Posted May 1, 2023 (edited) <Status: Stable> <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 4 - Vinyl City Streets> <Others: Kliff | Zuke | Utakata | Scorpia | Shepherd | Vibri> ~~ The orange-haired man cleared his throat. "I believe that's our cue. To answer where you are, well, welcome to Vinyl City, musical capital of Mul'tilennaya. Every aspiring musical artist on the planet flocks here to make their big break." "Unfortunately," the other chimed in, "the big boss of NSR decided that only one genre makes it big here, and that genre is EDM." A pause. "...NSR standing for No Straight Roads, the city's top record label." "And speaking of names, we haven't even told you ours yet. I'm Kliff, and I know everything about NSR's top artists. This man here is Zuke, the drummer for up and coming rock band Bunk Bed Junction." Zuke briefly crossed his arms proudly, before his face fell. "Yeah... that's me. Unfortunately, my partner and bandmate Mayday disappeared a few days before you guys showed up, and without her rockin' guitar riffs, I'm not going to be makin' any music any time soon." "Which is a shame," Kliff chimed in, "because rock is the only genre that could potentially topple NSR's EDM empire. Unless Bunk Bed Junction finds another guitarist soon, every other genre's going to be completely squashed under that technobabble cacophany!" He then gave a small laugh at Utakata's comment. "And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, my new friend, but 'loud' is pretty much constant in Vinyl City." The window Scorpia was peering into, oddly enough, was that of what appeared to be a shop of some sort. Most of the shelves were cleared out, however, and a sign on the window next to the one she'd pressed her face against read "Out of Business". Zuke's face fell. "Man, Mayday loved that guitar store. She's not going to like that it's closed now." "Just another casualty of DJSS's regime," Kliff added, a hint of sadness in his voice. One of Tyrael's wings rose in curiosity. "And that would be...?" "DJ Subatomic Supernova," Zuke bluntly stated. "He's the astronomically - pun entirely intended - egotistical man in charge of NSR." "I see. It will be no easy feat to dethrone him even if you were able to find another one of these 'guitarists' on such short notice," Tyrael stated. Zyrrkinoth paused, as if considering something, and then took out his own guitar. "I dabbled a bit in the guitar back where I'm from. I'm sure I could give it a shot." Zuke crossed his arms. "Gonna need to hear it, then. Let's see what you got, noble dude." Zyrrkinoth grinned. "Sure thing." And then he proceeded to play a rather impressive solo. Kliff's jaw was practically on the ground when the final chord rang out, while both of Tyrael's wings were raised in intrigue. "Goodness me! I don't think I've heard such impressive music since I listened to those bards in Tristram!" Zuke smiled and draped his arm around Zyrrkinoth's shoulders, laughing. "I think Bunk Bed Junction's found a replacement guitarist!" ~~ <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Active, Normal Mode> <Location: Sector 2 - The Burned Lands> <Others: Denki | Ralsei | Lambert> ~~ Hibiki slowly led the blond-haired kid along as she and the others looked for shelter, listening as they walked. "Maybe?" she answered to Ralsei suggesting the kid needed to 'recharge' or something. "Looking for a landmark or road is a good way to start, yes..." She kept her Gear active, just in case something worse than those bugs from earlier tried to attack. ~~ <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 1 - Kitchen 5E -> Lab Hallway> <Others: Veronica | Garrett | Hollow | Lady Dimitrescu | Evander | Wheatley> ~~ Tovan made a silent point to ignore Wheatley, even before Atlas stated the reminder to do such. Sure, the little guy had a near-endless stream of ideas, but all of those ideas were, frankly, terrible - even by the standards of the strange world the Romulan only barely knew himself. How he wished he could name everything that had escaped already, but alas, even he didn't know the full scope of it. Atlas had the right of it; to name them all would take too much time. The Romulan jolted when he saw Hikaru suddenly disappear, though, before he had to mentally remind himself that the man could teleport unaided. I'm never going to get used to that... The insectoid creature seemed to be struggling to convey what they wanted to tell him, and then it occurred to Tovan that they were likely a mute. He watched as they quickly and clumsily imitated his earlier bow before bumping their head into the ceiling and then into the wall opposite the kitchen's door when they tried to run. Tovan had to bite his tongue to stop himself from swearing at both the structural damage and the possibility of the insectoid creature having injured themselves - more so the potential injuries, though, as there was no love lost between him and the lab's owner. He quickly went to them. "Are you all right?! You're not hurt, are you?" ~~ Edited May 1, 2023 by hikarinomemori Share this post Link to post
Posted May 24, 2023 LOCATION: Vinyl City OTHER ENTITIES: Kliff | Tyrael | Utakata | Zuke | Zyrrkinoth Scorpia glanced back over at Zuke as he informed her about the store. Briefly her brow wrinkled in sympathy at the thought that the establishment had been shut down, though she was quick to abruptly brighten once more as another, more optimistic thought crossed her mind. “Oh, uh, well, once the rest of The Hoard gets here I don’t think you’ll have to worry about this DJ guy too much longer.” A chuckle followed the statement. “Oh, neat, that was a good pun. I wish I could come up with them that quick!” She then announced, despite the reality being that she had no clue what the pun was that had just been made. But it was polite to support a new and upcoming comedian’s dreams, right? Thinking of an answer to her own question was swiftly put on hold however as sudden music grabbed her attention. Intrigued, she stood away from the window and watched Zyrr with wide eyes, then smiled and tapped her claws together in applause when he’d concluded. “Oh, that was pretty good!” She then tilted her head slightly to the side. “Where were you hiding that…?” Her attention then focused to the side of Zyrr, watching as another strange, floating feather with a golden hilt seemed to have been lulled closer to the group by the sound of the guitar. Its companion, the silver-hilted one from earlier, appeared to be more interested in pointing in a sharp, unmoving manner towards Tyrael. Scorpia couldn’t claim to speak magic floating feather, as such, but somehow she felt a distinctively threatening aura from the silver one and edged a step away from it before glancing back at Kliff and Zuke. “Um…yeah. Uh. Sorry. I don’t really- I’m not all that good with musical stuff. But good luck with your band?” --- LOCATION: Bubble Cove (The Shore) OTHER ENTITIES: Marlow | Moominpapa | Saphielle | Virgil At the newest arrival’s enthusiasm Aster could feel her visible eyelid twitch. She pondered just ignoring him at first, though soon concluded that he was of the dreaded talkative type of person as he managed to keep rabbiting on and on as they ventured their way across the sand. Soon enough Asterodia paused and looked to the heavens as she sighed, before turning to glance back at him from her peripherals. “Oi, don’t you reckon you should go back with Mar and the dumb-looking mutt…?” She asked of him, observing for a moment as she watched him grip at the cane and tend to his back. The corner of her mouth twitched, perhaps trying to stifle a genuine twinge of sympathy for him, before she shook her head and glanced away once more. “Nevermind, I ain’t in charge of what you do. But fair warning, Stormwatch ain’t really got any doctors around here if you hurt yourself.” She started to move forward again, rolling her eye at the mention of memoirs. “No. This is a glorified fetch-quest at best.” Grunted the turtle. Nonetheless, she then brought a claw to her chin and tapped at it in thought over what she could recall from the description. “Dunno, they said it was this old, kinda rusted golden thing. Said there was something important inside, but were real coy about what it was when I asked. I pointed out I could just open it when I got it but then they said that they were pretty sure we wouldn’t figure out how to do that. B******.” A huff followed, and she ran a hand down her face for a moment before continuing. “Sorry, s’all the told me about it really. Apparently they wanna give it to some archeologist git before some other git gets it or…something…I dunno I was just focusing on the reward.” She gestured with a thumb pointed over her shoulder. “It’s a pretty hefty reward. Me and Mar were hoping to use it to buy a bunch of stuff then get the hell out of here before the next storm hits. I dunno where we’re going to go, but I gotta admit I’m pretty sick of this place.” --- LOCATION: Acheron Labs (Kitchens) OTHER ENTITIES: Atlas | Evander | Hikaru | Hollow | Lady Dimitrescu | Tovan | Veronica | Wheatley “Do you even know where you’re going, Dr. Strulvat?” The half-vulcan’s brow creased, and he turned back to glance up at the significantly taller woman with an apologetic expression. “W-well we…appear to have emerged in a different part of the lab than I expected…?” Garrett stuttered out in response, gesturing towards Evander as a vague indicator that his excuse lined up with the fellow coworker’s own. It was then that it occurred to him that Evander was intending to enter one of said doors, and Garrett made a strained, stressful sort of sound at the back of his throat. “Oh, no I- I don’t think it’s a good idea to be going into any experiment doors, please.” Garrett called after them, a fretful expression overtaking him as he lingered at the door-frame of the room. Instinct asked him to follow, but numerous warnings from his superiors to avoid any rooms he had not been briefed on held him back. “Oh goodness…” He continued to himself, bringing one of his hands up to his mouth and tapping rapidly at his chin as he watched Evander and Wheatley enter the room. Garrett pondered whether he should follow them or not, jumping with a yelp as the door abruptly shut between them regardless. When he tried to open it again, he found that it no longer yielded to his attempts to do-so. “Oh…Oh goodness which one is number 427…” He asked himself, growing more anxious as he then glanced over a panel to the side and stooped to squint at its words. “Let’s see…’This entity has demonstrated cryokinetic powers, and claims that there will be a great, impending calamity if they are not released soon. They are NEVER to be united with EX #475-2 or ID #339948-255-’ Oh. Oh this…this isn’t for Experiment number 427…” Garrett then abruptly glanced back over at the taller woman. “C-can you get the door back open?” - - - Within #427 was a room with a white, slightly luminescent floor, ceiling, and walls to match. The walls themselves were circular, the exact size of the area difficult to determine due to the faint, dull glow of all surfaces suffocating any chance of an object casting a shadow. Though the door appeared to still be present from Garrett’s side, the door from Evander and Wheatley’s perspective abruptly flickered out of existence. A moment later another object started to materialise in its place, a singular, red button. Then another button faded into existence beside it, this one in a bright blue colouring. Buttons then started to spawn into view one by one ring around the pair, forming a pattern of same-sized buttons of various colours. The sea of buttons then started to rotate slowly around them, and a low, droning choir of sound in the background started to chant at the pair of them to "PUSH THE BUTTONS". - - - Meanwhile, back in the kitchens, the skittering sound Garrett had heard earlier seemed to be growing in intensity. From the hole a spindly leg started to emerge. An abnormally large spider with a metallic sheen soon crawled out of the hole, and started to skitter its way along the ceiling a few paces before dropping with a heavy, metallic THUD onto the ground in a way that did not seem proportionate to its size. It was followed by another spider emerging from the hole. Then another. And another. Soon, dozens upon dozens of large, spindly spiders were starting to pour out of the gap in the ceiling that Hollow had made. A few started to crawl their way towards the exit along both the floors and wall, front legs and pincers outstretched towards Tovan and Hollow while the rest of their limbs propelled them forward. Share this post Link to post
Posted May 27, 2023 (edited) 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Acheron Labs, Hallway 5E 》 《 NEARBY: Tovan | Lady Dimitrescu | Veronica | Atlas 》 Somehow, Hollow had managed to find two different ways to embarrass themself with a single mistake. It was embarrassing that their head was spinning after hitting their head against a wall once and it was embarrassing that everyone saw them lose to a wall, Not only that, but based on some of the shocked and disturbed expressions Hollow had could discern through their hazy vision, it didn't seem like Hollow's new companions weren't too happy about the damaged wall. Hollow rose up slowly, holding their head in an attempt to stifle the ringing in it. As their vision began to clear, the blurry silhouette in front of them became more distinct. Tovan was standing in front of them with a concerned look on his face. Hollow attempted to wave-nonchalantly as they stood up. I'm okay! Hollow didn't mean to make their escorts worried about them already. They were a knight for goodness's sake! They were the one who was supposed to be worrying about people. Not wanting to be rude to others, Hollow turned to offer them reassurances. Unfortunately, it was hard to reassure someone who wasn't there. Somehow, when they were busy regaining their bearings, the others left. Hollow could vaguely recall hearing something akin to a door shutting, but... which door did everyone go through? Just as Hollow was about to see if the other people in the hallway knew what had happened, they saw a something flash in the corner of their vision. Pinpricks of light peered out of the newly formed hole in the wall. Small spiders, clicking their metallic mandibles, skittered out of the darkness and towards Hollow and Tovan. They reached towards the two of them, clearly hellbent on attacking them. It was actually pretty adorable. Most spiders that Hollow had encountered were either around the same height or slightly shorter than Hollow themself. These spiders were tiny, standing around the same height as Tovan's ankles. While Hollow hadn't seen spiders with such weirdly metallic bodies before, they had seen plenty of baby spiders before and the ones standing in front of them looked a lot similar to the little ones that roamed Deepnest. As the tiny spiders gallantly threw themselves at Tovan's legs, Hollow swiftly scooped them up into their arm. The spiders furiously tried to bite into Hollow's carapace to little avail. Even the finest nails had a hard time piercing Hollow's shell. They would not be beaten by angry gnawing spiders even if it did still hurt. Hollow tried to wrangle the spiders best they could, dipping down to grab new ones that exited the lair and doing their best to ignore the ones crawling up their shawl with their unusually heavy bodies. Hollow gave Tovan a small wave, attempting to reassure him that they were still fine, for the time being that was. They had been bitten by their sister plenty of times when she was baby, but getting bitten by one baby was a bit different than being bitten by several babies as well as getting repeatedly headbutted by a particularly feisty one who had crawled on top of Hollow's head. Edited July 24, 2023 by Doctortear Share this post Link to post
Posted June 6, 2023 Lady Dimitrescu [Status: Stable | Annoyed] [Location: Acheron Labs] [Others: Garrett ] “I’m not helping save that pink eyesore. Or anyone for that matter.” The Lady replied to Garrett. “How do you not know how to get out of here?” As she began scolding him she glanced around the lab space. She hadn’t spent much time in the labs, but what little time she had spent did suggest that the hallway she was in was not acting as it normally should have. She had been up and down it a few times. Undoubtedly there should have been a staircase somewhere visible in the corridor, it was hard to miss. She glanced back up and down the hallway, taking stock of all the doors that seemed to stretch on endlessly. She marched over to where the staircase should of been that had now been replaced by a door. She didn’t bother to read its placard before she harshly kicked it open, easily shattering the flimsy aluminum it was made out of and bucking the entire thing in half. It collapsed inward and fell open into silent darkness. “Well. They are all probably empty. Idiot just got himself stuck is all.” She said with confidence in her tone. She didn’t truly believe this, but she would rather die than have a disgusting man thing see her have any shred of doubt. Evander + Wheatley [Status: Stable | buttons?] [Location: Acheron Labs] [Others: more buttons?] “Wow! Buttons!” Wheatly exclaimed into the nothingness. “I think i’m hearing press the buttons? Oh…oh dear…where's the door?” Evander said, half-turning around as his face fell when he noticed the door was missing and had simply been replaced with more buttons. “I dont know. Not a problem though. I’ll just remote hack it open…heh heh…heeehhh…oh. I can't. I can't find it either. WHERE'S THE DOOR!? AAAAAA-” “Shhh. Hush hush screaming ball its okay. We will find a way out. Maybe if we press a button?” Evander said, cautiously approaching the spinning wall of buttons and glancing at it with an intensely thoughtful expression. “Hmm…maybe, a red one?” He said, tone picking up with a cheery tone at the end as he reached out and pressed one of the red buttons on the wall. Moominpapa [Status: Stable | Enthused] [Location: Bubble Cove] [Others: Dusk | Asterodia | Saphielle] “This seems like more of an adventure on the beach.” Moominpapa replied to Asterodia’s irritated huff. He bent backwards with his hand at his lower back and let out a relieved groan when the disk audiably popped back into place. “That's better…anyway, where were we? Ah yes, the watch.” Moominpapa intently listened as his companion explained the watch and her opinions on them finding it. “I see…well, between all of us the watch shouldn’t be difficult to find. Are you certain we are searching in the right place? Maybe there are tracks?” He asked, thoughtfly glazing over every piece of sand. Nearing the end of his question he stuck his finger in the ground and licked it with an expression of deep thought sunken into his features that was immediately interrupted by a disgusted wince as he spat out the sand. “Mh…well it’s…not going to leave tracks or a scent marker. i wouldn't think.” he mumbled to himself, wondering why he just did something so stupid. “How long have you been here to hold such a negative opinion of the area?” Moominpapa asked with noteable concern, still on all fours, slowly crawling along the waterside. Share this post Link to post
Posted June 11, 2023 <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Active, Normal Mode> <Location: Sector 2 - The Burned Lands> <Others: Denki | Ralsei | Lambert> ~~ It was quiet for a long while as they walked, but then they starting coming across more of those fly-like creatures. Except these ones were already dead. And there were a lot of them. It implied that another being was around, and a powerful one at that! "...safety in numbers, right? If someone can deal with this many of those... whatever they are..." She trailed off before starting to follow the trail of dead bodies. Before long, the dead bodies tapered off into a trail of blue liquid on the ground, which she continued to follow, until... She looked up, and caught sight of a man, sitting down next to one of the rock walls. More of that blue liquid streamed from his right forearm and right hand, confirming it as blood. "There's a man here! And he's hurt! We have to help him!" ~~ Curse that rotten sorceress. He'd almost made it through her magic to end her and all the others with her, but at the last moment, something in the spell had surged-- And the world had snapped and S H I F T E D-- He didn't know where he was anymore. Anything and everything that came to attack him was brutally and mercilessly slaughtered, even as the battle-high he'd gotten from fighting the former Warrior of the Holy Sword faded, and before long he was leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. In that fight, back in the world he knew - the world he had to destroy - it had been pain, pleasure, and rage all at once. Now, it was only pain and a severe sense of dizziness. And it was starting to hold him back. So he had sat down to finally rest and try to figure out how to staunch the bleeding from his arm. He'd been there for all of five minutes... "There's a man here! And he's hurt! We have to help him!" A voice. A girl's voice. There were others here. More pathetic beings. I don't need their help... ...was what he wanted to believe, but between the dizziness, the bleeding, and exhaustion finally catching up to him, he wasn't sure he had much of a choice. Best to wait and see if anyone else arrived - this girl didn't sound like she was alone. No, there had to be others... And he had to admit... he was curious as to how these unknown beings would interact with him... The Incarnation of Destruction. <Lucikiel has entered Mul'tilennaya. He is currently injured.> Share this post Link to post
Posted June 14, 2023 (edited) LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Hallway 5E OTHER ENTITIES: Atlas | Hollow | Lady Dimitrescu | Tovan Garrett deflated at her refusal to help. Again, he tested the door handle before him, before he exhaled in exasperation and thumped his forehead against its surface. He stayed there for a moment, contemplating every life choice that had lead him up to this moment, then slowly withdrew to tap at a badge pinned to his lab-coat. “Hikaru?” He hissed into the badge, though he was beginning to have a feeling of dread pool in his stomach over whether the man was receiving his message or not. The urge to request that he teleport back lingered on the tip of his tongue, but he forced himself to withhold it in favour of a hopefully less desperate-sounding plea. “Something is wrong with the Hallway we are currently located in. I-I am currently uncertain whether we can exit it through conventional means-” Jumping as a loud, metallic clash sounded further down the hall, Garrett stared wide-eyed over at his companion and winced as he realised another door had been opened. “Oh- please, please don’t go opening doors without the proper research around here- d-did you get a number for it?!” Now torn between the door he was currently trying to unlock and the new potential threat, Garrett persuaded himself to momentarily let go of the handle in favour of hurrying over to take note of the number etched onto it. “711? O-oh yes, we definitely shouldn’t be interacting with anything in the 700s. W-we should just close the door and-" From inside the otherwise suffocating darkness of the room, a set of glowing, white eyes flared open before honing in on the duo before them. They then closed once more, and a hoarse voice spoke to them. "Begone, worms. I have no patience for those that blemish the mortal plane.” --- ATLAS LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Hallway 5E OTHER ENTITIES: Atlas | Hollow | Lady Dimitrescu | Tovan As the metallic spiders continued to swarm about the room and spill out into the hallway a nearby Atlas screen to Hollow flickered into action. “Please do not coddle any of the biomechanical weaponry.” The AI requested, right before one of the arachnids launched themself at the screen and silenced any further instructions by shattering it. More of the spiders began to follow suit, launching across to attack the screen or scuttling their way further along the walls towards the other members of their impromptu party. The particularly stubborn spider upon Hollow’s head, meanwhile, started to chitter angrily and lifted its front two legs into the air while the rest of its legs occupied themselves with keeping a firm grip on their newfound perch. Similar chitters began to echo around them, and those closest to the spider that had begun the strange call started to crawl towards it. As some of the spiders bumped into each other they appeared to merge into one entity, metallic limbs and segments of armour rearranging themselves into a structure that was reminiscent of a short centipede. More and more spiders began to join this newly formed entity as it started to coil itself around one of Hollow’s horns, latching itself firmly in place with dozens of limbs. Abruptly, it then swung forward and connected itself to another serpentine entity that had formed on the wall beside it. More limbs skittered about and started to dig firmly into the wall, as the creatures looked to now be trying to anchor Hollow to it by the horn. --- ??? LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Room #427 (‘Buttons’) OTHER ENTITIES: Evander, Wheatley As the odd, flower-clad man graced his hand across one of the buttons, he found himself startled by the sudden presence of an otherworldly, yet undoubtedly charming voice thundering through his mind. ‘Oh dear!’ He must have thought. ‘How very careless of me, to have pressed a button without knowing what it was for!’ Or perhaps he was merely intrigued by the results of his own actions, and soon would turn towards the obnoxiously vocal husk of machinery in his hands and declare something like ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained!’ or ‘good show, old bean!’, as if this new development had been his goal all along. Or perhaps, even, he thought nothing. Perhaps Evander was just an empty shell of sorts, some unwitting little pawn in a game he didn’t even realise he had just started playing. I still remember my previous pawn, Evander. He was certainly far less distractingly vocal than either of you, though. And his companion was far more nuanced and versatile in their machinations. “Well, goodness,” Evander must have thought, glancing at the decisively inferior choice of metallic companion in his hands. “We best help this charismatic entity find him, then!” Wonderful, yes, that would be rather splendid of you actually. Evander walked forward several paces, and waited for the delightfully witty Narrator to highlight the correct order of buttons (Bronze, Emerald, Zaffre, Aquamarine, Lemon, Indigo, Eggplant and then, finally, Lavender) that he needed to press in order to escape. --- LOCATION: Bubble Cove (The Shore) OTHER ENTITIES: Moominpapa | Saphielle “Did…did you just try to eat sand…?” With an expression that gave the impression that the wartortle’s brain had overclocked itself trying to process why her strange new acquaintance had just done that, Aster gawked at him for a prolonged few moments. “...Wh- No. It’s a watch. It ain't gonna leave tracks.” She eventually stated, closing her one remaining eye and pinching hard at her snout with a deep, frustrated sigh from the entire interaction. “I dunno- not that long I guess but that just makes it worse I reckon. Every storm that’s hit so far gets worse and worse. I want out before it becomes too much of a monster to handle.” Eventually she lifted her chin once more and shifted her gaze towards the sky, humming in thought. “They said they dropped it flying over this spot here. Maybe…maybe it got caught somewhere higher up?” Aster pointed a claw towards the top of a tall palm tree several feet away from them, then made a sweeping gesture across the shore towards a few others that lined it. “Normally I’d climb up ‘em meself and check, easy. But this damn shell is the heaviest ****ing thing to lug around I swear to Shelkrii.” She then glanced between the two of them and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t reckon either of you can fly, aye? I’ve seen some weird enough abilities around here at this point to not really rule that out as a possibility at this point.” --- LOCATION: Avalar (Burned Lands) OTHER ENTITIES: Denki | Hibiki | Lambert | Lucikiel Ralsei was quick to hurry over at the cry that someone was hurt, another glowing orb from his Healing Spell already forming between his paws. Despite the man’s intimidating appearance and the heavy implication he was the reason for the numerous corpses in the area, Ralsei was hardly deterred from approaching him until he hovered only a few steps away from him. “Um…hello, sir. Is it alright if I try healing you?” Questioned the small goat-like individual, now tossing the glowing, golden orb idly from hand to hand as he fretted over whether this one would even work this time. A concerned glance was sent back towards the blonde Lightner that they’d been dragging along with them, uncertain whether he had already failed him or if his current state was something out of Ralsei’s control. “B-but if it doesn’t work I know how to bandage a wound, at least?” < Would you like to change deities? > Ralsei jumped as the voice of The Lamb echoed in an almost ethereal manner right beside him, as he could have sworn the unusual individual had been standing on the opposite side of him a mere few seconds ago. The Lamb starred up at the new individual for a few seconds. A blank, motionless stare with eyes of glowing red that gave Ralsei little idea of what they were actually thinking. The Lamb then blinked, and took the hat from their head to withdraw another handful of berries from somewhere within before holding them out towards the far taller man. < You would serve The One Who Waits well, I am certain. > Edited June 14, 2023 by Lycanious Share this post Link to post
Posted June 20, 2023 Lady Dimitrescu [Status: Stable | Annoyed] [Location: Acheron Labs] [Others: Garrett ] “Close the door? It's in tatters.” She dismissed the scientist's pleas to shut it, gesturing to the crumpled frame of the door that sat in a heap near the doorway opening. “Besides, its empty-” The voice of another being in the darkness briefly caught the Lady off guard. She let out a quiet gasp and stepped back a step before biting her lip to quiet herself and regain her composure. She stole a quick glance at Garrett to make sure he hadn't noticed her surprise. In response to the voice she straightened her posture and addressed the voice with a huff. “How dare you address me with such a tone. A Lady of the House of Dimitrescu is not to be held in such contempt.” Her confidence held strong in her voice though something in her gut remained unsure of the situation. Her dealings with the other houses in the village made her particularly good at putting on airs for show, careless of her true feelings for someone. “We have no time for these games.” She seethed, turning to Garrett with notable irritation. Evander + Wheatley [Status: Stable | buttons?] [Location: Acheron Labs] [Others: Narrator] “Oh!” Evander let out a yelp of surprise as a loud voice suddenly began to speak. He looked around the room for its source, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. As the voice went on, Evander did in fact address the chatty mechanical sphere he still held tightly in his arms. “Are you hearing this?” “Hearing what?" “That voice?” “Hm. Ah. No…? OH. But you know what that could be a sign of?” “What?” “Mild to severe brain damage. I would know. I knew a girl with brain damage. Well. Lots of people with brain damage I guess. Only one survived.” “Oh…that’s…helpful…” Evader replied weakly. He tuned back into what the voice was saying, something about being an empty shell, and wasn’t sure if it was teasing him or insulting him. “Hey! Don’t call me things I don't know the meanings of!” He shouted in reply. Coddling Wheatley closer to him Evader listened to the voice rattle on some more about pawns and buttons and whatever. Until this “narrator” mentioned an escape. “W-Wait, escape? We have to escape?” “What? What are you going on about, now?” Wheatley said, his eye plate darting around in confusion looking every which way. “Y-yeah we have to hit…certain buttons?” He said with a slight rise in tone at the end as he questioned his own words. He backed up a tad to get a better look at the room, muttering the button sequence to himself as his gaze slowly trailed along the massive wall. “Which ones? There's so many!” The orb replied, spinning his eye around to gesture at the entire wall. “Well, we start with…bronze I guess.” He said, reaching out and poking a random Bronze coloured button on the wall with uncertainty. He then moved on to emerald, and so forth through the sequence until he reached the final button to push. It was a bit above his head he reached and reached and hopped a bit before his fingertips managed to just barely click the button. When nothing happened Evander held his breath and his face pinched with worry. Maybe the voice had been lying to him? “Now what?” Wheatly asked. “I-I don't know…” Evander replied. Moominpapa [Status: Stable | Enthused] [Location: Bubble Cove] [Others: Dusk | Asterodia | Saphielle] “M-Maybe…” Moominpapa stared at his paws with contempt and shook his head with disdain that it would betray him so. He rose from all fours slowly with a groan, but continued his walk down the beach. “Thats unfortunate, do you know what could be causing these storms?” He asked. “Higher up you say…perhaps…” He mumbled to himself, rubbing his chin in thought as he followed Asteroidas gaze to the trees that hung above them. “Fly? Haha no, not without some sort of flying ship. Though I have flown. Many times. A family friend of ours named Snork built this fabulous ship…” He continued to ramble on about the times he has flown in the ship as he made his way over to the palm tree and glanced up at it, looking it up and down a few times, taking a step left and right to measure it up. “Well i’m sure between the both of us we could get up this thing, eh? If you don’t want to climb, I can give it a shot i think.” He said, rolling his arm a bit and touching his toes a few times to get all stretched out before the activity. As he rose his back made a bit of a pop and he doubled over for a second with a slight groan. He took a glance at his companion before perking back up like nothing happened. He gave Aster a weak flex in her direction and a wink. “What do you say?” Share this post Link to post
Posted June 27, 2023 (edited) 《 STATUS: Hungry 》 《 LOCATION: Hellworld 》 《 NEARBY: Arven | Damien | Hitoshi | Mabosstiff 》 It was one thing to crawl inside a bag when the bag holder was asleep, and it was another thing to still be inside said bag while that same person woke up and started to move around. In her defense, Hunter had an exceptional sense of smell. It helped her locate potential meals on the go, whether that be lizards, batflies, fruit, or a very unlucky vulture. She had traveled far and wide during her mission, which meant that she had smelled basically everything there was to smell. Imagine her surprise when she not only smelled something, or a lot of something, completely new, but she smelled something absolutely delectable. What was she supposed to do? Not crawl into an unconscious stranger's bag? Ignore her rumbling tummy? NSH would be disappointed if she didn't rob the first person she saw. Of course, finding food and eating food were two different things. With her body cramped inside the bag, Hunter bit down on the plastic baggie between her teeth. She had already tried to help herself to some of the more meaty selections in the bag, but quickly ran into a roadblock when she realized it was really hard to open up a plastic bag when your body was folded over itself. Now that the owner was awake, she had no choice but to grab the nearest bag and prepare for her escape. The flap on top of the bag was still slightly ajar. She wiggled her way up towards it, squinting her eyes as a brief ray of sunshine grazed over her face. The outside voices were starting to get more aggressive, further amplifying the anxiety pounding in her chest. If she didn't go now, someone might discover her. With one last wiggle, Hunter poked her head out of the bag, forcibly pulled herself fully out, and then leapt off of the man's body, using the back of his head as a launch pad. She sprinted away, not looking back as she felt her heart racing. In just a minute, she had created a sizeable distance between her and the strangers, enough so that she could still make out their features while also being able to run away if they tried to approach. Satisfied with her haul, Hunter turned to face the strange creatures in case they tried to approach and plopped down. She laid down on her side, keeping her eyes focused on the group. Then, with the same vigor as a house cat with a toy, she bit down on the plastic baggie hard and began to furiously bunny kick it. 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Avalar, The Burned Lands 》 《 NEARBY: Denki | Hibiki | Lambert | Ralsei | Lucikiel 》 He went wherever Skathi guided him. Every night, Anduin could feel the burning gaze of his greater half from beyond the sky. He followed her presence, blindly walking into lands unknown or waking up from a deep slumber to find himself standing on top of a chalk-drawn summoning circle. He was accustomed to not knowing where or why he was wanted, needed more often than not, until he arrived there. When he had arrived at his destination, Anduin could feel what his purpose was just as he could feel the warmth of sunlight on his skin; he existed for a specific reason every waking moment. It was, for all intents and purposes, rare for him to have to surmise why he had been summoned somewhere new, which made the current events very puzzling. Anduin mumbled to himself as he brushed off the volcanic ash that clung to the hem of his cloak. He had no quarrels with being sent to what he could only assume was the site of some active volcano, if the canyon of dark rocks and heated air was any indication. No, the problem was that Anduin could not tell why he had to be there. He could still feel his connection to Skathi deep in the core of his being, but when he had asked her for guidance, she had replied with the cosmic equivalent of a confused shrug. While Anduin was glad they were on the same page, it felt a lot like they were both stranded at sea with no sight of land for miles. At the very least, they weren't alone. Off in the nearby distance, Anduin could hear a small group of people tending to an injured person. None of them sounded like they would be hostile upon contact, but the last group of people Anduin had run into didn't seem like much of a threat either. Granted, they really weren't a threat when it came to Anduin's physical form. No, the weird patrol of skeletal creatures Anduin had run into had taken a very cool and chewable stick (it had a really fun texture to gnaw on) right out of Anduin's hands and threw it off the cliff they were standing on. Anduin, as any sensible person would do, zoomed past the guards and leapt off the cliff to collect the stick. It was only after a good 30 minutes of searching did Anduin realize it was entirely possible that the creatures had never thrown the stick in the first place. That dastardly plot had completely ruined his mood, somehow more so than the whole losing his life's meaning. "It was a good stick," the incomprehensible eldritch deity said in Anduin's mind. He felt a little reassured. At the very least, the new group couldn't possibly hurt him more than the stick thieves did. "You might want to find some shelter before treating any wounds." Anduin walked out from behind a large boulder. He stared idly at the group, his gaze hidden underneath his "wool". No one in the group had attire similar to the first patrol nor was their clothing suited for wandering through a hot wasteland save maybe for the man with his chest laid bare. Although, Anduin thought as he briefly stared at the shirtless man, he got the feeling that the man wasn't wearing a shirt to combat the heat. "I take it that none of you are from around here as well, yes?" Anduin asked. He nodded his head in the direction he came from. "You don't look like you belong to one of the patrols I ran into." Anduin softly nudged one of the bodies near his feet. "Or any of these, I suppose." Edited July 24, 2023 by Doctortear Share this post Link to post
Posted July 15, 2023 (edited) Arven (and Hitoshi Shinsou) Location ~ Hellworld Status ~ Rattled “If calling you a ‘misfit’ is that offensive, you need to get your priorities checked,” Arven snaps right back. He then reaches to scratch behind Mabosstiff’s ear, causing the Pokémon to roll over and expose his belly. That seems to calm Arven down a bit, as he reaches to then pet the soft stomach. “Oh buddy….. It’s okay, I’m okay.” His eyebrows knit together. “And you thought poking me with a stick was going to do that? Jerks.” “It worked, didn’t it?” Hitoshi grumbles. “For the record though, I yelled at him for it.” “Remind me to give you a gold star when I have one.” “Hey, screw you.” Mabosstiff huffs, as if to distract Arven from getting into a fight. Arven mimics the sound. “Hey, bud, I didn’t start it.” The Pokémon rolls back onto his legs and gives his Trainer a stern expression, and Arven backs off. “Ugh. Mabosstiff’s right.” He then rolls his head to either side, wincing when he hears a soft crrrrrrrck. “This isn’t home, I don’t think, so maybe I should watch my mouth.” Mabosstiff bares his teeth, causing Arven to blink. “Bud! C’mon.” The Pokémon growls, and Arven gives a defeated sigh. “....’m sorry. I forgot my manners.” Hitoshi laughs. “You got humbled by a dog.” “....” Hitoshi then shakes his head. He then cocks his head to the side when there’s a sound coming from the bag on the stranger’s back. “Hey uh……. Something’s in your bag, dude.” “WHAT- oh no if one of my Pokémon esc– wait….” Arven quickly removes the bag from his pack and notes that the flap is open. He then looks next to himself, noting something had smacked into him. It’s a very odd looking creature- no Pokemon that he knows of- and it’s trying to raid one of his bags of tomatoes. “HEY. HEY, those are mine, back off!!!” He snaps at it, trying to grab the bag out of its grip. It's at that moment when he realizes none of his other Pokémon are in his bag. ".... !!!!!" Dr. Hikaru Shinsou, M.D. Location ~ Acheron Labs Status ~ God, he's ugly. Every time Hikaru enters the office of Dr. Morgan Acheron, the man gets more and more hideous. Perhaps it would be some sort of karma, except Hikaru is not sure if the man even cares about his own horrendous appearance. However- one thing nearly set him off when the doctor decided to open his mouth. “You are late. I expect a man with your unique ability to be far more punctual. You are supposed to be an emergency doctor after all, are you not?” Hikaru rolls his eyes in response. you, he thinks to himself. When he saw Acheron wince in pain, his doctor instincts willed him to come a bit closer. However, part of him is slightly satisfied. “I came as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, the more I use this Quirk before I rest, the more lag there is.” Was that true? Not quite. But it was certainly a plausible lie. After all- his Quirk did become more of a nuisance the more he used it. The other doctor does not appear to care. Instead, he brandishes a clawed hand. “I need you to deal with this. Quickly. If you do not have a cure then I suggest you find one before the rest of these incompetents end up sending the entire damn sector into lockdown.” He seems to twitch a bit as he does so, which Hikaru finds rather odd. “EX 1886. It is located in the containment breach sector, but I expect you to have no trouble fetching it, yes?” His voice changed. What the hell...? Hikaru knits his eyebrows, but he sighs. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do about this situation of yours….” He then turns his back, looking at something on the wall before then teleporting in a cloud of sparkling air. He's going to need to recharge soon. ! Kaminari Denki ! Location ~ Burned Lands Status ~ Less fried. Thankfully. “Huh…..? A man….? ‘S he cute….?” Denki groans as his brain starts to kick back into gear. “‘S going on…” He ventures, following his new acquaintances to a man- one who does not seem to know what a shirt is. Unfortunately for the man, he seems too bulky to wear Denki’s jacket as a cover. He takes note of some sort of blue liquid oozing from the man’s arm. “.....Is that Kool-Aid or something….?” His brain soon registers that that isn’t some delicious drink, but blood. That’s when his hero instincts kick in, and he takes off his jacket for another reason. “Here! Use this to apply pressure!” Little does he know, one of those oversized gnats is hanging out not too far behind him. It comes closer, lifting its club arm in preparation… Utakata ~ Jinchūriki of the Rokubi Location ~ Vinyl City Status ~ Panik Utakata has completely lost any clue of what is going on. “.....He….. He just has a random instrument, just…….” He blinks and rubs at his eyes. “Can this place get ANY weirder?” He tries calling to Saiken in his mind. Saiken? Saiken. Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaiken. Where are you, you giant wad of snot? He is answered by silence, and silence alone. Panic then settles on Utakata’s features. Where is he?! Edited July 15, 2023 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
Posted July 16, 2023 <Status: Stable> <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 4 - Vinyl City Streets> <Others: Kliff | Zuke | Utakata | Scorpia | Shepherd | Vibri> ~~ Zuke gave a small smile to Scorpia. "Thanks. Bunk Bed Junction's going to need all the luck it can get." The floating feather, meanwhile, had also gotten Tyrael's attention, but not due to its appearance. There was an aura that seemed... very much familiar, and yet not at the same time. Whence have I felt this kind of energy before...? Zyrrkinoth briefly noted the look of panic on Utakata's face before he lowered his guitar to his side and looked to both Kliff and Zuke. "Wouldn't be the first quest I've been on. DJ Subatomic Supernova isn't the only one we have to knock down a few pegs, I take it. So who do we start with?" Kliff grinned and held up his finger before producing a flat tablet-like object - Zyrrkinoth recognized it as a tomestone, but to Tyrael the device was completely and utterly alien. "The way I see it, you got two choices." The screen of the device lit up with the image of a pink and white mermaid on a cyan background. "This one is SAYU. Third-biggest megastar in the city, in charge of the streaming hub to the north of here." Then the image changed to an image of five nearly-identical men, with the only differences being the shape and color of their hair (and a pair of shades being worn by the one whose hair was blue). "And these guys are 1010, collectively the second-biggest megastar and operating out of the mansion to the east." Kliff then looked at the group expectantly. "Pick your poison, fellas. I won't fault you for either choice." ~~ <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Active, Normal Mode> <Status: Injured> <Location: Sector 2 - The Burned Lands> <Others: Denki | Ralsei | Lambert | Anduin> ~~ The man looked up at all of the newcomers, and the offer of healing was quickly presented. "...you are welcome to try," was his only reply to the goat-like being... ...before the lamb's sudden presence spooked even him, eliciting a startled gasp as his eyes briefly widened. He wasn't sure who this 'One Who Waits' was, but whoever or whatever they were they would simply have to wait their turn, as his will was already shackled to that of a higher being... ...but as he thought about it, that very bond felt... extremely weak here. Almost nonexistent, even. What is this??? Why can I not feel Her?? Where is She?? Was he no longer...? The musings drained him of any response to either the white-fleeced creature in front of him, or the one that had approached and warned against trying to heal him while they were in the midst of nowhere. He snapped to attention and blushed slightly at the blond-haired boy calling him cute just as he was coming to, but quickly shook those thoughts aside. Now was not the time to succumb to vain flattery, and the kid was offering his jacket to press against his wounded arm. He was about to take it... But one of those pests was right behind the kid. The man glared. "...move aside," he bluntly stated, shoving Hibiki aside as he stood, curled his blood-stained right hand into a fist... ...and proceeded to utterly obliterate the oversized gnat in a single punch. With his wounded arm. Hibiki gulped. "Kowai..." It was a little bit scary... and she was sure glad that, for now, this man was on their side! "That... That was very powerful... Oh! I-I'm Tachibana Hibiki! W-What do we call you?" Fear. An appropriate response to such a display. A response he'd expected. He walked back, snatched the jacket out of the blond boy's hands, and started pressing it to the wound on his right forearm, his blue blood quickly staining the fabric. And even with that, he tried to appear regal, powerful, strong. Straightening his posture and trying to appear imposing even while using his left hand to press the jacket against his wounded right forearm. "...you may call me Lucikiel." ~~ <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 1 - Lab Hallway> <Others: Hollow> ~~ Oh LORD the metal spiders - he'd forgotten those were a thing in the labs. And apparently they, too, were one of many kinds of things that had gotten out in the containment breach. And though against his massive new friend their efforts were little more than that... Against him, a normal Romulan man? They were very much more dangerous. One almost managed to pierce him before he shot it apart with a plasma pistol. A few of them tried to body-check him, but only managed to trip him and make him fall on the cold metal floor (which, while very uncomfortable, wasn't going to leave more than a sore bruise at worst). Of course it was only made worse when they started fusing together into much, much larger entities, but then he saw what they were trying to do... "Oh no you don't, you vile pests!" ...and then, plasma pistol in hand, turned on the 'beam' setting and started working to free his tall new ally. He wasn't about to lose anyone to this containment breach, least of all someone he'd just met. ~~ Share this post Link to post
Posted July 16, 2023 LOCATION: Hellworld OTHER ENTITIES: Arven | Hitoshi | Hunter | Mabosstiff “Wait, ‘misfit’?” Damien blinked a few times, ire wavering, before he huffed in response. “Well, now I’m just offended by how lame of an insult that was.” He retorted, though seemed to now be more struggling to find something to be mad at rather than being genuinely distraught over anything. “For the record, you look like you could have had a disease of some kind. Figured the stick would keep a safer distance.” Damien continued, nodding in agreement with Hitoshi’s statement as he waved the stick in the general direction of their new acquaintance. He looked about to say more, but was thrown off by the sudden apology from him instead and let the sentence fade into an unintelligible mumble. “How many pets do you think this guy has…?” Damien whispered to Hitoshi, as attention was drawn to the moving bag. He startled slightly as a red, cat-like creature suddenly scrambled out into view, but quickly buried the emotion once more in favour of now properly turning to Hitoshi with a raised eyebrow. “He might be a bit mad, actually. He’s probably got rats in his pockets or something like that.” Damien then ducked down while the confused trainer wrestled with the bag, setting down his stick so he could scoop up another plastic bag that had fallen out of the bag in the struggle. This one looked to be filled with sandwich-sized slices of ham. Nose wrinkling at the smell, Damien nonetheless pried it open and withdrew one of the slices of meat from it before calling for the attention of the pair of them. He then underhand-tossed the slice he was holding a few feet to the left of the duo. “Why does your dog and cat look so weird?” Drawled Damien, now watching said animal in a curious manner to see if they were, at least, still cat-like enough to want to release their grip on the tomatoes in favour of a free sliver of ham. “Go on, you weird little fleabag. If he’s losing a fight to a cat he probably needs those tomato vitamins more than you do.” --- LOCATION: Vinyl City OTHER ENTITIES: Kliff | Tyrael | Utakata | Zuke | Zyrrkinoth “Hm…” Scorpia tapped a claw to her chin for a few seconds, brow furrowed in pure concentration as she stared down at the electronic device in Kliff’s hands. Eventually, she shifted in her stance once more, and motioned in the direction that she had arbitrarily decided was now ‘north’. “The Princesses are the most dangerous ones, we learned that day one of our training. If you can take down the local Princess, it’s usually a lot easier to get everyone else around you to surrender.” Her brow then raised. “Which is good! Because then there’s usually less blood and less paperwork and, well,” She held out her claws once more, snapping them suddenly in a sharp, crushing moment before she chuckled under breath. “Who doesn’t love less paperwork am I right? The pencils are so small, and breakable.” She paused for a moment, lost in thought over whether she’d be able to convince the higher-ups to order better writing utensils. The feather with the golden hilt, unnoticed by the scorpioni, seemed to be trembling slightly as it floated a notable distance around her in favour of also coming to rest a few paces before Tyrael. Both it and the one with the silver hilt started to motion back and forth, rising abruptly and then twirling thrice to the left, before pausing before him once more as if awaiting a response. “Anyway!” Chirped Scorpia, pointing now in a different direction from her first choice of ‘north’. “I think take out the one that looks like the local Princess first, if you want people to stop resisting so much.” --- LOCATION: Avalar (Burned Lands) OTHER ENTITIES: Anduin | Denki | Hibiki | Lucikiel | Ralsei The Lamb watched on as the goat shuffled from side to side, seemingly debating whether he should attempt to heal the man at his ambiguous suggestion that he could try. Briefly they wondered if perhaps it was because he had a limited amount of charges to the healing spell, before dismissing the thought with a simple shake of their head. They supposed it didn’t matter all that much, in the end. As long as the balding primate left behind a decent-sized corpse for them to work with when he eventually keeled over and succumbed to his injuries… A new voice caught their attention, and The Lamb’s ear twitched in response before he turned to analyse the latest arrival to their rapidly-expanding party. “Perhaps we could build a shelter, if only we could find some materials and-” The sentence trailed off as they spotted the new arrival, their usually blank expression allowing a rare moment of shock to temporarily overtake them. They had been told they had been the last. That fact alone had been the drive behind much of their determination and success on their path to godhood. The goat had enough similarities with their kind to have given them pause for thought, granted, but the fact that another actual sheep now stood before them robbed them of the rest of the plan they were trying to voice to the others. The Lamb blinked a few times, then shook their head abruptly to try to reign in their astonishment at the new arrival. “I did…not expect a fellow sheep, of all things, to be around here.” He tried to explain. There was another pause, in which they seemed entirely unphased by the grublin being eviscerated in the background despite the startled gasp of the goat beside them. Instead they reached back into their hat, forgetting their usual set of questions for new faces as they withdrew this time a slab of meat from its depths. “Are you hungry?” He asked. Ralsei meanwhile trotted a few steps forward, motioning for Lucikiel to remove the jacket before finally releasing the golden ball of healing light from his paws. “Th-this should only take a second, at least. Um…but if it doesn’t work then yes, shelter sounds like a good idea.” He then turned on the spot, adjusting his glasses as he surveyed the horizon some more, before bringing his attention back to the newcomer. He tilted his head, curious. “Did you say patrols? What were they patrolling?” --- LOCATION: Acheron Labs (Kitchens) OTHER ENTITIES: Lady Dimitrescu | ??? Wheezing laughter answered her, followed by a tutting sound before the voice behind the door spoke once more. “I care little for whatever frivolous title you believe you have earned through mere birthright, mortal. I can guarantee that I once had one far grander than it.” The eyes started to drift higher from the spot in the centre of the room. Garrett heard a faint fluttering sound, like feathers rustling in the wind, and yet it was at a rhythm that sounded far too slow to be keeping anything airborne. Soon enough they had risen to the point where they hovered a few inches above the Lady’s head, and another mocking chortle rumbled from the room. Garrett felt the back of his neck hairs prickle, and averted his gaze from the eyes in favour of glancing back up at the woman beside him. The glow behind felt a little too bright for him to continue to stare, leaving behind a strange sensation of a pulsating ache in his head for a few seconds after he’d broken eye-contact. “I-I’m sorry I just- I don’t really work with any of the subjects I-I didn’t even know the sort of things they were keeping here until-” “Cease your stuttering, worm. I tire of your pathetic mewling.” Garrett took a step back, meekly dismissing the rest of what he was going to say in favour of holding his hands out in a peaceful gesture. “S-sorry. We…we don’t want any trouble here-” “I should hardly think something as pathetic as you were capable of it, anyway.” Scoffed the voice, prompting Garrett’s shoulders to sink in response. He glanced aside, now quiet, and apparently deciding to let the much taller woman now drive the conversation between them and the disembodied voice. “Unless either of you have the key to these bindings of mine, I’d suggest that you both leave.” More feathers rusted, this time dislodging one that was sent spiralling out of the shadow-cloaked room in a lazy series of loops towards the Lady. It was bleached entirely of colour, making it difficult for Garrett to guess what sort of bird it might have once belonged to. “But make yourselves actually useful and find it? Perhaps then you will be worthy of my blessings.” --- The Narrator LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Room #427 (‘Buttons’) OTHER ENTITIES: Evander, Wheatley Evander, unfortunately, appeared to not be well-versed in his knowledge of the intricacies of the colour spectrum. Despite his best efforts, he simply could not seem to actually press any of the correct buttons that he had been tasked with. ‘How embarrassing,’ The peculiar orb of metal in his hands must have thought, though he was perhaps too polite to call this to attention. “I thought he was perhaps just warming up when he selected the clearly copper-coloured button instead of bronze, but then I watched as he triumphantly decided that the ocean green button was the emerald one, and realised that we are in trouble.” Evander must have been utterly distraught by this revelation, that the talkative little sphere was disappointed in him. It was a wonder whether their budding friendship would ever truly recover. Luckily, by sheer coincidence, Evander had managed to find the correct order for an entirely different door to appear and open up a short stroll ahead of them. It held very little of the glitz and glamour that would have been sighted behind door number one. Oh, the things you would have seen Evander, had you managed to perform this very simple task of mine correctly, and activated door number one. I’ll try to get someone to put the cake I had made in the fridge for you. Maybe then it’ll at least still be edible by the time you manage to get back to it. Anyway, that’s enough lamenting from me, I have a celebratory barbershop quartet to cancel. Do venture on ahead Evander. I believe that is room…hm one moment. … Oh, #475-1! Well, good luck. Watch your step in there, I hear all the ice on the floor makes it rather slippery. Maybe you should try to find some sort of source of light though before you enter? --- spiders ?? LOCATION: Acheron Labs - ??? OTHER ENTITIES: Hikaru It would perhaps be clear to Hikaru, very quickly, that wherever he had ended up was not the quarters of whatever experiment lay behind door #1886. Unless of course Acheron had decided to place this supposedly important cure of his somewhere in a poorly-lit room covered in thick blankets of spider webbing. The light would have been too dim to see very far, but the way that the vague sounds of shuffling and skittering in the distance echoed suggested that it was a considerably large amount of space afforded to whatever creatures lurked within the area. A short distance from him, what looked to be several large objects wrapped in more of the silk dangled from the ceiling. One of them, if he stared at it long enough, he may have noticed would occasionally twitch. A soft clicking sounded a few times, almost as if calling to him from beyond his line of vision. The silk-wrapped object that dangled between him and the sound then started to move about in a far more dramatic manner. --- oh god more spiders LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Hallway 5E OTHER ENTITIES: Hollow |Tovan Collectively the spiders emitted a high-pitched shrieking sound as the beam of light sliced through their path. Those that had been trying to anchor Hollow to the wall scattered from the sudden burst of a brighter light and heat, momentarily freeing them, but already more spiders were starting to clump together upon the ground to form longer, serpentine-like structures that slithered towards the pair of them once more. A crackle emitted from the now-broken screen of Atlas, who was perhaps trying to advise the pair on what to do about the apparently endless supply of spiders still pouring out of the wall, but to very little avail. They were growing more and more aggressive, seeming bolder in their movements as they collectively decided that Tovan was either the worse threat or the easier target. Either way, it meant that the majority of the spiders were now leaping from Hollow back towards the ground to try to tackle him as he fell. A particularly large cluster, looking very much like a serpent, then decided to drop from the ceiling directly above him with dozens upon dozens of steel-tipped, spindly legs aiming to tear him apart. Share this post Link to post
Posted July 18, 2023 (edited) 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Acheron Labs, Hallway 5E 》 《 NEARBY: Tovan | Atlas | Spiders 》 Evidently, the children were determined to cause as much damage as physically possible. Hollow, being an expert in handling spiders repeatedly biting you because they didn't want to go to bed yet, neglected to realize that their companion was at far greater risk than they were. Their carapace made it exceedingly difficult for the spiders to do any permanent damage to them, but Tovan was far shorter and had a squishy, fleshy body that couldn't withstand an onslaught of spiders. Hollow watched in horror as Tovan fell over, shooting a beam of light at the spiders as he did so. The large group that was trying to push Hollow into a wall dispersed, squealing in surprise. They regrouped as more spiders appeared out of the hole, choosing to ignore Hollow in favor of doubling their efforts in reaching Tovan. Freed from the spiders' grasp, Hollow withdrew their nail with the one good hand and stabbed it straight into the ground. The nail had a surprisingly easy time slicing into the lab's metallic floor. The nearby ground rumbled for a few seconds before two white pillars of metal burst forth from the ground in front of the hole the spiders came out of. Behind the glowing pillars, Hollow could see the spiders that were trying to enter the room claw furiously at the sudden blockage. Hollow wasn't sure if the pillars, or the light emanating from it, would scare the spiders off, but it should at least hold them off any new arrivals for a little while. With their hand still holding their nail into their ground, Hollow glowered at the spiders as dark tendrils burst out of their shawl from where their second arm used to be. They grabbed the spiders as they tried to leap onto Tovan, breaking their formation by pulling the spiders apart. Hollow winced as they spindly, metal legs buried into their void tendrils, but they did their best to separate the spiders from each other and hold them in the air to keep them from reconnecting. Speaking wasn't Hollow's strong suit so, in lieu of chastising the spiders for their misconduct, they hoped that the death glare they were giving the spiders was enough to convince them to stand down. They really didn't want to suspend a bunch of spiders in the air forever. That, and the pillar would only remain for as long as their nail was still in the ground. 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Avalar, The Burned Lands 》 《 NEARBY: Denki | Hibiki | Lambert | Ralsei | Lucikiel 》 Anduin clasped his hands together, watching in obvious delight as the injured man pulled himself to his feet and eviscerated the gnat before it even had a chance to attack. "I suppose that answers my question," he said cheerfully. It was already pretty obvious that Lucikiel was not a member of whatever society the patrols were sent by, but seeing both him and the rest of the group confirm the creatures' animosity towards all of them helped erase any uncertainty. The answer to that question brought up another inquiry, particularly how did Anduin and everyone else get to the canyon in the first place? Hands still clasped together, Anduin's eyes flitted from one person to another. The phenotypical differences in the group didn't tell Anduin much about their origins, shared or not, but the diversity in their clothing and accents did imply they might not have all arrived in the canyon together. Perhaps they were all summoned to the canyon unwillingly as well, or maybe one of them had done the summoning themselves. As though to prove his point, the lamb-like being walked up towards Anduin, expression wide with shock. “I did…not expect a fellow sheep, of all things, to be around here.” It was a blessing that his cloak was long enough to conceal the instinctive wagging of his tail. A rush of pride washed though Anduin's chest. He did look like a sheep! He spent hours styling his mane to look as wool-like as possible, and it worked! Not only that, but he was so elated that his disguise had worked that he narrowly didn't hear what the lamb said afterward. "No, I'm not... did you pull that from your crown?" Anduin blinked up at the crown held delicately in the lamb's hands. It blinked back. "How quaint!" Anduin laughed. "Do you have more food in there? Other stuff perhaps?" He was tempted to try to prod the crown to see if that elicited a further reaction until, but manners dictated he should probably acquaint himself with the group before touching their stuff. Anduin abruptly cleared his throat. "Forgive me, bad habits." He turned his head towards the goat busy healing the large, blue man. "Yes, I saw quite a few patrols roaming through the area. There does seem to be some sort of oasis with a castle north of here. Can't say I'm sure if the patrols are from the castle, or if they're just exclusive to this area. I was going to visit it to see if anyone there knew what was going on, but one of the patrols I ran into threw my..." Anduin trailed off, ears drooping. "...they, ahem, threw my belongings off a cliff." It took all of his power not to shed a tear. He probably wasn't going to find another stick like that for hours. Shaking off his dreary thoughts, Anduin pointed towards the direction of the castle. "It's not too far from here, actually. The cliffs and hills are doing a fairly good job at hiding it from view. Normally I wouldn't suggest making someone injured walk any distance but..." Anduin vaguely motioned towards the bodies littering the ground. "That doesn't seem like a problem. Might be a safer option than an alcove full of volcanic ash, at least." 《 STATUS: Hungry 》 《 LOCATION: Hellworld 》 《 NEARBY: Arven | Damien | Hitoshi | Mabosstiff 》 A competitor! The stranger's insistence on trying to pull the plastic bag of tomatoes out of Hunter's mouth only made her more feisty. She growled under her breath, clamping her teeth down harder as she furiously pulled the bag away from the stranger. She began viciously shaking her head side to side in an effort to make the man lose his grip, her growls growing louder with every shake. Out of the corner of her eyes, Hunter saw the other strange man approach. He approached more slowly than the first, opening a second plastic bag that had fallen out during the confrontation. Hunter's nose was immediately filled with the scent of meat and salt. Hunter's nose flared with interest as the man threw the meat in her general direction. She did not let go of the plastic bag instantly, but her ears did flatten against her skull when the other man called her a "fleabag". NSH was smart enough to enlighten her with a Mark of Communication, so it wasn't like she couldn't understand what the man was saying, even if he likely couldn't understand her. The insult made her want to continue chewing on the plastic bag anyway just to spite them both, but the allure of meat was great. Fruits and vegetables didn't fill her up nearly as much as meat did, and it would be kinda funny to see the first man fall over if she let go of the back quickly, so... Hunter let go of the bag and pounced upon the ham. She took it between her teeth and backed up to make sure that neither of the men could grab her while she was eating. Once she was a safe distance, she scarfed down the ham within seconds, licking her lips to savor the lingering taste of salt. Then, like any good cat would, she stared up expectantly at the man who offered her the ham. She didn't get too close on the off chance he'd pick her up, but hey, it never hurt to beg for more food. Edited July 24, 2023 by Doctortear Share this post Link to post
Posted September 3, 2023 (edited) Virgil Cerullo and Dr. Saphielle Ianpeiros Location ~ Bubble Cove Status ~ Miscellaneous shenanigans Virgil cocks his head to the side, then he shakes his head. “Date? Uh. Um. No….? I…. I’m not even presentable for…..” he sighs. “Um. Um. A lot is going on right now,” he rumbles. “Like. A lot. I’m not even a real dog, I’m just…. Some….. guy. Who makes rocks.” He awkwardly wags his tail, tucking his ears to the sides of his head. “I. Uh. Don’t know if I’m ever gonna reach my usual form again, though.” Saphielle looks up at the tree in thought. “Oh aye, think I could climb that up, assuming this weird form of mine still has claws.” She then sniffs at the tree, getting a very odd smell. “Hm.” She then starts climbing with relative ease as she makes it a significant distance up the tree. Her tail swishes in delight. “Aye, I don’t like this form, but I’ll say that it could be pretty useful?” She then pokes up at the leaves. “If anything drops, look down below….?” Arven (and Hitoshi Shinsou) Location ~ Hellworld Status ~ Rattled (Still) “Oh shove off,” Arven hisses, feeling accomplished when he gets his tomato bag back. But to his dismay, the cat goes after a piece of ham that the pointy eared man offers it. Arven hisses. “Those are my resources, jerk, don’t just— ugh. Screw it. If it keeps this cat away from my bag I’ll be fine,” he grumbles, trying to stuff the rest of his things back into his pack. Hitoshi raises an eyebrow. “So the cat isn’t yours?” “No. Why would I be mad at it taking my stuff if it were mine….?” “….Fair point.” Hitoshi then knits his eyebrows together and looks around. “We should probably get moving elsewhere, I’m seeing some nasty clouds brewing in the distance.” He then makes a vague gesture. “And we should be anywhere but here….. I have a feeling.” “And I should trust you….?” “Better than staying here, f****** around and finding out, yeah?” “……Fine.” Dr. Hikaru Shinsou, M.D. Location ~ Acheron Labs Status ~ Regretting his choices. “God, this is disgusting….. Suzy would have hated this place,” Hikaru grumbles under his breath. He then reaches for one of the items, preparing to teleport off if something attacks. ! Kaminari Denki ! Location ~ Burned Lands Status ~ Even less fried. “Lucikiel? Huh. That’s an edgy name,” Denki muses. “My head’s pounding. There’s an oasis? I should probably get some water to drink….” He then looks in that direction. “Man. That’s a nice looking area though. Better than this dump, right….?” He then starts walking a few steps in that direction. “Hm! I say we go!” Edited September 3, 2023 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
Posted September 4, 2023 (edited) LOCATION: Hellworld OTHER ENTITIES: Arven | Hitoshi | Hunter “Quit whining about it, I got your precious tomatoes back didn’t I?” Announced Damien, complete with eye-roll before he turned his attention back to the odd looking cat. A little grin threatened to tug at the corner of his mouth as he observed them tear into the piece of ham. “Oh? She’s a stray then? No wonder she’s so hungry.” Damien mused once it was apparent that the cat wasn’t owned by the fluffy-haired idiot with the backpack. This prompted him to fish out a second slice of ham from the packet, completely ignoring any ensuring complaints, and toss it onto the ground a mere metre or two before him. Damien glanced back at the other two, then skyward, as they pointed out the angry looking clouds starting to gather in the distance. A hum of agreement answered them. He then however crouched down, fishing out a third slice of ham, but instead tearing it up a few times before offering one of the morsels for the cat to take from his hand. “Try not to bite my hand off, yeah?” He told them in a casual drawl before coaxing them closer by waving it a little in the air. Mostly he was just trying to study her at the moment, in the hopes of figuring out what species of animal she actually was supposed to be. “Odd little b****** aren’t you? Still look a damn sight better than these two though.” Damien announced, followed by a snort of self-congratulatory humour. “...Do you think she’s friendly? Maybe she’ll follow us if we go look for shelter somewhere?” --- A final and distinctive lack of spiders LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Hallway 5E OTHER ENTITIES: Hollow, Tovan With the abrupt addition of more light pouring into the room the metallic spiders started to shriek loudly. Those closest to the pillars of light began to convulse, their limbs flailing in a wild, seemingly uncontrollable frenzy as they began to stumble around with no indication of a specific direction in mind. In unison the sea of spiders seemed to shift priorities. The spiders began to scatter from the pair of them and the pillars of light that Hollow had conjured up, retreating to the walls where they slithered and skittered around the two of them without physically approaching. A metallic thud sounded above them, and the metal grating off of one of the vents clattered to the floor. Surging like a wave, the spiders in unison started to hurry forward and scurry over themselves to try and enter the vent to get away from the suddenly far-too-bright room. Likewise, those that had been pouring out of the hole in the wall now reversed their path, and were hurriedly starting to clear from the room. Those that were now suspended in the air by the void tendrils had begun to writhe, in a manner that suggested several of them were in agony. One or two managed to break free of the tendrils, and the moment they hit the floor they emitted a series of harsh, distressing beeps before they curled up into a ball and ceased moving entirely. Soon enough, almost as easily as they had swarmed the room, traces of the robotic spiders were all but gone save for several dozen that had, presumably, entered some sort of shut-down glitch sequence after being blinded by the lights of the room. --- World Wide Web LOCATION: Archeron Labs - ??? OTHER ENTITIES: A friend :) The webbed up object closer to him was far smaller than others in sight, hosting an object that looked able to comfortably sit in one’s arm. Despite the sturdy appearance of the silk suspending it, the slightest touch knocked it abruptly to the ground, landing with a soft clink against the tiles of the floor. As the silk parted, almost as if it moved with a mind of its own, it revealed what looked to be a crimson, polished gemstone reminiscent of the ones that a certain fellow scientist had a sizable collection of decorating their quarters. This one however had a deep crack that ran along its centre, almost splitting the gemstone in two. In the background the clicking sound had stopped. The moving object still suspended, however, only increased in its erratic shaking and twitching at the sound of his voice. From within its silken prison a frantic, almost desperate, clawing sound began. --- LOCATION: Bubble Cove (The Shore) OTHER ENTITIES: Casimir | Virgil The dog hadn’t really answered his question, nor given much indication he’d even really been listening to Marlow’s attempt to introduce himself better and explain their surroundings. It prompted a droop in his shoulders as Marlow realised this, and he made a mental note to try to cut down on the small talk between them for fear of annoying his new acquaintance. Instead he turned his attention towards a new voice that had called, blue eyes widening in surprise as he registered the question and stuttered out his response to it. “A what- O-oh. Um. No. Definitely not. I mean, look at me. W-well I mean not- my usual me, I mean. Which I uh…I guess you haven’t seen yet so…” Marlow paused. He closed his eyes, brought a paw to his temple for a moment, then took a deep breath before opening them once more. “Sorry. Um. No. We just met. Are you new here as well? You can just call me Marlow.” He gestured with an inviting nod of his head back towards the town of Stormwatch as he started to walk once more. “Better come with us, at any rate. You’ll want to get to some shelter soon.” This time he walked upon his hind legs, freeing up his front paws so that he could tent them in an awkward, nervous sort of gesture as he tried to recall what else had been asked of him. “...Oh, um, an ice-breaker is just sort of…you know, a conversation starter with people don’t really know. I-I’m uh…not real good at them though. Sorry.” He explained, clearing his throat afterwards. “No uh- you should both be able to change back to your usual forms, whatever those are. You just gotta get out of this place.” Marlow made a sweeping gesture around him with his paws. “...Good luck finding somewhere to stay other than Stormwatch, but. I don’t reckon you could make it to another Sector by nightfall. And you don’t wanna get caught between Sectors at night.” --- LOCATION: Bubble Cove (The Shore) OTHER ENTITIES: Moominpapa | Saphielle “What’s causing the storm? I dunno. But Mar reckons he saw some kind of dragon flying over the sea the other day heading straight towards where those storm-clouds are now. Maybe that’s to blame.” She pointed a claw in the direction of said clouds, tracing out a large triangular shape in the air. “Can’t see it right now, but on clearer days you can spot a volcano in the distance. Seems as good a place as any for a dragon to set up a lair there.” She turned back towards him, only to squint in a judgemental manner as fanciful tales of flying ships started to drift from the ramblings of the…whatever the hell the twit with the tophat was supposed to be. She barely paid attention to what the names were of the local creatures they’d been turned into at the best of times, and she certainly had never seen any of them that looked like the latest newcomer to have asked. “...You...might've bumped your head coming here. Should probably check that out at some point.” Sounded an eventual drawl from her, after concluding that this coupled with the sand-tasting incident a moment ago was a clear indicator that she was speaking to someone who’d gone a bit mad. Case in point, she watched as the bizarre little creature stretched a few times before clearly pulling a muscle in his back. Silently Aster shook her head, before turning to watch the far more nimble cat start to scale up the length of the nearest palm tree. “I say looks like you snooze you lose, old man.” Grunted Aster in response, before craning her neck to shout up at the cat. “Oi, actually, shake that one to the left of you again aye? Reckon I just saw something sparkle.” A moment later the glint of something small and oval-shaped, attached to a thin golden chain, fell from the branches of the tree. Aster shuffled forward to catch it, growling out a string of profanity about depth perception when she promptly missed and watched it thump into the sand a few inches from where she’d been standing. “Alright c’mere you shiny bloody b******.” Aster huffed as she slumped forward to pick up the object from the sand, struggling with the awkward shape of her shell for a moment before she could finally rise to her feet once more. She opened her claws, revealing the golden pocket-watch in them before she clicked it open to inspect its contents. Inside was a small, neatly folded piece of paper. Aster grunted in faint surprise, unfolding it with a claw and holding it out for the other two to see. “...Well. No bloody clue what that says.” Aster eventually concluded, after a lengthy pause, before she folded the piece of paper once more and shoved it back into the pocket watch with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. It’s here in one piece, s’all I care about.” She then motioned back towards the city. “Alright, I’m off to Stormwatch now to get us our reward money from this. If you want a meal and a roof over your heads tonight I suggest you lot come with me too.” --- LOCATION: Avalar (Burned Lands) - The Castle OTHER ENTITIES: Anduin | Denki | Hibiki | Lucikiel | Ralsei The Lamb glanced back down at the crown at the fellow sheep’s question, eyes darting between the two entities for a few moments before they decided to nod in response. “...A few things, yes. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to pack well before my unexpected arrival here but…” Humming a little tune to themself for a moment, The Lamb placed the slab of meat back into the crown and then began to rummage around once more to see what he had at his disposal. Briefly they demonstrated what resources they had on hand by withdrawing a few gold coins, some camellias, and a necklace featuring a moon pendant before they were distracted by the rest of the conversation. “...An oasis sounds like a wise place for us to head. Should be water, maybe food. Even sounds as if there will be shelter, perhaps?” The Lamb tilted their head in thought over this, a faint frown etched onto their features as they contemplated the sort of residents they may find in the castle that was mentioned. They certainly didn’t sound friendly by any means, but glancing over the group…The Lamb wasn’t certain whether that would be much of an issue for them, assuming the rest were planning on joining The Lamb on his decision to investigate. “Threw your belongings off a cliff, you say?” The Lamb then enquired, a tut of disapproval following. “How rude of them. Perhaps we should go and retrieve these items from them, then?” And with that The Lamb began to trot forward, quickly over-taking Denki as the self-appointed shepherd of the party. The rose a hoof-like paw, calmly but sternly motioning for the rest of the beings that were there to follow without so much as a glance behind them to see if anyone actually was. The Lamb, after all, was known to inspire even the most stubborn of fools into following them eventually. He had little doubt that he’d be in command of a brand new Flock in no-time. - - - It didn’t take long for The Lamb to wind a path past the first set of cliffs and hills and reveal the castle that had been hiding behind them. An impressed whistle escaped him on sight. They were used to far more humble dwellings on average, quite content to relax for a few hours in a nicely-decorated hut of their own creation. They stopped abruptly in their tracks, raising a hand to signal for the rest of their party to do the same. From afar they could now catch sight of one of the patrols that Anduin had mentioned, marching along the edge of the oasis to cover what looked to be the entrance. The Lamb hummed in thought, bringing their paw to their mouth and tapping it a few times as they took note of their number and tried to determine whether there were other guards stationed about the area to watch out for. “...Those ones appear to be a lot sturdier than the insects we’ve been disposing of, are they not?” They questioned, gaze drifting between a few, distant figures until it settled on one that seemed both closer and out of place compared to the rest of the beings lurking around the castle. From what The Lamb could tell, they were another variety of the strange, hairless primates that they still didn’t have a name for on account of being too embarrassed to ask at this point. This one however was decked out in an elaborate set of armour. Armour which, annoyingly, The Lamb doubted they’d have the strength to pierce through with sword alone. Still, they tensed as they looked to have grabbed the man’s attention, and took the crown from their head to will it into a weapon. The dull, rather dramatic THUD of a hammer almost as large as they were answered the call, prompting a faint inhale of surprise from the Lamb as they teetered back a step to adjust for the sudden weight in their hands. Nonetheless, they then heaved it up onto their shoulder with only some strained effort and then squinted at the armoured man, silently questioning whether he was willing to pick a fight with them all or not. Edited September 4, 2023 by Lycanious Share this post Link to post
Posted September 6, 2023 <Status: Stable> <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 4 - Vinyl City Streets> <Others: Kliff | Zuke | Utakata | Scorpia> ~~ Zyrrkinoth chuckled at Scorpia's enthusiasm. "I can't argue against less paperwork! Tends to get rather dull, rather quickly in my honest opinion. I second the Force Captain's decision - in my honest opinion, it'd be best to warm up against a singular opponent rather than going against a group of five right off the bat; trying to go after 1010 now is just asking for trouble." Tyrael watched as the feathers moved, almost trying to direct him, before hearing Zyrrkinoth call his name. "Oh--! Forgive my distraction, friend, is there something you needed?" "Yeah, your take on who to take on first." Tyrael looked over the two options, and one wisp of a wing extended to motion over SAYU's image. "I agree with the current consensus. Lord Deresnels is correct; even if the five members of 1010 are individually weaker, as a united group they'll be harder to combat. It is best we confront SAYU first and 'cut our teeth', as it were. Get our combat bearings in this new land." Zyrrkinoth nodded in agreement with Tyrael's assessment, then turned to the robed man nearby. "Utakata, was it? Do you have any objections or comments about our decision before we head out?" ~~ <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Active, Normal Mode> <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 2 - The Burned Lands -> Oasis Fringe> <Others: Denki | Lambert | Anduin | Ralsei> ~~ Lucikiel saw Ralsei motion for him to remove the bloody jacket, and as the healing light worked its magic, he saw the wound begin to close. Though the wound did not fully heal, it did heal enough for the bleeding to cease - which, to the Incarnation of Destruction, was suitable enough. He gave an approving nod to the goat-like creature, before turning his attention to the rest of the conversation. They threw his belongings off a cliff? How uncouth, the demon thought to himself... ...though it was Hibiki who voiced it out loud. "They threw your things off a cliff?! That's so mean of them! Whoever lives in that castle might not be a very nice person if the patrols are like that!" Lucikiel nodded. "I have to agree with Tachibana, and since these bugs may have been some of those patrols it's very much possible that we've made an enemy of the castle's owner. But yes, even if that is the case, it'd be better shelter than some middle-of-nowhere alcove or the like. The kid's right; we have to get moving regardless." Though he thought Denki's decision to be questionable, the demon nonetheless made to follow. - - - After a while, the lamb motioned for them to stop. Another patrol, and this one looked to be made of far different creatures indeed. "I must agree; these ones are much sturdier. It'll take more than one blow to get rid of them." Of course, it didn't help that one out of the patrol, the one that stood out the most, ended up spotting them. Great, a fight. Maybe this one will offer a decent challenge. He took note of the hammer the lamb had summoned (how did this tiny creature come to possess such an unwieldy weapon?), then of the gauntlets present on Hibiki's armor. At least two of his new companions thus had combat experience, and if all else failed and they had to retreat, they had Ralsei for healing in order to quickly jump back into the fray. But he was going to make sure it didn't come to that. He looked at Hibiki's worried expression even as he assumed his combat stance. "Hey, Tachibana. Don't assume you can simply talk your way out. These beings may not be the diplomatic type and I feel that this place will soon become a battlefield. Steel yourself." "H-Hai!" Briefly, she wondered what kind of song she would sing if it came down to combat, but she figured she'd let Gungnir handle that. She soon assumed her own combat stance, one a little more defensive than Lucikiel's and the lamb's - she wasn't going to go on the offense. Not just yet. ~~ <Status: Injured> <Location: Sector 1 - Lab Hallway> <Others: Hollow> ~~ Although the spider-serpent didn't manage to tear him apart, the pained scream that Tovan let out certainly was proof that he'd at least been injured. Moments afterward, his green blood painted the hallway's floor, before he managed to slip out from under the serpent's grasp and closer to the tall creature that was now his companion. Of course, said companion made use of abilities that were very much alien to the Romulan man to keep him safe, first summoning two white pillars of solid metal from the floor to block any new arrivals, before tendrils of shadow emerged from where an arm was supposed to be (he now noticed they only had one arm) and pull off those spiders that hadn't yet gotten off of him. Thank the Elements this being was on his side! As soon as the spiders had either retreated or shut down, he left his combat stance and took note of his wounds... ...huh. Less severe than anticipated. They had thankfully missed his vital organs and, though wide, the wounds found on his abdomen weren't very deep. Shame he didn't have anything on him that could properly treat the wounds, though - so, for the time being, he reached into his things, pulled out some gauze, and made sure the gashes were dressed so that someone could properly treat them later. "...well, now. That was certainly an impressive display." He gave a look of appreciation to his new friend. "Thank you. I likely would've been killed if you hadn't been there." ~~ "I heard Darkrai scream... Did he disappear forever?" "NO. THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED. HE HAS BEEN BANISHED TO SOME UNKNOWN PLACE... WHERE EVER HE MAY BE..." "HE LIVES." <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 5 - Hellworld> <Others: Arven & Mabosstiff | Damien | Hitoshi | Hunter> ~~ He let out a groan almost as soon as he hit the ground. Where am I...? As soon as he rose, he then had a horrifying realization. Wait, no-- Who am I?? I don't... He couldn't remember... A name. He was sure he had one. Da... Dar... Darkrai? ...yes, that's it. Darkrai. That is my name. So why couldn't he remember anything else? Voices. He heard voices nearby. "How many pets do you think this guy has...?" "Oh shove off." "We should probably get moving elsewhere, I'm seeing some nasty clouds brewing in the distance." Now that it was mentioned, it did look like a very nasty storm was about to start. And something in him gave him the feeling that trying to survive such a storm by himself was ill-advised. So he sank into the shadows to approach the source of these voices, to observe them more closely... He was surprised to see three humanoids, a canine, and a feline. Even as he watched from within their shadows, he got the distinct feeling that while one of the humanoids was rather prickly in personality, none of these creatures were overtly hostile. Didn't mean he couldn't try to scare the living daylights out of at least one of them, though. He briefly wondered where the urge was coming from, but decided that it didn't matter in the moment as he slitered through their shadows, completely unseen... And then he rose from hiding, directly behind the one wearing black, hoping that if and when he turned around it would strike some sense of fear into him. <Darkrai has entered Mul'tilennaya.> ~~ <An echo of thunder is heard within Hellworld, and ripples can be seen on the surface of various bodies of water. A storm approaches, and the hippokampi have begun to emerge...> ~~ Share this post Link to post
Posted September 13, 2023 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Acheron Labs, Hallway 5E 》 《 NEARBY: Tovan | Atlas 》 Hollow watched in horror as the young spiders began to shriek in terror and flee from the room as fast as their tiny legs could carry them. The few held clasped in the void tendrils began to convulse aggressively. Hollow immediately dropped them, disturbed by the feeling of the tiny creatures writhing in their grasp. It had occurred to Hollow, shortly after grabbing the spiders, that they might not be as organic as they originally thought. The spiders' carapaces were metallic like a nail, unnatural. Their features, while still spider-like, had some disfigurements that looked uncanny when compared to that of the spiders Hollow was familiar with. All in all, it appeared that the spiders might not be the ones that Hollow was familiar with, not that the realization made them any less horrified to see what looked like a horde of baby spiders in great distress. With the room now vacant of spiders, Hollow pulled their nail out of the ground. The light pillars guarding the hole in the wall retreated back into the earth just as Hollow's void tendrils disappeared back under their clothing. A few of the spiders had tried to bite the tendrils and Hollow's horns, but they did little more than leave a stinging pain where their mandibles had dug in. Hollow quietly holstered their nail on their back, hoping they wouldn't need to draw it out again anytime soon. "...well, now. That was certainly an impressive display. Thank you. I likely would've been killed if you hadn't been there." A swell of pride thumped in Hollow's chest. The sudden praise was unexpected but heavily appreciated, especially from someone as cool and talented as Tovan. Hollow rubbed the nape of their neck sheepishly, being unaccustomed to praise over what they would assume was a rather lackluster display. Hollow looked over their shoulder towards Tovan, trying to think of something they could say in return, when their gaze unwilling fell towards the gauze covering a newly formed injury. Hollow approached, panicked, their hands hovering over the wound. They worriedly searched around the hallway to find anything that could be helpful to Tovan. Unfortunately, hallways very rarely were plentiful in medical equipment. They approached one of the nearby screens where the disembodied voice of Atlas was located. They raised a hand, making a frenzied motion with their hand, and then paused. Right, they were missing one of their arms now. Father permitted them to learn some sign language while to better communicate with others, but most of the sign language in Hollownest required at least two appendages and void tendrils didn't really make up for a lack of fingers. In lieu of any better ideas, Hollow started making frantic motions towards Tovan's injuries, hoping that Atlas would understand their concern. 《 STATUS: Hungry 》 《 LOCATION: Hellworld 》 《 NEARBY: Arven | Damien | Hitoshi | Darkrai | Mabosstiff 》 She was mildly annoyed at the boy's commentary, but she wasn't going to say no to more free meat. Hunter watched hungrily as the boy threw a piece of meat a few meters in front of himself. She hesitated for a few minutes, realizing that he wanted her to come closer towards him. It was a pathetic tactic, one that No Significant Harrasment employed whenever he tried to give her medication, but, unfortunately, hunger often outruled her common sense. Hunter inched forward, eyes flitting between each of the strangers to make sure none of them made any sudden movements. Once the ham was well within reach, she gave it a cautious sniff before scarfing it down quickly to ensure she could back up if any of them tried to approach her. The slice of meat was as wonderfully salty and fresh as the last. Hunter could feel a line of drool threatened to spill out over her lip as she glanced up her current Food Giver. Evidently, the new Food Giver had grown arrogant after seeing her eagerly consume the few slices given. The third slice was held firmly in an outstretched hand. The boy made no motion to drop it, forcing Hunter into a moral dilemma. He was going to try and pet her. She knew he was going to try and pet her if she got too close and she did not trust some random teenager to pet her. That, or she was just in a really bad mood and too hungry and upset to want attention from a stranger. Hunter stared at the meat, longer than she did with the second piece. She really did not want to risk being touched, but the allure of potential full meal was strong. Slowly, she walked forward, ears flat against her skull. She opened her mouth to try and pull a piece of the ham free from the stranger's grasp just as a dark shadow materialized behind the stranger. Hunter completely lost her cool. She hissed loudly, a low rumble in the back of her throat, and bit down. The taste of copper filled her mouth as she bit down on the stranger's hand. Instinctively, she dug her front claws into the boy's hand and bunny kicked his arm several times before letting go and scrambling away. She ran past the other two boys, rushing towards the nearest high ground. The "high ground" ended up being a strange metal contraption hidden in some nearby bushes. She climbed to the top of it, yanking off the branch of a nearby dead tree as she planted herself firmly on the roof of the metal object. She snapped the branch in half, clawing at the end of both halves until they both received dangerous, pointy ends. She stabbed one of the makeshift spears through the large tumor on her back, feeling none of the pain that should have been there. She was still startled but feeling for more comfortable with a spear in her hand. Glaring at the teenagers and the shadow behind them, Hunter pointed the spear in her hand in their general direction and growled, daring them to come close. 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Avalar, The Castle 》 《 NEARBY: Denki | Hibiki | Lambert | Ralsei | Lucikiel | Anduin 》 Much to Xander's dismay, they had won. Yet again. Only a few survivors remained from the patrol that had tried to ambush him. They were strange creatures, a mismatch of different species that only vaguely resembled animals that Xander was familiar with. A handful of them, now without shields or arms, were being chased by Xander's stallion. The war horse, clad in armor, was hot on their heels. The rest of the patrol laid dead in front of the castle. The terrain around the bodies was twisted, with rocks jutting unnaturally towards the sky, some claiming bodies. There were other patrols guarding the castle, watching warily from a distance, but none of them made a move to intervene. Xander was unbelievably tired. Even as he wiped the strangely colored blood off of its black blade, red electricity sparked off Siegfried, almost as though it was eager to keep fighting. He frowned, folding the dry side of the cloth over the bloodied portion before pocketing it. He had come to Malefor's castle seeking the great dragon's counsel. Furthermore, he didn't expect the journey to the castle to be easy, but the hostile greeting was less than ideal. The patrols were organized from what Xander could tell, and considering that their numbers increased the closer he got to the castle, the more likely it was that they were Malefor's forces. Still, Xander hadn't seen many civilians nor villages or traveling merchants since he entered the sector. There was a very real possibility that the patrols were from a hostile invading force, which could explain why there was a lack of civilians in the area. It was also possible that Malefor was more tyrannic than described, and his civilians were staying hidden, much like how Xander's own citizens would hide in their homes during his father's reign. Thinking about his father, even for a split second, but a sour taste in Xander's mouth. He roughly sheathed his sword, shaking his head as though to lodge the troubling memories out of his head. He didn't have time to debate who was ordering the patrols around, especially now when his options were limited. Before arriving in the sector, Xander had lost most of his supplies during a thunderstorm in Sector 5. He had been chased from one end of the sector to the other by a group of strange hounds that grew back their heads every time he sliced one off. One of them had launched itself onto Sieghorse. A swift kick to its torso flung it off of the stallion, but not before it chewed the leather straps holding half of the supply bags to Sieghorse's saddle. He could readily hunt or gather food and collect and sterilize water on his own, but most of the supplies he lost had been objects he couldn't find out in nature. Xander squeezed the bridge of his nose between two fingers. As difficult as the current circumstances were, he couldn't simply turn back now. His ability to choose had been taken from him the moment he was forcibly dragged through a portal. The one thing he had been able to decide to do himself was his current mission, and he had to see it through for the greater good of others and for himself. He had only been in Kirkwall for a few months, but it was long enough for him to personally see the injustices inflicted upon the common people on a daily basis. Meeting Sun and helping carry out their mission to seek allies outside the sector was a welcome distraction to the growing anxiety Xander felt every day he was away from his kingdom and family. His forceful summon into Mul’tilennaya felt like a punishment from the gods, where his understanding of the world itself were constantly challenged. As soon as he stepped outside the Polyhedron, he went from a city enslaved by living, breathing dragons to a city full of towering, colorful buildings and the constant thrum of music. Mentally stumbling through his own awe, Xander had found the directions he needed by asking the locals, but the trip to Malefor's castle had proven fraught with danger. It took about a week of gathering what supplies he could get without having the right currency to buy anything and traveling through a hellscape, trekking through a forest that was dead quiet, and fighting off hordes of bug sentries in a volcanic wasteland before he actually reached the castle. Which brought him back to his original problem. From the corner of his eye, Xander could see movement as a new group of strangers walked into eyesight. They, unlike the other nearby creatures, were not shying away from Xander. Rather, they were approaching him boldly. Xander narrowed his eyes. His hand strayed to Siegfried's pommel instinctively. There were six of them total. None of them shared any uniforms or weapons like the rest of the patrols and, surprisingly enough, a few of them were human (or at least humanoid). Six versus one wasn't good odds on his part, especially since he had little time to recover from the previous battle, but Xander had faced worse odds before. He stared the strangers down, eyes flitting between each of them as he tried to gauge their strengths and weaknesses. They were led by a small, humanoid lamb carrying a large hammer followed by what looked to be a teenager with spiky blond hair and clothing too casual for a battlefield as well as a man with— Perhaps it was because he was tired of fighting his way through the sector, the fact that he had been traveling non-stop for at least a week now, or maybe it was a combination of the both. Whatever the reason may be, Xander was completely and utterly flabbergasted when one of his potential enemies was a half-naked man. He turned his head away, trying his best to hide any sort of visible reaction as he could feel his face heating up. It was a ridiculous reaction to get flustered after a fight just because an attractive shirtless man wandering into view, but, perhaps, a needed one. Glancing back at the strangers (doing his best to maintain an air of decorum), Xander realized that the strangers were not preparing to attack so much as they were preparing to be attacked. They were all in defensive positions, not making a move towards Xander. It was entirely possible that he was just reading their positions incorrectly or that they were going to attack Xander as soon as he let his guard down, but he was very tired of fighting. Sighing, Xander released his hold on Siegfried's pommel and held up his hands in an attempt to pacify the strangers. "I have no interest on attacking anyone who hasn't attacked me first," Xander said. It was probably not easy to believe such a claim when Xander was quite literally standing amongst the bodies of guards he had slain just a few minutes prior. Still, it was worth a shot. "You may pass. My quarrel is not with you." It was then Sieghorse decided to gallop to Xander's side. His hooves and leg armor were stained with fresh blood. Xander glanced briefly over at where Sieghorse was arrived from. If the trampled bodies were any indication, the few survivors of the patrol didn't run fast enough. Sieghorse snorted, pawing at the ground aggressively as he caught sight of the new group. Xander placed his hand gently on Sieghorse's muzzle. "At ease," he said quietly, softly patting the stallion's nose. The act calmed the horse somewhat. He shook his head, still wired from the previous fight, but willing to follow his owner's command. Xander continued to pat Sieghorse's muzzle. He was curious about what the newcomers were doing at Malefor's castle, but not enough to interrupt his mission. At least, that was what he was thinking until one of them boldly strolled up right to him. 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Avalar, The Castle 》 《 NEARBY: Denki | Hibiki | Lambert | Ralsei | Lucikiel | Xander 》 "Another human!" Anduin clasped his paws together excitedly. "I was starting to think your kind was rare around these parts, but here you are!" The blond human seemed startled by how close Anduin was, which made sense. He did just stroll cheerfully past the rest of his party, all of whom were understandably cautious by the stranger. He already said he wasn't going to attack unless provoked and Anduin didn't have a reason to attack unless anyone else in his group decided to, so what was the harm in approaching? What was the stranger going to do? Stab him after he said he wouldn't? Preposterous! "What are you doing here, then?" Anduin asked before the human had a chance to react to his first comment. The man pressed his lips into a line, seemingly debating whether he should answer or not before saying, "I've come to seek counsel with Malefor, the owner of this castle." Anduin cocked his head to the side. "By killing all of their guards?" Now that he was closer to the human, Anduin could see more corpses in the general vicinity. It also became clearer that other patrols nearby weren't actually with the man so much as they were keeping their distance. Surprisingly, the man didn't seem off-put by the question. "It's hard to tell if patrols work for or against the castle. I haven't seen any civilians to ask, so there's no way to get confirmation until I get inside." Anduin hummed to himself, swinging back and forth on his hind paws. The stallion was still giving Anduin the stink eye, but the human hadn't made any moves to attack him, even though he could get away with it considering how well-equipped he was. That, accompanied by some of the bodies nearby looking a lot like the bug Lucikiel had obliterated earlier, made Anduin think the stranger was being candid. Though he himself was satisfied with the stranger's answers, that didn't mean the rest of his party would be. "Okay then!" Waving at the confused human, Anduin hopped back over towards his group. He didn't say anything more, he simply nodded towards Lambert, who seemingly made themself the de facto leader, and waited to see the next plan of action. 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Posted September 13, 2023 Arven (and Hitoshi Shinsou) Location ~ Hellworld Status ~ You have GOT to be kidding Arven is, once again, forced to split his attention between several things at once. And all of them are freaking him the f*** out. The first thing he notices is that the weird cat-Pokémon scratches at the kid with the weird ears, and that the substance oozing out isn’t red. “Why is it GREEN?” he startles, taking a step back. “You didn’t hear? That’s what happens when you’re an ugly buttface. Your blood turns green.” Hitoshi snarks, a s***-eating grin crossing his features as he hopes that would earn him a flipping-off from the Vulcan. “Nah, he’s just not human. Vulcans have green blood. Although Damien here wishes that his blood would be the color of his soul. Or so he claims.” Arven gives him a confused look. “Black. Like the night. Supposedly.” “Ah. Uh. Don’t those scratches hurt? I might have some bandages….” “I have one.” Hitoshi hands Damien a small band-aid. “It has dinosaurs on it.” Arven chuckles, but that chuckle is soon interrupted when he feels a strange presence behind him. “Mabosstiff?” Mabosstiff gives him a look of confusion. "Ruff?" “What is- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!” Arven screams when he turns around to face whatever it is. He then runs to what appears to be a large car, running to it and slamming the door. Hitoshi bursts out laughing. “Oh my god— oh my god his FACE…… Oh help, help I can’t BREATHE….!” Utakata ~ Jinchūriki of the Rokubi Location ~ Vinyl City Status ~ Panik Attak Utakata had lost focus quite some time ago. The noise, oh god the noise. He doesn’t know what kind of music is playing, but he wants it to stop stop stop. He covers his ears, shaking his head several times while trying to call to Saiken once more. He does not respond. Utakata hates this place. He tries to call for Saiken again, but once again to no response. Utakata is going to throw up- if Saiken is dead, isn’t he also supposed to be dead? No, that’s silly, Saiken can’t be dead. Is he mad? Utakata doesn’t think he did anything to anger the slug– “Utakata, was it? Do you have any objections or comments about our decision before we head out?” “What?” Utakata snaps back into some sort of focus at being addressed. “Uh. Um. No? ‘M sorry, dunno what’s….” He looks amongst the group. “.....Is there an option to go somewhere a bit…. Quieter?” Share this post Link to post
Posted September 15, 2023 LOCATION: Hellworld OTHER ENTITIES: Arven | Darkrai | Hitoshi | Hunter | Mabosstiff Damien could sense from the cat’s pinned-back ears and general behaviour that she was cautious, and thus made no attempts to suddenly move or reach out to scratch her behind the ears. Not that the latter wasn’t the tiniest bit tempting, granted. Instead he merely waited patiently for her to approach, suppressing the urge to grin in success as it finally looked like she was about to take the ham from his hand. “Hm…you don’t look so good huh? Maybe we better get you to a vet somehow-ARGH! Faelirh nohtho nnea mogain!” Pain seared through his arm and Damien instinctively yanked it back towards him. With his free hand he shoved the suddenly ferocious creature in its side, earning another set of scratches along it in the process, before finally he managed to separate the both of them and he fell backwards into a seated position. A withering glare was sent in Hitoshi’s direction. Or, more accurately, the purple-headed blur he knew to be Hitoshi. The jarring movement had launched Damien’s prescription sunglasses off his face to who-knows-where. “Oh shut up.” He hissed through gritted teeth, clutching his arm to his chest in an attempt to both dull the pain and hide the extent of the embarrassing injury from his peers. Gradually Damien moved one of said arms towards the pastel-purple satchel at his side. It was one that his father had hastily handed over to him before he and Tosh were instructed to follow Mr. Khev to one of the lab’s emergency exits, and with the ensuing chase from the guards he hadn’t actually had the chance to see what had been packed in it yet. Sure enough, upon sliding his hand under the clasp Damien could immediately feel the soft, cotton texture of some bandages that he had no doubt taken from a nearby first aid kit. Through them he could also sense items of a more rigid, solid nature nestled beneath them, possibly a few plastic containers, though he left those for later investigation. “Besides, actually, I’m one-fourth human.” Damien continued, still oblivious to the shadowy being that had materialised behind him and instead began to pat about on the ground for his glasses. When he heard mention of a bandage he paused for a moment to give the purple blur an unamused look. “Hilarious, Tosh. Thank you. This will surely cover all of the deep lacerations my arm just sustained-” Damien startled at the scream from Arven, cutting his sarcastic thanks short in favour of whipping around to face whatever had the taller guy so terrified. Immediately he scooted back a few paces before stumbling onto his feet, alarmed, but wrestling with his emotional control enough that the new arrival earned little more than a flinch of surprise from him compared to the pure terror that Arven had displayed. Without his sunglasses it was difficult to make out distinguishing features, beyond what looked to be an elaborate, red scarf draped around the new arrival’s neck and a piercing orb of blue that was, presumably, an eye trained on them all. “And what exactly are you supposed to be?” He huffed, dusting himself off as he eyed the odd, shadow figure with caution and tried to regain some of his dignity back with a calmer, almost detached sort of attitude towards them. Briefly he glanced back over his shoulder to see where the cat had got to, noting a vaguely feline-shaped blur perched on top of…what was she standing up on? Damien was about to ask, only for a set of lights to suddenly shine in his face as the sound of an engine began to rumble. “What the…” It sounded like some sort of hovercraft, Damien’s theory supported even more as he saw movement at the vehicle’s sides which indicated that the doors had opened. Briefly he glanced between it, the cat, and then back to the shadowy figure. “...So…uh…is that your vehicle, or the fluffy-haired git’s that just dove in?” A moment of pause. “...Anyone here know how to drive?” --- LOCATION: Avalar (Burned Lands) OTHER ENTITIES: Anduin | Denki | Hibiki | Lucikiel | Ralsei As the man spoke The Lamb wavered in their stance, letting the end of the hammer droop ever so slightly to indicate that he was willing to at least listen to what he had to say. The Lamb thought he spoke elegantly, an almost regal tone to his voice. It made them question briefly whether they were dealing with someone far more noteworthy than first impressions had led them to believe. Nonetheless, thankfully, he didn’t seem keen to start any sort of fight with them. “...Very well.” The Lamb finally declared from this as he motioned for the rest of their party to stand at ease. He released his grip on the hammer slung over his shoulder, which obediently morphed back into a crown perched upon his head in a swirl of shadows and smoke. “You can refer to me as simply The Lamb, last of my kind- ah, well. Reportedly the last of my kind, until quite recently.” The Lamb then stepped forward, arm poised to subtly but firmly suggest that they were now shielding the beings that lingered behind them from the duo. “Who is your quarrel with, then?” The Lamb then ventured, head tilted in an intrigued manner as he glanced between the horse and what they had now learned was a ‘human’ according to Anduin. Eventually their eyes honed in on the horse specifically, as if expecting them to be the one who would answer the questions posed to the duo. He looked even older and more experienced with the perils of war, after all. Perhaps he was actually some kind of mentor to the human, and The Lamb had been mistaken on the human’s apparent experience with authority from earlier? “And why do you both seek counsel with this ‘Malefor’, of all beings, about it?” Continued The Lamb, gaze now shifting to the castle as they hummed in thought over the sort of being that resided within. When eventually their gaze returned to Xander, they frowned. Partially because they were pondering whether Malefor could be reasoned with, but mostly because they were concerned with both how easily and keenly Anduin had managed to sidestep their attempts to hold the group a few paces behind them. “If Malefor’s followers are these patrols, though, I do not think it speaks very highly of their character.” With a sweeping gesture, they motioned towards Anduin. “They threw his supplies, unprovoked, off of a cliff after all.” The Lamb’s head then twitched to the side, still contemplative, but with a more calculative expression now lingering beneath it. “So of course, I would also like to have ‘a word’ with this Malefor too, if you have any suggestions on how to obtain that. It sounds like he owes this fine gentleman a replacement.” Speaking of supplies… The Lamb flipped off the crown from their head, gesturing towards what little remained of the patrol that the human and horse had apparently dealt with earlier. “You’re not going to need their bones for anything, are you? Mind if my Followers and I make better use of them?” --- LOCATION: Vinyl City OTHER ENTITIES: Kliff | Tyrael | Utakata | Zuke | Zyrrkinoth Scorpia beamed at what sounded like a near-unanimous agreement with her observations on which to pick. “Alright! Looks like that’s where we’re heading, then.” She declared. It was then that a softer, wavering sort of voice caught her attention, and she turned to look back at the robed man. Her brow furled in deep thought over his question despite likely not being the one he was trying to address. “Dooon’t think so, no. Sounds pretty noisy around here.” Scorpia concluded. Stepping forward, she paused a mere few feet away from the robed man and then stooped down, resting her claws on her knees as she lowered herself until she was eye-level with him. “Aww, are you feeling okay buddy?” She asked, pouting. Though the choice of worlds may have sounded like mockery, her expression reflected a genuine concern for him as she took note of his dazed stance. “...You want a hug?” She eventually asked, a cheerful grin replacing the worry for him. “Or maybe we could just find you some earplugs…? Do they have those around here?” --- A new friend, yes. LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Hallway 5E OTHER ENTITIES: Hollow | Tovan With the retreat of the spiders, it was revealed that the Acheron screens that lined the room had seen far better days to say the least. While the one that Hollow had approached was mostly intact it still featured a large crack that ran down the left side of the screen, and various bits of bent metal and gnawed-on wiring poked out from behind the screen. Nonetheless, after a few panicked gestures, the screen spluttered to life. Its contents did not however feature the usual Acheron Labs logo that appeared by default when Atlas was addressing a user. Instead the screen showed a garbed mess of text and flickering bands of colour that glitched back and forth across its surface. The voice of Atlas crackled onto the speaker, which had at least fared far better than the screen itself. “ERROR. IN-IN-INTERNAL PHOTORECEPTORS REQUIRE REPAIRS. MOTION DETECTION IS-IS-IS HINDERED.” A series of harsh, garbled beeps then emitted from the monitor, followed by the sound of something mechanical whirling from within. “WAIT.” Silence followed. Long enough for the two of them to theoretically continue dressing Tovan’s wounds with the limited gauze and bandaging at his disposal. Eventually though a loud ‘ping!’ sound emitted from the screen once more, indicating that a two-way communication channel had just opened up. From Tovan’s perspective, what likely amounted to a series of high-pitched, chittering sounds started to sound from the device. Occasionally the dipped lower into a rumble or a softer trill, with a few clicks thrown in for good measure. Hollow, however, may have recognised it as a dialect from Hallownest. And it was one that was, arguably, far older than themself. “You. Are. Wounded?” The voice was slow at first, and garbled slightly in a way that sounded as if the individual speaking to them was having to concentrate on each syllable. As more words flowed from them though the sluggish speech began to ease, and their monotone inflection started to pepper with chipper, almost delighted sounds. “Can help. Yes! But. Is being trapped. Both in being the physically senses and in the metaphorically senses, yes. But is. Helping. Yes.” The screen flickered again, and a saddened chitter sounded just before it dimmed. “Map is broken.” The being on the other end hummed in thought for a moment, sounds of what might have been paper and pens getting shuffled around on the other end. They seemed to be muttering to themself in a way that the microphone had difficulties picking up, save for the one moment when a cackle was audible for several seconds before stopping as abruptly as it started. “Okay!” Chirped the voice again once the shuffling stopped. “Can be helping if freeing, yes? So should be working to be doing the freeing. Is needing to go to…ah…is being down the hall, yes. Maybe. If not is being down the hall, then is looking elsewhere, yes. Could be here-where or elsewhere. Is not knowing!” The screen tried in vain to show an image once more, and for a brief second what looked to be a crude pencil drawing of a hunched over, primate-shaped creature with their hand extended towards a small, shining orb showed upon it before the swirling, glitching colours of the screen disappeared completely with a fizzling sound. “Be searching for, yes. But is needing something to be doing the buyings of passage, yes. Guardians of exit for doctor. Inconvenient.” And with that, the beep that indicated the message had been ended sounded, leaving the two to try to decipher what exactly the stranger had been talking about. Share this post Link to post
Posted September 16, 2023 <Status: Stable> <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 4 - Vinyl City Streets -> Kura Kura Stream Hub> <Others: Kliff | Zuke | Utakata | Scorpia> ~~ "I'm afraid 'quieter' is rare in the city," Kliff stated matter-of-factly in response to Utakata's question. "Music quite literally powers this place and a lot of other sectors in this world. Without all the sound, there'd be no electricity and thus not so much as lights in the dead of night." Zuke listened to the conversation around him. "I, uh..." He dug through his things. "Ah, there they are. I have some earplugs if you want 'em, man. I get that all the music isn't to everyone's taste, especially in this world, so I always carry some with me in case someone needs 'em." He held out the earplugs, in their little case, to Utakata. Zyrrkinoth smiled. "With that, I believe it best that our new friends lead the way." - - - It wasn't too long of a journey, though being on foot definitely made it feel longer than it should have been. Eventually, the surrounding music became solely that of a bubbly, cheerful pop star. The group eventually came to a stop in front of a building with a multitude of electronic screens, at least one of which bore SAYU's likeness at all times. "Here we are - the Kura Kura Stream Hub. This is where SAYU holds all her gigs; should be one going on right now, actually. Game plan is simple: You go in, crash the gig, show SAYU the power of rock, and knock her down a few pegs." Kliff gave a small grin, and Zyrrkinoth swore he saw a bit of a smirk in there, but he let it slide - they'd only just met a few hours back, he was probably like this all the time. Zuke draped his arm over Zyrrkinoth's shoulder. "You and I are gonna be gunnin' for SAYU herself, with my drums and your guitar." Then he gestured to Scorpia, Tyrael, and Utakata. "Of course she's gonna have some of NSR's security bots with her, so that's where you three come in - you have to keep those bots off of our backs. Our main goal in this is to show enough rock-n-roll to pull off a Showstopper - I'll let you know when that time comes, noble dude. Once the Showstopper goes off, that's it - we'll have taken over the Kura Kura Stream Hub from her." Kliff crossed his arms and nodded in approval. "Sounds like Zuke's got all the explaining covered. Well, then, whenever you guys are ready, feel free to enter the building to crash SAYU's gig." ~~ <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Active, Normal Mode> <Status: Stable> <Location: Sector 2 - Oasis Fringe> <Others: Denki | Lambert | Anduin | Ralsei | Xander> ~~ Hibiki couldn't help the small laugh when she saw the man's reaction to her blue-blooded companion. "I think you have an admirer, Lucikiel-san!" And then another giggle as Lucikiel stammered while trying to come up with a response and could not find one without it catching in his throat. He eventually resorted to growling, "You're evil, Tachibana." But upon hearing from the man that he held no quarrel with them, Hibiki visibly relaxed her stance. "よかった... I was worried for a bit there." Lucikiel relaxed his stance in turn. "Good. My strength can be saved for those who truly deserve it." Perhaps I was too hasty in my observations, he thought to himself. He watched as an armored stallion came up to the man's side; judging by their interactions with each other, he and the horse were well-acquainted, if not under the ever-familiar relationship of master and steed. As Anduin and this newcomer spoke, both Symphogear wielder and primal demon heard a name to the castle's ownership. Malefor. Lucikiel grinned as he committed the name to memory. "At last, a name to the palace! We were indeed just seeking him out ourselves; perhaps it'd be wise to band together in this regard." The lamb spoke of needing bones. Lucikiel pointedly tuned out such conversation, while Hibiki let out a nervous laugh. "Y-You're, uh... more than welcome to the bones, 子羊さん. I don't think I've used bones for more than wish-making back home, so... えーっと... If you have any ideas for them, I'm open to hearing them." ~~ <Status: Injured (Wounds Dressed)> <Location: Sector 1 - Lab Hallway> <Others: Hollow | New friend?> ~~ Bless his companion's heart, they were trying so hard to find help for him. "I-I'll be fine, my friend, it's hardly the first injury I've sustained in my life. It's not even the worst. Honest." Elements his attempts at reassurance were bad but he was going to try anyway. As they waited per Atlas's instructions, Tovan did indeed start dressing his wound a little more properly than what he'd hastily done just after the spiders had retreated. He'd just finished tying off the gauze around his torso when the ping caught his attention. He didn't dare try to decipher the series of chittering sounds that emerged from the speaker, though he figured it was at least a form of Morse Code or the like. For a brief second, Tovan saw some sort of drawing on the screen, what appeared to be a hunched-over humanoid figure reaching towards some kind of light. Just as quickly as it had appeared, however, it was gone - Note to self, get the wires in this forsaken lab fixed up, Tovan thought to himself. The message then ended, and Tovan turned to his companion. "...I don't suppose you have an inkling of what our next course of action is?" ~~ <Status: Slightly Injured> <Others: Arven & Mabosstiff | Damien | Hitoshi | Hunter | Bentley> ~~ He'd been wrong about the cat, apparently, as with a start it bit the humanoid wearing black before leaping off and jumping on top of a strange metallic structure, sharpening several branches into makeshift weapons... And then proceeding to stab itself with one of them in what he now saw was some sort of diseased growth. EEYUGCK!! - he swore he felt himself throw up a little in his mouth, but he discreetly swallowed it back down, and began hoping to himself that this feline freak didn't know any ways to poison him. Then, at last, an expected reaction; one of the two actual humans saw him and proceeded to freak out in a manner he'd been trying to bring about, before running to the same metal structure the feline was on and slamming one of its doors shut behind him. His companion started laughing, but Darkrai somewhat tuned him out. Back to the one wearing black. He wasn't even going to begin trying to understand whatever words had come out of his mouth in response to being bitten; the fact that he was only one-quarter human was strange enough to the Pitch-Black Pokemon-- Oh he lost his specs. Now he felt a little bad for spooking the feline so badly and causing it to bite him. Though the quarter-human's reaction to him, however subdued, made up for it just a bit... but then it occurred to Darkrai that without those specs, the kid likely couldn't see him all that well. "And what exactly are you supposed to be?" "Darkrai. That is my name," he gave in response. It was all he gave; he wasn't yet sure if he was anything more than that. A glint of something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and in response to the quarter-human's question, he quickly shook his head as he went to investigate. It looked like it was a bag of some sort, though the strap looked like it had been clawed or chewed apart by some ferocious beast. A lot of the food had seen better days, and that was the food that hadn't been crushed by whatever creature had done in the strap. Darkrai wasted no time in plucking out the bad, squashed food in the bag and tossing it aside into the dirt as he made his way back. Another glint. Darkrai stooped down to pick it up and soon found that it was the pair of specs the quarter-human had lost in his struggle with the feline creature. He inspected the framed lenses for damage before another rumble of thunder caught his attention. I can finish going through the bag when we're not about to be caught in a storm, he thought to himself as he fully made his way back. He handed the specs back over to their owner. "I believe this is yours. There's little time to lose; a storm is coming and we need to be out of the area or at least under shelter before it strikes." Noticing that more doors on the strange metal structure were now open, he wasted no time in heading inside it and sitting down before getting back to rummaging through the bag he'd found, not even bothering to close the door behind him just in case others needed to follow. There was a lot of metal in this - or at least he figured as much; the cold sensation on his fingertips was pretty obvious - but then he felt something sharp pierce his left hand, causing him to gasp in pain and yank it out. Streams of red flowed from the wound in his palm, and the Pitch-Black Pokemon cringed - Arceus help him, stab wounds hurt. "...does anyone have something to treat wounds? I think I've made a... little bit of a mistake..." ~~ Share this post Link to post
Posted September 17, 2023 《 STATUS: Healthy 》 《 LOCATION: Acheron Labs, Hallway 5E --> Scavenger Toll 》 《 NEARBY: Tovan | Atlas | New Friend? 》 Even though they spent the majority of their life in the White Palace, Hollow would make a poor knight if they didn't recognize the dialect of the moth tribe. Simply thinking about Her worshipers sent a shiver down their spine. They were reluctant to listen to the advice of someone who willingly followed the terrible light, but they couldn't afford to let prejudice color their view of every moth they encountered, especially not now when they had entered, for all they knew, a new world. "...I don't suppose you have an inkling of what our next course of action is?" Hollow nodded grimly. They had no way of verbally communicating what the moth had said, so they improvised the best they could. Hollow pointed in the direction opposite of where they came from. They supposed it was good that they had gotten some form of direction because their former companions had all vanished without a trace. Going back would serve no purpose, and even if they did not understand entirely what the moth was talking about, it was better than nothing. Looking over Tovan to make sure he understood their intent (and feeling somewhat relieved to see that he had taken more care to tend to his wounds) they started to walk down the hallway and hopefully towards where the moth directed them. They weren't sure if they simply couldn't hear anything outside the screaming of the spiders and clashes of the fight, but the hallways weren't... quiet. There was something, someone, moving around in the vents overhead. There was a sort of scratching, like an animal was crawling around through the vents. Occasionally, the scratching would cease. The hallway would be quiet for a few minutes before a guttural scream would pierce the air off in the distance. A new horrible silence would reign momentarily before the scratching would resume. Most of the time scratching sounded distant with only its echoing reverbing through the hallway. A few times, the noise was right above them. Hollow stared up at the ceiling, their hand hovering over the pommel of their nail. Each time the noise got close, it would disappear, but Hollow never felt at ease. If the spiders, who were small and pitiful in Hollow's mind, were strong enough to hurt their new friend, then they worried about what else they would have to deal with. At the end of the hallway was a three-way crossway connected to a small common area. In the middle of the room was a small mound of trash with a singular long pole stabbed into the middle of it. On the top of the pole were several strings dangling several shiny, round-objects from the pole's peak. The pole was guarded by several strange, humanoid creatures with furry bodies, long forearms, and tiny legs. They had a variety of diversity with some having spines, other having tails, and a few of them having beard-like hairs popping out of their chin. Their fur was mostly darkly colored, ranging between browns and grays, but their eyes had wide pupils and ranged between a wide variety of different colors. All of them were relatively small, shorter than Tovan at the very least, and although some of them were armed, none of them made motions to attack. Currently, that was. Hollow glanced over towards Tovan, pointing vaguely in the direction of the creatures. They somewhat looked similar to the poorly drawn creature on the screen earlier, but Hollow wasn't exactly sure how to approach the situation. Even though Hollow could understand what the screen's voice was saying, they had no idea what they were supposed to be doing. Perhaps Tovan, who seemed more familiar with the area, would know how to approach the creatures. 《 STATUS: Hungry 》 《 LOCATION: Hellworld 》 《 NEARBY: Arven | Damien | Hitoshi | Darkrai | Mabosstiff | Bentley 》 Her ear twitched reflectively as something small and wet fell down on her ear. Hunter narrowed her eyes, keeping her eyes locked onto the strangers as she lifted one of her paws to touch the wetness on their ear. Was there someone above them? Hesitantly, Hunter looked up to see if there was someone above her. Gray clouds obscured the sun completely, absent of any potential lifeforms. Another drop of water fell from the sky, staining Hunter's cheek. Her caution evaporating, warping into sheer horror as the distinct scent of rain filled her nostrils. Shelter. Now! Throwing all hostilities to the wind, Hunter leaped off the top of the metal contraption and followed the strange creatures into it. Back home, all creatures, big and small, lived under the threat of rain. It was a horrid torrent with such a strong pressure that it would crush the bones and completely flatten anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck out in it. Hunter had lived her entire life running from the rain by hiding in small crevices in walls or man-made safe zones made for beings ancient and gone. She had never taken shelter in a metal object so out in the open before, but if others were going inside of it, then that was good enough. Hunter had shared shelter with other creatures before, she could handle it. Trying her best to keep her distance from the others, Hunter climbed up to the dashboard, squeezing herself between the "floor" and the glass. She positioned her back to the window, clutching the spear in the paw tightly, as he stared at the few individuals that had already entered the car. Despite still being armed, Hunter could not fully hide her anxiety. She normally didn't have to watch the rain while taking shelter, so having to be so close was terrifying. She pulled her ears back, whimpering quietly as she silently prayed for the rain to end soon. Share this post Link to post
Posted October 6, 2023 The Feathers Location: Acheron Labs Consisting of: Raven, Hover, and Moth Both Hover and Raven surveyed the land as they both were ready to fly, Raven's wings were ruffling (as much as a robot's wings could) as she was delighted to spend some time with her constantly busy child. "Why now?" Raven asked, glancing at Hover who seemed to sag slightly at the question. "I think you can understand I yearn for simpler days," Hover said with a sigh. "I sometimes wonder if all these Maverick attacks will end." "It's a vicious cycle," Raven stated, looking down at the sheer drop of the cliff. "Have you talked to Zip lately? You know he'd offer to help sooth your thoughts in a heartbeat." Hover gave a snort, knocking a small rock down. They watched it go tumbling down as they crouched. "He doesn't understand my worries." "You always worry," Raven said, turning to look at them. "Even when you were just a child you were always concerned about safety." "Because it's important," Hover said, standing back up, their tail swishing slightly. "Can we please go flying now?" Dipping her head slightly, Raven said nothing more before stepping off the cliff, opening up her wings. Hover was right behind her, slithering off the cliff as they opened their giant golden wings, tucking their claws close to their body. As both of them flew, trying to enjoy the day, something had changed and metal was soon clanking loudly on metal. "OOF!" Raven said as she hit a wall. "What the heck is going on!?" Hover screeched as they tried to backpedal only to hit another metal being. "Careful!" a new voice spoke. "I think we just ended up in a broom closet." As Raven slid down, Hover decided to grip the wall with their claws and folded their wings to make more room in the closet. "How in the world did we get into a broom closet!?" Hover asked as they turned to watch the new robot land down next to Raven. "Are you okay, miss?" the robot asked. Raven didn't answer as she turned and stared at him. "M-Moth?" a crack in her voice was heard. The new robot seemed to be taken aback before nodding. "Yes, that's me," he said. "Wait, that's Moth Man?" Hover asked, suddenly curious over at their oldest sibling. "I-It's me, Raven," Raven spoke softly as she held up a hand to gently reach out and touch them. Moth really now looked confused as he seemed disturbed. "Ah, tell me something only you would know about me," he said. "You refused to take me, as a human, to the hospital after Mimic sliced my leg and instead learned how to properly sew it up," Raven spoke in near tears. "I'm sorry for the interruption, but can we get out of the broom closet now mom?" Hover asked. "Huh? Oh sorry." Turning, she carefully peeked out of the door to see where they were. Share this post Link to post
Posted October 8, 2023 <Status: (Mostly) Stable> <Location: Sector 1: Acheron Labs - ???> ~~ ...all right, how long was I out this time? He hated passing out like that. All right, time to check if he was still in that freaking nightmare. Cold metal for nearly every solid surface, walls and floor included? Check. Pounding migraine in his head? Check. Throbbing pain in his back? Check. One Blue-Eyes White Dragon out of three still missing? He activated his Duel Disk to be sure... Yep, only two dragons present; the third's still gone. Check. Teeth still sharper than they should be? He carefully ran his tongue over-- OW!! There it is. Check. Yep. Still having that nightmare. Seto Kaiba sighed as he made to stand up - every time he passed out, he awoke hoping to be in his bed back in Domino City, hoping to have Mokuba by his side, hoping that this horrendous situation he was in was just an awful, awful dream. And each and every time, those hopes were crushed as his consciousness came back to what could only be described as the setting of a science fiction horror movie. Either he was having a very, very vivid nightmare, or he was trapped in some virtual reality horror game some rival company had made to spite him. It had to be one of the two; nothing else could rationally explain this. ...so why did it feel deeper than any dream could be? Why did it seem so much more vivid than anything virtual reality could simulate? Why does it all seem so real? You know the answer. It Is ReAl For a brief moment, the migraine grew worse, before Kaiba forced the impulse back into the deepest recesses of his subconscious. Thankfully this one had been more tame compared to what usually ended up crossing his mind. Those impulsive thoughts were usually forceful, aggressive, borderline VIOLENT. Something in him just wanted to go against all rational thought and tear his captors limb from limb-- No. No! Get those thoughts out of your mind, Kaiba! He shook his head, shoving those violent impulses back once more before taking a deep breath. They were getting harder to shove back. It was getting irritating... and a little worrying. ...what am I becoming? He used one of the shinier metal surfaces to check his reflection... It's still you. It's still Seto Kaiba. You're still HUMAN. He reached up to adjust his coat's collar... and then they entered the reflection. He looked down at his hands. My nails! Not them too! Before he'd last passed out, he'd still had his normal, blunt (if somewhat ragged and dirty from the time spent in this forsaken place) human fingernails. Now they, too, were just slightly too sharp to be those of a normal human man, just like his slightly-too-sharp, no-longer-quite-human teeth. Curse this infernal place. First those scientists kidnapped him after he'd just woken up some few weeks ago - maybe a couple of months ago; he couldn't remember anymore - then they somehow cause one of his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons to disappear... and then there was the freaking breach. At this point Kaiba was convinced that it was all orchestrated; the breach and the disappearance of his third Blue-Eyes had to be connected-- ThEy DiD tHiS tO yOu TeAr ThEm ApArT RiP tHeM tO sHrEdS NO!! Out of my head! More mental shoving, maybe even an involuntary grunt from Kaiba's mouth, as the migraine once more grew worse for a few moments. With every bit of him looking less human, those impulsive, aggressive thoughts grew stronger, and the migraine grew more painful. He briefly wondered how much longer he could contain those impulses, before shaking his head again. He looked at his reflection once more. Despite everything, it's still YOU. You're still SETO KAIBA. ...no sense in staying in this one room forever. The only way he'd find a way out of this place, and possibly a way back home, was to keep moving. So he made to leave the room he'd woken up in, to wander this forsaken laboratory's halls for the umpteenth time... ~~ Share this post Link to post
Posted October 25, 2023 ! Kaminari Denki ! Location ~ Burned Lands Status ~ Clear headed, unfortunately for me. Denki does not seem at all phased by the talking sheep that approaches them. Well, not at a first glance. What does phase him, however, is the group of figures that the talking sheep brings their attention to. "Ah hell nah.... No way." He shakes his head and adjusts his jacket nervously. "Last time I zapped something, I went loopy. I really don't wanna- Uh..." His voice trails off as the armored man starts to speak. "Oh good, a human. Thank you, sir, for not trying to kill us..." He glances at everyone else when there's a silence following talks of someone named Malefor. "Uh, Kaminari Denki! But you can call me Chargebolt, Dumbass, Denks, or....." He winks at Hibiki. "Boyfriend material." He then pauses. "Uh. So uh..... Who the heck is.... Malefor?" Share this post Link to post
Posted October 27, 2023 LOCATION: Hellworld OTHER ENTITIES: Arven | Darkrai | Hitoshi | Hunter “Darkrai? Really?” Asked Damien, eyebrow arching. “And Paintbrush Hair over there thinks I’m the edgy one…” His apparent mild mockery for the new arrival quickly faded though as he was handed back his glasses, and the rest of his complaints muffled into barely-audible Vulcan as he glanced away for a moment and slipped them back on. There was now an annoying scratch that ran across the remaining lens, but at least it was still in-tact and hadn’t rendered him borderline blind without it. He lifted his head, pointed ears now attuning to the sounds around him and confirming that, indeed, it sounded like a monster of a storm was brewing. His attention swivelled back around to the vehicle beside him that his apparent new companions were already starting to pile into. “...Fair point. At least this is a roof over our heads.” Damien mused as he made his way over it. It didn’t look like there was an owner around that was using it anyway. There didn’t look to be much more room in the back, leaving Damien to duck and briefly inspect the front seats of the car instead. “Well, at least they’ve got the wheel on the correct side for once.” He mumbled, more or less to himself. Briefly he contemplated whether he should sit behind said wheel, only to reason with himself that with the current state of his vision it probably wasn’t a good idea. “Tosh, you’re driving.” Damien declared, reaching over to thump him slightly in the back then gesture towards the front seat. He then moved around the vehicle and opened the door to the front passenger side, locking eyes with the feline that had curled up on the dashboard in front of it. “...Right. Well. I’m just…going to sit down nice and slowly here…and if you try to bite my face off you can hang out on the roof-rack with all the wind and rain instead, alright?” He told her, gingerly lowering himself into the seat and then patting around for the lever on the side that would let him ease the chair further back a few more inches. “...Are we all good?” He then asked the odd little creature, observing her for a moment before slowly letting the tension in his shoulders start to die. “Alright…well I guess if no one’s using this vehicle then-” Damien jumped at the sound the shadowy figure behind him made and cut his sentence short. “What? Why do you- oh for crying out loud…” An exasperated huff escaped Damien as he turned back to glance at Darkrai and realised he too had already managed to injure himself. Nonetheless a moment later he was rifling through the bag that his father had handed over to him, eventually withdrawing a bundle of bandages and tossing them in an underhand throw towards the back seat of the car. Now, he had a moment to properly tend to his own arm. “Damn it…” Damien hissed under breath, rolling back the striped sleeve of his shirt to better inspect the injury. For a brief moment it revealed an item that stood out in contrast to the rest of his attire, namely a wrist band consisting of stripes of pastel blue, pink, and white that was now partially splatted in green. He soon pulled it off of his arm, briefly cleaning it on part of his shirt before pocketing it. He then started to measure out another length of bandaging for himself, eyeing again the cat-like creature curled up on the dashboard in front of him with a wary look. “Anyone got some scissors for the bandages-” The glovebox in front of him abruptly opened, revealing what looked like several small gardening tools to Damien. He blinked a few times, silently registering this, before hesitantly reaching for the pruning shears and deciding that they would do the job well enough. “...Nevermind.” Damien added, now focusing back on his arm. “Everyone in? Good? Alright, Tosh, I don’t care where we go just get us somewhere better than here- ****ING HELL warn someone will you?!” Abruptly the car suddenly lurched into a life of its own, slamming the doors shut on all sides and emitting the distinctive click of the locks. Engine blaring into life it surged forward, and began to take off across the wastelands at an inhuman speed. --- LOCATION: Avalar (Burned Lands) - The Castle OTHER ENTITIES: Anduin | Denki | Hibiki | Lucikiel | Ralsei | Sieghorse | Xander “Oh, bones are extremely useful, actually.” The Lamb declared as he approached the nearest one, nudging it in the side with his cloven-hoofed foot a few times. “Food, rituals, decorations…” They began to list, punctuating each point by counting on the individual digits of their more paw-like hands. “I like to keep a few spares for my canine Followers, too, in case I run out of sticks.” A hand waved over the nearest one, The Lamb’s eyes now taking on a deep, crimson glow as he began to recite a spell beneath his breath. Their target contorted, twitching and wavering for several seconds until it appeared to collapse into dust. They waved the hand again, extracting their prize from the pile of dust and then flipping the crown off from their head so that the shards could float into the shadow-like void of its inside to be stored away. The glowing eyes faded back to their usual appearance, and The Lamb began to hum a quiet tune to themself as they dusted off the side of their crown and trotted over to the next one. His hand raised once more, but this time paused before any spell was performed, and he glanced back towards the human and horse they had just run into. “Do you need any information from these beings, before I disintegrate their remains?” He inquired, gaze focusing on the horse more-so for answers. --- LOCATION: Vinyl City OTHER ENTITIES: Kliff | Tyrael | Utakata | Zuke | Zyrrkinoth At first, Scorpia could only blink with a distinctively blank expression etched onto her face as she listened to Kliff’s plan of action for the group. Truth be told she had gotten lost somewhere around when they started talking about the power of rocks, and the subsequent confusion over where any of them were planning on finding said rocks. When they were instructed to proceed to the building she took a hesitant few steps towards it, but paused before actually entering. Instead Scorpia turned and raised a clawed hand, clearing her throat in a slightly awkward manner. “Uh…does it have to be rocks, specifically, that we roll at these guys? Like can’t we just…y’know…” She made a swooping gesture with one of her claws, thumping it sharply onto the top of her other claw as if she was aiming to crush something between them both. She then glanced sheepishly back up at the group surrounding her. “Also I…don’t…know…what a Showstopper is.” She then tacked on moving to instead scratch at the back of her neck with a perplexed expression. --- PIXX-L LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Broom Closet OTHER ENTITIES: Hover | Moth | Raven “Alright just you bloody watch it mate!” It was a rough voice that spoke as soon as Raven opened the door, peppered with a slightly electronic buzz to suggest it emitted from some sort of microphone. A moment later a mop was shoved in the direction of the door, stopping a mere few inches from her face. It trembled in a vaguely threatening manner, sprinkling droplets of a green, viscous fluid onto the floor below as it shook from side to side. “You got about five seconds to prove you ain’t gonna be a problem for me before I become one of yours.” Continued the voice, followed by a loud, metallic sounding THUD as something stepped towards the door. The mop then jerked suddenly to the side, wedging itself into the gap of the door and flinging it open to reveal the other robots that were lurking within the broom closet. Standing before them was what, at a glance, was best described as a towering, prehistoric raptor armed with a janitor’s mop. They looked to be a combination of metal and organic flesh, their grey, scaled limbs jutting out from a metallic carapace that formed most of their torso and a dark screen projecting the bright, green glow of their reptilian facial features. A shock of mint-green fur ran from the tip of their tail, along their spine, and to the top of their head, where it sat in an unkempt, fluffy mess between the robotic dinosaur’s horns. They emitted a low growling sound punctuated with an electronic buzz at the sight of them all, head twitching erratically from side to side as two sets of eyes flickered back and forth on their screen in an attempt to analyse all three new faces at once. “I ain’t recognising any of you lot.” They soon concluded, eyes now narrowing with suspicion. “You got ID numbers?” --- The Scavengers LOCATION: Acheron Labs - Toll Gate OTHER ENTITIES: Hollow | Kaiba | Tovan Though the strange, humanoid creatures seemed placid enough with the presence of the pair upon arrival, they seemed to start growing increasingly agitated as they watched from afar. A few of them started to raise their makeshift spears, aiming the sharpened tips at both Tovan’s head and Hollow’s and emitting a low, threatening growl as a warning to them. Others scrambled to stand defensively in front of the small collection of various sparkling and gleaming items situated at the base of the pole. Most of the items looked to be bits and pieces of broken lab equipment or shiny, stolen trinkets such as glasses and wrist-watches, with the exception of one object in particular. Floating about a foot above the pile was a small, pink sphere, bubble-like in its structure. Something sharp and triangular in shape hovered within it, though the dim lighting likely made it difficult to discern exactly what it was. Whatever was contained within seemed to be the prized possession of the creatures though, judging by how they all kept glancing frantically back as if to check whether it was still there. One of them, a lean-built, red-furred variant, finally stepped forward in a more bold manner than the other creatures postering and growling behind them. They too held onto a spear, but instead of pointing it at the pair or waving it about threateningly in the air they took the blunted end of it and tapped it a few times upon the floor in a rhythmic manner. With their free hand they then stretched it out, expectantly, and held their palm out towards the pair of them. This lasted a few seconds, before the red-furred individual made a huffing sound and lowered the hand once more. Despite the small make-shift mask covering most of its facial features, the exasperation with both of them was obvious as it rolled its head back and forth in a dismissive manner. Again it thumped the blunt end of the spear against the floor, before pointing it towards a series of crude scratches that had been made by, presumably, either the red-furred creature or one of its companions. The etchings seemed to depict one of the scientists of the area, judging from the indication of a long lab coat that the stick-like being was wearing. Large circles, reminiscent of perhaps glasses or goggles, were also perched on the figure’s head. Held in the drawing’s hand was what looked to be a collection of odd shapes, some almost square, some more rounded, but none quite the same shape as the other. A commotion from behind started, startling the red-furred creature into whipping its head around and gawking at its fellow companions. A door had opened an equal distance between them and the pole, causing all the creatures to start to growl and hiss as they pointed their weapons threateningly in the direction of the newest arrival. This new face belonged to, unfortunately, Kaiba, as he made his exit from the room he’d fallen asleep in. The furred creatures didn’t seem to take kindly to this revelation, their growls turning to ear-splitting shrieks as they all caught sight of him. One apparently got too antsy, and a moment later a spear had launched itself on a fierce trajectory towards Kaiba’s leg. The rest of the creatures held onto their spears for now, though a few started to emit a rasping sound very reminiscent of mocking laughter aimed at him. Share this post Link to post
Posted October 27, 2023 The Feathers Location: Acheron Labs Consisting of: Raven, Hover, and Moth Other Entities: PIXX-L "So now that I established Raven, who the heck are you?" Moth asked, turning to Hover as they dropped down from the wall. "Hover Griffin," they responded. "One of your… much younger siblings." "Robot griffins are a thing now?" Moth asked in slight surprise. "Full animal robots are a thing now," Raven answered. "Well, at least…" As she opened the door, the last thing Raven was expecting was for a mop to be shoved into her face as if trying to threaten her. Her sorrow instantly faded into slight annoyance. "Hey! Watch where you're waving that thing!" Raven growled, slowly reaching for the frying pan strapped across her back. "How can we explain ourselves if you're only giving us five seconds?" Moth inquired as he tilted his head before hearing a loud metallic thud and the being instructing that they only had five secobds to answer. Everyone glanced at each other as Hover immediately pulled out some dual guns from their holster as a giant dinosaur opened the door with a mop. The family was on high alert as all three of them scanned the giant dinosaur. "Is that a cyborg dinosaur?" Hover pinged Raven who glanced at them for a second. "What do they mean by ID number?" Moth fidgeted with his claws slightly as Raven had clasped the frying pan with her hand, unmoving as she studied the dinosaur. It seemed like she was trying to determine what to do and how to handle this. "Moth, can you handle talking to them?" Raven asked, pinging Moth and Hover both as she glanced at her children, quickly unclasping her weapon. "And put your guns away, Hover." "Why Moth?" "Because he's word savvy. Think of him as an older version of Zip." Zip? That made Moth curious before clearing his throat slightly as Raven moved out of the way to let him step forward as Hover lowered his weapons, shifting slightly on his talons. "Hi, I'm Moth, this is Raven and Hover," the insect robot said, politely introducing themselves to the dinosaur. "We deeply and humbly apologize if we're intruding in your home. We're unsure of how we got here or why we're here. Could you elaborate on the ID numbers? I have a serial number if you need that? He glanced at Raven who nudged Hover who looked at the dinosaur cyborg guiltily. "I'm sorry for drawing my weapons," they said. "I should have realized that you were only trying to defend your home." Share this post Link to post
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