[Nexus] Outside XXXIII

[Reinholdt]

This place is just as it sounds. It's outside.
Want a change of scenery? Go outside.
Always wanted to visit the beach? Come outside.
Looking to have a climatic fight on clifftops? Attempt outside.
Secret meetings being held where there's no cameras? Try outside.
Want an ambush without nasty base defenses? Yep. Outside.

Any and all are welcome here. There are no NPCs unless you bring them in. The major exception is the creepy eyed squirrel. The creepy eyed squirrel does not interfere with anyone. The creepy eyed squirrel is everywhere outside. The creepy eyed squirrel is always watching. The creepy eyed squirrel never sleeps. The creepy eyed squirrel can not be damaged, manipulated, or killed by anyone. The creepy eyed squirrel will eat anyone's very being who attempts to do so. Anyone can god-mode the creepy eyed squirrel. You may pet the creepy eyed squirrel at your own risk.

Other NPCs currently include:
The menacing crabs. (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/Ironack/menacingcrab.jpg) These intimidating creatures are usually found by the shore.
The non-existant duck. You'll miss every time you shoot at it.

There is very little you can't do outside. However, like always, please follow the forum rules and general rules of conduct. Private conversations can be held outside. If it seems like a private (secret) conversation, please respect that. Those having such a conversation should do their best to indicate it as such. Otherwise, other characters may stumble upon you. Those desiring to spy in on private conversations should first PM those holding the private conversation, more out of courtesy than anything else.

There are many areas outside, and people can be in multiple places outside. In order to keep areas outside separated so there's no confusion, consider bolding your outside location at the start of each of your posts, like so:


The Fields

Reinholdt sets up various targets and practices his sharpshooting. All these events recently has made him a bit rusty. To his left, he notes the creepy eyed squirrel. Giving him the heebie-jeebies, Reinholdt decides to head somewhere else.


The Cliffside

Calublufiok broods over his latest scheme as he flies over the cliffs. The creepy eyed squirrel is watching him again. He finds occasionally landing and telling the creepy eyed squirrel his plans helps him find holes in his plotting.

Note Reinholdt and Calublufiok do not interact because they are in different areas outside. They could interact, if Reinholdt moves to the cliffside. Of course, various things like telepathy help bypass this. Also, please note outside has no major buildings, though minor ones crop up from time to time.

And most importantly, enjoy outside. That's what this is all about. :smallsmile:

Outside now contains various Outside locations! Such as...
[Dead Pine Lake]
This lake lies in the middle of the forest. On the eastern shore, woodpeckers feast on the dead pines that give the lake its name. Sometimes one can find Lady Death here, the Aspect of Eve also known as The Grandmother, or Jedwiga.

(Please PM happyturtle if you wish to interact with Jedwiga.)

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/p243360-Delray_Beach_FL-Wetlands_sc.jpg

[The Islands]

An island cluster forms an archipelago along the coast. Some of the islands are settled, some not, but most are at least occasionally visited by the fishermen who work these waters.

[Gersemi's Island]

Now more commonly known as Melody's Island, since Gersemi has long ago retired.

Where once was a single hut with a few sheep, now stands a single hut, a barn, a few sheep, and a small tented community of orphans. Gersemi's loom still rests in one corner of the single hut.

Melody, like Gersemi before her, is a healer for the surrounding islands.

(Please PM Lex-Kat if you wish to interact with Melody.)

[Redbrick Falls]

A mountainous, cliffy region with a prominent waterfall. A large quarry once was worked in these cliffs. Now, only a few scattered villages and solitary dwellings remain.


[Norosa, Great City of the Elves]
A Lawful Evil city with an incredibly strong military and a very charismatic leader (Archmage Tyrion Lannister). It has a few CG resisters, but, otherwise, it is a city of peace and law, despite its evil nature.

[Brillian's Baneful Bestiary]
A secret series of caves where a mad scientist lives. A mad scientist who creates mutant attack creatures. These can be purchased for the right price.

[Auxiliary MagCave]

A relic from the days of the Age of Apocalypse, this abandoned cavern was once used by the infamous cyborg Magtok as a back-up laboratory and underground fortress, should Calublufiok have ever stormed the primary MagCave.


[The Katz Motel]
Located in the middle of Nowhere, our roadside motel is the only decent place for miles near the Taverna that has a bed. Run by a suave anthropomorphic cat, there is a strict No Dogs policy.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090705011306/courage/images/b/bc/Katz.png

A bellhop by the name of Bates is always ready to assist in carrying your luggage. Please ignore his constant mutterings about his mother. Other more unsavory employees can occasionally be found. Please try to avoid eye contact with them.

We at the Katz Motel wish to ensure you have a splendid stay. Any inconvenience due to randomly locking doors, giant spiders, secret passages, vampires, creepy paintings, and the occasional possession and subsequent exorcism are incredibly rare. Just look at our complaint cards! Not a single one mentions dying horribly in their sleep or becoming food for the monster in the basement.

And if you get bored, the owner will always be up for a game of sport, old boy.

((The Katz Motel is a horror filled place with the highest casualty rate of any motel in the Nexus area. Checking in is usually pretty easy and pleasant. Checking out is rare. Anyone can play the Motel and the NPCs within, free to invent their own horror. The NPCs within that can die usually only suffer death temporarily, the supernatural force causing the disturbances bringing them back to life for its own nefarious purposes. PCs get no benefit from this.))

[The Troll Cave]
A cave in a craggy hill. The undergrowth outside is trampled completely flat, and there's not much wildlife. There's a burned patch where a fire is sometimes there. Inside are a few large caves, linked by surprisingly smooth tunnels that look like something big has been regularly pushing through them.

[Blind Cat's Bluff]
A sheer cliff dropoff that travels straight down into the water, this is a favored point of people who commit suicide, romantics wanting to watch the sunset and anyone looking to get rid of evidence. The drop is pretty far and there are rocks at the bottom that spell almost certain doom, so watch your step.

[North Forest]
A magical forest with a mythical spring of beauty. A bit like the Weald, but not nearly as dangerous. For starters, you can find your way back out and the pixies aren't cannibals.


PM Reinholdt if you wish to add locations to Outside.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy is rather annoyed during most of the walk - after all, she and Ilpholin just had their first fight - but she can't help but admire the pretty, overgrown grove.

"It's beautiful," she admits, a little grudgingly.

Ilpholin's Grove

That it is.

"Only two other people have been here." Ilpholin says, taking a seat on the grass.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholins Grove

"Who were they? Mister Squiggles, of course." Darcy says, sitting down close, but not directly next to Ilpholin. She's sitting at a bit of a diagonal because that makes it easier to see her beautiful girlfriend.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholins Grove

"Raril was the other." Ilpholin says quietly, pulling out the amulet she recently received from him and fingering it. Of course, it was here she almost kidnapped him and brought him to the Matron as well.

"He gave me this the other day." Ilpholin explains, since she figures Darcy will ask.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy smiles and reaches out to squeeze Ilpholin's knee. "He's rooting for you too."

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin is quiet for a moment, though she gives Darcy a weak smile. A scared smile.

Without ceremony, she then proceeds to slip the amulet on.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy pulls Ilpholin close and kisses her on the cheek. "It'll be okay, love."

[ThirdEmperor]

[King's Blood Field]

From behind the three, the sound of a motorcycle/chopper can be heard coming nearer. The rider is a flame haired man nine feet in height wearing green military pants with boots, a loose black vest with dog-tag hanging on his neck, goggles on his eyes and black leather gloves. Attached to the seat of the ride a bag holds an egg like figure. Once the three in suits are within talking range he gets off his ride. He takes a closer look and sees the three armed to the teeth.

"Well now, I don't suppose you three aren't bandits? Hope not." His tone is that of an amused gambler.


[King's Blood Field]

The young man looks the aasimar over. And when the three suits of power armor show up, he looks them over too, noticeably alarmed by all their weaponry. The loud two wheeled vehicle, the likes of which he has never seen before, also surprises him. So he just shifts from foot to foot, sizing up the situation.


King's Blood Plains

The assimar is also clearly surprised by seeing so many weapons that she doesn't understand. She stays back for now, wondering what in the world these people have.

Depends. One of the three turns and steps forward to address the cyclist, stance guarded, arms crossed over the pattern of bloody red splatters and streaks emblazoned on his armor's chestplate. We're here to take something away from someone, but we've got good cause. You the one who put the ad up on the wall?

The other two outright ignore the conversation going on behind them, keeping their eyes on their fellow questants. Just in case. The one armed with sword and sickle stays silent, but the heavily armed one seems more friendly, holding out his hand to the skittish-looking young man.

Hey. Name's First. You got a name? It's a genuine question too, not at all rhetorical. It would seem they're used to people not having names at all.

[Shadowcaller]

Ilpholin's Grove

True to Libra's promise the amulet she gave to Raril, the amulet will cure her. It will just burn like hell first.

Ilpholin will first feel a slight burning sensation as the amulet touches her skin which then turns cold as her vision starts to fade for just a moment as if she just had swallowed something extremely cold. This is followed by a strong headache as she starts to feel extremely weak all over, her legs probably starting to shiver at this point which might cause her to collapse entirely.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Then I suppose it's a really good thing Ilpholin's already sitting down then, huh? :smalltongue:

"Maybe..." Ilpholin says weekly, one hand going to hold onto Darcy. In this case, to steady herself. In a world of cure disease and magical healing, Ilpholin's never felt this weak before, even with all the power behind her. It's terrifying.

Not that she'd admit that out loud. Nope. She blinks and briefly shakes, before forcing herself under control. Or at least appear under control.
"Guess no one mentioned how much it hurts." Ilpholin gives Darcy a silly smile.

[Asha'man]

[Lings Blood's Plains]

Wall, what wall? Wait..... it must have been shadow.
"Sorry boys looks like I'm your target. Shadow put up that bounty for me I guess. Well bad day for you to meet me Serph the pyromancer. It means code red for you three." Time to [/I]annihilate

Serph says this real fast like words slurring up next to each other but it was clear he was ready for a beatdown. As he was about to call on fire to roast the egg on his ride glowed.

"[I]Serph..... Code Red..... annihilate..... mission parameters recieved."

The egg promptly explodes to a radius and damage of a grenade.

[ThirdEmperor]

King's Blood Field

****.

Alpha doesn't even go for his gun, even the bare split second it would take to draw and open fire more time than he has to spare. He just lunges, trying to get his hands around Serph's neck to choke the life from the bastard. Even then, he's still a little too slow.

His armor takes the brunt of the blast, stopping nearly all the shrapnel short of reaching the infinitely more vulnerable flesh and blood beneath. The brute, on the other hand, it can do nothing against, not with him well within the concussion radius. Alpha is shaken like a beetle in a jar, lifted off his feet and dashed against the ground, tearing skid marks into the earth.

His brothers are granted ever so slightly more time to act, of which they waste none. First tries to tackle the man he's speaking with and pull him to the ground, out of the way of flying shrapnel, while One simply barks something incomprehensible, causing a shimmering blue semi-circle of energy to spring forth just in time to catch his share of the damage.

[Lex-Kat]

{The Lost Wave}

And, unless someone has something else to add, they arrive at Melody's Island, finally.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Then I suppose it's a really good thing Ilpholin's already sitting down then, huh? :smalltongue:

"Maybe..." Ilpholin says weekly, one hand going to hold onto Darcy. In this case, to steady herself. In a world of cure disease and magical healing, Ilpholin's never felt this weak before, even with all the power behind her. It's terrifying.

Not that she'd admit that out loud. Nope. She blinks and briefly shakes, before forcing herself under control. Or at least appear under control.
"Guess no one mentioned how much it hurts." Ilpholin gives Darcy a silly smile.

Darcy tries to help Ilpholin to lay down in her lap and strokes her hair. "I didn't know. I would have told you." :smallfrown: In captivity, the people around her being changed were going in the other direction. She's never actually witnessed a de-demonification before.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Yeah, k..." Ilpholin says, not resisting laying down in Darcy's lap at all. Lying down is pretty much what she wants to do right now. Heck, she's having trouble even thinking up counter-arguments for this whole thing right now. Other than the obvious 'this sucks' one.

Probably for the best really.

{The Lost Wave}

"Come on. Let's go up top." Reinholdt says to Estia. He's not ready to try and convince her to give Derek a chance. Doesn't know Derek well enough. But hopefully she can put up with him for now.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy holds Ilpholin as well as she can, and tries to make her comfortable. "I wish Mister Squiggles was here..."

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Had to leave him at AMEN, just in case."

She's his go to guy for when she can't be somewhere.

"Could always call him."
The conversation will probably be more unintelligible than usual. Phones don't get great bars out in secluded groves.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholins Grove

"I just thought he'd be a comfort to you if he were here," Darcy says. "Is there anything I can do? Anything you need?"

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholins Grove

"Just stay with me." Is Ilpholin's only real request on the matter.

Although some pillows and a blanket would be nice too, once Darcy's lap gets too uncomfortable. Unless Darcy's using some sort of shapeshifting cheat on that matter.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

After a while, Darcy will try texting Mister Squiggles to ask him to bring them some supplies. They really should have planned this better, huh? Stupid lovers quarrel. :smalltongue:

[Shadowcaller]

[Elsewhere...]

You have been given a gift, something many fear because of what it is. Change. But what they fail to see is that this gift you have is change for the better. You are-

Ari stopped, something had changed, the connection to one of the Sogv's demons sleeping agents was weakening. The insight of which one soon followed causing Ari to activate his visual sensors, the demon expect to have to use them soon enough.

The crystal antechamber hadn't changed, everything was just as it always had been, perfectly black. A color chosen to mimic the non-visual world which Ari and the others lived in most of the time. A purpose it failed to fulfill.
The chamber itself was not much better, despite it's crystaline furniture perfectly carved directly out of the floor and the walls it couldn't possibly replace the void.

True to his prediction however another figure came into existence on the opposite side of the great table which centered the chamber. Unlike Ari's slender humanoid form with a triangular-shaped head and perfect surgical claws Sybris wore a body which only purpose was battle.

Without a discernible head or any limbs Sybris form was a simple large black sphere with curved red spikes that Ari suspected the other demon had added to making him more intimidating then well... an sphere. Sybris always had too much of an mortal emotional side though, no matter how much of that were hatred for them.

"You have lost your most important puppet Ari. Admit now that you have failed." Sybris spoke with a humming voice being emitted from the core of his body.

"I will do no such thing." Ari insisted, moving the delicate instruments which were the armors claws tryingly. Sensing every joint moving freely without any hint of resistance. "There are still sleeper agents under our control and my plans haven't even begun come into fruition."

The other demon was already about to reply when a third being appeared to
Ari's left side. "You. Disturbed. Me." Jaccalish monotone voice reached the armors auditory sensors. The third demon were unlike Sybris clearly not designed for combat and unlike Ari not for any astethic value. It was a mess of arms made specifically for various purposes (most which involved cutting up specific types of creatures). Some of them which seemed to have recently been used judging mortal goo which stained them. The rest of the body being a simple energy tank with a triangular-shaped head similar to Ari's attached to it.

"Actually, you want to hear this. Ari is about to explain 'the master plan'." Sybris hummed, causing the other demon to tilt the armors head in the direction of Ari, expecting some sort of audible response.

"As I was about to explain when Sybris expressed his doubts, you must remember that the previous plans have been involving needless slaughter and complete waste of resources."

The other two made no motions but the lack of direct protests made it clear that they knew what Ari were talking about. Jaccalish failed experiment in riverside which had caused a loss of an entire regiment of soldiers and Sybris invasion of mountainside which when it come down to it just had lead to loses even if they had been minimal.

"So what makes your plan so much better then? The way I see it, the invasion was a complete success. We purified that entire disgusting mortal hole."

"And. New. Subjects."

"Yes, but you are seeing this the wrong way. We must stop seeing mortals as things that just are there to be purified and experimented on. We must renew our way of thinking. Mortals are in fact resources there to be used, to expand our armies.

Remember, even if we are pure most of our armies are just made up of improved mortal flesh. While the purification of mountainside was nessecary we could have turned it to our side instead, we could have made them join us."

"How?" Sybris didn't sound very convinced no doubt since Sybris would have preferred to kill every mortal they came across. A simple plan for a simple mind. But Ari had better ideas.

If Ari's armor could have smiled, it would have. But instead it's claws moved over the table, causing an projection of a assumed nexus to appeared (it was all rather relative considering the very nature of the plane caused all attempts to make an exact map to fail.)

Pointing at a location which read 'riverside' Ari caused a red light to appear. "Riverside, after our latest failure there we must reconsider our strategy. From our initial reports the city was just 'a bunch of zones with ragtag factions vying for power'.

The very same 'ragtag factions' which managed to defeat a whole regiment. Which is why I suggest a new strategy to deal with it. Already having a sleeping agent there, I want to expand into the city, turn it to our cause.

All we need to do is making it appear to be a good thing, which it is. They just need to be convinced of our good intentions." All they wanted was to save the mortals from their own corruption after all.

"And if that fails?"

"Then we get a bit more aggressive, but if it succeeds we can soon enough expand into Inside as well... and from there, who knows? Our intentions are after all as always, pure..."

[Devixer]

Ancient Forest

"Something's not right," Hildur says, keeping her knife ready. "They can't have just ran."

King's Blood Field

The aasimar barely notices that the egg's going to explode, but she wastes no tine in reacting. She drops to her knee and raises her shield, which protects her much more than its size suggests.

[BladeofObliviom]

Ancient Forest

Jacob's armor returns to its normal noncombat appearance, revealing a look of... ...vague disappointment? Hmm.

"Agreed. We brought significant force to bear, but in my experience run-of-the-mill demons rarely retreat unless some greater power is involved."

With that, Jacob begins projecting a cone of cyan light, scanning the area for any signs of unusual activity.

[Morty]

[Ancient Forest]

"I'm convinced that this is all a trap at this point," Wenomir says dryly. "And we walked right into it like our house was on fire."

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

After a while, Darcy will try texting Mister Squiggles to ask him to bring them some supplies. They really should have planned this better, huh? Stupid lovers quarrel. :smalltongue:

Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin thought they were staying at Watch, jail or no, where there'd be supplies and protection.

And then Ilpholin thought she'd, you know, be able to move around reasonably with this thing on.

Anyways Mister Squiggles will come by a few hours later with a large pack of miscellaneous goods that can be mostly handwaved throughout this scene, unless it's particularly obscure.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Forest]

Well...that was a bit of an anti-climax.

Damon, now back in zern form, is stomping over towards the group, still covered in black flames, glaring at Vizek. "Vizek! What the [hissing] was that? You [more hissing] fool, you could've got us all killed. If I hadn't been so quick to react I might have been knocked right out of the sky. You think I'd survive a fall from that height, you [loud hissing]?!"

He is not very happy, it would seem.

So unhappy and angry, in fact, that he's slipping into his own language to find suitable words for what Vizek is.


Wenomir shakes his head. "It all seems like a huge waste of time. And do you know what that bright shape was?

Ancient Forest

Jacob can still feel magic coming from the tower which seem to have doe remarkably well despite being burned by Damon's fire and then bombed with water. In fact, it feels like more demonic energies are gathering there now.
Damon and others that can sense such things might be able to sense this as well.

Vizek that was about to reply to Wenomir get's an angry zern to deal with, "Damon, I didn't know! There were no clues that any demon that powerful here!" He shouts back.

Meanwhile the clouds which gathered shortly before they caused that mass of water to fall seem to spread outwards, with more dark clouds coming up in the horizon, bearing a promise of storm.

[Morty]

[Ancient Forest]

"Like I said, a trap. Now, do we investigate here or clear out before something even worse happens?" Wenomir asks.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Just basic 'hanging out in a grove for a week' supplies. *applies handwavium* Darcy will make a little bed for Ilpholin and then go and hug Mister Squiggles. "Thank you. I'll take good care of her for you, I promise."

[5a Violista]

Oldale Town Ruins

I'm most used to Pokemon Ruby (hence the town; Oldale is the second town encountered in Ruby), but I've played every generation since even if I can't seem to get as into it as I used to and haven't completed a game since probably about FireRed.

All the buildings have been explored, and the sign has been examined.

Oldale Town Ruins

How sad. The Pirate-Dragon has explored the whole town, and hasn't found any treasure besides some running boots, a little bag of sparkly red dust, a confusing map, a capturing ball, and an Evil Doll...and the letter M.

"How unfortunate," she says, looking around at the town. There's nothing left there.

So, she grabs her shovel out of nowhere, and starts digging. The hole is as wide as she is tall, and she continues to do so until she finds something interesting. Most likely treasure, dinosaur bones, or an underground pirate ship.

Dig, dig, dig...

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Mister Squiggles chitters. She'd better. He can't stay here. He already has plot clones and it's making him nervous. He's supposed to be a minor character at best, not a plot clone character!

Darcy will get a cheek kiss and Ilpholin will get talked to briefly before Mister Squiggles heads off. Good luck you crazy people.

Humanoids.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy goes back to tending to Ilpholin. Time skip?

[BladeofObliviom]

[Ancient Forest]

Jacob sighs and speaks to the rest of the group.

"I wish not to interrupt, but this battle is not yet won. There is still magical energy emanating from the tower, and sinister dweomers are gathering there."

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Yep. To night, where Ilpholin, who can't sleep, tired though she is, waits until Darcy sleeps. Being exhausted and unable to sleep is a terrible feeling as I found out recently.

Anyways, Ilpholin has a fair deal of practice learning when someone's actually asleep or really awake and waits.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Quite terrible, yes.

Darcy lays quietly with her arms around Ilpholin, using her shapeshifting to handle the arm problem (http://xkcd.com/335/) and make sure Ilpholin is as comfortable as possible. She isn't exhausted, but she is worried, and that keeps her up a while. Eventually, though, she falls asleep.

[Earl of Purple]

Oldale Town Ruins

Eventually, the pirate will find a fossil. It resembles a root, as it is a Root Fossil. If she finds the right machine, or potentially powerful enough magic, she could turn it into a Lileep, one of my favourite fossil pokemon.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy can shapeshift into rock-em sock-em robots? Glee. :smallbiggrin:

Once Ilpholin is fairly sure Darcy is asleep, she'll go to carefully try to take the amulet off without disturbing her. A feat made more difficult by the whole arm snuggling thing admittedly. Darcy wouldn't understand. Doesn't understand. Ilpholin just... needs it off her. For a little while at least.

[Murkus]

Small Village

Flint Filth didn't even know its name. It's strange, how things jump to your mind like that. Jump on your mind. Meaningless little things. Jack. That thing wearing Jack's face didn't need any names, did it? No. Not today. He hadn't said. Why? Jack? What did you do to me?

Bodies quivered in the square, standing like ducks. In a row. Ducks can't row, haha. Bodies. Human bodies. Some of the bodies were awfully small, but Jack had said everyone. Every one. Everytwo. No. Jack! Ugly. Ugly people.

Laughing. Someone was laughing. Jack. No. No, Jack. Not me. Never me, God please no. Me? Them. There. The first. A boy, of course. Stepforward. Was that out loud? Hands closed around his shoulders. Mine, yes. Flint? Liftinghimup. There's a dimple on Firstone's neck. Tastes good. No. No? No! Hahahaahahahaa

Firstone thrashing on the ground. Screaming, they run, but Jack's things are too quick. [I]Jack, no! You can't make me do this, you can't just make me do this! This wasn't our deal! [/IamFilth]Deal. Deal, yes. With it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.yesss

Secondonetastesgoodtoo.

Smallvillage

Jack decided to rename it that, once he was finished. Mr. Filth, his brains still scrambled like eggs (I hate duck eggs), had finally stopped fighting. Jack wondered if he'd finally killed his brain. A pet vampire, especially one that was such an old minion, was too useful to waste. With his vamp-sire Rot gone, Mr. Filth was AMEN's only resident nightwalker, and the poor brainwashed **** would have total control over this town's fourty-two residents. Which meant Jack would.

Fourty-two. Jack couldn't remember if that meant something. He decided it did.

He sat back to watch. It looked like Flint might be crying, from all the way over here, though that little girl's blood was making it hard to tell. "Don't use those all those tears, Filth!" Jack shouted, laughing fit to burst. "You've only got so many left."

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy stirs a bit, but doesn't wake.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

After several minutes of breathing easy and feeling so much better, probably stretching into longer than she initially planned, Ilpholin reluctantly puts the amulet back on.

It's going to be a long night.

But otherwise uneventful.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

In the morning, when Darcy awakes, she checks on Ilpholin first thing. If she's asleep, she'll hold as still as she can to let her continue to sleep.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin can't sleep. Not so long as she's still a demon. Not sure she would even if she could, out in this vulnerable area.

"Morning."

[McBish]

[Melody's Island- Lost Wave]

Derek will take the wheel back from Lyanna as they reach the island. He figures she isn't quite ready to bring the ship to a stop. Though he will explain what he is doing the whole time to her, even letting her flip the switch to lower the anchor. Then he goes to get the rowboat ready to head ashore.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Good morning, beautiful," Darcy says to Ilpholin. "How are you?"

[Lex-Kat]

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}


"Come on. Let's go up top." Reinholdt says to Estia. He's not ready to try and convince her to give Derek a chance. Doesn't know Derek well enough. But hopefully she can put up with him for now.

Estia follows Reinholdt toward the steps, reaching for his hand, as they go.


Derek will take the wheel back from Lyanna as they reach the island. He figures she isn't quite ready to bring the ship to a stop. Though he will explain what he is doing the whole time to her, even letting her flip the switch to lower the anchor. Then he goes to get the rowboat ready to head ashore.

Lyanna watches intently, learning all she can. This was fun, Mister Derek. Thank you.

They should anchor safely enough. The water isn't choppy or anything, and the beach looks very nice and dry.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin moans lightly. Just a bit worse from yesterday really.
"Only time in my life I don't feel beautiful."

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}

Reinholdt will squeeze Estia's hand and lead the way to the rowboat Derek's getting set up. "We're ready when you are."

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"You still are," Darcy promises. "Can you eat anything?"

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"I can still name something I can eat." Ilpholin smirks at Darcy with a hungry look.

"Yes." She adds. "Not nauseous." Not yet at any rate.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy blushes, and puts together a meal out of supplies provided by Mister Squiggles. Probably sammich stuff. At least we hope he provided something like that, rather than a henchman wrapped in spider silk.

[McBish]

[The Lost Wave]

"My pleasure Lyanna, you did great."

Derek will row them ashore hoping out once they reach the shore to pull it up the last bit. He feels a bit guilty for having ended the trip early. He will offer to help each girl out of the boat.

[FireFox]

Depends. One of the three turns and steps forward to address the cyclist, stance guarded, arms crossed over the pattern of bloody red splatters and streaks emblazoned on his armor's chestplate. We're here to take something away from someone, but we've got good cause. You the one who put the ad up on the wall?

The other two outright ignore the conversation going on behind them, keeping their eyes on their fellow questants. Just in case. The one armed with sword and sickle stays silent, but the heavily armed one seems more friendly, holding out his hand to the skittish-looking young man.

Hey. Name's First. You got a name? It's a genuine question too, not at all rhetorical. It would seem they're used to people not having names at all.


[Lings Blood's Plains]

Wall, what wall? Wait..... it must have been shadow.
"Sorry boys looks like I'm your target. Shadow put up that bounty for me I guess. Well bad day for you to meet me Serph the pyromancer. It means code red for you three." Time to [/I]annihilate

Serph says this real fast like words slurring up next to each other but it was clear he was ready for a beatdown. As he was about to call on fire to roast the egg on his ride glowed.

"[I]Serph..... Code Red..... annihilate..... mission parameters recieved."

The egg promptly explodes to a radius and damage of a grenade.


King's Blood Field

****.

Alpha doesn't even go for his gun, even the bare split second it would take to draw and open fire more time than he has to spare. He just lunges, trying to get his hands around Serph's neck to choke the life from the bastard. Even then, he's still a little too slow.

His armor takes the brunt of the blast, stopping nearly all the shrapnel short of reaching the infinitely more vulnerable flesh and blood beneath. The brute, on the other hand, it can do nothing against, not with him well within the concussion radius. Alpha is shaken like a beetle in a jar, lifted off his feet and dashed against the ground, tearing skid marks into the earth.

His brothers are granted ever so slightly more time to act, of which they waste none. First tries to tackle the man he's speaking with and pull him to the ground, out of the way of flying shrapnel, while One simply barks something incomprehensible, causing a shimmering blue semi-circle of energy to spring forth just in time to catch his share of the damage.

I'm Bran. Who do you- That's all the young wizard gets out before he's tackled and has the air knocked out of him.

[Asha'man]

King's Blood Field

Serph knew his task was to bring the egg-like artifact back to the empire but he did not think it would just explode from him speaking like he normally does. Being right beside the motor that carried the egg he was able to see it glow before it decided to explode. In that moment the fire he was about to call to attack was changed to defend himself. A wall of fire, and also the explosion, propelled him to the left and consumed some of the shrapnel, which was mostly his ride, that flew his way. However since he was close some bigger pieces of shrapnel went through. A big chunk embedded itself to his right arm and a smaller piece impaled the palm of his hand. Lastly on his right leg a wound can be seen near the hamstrings, not deep but it would hamper movement. Since he was actually propelled pretty far he was able to avoid Alpha choking the life out of him. As soon as the shock of pain was gone, as he was trained to take this much damage and more, he used fire to seal his hamstring wound. he pulled away the fragment that impaled his palm and burned the wound closed as well. The deeper wound would have to wait as he did not think he could withstand removing that. Blood was flowing slowly from that wound and the bone was most likely fractured quite badly. He wouldn't be able to use the arm for the remainder of this encounter. Serph panted, this was bad he was going to end up reacting to the foe in the fight instead of controlling the flow. He looked to where the egg exploded and saw something else not there earlier.

In place of the explosion, a child figure occupies that space. His night black hair was fixed in a ponytail. His eyes were blank which was creepy alongside his pale complexion. He wore a red Xingyi. This was not the surprising part though. On the child figure's sides were floating Tower Shields twice his height and inside the left shield was a large spear sheathed with a chain, the right shield contained the head of a twin-sided half moon Ax. On his back was a Dao. The sword fit his back in proper size. His eyes suddenly dart to all of the people in the field. The spear in the shield flew to try and impale alpha whilst the Ax in the shield flew to try and decapitate One. The injured Serph alongside First and Bran on the floor was ignored for the moment.

For those familiar with Serph and Red these two look a lot like them and one even has the same name. These two were often seen adventuring together but at this moment it looks like they don'know one another, how odd.

[Lex-Kat]

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}

Reinholdt will squeeze Estia's hand and lead the way to the rowboat Derek's getting set up. "We're ready when you are."


"My pleasure Lyanna, you did great."

Derek will row them ashore hoping out once they reach the shore to pull it up the last bit. He feels a bit guilty for having ended the trip early. He will offer to help each girl out of the boat.

Estia looks down at Derek, embarrassed. I'm sorry, Derek. You've been nothing but kind to us. she accepts being helped into the rowboat, as does Lyanna.

Lyanna, once Estia is in the boat with her, gives her sister a biiiig hug. I love you, Estia.

I love you too. Estia hugs her sister back.

They will all note that it is evening when they get back to the island. Most of the villagers are in their tents, a few are outside of them. A bright red ember can be seen moving to their mouths, then down again. Occasionally the ash being flicked away.

Jezebelle and Melody are no where to be seen.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Mister Squiggles isn't giving up his Cyan snack pack so easily. :smalltongue:
Darcy and Ilpholin get sammiches and whatever the Nexus version of lunchables/lunch packs are.

"Did you have any luck finding Koro?" Ilpholin asks to pass the time.

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}

Reinholdt climbs out of the boat. "Thanks for the ride." He tells Derek.

He turns to the girls. "I believe I promised you something when we got here." Reinholdt reaches behind his back and pulls from thin air... a plate of fresh brownies! Well... probably not quite as fresh as when he picked them up from whichever kitchen he got them from (most likely the Applehills). He didn't personally make them like he did the cookies, but he doesn't point that out.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Mhm. I think he'll be glad to come see stay with you, but he might have just been trying to get more gold," Darcy says. "I'm sure we can find him again."

Koro + Kashi 4ever!

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"I'd question whether it was Koro at all if he wasn't after more gold." :smalltongue:

The slash fiction burns my brain!

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"He'll be expensive to keep around, but he's just so cuddly!" Darcy says, barely suppressing a squee.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Ah, we'll just come up with gold substitute. Like those gold coins filled with chocolate. Think he'll fall for that?" :smalltongue:

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Probably not. Can bears even eat chocolate? Or is it poison to them like it is dogs?" Darcy asks.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Well he's not supposed to eat it. Though the amount of times they get into camper food, I can't imagine it's bad for them." Ilpholin's feeling better after eating. This is a reasonable excuse to stop using size one.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community

This stretch of cracked, potholed tarmac extends for quite a distance. Several smaller roads branch off, but most of those are not as long and end abruptly in forests, ruins, or off cliffs. But as to the motorway itself, it emerges from the ocean (where its eventual end is undetermined), extends up a beach, through several forests, over hills and carries on fairly straight until it suddenly stops at a mountain range, where it appears a mountain has since grown from where the motorway leads, with patches of tarmac and rusting cars protruding from cliffs and perched atop mountains. For all of that length, it is overgrown with weeds pushing through the cracks and using the rusting hulks of cars as a place to put down roots.

There's little of interest along it, but something that is interesting is at this point, about halfway along. This point is a circular wall made of ex-cars tipped onto their sides and propped up by the rusting heaps of scrap that were once other cars and studded with short towers made from stacked cars and usually topped with a large gun or crossbow. These walls have been battered and pulled down in places- something, not so long ago, came and forced its way through, ignoring the gates.

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

Landing on the lakeshore, Yuki reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small folded piece of paper and glances down at it. Yep, this was the right location. Someone named "Talnissa" had invited him here, but he knew not why. He folds it back up and replaces it in his pocket.

Yuki is a young man of medium height, with his black hair contrasting starkly against his white suit, pants, haversack, and wings. Pale blue eyes glance absentmindedly around the place curiously, watching the ripples upon the clear blue lake as he waits for some sign of life other than himself.

[ThirdEmperor]

King's Blood Field

Oh. These guys.

Quick as a flash One brings his sickle round to parry, catching the spear's haft in the curve of the blade and deflecting it towards the ground. Assuming that causes the spear to impale itself into the dirt as he planned, he'll follow it up with a vicious stomp to try and break the weapon.

Alpha also manages to evade a grisly demise, raising an arm to block the axe trying to decapitate him, then trying to seize the floating weapon and snap it in two.

First rolls back onto his feet while the attackers are distracted, drawing a fancy looking revolver and taking a shot at Red, mainly to see whether it'll even cause a reaction.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Do you want me to come stay at AMEN?" Darcy asks. That hadn't yet been settled the last time they spoke about it.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community

A thin-looking man, wearing a standard-issue adventure's clothing, black-brown hair and dark blue eyes came out of a forest where one of the road ends. He looks down on the tarmac, crouching down as he touch it. He feels the texture, which is completely new to him. He stands up straight, his hands places above his head to shadow his eyes, as if to look at the end of the road.

He sees several things, particularly something metallic that's reflecting sunlight to his direction. He looks at his water canister, twisting the cap and peeping on its small opening. He sees the canister is more than half full. He closes the canister, looking at the road again. Despite the harsh sunny weather in the area, he leaves the cool forest and heads to that certain direction.

He's walking at a normal pace, his attention only to the piles that he see from far away.

[McBish]

[Melody's Island]

"Thanks Estia." Derek says with a happy look on his face. He hadn't been sure how much Reinholdt's talk would do but is glad to see it had some effect. When Reinholdt pulls out a plate of brownies from the air he is fairly impressed, and sees why the girls like him so much.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Oh. I thought it had. "Well, since I'm keeping it, you can either stay at AMEN or hide away someplace else where we steal away like young lovers at every opportunity. The latter would be interesting..." But Ilpholin expects that Darcy would prefer the former after all this.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"I'm not really going to be into doing evil for evil's sake, you know," Darcy says to Ilpholin. "I guess your position there is pretty stable now, so hopefully having a girlfriend who used to spy on AMEN won't make too much difficulty?" Plus, Darcy's still technically a member.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Mmm... can't say. If you just avoid any of the official meetings though, you should be ok." Probably. But Ilpholin can't predict AMEN fully. That's part of why she likes it. A bit.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"How are things there?" Darcy asks. "Who's still around?"

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community

There's no mistaking that something bad has happened here. The walls have toppled in places, the air smells of death, burnt tyres and cordite. A gate is in the wall, made from a large van parked lengthwise through the wall and with the front replaced by the back of another van. Its doors are closed and locked, with a length of chain tying it shut through the windows. The wall nearby has toppled inwards, and appears to have landed upon a somebody; an arm sticks out, clutching tightly at a revolver made from at least three other guns.

[Lex-Kat]

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}


Reinholdt climbs out of the boat. "Thanks for the ride." He tells Derek.

He turns to the girls. "I believe I promised you something when we got here." Reinholdt reaches behind his back and pulls from thin air... a plate of fresh brownies! Well... probably not quite as fresh as when he picked them up from whichever kitchen he got them from (most likely the Applehills). He didn't personally make them like he did the cookies, but he doesn't point that out.

Both girls bounce happily at the sight of the "freshly baked" brownies, and lunge for the victim, intending to devour them before anyone has a chance to say not to.

Thank you Mister Reinholdt. Lyanna says around a mouthful of brownie. *Nom nom nom*

Mm-hmm Estia agrees, intending to be more polite by not speaking while eating.


[Melody's Island]

"Thanks Estia." Derek says with a happy look on his face. He hadn't been sure how much Reinholdt's talk would do but is glad to see it had some effect. When Reinholdt pulls out a plate of brownies from the air he is fairly impressed, and sees why the girls like him so much.

Lyanna offers him a brownie as well. Better take it while you can, this is a rare gift.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Mmm... alright. A little quiet." Ilpholin intends to kickstart that when she gets back. Though if she knew what was going on right now...

"Gordon and Prometheus are gone. Rot's mia again. Everyone else is still there as far as I can remember." Darcy might be thinking of someone else Ilpholin isn't considering.

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}

"Maybe you should save a few for your mom too." Reinholdt suggests. Hope they've had dinner. Oh well.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Moff? Jack? Becky? I guess I don't have to ask about Magtok. He's everywhere." Darcy says. I think that covers most of the regular lot who were around when Darcy was there as a spy.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

Landing on the lakeshore, Yuki reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small folded piece of paper and glances down at it. Yep, this was the right location. Someone named "Talnissa" had invited him here, but he knew not why. He folds it back up and replaces it in his pocket.

Yuki is a young man of medium height, with his black hair contrasting starkly against his white suit, pants, haversack, and wings. Pale blue eyes glance absentmindedly around the place curiously, watching the ripples upon the clear blue lake as he waits for some sign of life other than himself.

[Lake of Dreams]

After a short while, the surface of the Lake darkens, before clearing again, this time acting as a window onto myriad changing images, some pleasant, some dark, others too strange, or brief to, determine their tone...

Perhaps ten minutes after it does, regardless of Yuki's reaction, what seems to be a rather pretty humanoid robot, made of something that looks to be bronze, in a black silk cloak, the front of which is emblazoned with a coiled dracolich, and with fine gold wire for hair, arrives at the top of the cliff - the Lake of Dreams being at the bottom of a roughly circular chasm, several hundred feet deep, and perhaps a quarter that across -, and begins the slow descent of the staircase.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Oh yeah, they're still around. Well... haven't seen Jack in awhile. That can be good or bad." Probably bad.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community

As the man reaches the metallic structures, he stopped as he takes in the scenario that happened.

"Looks like a fight brewed here..", he murmured to himself.

He carefully walks towards one of the wall, sliding his hand in it. As he felt the texture of the wall, he takes a look at his hand, which is now. mixed with charred metal and dirt. He clasped both his hands together, trying to get rid of the unwanted materials. He enters the area through the broken wall, but he noticed something when he stepped on the wall. It rocked a bit.

He looks down, apparently seeing an arm, gripping something. Looking at the arm, he already knew that that person is dead. He continues to head inside, more wary than he was before he entered.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community

The largest building is a hut made from old motorway signs, which originally pointed towards the turn-offs for various cities, towns, villages and interesting sights. It's still not very large, however. There's also an old ISO container with its doors open; somebody has been using it as a bar, and there's some dead bodies amongst shattered furniture, some very old and others jury rigged from scrap materials. Another hut is in the corner, made from slabs of tarmac propped up against each other, and there's three old, rickety motor homes, and the burnt-out wrecks of another two. An old wooden caravan is next to a wall that has been partially pushed over onto it, and looks incredibly unstable.

In the centre of the town is a pile of heads, all human. There's the heads of men, women and children, and some show signs of violent death- gashes from where a bladed weapon sliced through, or distortions in the face from a broken skull.

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

After a short while, the surface of the Lake darkens, before clearing again, this time acting as a window onto myriad changing images, some pleasant, some dark, others too strange, or brief to, determine their tone...

Perhaps ten minutes after it does, regardless of Yuki's reaction, what seems to be a rather pretty humanoid robot, made of something that looks to be bronze, in a black silk cloak, the front of which is emblazoned with a coiled dracolich, and with fine gold wire for hair, arrives at the top of the cliff - the Lake of Dreams being at the bottom of a roughly circular chasm, several hundred feet deep, and perhaps a quarter that across -, and begins the slow descent of the staircase.

[Lake of Dreams]

As the water begins to shift and change, Yuki watches it curiously, gazing deep into the surreal pictures under the water...

Being rather preoccupied with the images in the lake, Yuki doesn't notice the new arrival for a while. Once he does, a bright smile breaks out on his face as he flies up to meet her, landing in front of her. He bows slightly and addresses the mechanical figure. "Hello there! Are you by any chance Talnissa-san?"

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community

Glancing around the entire area, the scenery in the center caught his attention the most. He walk towards the center, while looking at the other structures. When he arrived, he's overwhelmed at the numerous heads in the area. Surprisingly, he's not scared at it, as if he's already used to seeing this before. He walks around the center, as if to look for something eye-catching.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community

The pile of heads is not especially tall; it maybe reaches his waist. All the heads are from the inhabitants of this small community, and have been there roughly the same amount of time- not very long; there's a single white crow on one side, pecking at one of the heads to get at the eyes, but that's it. It's not part of the original town's layout.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community

After circling the center once, he seemingly lost interest in the area. He glances at the whole town again, looking particularly at the largest structure. He decides to head to go to that direction.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community

The building has had the words 'Town Hall' sprayed on with green paint above the door, which has come from a van. Propped up next to the door is a headless body cradling an elderly assault rifle daubed with green spirals upon the stock and decorated with plastic buttons. The body's wearing simple clothing made from undyed leather and old plastic bags. At its waist is a belt with several pouches, and it's wearing a pair of trainers secured with Velcro.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community

The man reaches his destination, his face looking upward towards the painted sign. He then approaches the door, noticing the headless body. He crouches down as he takes a closer look.

He's cradling something, but he doesn't know what it is.

He looks down on the waist, seeing the pouches. He opens all of them, trying to look if there's something in it.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community

In the pouches are two magazines for the assault rifle, a bag of bottle tops, three loose bullets for the assault rifle, a grenade and a key. Also on the body, but not in the pouches, are a bundle of plastic carrier bags, a knife, and some very worn old coins, plus a necklace made of string threaded through the holes in many different old buttons and ring pulls.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

As the water begins to shift and change, Yuki watches it curiously, gazing deep into the surreal pictures under the water...

Being rather preoccupied with the images in the lake, Yuki doesn't notice the new arrival for a while. Once he does, a bright smile breaks out on his face as he flies up to meet her, landing in front of her. He bows slightly and addresses the mechanical figure. "Hello there! Are you by any chance Talnissa-san?"

[Lake of Dreams]

She nods, extending a hand to him, presumably for purposes of shaking, which, now that he's close enough to hear it, is accompanied by a faint whir of clockwork, and a whisper of steam.

"I am. Which means that you must be the one I invited here. So before we start, how much did you manage to find out on your own?"

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community

Uncaring about the magazines and bullets in the pouch, he only takes out the key. He stands up straight, looking at the headless body for one last time, before pushing the door and heading inside.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

The first room has several rows of chairs taken from cars against the walls, and is lit by several crudely made candles, plus the light from the door and small holes in the walls. There's a desk made of a car's dashboard (complete with glove box) in the middle with a broken computer nearby and another headless corpse slumped in a chair behind. There's several containers made from car boots nearby. A door taken from a car leads further in; the window has been covered by a piece of steel plate bolted over it.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

As the man enters the Town Hall, he first noticed the lit candles.

"Anyone there?!", he shouted on the empty room.

He proceeds onto the small desk, as if to look for something valuable. Then, he walks to the headless body, taking a closer look at it.

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

She nods, extending a hand to him, presumably for purposes of shaking, which, now that he's close enough to hear it, is accompanied by a faint whir of clockwork, and a whisper of steam.

"I am. Which means that you must be the one I invited here. So before we start, how much did you manage to find out on your own?"

"Indeed. I am Sonozaki Yuki." Taking the hand and shaking it, Yuki smiles and gestures for them to continue down the staircase. "As for what I've found out, it depends on what you're referring to. This lake? As the name suggests, it seems to display surreal, dream-like images. I haven't done enough experimentation to determine anything else." He raises an eyebrow and smiles. "If you were talking about something else, I'm afraid I didn't quite understand your question."

[Lady Serpentine]

"Indeed. I am Sonozaki Yuki." Taking the hand and shaking it, Yuki smiles and gestures for them to continue down the staircase. "As for what I've found out, it depends on what you're referring to. This lake? As the name suggests, it seems to display surreal, dream-like images. I haven't done enough experimentation to determine anything else." He raises an eyebrow and smiles. "If you were talking about something else, I'm afraid I didn't quite understand your question."

Talnissa smiles, and does indeed continue down, seemingly almost amused about something.

"I meant about me, actually. I'd be rather disappointed if you didn't at least try to find out more about the mysterious person who contacted you out of the blue.

As for this lake, it shows the dreams of everyone in the Nexus, and many beyond. One can enter them, if you touch the water, though to do so without a destination in mind can be dangerous, especially if you are uninformed as to how to get out..."

[Morcleon]

Talnissa smiles, and does indeed continue down, seemingly almost amused about something.

"I meant about me, actually. I'd be rather disappointed if you didn't at least try to find out more about the mysterious person who contacted you out of the blue.

As for this lake, it shows the dreams of everyone in the Nexus, and many beyond. One can enter them, if you touch the water, though to do so without a destination in mind can be dangerous, especially if you are uninformed as to how to get out..."

[Lake of Dreams]

"...oh." Yuki blushes slightly in embarrassment. He tilts his head to one side, thinking for a few seconds. "Well, I know you used to 'do improbable things through surgery', like I do now, and that you died and started working on robotics. Other than that, you've made yourself quite mysterious indeed."

He raises an eyebrow as she speaks of the lake's power. "So it's a portal into the Dreamheart then... Curious. I've had marginal experience with that particular plane, although not nearly enough to attempt an unassisted entry."

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

"I'll fill you in somewhat, then...", Talnissa answers, grinning. "I'm what's known as a 'Ghost in the Machine'. Though I've heard the term used in a rather different fashion as well," she goes on, body stiffening, as a cloud of steam flows out of it, curling around Yuki, which is where her voice comes from when next she speaks. "This body is one of many that I've built for myself, and is nowhere near as harmless as it looks."

Wafting back into her body, she smiles, raising her right hand, which reforms into something similar, but covered with an intricate pattern of blades, a knife springing from each fingertip, as she does.

"See?

As for the Dreamheart, I'm not sure what that is... But speaking of 'entry', if you wish, I could show you one of my dreams of home. It might give you some insight into my nature, and my experience."

[Gullara]

[Outside the MagCave]

Mimi whizzes out of the MagCave and looks around. Okay, outside!
...Now what is she supposed to do? She looks around, trying to figure out what she needs to do next. There should be some sign, right?

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

"'Ghost in the Machine'? I can certainly see where you got that moniker..." Yuki runs a curious finger through the Talnissa-steam, and looks to the newly modified hand, a calculating grin on his face. "So you can modify your form, to an extent, at-will... Interesting..."

"The Dreamheart? It's the collective plane of existence where all dreams are located. It's quite large, as each entity has their own areas." He smiles up at Talnissa. "And I would love to see one of your dreams."

He glances down at the shifting lake, then back to Talnissa, awaiting instructions.

[Reinholdt]

[Fields]

One invisible cat arrives and looks around. Hmm... he supposes he can set up over there.

The invisible Reinholdt heads away from the fields' main attraction, finding a somewhat decent nest to huddle down in. Shifting to human form, he pulls his sniper rifle out of hammerspace and sets up. Patience and waiting is the name of the game. It's time to hunt a birdie...

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

Talnissa laughs brightly, shaking her head, the knives retracting, and the bladed plates flipping back over, to return her hand to normal.

"I wish. All that was the result of some rather intensive work to design, and then I still had to fabricate and test it. I mean, sure, if I have parts and a body to put them on, I can swap them out, but shapeshifting is hardly within my purview.

Any precautions you'd like to take before we go in?"

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Dreams Sorrow

Enshadu strides out of a hole in the air. He pops out with a flag in one metal floating hand. He's...a grotesque sight. He is obviously a cyborg of some sort. His face is a metal mask, bolted into his flesh, any exposed skin covered in white linen bandages. He has two metal stumps for arms, and a miniature swarm of nanobots make up a pair of floating hands just past the metal stumps. His left leg is a metal prosthetic, and softly steps on earth. He wears a torn dark purple pin striped leather trenchcoat, and a wide brimmed hat. His mask has a small respirator attached to breathe, and his eyes are shaded by protective lenses, left red and artificial, a hazel brown eyeball shaded by the built in lens right.

He sets the flag in the earth and waits for Magtok's appearance. His hands shift through different forms, and can change into anything Enshadu wishes, (Within the nanobots limits). Right now he just waits, and prepares.

[Reinholdt]

[Fields]

One invisible cat arrives and looks around. Hmm... he supposes he can set up over there.

The invisible Reinholdt heads away from the fields' main attraction, finding a somewhat decent nest to huddle down in. Shifting to human form, he pulls his sniper rifle out of hammerspace and sets up. Patience and waiting is the name of the game. It's time to hunt a birdie...


Field of Dreams Sorrow

Enshadu strides out of a hole in the air. He pops out with a flag in one metal floating hand. He's...a grotesque sight. He is obviously a cyborg of some sort. His face is a metal mask, bolted into his flesh, any exposed skin covered in white linen bandages. He has two metal stumps for arms, and a miniature swarm of nanobots make up a pair of floating hands just past the metal stumps. His left leg is a metal prosthetic, and softly steps on earth. He wears a torn dark purple pin striped leather trenchcoat, and a wide brimmed hat. His mask has a small respirator attached to breathe, and his eyes are shaded by protective lenses, left red and artificial, a hazel brown eyeball shaded by the built in lens right.

He sets the flag in the earth and waits for Magtok's appearance. His hands shift through different forms, and can change into anything Enshadu wishes, (Within the nanobots limits). Right now he just waits, and prepares.

Fields of Sorrow

There.
Reinholdt doesn't need to wait further. He doesn't care if Magtok shows up or not.

The invisible sniper does take aim and fire though. No warning. No challenges or quips. Reinholdt refuses to mess around today.

Enshadu is getting sniped at. BANG BANG BANG BANG.

[Devixer]

Fields of Sorrow

Reinholdt may or may not have noticed another invisible predator near the fields. Currently in between contracts, Jane Doe has decided to stake out what she deems a potential (if inept) threat to her organization, and to perhaps bag any Magtok stupid enough to come.

But Enshadu gets shot at. Well that was interesting. Jane turns her head toward the source of the noise, then back to the victim. Maybe her work would be done for her.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Sorrow

Enshadu had prepared for foul play, he had bombed Magtok, and released a nasty virus in his base. Enshadu is preparing as bullets fly at him. The first bullet hits his chest square. However, it only embeds an inch and ahalf in before it is stopped by Elexxion made elementium plates covering his flesh just below the skin, but there is a little blood, and Enshadu growls.

His hands suddenly switch into lightning, with long tendrils of white-hot electricity per finger. He raises his arms and the lightning bolts connect with the bullets, most likely causing them to explode or melt.

His red eye switches to anti-stealth mode, meaning it zooms and pierces invisibility, illusions, and spells of blink. He zooms around, looking for targets. His ear begins to launch sonar as well. Come fight me!

[BladeofObliviom]

Field of Sorrow

Off in the distance, there's a slight flash. Probably nothing.

Probably.

[Reinholdt]

Field of Sorrow

These bullets are nothing special. They can melt/explode.

Reinholdt stands and begins to approach, though firing every step of the way.

At least until his rifle runs out of ammo. Rather than reload, he callously tosses it aside to pull out a pair of pistols and unload those as well, slowly walking towards Enshadu all the while. The invisibility has worn off of its own regard now that Rein's attacked.

"I'm not fighting you. I'm helping you."

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

Enshadu will simply keep zapping and exploding bullets, probably sending shrapnel flying around. The lightning will keep electrifying the bullets, though another makes it through his lightning defense to embed itself in his fleshy leg, to be topped by the plates.enshadu keeps walking forward, concentrating. Weak boy! You're haunted by your mistakes, I see it in your little eyes. Come to me, let me free you from your bonds, die!

As Enshadu is walking, two mechanical arms retract out his chest, below his original arms. They are long, and each wields a blade made of blistering lightning. They twirl about, waiting to engage Reinholdt with expert precision.

At the same time, the E A.I. system will try to break into Reinholdts mind, accessing memories if it can.

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

"Boy?"

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGclickclick

"I'm Reinholdt. Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire."

Reinholdt tosses aside his empty pistols.

"Destroyer of Worlds."

Reinholdt pulls out from his hammerspace a midnight black chainsaw, wrapped around a chaingun. Gripped from the back and top as it is, with sleek leather insulating pads lining both of these areas, the chaingun barrel could only be mounted inside of the weapon, the laser ripper chain projected around it. The chaingun is fed bullets through a box on its right, loaded with gyroscopically stabilized fragmentation bullets. Mounted underneath is a tube which spews fire with the press of a trigger near the back grip.

"Father of the Apocalypse."

The chainsaw chaingun with flamethrower mod whirs to life. I doubt Rein would even be able to lift the thing prior to Thenadier's assistance.

"It is my sworn duty to destroy humanity to save it from its suffering. I think I'll start with you."

Reinholdt opens fire. Meet Margret. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVgTTAukMOU)

The E AI system, which I don't know much about, nor how it works exactly, but we'll say it works anyways, breaks into Rein's mind. There's an entire multiple lifetimes of memories in there though. What's it looking for?

I'm also presuming the blades aren't attacking yet, but are just there in preparation for when they're able to be used. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Isn't it hard for you, living around psychopaths?" Darcy says.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Wait. They're psychopaths?" :smallconfused:

"You should meet my aunt." Ilpholin says. They pale in comparison!

Also, sleep time now.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

Enshadu laughs softly when Reinholdt runs out of ammo, but frowns at his setting up of the chain gun. He stops moving, and his robotic arm blades start spinning fast, causing a shield of very quickly spinning lightning blades to block whatever bullets are about to come out of that thing. The cyborg cuckles softly, he could be shielded until it rsn out of ammo! Or he shut it down, either way this was going to interesting.

His real arms wave about and the nanobot hands change into shields, each about five fert across, made of pysionic magic. Enshadu waits for the fire to resume. A small gun pops out of the cyborgs left shoulder, it seems to be a small laser. It begins to target "Margaret". It's still charging up whatever it is. It's a kind of anti-matter weapon, whatever it hits disintegrates or implodes. Upgraded Elexxion tech.

The Enshadu Artificial Intelligence Program is what controls the cyborgs mind, and calculates movements. The program is massively intelligent, and took over it's host, thus Enshadu was born. It will try to gain access to all of the saddest, most miserable memories of Reinholdt's and attempt to send all those memories flooding into Reinholdt's conscious again. Then it will implant horrible visions of surgical tortures and unpeasant things, trying to completely terrify Reinholdt with promises of pain.

Enshadu speaks now, and the whirring of the two lightning blades gets louder as they turn faster and faster, blurring the air. The two nanobot shields cover everything else, and the cyborg stays in his position for now. Hah! Yes, boy. I am your elder. I was made by a genius, crafted by machines and I'm about o terminate your faulty little flicker of spirit you call life! I'll quench your pitiful life, finally dispose of unwanted material. No one likes you, not Magtok, not Erin, not even your own family. You're a miserable waste, at least you got your looks, not for long, I'll enjoy experimenting on you, test out my virus before I release it to the world. ILL RESTRUCTURE YOUR FACE! I'm going to end your life, one way or another. Let's see how long it takes for you to scream, maybe I'll even let you go, let you watch as children run from you, and your loved ones abandon you. You're hated by all. Nice gun. Dork, you look like a duck. Once you run out of ammo, what are you going to do? I was refined for a hundred years to be the most intelligent Artificial Intelligence Program. I AM THE OMNISPIRIT! Look, flesh sack, watch as you see all your failures again! Your mind is mine! I'm going to break you in so many ways, cut your pretty flesh, engineer a new face! I'll rewrite your entire genetic structure, beat you in seventeen lines of code! FIGHT ME! SOON YOU'LL RUN OUT OF TOYS!

[Gnrlshrimp]

Ancient Forest

Jacob can still feel magic coming from the tower which seem to have doe remarkably well despite being burned by Damon's fire and then bombed with water. In fact, it feels like more demonic energies are gathering there now.
Damon and others that can sense such things might be able to sense this as well.

Vizek that was about to reply to Wenomir get's an angry zern to deal with, "Damon, I didn't know! There were no clues that any demon that powerful here!" He shouts back.

Meanwhile the clouds which gathered shortly before they caused that mass of water to fall seem to spread outwards, with more dark clouds coming up in the horizon, bearing a promise of storm.

"You didn't know? Great. Great. Have you really grown sso overconfident? Mr high and mighty demon-sslaying dragon doessn't think there are any demonss that are a threat any more, iss that it?" Damon hisses. He probably should be paying attention to the demonic energy and stuff, but he's far too busy being angry right now.

He's very angry, in fact.

"We were not prepared for ssomething like that...whatever it wass. If you didn't know anything, why didn't you ssay sso? We could've sscouted the area out, made ssure we were ready to deal with whatever we faced." And then Damon tries to punch Vizek in the face.

He is not a happy Zern.

Probably not helped by his hatred of dragons.

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

Talnissa laughs brightly, shaking her head, the knives retracting, and the bladed plates flipping back over, to return her hand to normal.*

"I wish. All that was the result of some rather intensive work to design, and then I still had to fabricate and test it. I mean, sure, if I have parts and a body to put them on, I can swap them out, but shapeshifting is hardly within my purview.*

Any precautions you'd like to take before we go in?"

[Lake of Dreams]

"I see. It appears rather similar to my own grafting, in that respect." Yuki chuckles, and, withdrawing his scalpel from his coat and putting it in his shirt pocket, stows his coat in his haversack. "That shall be all, I believe. Care to guide me into the world of dreams?" He gestures to the lake and grins.

[McBish]

[Melody's Island]

Derek gratefully accepts the brownie happy to munch on the delicious baked goods. Brownies are the best.

"Yeah we should probably go find your mom."

Probably should head to the cottage or barn and see if they are around there.

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

"How do you break a broken man?"

You're right about one thing Enshandu. He's not wanted. His father beat him while his mother stood by. His wife of an hour stabbed him in the back to take his kingdom and his best friend did the same (they were totally sleeping together behind Rein's back too). A memory he was forced to relieve in full detail a thousand times due to a sadistic lich and his practical stepfather.

Oh Reinholdt had other lovers eventually. Rabbit. She committed suicide and made it out to be Rein's fault. Ermine. She's been gone for months and Rein knows she ran away too. Probably couldn't take being with him. Sad though she's gone, Reinholdt doesn't blame her.

And his son. Shepherd. Born from Rein's desire to destroy the multi-verse and spare it its suffering. Well, Reinholdt loved him too. But he also shot him to death to save the world. Twice. And we don't talk about the other kid he had.

So you're right about lots of things actually Enshandu. His family didn't want him. His loved ones always abandon him. His children run from him. This is Reinholdt's life. He is a complete, and total failure. He adapted to this by becoming a masochist. A lover of pain and of torture, like the kind being promised.

Reinholdt smiles, even as a tear runs down his face. Not because of the memories. Not because of how right Enshandu is. Not because of the torture he's experiencing. But because Enshandu is wrong about one very important thing.

Reinholdt will never run out of toys.

The treasure hunter stops firing with the chaingun chainsaw with flamethrower mod and hammerspaces it. It's a lovely weapon, but all weapons are tools. And this one isn't the right tool for this situation. Not yet. And he's not close enough for the shotgun.

Reinholdt pulls out a revolver. Little Winchester number nicknamed the Peacemaker.
http://cdn2.armslist.com/sites/armslist/uploads/posts/2011/09/08/190611_01_colt_winchester_44_40_centenia_640.jpgHe spins the loading mechanism before firing it twice.

Now this weapon in and of itself, isn't particularly special. However, it's loaded with ammo specifically designed to deal with another psychic that swore Rein's death. In point of fact, shield buster ammo. The way the bullets work, is that they actually are intangible from the time they leave the barrel until the first point of contact with flesh, whereupon they become tangible and continue their path through, hopefully, the body. This is supposed to allow the bullets to bypass things like psionic shielding. The kick is strong enough that it could very well tear through plating as well. Heck, the recoil is why Rein only got to fire it twice this round.

This happens regardless of whether Enshandu manages to avoid his own psychological meltdown for being in Rein's mind.

[Terumitsu]

[Outside the MagCave => Elsewhere?]

The tinny sound of a throat being cleared preceded the first set of directions. Or, rather, the first puzzle of a sort. Prefaced, of course, by the Intelligence's usual conversational natter. "Ah, good! This should do nicely. Now then, your first destination can be found by solving the following:

My feathers are changeless despite seasons and sun;
My arms reach far and wide;
My flesh is red and my perch second to none;
A watchtower amidst my peers, I hide."

Of course, the riddle would be repeated as many times as Mimi would ask although if she appeared to be having too much trouble, there might be a small hint thrown her way as well.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Wait. They're psychopaths?" :smallconfused:

"You should meet my aunt." Ilpholin says. They pale in comparison!

Also, sleep time now.

"Do you want me to meet any of your relatives?" Darcy asks.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"No, not really." Hence not being invited to Delmah Phor. "What about you? I don't think I've heard anything about your family."

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"My tribe isn't in the Nexus. It's a bit of a travel to reach there, and the last time I tried to visit them, I got captured." Darcy says.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

Enshadu growls and cackles strangely. He's enjoying this quite a lot. Though he dhould probably be much more afraid than he is. The pydchic shields cover his upper body, and his spinning blades cover lower. Enshadu's shoulder laser fires, sending a bolt of anti-matter at Reinholdt.

Then, he's shot at. Enshadu laughs at Reinholdt but then growls as the pair of bullets bypass his shields, one taking out the shoulder blaster, the other clanking into his chest, even denting the elementium plates. His shields fade now and the nanobots change into another pair of lightning blades. He then runs at Reinholdt, all four blades turning and swinging.

You miss them? Hm?! Ermine, your friends...your family? HM?! You have no one, soon your own mind will hate you. I will turn you into a miserable pile of regurgitated flesh, turn you inside out! I AM THE RECONSTRUCTOR! I am E! Come here
boy, fight me and die!

[Gullara]

[Outside the MagCave => Elsewhere?]

The tinny sound of a throat being cleared preceded the first set of directions. Or, rather, the first puzzle of a sort. Prefaced, of course, by the Intelligence's usual conversational natter. "Ah, good! This should do nicely. Now then, your first destination can be found by solving the following:

My feathers are changeless despite seasons and sun;
My arms reach far and wide;
My flesh is red and my perch second to none;
A watchtower amidst my peers, I hide."

Of course, the riddle would be repeated as many times as Mimi would ask although if she appeared to be having too much trouble, there might be a small hint thrown her way as well.

[Scavenger Hunt]

Mimi thinks. Hm... She thinks bird at first, but birds don't have arms. Red flesh, perch? A tree maybe. One that's red and doesn't change with the seasons. And it's tall! Mimi shoots upward to get above the surrounding trees and looks around for a redwood tree.

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

"Man, I AM fighting you. Get a new line." No one hates Reinholdt more than Reinholdt.

The blast of antimatter hits Reinholdt dead on and pushes him backwards, digging a line in the ground, the forcefield he's wearing holding up. Rein didn't really expect quite such an ammo as anti-matter and the amulet he's wearing cracks and fizzles, the field shattering. Rein's fine, but his primary protection is gone as a price. Rein hisses and rips the now-useless amulet off, tossing it.

Turning pink, Reinholdt rockets up into the air to try and get out of reach of the swords, loosening a bag at his side. He then goes to fly over and past Enshandu, a bit like a plane. I say like a plane because he takes the bag and turns it over, dumping the entire contents in a carpet bombing maneuver. Inside are... a bunch of rather normal rocks.

Well until the rocks hit something. There are three effects. One type of rock blasts a 20 foot area with electricity. Rein doesn't expect that do much. Another kind reverses gravity in a 20 foot area for a brief period. That tends to be disorienting and all sorts of physics fun. The last is basically fragmentation grenades, in that when they land they explode in a shattering of sharp metal pieces. This is the one Rein's hoping will hurt the most.

But really he's just dropping them all at random as he goes to fly by.


Ilpholin's Grove

"My tribe isn't in the Nexus. It's a bit of a travel to reach there, and the last time I tried to visit them, I got captured." Darcy says.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Ilpholin frowns. So that's how it went down, huh?

[Hattish Thing]

Field of strife

Enshadu just growls, his breathing heavier. He hisses when Reinholdt's shield breaks, and laughs when he's pushed back, his blades flip and turn, and dig long lines on the ground, setting the grass on fire with the white-hot lightning blades. He almost reaches Reinholdt, but then the more agile foe jumps over him, two blades flash up to try and cut Reinholdt in half as he jumps.

Then, projectiles fall. Several of the rock-bombs hit him, the electricity just gives Enshadu extra power, and makes the lightning blades longer and hotter. The anti-gravity effect has Enshadu floating five feet off the ground, and then two thrusters open in the back of his mechanical thighs and upper back, now he's floating in control, propane powering the cyborg.

Finally, the shrapnel explodes, this hurts. Pieces of metal embed themselves in his metal mask, a large piece smashing the red eye, so he lost his invisibilty piercing ability. More pieces break into his flesh, what little he had, to be stopped by the plates.
Hah! Your grenades sting little man...you jump like a frog...Run little toad, you can run while you can. I am Elexxion Industries greatest creation! Nearly invincible! Installed with my own special weaponry...I am stronger whelp. Fight me like a man! You enjoy pain, eh? I'LL GIVE YOU PAIN! He then rockets back down to Reinholdt, blades whirring, trying to shred Reinholdt.

[Reinholdt]

Field of strife

It's actually flight, not jumping, though I can see how my description could be confused in such a way. Still, we'll say the back of one of Rein's legs get cut with a zap as he flies over, causing him to land on the other side with a kneeling limp and a slight twitch. Seems, he's not as immune to electricity as Rein's usual undead.

"I'm a cat, actually. A ************* flying cat."

Reinholdt compensates by putting on a new amulet with a quick slight of hand and pulling out... an umbrella. And pops it open as Enshandu rockets down at him. "Watch out for falling jerks."

The umbrella works as an effective shield of pure hell-iron, holding off the swords for now, though the force of the blow forces Reinholdt to bend, especially with that now damaged leg. What it's not effective against is stopping the electricity from zapping through it. Fortunately, Rein's new amulet is designed to absorb electricity. It can only hold so much, but it'll do for now.

Oh and did I mention the tip of the umbrella shoots out a stream of hell-fire much like a flamethrower but with hellfire? Look. It's doing so now. FWOOOSH to the face.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Or rather, it was when I was on the way back. But I wasn't near the tribe when I was taken, so I'm sure they're safe," Darcy says.

[Morty]

"You didn't know? Great. Great. Have you really grown sso overconfident? Mr high and mighty demon-sslaying dragon doessn't think there are any demonss that are a threat any more, iss that it?" Damon hisses. He probably should be paying attention to the demonic energy and stuff, but he's far too busy being angry right now.

He's very angry, in fact.

"We were not prepared for ssomething like that...whatever it wass. If you didn't know anything, why didn't you ssay sso? We could've sscouted the area out, made ssure we were ready to deal with whatever we faced." And then Damon tries to punch Vizek in the face.

He is not a happy Zern.

Probably not helped by his hatred of dragons.

"Knock it off, you two," Wenomir barks. "There's still work to be done." He points to the tower with his axe. "We need to find out what's going on there. Let's move."

[happyturtle]

Above Planet Anthea Epsilon

It was early in the space battle, when things started to go wrong, that the plans changed from a shuttle landing to high orbital insertion. Since it hadn't been part of the original plans, Nora Pascal hadn't been briefed on it. She felt the information entering her head - entering the heads of all of her squadmates - and being unpacked by her BrainPal.

She was pleased to learn that she had guessed correctly that the term "High Orbital Insertion" meant dropping soldiers onto the planet without their shuttle. Then troubled when she learned that it was generally not something done with rookie Special Forces. There were two rookies in their 12 man squad, and Nora was one of them. She was fully trained, but until she'd been in battle, she wasn't really considered a real soldier. They couldn't be sure she wouldn't panic, and if a soldier was going to panic, it'd be during a drop through an atmosphere, surrounded by a one man bubble, and cut off from her squad-mates by BrainPal silence.

::You'll be fine, Pascal:: Her squad leader transmitted over the BrainPal network, but the fact that the message was undercut by it's emotional content - tension and irritation. ::Stay calm, follow instructions. DO NOT panic, and once BrainPal silence starts, DO NOT break it silence early. You can speak to your own BrainPal, but do not transmit to others or the ship.::

::I understand, Sir:: Pascal transmitted over BrainPal. She wasn't afraid of dying. It was hard to have a real concept of death when you were only a month old. But she was very afraid of failing.

Ten minutes later, she and her squad-mates were plummeting silently to the planet.

Twelve minutes later, her BrainPal informed her that there was an unusual amount of turbulence - a rather unnecessary bit of information since she could feel the jostling. She asked her BrainPal what she should do. The answer was nothing. Either her nanolattice bubble would hold, or it wouldn't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thirteen minutes later, all turbulence had ceased. Her BrainPal told her this was unusual. She asked what she should do. Again, nothing.

Eighteen minutes later, atmospheric entry was complete. The nanolattice disintegrated, giving her a view of the planet below. She would be invisible to anyone looking for her, either visually or with instruments. Which meant all of her squad mates were invisible to her as well. She itched for BrainPal silence to end. It bothered her that the planet below did not look like Anthea Epsilon

At 1000 feet, her BrainPal informed her that she could re-integrate with her squad. Then it attempted to do so. Then it reported failure. It tried again. Again reported failure.

::WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?:: she demanded.

::Deploy parasail:: Her BrainPal replied.

::And go WHERE? Where is the primary target? Where is the control tower? Where is my squad?::

::Unknown. Deploy parasail::

She did, just in time.

Finally, she started examining the landscape below. A city in the distance. Sea. Mountains. And an alien. Not the Lodori, that they had come to fight, but an alien all the same. It would do.

She prepared her Empee with rifle rounds and fired a three round burst. Then she released her parasail and dropped the rest of the way to the ground.

However she ended up on this unknown world, without her squad, this particular alien was going to pay. :smallfurious:

[UncleWolf]

Under the Drop Zone

Even though his term was up, Cassius Godlark couldn't help but feel a bit lonely and saddened. He now held the title of Redeemer to Major Jyarl and the rest of Remnant, and sure, he had a Lieutenant's Commission on permanent hold if he ever decided to take them up on the job offer, but after living in those cramped barracks for so long, the rest of the world seemed empty.

Especially now that he didn't need to watch his back with the Human Supremacists. It was...boring.

He took a moment to set his duffel aside and shifted to his natural Ant-ish form with a pleasant sigh. It was nice to relax, he had to admit, so maybe the boredom wasn't such a bad thing. Picking up the bag again, he dusted off his new uniform and continued his walk.

He wasn't used to the uniform yet, but he was proud of it. It was much like Remnant's usual bright whites, but unlike most of the others, it included a single metal composite pauldron, painted red and shaped like a human skull, on the right shoulder representing his status as a Redeemer.

So it was after the lonely thoughts had been chased away and just when he was about to start belting out Time Is On My Side when his antennae picked up the trio of shots. He wasn't able to react before the bullets slammed into his side, ramming him into the ground as he started to leak many fluids that probably should stick to being inside of a body.

He let out a small groan, half of pain, but also half because his day and uniform had just gotten ruined. He wanted to get up and attack whoever it was that just shot him, but the wounds wouldn't be mortal and were already closing up (the wonders of shapeshifting), and he wanted every advantage that he could get. Even so, he slowly shifted his left hand into a wide razor edged blade as he laid on the ground, waiting for whoever it was to come investigate.

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

Nora Pascal rips off her helmet and flings it at the body, and then runs at it, intending to stomp it to a pulp. ::WHERE IS MY SQUAD? WHERE IS MY SQUAD?:: she demands, over and over, not realizing that she is sending the message over encrypted BrainPal waves that could never have reached the alien, even if it is still alive and happens to have a computer implanted in its head.

She also doesn't realize she's screaming wordlessly in fury.

If Cassius looks, he'll see a humanoid woman with light green skin, cat eyes, and blue hair, dressed in a form fitting uniform with active camouflaging on. The camouflage setting can't work fast enough against the background to stop someone from seeing her if they know she's there. Particularly if she's right there, trying to stomp said someone into paste.

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone

Cassius' right hand reaches up to catch the helmet only to throw it back quite hard towards her face. As soon as he lets go, the Ant-Man gets his feet under him and tries to follow through with his attack by ramming his armored shoulder into her. He couldn't see exactly what she might look like due to the camo, but it was easy for him to figure out what was where by looking past her and letting his peripheral vision dealing with it.

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

Nora dodges the helmet. Her Special Forces body was faster and stronger than regular CDF forces, who were in turn modified to be faster and stronger than their human originals. This enemy seems to be just as fast as her, and bullets hadn't kept it down. She'd have to switch her Empee to rockets, but first she'd have to get some distance.

The shoulder takes her, but as she falls, she wraps a leg around the alien's to try and make it fall with her, while pulling out a combat knife to slice into it's abdomen. The Empee - a weapon which looks like a specialized rifle - falls to the ground. She'd recover it later.

One good thing about being in close combat. It calmed her temper a bit.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of strife

It's actually flight, not jumping, though I can see how my description could be confused in such a way. Still, we'll say the back of one of Rein's legs get cut with a zap as he flies over, causing him to land on the other side with a kneeling limp and a slight twitch. Seems, he's not as immune to electricity as Rein's usual undead.

"I'm a cat, actually. A ************* flying cat."

Reinholdt compensates by putting on a new amulet with a quick slight of hand and pulling out... an umbrella. And pops it open as Enshandu rockets down at him. "Watch out for falling jerks."

The umbrella works as an effective shield of pure hell-iron, holding off the swords for now, though the force of the blow forces Reinholdt to bend, especially with that now damaged leg. What it's not effective against is stopping the electricity from zapping through it. Fortunately, Rein's new amulet is designed to absorb electricity. It can only hold so much, but it'll do for now.

Oh and did I mention the tip of the umbrella shoots out a stream of hell-fire much like a flamethrower but with hellfire? Look. It's doing so now. FWOOOSH to the face.

Enshadu rockets to Reinholdt. lightning blades twilrling around ready to shred anything they hit to pieces. Enshadu laughs cruelly as a blade slices Reinholdt's leg. The monstrous cyborg with four arms reaches Reinholdt and smash and scrape the steel umbrella, though the combined force of 260 pounds of metal and machine, and the speed he's flying would equal that of being hit by a cannon at thirty feet. The blades keep scraping, determined to melt the steel into slag. Hah! Soon your metal will melt, or be cut...then my blades shall sever flesh! I will be the end of you Reinholdt....I shall make you watch as your own innards are shown to you. You have no friends, you are a waste. Now let me dispose of you...You're a pyschotic, pathetic, basket case. How did it feel? Killing your own family? See how they hate you?! You are noth-

Then, flames suddenly burst out of the umbrella, his coat catches on fire, along with the hat on his head. The metal mask is fireproof, and covers ninety percent of his face, the other ten percent is now on fire, linen bandages burning up. Enshadu howls out in pain, but then the fire stops burning, quenched by his mindpower. AS for the rest of the flame spurting out, Enshadu simply flips backward, away, landing on his metal clawed legs, his trousers are burnt from the knees down, showing that his lower half is entirely metal. Good...you're good...now lets see if your crippled mind can last...


Unless Reinholdt can somehow resist the mind magic of the Enshadu Artificial Intelligence System, suddenly Reinholdt might realize that his surroundings somehow change. Now it seems he's standing on a cliff edge, and below the cliff is a river of lava, they're on a volcano. Enshadu is facing Reinholdt, lightning blades out, Reinholdt's back is to the cliff. Now let's fight...Hehe...WE're in your mind. His voice is now hoarse and croaky, sounding oily and mechanical, black goo drips from the broken red eye.

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone

Damn she's fast. Cassius can't help but think to himself as he finds himself falling on top of her. He hadn't expected the trip, but he quickly turns his blade back into a normal hand to keep from slicing himself as he lands on her. Nora will find her blade sinking to the hilt in her foe's abdomen, but will then find the flesh around the wound attempting to grow around the hilt in order to trap it.

At the same time, Cassius' antennae shrink away to be replaced by a series of thick chitin plates on his forehead before he tries to headbutt her.

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

Nora swears, the first intelligible word she's spoken, as she quickly snatches back her hand to keep from losing her knife. The surprise from that causes the headbutt to connect. It's not enough to cause a concussion - she's designed too well for that - but it does daze her momentarily, giving Cassius another opening.

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone

Cassius takes the momentary daze to try and grab her hands and pin them next to her head. If he's able to do so, she'll find him shouting in Common/English. "If you're all worked over now, mind telling me why the **** you shot me?!?! I just got this ********* ***** uniform!"

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

The pin is successful, but Nora just screams right back at him. "****ING ALIEN SCUM? WHY ISN'T THIS ANTHEA EPSILON? WHERE IS MY SQUAD?!"

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone

"I'm an ant-person, not an alien!" Cassius shouts back desperately trying to get her to calm down before she gets hurt. "And I don't have a ******** clue what an Anthea Epsilon even is!"

[Reinholdt]

Field of strife

Hell-iron umbrella actually. Not steel. Much tougher, though I suppose it could only stand up to an onslaught so long.

Not that it matters right now.
Reinholdt glances around the mindscape. Hmm... lava. "I'm not in a merciful mood or anything, but I really don't think you should be in here. It'd be safer fighting me physically."


Ilpholin's Grove

"Or rather, it was when I was on the way back. But I wasn't near the tribe when I was taken, so I'm sure they're safe," Darcy says.

Ilpholin's Grove

"Do they know that you're safe?" Ilpholin asks.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of strife

Hell-iron umbrella actually. Not steel. Much tougher, though I suppose it could only stand up to an onslaught so long.

Not that it matters right now.
Reinholdt glances around the mindscape. Hmm... lava. "I'm not in a merciful mood or anything, but I really don't think you should be in here. It'd be safer fighting me physically."





Enshadu growls and waves his blades around menacingly, obviously agitated. You do? I don't think so boy. Pick out a weapon. We fight, you die. I am stronger. If I kill you here...you are unconscious in reality, and when that happens...friend...you're going to wish someone else had killed you. Pick up a weapon. I am not merciful...you attacked me. Five seconds.

[Reinholdt]

Mind of strife

"Not merciful? You're waiting on me. That's very merciful."

"Also, I choose my imagination as my weapon of choice. Or should I say, my nightmares?"

Reinholdt says. There's a flash and a crack of thunder as Rein stands there calmly. Everyone knows the only way to do mental battles is through the imagination.

[Hattish Thing]

Mind of Strife

Enshadu nods slowly. I have a sense of fair play, be glad that I do. Else you'd be dead. He growls softly at the thunder. Fine. Have your imagination, I can beat your puny little mind with calculations, with mathematics, with intelligence. Enshadu begins to walks slowly, the two bottom blades digging into the rock and cutting, leaving smooth cuts in the rock, the top blades whirring and spinning. Come then.

[Reinholdt]

Mind of Strife

"How do you measure the unmeasurable? When infinite is divided by 0 after all..."

Blank. Empty. Black.
There's no volcano now.
There's no anything.
There's no nothing.

They're in the void now. The abyss full of empty.

"And multiply by the square root of negative 1. Calublufiok showed me this one, though I personally prefer Draken's version better."

[Hattish Thing]

Mind of Strife

Enshado looks around, then a path starts to form in the void, a pathway of numbers, which change into metal to form a path for Enshadu to walk on to get to Reinholdt. The baldes continue spinning, and Enshadu continues walkling ominously. There is never nothing, there is always something. A leftover denominator, an answer. There is always an answer. Chaos is an illusion, fake. A red herring. There is only rules. Rules I am a master of. Calaubfiok? You could have been so powerful. I could teach you a great deal, but you are arrogant. A fool. Miss her? From out of the void a figure appears, a life-like vision of Ermine, on the path Enshadu is walking, begging Reinholdt wordlessly. Do you?

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

There is no answer from within. On the desk is a plastic bottle filled with water, a chipped mug several broken pencils, a pencil sharpener and a box of matches. In the glove box of the desk is a pair of gloves, a bag of raisins, several parts from a pistol and a box of pistol rounds.

The body is that of a woman, quite young by the look of her, wearing a one-sleeved wool shirt and a leather skirt. The other sleeve, and her arm, is lying on the floor nearby. Around the wrist of her severed arm is an old digital watch with no display, and should the Adventurer search her he'll find a purple apple, a wind-up electric torch with an LED bulb and a crude knife strapped to her thigh.

[Reinholdt]

Mind of Strife

"More than you know..." Reinholdt whispers, imagining a small pistol and shooting Ermine with it. "But I'll sacrifice anything to keep this world safe."

"Speaking of Draken, have you ever been eaten from the inside out by bugs? I have. It's very unpleasant. And very easy for me to remember. Why... I'm imagining you're having that very problem right now." Reinholdt says. Enshandu may feel a tingly feeling. A creepy-crawly-things-inside me feeling. A bugs eating him from the inside-out feeling turned mental reality. Perhaps.

[Hattish Thing]

Mind of Strife

Enshadu growls again. His expression is masked by the metal, but he's probably looking confused underneath it. The vision of Ermine is shot dead horribly, Enshadu making sure the death was more gruesome than necessary. Ermine makes a horrid sound as she dies again, before melting into a horrible writhing blob of flesh. Oh,
I know exactly how much. I can see it in your eyes, read it in your mind, your face. You loved her...yet you kill her! You could have her again...you know, or Rabbit. I can do that.

No, not by bugs. I don't particularly understand what that has to do with anythin--Enshadu growls and trembles a little. He's eighty percent metal, the only dflesh on him being his head, his upper chest, and a left shoulder. However, he still feels everything happening as if he was human. Agh! You bastard... Enshadu shivers before he attempts to launch his own attack.

I'll show you what's going to happen to you, boy. If you do not obey my wishes. Urgh...That was cruel...painful...I'll be ten times harsher. Have you ever felt your body chooped and shaved, cut and fixed, organs removed and replaced with...machines...metals...seen as they drained your blood and stuck a mask on your face, and a respirator. Felt as you are rebuilt, re-engineered, re-born a machine....feel the pain! Suddenly REinholdt will feel a horrible feeling, scalpels, knives, sawblades, sharp instruments gauging out his eyes, ripping skin, cutting flesh. Feel my pain!

[Reinholdt]

Mind of Strife

"They'll only leave me again." But that gives him an... "Agh!"

Reinholdt clutches at his chest. "You'll have to... you'll have to do better than that. The lich already did that one to me." Sans turning him into a cyborg.

"I see now, pain is nothing new to you. But maybe this is..." Reinholdt starts imagining something completely different now.

Love.

He imagines Enshandu feeling his initial, naive love for his ex-wife Tabitha. The passion he felt for Rabbit. The joy of treasure hunting with Ermine in and out of the bedroom. The unfailing, warming love and hope Vasilisa has shown him despite his inability to reciprocate. The pure, innocent love of Estia and Lyanna, two girls he rescued and returned to their mother. The overwhelming love he has for Shepherd that hurts far worse than any physical pain ever could.

Reinholdt imagines Enshandu feeling all the love that broke Reinholdt and saved him from his prison.

[Hattish Thing]

Mind of Strife


Enshadu nods. Then you shall be a perfect plague tester. I need new guinea pigs...the old ones....were not as strong as you. The neurotoxin destroyed their minds in minutes. You're different. He growls again. Trust me, I"m worse than a lich, boy. None of that phylactery nonsense or undead weaknesses. Hah! New? You cannot wound me.

Then, a wave of new thoughts crash into Enshadu's mind, feelings that were supposed to not be felt, love is a weakness. His creators decided to remove a possible weakness. Now Enshadu is feeling the emotion, he staggers and shivers. He growls and splutters as well. No...You can't do that...that's not....stop....order. Order. That's not...That...
That's not fair!Enshadu growls and then the dreamscape will probably start to collapse and reveal the real world again, where the combatants are 10 feet away, armed.

You won that round, now this one. He raises his lightning blades.

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

Reinholdt stands, readying himself and switching out the umbrella for a snowy white wooden staff. His leg seems to be doing a little better, but he'll need to drink some blood before it really is healed.

"I wasn't going to, but now I'll give you one single chance. You can feel that again, if you abandon your quest to destroy humanity right now. This offer won't be made again, so choose wisely."

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

Enshadu nods. Reinholdt, boy. This is not about saving humanity really. It never was really...this is revenge. Cold, brutal, and complex. They have greatly wronged me. Magtok, Tobias, Clarrissa, Dipsnig. They must pay. Wouldn't you do the same? They shatterred my life...everything I loved. Did love. He loved. I am E now. All of them must pay..you see?

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

"I did do the same. Destroyed my whole world and then some because two cats wronged me. And you saw how that turned out. Is that what you want?" Does Enshandu wish to become so screwed up like Reinholdt, that he'll callously shoot his own girlfriend just to accomplish his goals?

[Lord Magtok]

Field of Strife

"Oh hey guys, am I late for the party?"

Magtok floats in from a portal, sleepy eyes wandering from one combatant to the other, a look of feigned embarrassment across his face. Instead of any weapon, all he's got in his hands is a mug of coffee, and...are those bunny slippers on his feet? Did he just get out of bed or something? :smallyuk:

"Oh jeez, I am really late, aren't I? Wow, you guys look like you've already gone a few rounds and everything. Mind filling me in on who's winning and stuff while I finish my drink?"

Goddammit, Magtok! You just had to showing up now, just in time to ruin everything. Enshadu might've actually learned something from Reinholdt if you'd simply stayed in bed!

[Lex-Kat]

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}


"Maybe you should save a few for your mom too." Reinholdt suggests. Hope they've had dinner. Oh well.

Both girls look at Reinholdt, mid-munching, with a 'Are you serious?' look. Oh, all right. But just one for mom, and one for Melody.

And one for Miss Happy too. Lyanna says defiantly.

Estia nods in agreement.


Derek gratefully accepts the brownie happy to munch on the delicious baked goods. Brownies are the best.

"Yeah we should probably go find your mom."

Probably should head to the cottage or barn and see if they are around there.

Estia shakes her head no, emphatically. Nu-uh. We should sneak quietly to bed. She's probably asleep. Why wake her?

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

Enshadu frowns. No. Not everyone. Just them. They...took everything from me! Look at what I am! Look! I am a machine, built to kill. Magtok will burn. I...They ruined my life. I am a machine. I'm in temporary control...Reinholdt, I need to avenge my destruction. Only them. Help me, or get away. Or die.

Magtok appears. Oh boy. You...finally showed up?!

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

For Enshandu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe-f25KmrdA&list=PL90229471516D05ED&index=8). And maybe Magtok too now that he's here.

"Temporary control's not trustworthy enough. FORTUNATELY, Magtok's arrived to make up for what he did. See, he's deeply sorry for how he hurt you, and he wants to help you, rather than risk fighting over the world. He can make you flesh and blood again. Get a bit of your dna, he can clone a body, download your memories into it and voila. You're cured. You have your life back. You want to do that, don't you Magtok?" Reinholdt says, looking at Magtok and turning pink for a bit to use one of his least used abilities. A minor suggestive power. Not the hardest to resist in a long shot, but it helps push a bit. In this case, it's directed solely at Magtok though.

Reinholdt's nothing if not good at reacting to situation changes and trying to turn them to his favor.

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}

"Because she's going to hear about monster attacks tonight, whether you like it or not." Reinholdt says firmly.

[Lord Magtok]

Field of Strife

The cyborg shrugs. Reinholdt's question is more intriguing than it is alarming. He's probably willing to get involved in this nonsense now, but by the time he really thinks about what Rein is asking and has all of the details, well...

"Hrm? Yeah, sure, I guess. How did I hurt him, anyways? You'd think I would've remembered causing-"

Magtok waves a finger at Enshadu and all his hideous metal bits.

"-that, but I don't."

[5a Violista]

Oldale Town Ruins

Eventually, the pirate will find a fossil. It resembles a root, as it is a Root Fossil. If she finds the right machine, or potentially powerful enough magic, she could turn it into a Lileep, one of my favourite fossil pokemon.

The pirate Alvida finds a fossil! She holds it above her head, because she just got that. Yay! "This belongs in a museum," she says. She finds her way out of the hole (really, she climbs out of it. It's very hard) and reaches the top, gasping for breath. "Now, I just have to find a museum..."

She collapses just after exiting the hole, exhausted.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

Enshadu growls low at Magtok, obviously wanting to make Magtok sushi. His lightning blades slowly spin. Magtok, don't you remember? You betrayed me...greedy scrap metal pile! You contributed to my destruction! They destroyed everything. Elexxion fixed me...for a huge amoumt of my, now small, fortune. I had my lead proffessor install a program into my mind. Whoever I was is dead...Enshadu is in control, always. I am always under his control. My control. I am E.

Reinholdt, you are too kind...Magtok would not help me, knowing who I was. Magtok. Ready to die? I AM NOT A THAT! Enshadu then walks slowly to Magtok, four mechanical arms spinning four lightning blades.

[Reinholdt]

Field of Strife

"For all that processing power Magtok, you sure are an idiot." Asking how was counter-productive and anyone could have seen that coming.

Magtok may be able to talk his way out of this, but just in case he doesn't Reinholdt takes advantage of the reprieve to pull out a canteen filled with blood and drink it down so as to get his leg mended very quickly.

[Aric Kale]

Fields of Strife

Zane appears at the scene thanks to a teleport given to him by Enshadu. Quickly assessing the situation, Zane draws his sword with his right hand. It is two feet in length, single-edged and elven in design. At a snap of his fingers, Black Fire dances along the edge of his blade. This flame is not ordinary by any means; the burning process accelerates 10x if the person on fire feels any fear at all...including Darkstar.
"Gentlemen, meet Thorinsgaet, The Bringer of Storms."

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone


Drop Zone

"I'm an ant-person, not an alien!" Cassius shouts back desperately trying to get her to calm down before she gets hurt. "And I don't have a ******** clue what an Anthea Epsilon even is!"

Part of what he says gets through. Ant-person. Someone in Nora's squad had heard that CDF used Special Forces to create soldiers that were so strange they didn't even look human anymore. Nora hadn't believed it at the time, but what if...?

If she'd just tried to kill one of their own, she was in so much trouble.

What if this was a training test? Put the rookie in an atmosphere entry bubble and then move them somewhere else to see how they cope? If so, Nora Pascal had just failed the test, badly.

Cassius will feel her go limp, defeated. "Anthea Epsilon is the planet we were supposed to take back from the Lodori. But this doesn't look like Anthea Epsilon, and you don't look like a Lodori."


Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin's Grove

"Do they know that you're safe?" Ilpholin asks.

Darcy shook head no. "Too hard to get a message through. But we're a warrior tribe. We know every time someone leaves that they may not come back."

[Terumitsu]

[Scavenger Hunt]

Mimi thinks. Hm... She thinks bird at first, but birds don't have arms. Red flesh, perch? A tree maybe. One that's red and doesn't change with the seasons. And it's tall! Mimi shoots upward to get above the surrounding trees and looks around for a redwood tree.

Mimi wouldn't have to look far as a particularly towering redwood reached skyward past the canopy formed by its lesser kin. There were a few similar examples of impressive growth but there was something about this one that simply seemed.. Off somehow? Perhaps it was the fact that there wasn’t any birdsong to be heard in its branches or perhaps it was the faint shimmering of color in the air. Or perhaps it was the fact that its crown was apparently playing a jaunty tune with instruments that Mimi has likely never heard of before. She might recognize the language by sound but likely not the words, though.

If she tracks the sound to its source, though, she would find a small ovoid that was about her size with a speaker as large as her head. Once she drew close to it, however, it would stop playing its song and instead it would begin playing a recorded message although it would be much quieter in comparison to the music that came before. ”Hello Mimi! Glad to see you’ve gotten this far. Your next task is to find this place:

A hive of walls but there are no bees;
Rivers without water and which never freeze;
Hollow blocks making hollow block spires;
Each lit inside by glass covered fires;
Sand mixed to stone to support a thousand feet;
Atop a singing, roofed mesa is where we’ll next meet.

There would then be a pause before Riss’ voice came through the speaker again, saying: ”And if you need to hear that again, just tap the small glowing circle on the device.”

[Lord Magtok]

Field of Strife

The cyborg raises an eyebrow.

"I betrayed Marciano, dumpling. You yourself admitted on that wall that he got what he deserved. If you got caught in the crossfire because you were working for the greedy little toadstool, as I seem to recall you saying...well, that's not really anyone's fault but your own, is it? He was trying to drill into Hell, you know."

Magtok finishes his mug of coffee, dropping it into a portal, before immediately withdrawing an orchestra conductor's baton from a pocket. Apparently it's a weapon of some kind, because he doesn't seem all too fazed by those sawblades inching towards his flesh.

"So that's my part in this sorted out, and I think I can guess Dippy's...what about Tobias and Clarissa? You seem to have a really weird amount of respect for the former, don't know what that's about."

Aww, is our cyborg jealous? I think he is.

[Devixer]

"You didn't know? Great. Great. Have you really grown sso overconfident? Mr high and mighty demon-sslaying dragon doessn't think there are any demonss that are a threat any more, iss that it?" Damon hisses. He probably should be paying attention to the demonic energy and stuff, but he's far too busy being angry right now.

He's very angry, in fact.

"We were not prepared for ssomething like that...whatever it wass. If you didn't know anything, why didn't you ssay sso? We could've sscouted the area out, made ssure we were ready to deal with whatever we faced." And then Damon tries to punch Vizek in the face.

He is not a happy Zern.

Probably not helped by his hatred of dragons.


"Knock it off, you two," Wenomir barks. "There's still work to be done." He points to the tower with his axe. "We need to find out what's going on there. Let's move."

Hildur does her best to ignore the argument between Damon and Vizek. She really doesn't know enough about demons to offer much insight. So, when Wenomir says to get to the tower, she starts to move in that direction.

[Hattish Thing]

Field of Strife

"For all that processing power Magtok, you sure are an idiot." Asking how was counter-productive and anyone could have seen that coming.

Magtok may be able to talk his way out of this, but just in case he doesn't Reinholdt takes advantage of the reprieve to pull out a canteen filled with blood and drink it down so as to get his leg mended very quickly.


Enshadu sees this but just keeps walking towards Magtok, the lightning blades spinning. However, Reinholdt might hear a voice in his head. Choose a side. I respect you for what you've done in your life, you stayed good. You fixed yourself. Help me, or help Magtok. One of us will burn when this is all over, Magtok, or me. Choose me, and you might help me. Choose Magtok, and you will die sadly....I respect you.
Enshadu keeps striding toward
Magtok, the bottom two blades digging into the ground and sending the dirt flying, the upoper two swinging wildly, electrfying anything they touch.


Fields of Strife

Zane appears at the scene thanks to a teleport given to him by Enshadu. Quickly assessing the situation, Zane draws his sword with his right hand. It is two feet in length, single-edged and elven in design. At a snap of his fingers, Black Fire dances along the edge of his blade. This flame is not ordinary by any means; the burning process accelerates 10x if the person on fire feels any fear at all...including Darkstar.
"Gentlemen, meet Thorinsgaet, The Bringer of Storms."


Enshadu does not turn his head, abut continues walking his way to Magtok, dirt flying about. However, Zane might hear his voice in his head. Zane, you concentrate on Reinholdt. If he should attack me, I want you to handle him, for however long you can. I can handle Magtok. Also, watch for other combatants. There was a strange light. The cyborg shredding machine is about ten feet from Magtok, and the blades have a five foot reach.


Field of Strife

The cyborg raises an eyebrow.

"I betrayed Marciano, dumpling. You yourself admitted on that wall that he got what he deserved. If you got caught in the crossfire because you were working for the greedy little toadstool, as I seem to recall you saying...well, that's not really anyone's fault but your own, is it? He was trying to drill into Hell, you know."

Magtok finishes his mug of coffee, dropping it into a portal, before immediately withdrawing an orchestra conductor's baton from a pocket. Apparently it's a weapon of some kind, because he doesn't seem all too fazed by those sawblades inching towards his flesh.

"So that's my part in this sorted out, and I think I can guess Dippy's...what about Tobias and Clarissa? You seem to have a really weird amount of respect for the former, don't know what that's about."

Aww, is our cyborg jealous? I think he is.


Enshadu will be at Magtok next action, his face is covered by the metal mask bolted into his flesh. There's a respirator attached to the mask, and one of his eyelens has cracked, the artificial one, and is now dripping black ichor. You are an idiot Magtok. Truly. Marciano was just another piece. I was Proffessor Brant....I built this chip plugged into my spine. The Enshadu Artificial Intelligence Program. It was for Marciano should he ever fail...which he did, when Clarrissa crashed Louv're Tower, all my progress was destroyed

....the E Program is sentient....massively intelligent...I am Enshadu. I am Brant. I am E. It took over my body....then I jumped out the window...hoping to end the program. It dragged my body, I had broken every bone in my body....yet it dragged me away, kept my life-force. It wouldn't let me die....It controls me. I can speak, but it rules. Elexxion rebuilt me from Marciano's fortune which I stole. They did this to me. Now it is in control of the perfect machine. Tobias is not a direct enemy, but soon that'll change. He won't appreciate my plans. Enshadu's plans. Neither will you.
Tobias is good, righteous, I respect that. You are the opposite. Come die.

[Aric Kale]

Zane, you concentrate on Reinholdt. If he should attack me, I want you to handle him, for however long you can. I can handle Magtok. Also, watch for other combatants. There was a strange light. [/COLOR]The cyborg shredding machine is about ten feet from Magtok, and the blades have a five foot reach.

Zane will hear the message and mentally respond as he slowly approaches Reinholdt, occasionally glancing to the sides. Yes, Master, his body shall burn...

[McBish]

{Melody's Island}

"Reinholdt is right. We have to tell her what happened. Come on let's go find her."

He smiles to assure them they aren't in any sort of trouble. How could they be they just got brownies, people in trouble don't get brownies.

[Earl of Purple]

Oldale Town Ruins

Well, I'm reasonably sure that's everything over and dusted with. Unless Alvida wants to do something else besides look for a museum, anyway.

[Reinholdt]

Fields of Strife

Zane appears at the scene thanks to a teleport given to him by Enshadu. Quickly assessing the situation, Zane draws his sword with his right hand. It is two feet in length, single-edged and elven in design. At a snap of his fingers, Black Fire dances along the edge of his blade. This flame is not ordinary by any means; the burning process accelerates 10x if the person on fire feels any fear at all...including Darkstar.
"Gentlemen, meet Thorinsgaet, The Bringer of Storms."


Zane will hear the message and mentally respond as he slowly approaches Reinholdt, occasionally glancing to the sides. Yes, Master, his body shall burn...

Fields of Strife

Well now it's just getting crowded and all the cool awesome things Rein did are getting overwhelmed by other people wanting a piece of the pie.

Reinholdt was planning on asking Zane what he wants/who he is/why he wants what he wants/etc., but the fact that he's approaching Rein with a sword out of the whole group speaks volumes.


Field of Strife

The cyborg raises an eyebrow.

"I betrayed Marciano, dumpling. You yourself admitted on that wall that he got what he deserved. If you got caught in the crossfire because you were working for the greedy little toadstool, as I seem to recall you saying...well, that's not really anyone's fault but your own, is it? He was trying to drill into Hell, you know."

Magtok finishes his mug of coffee, dropping it into a portal, before immediately withdrawing an orchestra conductor's baton from a pocket. Apparently it's a weapon of some kind, because he doesn't seem all too fazed by those sawblades inching towards his flesh.

"So that's my part in this sorted out, and I think I can guess Dippy's...what about Tobias and Clarissa? You seem to have a really weird amount of respect for the former, don't know what that's about."

Aww, is our cyborg jealous? I think he is.


Enshadu sees this but just keeps walking towards Magtok, the lightning blades spinning. However, Reinholdt might hear a voice in his head. Choose a side. I respect you for what you've done in your life, you stayed good. You fixed yourself. Help me, or help Magtok. One of us will burn when this is all over, Magtok, or me. Choose me, and you might help me. Choose Magtok, and you will die sadly....I respect you.
Enshadu keeps striding toward
Magtok, the bottom two blades digging into the ground and sending the dirt flying, the upper two swinging wildly, electrifying anything they touch.

Enshadu does not turn his head, abut continues walking his way to Magtok, dirt flying about. However, Zane might hear his voice in his head. Zane, you concentrate on Reinholdt. If he should attack me, I want you to handle him, for however long you can. I can handle Magtok. Also, watch for other combatants. There was a strange light. The cyborg shredding machine is about ten feet from Magtok, and the blades have a five foot reach.

Enshadu will be at Magtok next action, his face is covered by the metal mask bolted into his flesh. There's a respirator attached to the mask, and one of his eye lens has cracked, the artificial one, and is now dripping black ichor. You are an idiot Magtok. Truly. Marciano was just another piece. I was Professor Brant....I built this chip plugged into my spine. The Enshadu Artificial Intelligence Program. It was for Marciano should he ever fail...which he did, when Clarrissa crashed Louv're Tower, all my progress was destroyed

....the E Program is sentient....massively intelligent...I am Enshadu. I am Brant. I am E. It took over my body....then I jumped out the window...hoping to end the program. It dragged my body, I had broken every bone in my body....yet it dragged me away, kept my life-force. It wouldn't let me die....It controls me. I can speak, but it rules. Elexxion rebuilt me from Marciano's fortune which I stole. They did this to me. Now it is in control of the perfect machine. Tobias is not a direct enemy, but soon that'll change. He won't appreciate my plans. Enshadu's plans. Neither will you.
Tobias is good, righteous, I respect that. You are the opposite. Come die.

"If I believed for a second you'd stop with Magtok, I'd let you murder him repeatedly, sure. Though, he is admittedly, my frenemy. Or kismesis? I don't know. I just know he invites me to parties that I crash and then we make up with torture sessions and information trades." Reinholdt shrugs.

Before swinging his staff at all three of them. This particular staff has a force repulse effect. Not some wimpy, I just pushed you back a few feet repulse effect either. A pick you and the dirt up and toss you many yards away and that landing's probably going to hurt effect.

Yes, he is targeting Zane, Enshadu, and Magtok with it all at the same time. Since it's just a wave that exudes from him in all directions anyways and those three weren't terribly far from him. Reinholdt wants some room to work.


Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy shook head no. "Too hard to get a message through. But we're a warrior tribe. We know every time someone leaves that they may not come back."

Ilpholin's Grove

"Oh? So you're a fighter then?" Ilpholin never considered Darcy that way too much before. "Could show me a few tricks perhaps?"

[Lex-Kat]

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}


"Because she's going to hear about monster attacks tonight, whether you like it or not." Reinholdt says firmly.


"Reinholdt is right. We have to tell her what happened. Come on let's go find her."

He smiles to assure them they aren't in any sort of trouble. How could they be they just got brownies, people in trouble don't get brownies.

Estia stomps her foot and frowns at the two adults. We should let her sleep. But both she and Lyanna lead Derek and Reinholdt to the cabin, where the family stays. Estia slowly opens the door, trying not to make a sound.

The hinge squeeeeeeks loudly. Hmm? Is... is someone there? Jezebelle calls out, sleepily. The light to her room flicks on. And there is some movement, but not the sound of feet on floor.

[ThirdEmperor]

Lake Lazuli

'right. See this? Caesium takes a knee next to the lamed fat man, drawing a .455 Cassul-spewing handcannon from it's holster at his hip. If you're a moron we shoot you. Considering this rather harsh disciplinary policy, it would take a real moron to ignore our orders, wouldn'tcha say?

As if to drive the point home further, a duet of ratcheting sounds follow as the two of Caesium's brothers guarding the scientists snap back the bolts on their rifles. Now, fatso, can you walk?

[Aric Kale]

Fields of Strife

Well now it's just getting crowded and all the cool awesome things Rein did are getting overwhelmed by other people wanting a piece of the pie.

Reinholdt was planning on asking Zane what he wants/who he is/why he wants what he wants/etc., but the fact that he's approaching Rein with a sword out of the whole group speaks volumes.


"If I believed for a second you'd stop with Magtok, I'd let you murder him repeatedly, sure. Though, he is admittedly, my frenemy. Or kismesis? I don't know. I just know he invites me to parties that I crash and then we make up with torture sessions and information trades." Reinholdt shrugs.

Before swinging his staff at all three of them. This particular staff has a force repulse effect. Not some wimpy, I just pushed you back a few feet repulse effect either. A pick you and the dirt up and toss you many yards away and that landing's probably going to hurt effect.

Yes, he is targeting Zane, Enshadu, and Magtok with it all at the same time. Since it's just a wave that exudes from him in all directions anyways and those three weren't terribly far from him. Reinholdt wants some room to work.

Zane goes flying! After taking a few moments to catch his breath. He then picks himself up and charges Reinholdt, flames flaring from the blade.
"Well that was lovely."

[Hattish Thing]

Lake Lazuli

'right. See this? Caesium takes a knee next to the lamed fat man, drawing a .455 Cassul-spewing handcannon from it's holster at his hip. If you're a moron we shoot you. Considering this rather harsh disciplinary policy, it would take a real moron to ignore our orders, wouldn'tcha say?

As if to drive the point home further, a duet of ratcheting sounds follow as the two of Caesium's brothers guarding the scientists snap back the bolts on their rifles. Now, fatso, can you walk?

(Waiting for Magtok for Field of Strife)

The fat scientist howls and whimpers. Now he's bubbering pathetically. The four other scientists frown and clump together, absolutely terrified. The fat scientist speaks up through tears. Please...I...d-don't! Stay away from me! I...f-fine! What do you w-want!? Leave me alone...d-don't kill me! I have a family! No! I c-can't walk

[ThirdEmperor]

Lake Lazuli

Bad day to be you then, ain't it? With a sigh Caesium stands back up, aiming his gun dead at the injured scientists skull. Although, before I finish you off, I guess I'm obliged to ask if there's any particular reason I shouldn't? You've got ten seconds to argue your case.

[Lord Magtok]

Fields of Strife

Magtok's never trusted the cat, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to him that Reinholdt went and threw him across the field like that. It shouldn't, but it did anyways. He staggers back to his feet, eyeing the conductor's baton of his with evident dismay. Crap, the thing just had to go and snap in half, didn't it? :smallyuk:

"So what you're saying is, because I opposed your idiot boss guy's plans, all the research you put into those plans got ruined, and now you've opted to hold my not wanting the world to end against me because there was a tiny bit of collateral damage I was barely even involved in.

Yeah, that's totally righteous. Oh no, I definitely don't see how anyone could see that as blaming everyone else for your own stupid mistakes at all. At least have the common courtesy to admit you're a bastard, ya bastard. I may be a terrible person, but at least I don't make promises of salvation I'm nowhere near qualified to keep."

[Hattish Thing]

Lake Lazuli

Bad day to be you then, ain't it? With a sigh Caesium stands back up, aiming his gun dead at the injured scientists skull. Although, before I finish you off, I guess I'm obliged to ask if there's any particular reason I shouldn't? You've got ten seconds to argue your case.

(Will post for fields tomorrow, when I'm not half-asleep.)

The fat scientist starts bawling and wailing at the sight of the gun aimed his way. He feebly puts up a pudgy hand in pathetic resistance. You shot me! You did this! I-It's n-not my fault! P-Please! I h-have a f-family! I...p-please! Don't kill me...

[ThirdEmperor]

Lake Lazuli

Caesium pulls the trigger.



Turning back to the other scientists, he addresses them once more. So. You've seen what we're quite happy to do. What's going to happen next is, we will proceed to the rendezvous point. From there we will proceed to a secure location where your fate will be decided.

All you need to do is walk, answer questions and follow orders. Our only question at this time is who of you formerly held highest rank?

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Oh? So you're a fighter then?" Ilpholin never considered Darcy that way too much before. "Could show me a few tricks perhaps?"

"I doubt it. I saw you fighting Gordon. You're way better than I ever was," Darcy says. "I practised sorcery and so I didn't learn as much as the other kids my age." She pulls down her top to show the back of her left shoulder, where a rune of an arrow pointing up. "It's the symbol of Tyr, the god of war. That's who my tribe follows."

[McBish]

{Melody's Island}



Estia stomps her foot and frowns at the two adults. We should let her sleep. But both she and Lyanna lead Derek and Reinholdt to the cabin, where the family stays. Estia slowly opens the door, trying not to make a sound.

The hinge squeeeeeeks loudly. Hmm? Is... is someone there? Jezebelle calls out, sleepily. The light to her room flicks on. And there is some movement, but not the sound of feet on floor.

"Hey it's us we're back."

Derek tries to shoo Estia through the door. No point in trying to be sneaky, even if she was any good at it.

[Hattish Thing]

Lake Lazuli

Caesium pulls the trigger.



Turning back to the other scientists, he addresses them once more. So. You've seen what we're quite happy to do. What's going to happen next is, we will proceed to the rendezvous point. From there we will proceed to a secure location where your fate will be decided.

All you need to do is walk, answer questions and follow orders. Our only question at this time is who of you formerly held highest rank?

The other scientists shriek, and the short gnomish one jumps a bit. The fat scientist is gruesimely shot, and he falls backward, dead. An older woman walks in front now. She has brown hair, with some greying streaks. She has a labcoat and white gloves. She's obviously upset. You monster! What is wrong with you?! Are you insane?! I am in charge here, I am Marcus Brant's wife. What are you doing?! Let us go!

[Hattish Thing]

Fields of Strife

Well now it's just getting crowded and all the cool awesome things Rein did are getting overwhelmed by other people wanting a piece of the pie.

Reinholdt was planning on asking Zane what he wants/who he is/why he wants what he wants/etc., but the fact that he's approaching Rein with a sword out of the whole group speaks volumes.



"If I believed for a second you'd stop with Magtok, I'd let you murder him repeatedly, sure. Though, he is admittedly, my frenemy. Or kismesis? I don't know. I just know he invites me to parties that I crash and then we make up with torture sessions and information trades." Reinholdt shrugs.

Before swinging his staff at all three of them. This particular staff has a force repulse effect. Not some wimpy, I just pushed you back a few feet repulse effect either. A pick you and the dirt up and toss you many yards away and that landing's probably going to hurt effect.

Yes, he is targeting Zane, Enshadu, and Magtok with it all at the same time. Since it's just a wave that exudes from him in all directions anyways and those three weren't terribly far from him. Reinholdt wants some room to work.

As he's walking ever closer, he replies to Reinholdt. This all started with Magtok supporting others, and even aiding others into the destruction of my work, my home, and myself. Who I was. This will all end with Magtok as well! I will destroy all those in power....people like them will be the end of good in this place. Power corrupts, ultimate power corrupts ultimately. Magtok must die. All of him, all clones, all power. Everything. He will burn! Every one of him...then the leaders of the nexus will fall, all the foul, horrid, corrupt leaders! Power is evil, it turns good people into monsters...They must all die.

Just as Enshadu's spinning blades almost connect with Magtok, he is blasted forward by the powerful white staff. Now, all four whirling, spinning, and zapping blades tumble forward, seeing as Enshadu was straight in front of Magtok , he might find that the four blades are coming at Magtok very, very fast now. Unless he ducks or jumps out of the way somehow, he'll be smashed by Enshadu. Ahg! The blades instantly cauterize wounds, as well as melt metal. Regardless of whether or not the blades hit Magtok, slots open in his mechanical thighs, and in his back, and thrusters stop Enshadu from flying forward anymore. He'll then drop to the ground, facing either Magtok's corpse, or the area where Magtok was.


Zane goes flying! After taking a few moments to catch his breath. He then picks himself up and charges Reinholdt, flames flaring from the blade.
"Well that was lovely."

Enshadu's extremely powerful machine powered left ear picks up Zane's speech, he shouts out as he's flying. No! Not Reinholdt, don't let him escape. Disarm him, don't hurt him!


Fields of Strife

Magtok's never trusted the cat, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to him that Reinholdt went and threw him across the field like that. It shouldn't, but it did anyways. He staggers back to his feet, eyeing the conductor's baton of his with evident dismay. Crap, the thing just had to go and snap in half, didn't it? :smallyuk:

"So what you're saying is, because I opposed your idiot boss guy's plans, all the research you put into those plans got ruined, and now you've opted to hold my not wanting the world to end against me because there was a tiny bit of collateral damage I was barely even involved in.

Yeah, that's totally righteous. Oh no, I definitely don't see how anyone could see that as blaming everyone else for your own stupid mistakes at all. At least have the common courtesy to admit you're a bastard, ya bastard. I may be a terrible person, but at least I don't make promises of salvation I'm nowhere near qualified to keep."

Enshadu is flying toward Magtok as the cyborg with the broken baton speaks. You're a fool! I think you broke something by the way...My "idiot boss guy" was creating a powerful machine! It would have worked for the good of humanity...it would have powered the Nexus...kept everyone happy, I was researching a fuel that could be used instead of spirits. I was onto something! I could have helped all humanity...but no! You and some powerful, if greedy bounty hunters and AMENites attacked the tower! I could have changed the world...instead....I am E now. It's your fault. You are a terrible person Magtok, and I'm going to kill every last one of you.

[Aric Kale]

Enshadu's extremely powerful machine powered left ear picks up Zane's speech, he shouts out as he's flying. No! Not Reinholdt, don't let him escape. Disarm him, don't hurt him!


Zane releases a feral growl, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like "never let's me have any fun..."
He will continue to charge towards Reinholdt, ready to lose his life to disarm and capture him.

[ThirdEmperor]

Lake Lazuli

Caesium rolls his eyes, taking a swaggering step forward to loom over Mrs. Brant. You are in no position be calling us monsters or demanding answers. You are all now prisoners of Excelsior. You will obey or you will be killed. Your current orders are to get walking. What part do you not understand?

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone



Part of what he says gets through. Ant-person. Someone in Nora's squad had heard that CDF used Special Forces to create soldiers that were so strange they didn't even look human anymore. Nora hadn't believed it at the time, but what if...?

If she'd just tried to kill one of their own, she was in so much trouble.

What if this was a training test? Put the rookie in an atmosphere entry bubble and then move them somewhere else to see how they cope? If so, Nora Pascal had just failed the test, badly.

Cassius will feel her go limp, defeated. "Anthea Epsilon is the planet we were supposed to take back from the Lodori. But this doesn't look like Anthea Epsilon, and you don't look like a Lodori."


Drop Zone

...****.

Cassius closes his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath. Great...a newbie. Alright, how do I handle this? Get her somewhere safe obviously, but the only place I know is...

...****. I hope father doesn't kill me.

After a moment, Cassius opens his eyes and looks at her seriously as he lets her go. "Look, ma'am. Things have gotten a lot worse than you realize. See, this isn't Anthea Epsilon. Nor even the same galaxy most likely. Lets just say you aren't even in the same dimension any more if that helps. It'll be a bit of a shock as I go further into it, but I live just a few miles away. If you come with me, we can get you a place to stay while I explain."

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

"A different... galaxy? Different dimension?"

Nora thinks about that for a bit. Private Higgs, in her training squad, had been fascinated with physics, and had enthusiastically shared everything he unpacked on the subject with his squad. Nora had groaned and packed it all up again into her memory, but she pulled it out now, because she remembered something about the Skip Drive actually visiting different dimensions that were nearly identical than the one they left, except for a few electrons spinning in different directions here or there. She reabsorbed it, but no, that was no use, because she hadn't been on a Skip when she had ended up here. Still... the existence of alternate universes was something she knew about. There were probably ways other than the Skip Drive for people to end up in one.

"Are there humans in this dimension? People who look like me, but with brown or yellow or pink skin? And if so, are you at war with them?"

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone

"Ma'am, there are all sorts of races and monsters here. Including a lot of humans. I'm half human, but that's a long story too. I can explain more, but lets get you somewhere safe first before something else comes along that's not as friendly or prone to being hurt by bullets." Cassius explains before getting up and offering her his hand. As he does so, he slowly shifts to his Hero form, all muscley and blond and handsome.

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

Nora lets him help her up. Her first goal is to recover her helmet and her Empee. Her second is to look over Hero Cass carefully. "They gave you some of the extreme mods then, with the shapeshifting. But why don't you have chlorophyllic skin or Smart Blood or a Brain Pal?" She shakes her head, realizing the answer. "You got mods, but not from CDF. Different galaxy. There's probably no CDF here, or it's so different that it works with tech differently. But you wear a uniform. You fight for someone, and that means you fight against someone, so I need to know who that is before I go another step."

[FireFox]

King's Blood Field

Serph knew his task was to bring the egg-like artifact back to the empire but he did not think it would just explode from him speaking like he normally does. Being right beside the motor that carried the egg he was able to see it glow before it decided to explode. In that moment the fire he was about to call to attack was changed to defend himself. A wall of fire, and also the explosion, propelled him to the left and consumed some of the shrapnel, which was mostly his ride, that flew his way. However since he was close some bigger pieces of shrapnel went through. A big chunk embedded itself to his right arm and a smaller piece impaled the palm of his hand. Lastly on his right leg a wound can be seen near the hamstrings, not deep but it would hamper movement. Since he was actually propelled pretty far he was able to avoid Alpha choking the life out of him. As soon as the shock of pain was gone, as he was trained to take this much damage and more, he used fire to seal his hamstring wound. he pulled away the fragment that impaled his palm and burned the wound closed as well. The deeper wound would have to wait as he did not think he could withstand removing that. Blood was flowing slowly from that wound and the bone was most likely fractured quite badly. He wouldn't be able to use the arm for the remainder of this encounter. Serph panted, this was bad he was going to end up reacting to the foe in the fight instead of controlling the flow. He looked to where the egg exploded and saw something else not there earlier.

In place of the explosion, a child figure occupies that space. His night black hair was fixed in a ponytail. His eyes were blank which was creepy alongside his pale complexion. He wore a red Xingyi. This was not the surprising part though. On the child figure's sides were floating Tower Shields twice his height and inside the left shield was a large spear sheathed with a chain, the right shield contained the head of a twin-sided half moon Ax. On his back was a Dao. The sword fit his back in proper size. His eyes suddenly dart to all of the people in the field. The spear in the shield flew to try and impale alpha whilst the Ax in the shield flew to try and decapitate One. The injured Serph alongside First and Bran on the floor was ignored for the moment.

For those familiar with Serph and Red these two look a lot like them and one even has the same name. These two were often seen adventuring together but at this moment it looks like they don'know one another, how odd.

Bran scrambles to his feet and backs way the hell away as he reassesses the situation. The artifact he was curious about is gone. There are several people he doesn't know fighting each other for reasons he doesn't know. What he does know is that his squishy wizard body is the weakest target in this field and that he has no dog in this fight. It may be time to retreat in an expeditious manner.

[Reinholdt]

{The Lost Wave- Melody's Island}

Estia stomps her foot and frowns at the two adults. We should let her sleep. But both she and Lyanna lead Derek and Reinholdt to the cabin, where the family stays. Estia slowly opens the door, trying not to make a sound.

The hinge squeeeeeeks loudly. Hmm? Is... is someone there? Jezebelle calls out, sleepily. The light to her room flicks on. And there is some movement, but not the sound of feet on floor.


{Melody's Island}

"Hey it's us we're back."

Derek tries to shoo Estia through the door. No point in trying to be sneaky, even if she was any good at it.

{Melody's Island}

"Hello." Reinholdt says, though doesn't add anything else at the moment, figuring Jezebelle probably still needed to wake up.

Though admittedly, I thought it was evening. What time is it exactly? :smallconfused:


"I doubt it. I saw you fighting Gordon. You're way better than I ever was," Darcy says. "I practiced sorcery and so I didn't learn as much as the other kids my age." She pulls down her top to show the back of her left shoulder, where a rune of an arrow pointing up. "It's the symbol of Tyr, the god of war. That's who my tribe follows."

Ilpholin's Grove

"Does your tribe war often then?" Ilpholin asks, looking the symbol over. Or Darcy's bare shoulder. Probably both.


Zane goes flying! After taking a few moments to catch his breath. He then picks himself up and charges Reinholdt, flames flaring from the blade.
"Well that was lovely."


Fields of Strife

Magtok's never trusted the cat, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to him that Reinholdt went and threw him across the field like that. It shouldn't, but it did anyways. He staggers back to his feet, eyeing the conductor's baton of his with evident dismay. Crap, the thing just had to go and snap in half, didn't it? :smallyuk:

"So what you're saying is, because I opposed your idiot boss guy's plans, all the research you put into those plans got ruined, and now you've opted to hold my not wanting the world to end against me because there was a tiny bit of collateral damage I was barely even involved in.

Yeah, that's totally righteous. Oh no, I definitely don't see how anyone could see that as blaming everyone else for your own stupid mistakes at all. At least have the common courtesy to admit you're a bastard, ya bastard. I may be a terrible person, but at least I don't make promises of salvation I'm nowhere near qualified to keep."


As he's walking ever closer, he replies to Reinholdt. This all started with Magtok supporting others, and even aiding others into the destruction of my work, my home, and myself. Who I was. This will all end with Magtok as well! I will destroy all those in power....people like them will be the end of good in this place. Power corrupts, ultimate power corrupts ultimately. Magtok must die. All of him, all clones, all power. Everything. He will burn! Every one of him...then the leaders of the nexus will fall, all the foul, horrid, corrupt leaders! Power is evil, it turns good people into monsters...They must all die.

Just as Enshadu's spinning blades almost connect with Magtok, he is blasted forward by the powerful white staff. Now, all four whirling, spinning, and zapping blades tumble forward, seeing as Enshadu was straight in front of Magtok , he might find that the four blades are coming at Magtok very, very fast now. Unless he ducks or jumps out of the way somehow, he'll be smashed by Enshadu. Ahg! The blades instantly cauterize wounds, as well as melt metal. Regardless of whether or not the blades hit Magtok, slots open in his mechanical thighs, and in his back, and thrusters stop Enshadu from flying forward anymore. He'll then drop to the ground, facing either Magtok's corpse, or the area where Magtok was.



Enshadu's extremely powerful machine powered left ear picks up Zane's speech, he shouts out as he's flying. No! Not Reinholdt, don't let him escape. Disarm him, don't hurt him!



Enshadu is flying toward Magtok as the cyborg with the broken baton speaks. You're a fool! I think you broke something by the way...My "idiot boss guy" was creating a powerful machine! It would have worked for the good of humanity...it would have powered the Nexus...kept everyone happy, I was researching a fuel that could be used instead of spirits. I was onto something! I could have helped all humanity...but no! You and some powerful, if greedy bounty hunters and AMENites attacked the tower! I could have changed the world...instead....I am E now. It's your fault. You are a terrible person Magtok, and I'm going to kill every last one of you.


Zane releases a feral growl, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like "never let's me have any fun..."
He will continue to charge towards Reinholdt, ready to lose his life to disarm and capture him.

Fields of Strife

For the record kale, you generally want to allow each participant a chance to post once before you post again. I understand this can slow things down, particularly if other participants have work or there's any more than one other person, but it helps in the long run. It hasn't really been an issue as of yet, but I wanted you to be aware for the future.

I also imagine that Zane probably needs to take a post to get across the distance he was just thrown. Unless he's got super speed or something. In which case let me know and I'll edit this post to properly account for him getting to Rein faster than expected.

In the meantime, however...
"The funny thing about people and power... people are already monsters most of the time. Power just gives them the opportunity to act on their natures. Take it from someone who knows."

Reinholdt puts away the staff in favor of a pair of wands which he'll fire in rapid succession. Dual wand wielding go!

The first fires off at Zane and designed to turn flesh into stone. We'll test this theory about willing to lose life.
The second fires off at Enshadu. It's a magical rusting effect. Good for taking on metal things. Like Enshadu.

[Hattish Thing]

Lake Lazuli

Caesium rolls his eyes, taking a swaggering step forward to loom over Mrs. Brant. You are in no position be calling us monsters or demanding answers. You are all now prisoners of Excelsior. You will obey or you will be killed. Your current orders are to get walking. What part do you not understand?

(I'll wait for Magtok's reply first for Fields of Strife. :smallsmile:)

Mrs. Brant stays where she is. Being about 5.6, she's not very intimidating, her soft brown eyes giving the impression that she's a usually very happy woman, though now they're slanted in anger. My husband will find me. He works for a monster crueler than you. You'll regret this, bastard. She attempts to spit in his face before walking past him, the other three scientists hastily following.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Not so much now. We're smaller now, and it's easier to get what we need through trade than war. But our ancestors warred constantly." Darcy says.

[Asha'man]

King's Blood Field
Oh. These guys.

Quick as a flash One brings his sickle round to parry, catching the spear's haft in the curve of the blade and deflecting it towards the ground. Assuming that causes the spear to impale itself into the dirt as he planned, he'll follow it up with a vicious stomp to try and break the weapon.

Alpha also manages to evade a grisly demise, raising an arm to block the axe trying to decapitate him, then trying to seize the floating weapon and snap it in two.

First rolls back onto his feet while the attackers are distracted, drawing a fancy looking revolver and taking a shot at Red, mainly to see whether it'll even cause a reaction.


Bran scrambles to his feet and backs way the hell away as he reassesses the situation. The artifact he was curious about is gone. There are several people he doesn't know fighting each other for reasons he doesn't know. What he does know is that his squishy wizard body is the weakest target in this field and that he has no dog in this fight. It may be time to retreat in an expeditious manner.

The spear is deflected but is not impaled into the ground. In fact it's like someone is actually physically using the spear even though it is just floating on its own. Making multiple stabs as it tries to match the speed of the sickle but it will most likely be left behind if the sickle speeds up but not likely to break. The ax is not caught but flies away then returns to try and do harm once more, something like a boomerang in the way it attacks. It is also unlikely for the ax to break. The shot does cause a reaction by one of the tower shields taking the shot, even though a bullet shot should either pierce or dent the shield it seems to be protected by something.

Leaving The Spear to One, Ax to Alpha and shields to block First. He heads for Bran who is running away. The orders were clear, annihilate, no one must run. He tries to catch up to Bran with his flight and attack him with the sword on his back. He ignores Serph and the Assimar as they were not doing anything, they too would be annihilated.

Serph sees what the egg has brought forth. He won't be able to stop it as he was. He did not plan on dying. "Hey, you three!" He gestures to Alpha, One and First with his uninjured arm. "I'm willing to call truce to stop this guy!"

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

"Not so much now. We're smaller now, and it's easier to get what we need through trade than war. But our ancestors warred constantly." Darcy says.

Ilpholin's Grove

"I see. Is that... one of a pantheon or just the only one your tribe considers?"

[happyturtle]

Ilpholins Grove

"They are the Northern Gods. Odin and Frigg, Baldur and Thor, Tyr and Loki. And many more. I could tell you tales of all of them, if you like. The shaman made me learn all the old poems." Darcy says. "I don't know if any of them still live, except in story. Our gods do not interact directly with us the way the Nexus gods do."

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholins Grove

"It'd help pass the time."
Ilpholin's smile turns up into a wry grin. "Unless you'd rather make out."

Ilpholin won't be feeling better forever so make-out offers, for once, are limited.

Harnel's Cave

Harnel returns here, riding naked dragon Cessie and trailing a cow.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy leans in to very gently kiss her girlfriend. Making out it is, then! And then story time from Germanic/Norse pagan mythology after that.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

"I see. It appears rather similar to my own grafting, in that respect." Yuki chuckles, and, withdrawing his scalpel from his coat and putting it in his shirt pocket, stows his coat in his haversack. "That shall be all, I believe. Care to guide me into the world of dreams?" He gestures to the lake and grins.

"Indeed. Though not as similar as my work with necrotech, I think...", she replies, smiling, and staring into the water, the images in which slowly resolve into a quiet hill outside a strange city, the towers and houses of which are limned in a green glow, like fox-fire, with what seem to be ghosts flitting between them... "Guests first?"

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

"Necrotech? You'll have to tell me more about it after this, 'kay?" Yuki asks with a smile. He then nods slightly and walks onto the watery street-image.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

Poof! Or maybe sploosh. Either way, whatever the appropriate sound-effect for a watery teleportation might be, Yuki will find himself next to a fountain, which, should he look into it, shows the bank of the lake, Talnissa standing next to him.

"What do you think you're here to see? Though admittedly, we will still have stuff to talk about, as far as the details..."

[Lord Magtok]

Fields of Strife

"You're clearly just jealous because you and your stupid boss didn't get any ultimate power to be monstrous with. I'm glad we stopped you, who wants to be ruled over by a-"

Magtok promptly leaps back and away, cut off mid-sentence by a deadly attack from the other half of this conversation. Oh that's right, Enshadu is trying to kill him razor blades, isn't he? It's time to stop talking and actually start fighting now, lest Enshadu finally close in with those things and tear Magtok to bits. He lifts off the ground, hoping to escape the other cyborg's reach by quickly flying above and away from the man who once was Dr. Brant. This should keep him from getting caught in that rust effect, too, which is a handy bonus.

[Beans]

[On Route To Cabin]
Khair was the one to decide the car they'd rented---a red Corolla with a lingering smell of cigarette smoke and awesome handcrank windows, because cheap things are cheap.
She's quiet as they drive , but seems pretty content, occasionally glancing at her girlfriend.

[Lady Serpentine]

[On Route to Cabin]

Maeve seems fairly content as well, watching the catgirl as they drive, and quite possibly, since she doesn't know much about cars, curled up on the seat so that her head is resting on the center console.

[Beans]

[On Route > Cabin]
She smiles gently, stroking her hair as they pull into the overhang-garage.
It looks like a nice place, dear... by the way, you're usually supposed to sit up when you're in a car.

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

Poof! Or maybe sploosh. Either way, whatever the appropriate sound-effect for a watery teleportation might be, Yuki will find himself next to a fountain, which, should he look into it, shows the bank of the lake, Talnissa standing next to him.

"What do you think you're here to see? Though admittedly, we will still have stuff to talk about, as far as the details..."

[Lake of Dreams]

Taking in a deep breath of dream-air, Yuki glances over at Talnissa and chuckles with a soft, enigmatic smile. "From what you've told me, I believe I am to see a view of your home, from your paradigm. Perhaps you would be as kind as to lead me through this dreamscape?"

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

Taking in a deep breath of dream-air, Yuki glances over at Talnissa and chuckles with a soft, enigmatic smile. "From what you've told me, I believe I am to see a view of your home, from your paradigm. Perhaps you would be as kind as to lead me through this dreamscape?"

"My home country, at least. More me working than my actual home, though... And of course I will," she replies, returning the smile, and offering him her arm; should she accept, he'll be led towards a nearby building, which is in the form of an enormous skull.

[Cabin]

Maeve smiles as well, sitting up and reaching for the door handle.

"Oh. I didn't know that. My family only ever used carriages and such... Why?"

[Beans]

[Cabin]
It's a safety thing, dear.
Khair smiles and takes her hand to come inside; she frowns a little at the cobwebbiness and dust, but notes how that seems to be the worst of it.
Could do with a bit of a sweeping out, but besides that it looks very nice, darling.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Cabin]

Maeve squeezes her hand gently, smiling a bit.

"Well, that does tend to be the case when somewhere's been abandoned for years... I'll make sure I get at least our room cleared out tonight so you can breathe, though, okay?"

[Morcleon]

"My home country, at least. More me working than my actual home, though... And of course I will," she replies, returning the smile, and offering him her arm; should she accept, he'll be led towards a nearby building, which is in the form of an enormous skull.

[Lake of Dreams]

Slipping his white-clad arm into her metallic one with a smile, Yuki will follow Talnissa towards the skull building. He chuckles as he looks it over. "Ah, necrotech, was it? Quite the thematic look for the building."

[Beans]

[Cabin]
Khair reaches into her coat and puts on her mask.
I'll see about getting some of the rest swept out, dear.
She nuzzles her affectionately, going to look for a broom.
((For some reason I feel this (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF34J37VS4w) is kinda the theme for this plot.))

[Lady Serpentine]

[Lake of Dreams]

"Heh. Indeed. And you haven't even seen the elevator yet...", she teases, laughing quietly, and nodding.

Upon entering the building, he'll find that the interior is almost completely bare, save for slightly inset platform in the center of the floor, which he probably recognizes as being carved into the shape of a spine of commensurate size with the skull they're standing in.

Of course, he might be a touch distracted by what seems to be a pair of rather powerful undead knights, armed with chainsaws, and with a fair bit of steampunk cybernetics grafted to them, both standing on the other side of the room from the pair.

[Cabin]

Maeve frowns slightly, reaching up to pet Khair's ears, and going to gently restrain her when she goes off to look for a broom.

"I'll get it love. I know how much you hate wearing that thing... Alright?"

((...I'm not sure if I should be happy or worried by that...))

[Beans]

[Maeve's]
The chronically-ill catgirl nuzzles back insistently.
I'm going to help you somehow and you're not going to be able to stop me, hon.
((Both!))

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody's Island}


"Hey it's us we're back."

Derek tries to shoo Estia through the door. No point in trying to be sneaky, even if she was any good at it.

"Hello." Reinholdt says, though doesn't add anything else at the moment, figuring Jezebelle probably still needed to wake up.

Though admittedly, I thought it was evening. What time is it exactly? :smallconfused:

((I was thinking it was late evening, maybe 10 or 11?))

They can here a deep sigh of relief and Jezebelle walks out of her room, putting something down on a table before she steps out. She's wearing a red satin robe, and her hair is a mess. Why are you guys back so early? she raises a hand to give a tired wave to Reinholdt. I see you picked up a stray on your way back. she says with a smile. Hi Reinholdt. Any cookies? she sits down on the first chair.

And although her hair's a mess and is wearing no make-up, she still looks good.

Estia and Lyanna rush forward and hug their momma. Look Momma, we saved you a brownie! Lyanna says, as if it was her idea. Estia decides not to dispute this claim.

[McBish]

{Melody's Island}

Derek does his best not to ogle her in her robe, and stays back by the door letting the girls rush in to get all the hugs.

"Yeah he spotted us on our way back to the island. Which was lucky for us, he managed to give me a hand with a little problem we ran into. We had cut the trip short because there was some weird stuff going on. Maybe we should get the girls into bed, and then we can talk more about it."

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholin's Grove

Darcy leans in to very gently kiss her girlfriend. Making out it is, then! And then story time from Germanic/Norse pagan mythology after that.

Ilpholin's Grove

Making out!
It doesn't last as long as Ilpholin thought it would though, nor as long as she'd like, before she decides that's enough and wants to lay down again.

Fortunately it's story time after that. That's always fun.
Unless Happy wants to actually post stories, time skips can happen.

{Melody's Island}

Reinholdt smiles and returns the wave. "Just brownies this time I'm afraid. I can get the girls to bed if you want to talk." Though he's not sure they'll sleep much anyways. But waking up just to put someone else to bed has to be tiring.

[Hattish Thing]

Fields of Strife

In the meantime, however...
"The funny thing about people and power... people are already monsters most of the time. Power just gives them the opportunity to act on their natures. Take it from someone who knows."

Reinholdt puts away the staff in favor of a pair of wands which he'll fire in rapid succession. Dual wand wielding go!

The first fires off at Zane and designed to turn flesh into stone. We'll test this theory about willing to lose life.
The second fires off at Enshadu. It's a magical rusting effect. Good for taking on metal things. Like Enshadu.

Enshadu manages to keep track of Magtok, Zane's, and Magtok's words, and location using the special mechanical sensory organs that are his eye(s), his ears, and his echolocation. I was not a monster! I was good...I laid the foundation for science that would help people...then The Spirit Engine project had to be discontinued, due to that attack...I could have helped people! Now I can only speak, watch, and listen as this thing controls everything I am...Was. If people are already monsters...they all must die. Everything must die. It is nature....but I couldn't die. Magtok will die, and you will die unless you change.
The wand of rust's blast of magic will smash right into Enshadu's back, the rust takes effect for about five seconds, causing the walking shredding machine to temporarily stop, however, the rust disappears off the metal man. For that...you will pay Reinholdt. Even your rust cannot kill me. I was looking forward to it...this metal is not effected by simple rust. This metal is elementium mixed with a special alloy from Louv're Tower Laboratories, given to Elexxion to work with...You shouldn't hit a man with his back turned...that's foul play.


Zane releases a feral growl, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like "never let's me have any fun..."
He will continue to charge towards Reinholdt, ready to lose his life to disarm and capture him.

Enshadu is too busy to respond to Zane's complaint, due to the whole fighting Magtok and REinholdt and trying not to die. Or...trying to.

Magtok's
Post: "You're clearly just jealous because you and your stupid boss didn't get any ultimate power to be monstrous with. I'm glad we stopped you, who wants to be ruled over by a-"

Magtok promptly leaps back and away, cut off mid-sentence by a deadly attack from the other half of this conversation. Oh that's right, Enshadu is trying to kill him razor blades, isn't he? It's time to stop talking and actually start fighting now, lest Enshadu finally close in with those things and tear Magtok to bits. He lifts off the ground, hoping to escape the other cyborg's reach by quickly flying above and away from the man who once was Dr. Brant. This should keep him from getting caught in that rust effect, too, which is a handy bonus.


Enshadu speaks out, I never wanted "ultimate power"! I wanted to help people! I was happy, married! Working on a project I'd been interested in all my life! You ruined my life, along with few others! I haven't seen my wife in years! Not that she'd recognize you....I"m going to peel that metal off your face Magtok...I promise you. Lightning razor blades. :smalltongue: Enshadu might have reached Magtok as he jumped, if the rust spell hadn't hit him, due to that, Enshadu can only turn to face Magtok this round. However, coming out of the cyborgs other shoulder is what looks like some kind of hand-cannon, built into Enshadu. He twirls all four blades. Afraid?

[Morcleon]

[Lake of Dreams]

"Heh. Indeed. And you haven't even seen the elevator yet...", she teases, laughing quietly, and nodding.

Upon entering the building, he'll find that the interior is almost completely bare, save for slightly inset platform in the center of the floor, which he probably recognizes as being carved into the shape of a spine of commensurate size with the skull they're standing in.

Of course, he might be a touch distracted by what seems to be a pair of rather powerful undead knights, armed with chainsaws, and with a fair bit of steampunk cybernetics grafted to them, both standing on the other side of the room from the pair.

[Lake of Dreams]

Of course Yuki would be distracted. It's undead and steampunk and grafts! He gives a cursory glance to the platform, but then gazes in wonder at the two knights. "Are those two active? What can they do? How were they made? Did you make them?" His rapid questions are accompanied by an excited, almost hyperactive, expression, like a child in a toy store.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholins Grove

Time skip, with stories! (http://bettermyths.com/387-2/#link-for-norse)

[Shadowcaller]

Hildur does her best to ignore the argument between Damon and Vizek. She really doesn't know enough about demons to offer much insight. So, when Wenomir says to get to the tower, she starts to move in that direction.


"Knock it off, you two," Wenomir barks. "There's still work to be done." He points to the tower with his axe. "We need to find out what's going on there. Let's move."


"You didn't know? Great. Great. Have you really grown sso overconfident? Mr high and mighty demon-sslaying dragon doessn't think there are any demonss that are a threat any more, iss that it?" Damon hisses. He probably should be paying attention to the demonic energy and stuff, but he's far too busy being angry right now.

He's very angry, in fact.

"We were not prepared for ssomething like that...whatever it wass. If you didn't know anything, why didn't you ssay sso? We could've sscouted the area out, made ssure we were ready to deal with whatever we faced." And then Damon tries to punch Vizek in the face.

He is not a happy Zern.

Probably not helped by his hatred of dragons.


[Ancient Forest]

Jacob sighs and speaks to the rest of the group.

"I wish not to interrupt, but this battle is not yet won. There is still magical energy emanating from the tower, and sinister dweomers are gathering there."

[Ancient Forest]

Vizek is hit by what must be a upper-cut as he's still in his true dragon form. He recoils back in shock and shoots a glare at Damon. "Let's discuss this when we aren't fighting demons." He replies curtly.

Meanwhile the ones approaching the tower can see that the door is closed, despite it being open a moment ago.

BOOOMBOOOOM!!!

Thunder, followed a few seconds later by a bright flash that lit's up the hill.

Looks like the storm might already be here.

Harnel's Cave
¨
If there were clothes made for dragons in her world...

The dragon lands in fron of the cave with the cow in tow. "Here we are again, so are we just going to tie her down and leave her here then?"

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody's Island}


Derek does his best not to ogle her in her robe, and stays back by the door letting the girls rush in to get all the hugs.

"Yeah he spotted us on our way back to the island. Which was lucky for us, he managed to give me a hand with a little problem we ran into. We had cut the trip short because there was some weird stuff going on. Maybe we should get the girls into bed, and then we can talk more about it."


Reinholdt smiles and returns the wave. "Just brownies this time I'm afraid. I can get the girls to bed if you want to talk." Though he's not sure they'll sleep much anyways. But waking up just to put someone else to bed has to be tiring.

Jezebelle looks intrigued by the mention of a "little problem" as she takes the box of brownies from Lyanna's hands. Alright girls, you've obviously had quite an adventure today. She starts to shoo them Reinholdt's way. Go with Mister Reinholdt, and don't make a fuss.

Awwww. they say in unison, but go anyway. Despite herself, Lyanna yawns as she heads out the door. But I'm not tired. Estia says.

Upstairs, the both of you. She gives them a stern look. And I'll be right back. she says to Derek, then disappears into her room.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Ancient Forest]

"Battle? Fighting?" Damon lets out a hollow, hissing laugh. "What battle? I nearly got knocked out of the ssky, a couple of demonss attacked you, and the resst esscaped. Hardly a battle. Barely even a sskirmissh."

He doesn't press the matter beyond that though, simply folding his arms and waiting to see if the folks at the tower make any progress. He's not going over there without reason, certainly not as long as Wenomir thinks he can order him about.

[Morty]

[Ancient Forest]

Swearing under his breath, Wenomir tries to open the door. If it won't budge, he'll try to kick it in. Unless it opens to the outside, in which case he'll try to use his axe. He really doesn't feel like messing around.

[BladeofObliviom]

[Ancient Forest]

Meanwhile, Jacob attempts to dispel any spell or charm that might be sealing the door! If he can't find anything to dispel, he'll attempt to assist Wenomir in a more conventional manner.

[Reinholdt]

Ilpholins Grove

Those are the best stories. I almost forgot to post.

Anyways, Ilpholin will repeat tonight what occurred last night and unless something interesting happens there, it'll be day 3!

{Melody's Island}

"Doesn't matter. Come along. Tut tut. Spoon full of sugar. Etc Etc Etc." Reinholdt says as he goes to herd the girls along to their rooms.

Fields of Strife

I'll wait on Kale.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Day 3. Darcy will continue to caress, feed, wash, hold, entertain, snog, and generally care for her girlfriend, as each is needed.

Sadly, Darcy's storytelling isn't as hilarious as Ovid's. I <3 that site so much!

[UncleWolf]

Drop Zone

Nora lets him help her up. Her first goal is to recover her helmet and her Empee. Her second is to look over Hero Cass carefully. "They gave you some of the extreme mods then, with the shapeshifting. But why don't you have chlorophyllic skin or Smart Blood or a Brain Pal?" She shakes her head, realizing the answer. "You got mods, but not from CDF. Different galaxy. There's probably no CDF here, or it's so different that it works with tech differently. But you wear a uniform. You fight for someone, and that means you fight against someone, so I need to know who that is before I go another step."

Drop Zone

"The uniform is a reward for surviving my term in the Penal Legions in Remnant, a Multi-Race Military Police organization that protects the city." Cassius explains as he adjusts his uniform and calls up a couple ants to begin mending the holes and to remove the stains on it. "I killed a few people who were weakly associated with the death of one of my fathers." He admits before tilting his head to pop his neck. "As for the shapeshifting, I was gene-engineered by my mother. I don't need the other stuff because my shapeshifting allows me a certain...durability that most others would lack. Besides, I have other talents."

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

The man, as he arrived at the table, starts opening the compartments of it. He slowly grabs the water bottle, taking a closer look and shakes it.He takes the plastic bottle, putting it in his bag. Finding nothing valuable at the compartments, he now walked to the headless corpse.

He just stared at the body and at the arm, as if he were to imagine what happened. He stood still for several minutes, then proceeds on going to the containers made out of car boots.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

A large bladed weapon hit her arm and severed it, carrying on until it was wedged into her ribcage. It was violently ripped out, and her head was removed post-mortem.

Inside the car boot containers are an old Mickey Mouse shaped rucksack currently empty, a neatly folded business suit, a pile of spare parts for various mechanical devices and a box of fragmentation grenades.

[McBish]

{Melody's Island}

Derek stands there and waits, going over what happened in his head one more time to make sure he doesn't leave out anything important when he tells Jezebelle.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

Seeing the rucksack, he takes a closer look at it. He sighs after finding out it's empty, then proceeds to look for something else. He notices the suit, but he has no idea what it is. He took interest in the spare parts, as he takes a piece and looks at it. He place the piece back in the pile, proceeding to the other door that leads further within.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

Beyond the door is an office, with a slightly rusty metal desk with an old book wedged under one of its feet to keep it stable, a chair scavenged from a car behind it, and a cupboard against one wall painted with the word 'Armoury'. Lying near the armoury cupboard is most of the mayor, with one of his arms lying on the desk and his right ankle, and most of that leg, nailed to one of the walls. He was wearing an old combat suit, with kevlar plates in it, but that's been badly compromised by the large axe-blows through it. The arm on the desk is gripping a pistol, and there's pieces of blood and skull and even horn lying around- bits missed when the wild satyr he killed was dragged off by its compatriots.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

Opening the door with a creaking sound, he now stands in front of the desk. He looks down, towards the parts of a man, his body encased in something he doesn't know. He lowers down, examining the body even further. After examining, he stands up, noticing the horn. He picks up the horn, holding it infront of his face.

"This looks something familiar.."

He mumbles it as he puts down the horn. It seems that it's familiar to him, but he doesn't actually remember what it is. He looks around some more, and he noticed the writing on the cupboard. He opens it, looking on what's inside.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Maeve's]
The chronically-ill catgirl nuzzles back insistently.
I'm going to help you somehow and you're not going to be able to stop me, hon.
((Both!))

Maeve sighs softly, returning the nuzzling, and planting a gentle kiss on her cheek.

"If you insist, love... Stay close, though, okay? I want to be able to make sure you're okay while we're doing this, just in case."


[Lake of Dreams]

Of course Yuki would be distracted. It's undead and steampunk and grafts! He gives a cursory glance to the platform, but then gazes in wonder at the two knights. "Are those two active? What can they do? How were they made? Did you make them?" His rapid questions are accompanied by an excited, almost hyperactive, expression, like a child in a toy store.

"Certainly they are," she answers, grinning somewhat. "As for what they can do, if you'd like a demonstration, I'm sure I can arrange one, and how they're made is what we're going to see down there.

And I did make them, yes, at least partly."

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

Inside the armoury is a large machine gun, formerly mounted upon a military vehicle and several boxes of ammunition. In addition, there's a broken old rifle that's been converted into a crossbow, a quiver of bolts, a sports bow made of metal and many arrows (mainly carbon fibre; some are hand-made wood), three rifles, an air gun, a drawer of pistols, a spear made from a length of polished rebar, a sabre, a spear of wood with a jagged metal head and three flashbang grenades.

[Beans]

[Cabin]
She nods, squeezing her hand as they look to begin their cleaning.
I have you. I'll be perfectly fine, hon.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Cabin]

Maeve gently squeezes her hand as well, smiling a bit, and presumably, they begin to clean up the cabin, though, after clearing a room or two, they may encounter a section of hallway that's completely choked with spider-webs, to the point that the other end of it can't be seen.

[Beans]

[Cabin]
Khair frowns. That looks rather unpleasant... let's get it over with.
She sighs, shaking her ears.

[happyturtle]

Drop Zone

Nora's BrainPal unpacks the concept of a penal military unit for her. It seems an efficient way of dealing with criminals to her, but she isn't sure she would want to be fighting next to those who were only fighting because they had no other choice.

(The concept that she and her fellow Special Forces likewise had been given no choice does not occur to her. She is proud to serve - to be one of the few humans who is born with a purpose. She doesn't know this loyalty was conditioned into her consciousness.)

"Multi-race - so this planet is one where humans and aliens live as allies? Which race controls it? How many planets are held by humanity?" Nora asks, getting annoyed at how ****ing slow it is to talk verbally. "You're wrong, you do need a BrainPal. This is a stupid way to communicate."

[Morcleon]

"Certainly they are," she answers, grinning somewhat. "As for what they can do, if you'd like a demonstration, I'm sure I can arrange one, and how they're made is what we're going to see down there.

And I did make them, yes, at least partly."

"Really? I would love a demonstration, but I'd like a tour of the production facilities first, if I can." Yuki grins and, still latched onto Talnissa's arm, beginning to pull her forwards as he continues to ask his (slightly calmer now) hyperactive questions. "How do you animate the flesh? Is it the standard negative energy, or something different? Could I have a sample to study?"

"...also, why chainsawsaxes?"

[Lady Serpentine]

[Cabin]

Maeve nods, frowning as well.

"Any thoughts on how to start?"


[The One-Story House With Multiple Basements, at the Place That is Sort of Similar to the Intermission]

Carrie, as I recall, promised to show Karyana around here at one time, so it's possible that they're here for that now?

[Beans]

[Flats House]
Yes, she is totally here.
Carrie smiles, leading her in by the hand.
This is my old place! It's pretty nice...
---
[Cabin]
Just... broom it to death?
She frowns, looking at it.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Flats House]

Karyana smiles as well, nodding.

"It certainly seems to be, yeah... Let's just hope nothing's moved in since you left."

---

[Cabin]

"I guess..."

Presumably, with that, they begin to do so!

In which case they'll find it very slow work. The brooms are getting rid of it, yes. But not very much of it, in comparison to how much there is. And despite their forward progress, it doesn't seem to be getting any less dense.

[Beans]

[Cabin]
She frowns, frustrated at this.
This isn't getting us anywhere... how else do you get rid of spider webs?
---
[Flats House]
No, the Guides keep it nice and clean...
She smiles, leading her downstairs to the warm basement.
It's nice here---warm in winter, cool in summer.

[Aric Kale]

For the record kale, you generally want to allow each participant a chance to post once before you post again. I understand this can slow things down, particularly if other participants have work or there's any more than one other person, but it helps in the long run. It hasn't really been an issue as of yet, but I wanted you to be aware for the future.

I also imagine that Zane probably needs to take a post to get across the distance he was just thrown. Unless he's got super speed or something. In which case let me know and I'll edit this post to properly account for him getting to Rein faster than expected.

Reinholdt puts away the staff in favor of a pair of wands which he'll fire in rapid succession. Dual wand wielding go!

The first fires off at Zane and designed to turn flesh into stone. We'll test this theory about willing to lose life.
The second fires off at Enshadu. It's a magical rusting effect. Good for taking on metal things. Like Enshadu.

Sorry about the double post and my delay in replying. Btw, I never said Zane REACHED Reinholdt, only that he CHARGED towards him...jus' sayin'.

Zane is hit! He tried to dodge at the last second, but the spell grazed his shoulder and took effect. Ah well, better luck next time Darkstar.

[Reinholdt]

Fields of Strife

Like I said, it's no big deal yet. Just wanted to help you understand the convention for future roleplaying.

And huh. That worked.
Well... yay!

"I'm a foul person." Reinholdt replies to Enshadu. He has no qualms about shooting a man with their back turned. Rein fights dirty. He did open up with a surprise sniper attack after all.

He doesn't say anything else though. Because dear Eve, Rein's finally found someone who likes the sound of their own voice more than Magtok. He didn't think it was possible.

Reinholdt packs away his current weapons in favor of a plasma based staff weapon and fires red hot plasma at Enshadu. Pew pew.


Ilpholin's Grove

Day 3. Darcy will continue to caress, feed, wash, hold, entertain, snog, and generally care for her girlfriend, as each is needed.

Sadly, Darcy's storytelling isn't as hilarious as Ovid's. I <3 that site so much!

Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin at this point, has nausea kick in, so doesn't eat very much. At least, not much that she keeps down anyways.

But she has to make one last stab at making Darcy understand. She wants Darcy to understand.
"Can we stop Darcy? I want to stop..."
Or she could just beg for it. She's probably having trouble thinking through the brain fog at this point too.


Harnel's Cave
¨
If there were clothes made for dragons in her world...

The dragon lands in fron of the cave with the cow in tow. "Here we are again, so are we just going to tie her down and leave her here then?"

Harnel's Cave

"Unless we're going to eat it now." And if they aren't... well now Harnel's more hungry than when they started this.

[ThirdEmperor]

Lake Lazuli

For a second, Caesium's simply too taken aback that she would dare spit at him to stop Mrs. Brant. Unlucky for her, this shock doesn't last. With a sudden angry shout he spins around, trying to grab her by the shoulder as she walks away and then strike her with the butt of the pistol. Don't you ever dare try anything like that again! You think I won't kill you, like I killed your friend!?

King's Blood Field

Sadly for One, the sickle can only work it's magic if it's been bathed in blood recently. It doesn't matter whether said blood belongs to him or his enemies, but neither is an option now, as his armor is far too tough to pierce and his foe infuriatingly short on any veins. So as fast as he tries to parry, the spear manages to outpace him and stab at his shoulder- An attempt which his armor promptly negates.

Useful for information. Aiming a last swat with the sickle at the spear's haft to bat it aside, One disregards the weapon he now knows can't hurt him and goes after Red, adding one more the chase.

Alpha's recovered enough from being tossed around by the blast to quickly roll aside from the axe as it boomerangs back towards him, ending the roll on his feet. His assault rifle's no good against this sort of enemy so he throws it aside, freeing up both hands. Dropping into a defensive stance he waits for the axe to take another swing, ready to grab it the moment it does.

First scowls as the shield leaps in front of his shot, shoving the pistol back into it's holster and switching to the rifle instead. It's not loaded with armor piercing bullets, but unless that shields made of something awful sturdy it shouldn't stand up against more than a burst or two.

[Asha'man]

[Cave Dungeon]

The place is deserted as far as the eye can see in every direction. The only structure around is a simple cave. The cave mouth is sealed by a door. Magic can be felt from it. Serph stands a bit far from the door, he'll go closer once the others have stepped through. He had no plans of repeating his first experience.

[happyturtle]

Ilpholin's Grove

Ilpholin at this point, has nausea kick in, so doesn't eat very much. At least, not much that she keeps down anyways.

But she has to make one last stab at making Darcy understand. She wants Darcy to understand.
"Can we stop Darcy? I want to stop..."
Or she could just beg for it. She's probably having trouble thinking through the brain fog at this point too.


"Ilphy, love, you're halfway through. We can't stop now. You'd just have to do it all over again, and that would be so much worse for you," Darcy pleads back. She doesn't want to admit what she knows deep down - that Ilpholin doesn't mean stopping for now. She means stopping for good.

[Basher]

Abandoned Motorway Community- Town Hall

Opening the cupboard, he sees these metal pieces. He tries to pick up the machine gun, but he can barely slide it across. He gave up, but he takes a piece of the bolts from it. He seems to be familiar with it, since the way he's holding it is like he's investigating it's design. He also notices the crossbow, so he take it out of the cupboard, and again he takes a closer look at it. Nodding once, he slings his bag towards the desk, as he opens it. He then puts the crossbow inside the bag, as well as taking out the quiver of bolts from the cupboard, slinging it to his back, a bit to his left side. He closes his bag, zips it, and slings it back to his back. The weight, however, made him lean back a little. He pulls the bag's straps, supporting the added weight. He closes the cupboard, takes a final look at the room, and heads out.

As he got out of the Town Hall, he turns his head towards the ISO Containers. Looking at it from afar, it looks like a mess. He heads to that direction, whilst shifting his head back and fort. He seems to suspect someone is in the area.

[Morcleon]

[Cave Dungeon]

The place is deserted as far as the eye can see in every direction. The only structure around is a simple cave. The cave mouth is sealed by a door. Magic can be felt from it. Serph stands a bit far from the door, he'll go closer once the others have stepped through. He had no plans of repeating his first experience.

[Cave Dungeon]

Floating over beside Serph, Cerise gazes at the door, then grins at her companion. "So... It's a door. Want me to break it down for you?"

[TechnoScrabble]

An as of yet unspecified place

John is teleported in, presumably attached via handholding to a dark elf woman with a bass!

[Time for Never]

[Cave Dungeon]

The place is deserted as far as the eye can see in every direction. The only structure around is a simple cave. The cave mouth is sealed by a door. Magic can be felt from it. Serph stands a bit far from the door, he'll go closer once the others have stepped through. He had no plans of repeating his first experience.

[Cave Dungeon]

A lone cave in the middle of nowhere seemed appropriate for a dungeon. If you're going to hide a treasure might as well be far away from those pesky adventurers.

Gan looks over at the ghost when she speaks. He realizes he hadn't talked with her yet back at the inn. She appeared like a young child with incredibly long light-blue hair. He wasn't sure how well she'd be able to fight with her being only a child, though she seemed confident enough.

Apparitions tend to react negatively about their deaths so he didn't bring it up. However, it was strange to see a ghost for the first time. As far as he knew, creatures either reincarnate or reach Nirvana after dying.

"Serph should be able to open it since he's already done it once."

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody's Island}


"Doesn't matter. Come along. Tut tut. Spoon full of sugar. Etc Etc Etc." Reinholdt says as he goes to herd the girls along to their rooms.


Derek stands there and waits, going over what happened in his head one more time to make sure he doesn't leave out anything important when he tells Jezebelle.

Estia and Lyanna are escorted to their rooms. After a moment, possibly after Reinholdt returns, Jezebelle steps out of her room. Her hair is brushed out, the sleepiness has been washed away from her face, and she's wearing a simple green dress.

She goes over to the fridge and gets some milk and one of the brownies. So, tell me what happened. She says as she sits down, taking a bite of brownie.

[Hattish Thing]

Lake Lazuli

For a second, Caesium's simply too taken aback that she would dare spit at him to stop Mrs. Brant. Unlucky for her, this shock doesn't last. With a sudden angry shout he spins around, trying to grab her by the shoulder as she walks away and then strike her with the butt of the pistol. Don't you ever dare try anything like that again! You think I won't kill you, like I killed your friend!?



Amelia Brant is grabbed angrily, and spun around suddenly. She wasn't expecting to be attacked. She's grabbed and she tries to resist. Amelia is a scientist though, and not suited to combat. She's grabbed, and the butt of the pistol smashes her forehead. Her forehead starts to bleed, the pistol butt leaving a cut. She doubles over in pain, and clutches her bleeding forehead. The other scientists gasp and move even closer together. Amelia stands up after Caesium speaks. No, I don't. I don't believe someone like you would kill a fat defenseless man, and then a woman without any guilt. If I'm wrong, then you're an inhuman monster. She'll try to stand up to him yet again.

[ThirdEmperor]

Lake Lazuli

Caesium scowls, biting back the overwhelming desire to kill her right now as he wipes the spit off his face. Because to an extent, she's right- He can't kill her. Not out of guilt, but because even a thug like him can see the value of having Marciano's head scientist's wife as a hostage.

On the other hand, she'll still be valuable with a bullet in the leg. Last warning. Don't test me. Forcing some semblance of calm to cross his face, Caesium takes aim.