It was serene, even though the people standing before him were settled into battle stances or bursting with power. He was still astonished that Sureblood simply walked off the abrupt landing, in the process having seemingly having killed what appeared to be a very large whitespine. The ground felt soft under the rhyshadium's stone hooves and the grass was ornamental and lethargic... what was Shin territory doing at the bottom of a chasm? Everything felt heavy, but it was probably because of his accumulated exhaustion and his damaged armor. The battle had shattered many parts of his plate and he was forced to abandon his helm. White stormlight evaporated from the cracks like smoke and suddenly reminded him that yes, he was part of a vicious battle to save his father about seven seconds ago. Adolin looked up, but he couldn't see his familiar sky. If he were at the bottom of the chasm, shouldn't it show as a rift far up above? He grimaced. Last he saw, the Kholin forces had secured an escape route. He could only hope that the Colbalt Guard had made it to Dalinar in time. Despite his efforts, Adolin had failed -- but at least he tried. Unlikely that he would make it back in time now, all he could do was have faith that the Blackthorn wouldn't fall that easily. "Hello, chasm community," he began, slicking his sweat drenched hair out of his face and trying to summon his best air of diplomacy. "None of you would happen to know how to get back to the surface, would you?" Share this post Link to post
Posted September 2, 2019 What will you do? COMPOSE | >ATTACK >KO | RUN The battle is over as quickly as it started. Lara has no idea how to react as the strange tentacled man changes into an even weirder monster and grabs Utakata. It looks like he's ready to squeeze the life out of him, and even in the form Utakata's in, his expression shows a state of fear. Lara has no idea what kind of power Utakata has, but she knows it's a useful one if it can be controlled. She aims at the mouth of the creature, hoping to at least distract it, when an armored man and a rather large horse come out from nowhere, falling onto the monster's head and causing it to fall to the ground. It lets go of Utakata, who in his beastly state seems rather angry now. He hisses at the monster and smacks it with all six of his tails and faces everyone else. It appears he has very little control over this state, that he's just hanging on to whatever sort of control he has left. Still, this beast is making aggravated noises. At this point Lara isn't 100000% sure if it's fear, rage, or a mix of both. She has to admit, if she had transformed into a weird beast only to be grabbed and almost killed, she'd be angry too. It's clear to her that this beast is something that doesn't normally come out. Part of her wonders if that's the extent of his abilities. But for now, she turns her attention to the armored man. He and the horse seem totally fine, as if they were used to knocking out giant monsters from several meters into the air. "Hello, chasm community," the man says as he brushes his hair back. It seems as if he were just coming back from a fight himself. "None of you would happen to know how to get back to the surface, would you?" Ah. He's totally unaware. Lara sighs. "Well, you see, this isn't--" She hears a high pitched whine come from the red-and-black beast formerly known as Utakata. He looks like he's freaking out, ready to attack any one of them at any moment. "Oi, hang on. Let me handle this one." Lara grabs her pistol and immediately marches up to Utakata. "What the devil are you angry at, you little hell-spawn?" She cracks the pistol across the beast's face, causing Utakata to fall to the side. His head lands on a medium size rock, which causes the body to go limp. Lara winces, hoping it didn't do any severe damage. She notices that it takes a minute, but Utakata returns to his normal self. His eyes are closed, and he's lying still. Lara kneels down and sighs in relief when she feels a pulse and notes his breathing. At least it didn't kill him. Then Lara turns back to the stranger. "Anyways. I'm afraid this isn't a chasm or an underground community. Welcome to the Gateway to the Starry Skies. My name is Lara Croft, I'm one of the agents belonging to the eXtra Dimensional Restoration Squad, or XDRS for short. Allow me to explain." She takes a deep breath. It's the same damn spiel over again, but oh well. "You're not in your home world anymore. In fact, there are a plethora of different worlds out there, in what's called the multiverse. Everyone here? We all came from different universes and worlds, and there are many more out there. As for XDRS? Well... There are screwups in the multiverse happen all the time. People, animals, monsters, even important items from other worlds tend to hop to worlds in which they don't belong. What we do here is help make sure items that are important to these worlds- known as anchors- go back home. …..Please let me know if I need to repeat or clarify anything, I know it can be a lot to digest in one sitting." Lara nods. "Oh bloody hell, where are my manners? I should ask, what is your name?" She glances down at Utakata, who doesn't appear to be stirring just yet. Perhaps she hadn't been speaking long enough. … What will you do? TEA | COOKIE >>WHAT | YEET Evonna has a hard time processing what's going on for five solid minutes. Everything seems like Noise, nothing seems right at all. The only thing keeping her from running to the next room is the fact that she's clinging on to Sorey. She feels tapping on her shoulder, and when she feels she's able to let go, she does. Chikako has a hand on Evonna's shoulder, and with the other she gestures to the rest of the room. Evonna looks around, and she sees three new people standing or sitting. They must have been the ones causing the mischief a few minutes ago. Looking between the three of them, she has no idea what else to say, other than-- "Beautiful," she muses. Chikako lets out her musical laugh again. "I mean, you're not wrong, they're very beautiful." Chikako looks at Sorey, then at everyone else in the room. "Wait.... How can we see them now?" Share this post Link to post
Posted September 3, 2019 (edited) There was a sudden ripping sensation from his side as the mech pulled his attacker's limb taught. He didn't know if he should expect to drag this tentacled-human with him, or for the tentacle to release him or fight with him, so he barely gave it a second thought when the limb abruptly released, nicely marring his plating in the process. Typheus immediately braked and flew back, pursuing the tentacle, flying aft just in case it tried to spear him again. There was a scream from its origin, some crazed ranting, normal agitated noises. The tentacle then swung, giving Typheus a clearer view: the human had now turned into a completely black thing and was wrapping its limbs around the other human that had tails, which was distinctly different by his orange glow. It seemed like a great distraction, and from his peripheral he could see Fiddlesticks standing up slowly, not in immediate danger. So this other tailed human must be a significant rival to this black thing. Then some unfortunate person suddenly blinked in through the Gateway, landing squarely on the black creature's head, causing it to buckle. It stood up - no, the creature it was riding stood up - and casually disregarded the beast. Another human, and a horse? Figures. Makes for an even better distraction though. Typheus dove toward the black creature while it was weak and braked above its head before shutting off his thrusters, dropping down over the top of it with a heavy thud. He unsheathed his blades and placed on foot on its neck, putting enough weight on it to get the message across to stay still; if this thing still had a human body underneath, he will be quick to disengage it. The only thing stopping the mech is the question of whether the black form was just as infuriating as the tentacles. He studied it, gathering clues, ignoring Lara as she approached the newcomer to explain what was going on. This thing behaved like flesh, but so did the tentacles... eyes are common weak points, so if it tried to struggle he could at least blind it... Typheus looked up at a sharp hiss ending in a short, metallic shriek, like a steel beam was moved across another. Fiddlesticks was crouched low about twenty quli away, still uncertain of putting her full weight on her legs after the missile torched her, glaring daggers into the black thing. "What are you waiting for?! Kill it!!" she screeched, almost cutting the end of Lara's explanation off. Typheus prepared to retort that he didn't know how to kill it, but that would be a stupid thing to say if this thing could still understand words. "We need to see what the XDRS wants to do with it," he said instead. "That thing is not worthy of imprisonment," she snarled, shooting her glare back at it before leveling it with the Superiority model. He said nothing, holding back his real thoughts on the matter. This was the XDRS's turf, and he wasn't appointed by them to make any decisions about newcomers going berserk, setting the Gateway on fire, or beheading tentacle monsters that nearly killed everyone - barring the fact that Fiddlesticks didn't help, thinking her space-age tech could at least blast the guy back a few feet. With that thought, he glanced back at what he presumed was the entity's feet, but they didn't look like anything with good grip, nor were there puncture claws like what he and Sniper models had for stabilization. More multiverse magic, probably, his thoughts growled in frustration. The mech sighed by flushing out his air intake, removing some built-up exhaust from having flown back into his trail too often. "What are we doing with this?" he asked Lara, gesturing to the black monster under him. Before she could answer though, another voice came from the left: Xander. So now more agents arrive. Typheus took the man's assurance with silence. Deal with him how? What sort of arrangements? How did he know this thing was a human underneath when he just arrived? Did he watch? The Superiority model's mind lingered on the last thought. Just standing back, watching everything... This reeked of the Empire's practices. He didn't think the XDRS was malevolent, by far, but his threads had turned to defense and distrust. It only reminded him, yet again, that neither he nor Fiddlesticks belonged here. They were high-strung military mechs on the run from their Empire, trying to complete a personal mission that would hopefully have an impact on the war in general, or what they were told again and again was a war. As flippant as the Empire was about it, it was no war. It was something more agitating. Almost as agitating as the fact that the both of them still haven't fought a significant battle and have been given few reasons to trust the XDRS as allies. This almost made it; until it was abruptly ended by multiverse magic. He knew he was going to hear for days from Fiddlesticks about how she just wasted a missile. The Superiority model hasn't had much time with mortals, but he knew they loved magic. These past hours have only taught the mech that magic was extremely annoying. Apparently, the science of Zirhon did not meld well with multiverse magic. Typheus grumpily stepped off the black creature, who was still immobile, and marched over to Fiddlesticks. Recognizing the metaphorical wall in his eye, she stiffly stood up, careful not to crush her still-malleable legs, which were close to being cool enough to walk on. He tapped on right arm, leaving a dent in the softened metal, and, not pausing in his step, went over to the podium adjacent to the scene of the fight and opened his emitters. Fiddlesticks very carefully followed him, ignoring the words of the people behind her, while he searched for a signal. It wasn't long before he figured out how to open the Gateway terminal and went to work. Fiddlesticks crouched down opposite of him, enough to block the view of the terminal from most of the others. She stared at his calculated determination. This place was grinding on his wires too, wasn't it? He always had to investigate new things before he knew what to do with them, but ironically enough, they were always too lawless for his taste. Ironic, because he stuck around with her. Well... perhaps now, they would actually go home. At least they would actually know what to do, instead of running around here like a gelustrik with most of its heads cut off. It took a while for Typheus to get the Gateway activated. Fiddlesticks stood guard when her hull had cooled enough, in case anyone tried to interrupt him. Once the suspected coordinates were in, the two machines stood on the center podium, and with a single blink, they were gone. ((EDIT 9/5/19: Poof.)) Edited September 5, 2019 by skwerl56767 Share this post Link to post
Posted September 5, 2019 (edited) [reserved for timeskip] Edited September 9, 2019 by TehUltimateMage Share this post Link to post
Posted September 5, 2019 (edited) Tien frowns at the envelope in his hand, turning it over to stare at the writing on its back. He can’t read it, of course. At least, he’s actively avoiding letting the words click, even though he can feel a strange force tickling at the edges of his mind that blurs the foreign symbols into near-legibility. He flips it back over with a small sigh, letting his hand drop to his side. Apparently, it’s addressed to Lara Croft. He remembers her from the Gateway--more or less--so he felt fairly confident when he first accepted the request to deliver the letter. That faded rapidly. It has to have been at least half an hour since then, and no luck yet. He’s going through the hallway of rooms now, hoping he’ll hit on the right one eventually…and that she’ll be there. It hasn’t been working out too well so far, but he’s out of better ideas. He stops in front of the next door. A small bell hangs from the knob, but that’s no help in figuring out whose room it might be; he doesn’t know anybody well enough to make a guess at what it means. Tien sends the Almighty a silent prayer hoping this one will be right and knocks. ~~~ Lara’s eyes snap open and she immediately sits up, not liking the cold draft that starts to touch her back as Stan’s warmth fades. She sighs. “Now who may that be,” she muses as she stands up and lurks towards the door. She opens the door, half-expecting Evonna to be there with another small container of cookies- Lara swears she gained five kilos since the first day of Evonna being there. But upon the door fully opening, it’s not Evonna at all. Rather, Lara has to look up in order to lock eyes with Tien. She turns around to glance at Stan, who rolls over in bed, seemingly uninterested in what Tien could possibly want. Lara then turns back to greet Tien with a smile. “Oi oi, Tien, what may I do for you?” The taller boy blinks, gaze sliding to the side as he holds out a letter. “This was addressed to you,” he says simply. “Ah! Thank you,” Lara graciously takes the letter and walks over to the desk, pulling out the wide drawer underneath the desk area and takes out a small silver letter opener. Briefly she wonders where she had put her pistols, as she hadn’t seen them in the past several days, but the thought is only fleeting. She has no idea where her mind even made the association. Instead, Lara takes the letter in her left hand -noting the way Tien flinches back- and carefully uses the letter opener to break the seal. Instantly she recognizes Winston’s rather old-fashioned cursive and smiles warmly. “Oh Winston, I really ought to get him a communicator so he doesn’t need to send so many letters.” Her brow furrows as she takes a look at the letter. Lady Croft, I want to wish you a happy twenty-second birthday. I hope all is well with the XDRS, and that all is well with yourself. It seems that a friend of yours has arranged a birthday party for you, I have included the details within the envelope- including the venue and the guest list. It appears that the party will be fairly large, a few of your friends are bringing plus-ones. I suggest you bring a few friends along, I’m sure some of your colleagues on base would be elated to come along. As usual, all is well within the Manor. I have just finished cleaning at the time of writing this letter, some workers are finishing up the pool area this week. Your room has been left untouched minus vacuuming and dusting, as you asked. I hope that you will be able to attend, and that you may return home soon. I do worry. Faithfully in your service, Winston It takes a minute for her to read the letter all the way through, but once she’s finished she nods. “Ah, I see what this is. It appears that I have a few things to attend to back at home.” Lara glances at the lad, and then the letter. “See… I hadn’t told many people here, but today’s my birthday, and a few friends of mine decided to throw a rather fancy dinner party.” “...Happy birthday,” Tien offers. “Ah! Thank you, Tien.” Lara looks up at him with a smile. Her smile soon is replaced with a small frown as a thought crosses her mind. “Something…. Isn’t right though.” Lara pauses, shifting her weight to one foot. “I expressed clearly to Winston not to celebrate my birthday, and I had asked him to tell my friends that same thing. He’s also telling me to bring friends. He never does that.” Lara frowns and glances at the letter again, concerned at the brevity of Winston’s words as well. “Plus, I have been hearing reports from Winston that there has been quite a stir in the news lately. There’s also a strange presence in the world that I thought would be interesting. Because of this, I ought to be prepared for anything. I’ll need a bit of help.” And with that, Lara places the letter on her desk and faces Stan, glancing at Tien as well. “Care to come with?” "Of course, my love," Stan replies when prompted, shifting within the sheets. He isn't bothered by Tien's presence -- surely the boy has seen other men bare their torsos before. Even if there was a fair bit of titanium in this one. "Your butler's going to be overjoyed when he finds out you're with a proper gentleman." His grin suddenly dissolves and he lowers the tone of his voice. "Mighty fine timing, isn't it? Usually multiverse mail is incredibly tardy, considering none of the worlds actually sync up." Lara furrows her brow in response, and her voice lowers as well. “Yeah… Something just isn’t right.” She walks back to the bed and sits down next to Stan, planting a peck on his cheek. “You could be right… Nothing about this looks right.” She looks up at Tien, who seems uncomfortable and has edged halfway out of the door. She clears her throat. “Er, anyway! So… If you wanted to come along Tien, you’re more than welcome.” Tien hesitates, tracing a circle into the floor with one foot. A faint tinkling sound, like wine glasses clashing against each other, rises from somewhere near him, and he looks at a patch of embroidery on his shoulder. “...What’s it...going to be like?” Lara chooses not to address the tinkling noise, just for the sheer purpose of not making Tien say more than he needs to. He seems uncomfortable enough just being here. “Ah, my world or the party? I suppose either?” Tien nods, a grateful expression flashing across his face. “Ah! Well….. I suppose there are a lot of cultural and technological differences between our worlds… There are forms of automatic transportation… er…. Honestly I’m not familiar enough with your world. But as for the party, from what I saw on the letter… There will be plenty of different types of food, sweet, savory…. There will be alcohol, it’s illegal for anyone under twenty one to drink but I’m sure there’s a way around that, there usually is….” Lara pauses. “People dress in their nicest clothing, oh! And it’s on a beach. A very lovely beach on an island, the water is a very clear blue…. I’ve only been to that particular one once. It’s lovely.” He slowly nods again, mumbling indistinctly to himself. Something makes more of those tinkling sounds. Maybe, somehow, it’s the embroidery he keeps looking at. “I...I only have the one set of clothes, but I’ll go if you’ll have me.” Lara smiles warmly. “I’ll have anyone who wishes to come along.” "1990s Earth is the pinnacle of human civilization on that planet. It's going to be a fun time, kid, fancy clothes or not." Stan added to the explanation. "I've never been myself, personally, but it is one of my favorite eras." Lara nods. “What he said. It’ll be nice getting a chance to relax.” I hope, she holds back from saying. Tien cocks his head to the side. He seems to be listening, but his gaze is trailing to the metal set in Stan’s chest. He shoves his hands in his pockets as Stan leans into Lara. "So, birthday girl, when are we heading out? best not to dawdle, or we'll miss the party!" Lara snorts and squeezes his hand. “Well, I need time to get myself together here…. I doubt a robe is anywhere near appropriate for this occasion.” "It'll make a statement," Stan teases. “As much as you’d love it,” Lara retorts as she leans back into him, “I personally don’t wish for my friends to see me all disheveled like this. I should be set in….” She sighs, realizing Chikako would want to be involved. “...Two hours, if Chikako has anything to say about it,” she says in defeat. Stan swings his legs over the bed and stands up. Thankfully, he is wearing boxers -- these ones with little yellow dinosaurs with big claws from a franchise from the aforementioned 1990s era. As a pop culture reference, he thought Lara would enjoy them, though she was obviously too uncultured or too busy to pay attention to The Digital Monsters. With his feet on the ground, the man performs an elaborate stretch that even includes the metal in his arm and in his torso. "I'm always ready to go, and you know it." Stepping towards the door, he puts a firm hand on Tien's shoulder, causing the boy to stiffen at his touch. "Come on, bell-boy," he calls, referencing the insistent tinkling coming from somewhere on his clothing, "let's get Pascal to set the coordinates while the girls are busy putting on their faces." Face. Haha. As if I’ll allow anyone to put that much makeup on my face. Watching as Stan stretches, she raises her eyebrows, impressed. Lara grins and nods. “Yeah. Right, Pascal needs to know, maybe see if anyone else would like to attend. Now shoo,” Lara says with an even wider smile, “I need to shower…..Oh. And can you find Chikako and Evonna? I may need their help.” Tien blinks several times, turning towards Stan as he appears to refocus. He’s got something in his hand now that he’s idly toying with; it looks like a rock, vaguely trapezoidal with some small carvings. “Uh, right. I think I know where Chikako is, I ran into her while trying to find you, she might have moved…” Lara nods. “Thank you. If you see her again, please send her to the room with bells on the doorknob.” She looks at the rock in Tien’s hand, rather interested in whatever the symbols are. When Tien is turned around, she raises her eyebrow when she doesn’t see bells anywhere on his uniform. What, by the devil, is that noise? ….”That’s an interesting rock. Is that where that chiming is coming from?” Tien blinks at her. “The chime…? Oh! You mean Fractal?” He gestures at the pattern on his-- It’s moved. It’s on his chest now. Stan squints. Lara blinks. Her brows furrow once more. “The Devil…..?” “I thought you were being quiet,” Tien says, apparently to himself. “I was,” a glasslike voice responds, “Just not as quiet as I could be. I thought we were not keeping it secret here.” “Fractal…. secret…..” That explains some of his nervousness, I suppose? Lara shifts a little, leaning forward out of curiosity. "Let's just go," Stan interrupts, trying to shoo him out of the room. Boys gotta keep their secrets and he knows how that feels. If there are things he wants to hide, no sense in prying them out of him. Women can be so nosy sometimes. Tien lets out a small yelp as Stan shoves him. “Right, uh--I’ll go. Find. Someone?” "Pascal, yes," the older man repeats. "She's real hard to miss, if you see her. And Evonna, and Chikako... " Lara sighs, mentally kicking herself for making the boy more uncomfortable. Ah, she did it again, didn’t she. Before her brain decides to kick in and beat itself up for it, she stands up and approaches her dresser, turning back to face them. “Right, I apologize. Maybe it’s best for me to keep my nose out of those things.” She nods, cocking her head to the side and smiling. “Yes. Thank you, I appreciate it.” Tien hums in acknowledgement, his ‘Fractal’ adding its own chime, and darts out of the room before Stan can give him another push. "Love ya, babe," Stan salutes, before stepping out himself and closing the door behind him. “Love you too, hotshot.” Lara sighs, opening her drawer and grabbing the revolver underneath her underclothes. Well, she thinks to herself, I need something, and if I can’t find my pistols, this old thing may have to do. Edited September 5, 2019 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
Posted September 5, 2019 Karen and Nidrak Allies (?): None Location: Castle, Xander's Room Current Morph: Karen Well, that was awkward. Karen stood with both hands shoved into his pockets. He wanted to help, really, but apparently there wasn’t anything they could do. For all of the deadly injuries he’d sustained and healed, there was nothing he could do to help others. Useless. Power meant for killing and to keep them alive long enough to enact more violence. Nidrak shifted uncomfortably in his head. Not a physical shift, of course, but a gentle shuffling sensation in their shared emotionscape. Xe didn’t say anything, still being too shaken up by recent events to find the right words (Nidrak didn’t need to worry about that, xyr words were always the right ones), but the reminder of xyr presence helped. Xe didn’t like it when Karen’s thoughts became too dark and sharply pointed towards himself. He’d done his best to keep them to the positive, more for xyr sake than his own. What now? he asked. It was easier when they had a task to work towards, and Nidrak needed that. As busy as xe was worrying about him, he knew that xe wasn’t doing okay either. There must be more people around, right? We still don’t know what’s going on, truly. Let’s not make contact. It’s better to find as much information as we can while no one’s paying attention to us. He felt a faint twinge of disappointment from Nidrak and smiled. Of course xe wanted to meet new people as soon as possible. It wasn’t that Karen didn’t, but he could be patient and find out if these people really were who they claimed they were first. Right. Morph? They were so used to always being in morph while on a mission, but they’d already been seen, hadn’t they? Would they be less conspicuous, less likely to be stopped as a human? A mouse or rat probably wouldn’t be out of place in a stone castle, but he didn’t know how helpful that would be. For eavesdropping it’d be excellent. For opening doors and rifling through desks, less so. We could morph later, if need be. That’d work, hopefully. If not, the best they could do was act confident and like they belonged. Depending on the level of security at the castle (and so far it seemed incredibly weak) they might even get out without a fight. They took off at a quick yet unhurried pace. Fast enough to look like they knew where they were going (even though they were really just wandering around and had absolutely no idea where they were going), slow enough to not look like they were being chased. They heard voices and stopped to listen, hidden behind a wall. There were… people chatting and eating cookies? It hardly sounded like some nefarious plot, and for a moment Karen almost felt silly for skulking around and spying. Maybe there’d be something elsewhere. Eventually they came to a hallway lined with doors. Picking one at random, the looked for anyone watching them and pushed it open. Inside looked like a fairly normal dorm room, if far cleaner than any dorm room Karen had ever seen. It almost looked like nothing strange was going on and that these people weren’t evil. Oh well. Worst case scenario, they were caught looking through someone’s underwear drawer. Which, actually, would be pretty bad. Deciding to leave the underwear drawer alone for now, they headed towards the desk and opened a drawer. Oh, hello. Large, old-fashioned keys sitting alone in the top drawer? Yeah, those had to lead to something interesting. my first post in months and it's just karen ruining things Share this post Link to post
Posted October 26, 2019 T I M E S K I P (aka “a lot of things happened and we’re not sure how to throw them all into the topic, so we’re jumping ahead”) With the majority of the agents gone on missions, the base was eerily quiet. It usually ended up this way… though it was surprising that even all the new members ended up finding something to do. The rooms on the second floor showed signs of being claimed and the doors appeared to be getting personalized. It was nice, almost homely. People came and went, in this organization; but most of the time it was only a transient handful. There was a lot to do off-world for existing agents too, of course, and it was made even more complicated with how the timelines never seemed to sync up properly. After all, it had only been a few months, according to Natsuki, since she had been here. During the shopping trip at the marketplace, Raine replied to them that for her, it had been nearly two years of hard work. With that behind her, balancing the X-tra Dimensional chequebooks seemed an almost unreal return to normalcy. Even if it was all a mess. There were also those administrative tasks that no one had the time to do, either — shortly after returning and dealing with the chaos of more new arrivals, Raine took the time to update the roster and do a little background research on the worlds they were to visit. Sometimes the databases were accurate — other times, they were completely wrong or had no information. Sometimes the information even contradicted itself. Nothing on either MMRS or WOKE or many of the other nuances of the multiverse. Why was that? The professor squinted at her laptop screen, hands resting on its keyboard. It was a hefty, situational device that had a battery life of about ten minutes, and therefore couldn’t operate without being tethered to the wall. Still, it was a little more comfortable to use than the library’s actual computer terminal. She had to run a wire across the room to gain access to the network. It was a little tedious, for sure, but considering that the only people who would use wireless connections were herself, Natsuki, and Stan, it almost didn’t seem like it was worth pestering Pascal over. (Besides, that woman never had enough of an attention span to work on simply improving existing infrastructure, preferring instead to chase hares in the form of novelty gadgets.) Pascal was busy at the moment, anyway. She seemed to be camped out at the Gateway for days. Not that Raine herself was much different. She didn’t think she had moved from the library in days, either. “Um… professor Raine?” A Luma floated over, just as Raine was typing up some information she would have to read out to Duke. “It seems like we’ve received a transmission from Miss Rosalina. She says she senses something odd in this Galaxy, and requests that the the XDRS’ management go investigate.” The star did a twirl, the continued, “Oh, and she also wanted to remind everyone to remember to take breaks from time to time! She says she knows that the team always tends to overwork itself, so give yourself the time to rest.” Rest? Raine didn’t feel tired at all. In fact, she had been productive for many hours, judging by the clock. “Tell that to Twilight, not I,” Raine replied. No use it telling to the half-elf herself. The pale star shrunk back, intimidated by her sudden venom. “I already did…” Seeing the Luma's reaction, Raine's expression softened. “I apologize.” She slumped her shoulders and rubbed her temples, defeated. “Maybe I am overworking myself…” “She said…” the Luma began again, softly, “she said that it was to be expected that most of you would be like this, so Miss Rosalina suggested that you treat this task as if it were a vacation, with a mission on the side!” Ha, if this was what she signed up for, she should have gone and wasted her time at Lara’s birthday party. Raine could at least assume that they were having a good time right now. “Let me complete this task first,” she said. She clicked the print icon, then snapped her laptop shut. ~~~ Raine -- Gateway [Rosalina's request] - [getting ready] - [Listen up, Duke!] As usual, everyone was called to the Gateway. The professor had picked up Twilight and Natsuki on the way as well as a few newcomers who decided to stay here on base, for whatever reason, but who ultimately decided to come along as well. Raine could see how an energetic young man like the one with feathered earrings would get bored and choose to come exploring. Around this same time, that man she heard so much about — Kelsier — and the men he had taken from his world were also getting ready to depart. Part of the reason Raine suggested they meet here at the Gateway was because she hoped to intercept Duke before he departed — though it wasn’t like they were able to leave in the first place without the hourglass and the dagger which were currently on the warp platform, placed before Twilight. In her hand she held a stack of papers which Duke obviously could not read, but which contained important research about the world and the anchors they were chasing. “Duke,” the silver-haired woman called. “I know you typically adapt to situations as they arise, but it wouldn’t hurt to know what you’re up against. Know your enemy and gain every advantage you can.” Hearing this, Kelsier tiptoed towards her. Based on what she read on the net, it was hard for Raine to trust the man completely. How much information was too much information for him to know? “The two anchors over there, which Twilight will be returning to you, are vessels to collect the sand scattered across the city. If you have either object in your possession, you will be immune to the sands’ effects; if you find yourself without, you will be at risk of transforming into a sand creature which, based on reports, are becoming quite numerous. Be cautious.” Kelsier remained silent, arms crossed, still listening intently. Raine guessed he wanted information about the Lord Ruler, but her instinct told her to withhold what she discovered. “Remember, even with the talk about overthrowing the Lord Ruler, your primary objective is to clean up the problems caused by the multiverse, not create new ones.” The organization had struck a deal with Kelsier to get the dagger back: help defeating the tyrant, in exchange for the anchor. However, Raine was prepared to take it back by force, if necessary. Share this post Link to post
Posted October 26, 2019 Rayla, Alolan Prodigy <Status: Stable> <Location: Gateway> <People: Raine, Duke, Kelsier, Giorno, Mista> ~~ Arceus, she was incredibly bored. Ray must have walked through the base at least a dozen times, so at least she had that committed to memory, but even so, it did nothing to relieve the boredom now. Each person still on base had taken the liberty of decorating their chosen rooms and Ray was no exception. Inside her room was... a mess, to be certain. PokeBalls and various other objects used by Pokemon Trainers littered the floor (thankfully not to the point where they would be stepped on), and several Z-Crystals that Ray didn't use often were scattered across the desk. On the door was a drawing of the emblem of the Sunne, held in place with duct tape - Ray hadn't felt the need to defile the door itself with carvings or nails. Still, today found the bored Trainer at the Gateway, and it looked like there was a gathering going on. Was a new mission about to go underway? "Well, you don't see this every day... Maybe it was just me missin' the memo - again - but I'm guessin' that a mission or two's about to go down. Am I warm, Raine?" Ray looked around at the people present. Raine, Duke, that Kelsier guy, and... Well, Giorno and Mista are new (to her, at least - maybe she did see them around the base once or twice after Illidan left). At least she caught the introduction. "Giorno and Mista, eh? Interesting names... My name's Rayla, but everyone just calls me Ray." Share this post Link to post
Posted October 26, 2019 (edited) Jowan Allies: Duke, Raine, Natsuki, Giorno, Mista, Kelsier, Ray, Twilight Location: Gateway Jowan leaned against a rock at the Gateway, one foot up against the stone, fidgeting with a decorative strip of white cloth on his shirt. Well, not his shirt. His old robes had been completely unsalvageable and had been burned, so he’d been stuck wearing Duke’s clothes. He didn’t really mind that. Duke’s clothes were bizarre, but it wasn’t like Jowan knew anything about fashion. He’d worn enough robes, in any case. The past few days had moved too quickly and too slowly all at once. There’d been people to meet, new things that had had to be explained to him (the shower wasn’t the only strange thing in the castle), and research to do. It’d all been exhausting, but he wasn’t as nervous in the castle as he had been when he’d first arrived. All things considered, life had been relatively calm. Apparently the number of people that had arrived when he did wasn’t an everyday thing, nor was someone getting stabbed in the arm. He was more prepared for a fight, as well - a dagger sat heavy at his side, tucked under his clothes, and a plain wooden staff was at his back. Duke had presented it to him a day after Jowan had mentioned not having one, and he had no idea where he'd found it. He’d avoided Kelsier, of course, leaving the room whenever he showed up. He was paying for his avoidance now, he supposed. He wasn’t going to refuse to help an entire world just because he had a grudge against one man, but that meant that he hadn’t interacted with Kelsier in days and now had to work with him. Jowan pointedly avoided looking in his direction, and instead stared at the stack of papers in Raine’s hands and tried to see if he could make out the words on the top page. Two more men arrived and the golden-haired one (how did he get his hair like that?) introduced them. His words were serious, and Jowan felt overwhelmed by the aura of complete control that Giorno radiated. Giorno reminded him of Kelsier and Duke, in that sense. A person with the charisma to lead armies solely with the strength of his conviction. “I’m Jowan,” he said, then glanced down, unable to meet Giorno’s eyes. Should he have said more? Maker, he probably should have, or perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything at all. Now it was too late, and he couldn’t add anything without it being weird. Edited October 26, 2019 by Kiran Share this post Link to post
Posted October 26, 2019 (edited) [P - Gateway] He pulls up his sunglasses over his head, keeping his bangs out of his face while he sips at the boba tea he just bought. 11th Avenue is rather busy today, he thinks to himself as he walks down the street. Indeed- he notes all the people crowding the food trucks- it had taken him an hour to get one small taro bubble tea. He'd already had to rethink the ramen he was going to grab from another truck when he saw the line going down the block. Can't a guy get some quality food without a hassle? He'd rather not answer his own question. He's already bitter enough, but he supposes he could find a nearby ramen shop and indulge there- he is rather famished. Or, he thinks, I could make that cup of noodles that has been sitting in the pantry for ages and throw some stuff in there. But who genuinely wants that. Not him. Parker sighs and takes another couple of sips of tea. He then pauses when a feeling of dread runs through him. Something feels wrong, and he's not entirely sure why. He's fine, he knows that. The city is the same, the bubble tea is delicious. So why does he feel as though something is about to go horribly wrong? With a shrug, Parker takes some more sips of tea and takes a few more steps forward. That's when he feels as though he were yanked forward at a high speed. Ah. So that's why. He lands on his back. A loud oof escapes his lungs as he does so, his eyes bugging out when he doesn't get much air. He lays there briefly, gasping for air while his body tries to adjust to whatever the just happened. When his breath finally returns, Parker pushes himself into a sitting position, looking around the place. Not noticing his sunglasses had fallen elsewhere, he's very curious. There are different people, none of whom seem to acknowledge that he's here. ....Well, then. Not like random people falling in the grass is a regular occurrence or anything. Edited January 28, 2020 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
Posted November 1, 2019 (edited) Raine -- Gateway [ preparing for departure ] - [ duke why ] “You are correct, Ray,” Raine answered the young girl. “I wanted to intercept these men before they departed to clean up Scadrial. But the rest of us — Twilight included — are called to verify some anomaly right here in this universe. Rosalina wants us to do a little scouting, which I believe would be important in case anyone decides it’s a good idea to target us, specifically.” Goddess knows why anyone would do that. Maybe it was the laundry list of problems certain members have inadvertently caused. Either way, even if visitors weren’t malicious, it didn’t change the fact that the XDRS was gaining more attention, enough to be personally keyed into by people like Add. Securing an extended area might be useful. Raine was unamused by Duke’s attempt at a joke, at the very least. And he must have sensed that it had missed the mark, because he then attempted to reassure that everything is going to be fine — then immediately swiped her notes from her hand and shuffled them all out of order. Dammit. She should have thought to create a backup copy, or at least stapled the arrangement. At least the pages themselves were still intact — it wasn’t like Duke had wadded them up and eaten them, which, in hindsight, actually should have been one the scenarios she should have prepared for. At the very least, the pages themselves were numbered and the information within them were organized by headers, making it less of a hassle to simply reorder them based on whoever was reading the stack. “Look, Giorno, I trust you,” Raine said, repressing her rising irritation behind a stone face. “This task isn’t much different from what you usually do. But I have a hard time imagining that Duke would contend with sitting still while you do your cleaning.” Mista paused. He dragged his eyes away from the strange man standing in the corner against a rock — for some reason, his pose gave him a bad feeling, and his clothes were suspiciously similar to Duke’s — before he spoke. “So it’s me, Giorno, Duke, and this guy over here going, right?” Shifting his weight to one foot, he pointed at Kelsier. “That’s four. Absolutely unacceptable.” Edited November 1, 2019 by TehUltimateMage Share this post Link to post
Posted November 1, 2019 Jowan Allies: Duke, Raine, Natsuki, Giorno, Mista, Kelsier, Ray, Twilight Location: Gateway A small noise of horror escaped Jowan's throat when Duke roughly shuffled the stack of papers Raine had handed him. Why, he wanted to ask, but at this point he knew that Duke usually just did things without thinking. It was frustrating, especially for someone that knew how much harm rashness could cause. He could see Duke walking up to a metaphorical cliff one day and stepping off the edge because he didn't think that the ground could harm him. It was also so captivating. Despite Duke's flaws, he was so eager in everything he did, so ardent in his desire to help people. His mistakes would be different from Jowan's. Duke being a wonderful person didn't stop Jowan from leaving his pose against the rock and carefully snatching the papers from Duke's hands before he could drop them into the dirt, of course. He couldn't just allow the beautiful stack of information to be manhandled by someone that clearly didn't understand its worth (in fairness, not being able to read yet would make that difficult for Duke). He fussed over the stack, sorting the pages back into their proper order and smoothing out creases. His eyes flashed over the pages as he went, picking out headings and fragments of sentences. Ah. He'd known that Duke hadn't had his sword, but he hadn't known that he couldn't use his barriers. They were all going to die, then. He hadn't expected Duke's metaphorical cliff to come up so soon. Jowan was distracted enough by the papers in front of him and the revelation of their impending doom that he nearly missed Guido's words. Four? He looked up and saw that Guido was pointing to Kelsier, not him (he refused to look far enough to really look at Kelsier). "There's five of us. I'm going too," he said, but even as he did so he felt doubt welling up. He was still going, right? Nothing had changed, they hadn't realized that they were better off without him? Share this post Link to post
Posted November 1, 2019 (edited) Mikleo - Gateway [ oh, it's giorno ] - [ life is pain ] Oh, it was Giorno. When the golden-haired man came over, Sorey gave a polite wave while Mikleo had his back to one of the gateway’s stones, looking sour and avoiding looking at the Italian man. They had discovered recently that Giorno could also see spirits and had one of his own, though Mikleo wasn’t a fan of the strange looking being that sort of reminded him of a cicada with its ivory carapace and unblinking round eyes. Too creepy. It also didn’t help that the first time he encountered Gold Experience Requiem was when it punched him across the kitchen. Giorno and his stand automatically assumed Sorey was an enemy stand user when Mikleo accidentally brushed against the senior agent while preparing some tea. Apparently their worlds had similar enough mechanics to cause the mix-up. The evidence of the strike was healed, but the water seraph refused to interact with him ever again for the next two hundred years. Well, it was easier said than done… because Lailah, of all people, was strangely fascinated by how that spirit worked and requested that Giorno summon it when he could. And since both she and Giorno were currently on the scene, it was inevitable that she would be approaching him to say hello. Did he mention that Giorno's thing had a creepy stare? Those eyeballs made Mikleo’s skin itch. Ah, there she was, finally. Skipping over with a “Good afternoon, Giorno and Mista!”, hands clasped coyly behind her back. Mikleo rolled his eyes. Mista simply nodded at Lailah's approach, then focused again on doing whatever mathematical gymnastics he was trying to do by trying to find fours in everything. "So this guy is coming with us too... You're an agent, right? And that guy isn't. We're still at four agents. It doesn't work!" Mikleo didn't understand him, either. The seraph slapped a hand to his face in secondhand embarrassment. Just get over it! Sorey - Gateway [ do you need my assistance? ] - [ all seraphs active ] There were two missions going out at the moment, it seemed… And while the other agents were arguing about the logistics of the one Professor Raine called Scadrial, Sorey’s gaze drifted to the stars. The group was talking about the chaos of the land they were about to visit. Part of him wanted to save those people too. But the other part of him told him that the people going were a lot more capable than he was, and from how Raine spoke about it, Sorey was a little hesitant to ask if he could go, too. As the Shepherd, he was the most powerful person in his own world, destined to save everybody… but now, it seemed like his powers were but a drop in the bucket. The young man was startled out of his thoughts by a small cry and a body landing near him. He stepped back out of reflex, raised his brow in surprise, then cautiously approached the form that was rising and feeling the ground for something. Sorey followed the boy’s gaze to the grass. What was he looking for? Glancing right and left, he scanned the grass himself. A couple feet away, there was a pair of thick lenses that seemed to have tumbled some distance. The Shepherd knelt down to pick them up and fold the arms of the glasses, though they didn’t quite align… Were they already like that, or did he accidentally bend them just a moment ago? Pressing his lips into a straight line, Sorey walked over to the new boy and prepared to deliver the bad news. He held out the lenses towards him. “Here. Looks like they got a little roughed up, sorry! I think you can probably bend them back the right way…” Edited November 1, 2019 by TehUltimateMage Share this post Link to post
Posted November 1, 2019 (edited) Jowan Allies: Duke, Raine, Natsuki, Giorno, Mista, Kelsier, Ray, Twilight, Antoni, Sorey and co. Location: Gateway "I... don't think I understand the problem here," Jowan said, furrowing his brows. "What's wrong with there being four of us? I mean, maybe it would help if there were more, but- Duke no." By the time the words left his mouth Duke had already plucked the papers from his grasp. He doesn't resist, instead loosening his grip on the papers too prevent them from being ripped. He didn't doubt that Duke would rip a few to steal them from him. Jowan stares at Duke, a pleading look on his face, but Duke's too busy squinting at the page to notice. A hopeful flare of excitement swelled in his chest when Duke actually showed interest in a specific word, but it fizzled out and died like a quenched flame when he realized that Duke wasn't even showing him the word. He vainly tried to lean around to see what Duke was pointing at, a faint blush dusting his cheeks at the proximity of their faces. It hurt a little when declared the papers to be boring, like Duke was calling him boring by extension. He didn't find the papers boring -- they were very interesting, in fact -- so didn't that say bad things about his tastes? It wouldn't be surprising if Jowan was a boring person -- it wasn't like he had much experience in the world or what people that hadn't been locked in a tower for most of their lives found interesting. He wanted to spend time with Duke and teach him how to read, but maybe Duke would tire of him eventually and move on to the next person. Still. They'd talked a little, and they'd agreed to try, right? Jowan wasn't one for avoiding things just because they were bad ideas. He could try and believe Duke when he said that he, for whatever reason, enjoyed spending time with him. Moving quickly before Duke could start shuffling the papers again (or, Maker forbid, drop them), Jowan grabbed the stack and held on so that both of them were holding one side of it. He stepped around so that he was beside Duke and could finally see the word Duke was pointing at. Duke's fingertip partially obscured it, as if he had more or less randomly stuck his finger out at the page, so Jowan nudged his hand out of the way. "Empire," he said before Duke could get distracted again. "The Lord Ruler is the supreme leader of the Final Empire. He reigns from, uh," Jowan paused, unfamiliar with the next two words. "-Kredeek Shaw, his fortress in Luthadel." The paragraph continues with information about the geography of Luthadel and important landmarks, which Jowan doubted Duke would find interesting. damn it, Duke Natsuki Allies: Duke, Raine, Jowan, Giorno, Mista, Kelsier, Ray, Twilight, Antoni, Sorey and co. Location: Gateway Natsuki closed their eyes for a moment. Having Duke and Mista in one location was like having to watch over two children. As much as they respected Giorno and trusted Mista's skill in combat, his... eccentricities were an obstacle. As ridiculous as his refusal to associate with the number four was, it was still something they had to consider. They couldn't understand why he couldn't just get over it, but it wasn't their place to say that. It was best thought of as an allergy: an overreaction to normal stimulus, but something that had to be worked around regardless. Even so, they wouldn't have bothered rearranging the agents on the mission for Mista's issues alone. He seemed determined to find fours in everything, and would probably find some trait or another that four of them shared. Mista's problems and Duke being Duke, however, was enough for them to decide that something should change. Giorno alone wouldn't be able to take care of Duke, especially if Duke insisted on running off alone. "Perhaps I could accompany you," they said, glancing over at Raine. They felt an urge to request that she come as well, especially since she would be far more helpful against allomancers, but they couldn't speak for her. "I know it's not in the plans, but I'm not particularly needed here at the moment, and it seems as though some members didn't disclose all relevant information prior to now," they said, looking at Duke enough to make it clear whom they were talking about. damn it, Duke Edited November 1, 2019 by Kiran Share this post Link to post
Posted November 2, 2019 (edited) [P - Gateway] “Here. Looks like they got a little roughed up, sorry! I think you can probably bend them back the right way…” Parker looks up to see a young man with very spiky chestnut hair and bright green eyes. That'd be all well and good- he'd always been a sucker for pretty green eyes- but his outfit is very bizarre. It seems to be some old style uniform- uniform? - Either way, it's very odd. The feathers adorning the sides of his head complete it. To his dismay, his sunglasses are completely smashed. Had the boy stepped on them? He sighs and shakes his head. "Damn, those were expensive," he grumbles. After a smaller, defeated sigh, he shrugs. "Ah, c'est la vie. At least I don't need them to see, that would've sucked some royal ass." Then he feels his heart drop into his stomach. "O-oh crap, my---" He glances at the string bag to his left, noting that it must've slipped off his shoulders when he... whatever the hell happened. Hah. Being a twink has its perks. He rummages through it and pulls out a bundle he'd kept hidden within a first aid kit, a copy of Brandon Sanderson's Oathbringer, his wallet, and a half-empty flask of only Parker knows what. Unwrapping the bundle, Parker checks the pistol inside and notes the safety is still on. "Oh thank god," he mutters under his breath as he wraps it back up and places it in his bag. Parker accepts the smashed frames anyway, giving a polite smile. "Ah, hi. Name's Parker. It seems I have no idea where I am, won't you tell me?" Edited January 28, 2020 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
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