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Voyage Through the Multiverse (Open) [IC]

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Skylus
Negotiator
 
Posts: 6510
Founded: Oct 25, 2016
Democratic Socialists

Postby Skylus » Thu Nov 14, 2019 4:50 pm

TGWR
AEGIS Base


“I have two demands. One, you let me and everyone else get our things back. Two, you can take me hostage, but let everyone else go. They’re not from here, unlike me, and they just want to go home.”
Proud Member of OCReMix.org and Pixel Mixers
Like to draw, play piano, play video games.
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/mericalgirl1234
To avoid confusion on forums - I am female
VTtM: Madison Goodwill, Link (WW), Amaterasu, Alt. Future Link, Link (TP), Link (BotW) (I’m a Zelda fan okay)
Hogwarts: Derek Forester, Madison Goodwill
RoP: Madison Goodwill, Link (BotW)

Love this site it is awesome, no I am not changing my flag because it is amazing.

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Rostavykhan
Minister
 
Posts: 2184
Founded: Sep 30, 2017
Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Rostavykhan » Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:39 pm

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

"Whoa, wait, we don't seriously have to go controlling people, do we?", Asked Miria, stepping closer to Madi. "We can find our stuff before anyone gets here, right? Let's just leave the guy here, and-"

Miria jumped. Were there more AEGIS agents? The tengu man and Madi both were alerted. Miria's ears twitched; instinctively, she tensed and stood a bit straighter. She kept her lips tight, not knowing what to say, or how to react.
LEARN TO HATE ; TOTAL HATRED FOR TOTAL WAR
LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE | FEED, SEED, SNEED
 

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Menschenfleisch
Diplomat
 
Posts: 766
Founded: Nov 01, 2017
Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Menschenfleisch » Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:51 pm

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Polly and Kiara

Polly found herself practically hoisted into the air by Johann. He had one hand on her cheek, just above her chin, and another on her throat. He gave her head a good twist and something would've given way if she hadn't paralysed him before he could snap her neck. She was wearing makeshift armour, but that didn't make her body any less vulnerable to lethal contortions. She froze Johann and snapped Madi's mouth shut, focusing all of her energy on keeping the ghoul down. "Stop it!" Kiara stepped in front of Polly. Her body wasn't as saturated with heme and it was a hell of a lot sturdier than a human's, but she still felt like she was trying to stand up in the face of a blizzard: a blizzard which just happened to sweep through a knife shop. "Calm down, all of you!" Polly lowered her arm, though the force did not entirely dissipate. "Madi, stop trying to kill people. You can't just steamroll people because you think you can beat them in a fight. And you, Polly, can you stop with the threats? Everyone here's trying to be civil, bar one, maybe two exceptions." She gave a pointed glare at Jin.

The situation had evolved. Polly and Kiara thought about the problem at the same time, coming to the same realisations at around the same time. If a fight broke out, Madi's team would win, but they would suffer significant casualties and become enemies of AEGIS. Polly would attempt to restrain AEGIS, give the anomalies time to escape and prevent casualties. Madi and a few other anomalies would try to fight AEGIS, knowing that they had them outnumbered. The rest would probably make a run for it, with little regard for the safety of anyone other than themselves. In short, there was fuck-all that Jin could do. However, whereas Polly assumed that this meant that they'd be forced to allow the group to leave, Kiara realised that it only meant that Jin was trying to stall them, either to gather intel or to wait for reinforcements. There were far too many conflicts of interest: she wanted to cut and run but she knew that by doing so she'd be encouraging the group to split up, dramatically reducing the chances of them escaping intact. But if she was going to negotiate, what was she going to offer AEGIS? "Let us leave," she started. "There's no way you can win this. Live to fight another day."

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The Japanese Americans
Envoy
 
Posts: 344
Founded: Jun 24, 2018
Left-Leaning College State

Collab between Naval and Me

Postby The Japanese Americans » Thu Nov 14, 2019 7:43 pm

TGWR
Lee
An AEGIS Base

Lee had no idea what was happening. Again. The guy that had passed out was back up again and attacking the girl that was on his side for some reason, there were mentions of magic, more arguments, and he was just generally confused. On the bright side, he could move around normally now. Then a lone soldier came in with his guns from somewhere. Fed up with not knowing what exactly was happening, Lee picked up a nearby piece of rubble with telekinesis and slammed it into the ground right by his feet to get everyone's attention. "Can someone tell me what the hell is happening, please."

---

Jin looked at the outburst of the man, unsure who he was. "To make a long story short, these guys are mind controlling my boss after escaping from their cell. Why they are there ranges from being a threat to humanity to messing with our operations. Now calm down pal. You don't want to make things worse for all of us."

---

Lee considered what the other man said before looking back at the twenty others. They mainly seemed to be magical or exotic from what he could tell. Which included him. "So you lock up anyone with magic? Like me?"

---

Jin shrugged. "It's a bit more complicated than that but yes we usually lock up people who display anomalous properties before they are discovered by the public. Public security and all that. I mean we may let go more benign anomalies that are willing to hide their properties. Right now this group consist of brings who like your winged friend and dog friend want to hurt humans or like the dragon flies don't belong here and contain venom that has no cure and will kill someone quickly. None of you belong to this world."

Before anyone points out the obvious Jin would say. "Yes I know I don't belong here nor ASGIS but we are here to collect the anomalies stuck in this world." He explained.

---

Lee once again considered what the man had said. "This seems rather backwards from how my world is. Then again, we've had to deal with gods and demons and all that almost since the beginning. And magic. Anyways, now that it's been explained to me, y'all can go ahead and negotiate. I'm pretty sure that it won't affect me since, officially, I am a neutral sapient in this conflict."
I'm an autistic 19 year old who used to read a library's worth of books.

Call me JA. It's easier than typing out Japanese Americans.

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Rostavykhan
Minister
 
Posts: 2184
Founded: Sep 30, 2017
Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Rostavykhan » Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:49 pm

TGWR
Miria


While Kiara and Madi and Polly squared off, while Johann was mind-controlled, and while the new AEGIS agents were closing in, Miria was pacing.

She couldn't stimulate herself like she usually did, considering it was hard to pump one's fists or fumble with her glasses, when she had a big, and apparently lethal, bug in her arms. "N-no cure?", She asked aloud, shivering at the mention of a painful, incurable death upon being stung. She'd probably been closer to that than she'd though when she decided to be a good guy and grab her injured opponent a few halls down. Then again, she'd also been close to a very violent and bloody death from a deer creature, so maybe being stung wasn't the worst way to go.

Miria paced back and forth quickly, the short distance between walls (and people) only allowing her a few steps before she'd need to turn again. The motions were calming, but given the situation that they were in, it wasn't quite as effective as she wished it would be. Lee and the agents conversed, both seeming cautious, or confused. Kiara and Madi and Polly were all tense and angry. Ammy and Issun and Ganon were all confused, the other escapees were impatient, and Miria...well, she was impatient too. She was anxious, more than anything; she was anxious because they were seemingly getting nowhere, and the thing that she'd been worried about was finally happening, as a squad closed in towards them. She listened closely, but found it hard to really concentrate too much. She had to do something, but she didn't know what that something was. She didn't think that it was a good idea to step in with the other girls, and she didn't think too highly of her conversational skills with AEGIS.

Maybe if she tried to think of them talking their way out as less of a hostage negotiation, and more of a barter or transaction, then she would probably be able to think of a deal? She wasn't the greatest businesswoman, but dealing in machine parts and goods back home did teach her a few things. Maybe she could at least try to help talk things through that way. She just needed to think...
LEARN TO HATE ; TOTAL HATRED FOR TOTAL WAR
LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE | FEED, SEED, SNEED
 

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Naval Monte
Postmaster-General
 
Posts: 13807
Founded: Sep 04, 2014
Civil Rights Lovefest

Postby Naval Monte » Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:02 pm

Secrets of the Raven
Devil's Pit Mine


The lone surviving water mage legs wobbled and shock from the fear she felt as she saw the last of her family being so effortlessly destroyed before her as well as the Desprayes. She fell to her knees as her will to fight was now shattered. Her robes would at least hide the fact she also lost her dignity as she lost control of her bladder and soil herself in sheer terror over the two goddesses.

The two would hear Wei shouting like a mad man as he had his arms stretch out, his hands covered in blood as he stood on top of a demon whose heart he tore out with his bare hands. He would look at a Despraye and gesture for it to come after him. The demon would take a step back, now cautious over the mage. The other Desprayes close to Dawn and Celeste also have the two a wide breath as they can sense that fighting against the two would only result in their death. 

Mai looked at Dawn as she saw her arm being reattached, watching it with wonder. She began to move her fingers as she can feel her arm again. "Thanks." The awestruck firebrand uttered. When Dawn mention that she was baby sitting and heard Celeste call humans inscect the firebrand glared at the redhead. "We're not bloody insects you know nor are we babies." She looked at the demons as they avoided them now. "Looks like you scare them off." She told the two. 

Mai looked around and saw that one Despraye took out a rifle and was aiming it at Rolo while he and another fought in close range combat. "Watch your back Thor." She shouted as she sent out a fireball. The ball missed it's target but she wasn't intending to hit the demon, after all her attack would have done nothing. Instead the fireballs sudden appearance surprised the demon to the point that when it pulled the trigger and shot it missed and instead it the ground. 

Rolo and his demonic opponent looked over to where the marksmen was using the distraction he would grab the other demon by the helmet and electrocute it. As it screamed in agony the other demon would aim a rifle at Rolo. The runesmith was quick to pull the demon in front of him and when the demonic sniper fired the bullet hit his comrade. Using the demon as a meat shield he would fire a bolt at the demon, taking it out and soon firing at another that tried to shoot him with a rifle.

Elsewhere in the chamber the other Desprayes tried to look over Terry's shadowy defenses as they tried to find a weak point that they can exploit. Elizabeth still tracing symbols with one finger while making symbolic cuts with her knife, chanting in Goetic as she does.

The golem summoned by the enemy would throw a fist at the samurai but the demonic warrior would parry the fist with his sword, taking out a shorter sword and stabbing the golem at the waist. Taking back by the stab the Golem did not have time to react to the samurai raising his blade and bringing it down in the golems head and cleaving it in two. As the body fell the demon would swing his blade down a few times to cut apart the golem to prevent it from getting dead. The demon looked down to see for any signs of movement.  It saw the final stream of elan vital ebbing away from the pile of rocks that was the golem. The demon turns away from the golem as it returns back to Berith.

The six legged creature was shredding pieces off the armor with its blades while the horned ghoul continue to pound away at the demon lord. The undead marksmen fired out two floating eyeballs before firing a hole in the skull. The ice eagle was now casting down a frozen wind at the demon lord. The samurai was walking towards the demon lord, brandishing his sword to back stab the demon lord. 

The scraping of metal on a leather and metallic sheath could be heard as the samurai took out his sword. Holding it with both his hands he was ready to stag the demon on the heart, to slay the lord and become a shogun of his own. The demon cast such thoughts away for the time being to concentrate on giving the lord before him a quick death. Just as he was ready to deliver the strike the demon stopped, it sensed something wasn't right.

Sensing that something was going to happen the Samurai was backing away from the demon. The six legged creature was blind to the changing mood as it charged to Berith, the only one to do so. Once it was close it and the demon lord were consumed by a swirling twister of bale fire. The fiery tornado somehow producing a roar that driven out any other noise in the room, especially the screams of the creature that was consumed by the flames.

The eagle was flying away from the tornado as the raging inferno scarred it off, the cowboy and ghoul shielded their eyes while the demon, gorilla, and angel watched on. As the tornado collapse down on the ground a wave of fire would spread throughout the chamber. The demon was immune but the ghoul was caught, it was screaming in agony from the heat.

Rolo saw the fire storm coming towards him but just as he thought he was dead large slabs of earth would surround him to protect him from the flames. Metis, Wei, the gorilla and the cowboy were also saved by the same coffin. Mai summoned her familiar to take the storm for her and the two goddess. The spirit gladly embraced and absorbed the inferno as it body began to bulge and grow, becoming stronger with each flame it consumed.

Terry tried to use his tenebraes to protect them but upon making contact with the bright light the fire storm was making his shadowy familiars screamed in agony as they dispersed into black smoke. The mage looked at the flames with fear as they came closer. Yet the angels floating above them would float in front of them and create a barrier around them, deflecting the flames around them. The horse was immune while the eagle was too high to be hit. 

The flames would begin to climb up to the walls and it would soon reach the ceiling. The eagle was beginning to produce droplets as the heat was draining its energy. As the final inch of the ceiling was consumed by fire only the tunnels were spared from fire due to wards placed on them to prevent the tunnels from becoming into oven.

The flames began to grow weaker and soon some parts of the chambers began to become clear, but many others were still on fire, leaving little room to move around. From the fire Berith floated before the group now released from his bounds. The six legged creature was on its side, wiggling around pathetically as it tried to right its charred body back up, pieces of its exoskeleton flanking off to releasing melting goop of skin that was cooked and boiled by the flames.

Berith would swing his weapon and strike at the creature just as it finally got on it's legs. The blow to the back shattered its back completely, fragments of the charred shell flying out as the weapon broke through and crushed and sliced through internal organs. The joints of the creature snapped loudly as it fell to the ground screaming in pain as it can feel it's inside being ignited. Fire would belch out from its mouth and its eyes would boil and melt as fire erupt from its sockets, the hole on it's back would have a large bonfire growing from within the creature as its body was being used as kindling.  

The creature struggled for a bit before it finally perished. The six arm ghoul body was also blacken like the six legged creature, its skin cracked and other parts slouching off into a petrid slime. Yet somehow it's single eye survived the onslaught and from the eye balefire began to be channelled through it. The ghoul would let out a loud scream as it unleash a blast of balefire at the demon lord. As the cursed flames hit the demon lord he didn't react to it, instead he merely float towards the ghoul as it kept sending out more of the flames.

The ghoul saw the demon lord getting close and in fear it tried to move back but it screamed as it felt intense pain flare up from its legs. As it screamed it closed its eyes, ceasing the fire. Berith would quickly fly towards the ghoul and appear before it just as the ghoul open its eyes. The ghoul would throw a punch that the demon lord caught easily and before the ghoul can react the demon would bring his other elbow down on the arm be rewarded with a sickening pop and snap as he broke a bone and made it tear through the skin, making the bone stick out on the elbow.

The ghoul ignored the pain as its flight and fight instincts took over to through another punch that the demon lord caught, the third punch was also caught by the demon lord as he made his head float in the air along with his weapon. The head swathe samurai running towards him and with barely any thought to it swing his weapon and it hit the samurai right on the head, a large explosion occurring once the weapon made contact with the demonic swordsman.

Berith didn't look back on the samurai as it fell on to its knees as the demon turned to the ghoul as it used the rest of its remaining arms to punch the demon lord. The demon lord simply set the ghouls arms on fire and made the flames travel to the ghoul. As the creature tried to put itself out the demon lord would thrust his hand to the eye, grabbing it. The ghoul would try to grab the demon lords arm but chains would emerge from the ground and bind the ghoul, preventing it from moving or stopping the demon lord as it began to pull on the eye.

The ghoul would scream would as its eyes were ripped out of it socket, the connective nerve still attached to the eye and brain until the demon lord yank it apart. The demon lord would look at his new prize and encase it in fire, making the eye float above the flames began to change to the same cursed flames the ghoul used. A loud bang would be heard and the head of the demon lord would struck by a bullet made of cursed, necrotic, energy as it tilted to the side. The demon saw the undead cowboy and it pointed the eye at the outlaw as it fired a blast at the cowboy. So quick was the blast that the cowboy barely had a chance to react before he was consumed. 

The blind ghoul still struggled through its chains even as the jagged metal dig through its charred skin. The demon lord grabbed its horns and with great force ripped them off its head and began to repeatedly stab the ghoul on the head with its own horns. From the battlefield the eagle was limping away from the fight until it eventually collapse on the ground, too weak to move any further as it was melting away due to the intense heat in the chamber.

Worse everyone in the room was having a hard time breathing as the fire was taking in the oxygen in the room to continue to feed themselves. Terry began to cough as the smoke also added to the breathing problems the group was going through. "Are you almost done Elizabeth?" He asked. The witch ignored him as she kept going through the ritual, giving him the clue that she was not yet done.

Suddenly another blast of cursed fire would go to the two mages but the angels barrier shielded them from it. The samurai would get up, half his helmet gone to reveal the regenerating, scarred, and metallic scaly face of the samurai, as he drew his sword to renege his duel against the demon lord just as the ghoul finally fell to the ground.

The demon lord turn to face the samurai, impressed that it was still alive. It began to flail his weapon as the samurai stood still. Once the weapon fell forward the swordsman spring forward, ducking underneath as the weapon flew past his head and struck the ground, the explosion propelled the samurai just as he flew forward. The samurai would stab his sword to the ground and landed on one knee and foot, chanting an incantation as he did so

Caught off guard by the action the demon lord was going to bring his weapon back when large swords broke through the ground and stabbed him, breaking through the armor and surprising the demon lord that such an attack can harm it. The demonic warrior grabbed the chain of the weapon and cut the chain with his sword. The weapon combust into flames and Berith summoned a golden bladed spear. Grasping his new weapon he remain in place as he thrust his spear to keep the warrior as the other demon tried to find an opening to strike at the demon lord, the demon breaking the blades that held him to float away from the warrior.

As the two demons fought against each other no one noticed that the gorilla ran towards one of the tunnels save for a few Desprayes who chased after it. 

Deep in the tunnels both Jackie and Alasehir would find veins of iron, gold, silver, obsidian, platinum, and other metals. The demon would mutter about the mine being a Borderland. The two would see tarantulas made of obsidian, lizards made of silver, bats of gold, copper cockroaches, cobalt pillbugs and many more creatures made of metal. The group even see fungi growing from rusted metal, components of metal merged with their organic bits.

They would see holes from the cave walls and ceiling, some of the creatures going through the holes to either enter the tunnel Jackie was in or to leave for another level. From one hole Jackie would see a creature that was close to her height with many long, spindly, legs coming out. It's legs were a dark shade of purple with yellow body. The creature was moving forward u till it stops, the two heads on both ends now roaring at each other as they argued about where to go, blocking her way.

As Jackie watch the Siamese twin fight among themselves a small rock would hit her on the head, the sword warning her to get away. Should Jackie dodge on time or not she would see a skinless humanoid with long metal claws now on the ground. It's sunken eyes looking her as drill ooze from it mouth, revealing rows of sharp and rotten teeth as it let out a feral growl."Zeloths! Be careful kid, those fuckers travel in packs. I think we are dealing with a scout." The sword warned as the twins ran off to a tunnel. 

The Zeloth growled at Jackie as it moved forward, making a swipe at her. "We better run before it's pack catch up with us." The sword warned. As the sword warned Jackie the creature would screech loudly and lunge towards the two.



Seeds of Anxiety

"Yeah I feel the same." Herbert replied to Valerian statement on feeling underdressed for the otherworldly establishment. "No offense this place feels like either a suave super spy, a charming but roguish mage, or an infernal aristocrat would dine in. Not some mid rank pencil pusher near the point of being considered middle aged and working in a site that half the times feels like I'm in a video game setting made by developers high on LSD." The man told the two as he picked up the silver fork and knife.

As he began to take the first cut to his steak, pleading for it to taste just as well as it looks, he heard the question Valerian gave him. As the first piece was cut off Herbert would have it close to his mouth but when he opens his mouth he spoke instead of putting the peace of cooked protein and fat into his mouth. "We couldn't explain everything because we had to make sure none would overhear us. Right now we really can't afford for GLADIUS to be aware of what occured in Lludw Cigfrain." 

He would put the piece of meat in his mouth and the flavor would make his eyes widen with delight. As he chewed on the meat he found that the meat was at the right tenderness so it wasn't too soft as he bit into it but not as though that he was chewing meaty gum, more over the amount of spices on the meat complement the savory taste and the juices only improved. Herbert wasn't a religious man despite encountering many things that came from a disparate set of folklore, mythologies, and religions. But the meal he had felt as though he was offered a sample of what the gods ate even though he knew for a fact that the diets of such beings was something far different.

But like Valerian he took tried to keep a professional expression, as such his eyes were the only crack to that mask as he put down the fork and knife as he took out a briefcase, flipping up the locks and opening it just enough to slide his hand inside. The man would take out a manila envelope file and hand it over to Valerian. "This pocket dimension is one of many connected to a town called Lludw Cigfrain, or "Ashes of the Raven" in English, but some call it Branwhrn, some nickname whose origin is lost to time." 

He said as Valerian would see pictures of the town and the different landmarks and buildings and people on it, both throughout history and modern. "Much like every town in Wales agriculture used to be it's main form of economics, with the river providing fishing and trading as secondary economic avenues. Eventually mining and industry would take up most of it. The town is still a factory town to an extent but besides automobile and aviation most of the heavy industries are gone, now only high tech manufacturing, IT and biotech, and light industries remain. The town now having to focus on things like education, finance, retail, services, and tourism." He would say as files related to the town's history appear.

"The town's population has about 44500 people, a number brought about due to a chemical plant explosion. At least that is what the public believes. The truth was that those people died from a war that was fought in this town and one whose aftermath we are still reeling from." Valerian would soon see images of dead bodies with occult symbols carved on to them. "A group called The Order of the Crimson Goddess once terrorized this town. First in the 1970s during a spree of killings before they vanished and now this year when they resumed in their killings. They believed that the people they killed will be used as sacrifices to bring about their goddess to bring forth a new world, one they believe will be a paradise. However this paradise would not only have many non humans exterminated but all of humanity trapped in a universal prison." Herbert explained to the two as files on the cult, the Awarn Corp, and the Fold War appeared.

"Our site here was in a rump state but when we found out the dimension the cult was hiding in we amassed an army to invade, though a coalition of different anomalous groups in the town formed and attacked the cult before we arrived, softening them up for us." Valerian would soon see a file showing Elizabeth, the witch giving a cheeky grin on the camera man as she flip them the bird.  "It wasn't a surprise that a witch who occasionally worked with us made the coalition. She was hired to solve the case and as much as I hate to say this she and her small group finished what we couldn't do, they stopped the Crimsonites." 

Valerian soon saw the reports of the attack. "The cult had many allies, of one of them was a private military corp that had Reavers who were much more powerful than our own. We thought all of them were destroyed but one survived and just as we were recovering she struck, destroying the base and killing many personal and releasing many anomalies." He told the two.

"We just finished rebuilding the new base but besides the Reaver and escaped anomalies this town is a Nexus. Most of the people who live here know this place sa paranormal hotspot and so we need to keep it in control. We use to count on the home town anomalous groups to keep things under control but with many of them weakened or gone there is a huge power vacuum that will be very tempting for newcomers to try and fill in, adding more fuel to the flame. It's these reasons why we summoned you Valerian. Herbet explained.

In the neighborhood of Ashville the Reaver of Decay would see the looming steel and concrete monument dedicated to the town's industrial past, standing before her was the Ashbourne steel refinery plant. The street was unusually quiet, she barely felt a soul. The grounds of the old plant were abandoned for quite and it seems the lack of activity also affected the street around it. Rows of houses, shops, apartments, and warehouses lay abandoned and decaying. While some seem to still have inhabitants the buildings still have seen better days. She even saw decaying trolley lines that spoke of the lost glory this part of town had. 

Elsewhere on Ashville, away from the steel factory, a store was the current victim of a robbery. The old man behind the counter was inputting the numbers on his cash register as a masked man holding a machete was threatening his life if he doesn't give him the money.



The Great Wizarding Rebellion

"Don't be too sure on that pal. After what that bloody ghoul tried to do I think our former site director would be out for blood. But right now he is too busy being a doll for some corpse eating control freak." Jin told the man. When Jin was called out on being one of the two aggressive parties he would point his gun on the tengu. "I kinda need these two be out or else your avian friend here will kill me the moment he saw me." The tengu would respond to that accusation with one of his own.

"Just like how you murdered even the children in my village!" He spat out, growling as he did so. "First I wasn't there. Second our soldiers were forced to do so when those crotch goblins tried to kill them. More importantly we only attacked your village when your people made it clear that you were not interested in diplomacy." The soldier replied back coldly.

"It was because it was obvious you were going to side with your kind even when they were defying our hole site!" The tengu shouted only for Jin to fire back with. "They were construction workers who had no idea they were going to destroy sacred land. Maybe if you tried to reason with them things wouldn't have devolved the way they did and you would still be living in your village with your wife with a child that had a chance to be born." 

The mention of his wife and unborn child made the tengu's rage flattered slightly before it grew stronger. "I would still have them if you humans never existed! My people made a mistake not hunting your accursed species down. Your kind has done nothing but wrought devastation and blight upon the planet." The man merely shrugged. "Oh sure, because a world dominated by youkai would be a utopia by comparison. At least we tried to solve things peacefully between your people but your fellow bird brains thought that attacking us was a better idea." 

The tengu would slam the side of his fist on the wall, causing cracks to form around it. "We knew you humans were only hiding behind that excuse of peace talks to plan a first strike on our village! Carnage, Cruelty, and Deception runs through your veins as much as blood. They make up the very essence of your soul." Jin just stood there after hearing what the tengu said.

The man just shook his head. "I heard the people in your village had strong anti-human beliefs but I never thought they were that strong. You think the representative we sent to talk with you was lying? That woman was one of the strongest supporters for us having friendly relations with anomalous sapient species like your kind. Even after you murdered her in cold blood we tried to honor her wish to try and solve this peacefully but when you went after those workers and us you forced our hand. What happened in that village was your people's fault!" 

As the two glared at each other it was clear that a fight could break out. Kara's request to call off the fight the tengu and soldier turned to her. "You think the tengu/human is going to back down so easily?!" The two looked at each other when they heard each other saying the same thing.

The Inugami stepped forward. "I understand you lost much Tenzma but now is not the time to let your emotions control you." The tengu now known as Tenzma looked at the canine mystic and sighed. "Fine I will back down Yoshinori." The tengu looked at Jin. "You were wrong about one thing human. My village had a few of us that while weary never hated your kind to the fervor others had, I was one of them. I believed that perhaps there was some good in your kind. But you showed me the errors of my ways on that day." Tenzma said to him.

Jin looked to Yoshinori. "What about you? I thought Inugamis protect the family of their summoners? Aren't they human?" The Inugami sighed. "They were my family and I loved them dearly, even as they began to degenerate and become nothing more than scum I still loved them. But when the last shred of good was snuffed out of them so to did my faith in your kind." He told the soldier. 
Last edited by Naval Monte on Fri Nov 22, 2019 7:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Naval Monte- The Mediterranean crossroads of mind-controlling conspiracies, twisted dimensions, inhuman depravity, questionable science, unholy commerce, heretical faiths, absurd politics, and cutting-edge art.

Make wonderful memories here, in Naval Monte.

User avatar
The Japanese Americans
Envoy
 
Posts: 344
Founded: Jun 24, 2018
Left-Leaning College State

Another Collab with Naval and Me

Postby The Japanese Americans » Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:21 pm

Naval Monte wrote:The Great Wizarding Rebellion

"Don't be too sure on that pal. After what that bloody ghoul tried to do I think our former site director would be out for blood. But right now he is too busy being a doll for some corpse eating control freak." Jin told the man.


Lee thought that was a bit harsh, but understandable. Wait a minute, he said former, so that guy that was being controlled no longer had the capability to act as the site director? That meant he would be nearly useless in a hostage situation standoff. So they were likely going to try to get him back first before resorting to a plan B, which would likely be to kill everything in this room. Upon coming to this revelation, Lee slowly took a combat stance and lifted the rubble he had slammed up by a centimeter or two. He smirked at how fast he had come to that revelation. In fact, a window popped up saying he had gained a Wis. point due to continuous intelligent activities. He quietly whispered "Inventory." so he would be able to access his other items if a fight actually broke out.

-snip-


Hearing through the entire argument between the man and tengu brought Lee to the conclusion that both sides had acted like idiots. In fact, he voiced this conclusion. "It seems to me like both sides acted idiotically."

---

Jin looked to Lee and noted that he look as though he was ready for a fight. "The birds acted like idiots first for thinking killing workers who didn't know jack shit was an appropriate response. We tried to salvage that mess but they made it hard. Was torching their village and killing most of the villagers harsh? Yes, but so was telling weeping wives and kids that their fathers and husbands died due to "occupational hazard". So really my side tried to act reasonably here."

Tenzma snarled. "Because you people would love to see us appear in front of humans. We did what we did because knowing you gajins would throw a fit regardless what we did because we broke your precious masquerade." When Jin said that if they tried diplomacy they wouldn't have reacted so negativity to his people. "And you people don't lock up benign entities simply because their existence threatens what you all want people to believe the natural order to be." He snapped back.

---

The cultural difference between his home and this place was affecting Lee a lot. Most of what he could refer to was different than what was here. That meant that anger would likely rear it's ugly head in his emotional state if he kept participating, so he wisely decided to keep silent. And, once again, his Wis. increased again by one.

---

"You got nothing to say?" Jin asked. "Maybe that is for the best. You weren't involved in that mess so you don't know much on what happened there. So maybe reserve your judgement on us being "idiots" mate." The soldier looked at the bugs and Miria. "How the heck is that midget able to tame the bugs?"
I'm an autistic 19 year old who used to read a library's worth of books.

Call me JA. It's easier than typing out Japanese Americans.

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Rostavykhan
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Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Rostavykhan » Sat Nov 23, 2019 8:43 pm

TGWR
Miria


Oh, Stars, arguing again! Arguing; Bickering; Yelling! She wished that they'd stifle it!

Miria took a shaky breath. She understood exactly why the Tengu disliked Humans now. It sounded pretty familiar to her - she'd never witnessed Humans destroying entire villages, of course. At least, not until she'd come to Madi's world, but such things were told as common stories in Janavaar, from The Great War. Humans and Janavaar both did it. There was still a ton of distrust and paranoia because of it. It was one of the reasons for their cold war, and why their kind didn't live together or interact much at all.

"Hey.", She said, although her voice was barely a whisper, cut off as more people spoke up. She tightened her lips and lowered her head, figuring it was probably for the best. She probably wouldn't get anywhere if she tried to interfere with this argument anyways. Hell, she wasn't even sure if any of it mattered, she just wanted to get away from the whole area! Her patience wearing thin, the small woman began to pace faster, until she realized that she could only do that so much with her limited space before it just got tiring. Then she started tapping her foot and gnawing on her lip, eyes glazed over and fixed on the floor in front of her, while she continued to listen.

Was this conversation worth getting into? Would she be able to help wrap it up so they could come to some deal? First it was Madi and Polly, and now this Tengu and Soldier. Would the bugs and pterodactyl be arguing next? Hell, she didn't know. She probably wouldn't even know if it was happening, as hard as it was getting to concentrate now.
LEARN TO HATE ; TOTAL HATRED FOR TOTAL WAR
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Demincia
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Postby Demincia » Sun Nov 24, 2019 12:44 am

Secrets of the Raven
Devil's Pit Mine
Dawn and Celeste Elissa


Celeste just shrugged. "I suppose you're right." she said to Mai. "Closer to an amoeba than anything; infinitely small and pathetically harmless." She walked past her and stood over the last water mage. "Ugh. Disgusting." she commented as she lifted her up with one hand. "What do you think, do we kill her like her friends, or let her suffer in solitude?" the Spacecrafter asked.

Dawn stepped up next to her. "Cast her away, she's of no use to us here, but maybe in another place and another time." Celeste glanced slightly at her sister, but threw the mage forward as a rift appeared, swallowing her up.

Celeste turned back and stared down the demon lord, but her sister extended an arm in front of her chest blocking her path. "Let them do at least some of the work." Dawn said. "Lest they become too dependent." Celeste glared at her, but shoved the pommel of her hammer into the ground so it stood upright and watched the humans try to defend themselves.

"Are you going to stop them all from dying or are you going to use failure as a teacher?" she asked, but Dawn only answered with a sly smile.

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Menschenfleisch
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Postby Menschenfleisch » Sun Nov 24, 2019 7:51 am

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Vanth was born on the 19th of May, 2008, seven years before the arrival of the Elders and their invasion of Earth. Her mother and father were pastoralists and thus they were not affected by the crisis for a very long time. Even during nights where the skies were filled with orange aurorae, drifting and fading like dragon’s breath, and during days when the sun would be blotted out of the silhouette of hulking war machines passing overhead, life went on as usual for her. One day, however, her parents came into her room in the middle of the night and told her that they would be going far, far away. She wasn’t old enough then to understand why. She was old enough on the 3rd of April, 2016, when their car, which they had been using to travel between abandoned ranches and friendly communities for some time, was broken into by a chryssalid. They didn’t know then that chryssalids lived in the sea, and so they hadn’t known to avoid parking by the shore overnight. Her mother died, filled with eggs, and her corpse began to bloat, eventually growing into a sac so large that it entirely took up the car. Her father held her hand as they ran, eventually leading her to a resistance camp in the Alaskan tundra. His purpose fulfilled, he passed away the night after he got her to safety.

On the second of February 2035, New Hopetown, a settlement with a modest population numbering no more than 150, was visited by a representative dressed in kevlar. He had a large rifle on his back and bore the scars of many conflicts, some of which he hadn’t come out on top of. His name, profession and history were unimportant: Jacquelyn hardly even remembered his face and his voice. However, what she remembered were his words. He had been a recruitment officer, and she had signed up without hesitation. For nineteen years, she had hid in a cottage, handing out boxes of melons and scavenging for scraps in woods, hating her parents all the while for not simply acquiescing to the alien’s demons and moving into one of their cities. If they had done so, they wouldn’t have died. She wondered, though, why they didn’t go. Did they resist the aliens’ regime out of pure spite - defiance for defiance’s sake - or had they believed the cities to be a vice or a trap, as the man in her father’s radio had said every night? Or maybe, as she came to believe in the end, they’d been among the idiots who’d stayed out of the aliens’ clutches because their pristine citadels - shining peaks of porcelain and glass - had no creature comforts like alcohol, pornography, drugs and pets.

As it turned out, Jacquelyn was among the first to join X-Com. She was right on time, too, for she arrived on the Avenger - X-Com’s mobile headquarters - no more than a day after they managed to retrieve their precious Commander from the clutches of the aliens. She was deployed on many missions alongside a group of wacky yet endearing companions. There was Ava Famei, who always had a smile on her face even in the direst of situations and who slung both grenades and bullets at the enemy, breaking their cover and flushing them out into the open to enable her allies to take them down. There was Valerian Devana, a cold and devastating man who maintained a cold ferocity during combat, systematically pinning down and annihilating his enemies with his chaingun. There was Polly K. Delilah, too, who was a genius in every regard; an unparalleled hacker and an incredible marksman to boot, any operation with her on the team seemed to end well regardless of the odds stacked against them. Among her teammates however, two bastions stood out. There was Mnemosyne, whose real name was lost even to herself. She was a sniper, with eyes sharp enough to cut steel. She was calculating and exact, never indulging in either cruelty or mercy. She racked up almost a dozen kills for every mission that the team went on, taking down five or more aliens in the time that it took Jack to hit just one. She would’ve been more lethal than the rest of the squad combined if not for her rival, one Kyle Hearse: a shinobi who specialized in wielding the blade, an archaic weapon but an effective one nonetheless. He was like a dancer or a ballerina, effortlessly gliding through the enemy. He would wipe out entire fireteams all on his own, and hardly ever seemed to take a hit.

Jackie had been no slouch either, though. She’d been the most maneuverable member of the team, and time and time again she found herself entrenched deep in enemy lines, surrounded by inhuman cadavers. Together, Jack and her team had slowly but surely advanced their cause, winning battle after battle. However, as time went on, X-Com’s notoriety grew. Thus, so did the aliens’ efforts to stamp them out. It was late september when Jacquelyn saw her first sectopod, a towering hulk of metal and hellfire. Though they’d made it through, they did so with no shortage of scars to pay for it. From there, the opposition that they faced on every mission seemed only to mount. Eventually, during a routine operation - one where they had been tasked with recovering a piece of alien hardware - her team was cornered, surrounded on all sides by vipers and ADVENT soldiers. They fought like hell, unwilling to give up the objective and eventually, they found themselves victorious, standing atop a mound of corpses. However, in one last hateful act, a sectoid that she’d thought dead appeared from behind a tree and shot her, already burdened by countless injuries, in the head. Jacquelyn Vanth passed away during Operation Burning Sea, leaving behind no progeny and, at least in her mind, nobody to mourn her.

Jacquelyn Vanth died on the 26th of November, 2035.


Jacquelyn Vanth was born on the 20th of October, 1898, in the city of London. Thirty years prior to her birth London had fallen into the underground realm known as the Neath, a place of utter darkness with no laws, no light and no death. The details of its fall were not privy to the public, although it was a common rumour on the streets that the city had been stolen by bats, and that Queen Victoria - then the monarch of the empire upon which the sun never set (and soon would never shine to begin with) - had made a deal with some unknown entity: in exchange for the life of her consort, the city would be dragged into the underground. However, Jackie never learned any of that: she had been too busy roaming the streets with a gang of urchins. Armed with jackknives and scavenged scraps of metal, they clobbered their way to the top of the hierarchy, beating all the rival gangs into submission. For a time, she had been on top of the world, collecting jade, amber and honey from her lackeys who ran The Flit, a densely packed and almost abandoned quarter of London where children ran wild and the decrepit hid from the ghosts that would hound them. Inevitably, however, she had been usurped. One night she’d awoken in the Thames with a half-dozen daggers stuck in her chest and a chain tied around her neck, with the other end connected to a rock sitting at the bottom of the river. The message was clear: her regime was out. Ah well. Out with the old and in with the new: that’d been what her pa had always told her.

She’d spent her youth after that working at Iron and Misery assembly yards, doing her best to earn a living for her family. She had polished scraps of iron on the pier and watched every day as leviathans formed of gray steel rolled into the harbour, carrying an endless supply of goods, zeesick zailors and the occasional payload of manic cannibals. She had been especially enraptured by the guns that the yard purveyed: hulking masses of crudely yet carefully fashioned brass, inscribed with demonic script and loaded with the finest armaments that Her Majesty’s engineers could put to paper. She’d dreamt of laying her hands on one of them, and even daring to fire them. Not a year after her sixteenth birthday, such an opportunity arose. A captain, one Jared L. Darling, approached her one soggy morning on the pier and had sat down next to her with a plate of fungal crackers and rubbery lumps - moist, coagulated masses of zee-monster blubber (nobody knew what they were really made of, but that seemed to be the prevailing theory at the time) - and had asked her if she had ever wondered what wondrous bounties the zee - that dark and endless place whose only purpose seemed to be to swallow up dreams and bodies - had to offer. She had said no, of course, for everyone knew that to sail was to invite the leering gazes of the zee monsters and jillyfleurs, to provoke the unmerciful and pernicious gods of the zee and to bring upon oneself untold forms of madness - whether subtle or overt. Captain Darling had laughed at that, and told her that she’d been the only one on that pier to have given him an honest and correct answer. He’d invited her onto the crew of his ship, and she had accepted at once. Her father surely wouldn’t miss her, and she’d long yearned to see shores beyond those of London harbour.

From Codex to Whither they’d travelled, carrying with them a contingent of rifles and cannon to chase off greedy crabs and lifebergs with fusilades of shrapnel. Captain Darling had kept a small crew on hand at all times, preferring to have more intimate relations with his crew that most others. Thankfully, he had not been subject to strange desires and hungers: the stories of crimson feasts occurring at sea were too numerous and too varied to be mere inventions of honey addled or simply dishonest men. They’d spent all their time in the harsh north, going from Mount Palmerston - the last hideout of some of the royalty of Hell, as well as a rather welcoming number of devilish hosts - to Venderbight, ferrying coffee and wine from the place of volcanic bounty whose harvests were informed by nutrient-rich ash to that place of dusty robes, bandages and bored men and women waiting to die. They avoided the more eldritch places in the Zee, of course. However, that did not stop them from passing by every once in a while, whether just to see what sights there were to espy or simply through coincidence. Jacquelyn made out the towering, jagged edges of the Avid Horizon through the snow at least two dozen times: its icy spires stung just to look at - and she had spotted Kingeater Castle in the distance five times in total, its high and crusted walls looking a thousand years more decrepit and aged each time she saw it again.

On the 16th of August, 1904, Captain Darling fell ill with a strange blight that ate up his arm, covering it in strange crystalline formations. Glass, the physician had stated, shaking his head with polite, practised pity. The captain was being eaten up by glass, he said, and there was nothing to do for it. Captain Darling had decided to retire, wanting to spend what time he had left spending his fortune enjoying himself. To turn to glass was a particularly cruel death: it left one with no twilight years, depriving them of the quiet yet peaceful decline into obscurity that becoming a tomb colonist promised. Jacquelyn, to the crew’s surprise - and especially to her - had received the rights to the ship. And from there, a new chapter began for her.

Captain Vanth drew charts of the whole Unterzee, probing its depths and scouring its landmasses for all the secrets she could find. She studied the Correspondence - the language of the stars, written upon the stones upon which London rested - at the university and acquired countless artifacts for its professors, handing in sharks’ fins and all sorts of other anatomical treasures she managed to salvage from monsters at zee, most of which she could not name, and a number of which had no names to begin with. She explored Venderbight, promising the dying keeper of the city to find him the seven colours of the Neath: the colours of forgetfulness, fright, rage, hunger, apathy, melancholy and joy. She played crystal chess in a bay of pirates with a rubbery man whose face was but a mass of squidy tentacles, betting her very life on the outcome of the games. She recruited a cat of a moody disposition, a blemmigan of a rather disagreeable temper, a cook with no untainted past, a gunner whose passion lay in enabling - but not creating - destruction, a magician whose magnum opus was an engine of very much scientific manufacture, and a whole cast of other strange, eccentric and typically beleaguered officers. She shelled pirates off the shores of the Iron Republic, that place where no laws - not physical, moral or even logical ones - existed and where Pandaemonium didn’t reign, for nobody reigned over that place of illogic and madness; she broke bread with a quiet deviless at Mount Palmerston, promising to return her to the rose-infested plains of her youth; she travelled to the surface, captured sunlight in a box and sold it to men looking to burn their faces off; she slaughtered enslaved sharks and sold their bones to collectors; she petitioned for an audience with the Tigers and the Wolves at Khan’s Heart and whittled away weeks of her life chatting with retired captains at the flotilla known as Khan’s Shadow; she earned the trust of Mongolian informants at Port Carnelian by sharing noxious goat’s milk with them and chatted with tigers; she wandered the dreamy fields of Parabola where mountains hung upside down and where water could be spun into silk; she roamed Adam’s Wake, where the light informed the bounds of the city and whose citizens refused to touch the dark for fear of their own shadows tainting them, and where her dreams would be taken up by nightmares of fiends, the mother of mountains and a wind that burnt her to the bone; she bantered with pirates and smugglers at Gaider’s Mourn; she listened to the services at the Chapel of Lights, spoken with a thrum and a rhythm beyond description, and partook in their suspiciously red banquets; she fought her own clothes that came to life when she sailed into Polytheme and watched clay men being forged by a mind desperate to feel alive once more; she descended into Fathomking’s Hold and held an audience with the Finger King himself, who gifted her with scintillack in exchange for stories of her exploits; she sailed to the North past Avid Horizon, earning a weeping scar, she sailed down past Grand Geode - that hideaway filled with London’s best admirals and soldiers - into the Dawn Machine’s domain and was burnt for her troubles, she sailed south into the Presbyterate where the waters ate her hull and the soil burnt her mouth and stunk of candle wax, and finally she sailed East into the caverns that hosted a blazing, brilliant golden light: that of the future. And there, having gone through so much: having earned the gods’ ire and respect a dozen times over each, having read every book there was to read and having told every story that ever had been told - she sailed past the veil of light and had ended up in the Uttemost East amongst a field of flowers and unwound time, seeing herself wandering the Neath forever, and realising at last that she was Salt, that most callous yet kind god of the Zee, who was but a captain. A timeless captain, an unbound captain, a captain with an eternity to explore each moment that existed, would exist and ever had existed. That event erased her existence from history. From that day on, something else inhabited her body: something that called itself by that name but which was truly only limited by the burden of having a name to begin with. And thus, her history and legacy were gobbled up by that Sunless Sea that she’d dared to travel, and that she had at last utterly conquered.

Jacquelyn Vanth died on the 8th of December, 1906.


Jacquelyn Vanth was born on the 23rd of March, 1869. Her mother, a member of the clergy, was forced to abandon her just two months after her birth, having to travel to Mutton Island just off the coast of Fallen London in order to train as a nun in order to kill that mythical beast known as The Vake. Her father, a poet from the Shuttered Palace, raised her alone. She learned all the things that a woman of her upbringing should do: she learned to curtsy, to dress well, to defer to her superiors and to destroy those she felt envious of with gossip and shame. Scandal became her sword and charisma became her shield in that deadly game of politics that was everyday life in the palace. She grew up intending to follow in her father’s footsteps, learning all the ways of prose and pentameter. She was tutored on how to treat the teacup as an extension of her own body, and how to control the ebb and flow of a conversation as easily as Poseidon would be able to control the tide. During the day she wrote Greek epics, telling the stories of well meaning yet ultimately doomed heroes whose flaws spelled their downfall and whose efforts amounted to nothing in the end. Yet, during the night, she wandered the streets of the city, clinging to the gaslit avenues and frequenting the brawlers’ stadiums where fighters competed for purses of rostygold, slicing off their opponents’ appendages in the arena and helping to sew them back on outside. There was an unspoken code of honour amongst ring fighters; it was inspirational, and her writing began to reflect the plight of the commonfolk more and more. This was scandalous. Writing about the peasants in a place like the palace? Preposterous! Her name was whispered around round, scone-covered tables, and her plays were boycotted by certain conscientious individuals. The interest of the daring members of the court couldn’t save her: eventually, she was banished from the court for her writings. Perhaps it was a minor infraction that she committed, perhaps banishment seemed like too harsh a punishment: yet it was by no means a permanent arrangement. Most playwrights were banished at one point or another: the ones who were never kicked out were seen as boring and too willing to cater to the sensibilities of the ‘upper class snobs’, or rather whoever seemed to be richer and more socially successful than whoever was using that term. She, however, had no interest in returning to the palace. By then, she was twenty two: and what better age was there than that to start exploring the world that lay beyond the plaster walls and floral wallpaper of Her Majesty’s abode?

Jacquelyn sparred with ring fighters at Watchmaker’s Hill, she had drinks with zailors, she went on expeditions into the Forgotten Quarter where relics from centuries past were buried, she befriended devils and attended their lectures on the nature of souls and the benefits of soullessness, she worked with the constables to investigate the crimes of Jack the Ripper whose blades she saw flash in the night once or twice, she descended into the clay quarters to discover the reason behind the disappearance of a well-off countess, she sampled the tea of the Murgatroyds, she cased and stole from the Brass Embassy - that bastion of glass and brick that the devils operated from - and did so, so many other things. And eventually, when the news reached her that the Avid Horizon - a gate that lay fathoms North of London - had been opened, she was one of the first to cross through, signing on with the crew of a private vessel owned by one Captain Whitlock. Whitlock died not a month later, having travelled into the Blue Kingdom - a realm where the dead went to be processed - and having broken one of the laws of death by extracting a spirit from where it should have been. The details of why were unimportant: now, Jacquelyn had her own ship.

Captain Vanth pursued a career with just two tenets: profits first, and down with London. She hated the establishment, and that hatred fermented over time into a dislike of all laws. She wiped out the Stovepipes, London’s proxies in The Reach - the brave new frontier of the British Kingdom - and pushed them all the way to Port Prosper, having killed scores of their kind. She explored Old Tom’s Well, unravelled the secret of one Amiable Vagabond, explored the history of the Ratty Brigade, forged a camaraderie with the Incautious Driver, helped the Fortunate Navigator bury their friend in the snow, sang choir songs with the Clay Conductor, made a companion at the Forge of Souls, spoke with the daughter of the sun, became Yoked at the behest of the Senior Scrivener, hunted Cantankeri in the Belt of Midnight, handed in strategic information to the office of the Foreign Emissary, dimmed the Dawn Machine and did so, so much more. She spoke with devils, listened to their hymns and learned of all the ways that stars were fed. She learned the secrets of the Sunless Sky, accruing a trove of stories that she could tell ‘til the end of time, never running out of fresh material. Sometimes she was plagued by nightmares and at other times by wounds and panic. Yet, she always managed to come out on top. She drove herself mad, even, just so she could manufacture a weapon of unparalleled destructive power. She hunted no fewer than 700 of London’s dreadnoughts down and destroyed them, scattering thousands of corpses into the cold sky where the Clockwork Sun’s harsh light would no doubt turn them to glass. She destroyed the sun itself, eliminating its proxies and stamping out all its efforts to survive like a gardener stamping upon the stems of weeds. She fired upon the Blue Kingdom’s heavenly architecture and lived to tell the tale, plundered souls from troves guarded by Logoi - words spoken by the Blue Kingdom’s king which acted on its behalf and with its authority -, saved not one but two souls from death, constructed a relay from Albion to Eleutheria - something that not even London itself could do - and so, so much more. By the time she drank from the Martyr King’s Cup, the goblet that would grant her life everlasting - an immortality superior to the one that Queen Victoria herself possessed, for her life was only extended and not rendered eternal - she had become the greatest monster in the sky. Not the Clockwork Sun, not the Blue King, not the Pansekritis, not the British Empire, not the Parted, not anything or anyone could compare to her; she outshone them all. And with immortality granted to her, she became unbeholden to the laws of the stars as well. She became something greater than them: she became a moment, an undying event.

Jacquelyn Vanth died on the 5th of April, 1915.


Jackie was thrown to the ground by the stone and she did not get back up. ”What’s happening to me?” She mumbled into the gravel. Her head hurt, yes, but she didn’t care. What was running through her mind right now was pure, unadulterated confusion. She remembered four lives: five, if she counted this one. In one of them, she’d been the protagonist of a young adult novel; a superpowered demigod whose morally questionable actions and sociopathic tendencies had been swept under the rug in favour of focusing on the sheer bombasticity of her actions and her abilities. In another, she’d been a soldier fighting aliens on a subjugated Earth. She remembered a dozen timelines, a dozen deaths. Sectoids, chryssalids, faceless, sectopods, gatekeepers: she had hundreds of kills under her belt, spread out across a jumble of different iterations of herself. She remembered each of her deaths, too. She’d been a marksman, a swordsman, a hacker, a sniper, a grenadier, a researcher, an engineer, a pilot, a thousand things; and yet, in only one timeline had she won. In another life, she’d been the captain of a ship in a dark place known as the Unterzee. Her story had been convoluted and her legacy even more so. All that she knew was that she’d become something greater than a mere human, or perhaps infinitesimally less. She’d changed, that was for sure. And in another life, she’d been a poet and a captain of a sky locomotive. She had been a scholar, a scientist, a hunter, a naturalist, all in the pursuit of knowledge. She’d found that knowledge - the ultimate truth of the universe - and had not been satisfied. And so, she’d sought out immortality in order to ensure that she would be able to create a world that she was satisfied with. She hadn’t liked the truth, and so she’d vowed to modify the truth itself. She didn’t remember much beyond that.

Who was she? Who was she supposed to be? She knew at once what these alternate lives were. She remembered everything that happened to her. Every time someone thought about her, every time someone named a character in a game after her, that entity inside that person’s mind became her. If someone thought about her fighting Elizabeth for even the briefest of moments, that moment became real to her: it became a memory. That meant that she remembered every errant, aborted thought that anyone had ever had about her. She ‘remembered’ Kyle killing her after a rampage through the city, she ‘remembered’ dying in Kyle’s arms after the raid on Andarta’s headquarters, she ‘remembered’ blowing up the United Kingdom in a fit of apathy and ending the world all on her own. Hell, she even remembered being in some strange medieval fantasy land with Kyle, fighting bandits and riding on horses. Her history was becoming unravelled, her past was muddled. Did she have a soul? She didn’t remember whether the authors had confirmed that she had a soul or not. Did she regret Kyle’s death? According to some interpretations, yes. According to others, no. Thus, there wasn’t a definitive answer. She was everything that she had ever been, had ever thought to have been and had ever been planned to have been all at the same time. She was an amalgamation of characters: she was every possible thing that she could’ve been simultaneously, and it was a fucking nightmare. ”S-st...” She heaved and shrivelled up, clutching her knees close to her chest. She screamed inarticulately, bellowing hoarsely. ”Stop thinking about me! It hurts, i-it hurts, so bad...” She remembered every pain, every iota of misery she’d ever felt. She remembered killing millions, even billions of people: and not just humans but aliens, animals and gods too. It wasn’t that her identity was being destroyed but rather, it was being contorted. She wasn’t a character, she was whatever the authors and readers imagined her to be. Therefore, that meant that every time they changed their minds about what she was, or what she was supposed to be, that change was reflected on her. The same was true of all fictional characters: the only problem was that she felt herself being changed, and it felt like all the bones in her body were being broken. The process of having her history, personality and… well, everything being rewritten wasn’t inherently painful. However, the dissonance that it caused inside her head was just as unpleasant. ”Forget me, forget me! If you care about me, stop reading. Stop thinking about me, please...” She could handle existing inside someone’s subconscious, popping into their head every now and then. She couldn’t handle having to exist in someone’s story. Every time they a line of text, she lived through it. If someone were to read a line of text five times in a row, she’d have to put up with it five times as well. Her chronology wasn’t simple, like that of a story: it was messy, disjointed and incomprehensible, like the one that a reader would create if they skipped around the story while reading. ”I said stop reading! Don’t read the next paragraph, no no no, please, please, please don’t read. It isn’t real until you read it! Don’t read the next paragraph! My author’s already written it, I’ve already lived through it once: if you read through it now, I’ll have to go through it all over again!

The Zeloth pounced upon Jacquelyn and began tearing into her with its claws, pulling her arms away from her face in order to slash her. Its claws were blunt, worn down by frequent use. Although that meant they dealt far less damage, it unfortunately increased the pain that they caused tenfold. The thing left deep gashes in her cheek which initially oozed, then started spurting red hot blood. She tried to kick the thing away but it simply wouldn’t budge: her strikes were as impotent as foam darts. She had access to the skills of dozens of people who could dispatch the monster in an instant: YA-Vanth could just burn it to death or snap its neck with one clean motion, X-Com Vanth could brawl with and beat it to death, Sunless Seas Vanth could probably take advantage of her surroundings to impale it on a piece of crystal or break its skull with a rock, and Sunless Skies Vanth would be able to defend herself effortlessly with a combination of martial arts and straight up resilience. However, she rejected all of those skillsets: she wanted to be herself, not some author’s interpretation of her as a person. She was living through her own personal Hell.

Imagine if you were who people thought you were. Imagine if you became whatever people thought you were, so that if your mother thought you were an idiot, you actually became stupid - and if your friend thought you wanted to become a pizza delivery person, you would actually want to deliver pizzas from that moment onwards. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if people thought highly of you, but in Jacquelyn’s case she didn’t care whether what people thought of her was positive or not. She wanted to be herself, flaws and all. However, even that basic right was denied to her. Peoples’ interpretations of her personality and desires took precedence over who she really was and what she actually wanted. She just desperately wanted to be left alone. She desperately wants to be left alone. ”But don’t forget about me, alright? I-I still need you to remember me to exist. Just don’t… just don’t think about me going through bad things, okay? You could make me happy just by thinking about me being happy. Please, don’t read anything where I suffer.”

Unexpectedly, the Zeloth paused. A great clang rang out within the cavern, and Jacquelyn looked down to see that Alasehir had placed itself in between her chest and its claws. The thing had raked through the fabric of the pouch that she’d bound the demonic blade within, and its was being sucked into the pouch before Jacquelyn’s eyes. ”What the hell?” “I feel like I should be asking you that question, sugartits.” ”Wait, since when were you a pervert? I thought you were meant to be a parody of an American mobster. Then again, the skeleton mafia already has that covered...” “What the Heaven are you talking about? Now get ready to wrap me up, yeah? I’m about to kill this Zeloth, and I’m going to need to be contained.” ”... you want me to smother you?” “I mean, you didn’t have to make it weird, but sure; let’s go with that.” The Zeloth let out an insane screech as it was sucked into the sword, which had fused to its flesh and refused to let go. The Zeloth was already getting smaller and smaller, shrinking before Jacquelyn’s eyes. It was already only half her height: how much smaller could it get? ”Why is your mage letting you defend me?” “What, you think they’re controlling me directly? Heaven no, baby. I’m just under orders to kill you every chance I get. Thing is, those orders are to actively kill you: they don’t say anything about passive killin’, meaning that I’m technically allowed to keep you from harm.” ”That sounds really fuckin’ convoluted. The readers are not going to get that.” “Baby, jargon like that doesn’t turn me on.” ”I’m not trying to turn you on!” The Zeloth’s voice at this point was just a squeak: it’d gotten higher in pitch over time and now, it was hardly even audible. By the time the Zeloth was the size of a house cat, Alasehir had grown to the size of Jacquelyn’s leg and thigh combined. The Zeloth had cut deep holes in the fabric bundle, however: Alasehir would be able to break out as soon as he finished eating the creature. She cut off one of her pant legs from the knee down using a shard of crystal from the wall and when the Zeloth was completely consumed, disappearing into Alasehir with a wet pop, she dived on top of him and wrapped the pant leg around the gash in the fabric, patching it up. She reattached it to her belt, wiping sweat and blood from her face. Her arms were covered in moderately deep cuts: they stung, but she could bear with it. The main issue was her face: the Zeloth had opened up her cheeks. She was… surprisingly resilient to pain, all things considered, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t bleed to death. She held her forearm over the wound and booked it back toward the chamber where Liz and the others were. Surely, she’d be safer there than alone in the mine with a sexual harasser in the form of a sword and a pack of Zeloths on her tail.

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The Palmetto
Negotiator
 
Posts: 5216
Founded: Feb 05, 2017
New York Times Democracy

Postby The Palmetto » Sun Nov 24, 2019 9:49 am

L-Fel

Iowa

"Innocents? What, were those rabid humans test subjects against their will or something?" Irwin asked Frederick, looking over at the Prussian. He did not quite consider that, and if he'd been informed of it, well, it must've gone over his head. He thought about that for a moment. His old government back home had done some experiments like that on people as well, hoping to make them more adaptable as climate change took hold. Since, of course, biologically changing people is easier than using a recycling bin. He rummaged through some of his equipment, then pulled out a syringe.

"Well lads, we can't just do nothin' about those blokes. For the ones being mind controlled, or extorted, or whatever is going on, why don't we just knock them out and send em’ off to somewhere safe?” He said, showing off the syringe. A glistening liquid sat inside of it, ready to temporarily paralyze anyone it was injected into.

San Fran

“I’ve got quite a few, I’m not sure which I should send out though,” Aestus told Jules. Despite being in a public establishment watched by a lot of people, he decided to let his animals out. A swarm of various marine animals poured out from his armor, with creatures ranging from small sharks to a flying cloud of krill hovering around Aestus and Jules. The small epaulette shark from earlier went over to Jules, and started playing with some of her hair.

“This little bugger has been pretty good for stealth. He can glide a little bit like a crab in water, and his claws can cut through steel easily. Most importantly though, I can see and talk through him, so we’ll know what the others are doing,” Aestus said, pulling out a feisty looking crab. The bright orange crab splayed its arms widely, and used its back legs to “swim” in the air, through it was more of a glorified hop. It had two big eyes, both of which were trained at Jules.
A rowdy redneck from South Carolina who tries to RP every now and again.
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."

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Demincia
Minister
 
Posts: 2326
Founded: Jul 08, 2010
Democratic Socialists

Postby Demincia » Mon Nov 25, 2019 2:18 am

Seeds of Anxiety
J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building
Rosanna Dawson


SSA Dawson yawned and rubbed her eyes with her hands, looking away from her computer monitor for a moment. She looked at her watch and saw that she was working well into the night again. After almost falling asleep at her keyboard, she decided that it'd be better to finish in the morning with fresh eyes instead of pushing on and risking making mistakes because of how tired she was. She turned off the computer and stood up from the desk, stretching her arms and legs as she did. She walked over to her locker and grabbed her purse and off-duty gun then locked up the file in her desk and left the building.

She walked towards the train station to get back to her home in Virginia, trying to stay awake enough to be alert of her surroundings. She passed a number of closed businesses, and felt her eyelids getting heavy again. They closed for a moment before she heard a loud crash of thunder and they snapped open again, but nothing around her looked familiar.




Lludw Cigfrain, Cymru

Her eyes darted around as she was suddenly in daylight in an unfamiliar city. "Shit." she muttered to herself. "Another wormhole. Just my luck." They'd popped up from time to time, and her department always made quick work of containing them and covering them up. She reached for her phone to call it in, but found she didn't have any signal here despite being in the middle of a town. "Damn interference." She mentally noted her location when she was in D.C., and knew her phone's GPS would be more helpful for anyone looking for her.

She saw what looked to be a shop ahead and decided to go in and ask for directions, hoping she was dropped somewhere that spoke English. She approached the building, but saw through the window there was a masked man threatening the store clerk with a machete. "It just keeps getting better." she grumbled, and drew her pistol from her belt.

Dawson waited until the man wasn't looking at the door before she burst in with her gun up. "Hold it!" she commanded, the pistol aimed right at the man. "Drop your weapon, gently, and keep your hands where I can see them." She glanced at the shopkeeper, "Call the police, if you haven't. If your friend here does anything stupid he's getting shot. I've had too long of a day to deal with this." She kept a steady grip on her gun, never looking away from the perpetrator.

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Menschenfleisch
Diplomat
 
Posts: 766
Founded: Nov 01, 2017
Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Menschenfleisch » Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:39 am

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Polly and Kiara

”Shut up!” Polly clenched her fist, causing her veins and arteries to visibly bulge beneath her skin. Thick purple bruises, arranged like the branches of a tree, grew along the length of her neck and wrist. ”This is stupid, stupid, stupid! Can’t you people leave well enough alone?! Why are you arguing about incidents and conflicts when something far more important is happening right in front of you? Are you mired in the past, or are you just fond of listening to your own voices?! Get over yourselves!” She said so in anticipation of someone sniping back with a casual ‘and what would you have us do?’ and thus she began to work on her retort before anyone could even express that sentiment. ”I’m not sure how many of you are stupid, or just swallowed up by pride, but I know that Jin is not one of them.” She gave the man a pointed glare, causing his heart to palpitate inside his chest. It felt as if there were tapeworms migrating up his throat, stinging the interior of his mouth and sending his head aflutter. ”It’s obvious that you’re stalling. I’m sorry, but there are people here that I-... that say that they know me, and there’s still too much that I’m trying to work out. I can’t risk you killing them off.” She held him in place, interlocking his bones so that if he tried to move, he could feel his joints grinding against one another. It was an unpleasant experience to be sure, but it was nowhere near a lethal one. ”If this makes us enemies… well, I barely even know you, so I guess I don’t even care.” She waved at the group; ”Get a move on. And please, try not to screw anything up.” Kiara sighed, intensely relieved, and began to stride ahead. She nodded at Polly and looked back at the rest of the ‘team’, all of the members of which seemed to be drowning in their own neuroses and fears. “This… this isn’t going to become a regular thing, right? Because I swear to the author, if I get involved in another one of these shitshows, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Seeds of Anxiety | Avarice and Tone

Valerian dined in a curt and refined manner, composing himself with finesse and eloquence. He tended to be as polite and refined as his situation would allow, though said situations were typically rather nonconducive to such an attitude; it was a little hard to act all prim and proper when one was cutting up interdimensional demon snakes on a planet made of compacted sewage, or wrestling with plasticine warmachines forged from the dreams of dying children. Having gotten over the initial shock of this parlour’s luxury, Vale now found himself blending in rather comfortably. The steak was unique and appetising beyond anything he had ever eaten before, but ‘unique’ described just about everything that he saw nowadays. He’d seen so many strange, colourful and wonderful things that the abnormal had become… well, it had become utterly normal; mundane. Avarice was surprisingly reserved. Rather than annihilating the steak, the plate, the table and everything else in a twenty nine gigaparsec radius, she merely pulled the meat into bits with her teeth, exerting enough force to shatter her incisors and pull them out of her gums. Thus, as she ate, she left bits and pieces of enamel stuck in the meat which she ate without a second thought, constantly regenerating her gums and teeth as they were continually shattered. Their host, the girl with the dozen screaming shadows, walked away as soon as Herbert began to talk about the reasons as to why Valerian had been summoned to the town, knowing that her guests would be inconvenienced if she stuck around.

Despite the apparently tangential nature of Herbert’s introduction to Lludw Cigfrain, Valerian knew that the AEGIS envoy wouldn’t be there without good reason. If he had been summoned to AEGIS’ home universe, there had to be something big going down in the town. That, or the leadership had all spontaneously been affected by Alzheimer’s. The town itself looked rather quaint: nothing too big, nothing too small. By the standards of what he’d seen during his travels, it was of a rather small size and had a fairly modest population. If whatever he’d been summoned to deal with was only active within the town’s borders, then he was confident that he could find it - though handling it was another story entirely. However, after that brief bit of exposition, the interesting part of the briefing began. He took a sip of his tea in order to clear his throat before speaking. ”So, you’ve got some extremists trying to bring about the apocalypse. Seems like the standard Lovecraftian fare: I assume that I’m here to handle the aftermath of their downfall though, and not to take them down to begin with. Seems like if it were the latter case, you’d have brought in someone a little more knowledgeable about this than me, like Sep or Hex.” It was rather funny that despite having worked with AEGIS for months, and having become acquainted with hundreds of people in that time, Hex and September had remained his primary confidantes within the organisation. Hex was like a rival to him, a quick witted and exceptionally competent soldier who he could rely on and compete against in a pinch. September, on the other hand, had a much more personal relationship with him, though he recognised that they weren’t even remotely close to being friends. Rather, September was just someone who he tended to collaborate with every now and then. After that incident aboard the Fortessa, they’d distanced themselves from one another for a little while: Sep had chosen to do so out of shame, whereas Valerian had done so out of concern for both himself and her. People often approached him, asking him whether he could grant them boons or curse their enemies. They treated him like a god, willing to do and capable of doing impossible things at a great, if fair price. And when he inevitably refused, they would call him cowardly and negligent. They’d say that he didn’t deserve immortality, or that his unwillingness to grant them life changing boons when doing so would only take a moment of his time betrayed a lack of moral fibre. He’d long since stopped listening to the arguments: it was easier to cling to what he believed than to have to come up with a new reason for doing what he did each time someone questioned his behaviour. Simply put, his habits came first and the justifications for them came after.

”Nice girl,” he stated flatly in response to seeing Elizabeth’s photograph. ”Arawn Corps, the Crimsonites…. I haven’t ever heard of them, which is rather strange considering the monumental amount of destruction that their plan would cause if it were to be enacted. Your universe is connected to so many others - removing this one from the multiversal network would be like removing a router from a computer network; everything would just fall apart.” He picked up a handful of polaroids of ancient battlefields and blurry snapshots of indistinct humanoid figures, most of whom tended to appear alongside mountains of cadavers in their photos. ”Reavers stronger than your own. I hope to meet one someday. OR maybe, I should be hoping never to meet one; if they’re as powerful as you say, they’d doubtlessly give me quite a bit of trouble.” He put down the files, staring the liaison down. ”It sounds like you want me to fill in that ‘power vacuum’ that you just mentioned. Are you sure that’s viable, though? I’m not an institution, I’m just one man. Someone like Avarice could probably do what you’re demanding, but when it comes to myself, I’m good at killing big things and that’s about it.” Ava piped up: in order to talk and eat at the same time, one of her eyes dissolved and the socket filled up with teeth and tongues, turning her left eye into a mouth with a British accent. ”Guys, guys, you’ve got to try eating food with a broken jaw: the sensation of the blood in the bottom half of your skull slowly curdling adds so much to the dining experience. I couldn’t recommend maiming yourself before dining enough.” ”Ava...” ”Oh, tut; I was just getting to that. Have a little patience, would you? Now, to answer your question before you’ve even asked it: no, I can’t keep the town safe all on my own. There’s too many little details here, too many little perversions of time and space to keep track of. It’d take me centuries to fix all the small bugs, those quantum irregularities that plague the air - and it’d take me millennia to get rid of all the big glitches which are causing those small anomalies to arise. Lludw Cigfrain is just naturally unlike the rest of the universe: ‘fixing’ it would require rewriting all of the fundamental laws of reality and repairing each particle, wave and bit of quantum data individually.” ”So you’re saying it’s not something that you can do? Or at least, not within a convenient amount of time?” ”I guess, if you want to put it that way. But anyway, why don’t we try some Tartarean Tartar Tarts? Don’t worry, everything’s on me!” The tarts, or ‘tatata’s in question were bowls of fluffy, flaky pastry filled with a delightful yellow sauce that looked and behaved like custard but which exuded a tangy, rich odour. The smell was energetic and frenetic, causing Valerian’s nose to tingle as he breathed in the pastries’ intoxicating fumes. He bit into one of them and found that they tasted of nirvana and penitence: the process of eating one of the tarts made him feel like he was being forgiven of some great wrongdoing. ”Distractions aside, I think I’ve got enough info about why I was called here to get the gist of what my assignment’s going to be about. We can leave anytime, if you’ve got somewhere or something that you want to show me.”

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Menschenfleisch
Diplomat
 
Posts: 766
Founded: Nov 01, 2017
Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Menschenfleisch » Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:38 am

Seeds of Anxiety | Felicity

Ashville, that rotting heart at the center of Lludw Cigfrain’s shameful history. Once a monument to industrialisation and opulence, the sector had long since fallen into disrepair. No longer did blue collar workers fill up the streets with their overalls and dusty faces, no longer did urchins bustle to and fro with the daily paper and correspondence to be delivered to rich businessmen whose fingers were dipped in more sordid pies than mere manufacturing. The ground, littered with glass and gravel, crunched under her feet and emitted a growl as coarse as eggshells crumbling under the pressure of one’s clenched fist. The sun’s rays were smothered by clouds of soot and moisture which intermingled like ink and water. Grainy gray splotches littered the horizon, the fumes of smokestacks and chimneys. She could smell the toxin in the air, that weedy yet severe aroma of peroxide and ammonia. The shadows of dead companies loomed over her, casting one half of the street in utter darkness and the other in dim white light. There were no places of comfort here, only concrete derelicts and crumbling brick walls which had long since lost their crimson hue and which had thus adopted a pink, infirm pallor. The air was nippy yet close, tender like a half sincere insult coming from a close friend or a loved one. The town was a picture of melancholy tonight. The dull wind, the shrouded skies and empty, echoing streets gave rise to a strange sort of somber self introspection. What did she hope to achieve, really, by burying her comrades? Would it benefit anyone in any real way if she put them to rest? The only people that would be comforted by the act besides herself were the unbound consciousnesses of her now deceased comrades, and even then their minds had most likely degraded to a point where they couldn’t even process the world around them, let alone feel any sort of comfort from knowing that they’d been buried. Yet, she still felt a drive to do as she’d set out to do. Was this sentiment? It was so brutal a feeling, so raw an emotion. Not acute and fleeting like rage or passion, but sustained and overwhelming, like the pain that came from kneading a deep, fresh bruise.

Felicity knew enough about the town to find help in spite of her obscurity, poverty and condition. She’d known more about the underbelly of this place than even the longest lived residents of this town when she’d been just eighty. Now, she could recognise each street and building by the stains and scuffs on them, and she could picture them as they had been a century ago, yesterday, five days in the future… she knew precisely where she was going and who she was supposed to find. She hadn’t any concern for someone seeing her in the street, for she had found a rusty carpenter’s nail earlier and had gripped it in her mouth, using its end to carve runes into her shoulder, chest and the remains of her arms. Even the least learned of the reavers had been genius thaumaturges in their own right, and though she had been around two centuries out of practise, she’d remembered the sigils well enough. She’d carved runes of masking all across her body, creating a minor illusion which caused casual onlookers to believe that she was totally unremarkable. They’d remember seeing her, but they wouldn’t place any undue emphasis on the memory. It was a crude, unreliable and dangerous way of keeping herself inconspicuous, but it had been her only option at the time. She left a trail of blood as she walked, most of it her own. Her feet were stained with her own fluids and her whole body was caked in a crimson crust. Her missing eye continued to sting despite how long it had been since she’d sustained the injury: she’d kept her eyelid shut ever since the conclusion of that battle and since then the empty socket had filled up with humours and blood. If she were to open her eye now, a bilious bilge would spill out and cover her face. Her body was simple incapable of healing these injuries.

Eventually, inevitably, after no small amount of trekking, Felicity came upon Ashbourne Refinery, that decrepit monument to the impermanence of wealth and the futility of attempting to forge a legacy. Or maybe it was just an abandoned factory, what did she know? It was surrounded by a tall chain link fence, overgrown with mosses and creepers. The iron constituting its perimeter had long since rusted into a brambly, thorny mess of broken and stressed wires, each of which looked like a snapping violin string frozen in time. They were green and brown with rust and residual paint, and had been thinned down by wear in many places. She imagined that she could simply walk through it, destroying the metal just by standing near it, but deigned to take the less suspicious route. She dug her feet into the gaps between the links and clambered up the fence with no arms, clearing it in three or so steps. She somersaulted through the air and landed on the other side with a brief, wet thud. Her knees bent in order to absorb the impact, then they straightened out again as she hopped a short distance forward, bouncing like a rubber ball. She felt no exhilaration or pride: her previous physique had allowed her to perform absurd feats of agility and dexterity that would put any acrobat or parkourist to shame. The field on the other side was home to a sparse little field of vegetation. Hardy grasses and ferns sprang from the ditches by the walls of the factory where water tended to pool while glossy shrubs sprouted from the area just by the fence. In between those two strata of flora lay a barren wasteland of dead insects, metal shards and brick dust. The high walls of the refinery stretched on into the sky ahead of her, shiny with moisture and reeking of mildew. This place was like the corpse of a king, still regal and proud yet impotent and dessicated all the same. The corpses of birds lay strewn about in the field, their bleached bones long since buried in muddy sediment and picked clean by maggots. There was nothing she could digest here.

The doors were wide open and Felicity strode in with as much care and as much aplomb as a fly entering one’s house through a slit in the window. The front door, which had once been a steel portcullis backed by a sheet of copper, had been torn off its hinges a while ago. Now, chunks of it lay on the concrete floor, slowly sinking into puddles of moisture. The air inside the factory was colder, dustier and more stagnant. It was drier, too, as if the dust had sucked all the moisture out. Her footsteps did not echo, they hardly elicited any sound at all. She stepped around patches of dirt and moved her feet over bits of chipped stone, rendering her passage almost totally silent. The foyer beyond the door was immense, easily large enough to house whole aircraft. There were lanes upon lanes of empty cauldrons and casts, gargantuan pieces of die-cast metal, sturdy to this day. Cracked crucibles lay on the ground, broken after having encountered dozens of winters and summers. It was dark, and the little light that managed to get through the holes in the roof did little to illuminate Felicity’s surroundings. The world was cast in black and white, with little luminescent beams spilling in from above. It was eerie and calm: she was in a silent promenade, a relic from ages past. She could almost imagine that she was walking through the remains of an ancient Greek city, surrounded by statues and carved stones made as testaments to some ancient civilization’s prosperity. She felt at peace. She'd found a place to recuperate. However, she was not entirely sure that this place had been abandoned. Thus, when she sat herself down beside an ancient basin and began to patch up her wounds by stretching her skin over her wounds with her teeth - exploiting their tremendous elasticity - she kept an eye out, always wary of her surroundings.
Last edited by Menschenfleisch on Wed Nov 27, 2019 2:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Kaziimar
Envoy
 
Posts: 236
Founded: Mar 06, 2019
Ex-Nation

Postby Kaziimar » Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:10 pm

Naval Monte wrote:Secrets of the Raven

Elizabeth felt her cheeks as her body began to reform back to its regular texture, shape, and consistency, frowning as she felt her cheeks and felt them being a bit more saggy than before, cursing in her mind at the potion that caused it. The witch looked up at Jackie. "Not very pleasant is a underestimate, try fucking traumatizing. I was afraid of me and Terry were going to be stuck as the bloody blob for the rest of our lives." She turns to look at Terry as he held on to his sides.

"That didn't heal you huh?" The mage shook his head. "Nah, but I'm just glad my ribs are where they should be even if their broken. But you know I always thought what would it be like if we were together, but not like that." He joked before he groan from the sharp pang of pain that shoot throughout his body. Elizabeth crawled next to Terry as she gently lifted up his shirt, revealing the ugly bruise the punch made. She saw the skin was a reddish purple blotch with grayish outlines. She noticed the skin in a few parts had small bumps and she became concerned when she saw those. 

"Damn it, that golem did a number on you." She pulled out a vial and open it. "Was saving this for me but you need it more." She would slide her hand under his head to lift it up. She would have him drink the vial and once it was empty she would gently place his head back down. "You're out of this fight mate. I don't need you dying from internal bleeding. Just save your energy on healing and let me and the others deal with the freaks and wizards." She told him in a soothing manner, to which he agreed.

Elizabeth would get up and dust herself. "So you want me to do stuff for you like making your wishes come true like a genie since we are now at three? Hopefully in our life debt game I can finally get some points down this hellhole." The two would hear a loud crash as Theodore's golem deliver a spiked fist on to the other golem's head, punching it off its shoulders. Rolo would unleash a bolt of lightning that would arc to the closest homunculi, electucating and killing a large swath of survivors. Mai incinerated the remaining humanoids with spontaneous combustion.

The dying screams of the homunculus fill the air as well as the roar of the raging inferno consuming them from the inside out, the crumbling body of the golem as each piece fell to the earth joined them. When the last piece of the golem flaked off the burnt bodies of the homunculus joined it. With the body seemingly over no one in the team celebrated this victory.

Three team members were done which it alone would ruin the festive mood, but the fact that Alex was still trap suggest that the mages were still present. "Keep your eyes and ears sharp everyone. The Crimsonites have geomancers so they can attack us from anywhere." Rolo warned as he flipped his hammer in the air and caught it.

Mai lift her arms up and conjured several floating fireballs to illuminate the tunnel to and remove any shadows the earth movers could use to hide their arrival. The ordered his Golem to reduce itself into an amorphous blob of clay as it spread out on the floor and touch the walls to reach the ceiling in order to sense for any mages moving the rock. During this brief pause Wei would try to summon more demonic familiars to assist with the search and exterminate of any approaching mage while Richard tried to convince the worms to help join the search.

Elizabeth walked up to her mother and after a few incantations and tracing a few symbols with her right pointer finger she would take out her curse knife with her left hand and slash at the air, almost dangerously close to her mom. Alex gave her daughter a look of fear after the slash but soon felt the spell she was on break. As she lifted her hands to look at them she began to close and open her fingers, lifting one leg and bringing it down before lifting the other and bringing it down. She looked back at Elizabeth. "You could have warned me that you were going to do that!" She glared at her

Elizabeth shrugged. "It worked right? I mean I could have actually slash or stab you and hope the curse went after the spell and not you. But I think neither of us want to test that." Alex still gave her a pout on the scare she received. 

The argument would be short lived as the group sense something approaching them. As the group turn to face the tunnel, preparing spells against whatever was coming towards them, a blast of wind would hit them followed by a fine powder of pulverized rock and dust. The group was forced to cover their eyes, nose, and mouth to the best of their abilities as the silicon storm blew through the passage. Alex began to chant in Sumerian as she took out a brown pentacle and point it forward towards the dust storm.

As she began to channel the Terronous and Aeronous aether around her in town and now in the air she began to guide the storm to part from the group. As path before them began to clear up Alex was the first to see daggers flying towards the group. It was with a quick incantation and a flick of the wrist to active one of her amulets to provide extra power that the daggers sent on her way were diverted to hit the floor or fly around her.

Wei and Richard were protected by the demonic hands as the blades hit the boney hands and bounced off. The two only heard the knives by the time they could see their demonic protectors appearing before them. Theodore had his golem make a wall to protect him from the blades while Metis body was strong enough to make the blades shatter or bounce once they hit her body.

Elizabeth put down her arms and open her eyes to see knives flying towards her. She couldn't move as she the weapons caught her by surprise and because she knew she didn't have enough time to dodge them. Just as as the blades was close to stabbing her dark tendirls came up and absorb the knives. The occultist looked at the tenebraes and thought they were hers but soon realize that hers were still in her shadow, she looked over to Terry and saw that he also protected Jackie with his own familiar. The mage was spared from the knives due to most missing him. 

"Looks like you owe me twice now Liz." He said to her as look up. He tried to laugh but he only groan as the attempt made him feel a sharp shock of pain erupt from his chest. "Don't laugh now you idiot. Besides I saved your life twice too with my potion being thrice now, so don't think you don't owe me anything." She fired back.

Mai let out screams of pain as the knives got her by her by both her forearms, thighs, and her waist. Rolo recive the same injuries but he merely grunted. The runecaster began to remove the knives out of himself almost as though he felt no pain in doing so. "Bastards." He growled as he hurled bolts of lightning at the shrinking cloud in an attempt to get the ones who threw the blades. Alex would join in as she channel her powers to send the strong gust and dust back at the caster that first produced it. Metis summon her gatling gun and began to open fire at the tunnel again until she ran out of ammo.

With the tunnel now cleared the group felt nothing else coming after them. Alex would look to Jackie. "You got anything that can heal?"  She asked. Rolo took out a stone with a rune etched too it and applied it to the stab wound on his right thigh. He made an Icelandic incarnation and the power of the rune began to pour from the stone to his would, slowly healing him. Mai was the one who needed the heal. While she can cauterize the wound she feared it was too deep for the method to work effectively, plus she would rather avoid doing that if possible. Likely Wei went her to be healed by his blood magic.

Elizabeth still had her revolver out as she suspect the mages will attack again. Elizabeth looked around as she tried to use her sixth sense and the tenebraes to warn her of danger as she took a few steps forward into the tunnel. Theo did the same with his golem and Richard with the worms.



The Great Wizarding Rebellion

Johann saw Polly throw Kiara against the wall while a bundle of hair acting like tentacles came forward to wrap themselves around Polly. The tengu and Inugami were preparing to join the fight when Madi told the director to surrender.

"You're wasting your time getting that man to  surrender." The tengu said as he gets to crack his knuckles. "This gijan would rather die than betray his international fascist conspiracy. I say we either torture valuable information or just kill him on the spot." The Inugami was silent on the matter as he prepared several more cards for his magic.

The pterodactyl looked at the group and it seem to understand that it should either work with them and get food later or try to eat now and die. The creature seem to step down as it stop roaring and stand down.

Johann saw the group convincing one anomaly to join them. "So that is your plan Madison? You're trying to get as many anomalies to join your group to get back at the people who were wronged by your government. Your alliance won't last once you leave this facility. All of them have their own goals. All you are doing is throwing more hazards to your world Goodwill. Can you live with yourself for every death they will cause?" The director told her. 

In the hallway the mermaid and tiefling would encounter soldiers wearing black tactical hear and gas masks with red glowing visors gunning down zombies. When the unded were terminated the group saw the two mythical women. "That's the demon that released the mermaid! Get them!" The soldiers took out stun guns to paralyze the two.

With Kayta the robbed figures did not say a thing to her as they began to move towards her car, the vehicles engine being on not deterring them.

"These bitches." Dea sighed. "I'm not a demon, I have demonic ancestry! There's a huge difference!" Damarei tugged at the sleeve of her robe. "We don't have time for that, rant about your bloodline later! Right now our top goal is to escape!"
"You're right...I guess." Dea snapped her fingers and a bubble of arcane energy formed around the two of them. "Alright, we're just going to charge through as quickly as we can because I can't maintain the shield for very long while moving."
"Got it." The two of them began to race toward the guards, keeping an eye out for a weak spot or opening they could get through quickly.

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Rostavykhan
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Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Rostavykhan » Tue Nov 26, 2019 9:37 pm

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

Eep! Miria jumped back, hair on end, and her bug-pets probably just as startled as herself. That was more like the Polly she knew, angry as she was! Miria shivered and stood back, as if her standing too close would annoy the other woman even more, although she knew it probably wouldn't. Still, best to give her some room.

She was...letting them go. No more fighting, it seemed. Madi could let Johann go now, and they could get away without anyone else getting hurt. She appreciated that. It was a relief, and an opportunity that she was glad to finally have. She could just follow along, grab her gear, and get those bugs to safety, and then they could all get away from the AEGIS base and get back to their original mission, of fighting...bad wizards? Mundanes? Keeping the peace? They could get away from AEGIS, which was good enough for Miria. She didn't think flourescent lights and metal bars suited her - or being snacked on by anomalous monsters.

Miria took the initiative, and began to shuffle along the wall, until she neared Polly. Her feet kicked out, and her shuffling became a quick, awkward walk, passing her, Kiara, and Madi, before turning her back to the elevator, striking an awkward, tight-lipped expression. "Um...", She hummed, standing there for a moment; she looked at Polly for a moment, and then at the floor, at her feet. "Thank you!", She said, quick and curt. She looked back up at Madi and Kiara. "Are we going, then? Maybe let that dude go?", She asked, nodding towards Johann. "I'm...starting to feel panicky."
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Skylus
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Democratic Socialists

Postby Skylus » Wed Nov 27, 2019 3:28 pm

TGWR
AEGIS bass, unknown location


"Yeah. Yeah, we're getting out of here. Everyone, follow me, our next objective is to find the vault, get everything back, then leave. Does anyone have any objections?" Madi paused roa second, letting people speak their minds.

"No? Good, then we are leaving. polly, keep them occupied, I'm coming back for you whether you want me to or not." With that, Madi led everyone down the hallway and around the corner.
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Naval Monte
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Civil Rights Lovefest

Postby Naval Monte » Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:34 am

Secrets of the Raven

A blast of heat blew across Elizabeth's face as a guest of air made her hair and coat flutter as another explosion occurs, the spear splitting in half to show it was attached to chains of the demon lord leaving yet another fiery crater as the infernal swordsman had his shoulders bent down to dodge the projectile and began to run forward towards Berith, the shoulder armor have long scratches due to grazing hits from the blades.

As the demonic giant leapt towards he stabbed Berith with his sword and it manage to go through the armor. The cursed eye stare down at the samurai and before it can fire out another blast of curse fire a bolt of lightning hit the eye, preventing it from attacking. 

The demon lord summoned the two eyes from its sockets and send them out to float around it, both aiming at Rolo. As the two eyes send out fiery streams of certain death that would be the moment Mai would summon forth her familiar to tank the attacks for Rolo. The young woman frowned at the goddess comment on humanity on them being like amoebas. "You know, this is why some people both distrust and hate your kind." The woman muttered.

Right now she can't focus on them, she needs to protect everyone from the flames cast by the demon lord. She closed her eyes as she had her hands out front, chanting instructions for her familiar. The familiar let out a roar as it began to absorb the close by fire around, it's power growing and its body as it absorb more heat. Mai began to wince as she can feel the intense heat through her familiar. She can feel her insides boiling and her skin being burned to the point of being charred even as steam was coming from her body, yet she refuses to budge. 

This was the only contribution she has to the group. Her fire can't be of any use to fight against their enemies so protecting them from the fire of hell is the least she can do for the small group who she can say are her true friends, if not her extended family, in the Celestial Order. As hair of her face was covered by flames the Desprayes saw the fire brand was doing and they began to run towards.

As they were close the demons did not have the time to react to a hail of bullets tearing through their bodies. Lead projectiles tore through their flesh and armor as it were wet tissues as they bodies began to jerk around from the concussive force of the stream as their organs turn into a mushy mess. As the hail of bullets stop the demons fell. Looking to the source of the attack the gunmen was Metis, holding a triple barrel minigun.

The left face of the automaton had a large crack, almost like a mask on the verge of shattering. Other cracks can be seen on her body as well the metal being blacken and warp due to the heat from the explosion she was caught in, moreover shrapnel from axe minded themselves on parts of her body. From her shoulders, elbows, and knees, areas that have a hint of her mechanical nature, sparks were flying out. Loud clockwork mechanisms can be heard clicking and turning as they tried to operate despite the damage they most likely sustained.

The robot fell onto her right need as her leg finally gave out. "I can still provide support against the minions." The robot told the group as she dematerialize the mini gun to summon a sniper rifle, taking aim and firing a shot that tore through the helmet of another Despraye. More demons began to go after Metis and Mai but as they got closer to the two they would be caught by either lightening bolts from Rolo or fists of solid rock from Theodore or even thorny roots and vines from an anomalous plant that Richard had in his possession.

A few were crushed to death by Terry as he made gravity much heavier for them. "Seriously Liz we need that demon lord free now!" The former cultists shouted as he began to channel extradimensional energy on to his hand as he fold to resemble like a blade. Staying with the sword imagery he would slash his hand as though he was slashing a sword, unleashing a wave of eldritch energy that bend spacetime to move across the space between him sbd a few demons so he can slice them in half from a far.

Elizabeth made a final slash on the air and finished reciting her chant, exhaling. "I just need to do one last thing. But I need your help Terry." Taking the fact she can now speak to him a good sign he asked what she needs. "I need you to make gravity for me lighter and give me a barrier." He would do as she asked but still wonder what she was planning. Once the witch felt much lighter she would wave her hand over her blade while making a short chant, making a dark aura surrounding the blade.

She would give Terry a smile. "Thanks mate. Perhaps we can both hang out to relax after this if we survive. But before we think on that "let's just hope my idea doesn't backfire on me." She told him as she flips the knife around so she held it in a reverse grip. Before Terry can ask Elizabeth what her plan was the witch took off at much greater speeds than usual. Running towards Berith.

Elizabeth heard Terry shouting for her to stop along with Metis and Rolo while Mai called her crazy. She almost could have heard Celeste and Jackie calling her crazy? Perhaps she imagined that? As the witch ran around patches of the ground still on fire she can see Berith was now away from the samurai as he had his chain around the demons blade, the two tugging and pulling. A few Desprayes saw what was happening with Elizabeth and before one can start the chase it's head was blown off by Metis and several others were sliced in half by Terry. 

The three eyes of the demon lord saw the witch running toward the two demons. As the two eyes fired off a stream of plasma at Elizabeth the witch was going to try and dodge the twin streams or at least let the barrier tank it for a while before she can get out of the way. As she stopped she found that the stream was going to hit her before she can try to dodge. Yet as she expects to see the twin stream hit her a pillar of fire came out from the ground just as the stream hit the pillar. 


Event Music

As the stream of plasma collide with the pillar of swirling flames it began to join in the vortex as embers scattered about from the twister, the pillar not only began to absorb the stream but the two eyes creating them. Elizabeth would hear a voice calling out. "Run Ashwood!" She turned to see Mai with fire spots spouting from the other side of her face, shoulder, and arm. "You just leave the fire to me. Hopefully I will make sure your mom won't have to collect your ashes when she gets back." The fire brand gave her a grin. Elizabeth returned the gesture willing giving her a nod as she ran around the pillar as it absorbs back into the elemental that created it, the spirit throwing its head forward as it unleash a blast of hellfire to counter the blast of curse fire launch by the cursed eye.

As Elizabeth ran forward she can feel her sixth sense alerting her of danger. As she cleared her mind from any distraction to try to tie her instincts with the paranatural senses Metis would take out a century old rifle and fire it, unleashing a bullet coated in arcane energy that flew around and tearing into multiple demons that tried to run towards her as Rolo electrocuted several more. For other Desprayes they found massive walls and hedges growing from the ground that blocked them from the witch.

Elizabeth got the feeling to jump back and as she stopped and squatted down so she would jump back, going much farther than she expected as though she was jumping on the moon. The sudden release from Earth's gravity surprised her, more so than the chains that burst out from the ground. From air she can see the hooks at the end of the chains were making a turn to go down towards her. However she saw the same arcane bullet flying around the chains, destroying them ad the hooks. The more manageable pieces hit her barrier which made her body shimmer as the arcane shield acted like a second skin.

As Eizabeth land she saw several arms made of rock and clay grow from the ground and as they tried to punch and squish her she saw both arms similar to the arms of stone and clay and demonic skeletal arms rise from the ground to stop the first arms. The witch ran towards the right and easily went through a gap between the competing arms as she ran past the mess of broken chains. The witch kept her sight on the demon lord whose body was covered in glowing runes and sigils that she can see, her eyes were on the one on Berith chest, the sigil acting as the center node for the binding spell.

From the ceiling and upper level of the walls more chains came down to impede and kill the witch. As the witch thought on what to do to avoid being caught she saw the two chains being destroyed in a fashion she knew could only come from Dawn and Celeste. The witch said nothing as she took the opportunity provided by the two goddesses to keep going forward. The demon lord saw the witch running towards him. "What are you doing conjurer? I know your kind are insane by nature but this madness is bordering on absurd. Stop now!" He warned her as he can feel his summoner ordering him to kill Elizabeth.

The cursed eye stop firing out the flames and quickly dodged the stream of fire from the elemental as it aim to Elizabeth. As it was charging the curse within from behind icicle feathers hit it, causing ice to travel from the wound and spread throughout the back. From the ground the ice eagle was still melting but it seem to find the energy to keep on fighting. The eagle tried to fly once more as more arms from a golem rose up only to be pulverized by an increased gravitational field. As the demon lord threw one half of his spear at Elizabeth the samurai would deflect it with his sword before rushing to slice the demon from his right up all the way to his left shoulder.

Berith would scream in pain from the attack as demonic arms, golem arms, and vines began to wrap themselves around him. The demon lord struggle to break free from them using his strength. But upon seeing the swordsman was going to deliver a strike the demon lord would combust into flames, incinerating the vines and melting the golem arms, leaving only the demonic arms that couldn't hold back the demon lord as he block the strike with the spear.

From the ceiling more chains came down to the mage just as more golem hands rose up to form a series of steps for her to climb up. From the air the angel appeared and took the blow, unlike the worm the hooks couldn't tear through the angel and more importantly they didn't kill the angel. Above the ice eagle was now in the air as it sent out an icy wind to the demon lord who ignored it for the most part. However when it saw the bird diving bombing it a chain from the spear shot out and the bird dodge the attack as it threw out more feathers that hit Berith, the feathers exploding to release mist of cold air that began to freeze the demon. 

As the bird flew away from Berith a chain would fly out from its spear and it would strike at its wing, shattering completely. The bird let out a screech as it fell to the ground and shattered into pieces once it crash landed. While the bird was destroyed it's sacrifice was not in vain as the samurai grabbed on to the encumbered demon lords arms, keeping him in place as vines wrap themselves around his chains.  

Eizabeth would see that other chains would keep coming down but each one would be destroyed before they can reach her. As she reaches the final hand she would find herself close to Berith, better if she can jump she would be able to land on him. Walking back to the edge she would sprint forward and just as the edge was close she would jump just as chain from the ground destroyed the hand she was on second ago. The witch soar through the air as she hope she calculated her jump well.

As the demon lord got closer Elizabeth realized she was going to crash on it, a prospect she found discerning even with the barrier around her. As she hit the demon lord she would quickly latch on to a decorate piece of the armor that acted as a ledge for her to grab on to. The barrier shimmer as it absorbs most of the impact. However it would continue to shimmer as the demon lord began to increase in temperature until he spontaneously combust into flames to not only free himself from the ice that was creeping along his body but to incinerate the witch on him. 

As the fire obscured her sight of the sigil Elizabeth had to rely on her extra senses to spot the right sigil while still making sure to work under the time limit the barrier has before it shatters. She closed her eyes as she tried to feel through the ambient arcane energy in the chamber to try and find the right current coming from the sigil.

The witch held on as her body sway as the demon lord fought against the samurai. Each strike either being blocked or deflected as the other try to deliver a counter attack. As Elizabeth was sway back and thrust back on to the demon she was sure it would have knocked the air out of her if the barrier wasn't present… as well as being ashes about now.

The witch would have her eyes shot up as she felt something and without any hesitation she would thrust her knife forward and stab at the demon lord, right through the sigil. The sigil would glow brightly before it shatter like glass, the other runes and sigils following soon after the first sigil broke. An aurora of colors trailing off the demon lord as the binding spell began to unravel before everyone as it kept fighting against the samurai.

The demons in the crowd saw the binding spell breaking off from their boss and weren't sure what it meant for them now. Once the trail of colors faded from the demon lord both he and swords man stare at each other, both weary of the other delivering another attack. "Oi." The two demons look at Elizabeth who was still clinging on to Berith. "Can you two continue your fight after I send you two back to the pit. I rather not die after somehow succeeding with this crazy stunt." She yelled out, the barrier finally shimmering to the aether as its time limit was up.
-----

Deep in the cavern as Jackie and the sword ran away towards the entrance they would hear another roar followed by many more. The pack was now alert to their presence. As they ran past the glittery passage they can hear the pack of humanoids chasing after them with surprising speed. If they don't make it to the entrance the pack might reach them in a few minutes.

As they kept running through the tunnel the two would hear another roar in front of them echoing through the tunnel, one that was both terrifying yet oddly familiar. Soon the source would reveal itself to be the spider gorilla. The beast would grunt as it saw Jackie, it rose it's arm to allow her to run past it.

The gorilla would let out a roar as it charge forward to meet the pack head on, giving her the much needed time to escape. Eventually Jackie will see a light at the end of the tunnel. Jackie ran to the light as though the gates of heaven were opening before her. As she sent through the light and finally adjusted her eyes she was greeted by hellfire and dead bodies. Dead demons lay on the floor and the chamber floor resembled the surface of the moon. She saw broken chains hanging from the ceiling and walls while lying on the floor. 

Jackie would see the group was still alive but with the creatures that Elizabeth had the samurai was still alive and was staring down the demon lord while the angel was badly injured as hooks were sticking into its body, the other creatures she found either their charred remains or pile of ashes, save for the eagle which body melted into a puddle. The Desprayes looked at Jackie but they surprisingly didn't attack her, if anything they look unsure on what to do with her.

Jackie would see Elizabeth clinging on to the demon lord himself, her knife stabbed deep I to his armor. Yet when the witch pulled it out there no damage on the armor, a fact that didn't surprise the occultist as the curse targeted the sigil, not the demon lord.



Seeds of Anxiety

Both the receptionist and the burglar turn to look at Rosanna, their eyes immediately going to the gun she was holding. The old man looked even more fearful as the woman told the old man to call the police while telling the would be robber to drop his weapon. The old man began to slowly make his way to the phone, afraid that sudden movement would cause the robber to lunge at him. 

The man looked at the woman but soon the fear in his eyes began to change to amusement. "Nice try sugartits but that gun is fake. There is no way it's real." He mocked as he pointed his weapon at her. "Now maybe I won't mess up your pretty face if you give me your money." The man threatened. He would turn to the old man to threaten him to not call the police if he wants to leave the store alive. Letting his guard down in that short moment.
-----

"We would be unfortunately they are busy currently at the moment. Besides a few of my superiors feel that it is best not to send in a Reaver and possible Reaver candidate into the town unless we are sure the cult doesn't have anymore destructive secrets like those Reavers lying around." He explained to Valerian as he cut another piece of his steak. He would chuckle on Valerian's response to Elizabeth photo. "I heard some people say the same thing but I'm not sure on that."

When Valerian tops him that the Crimsonites and Arwen Corp were new to him and that their universe was not only connected to many others but was important Herbert swallowed. "Surely our world can't be that important? There a multitude of alternative versions of this one alone. How can ours be so important that it servers as a router to a multiversal network?"

Soon Ava joined and Herbet tried not to look disturbed by what she did with her eye but it was hard to keep a straight face. "Yes trying to fix the town would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible. It's what we focus on monitoring the town and dealing with each case whenever they emerge. As for a place to show you well there is one location that will be more pressing for you two. Your new workplace." He explained as he reached out and grabbed a Tart to try it.
-----

In the abandoned factory Felicity would occasionally hear the sound of metal being banged against something from one of the rooms. She would hear the faint echoes of birds calls through the halls. She would see a few rats in the same room she was searching for food. The rodents gave her a wide room as they search for food.



The Great Wizarding Rebellion

Jin grunted as he felt his body becoming paralyze. "Damn it! Guys stop them!" He shouted but none of them followed his orders. "What the?" The holographic form of Athena appeared before him and Polly, the woman holding both her hands together while having her eyes closed. "Sorry captain but I can't let you and your men fight them. The girls are right, your chances of victory are slim and we can't afford to expend the lives of your squad so I order them ignore your command." 

The AI turn to Polly. "I will let this incident slide for now. So long as you promise to not divulge our secrets to them or paralyze or kill my people again we might leave most of them alone, assuming they don't cause more trouble in this world." The AI told Polly. 

With the group Tenzma and Yoshinori looked at Kiara. The tengu sighed. "I will try. I just can't stand it when they act like they are somehow some force of good in the world." The tengu told her. Soon they will fine a large metal door that was the vault. "So how are we going to open it?" The Inugami asked?"
-----

As Kayta drove forward the hooded figure barely made an attempt to move out of the way. When the headlights were close to illuminate the figure Kyta saw fir a brief moment eyes that were wide and mad. When she hit the man black filth would suddenly splash on her car like a water or paint, covering the windshield and side windows, leaving Kayta blind as her car kept driving forward.
Last edited by Naval Monte on Fri Nov 29, 2019 4:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Demincia
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Founded: Jul 08, 2010
Democratic Socialists

Postby Demincia » Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:17 pm

Seeds of Anxiety
Lludw Cigfrain, Cymru
Rosanna Dawson


Rosanna rolled her eyes when the man stated her gun was fake. She did note that he spoke with an accent that sounded vaguely British. While it was possible that he was just a crazed immigrant, she remembered the architecture of the town she saw outside. It definitely had a European vibe, and combined with the accent it was possible the wormhole deposited her on a different continent. Luckily she didn't identify herself immediately, so at the moment she was just a bystander.

When the man turned away from her in a moment, Dawson's training kicked in. She holstered her gun and stepped towards the robber, grabbing the wrist of his weapon hand to control it. She used her momentum and body weight to push him against the counter to unsteady him, then grabbed the back of his head and hit it against the countertop.

Holding the man there, she looked back up at the clerk. "No, seriously. Call the police before I shoot myself." she said dryly.

<Jokes like that are a lot less funny when there are two of us in here.> came a voice inside her mind.

Not now, a little busy here. the woman thought. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from her coat pocket. "You're just lucky I happen to carry these around." she said, cuffing one of the man's wrists. She glanced up at the clerk to inspire a sense of urgency.

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Naval Monte
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Founded: Sep 04, 2014
Civil Rights Lovefest

Postby Naval Monte » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:42 pm

Demincia wrote:---


The man was surprised when Rosanna grabbed him and not only forced him to let go the machete but also soam his head on the counter. As he was handcuffed the store clerk looked at the scene with surprise before running off to call the police. The two can hear the phone ringing as the man waited for the caller at the other end to pick up.

"Bloody hell. Who do you think you are? Some bloody cop?" The man began to struggle against the cuffs. The two dan hear the old man talking with the police. He have them a brief description on what was happening and soon after hearing from them he hung up. He return back. "The police are coming. Thank you miss." The old man said to Roseanna.

Elsewhere in town her arrival was detected by AEGIS as their sensors picked up the opening of a rift. AEGIS was already sending out agents to find the entity that was now in town.
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Demincia
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Postby Demincia » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:31 pm

Seeds of Anxiety
Lludw Cigfrain, Cymru
Rosanna Dawson


Rosanna picked up the machete from the floor and set it on the counter. "No, not exactly a cop. Have a seat." she said, grabbing him by the shoulder and pushing on the back of his knee with her leg so he ended up sitting on the ground. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. "Days like this make me wish I didn't stop smoking."

She glanced down at her watch, which of course was still set for EST, so it read that it was almost midnight. Dawson looked at the clerk and motioned towards her watch. "My watch must have stopped working, could you tell me the time?" she asked. Knowing the time zone would narrow down her location more until she got an exact answer, but asking that would be too suspicious.

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Menschenfleisch
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Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Menschenfleisch » Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:04 am

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn was… actually, she couldn’t be bothered rehashing all the shit that just happened. Again: everything that the reader read happened to her, meaning that if the events of the last post for Secrets of the Raven were to be recapped in this one, she would’ve effectively lived through the same set of events twice, except the world would’ve been more vivid the second time around. Frankly, the whole song and dance seemed utterly pointless and thus she decided to skip it altogether. She stripped the cloth from Alasehir as soon as she realised what had happened (which wasn’t very long, since it was so obscenely obvious that Elizabeth had freed Berith, judging by the demons’ own hesitation to do anything and the ease at which the group seemed to be). ”God fucking dammit!” She cursed as Alasehir slipped free from his bindings. ”I missed out on the big finale! Agh, I’m going to be relegated to extra status for sure.” The sword tumbled out of her hands and began to jitter and throb on the floor. Its surface cracked and in a moment, much to Jackie’s surprise, a man had burst from it. He was dressed in animal furs and had a short ponytail. To be frank, he was kind of handsome, if Jack was being honest. “Bleugh, god damn. Thanks for that, babe. Couldn’t have done it without’cha.” ”You were a human….oid this whole time? That puts your creepy ass comments from earlier into perspective. You’re a fucking pervert, man.” He scowled and smiled at her at the same time. His face sort of flip-flopped between the two expressions, never quite settling into one or the other. “Hey suck my dick, alright? I’m an Incubus. I literally can’t help it… sugartits.” She squinted at him, putting her hands on her hips. ”You know, I really don’t... I don’t know whether I should kick you in the nuts or apologise. Actually, what am I talking about? It’s the author I should be shitting on. Christ, you’re just so immature and unfunny and… agh, forget it. Still, I knew you could shapeshift, but I didn’t know you could turn into a human, of all things; let alone that it would be your ‘default’ form, so to speak” Alasehir rolled his eyes, winked, curtsied and then moaned in either exasperation or pleasure. “Did you really think that any species of demon would evolve to be a sword? C’mon, it was just common sense.” ”Ah yes, because common sense is going to apply when we’re living in a goddamn anime.” She responded dryly.

Eventually, Jacquelyn just shrugged and walked past Alasehir. ”Whatever. See you soon, man. I mean, probably not, but hey: you never know when some random side character’s going to become the next recurring protagonist.” She strode right up to Elizabeth who happened to be standing quite close to Berith. Though the titanic demon lord had no acted against the group yet, Jack couldn’t help but feel unsafe around him, knowing that he could end her with nary a hint of effort. ”So Liz, did we… did we do it? I mean, did you do it? I may or may not have fallen into a hole, gotten myself attacked by some of the indigenous fauna, and…” fuck, what had she even contributed to the fight? She felt awful trying to speak to Elizabeth as if they were on equal terms. They just weren’t. The witch was on a level above her, as was the rest of the team. Mai was burned beyond recognition, Metis was falling apart and Terry was drooling blood. Yet, in the midst of all that hardship and turmoil, Jack was comparatively unscathed. Sure, her right arm was utterly fucked, but it wasn’t exactly going to need an amputation, now was it? And besides, she’d fought off one demon, and not even a particularly powerful one at that. Nonetheless, she presented her damaged arm to Liz. It had been skinned by Alasehir and bits of bone were showing through the layers of tough muscle that he’d tried to chew through. The bleeding had been stemmed, however, by a resin that Alasehir had applied onto her wound in order to seal in the nutrients within her body. ”I mean, now probably isn’t the best time, but do you think this is alright, or should I find some help? It doesn’t hurt or anything, but I can’t move my arm is all.”

Seeds of Anxiety | Felicity

Felicity spied a small group of rats near herself, all lingering in one corner of the abandoned steel mill, poring over what appeared to be an overgrown cluster of weeds. She glimpsed the bulging, plump bodies of worms and roaches buried inside the dirt. The rats would scrabble through the soil with their sharp front claws and snatch up their prey, nibbling their heads off and slathering them in saliva. Thank god, she thought. The rats had saved her the trouble of finding food herself.She flicked a shard of glass just off the ground with the tip of her foot and then, twirling in a wide arc, kicked it with the back of her heel, sending it flying straight toward the cloister of rats. It sang as it ate up the berth between itself and its quarries, although it was not aimed directly at them. Instead, the shard struck the ground a metre or so in front of them and then shattered into hundreds of tiny, infinitesimal pieces. Those miniscule motes of glass were like flechettes, and they cleanly passed through the rats’ soon-to-be-cadavers, perforating them in dozens if not hundreds of places. It was an instantaneous, practically bloodless death. The rats’ injuries had already sealed them selves by way of surface tension. She stepped forward and stooped down next to their corpses and lowered her mouth to the ground, snatching up the first and largest rodent with her teeth and snarfing it down. Blood and stomach acid exploded inside her mouth, drowning out the texture of fur. The rats were chewy and rich with the musk of the moldering factory. She could identify where they’d lived just from the taste of the dust on their coats. This rat had visited the Merchant District not too long ago, it seemed. She ignored the glass bits still stuck in its body. Her body was far too robust to succumb to something like internal bleeding or poisoning. Though she retained little of the immense strength and dexterity that she once had, she was still appreciably better put together than any mundane human. To lump her physiology in with any kingdom or phylum would’ve been a disservice to her engineering, actually. She’d conjured and designed each and every organ in her body down to the shape and function of each cell. It’d taken a bloody long time to do but it had been well worth the trouble. She’d barely survived her last fight; it was unlikely to be her last.

“Look at you, grovelling in the dirt.” The voice she heard was that of a young woman. Felicity did not turn her head but instead glanced at the woman who was speaking to her using her reflection in the coarse, grainy concrete; a feat that required an unthinkable degree of perception, yes, but a task that Felicity found to be as easy and as natural to perform as breathing. The woman was dressed in a schoolgirl’s uniform: blue pleated skirt, white collared shirt, black blazer with red trim, high black stockings. “I thought you were supposed to be something of a monster.” Her voice was grim and low. It carried an undercurrent of quiet malice, like a guard dog quietly awaiting an order to attack. The woman- no, the girl - for she was assuredly human, based on the pattern of muscles in her irises - was armed with a pistol and seemingly nothing else. She was clearly no fool, however. She was in a tight, closed off stance and her finger hovered just above the trigger. If she fired her gun, the bullet would pass straight through the back of Felicity’s neck and enter her mouth, exiting her head by punching through her teeth. One question remained, however. How hadn’t Felicity seen her coming? There were too many possibilities for her to make any useful deductions. “I can’t believe you killed them.” The girl spat those last words. Her body tensed up for just a moment as she did so, but her anger passed as quickly as it arose and thus there was no opening to attack.

Felicity slowly raised her head and slowly forced her stomach muscles to contract, pushing a bundle of undigested rat upwards through her throat. She let the mass sit at the back of her throat, quietly waiting. The girl’s face was pristine, the very image of calm. Her hair - brown, straight and long - rested on her shoulders, twitching as tiny air currents blew about them. They twitched strangely, however, and not at all in the way that Felicity expected them to. From that, she realised that there was someone else in the room standing right next to the girl. Their breath was causing their hair to flutter in that way. She judged that the second person was a man of moderate stature and that he was approaching her from the left, holding a thin stiletto blade aloft. She curled her tongue around the glob of rat meat that she’d regurgitated, gripping one of the animal’s ribs tightly. The reaver finally thought to open her mouth and speak, doing so with a wet growl. Her lips were still flecked with blood and gunk and there was an abundance of blood spread across her face, both her own and Courtesy’s. “How did you find me?” She began, rather simply. “Did you think those two came alone? Hell no. We were supposed to hunt and take you down together. Things didn’t turn out as we expected, though; Courtesy jumped the gun and Adam was all too happy to oblige her. She wanted to prove herself and he wanted the glory of having vanquished you. Fucking idiots, both of them. It was easy as piss to track you down after the battle, though. You’ve got a helluva lotta blood in you, you know that?” The man was clearly under the patronage of the Tenebraes, strange apparitions that dwelled in dark places and which sowed winter wherever they travelled. They were known for blessing mages with their services under very particular and typically very unpleasant conditions. Once bound to - and therefore inside - a mage’s body, however, the two became inextricable. The Tenebraes would fill up the empty absences within the mage’s mind and give them form, allowing their darkest desires and most hated qualities to be made manifest. This man was perfectly invisible, perfectly silent, and utterly intangible. The only thing of him that Felicity could observe were the effects of his breath on the world around him - she could not smell or hear him, and his feet did not depress the ground where he stood - but that was enough for her to see him nonetheless.

“Tell me, what’s your-” Felicity spat the rat bone halfway into her sentence, using the intricate movements of her mouth during speech to disguise the fact that she had nested the rib between her gums and her lower lip, allowing her to spit it without any wind-up whatsoever. The fragment punctured the woman’s shoulder and slipped through her skin, painlessly nestling itself inside the flesh of her right arm. It fell limp just a moment later, but she fired off a shot anyway. Felicity turned her head to one side as the invisible man came out of the shadows and leapt at her, knife brandished above his head. The girl had been a distraction all this time, he was the primary threat. His body was wreathed in black flames and his eyes were as empty as the waters of the vast Pacific or the endless nothingness of the Nocturne. She turned her head and caught the bullet between her teeth. Then, she whipped her head to one side and, using the centrifugal motion of her body, spat it at his neck with incredibly velocity. There was a boom like the noise of a jet flying by as the bullet carved its way through his dark defences and punched a hole as wide as a dime in his throat. Both the girl and the man fell to the ground, the former shocked into silence and the other utterly limp. The girl’s right arm hung uselessly at her side yet her gun still dangled, caught on the last joint of her paralyzed index finger. “Relax. I didn’t kill him. The bullet’s putting a little pressure on his spine and keeping him unconscious is all.” Felicity’s words were neither cold nor warm, they were mere statements of fact. “What was your name?” The girl stepped backwards, afraid to lean down in order to take the gun with her left hand. “I’m not telling you that.” The reaver shrugged. “Fair enough. It’s your choice.” The man’s unconscious form was covered in a seething blanket of dark eels and shades, each of which constantly tried - and failed - to pull away. They were ghastly creatures, and yet even the Tenebraes could be afraid. Felicity continued to address the girl. “Remember my words and remember my face well. My name is Felicity, and though it will mean nothing to them, tell AEGIS that I am back. I want for my comrades corpses. They will give me what I demand or I will make the fires of a star seem as tepid as a candle flame; their nightmares seem as utopian dreams; and their worst agonies seem as heavenly indulgences in comparison to the ruin, fear and pain that I shall sow among them. Go, you fucking lamb, and tell them of my coming.”

Seeds of Anxiety | Avarice and Tone

Valerian was almost sad to know that he’d have to leave this place behind. It was so lavish and so dandy, like a location from a burlesque about hedonism, that it defied the imagination. The floor tiles were individual opals: not carved ones, but naturally formed. Even the wicks of the candles that lit up the hall were made of woven golden thread rather than tar-soaked hemp. His wonder at the grandeur of The Avarice was only slightly spoiled by his awe (and no small amount of fear) at the fact that Avarice had somehow paid for all of this with just the stories that she knew. How many tales had she told, of what quality had they been? Was she a library of epics to rival the journeys of Odysseus and Aeneas, or was she an endless library of fanfiction and penny dreadfuls? Actually, he didn’t see why it couldn’t be both. ”Your world is very important, Herbert. You’re at least two dozen worlds merged into one: The Nocturne, The Infernus, The Boreal Tundra, The Vivant Meadows, they’re all universes unto themselves. Plus, you’re one of the few civilizations I know of to have achieved multiversal travel: this universe is a keystone of some sort, I have no doubt about that.” Avarice stood and pulled her coat over her shoulders, tapping Herbert on the shoulder with a smile on her face. ”No pressure or anything.” She paused for a moment to say something more. Her chest swelled with an intake of breath, and she seemed to be on the verge of saying something incredibly important and uttering such an immense revelation that the liaison’s mind would be crushed like a patty under the sheer weight of that knowledge. ”You can take your leftovers with you, by the way.”

It was not until they were back on the street that Valerian started talking again. Avarice stood nearby with her arm outstretched. Her thumb was twisted over and underneath her ring finger which itself was looped around the fifth and eighth joints of her middle finger: the traditional hand gesture used to hail a cab to take them to Lludw Cigfrain proper. She had a plastic bag in her other hand with a few plastic boxes stacked inside containing the remains of the meal they’d indulged in at that eponymous restaurant whose name did not bear reiterating. ”You and I both know that we can’t endanger the base. To that end, I assume that I’ll be kept there because we need somebody to protect our headquarters.” Avarice shouted over the din of the street, having to overpower the shrill shrieks of advertising harpies and the beautiful harmonies of siren-banshee buskers. ”Well that, and the trifecta of traits that AEGIS is known for: paranoia, bureaucracy and passivity.” ”AEGIS has been anything but passive in my experience,” He muttered back, knowing that while he could barely hear her, she could easily hear him over the clamour. ”Now...” He began, turning back to Herbert, ”How about you show me around the place where I’ll be spending the next few months or so?”

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Kiara and Polly

Miria. She… thanked her. That chipper ‘thank you’ carried so much warmth, so much genuine fondness that Polly was taken aback. She was… oh god, what was happening to her? Her grip on Jin faltered and almost entirely failed. She felt like her heart was coming apart. Her skin tingled, her eyes watered up. This girl talked to her as if she was her friend, and yet she didn’t even know who she was. That smile, that face, that voice: they were all totally foreign to her, and the knowledge that she’d lost so much when she’d once been in such a close relationship killed her. It clawed at her soul, made her bones feel like they were made of jelly. She blinked back tears and began to form a reply but the words simply wouldn’t come. Eventually, she settled on a solemn ”Thank you too,” in response, for she could think of nothing else. She hoped, she wished more than anything, that Miria’s fondness for her would remain even if they were now apparently on different ‘sides’. Already, she was beginning to regret standing by AEGIS. Yet, they were the only people who seemed to know how to help her on a practical level. She was hedging her bets here, though in doing so she made herself feel hollow and deprived. She cared about Miria deeply, and she hoped that the girl knew that too.

Polly reluctantly let go of Jin, knowing that Athena had just stayed the hand of her hound. She was remiss to betray the people that she’d ostensibly aligned herself with but she just wouldn’t have been able to bear seeing the group returning into AEGIS’ custody - not that the site was in any condition to house them anyway. She knew that they were perhaps the last links that she had to her past. Old Polly had spent over fifteen years bouncing between multiverses: there was no doubt that she had almost nobody waiting for her back home. No friends, no family, not even any co workers. If she lost Miria, if she lost all the others, then where would that leave her? She would never admit it but she desperately wanted to see her father or her mother again, to see anyone that was familiar with her and vice versa. But if her mother was still alive right now, she still wouldn’t be the mother that Polly remembered. She’d be thirty years older, thirty years weaker and fifteen years separated from the person that her daughter was now. She needed family, or failing that, friends; and yes, she was willing to bargain, fight and even die for the sake of having something from her past - even something as minor as a relic or a memento - to latch onto. ”I don’t know anything about you, so I have nothing to tattle to anyone else about. And beyond that, I already told them that I’d be watching over them. If they start acting up, I’ll personally lead the charge against them: don’t you worry about that.”

Kiara stood by the vault, fidgeting with the hem of her collar. If only Skye was here, she could melt through the door with ease. Kiara was convinced, however, that Skye had already escaped. She was far more capable than Kiara, and if she’d managed to get this far then surely Skye was already two dozen steps ahead of her. She had to make it to the surface, where her friend was no doubt waiting for her. What was the group’s obsession with this stupid vault about, anyway? Why had they all come here when half of them didn’t even have any possessions to reclaim? Sure, Kiara’s rifle was important and so was the rest of her equipment, but none of it was irreplaceable. She didn’t volunteer her opinion though, for fear of starting another argument. For now, she’d just have to sit back and wait to see what kind of ideas everyone else came up with.
Last edited by Menschenfleisch on Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:14 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Skylus
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Democratic Socialists

Postby Skylus » Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:59 am

TGWR
AEGIS base, unknown location


Doug approached the vault door and studied it. “Well, I can maybe get it open...Stand back.” He waited until everyone had stepped back at least ten paces, then he took out the dormant sword and flicked his wrist, activating the plasma blade.* Doug then placed the blade up against the vault door and tried to stab it.

“Are you sure that can cut through the door? I can help if needed.” Madi raised a hand and summoned magic as she said this and Doug gave her a side glance.

“This can cut through basically everything but I appreciate you wanting to help.” Doug then swung the blade to the left and it cut a straight line through the door, molten steel dripping down the face of the vault door. “Okay that works…”

“What, you didn’t think it would?”


The vault door fell backwards away from the group, sending dust in all directions as it hit the floor.

“...Could that have been any louder?” Madi was the first inside the vault, hands raised a bit as her magical spells lit up the room. The lights revealed lots of boxes and glass cases, each filled with various items and lessons. Everyone broke off in different directions as they spotted their gear and weapons and soon everyone was back together, with their things in hand and on their persons.

“Okay. We got our stuff back, now we have to get out of here. Follow me, we’re going to the central courtyard.” Doug led everyone out of the vault and around the corner, silently hoping that no one else would try to stop them.

*Yeah it’s essentially the plasma blade from Halo
Last edited by Skylus on Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Rostavykhan
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Corrupt Dictatorship

Postby Rostavykhan » Sun Dec 01, 2019 1:19 pm

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Katya


Her foot hit the brakes, her fingers clutching the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. Katya tensed her entire body as her car came to a sliding halt, the vehicle swerving across the road, its movement only known to her as its sudden serving and jolting rocked her body side to side. The black substance blinded her, covering all but her back windows, plunging her into near total darkness. The sounds of screeching tires and snapping branches outside of the car assaulted her ears, and then a loud bang. Katya was thrown forward, smacking into the steering wheel and having the wind knocked from her. The noise stopped...

She didn't know if she'd fainted or not, although it had only been a minute since the crash anyways. Her body ached, and her head was spinning. She only realized that she was still alive when she slid off of the wheel, and felt a dull pain in her chest. Her nose hurt, too. It was pounding, but at least she didn't feel blood. Katya cursed under her breath and pushed herself back. She'd definitely hit the creepy figure that time; unfortunately, it seemed as though doing so had left her down a car. It was a pyrric victory, it seemed. Her car...her car was probably ruined. At least she was alive.

In a haze, Katya reached for her seatbelt and unclipped it. Her other hand patted her passenger seat softly, probing for her gun, but it wasn't there. Sighing, she braced herself for the pain again, and twisted her torso to lean over, until she could reach the floorboard to search there, and pick her sidearm up. She needed to keep it on her, just in case anything else came her way. Her fingers gripped the wood of her pistol grip, and she knew that she had found it. She picked up her pistol and sat back up, popped her door open, and gently slid out of the vehicle, stumbling onto a dirt road. It seemed as though her car was covered in whatever the figure had been made of, and it was now halfway in a ditch - possibly recoverable, as the ditch was shallow, but she'd need to clean it off first, and for her part? She didn't want to risk touching that black stuff.

She didn't figure that AEGIS would realize her car wasn't in town. Maybe they would, though, and come searching. Maybe she would have to run, but she didn't know where. At the moment, with her attackers seemingly shaken, Katya believed that the best course of action was to at least stay put for a few minutes, and wait to see if anyone passed. The last few times she'd tried running, she'd gotten her tunk scratched and her wind shield covered in gunk. Still, she'd need some extra protection if she was going to stick it out. That was why Katya leaned back in to pop her trunk, and then slowly made her way around the car to open it up. Inside the trunk was her usual assortment of instruments and gear, but one case in particular caught her eye - a long, slim, black case, with a pair of clasps on it. Katya holstered her gun and reached out to pop the case, flipping it open. A rapier was what awaited her - pretty low-tech and out of place compared to her fancy technology, but it was her sword. Katya hadn't used it back at the hotel, or in London. She didn't need to, and she'd probably look a bit foolish to be carrying it, but she always kept it in her trunk if she could, just in case. This seemed to be one of those times, if she was going to be waiting around the woods, or striking out on her own to wash down her car and get back onto the road. Katya took the sword and its sheathe and pulled them from the trunk, and sat them aside to that she could equip them properly in a minute. Before she closed the trunk again, however, something else caught her eye.

Reaching past the sword's case, Katya reached for a small bag that contained personal effects - cleaning and hygiene products, spare clothes, and the sort. She didn't want to touch that black stuff with her bare hands, in case it was dangerous, so she'd grab one of her recently-worn shirts instead. She grabbed the garment and then closed the trunk, and then, balling up one of the sleeves, she stepped back around to the side of her car. Katya held the shirt sleeve to that her fingers wouldn't make contact with the car, and gently wiped a spot on the driver's side window. She quickly took her fingers off of the sleeve, letting the shirt hand limp in her other hand, and observed the darkened spot of the shirt to see if anything would happen. She also made a note to sniff at the air, to see if there was any particular scent to the substance that would hint at it being toxic or otherwise dangerous.

Miria

Miria felt her heart twist up as she left Polly behind. She didn't know why she wanted to stay in that base so badly. Getting as far away as possible seemed the better option to her, even if tagging along with Madi and Kiara seemed a bit questionable. Miria felt trapped inside the AEGIS bunker, and she was scared of the monsters within. All she wanted was to get her belongings in the vault, and head out before anything else went down.

As soon as the vault door was open, Miria ran in and made a beeline for her belongings. She grabbed her rucksack and belt with one hand, while cradling the wounded dragonfly in her other hand. She grabbed her gear, her crimsonite dagger, and her corrupted crystal, sweeping it all up without hesitation. She faster she got everything put up, the faster she would be gone.

Her belt clipped on, and her rucksack hung on her back, giving the other bugs a bigger back seat. Miria slipped her dagger away, but when her fingers rested on her stone again, a familiar sensation forced her to hiss and jump away in fear. Her stone flashed that sickly black-green again, and sparked at her. The stinging heat of the stone licked her digits, and with the burning sensation came a feeling of anxiety and dread. Miria stared back at the stone, bewildered, unable to move as that fear froze her. For a moment, she even thought that she could hear a voice, whispering out from the crystal, and then...silence. Just as quickly as it had come, Mira felt those negative emotions vanish. The stone was inert once more.

Miria had half a mind to start yelling at the damned thing, but what good would that do? She looked one way, then the other, hoping she wasn't the only one who saw what happened to the thing. It was getting more dangerous, it seemed. Maybe it was just because she was so nervous and upset about leaving Polly, like how it had reacted to her stress last time. Miria growled, unsure of the exact reason for the artefact's behaviour. She was just relieved to pick it up and put it away safely in one of her belt pouches. She checked the final item of hers off of her mental list, and ran back to follow the gang out of the base. Still, she didn't feel right about leaving so quickly...

Her anxiety was getting to her again. She didn't think it was right to leave Polly. She wanted to get away so badly, though. She felt wrong about leaving, but she knew that it was likely the best course of action. Polly would be safe on her own, right? Well, of course she would. Her memories were gone, but Miria still knew that she wasn't dumb. She wouldn't be taken advantage of, and if AEGIS tried? Polly would get by. They'd meet up again soon, hopefully. There was also Skye to worry about, although Miria was worried to a lesser degree with her. She could also definitely take care of herself. As for everyone else, the group seemed to have some plan of escape, and between Kiara, Madi, and the others, they had a formidable group.

Miria caught up with the gang at the corridor. "What's in the courtyard?", She asked, cocking her head. She just assumed that they'd be leaving by foot, so maybe that was where the gate was?
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Nagakawa
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Left-wing Utopia

Postby Nagakawa » Sun Dec 01, 2019 11:07 pm

Scourge of My People
Gimilus
Outside Nu’s HQ


With the rest of the outer guards dead, the three detachments that had been inserted into the base rendezvoused quickly into the vegetation just outside of the camp’s premises and lay in wait, anticipating an update from their comms for the two still inside who were to take out the target. The incessant buzzing of the mosquitoes and sandflies all around the jungle terrain was punctuated only by a strange, hypnotic urge to fall back asleep, one that came off and on and fought with the violent itches caused by the insects.

Then, just as the night turned to early morning and the first traces of the new morning light rose from the horizon, the comms crackled to life, and the long-awaited update came through.

All stations, this is WILDCARD. Nu has been neutralised. I repeat, Nu has been-

The sound of the victorious update from Takumi was then silenced by a heavy barrage of what sounded partially like machine gun fire and partially like bolts of incendiary magic being rained upon the two inside the camp’s top level. Creeping closer to the comms as the chaos of whatever was going on in the camp spread outside like a cancer, Donaldbain crawled to the signal set and whispered into it.

“What’s going on?”

The Matador! He’s here! They’ve taken out Yukio! I need backup! I need- ARGH!

Nothing else was said, as the tinted glass windows of the top floor were blown apart, and two limp, charred bodies were hurled from the building, followed by the mangled corpse of what was once Nu, the Chief Secretary of the IGSE, glass shards jammed into it at every conceivable angle.

“Weapons ready!” Donaldbain screamed at the others, standing up and drawing his pistol to aim at whatever was in the building. “If it’s really the Matador, he probably already knows we’re here.”

...

The Kamui

Yotsuha, do you copy? They need backup. Send in the AEGIS troopers!

Evidently, the mention of the Matador sent Yotsuha into a chilling, blinding shiver, as she dropped the shot glass of vodka she held in her hand and shakily gripped her handset tighter.

Yotsuha?

“Activate the Eradicator missiles”, Yotsuha coldly ordered Granny Jo.

Are you fucking kidding? Your men and my men are still down there. If you activate those missiles, they’re all going to-

“I DON’T CARE! I DON’T CARE!” Yotsuha roared into the handset with furious tears welling up in her eyes. “I WANT THE MATADOR DEAD! I WANT HIM DEAD! FUCK OUR MEN!”

Silence on the other end, as Granny Jo said nothing and the yakuza matriarch collapsed to the ground in a shaky rage. Slowly collecting herself, Yotsuha giggled, a disturbing and unhinged gurgling noise as she hauled her alcohol-imbibed body back up to the table and picked up the handset once again, trembling and drooling as she gave Granny Jo the order again.

“Granny Jo, I’m going to give you the order again”, she said. “Activate the Eradicator missiles.”

No.

“Fine. Then I will destroy everything myself.”

...

From the ashes of the top level emerged a dark silhouette, one with a strangely metallic body and robotic movements, almost like an actual machine, yet too human to be one nonetheless. It held in both its writhing metallic arms a pair of machine guns, each one pointed directly at the group beneath, ready to open fire.

“Surprise, motherfuckers!” The figure began laughing at the ones below, still maintaining its aim on them as it threw back its head and revelled in the destruction. “I doubt any of you remember who I am, except your boss Yotsuha. There’s a reason she wants me dead, you know, though that’s between me and- hey, aren’t you Captain Hex? What a surprise!”

Donaldbain stood up and opened fire, only to be gunned down by a single 7.62mm round that blew a hole open in his chest and sending his suddenly lifeless body flying backwards, crashing into Sekhmet.

“Anyway, I’d love to introduce myself to you”, said the machine. “My name is Thero Ionian. Also known as the Matador. Don’t bother trying to kill me, because I am actually a 800-zettabyte file contained within the IGSE’s computer mainframe, so this body is just a-“

Before the machine could finish speaking, a shockwave from behind blew it apart, and as gunfire erupted from one of the nearby roads, several portals opened at once, and from them came a whole menagerie of bizarre hodgepodge individuals, all wielding a collection of anachronistic weapons against the operators charging for the group in the vegetation.

“HOLY SHIT HENRY, DO YOU THINK IT’S REALLY-“

“No idea, and now’s not the best time to ask. Let’s just get as many of them out of here as we can before it gets ugly for all of us.”

...

???

The next thing any of them knew, the intense humidity of the jungle had faded away and given way to a beautiful, sunlit fjord in some faraway dimension. Now lying upon a small plain overlooking the fjord and a little pastel village below, the group felt the bizarre rushing sensation of the portal travel fade away and give way to a more stable feeling of reality.

Rygan was still in a state of shock, having seen the charred figures of Yukio and Takumi hurled from the roof of the camp, but even more so by the strange things he later witnessed, least of all the sudden transportation of everybody into this new, colder dimension, away from the tropical jungles.

“Jesus Christ, the smell!” One of the strange people, a young man wearing an ao dai carrying a Chinese jian, squatted on a nearby rock and pinched his nose. “Why do they all smell like that, Henry?”

“Jungle missions, Xiao-song”, the man named Henry replied. He appeared to be the oldest of them all, a tall, stocky man with badly thinning golden hair and an orange face, dressed in a tomb raider getup and carrying with him a sniper rifle of Finnish origin.

“Hey, what the hell is going on?” one of the yakuza grunts roared. “Where the hell are we?”

“You sure this is all of ‘em, Henry?” inquired another man, a strange middle-aged man with the words “I HAVE EXCELLENT JUDGEMENT” tattooed across his forehead. Behind him stood a massive sumo wrestler well beyond his prime years and a lanky pink-haired elf wearing an ahegao hoodie, both of whom remained silent. “Seems a lot fewer than what I expected...”

Henry brought his hand to his chin and murmured incomprehensibly to himself, his breathing becoming more laboured as he did so.

“Yotsuha isn’t here...”

...
.____________永 河 帝 國____________.
.____________自 他 共 栄____________.

Population: 89 million (2020)
Landmass: 328,036 km²
Capital: Inada
Most populous city: Rushima
Government: Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Monarch: Tomohito
Prime Minister: Hideyoshi Kaburagi (Republican)
Chief Justice: Hideki Motobu
GDP (PPP): $4.917 trillion
HDI: 0.902 (very high)
Currency: Nagakawan yen (¥)
Internet TLD: .nk
Country code: NGK
Driving side: left
Call code: +133
National flower: Paulownia fortunei
National bird: Red-crowned crane
National sport: Judo

—___盾 鎧 斬 機 ● 疾 破 轟 喰___—
.._..Behold the power of the Monado!.._..

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