Reincarnation Wars : The Many!

[ArlEammon]

New York

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7jp1CT1h6c&list=FLOrwLWeEmlBon3dgg6C0G6g&index=297
New York City, is the most important city in the nation, some say the world. This is the home of Frank Sinatra, Carnegie Hall, and the Statue Of Liberty. Not to mention Steven Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. This world's Steven Strange is from the outside of our dimension. One day, we all woke from sleep, looking around our surroundings. . . hearing and seeing the first sign of the paranormal in our lives. A cloud, a speaking cloud, in the shape of a man's head. "I am Steven Strange. This is your time. . . now is the time to speak with me. . . " Immediately, Doctor Strange teleported us to the hotel lobby in New York, where he was seen in his full form as a Human.

Upon our initial questioning and surprise, Steven Strange patiently explained from inside the hotel's lounge. . . "This is the world where the mundane and science rule. You are all more than Human. . . you are all Chosen by. . . something or someone, they would not explain. Yet if you do not act, then Yog Sothoth will destroy us all. None will survive this erasure of the universe and beyond, not even the greatest of us." He goes on to explain the reality of the universe, how there are more than one, and how the Outer Gods threaten the omega verse. "Lastly, what this all has to do with you. . . your powers. . . they are your own, from your past lives. Yes, you are all more than mortal".

The good Doctor Strange introduced each of us to himself, taking us to the lounge. "I understand this is all confusing. The explanation of reincarnations sharing your current bodies, you having all of their power in order to stop the Outer Gods, and the concept of magic, spirituality and everything else as proven reality, but this is all reality, this is truth and this truth is here. You are in it now, and there is no turning back."

"If you have any other questions, now is the time to ask. I am afraid that your peaceful lives have ended, but a life of glory and knowledge now awaits you." At the end of Doctor Strange's words, you all feel the well springs of life flow. . . your souls awaken inside you all, as the secondary egos.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

Jennifer: "So what you're telling me… is that magic is real, and that our "world" is the world in which all the other worlds are recorded, but as fiction?"

Jennifer and her incarnations were already abuzz in her head. Kyoko, upon realizing that her other past lives were stories in this world,sent an illusion of herself upstairs to the hotel room to begin browsing the web because she knew the internet existed. As soon as they were alone she'd make an illusion regarding each of their 'forms in life' and they could speak as if they were in a room together, but that was for after this conference. Nui was especially interested in the Erfworld wiki and browsing it. Kyoko debated whether to sneak illusions into other rooms, but given she only had power for extremely minor illusions and that there was lots of eldritch things going on, not to push her luck.

Jennifer: "First, how can we get in contact with you for more questions-or help, after this meeting, is what I'd like to ask first. Knowing how available you'll be for contact changes a lot of priorities. As well as knowing how much on our side you are."

[ArlEammon]

"Right now I'm the only one who can prove the existence of powers beyond scientific reckoning who exists in the world. Powerful magic, if you ask for a demonstration. . . you will receive one very soon. You definitely saw my teleportation spell at work, you may yet see many other spells at work for demonstration purposes. By the way yes. Everything else is fictional here that isn't from scientific perspective, unless for vague theological questions and the portals leading to the hidden places."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: "*nervous* You can't be serious can you? This is all some big elaborate prank, right? "Outer gods" and "magic" can't possibly exist!"

Yuriko: "Well, this is odd, am I in someone's head?"
Gigolo: "In someone's head? Now that sounds like fun!"
Beelzebub: "How can you two be so calm?! We're trapped in here!"
Jenna Angel: "I agree, we shouldn't be relaxing."
Cyphre: "Indeed, this is a strange situation we are in, but let's wait before we make a decision. We should be glad this mind is modeled after a hotel."

Waruo: "Gahhhh!!! W-what the hell?!"

Yuriko: "Oh, so you're aware of us."I assume you don't know whats happening either?"

Waruo: "Apparently you're one of my past lives, but something like that can't be possible!"


Cyphre: "Past lives are very much possible, child, but that's besides the point. If what you say is true that means we've all been killed.
Jenna Angel: "What nonsense! I can not believe such absurdity!
Beelzebub: "She's right! How could we have died without any knowledge of it!?"
Gigolo: "Well there's no other explanation for why we're in this kid's head."
Yuriko: "Well it doesn't matter anyway, as long as our soul still lives we have nothing to be distressed over."
Cyphre: "She has the right idea, for now let's wait and observe the situation."
Yuriko: "Thank you Cyphre. Now that we're here, why not make ourselves at home?"

[ArlEammon]

"Oh. . . You were teleported here by a talking cloud face. Not to mention, you all found yourselves up and attem' right here in the hotel, with twenty men and women all with the same problem. I can give you many other examples of magic. . . here. . ." ::Doctor Strange put forth his hand and lightning bolts stream lined into it, doing no harm to the hotel, anything of the hotel's property, or any of the people thereof.:: "Look at this." He stated, alluding to all the power streamlining inside of his hand grip. "This could put a crater in the ground deep enough to meet the upper part of the Earth's inner mantle."

[Dark Knight Renee]

Jason Laverne woke abruptly to a strange voice in his bedroom, and opened his eyes to a very unusual sight: a cloudy-looking floating head. "I am Steven Strange. This is your time. . . now is the time to speak with me. . . "

And suddenly he standing in the lobby of an upscale hotel, along with perhaps two dozen other people. One of them was apparently the Steven Strange who'd sent the magical head, and he proceeded to launch into an explanation of magical nonsense. Frowning, Jason pinched his arm. The cliché action hurt a little, but the dreamlike bizarreness didn't go away. Someone asked a question, and Strange answered. Jason reached out and punched the person next to him in the shoulder, just to see what would happen.

"Ow! Knock it off, I'm trying to listen!" the woman scolded him with a whisper and a glare, and immediately returned her attention to Mr. Strange. More confused than ever, Jason also started to listen, but by then he'd missed a lot of context and the words still didn't make much sense. Something about other universes, outer gods, magic and past lives. Unable to take the man seriously, Jason started looking for the exit.

And then Strange said, "I am afraid that your peaceful lives have ended, but a life of glory and knowledge now awaits you."

As if those words were some kind of trigger, everything changed. Feeling rather like he'd just been hit with a metaphorical sledgehammer, Jason fell to his hands and knees, giving voice to a scream that wasn't his own. The light changed as a sphere of magical darkness enveloped him, yet he could still see the frost spreading from his hands and racing across the floor in all directions. "@%$#," he whispered, fighting to catch his breath and staring in horror as the frost near his hands began to thicken into some rather serious ice.

There were voices in his head, too, a cacophony of fear and confusion similar to his own, yet not. The loudest seemed to belong to a child, who was screaming and sobbing in fear, until she was drowned out by another voice's wordless outburst of frustration and rage.

Suddenly the globe of darkness vanished; Jason flinched from the sudden assault of light, which seemed much brighter now than it had before - painfully so. "@%$#!" Yanking his hands free of the ice that was starting to build up around them on the floor, he staggered to his feet and surveyed the room (with eyes that, unbeknownst to him, had turned a pale silver color), still blinking furiously and struggling to adjust to the (perfectly normal) light level. "What the &^#@ was that?!"


(Kaidan): "That's something we'd all like to know," replied one of the voices in his head, putting an end to the cacophony (though the child's voice continued to whimper).
(Loki): "Indeed. Who are you, and why can't I control my body?" the angry voice from before demanded, practically radiating rage.
(Ned): "Maybe because it's not yours," said another, raising a valid point (and daring to challenge the angry one's arrogant assumption of ownership).
(Mayurra): "More importantly, who does have control?" asked yet another voice - this one clearly belonging to a woman.
(Anneliese): "MAGIC!" the child shrieked suddenly, the thought incoherent and not quite a word.
(Loki): "Oh, now you notice."


Meanwhile...

Emma Lee Riese had not, in fact, been asleep prior to being teleported to the hotel. Instead, she'd been curled up comfortably on her sofa, nursing a cafinated soda and browsing the internet on her laptop. At the sudden appearance of a phantom head in her living room, she screamed and dropped her soda.

The next thing she knew, she was in a hotel lobby with twenty other people, including the phantom head's owner, one Steven Strange - and he had some fascinating things to say about magic, Lovecraftian gods, and the nature of the universe (or universes, as it turned out). Reincarnation, being 'chosen', and the gaining of 'powers' were major theme.

Honestly, Emma wasn't sure if she was dreaming, high, or attending some kind of cult meeting (or live-action roleplaying session), but for the time being she was too curious to care - even after being rudely punched in the arm by the man standing next to her, which hurt and strongly suggested that she wasn't dreaming.

Just as Doctor Strange seemed to open the floor to questions, of which she had several, all hell broke loose (or so it seemed to her). Everything went black, and someone screamed.

Also, there were voices in her mind. Apparently their host wasn't full of crap.

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: "What the hell was that!?"

Gigolo: "It's looks like he's loosing control of his magic, not that it matters anyway, the level of Ice he's producing can be produced by any low-level demon"

Despite the man's words, Waruo distend himself from the man who had lost control of his magic.

Gigolo: "What? Are you that afraid by that poor excuse of Ice magic? My name is Gigolo by the way."

[5ColouredWalker]

At first, it was all Xander could do not to panic.
Then, Xander couldn't even scream.

Dropping to the ground, Xander began writhing as his body became infested, his body replacing itself with one of a Primal Zerg...
Of course, that was nothing compared to the warfare going on in his brain. In seconds, it was improved to handle the additional minds it would store, and to allow thought speeds only machines could normally reach. And then, his Zerg body began optimizing it.
Belgarath, Xander and Tony where all almost shut down immediately, even with the speed they wouldn't be able to do more than mutter, though Xander's home field advantage meant the others were on the wrong foot.
Kerrigan was used to this sort of mind structure, the speed was unusual, but it might as well have been home terf. Maria stared down gods, her willpower arguably the greatest of the lot... Finally, there was Legion, the mind of a machine, and knowing full well how to use the speed provided... He was also well over 1000 fragmentary souls in one.

The three fought like demons, with Legion circling to play the knife in the dark, but the fight was always going to be one-sided... Kerrigan, though powerful and in her domain, could not stand against Maria's mind when the two were thrown together, and though Maria was great, not even she could adapt to the fragmentary mechanical mind of Legion, which was also quickly adjusting the minute changes being made by the bodies Zerg biology.
But Legion was Geth, one he ensured that the mind could properly be shared, he brought the remaining souls to the fore, showed them their footing, and only kept enough dominion for free communication...

But, this passed in perhaps 5 seconds, and it would take almost a minute for Xander's body to settle into a set form, a minute of painful writhing, in which he said nothing, but in which his mind touched everyone's, listening in with his mind given the temporary deafness in his ears.

[ArlEammon]

"Jumping JEHOSAPHAT!"


Soul Speaking:

Merlin startled awake. . . "Mister Thorald's grades are abysmal. It's apalling. This must be remedied." Gandalf spoke. . . "Merlin, Mister Thorald's Math grades and grammar isn't what at's stake if he's incompetent for our destinies. It's everything we are, will be, and were. We must not let Yog Sothoth prevail!" Next, however, Raistlin spoke. "Mister Thorald. . . if you weren't me, you would be stupid. Ironically, that's not a vain claim to clandestine intelligence. That's totally and quite literally true." Jon Irenicus and Thoth Amon both looked at each other within the council chambers of Jacob's mind. "I don't believe that we were all that we thought ourselves to be if Jacob is so unambitious and content to be at peace." Thoth Amon also gave his two cents. "It's unlikely that Mister Thorald knew he and we would be linked, and that he had so much potential, and thus, the right to be ambitious. After all, magic is not exactly inherent in everyone's blood".

[Dark Knight Renee]

Jason (and those of his Egos who weren't busy bickering) took a moment to observe the behavior of the twenty-odd people sharing the room with him. It seemed almost everyone, bar Mr. Strange, had experienced a similar... event. Many of them took it surprisingly well, some already directing intelligent-sounding questions to their host, others having non-distressed conversations with themselves - most at least partially out loud, some entirely so. (In contrast, the young woman he'd punched moments ago stood with her head tilted to one side as though listening intently, staring off into space with great interest and occasionally nodding her head in response to voices only she could hear - but if she replied, she did so silently.)

Others didn't fare so well - freaking out, yelling at Strange or the voices in their own heads or both, flailing about in panic (a couple of people slipped on the ice that now covered half the floor), some even displaying magical powers as Jason himself had.

And then there was the man writhing on the floor, apparently transforming. His skin crawling at the sight, Jason took another look at the rest of the room and realized that several people no longer looked entirely human.

Other universes, sinister gods, magic and past lives - the words that had seemed ridiculous and meaningless a minute ago now hit him hard. Mr. Strange had been talking about a fantastic multiverse that was actually real, seriously evil badness that was just as real and really a problem, MAGIC (obviously), and reincarnation. The voices in his head belonged to past lives.

Taking a cue from the girl he'd punched, Jason addressed the voices... silently.


Jason: "Guys, shut up. Seriously, be quiet for a minute."
For a moment his request was ignored, but it seemed at least one (whatever they were) had been listening and came to his aid.
(Kaidan): "SHUT UP."
(Loki): "... Why?"
Jason: "I don't know who you people are, and have only the slightest idea how you might have gotten in my head, but it's my head. So stop bickering, stop talking around me like I'm not here, and tell me what you know."
(May): "Not much. The darkness spell was one of mine, but I don't remember casting it. Otherwise, I don't think anyone knows anything."
At the mention of magic and spells, the child-voice immediately flew into panic again.
(Loki): "SILENCE, you insufferable mewling brat!"
(May): "Be nice." Her tone was not nice; in fact it was rather like a whip.

As the bickering in his head resumed even more furiously than before, Jason noticed with a mixture of bemusement and mild alarm that the ice under his feet was thickening and beginning to spread up his legs.


Jason: "Guys? Who's doing the ice?"
Once again he was ignored, the two most vocal 'voices' continuing to snipe at each other over the child's panic and the occasional timid (and similarly ignored) interjection by a one of the other voices.
(Kaidan): *sigh* "HE ASKED YOU A QUESTION: Who is responsible for the ice?"
Jason: "Thanks."
(Kaidan): "Bastards need a mute function...."
(Loki): "It's not mine."
(May): "Nor is it mine."
(Ned): "It's not me!"
(Anna): "I'M NOT DOING IT! MAKE IT STOP! NO MORE MAGIC!"
(Loki): "... Is it me? How am I doing this? Why can't I stop?" The shift from snarling anger and biting sarcasm to confusion and distress was so dramatic that it almost seemed like a different person altogether.
(May): "Well you'd better figure it out quickly, before you turn us into an ice sculpture."

"Uh, Guys? I think I need some help over here. One of my voices seems to be doing an Elsa."

[5ColouredWalker]

A high pitched whine speeds through the minds of those present.
Then a slightly lower pitched one passes through those near Jason.
Then the bursts resolve into words in Jason's head, telepathically given.


"SOrrY. Brain Wrong... Direct ice!"
There was a break.
"Error resolved. Direct the ice towards Xander... The one writhing, one of us, Maria, can dispel the magic, but we're currently incapable of controlled movement, and we need to touch the spell."


Suddenly, a groan emerged from the writhing form that was Xander, followed by a quiet telepathic voice, that sounded rather robotic.
"Good. Vocal control regained... Will contribute more when not in agony... Direct any excess magic surges towards the writhing body, they'll be absorbed."
There was another groan, and then the more observant among the group may notice a small amount of liquid appearing in the mans mouth, quickly to be drunk down.

[ArlEammon]

On Another Earth
http://i.imgur.com/x1uoSWr.jpg (http://imgur.com/x1uoSWr)
"They're called "The Chosen? Or Primary Egos, then?" Clark asked Lex Luthor. "Both, Mister Kent." Lex Luthor spoke with a comforting voice. "I'm glad that you were able to prevent another messy situation overseas." Lex Luthor stated. "According to my sources, Doctor Strange has just discovered their locations and brought them to New York City, and I'm afraid they already know about our allies." Lex Luthor thought to himself. "I can control the Outer gods, Mister Luthor. Raven has discovered how to keep Earth safe from the Outer gods, and how to summon them all the same. No one will get in our way of conquest."
On Earth, another dimension, an explosion detonated, murdering everyone living in Metropolis. Lois Lane was murdered by Superman, who believed her to be a lethal enemy. . . as the toxin that the Joker laced with powdered Kryptonite drove Superman to have audio and visual hallucinations. The Joker faced Superman's brutal murder as he ripped him apart during the interrogation. Earth was swiftly taken over by the now dictatorial madman. Captain Marvel, Wonderwoman, the Flash, Sinestro, Green Lantern, now turned Yellow Lantern, Cyborg, Raven, Night Wing, Aquaman, Doomsday and Cat Woman were brought together in an army that could over power any enemy.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Mmm... zz..."

A woman in an understated green dress appears along with everyone else, lying on one of the lounge's comfy couches with her arms wrapped around a thick binder. She must have fallen asleep in the middle of whatever she was doing with it.

For a brief moment, she doesn't seem to grasp that the otherworldly concepts suddenly assaulting her eyes and mind are anything but her usual dreams. Leandra Brigham has long since concluded that talking to oneself using exaggerated representations of your various thoughts isn't all that strange on its own. They're just not usually so...

...insistent.

Before she can sort through how she just helped herself finish a private thought using a form of sign language she had never had occasion to learn, the sleepy schoolteacher is startled awake by a sudden cacophony of shouts and questions, reinforced by flickering lights and disturbing body-horror imagery.

"W- what?!"

"...not a dream."

Yes, I can see that! "So what IS happening? What... who... am I...?"

"What the hell?! I know we were just fighting something-"

"-but, it feels so long ago, somehow..."

NO. THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A TRICK. A HOLODECK SIMULATION CROSSED WITH SOME FALSE MEMORY GARBAGE. PROBABLY CARDASSIAN, THEY'RE ALWAYS PULLING THIS PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE CRAP

"Oh, nuh-uh. I'm real, alright. And starting right now, this body? Is mine~"

"Millenia, wait! Don't-"

"Hrrrgh! Sss..." Leandra cringes and doubles over as every muscle in her body tries to decide which direction to take her build. She flops back on the couch trying to stretch out the mother of all leg cramps as she rolls her neck and shoulders uncomfortably, part of her expecting every limb and finger to suddenly stretch or contract to match some half-remembered version of herself... but, when she opens her green eyes again, no such dramatic transformation has taken place.

"Oh, come on!"

Actually, wait, I do feel a little different. Lighter, I think? Or... it might be more accurate to say I felt unaccountably fat and heavy a second ago, but don't anymore.

It's probably nothing. Our bra still fits.

"No, I... I've felt this before. Those were our wings growing. But, they don't really exist physically unless we're using them."

"What do you mean our wings?!"

"...you don't remember?"

"...oh. Right. Hm, sorry, took me a minute. Hi Elena~"

UGH, SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO THINK!

She is right. We should focus on the situation at hand.

...we can compile our new memories and ideas in our idle moments. For now, we just need to stay calm and balanced until we understand each other.

"Ourselves." Me. Us? WHATEVER, JUST DO SOMETHING!

Dr. Brigham stands back up, takes a deep breath, and adjusts her glasses for another try at surveying her immediate environment.

One twisted, vaguely humanoid monster, requesting a source of mana to finish... whatever it is he's doing. Someone else, stuck in an expanding patch of ice. Well, the frosty air helps explain the creepy shivers that came with the growing sensation, at least.

OK. Ice. Can we fix this?

"No problem! Let's just warm up a weak fire spell~"

...

"Where's my mana egg?"

"I don't think we have it anymore, Millenia. I think we..."

...

...I don't have any fire magic, either.

SO JUST USE A REGULAR HEAT SOURCE! THIS IS THE 20TH CENTURY, RIGHT? THERE MUST BE SOME HOPELESSLY INEFFICIENT APPLIANCE AROUND HERE YOU CAN USE

The teacher approaches Jason. "Um, okay, we'll try to find something to melt the ice! But, I think the stress and panic makes it harder to control your mental actions, so let's try to calm down first..." She tries to keep her eyes off of the distressing ice prison forming around the young man's legs as she comes up with something vaguely soothing to say. It's kind of silly, but then this whole scenario is pretty ridiculous.

"So... what's your name? I'm Leandra."

[Dark Knight Renee]

(Loki): "I'm trying, but I've never done this before. Also my current state is... inconvenient." The 'current state' in question implicitly being the complete lack of any sort of voluntary movement available to him.
(Mayurra): "I don't know if it would matter anyway, this doesn't look like any kind of spell I've ever seen. There's barely any magic, and what magic there is looks continuous and fluid!"
(Ned): "Could you sound a little less excited about our impending icy death?"
(Mayurra): "Meh, I can teleport out of this. Only problem is if we can't stop the ice this will keep happening until I run out of spells - and in our 'current state' that'll happen pretty fast."
Jason: "Can't you just teleport into range of the transforming guy and let him fix it?"
(Mayurra): "And trap him in a coffin of ice with us? Not a good idea. The ice itself isn't magical, and I'm not even sure about the process generating it - the magic I'm seeing could be something else entirely."
(Anneliese): "Please no more magic!"
Jason: "That's what we're trying to do!"
(Mayurra): "... Sort of. Ish."
(Loki): "I don't understand how I could be causing this if we're not in my body!"
Jason: "Observe the writing mass of transmuting former-human."
(Loki): "... Excellent point. But that doesn't change the fact that I haven't been able to direct the ice in any way."
Jason: "@%$#."
(Kaidan): "Has anyone else noticed how 'our' legs aren't freezing?"
(Loki): "If the ice is me, then that is me as well." He didn't sound happy about it.
Jason: "Fake ice, or required secondary superpower?"
(Loki): "... Required secondary superpower."
"I'm Jason. And about five other people. We haven't done the whole name ping-pong thing." Outwardly, Jason seemed remarkably calm about the situation. "My voices don't seem to know what's going on or how to fix it. But on the bright side, apparently I'm not freezing to death!" he added with a sheepish grin.

[5ColouredWalker]

The writhing body slowly ceases to writhe, the liquid in it's mouth having changed colour several times.
"I am Legion, and am currently functioning as the... 'Face' of the group while we figure out how to function as a concensious. We have worked out a suitable painkiller, and it's expected the changes should stop soon."

A harsher, slightly feminine voice then echoes in Jason's mind.

Kerrigan: "There's no need to speak, I, we can hear your conversations quite clearly now that the relative speed problem is resolved... I suppose it is useful having the speed boost though, having already had 8 days relative to prepare."
Maria: "But the point. Constant magic is unusual, it sounds like I might be able to halt the build up however, until you can control your own powers again."
Xander: "That, and apparently it might help with the pain and we'll be able to bust the ice freely, so don't worry about the writhing. We've just figured out how to turn pain off. Primal Zerg are apparently veROUUgh!"
Legion. "Unfortunate. Body already adapted to counter drug... Pain should be over shortly."


"Mr Strange. Would it be possible for you to open your mind and think of the information you think relevant. One of the resident minds has fought beings of the far realms, and wishes to know why creatures Xander recognize as similar pose a notable threat. Information on how we came to be would also be desirable."

[Epinephrine_Syn]

To be truthful, it really helped the cohesiveness of the group of souls that they were a group of heroes very used to weird situations. Three of the five have already experienced and worked within Mind-Melds before.

The Kid has experienced weirder things in Who Knows Where and Grand Reverts, though not explicit personality warping.
Nui self sacrificed herself and expected to go to the titans, and is still under some delusion that she is WITH the titans and eager to be honored in this afterlife. Plus, Tri-Links.
Wouldn’t be the first time Pride’s lived within another body as a parasite, or had others living inside HIS soul.
Kyoko’s been serving the Great Madokami, and her bigger concern is what happened to reality. She would be having a bigger dilemma, but Pride’s shadows combined with her Illusions have given her the ability to explore and look for some kind of answers while she sorts everything out.
Thor’s the only one who may be having problems adjusting, and he hasn’t said a word as of yet.

Jennifer for her part has subdued her freak-out with the fact that Video Games Are Real, and that this is a Dream Come True. Even death can be conquered, they’re about to go on a heroic adventure, and she’s more than eager to get right into the thick of things. In literally all 5 of her past lives she has sacrificed her life for some Greater Good at least once (often surviving in spite of this).

Jennifer: Okay let’s try this again. Role call.
Pride: Yep.
Nui: Aye.
Kid: …
Nui: Oi, zat count?
Kyoko: Yup. Also, present. We’ve got a lot sorted out so far. Me and Pride have gotten some very tasty info, we’ll assimilate it more later.
Nui: People from this world ‘make’ fictional universes. This is kind of a scary place.
Kid: Let’s not get off track. You gonna talk?

Kid: At all?
Pride: Give him time, he needs to adjust. Not everyone has had over a hundred years swimming in a bowl of souls to figure out what bodies mean.
Thor: I’m older than all of you combined, I’m pretty sure.
Pride: Oh, talkin now? Good.
Kyoko: So we call you babaa?
Nui: I know what that means and you shouldn’t say things like that Kyu.
Kyoko: Don’t call me Kyu it gives me bad memories.
Thor: Okay, there’s a ton of ice everywhere, we don’t know what’s going on, so I’m just going to try this.
Pride: Try what?
Jennifer: HeyHEY what’re you doin-

Jennifer: “To ME!”

Jennifer raised her hand and screamed out the words, staring intently at the sky. Nothing happened. Nothing continued to happen, even as she strained her face with a grunt, now on her toes, before falling backwards onto the chair.

Jennifer: I swear t-
Thor: Didn’t work. What sorcery is this. Mjlonir has always heeded my call. I am not myself, or this isn’t me.
Jennifer: We need to coordinate if we’re going to use this body.
Pride: Seriously Thor, we'll help you find your sacred hammer.
Nui: Wait, is that the Arkenhammer?
Jennifer: No, much MUCH more powerful.
Nui: …
Kid: …
Nui: Oh shush.

Jennifer: “Erm…”

Jennifer fiddled with her hands, looking embarrassed and flustered, though less so because her outburst had hardly been the strangest thing. At least the room was getting less frozen over.

Jennifer: “M-my name’s Jenny, if it matters to anyone. Everyone’s probably too busy making company in their own heads to make company with the rest of us, though…”

She trailed off, watching everyone else start to interact. This shyness was uncharacteristic of her, but the bustling crowd in her head ‘was’ still processing.

[5ColouredWalker]

"I have already experienced 8 days subjective. 4.3 were spent in mental combat and trying to determine how this mind truly worked. We have performed our meet and greet. We will however need time to adjust to our end physical form. It's estimated that changes should slow to manageable levels within 23 seconds."
The telepathic voice of Legion was monotone, far more than any of the others.

Meanwhile, the twitching of Xander slowly dies down, however tearing sounds begin coming from his back, as what appear to be wings begin forcing their way up and out of his shoulders.

[ArlEammon]

Jacob

"So let me get this straight. All of you are past lives? I'm Gandalf, Merlin, Thoth Amon, Raistlin and Irenicus?" "Interesting". "You are interesting folk, I'll give you that. Some of you though ah. . . your morals are extremely questionable at best. I am a little disappointed at a couple of you. . . No offense. Finding out that one of me attempting to commit genocide against an entire race is disconcerting. Please consider that I am nowhere near as ethically pragmatic and strange . . . yes, strange, as you. Gandalf is certainly very moral, and even Merlin is only a magician who is a loyal friend, supposedly at least."


Merlin looked at the Primary Ego from his position in the mental Council Chamber. "Well in my case there's quite a lot of competition. I had to be mildly ruthless but I care enough to only take out people who are my enemy. I'm a Saint compared to Raistlin and Irenicus, and Raistlin's evil is only in his past. He died a redeemed man. Gandalf over there seems like me if all of my days were either a Saturday or Sunday. Always as good as he can be. As far as genocide and the planned mass murders of Irenicus, and the evil schemes of Thoth Amon, yes, I'm with you right there."

Gandalf also took Jacob's presence into account as he spoke with them. "At least two of our somewhat ethically questionable alter egos at least have some regret over what they've done in their lives when the time was there's to live. I myself have very little to regret. Fortunately, I agree that it's not likely to set people free to argue and scold them centuries after they died, or after they've died at all. Consider, at least for a moment, that it may be in our best interests to let us all be who we are, for the worst should stay the worst and the best should stay the best." Jacob frowned at Gandalf. "What exactly do you mean?"



Jacob's eyes wandered from person to person. . . "Whoah, this is dramatic."

[Kyojo777]

As more strange happenings occurred Waruo got more stressed out. The man who lost control of his Ice, Jason, was still losing control, there was a man who was transforming, and then there was the woman who for no apparent reason yelled and stretched her arms up. Then, while he was freaking out some of the Ice reached Waruo's leg.

Waruo:"Gahhh!! The ice is freezing my leg!!"

Wanting the ice to melt, Waruo explodes/melts it with fire.

Waruo:"W-what the, did I just use fire?"

Beelzebub: "If that was your best attempt at using fire then you are more worthless then I thought!"

Waruo: "S-sorry sir."


"My name is Beelzebub, and why aren't you talking here? You want everyone to know your conversation!?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

In response to Kerrigan's latest telepathic message, Loki resumed being pissed off. An instant later, Jason's mind was shrouded from view, the conversations between his Egos unreadable.


(May): "... What did you just do?"
(Loki): "I don't like being spied upon."
(May): "And it couldn't wait until after we fixed the icing problem?!"
The spread of the ice across the floor, which had halted earlier (the spreading ice having instead been focused close to home), resumed. Fingers of frost started appearing on the legs of people standing on the ice, not yet dangerous but enough for several pragmatic individuals to go out of their way to move to the non-iced half of the room.

The punch-girl was now staring at Jason intently, frowning in consternation - having traced a panicked emphatic connection in her mind to Jason, only for said connection to be suddenly silenced.


Jason: "So, calming down, is that a thing we can do please?"
(Loki): "I am calm." That was a lie, and not a convincing one. But none of the other voices called him on it, because most of them weren't terribly calm either and the child-voice was definitely much worse.
(Ned): "Kid's not calming down any time soon, so 'calm' had better not be the answer!"
(Kaidan): "How is that helpful?" 'That' being the previous voice's increasing anxiety.
Then the ice touched Waruo, who responded with a burst of fire, and 'calm' went right out the window. The ice which had previously climbed just past Jason's knees expanded with terrifying swiftness to engulf Jason completely, cutting off his exclamation of alarm mid-swear.

The next instant Jason was no longer inside the ice but instead standing several feet away, having teleported out of his ice prison; ice immediately began forming on his shoes and spreading up his legs again, threatening to create another one. "Whoa, no fire!"


(Loki): "She's doing this!"
(Anneliese): "No I'm not! Please don't burn me again, I'm not a witch, I promise, please please please!"
(May): "I've got four hands-free teleports left, please stop this before I have to use them all."
(Anneliese): "It's not me, I swear!"
Jason: "Oh God, she really IS doing an Elsa..."
(Loki): "I don't appreciate being used as a pawn in this childish tantrum."
(May): "I don't think she's doing it deliberately, and wow you are terrible with children."
(Kaidan): "Either be helpful, or be quiet."
Miraculously, both of the bickering voices went silent, without even a trace of back-talk.
(Kaidan): "What's your name?"
Anneliese: "... Anneliese."
(Kaidan): "Anneliese, nobody here is going to hurt you."
Anneliese: "You say that, but it isn't true!"
(May): "Yes it is. None of us will ever try to hurt you, and if anybody else tries they'll have to go through me."
Anneliese: "But you're a witch! They'll burn you!"
Jason: "Anneliese, what year did this happen in?"
Anneliese: "Why?!"
(Loki): "What does that have to do with anything?"
Jason: "It's important."
Anneliese: "WHY?!"
(Ned): "Because nobody burns witches anymore."
Jason: "More to the point, nobody believes in witches anymore. They don't think magic exists. And until a minute ago neither did I."
Anneliese: "But what if they found out?!"
(May): "Jason... you and I obviously come from very different worlds. But it doesn't matter if someone finds out, because we're stronger than them. We can protect you."
Jason: "But we won't have to, because nobody is going to try to hurt you - us, whatever - just because we can do magic."
The spread of the ice up Jason's legs slowed, and finally stopped. What was already present remained, and would likely do so until melted or broken, but it seemed that calming the voice named Anneliese had done the trick. Jason smiled weakly at Leandra. "Thanks, I think we've finally got things under control."


(Loki): "If by 'things' you mean one minor problem, then yes."
(May): "Shush."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo was still wondering on how he was able to use fire. Then, he remembered how Dr. Strange told the group that they would be able to use the powers of their past lives.

Waruo: "I should tell my past lives this, or else they'll get mad at me."

Before Waruo spoke, he remembered Beelzebub telling him to "talk here". Deducing this meant he could enter the space his past lives were residing in, Waruo tried his hardest to enter what he would later call "The Hotel".

Successfully arriving there, Waruo was surprised by how the place really did look like a hotel (OOC: He remembered his souls talking about how the place looked like a hotel). Entering the hotel, Waruo saw a fat blue man with a skull staff. Noticing Waruo, the man started to speak.

(Beelzebub): "I assume your here to speak with me? Make it quick."
(Waruo): (So, is this how Beelzebub looks? He scares me) "W-well, I remembered why I was able to use fire a couple of moments ago, it was because I was using somebody here's powers. I think it was you, but I'm not too sure."
(Beelzebub): "Are you suggesting that that pitiful excuse of fire magic came from me? Normally I would crush you for even suggesting that, but I have felt a truly tremendous loss of my original power. More importantly, the fact that you are able to use all of our powers angers me greatly. I will leave before I get violent."
(Waruo):*nervous*"T-theres no n-need to get violent here. I hope you have a nice day Beelzebub."
(Beelzebub): "That's Lord Beelzebub to you!" With that Beelzebub goes somewhere else, presumably his living quarters.
(Waruo):*Legs shaking/nervous*"W-whew, I-I'm glad I wasn't beaten up, I think Beelzebub will t-tell the others, so I don't think I have to stay here any longer."
Wanting to leave desperately, Waruo exits his mind/The Hotel.

Coming back from his trip to The Hotel, Waruo sees that Jason has controlled his ice.

Waruo: "I-i'm glad the ice isn't spreading around anymore, what a relief. But, just to make sure..." Waruo walks over and speaks to Jason.
Waruo: "Hey, Jason was it? Um, I'm sorry to be rude, but are you safely controlling your ice powers?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

Waruo walks over and speaks to Jason. "Hey, Jason was it? Um, I'm sorry to be rude, but are you safely controlling your ice powers?"
Jason winces. "Not really, no."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo:Oh, well, um, that sounds unfortunate, I hope you don't have as much difficulties in the future."

The future. It was something Waruo didn't think much of, rather there wasn't much to think about in the first place. all Waruo wanted was a quiet and peaceful life, but Dr. Strange promises the opposite. Mustering his courage, Waruo walks up to Dr. Strange.

Waruo: "I know you expect me to fight these Outer Gods, but is there anyway I can avoid that? All I want is a quiet life, not a life of violence."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

*shouldersplutch*

"Eeugh!"

Following her initial burst of revulsion, Leandra tilts her head at, 'Legion's,' bony wing-like appendages.

Well. So, what was that about wings?

...maybe everyone gets them? It would make some sense, many creatures use them as a reflection of growth in their respective alignments.

WINGS? THEY'RE ALIEN SPINES WITH NO AIR RESISTANCE, THEY'D BE MORE FUNCTIONAL SOUP SPOONS THAN WINGS. MY GUESS WOULD BE... ANTENNAE?

Unnecessary appendages are something of a science fiction staple, aren't they? They give him an uncanny resemblance to a Zerg commander from Starcraft, actually.

Then, suddenly, someone sets the carpet on fire.

"GAH!" Leandra yelps, jumping away from a scattershot plume of what smells like burning sulfur. But, at least the ice is gone. She nods to Jason with a small smile and lets him and Waruo speak. Meanwhile, she waves to the shy young woman who tried to introduce herself amidst the chaos.

"Well. Hello Jenny! I'm Leandra." She looks around at the gaggle of other new superheros trying out their new tricks and catches snippets of Dr. Strange's Q&A session. Meanwhile, the corner of the couch where she first materialized is still covered with the scattered, poorly-stapled pages of term papers from her binder. She sighs and looks to Jenny over her shoulder as she moves to pick up her stuff.

"I don't suppose any of this feels real to you yet either, huh? I feel like I should be asking questions, but I don't even know where to start."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander slowly moves himself to a sitting position, twitch slightly as he uses his 'wings' to prop himself up, bringing himself to a standing position, though he continues to lean on his wings... By this point, he looks like a gender swap of Kerrigan, if in the place of hair-tendrils, she had some sort of head cap, and she was as large and built as a Terran Marine outside his armor.
That said, much of his body is concealed by what appears to be some sort of blue and yellow jumpsuit.

"If this is the universe's way of punishing me for singing Carnivore, I don't want to see what happens to the band."
The telepathic equivalent of several eye rolls radiate from Xander as he looks around to the various people scattered around, continuing telepathically.
"So... We have everything from regular people to god-like mortals, with sprinklings of the supernatural... I feel sorry for whatever we get pointed at, including whatever's in the first workshop I het access to."

[Dark Knight Renee]

Jason felt inexplicably abandoned after both Leandra and the unidentified teenager walked away, the latter giving the impression that he was afraid of Jason's lack of control of the ice (but might have been hoping for help controlling his own powers, or so one of his voices suggested). Feeling sorry for himself, and guilty about it, Jason stood around doing nothing for a moment while the voices in his head started arguing about whether to introduce themselves. (The timid one introduced himself as "Ned", but so far no other names had been dropped - the angry one refused, the woman badgered him but hadn't bothered to give her own name, and the quiet one with a knack for shutting them up just sat there saying nothing but radiating annoyance.)


Anneliese: "These people are supposed to protect me?"
(Kaidan): "I assume they're better with magic than with people."
Jason realized then that punch-girl was staring at him still. "What are you looking at? Afraid I'll lose control again and ice you the moment your back is turned?" he asked bitterly, and immediately regretted it. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"You have an interesting anti-divination shield. Is one of your 'voices' named Mayurra?"

That shut them up instantly. Suddenly punch-girl had the full attention of Jason's bickering Egos.


Mayurra: "Who wants to know? ... Ask her."
Jason cleared his throat nervously and repeated the question. "Who wants to know?"

"Tethrysn."


Mayurra: "Tethrysn!" the voice, apparently named Mayurra, exclaimed excitedly. "But why hasn't he contacted me telepathic... YOU." :mad: The glare she fixed on 'the angry voice' was all the more impressive for being imaginary.
Sadly, he seemed unimpressed by her wrath.
"I'm sorry, maybe I have the wrong person..."

"Wait!" Impulsively, Jason lurched forward to grab her arm as she turned away, skidding slightly on the icy floor as he did so. "She is one of mine. We're just a little... communicatively challenged."


Mayurra: "Is that what they're calling it these days?"
(Kaidan): "... Really?"
Mayurra: "Just drop your damn 'anti-divination shield' already!"
(Loki): "Why should I?" :smallannoyed:
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Emma replied with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile. Jason almost choked.


Mayurra: "You're preventing me from communicating with my familiar!" :smallfurious:
(Loki): "And because of that I should drop our mental defenses? Let the telepaths resume probing our minds?"
Ned: "There's nothing to overhear but the two of you constantly arguing!"
(Kaidan): "Shut it down."
(Loki): "I will not, and unless you actually want Legion picking all of your secrets from Jason's pathetic mortal brain, you will cease asking."
Jason: "Secrets like your name?" :smallannoyed:

[Epinephrine_Syn]

"Well. Hello Jenny! I'm Leandra." She looks around at the gaggle of other new superheros trying out their new tricks and catches snippets of Dr. Strange's Q&A session. Meanwhile, the corner of the couch where she first materialized is still covered with the scattered, poorly-stapled pages of term papers from her binder. She sighs and looks to Jenny over her shoulder as she moves to pick up her stuff.

"I don't suppose any of this feels real to you yet either, huh? I feel like I should be asking questions, but I don't even know where to start."

Jennifer: "Oh, hello there."

She smiled a little more, watching Leandra and waving. Despite the way she could be outgoing towards some of her friends she actually did have some kinds of problems in initial meetings with strangers. "It doesn't feel even the slightest bit real. But this is the reality to deal with."

"How about we start with which souls we have, and if we recognize any of them, that sounds like it can be something worth our while. Also, where are you from, personally? What your job is, if we're working together as a team, might as well be friends and get to know each other."

[5ColouredWalker]

"Ah... Yes, that makes sense... Everyone want to introduce themselves?"
"I am Legion of the Geth."
"Tony Rose, from the Commonwealth... And apparently Fallout 4."
"I am Maria... Apparently my rise was also documented in a game, Neverwinter Nights 2... I'm interested in finally accessing the internet of this world."
I am Belgarath, apparently one of the books on my life is present in the world, and spawned a series of stories known as 'The Belgarad'... Quite amusing actually..."

There was a moment of silence, with no other telepathic voice coming.
"And Kerrigen seems to be sulking... It appears I'm part Queen-of-Blades at the moment, but she's Primal Zerg so there's no fear of The Swarm appearing any time soon... And I'm Xander, a freaking out Lab Tech who's only nominally in control at the moment."

[ArlEammon]

((Im thirty two! Yay!!!))

"Everyone! I'm sorry to say this but this goes out to everyone. You must all fight. You must fight and fight your fullest, possibly taking lives of the enemies out there, or you may face the world's, in fact all world's destruction."
"Also, as to the other requests. . . these Outer Gods are far more powerful than just deities. Yog Sothoth alone can fight with the most powerful of my own enemies, such as Shuma Gorath. . . Conquest of the multiverse is easily within Azathoth's grasp, and Shup Nikkurath is powerful enough to face many other similar challenges. As far as you all came to be. . . An omegaversal demiurgic being has brought you all to this point through my service. This godlike being sees Yog Sothoth and his allies as a threat to everything that the Omniverse has come to be. Eternal annihilation of nothingness or something infinitely worse may befall all creation. We must stop it. . . "

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leandra finishes gathering up her papers and just manages to close the binder as she nods to Jenny and listens to Xander's introduction. Oddly enough, the name Kerrigan and the mention of Primal Zerg don't ring any bells with L's established Starcraft player. She never paid much attention to the lore, apparently.

"Hello Xander. I guess that makes it my turn? My full name is Doctor Leandra Brigham, and I teach in the education department at U of M. Well, Michigan, I mean."

As she says this, she finds herself tucking the binder under one arm as her hands take on a life of their own, echoing her words in what is apparently sign language. More specifically, Japanese sign language.

Shizune Hakamichi, entrepreneur and business consultant.

SINCE WHEN? LIKE, TWO WEEKS BEFORE YOU DIED?

I didn't die.

"Oh? HAhahaha! You sound so sure about that~ But come on, ask yourself - if you're not dead, then what are you doing here?"

"I'm still trying to make sense of my other... well, lives. One, Lana, spent most of her long existence literally watching over her world. Hyrule, of all places." She used to go by Cia. Her skill set as a sorcerer includes conjuring and spiritual manipulation.

Leandra's hand signals eagerly add Shizune's thoughts on top of translating her own speech. That doesn't mean anyone present can necessarily understand it, but still.

"B'ellana was a starship engineer..." She was also an operative for a guerrilla rebellion against an alien occupation.

"Elena was a musician-priestess who dedicated herself to fighting giant, unholy monsters her church was harboring..." She became Millenia in her very first interaction with those monsters. Though, I wouldn't go so far as to call her 'giant.'

"...and then there's Shizune." Hello.

"...trying to remember her life gives me a serious case of déja vú. I feel like I was her as recently as yesterday, albeit somewhere in Japan... well, anyway, I guess that's it. Who else? Jason?"

She is looking to the other ostensible party members when Doctor S makes another attempt to emphasize the gravity of the situation. More intros would have to wait, it seems.

- - - -

"...well. Doctor, could you possibly explain any of that in more detail? I've never actually read any Lovecraft, and I'm not sure what passes for a, 'deity,' these days, either."

[Dark Knight Renee]

Before Jason and Emma could work out how to deal with their Loki-induced communication difficulties, introductions ensued - specifically, Legion identifying himself as a geth. To the entire room, telepathically.

Jason himself felt no alarm at this announcement, but Kaidan, missing personal knowledge of some rather significant plot developments concerning the geth by virtue of being dead and lacking access to Jason's memories, reacted with alarm appropriate to a deadly threat. And while he didn't have access to Jason's memories, Kaidan did have access to his body.

Had Jason been armed, or had Kaidan gone for biotics first instead of reflexively reaching for a sidearm that wasn't there, the situation might have gotten very tense indeed. Instead, Jason reacted to the involuntary movements by trying to re-exert control, and the conflicting commands resulted in spastic flailing, slipping on the icy floor, more flailing, and finally falling on his butt. Only then, having failed to perform any meaningful action and belatedly registering the presently non-threatening nature of Zerg-Legion, did Kaidan stop trying act. Emma helped Jason to his feet with an expression that twitched between pity and amusement. Feeling very confused and slightly humiliated, Jason suspected the pity was just an attempt to conceal the amusement.


Mayurra: "What was that?
Jason: "The &^#@!? I thought you guys couldn't control my body! Which one of you did that?"
(Kaidan): "Sorry..."
(Loki): "How did you...?" :smallconfused:

By the time Jason was standing again, Leandra had finished introducing herself, and then Doctor Strange inadvertently forestalled either Jason or Emma attempting to join in the introductions by firmly reminding the room that, yes, they were expected to be superheroes now.

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander's head tilts slightly.

"It sounds like this... Deity is high... And drunk. Creatures from such places tend to be excessively tough due to their multi-dimensional nature, but being on prime materials like this is just as maddening for them as us to play in the far realm, such a creature should be of little actual threat..."

Xander straightens.
"But, in my head lives someone who became an Archfey and stuck her head into the Far-Realms on a dare, and we are apparently in an Omniverse, so I suppose 'Anything' is actually possible... However in that case why doesn't someone actually omnipotent do something about the problem?"

As Xander spoke, he slowly made his way towards Jason, now he finally turns to him.
"Now I was only getting gists and loud thoughts before your mind went quiet, but who are you that Legion is causing you to twitch, and where in the timeline did you die?"

[Epinephrine_Syn]

Jenny took a step back, outwardly stretching her arms. “Alright, I shall summon my compatriots to introduce themselves. Ginyu force, assseemmbblle!”

A pregnant pause followed.


Kyoko: …
Kid: What?
Kyoko: Really? Ginyu force?
Jennifer: I’m… sorry I couldn’t help myself.
Kyoko: You’re not sorry at all.
Jennifer: I ain’t.

Jennifer: “Sorry, I couldn’t help but make the joke. Anyway, sooouund off.”

J-Kyoko: “Anyway, name’s Kyoko, Maho Shojo at your service. Maho too.”

J-Pride: “Yo.”

J-Kid: “…”

J-Nui: “… not a talkative bunch are you. Selim you were supposed to introduce yourself. Same to you kid… I don’t even know what your name IS and you’re definitely not a kid. Selim’s some kinda soul shadow demon fingie. The kid’s… a grown man that we’re still trying to pry the real name out of, knows weapons and hails from a place where everything falls apart and reassembles every day. I’m Nui, Master Class Shockamancer and successor of the Titans Challenge. Actually, I think I know Hyrule! It was a…. bizarre place.”

The chipper look melted into an awkward downward glance. “I hope you’re not… mad, about the… you know… anyway…”

Thor: “And I, am Thor! … despite this… awkward body. I insist to know where you have hidden my sacred weapon, it does not heed my call. Seriously this is a big problem, don’t you agree?”

Her stance now was proud and upright, bold, narrowed glare around the room.

Thor: “Regardless, weapon or not, once I sort out of this is a fever dream illusion, I will set out to protect the innocent here.”


Jennifer: Yes I agree.
Kyoko: Wait, Nui how do you even know what the word kid means?
Nui: Osmosis from y’all.
Pride: Figures.

[Dark Knight Renee]

I got ninja'd, bad. Lets assume that A) Tali already introduced herself to Legion via private telepathy, and B) The above post occurs after this one. I'll respond to it in my next post.

"Maria did what and what?" Emma exclaimed. Despite the order of emphasis in the verbal exclamation, her Ego Tathrysn (who had prompted the exclamation) was much more startled by the archfey bit than the part about the far-reams.

Upon being questioned directly by Xander aka Zerg-Legion, Jason shifted uncomfortably and looked to Emma for support. "Go ahead, he's a friend." Emma reassured him with a nudge.

Swallowing hard, Jason surrendered control without further protest - immediately standing straighter and looking braver, though his own nervousness leaked through to spoil the effect somewhat. "My name is Kaidan Alenko. I died on Vermire, fighting geth. Wait, what?!"

Emma punched Jason in the arm, hard, and proceeded to scold him in a very different accent than she had been using previously. "What part of 'he's a friend' didn't you understand?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Xandar shows surprise for a whole fraction of a second.
"You fought what Legion would call Heretic Geth, the Geth you fought made up approximately 5% of the whole before they left the consensus, though they had roughly 8% of the consensus's resources. However, in his memories, you did not die, but rose to the rank of Spectre... It looks like a rather thorough multiverse we're in. And Maria ascended to the rank of Archfey, as is only right for one of fey blood who managed to thwart the will of the gods... Sticking her head in the Far Realms was apparently a dare, while rather drunk, and already in a fey's realm that had been set to some rather insane specifications."

[Dark Knight Renee]

"Heretic geth. Right," Kaidan replied skeptically. (Mentally, Jason facepalmed.)

Emma probably would have proceeded to introduce Tali to Jason and then grill him on his apparent cluelessness about, well, everything, but before she could do so she was distracted by Jenny's Egos introducing themselves - the last one in particular. "Thor!" With that exclamation of joy, Emma(/Jane) threw herself at Jenny in a hug of a type popularly known as a 'glomp', and then kissed her on the mouth.

"Yuck, humanoid kisses! Excuse me!" Emma protested indignantly, pulling away from Jenny just as abruptly as she'd glomped her and addressing her own Egos out loud. "Didn't we agree- Tali started it! I had permission! and oh my God we're all talking at once," Jane finished the rapid-fire chain of chaotic speech, covering her/Emma's face in embarrassment.


Padmé Amidala: "Am I the only one with even the slightest bit of self control here?" :smallannoyed:
Jason stared at Emma in abject horror, momentarily distracted from the whole Mass Effect/fictional characters issue. "I'm so glad most of mine can't do that."



Because the situation worked better without tags...

Emma's Voice/Thought Colors:

Emma - "Teal" #008080.
Tathrysn - "Orchid" #DA70D6.
Padmé - "Crimson" #DC143C.
Jane - "Chocolate" #D2691E.
Mission - "DodgerBlue" #1E90FF.
Tali - "BlueViolet" #8A2BE2.

[Regalus]

Matthew has having a very bad day, or rather; he was fairly sure he was having a very bad trip. It had finally happened, he didn't know how or when, but just as his aunt had always warned him someone had slipped something into his drink and he was now tripping balls. IT was really the only logical explanation for how a comic book character had taken him fresh from his bed to apparently punch Cthulu in the face.

Matthew didn't have much experience in these sort of things, mostly limited to the rather schizophrenic representations of such things in the media, but he was certain of one thing; whatever he'd been given was the good stuff. Seriously, whoever made it should go out and patent that crap right away; 'cause he couldn't have made this stuff up if he tried.

"If you have any other questions, now is the time to ask. I am afraid that your peaceful lives have ended, but a life of glory and knowledge now awaits you."

It was at that moment, with eye-widening dread, that the young man realized that his Trip was just getting started.

Everything seemed to change in a heart beat. One moment the young man felt himself shiver at the gravity in the stranger's voice, and the next he found the floor giving way; falling apart beneath him like grains of sands in an upturned hand until he was left flipping and falling through the morning sky towards an endless blue ocean bellow.

Matthew wailed and flailed impotently in shear unadulterated trying to somehow will himself not to fall in this acid-trip turned nightmare, but did little more than fervently flap his pajamas in the furious gales of his fall. With nothing left for him, and his prayers having fallen on silent ears, he braced for the impact that would no doubt shatter him like a cheep porcelain cup; only for his figure to cut through the waves like a knife through empty air. Though that did little against the currents of seawater, which rushed into him as he found the air in his lungs forced out of him in choked bubble that formed a glistening trail behind him amid the murky black depths that consumed all light in the world.

Only when he thought for the second time, in as many minutes, that he would surely perish did he realize that despite the lack of air in his lungs he wasn't drowning; and not a moment later did he feel his form reorienting itself, as if the world had tilted and gravity with it until he found his descent slowing once more until landing on the sea floor feet first.

Straining his eyes, the confused boy could barely make out glittering lights in the distance; and upon taking his first step towards that light he found the world coming to life all around him. Seams of light spreading out from his feet from which the inky depths peeled back forming a flock of countless doves which flew into the unknown. Through their sudden flight revealing that Matthew did not stand on stone, but instead on a massive pane of stained glass reminiscent of a Church's Windows which glew with a warmer inner light. However rather than religious iconography being artistically rendered upon its surface, he found himself standing at the center of a great wheel to which were tied varies circles along it's length in intricate patterns.

He had barely a moment to take the site in before the glow of five such boundaries outshone the panes around them; symbols of a rose, a sun, a leaf, a key and a train engine seemed to burn through the panes as ornate doors formed over each one. It wasn't long before the sound of five locks coming undone resounded through that quiet place, nor for them to open so that their inhabitants might join Matthew.

Witnessing the arrival of each, the college aged boy found a childish smile forming upon his face; a wave of nostalgia, not unlike rediscovering ones most cherished treasures of their childhood that they'd long outgrown after stumbling across an old box in an attic, overcoming his prior fears or the disbelief and cynicism that trade to tell him this wasn't real. Yet he knew it was so, just as he knew them.

"Raito...

A youth who had lost his past, and his home; yet reclaimed both through the strength of the bond he shared with his friends while traveling a winding rainbow road. Achieving miracles, and falling to darkness; but proof that so long as one believed and never gave up, anything was possible. A living testament that few forces could compare the magic of Friendship.

"...Sora...
A boy taken from his home by cateclism, yet traveled through the stars to find those he lost and soothe the heart of all things. He had never been chosen for the task. He was not a great warrior, nor did he wield ancient secrets long forgotten. However, it had been his Kindness that had lit the darkness and cast away despair; extending a helping hand where others may have extended their blades, breaking law and tradition to do what was right and pulling the world from chaos.

"...Naruto..."
Thriced cursed by blood and birth, yet undaunted by the obstacles he faced. Though he stumbled and fell many times, suffering the sting of betrayal and the pain of failure, when confronted by the the merciless cruelties of the world and it's thousand-fold malefactions it was His Laughter that banished the wraiths and phantoms that haunted his lands. It was by the light of his unflinching Will of Fire that the heroes of the land gathered, and through its light laid upon the source of all their evils; striking it's heart at a great cost, but bringing forth a new dawn to their world.

...Celestia...
A divine maiden and diarch, who sought no greater glory than the joys and prosperity of Her Little Ponies. Descending from the heavens with her Sister to banish chaos and malaise from the land; and by their light bringing order to their moments, and from this all else followed; bringing Harmony to a dying world, and renewing it. It would never be the same, but under their careful watch it would slowly heal it's wounds until they it could care for it's children once more. However, her greatest regret would forever be the loss of her sister; of how her blindness had cost her the sister she so loved as she was forced to choose between her and their people. Yet even in her darkest hour, Celestia never faltered; her Loyalty to both seeing her through the thousand winters it took to find a way to heal her beloved sister...and in the end it she gained so much more than she could have imagined. Her sister was sane and by her side, her lost student had found the way to the light once more, and her ponies had grown so much; all thanks to a young alicorn who's love and devotion she could never hope to repay. Then again, that wasn't what Friendship was about.

"...And Madoka..."
A girl who wanted nothing more than her friends to be happy. Across untold lifetimes, and countless worlds; beyond mortal tongue's capacity to voice. It was this simple wish that drove everything she did, an every sacrifice she made. It was because of her boundless Generosity that when witnessed by the burdens of those she cared for, she made the ultimate sacrifice for them; without a moments hesitation, a second thought, or a care for what she had to do. For those she loved, and for the sake of those who had fought so hard upon that long road she upturned both heave and hell; overcoming entropy and paradoz itself, and destroying her own existence through benevolence to bring forth hope from even the blackest despair. It was her belief that everyone deserved their happy ending, and so she carved forth a path to it with her own two hands; and for her sacrifices sh-

Matthew winced briefly, a hand cradling his head briefly as the migraine past; before centering his gaze on the five figures before him once more. "H-How are any of you-"

"You know exactly how! Old man just explained it," chipperly corrected the red haired youth with a wide smile.

"We can only really talk like this, because it's a special place. Only you, and us I guess, can be here; and you can't lie to yourself, not here at least," offered the former keybearer as he gestured to the expanse around them, causing Matthew to remember both being there many times before...and playing through the level in the games; a surreal experience to say the least.

"The fact we're even here makes what happened pretty obvious; we died. Happens to everyone ya know, we just got lucky enough to see what happens afterwards," the seventh hokage stated with sad smile and a shrug.

Matthew nodded shakily before his eyes landed on one of the eldest people there; a matronly woman dressed in the white with a long flowing mane of rainbow hair, "A-And how are you here? Weren't you some kind of sun god, and horse; pretty sure you had the proportions of horse," the boy mostly mumbled to himself in confusion.

"Even the sun most set, and eve the brightest star burns out; my time came, and that is all that matters; but rest assured, my sister and I left things in capable hands,The woman simply gave him an endearing smile that seemed to light up the darkness ever so slightly, and brought warmth back to his limbs.

"As for your other question, well; I may not know much about this place in particular, that privilege falls to our other-self," she began as she gestured towards Sora, "But I do know that this is a place of the spirit, our own inner world; in this place form matters little before intent and essence. What you see may not be as I was in life, but it is as I am as a reflection of who you were once were,"

"That's right, the karmic wheel turns for everyone; and it's starting to turn again. Things are pretty bad out there, but that's why we're here; to make a miracle out this blight, and to bring hope from despair," chimed in the pink haired girl sweetly as she stepped forward and took his hand, as door appeared behind. However he had little time to study it before the others followed her example and closed the distance between them.

"There's a lot we need to do here..."
"But not enough to do it now, and we've used up too much as it is,"
"You've got a lot of challenges ahead of you from the looks of things..."
"But that's never stopped us before,"
"Just remember, that you're never alone,"

The boy looked at them all, smiling back with a mix of emotions that shifted to anxiety as he heard the door behind him unlock and swing open; barely catching the mischievous glint in his companion's eye before they unceremoniously pushed him through. For the briefest of moments he felt the world tilt once more before...


...stumbling awake; feeling as if he was shaking himself out of a stupor as his eyes warily looked around, witnessing the aftermath of chaos of awakening as Doctor Strange continued his speech.The young man looked around blearily as he blinked awake; seeing all the changes that had happened to so many, some more grotesque than others, and noting the damages done to the lobby. In particular the thin sheet of frost that covered a good chunk of it, yet went around him in a perfect circle several feet across; as if it the creeping frost had stepped around him. It was strange to be sure, but his bar for such things had just been set immeasurably high.

The teen briefly wondered what to do with himself; what to do about his family, his friends, and responsibilities now. Would he even be able to finish his studies after this? Did it even matter? So many questions and implications buzzed around the boy's head like an angry hornet's nest, but all that stopped when he saw a familiar bundle of red hair in the crowd. That outfit, that perpetually cocky grin, and that laissez faire attitude...


“Anyway, name’s Kyoko, Maho Shojo at your service. Maho too.”

Matthew beamed at those words before rushing through the crowd; haphazardly avoiding the remaining sheets of ice and confused people as he made a bee-line to Jenifer...

"Kyoooo...ko?"

Just in time to see Jenifer tongue wrestling with Emma. The flustered boy being unable to do more than look on in surprise and second-hand embarrassment until the two eventually disentangled from one another, which then led into the other girl apologizing profusely to the other girl in a frantic fit.

"Uh...is...i-is this a bad time?" the teen boy questioned dumbly, unsure what else to do at the moment; completely oblivious to how he too had changed in his awakening. His now rainbow hair having lengthened down to his neck, and gently flowing in a nonexistant breeze behind him; the almost etheric mane looking more like an incredibly dense aurora borealis emanated from his head than human hair follicles.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

A moment of confusion, and then a wide smile appeared on her face, breaking off to speak. “J-Thor: Ah, Jane! I am so glad to see you. J-Kyoko: I… a’rright hold on. I can make a separate illusory body for you two to properly talk, but later. Right now, the room’s crowded enough and it can’t fit everyone if we stuff an illusory body for everyone.” The hug she was giving stayed tight despite this, unlike Emma’s other alters none of Jennifer’s alters seemed very interested in interfering. Even Jennifer herself seemed relatively lax with letting whoever needed her body the most. She may have been preoccupied though.


Wherein we peek inside…
Nui: You’re going to have to tell me more about these drinks of yours, Kid.
Jennifer: Still trying to figure out a ‘break’?
Nui: Yeah, we’ve gotta figure out how to break this world over our knee. Like we’re fighting things above the titans. Even with the knowledge I’m increasingly learning about, and that I may very soon become Master Class in every sphere of Mancy imaginable and thus the most powerful erfworlder to pop into existence, this is going to be a tough challenge.
Nui: By the way, still adjusting to ‘no sides’ prospect.
Pride: Yes, this… technology is very advanced. I’m not sure I can alchemize a ‘computer’ so easily, so many moving parts.
Kid: Anyway, I’ve got…


Jennifer: “So… oh actually wait, I think I saw that movie. The Thor one. It’s nice to be… reunited. Erm… is this gonna be a family reunion? Like, hey maybe if Odin’s here we can get our hammer thing back. It’s definitely the most powerful weapon of all of ours.”
J-Thor: “… hammer thing. Oh well, we can sort this out. I’m starting to feel more comfortable, and, assuming this whole thing isn’t an illusory trick, I’m reunited with Jane. I can deal with this.”

J-Kyoko: “Speaking of reunions… who is speaking? This isn’t a bad time, it’s best to know who else is around that we know, and have in common. Don’t be shy, now.” Jennifer was still confident, turning to the boy but all her alters were, and things were back to a good bit of good times. They were turning the body over fairly cleanly, like casually handing over a phone, a level of comfort scarce around the room right now.

[Regalus]

" Oh, uhm..." the teen chuckled awkwardly at first; a bit self-concious about himself after just rushing off as he had, and walking in on the pair. Let alone seeing Kyoko willingly use her illusions in such a casual manner; the memories of that particular conversation were still fresh in her his mind, and had haunted them for quite a while. Then again who cared if this was all surreal? Or that he'd been genderbent when they first met (or rather genderbent afterwards); this was a friend, and a good one at that. The least she deserved was a proper greeting!

So, with a bit of prodding from Madoka; the boy flashed a warm smile, "Kaname Madoka, it's nice to see you again Kyoko-chan!" he chirped happily before his smile grew bashful, "Though I go by Matthew these days... and I hope we can be friends in this life too though,"

[Kyojo777]

Waruo didn't know what to do. If he fought these Outer Gods his life would be rife with violence, and most importantly he could die, or worse, but if they won they would destroy the omniverse. To Waruo it didn't matter if he fought or not, he wouldn't be of any help, but everyone in the room would think he was a coward and Waruo couldn't bare the thought of being rejected, so he decided he would "help".

Waruo:"A-alright, I-I'll help defeat these Outer Gods."



Cyphre: "I can feel your worry, Waruo. Indeed these enemies would sound frightening to any normal human, but fear not, you possess the powers of five extraordinary powerful demons of chaos."
Waruo: "D-demons!?"
Cyphre: "Ah, thats right. Why don't you come here and let us introduce ourselves?"
Waruo:"A-alright."

With that, Waruo nervously enters The Hotel.


At the lobby.

Waruo:"Hello? Are you still here Mr.-"
Cyphre: "My name is Louis Cyphre, but you can call me Cyphre."

Cyphre was not at all what Waruo expected him to look like.
Cyphre was a kid with blond hair, a black suit, and silver eyes.

Waruo: "I don't want to be rude, but you don't look anything like I expected."
Cyphre: "Don't worry yourself over it, though the only reason I am in this form is most likely because I have lost most of my power."
Waruo: "That....doesn't make me less nervous about fighting the Outer Gods."
Cyphre: "Fear not, with time I should be able to regain all of my original power. Besides, the more battles you fight, and the harder you train, the stronger you will become. Think of it like a video game, the more you fight the more "EXP" you will gain."
Waruo: "A-alright, I guess that's a bit reassuring. By the way, are you really a "demon"?"
Cyphre: "Yes, that is correct. I presume you know which one I am?"
Waruo: "*gulp* You wouldn't be, L-Lucifer, right?"
Cyphre: "That is correct, but do not worry, I mean you no harm."
Waruo: "Don't worry about it Lucifer, I'm more scared of YHWH then anything."
Cyphre: "Is that what they call him in your universe? Though it appears he's nothing but fiction in this universe, good riddance. Well, I don't want to keep you waiting, why don't you meet the others?"
Waruo: "All right, it was nice talking to you, Cyphre."
As Waruo waves Cyphre goodbye he thinks of how calm he was talking to him. Even though he was Lucifer, the demon lord, Waruo felt a type of calmness that he rarely felt.

As he kept walking, Waruo noticed a beautiful woman in a white coat not too far off.
Angel: "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"
Waruo: "U-um, hello, I've been wondering, what's your name?"
Angel: "If you want to know that badly, my name is Jenna Angel. Before you ask I am a "demon", but not in the same sense as the others. To be more exact I am an "Atma Tuner"."
Waruo: "Whats an "Atma Tuner"?"
Angel: "It's better if you simply "remember"."
Waruo:"Remember?"
To Waruo's confusion Angel proceeds to touch Waruo's head, giving him all of her knowledge on Atma Tuners. What Waruo finds out is horrifying.
Waruo: "To continue living they had to keep eating others, thats horrible."
Angel: "Tch! I still can't believe I reincarnated into you. Well, aren't you going to meet the others?"
With that, Angel leaves.
Waruo: "Alright, see you later Angel."
As Waruo leaves he still remembers what Angel showed him.
Waruo:"Atma Tuners, what horrible cards life has dealt them."
Waruo then remembers that he forgot to ask Angel what her Atma form was.
Waruo:"That's right, I didn't ask her, maybe next time."

As Waruo walks around, he see's a dashing man in a gray suit.
Gigolo: "You must be, Waruo right? Well hello, my name is Gigolo. I am also known as Loki."
Waruo: "Loki, you mean the trickster god?"
Gigolo: "That's correct, but even a child knows who Loki is."
Waruo: "Well, it's nice to meat you, Loki."
Gigolo: "The pleasures mine. Well I don't want to keep you waiting, how about you visit the others?"
Waruo:"Alright, see you later Gigolo."

As Waruo walks around he feels someone tap his shoulders.
Yuriko: "Your Waruo, right? Well it's nice to meet you, I'm Yuriko."
Waruo: "It's nice to meet you Yurik-"
As Waruo turns around he is able to get a good look at Yuriko, and at that moment he couldn't say a word. She had black hair, black nails, was slender, and wore a tight black suit which nicely showed off her curves, a real beauty (SMT 4 Demonic Gene appearance). The moment he saw her Waruo immediately started to blush intensely, along with being a demon she was his type.
Waruo:"S-So Yuriko, w-which d-demon are y-you?"
Yuriko: "I am Lilith, and you don't have to hide it, I already know."
Waruo:"Lilith (That......explains a lot)? W-well it's ni-wait, what do you mean by already know?"
Yuriko: "I'll tell you *whisper*"
Right then and there Waruo felt like extremely embarrassed.
Yuriko: "*laughing* Don't worry about it, I don't mind at all"
Waruo: "W-well won't you look at the time, it looks like I have to go, see you later."
Yuriko: "*smiling* You're a terrible lier"
With that Waruo scurries off and exits The Hotel.


As Waruo comes out from The Hotel he is still embarrassed and is still blushing. He's so embarrassed that he has seemingly forgotten that he just agreed to fight the Outer Gods and is seemingly unaware of all the changes that is going around him.

(OOC: Thank god Waruo is anti-social, less work for me >_>.)

[Epinephrine_Syn]

J-Kyoko: "See? There's lots of people who've swapped genders here." That one was a muse to herself and Thor specifically, feeling a bit of a smile, relaxing and taking a place on the couch as Kyoko cemented her control at the moment. "And of course we can be friends in this life, I look very much forwards to that Mathew-sama. I appreciate all the help you've given me… uhm, how exactly up to date are you? There's a lot of versions of you that're, well… missing information. I'll fill you in as much as I can, though I may need a hint. Witches, or no. Madokami?"

Jennifer's head tilted, idly looking at the sudden fluctuation of shadows stretching outwards from their feet, then back to Mathew.

Pride: Yes… I'm getting better at the way this works, this world. The tectonics of this planet are… it's like an oversized glove, but I can make it work. By the way this is a big city, and big building.
Jennifer: … Selim, it's rude to spy on people. I'm going to try to keep myself from blushing madly now.

There were many versions of each of the characters, even within their singular multiverse. This omniverses at worst added another layer of magnitude to the issue. At least, for this version, Madokami had given Kyoko a proper job working in the afterlife alongside her and other Maho Shojo. She'd spent a good while like that, and with the terror of the witch revoked combined with Madokami's influence… had managed to primarily overcome her fear of herself and become a peaceful individual.

J-Nui: "I wonder if we could get a "recognize familiar faces" magical item. Dr. Strange would that be possible at all? Actually… I could probably jigger one up, as I suddenly realize. Woo!" J-Kyoko: "Little overestatic, but important question, anyway, I am ready to help you as you need, my Madokami."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leandra can't help but smile as she watches the heartfelt reunions, even if that first one was ostensibly between mortal enemies. Her eyes dart quickly between the speakers out of some half-remembered habit.

"*psst*, Shizune, what does 'Maho Shoujo' mean?"

Pardon?

"But... oh! No, I guess you wouldn't know much about spoken Japanese, would you? At least, not just from the sound of it."

...it means Magical Girl. My world was steeped in a culture similar to hers.

WOULDN'T THAT DESCRIBE, LIKE, ALL OF YOU?

Well, if you're talking about the cartoon genre, I think it would mostly apply to Millenia and Elena. Not that they are actually doll-eyed, mouthless mannequins, of course.

"Huh... come to think of it, I'm kind of surprised that I don't have any memories of being a man myself." Leandra adjusts her glasses and avoids eye contact, regretting the admission even before she finishes saying it. "A bit of a disappointment, really. I'd have been curious to know what it's like."

That she happens to be looking in Waruo's direction just as he reemerges from his own little world is either very lucky or very unlucky for all involved. "Hey, are you alright over there?"

"Actually, do you think there is any merit to the recognition item idea?"

"Why? Are you looking for someone in particulohhhh. Oh, if he's here..."

"It would be nice, wouldn't it? Oh, and Millenia?"

"Hm~?"

"Dibs!!!"

"!!!!!!! NO!!! HE'S MINE"

"Heehee! Sorry Millenia! Once the sacred bonds of dibs have been forged, even the mighty Wings of Valmar cannot break them."

"Damn you!!! pfffHAHAhaha!"

WHAT ARE YOU TWO GIGGLING IDIOTS EVEN TALKING ABOUT

"Ryudo. It's a long story. There are a few other friends I'd like to see again too, of course."

"Seriously though, if we do see him? He's mine."

[Kyojo777]

While still blushing, a woman in a green dress approaches Waruo.
"Hey, are you alright over there?"
Not wanting to be rude, Waruo answers her question.

Waruo: "Y-yeah I'm alright, just a bit unnerved, that's all."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Well, I think that goes for everyone..." Leandra's hands hesitate as she considers adding something, but she seems to decide against it. "We were all just introducing ourselves before tackling the topic of what we're up against. You can call me Leandra. What should we call you?"

Leandra tries not to demand a full stock of Waruo's inventory right away, getting the feeling that some of the characters in his memories are making him particularly uncomfortable somehow. He can bring it up if and when he wishes.

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: "Oh, well, my name is Waruo Fuzen, but you can just call me Waruo. Yeah, I guess everyone else is also nervous. Cyphre tells me to not be worried, but I just can't relax. Can I really fight these Outer Gods?"

[ArlEammon]

(And now, for your moment of Zen. . . ::This post has been deleted::)

[Dark Knight Renee]

Emma/Jane stuck to Jenny's side like glue, all Egos continuing to pay rapt attention to what was going on around and them but unwilling to break up Jane's happy reunion unless something important came up. She a few moments she said nothing, just listened and engaged in internal debates - until Tathrysn just couldn't help sharing his two cents. "Gender-swapping, phft! Try having your entire body rearranged. Tathrysn was a cat," Emma/Jane supplied by way of explanation and apology. But Tathrysn wasn't ready to let it go. "Hey! I was no mere cat, I was a DWEOMERCAT! A magnificent leopard of- Yeah yeah, we get it: you were awesome. Are you done now? Sorry, we had an agreement about how to handle speaking, but that seems to have gone out the window."

"Have you tried telepathy?" Jason suggested. "May tells me Tathrysn should be able to do that."

Emma hesitated, then leaned forward on the couch she was sharing with Jenny/Thor. "Okay, but if this comes out even less intelligible than what's been coming out of my mouth lately, I blame you."

Telepathy, sent to everyone in the room:
Emma: "I guess it's my turn to introduce myselves. My name is Emma Lee Riese, and no my name is not Emily."
Tethrysn: "Tethrysn, former dweomercat." (Who was now apparently sulking.)
Jane: "Jane Foster. I had a doctorate in particle physics, but I don't think credentials transfer on reincarnation."
Padmé: "Padmé Amidala. Apparently on Emma's planet I'm a well-known fictional character." :smallannoyed:
...
Emma: "Ahem."
Tali: "Tali'Zorah."
Mission: "Mission Vao." Both sounded slightly annoyed, as though they'd been dragged away from something far more interesting.

Emma frowned, returning to regular speech. "Did those two only state their names, or did we just accidentally bombard everyone techno-babble?"

Jason laughed. "Just the names."

"Oh, good," Emma sat back against the couch cushions (and Jenny/Thor) with a smile. "Your turn!"

"Ugh, can it wait? They haven't even properly introduced themselves to me yet,"


All of the above occurs before Armin's post. (Edit: The one that has now been moved.) I may include a good chunk of what's going on with Jason for this time frame in a later post, or I might not - it'd be almost entirely internal dialog anyway, and with Loki's shielding even the eavesdropping telepaths wouldn't be able to hear any of it...

[ArlEammon]

"It's not likely you can fight and defeat the Outer Gods, but their servants, the Great Old Ones, and their minions, yes. You can fight and rid the world of them." Doctor Strange stated. "Listen now and hear me. . . it is time for you to act. Your weapons and your equipment are now given unto you against the enemies of Humanity. In Arkham, Massachusetts, there is a one hundred and fifteen year old man is on his death bed. His name is Nathaniel Peasley, and he has information and much knowledge to share with you. I am unable to scry into his property and speak with him but I don't know why. I'm unable to enter but my foresight has learned that all of you are able to investigate the grounds of his estate. I bid you farewell".

[Dark Knight Renee]

Previously... Snippets from Jason.

The revelation that characters from popular fiction were lurking in the brains of himself and about twenty other people was a lot to take in, and Jason wasn't going a good job of it. But he still wasn't completely convinced that he wasn't dreaming or tripping, so it was easy enough for him to accept... for now. And so instead of contemplating what all of this meant for him, he decided to fill Kaidan and his other Egos in on what was going on instead.

And he was about to, before Jenny and Emma distracted him with the kissing and verbal Ego-switching.


(Loki): "Oh, excellent. Thor is here." :smallannoyed:
...
(Loki): "...And now he's tonguing your familiar."
Mayurra: "Actually, I think it's the other way... around..."
All mental conversation briefly ceased as Emma's verbal meltdown commenced and Jason's Egos participated in the aghast staring.
Mayurra: "Well, Tathrysn always was a spaz..." :smalleek:

*snip*

Jason: Wait a minute... I've seen those movies, too. Loki, you are so busted."
Loki: "Tell no-one!"
Jason: "Why?" :smallamused:
Loki: "I have made enemies. If even one of them were to react as Kaidan did to Legion, albeit more competently, things could go very badly for us."
Mayurra: "Damnit, he has a point."
Kaidan: "Alright, we'll keep your secret - but only until we've vetted everyone."
Jason: "Sorry - totally not sorry, actually - but you'll have to deal with Thor eventually."
Loki: "You will have to deal with Thor eventually. Remember that we're in this together."
Jason: "That is true. You're too consumed with your silly little grudge match to risk letting you muck things up."
Loki: :smallannoyed:
Mayurra: "Nice zinger." :smallbiggrin:
Jason: "Thank you; apparently I've spent multiple past lives as a smart-mouthed $^%@#$%."
Mayurra: :smallannoyed:
Kaidan: "Nice zinger." :smallamused:



Presently...

"Listen now and hear me. . . it is time for you to act. Your weapons and your equipment are now given unto you against the enemies of Humanity." The mighty CLANG of Mjolnir appearing on the floor at Jenny's feet accompanied Doctor Strange's words and made Emma jump so badly that she actually vaulted over the back of the sofa with a yelp, temporarily oblivious to the fact that she was now suddenly clad in a Quarian-style environment suit and armed to the teeth.

In contrast, having already been startled too many times that night by sudden and strange events, Jason hardly batted an eyelash when everyone's gear appeared out of thin air. Instead, he just stared blankly at the rugged leather backpack that dropped to the floor at his feet almost pointedly, before glancing over his new attire. Whatever he'd been wearing previously (possibly nothing but an illusion created by Doctor Strange to preserve his modesty) had been replaced with a lightweight outfit that Mayurra identified as being silkweave cloth armor (and then began expounding on its magical properties and outrageous expense), along with gloves, boots and a couple of other items which he expected she soon would get around to identifying in detail as well. Kaidan's high-tech armor and weaponry were absent, though a quick test brought forth the holographic interface of his omnitool.

After giving everyone a moment to get over their surprise, Doctor Strange continued, laying out their mission before bidding them farewell.

[ArlEammon]

"Nathaniel Peasely?" Jacob questioned rhetorically. "I remember him. He's that person who lost his mind years ago and regained it. He became quite creative and kept his creativity despite it all, only to later lost his insanity and keep his newfound talents. How unfortunate that he seems to be caught up in all this, and I'm surprised he's still alive. One hundred and fifteen? Wow."

"Well the Peasely Estate is one of the richest mansions in the country. I'd love to see it."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Well, that's fair, Waruo. Honestly, I'm still not sure what an elder god even is, at least not in this sort of context."

She watches Emma hanging on to Jenny in a dramatic display of devotion. It's cute, but sort of discouraging at the same time.

"No, Millenia, we are not chasing after your old crush for you. Sorry."

THANK YOU!

"Aw, you're no fun~"

"No, it's fair... Leandra shouldn't be forced to live out our idle fantasies. Truthfully, we should be above that sort of temptation in the first place."

"I'm getting concerned for Emma, too. The reunions are nice, but it doesn't seem right for her past lives to be defining her relationships for her."

I agree! ...I mean... when a soul is strongly bound to another, it can and will hold through countless reincarnations. They might not be able to help it, even if it's bad for them.

"...Mission Vao. Vey-oh." Leandra fidgets with her binder as she looks at Emma, trying to place the name. "Why does that sound familiar...?"

She was an alien, right? That would place her in your lifetime, B'ellana.

NO

"No." Is that all you have to say?

ABOUT MOST THINGS, YEAH, BUT ESPECIALLY THIS. I'M LOOKING AT THE SAME MENTAL IMAGE AS YOU AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SPECIES IT IS.

Nonsense. I can even remember parts of it. You were stranded in the bad part of a city. She was telling you about the local gang wars while you helped her rescue a bear-person she knew. You both worked on a shuttle called the Ebon Hawk.

KID, I HAVE SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN THE WORST PARTS OF SOME GOD-AWFUL PLACES, BUT I'M TELLING YOU I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT TENTACLE-HAIRED MAHA SHOUJO BEFORE. THIS MEMORY BELONGS TO SOMEONE ELSE.

"We knew some beast men, but I don't think we've met this Mission person..."

...she looks like a strange Zora. No one I knew, though. Sorry.

This is going to bug her all day, but she can probably ask more about it on the way to Arkham. In the meantime, HAMMERS AND ARMOR AND GEAR, OH MY!

...

Leandra picks up a green/white fall jacket and a blue/black messenger bag from the couch. She has the same modest dress and bottom-rimmed spectacles as before.

"Well, I guess that's settled," she says, her tone conveying that she's still not one hundred percent comfortable with having her life railroaded in this manner. Just the same, if we have a job to do, we may as well get organized. "So, for those of us who were teleported in unexpectedly, can anyone give us a ride? Also, is Mr. Peasly expecting us, or should we call ahead..?"

[5ColouredWalker]

There's a slight thud as a gleaming silver sword lands blade first in the ground before Xander, followed by what appears to be a plastic box.

For a moment, glee covers Xander's features before he draws it from the wood, his face turning to one of abject horror as he stares at the thing.
"No no no no no! It's all-! Ok... Mostly gone."
Xander seems to be speaking more to himself than anyone else as he stares at the blade, before sheathing it on his suit, apparently content to ignore it for now, as he bends over and picks up the box at his feet, which unfolds into a heavy sniper rifle, which he then inspects.

"Well, at least the cooling system's set up so I won't completely run out of ammo... Looks like no range is a good one to close with me."
With those words, a smile touches Xander's face.

"Now, as much as I'd love to fly, how are you planning on getting us there? And do you already have groups in mind? Because if all 20 of us go together, we'll likely trip over each other, in combat if nowhere else."

[Epinephrine_Syn]

Jenny for her part was completely fine with this arrangement. A little kissing, and lap sitting. Her other souls seemed to enjoy the affection as well.

Jennifer: So, can we keep her? I’ll be honest I’ve never dated any girls but I’ve wondered what they’ve tasted like…

Boiiiiiiing! Went the Emma from her lap, diving backwards.

Jennifer: EepI’mapervsorry! We could go slow and it’s Thor anyway!
Pride: Don’t worry, I got her.

J-Pride: “Don’t worry, I got you.” S/he leaned over the edge of the seat, looking down at Emma, who was resting in a small bed of shadows that weren’t necessarily super soft, but could act as a sort of cushion while absorbing the fall and slowing before stopping. May not have been necessary, but a gut reaction.

J-Thor: “Need a lift?” Now Jenny was extending her hand downwards towards Emma, and giving that smile.

Pride: Hammer isn’t budging.
Nui: Lemme try to google stuff on why that might work. Hammer… space. What’s that? Pride lemme
Pride: Hey those are my shadows!
Nui: Nuuuuu lemme try sooome what bad’ll it do you’ve got so maaany.
Pride: Yeah, right fine just don’t try to control the ones I’m controlling at the same time, fizzles my brain.
Kyoko: Get his attention, may not work unless Thor herself is trying to pick it up.
...
…
…
Kyoko: No luck, huh.
Kid: Yeah, a bit busy with romancing his girl again. We’ve got a bunch of other stuff, and have already wrapped it up neatly in shadows. Honestly though the only other relevant thing is Nui, and this bizarre Soul Stone thing. Other than Thor we all either use no weapons, use conjured weapons, or in my case use weapons that ‘can’ be conjured now. Somebody get ‘Nui’s’ attention now, I don’t wanna open her “Happy Meal” for her.

Kid:…

Kid: Hey. I wonder if my, ‘our’ hammer has a trail of lives too. Food for thought, I suppose.

I wanted to refer to Jennifer as J-Prime here but I realized that may be confusing for Optimus Prime. Another note here being that that may be an intriguing character choice. I’ll leave the post here for now and make another one regarding getting his attention and actually lifting the hammer next post sometime soon. Both a bit occupied and this is already a fair bit of time lapse.

Also funny how it’s your familiar but she’s acting like ‘my’ familiar. I can’t wait to figure out how she’ll react to the fact that she’s actually bound to ‘Loki’.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Upon being caught by the shadows, Emma leaped straight upwards like a startled cat and fired off a forceful string of random words in six different voices - not that it would be easy to tell, given the rapid switching and lack of coherent sentences. Thankfully, the soft shadows then prevented the less-than-graceful fall that followed from causing injury, as Tathrysn's feline reflexes weren't in any way tuned to a humanoid body.

Taking Jenny/Thor's hand, she visibly calmed herself. "You nearly gave me a heart attack! But thanks for the secondary save, anyway. Damn cat..."

"I'd trade you," Jason joked, glancing ever-so-briefly at Jenny. "But that would be cruel and unusual."


Loki: *exaggerated shudder* "What a horrible thought."
Jason: "I don't know, I bet there's some great slash out there..."
Loki: "Gah!" :smalleek:

[ArlEammon]

"Well, I'd hate to put all of our eggs in one basket. Half of us will proceed to the estate and the other half will proceed towards other suspicious areas. For now, Nathaniel Peasely is our most helpful man to speak with. The other half will proceed to the city of Salem, Massachusetts, which is somewhat nearby. I think that whatever is powerful enough to separate Nathaniel Peasely from the rest of the world is a threat to some of you, so be on your guard. As to whether he expects you, no. I doubt it, but he will likely be under duress if he's not dead by now. Oh, and you can get there by flying, teleportation or automobile."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"'Suspicious areas?' In other words, any place invisible to your magic; you don't think Peasley warded his estate voluntarily." Are we so sure about that? Even if he wasn't especially private, it would make sense for an inventor to keep mages like Strange from spying on his work.

MAGIC DOESN'T EXIST IN THIS TIMELINE, REMEMBER?

Doesn't it? Strange said that he had proof of the supernatural before he brought all of us here. Perhaps the old man caught wind of it. Really, I should be asking why I didn't catch wind of it.

"Well, if you think that lives are in danger, I guess it behooves us to investigate both sites as quickly as we can."

Leandra climbs onto a chair and loudly snaps her fingers to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, everyone! Time to put our powers to work! Anyone who can teleport, go scout ahead while the rest of us figure out our transportation needs. If you can easily retrieve Peasley, please do, but if you run into trouble report back and we can arrange some backup. Sound good?"

[Kyojo777]

Once they've finished their conversation, Waruo said goodbye to Leandra.

As he was waiting, Waruo looked around and saw how almost everybody recognized someone else from their past lives. Seeing this filled him with sorrow, since he couldn't recognize anyone there from his past lives. He sat where he was, depressed that there wasn't a friend he could rely on in this catastrophic situation. He became so sad he was on the verge of crying. Since he was so sad, he didn't notice that Emma had introduced herself to him and everybody in the room via telepathy.

Waruo was broken out of his trance when out of nowhere a (great) sword and gun appear before him. Waruo was, understandably, startled, and inspected the weapons, specifically the sword..

The sword, or rather, great sword, had a gray grip, hilt, and guard/cross that angled forward. At the base of the guard/cross was a skull. Out of the skull came the actual blade, which was jagged and blood red. Waruo could feel the immense power coming from the great sword, but the power was anything but inviting. Waruo felt that if he tried to use the weapon, his very soul would be ripped apart.
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Deathbringer?file=Deathbringer_SMT2.PNG


Cyphre: "Well this is odd, why has the death bringer and the peace maker suddenly appear?"
Jenna Angel: "The Death Bringer and Peace Maker? (What an ironic name for a gun)
Cyphre: "They are both extremely powerful weapons that can only be wielded by those who believe in chaos."
Jenna Angel: "Well, since our vessel here is clearly not worthy material, it looks like these weapons will be more deadweight then anything."
Cyphre: "They may still come in handy, so Waruo, will you please carry the weapons with you?"
Waruo:"S-sure Cyphre, as long as I don't have to use it."


As Waruo picks the blade up he finds out that it's extremely heavy. The only way Waruo could carry it is by holding it with two arms. Realizing that it would be a tremendous hassle to carry it he ask's for someone to help carry the sword.

Waruo: "I'm sorry to bother, but can anyone help me carry this blade?"

Then, Waruo is informed of the group's next mission by doctor strange.

"Well, I'd hate to put all of our eggs in one basket. Half of us will proceed to the estate and the other half will proceed towards other suspicious areas. For now, Nathaniel Peasely is our most helpful man to speak with. The other half will proceed to the city of Salem, Massachusetts, which is somewhat nearby. I think that whatever is powerful enough to separate Nathaniel Peasely from the rest of the world is a threat to some of you, so be on your guard. As to whether he expects you, no. I doubt it, but he will likely be under duress if he's not dead by now. Oh, and you can get there by flying, teleportation or automobile."

Waruo was sad that he had to deal with another dilemma, but decided that it was best to deal with it as soon as possible.

After some thinking Waruo decided that it was best to meet Nathaniel Peasely. While there was no doubt that an enemy waited for them, Nathaniel Peasely still knew a lot about the situation at hand, which could greatly help Waruo gain some control over the situation.


Waruo:"G-guys, I've decided that it's best for me to meet up with Peasely.
Beelzebub: "Really? Well, that's surprising. Hopefully you don't make a fool out of yourself when you fight the enemy."
Cyphre: "Be a little less harsh Beelzebub, as we are right now our powers are comparable to an insect."
Beelzebub: "Tch, your right about that. I still don't know why this soul lost so much power, our why we're in this universe in the first place."
Cyphre: "With due time, Beelzebub. "In the mean time, Waruo, why don't you practice some magic? It's best to get some practice before a battle.
Waruo: "M-magic? What if I hurt someone by an accident?"
Cyphre: "Don't worry about that Waruo, you can control the size of your offensive magic, so you shouldn't have to worry about decimating a park or anything."
Waruo:"A-alright, who should I start with?"
Cyphre: "I believe it's best to start with me Waruo. Before we begin however, we should go outside."
Waruo: "Y-yeah, I also think that's best."

[Dark Knight Renee]

Between the arival of their gear and the discussion of their mission turning quite serious, Jason had picked up his bag and started rumaging through it at Mayurra's direction, looking for specific items. It also helped to hide the fact that his hands were gathering frost (both inside and outside the gloves); his brilliant idea of teasing Loki with 'slash' had led to Ned and Kaidan trying explain to some touchy subjects to Anneliese, which was a tricky thing even without factoring in the antiquated beliefs of the seventeenth century.

For good or ill, that internal discussion came to a halt when the external discussion of their upcoming mission reached the point of actual tactical discussion.

"I can teleport myself and up to seven other people to the estate," Jason offered, repeating after Mayurra and then surrendering control to Kaidan, who was for obvious reasons a much better choice for handling the upcoming mission. "A photo of the estate would be helpful for accuracy; Mayurra can teleport blind, but prefers not to. She also suggests not teleporting individually, or attempting to teleport directly into the estate - it may be warded against teleportation as well as scrying. For the same reason, we should have an exit strategy that doesn't rely solely on magic."

"Oh! I can access the internet on my omnitool!" Emma interjected. "Lets see what Google has by way of pictures..."

[ArlEammon]

Jacob

"I can teleport the rest of us. So half of us are going directly to Arkham, almost immediately. Ahem, well, here's the first half of us. We'll meet you there in a moment." Jacob teleported half the Arkham goers directly to the city. . . just outside the Peaseley Estate. "Interesting. This area is huge. Even kind of large for it's kind. I can see that no one is around. . . what's this?" The sound of police cars could be heard. . . "The entire area is littered with dead police officers and S.W.A.T. . . what's more disturbing is I can hear growling. . . " Suddenly an ear piercing scream could be heard so loudly that it could seem like God was screaming the word "headache" straight into the victim's skull.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Jason/Kaidan rolled his eyes. "Well, so much for planning. Whoever else is going to Arkham, grab your gear and get over here - unlike that hotshot's magic, this teleport is a touch spell."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: ""I'm going to arkham, s-so can you teleport me there?"

Since no one offered to help him carry the great sword, Waruo is barley carrying it with both hands.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Jason/Kaidan looked at the nervous teenager hauling his obviously too-heavy greatsword with an expression of pity. "You might want to leave that here with Doctor Strange, kid. We're about to enter a possible combat zone, and unless you have good reason to believe that you'll suddenly be able to wield that thing competently in next minute it'll just get in the way."

"Got pics! Sending them to your omnitool now."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Well, teleporting us all at once does make things easier. I can volunteer to fill out the Arkham team, but before I forget, we should agree to meet back here after our encounters are over, and set up some kind of communication if one team needs backup."

"How is the Salem team going?"

[ArlEammon]

"Just as well as you. They just got there to Salem. As far as I know, there's five people using the restroom right now. Then everyone will teleport to Salem after everything is said and done." He looked across the room for a moment. "Well, now it's time for my tea. . . I'm glad that you folks are all such good sports and don't need more explaining. However, it's probably best this way. Have a good time and return here. . . or just give me a telepathic or magical call."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: "Huh, that....actually sounds like a good idea, Cyphre?
Cyphre: "While the sword may get lost, you obviously can't carry it, so the best decision really is to just leave it here.
Waruo: "Alright. Doctor Strange, Here's the sword, if you don't mind."

After giving the great sword to doctor strange, Waruo goes back to Jason.

Waruo: "Well, I'm ready when you are."

[Dark Knight Renee]

" 'Don't need more explaining'? You and I are going to have a very serious talk about preparation and responsibility when I get back - and if your lack of it gets even a single one of us killed I'm going to rip you a new one!"

Jason/Kaidan grabbed Waruo's wrist with a very frosty gloved hand, absolutely furious with Doctor Strange, while Emma gestured at the remaining Arkham-goers and gave instructions as blithely and calmly as if she were telling them to keep their hands inside the vehicle at all times. "Hold hands or otherwise maintain physical contact with Jason or someone touching him. Anyone not doing so will be left behind."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leandra raises an eyebrow at the teatime-having wizard-doctor. She doesn't add to the reaming Jason gives him, but she understands the sentiment. It looks like working with Strange is never going to be easy.

"Hmm... who here believes in chaos?"

"I do~!"

...but nobody else.

KEEP THAT THING AWAY, IT PROBABLY MAKES YOU KILL YOUR FAMILY OR SOMETHING

...I should probably note that chaos and evil are not necessarily the same thing, though some mythologies do use them synonymously.

"Still, we cannot possibly consider supporting something like that! I say we should destroy it!"

I wouldn't go that far, but you are right in that we are not exactly a chaotic group. Some of the gestalt entities we've seen are still battling for control of their bodies. Compared to that, I'd say we really have our act together.

"Well, true. So I guess that's a negatory on us taking the sword."

Correct.

Given that the Salem team is apparently accounted for, albeit in a frustrating hand-waving way, Leandra joins hands with the Arkham team and gets ready to energize or whatever.

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander's hand rather limply grasps Waruo's hand, as if afraid of breaking it.

"Dr Strange, let go of the sword if you would. Thank you."
With barely a thought, the Greatsword flies towards Xander, stropping in his free hand, which holds it one handed with ease, leaving it to point to the ceiling.
"Ok, I'm ready... I'm envious about the Omni-tool, we seem not to have gotten one due to it having been built into Legion, however the Pip-Boy will be useful none-the-less, if just to serve as a basis of other bio-interfaces for other gear... What's the chance I could get you to help me with your Omni-Tool though? It'd make things so much easier if when we have a moment we could use it's Omni-Forge."

[Regalus]

J-Kyoko: "See? There's lots of people who've swapped genders here." That one was a muse to herself and Thor specifically, feeling a bit of a smile, relaxing and taking a place on the couch as Kyoko cemented her control at the moment. "And of course we can be friends in this life, I look very much forwards to that Mathew-sama. I appreciate all the help you've given me… uhm, how exactly up to date are you? There's a lot of versions of you that're, well… missing information. I'll fill you in as much as I can, though I may need a hint. Witches, or no. Madokami?"

"Gender-swapping, phft! Try having your entire body rearranged. Tathrysn was a cat," Emma/Jane supplied by way of explanation and apology. But Tathrysn wasn't ready to let it go. "Hey! I was no mere cat, I was a DWEOMERCAT! A magnificent leopard of- Yeah yeah, we get it: you were awesome. Are you done now? Sorry, we had an agreement about how to handle speaking, but that seems to have gone out the window."

Matthew stared at Kyoko silently in the wake of her last words, his gaze growing distant as her words resounded in his head. The word 'Madokami', a simple nickname to be sure; yet it tickled his mind like a half-forgotten dream. It brought forth the impression of something vast beyond words, the answer on the tip of his tongue... until Emma's outburst ripped him from his thoughts, and Mjolnir's arrival left it in the dust forgotten.

The young man blinked dumbly for a moment at the sudden shock before a sparkling figure before him caught his eye; a small rectangular device not unlike a cellphone (http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/File:RainbowPass.jpg) manifesting before him in rainbow light, replacing his stupefaction with glee as he snatched it from the air. Simply gazing into the small device with a childish glee as memories of adventure surged to the forefront of his mind; it wasn't until Jenni had attempted, and failed, to lift the hammer that the boy zoned back into the world with a bashful grin and chuckle.

"Right! Sorry about that Kyoko! Uhm, to answer your question my memory's kinda fuzzy; I remember everything leading up to my wish, but after that...things get a bit jumbled up. My ego's think it might have to do with Madoka's awareness changing due to the time-space properties of her wish, coupled with the whole reincarnation thing muddying the waters a bit, he confessed, more at ease now in the wake of Emma's attempt to comfort him and having one of his dearest possessions returned to him.

"And actually, I know what's it's like to switch species too; I was a ho-Alicorn once, so I can understand how weird it you must feel," he offered up kindly to the girl with a sympathetic smile, quickly correcting himself after a swift mental elbow to the gut from Celestia; even her people were ponies not horses, and she was rather adamant about the difference.

Alas, after that there was little time to properly catch up as the situation began to progress with increasing speed. In moments the details of their task were properly laid out, and people seemed to rush about deciding where to go and how. The young man wasn't even able to get a word in edgewise regarding his possible offer for communal travel, before the first group had already teleported away.

Taking a breath, the young man recomposed himself; steeling himself for what was to come as he followed Emma's instructions. With the odds they'd be facing in moments, he didn't have the time to let himself be swept along with the tide; not with the stakes involved.

So as he joined hands with the others, Matthew spoke up; unsure if he'd have the chance to do so once they arrived at their destination, "Uhm, everyone? Hi yeah, uhm; my names Matt and well, I've had alot of experience dealing with madness, unearthly forces, and alien terrains, Jennifer too in at least one life. So if reality sorta stops working right out there, try to stick close to one of us alright?" the prismatic-haired boy offered as he scanned the rag-tag team of pajama wearing metahumans of assorted flavors.

"And if Nathan is really out of it, I might be able to give him enough Clarity to talk with us for a while too...depending on how we find him of course. Just... thought I should mention this stuff now in case things go pear shaped real quickly over there,"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Hey, maybe they can whip us up an omni-bow or an omni-stick~"

...don't be silly. An omni-tool is obviously best used repairing omni-boats and installing omni-gears!

STOP IT

Perhaps we could add on some omni-fries and an omni-shake.

AHJEVUKWFHKFABHLWAEYGWB

[Epinephrine_Syn]

So Jennifer was finally back with Emma in her lap. Merrily chatting, and currently having Nui begin to look inside the happy meal with shadows while listening to Mathew. She was indeed about to say something, comforting and relaxed when a force tugged on the back of her body. This distracted her from the expository to Emma in return to reach a left hand out and grasp ‘something’ in the nature of reality, white hot cracks glowing, the right hooked in a protective death grip on Emma’s waist.

Jennifer: “Under attack.” Murmured the girl, eyes flared, rapidly scanning the room. “Role call! Who is missing, who has tracing potential?” J-Nui: “Just got this scouter from the meal, I think I c-oh.”

It took a moment to sink in, for her hearing of everything else to process, and a sheepish flush spread past her cheeks in response. “Oh, whoops. Still, warn me before you try to warp me again. Wait, the dude who did that’s gone, I’ll have to tell him in person that I might mistake it for a Witch or some other eldritch being trying to warp us straight into their gullet.”

Kyoko: Did we just… ‘negate’ a teleport by raw physical force?
Kid: Yup. Pride: Indeed. Jennifer: Aye. Thor: We’re safe. Nui: Uhuh.
Kyoko: Okay so… how did we do that again? I don’t recognize any powers we have that could do that, from our survey. So who did that?
Thor: Yeah, I mean the instincts are good to prepare us, but I’m not sure quite what ‘happened’.
Jennifer: Actually… that one was me.
(lots of “…” expressions going around)
Jennifer: No seriously! I’ll explain once we have a spare minute, we need to give at least some attention before the second group Tee Pees out.
Kid: Please call it teleporting Tee Peeing sounds … I don’t know, weird? Childish?
Nui: Not that that’s bad, ‘kid’.


Jennifer had fitted the scouter to her head, classic generic DBZ scouter alright, except shinning in nice blue and black thunder paint. Stylin. Her grip loosened on Emma, and she gave the girl a peck on the cheek. J-Kyoko: “Sorry about that.”

Jennifer: “Anyway, I think we’re mostly ready to begin the transportation process. While I would… extensively like some time to prepare, we’ve got some preparation already underway. We don’t even need ingredients because Pride can make them. We won’t be able t-” J-Thor: “What no we’re taking the hammer.”

Jennifer reached down, lifting the hammer with her hand… about an inch. Then the thing refused to go higher, and her exertion failed with Mjlonir dropping back to the ground.

J-Pride: “We really don’t have time Thor, Strange can keep it until we get back. Maybe then Jenny’ll prove herself worthy. I mean ‘apparently’ she has some kind of superpowers we don’t know about. Let’s just warp with the group now.”

[ArlEammon]

Jacob, Arkham, Massachusett's

One person arrived with Jacob Thorald at the Peasely Estate. "Ah. . . I can see at this newspaper that Nathaniel Peasely fell sick. The good Doctor, Steven Strange, God Bless Him, is incorrect. Nathaniel Peasely is one of the oldest men in the world, at one hundred and twenty, not one hundred and fifteen, according to this newspaper, the Arkham Times. I'm afraid that it's only you and I, um, what's your name". . .

Denise answered him. . . "It's Denise. . . and um, alright. . . this is getting weirder and weirder. That screaming is disconcerting, and I can tell it's not Human. We have to get to Nathaniel before it's too late, if he's even still there." Immediately, after Denis'es words, and hearing the screaming again, Jacob heard SWAT arrive, and he darted towards the property, making both Denise and himself invisible, looking for any threat. . . he looked into a strange, sanity draining monster, the Shoggoth. . . "You will not prevail against us. . . thing from beyond!" Jacob drew the sword Glamdring from his sheath, now conjured freshly out of the air. . . with Gandalf's wisdom and alien like nature preventing Jacob from going mad, and like wise strengthening Denis'es mind from insanity of the Shoggoth. . . he cleaved one of the Shoggoth's tentacles in two. . . He grunted again, shoving the bloody stump full of electricity with his left hand. "These things are fiercer than Balrogs."

[Dark Knight Renee]

After quickly double-checking that everybody was touching and ready to go (as well as they could be, given the situation), Emma put her hand on Warou's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "All ready, Jason."

Bringing up the images Emma had sent to his omni-tool, Jason/Kaidan reluctantly settled on teleporting to the main entrance of the estate - if the foolish teleporter and his unfortunate tag-alongs had arrived at the estate at all (which May seemed skeptical about), that was were he would most likely be. "Teleporting in three... two... one..."

And then they were all standing outside the Peaslee estate, amid a cluster of dead police officers with the wailing of sirens and strange inhuman screams assaulting their ears. A split second afterwards, the nearest dead bodies and other clutter abruptly flew into the air, surrounded by visual distortions characteristic of biotic power being used; the same visual markers also surrounded Jason, though fortunately neither he nor any the other new arrivals seemed otherwise affected by either the biotics or the wave of frost that followed, coating the ground out to a distance of several meters. Swearing, eyes wide with alarm, Jason/Kaidan released his vise-like grip on Waruo and looked around frantically for the source of the carnage, desperately trying to ignore the possible implications of the spontaneous biotic discharge.

It wasn't hard to spot: an amorphous, shifting mass flailing aggressively at what at first appeared to be empty air.


Mayurra: "Looks like a gibbering mouther; keep an eye out for quicksand and crazy teammates. And don't expect guns to be much help."
Emma, who possessed the ability to see things that had been magically rendered invisible, cried out a terse warning: "Friendlies in melee!" As she did so, she reached into Jason's pack with both hands, desperately trying to think of something Kaidan or Mayurra might have that would be useful against an amorphous being but which wouldn't obliterate their allies in the process.

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander's face went dead flat the moment combat seemed to be joined, his movements becoming stiff as he looked around, saw what to him appeared to be a Mouther, and then raised his hand, thinking thoughts of destruction.
And then he bagan to destroy it with a combination of psychic lightning and barely harnessed magic, each working in tandem, springing forth from his quickly raised left hand, the energies quickly cutting the creature to bits even as it was blasted apart.


4d8+ConHDish creature got hit by a combined EB of at least 3d6 [30/5]+ damage from a shot with a Ke between 10 and 22 Kj [For comparison, that's in the range of .50 BMG.] Maths here (https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/starcraft-the-c-14-gauss-rifle.157307/), damage of Kerrigen is 20/5=4, Marine is 6.

So, it should be rather thoroughly dead.

Maria has See the Unseen, so I can see the invisible. Kerrigen is telepathic and has to actively keep people's thoughts out of her head, so I should be able to detect living foes rather quickly.


"Gibbering Mouther... Weak Far Realms Aberation, capable of causing temporary insanity in the weak willed and unprepared. We are on alert, however if these are anything but the least of our challenges, we shan't be slowed. Precision weapons are useless however."
Even as Legion spoke through Xander, he continued cutting and blasting, his grip tightened on the greatsword in hand and his wing claws rose to readyness... Meanwhile, in the mind scape, Kerrigen began actively looking for thoughts.

[ArlEammon]

Shoggoths
Denise. . . looked rather disturbed, if anyone could see her. . . which they could not since she was invisible. There were not just one, or even a few arriving as replacements for this attacker. There were five of them. Their screams were indelible. . . these were the creatures of Howard Phillip Lovecraft's "invention" in writing. This is wrong. . . Denise thought. These monsters aren't supposed to be here. She pulled out her hand guns and fired rapidly at the approaching monsters. . . her 45 calibur weapons fired over and over. . . finally she had managed to tear one of her targets to shreds while Jacob responded by casting a disintegration spell, which successfully reduced another target into nothingness.

The other three began towards Jacob and Denise, seeing them clearly as if they were as easy to detect as any other Human, despite their invisibility, and at the same moment, the old man could been seen on the second floor balcony, finally putting his head out the window. . . "I'm UP HERE!" He managed to scream loudly, not a weak yell like a venerable old man with a cracking voice, but as a much younger man.

[Dark Knight Renee]

"Well, good thing we brought the artillery," Jason muttered as the first 'gibbering mouther' vanished in a puff of gore, only for several more to show up. Kaidan casually lifted the monsters into the air one by one and then ignored them, letting the others finish them off while he looked for additional threats.

Having found no fancy high-tech grenades in Jason's pack, Emma pulled out a pistol instead and handed it to him over his shoulder. "In case of solid badguys," she told him, before shouting at Denise: "STOP WASTING YOUR BULLETS, SILLY GIRL!"

Just FYI, some of us CAN see Jacob and Denise despite their invisibility magic. Xander and Emma confirmed, don't know who else. Although on second thought, if they venture inside the wards blocking the estate from Doctor Strange's view it's possible that the wards might disrupt the ability to see invisible things, depending on how thoroughly they block divinations (if it's just scrying, we're good). I'm presently assuming that they are not inside those wards, though, on the assumption that the wards stopping teleportation are the same size as the ones preventing scrying.

[ArlEammon]

((And now for your moment of Zen. this post will be replaced.))

[Assurau]

This has been a rather confusing turn of events for one Alana Shepard Smith. She had just gotten to her apartment from her weekly game session with her college friends. Curiously enough, it had been a Marvel-verse superhero game. As she sat down, she comes face to face with a 'hallucination' of one Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Multiverse. Needless to say, Alana began considering that something must have clearly gone wrong with the energy drink she downed during the game session. At least that was until she found herself in a hotel lobby with about twenty other people in various states of dress.

Needless, she decided to pay more attention to what the good doctor had to say, on the of chance that this whole affair wasn't hallucination induced by the odd mix of energy drinks, assorted snacks and lack of sleep. Then came the magic words.

"If you have any other questions, now is the time to ask. I am afraid that your peaceful lives have ended, but a life of glory and knowledge now awaits you."



First came the eyes. The world seemed to slow down for the new chosen. She turned to see everyone else, trying to understand what was happening to her. She notice that all of them were releasing a black gas cloud, almost as if it was miasma. That would be fine and dandy, if it weren't for the fact that she seemed to be pulling it towards her. The moment it came in contact with her, her world changed. As her body and the world was left behind, Alana was surrounded by Darkness. From her very being, her heart

Only the sensation of the falling accompanied her until she hit an oily liquid. Panic hit her in full force. She struggled to keep afloat, but the substance keep clinging to her. Time passed, fatigue began to set in. Where were her reincarnations? Where was the power, the knowledge? Why was this happening?


A familiar male voice lazily cut through the silence, "You have two path."
"On one hand, you can keep struggling, desperately clinging to the hope that you can escape. Perhaps you will find a way to save yourself.", spoke a female voice, filled with clinical apathy.
"On the other, you could just let go. Let the Darkness take you. Remake you into something... more."
, said yet another male, this one with a slight air of pride to it.
"Then again, you could do something else entirely. Maybe even find a third path. ", the voice of a young man told her.
A masculine voice declared, "However, a choice must be made soon, since if the light goes out, so do you."

After each voice had said their piece, only the sound of her struggle were heard yet again. Alana felt she didn't have much time left, so she made her choice. Taking a deep breath, she dove into the black sea.No sooner than she did, Alana regretted her decision. Her mind began to fill with memories. Pain, Suffering, Betrayal, Hatred, Loneliness, Envy, Rage, Agony, Weakness; All made there presence known in vivid detail. Every Tragedy witnessed and suffered played for her. Every Cruelty inflicted cut through her like a a storm of glass shards. The deeper she swam, the more intense it became. Fury clawed at her very soul, threatening to burn her alive from with in. Deception tried to make her loose her way, yet still she swam deeper. The liquid became more and more viscous until no further could she move. Like Greed incarnate, liquid held her fast.

"You know you aren't going to make it.", A voice, her own voice told her. "You choose wrong. Look at yourself. You're tired, weakening by second. Your body screams in agony. Why continue this... This Torture!!! You could have found something to keep you afloat, but no, you chose to swim down. Were you hoping for some cave to shield you?! You don't even know if there is a bottom to this sea!!!", it shouted at her. Treacherously, Doubt began to assault her. What did she hope to accomplish? There seemed to be no hope in sight. The light of her heart had dimmed considerably from the constant attacks. Yet, why did she do this? Why did she dive in the the Darkness? It just hurt more the deeper she went, like she was getting closer... to.. the core. A Cheshire grin rose through her face.

"What are you doing? Don't you see it's pointless?", her voice said again as Alana began to struggle again. At first there was nothing no change, but as time passed bit by bit, she could move more. The voice became more and more distant, until she crossed a boundary. She fell on the hard floor with a wet slap. She was exhausted, her everything hurt, but she was alive.

"Well done, Alana. You managed to keep your Sparkle.",said Zetto, the Emperor of Darkness.
"There were those who doubt that you wouldn't chose that path, but you certainly don't disappoint"


"Regardless, She has proven her mettle here. Isn't that right, Homura, Sasuke?" said Riku, Keyblade Master and He who walked the Twilight path.

The Uchiha looked at his incarnation, his Sharingan and Rinnengan boring into her azure eye. He smirked, "She can handle what we have to offer."

"I stand in agreement as well. She has the drive needed to shoulder our legacy.", said Sombra, the Half Unicorn Pony/ Half Umbrum former King of Equestria. "What say you, Homura?"

All eyes turn to the magical girl. Out of all of them, She had the darkest history. Her was the greatest weight. Homura Akemi turns to Alana, "Know this. If you chose to walk this path, there is not turning back. No do-overs. No Reset. You will be judged harshly for the power you will wield, for who you are, and what you could become."

Alana looked at each one of her past selves. Each one had suffered and sacrificed. She knew that her old life had ended, regardless of her choice.

"A wiser man than I said, 'With great power, come great responsibility.' Let's make this happen."

Homura sighed at Alana,"The die is cast."



She returned to the waking world, transformed by her sojourn into the deepest part of her self.The world seem both brighter and darker at the same time. Sharper sense, a stronger body, magic, a large number of skill and abilities; all lay at her disposal. She turned to see the others and spotted that some had changed physically too. Pulling out her smart phone,noticing that quite a bit of time had passed since she had s turned the camera on herself.

Her eye were still the same intense blue they had always been, yet they conveyed hard-won experience, as if she was war veteran returning home after a long war. Her long black hair was now blacker than the darkest night, almost like mane. Her face was slimmer and her body shown the tell-tale markings of professional athlete. Her self-examination stopped when she felt a familiar presence, one that cause a great desire to rekindle. Alana turned, looking for HER. Her eyes soon caught sight of her prey. It was a young male with 'Kill-me' bright orange pj and a pastel-colored aurora for hair. On his hands something that Zetto recognized immediately, a rainbow pass.


"Madoka!"
"Celestia!"
Is that a Rainbow Pass? Who could it be?]


Alana began to approach the young man, making her way through the lounge.


"You guys know that there's a chance that he might not be your Madoka or Your Celestia, right?" Dr. Strange did say that this was a multiverse sort of thing.
"Perhaps, you might be right, Alana. I lose nothing by checking and stand to gain everything if he was her. I figure it's the same with Homura"


Unfortunately the meeting was not meant to be as Alana felt the pull of magic. One moment she was in the lounge and the next she was somewhere else. Alana found herself at the side of an estate. Sirens were heard. By instinct, she began to make her way to the source only to come upon by a Shoggoth. The alien creature's very presence assaulted her mind and said mind responded in turn, thrusting the alien wrongness back upon the creature. With a flick of her wrist and a shine of light, Way to the Dawn (http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/kingdomhearts/images/8/87/Way_to_the_Dawn_KHII.png/revision/20080107024331) was in her hand once more. The beast lashed at her, only to find her above it. Her keyblade shined with dark power, as it descended upon it. Alana rained blows upon it, her blade burned the beast as it cleaved it way through it.

She swiftly dashed toward the front of the estate, just in time to see the rest of the group arrive.

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander/Legion glances up to the shouting voice, spotting the Old Man easily, before returning to defend the group, and Kerrigen begins speaking telepathically.
"Who want's a lift to our target?"




Kerrigan is shown able to fly with Telekinesis in Heroes of the Storm, but that's non-canon and I'm not using it, at least for now (Perhaps later I can decide that's how she died.)... Instead, she'll be moving people telekinetically, and considering the amount of power and control she has she should be able to move other people around easily.

Belgarath can shapeshift into an owl though, so I can handle me to.

[Kyojo777]

Arriving at the Estate, Waruo grew sick once he saw the dead bodies of SWAT officers. Then, he saw what appeared to be Shoggoths. Entering a fight or flight response Waruo choses flight and runs away as far as he can. Not being accustomed to dead bodies and grostique monsters, Waruo started to puke.


Beelzebub: "It's just a couple of bodies and a couple of monsters, so stop puking!"
Waruo: "*between puking sessions* S-sorr-y *throws up*."


As he was finished puking, Waruo prepared to head back to the entrance until he recognized what appeared to be a shoggoth. Noticing him, the monster moved toward Waruo.


Waruo: "I-is that a Shoggoth, and is it moving towards me!?"
Cyphre: "How do you know what a Shoggoth is?"
Waruo: "T-that's not important right now, I have to run away!
Gigolo: "There's no reason to be scared of that thing kid, just use some magic, that'll kill it. Since you've already used fire why not use ice?"
Waruo: "How will I be sure that that'll kill it!?"
Gigolo: "Have a little faith already! It'll work, just trust me (Will he fall for it :smallamused:?)
Waruo: "A-alright"


Moving franticly, Waruo conjures up ice spikes/bullets that then shoot out and impale the Shoggoth. The ice spikes/bullets then freeze the creature, preventing it from regenerating, and once the creature is fully coated in ice it shatters.

Waruo: "I-is it dead?"
Gigolo: "It shattered, I think we're fine (Except we actually aren't :smallamused:)
Waruo: "I-i'm glad, for a second there I thought that would backfire. Let me group up with the o-"

Suddenly, as Waruo turns around he is impaled through the stomach by a Shoggoth. The Shoggoth then throws Waruo on the ground. As Waruo attempts to get up he is puking blood.

Waruo: "H-how, Blaahhhh *pukes blood*"
Gigolo: "You know next time you should try to dodge (Oh man, just look at him, so worth it :smallamused:!)"

Before Waruo can get up the Shoggoth attempts to impale Waruo again. Trying to react, Waruo conjures ice spikes that appear out from the ground below the Shoggoth and impale the creature, freezing it. The creature then shatters.

Gigolo: "At least your getting the hang of ice magic (I wanted him to get stabbed again :smallannoyed:)"
Yuriko: "Don't worry about the wound Waruo, that can be easily healed, just use some magic. Go on, try it."

As Waruo wills it, healing magic swirls around him, healing him.

Waruo: "*coughing* T-thanks for telling me that, Yuriko. Now i'm gonna rest for a bit before I head back......*hits the ground*"

Suddenly, Waruo falls on the grass, napping.


Yuriko: "Hmm, looks like he didn't use enough healing magic, no matter, he sould be good after a minute or so."
Cyphre: "That sounds about right. I do have to compliment Waruo here, he was able to use magic quite naturally despite only gaining the ability to do so only a couple of hours ago."
Yuriko: "I've noticed. However he does need to learn how much magic he needs to use at any given situation, like this one."
Gigolo: "That is true. He also needs to learn how to dodge."
Yuriko: "Well next time tell him when an enemy is right behind him, alright?"
Gigolo: "Sure sure, but it was just so fun seeing his reaction when he got impaled!"
Yuriko: "So, you say that fully knowing that if he dies you also die?"
Gigolo: "Yes, I am fully aware of that, but even so seeing him injured just brightens my day :smallsmile:!
Yuriko: "-_-"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"GWOOOOOH!"

"Um. Well..."

WHAT. IS. THAT.

"They're monsters! Flesh, corrupted by some vile influence!"

NO, I MEAN THE SCREAMING!

...are they in pain?

So far, we only know that they're immune to bullets.

"Oh, whatever! Like we're going to be intimidated by some squealing lumps of hamburger."

"M, those hamburgers just killed about a dozen people."

"All the more reason to grill 'em up already!"

That, or we race to the VIP. Then we can make sure he's safe while we assess our macro potential.

Agreed - we should take a building if we can.

"I think I have myself covered, but thanks," Leandra answers Xander as she looks from shoggoth to shoggoth. "Where are these things coming from? Are they just warping in like we did, or...?"

[Regalus]

The moment they arrived Matthew's sight spun at the sight of the remains of the misfortunate individuals who had arrived before them; it was a sickening scene, though he took comfort in not being the only one to be struck by it. Without a second thought the young man welcomed the pull of age old instincts which took hold of him at his Ego's prodding, ripping his gaze away from the corpses as his form flashed with pink light, exchanging his clothes for a more elegant regalia (http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu0mh5YRFr1qlspkxo1_500.png) woven from his wishes and his spirit; a wooden bow with a rose bud at it's head manifesting not a moment later in his hands as the aurora crowning his head seemed to grow more vibrant at it's touch, unbeknownst to it's bearer.

His nerve's now steeled with the familiar armamnts, he scanned the field with a keen eye trying to see where best to offer his talents; as it was they seemed to have over-watch solidly setup to support the melee combatants. That meant the only tasks that needed handling now where to secure the Principal and divert the mundanes before they suffered the same fate as their colleagues; he was about to generate a bunshin to deal with the mundanes before accepting Xander's offer when a sudden cry of pain caught his attention.

"Waruo!" the boy called out urgently as he rushed towards the boy, flicking his hand into the air as he cast a Cura spell on the boy. The sound of bells heralding emerald light and brilliant leaves which feel upon the unconscious boy, healing his remaining injuries and jolting the boy back into the wacking world moments before he clooed the distance.

A battlefield behind enemy lines was no place for rest; especially for the injured.

"Dude, are you alright?" he inquired urgently; frequently switching his gaze between the obvious tear in the young man's clothing wear he'd been impaled and their surroundings in case another shoggoth attempted to take advantage of his prone companion, a shimmering pink arrow crackling in his fingers at the ready.

[Dark Knight Renee]

The combat and horrifying monsters were too much for Anneliese, and her escalating panic fueled the spread of ice just as it had in the lobby when she'd first Awakened. All around Jason the ground rapidly became coated with ice, turning pavement and lawn alike into a treacherous ice slick, and threatening to trap the feet of anyone who stayed still for too long.

And then Jason saw for the first time a new shoggoth appear out of thin air. For one terrifyingly long fraction of a second, Kaidan found himself unable to direct his biotic powers against it as Anneliese attempted to do the same.


Kaidan: "Anna, stop it! You're going to get us killed!"
Anneliese: "I didn't DO anything!"
Mayurra: "Allow me. We all know how much she loves fire..."

The offending shoggoth was then limed in illusionary purple-and-orange flames, which were utterly harmless apart from triggering Anneliese. Her frantic and unexplained attempt to use Kaidan's biotics ceased and the creature and its illusionary flames were subsequently pinned in place by a rapidly-expanding blob of ice. It probably wouldn't hold for long against a creature of that size and strength, but it didn't matter - the monster would soon be shredded by someone else's powers.


"I've lost track of- nevermind, crazy-hair's got him," Emma said. Lacking offensive magic or explosive weaponry, and having been informed that tiny bullets (no matter how high their velocity) were not terribly useful against the shapeless monsters, she was sticking close to as many allies as possible and trying to figure out how to be helpful, which wasn't going well. Her skills lay in tech, not magic, and right now she wasn't equipped to deal with amorphous blobs.


Right now Jason's strategy is to simply lift shoggoths into the air with Kaidan's biotics, so that they can't move themselves into melee range of other PCs before someone with less-limited power can finish them off. However, I strongly suspect that some PCs will persist in attempting to engage shoggoths in melee, which besides being stupid will also make this tactic largely worthless.

[Kyojo777]

Waruo:"W-what happened? It...looks like I fell asleep
Gigolo: "Good job sherlock!"

As Waruo wakes up, he see's a young man approach him. The young man has elegant pink clothes and...rainbow hair?

"Dude, are you alright?"

Wishing to expresses gratitude, Waruo responds.

Waruo: "Y-yeah, I'm okay, I just feel a bit weird after regaining consciousness. I assume you were the one to heal me? I-if you were thank you, I appreciate it. You know I expected getting impaled to hurt al-"

Before Waruo continued speaking however, he see's ice start to freze his leg.

Waruo:"Gyaahhhh!!! Ice is freezing my leg again!"

As Waruo willed it, fire appeared where the ice was and melted/destroyed it.

Waruo: "W-why does that keep happening!?"

As Waruo was yet again freaked out by ice freezing his leg he saw multiple Shoggoths seemingly appear out of thin aaair. He was utterly speechless.

Waruo: "M-M-M-More!?"


Gigolo: "So Waruo, why are you not registering the fact that you can kill these creatures easily?"
Waruo: "They're still scary! And the last one I fought impaled me!"
Gigolo: "You know, thats what I like about you Waruo, your ability to be scared ****less by, really, anything."


Before Waruo can respond one of the Shoggoths that appeared attempts to slash him.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

This time, the teleportation worked with Jenny consenting and with the group. They were all here now. There was also a firestorm of enemies immediately in their vicinity, it seems like the others had gotten a welcoming committee all ready. By the time Jenny actually managed to compose herself though, everything seemed to be completely finished.

Pride: Shadows Set.
Kid: Shield Ready.
Nui: Lifewine Drank.
Kid: Now since we're having enemies warp in, the primary thing is to block and parry attacks, protect our own. We're beating them down easily enough, the challenge is to stay safe while doing so. Plus, my parry reflection will go to the shadows, and once I get my other liquors that'll only get better, better to practice now.

Then more, turns out a ton were beginning to warp in. Kind of like kooks though. Jenny basically protected herself, the ones she warped into closest, and herself most of all. She was still assessing where she warped in at.

Her mindset was mostly listening and unfocused on talking, though. As a Silent Protagonist type, it got surprisingly hard to communicate to others while in combat, least for the moment.

Basically, if anything catches anybody off guard, I'm setting myself to a 'parry' action to reflect their damage back to them, and trying to make sure everyone else's backs are covered.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Huhwhoop!"

As the teacher clumsily hops out of the way of the spreading ice patch, a pair of flowing bat wings bursts from her back and heaves her into the air with a single powerful stroke. From there, she struggles to stay aloft as crystals build on top of each other, growing up toward her in glittering white pillars.

On the plus side, an approaching shoggoth doesn't catch on quickly enough and is quickly overtaken by the frost. It howls and repeatedly flails its pseudopods in Leandra's general direction - something she dodges mostly because she hasn't gotten the hang of hovering in place yet - but ultimately solidifies into the world's ugliest snow sculpture.

"Ha..." Leandra takes a second to adapt to her new mode of movement, having to adapt Millenia's experience to her own more substantial body. It feels like treading water with a weight tied around her legs, but she can get used to it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team's tactics begin to mesh together - Matthew heals Waruo and starts team-attacking one beast, and Jenny intercepts a new warp-in as it takes a stab at Emma.

The question is, what's bringing them here? She signs out the question as though someone nearby is supposed to understand it. The old man must know something. If these things are after Peasley for some reason, that means we have to get between them and him.

"Well, this isn't going to get any easier on its own. I'm going in!"

Leandra grips her binder, recalling Lana's book-based magic as her new wings propel her toward the distant balcony in short bursts of speed. She'll need to make up something quickly if another warp-in drops in front of her...

[Dark Knight Renee]

Anneliese was getting completely out of hand.


Jason: "ANNA! Why are you attacking Leandra?!"
Anneliese: "DEMONS!"
Jason: "For crying out loud... Kaidan, keep our back to Xander, she'll probably try to freeze him too."
Kaidan: "You need to come up with a solution fast, she's turning us into a threat to the team. And she's still trying to hijack my biotics."
Mayurra: "I'm out of ideas, try asking the 'team' to help."
"Hey guys, just FYI I'm not doing the ice on purpose! Somebody help me find a way to calm Elsa's little sister down before she turns Arkgam into a glacier with us in it! A way that doesn't involve knocking me unconscious, preferably."


Meanwhile, in the mansion, an illusion of Loki appears next to Nathanial Peaslee, out of sight of the window. "If you have any information that could help with your rescue, please share it. Loudly. But don't mention me." With that, the illusion vanishes.

[5ColouredWalker]

"They are warping in, but once they have arrived they are walking."

Xander turns his attention to a further one, slowly expanding the groups zone of relative safety.

[Regalus]

Matthew silently cursed as Waruo blasted himself out of the ice. The good news was that he now knew where the ice at the hotel had come from. The bad news is that it was due to one of his allies losing control of their powers; and the worst news was that it was happening right now.

The boy briefly debated with his soul's on how to help Jason, surely with all their magical expertise they'd be ab-

Reaction!Arrow Mind

Moving on instinct more than conscious thought, Matthew felt his body move and twist around even as the Shoggoths manifested near them; loosing an arrow which split into multiple rays which lanced through the creature about to strike Waruo, and two others. The pink blasts doing their duty as bane weapons against extradimensional foes; searing outwards from where they'd pierce their foes in a pink wildfire as it broke them down into harmless sparkling pink lights, before fading away entirely.

"Well...okay then," he chirped a moment later, blinking dumbly at the scene.

The entire actions occurred in less than a second, leaving his poor brain to catch up with what he'd done; the cheering from Sora and Raito doing little to ease the process, though a sharp bark from Naruto to focus on the emergencies got him back on track. "Waruo, I'm going to go help Jason before he get's any of us hurt," the archer suggested before flashing a bird seal and channeling his chakra in a fashion as intimately familiar to him as scratching one's nose. A moment later a double of Matthew poofed into existence behind him, before turning to scan the area for where Jason was while the clone addressed Waruo..

"Meanwhile, we should regroup with Leandra and Xander, and secure the principle. There's no telling how many of these things the enemy can keep deploying, so a battle of attrition isn't our friend right now," The clone suggested wisely.

Upon spotting the harried young man the original boy crouched slightly in preparation. The lad's aural hair actually growing more vibrant and lengthening to the mid of his back as a luminous halo formed around the boy before coalescing into a pair of ivory wings at his back; the new appendages shaped from sunlight rather than simple cartilage and hair. Breathing in a sharp breath to steel himself, and letting Celestia's memories guide him, the lad leapt into the air before taking flight towards Jason.

"Jason, what's wrong?!" he questioned in urgency as he flew over the expanding icefield, figuring that outright flight would be more expeditious than trying to maneuver through the icy landscape without getting frozen in place like Waruo almost was.

[ArlEammon]

"All of you, get upstairs to the second floor of my estate. The second floor is completely off limits to them." Meanwhile, from outside the Estate, three more of the monsters slowly encroached on the Estate's large mansion. Jacob promptly obliterated two of them, leaving one of them to continue it's invasion of the Estate grounds by attacking any targets that strayed too closely nearby. Jacob wondered at the numerous monsters. . . and suddenly, the bodies of the police officers and others sent to rescue Nathaniel became infused with blueish dark energy, and rose as the walking dead. "Get up here quick". Nathaniel advised.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Biotically chucking yet another shoggoth into the air (this one rather a lot higher than necessary), Jason turned to Matthew and then did a double take upon spotting his clone in the background, not to mention the new wings. Even Anneliese did a double take for that one, and she didn't even try to attack. "One of Jason's past lives starts slinging our powers around when she panics," Kaidan told Matthew, cutting right to the chase. "We don't know how to stop her, and for obvious reasons she won't calm down. We either need something to make her calm down, or - whoa!"

Suddenly, walking dead. And then they weren't walking anymore, because Mayurra hit them with faerie fire and Anneliese predictably targeted them with enough ice that they weren't likely to so much as twitch again any time soon. "Everyone, get to the mansion quick, we can't last forever out here!" After shouting those orders to make sure Peaslee's suggestion was taken seriously (well, assuming anyone listened to him), Jason/Kaidan turned back to Matthew with renewed urgency. "If you can't calm her down somehow I don't think I can risk going with them. She's already deliberately targeted one teammate, and I'm surprised she's not icing you."

[Kyojo777]

As Waruo prepares to be slashed, Matthew fires off a pink arrow that splits off into three and kills the Shoggoths before him.

Waruo: "T-thanks, that could have gotten messy."

Seemingly not hearing him, Matthew stares blankly for a second. Once he's back to his senses Matthew starts to speak.

Matthew: "Waruo, I'm going to go help Jason before he get's any of us hurt,"

Before Waruo's eyes, a clone of Matthew poofed into existence.

Waruo: "W-woah!"

Startled, Waruo stumbles and hits the ground.

Waruo: "ow..."

(Clone) Matthew: "Meanwhile, we should regroup with Leandra and Xander, and secure the principle. There's no telling how many of these things the enemy can keep deploying, so a battle of attrition isn't our friend right now,"

Then, the original Matthew seemingly grows wings and flys away.

Waruo:"What can't you do?"

As he says this, Waruo finally notices that the ice is still growing.

Waruo: "(Addressing the clone) So that's what you meant by helping Jason. I hope you can help him.


Gigolo: "You can seal the man's magic if you tried you know."
Waruo: "Wait, really?"
Gigolo: "Yep. So, why don't you try it?"
Waruo: "A-alright."


Waruo: "Matthew, I have a way to stop all the ice, but if it ends up working Jason won't be able to use his magic for a bit."

[5ColouredWalker]

"Discuss it in safety."
Xander's voice changes again, becoming softer and somewhat lyrical.

That however doesn't stop him from turning to bring Waruo into his field of view, picking him up telekinetically before all but flinging him to Nathaniel, striding over to Jason in the mean time. Just before he arives, Xander turns his head to bring Waruo down safely and then he touches Jason with an outstretched hand...

"Wh- F***! Ok, can she stop me from moving you?"
Xander speaks the last words with Kerrigen's voice, believing the same block that prevents her from reading Jason to prevent her from speaking to him mentally.

[Kyojo777]

Before he knew it, Waruo started to float, much to his dismay.

Waruo: "A-am I f-floating!?"
Gigolo: "Hmm, it seems like someone is holding you in the air via telekinesis."
Waruo: "W-whoever is doing this, can you please put me down!? I'm starting to feel sick *holds back from vomiting*.
Gigolo: "Are you going to vomit, again >_>?"

Then, Waruo is all but flung towards Nathaniel. As he approaches the second floor, Waruo suddenly stops and floats towards the floor of the second level. All this motion causes Waruo to go to a corner and vomit.

Gigolo: "Yep, I was right."
Waruo:"*Between vomits* H-hello, Na-*vomits*-thaniel, it's nic-*vomits*-e to mee-*vomits*-t y-you *vomits*."
Gigolo: "Good lord, can you please vomit a little less?"

[ArlEammon]

Nathaniel
The heroes managed to wipe the floor with all the shoggoths so far. . . almost effortlessly destroying all of them, but with very messy and dirty results, both literally and figuratively. The second floor was quiet, and mid way through the stair way to the second floor, a strange mish mash of sound occurs on the way to Nathaniel, with the music drowning out any of the roaring sounds of the horrific monsters. Some of the creatures are seen reforming from their disintegrations. . . while the ashes of the walking dead reform into humanoid form.
"You know, I can see that Jacob is mystically having the second floor cleaned and the first floor cleaned from all of the vomit by floating brooms and buckets. My thousand thanks to Jacob for cleaning my house from all the filth. No offence sir." Nathaniel walks into his bed room. Ethereal music, or it seemed to be music, filled the atmosphere of the entire house. With the screaming of the Shoggoths no longer breaking anyone's concentration or distracting any of the Awakened, or Primary Egoes, as they are also called, Nathaniel sat down in his bed room. "Questions should be safely asked here. I've been unable to leave the house, and for some reason, I never know when the barrier outside will lift or fall, how long it will remain or when more defenders of mine will arrive. Please ask your questions as soon as possible".

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Can we even really call these bat wings? I think that bat wings are supposed to be broader and more U-shaped...

"Well what do you want?! They're not like bird wings or bug wings. What's left to compare them to? A dinosaur? ...well, actually- AAH!"

As Leandra flaps over a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, a tendril of beige meat reaches out of thin air and slaps Leandra right in the chest, killing her momentum. She twists in a flailing attempt to hit the ground running, but still ends up falling on her butt.

"Ugh! Oof."

GWOGHOOOOOOOOOOOOOWGH!

Looming behind her, Upton Sinclair's arch-nemesis crushes the fountain with some of the spikier portions of its body, which breaks open the plumbing and gets the beast drenched. Its hundred eyes dart in all directions as if in panic.

A pang of B'ellana's anger threatens to overtake her, and Shizune is averse to running from a challenge, but she ultimately manages to keep her eye on the prize. The important part is that it's behind us. We win as long as we don't let it get in our way.

She resets her glasses, picks herself up and wing-leaps the rest of the way onto the balcony to meet Mr. Peasley.

...

SO, IS THE IDEA THAT MONSTERS ARE ALLERGIC TO BUSTS OF FAMOUS SCIENTISTS OR WHAT

"It could be this music! Perhaps it's as upsetting to them as their howling is to us."

Why don't we just ask?

"Well, first question: how this floor protected, exactly?"

[ArlEammon]

"I don't know. I used to think it was one of the many books I used to keep up here in the bed rooms. That's not true anymore, since these books are no longer held up here but are in the basement. Oh, and my butler, Andrew, over there. . . "He points to the other room, with an open door. . . "Is injured. . . by the way. If there's anyone here who can tend to him, I would appreciate it. I'm happy that you stopped by. . . I don't know how long the monsters are going to just ignore the second floor, and judging by that lovely woman's destruction of the shoggoth, I don't how long I would last, since I don't have thirty year old gun trigger reflexes, an infinite supply of ammunition nor more than one hand gun. I have a quite powerful 50c hand gun, but that's it."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leandra's dinosaur wings fold up and vanish back inside of her, leaving no trace of their existence. They didn't even damage the back of her dress, which is weird but far from the front of anyone's mind right now.

"Well, bullets don't seem to do much to them, so you can probably put your gun away."

She heads to the hall and kneels to attend the fallen butler. "Can you talk? What happened?"

As the butler explains himself, she unzips her messenger bag and briefly flips through its contents. Leandra's wallet and keys, Shizune's laptop, a phaser, some other weird papers and electronics, and... "Aha!"

She pulls out and focuses on a small, lumpy, pastel-colored stone. A mana egg... though she's not sure what kind.

"Hmm..."

The rock glows and rises into the air before darting to the binder in Leandra's other hand. With a brief flash of light, it's pretty well embedded itself in the cover. Smiling, she opens up her makeshift spellbook and passes her hand over the butler's injuries, leaving the tactile sensation of sprinkling water as he heals up.

[Assurau]

Nathaniel
"Questions should be safely asked here. I've been unable to leave the house, and for some reason, I never know when the barrier outside will lift or fall, how long it will remain or when more defenders of mine will arrive. Please ask your questions as soon as possible".

"Okay, I've got two questions then. One: What the hell are those things? Two: Why are they after you?", said Alana, still in her now-disheveled blue pj, her Keyblade Way to the Dawn on her hand and her Sharingan still very much visible. While she would have liked to speak with that Mathew boy so she could confirm her suspicions, she had higher priorities at the moment.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Xander turns his head to bring Waruo down safely and then he touches Jason with an outstretched hand...

"Wh- F***! Ok, can she stop me from moving you?"
Xander speaks the last words with Kerrigen's voice, believing the same block that prevents her from reading Jason to prevent her from speaking to him mentally.

When Xander touches his shoulder, Jason's entire body stiffens and he jerks his head to the side in a desperate bid to ensure that the demonic-looking zerg-geth-thing stayed completely out of his line of sight. But it wasn't enough - Anneliese could tell that the sudden spike of panic that Jason and his other Egos felt was associated with the hand on his shoulder, and immediately retaliated. Ice formed on Jason's shoulder and spread to encase Xander's entire arm in ice several inches thick in a tiny fraction of a second. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Jason screamed, twisting away and cringing in anticipation of all hell breaking lose.

Unless Xander acts almost instantly to break free, he'll be completely encased in ice and will have to break out of that instead (which I have no doubt he can do, very easily).

None of Jason's powers prevent TK from being used on him, and by default I'm assuming that Xander is asking before attempting to do so. However, Anna would probably react to being telekinetically moved by using biotics (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Stasis) on Jason to stop the movement after the fact. The idea of which amuses me, so if you'd rather have Xander try his TK instead of asking about it first I'm good with doing a small retcon to that effect.

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander, were he a normal person, would be too surprised to react, seeing how he's already juggling several tasks at once.

But, he has the mind of legion. His hand saps back slightly faster than humanly possible, engulfing itself in psychic lightning as the ice tries to engulf him, sending it off in sheets.
"Calm yourself. I'm sending you to Waruo, try not to kill anyone you shouldn't."

And with that, Jason finds himself beginning his short term job as impromptu projectile towards the second floor as Xander takes a single step back.


I've got to do a couple of Snapshots of Maria at intervals I think are good for use, but Xander has Zerg Speed, Haste and the mental speed of a machine, so it should be pretty instant.

But yes, impromptu projectile away.

[Dark Knight Renee]

"Calm yourself. I'm sending you to Waruo, try not to kill anyone you shouldn't."

Jason wanted to scream that he had no control over that, but there wasn't time to get more than a syllable out of his mouth before he went flying across the yard towards the estate - only to be abruptly stopped in mid-air halfway to the mansion as a mass effect field formed around his body, pinning him in place despite Xander actively attempting to move him. It was very unpleasant. With a nauseating feeling of horror, he took a second to establish that Anneliese hadn't screwed up and inflicted grievous bodily harm with her wild and inexplicable biotics.

With no injury apparent, Kaidan began trying to modify the mass effect field Anneliese had created. Expecting to be dropped, Mayurra cast feather fall, but they didn't drop, instead only gaining a tiny bit of wiggle room - as was Kaidan's intent, since allowing Xander to send them the rest of the way to the estate was not something he wanted. "The next time someone tries to use magic on me without my consent, I'm going to retaliate on purpose," Jason complained as soon as he could speak, though there was no force behind the threat (nor any authority to back it up, since he personally had no idea how to use any of the abilities his Egos were throwing around).



Mayurra: "Actually, this gives me an idea. If we float a little higher, we'll be out of range of the gibbering mouthers, and if everyone else went inside and it's as safe there as he says, we should have time to help Anna cool off."
Kaidan: "I can try, but manipulating mass effect fields is not as easy as Anna makes it look."
Mayurra: "No, no, I've got a spell for that."
Jason: "This one of your 'very limited' spells, or one of the freebies you keep casting?" :smallannoyed:
Mayurra: "It's a freebie." :smalltongue:
Jason: "Sooner or later you're going to have to explain that..."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander quickly begins relieving pressure once he notices Jason's stopped mid-air, not wanting to crush him, Maria also recognizes the spell cast, causing Xander to release Jacob completely.
"Well get yourself under control! If you need time to sort things out then perhaps we can try pulling you inside my hea-!"

Xander's words are cut off with a gurgle, something one wouldn't expect from Legion. Looking down, Xander glares at a claw before exploding into motion with Pip-Boy driven efficiency, quickly reducing a Shogoth to a scattered puddle with rending claws and peircing wings wreathed with lightning, the only sign he was in close combat but 3 seconds hence is a rapidly healing hole in his abdomen, forcing him to speak telepathically.
"Let's hurry it up people!"

[ArlEammon]

Andrew
"Mister Peaseley was sick. On his death bed as a matter of fact. His heart condition and liver were both almost useless. . . As I took care of him I was stabbed from behind and left for dead. Mister Peaseley miraculously got out of his bed and took care of me in return, but that was after he shot the assailant, but any wound the creature may have had has not left it's mark on our carpets. Then the monsters appeared, or so Nathaniel says, though I have not seen any".

Nathaniel
"Those are shoggoths. Monsters of horror and madness. They don't belong on this world's surface but are confined either in the darkest recesses of the earth, or in another world entirely. I have reason to believe that those monsters you have destroyed are juvenile beings. Their parents should be even worse. I am afraid that I have the Raudskinna, a powerful book of magic in my basement. The book is powerful magic, said to be able to control Satan himself. It may be that these monsters want to destroy me because of my experiences in Australia so many years ago".

[Assurau]

"The next time someone tries to use magic on me without my consent, I'm going to retaliate on purpose," Jason complained as soon as he could speak, though there was no force behind the threat.


"One Moment, sir", Alan excuses herself as she notices that one of her 'teammates' has been rapidly moved towards her and Nathaniel.

"Need a hand?", she asked at Jason before she attempted to aid him, given his previous statement.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Mr. Peasley was faking an illness? Why?

TAX FRAUD, GETTING OUT OF A MEETING, PRETENDING TO BE AN AGING HUMAN WHEN HE'S REALLY A VAMPIRE, TAKE YOUR PICK

Well, whatever the reason, at least he's given up on the ruse for now.

Leandra helps Andrew up and returns to the... bedroom? Sitting room? Whichever room has the sunny Southern exposure that includes the balcony.

"Well, I think you're assuming that we know a lot more about you than we really do, but alright. You mean to suggest that either they think you're a threat to them personally, or they just want to get that book away from you. Since they don't seem to have much interest in actually attacking you..."

As though on cue, the shoggoth outside lets out another unholy moan as it shuffles around the side of the building smashing windows.

She sighs. "Well, it means we'd better get downstairs. Was the Raudskinna in some kind of display case? Would we know it when we see it?"

[ArlEammon]

"It's the original Raudskinna, a magical tome, red, demonic looking, with a good old fashioned triple ruby symbol on the front". Nathaniel stated. "Don't read it, please. It's far worse than the Necronomicon. In fact, it's so horrible it can give very evil scum of the Earth nightmares based on how evil it is. I suggest that you take my advice, to reiterate.". He looked down. "Once the Estate is safe from the Shoggoth menace I will explain my current situation and how to fight the Yog Sothoth Cult."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"That bad, huh~? Awesome! Gimme!"

"No, Millenia! You're not the unholy monster you once were!"

...I'm tempted to try using it as a weapon, but I'm sure that any plan that involves, "controlling the devil," only ever ends one way.

It does sound like a trap. Still, we should keep our options open. It doesn't matter right now anyway; we just need to retrieve it.

"Well, we can't let whoever is sending these shoggoths get control of it."

Leandra confers with anyone else present, particularly Alana. "I'll go down to the basement library and make sure it's safe. If you can protect these two until-"

*crash* GWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

It's generally hard to make out the calls of the beef balloons over Nathaniel's insulated walls and soothing gramophones. This one must have been close by.

"...on second thought, let's both deal with that first."

Leandra runs back out into the hallway to reach the stairwell. At the bottom, a shoggie clings to the wall and what's left of the railing as it struggles with the concept of climbing stairs. The bottom ten steps have already been smashed to bits.

[ArlEammon]

Jacob and Denise
"Well whatever is going on I'll stay behind and protect Nathaniel and Andrew as well." She turns around to Nathaniel. Jacob, over near the falling railing, notices the Shoggoths attempting to climb the stairs. He sent thunderbolts of powerful magic against the monsters, alien to the minds of Humans though they may be, having a handful of extra souls inside someone's mind makes it difficult to drive a Primary Ego insane. Thunderbolts were sent against these enemies, causing them to explode. . . More attempted to climb the stairs in a swarm of ant like proportions. Some of the Awakened (Primary Egoes) may have still been on the first floor, and it made Jacob wonder if anyone was in danger.

[Kyojo777]

After Waruo finished vomiting, or rather dry heaving, his attention was directed to Cyphre, who began to speak.


Cyphre: "Waruo, have you noticed?"
Waruo:"Noticed what, Cyphre?
Cyphre: "This Nathaniel, he's referring to us by name."
Waruo: "What's wrong with that?"
Cyphre: "When did anyone here say their names?"
Waruo is taken aback by this revelation.
Waruo: "M-maybe he has a power that allows him to know our names or something?"
Cyphre: "Then why didn't he mention that?"


At that moment, Waruo's expression turned from a tired one to one of shock.

Waruo: (W-why wouldn't he tell us? W-what should I do?)

As he stood, Waruo grew more and more nervous, and more scared. It was getting more obvious that he knew something by the second.

[Regalus]

Clone! Matthew


Then, the original Matthew seemingly grows wings and flys away.

Waruo:"What can't you do?"



"Well, we can't draw a circle and a triangle at the same time," the clone joked good humorly, "But seriously, the boss is kinda flashy; but he ain't all that,


Waruo: "(Addressing the clone) So that's what you meant by helping Jason. I hope you can help him.

"Hope so too," he finally chirped before raising his bow, and continuing his overwatch on the original and Jason; spearing through the shoggoths Jason was juggling, and taking a few potshots at the ones that came to close to Prime!Matthew. Even if there was no telling how many for the bloody things were around here, he could at least keep the path clear for his otherself and Jason; after all if their hunches were correct, this was a matter that would need to be handled delicately.



Waruo: "Matthew, I have a way to stop all the ice, but if it ends up working Jason won't be able to use his magic for a bit."
...Or maybe not!

"You do?" the clone questioned, visibly brightening as whirled around to face his current partner, "How do you do it? Do you need any preparations? The boss knows a few ways, to do it but they'd take a lot of room and time to pull off; so most of'em aren't any good here,"

The chakra construct had a good feeling about this! If Waruo could give them some breathing room, it might give them just the chance they need to help Jason. Of course all that went out the window the next moment when the clone suddenly found himself alone, Waruo having been flung to the second floor.

"Well, I did say he should go up there," he said with a defeated sigh as he went back to his overwatch; blowing away one of the shoggoth's closed in on him, only to get blown back by a quick Aero spell and receiving several arrows for it's troubles
***************
Prime! Matthew

Biotically chucking yet another shoggoth into the air (this one rather a lot higher than necessary), Jason turned to Matthew and then did a double take upon spotting his clone in the background, not to mention the new wings. Even Anneliese did a double take for that one, and she didn't even try to attack. "One of Jason's past lives starts slinging our powers around when she panics," Kaidan told Matthew, cutting right to the chase. "We don't know how to stop her, and for obvious reasons she won't calm down. We either need something to make her calm down, or - whoa!"

Suddenly, walking dead. And then they weren't walking anymore, because Mayurra hit them with faerie fire and Anneliese predictably targeted them with enough ice that they weren't likely to so much as twitch again any time soon. "Everyone, get to the mansion quick, we can't last forever out here!" After shouting those orders to make sure Peaslee's suggestion was taken seriously (well, assuming anyone listened to him), Jason/Kaidan turned back to Matthew with renewed urgency. "If you can't calm her down somehow I don't think I can risk going with them. She's already deliberately targeted one teammate, and I'm surprised she's not icing you."

"Don't worry guys, it's not going to come to that," the winged boy declared, his statement punctuated by a pink arrow piercing through the shoggoth Jason had thrown.

It's probably the halo and wings Sora commented off-handedly earning nods of agreement from Madoka and Raito, but only questioning glances from Celestia and Naruto.

"How so? While I took pride in the fact that My Little Ponies found me comforting, and we're certainly not the most imposing member of our group, I don't see how my gifts make her any less likely to attack us in fear"

"You really don't see it? But all we need is toga to pull off the look!"

"What do tunics have to do with this?

"Oh that's right! Miss Celestia and Naruto aren't from Earth... or at least your cultures were very different from ours,"

"See we have these things called angels, right?

"Uh-huh"

"Which are like, celestial messengers and stuff; so maybe that's why she's not attacking us,"

"Guys! Back on topic; less theology, more thaumaturgy!!!! We don't have time for this!" the lad barked in a panic, not knowing how long the sextet had to come up with a plan.

"Hmm... from the sound of it, she may be suffering a magic surge; unicorn foals commonly suffer them before they learn who to control their magic. They're usually potent and uncontrolled, and fueled by stress; even the kindest foal could suffer one with disastrous consequences if they had enough power," she commented, all too easily remembering her shock when she first saw Twilight at her interview after having turned half the ponies there into inanimate objects. She had been good fortune she had arrived when she had.

"Yeah, we had a few episodes like that involving kekeigenkais; they can get really ugly fast," the seventh hokage agreed, remembering far too many horror stories on the subject, "What we need is to calm her down first; but until we figure out how that ice power works, or at least how she's affecting Jason's control I don't think we can come up with any permanent solutions,"

"Then temporary will have to do,"


"Jason, I think I have an idea but I-" Alas , Matthew never got to finish his sentence as the situation quickly spun out of control from there. Jason reacting poorly to Xander's arrival; but just as he thought the newborn King of Blades was going to be another voice of reason despite his faux pa, he's greeted to the sight of Jason being jettisoned into the air. For a brief moment Matthew could feel himself and all of his ego's simply staring at Xander in open-mouthed horror, before the moment was broken by Xander being impaled by a Shoggoth and returning the favor.

Matthew was sorely tempted to chew out Xander for the apparent lapse of manner's and common sense, Naruto being a particularly verbal party with several choice words to share, but instead settling for shooting the young man a withering glare before flying after Jason. The former goddess of the Sun breathing a relieved sigh when he saw Jason floating in some sort of bubble, instead of in a panic while trying not to freeze their allies and Principal.

"Jason! Are all of you okay? How is she doing?" Matthew asked frot with worry as another lambent bolt struck at an opportunistic shoggoth trying to close in on the pair, "I think I can help. Is there anything you tell me about her, or the power's she's tapping into?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

"Jason! Are all of you okay? How is she doing?" Matthew asked fraught with worry as another lambent bolt struck at an opportunistic shoggoth trying to close in on the pair, "I think I can help. Is there anything you tell me about her, or the power's she's tapping into?"
Safely encased within the mass effect field but unable to levitate out of shoggoth range until the field wore off, Jason and Kaidan allowed Mat to handle protection and settled on explaining the situation in as much detail as they knew. "Her name is Anneliese. We think she's a child. Or was a child. She was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake sometime in the 17th century, but she insists she wasn't a witch and didn't have any powers. Which fits since so far she's just been using powers one of the others claims was theirs. She also insists that she's not doing any of this, but considering the evidence I can't think of another explanation. So far she's tapped into three different powers belonging to three different, uh... People. And one of those abilities normally requires a lot of training, but she uses it like a pro - aside from the panicking thing, which seems to be the root of the problem. If you've seen the movie Frozen, it's pretty much that."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander looks around, continuing to blast wordlessly for a moment while he waits for his abdomen to regenerate, when the hole is finally healed, his voice is a bit airier.
"This would be easier if you opened your mind! The only way we're likely to calm her is with time and we don't have that. One of you is Loki and I know he can manipulate minds and mine runs a hell of a lot faster, any chance you can try to force yourselves into my mind, or at least her?!"

In the mean time, Kerrigan's voice echoes in the minds of those in the second floor.
"We may be a while. If you go on ahead, we should be able to keep any Shogoth's from approaching from the outside."

[Kyojo777]

As Waruo grew more and more nervous, he started to wish for some way to distract himself. Looking outside, Waruo saw the young man who helped him talking Jason, who was in a.....bubble? Huh?

Waruo: "It looks like Jason still hasn't gotten control of his magic."

Suddenly, Waruo remembered that he had a way to seal Jason's magic.

Waruo: "Alright, here goes nothing."

As Waruo wills it, white rings form around Jason. Before he can see if it worked, however, Waruo remembered that Jason threatened to hurt whoever used magic on him. Not wanting to get hurt, Waruo tries his best to not look suspicious. He decides to ask Nathaniel a random question, so it looked like he was busy.

Waruo:"S-so, Nathaniel, what's my name?"

Right then and there, Waruo realizes what he just asked, and starts to sweat.

[ArlEammon]

"Waruo. . . Why do you ask? Are you all curious as to why I know your names?" Nathaniel Peasely asked.

"I'm not surprised. It's a good question and I suggest you all listen to the answer." Nathaniel stated. "Well now, I suppose there's no point in putting this off any longer. I'm not Nathaniel Peasely."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander's eyes widen, and he begins turning to the window, in his minds eye he sees everyone in the room.
"Look away from the wall!"
And then he opens it up for his true eyes, with but a moment to gather her power Kerrigen sends a bolt of telekinetic might towards the room, smashing in the windowed wall through which members of the group had entered, opening the room on the second floor to further attacks from below. Bown below, Xander has dropped the greatsword and drawn his sniperrifle with one hand, the anti-tank weapon begining to unfold as he holds it one handed in a way that garuntees damage should he fire it, while the other hand begins glowing with both psychic lightning and eldritch energies.

[Assurau]

"Waruo. . . Why do you ask? Are you all curious as to why I know your names?" Nathaniel Peasely asked.

"I'm not surprised. It's a good question and I suggest you all listen to the answer." Nathaniel stated. "Well now, I suppose there's no point in putting this off any longer. I'm not Nathaniel Peasely."



"Kuso.", muttered Alana. This was ringing too many alarm bells for her. Fortunately, she had been rather discrete in the use of her abilities so far so if this man turned out to be a enemy. She discretely readied herself for a fight. "God bless Sasuke's shinobi training", Alana thought to herself. "Be glad the Dobe isn't here. He'd probably jump through the window, guns blazing, completely ignoring subtlety.", spoke Sasuke to Alana.

[Sapphira Jade]

While everyone is dealing with shoggoths Mia finds herself suddenly looking around timidly confused at her new surroundings. "Ok, um...what's going on?" "W-where am I?" "I was in my room and now I'm h-here." She looked around again a little paranoid since she didn't see anyone.

[Sapphira Jade]

While everyone is dealing with shoggoths Mia finds herself suddenly looking around timidly confused at her new surroundings. "Ok, um...what's going on?" "W-where am I?" "I was in my room and now I'm h-here." She looked around again a little paranoid since she didn't see anyone.

She heard growling and other noises and let out a small eek before backing into a corner.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Inside the mansion, as Jacob rains magical fire on the first-floor baddies from above, Leandra looks over her shoulder toward the balcony area, where Waruo is apparently helping with the Jason kerfuffle and talking to not-peasley at the same time. It's hard to hear what everyone's talking about over the magical warfare, though.

"Ugh! No fair! Why do these guys get to have all the fun?"

...Jacob's spells seem rather generic, honestly.

Stop dawdling and focus on getting the book!

Leandra leaps down the stairwell and sprints through Peasley's ruined foyer, following the path Jacob carved into the shoggie horde. With a swipe of her hand, a flurry of ethereal notebook pages deflects the last few mooks' half-tentacled attempts to stop her.

On the floor above, for no apparent reason, one of the walls explodes in a dazzing display of light and dust! Leandra shields her eyes reflexively, but Shizune's urging keeps her focused on the objective. She continues her exploration of the Peasely estate's window-lit corridors. Finding the basement isn't turning out to be the trivial task she had envisioned.

--

This part of the mansion is not very well-lit. Light continues to pour through the windows on the front of the estate, but this light only trickles these interior hallways from one end or the other, leaving a shadowy expanse in-between. There must have been some sort of power outage.

GwOOoooOhhh...

Mia's ears pick up the growing sound of a maddening, inhuman howl as an enterprising monster approaches from the other end of the poorly-lit hallway, followed by another... and another! Blobs of meat barely describable as animals, covered in twitching eyes and bony spikes, smashing lamps and paintings in their wake.

Before Mia can really do much about this, another strange thing happens: several balls of bright white light dash in from behind the shoggoths and dance around them, tickling the monsters with crackling bolts of electricity.

At the other end of the hallway, a figure in a green dress appears and makes a dramatic cutting motion with her hand, signaling the balls to detonate in one last stroke of fizzling lightning. With the groaning meatballs silenced, the figure finally notices Mia.

"Oh my god! Are you alright?? I did not realize anyone else was still here!"

The woman rushes up to examine the confused new arrival. On closer inspection, Leandra is dressed like a typical modern-day schoolteacher, complete with a bulky binder and a pair of bottom-rimmed glasses. Her words are accompanied by hand signals like those of a sign-language interpreter.

[Sapphira Jade]

Inside the mansion, as Jacob rains magical fire on the first-floor baddies from above, Leandra looks over her shoulder toward the balcony area, where Waruo is apparently helping with the Jason kerfuffle and talking to not-peasley at the same time. It's hard to hear what everyone's talking about over the magical warfare, though.

"Ugh! No fair! Why do these guys get to have all the fun?"

...Jacob's spells seem rather generic, honestly.

Stop dawdling and focus on getting the book!

Leandra leaps down the stairwell and sprints through Peasley's ruined foyer, following the path Jacob carved into the shoggie horde. With a swipe of her hand, a flurry of ethereal notebook pages deflects the last few mooks' half-tentacled attempts to stop her.

On the floor above, for no apparent reason, one of the walls explodes in a dazzing display of light and dust! Leandra shields her eyes reflexively, but Shizune's urging keeps her focused on the objective. She continues her exploration of the Peasely estate's window-lit corridors. Finding the basement isn't turning out to be the trivial task she had envisioned.

--

This part of the mansion is not very well-lit. Light continues to pour through the windows on the front of the estate, but this light only trickles these interior hallways from one end or the other, leaving a shadowy expanse in-between. There must have been some sort of power outage.

GwOOoooOhhh...

Mia's ears pick up the growing sound of a maddening, inhuman howl as an enterprising monster approaches from the other end of the poorly-lit hallway, followed by another... and another! Blobs of meat barely describable as animals, covered in twitching eyes and bony spikes, smashing lamps and paintings in their wake.

Before Mia can really do much about this, another strange thing happens: several balls of bright white light dash in from behind the shoggoths and dance around them, tickling the monsters with crackling bolts of electricity.

At the other end of the hallway, a figure in a green dress appears and makes a dramatic cutting motion with her hand, signaling the balls to detonate in one last stroke of fizzling lightning. With the groaning meatballs silenced, the figure finally notices Mia.

"Oh my god! Are you alright?? I did not realize anyone else was still here!"

The woman rushes up to examine the confused new arrival. On closer inspection, Leandra is dressed like a typical modern-day schoolteacher, complete with a bulky binder and a pair of bottom-rimmed glasses. Her words are accompanied by hand signals like those of a sign-language interpreter.

Mia nervously looked around before looking at the person who helped her. "Y-yeah I'm fine." "Th-Thanks I somehow ended up here almost like I was teleported." "This is all just confusing to me." Close inspection shows that Mia was dressed like a civilian that could be mistaken for being goth or secretly a spy due to her wearing all black; black t-shirt, a black leather jacket, short black skirt, black stockings, black lace-up boots and two necklaces. One had a coffin shaped pendent that had a picture of a skull in it and the other was this regular black pendent. "Um....wh-who are you?" "What's going on?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Well..."

For all of the myth and magic in Leandra's repertoire, the closest prior experience she's had to this situation would probably have been in B'ellana's memory. To no one's surprise, the short-tempered rebel didn't handle it very well. Dr. Leandra Brigham can do better on her own.

Seeing that the young gothic style enthusiast is uninjured, Leandra takes a relieved breath. "Well, what is going on is that there are a lot of shoggoths like those attacking the mansion right now. My name is Dr. Brigham; I am here with about nine other people to stop them. What about you? Do you know Nathaniel Peaseley?"

...almost like she was teleported.

Oh. Right.

Leandra sighs when she makes that connection. "It is possible that you were brought here along with my group by mistake... alright, come with me. We can take you back home when this is over; I'll protect you until then."

[Kyojo777]

Cyphre: "Tch, looks like I was right. Look alive Waruo, I have a feeling he's much stronger then a Shoggoth."
Gigolo: "What a piss poor disguise, simply pathetic. Waruo, will you go crush him for me?"
Waruo: "T-That's suicide!"
Beelzebub: "There's finally an enemy who isn't a insignificant ant, and you don't wish to fight him!? Where's your blood lust!?"
Waruo: "Are you insane!? I'm not fighting him!"


With that, Waruo leaps out of the hole in the wall. Thinking fast, he uses wind to catch himself before he hits the ground.

[Dark Knight Renee]

"This would be easier if you opened your mind! The only way we're likely to calm her is with time and we don't have that. One of you is Loki and I know he can manipulate minds and mine runs a hell of a lot faster, any chance you can try to force yourselves into my mind, or at least her?!"
The magic shielding Jason from divinatory eavesdropping evaporated, revealing the depth of Anneliese's terror and the burning fury of Loki's anger to anyone with a telempathic ear open. His paranoia vindicated and his secret out in the open, Loki assaulted Xander the only way currently available to him - verbally. Ish. Not even telepathically, either, really. In fact, if no-one were reading Jason's mind Loki's outburst would gone entirely unheard (except by Jason and his other Egos, who've already had their fill of him by this point).


Loki: "[*outburst of outraged verbiage I haven't crafted yet and probably never will, consisting mostly of venting and insults aimed at Xander, though it should be apparent that beneath the rage Loki feels violated by having his information stolen by Xander and then announced for all to hear*]"
Meanwhile, Anneliese attempted to target the demonic-looking subject of Loki's rage with ice and biotics, only for both to fail for entirely self-inflicted reasons. The mass effect field surrounding Jason bulged and surged alarmingly, and the only ice that formed was on Jason himself (and it didn't get very thick before encountering the mass effect fields surrounding him and being shredded into snow), but otherwise nothing happened.

Disturbed by the behavior of the mass effect fields and fearing an explosive interaction the next time Anna attempted something like that, Kaidan resumed trying to smooth or dismantle Anna's handiwork, leaving Jason to deal with speaking. "Thanks, Xander. You're making the situation so much better," he sarcasmed. Even as he spoke, Waruo cast his spell, causing white rings of magic to form around Jason, a visual effect which was only slightly distorted by biotic visual effects it was sharing the space with. Whatever the magic was meant to have done, it apparently didn't work, either failing of its own accord or bouncing off of Mayurra's spell resistance or otherwise being resisted without any active effort on Jason's part. He greeted the sight with a raised eyebrow that was more irritation than anything else.

In the mansion at about the time Waruo cast his spell, Emma reacted to her empathic bond with Jason suddenly opening up again, the incoming information consisting mostly of a jumble of rage and extreme fear. "Mayurra!" Without pausing to think about the fact that she was inside an area supposedly warded against teleportation, Emma abandoned whatever she might have been doing and 'ported straight to where Jason was floating (Tathrysn's magic thankfully defaulting to arriving at ground level), just before Nathaniel's deception was revealed and Xander decided to obliterate the wall of the room she'd just left.


Please excuse the lack of proper dialog from Loki. Maybe I'll fix it later, maybe I won't.

I'm going to refrain from responding to events beyond these for a bit; hopefully Regalus will have a chance to respond to what's happened up to this point before the action in the manor accelerates again and leaves us in the dust.

[5ColouredWalker]

One can't pick themselves up telekinetically!"
"You were doing it wrong."

Xander lept for Jason, stopping a hands breadth from him before standing on a floor of air he was crushing into a solid plane, his mind running 6 hours and 40 minutes to the second, while with VATS, Zerg biology, boosted nerves and magical assistance his body moved at maybe 5 times faster than a person was capable.
This meant by the time he was next to Jason, he was merely finding a target upon which to break his hand with his sniper rifle.

"You can force your will on others! I need you to try and force her on me. Even if you only hold her for a moment I will have days in which to calm her."
"If we're lucky."
"And my magic guarantees that the scales are somewhat in our favour..."
"And in the mean time, can I complement you on your prodigious vocabulary."

[ArlEammon]

"I hate to disappoint you, but Nathaniel Peaseley is in the basement of the house, trying to seal the dimensional rift that's opened underneath here. As for you, I think that you will all make a good snack before dinner time". "Nathaniel Peaseley" transformed into a doppleganger, a mysteriously ugly blue Humanoid with Elf like ears. . . his cloak and robe were purple and red and he possessed a royal looking sceptre of powerful magic. Unknown to the others he was a local of the Great Wheel. His companion was an unusually tough wolf man, superior even to creatures usually finding themselves far more powerful than a mere wolf man, this creature could have survived more than his fair share worth of dangers, and had devoured adventurers in his past.

[Sapphira Jade]

"Well..."

For all of the myth and magic in Leandra's repertoire, the closest prior experience she's had to this situation would probably have been in B'ellana's memory. To no one's surprise, the short-tempered rebel didn't handle it very well. Dr. Leandra Brigham can do better on her own.

Seeing that the young gothic style enthusiast is uninjured, Leandra takes a relieved breath. "Well, what is going on is that there are a lot of shoggoths like those attacking the mansion right now. My name is Dr. Brigham; I am here with about nine other people to stop them. What about you? Do you know Nathaniel Peaseley?"

...almost like she was teleported.

Oh. Right.

Leandra sighs when she makes that connection. "It is possible that you were brought here along with my group by mistake... alright, come with me. We can take you back home when this is over; I'll protect you until then."

Despite how scared she was Mia nodded and joined Leandra. "Ok, thanks." She choose to remain close behind her rescuer hoping she won't get lost. For once her eyes didn't dart back and forth in fear since she felt more relieved to have company, but remembered something Leandra said. "Wait, there are others?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"It's true," Leandra answers. "We were each just conscripted and given magic powers to help deal with the monsters, but I do not know how all of it works. Fifteen minutes ago, I was as confused as you are."

She looks down the hall over Mia's shoulder, then offers her hand as she starts to lead the younger woman in that direction. "Right now, though, I am just looking for the basement. I don't suppose you noticed the stairs down... What is your name?"

[Sapphira Jade]

"It's true," Leandra answers. "We were each just conscripted and given magic powers to help deal with the monsters, but I do not know how all of it works. Fifteen minutes ago, I was as confused as you are."

She looks down the hall over Mia's shoulder, then offers her hand as she starts to lead the younger woman in that direction. "Right now, though, I am just looking for the basement. I don't suppose you noticed the stairs down... What is your name?"

Mia, didn't seemed surprised at the mention of magic. "So.....magic really does exist." "I...well.....I believe in anything possible like magic and ghosts." She gently grabbed Leandra's hand. "Um, I d-don't recall seeing stairs, but then again I haven't really left this room or took a full look around." "O-oh, I'm Mia."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"You do? Interesting..."

Still more maddening yowls echo from down the hall, accompanying by the sounds of doors breaking off their hinges.

"Well, that is not good. Come on, Mia!"

Leandra takes off down the hallway to find the source of the noise. Sure enough, more shoggies. Their gibbering assaults Mia's mind with confusion and thoughts of violence...

Alarmingly, they also seem to be coming out from behind the interior door they just shattered, not breaking into it. LB dives into the oncoming gaggle of beasties, spends a moment pushing them around with a flurry of phantom pages from her binder, and repeats her ball-lightning feat and clearing the monsters out. But, the howling doesn't stop...

Sure enough, Leandra peers past the vanishing shoggies and down the stairs into the basement, where a swarm of the monsters is inching its way up. They're still not great at climbing, but it seems this stone stairwell is a little more amicable to their attempts. Their yelps and squeals grow louder and more maddening than ever...

LB looks over her shoulder. "Mia? Mia, hold on! Stay with me!"

[Sapphira Jade]

"You do? Interesting..."

Still more maddening yowls echo from down the hall, accompanying by the sounds of doors breaking off their hinges.

"Well, that is not good. Come on, Mia!"

Leandra takes off down the hallway to find the source of the noise. Sure enough, more shoggies. Their gibbering assaults Mia's mind with confusion and thoughts of violence...

Alarmingly, they also seem to be coming out from behind the interior door they just shattered, not breaking into it. LB dives into the oncoming gaggle of beasties, spends a moment pushing them around with a flurry of phantom pages from her binder, and repeats her ball-lightning feat and clearing the monsters out. But, the howling doesn't stop...

Sure enough, Leandra peers past the vanishing shoggies and down the stairs into the basement, where a swarm of the monsters is inching its way up. They're still not great at climbing, but it seems this stone stairwell is a little more amicable to their attempts. Their yelps and squeals grow louder and more maddening than ever...

LB looks over her shoulder. "Mia? Mia, hold on! Stay with me!"

The sounds of the monsters were too distracting for mia to hear what Leandra said, but when she noticed them coming she gasped before suddenly vanishing in a puff of purple smoke only to reappear in a different area. "Huh?" "Did I just.....teleport myself?" "Um,....Oh man if only I had at least something to defend myself." She got confused again. "Why do I sound like I want to fight?" She said under her breath. An idea came to her and she removed the small knife, sheath included, that a relative gave her, from her boot. "Not much, but I guess it can injure those things a little...or not at all." She debated over it then resheathed it and put it back. "Forget it, that's no good." She noticed something laying on the ground where she originally was. Checking out out she saw that it was this whip. "Was this with me ever since I first got here?" There was this keyring with a ton of gold and silver keys on it lying close by to the whip. She picked them both up and she put the keyring in her jacket pocket. "I think I can use this and help." She suddenly teleported again and was back at the top of the stone stairs that lead to the basement. She noticed the monsters still coming. Her eye color suddenly became this glowing red. "Enough games!" She teleported again and when she realized she was above a few of them and she attacked with the whip that came out in a glowing blue and electric yellow light. The monsters shrieked before they were destroyed. "Huh, who knew?" She teleported again back to beside Leandra prepping for another strike. Teleporting once more mia attacked a few more taking care of them before appearing back at the top of the stairs.

[Regalus]

Prime!Matthew

Safely encased within the mass effect field but unable to levitate out of shoggoth range until the field wore off, Jason and Kaidan allowed Mat to handle protection and settled on explaining the situation in as much detail as they knew. "Her name is Anneliese. We think she's a child. Or was a child. She was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake sometime in the 17th century, but she insists she wasn't a witch and didn't have any powers. Which fits since so far she's just been using powers one of the others claims was theirs. She also insists that she's not doing any of this, but considering the evidence I can't think of another explanation. So far she's tapped into three different powers belonging to three different, uh... People. And one of those abilities normally requires a lot of training, but she uses it like a pro - aside from the panicking thing, which seems to be the root of the problem. If you've seen the movie Frozen, it's pretty much that."


Xander looks around, continuing to blast wordlessly for a moment while he waits for his abdomen to regenerate, when the hole is finally healed, his voice is a bit airier.
"This would be easier if you opened your mind! The only way we're likely to calm her is with time and we don't have that. One of you is Loki and I know he can manipulate minds and mine runs a hell of a lot faster, any chance you can try to force yourselves into my mind, or at least her?!"

In the mean time, Kerrigan's voice echoes in the minds of those in the second floor.
"We may be a while. If you go on ahead, we should be able to keep any Shogoth's from approaching from the outside."


The magic shielding Jason from divinatory eavesdropping evaporated, revealing the depth of Anneliese's terror and the burning fury of Loki's anger to anyone with a telempathic ear open. His paranoia vindicated and his secret out in the open, Loki assaulted Xander the only way currently available to him - verbally. Ish. Not even telepathically, either, really. In fact, if no-one were reading Jason's mind Loki's outburst would gone entirely unheard (except by Jason and his other Egos, who've already had their fill of him by this point).

Meanwhile, Anneliese attempted to target the demonic-looking subject of Loki's rage with ice and biotics, only for both to fail for entirely self-inflicted reasons. The mass effect field surrounding Jason bulged and surged alarmingly, and the only ice that formed was on Jason himself (and it didn't get very thick before encountering the mass effect fields surrounding him and being shredded into snow), but otherwise nothing happened.

Disturbed by the behavior of the mass effect fields and fearing an explosive interaction the next time Anna attempted something like that, Kaidan resumed trying to smooth or dismantle Anna's handiwork, leaving Jason to deal with speaking. "Thanks, Xander. You're making the situation so much better," he sarcasmed. Even as he spoke, Waruo cast his spell, causing white rings of magic to form around Jason, a visual effect which was only slightly distorted by biotic visual effects it was sharing the space with. Whatever the magic was meant to have done, it apparently didn't work, either failing of its own accord or bouncing off of Mayurra's spell resistance or otherwise being resisted without any active effort on Jason's part. He greeted the sight with a raised eyebrow that was more irritation than anything else.

In the mansion at about the time Waruo cast his spell, Emma reacted to her empathic bond with Jason suddenly opening up again, the incoming information consisting mostly of a jumble of rage and extreme fear. "Mayurra!" Without pausing to think about the fact that she was inside an area supposedly warded against teleportation, Emma abandoned whatever she might have been doing and 'ported straight to where Jason was floating (Tathrysn's magic thankfully defaulting to arriving at ground level), just before Nathaniel's deception was revealed and Xander decided to obliterate the wall of the room she'd just left.


One can't pick themselves up telekinetically!"
"You were doing it wrong."

Xander lept for Jason, stopping a hands breadth from him before standing on a floor of air he was crushing into a solid plane, his mind running 6 hours and 40 minutes to the second, while with VATS, Zerg biology, boosted nerves and magical assistance his body moved at maybe 5 times faster than a person was capable.
This meant by the time he was next to Jason, he was merely finding a target upon which to break his hand with his sniper rifle.

"You can force your will on others! I need you to try and force her on me. Even if you only hold her for a moment I will have days in which to calm her."
"If we're lucky."
"And my magic guarantees that the scales are somewhat in our favour..."
"And in the mean time, can I complement you on your prodigious vocabulary."


"Except that his mind isn't meant to go any where near that fast; meaning that even if it were to work the way you hope, you could damage the rest of his psyche!" he countered hotly, the whole thing stank of a Yamanaka experiment gone awri and one too many tsukiyomi horror stories.

"Isolating her is the last thing we should be doing right now any way; And nothing personal, but I think she isn't react well to Kerrigan and a few others in there," Matthew commented bashfully, fairly certain that the ill-judged girl would react poorly to being isolated with the Queen of Blades and Legion given their natures and appearances; doubt Annelise so given the...unbelievable tact they psuedo-hivemind had handled her so far, and the second volley of ice attacks launched at Xander.

If the witch hunt Annelise fell in was anything like the one's in this Earth's history, it was no wonder she was reacting so poorly to their situation; and part of him knew just what to do.

"Jason, I think understand the problem; and I know how I can help..." Matthew explains with a hopeful grin as his halo and diaphanous mane brightened in response. His raiment changing from pink to the purest white and gold trimmed, while a horn-like sunbeam seemed to rise from his brow; the winged boy now radiant as he shone daylight upon the courtyard like a small sun. Brilliant and warm like morning light, yet it neither blinded nor strained the eye to Jason and the others; though the same couldn't be said for the few shoggoth's that tried to breakthrough his clone's over watch to the gathering quartet, feeling much like Icarus as he flew far too close to the sun and paid the price for his hubris.

"Annelise, I know your scared and confused. You don't know what to do, or who to trust right now; and that's alright. It's okay to be afraid and to worry about everything that's happened; but you don't have to face all this on your own," he uttered in a voice as soothing as a mothers, and as warm as the spring sun after a long winter, "You have Jason and the others with you, but you have us as well; even if some of us may seem scary. We're all in this together Annelise, you can rely on us,"

"And right now, I need you to trust me," he gently requested as he extended a hand towards Jason, stopping just outside the mass effect bubble, "Annelise I can help you, and I want to help you, but I can only do that if you want me to. Let me shed some light for you, let me help you understand. Take my hand with Jason, reach out to me; I swear won't let you fall, and I won't let you down,"


Mayura should be able to tell that Matthew is preparing a Memory Spell; a simple enchantment designed to allow an individual to understand the gist of another's experiences and/or knowledge. It is by design a completely harmless effect to both the caster and the target.

Loki can probably notice the spark of divinity being manifested, as can most of Waruo's souls most likely. Lucipher/Louis Cipher in particular should easily be able to recognize the Matthew's nature as close to his own/a kindred spirit, that of a being intimately tied to The Morning Star.


**********************
Matt Clones

"What are they doing over there?!" the harried clone asked as the second floor exploded, only for Emma and Waruo to join them outside. With so many targets to keep watch off, the clone had been forced spawn it's own clone to keep up while still defending itself; effectively splitting it's chakra in half to buy the group the time they needed.

"Looks pretty serious if-" the second clone began to respond, before being cut off when it had to dodge roll out of the way of a diving shoggoth and blasting it back into the ether, "If the boss is pulling sparklebutt out now,"

The first close sighed heavily after launching an arrow at a shoggoth that tried to take advantage of Emma's distraction upon arrival, before being lanced through by the pink ray, "At least his aura should give'em more breathing room,"

"Here's hoping that's enough, sounds like things are getting rough inside,"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Enough games!" She teleported again and when she realized she was above a few of them and she attacked with the whip that came out in a glowing blue and electric yellow light. The monsters shrieked before they were destroyed. "Huh, who knew?" She teleported again back to beside Leandra prepping for another strike. Teleporting once more mia attacked a few more taking care of them before appearing back at the top of the stairs.

Taken by surprise, Leandra observes the small changes in Mia as she begins her transformation into a powerful heroine. Her eyes, her movements...

You're getting bolder. Leandra's hands sign silently, not that Mia can really understand it. I like that. Now let's finish this.

With a pleased nod to her new partner, Leandra hurdles to the bottom the cold stone stairs and slaps her book against the ground, scattering the waiting monsters with a shimmering shockwave. That should give the pair some space to observe the area and prepare their next attack.

The ceiling of this floor is high, giving Mia space to throw her whip around and juggle the unsuspecting shoggoths in the air. Ahead are shelves upon shelves of old books, many of them broken and scattered across the floor by the careless monster horde. A strange light shines from a swirling projection at the other end of the library.

OH GOOD AN ANOMALY WE ALL LOVE THOSE

...a gate of souls? Here?

"We've seen something like that, too! I wonder where this one goes..."

More to the point, look at what is right under it.

The glowing portal hovers above a pedestal featuring a thick book with an intimidating red cover. Of course, the aisles between our heroes and that platform are still clogged with writhing meatballs.

"Alright! We need to get over there."

With a wave of Leandra's hand, a translucent wall of force appears from thin air and rushes forward, shoving the monsters down the aisle. Before they reach the end, Leandra signs another swipe; two more walls appear, smashing the beasts together into a compact, convenient pile.

[ArlEammon]

Dead Shoggoths

The dead Shoggoths were now littering the first floor of the Estate. Jacob's attention was turned towards the doppleganger, as was Denis'es. Somewhere in the estate Peasely was busy, unbenownst to his new guests, doing what, no one knows. The werewolf was slashing and clawing his way against anyone who was anywhere near himself and the bed rooms. Jacob himself launched a powerful spell of disintegration against the doppleganger warlock, doing him harm, though not destroying him. The closest target to the doppleganger would find himself covered in the blast radius of a twenty foot fireball circle. Fortunately these magical fires did not set fire to the estate.

[Assurau]

"I hate to disappoint you, but Nathaniel Peaseley is in the basement of the house, trying to seal the dimensional rift that's opened underneath here. As for you, I think that you will all make a good snack before dinner time". "Nathaniel Peaseley" transformed into a doppleganger, a mysteriously ugly blue Humanoid with Elf like ears. . . his cloak and robe were purple and red and he possessed a royal looking sceptre of powerful magic. Unknown to the others he was a local of the Great Wheel. His companion was an unusually tough wolf man, superior even to creatures usually finding themselves far more powerful than a mere wolf man, this creature could have survived more than his fair share worth of dangers, and had devoured adventurers in his past.

As soon as the words left the elf-like creature's mouth, Alana's mind went into overdrive.




Alana: "Ok, Situation analysis: Our host and his butler have been revealed as fakes. They seem to possess some knowledge on us. No indication on how much is known. We have been left pretty much on our own with the exception of the girl, whose ability outside of some form of winter-theme magic, given the feel she gives off. So, Options, people. "
Homura: "Going Meguca and intiating a time stop.
Sasuke: "Separate them. Use Shadow Clone and teleport the wolf towards the group down stairs. They have better firepower. Simultanenously, we disable the caster."
Zetto: "Dark Energy Burst. Pushes them both off balance, possibly damage the scepter and leaves the caster open for further retaliation."
Riku: I'd like to point out that someone's unleashed a blast of energy on the other side of the wall.

Alana just looked at the mental representation of the room she was in to see that there were, in fact, cracks in the nearby wall. Light could be seen through them as they slowly got bigger.
Alana:" Well, fornication. Ok, change of plans. We need....."

Sombra:"Good news, the elf has no magical defenses whatsoever. Bad news, the wolf is attempting to extract our entrails via manual application of force. Worse news, Someone is casting what i can only believe to be a burst version of a disintegration spell on the elf. The elf may be able to survive it, though. "

Alana bags her head on the table that she and her egos are around.
Alana:"What else?"
Sombra: "We're in the spell's radius of effect."

Alana takes a deep breath and refocuses again. Silence reigns in the chamber.

Homura: I have a solution.


With renewed drive, Alana burst into action. As the Werewolf pounced upon her, a smirk appeared on the young chosen's face as she burst into shadows. Said shadows quickly reassembled themselves into Alana outside of the disintegration spell's radius. With one hand, she raised her keyblade and yelled "GRAVIRA!". The second tier gravity spell activated, drastically increasing the Gravity's effect on the doppelganger and the werewolf, smashing them to the floor. With the other hand, she preformed the seals for the Shadow Clone jutsu. As soon as her clone materialized in a black cloud, it also produce a copy of her keyblade as well.

[Kyojo777]

As Waruo runs away, he stops to see Matthew, who has began to shine like a star.

"Annelise, I know your scared and confused. You don't know what to do, or who to trust right now; and that's alright. It's okay to be afraid and to worry about everything that's happened; but you don't have to face all this on your own,"

Despite being directed towards this "Annelise", these words resonated with Waruo. They quelled his fears, and soothed him. Matthew's voice was like........a mother's.


I'll fill this in later >_>.


Waruo was filled with sadness, so much that he wanted to cry. As if to brake him out of his trance, Cyphre speaks to Waruo.


Cyphre: "Waruo, do you feel that?"
Waruo in fact did feel it, he felt the divinity radiating from Matthew.
Waruo: "Y-yes, I can feel it."
Cyphre: "I want to ask you, do you know what that means, Waruo?"
Waruo: "...........What?"
Cyphre: "......Nothing."


As Waruo returns his focus to the outside world, he sees that a Shoggoth is about to attack him.

Waruo:"W-Woah!"

Thinking fast, Waruo shoots out a wind wave which diagonally cuts the Shoggoth. As the Shoggoth falls, Waruo sees that his wind wave was too big and had passed through the Shoggoth. The wave then cuts the building completely in half diagonally at the center. Looking away, Waruo hides in a nearby bush so that the others don't suspect that it was him who cut the buliding.

[Sapphira Jade]

Taken by surprise, Leandra observes the small changes in Mia as she begins her transformation into a powerful heroine. Her eyes, her movements...

You're getting bolder. Leandra's hands sign silently, not that Mia can really understand it. I like that. Now let's finish this.

With a pleased nod to her new partner, Leandra hurdles to the bottom the cold stone stairs and slaps her book against the ground, scattering the waiting monsters with a shimmering shockwave. That should give the pair some space to observe the area and prepare their next attack.

The ceiling of this floor is high, giving Mia space to throw her whip around and juggle the unsuspecting shoggoths in the air. Ahead are shelves upon shelves of old books, many of them broken and scattered across the floor by the careless monster horde. A strange light shines from a swirling projection at the other end of the library.

OH GOOD AN ANOMALY WE ALL LOVE THOSE

...a gate of souls? Here?

"We've seen something like that, too! I wonder where this one goes..."

More to the point, look at what is right under it.

The glowing portal hovers above a pedestal featuring a thick book with an intimidating red cover. Of course, the aisles between our heroes and that platform are still clogged with writhing meatballs.

"Alright! We need to get over there."

With a wave of Leandra's hand, a translucent wall of force appears from thin air and rushes forward, shoving the monsters down the aisle. Before they reach the end, Leandra signs another swipe; two more walls appear, smashing the beasts together into a compact, convenient pile.

Planning a final blow mia studied the juggling shoggoths for a moment before getting an idea. "Let's see if this works." She got into this position. "5, 4, 3, 2,......1" She got the right moment. "Now!" She yanked the whip away and teleported like a rocket through each remaining shoggoth and landed a few inches in front of them with her back turned as the monsters behind her were destroyed. "Right, back to Leandra." She rearmed her whip and teleported again rejoining Leandra. Mia didn't even realize that her eye color had returned to normal. "I wonder what that was about?" She murmured.
"You're welcome"

Mia looked around. "Who said that?" she asked quietly even though she didn't see anyone else other then herself and everyone else in the room.

[ArlEammon]

Nathaniel Peasely
Andrew stood nearby Nathaniel, never leading his side. Nathaniel himself was busy doing some kind of magical spell to prevent the seal from keeping it'self open. . . he had indeed nearly finished. Andrew however drew a magic sword and put it to Leandra's throat. "Who are you and what are you doing here? You certainly aren't SWAT or police officers. I can tell. . . Wait." He sheathes his sword. "I can tell, you're an Awakened".

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Ha! Well, you seem to have adapted quickly." That was fun.

As the pair approaches the portal, Leandra doesn't have time to ask about the voice in Mia's head before Andrew is all over them.

"Huh? Well, yes, I'm Leandra! We met upstairs just a minute ago, right? I-"

**KRAAACKAKOOOM!** Some dust and debris drops from the ceiling as the battle rages upstairs.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP THERE?

"Should we go help them?"

Help them? They are probably the ones doing it. I'm sure it will be fine.

YEAH, WELL, YOU DIDN'T HEAR IT

Just stay focused.

"...well, anyway, I'm Leandra, this is Mia, and I think this is our first time hearing the word for what we are now." She looks up at the magical seal thing. "Is this the source of the shoggoth attacks? I can help seal it..."

She calls to mind a spell that Lana used to close a similar gateway, and a song of sealing that Elena used to know...

...

Just cast the spell! We are not going to save the day by hesitating!

I'm just waiting for permission. It should only be a second.

"...what is that? Did anyone else feel that?"

You mean the feeling that you just missed an important opportunity for no reason? Yes.

...it could be a temporal anomaly.

NO, STOP RIGHT THERE, NO TEMPORAL ANOMALY CRAP. I REFUSE.

...alright.

[Dark Knight Renee]

One can't pick themselves up telekinetically!"
"You were doing it wrong."

Xander lept for Jason, stopping a hands breadth from him before standing on a floor of air he was crushing into a solid plane, his mind running 6 hours and 40 minutes to the second, while with VATS, Zerg biology, boosted nerves and magical assistance his body moved at maybe 5 times faster than a person was capable.
This meant by the time he was next to Jason, he was merely finding a target upon which to break his hand with his sniper rifle.

"You can force your will on others! I need you to try and force her on me. Even if you only hold her for a moment I will have days in which to calm her."
"If we're lucky."
"And my magic guarantees that the scales are somewhat in our favour..."
"And in the mean time, can I complement you on your prodigious vocabulary."

"Except that his mind isn't meant to go any where near that fast; meaning that even if it were to work the way you hope, you could damage the rest of his psyche!" he countered hotly, the whole thing stank of a Yamanaka experiment gone awri and one too many tsukiyomi horror stories.

"Isolating her is the last thing we should be doing right now any way; And nothing personal, but I think she isn't react well to Kerrigan and a few others in there," Matthew commented bashfully, fairly certain that the ill-judged girl would react poorly to being isolated with the Queen of Blades and Legion given their natures and appearances; doubt Annelise so given the...unbelievable tact they psuedo-hivemind had handled her so far, and the second volley of ice attacks launched at Xander.
Jason attempted to recoil from Xander, but only managed a slight flinch - his current position in the stable center of a space-warping cocoon of biotic power prevented him from moving much, which was just as well really, since the ice Anna kept making on his extremities was being torn to bits when it spread into the surrounding field of fluctuating mass. Kaidan hadn't said anything specific on the matter, but Jason had a feeling that what Anna had done was neither conventional nor safe, despite it's resemblance to a familiar biotic technique.


Loki: "I see. It seems that you are misinformed, probably by this 'movie'."
Jason: "More likely it's the comics."
Loki: :smallconfused: [B]"... Regardless, I have no such power, and even if I did I wouldn't use it for that."
Jason: "It's not worth the risk of her getting her panicky paws on your magic."
Kaidan: "And we're all in agreement on that point."
Ned: "So don't bother asking again."
Mayurra: "Now please go deal with the incident in the mansion and leave us alone. Your well-meaning attempts to assist us have consistently made things worse."
As if to punctuate the refusal (but actually just a matter of coincidental timing), Anneliese launched another attack on Xander - this time in the form of a still and silent shadow evocation (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/shadow-evocation) ice storm (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/ice-storm) spell, centered on Xander but including Matthew, Emma, and Jason himself in its area. Jason cursed as large hailstones made of shadow-stuff fell into the increasingly-unstable mass effect fields and were torn apart, and some of it make it through as high-velocity shrapnel (which was decidedly worse than the original hailstones). Most of it hit magic armor and did no damage, but some hit his exposed face. The icy shards did far less damage than they would have if he'd still been a normal human (or if they'd been real ice rather than a low-level shadow-stuff imitation) but even so they drew blood, and it was a miracle none of the shards hit his eyes.


Mayurra: "So much for the hope that my spells might be too complex for her."
Jason: "Ow."
While Mayurra dismissed the ice storm spell (loudly thanking the gods that she could do so), Kaidan pulled the plug on his attempt to stabilize Anna's haphazard 'stasis' knock-off and instead gave it the final push it needed to completely fall apart - which it did somewhat violently, leaving Jason feeling like his insides had just been pulled and released like a rubber band - though some of that might have been just normal gravity taking hold again, levitation spell or no levitation spell. He retched.


"Jason, I think understand the problem; and I know how I can help..." Matthew explains with a hopeful grin as his halo and diaphanous mane brightened in response. His raiment changing from pink to the purest white and gold trimmed, while a horn-like sunbeam seemed to rise from his brow; the winged boy now radiant as he shone daylight upon the courtyard like a small sun. Brilliant and warm like morning light, yet it neither blinded nor strained the eye to Jason and the others; though the same couldn't be said for the few shoggoth's that tried to breakthrough his clone's over watch to the gathering quartet, feeling much like Icarus as he flew far too close to the sun and paid the price for his hubris.

"Annelise, I know your scared and confused. You don't know what to do, or who to trust right now; and that's alright. It's okay to be afraid and to worry about everything that's happened; but you don't have to face all this on your own," he uttered in a voice as soothing as a mothers, and as warm as the spring sun after a long winter, "You have Jason and the others with you, but you have us as well; even if some of us may seem scary. We're all in this together Annelise, you can rely on us,"

"And right now, I need you to trust me," he gently requested as he extended a hand towards Jason, stopping just outside the mass effect bubble, "Annelise I can help you, and I want to help you, but I can only do that if you want me to. Let me shed some light for you, let me help you understand. Take my hand with Jason, reach out to me; I swear won't let you fall, and I won't let you down,"


Mayura should be able to tell that Matthew is preparing a Memory Spell; a simple enchantment designed to allow an individual to understand the gist of another's experiences and/or knowledge. It is by design a completely harmless effect to both the caster and the target.

Loki can probably notice the spark of divinity being manifested, as can most of Waruo's souls most likely. Lucipher/Louis Cipher in particular should easily be able to recognize the Matthew's nature as close to his own/a kindred spirit, that of a being intimately tied to The Morning Star.
(Provided Xander backed off as asked, and that Matthew's positioning allows Jason to turn to put Xander out of his line of sight) Anneliese was mesmerized but Matthew, the soothing light the tone of his words taking the edge off of her blind panic and holding her attention so that she no longer tried to hurl spells or biotic powers at Xander, shoggoths, or magic-using teammates off doing their thing in the background. The buildup of ice on Jason's body didn't exactly stop, but it did slow to a crawl, and since he was levitating well above the ground it didn't spread anywhere else.


Jason and his Egos couldn't tell if Anneliese actually understood what Matthew was saying or if she was responding solely to his tone (previously her panic had gotten so deep that she seemed not to have been comprehending speech, which had been a blessing at the time).
"I'm going to take his hand now and accept whatever spell he's casting," Jason gave his Egos a heads up, giving Anneliese a final chance to protest (she didn't) and Mayurra and Loki confirmation that they were to drop whatever magical defenses they were still maintaining.
Slowly, partially to give Anneliese plenty of opportunity to understand what he was doing and change her mind, and partially because he had to break a fair amount of ice to do so, Jason reached out and took Matthew's hand - or at least put the irregular lump of ice surrounding his hand in Matthew's hand, which was the best he could do under the circumstances.



My interpretation of what Movieverse Loki can do is quite conservative. The insistences of mind control seem to be either explicitly based on the Chitauri sceptre, or are a single unexplained occurrence that, in the absence of actual evidence that he's every performed a similar feat elsewhere in Movieverse, I'm assuming was also achieved with the help of his Chitauri 'benefactors'.

Likewise, I've seen no evidence that he's ever used ice in Movieverse when not in possession of the Casket of Ancient Winters; however, being a Jotun, it follows that the latent ability is present (hence Anneliese using it).

I'm assuming Matthew will take the brief assault of shadow-hail without breaking stride, so to speak. As to the OOC material, unless the memory spell is based on D&D magic rules (the in-universe ones that characters interact with, not the player-focused ones in the rulebooks) I doubt Mayurra will have a clue what the spell is about - though she will detect that magic is being prepared for casting. And finally, Loki's status as a 'deity' comes solely from having inspired myths; in actual fact he's just an alien with an over-inflated ego, so no sensing on the divinity front there.

And I'll save reactions to Waruo cutting the building in half for a later post :smalleek:

[ArlEammon]

"No. . . don't do that Mia, you'll only. . . " suddenly after the spell was cast, a gutteral roaring sound could be heard throughout the whole former estate. The gate closed, but the spell inadvertently conjured something mysteriously evil from the Raudskinna. "What the hell!?" Andrew cussed. "This is stupid. . . stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You don't do something like that. Especially with the gate way to the gods".

It was Samael. His golden armor and hair, blue eyes and tall stature made him look very beautiful. He wielded his majestic sword with his right arm, and he was clothed in a golden light. He even possessed a halo, but something about him was obviously NOT GOOD.

[Sapphira Jade]

"Ha! Well, you seem to have adapted quickly." That was fun.

As the pair approaches the portal, Leandra doesn't have time to ask about the voice in Mia's head before Andrew is all over them.

"Huh? Well, yes, I'm Leandra! We met upstairs just a minute ago, right? I-"

**KRAAACKAKOOOM!** Some dust and debris drops from the ceiling as the battle rages upstairs.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP THERE?

"Should we go help them?"

Help them? They are probably the ones doing it. I'm sure it will be fine.

YEAH, WELL, YOU DIDN'T HEAR IT

Just stay focused.

"...well, anyway, I'm Leandra, this is Mia, and I think this is our first time hearing the word for what we are now." She looks up at the magical seal thing. "Is this the source of the shoggoth attacks? I think I can help you close it."

Even as she waits for permission, she starts calling her methods to mind. Lana used a magic spell to close one of these, and Elena knew a song meant for sealing evils away.

Mia gave a quick wave.

"It seems that we may have two problems, but one's being taken care of, the noise from above on the other hand that's a different story."
"Hold on who the heck are you?"
"So, there's more then one here.....there better be a reason."
"What's going on?!" "I don't like this!"
"Ugh, freak out much?"
"Enough!" "All of you!" "There's a reason for this and we all need to figure it out which means we all work together."
"Who made you the boss?"

Mia grimaced and had a bit of a headache. "Unknown voices, but no one here, but us." She shook it off to stay focused. "Awakened?" "What's an Awakened?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

The schoolteacher looks to Mia as the spell does its work, illuminating the portal with an incandescent glow.

"The awakened are people who have memories of past lives from magically-active universes, like myself. Well, and you, now. You said you were hearing voices... I suspect that those are those memories, trying to make sense of their new existence."

As she says this, a part of her is taken aback. She replies to herself in Japanese sign:

You are wrong, Leandra.

What?

You heard me. I am here for the sake of saving the world, but I am not going to just hand my life and identity over to you. I refuse.

"...I could be wrong, though," she concedes.

Just as she says this, the seal closes completely, putting an end to the shoggie warp-ins. The Raudskinna, unfortunately, seems to have other ideas and flips out. Andrew immediately takes the opportunity to chew Leandra out, having already gotten her and Mia's names confused.

"What? Ugh!" Leandra uses her binder to shield herself and Mia from the flash and bang of a final dramatic warp-in.

It's Samael.

Leandra isn't sure what to make of him yet, but Millenia quickly gets excited.

*sniffff* "Whoah-ho! Do you smell that?! I dare you to tell me that's not Valmar's venom. I am totally stealing it when we're done killing him."

No one's killing anyone, Millenia! ...I hope.

WELL YOU'D BETTER HOPE FASTER BECAUSE HE DOESN'T LOOK PATIENT

[Sapphira Jade]

The schoolteacher looks to Mia as the spell does its work, illuminating the portal with an incandescent glow.

"The awakened are people who have memories of past lives from magically-active universes, like myself. Well, and you, now. You said you were hearing voices... I suspect that those are those memories, trying to make sense of their new existence."

As she says this, a part of her is taken aback. She replies to herself in Japanese sign:

You are wrong, Leandra.

What?

You heard me. I am here for the sake of saving the world, but I am not going to just hand my life and identity over to you. I refuse.

"...I could be wrong, though," she concedes.

Just as she says this, the seal closes completely, putting an end to the shoggie warp-ins. The Raudskinna, unfortunately, seems to have other ideas and flips out.

"What? Ugh!" Leandra uses her binder to shield herself and Mia from the flash and bang of a final dramatic warp-in.

It's Samael.

His oppressive aura notwithstanding, Leandra isn't sure what to make of him yet, but Millenia quickly gets excited.

*sniffff* "Whoah-ho! Do you smell that?! I dare you to tell me that's not Valmar's venom. I am so totally stealing it when we're done killing him."

No one's killing anyone, Millenia! ...I hope.

WELL YOU'D BETTER HOPE SOMEWHERE SAFER, BECAUSE HE'S COMING RIGHT FOR US

"Past lives......voices......" Mia was trying to make sense of it all, but also to stay ready because of this new arrival. "Oh no"

"I believe your friend is basically saying that the five of us, your voices in your head, were you in the past."
Mia: "You five were me?" "I think I get it now." "But how about not arguing so loudly that I'm getting a headache."
"I can help keep them in line."
"Hmph, fine, but don't think that I'll enjoy it."
"We're all trying to make sense of this new state were in." "This past life thing is a lot to take in."
"Ok, ok, I'll just keep it together now."

Mia sighed. "I'm going to have to put up with them." She stood up ready to fight back. "I'm guessing this guy is very bad news?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Well..." She looks up. The creepy angel is right there. "Well, I suppose it is impolite to talk about someone right in front of them." Leandra's hands resume translating her words into sign.

"Hello." Hello.

[5ColouredWalker]

The sudden storm of ice and scattered snow is, to Xander at least, mostly a mild annoyance. The cold was bothersome, but his skin mocked steel both in it's zerg construction and fey herritage.

More bothersome to him was much of his wrist suffering extensive damage as he fired a anti-tank sniper rifle at the shapeshifter that previously posed as Nathanial as he moved back from Jacob, whose presence he had already begun dismissing for the need to fight...
While Xander's wrist would regenerate in short order, he decided to simply drop the sniper rifle, catching it mid-air telekentically, freeing his arm to send lightning down his arm towards both the shapeshifter and the werewolf, this time the lightning is not joined by magical force as it arcs between the two foes seeking to cut and fry.

[Sapphira Jade]

"Well..." She looks up. The creepy angel is right there. "Well, I suppose it is impolite to talk about someone right in front of them." Leandra's hands resume translating her words into sign.

"Hello." Hello.

"Right, we got mr creepy right there." "Er, um, hi." Mia was a little worried.

[ArlEammon]

Samael

". . . " Samael appeared in all seriousness as unable to process what was occurring. "This is not convenient." Samael stated. "Why is it that I am here? Nathaniel Peaseley, and the rest of you. . . ?" He asked rhetorically. However the gate was suddenly gone. Doctor Strange appeared in a teleportation spell with his Wand of Watomb and Eye of Agamotto. A magical wand and a talisman, respectively. Both glew and then shined within a moment's notice, nearly banishing Samael back to where he came from. "That was close". The Sorcerer Supreme stated. "Not to easy to do either." He was exhausted. However Samael reappeared, less powerful and weakened; his avatar was now weak. . . and the Doctor found himself gone from the estate in a magical banishment spell. The warlock on the second floor was busy fighting with the others.

[Sapphira Jade]

Samael

". . . " Samael appeared in all seriousness as unable to process what was occurring. "This is not convenient." Samael stated. "Why is it that I am here? Nathaniel Peaseley, and the rest of you. . . ?" He asked rhetorically. However the gate was suddenly gone. Doctor Strange appeared in a teleportation spell with his Wand of Watomb and Eye of Agamotto. A magical wand and a talisman, respectively. Both glew and then shined within a moment's notice, nearly banishing Samael back to where he came from. "That was close". The Sorcerer Supreme stated. "Not to easy to do either." He was exhausted. However Samael reappeared, less powerful and weakened; his avatar was now weak. . . and the Doctor found himself gone from the estate in a magical banishment spell. The warlock on the second floor was busy fighting with the others.

Mia backed up a little and gulped. "Uh-oh" she squeaked.

"He's weakened." "We should be taking this opportunity to try and fight back."
Mia: "We can't just charge in blindly!" "And by the way, are you five ever going to tell me your names?"
"She does have a point." "We need some kind of plan." "I am Dr. Egon Spegler, I was a scientist and a ghostbuster."
"You've got to be kidding!" "Ghosts don't exist."
Egon: "They do along with other types of the supernatural."
Blake: "Blake Belladonna, professional huntress."
A. May: "I'm Agent May, high-ranked agent of S.H.I.E.L.D"
Mia: "What's S.H.I.E.L.D?"
A. May: "That's classified."
Lucy: "Hello, I'm Lucy Heartfilia." "Celestial wizard that was the owner of the celestial spirits." "They're the keys on that keyring you have."
Mia: "You better teach me about these celestial spirits."
Lucy: "No problem."
Mia: "Ok, what about Mr. Sarcasm and bad attitude?"
"How dare you!"
A. May: "Cool it down!"
Wesker: "Hmph, fine." "The name's Wesker." "I was a bio-terrorist and somewhat of a scientist."
Mia: "Oh, great" "I was an evil villain that did nasty experiments and a terrorist."
Lucy: "I think one of my keys could be of use against this guy." "Let me help you out."


Mia directed her eyes to her one jacket pocket. "The keys....." she murmured. She put her hand in her pocket and felt the keyring in there before taking it out again. She debated over pulling them out or not to fight back.

[Regalus]

Matt's Clones

The youngest of the clones swore as Jason's magic flared, and he saw what might have been shadow touched icicle-splitter erupt around Xander... right over the nice girl that had been tongue wrestling with Kyoko earlier. With no time to spare a horn of light formed on the clones brow before he winked out existence, only to reappear with an audible pop and flash of light besides Emma; erecting a pink bubble around the pair a moment later to shoulder the dregs of the icy assault before they could do more harm.

"You okay Emma?" questioned the clone-in-pink as he squinted at the sudden change in illumination, and the heady feeling of his wink; all in all the clone was thankful for the ices ephemeral nature and his true-self's incandescent light weakening it further, lest his rescue had cost him his life.



Meanwhile the eldest clone kept at it's duty, of picking of SHoggoths; while dancing around the few that tried to catch him off guard. The construct had grown worried when his partner had gone of on it's own, but whispered a silent thank you when Warou's over done spell managed to give the invaders enough pause for him to 'catch up' as it were; even if the gale managed to take out a large chunk of the building as well. After all was said and done, he'd definitely be having a talk with the boy about proper spell management; he totally could've taken out a few more shoggoth's with that attack! Such a shame.

********
Prime!Matt

Matt simply frowned as the shadow-wrought ice approached him. His soul had shined within the deepest darkness. His sister had been the night itself, and more than once had he felt the bite of night's coldest chill; compared to the frost between stars, what could such a wildly cast phantom hope to achieve? Like a shadow faced with the dawning sun, those shards seemed to burn away to morning mist when they came within inches of the winged boy; his gaze never wavering from the other young man.

When he sees the bubble at last pop, he allows himself a small smile in turn; which only grows warmer as he sees Jason slowly reach out to him, knowing just how much of an effort...how much of a risk the young man was taking with this. As the young man's hand closed the distance to Matthew's he'd find the between them vanishing in time; fore while Matthew could not stop the ice from coming forth, so close to the light he could at least banish it with his warmth as soon as it came. When at last their bare hands met warmth suffused the union like a sudden summer wind that spread out from the pair; an almost electric feeling surging through their bodies as the Fallen Daystar's spell ran it's course.


Like a movie playing out within his mind, but sped up to an increadible pace; dozens of hundreds of scenes flashed through his eyes every moment. All together too numerous and swift to truly catch more than glimpses and patterns among them; yet it's narrative was clear. While the whole of the tale was beyond the grasp of words; it's essential truths were as clear and irrefutable to Annelise, and by proxy Jason, as a cloudless sky.

It was always very loud back then. A great agitation issued from the ground itself, rising into the air and filling all with discontent and worry
Beneath them stretched a mad landscape of spots and checkers, above twisted a kaleidoscope sky; and all between was ceaseless, unbroken chaos. Eventually the people grew callous to the clamor, and slipped from anxiety into malaise; shedding their passion and their purpose. All through Discord's (http://pre07.deviantart.net/1cd2/th/pre/i/2011/290/6/d/king_of_chaos___discord_by_kyumara-d4d4ii8.png) dark caprice; wielding power to change the world at a whim, and drawing merriment form the suffering of those around him.

She and Her sister did battle against it, and in the end prevailed through the power of the Fruit of their world; banishing chaos and sealing away Discord. However, though the bedlam had come to an end the world was left scarred; the seasons broken and nature left in turmoil. All would have been lost had her precious people not banded under Her and her sister. The pair provided guidance for the people, and managing the cycle of day and night; a celestial dance by which the world could order it's moments, and cornerstones of creation. While their people used their native magic to tended to land and the sky; changing the seasons, and bringing life to barren ground. Together they brought Harmony back to nature, and for a time everything was good. In time civilization pieced itself back together, and a nation arose around the two sisters; following their guidance to bring forth a new age of prosperity, but like all things it wasn't meant to last.

Unbeknownst to Her, her Sister's heart began to grow heavy as she watched their people, saw how they revered Her yet reviled her night. Eventually those feelings of envy turned to loathing, and then madness; a twisting corruption of the spirit that birthed a Nightmare that threatened to engulf the world in eternal night, threatening all life in their world. It was a difficult battle, the two too evenly matched and the lives of their people threatened with every blow; so it was that with a heavy heart that She was forced to called forth the Elements of Harmony once more, and sealed her sister in the moon for a thousand years.

A thousand winters spent alone, trying to understand how everything had gone so wrong. A thousand springs spent guiding their people, and undoing the damage that had been done. A thousand summers spent trying to find a way to save her sister from dark madness that consumed her. A thousand autumns spent hoping the next lead would be the one... before she'd be forced to seal her sister for a thousand years more; forcing them to suffer another thousand years apart.

As the decades passed she saw her people forge many wonders as their mastery of their arts grew; she knew her precious people would soon need greater guidance as a new age began to dawn. So She took up apprentices, nurturing those she saw great potential in; those who'd become the greatest minds and magi of their time, and leave their mark in history. From these she learned many things in turn, heights that she had never thought possible reached through mortal talent and ingenuity; and in time she found the answer to her tragedy through them, the realization that there lay more to Harmony and Magic than she once believed. However after over nine centuries and countless leads that had all come up short; the Princess of the Sun was all but resigned to face her Sister's madness by herself once more.

And then She found her.

She was such a shy thing, yet her potential...it was beyond words. She had been amazed when she sensed her all the way from your court when she had her entrance exam... her magic having gone wild from shock, and unleashing more power than any girl that young should ever have. The whole ordeal could have easily ended in tragedy. Those around her could have suffered injury, or a far worse fate worse, before no doubt turning against her in fear; but thankfully it never came to that. At that moment She took her to under Her wing; declaring the child Her personal student, and never once did she regret it.

It took years for her to regain her confidence in herself, and you had to turn away more than one individual who was 'concerned' about her power; but in time She saw her come out of her shell. She was a gentle-hearted scholar with a brilliant mind and eyes that sparkled with wonder at the world around her; in truth, her only failing was how sheltered she was around most people. It was hard for her to tear herslef from her books, and make friends; but she overcame that as well, and through that a miracle was born.

The bond she shared with her friends proving strong enough to heal your Sister, and save her from her madness. You saw how they overcame countless trials both small and large, mundane and earthshaking; even managing to endure Discord's deceptions when he broke free, and defeat him. Through her new alliances were forged with many nations, wars were halted before their flames could be stoked to a fever pitch, and lost empires were saved from certain doom. Though the greater miracle was when She took a leap of faith, presenting Discord to her and her friends; only for them to both befriend and redeem the former tyrant of Chaos despite their initial trepidation, who would become one of their most stalwart allies.

In the end she exceeded even Her wildest dreams; realizing her true potential, and achieving something that no mortal had ever done before. She ascended through the strength of the bond she had with her friends and her Special Talent of Magic. She became Princess Amicitia Zorya Spes Equestria, Alicorn of Magic and Princess of Friendship; but to Her she would always be her dearest student, Twilight Sparkle.

And all this came about because of little girl who was once feared for her power, only to become one of the greatest heroes She had ever met; a true paragon of the Magic of Friendship.

Magic is neither good, nor evil Annelise. It can bring about miracles or tragedies. It can be wielded by saints and monsters. Like all things in life, it is the heart of the person that uses it that determines whether it is good or evil. Much the same it is not our past, nor our appearances that make us into monsters; but rather it is what we do with the gifts given to us, that makes us into heroes or demons, sagely explained the impression of a gentle and motherly woman.

You are not a witch, Annelise. What was done to you, was a terrible thing by people consumed by fear; but what you do have is a gift. A wonderful gift beyond your years, that you never had the chance to explore before today; but you don't have to walk this path alone. Jason and your kin stand by you, and so do I. Whenever you feel fear clawing at your heart, remember that you are not alone. Trust in yourself and your friends, those who stand beside you come what may; and you'll overcome any darkness or demon you face.

You could bring forth something beautiful Annelise, if only you're given the chance; and I have faith that if given that chance you can be that miracle. And should you ever feel lost or afraid, reach out and help will come. You can count on me Annelise, as I'm sure you can count on Jason; that's what Friends are for after all,


When the spell passed Matthew released a heavy breath, before reopening his eyes and gently gazing at Jason; calmly awaiting the young man's reaction, or more importantly Annelise's, to his offering. The girl was no doubt shaken by everything that had happened. Finding herself in this far more industrialized world, and realizing she died; awakening to the fact her soul had the gift of magic after being killed as a witch had not helped, and the monsters were just the cherry on top. The girl needed reassurence desperately. She needed to know she was not damned, that she was not a monster, and that she wasn't alone; that come what may, she could count on them to help her. They just hoped it was enough.

[ArlEammon]

The great Samael

The monster was like a beautiful, dashing prince of the fairy tales. . . handsome, elegant and strong. He was, however, powerful beyond that of fairy tale sorcerers, even in his weakened form. Samael's eyes glowed brightly alight in a white shine. He breathed a deathly strong fire to consume his enemies, and drew his sword. . . a supernaturally powerful sword, capable of harming the angelic hosts. Though he appeared to be a perfectly angelic beauty, he was truly an evil creature. With his dark, ruby ring, he gathered darkness. . . and fired a magical version of dark matter. Not truly dark matter, but a kind of hatred in purely destructive form. A blast of dark magic capable of staggering great dragons and destroying elephants.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

In the split second between hearing the dark prince's breath and seeing it ignite, Leandra ducks and slams her book to the floor again. A shimmering bubble protects herself and Mia as flames fill the room, burning the aisles of books and shoggie corpses behind them to a fine ash.

"Keys? Well, I'm not sure what you mean, but if you think it will help, try it!"

Between maintaining the protective bubble and talking to Mia, Leandra fails to notice the mad angel's ring attack until the last instant - the same instant when Mia happens to be busy fiddling with the mysterious keys.

"Look out!"

She picks up her binder and throws herself in front of the beam of darkness, trying to use her book as a shield. This lasts for about two seconds before she's overpowered and sent flying towards the stairs, into the flames and dust.

Leandra's body lies limp, enveloped in a flickering black haze. At least the fire doesn't seem to be encroaching on Mia anymore. The bubble must have pushed out all of the flammable junk on the floor.

uuuuugh...

That was brave of you.

what... am i... Are we still alive?

"No, I... I believe I know that feeling. You died..."

"...but, somehow, we're still here~! Obviously someone is alive."

Well, Leandra, who do you think that might be? I suppose I do not have to point out that you have all died at least one time more than I have.

I'm not really in the mood for games, Shizune...

[Sapphira Jade]

In the split second between hearing the dark prince's breath and seeing it ignite, Leandra ducks and slams her book to the floor again. A shimmering bubble protects herself and Mia as flames fill the room, burning the aisles of books and shoggie corpses behind them to a fine ash.

"Keys? Well, I'm not sure what you mean, but if you think it will help, try it!"

Between maintaining the protective bubble and talking to Mia, Leandra fails to notice the mad angel's ring attack until the last instant - the same instant when Mia happens to be busy fiddling with the mysterious keys.

"Look out!"

She picks up her binder and throws herself in front of the beam of darkness, trying to use her book as a shield. This lasts for about two seconds before she's overpowered and sent flying towards the stairs, into the flames and dust.

Leandra's body lies limp, enveloped in a flickering black haze. At least the fire doesn't seem to be encroaching on Mia anymore. The bubble must have pushed out all of the flammable junk on the floor.

"Leandra!" exclaimed Mia. She fished out the keyring with all the keys on it. "Which one do I use?"

Lucy: "USE LEO!"
Mia: "Ow, don't shout." "Leo?"
Lucy: "He may look harmless because he's human, but he's one of the strongest spirits in the bunch and also we're not near water, so Aquarius is out of the question." "He's also called Loke by the way."
Mia: "All right, if you think that works."
Lucy: "Trust me!" "It will!"

Mia searched the keys. "Leo.....Leo......Leo....."
Lucy: "It's the gold key with a red circle and a long tail on the top."

Sure enough with luck Mia found the right key and removed it. "If I was Lucy, then I should know how this works" she stated quietly. She shoved the key ring with the rest of the keys back into her pocket. "All right, let's see if I can get it to work." The key glowed and Mia tossed it into the air before catching it with the circle end in her hand. "Open! Gate of the Lion!" She turned the key in front of her and these two fancy orange circles appeared in front of her. "Leo!" This guy with lion mane like orange hair, sunglasses, and wearing in a fancy suit came out and joined her. "You summoned me?" "By the way, next time you do this call me by the name Loke" he stated. Mia looked at him in confusion. "You sure you're one of the strongest spirits because you don't look like it?"

Lucy: "AUGH!" "WEREN"T YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME WHEN I TOLD YOU ABOUT HIM?!"
Mia: "Sorry, sorry it seems I easily forgot."
Lucy: *exasperated sigh* "Focus next time please"

"I'll prove it to you if you help me" stated Leo/Loke. Mia went remove this other weapon, but she grabbed the whip instead. "All right, let's see if we can combine our strikes to do this" she added. Mia teleported while Leo/Loke charged forward and jumped up. Mia reappeared in time near the celestial spirit. "Now!" she exclaimed. She sent out the whip now glowing blue and electric yellow while Leo/Loke's ring glowed. "Power of regulus!" This glowing yellow flame like light appeared in front of him that looked like the face and mane of a lion and he sent it out to it forming these rings around the whip and both attacks struck at once. "I hope that at least did some damage to him" stated Mia. The two landed and Mia replaced the whip with this gun, bungee ribbon combination. She slipped the hole over her index finger on her left and she held it together for now. "I'll stick around as long as I can, but my time is limited" mentioned Leo/Loke. "Limited time?" "That a celestial spirit thing?" she asked. "Spirit and summoner contract" responded Leo/Loke. The two attacked again this time with two separate moves from Mia and her weapon and Leo/Loke's power of the regulus. "I hope Leandra is ok" stated Mia in worry looking in the direction where Leandra was.
Some of the blasts from both attacks whether together or separate also were causing damage to the area around everyone.
: Self-pity: "Why couldn't one of my past lives give me healing powers?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

Jason

As Jason and his Egos were treated to the weird and wonderful telempathic story, the ice coating his body melted from Matthew's warmth, leaving him soaking wet rather than frozen to near immobility - a vast improvement, even though his boots were now filled with water. Likewise, all of the built up tension from the past few minutes of frantic desperation left his body.

But all of this was secondary to the feels. Matthew/Celestia's story came with its own emotional information, being conveyed across a telempathic medium, but more striking were the reactions it triggered in Jason's Egos. None were immune (though the jaded Mayurra was nearly so; thankfully she kept her opinions to herself, unwilling to undermine the story's value for the others), and the tale had the intended effect on Anneliese - her fear of magic banished, her trust in her companions (both inside and out) restored, and her blind panic soothed. Whether any of the effects would stick, especially faced with the horrors of combat, only time would tell - but for the moment at least she felt calm and confident and brave, ready to handle whatever the next few minutes threw at her.

The same could not be said for Loki. His reaction to the telempathic story was equally dramatic, but definitely not what Matthew/Celestia had intended. For Loki saw too much of his own story reflected in the tale of Celestia and Luna, and he didn't like what he saw. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't look away; the the magic wouldn't let him. The narrative continued unabated, Anneliese got her healing Aesop - and Loki was forced to face the fact that he was a monster and had no one to blame for it but himself.

Then the spell ended. Broken, consumed by self-loathing and despair, Loki retreated from reality as far as he could go, locking himself in a mental vault and throwing up the divination shield once more.

"I have good news, and I have bad news," Jason told Matthew, just as the bifurcated mansion began to collapse on itself. "But apparently it'll have to wait."


Emma

"I'm okay, thanks," Emma told the Matt-clone, grateful for the rescue. Even knowing the spell was a shadowy imitation of the real thing, it could still hurt. "Is Jason?" she asked, for the empathic bond Tethrysn had once shared with Mayurra was now an emphatic bond between all of Emma and all of Jason, but the emotional information it conveyed did not include any hint of the extensive compartmentalization that Jason and his Egos experienced - and the resulting blend of powerful and mutually exclusive emotions gave the impression of profound insanity.

Then the mansion collapsed. "Is everyone else?" Emma added faintly.


While there may be a slight delay between the mansion being initially sliced in half diagonally and the building collapsing from loss of structural integrity, this post is still behind events in the basement - about even with this post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20216346&postcount=139). But Regalus and I should be entirely free to react to events in the rubble-pile-that-was-a-mansion now.

[ArlEammon]

Fire And More Fire
Samael conjured more and more fire. . . his fire wasn't red or yellow, it was white. . . burning across the basement floor, as large as some people's houses. The burning fires took down much of the house. Meanwhile, the destruction of the house, caused both by half of it being sliced off, and the exploding flames coming from the basement charred both the basement floor, and the heat of it's fire traveled upwards, intensifying the most at the height of the white, billowing pillars. However, the white fire burned so brightly with such a large blast radius, that the first floor exploded. . . leaving only the basement "intact", "intact" that is, except for the falling debrees, and the horrifyingly charred remains of the furniture, as all surroundings were nothing but ash. Everywhere there was space, there now fell debris. The rubble, wood, rock and metal all fell like a rain storm, although very little of the debris were actual debris, it rained black.

[Sapphira Jade]

Fire And More Fire
Samael conjured more and more fire. . . his fire wasn't red or yellow, it was white. . . burning across the basement floor, as large as some people's houses. The burning fires took down much of the house. Meanwhile, the destruction of the house, caused both by half of it being sliced off. However, the white fire burned so brightly with such a large blast radius, that the first floor exploded. . . leaving only the basement "intact", "intact" that is, except for the falling debrees. Everywhere there was space, there now fell debris. The rubble, wood, rock and metal all fell like a rain storm.

"Oh jeez!" Mia tried her best to avoid the falling debris and the fire, but both her and Leo/Loke took hits and were knocked aside. "Are you ok Loke?" She asked. "I'm fine, but I better get back to the spirit world." "Later, Mia" he stated before vanishing. mia was shocked. "How did he know my name?" She noticed more debris falling and did her best to go and check on Leandra.

[Regalus]

"What in the Sam hell..." Matthew blurted out in shock as he saw and heard the structure shiver and groan as the attack took it's toll, before turning in direction of his clones, "I thought you guys were keeping an eye on things over here!"

"Hey, not our fault; we've been doing our jobs. That was all Waruo," countered the clone besides Emma.

"And it was awesome! Boy can pack a punch!" happily interjected the eldest of the clones in the distance in between sniping foes, his toothy grin practically audible in his tone.

The glowing boy softly shook his head as he began to descend slowly, Jason in hand; they had a lot of catching up to do given all the explosions he was hearing outside. Though that seemed to only be the start of there mess as the magic in the air seemed to shift suddenly; causing the boy and his clones to shiver as massive presence seemed to take root within the depths of the Mansion. The three shared a look as they spread their magical senses, and frowned at the results.

"Okay, good news and bad news people," Matthew announced to Jason, Emma and Waruo as they touched ground, and his radiance faded to a dim glow, "Good news: Everyone's still a live, the guys upstairs seemed to have everything under control, while the folks in the basement sealed whatever dimensional anomaly was letting these things through, and after Waruo's assault there's only a few stragglers left on the first floor and on the otherside of the mansion. Bad news is something's in the basement; and it's pretty nasty,"

"Personally, I think we should maintain the perimeter and keep the stragglers in check while the rest of you head inside with the Boss. We can take these guys easy so long as we don't get hit; but I don't think we'd last long against whatever's down there," offered the youngest clone matter-of-factly, "Unless one of you has a better idea; you folks know your skills and how you can help, better than we do,"

[Dark Knight Renee]

"Okay, what do we know about this new nasty?" Jason inquired.
"Not much," Emma replied, staring at the mansion with an intensity that implied concentration. "Too much magic being slung about, no way to tell what came from whom. How are you on spells?"
Jason grunted, doing a quick search through his pack for useful items. Unfortunately, there was an unforgivable lack of wands or scrolls. "Unless May miraculously gains access to my hands and mouth, two. Wait, no - apparently still three? What?"
"Oh, well, crap. I guess there's always biotics," Emma said. "Please, God, let this nasty be vulnerable to bullets..."
"Or ice. That would be awesome."
"Yes it would. Good luck in there."
"Thanks, I'll need it," Jason replied, tossing the useless backpack to Emma.
"Wait, your bow is in here!"
Jason almost replied that he couldn't use a bow, but Mayurra stopped him. Yes, you can. It's not like casting a spell, I can guide you. I can aim for you. And I can imbue the arrows with magic. "... Toss it over."

A moment later, with a magical quiver slung across his back and an equally magical composite bow in hand, Jason joined Matthew in advancing on what was left of the manor, leaving Emma to take cover with the clones. Just before they reached the half-collapsed building, it erupted in white-hot flames, the explosion powerful enough to send smaller bits of rubble sailing across the grounds. Then the rest of the building collapsed onto the combatants in the basement.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Spiraling gouts of flame fill the basement, blasting a path up the stairwell. Waves of white-hot energy wash over the cocoon of darkness still gripping what's left of Leandra, and her body ignites in a sphere of strobing light.

Tick tock, everyone~

"Oh riiiight! The flames! Okay, let's just give her the short version."

That angel's ring stunt selectively snuffed out you, Lana and Elena, at least for now. However-

Having evaded phase one of Samael's attack, Mia drops by Leandra's last known position on her way to safety... but, the schoolteacher is nowhere to be found. On the ground in her place is the body of someone else entirely - an asian girl, close to Mia's age and probably a decade younger than Leandra, with an open black robe covering clothes otherwise meant for very warm weather.

The girls' blue eyes flutter open and stare in wonder at Mia for a second. Then, in an instant, her face turns into a mischievous smile. She bolts upright and starts signing in the same language Leandra was using.

-you asking my permission?

"Pff, no! We already did it~"

We just wanted to let you know that it's my turn now.

...

Mia probably still can't understand her. That's annoying, but Shizune shrugs it off; she's not here for idle chat. She grab's Mia's hand and flies up the stairs, just ahead of the spherical nova that would obliterate the rest of the mansion. As the flames vanish and leave the ash and debris to rain down, Shizune comes to a landing outside next to Jason and company.

It has yet to occur to her that she and Mia are both strangers to everyone else here.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Two figures emerged from basement of the ruined basement at a run. Jason (or rather, Kaidan and Mayurra) recognized one of them from the hotel, and assumed that the reason he hadn't seen her here on the estate was that she'd been teleported and rendered invisible by Jacob. (Several meters away and with a gun trained on the pair, Emma was not as certain - invisibility could not explain why she hadn't spotted the girl since leaving the hotel.)

Shizune, however, they did NOT recognize from the hotel, which meant that she emerged from the rubble of the mansion only to come face to face with a nocked and drawn arrow, crackling with electricity. That she had a recognized Awakened with her was the only reason that Jason refrained from putting said arrow through her eye.


So... I'm gonna give Matt and/or Xander a chance to recognize Leandra despite her new form and then immediately move to stop Jason from taking the shot - because otherwise, I'm pretty sure Shizune is going to start signing, and he's going to shoot her without any additional hesitation because random hand motions in this scenario suggest spellcasting.

[ArlEammon]

Jacob arrived, noticing that the enemy was seething with evil energy. Merlin gasped. "This enemy, is Samael. He is the darkness of the world above; a most potent enemy that few can dare even face, let alone fight, and those within his battles have little to no fighting chance. Yet this is but a shadow. I shall be of great use this day." Merlin transformed Jacob's body into a massive earth elemental. The elemental was three times the size of a gorilla, and harder than granite. He marched towards Samael and drew his fist, ready to smash into Samael's avatar with the force of several battering rams. Jacob's eyes glew a light blue light as an earth elemental, the large rock monster growled like one of the shoggoths. "GWOOOOO!" The carnage had finished falling around the battle, and Nathaniel Peaseley was shocked.

Andrew slashed his sword, a runed sword. . .

[Sapphira Jade]

Two figures emerged from basement of the ruined basement at a run. Jason (or rather, Kaidan and Mayurra) recognized one of them from the hotel, and assumed that the reason he hadn't seen her here on the estate was that she'd been teleported and rendered invisible by Jacob. (Several meters away and with a gun trained on the pair, Emma was not as certain - invisibility could not explain why she hadn't spotted the girl since leaving the hotel.)

Shizune, however, they did NOT recognize from the hotel, which meant that she emerged from the rubble of the mansion only to come face to face with a nocked and drawn arrow, crackling with electricity. That she had a recognized Awakened with her was the only reason that Jason refrained from putting said arrow through her eye.


So... I'm gonna give Matt and/or Xander a chance to recognize Leandra despite her new form and then immediately move to stop Jason from taking the shot - because otherwise, I'm pretty sure Shizune is going to start signing, and he's going to shoot her without any additional hesitation because random hand motions in this scenario suggest spellcasting.

Mia was in shock over this new person that took her out of the basement. However, she was more shocked but remembered what Leandra told her. "I'm going with you all are the company Leandra told me about?" She noticed the gun trained on the two of them and held her hands up in front of her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm friendly and I believe she is too" she stated.

[Regalus]

"Wait!" Matthew calls, putting a hand between Jason and the duo wardingly, "That's... the blue haired girl has Leandra's magical signature, it's her,"

"What the hell happened down there you two?!"

[Sapphira Jade]

"Wait!" Matthew calls, putting a hand between Jason and the duo wardingly, "That's... the blue haired girl has Leandra's magical signature, it's her,"

"What the hell happened down there you two?!"

"All I know is what happened after I found myself at this place with no warning and Leandra saved me." "We had some monsters that we dealt with, Leandra found this portal or whatever and these other two guys were there." "Apparently, leandra did something that summoned this angelic like guy that had an odd smell to be honest." "Fire and some other energy came out everywhere." "I couldn't win....and it seems leandra got injured and this girl was there instead." "Things were coming down all around us and she grabbed me and we both escaped." "I don't know about what happened to the two guys though." "And now she and I are here" explained mia. "It was scary" she squeaked.

[Dark Knight Renee]

RESERVED for retcon details.

We're rewinding to before Samael was summoned, making post #139 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?471534-Reincarnation-Wars-The-Many!&p=20216346#post20216346) the last in-basement post that's still valid. However, because events outside the manor or in other parts of the manor weren't exactly posted in chronological order with the events in the basement, quite a few posts after #139 are still valid - probably most of them (though I haven't reviewed them yet).

For example, post #154 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?471534-Reincarnation-Wars-The-Many!&p=20221824#post20221824) takes place entirely before Samael was summoned, as it has only just caught up to Waruo slicing the mansion in two diagonally, which happened in post #136 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?471534-Reincarnation-Wars-The-Many!&p=20215861#post20215861).

Once Dr.Guns confirms whether Leandra cast her portal-closing spell or only prepared to cast it, we should be free to resume play.


"...well, anyway, I'm Leandra, this is Mia, and I think this is our first time hearing the word for what we are now." She looks up at the magical seal thing. "Is this the source of the shoggoth attacks? I can help seal it..."

She calls to mind a spell that Lana used to close a similar gateway, and a song of sealing that Elena used to know...
Leandra is awaiting a response from Nathaniel or Andrew, it's established, so now we're good to go.


Upstairs, on the second floor (just prior to the entire second floor collapsing onto the first):



The dead Shoggoths were now littering the first floor of the Estate. Jacob's attention was turned towards the doppleganger, as was Denise's. Jacob himself launched a powerful spell of disintegration against the doppleganger warlock, doing him harm, though not destroying him. The closest target to the doppleganger would find himself covered in the blast radius of a twenty foot fireball circle. Fortunately these magical fires did not set fire to the estate.

Meanwhile, the werewolf was slashing and clawing his way against anyone who was anywhere near himself and the bed rooms.


Alana: "Ok, Situation analysis: Our host and his butler have been revealed as fakes. They seem to possess some knowledge on us. No indication on how much is known. We have been left pretty much on our own with the exception of the girl, whose ability outside of some form of winter-theme magic, given the feel she gives off. So, Options, people. "
Homura: "Going Meguca and intiating a time stop.
Sasuke: "Separate them. Use Shadow Clone and teleport the wolf towards the group down stairs. They have better firepower. Simultanenously, we disable the caster."
Zetto: "Dark Energy Burst. Pushes them both off balance, possibly damage the scepter and leaves the caster open for further retaliation."
Riku: I'd like to point out that someone's unleashed a blast of energy on the other side of the wall.

Alana just looked at the mental representation of the room she was in to see that there were, in fact, cracks in the nearby wall. Light could be seen through them as they slowly got bigger.
Alana:" Well, fornication. Ok, change of plans. We need....."

Sombra:"Good news, the elf has no magical defenses whatsoever. Bad news, the wolf is attempting to extract our entrails via manual application of force. Worse news, Someone is casting what i can only believe to be a burst version of a disintegration spell on the elf. The elf may be able to survive it, though. "

Alana bags her head on the table that she and her egos are around.
Alana:"What else?"
Sombra: "We're in the spell's radius of effect."

Alana takes a deep breath and refocuses again. Silence reigns in the chamber.

Homura: I have a solution.


With renewed drive, Alana burst into action. As the Werewolf pounced upon her, a smirk appeared on the young chosen's face as she burst into shadows. Said shadows quickly reassembled themselves into Alana outside of the disintegrationfireball spell's radius. With one hand, she raised her keyblade and yelled "GRAVIRA!". The second tier gravity spell activated, drastically increasing the Gravity's effect on the doppelganger and the werewolf, smashing them him to the floor. With the other hand, she preformed the seals for the Shadow Clone jutsu. As soon as her clone materialized in a black cloud, it also produce a copy of her keyblade as well.
Quoted posts slightly modified to account for the werewolf and doppelganger apparently not being in the same room. Alana being with the werewolf instead of the doppelganger is a guess on my part.

[Sapphira Jade]

"Ha! Well, you seem to have adapted quickly." That was fun.

As the pair approaches the portal, Leandra doesn't have time to ask about the voice in Mia's head before Andrew is all over them.

"Huh? Well, yes, I'm Leandra! We met upstairs just a minute ago, right? I-"

**KRAAACKAKOOOM!** Some dust and debris drops from the ceiling as the battle rages upstairs.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP THERE?

"Should we go help them?"

Help them? They are probably the ones doing it. I'm sure it will be fine.

YEAH, WELL, YOU DIDN'T HEAR IT

Just stay focused.

"...well, anyway, I'm Leandra, this is Mia, and I think this is our first time hearing the word for what we are now." She looks up at the magical seal thing. "Is this the source of the shoggoth attacks? I can help seal it..."

She calls to mind a spell that Lana used to close a similar gateway, and a song of sealing that Elena used to know...

...

Just cast the spell! We are not going to save the day by hesitating!

I'm just waiting for permission. It should only be a second.

"...what is that? Did anyone else feel that?"

You mean the feeling that you just missed an important opportunity for no reason? Yes.

...it could be a temporal anomaly.

NO, STOP RIGHT THERE, NO TEMPORAL ANOMALY CRAP. I REFUSE.

...alright.

Mia snapped her fingers in front of Leandra's face while confused. "Um, earth to Leandra what's going on?".

"I don't think that helps."
"are we just going to ignore the portal that's in front of us?!"
"can you not yell so much?!"
"your sarcasm isn't helping."
"I believe we all should just calm down and tone back on not trying to fight."
"let me be the one in charge if you don't mind."
"Right, well you seem to be an authority figure so you're the one to be in charge."

Mia was worried since there was still this portal that could potentially be the cause of the attacks by the beasts she ran into before, but she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do.

[ArlEammon]

Andrew, and the Others:
'Don't interrupt the spell. He's casting a spell in the presence of the Raudskinna. If he jinxes himself he can end up destroying far more than just half the house." He spoke. "You . . . you there, who are you all." Andrew put his sword to Leandra's body. "Are you a trick from the strange monster upstairs?" he asked rhetorically. "You had better give me an idea of how I can avoid putting this sword and/or several bullets through all of you before you say anything or do anything else." Just then, the spell was cast. . . a magical apparition of Samael appeared before them all. This was not the creature. This was his magical representation. . . "What are you doing?" Samael asked. "No one has been able to contact me with such a spell for hundreds of years. No matter. I can see you are all Awakened. I have a proposition for you all."

[Sapphira Jade]

Andrew, and the Others:
'Don't interrupt the spell. He's casting a spell in the presence of the Raudskinna. If he jinxes himself he can end up destroying far more than just half the house." He spoke. "You . . . you there, who are you all." Andrew put his sword to Leandra's body. "Are you a trick from the strange monster upstairs?" he asked rhetorically. "You had better give me an idea of how I can avoid putting this sword and/or several bullets through all of you before you say anything or do anything else." Just then, the spell was cast. . . a magical apparition of Samael appeared before them all. This was not the creature. This was his magical representation. . . "What are you doing?" Samael asked. "No one has been able to contact me with such a spell for hundreds of years. No matter. I can see you are all Awakened. I have a proposition for you all."

Mia backed up a couple steps. "Ok, this just got weirder." "Wait, Awakened?" She suddenly said. Mia was confused.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Andrew, and the Others:
'Don't interrupt the spell. He's casting a spell in the presence of the Raudskinna. If he jinxes himself he can end up destroying far more than just half the house."

"Very well."

See?

...


". . . who are you all." Andrew put his sword to Leandra's body. "Are you a trick from the strange monster upstairs?" he asked rhetorically. "You had better give me an idea of how I can avoid putting this sword and/or several bullets through all of you before you say anything or do anything else."

Leandra, having met Andrew and healed his punctured torso just a few minutes ago, is somewhat perplexed by the butler's sudden suspicion. She opens her mouth to say as much, but an angel prince's holographic proxy appears out of nowhere and interrupts.


"What are you doing?" Samael asked. "No one has been able to contact me with such a spell for hundreds of years. No matter. I can see you are all Awakened. I have a proposition for you all."


Mia backed up a couple steps. "Ok, this just got weirder." "Wait, Awakened?" She suddenly said. Mia was confused.

Leandra has to consciously keep her hands still and her eyes on Andrew's threatening blade as she replies to Mia. "I think this is the first time I've actually heard the word for it. The Awakened are people with memories of past lives in other, magically-active universes, like me. Well, and you too, now."

She returns her complete attention to Andrew. Whoever the weird angel-person is, he'll just have to wait his turn.

"We just met upstairs a few minutes ago, didn't we?" ...no dice. Andrew seems to be testing for an impostor or something. "...well, I'm Leandra, and this is Mia. Someone who calls himself, 'Doctor Strange,' sent us to rescue you from whatever was attacking the mansion. I'm not sure of all the details, unfortunately. I've only been... Awakened... for about fifteen minutes so far."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander leaps from his mid-air position to the room containing the doppelganger, sniper readied in other hand and a useless sword in the other, it's obvious which weapon he chooses to use on the doppleganger who's suddenly found himself under several times Earth's gravity.

With a crack, Xander's right wrist broke as a steel sand grain was launched at hypersonic velocities into the doppleganger, followed up by a blast of telekinetic force crushing him even harder into the floor as his wrist begins regenerating. Meanwhile, his wing-claws begin to unfold, the small size of the room and the desire not to be caught in the gravity effect preventing him from striking further.

[Sapphira Jade]

"Very well."

See?

...



Leandra, having met Andrew and healed his punctured torso just a few minutes ago, is somewhat perplexed by the butler's sudden suspicion. She opens her mouth to say as much, but an angel prince's holographic proxy appears out of nowhere and interrupts.





Leandra has to consciously keep her hands still and her eyes on Andrew's threatening blade as she replies to Mia. "I think this is the first time I've actually heard the word for it. The Awakened are people with memories of past lives in other, magically-active universes, like me. Well, and you too, now."

She returns her complete attention to Andrew. Whoever the weird angel-person is, he'll just have to wait his turn.

"We just met upstairs a few minutes ago, didn't we?" ...no dice. Andrew seems to be testing for an impostor or something. "...well, I'm Leandra, and this is Mia. Someone who calls himself, 'Doctor Strange,' sent us to rescue you from whatever was attacking the mansion. I'm not sure of all the details, unfortunately. I've only been... Awakened... for about fifteen minutes so far."

"Right, ok" stated Mia. "Awakened, must be why I'm hearing voices in my head" she added under her breath.

[ArlEammon]

Andrew shrugged. . . "I can sense, thanks to Data's intelligent discussion, that you are all sincere. I've used the brain chip in my head to deduce that it would be impossible for you to be from the shape changer's side. You're in the basement in the first place, and that apparition is just a phantom Samael is using to contact us." Nathaniel also frowned. "We shouldn't pay attention to the Devil just because he's talking. Samael, begone!"

. . . meanwhile, upstairs on the second floor.

The warlock attacked his enemies. . . after the house was split in two. He brought down the ceiling on Jacob and other enemies on the second floor, Denise screamed as she was slammed by falling debris, but it didn't knock her out, as she thought it would. The beam did, however, it her hard enough in the head to knock her down and make her quite dizzy for a moment. Jacob frowned with a disgusted look on his face, and Merlin's lightning struck out at this strange shape changing warlock.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

With the butler calmed down, Leandra resumes signing with her free hand.

"Shape changer? Who is that?" She a second to make the connection. "Of course! You were here ahead of me and didn't know who I was. They must be upstairs impersonating you." She turns to Mia. "We have to go warn everyone. Come on!"

Excusing herself with a quick nod, Leandra takes Old Man Peasley's advice and ignore's Samael's hologram as she and Mia head upstairs. The two adventurers encounter an obstacle almost immediately - the door leading out of the basement is still gone, but the way out is now completely sealed off with rubble. Whatever caused the explosion that they had heard earlier seems to have collapsed this part of the house.

"...Well."

Ideas! Now!

"We could make an impact bomb, but I doubt it would accomplish much... does this mana egg have any wind spells on it? We could try blowing it away."

...it would take some time to research a spell powerful enough.

Could we disintegrate it with a phaser?

I COULD MAKE IT EXPLODE, BUT THAT'S MORE FOR DOOR-BUSTING THAN CLEARING ROCKS. I COULD PROBABLY JURY-RIG SOMETHING UP, BUT YOUR COMPUTER IS SUCH AN ARCHAIC PIECE OF GARBAGE, IT WOULD TAKE FOREVER. CAN'T WE JUST USE A SHOVEL?

[Sapphira Jade]

With the butler calmed down, Leandra resumes signing with her free hand.

"Shape changer? Who is that?" She a second to make the connection. "Of course! You were here ahead of me and didn't know who I was. They must be upstairs impersonating you." She turns to Mia. "We have to go warn everyone. Come on!"

Excusing herself with a quick nod, Leandra takes Old Man Peasley's advice and ignore's Samael's hologram as she and Mia head upstairs. The two adventurers encounter an obstacle almost immediately - the door leading out of the basement is still gone, but the way out is now completely sealed off with rubble. Whatever caused the explosion that they had heard earlier seems to have collapsed this part of the house.

"...Well."

Ideas! Now!

"We could make an impact bomb, but I doubt it would accomplish much... does this mana egg have any wind spells on it? We could try blowing it away."

...it would take some time to research a spell powerful enough.

Could we disintegrate it with a phaser?

I COULD MAKE IT EXPLODE, BUT THAT'S MORE FOR DOOR-BUSTING THAN CLEARING ROCKS. I COULD PROBABLY JURY-RIG SOMETHING UP, BUT YOUR COMPUTER IS SUCH AN ARCHAIC PIECE OF GARBAGE, IT WOULD TAKE FOREVER. CAN'T WE JUST USE A SHOVEL?

Mia took off with Leandra. " Ok, there are others". "I'm still learning here". She noticed the blockage that is keeping Leandra and her trapped.
" well, this isn't good. "
"oh, please that's easy for me."
"hello, she most likely has my keys and Taurus can easily smash through this blockage"
"how would a constellation be of help?"
"What are you all talking about?!"
"oh you'll see. " "I think those keys that i'm talking about are in your jacket" " Check, the rest will come to you"

Mia looked at her jacket and was uncertain which one it could be in so she checked both and pulled out this gold key from her right pocket. "I'm not certain, but I think I can get us out" she stated. "Want me to try?" She asked Leandra.

"stupid phone won't get me to change the color perfectly. "

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Mia took off with Leandra. " Ok, there are others". "I'm still learning here". She noticed the blockage that is keeping Leandra and her trapped.

"Oh! Well, yes. Sorry, I thought I told you. I know it's a lot to take in."

Leandra is already pulling out chunks of debris with her bare hands and tossing them down the stairs behind them. She was in pretty good shape even before this awakening business, but it's still not a very fast approach. At least no one can accuse her of being lazy.


Mia looked at her jacket and was uncertain which one it could be in so she checked both and pulled out this gold key from her right pocket. "I'm not certain, but I think I can get us out" she stated. "Want me to try?" She asked Leandra.

Leandra pulls herself away from the debris pile and nods to Mia. "Well, it's the only way to know for sure, right? Go for it."

[Sapphira Jade]

"Oh! Well, yes. Sorry, I thought I told you. I know it's a lot to take in."

Leandra is already pulling out chunks of debris with her bare hands and tossing them down the stairs behind them. She was in pretty good shape even before this awakening business, but it's still not a very fast approach. At least no one can accuse her of being lazy.



Leandra pulls herself away from the debris pile and nods to Mia. "Well, it's the only way to know for sure, right? Go for it."

Taking a deep breath Mia noticed the key she got had a green circle with two curved lines coming out of the top of the circle. "How do I do this?" She whispered.

"it'll come to you."

Mia tossed the key in the air and it glowed before she caught it. "Open! Gate of the golden bull!" She turned the key in the air in front of her and these two very fancy transparent green circles appeared in front of her that were spinning, One clockwise and the other counterclockwise. "Taurus!" The sound of a doorbell was heard and this humanoid bull that carried a giant black Axe burst out from the circles. "I'm in a fightin moooood!" Mia was taken aback in shock. "Somethin about you reminds me of my last summoner and I'm ready to follow your orders". Mia was still getting used to hearing about all of this stuff involving her being an awakened, but she was set. "All this rubble in front of us is blocking our escape". " you think you can remove it?" Asked Mia. "Ooooh, you're singin my song girl". Taurus got his axe and with one giant swing he smashed thorough the rubble making an opening for everyone to get out. " nice one Taurus " stated Mia. "How about rewardin me with a smooooch". Mia exclaimed in disgust before sending Taurus back through his gate almost immediately.

Mia sighed and put the key back in her jacket pocket. "There that should do it" stated Mia.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"MmmOOOOO!" *CRASH!*

'Keys?' Interesting.

That gives me an idea, but first we need to go find everyone.

Leandra blinks, stunned by the sudden appearance and assistance of the cartoon minotaur, but breaks into a smile when all is said and done. "Ha, excellent! Well, let's go!"

She rushes out into the ruins, where a clear sky has taken the place of the mansion's ceilings. The shoggoth corpses on the ground floor have been covered over with broken furniture and plaster dust. What's left of the upper floors is a series of platforms and balconies teetering on exposed wooden scaffolding. The battles raging on up there are hard to miss.

SO NOW WHAT

"We fly up there and help!"

Leandra clears her throat of plaster dust as she gets her thoughts organized. "*cough* *sniff* ...alright. Last I remember, before I came downstairs, some of us were talking to someone who looked like the men we were just talking to, while the rest were helping to deal with one of us who couldn't get their powers under control." Even as she speaks, the Jason debacle is just wrapping up on the perimeter of the wreckage. Having calmed down the scared child in his soul, that part of the team is now free to get their bearings.

The blue elf is currently locked in a wizard's duel with Jacob in the balcony area. Leandra holds her book under her arm, giving her one hand to sign with as the other points out the enemies. "I think I recognize everyone except... that blue elf-like person, and... that werewolf-thing up there!"

She is particularly upset when she notices the werewolf on another platform, in what must have been a bedroom. It's currently anchored in place by some magical nonsense, but it's still growling at Alana, who Leandra had just told to protect the impostors before she took off. ...and Alana's clone, apparently, who is ready to flank the monster and beat it up while it's defenseless. So, really, it looks like she has that situation covered.

Leandra points again to the mage battle. "Well, I guess we go for the blue magician first." She re-conjures her wings and offers a hand to Mia, preparing to fly her up for a surprise attack.

"Ready?"

[ArlEammon]

The Warlock was angry. "Amusing power." He stated. "Quite strong. It would be arrogant of me to assume I could take you all alone. My friend here is powerful enough to crush any single one of you. He's no mere canine." Just then, he summoned lightning bolts from the sky to destroy Jacob. . . suddenly he was struck hard with the spell, and although it struck him hard, he was harmed, not seriously or critically wounded by the lightning strike. He was staggered however, noticing that his spells were causing harm to the other spell caster as well. He didn't know if he would be able to do this to the warlock by himself, however. Victory against him with only one of us won't work.

Just then several rounds of sniper fire slammed into the Doppleganger warlock's body and face. Suddenly, a sword found it'self piercing into the magic user's chest. . . causing him to topple over, blood flowing from his body. Denise began to stand up, still on her knees, however, hoping to remove herself from danger. Just then, Jacob cast the time stop spell, unleashing a torrent of lightning bolts onto the enemy warlock. . . over and over again. . . The warlock was no dead, but the werewolf was currently in a super human rage. Denise found herself in his clawed grip.


"Well, this warlock's power seems to have been over rated." Irenicus spoke presumptiously.
You seem to forget the powerful bungler's assault on the house, which broke the entire dwelling in half." Merlin commented.

[5ColouredWalker]

With the Warlock/Doppleganger down, Xander turns his attention to the grappling werewolf. His hands busy, he decides to keep things very simple.

Xander's wing-claws lance out at the werewolf, glowing with psychic energy as they attempt to pierce deep into it's back.

[Regalus]

Jason

As Jason and his Egos were treated to the weird and wonderful telempathic story, the ice coating his body melted from Matthew's warmth, leaving him soaking wet rather than frozen to near immobility - a vast improvement, even though his boots were now filled with water. Likewise, all of the built up tension from the past few minutes of frantic desperation left his body.

But all of this was secondary to the feels. Matthew/Celestia's story came with its own emotional information, being conveyed across a telempathic medium, but more striking were the reactions it triggered in Jason's Egos. None were immune (though the jaded Mayurra was nearly so; thankfully she kept her opinions to herself, unwilling to undermine the story's value for the others), and the tale had the intended effect on Anneliese - her fear of magic banished, her trust in her companions (both inside and out) restored, and her blind panic soothed. Whether any of the effects would stick, especially faced with the horrors of combat, only time would tell - but for the moment at least she felt calm and confident and brave, ready to handle whatever the next few minutes threw at her.

The same could not be said for Loki. His reaction to the telempathic story was equally dramatic, but definitely not what Matthew/Celestia had intended. For Loki saw too much of his own story reflected in the tale of Celestia and Luna, and he didn't like what he saw. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't look away; the the magic wouldn't let him. The narrative continued unabated, Anneliese got her healing Aesop - and Loki was forced to face the fact that he was a monster and had no one to blame for it but himself.

Then the spell ended. Broken, consumed by self-loathing and despair, Loki retreated from reality as far as he could go, locking himself in a mental vault and throwing up the divination shield once more.

"I have good news, and I have bad news," Jason told Matthew, just as the bifurcated mansion began to collapse on itself. "But apparently it'll have to wait."

"What in the Sam hell..." Matthew blurted out in shock as he saw and heard the structure shiver and groan as the attack took it's toll, before turning in direction of his clones, "I thought you guys were keeping an eye on things over here!"

"Hey, not our fault; we've been doing our jobs. That was all Waruo," countered the clone besides Emma.

"And it was awesome! Boy can pack a punch!" happily interjected the eldest of the clones in the distance in between sniping foes, his toothy grin practically audible in his tone.

The glowing boy softly shook his head as he began to descend slowly, Jason in hand; they had a lot of catching up to do given all the explosions he was hearing outside. Though that seemed to only be the start of there mess as the magic in the air seemed to shift suddenly; causing the boy and his clones to shiver as massive presence seemed to take root within the depths of the Mansion. The three shared a look as they spread their magical senses, and frowned at the results.

"Okay, good news and bad news people," Matthew announced to Jason, Emma and Waruo as they touched ground, and his radiance faded to a dim glow, "Good news: Everyone's still a live, bad news is upstairs seems to have been an ambush. Picking up two normies down stairs near some kind of distortion, and I think Leandra picked up a few friends..." he explained before all three of the Matts winced at the sound of sniper riffle going off, followed by one of the stronger magical signatures suddenly cutting off.

"But I think they have it handled up there,"

"Personally, I think we should maintain the perimeter and keep the stragglers in check while the rest of you head inside with the Boss to sort this out. We can take these guys easy so long as we don't get hit; but I don't think we'd last long against whatever's down there," offered the youngest clone matter-of-factly, "Unless one of you has a better idea; you folks know your skills and how you can help, better than we do,"

[Sapphira Jade]

'Keys?' Interesting.

That gives me an idea, but first we need to go find everyone.

Leandra blinks, stunned by the sudden appearance and assistance of the cartoon minotaur, but breaks into a smile when all is said and done. "Ha, excellent! Well, let's go!"

She rushes out into the ruins, where a clear sky has taken the place of the mansion's ceilings. The shoggoth corpses on the ground floor have been covered over with broken furniture and plaster dust. What's left of the upper floors is a series of platforms and balconies teetering on exposed wooden scaffolding. The battles raging on up there are hard to miss.

SO NOW WHAT

"We fly up there and help!"

Leandra clears her throat of plaster dust as she gets her thoughts organized. "*cough* *sniff* ...alright. Last I remember, before I came downstairs, some of us were talking to someone who looked like the men we were just talking to, while the rest were helping to deal with one of us who couldn't get their powers under control." Even as she speaks, the Jason debacle is just wrapping up on the perimeter of the wreckage. Having calmed down the scared child in his soul, that part of the team is now free to get their bearings.

The blue elf is currently locked in a wizard's duel with Jacob in the balcony area. Leandra holds her book under her arm, giving her one hand to sign with as the other points out the enemies. "I think I recognize everyone except... that blue elf-like person, and... that werewolf-thing up there!"

She is particularly upset when she notices the werewolf on another platform, in what must have been a bedroom. It's currently anchored in place by some magical nonsense, but it's still growling at Alana, who Leandra had just told to protect the impostors before she took off. ...and Alana's clone, apparently, who is ready to flank the monster and beat it up while it's defenseless. So, really, it looks like she has that situation covered.

Leandra points again to the mage battle. "Well, I guess we go for the blue magician first." She re-conjures her wings and offers a hand to Mia, preparing to fly her up for a surprise attack.

"Ready?"

Mia bit her lip and nodded grabbing Leandra's hand. "Yeah, let's do this."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Noticing that someone seems to have beaten her to the punch on the changeling warlock, Leandra returns her attention to the werewolf, which has by now pried itself off of the floor and turned the tables on Alana in spite of whatever was weighing it down. "Well, right, that one after all!"

She vaults upward over the platform with Mia in tow, and releases the whip-wielding girl at the appropriate angle for the acrobatic attack of her choice. At the same time, she twists in midair and sweeps her hand over her makeshift spellbook.

Leandra pulls into a combination of a nosedive and a slam-dunk, driving a rapidly-expanding cube of shimmering white force into the furry monster's head just as Mia's own attack connects.

[Sapphira Jade]

Noticing that someone seems to have beaten her to the punch on the changeling warlock, Leandra returns her attention to the werewolf, which has by now pried itself off of the floor and turned the tables on Alana in spite of whatever was weighing it down. "Well, right, that one after all!"

She vaults upward over the platform with Mia in tow, and releases the whip-wielding girl at the appropriate angle for the acrobatic attack of her choice. At the same time, she twists in midair and sweeps her hand over her makeshift spellbook.

Leandra pulls into a combination of a nosedive and a slam-dunk, driving a rapidly-expanding cube of shimmering white force into the furry monster's head just as Mia's own attack connects.

After being released Mia got the whip and launched it out at the werewolf and it connected with Leandra's attack as well.

[Assurau]

The Warlock was angry. "Amusing power." He stated. "Quite strong. It would be arrogant of me to assume I could take you all alone. My friend here is powerful enough to crush any single one of you. He's no mere canine." Just then, he summoned lightning bolts from the sky to destroy Jacob. . . suddenly he was struck hard with the spell, and although it struck him hard, he was harmed, not seriously or critically wounded by the lightning strike. He was staggered however, noticing that his spells were causing harm to the other spell caster as well. He didn't know if he would be able to do this to the warlock by himself, however. Victory against him with only one of us won't work.

Just then several rounds of sniper fire slammed into the Doppleganger warlock's body and face. Suddenly, a sword found it'self piercing into the magic user's chest. . . causing him to topple over, blood flowing from his body. Denise began to stand up, still on her knees, however, hoping to remove herself from danger. Just then, Jacob cast the time stop spell, unleashing a torrent of lightning bolts onto the enemy warlock. . . over and over again. . . The warlock was no dead, but the werewolf was currently in a super human rage. Denise found herself in his clawed grip.



With the Warlock/Doppleganger down, Xander turns his attention to the grappling werewolf. His hands busy, he decides to keep things very simple.

Xander's wing-claws lance out at the werewolf, glowing with psychic energy as they attempt to pierce deep into it's back.


Noticing that someone seems to have beaten her to the punch on the changeling warlock, Leandra returns her attention to the werewolf, which has by now pried itself off of the floor and turned the tables on Alana in spite of whatever was weighing it down. "Well, right, that one after all!"

She vaults upward over the platform with Mia in tow, and releases the whip-wielding girl at the appropriate angle for the acrobatic attack of her choice. At the same time, she twists in midair and sweeps her hand over her makeshift spellbook.

Leandra pulls into a combination of a nosedive and a slam-dunk, driving a rapidly-expanding cube of shimmering white force into the furry monster's head just as Mia's own attack connects.

Alana was quite pleased with herself. The werewolf had fallen like the proverbial ton of brick due to the Gravira spell. Now with her target immobile, she could haver her clone hypnotize the werewolf and extract the much needed information from him. Perhaps it was her instincts as a rpg gamer or perhaps it was the Sasuke part of her remembering that fateful first mission with Team Seven, but she did not like that they were pretty much flying blind into this mess. When she got back to the hotel, she was going to have some VERY strong words with the good Dr. Strange about how to properly deploy a team. Hell, Naruto at his worst, wasn't this back assward.

Her Train of thought was properly derailed however, when she heard the sound of several bolt of electricity fly through the air, followed by the sound of rifle fire , sniper rifle in fact.. Then came the distinct tang of a time stop and the room was filled with the heavy scent of Ozone.

NO NO NO NO. Please tell me that they just wounded the caster. Please tell me that they just knock him out and not kill a valuable source of intel.

She turned slightly to see that the caster was indeed down and no longer had a head. Alana felt her anger bubble.

WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY DO THAT!!! THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!!

Unfortunately for Alana, her slight mental rant distracted her from the fact that a girl had crawled away from the corpse and had come closer to the werewolf. She felt a pulse channel through her spell and before she could react, the gravity field shattered. Everything became very complicated very fast. The werewolf grabbed the girl and three new people joined the fray each one launching an attack at the werewolf. The one that looked like a male Kerrrigan chose energy-charged wing blades, one of the new girls went with a whip, while the last one unleashed some manner of spell shaped like a cube aimed at the werewolf head.

Alana's clone had a very similar train of thought and with a acknowledgement from the original, it was off. With practice grace, the clone swapped places with the hostage via the Substitution jutsu. Then using her chakra, she anchored herself to the floor by her feet and her arms onto the wolf. With a simple application of the wall walking jutsu and her enhanced strength, the clone became a living restraint.

Meanwhile the original Alan appeared by the side of the former hostage.

"Are you ok? Were you bitten?" asked Alana, using her Sharingan to give her the once-over.

[ArlEammon]

Denise

Denise looks downward. . . clutching her neck. "I just need my neck to feel a little better. I could have fought but I doubt that I would have been able to actually fight. I'm new to fighting". She explained. Denise looked up, rubbing her neck. "I think that I could eventually pull my weight, just not right now". Jake looked around himself. . . "Well, the Shoggoths are all gone. . . I think. Merlin can't see anyone else throughout the former estate. . . I think that we need to explain to poor Nathaniel Peaslee why his entire Estate that's been in the family for two hundred years is now gone". He sighed. "Well, I'm glad I'm not the one destroying half the house."

[Dark Knight Renee]

"What in the Sam hell..." Matthew blurted out in shock as he saw and heard the structure shiver and groan as the attack took it's toll, before turning in direction of his clones, "I thought you guys were keeping an eye on things over here!"

"Hey, not our fault; we've been doing our jobs. That was all Waruo," countered the clone besides Emma.

"And it was awesome! Boy can pack a punch!" happily interjected the eldest of the clones in the distance in between sniping foes, his toothy grin practically audible in his tone.

The glowing boy softly shook his head as he began to descend slowly, Jason in hand; they had a lot of catching up to do given all the explosions he was hearing outside. Though that seemed to only be the start of there mess as the magic in the air seemed to shift suddenly; causing the boy and his clones to shiver as massive presence seemed to take root within the depths of the Mansion. The three shared a look as they spread their magical senses, and frowned at the results.

"Okay, good news and bad news people," Matthew announced to Jason, Emma and Waruo as they touched ground, and his radiance faded to a dim glow, "Good news: Everyone's still a live, bad news is upstairs seems to have been an ambush. Picking up two normies down stairs near some kind of distortion, and I think Leandra picked up a few friends..." he explained before all three of the Matts winced at the sound of sniper riffle going off, followed by one of the stronger magical signatures suddenly cutting off.

"But I think they have it handled up there,"

"Personally, I think we should maintain the perimeter and keep the stragglers in check while the rest of you head inside with the Boss to sort this out. We can take these guys easy so long as we don't get hit; but I don't think we'd last long against whatever's down there," offered the youngest clone matter-of-factly, "Unless one of you has a better idea; you folks know your skills and how you can help, better than we do,"
The roof of the manor and half of the second floor fell away, littering the ground floor with debris. Miraculously, the rooms where the rest of the 'team' were not among those that had been completely obliterated. The fighting was frantic, but Jason picked out a blue creature and what might have been a werewolf. Following a quick internal debate (with those Egos who were still talking), Jason said, "I think I'll stay out here with the duplicates. No sense in my entering a melee at this stage." Xander and Leandra joined in the fight then, along with a new girl who he tagged as an ally mainly because she was performing a combo move with Leandra, and he noticed that another of the combatants (whose name he didn't know) seemed to have gained duplicate like Matt's. As far as Jason could tell, they had the blue creature and the werewolf well in hand. "I'll circle around and check the back of the manor, and get in flanking position in case anything else comes up."

"I'll just hang out here with my gun in case something not immune to bullets and not in a melee turns up," Emma half-joked, half-complained, not moving from the Matt clone's side. "Good luck and remember you've got a bow!"

Jason gave Emma an odd look just before he ran away to circle around to the other side of the ruined manor house.


Jason: What good is a bow when we've got guns?
Mayurra: Magic, what else? Some creatures are likely resistant to non-magical firepower, but a good magic weapon will slice right through that protection. Besides which, I could get an arrow into that melee in ways that you could never get a bullet.
Kaidan: Really? How does that work, exactly?
And so, with his two remaining talkative Egos now engaged in a tactical discussion of magic, Jason came around the other side of the manor, where a couple of not-very-bright shoggoths were lurking; without even a break in the internal conversation, Kaidan offhandedly hurled them into the air, high enough for the Matt clones to blast over the top of the ruined manor without any risk of accidentally hitting anyone 'inside'. Only then did he pause to shrug off Mayurra's backpack and extract a short-bow and quiver from it; putting the pack away and belting on the quiver, Jason decided that his next step (provided the combat above didn't renew itself and move his way) should be to secure the "normals" Matthew had reported in the basement - one of them was might be the professor, for real this time.

[ArlEammon]

With the fight over, and with Andrew and Nathaniel still angry that their house was destroyed, they took solace that the warlock and werewolf were now dead. "My house is now in ruins. . . thank god the library and the study are still in tact, and the kitchen, though the floor is covered in debris. . . Those monsters. . . you managed to kill the things? Good. The gateway is closed. I expect you didn't come all the way here just for tea and crumpets like my relatives from across the pond". Andrew shook his head. "So much destruction. The Manor house is over two hundred years old, with some additions and renovations made, of course, but still, what a fortune it will cost to remake." Jacob then decided it was a perfect time to speak. "Folks, there is so much trouble here. . . we need to get Nathaniel Peaselee to the hotel in New York." However, with the mysterious barrier still separating the estate from the outside world, the SWAT and police would be unable to enter.

[Sapphira Jade]

With the fight over, and with Andrew and Nathaniel still angry that their house was destroyed, they took solace that the warlock and werewolf were now dead. "My house is now in ruins. . . thank god the library and the study are still in tact, and the kitchen, though the floor is covered in debris. . . Those monsters. . . you managed to kill the things? Good. The gateway is closed. I expect you didn't come all the way here just for tea and crumpets like my relatives from across the pond". Andrew shook his head. "So much destruction. The Manor house is over two hundred years old, with some additions and renovations made, of course, but still, what a fortune it will cost to remake." Jacob then decided it was a perfect time to speak. "Folks, there is so much trouble here. . . we need to get Nathaniel Peaselee to the hotel in New York." However, with the mysterious barrier still separating the estate from the outside world, the SWAT and police would be unable to enter.

Mia sighed in relief. "At least those things are gone". " going to have to get used to being an awakened". "Er, well late awakened" she stated a bit embarrassed and nervous again.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leandra nods to Mia. "Yes, thank goodness. By the way, Xander, everyone, this is Mia. I'm not sure how she got pulled along, but she seems to be one of us now."

Leandra's block vanished as soon as the big combo attack was over. The big monster that had broken its bonds a moment ago is now pretty well knocked out, and the other Alana is free to drag it around. Still, this half of the party has to stay on the platform to keep tabs on the big palooka for the time being.

"I'm glad you're alright... Denise, right? I'm actually not sure what collapsed the building..." The green-clad teacher looks back and forth between the two Alanas. "Miss, did you... clone yourself?"

With the blue one decapitated and the werewolf sufficiently pacified, Leandra is now free to take in the rest of her surroundings. The mansion is kind of an eyesore, but Denise is in good health, the gate is officially closed, and there's a clear path to get everyone out of the magical disturbance. Though, this does raise another question...

"Is the magical disturbance still there?" Leandra calls from the drafty platform, trying to join Jacob and Peasley's conversation just below. "That's odd. What could the source be if not the gate or the shapeshifters?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

Even as Jason readied his bow, he realized that the fighting was over - both enemy combatants unconscious or dead (he couldn't tell from where he stood), and even the 'gibbering mouthers' finally silenced. On to the so-called normals, then.

Nathaniel and Andrew emerged from the basement as Jason approached, removing the need to search for them, and the older of the two began griping about the state of his home. The professor did not look the 115 years attributed to him, though Mayurra assured Jason that humans who lived that far into their second century were always surprisingly spry. (Kaidan called her on her BS, of course - but in this case it seemed that she had a point.) "Are you Nathaniel Peaslee?" Jason asked, though at this point confirming his identity was a mere formality. "Sorry about the mess, you can send the bill to Doctor Strange."

Out on the lawn, Emma studied the scene in the ruins of the former manor from a distance, taking scanner readings with her equipment (though she doubted she'd find much, since the situation had been almost entirely magical in nature) while looking for any sign of remaining magic that wasn't attached to the other Awakened.

[Kyojo777]

As Waruo hid, he grew more and more nervous.


Waruo: "I hope everyone doesn't have much trouble fighting the blue mage and his wolf familiar."
Gigolo: "Why bother asking? It's not like you care."
Waruo was taken aback
Waruo: "I-I do care."
Gigolo: "Then why didn't you help them?"
Waruo: "Because I would have gotten in the way. Didn't you see my mess up earlier?"
Gigolo: "Your just using that as a convenient excuse. Doesn't matter anyway, the others can see that your a coward no matter how hard you try."


Waruo paused, what exactly did the group think of him? Did they...hate him? Disrupting these thoughts was a rather severe case of hunger. Waruo was troubled, for he can't remember the last time he felt so hungry. Then, he sees a shoggoth corpse, and then

Darkness



Waruo wakes up, rather confused.

Waruo: "W-what just happened, and what's this flavor in my mouth? It tastes, odd."

He then sees a rather odd colored liquid on the ground. Unbeknownst to him, Waruo has the same cloured liquid around his mouth.

Waruo: "T-this is really creeping me out, let me return to the others."

As Waruo begins to get up, he realizes that he doesn't feel hungry anymore.

Waruo: "W-Why, don't I feel hungry anymore?"

Waruo was growing more and more frantic by the second. Wanting to get back to the group as soon as possible, Waruo runs out, sees the group, and heads towards them.

Waruo: *Panting because he's nervous* "H-hey guys, is the blue wizard and his familiar still trying to hurt us?"


Waruo had blacked out and eat a Shoggoth. No one saw this because he was far away from the group at the time.

[Sapphira Jade]

Leandra nods to Mia. "Yes, thank goodness. By the way, Xander, everyone, this is Mia. I'm not sure how she got pulled along, but she seems to be one of us now."

Leandra's block vanished as soon as the big combo attack was over. The big monster that had broken its bonds a moment ago is now pretty well knocked out, and the other Alana is free to drag it around. Still, this half of the party has to stay on the platform to keep tabs on the big palooka for the time being.

"I'm glad you're alright... Denise, right? I'm actually not sure what collapsed the building..." The green-clad teacher looks back and forth between the two Alanas. "Miss, did you... clone yourself?"

With the blue one decapitated and the werewolf sufficiently pacified, Leandra is now free to take in the rest of her surroundings. The mansion is kind of an eyesore, but Denise is in good health, the gate is officially closed, and there's a clear path to get everyone out of the magical disturbance. Though, this does raise another question...

"Is the magical disturbance still there?" Leandra calls from the drafty platform, trying to join Jacob and Peasley's conversation just below. "That's odd. What could the source be if not the gate or the shapeshifters?"

" u-um, h-hi" stated Mia nervously. "Yeah, I woke up in my hotel room and the next thing I know I was here, like I was transported or something". She blushed a little.

[ArlEammon]

Nathaniel Peaslee

"Yes. . . I am Nathaniel Peaslee. . . the oldest man in the world, at one hundred and twenty five. I was on my death bed before the strange occurrences around and in my house. Sir. . . Ma'ams. . . Nice to meet you. I'm sure you all have plenty of questions about this. The truth is that this house contains the Raudskinna, I'm surprised that I can suddenly walk again, and that I'm no longer ill. However to answer some questions, the mysterious energy barrier is a mystery to me. I have not seen it, not even back in my days on Australia, the mysterious island continent it is."

[Sapphira Jade]

Nathaniel Peaslee

"Yes. . . I am Nathaniel Peaslee. . . the oldest man in the world, at one hundred and twenty five. I was on my death bed before the strange occurrences around and in my house. Sir. . . Ma'ams. . . Nice to meet you. I'm sure you all have plenty of questions about this. The truth is that this house contains the Raudskinna, I'm surprised that I can suddenly walk again, and that I'm no longer ill. However to answer some questions, the mysterious energy barrier is a mystery to me. I have not seen it, not even back in my days on Australia, the mysterious island continent it is."

Mia raised her eyebrow in confusion. "The Raud-what?"

[Kyojo777]

Waruo:"Ah, you want to know what the Raudskinna is? I'll be more then glad to tell you! The Raudskinna, or better known as the necronomicon, is in short a legendary book that contains knowledge of the Cthulhu gods, and how to summon them...w-which would actually be p-pretty bad if a cultist obtained it."

[ArlEammon]

"Why no. I've read the Necronomicon. The Raudskinna is an entirely different book. The Necronomicon IS, however, what you said it was." He smiled. "Look here, folks, it's a good idea if you would, along with me, get out of here. The book suggests that if the barrier remains closed that no other creatures would come here, but I need out of here, I don't have great powers".

[Sapphira Jade]

Waruo:"Ah, you want to know what the Raudskinna is? I'll be more then glad to tell you! The Raudskinna, or better known as the necronomicon, is in short a legendary book that contains knowledge of the Cthulhu gods, and how to summon them...w-which would actually be p-pretty bad if a cultist obtained it."

Mia was a little shocked. "Oh, I see" she stated.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Raudskinna..." Dr. Brigham sighs as she sounds and signs it out, finally remembering where she heard that word before. "It's Icelandic, right? A 16th-century compilation of black magic, or something to that effect."

...compiled by a missionary bishop, who became a sorcerer by researching the spells of a darker time. In short, a legendary but non-sentient spellbook. We could probably use it with no issue.

"Non-sentient? Well, that's no fun."

Let's not jump to conclusions. There's obviously more to this thing than a half-remembered paragraph from my incidental research on wizard folklore.

"Anyway, we really should get going. Can anyone help keep Fido contained for the trip back? We should probably bring him in for questioning."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: "Ah, s-sorry, I...must have misread somewhere (Now I feel embarrassed :smalleek:)"

Leandra then butts in.

"Anyway, we really should get going. Can anyone help keep Fido contained for the trip back? We should probably bring him in for questioning."

Waruo was confused.

Waruo: "Um, who's Fido? Wait, now that I think about it, I don't know who you are either. [OOC: He's talking to Sera]"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Hm? Oh, right." Leandra's previous introduction only included those up here on the platform. "Mia, this is... Waruo, right? Waruo, Mia. And this..."

She helps Alana's twin drag the unconscious werewolf to the edge of the platform where everyone can see him.

"...is Fido. We don't actually know his name, but he and the blue man were apparently behind the monster-portal operation. I think I heard someone say we should get intelligence on who they were working for?"

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander comes down with both the werewolf and the shapeshifting warlock under his arms, for the most part simply acknowledging others as needed.

"I don't need to sleep, and with enough psychic energy food is more for satisfaction than necessity so can stand guard, particularly since my best weapon's are not physical, so if someone else can provide transport back to where we came or some other safe haven, we can plan our next move."

Xander's wing claws move so as to hold his burdens from below, allowing him to move his hands to their heads, where his claws rest extended resting just above the joint between skull and spine.

[ArlEammon]

"Merlin can keep him asleep." Jacob suggested. "Indeed I can." Merlin stated. All the others shrugged. "Big deal.[/B]" Irenicus then quipped. "It will be a good idea to keep him muzzled, of course, and I can do it. Also, I think that our time at Arkham was unusually short for an "investigation". This, "investigation" was like a WWE Wrestling Federation segment, instead of a real investigation. Actually, now that I think of it, isn't all this talk of fighting the Cthulhu Mythos nothing more than one big giant Super Smash Brothers video game brought to life?"

[Assurau]

Denise

Denise looks downward. . . clutching her neck. "I just need my neck to feel a little better. I could have fought but I doubt that I would have been able to actually fight. I'm new to fighting". She explained. Denise looked up, rubbing her neck. "I think that I could eventually pull my weight, just not right now". Jake looked around himself. . . "Well, the Shoggoths are all gone. . . I think. Merlin can't see anyone else throughout the former estate. . . I think that we need to explain to poor Nathaniel Peaslee why his entire Estate that's been in the family for two hundred years is now gone". He sighed. "Well, I'm glad I'm not the one destroying half the house."

Alana smiles at Denise. "Seems like everything is okay. No sign of infection or curse. Though I feel you should get a second opinion, what with my not being a proper healer and all."

She had been worried about the possibility of infectious werewolf-ism. That would have complicated things quite a bit.



Leandra nods to Mia. "Yes, thank goodness. By the way, Xander, everyone, this is Mia. I'm not sure how she got pulled along, but she seems to be one of us now."

Leandra's block vanished as soon as the big combo attack was over. The big monster that had broken its bonds a moment ago is now pretty well knocked out, and the other Alana is free to drag it around. Still, this half of the party has to stay on the platform to keep tabs on the big palooka for the time being.

"I'm glad you're alright... Denise, right? I'm actually not sure what collapsed the building..." The green-clad teacher looks back and forth between the two Alanas. "Miss, did you... clone yourself?"

With the blue one decapitated and the werewolf sufficiently pacified, Leandra is now free to take in the rest of her surroundings. The mansion is kind of an eyesore, but Denise is in good health, the gate is officially closed, and there's a clear path to get everyone out of the magical disturbance. Though, this does raise another question...

"Is the magical disturbance still there?" Leandra calls from the drafty platform, trying to join Jacob and Peasley's conversation just below. "That's odd. What could the source be if not the gate or the shapeshifters?"


" u-um, h-hi" stated Mia nervously. "Yeah, I woke up in my hotel room and the next thing I know I was here, like I was transported or something". She blushed a little.

"So, you too were dragged along ill-prepared for this conflict, miss?", spoke Alana to Mia as Leandra make to help Alana's clone drag the werewolf towards the others.


"Hm? Oh, right." Leandra's previous introduction only included those up here on the platform. "Mia, this is... Waruo, right? Waruo, Mia. And this..."

She helps Alana's twin drag the unconscious werewolf to the edge of the platform where everyone can see him.

"...is Fido. We don't actually know his name, but he and the blue man were apparently behind the monster-portal operation. I think I heard someone say we should get intelligence on who they were working for?"

Turning to the new arrivals, Alana and her clone waved their greeting. She was still wary of prying eyes, so she wasn't that keen of giving anything that could potentially identify her, especially given that the Warlock had known their names. so there was no telling how much their enemy knew.

"Hopefully wolfboy here will have some nice bits of info for us, like how did the caster know the names of some of those here. Though i'm more interested in how much more they actually know and who else does. Nothing worse than going into a mission blind. Especially if our foes have agents still watching us.", said Alana's clone while handing of the wolf to the Male version of the Queen of Blades.

Remembering something Leandra had asked her before, Alana turned to her,"You asked me earlier if I cloned myself. Was there someone else that show the same ability?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

"You asked me earlier if I cloned myself. Was there someone else that show the same ability?" asked the girl who Jason did not actually know was named Alana. Though her question was aimed at someone else, Jason answered, gesturing in the general direction of at least one of the Matts. "Yeah, the guy with the weird rainbow hair made a couple of clones. Said his name was Matt, I think."


"Merlin can keep him asleep." Jacob suggested. "It will be a good idea to keep him muzzled, of course, and I can do it. Also, I think that our time at Arkham was unusually short for an "investigation". This, "investigation" was like a WWE Wrestling Federation segment, instead of a real investigation. Actually, now that I think of it, isn't all this talk of fighting the Cthulhu Mythos nothing more than one big giant Super Smash Brothers video game brought to life?"

Jason's jaw actually dropped, his expression distinctly disturbed. It was one thing to have been Awakened and then carelessly tossed into this mess by a foolish person with no tactical or people sense (that kind of stupidity was relatively common, unfortunately). But now the notion had been planted in his mind that the whole thing had been set up for the amusement of some being more powerful than they were, and that was more disturbing than magic or having voices in his head or amorphous monsters could ever hope to be.


Mayurra: "What is a WWE Wrestling Federation segment?"
Nobody answered her, except to shrug; it seemed that only Jason himself got the reference, and he wasn't feeling like sharing.
Mayurra: "Okay, what is a Super Smash Brothers video game?"
"It's like investigating a report of shots fired and getting there in time to find that the shooter is still there," Kaidan told Jacob, wiping the disturbed expression off Jacob's face and moving to apply some sanity to the situation. To Nathaniel, he said, "Doctor Strange gave the impression that the effect preventing him from perceiving the estate with his magic was an ongoing concern, not a new development or an emergency, but given how badly he bungled our deployment I wouldn't put it past him to have misrepresented the situation. He also had your age wrong by a full decade, by the way."

Having seen no obvious magic lurking on the estate (magical barrier, Andrew, and the team from the hotel aside), Emma teleported from her position on the lawn to join in the discussion. "Anyone got a better read on the barrier slash wards still on the estate? I can tell it's there, but not what it does or whether it'd be dangerous to try to cross it. Also, we may want to return to the hotel by means other than teleportation, seeing as we have a prisoner and teleporting unwilling subjects is not reliable." The look she fixed on Jacob was very pointed.

"That said, there were police outside, and I don't fancy trying to explain this whole mess to the authorities. Any ideas?"

[Sapphira Jade]

"Hm? Oh, right." Leandra's previous introduction only included those up here on the platform. "Mia, this is... Waruo, right? Waruo, Mia. And this..."

She helps Alana's twin drag the unconscious werewolf to the edge of the platform where everyone can see him.

"...is Fido. We don't actually know his name, but he and the blue man were apparently behind the monster-portal operation. I think I heard someone say we should get intelligence on who they were working for?"

" Nice to meet you". Mia responded. "I see...intelligence....right."

[ArlEammon]

"I. . . think that Andrew is on to something folks, I remember him speaking of some kind of research. Back down in the basement we dug something called The Well of Souls. After Andrew did enough research on the well, which appears no more than a well kept stone marble well, he fell inside it and was knocked unconcious. . . it appears that's what started his Awakening, as he calls it. Was it the same for the rest of you?"

[5ColouredWalker]

"No, we were called by Docter Strange, and then spontainously awoke in front of him... If this is some sort of game though, he'll quickly begin regretting it."
"Yes... I find myself disturbed by their imaginations. We'll go have a quick look at the barrier and give you a shout if we encounter something of note."

With that, Xander unceremoniously drops the doppleganger and werewolf so that the person housing Merlin can look after them.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

WHY ARE YOU CALLING IT A WELL OF SOULS IF IT JUST LOOKS LIKE A REGULAR WELL, AND HOW IN THE HELL WAS IT WAS SITTING IN YOUR BASEMENT FOR YEARS WITHOUT YOU KNOWING

He must have built the mansion on this site specifically to conduct an archaeological dig in secret. That is pretty clever, actually.

Did he not just say that this mansion was over two hundred years old?

He was lying, obviously.

OKAY WHATEVER, SO WHO BUILT AN ANCIENT MARBLE WELL AND BURIED IT. IT WASN'T NATIVE AMERICANS, BECAUSE IF IT WERE I'M SURE MY INSANE COMMANDER WOULD HAVE FOUND AN EXCUSE TO BRING IT UP

Given the off-hand connection with Iceland... I guess Vikings?

After offering a hand to anyone who needs a ride off of the platform, Leandra briefly conjures her wings to jump down safely.

She nods in agreement at Xander's explanation. "Well, there is one other exception - Mia seems to have awakened only after we arrived, somehow. At any rate, we were not all thrown in a well."

[Assurau]

"You asked me earlier if I cloned myself. Was there someone else that show the same ability?" asked the girl who Jason did not actually know was named Alana. Though her question was aimed at someone else, Jason answered, gesturing in the general direction of at least one of the Matts. "Yeah, the guy with the weird rainbow hair made a couple of clones. Said his name was Matt, I think."


"Thanks for the tidbit.", said Alana as she began to see if she could find the rainbow-maned clone-maker.


"I. . . think that Andrew is on to something folks, I remember him speaking of some kind of research. Back down in the basement we dug something called The Well of Souls. After Andrew did enough research on the well, which appears no more than a well kept stone marble well, he fell inside it and was knocked unconcious. . . it appears that's what started his Awakening, as he calls it. Was it the same for the rest of you?"

"My awakening was unusual as well. To my understanding, it was far longer than what happened to the others to the point I missed the fact that there was briefing. Though being teleported against my will into an active engagement didn't help matters either. ", replied Alana.

[ArlEammon]

"One of the books is called, "The Great Beyond". This book states that the Well of Souls grants those like the Awakened more power. The more wells you find of the soul Wells, well, I believe you can all benefit from it greatly. Also, I seem to remember something about . . . ah, I've got it. The study and the library are both still intact, if I remember right, the answer to the question of the barrier lies in either the Necronomicon or one of the others. The Necronomicon is currently in my book bag."

[Kyojo777]

Waruo turned around to greet Mia.

Waruo: "Hello, Mia"




"...is Fido. We don't actually know his name, but he and the blue man were apparently behind the monster-portal operation. I think I heard someone say we should get intelligence on who they were working for?"

Waruo looks at the wolf, and unbeknownst to him he starts to drool.

Waruo:"...I wonder what he tastes like."

Then, his attention was brought to Jacob


"Merlin can keep him asleep." Jacob suggested. "Indeed I can." Merlin stated. All the others shrugged. "Big deal.[/B]" Irenicus then quipped. "It will be a good idea to keep him muzzled, of course, and I can do it. Also, I think that our time at Arkham was unusually short for an "investigation". This, "investigation" was like a WWE Wrestling Federation segment, instead of a real investigation. Actually, now that I think of it, isn't all this talk of fighting the Cthulhu Mythos nothing more than one big giant Super Smash Brothers video game brought to life?"

Waruo: "G-going by that logic, does that mean "the final boss" will be a giant hand? Or more appropriately a giant eye ball?"


"I. . . think that Andrew is on to something folks, I remember him speaking of some kind of research. Back down in the basement we dug something called The Well of Souls. After Andrew did enough research on the well, which appears no more than a well kept stone marble well, he fell inside it and was knocked unconcious. . . it appears that's what started his Awakening, as he calls it. Was it the same for the rest of you?"

Waruo:"Well, the Well must be well kept indeed, and assuming that the capabilities of the Well hasn't been well researched, would you say that it can enhance us well past our limitations?

Everyone grew silent and stared at Waruo.


"One of the books is called, "The Great Beyond". This book states that the Well of Souls grants those like the Awakened more power. The more wells you find of the soul Wells, well, I believe you can all benefit from it greatly. Also, I seem to remember something about . . . ah, I've got it. The study and the library are both still intact, if I remember right, the answer to the question of the barrier lies in either the Necronomicon or one of the others. The Necronomicon is currently in my book bag."

Waruo: "Well, well, well, it looks like I was right. We should be well on our way, then."

[Dark Knight Renee]

Waruo punned and overused the word "well" a lot; Jason looked like he wanted to punch the kid if he didn't stop talking soon. Trying to ignore it, he said, "No, but we were thrown down a rabbit hole."

Emma however noticed an off-colored fluid around Waruo's mouth. "Waruo, are you feeling alright? You're acting a bit strange, and you have some monster splatter on your face - I think it might be toxic."


Emma assumes that the juice from Waruo eating the dead shoggoth is actually shoggoth guts splattered on him during the fight, and that he may have accidentally ingested some of it. She suspects it may be the cause of his current delirious behavior.

[Kyojo777]

Waruo punned and overused the word "well" a lot; Jason looked like he wanted to punch the kid if he didn't stop talking soon. Trying to ignore it, he said, "No, but we were thrown down a rabbit hole."

Emma however noticed an off-colored fluid around Waruo's mouth. "Waruo, are you feeling alright? You're acting a bit strange, and you have some monster splatter on your face - I think it might be toxic."


Emma assumes that the juice from Waruo eating the dead shoggoth is actually shoggoth guts splattered on him during the fight, and that he may have accidentally ingested some of it. She suspects it may be the cause of his current delirious behavior.

Waruo felt Jason's aggravation, and at that moment, he felt his sins crawling on his back.

Emma then spoke "Waruo, are you feeling alright? You're acting a bit strange, and you have some monster splatter on your face - I think it might be toxic."

Waruo: "Toxic? That can't be, cause I feel excellent! But thank you for telling me. Let me just wipe it off."

Waruo proceeds to wipe off the liquid, and as if unconsciously, he licks it off his hand.

Creatures with Nen taste amazing to Chimera Ants, so that shoggoth that Waruo ate probably tasted really good.

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander suddenly cries out in pain, a cry echoed with Maria's telepathic voice.

"We were blinded for a moment. The shield is powerful, apparently the sort Maira would set up in her prime... This isn't coming down shy of throwing god level magic at it, or shutting it off should such an option be available."
Legion's mental voice sounds rather perplexed, as if the hive mind that was within Xander were still debating matters, meanwhile he begins making his way towards the group, apparently fine now.

"Well then, if you want us to visit the well first we might as well, but let's do it quickly."

[Dark Knight Renee]

Emma watched Waruo claim to be excellent and then lick the mystery juice off his hand, and concluded that "excellent" meant "high as a kite". Rather than continue the touchy subject out loud, she sent a telepathic message to all of the other Awakened (not counting Andrew, and definitely not including Waruo): "Anyone got detox magic? The guy who singlehandedly wrecked the mansion seems to have ingested a suspect substance, and he's acting very odd. I think he's high, regardless of whether he's been poisoned."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander looks around, as if waiting for someone to say no to him, while mentally messaging Emma.

"Apparently if we could access Sigil or the Fey Realms, but unless you want me to try and zergify them than there's not much I can do right now."

[Sapphira Jade]

"No detox magic here" stated Mia. "Yeah, like I said, I'm a late awakened". She heard the conversation about the whole Dr. Strange thing and was confused. " wait hold on, this whole thing of Dr. Strange awaking everyone here ". " one of the worst times for me to be a deep sleeper apparently " she added quietly.

[Kyojo777]

"No detox magic here" stated Mia. "Yeah, like I said, I'm a late awakened". She heard the conversation about the whole Dr. Strange thing and was confused. " wait hold on, this whole thing of Dr. Strange awaking everyone here ". " one of the worst times for me to be a deep sleeper apparently " she added quietly.

Waruo: "Detox magic? Why would that be necessary as of now?"

[Dark Knight Renee]

Waruo: "Detox magic? Why would that be necessary as of now?"

"Because you're high," Emma said, mentally kicking herself for assuming that everyone would keep their mouths shut when discreetly telepathed at. "People with powers like ours are dangerous enough when sober, we can't afford to get high."

[Kyojo777]

"Because you're high," Emma said, mentally kicking herself for assuming that everyone would keep their mouths shut when discreetly telepathed at. "People with powers like ours are dangerous enough when sober, we can't afford to get high."

Waruo: "High? That's ridiculous, I'm not high at all. Didn't you I hear me earlier? I feel fine."

Waruo felt more then fine. A great taste filled his mouth, and he wished he could have more. He once again unconsciously drools.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Waruo: "High? That's ridiculous, I'm not high at all. Didn't you I hear me earlier? I feel fine."

Waruo felt more then fine. A great taste filled his mouth, and he wished he could have more. He once again unconsciously drools.

Emma glared at Waruo, visibly disgusted as well as exasperated. "Then why are you drooling and lapping up mystery goo like its perfectly normal? Acting delirious and proclaiming to 'excellent' instead of just normal? You're high, and too foolish to know it. Your judgement is obviously impaired, if you had any good judgement in the first place, and you have too much power now to not acknowledged how dangerous that is. Sober up and get your head together, or at least admit that's your mind isn't functioning normally right now."

[Kyojo777]

Emma glared at Waruo, visibly disgusted as well as exasperated. "Then why are you drooling and lapping up mystery goo like its perfectly normal? Acting delirious and proclaiming to 'excellent' instead of just normal? You're high, and too foolish to know it. Your judgement is obviously impaired, if you had any good judgement in the first place, and you have too much power now to not acknowledged how dangerous that is. Sober up and get your head together, or at least admit that's your mind isn't functioning normally right now."

"Okaay, I'm going to walk away before this gets completely out of hand," Jason said, "I'll be in the basement, looking for this Well."

Waruo went from feeling great to rather nervous. Emma's glare and scolding made him feel sad, and he could feel the butterflies in his stomach growing.

Waruo: "I-I'm sorry, please forgive me. I feel fine, I really do, but I guess you can never be too sure."

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander looks at Waruo for a moment before scoffing, his mind broadcasting Kerrigan's thoughts while he makes the sound.
"Looks like we have two with power incontinence... That said however, I wouldn't put Shoggoth's on my plate, even as a zerg."
"Say's the woman who's Id is currently jumping up and down screaming at us loud enough to almost be another person over our refusal to start eating the changeling and werewolf right this instant, despite your claim of eating part of them later if they don't cooperate."
"Given what I gained from you, you should just be glad you convinced me to hold off on having some finger food."
Multiple mental voices take a moment to say ugh from Xander, though his voice actually isn't among them as he remains relatively impassive on the outside. To those one the outside, it might sound like the voices in Xander's head are becoming more confident, but in truth they were just becoming more vocal for the sake of the rest, letting snapshots of their own ludicrously fast debates spread from his mind.

"So, shall we go visit this well, because I don't see us doing anything about the wall from here and I don't exactly want to test it... Besides, regardless what you think a little snack, however gross, is far from the worst of our worries, and I'd rather handle it somewhere safe."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

The well sounds like some kind of level-up mechanic. If we are going to be fighting a war, we should use them whenever we can. Let's go.

Leandra catches the gist of the Well of Souls progress, but is distracted by Waruo on her way back to the basement.

*sniff* *sniff*

"Hmm... that's a familiar smell~"

What is it?

"Someone's been eating the monsters."

"What?! Are you sure?"

"Like, eighty percent sure. Sixty, at least."

OH GOOD

Is that why he's so manic and overstimulated?

"Well, if he's anything like me... yeah, probably."

"'Like you?' How much, 'like you,' do you mean?"

"You know, kill the big monsters, absorb their power as my own, et cetera. That feeling is just, so, mm~!"

...except he does not even seem to know he's doing it.

Leandra joins Xander and Emma, confirming... something. "I think I might have detoxifying and mood-leveling effects in my mana egg... well, spell book." She pats her signature binder, drawing attention to the stone of power embedded in the cover before she flips it open. "I'll have to look them up. There's clearly more going on with him than a simple toxin or confusion, though. We should take the time to go over all of our, 'past lives,' when we have more time."

"Oh! Wasn't this that super-weird egg with all of the useless debuffs?"

"I think there is a cure-all pattern in here somewhere, but it might be expensive..."

...expensive? Expensive how?

"Oh, right! Your sorcery really does seem to get around that. You are very good!"

...thanks. It took a long time to get it that way.

[Dark Knight Renee]

Waruo went from feeling great to rather nervous. Emma's glare and scolding made him feel sad, and he could feel the butterflies in his stomach growing.

Waruo: "I-I'm sorry, please forgive me. I feel fine, I really do, but I guess you can never be too sure."

Xander looks at Waruo for a moment before scoffing, his mind broadcasting Kerrigan's thoughts while he makes the sound.
"Looks like we have two with power incontinence... That said however, I wouldn't put Shoggoth's on my plate, even as a zerg."
"Say's the woman who's Id is currently jumping up and down screaming at us loud enough to almost be another person over our refusal to start eating the changeling and werewolf right this instant, despite your claim of eating part of them later if they don't cooperate."
"Given what I gained from you, you should just be glad you convinced me to hold off on having some finger food."
Multiple mental voices take a moment to say ugh from Xander, though his voice actually isn't among them as he remains relatively impassive on the outside. To those one the outside, it might sound like the voices in Xander's head are becoming more confident, but in truth they were just becoming more vocal for the sake of the rest, letting snapshots of their own ludicrously fast debates spread from his mind.

"So, shall we go visit this well, because I don't see us doing anything about the wall from here and I don't exactly want to test it... Besides, regardless what you think a little snack, however gross, is far from the worst of our worries, and I'd rather handle it somewhere safe."

Emma took moment to steady herself before responding. Apparently Xander's geth was far from the strangest Ego among the Awakened, perhaps not even the most alien, and some of them were quite disturbing. "I'm sorry too, I was out of line." Switching to telepathy and addressing everyone, Emma added, "Quite apart from arguing with a high person being so stupid I almost can't believe I did it, regardless of whether actual highness turns out to be a thing here. Why didn't anyone stop me? By the way, if you hear me talking to you telepathically you can respond mentally, and I'll hear it as long as it's directed at me. (Unless you're Jason, apparently.) And Leandra's right, we need to get to know our past lives and how they affect who we are now and how our teammates will behave, and soon. We should have done that before we came out here, but what's done is done. But until then, can we all refrain from bizarre alien activities like eating eldritch abominations and/or people? It's disturbing (and potentially toxic, in the case of shoggoths/mouthers) and hurts group cohesion (such as it is), and we really need all the cohesion we can get at this stage."

[Sapphira Jade]

Emma took moment to steady herself before responding. Apparently Xander's geth was far from the strangest Ego among the Awakened, perhaps not even the most alien, and some of them were quite disturbing. "I'm sorry too, I was out of line." Switching to telepathy and addressing everyone, Emma added, "Quite apart from arguing with a high person being so stupid I almost can't believe I did it, regardless of whether actual highness turns out to be a thing here. Why didn't anyone stop me? By the way, if you hear me talking to you telepathically you can respond mentally, and I'll hear it as long as it's directed at me. (Unless you're Jason, apparently.) And Leandra's right, we need to get to know our past lives and how they affect who we are now and how our teammates will behave, and soon. We should have done that before we came out here, but what's done is done. But until then, can we all refrain from bizarre alien activities like eating eldritch abominations and/or people? It's disturbing (and potentially toxic, in the case of shoggoths/mouthers) and hurts group cohesion (such as it is), and we really need all the cohesion we can get at this stage."

"Agreed, I think it is better that were get to know our past lives and how they'll affect us" stated Mia telepathically. "Wow, that was weird talking like that" she added.

[Kyojo777]

Emma took moment to steady herself before responding. Apparently Xander's geth was far from the strangest Ego among the Awakened, perhaps not even the most alien, and some of them were quite disturbing. "I'm sorry too, I was out of line." Switching to telepathy and addressing everyone, Emma added, "Quite apart from arguing with a high person being so stupid I almost can't believe I did it, regardless of whether actual highness turns out to be a thing here. Why didn't anyone stop me? By the way, if you hear me talking to you telepathically you can respond mentally, and I'll hear it as long as it's directed at me. (Unless you're Jason, apparently.) And Leandra's right, we need to get to know our past lives and how they affect who we are now and how our teammates will behave, and soon. We should have done that before we came out here, but what's done is done. But until then, can we all refrain from bizarre alien activities like eating eldritch abominations and/or people? It's disturbing (and potentially toxic, in the case of shoggoths/mouthers) and hurts group cohesion (such as it is), and we really need all the cohesion we can get at this stage."

Waruo was getting more and more agitated.

Waruo: "(How many times do I have to tell her, I'm not high! How does one get high on Shoggoth blood anyway!?)

Then, Waruo finally realized it.

Waruo: "(D-Did I really eat a Shoggoth?)"

Instead of feeling disgusted, Waruo felt...ecstatic?

Waruo: ("T-this flavor, it's wonderful! I never knew Shoggoths could taste so good! I want to eat more, but then she would be on my ass about it, and then everyone would think I'm crazy, tch! Let me go deal with the Well so I can that over with.")

Waruo begins to speak.

Waruo: "Hey everybody, I'm heading over to Well, so I'll meet you there."

With that, Waruo heads for the basement and goes down the stairs.

Just to make it explicit, Emma did not hear Waruo's thoughts at all

[Dark Knight Renee]

"One of the books is called, "The Great Beyond". This book states that the Well of Souls grants those like the Awakened more power. The more wells you find of the soul Wells, well, I believe you can all benefit from it greatly. Also, I seem to remember something about . . . ah, I've got it. The study and the library are both still intact, if I remember right, the answer to the question of the barrier lies in either the Necronomicon or one of the others. The Necronomicon is currently in my book bag."

Jason had been studying the green barrier around the estate (or at least looking at it so that Mayurra could study it, while he and his other 'egos' focused on listening to the conversation/argument between Emma and Waruo), which had been imperceptible when they'd arrived but had apparently appeared gradually during the course of the fight. It seemed like it wasn't done appearing, either, having become slightly more opaque over the past minute. Mayurra said the magic was unfamiliar and strange (and powerful, she confirmed), but could provide no useful details except that the barrier looked to be more of a wall than a solid sphere, which apparently explained why they could use destinations and teleport freely within, yet, according to Doctor Strange (a dubious source, in the minds of all of Jason's Egos), his spells of such nature were blocked.

There was nothing more to learn from staring at the barrier (while Mayurra had expressed an interest in experimenting with the it, she was soundly overruled on safety grounds), so when the conversation/argument concluded and Waruo announced that he was headed down to the basement to check out the Well, Jason turned to follow him. "Shall we?"


Apparently Detect Magic doesn't cause stunning or blinding or any other negative effects when used on extremely powerful magic, despite its similarity to Detect Thoughts and Detect Alignment spells, which do cause stunning if used on super-intelligent creatures or sufficiently high-level 'aligned' things, respectively.

[ArlEammon]

The basement below the Peaslee estate was no mere small basement. The basement was as large as a house of 3,000 square feet in area, it had a bathroom, the bathroom of course, had a medicine cabinet, and a bath; while the bed room contained a large king sized bed, a television inside, with a book case containing a large variety of books, and a large pool room. The bed room had the computer, and there was also a safe room. In addition to the safe room, there was the hidden area, the Well of Souls. . . just beyond the safe room in yet it's secret door. The walls were blue painted plastered walls, messy, but stylishly covered in blue tapestries.

The Well of Souls was made of mysterious gemstones. No water inhabited the Well Of Souls, but a mysterious green energy emitted from it. All secondary egoes knew and informed their Primary Egoes of the Well's containment of another Soul. The Secondary Egoes contained within spoke to all of you, beckoning you from the Well it'self.

[Kyojo777]

Waruo: "I-Is that, the Well of Souls?"


Cyphre: "Yes, I believe so."

Waruo had completely forgot that voices now lived in his head.

Waruo: "Wait, why weren't you guys speaking earlier?
Cyphre: "It seems we "fell asleep", but no matter, what's important now is right in front of you"


As Waruo got closer to the Well, he could feel the energy radiating from it.

Waruo: "W-Well, here goes nothing."

Waruo enters the Well, and as a result is bathed in the green aura. After a (Amount of time), Waruo was thrown out of the well.

Waruo: "You know, I expected that to hurt a lot more then it did."

Waruo gets up, happy that he was much more durable then before he was awakened.

Waruo: "Now, who did I get th-

Gyro: "Hmm? Hey, where am I?
Waruo: "No, it can't be, you're Gyro Zeppeli!"
Gyro: "Wait, how do you know my name?"
Waruo: *Crying tears of joy* To think I was once a JJBA character, you have no idea how happy I am"
Gyro: "Why the hell are you crying? Jeez, that's just plain weird!"
Waruo: "Here, let me show you."

Waruo proceeds to touch Gyro's head, showing him all of his knowledge of awakening and what happened in the past twenty minutes or so.

Gyro: "So you're my currant life, huh? Well, as long as we stay on the same page I don't have any reason to complain. Still, being stuck inside a head sucks."
Waruo: "Well, have fun while you're here. I have to go, so see you later"

As Waruo exits his own little...WARUDO, he tests to see if he really can use "The Spin". He starts to gather air in his hands, and once he does that he tries to spin the air, actually succeeding!

Waruo: "I...am simply speechless. This is amazing!"

So, I guess demons are resistant to forced Telepathy?

[5ColouredWalker]

Xander spends precious moments admiring the well of souls, and then Waruo jumps in. Almost immediately he tenses up before relaxing, his speed of thought allowing him to shut off his immediate responses before most would realize making them.

"I bags going next." Xander's thought blares along before he speaks the words, choosing to trust in the bagsies code, before he joins in with any deliberations and analysis other's begin doing, providing a wall to bounce ideas and a head to run maths if nothing else.


When Xander gets his turn, Xander floats himself in with a measure of grace, his body is bathed in it's energies to the sounds of harsh grunts similar in sound to cut of screams, and then something else comes out, that looks vaguely like him.
His form is now much larger, and covered quite thoroughly with armor bar a few places for movement. His wing claws are now proper wings, and his legs are now slightly reminiscent of a zerglings, and the claws upon his hands are much longer, each now instead of being little more than a nail, being about the size of a small dagger...
Additionally, a hole has appeared in each shoulder, each lined with the same armor that adorns Xander's body, and each bearing but hidden purpose.

"Everyone, I now hold within me Abathor. As we feared our knowledge is severely limited, that said, he and Belgarath are working together wonderfully, apparently the Overmind reigned in several features he wished to put into the mutagens to affect Kerrigan."
The voices within Xander's head are, for now, awfully quiet, almost as if he's still having fierce debates rage internally.
"I'm currently working on reproducing certain technological marvels within my body based on group knowledge, though that may take some time."


The observant among the group may notice that Xander appears to be carrying nothing anymore, simply standing as an un-adorned titan with his head almost touching the roof.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leandra walks in behind everyone just in time to watch in shock as Waruo and Xander take their turns plunging into an evil well. She is a little worried about the former, but he seems to have cheered up, at any rate. As for Xander, on the other hand, she can only stare up at the creature he has become, lost in thought. It doesn't take a telepath to see that she's having trouble deciding what to make of this development.

"Mmm~ That green stuff smells good."

The power...! Hahaha- ha... I... I don't think we understand it as well as I thought...

Just go get it! There is clearly no other way to advance in this game.

'VIDEO GAME BROUGHT TO LIFE' YOU MEAN

'Clearly?' How do we know?

"Enough! Look at Xander! A power that turns you into one of those Zerg monsters is no power I'm touching! He speaks of mutation, of creating 'wonders' inside of himself. This Abathur is destroying him, just like Valmar, or Ganon or the Dark Side or whatever else!"

"Is that right."

'The Dark Side.' Why do we know that phrase?

LOOK, I AM TELLING YOU IT'S NOT ME

...

Leandra nods to Xander, acknowledging that he's going to be busy for a minute. She's going to reserve judgement on whatever it is he's doing. She looks around and finds Andrew, the butler.

"Well, you're not the one who introduced yourself to me originally, but you are Andrew, correct? The one who was conducting research on The Well of Souls? Were you able to conclude anything about how it causes these Awakenings?"

...whatever is happening to Waruo and Xander, it was pre-ordained. Those souls were theirs well before the well awakened them.

Even as she waits for a response, her hands take on a mind of their own. We are wasting time, Leandra.

[5ColouredWalker]

While Leandra was visibly troubled, Xander could read her thoughts without even trying, that was a fact of life for him now.
Even with his speed of thought, it took Xander a moment to figure out how to best put his mind at ease.

With a momentry flicker, Xander quickly began shifting his body seeming to become fluid as he changes, his new form becoming one of a wizened old man, covered in a surprising amount of muscle for a man that had to be pushing at least 90, almost as if he was the sort of man that continued body building well past when most would consider it reasonable.
"Hmmm. I had hoped to regain my own form... It seems we have even more to work on than I thought... It's nice to hear my own voice though."
Mentally, Xander spoke to everyone while Belgarath admired having his body back.

"No need for anyone to worry... It's feeling a little crowded with two Zerg here, but we're more than capable of controlling ourselves... That said we are eagerly awaiting a handful of moments to ourselves... Our mental abilities were quite boosted by Abathur's addition, and we have had a great deal of time in these last few moments."

[Kyojo777]

As Xander mutated into a well-built old man, Waruo wondered if he could shape-shift too.

???: Yes, you can if you want.

Waruo paused.

Waruo:Um, you aren't who I think you are, right?
Youpi: "I'm Youpi, and what that does mean?"
Waruo: "Just making sure. So, how come you've started to talk now?"
Youpi: "It looks like I was asleep for the past twenty minutes. The others have filled me in on what's going on.

Youpi started to become sad.

Youpi: "I hope we can someday meet the king again, so stay alive till then, hear!?"
Waruo: "Don't worry, you don't have to yell -_-."

Waruo: "I can't believe my luck! Not only can I shape-shift, but now I use Nen! The possibilities are endless! For now though, I'll just stick with Youpi's Hatsu. Let's see...

As if it was easy as breathing, Waruo grows a pair of red feathered wings, and begins to float above the ground.

Waruo: "It sure is something else to actually feel the sensation of flying than to "remember" it!"

Youpi was asleep, so Waruo wasn't aware that he could use Nen.

[Kyojo777]

Nathaniel: "Seeing as how you've all just had an intense battle, I suggest we take a couple of minutes to simply relax. In the mean time, I'll be waiting in the library."

With that, Nathaniel leaves.


Somewhere else in the mansion

Joruhoshi: Hmm, where am I? I was in my room, but now I'm here. Weird"

Red Garland User: "What the...where the hell am I?"
Mildred: "Where are we indeed."
Morrigan: "Hmm, it seems we're inside someone's head. How interesting."
Mildred & RGU: "What -_-?"
Dante: "Yep, that seems to be the case. Hey kid, can you hear us?"
Hoshi: "Yeah, I can. I'm not exactly too happy about it."
Pitou: "I would like to say that this is a product of Nen, but based on your memories that doesn't seem to be the case."
Hoshi: "Where are you all talking from exactly?"
Mildred: "It seems we're inside a castle."
RGU: "It kinda looks like the castle of a demon lord or something"
Morrigan: "For me this feels just like home. Why don't you come in, you star?"
Hoshi: "...Sure"

Hoshi goes deeper into his mind, and finds the Castle. From there, he recognizes the voices in his head. One of them looked...kinda average. Hoshi recognized him as the average looking protagonist from The 7th Stand User. Another looked like Dante from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Another looked like a humanoid cat, who Hoshi recognized as Pitou from HXH. Another was wearing quite loose clothing, and was very beautiful. It took Hoshi a long time to stop staring at her and to recognize that she was Morrigan from Dark Stalkers. The last one looked like quite heavenly, but most definitely not in the original sense. Hoshi had to yet again stop staring so he could recognize her as Mildred from Arcana Heart. Hoshi had recognized the pattern, these were all people from fiction...but it took him a little to actually think on that and to stop having perverted thoughts.

Hoshi: "I recognize a pattern here. In my world people have come up with the ideas of your personalties, and have profited off of them through many forms of media."
Everyone: "So, you recognize us from fiction?"
Hoshi: "Yes, that's correct. But, that doesn't actually help at all, now that I'm thinking more clearly."
Dante: "Well, in the mean time I'll explore this castle more. Seems like it'll be fun."
Pitou: "I'll do the same."

Pitou stops for a moment.

Pitou: "If you can find the king, tell me, alright?"

With that, Pitou walks away.

RGU: "Wait, what do you mean by "Thinking more clearly."?"
Hoshi: "It's quite hard for me to think strait when I'm aroused as all hell"
Morrigan: "That's blunt, but I like it~"
Mildred: "How can you say that with a strait face?"
Hoshi: "I'm just very good at not showing my emotions."
Morrigan: "Is that so, then I can't wait to hear you moan~"
Mildred & RGU: ("...Is this really happening ~_~?)
Hoshi: "As attractive as that offer is, I really do have to get out of here, so, I'll see you later."

With that Hoshi leaves.

Morrigan: "He is correct, that is where our priorities should lie. In the mean time shall we?"
Mildred: "I-I have to go...um...see what the others are doing, so I'll...um...do that now."
RGU: "Y-yep, I also have to do the exact same thing! See ya later!"

With that Mildred and RGU fast walk into the nearest room.

Morrigan: "*sigh* Looks like I'll be bored for a little while."


Hoshi leaves the Castle, and enters the waking world.

Hoshi: "Hmm, I want to try something."

As Hoshi wills it, Red Garland appears.

Hoshi: "It looks like I was right. Since I can use RG I can safely assume that I can use Nen. Sadly, this all feels natural to me, and I seem to be remembering exactly how these powers work. Great, what a boring game this will be."

With that, Hoshi effortlessly uses En.

Hoshi: "It seems these powers are nowhere near what they once were, but no matter, 0.4 kilometers should be more then enough."

Hoshi's En extends outward, taking the shape of a perfect sphere. Using En, Hoshi is able to detect a group of people in a hidden location in the basement.

Hoshi: "Wow, so many people in one place, I wonder what's going on there. Well, there's no rush, so let me walk it."

With that, Hoshi walks towards the location of the hidden room.

Emotions can be felt through Nen. Hoshi's En had a feeling of coldness/heartless in it. By the way, Non-Nen users can't see Nen.

[5ColouredWalker]

"No, don't walk off we've got to get you out of here and there would be better places for a rest!.."
Xander frowns as Nathanial walks off.
"I'm beginning to think the game idea might be right... I'm keeping track of his location telepathically, who's next for the wel- NATHANIAL STOP! We have a new arrival."

[Kyojo777]

As Nathanial walks to the library, he feels a wave of emotion overcoming him. It feels cold and heartless. He then hears the voice of one of the Awakend.


"NATHANIAL STOP! We have a new arrival."

Nathanial: "I know, I felt it."

Nathanial thinks for a moment.

Nathanial: "If this new arrival is an enemy, we must protect the Libary and the Well, but first let's see if that's case. Can you contact him or her through telepathy, like with me?"



Along with everyone else, Waruo felt the wave of emotion. Unlike the others however, he could see the sphere. It was clear/transparent red with a black outline. He immediately recognized this as being Nen.

Waruo: "S-So, there's another person here who can use Nen, huh? Well, I guess I should personally go and greet him."
Youpi: "Is it the king!?"
Waruo: "I don't know, so let's find out."

Waruo begins to walk out.

Waruo: "Guys, I'll locate the arrival, alone. You guys can't see Nen, so you're at a serious disadvantage. I'll see you later."

With that, Waruo leaves.

Waruo:"Since I have no idea where he is, I'll use En to locate him.

Waruo effortlessly uses En, and is able to locate the arrival.

Waruo: "Hmph, I found you~"

Waruo then spots a Shoggoth corpse...

Waruo: *Smiling*"But first, let me have a snack."

And eats it in seconds.



Hoshi: "I wonder, how close am I to the room? Hmm, using basic math I would sa-"

Right then and there, Hoshi felt a wave of emotion. It felt excited, to say the least.

Hoshi: "So, it seems there's someone else here who can use Nen."
Pitou: "Could it be the king!?"
Hoshi: "No, I don't think so. But nonetheless, I don't think this will be boring. Who knows, maybe this will be my tutorial fight~"

With that, Hoshi begins to run towards his target, and at very fast speeds.

The others felt Waruo's En

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

WHAT THE HELL IS NEN AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT IT

...it sounds like a form of distilled magic power. He seems to think that only he can sense it, but that might just be because he's never met Millenia.

"Well, to be fair, we don't know that the stuff we're smelling on him is the same as the stuff he's looking for. But, it does seem like a pretty safe bet~"

Leandra exchanges a knowing glance with Emma and Belgarath. "Well, I'll keep an eye on him. You stay here and keep the area defended, just in case."

With that, she runs out behind Waruo, just in time to catch him slurping up a shoggoth corpse.

"Ha! I knew it!"

AUGH

We should at least try to be tactful. For all we know, this could be a dietary requirement for him now.

Leandra looks on as Waruo stands back up, not bothering to hide that she's watching. She wrinkles her nose, but tries not to let her disgust get to her. "...so, is that what you were eating earlier?"

*sniff*
"Whoa! There's more of it??"

COMING IN FAST AT TWO O'CLOCK
Leandra gasps and looks up toward the incoming human projectile. She snaps her fingers and raises her hand. Instantly, a wide, vaguely book-shaped wall of force appears to block his reckless charge. It's not very sturdy, but at least whoever this is can't break it and kill someone at the same time.

[Kyojo777]

As Waruo finishes eating, he notices that Leandra saw him.

"...so, is that what you were eating earlier?"

Waruo thinks of his answer before he responds.

Waruo: "Yes, that was what I was eating earlier. But is that really important? So what if I changed my eating habits, it has no effect on my mental stability. The real question, is that will you tell the others?"

Before Leandra can respond however, Hoshi calls out to the group.

Hoshi: "Hello there."

Waruo looks in the direction of the voice.

Waruo: "So, you're the new arrival, huh?"
Hoshi: "That's right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but were you guys the who kidnapped me?"
Waruo: "Kidnapped? Why would yo-"

Waruo then remembers Mia, and how she had been teleported here.

Waruo: "Ah, I see, you're just like Mia."

Hoshi was fully expecting to fight, so this was...not what he expected.

Hoshi: "Mia?"
Waruo: "Let me explain."

Waruo explains the situation, from the very beginning.

Hoshi: "You know, normally I would think you were full of it, but since my mind is filled with the personalities of an average looking stand user, a beautiful succubus, a yummy angel in her mid 20s, a humanoid cat, and a thrill seeking half-demon, I have no reason to not believe you.

RGU: ""Average looking?" -_-?"
Morrigan: "That goes without saying."
Mildred: ""Yummy angel in her mid-20s?" -_-?"
Pitou: "That sounds about right."
Dante: "Well, I guess you could say that."

At that moment, a couple of Hoshi's SEs recognized some of Waruo's SEs.

Dante: "Wait, is that you, boss?"

Lucifer then remembers who Dante was.

Lucifer: "Hello, Dante."
Dante: "I guess it's nice to see you too, Lucifer."

Pitou and Youpi then recognize each other.

Pitou: "Youpi, is that you?"
Youpi: "Yeah, it's me. Any luck finding the King?"
Pitou: "No, not at all. Hopefully one day we will find him."
Youpi: "......"


Waruo: "Well, that's quite the list of SEs you have. However, I do have to ask, what's the name of that angel you're talking about?
Hoshi: "Mildred"
Waruo: "...You and me, we're gonna be great friends."
Hoshi: *Smiling, which is pretty amazing considering he was wearing a blank expression the entire time* "I already like you. What's your name?"
Waruo: "Fuzen, Waruo Fuzen."
Hoshi:"Waruo Fuzen, oddly enough that sounds familiar. My name is Joruhoshi Hayashi"
Waruo: "Joruhoshi Hayashi, that sounds pretty familiar to me. Now this is just bothering me, where have we heard of each other?"
Hoshi: "It doesn't matter"
Waruo: "Still, would be nice to know."

Hoshi and Waruo continued their conversation, and it felt as if they were the best of friends. While talking, Hoshi remembered the room he had located.

Hoshi: "I have to ask why were you all in that room?"
Waruo: "Oh, you mean the room that has the Well?"
Hoshi: "The Well?"
Waruo: "That's right, I forgot to tell you. The Well is, well, a Well that awakens another SE in us."
Hoshi: "Is that so, well I won't bother, if I get too strong then nothing will be a challenge for me, a game where you're level 30 when all the enemies are level 15 just isn't fun.
Waruo: "You can always just limit your self."
Hoshi: "It's never the same. The feeling of trying your hardest to achieve something, and succeeding can not be described."
Waruo: "Well, we should still get back, the others must be worried."
Hoshi: "Yes, I do think it's best to greet my other party members."

With that, Hoshi and Waruo head back to the well.

Nen is the life force of every living thing in HXH. To use Nen, one must open up their nodes. Untill then they can't see Nen, but can still feel it. Also for your next post can you ask Hoshi if he realizes that he has a sword holstered on his back?

[ArlEammon]

Jacob

"Who are you?" Jacob asked Hoshi.

Soul Speak
"Frankly, your lack of tactical planning and common sense leads so much to be desired, I don't even know where to begin. "Listen-" " Merlin cut him off. "Deathstroke, Or Slade, is it? Jacob may be a mature adult, but he's a book reader. For some reason it's difficult for him to accept that all of this is real. Once he realizes that all of this is real he'll stop panicking and running off into danger like an idiot. So, in short, he's naive, young, in his own niche, and a book worm, you need to let him learn, or else, he'll not only take charge again without our advice, he may shut us all off without being able to learn. A powerful, magical and now martial idiot savant with no help or a way out of his own little world."

[Kyojo777]

Jacob

"Who are you?" Jacob asked Hoshi.

Soul Speak
"Frankly, your lack of tactical planning and common sense leads so much to be desired, I don't even know where to begin." "Listen-" Merlin cut him off. "Deathstroke, Or Slade, is it? Jacob may be a mature adult, but he's a book reader. For some reason it's difficult for him to accept that all of this is real. Once he realizes that all of this is real he'll stop panicking and running off into danger like an idiot. So, in short, he's naive, young, in his own niche, and a book worm, you need to let him learn, or else, he'll not only take charge again without our advice, he may shut us all off without being able to learn. A powerful, magical and now martial idiot savant with no help or a way out of his own little world."

Hoshi: "My name is Joruhoshi Hayashi. Who are you?"

[ArlEammon]

"I'm fine, glad to see you. So Doctor Strange sent you here then? Are you one of those folk who just went to Salem, Massachusetts?" Jake asked, evading the question. He was curious. . . the rest of the house was in tatters. Of course, some of the structure was still standing. Some of the second floor, although the hall way was ravaged. . . the ballroom still stood pristine and spotless, of course the study and library were there, although the library probably wasn't the safest place to hang around in this structurally unstable house.

[Kyojo777]

"I'm fine, glad to see you. So Doctor Strange sent you here then? Are you one of those folk who just went to Salem, Massachusetts?" Jake asked. He was curious. . . the rest of the house was in tatters. Of course, some of the structure was still standing. Some of the second floor, although the hall way was ravaged. . . the ballroom still stood pristine and spotless, of course the study and library were there, although the library probably wasn't the safest place to hang around in this structurally unstable house.

Hoshi: "Who is this Doctor Strange, and I didn't ask if you were fine, I asked who you are. To answer your question, I found myself here with no memory of how I got here."

[ArlEammon]

Jacob
"A likely story. I think there's a bridge in Montana I can sell you." Jake responded. "Look, not to be judgemental but there's been a huge fight here. . .You need to get someone else to trust you." He grinded his teeth together. "Go ahead and help yourself to the kitchen I guess. . ." He quipped.

[Kyojo777]

Jacob
"A likely story. I think there's a bridge in Montana I can sell you." Jake responded. "Look, not to be judgemental but there's been a huge fight here. . .You need to get someone else to trust you." He grinded his teeth together. "Go ahead and help yourself to the kitchen I guess. . ." He quipped.

Hoshi: "So you won't answer my questions after all."

Hoshi looks at Waruo

Hoshi: "Waruo, who is Doctor Strange, and who is this man?"
Waruo: "Doctor Strange is the guy who awakened us, and this guys over here is Jacob"
Hoshi: "I see. Well, in the mean time I'll go meet my other party members."
Waruo: "Before you leave, I want to ask you, you do realize that you have a giant sword holstered on your back, right?"

Hoshi felt his back, and sure enough, Waruo was right.

Hoshi: "Looks like you're right. Well, see you later."

With that, Hoshi heads for the Well.

[Assurau]

Alana sat pulled up a box in the basement and sat down. She needed a moment to relax, to process just how insane her life had just become in the span of a few hour. One moment she was perfectly normal, the next she's a up-and-coming Darkness (with capital D) wielding warrior with severe planet-busting potential. She ran her hand through her hair, as she looked at the keyblade (http://www.khwiki.com/images/thumb/8/87/Way_to_the_Dawn_KHII.png/200px-Way_to_the_Dawn_KHII.png) still in her hand. It more than anything cement her situation. Here was this weapon that validated the existence of other worlds and at the same time pointed to her as being it's only owner. That some point in the past, she was Riku and that his mistakes were, at one point, hers as well. The same would be said about Zetto, Sasuke and Sombra. All the good they did, all the bad they did; This was her past, her history. It was a sobering thought, that killed whatever giddiness she had felt about having been them. This was especially true when it came to Homura, whose history ended so abruptly that she had no way of know if she was the one that snapped and became the Devil.

She sighed once again, as she waited to see if she could catch the ever elusive Mathew.

[Regalus]

In and out.

Slowly breathing in the world, before exhaling once more; forming an endless cycle, a living circuit, between The Self and The World. Letting go and becoming part of something greater, nay, remembering that you always where; while ignoring the incessant shuffling behind you. Like hearing your heart beat, after having forgotten it was there to begin with. It was the kind of serenity and expanion of self that many sought out, but few could ever ho-

"Are you done yet?" whined Matthew's eldest clone boyishly as he layed down on the floor woefully, only to receiving a swift kick to the side from the younger clone to the former's increased whining. After the last shoggoth had been dealt with the pair had been left guarding a de-alicorned Matthew as he meditated against one of the few still standing walls of the estate; calling upon his knowledge of both magic and geomancy to study their surroundings and the barrier field enveloping it. Needless to say the clones had gone a bit stir crazy after ten minutes had passed, and no sign of hostiles had shown up.

Rubbing his temples, the boy-turned-godling sighed heavily as he felt the heady sensation of his awareness slowly withdrew to himself, "Yeah, I did," he admitted to the former's whooping for joy.

"So what are we dealing with here?"

"Far as I can tell it's not wall per say, more of a filter or buffer. It puts up enough static and interference to seperate In Here from Out There, and muddle divination; but it's pretty passive. Can't go through unless your metaphysically heavy enough though, which I'm guessing is why we were able to go through...though I wouldn't recommend translocating through it," he explained with a grimace.

"Well, duh but what is it?"

At this the boy shrugs, "Madoka thinks it's working off some kind of transplanar energy running off the same gunk those boggies were covered in; but none of us theme to have experience with this particular signature. Still, we should have a better time detecting the crap now," he said, as he stood up; dusting his pink magical-boy uniform.

"For now it's nothing to worry, we're better off checking on the others now," he added half-heartedly to the duos nodding, before all three of them suddenly stiffened; a sudden and sharp spike in the flow of spiritual energy in the area causing their gazes to whip towards the ground in direction of the mansions basement.

Shock, amazement, and panic shot through the young man as his clones dismissed themselves without another word; their essence returning to him even as their forms popped into puffs a smoke. Not a moment later a horn of solid sunlight manifest on the boy's brow before he too suddenly winked out; transporting himself to the source of the unmistakably familiar disturbance.

A moment later the lad found himself in the basement, appearing in a sudden flash of light with an audible pop; tangentially acknowledging the presences of the others around him before he all but ran to the Well and stared down it's depths, clutching tightly at the wall surrounding as his beating Heart confirmed his suspicions. Until finally the boy could not hold back the ever growing wave of emotions surgign through him as he stared at the viridian depths, and gave voice to the amazement, horror and confusion of his Egos.

"Why Kingdom Hearts in a basement?!"

[Sapphira Jade]

In the time before the well Mia has learned who each of the voices in her mind were and she was a bit on the shocked side due to the fact that each of them are apparently who she was in the past and she really did a lot of different.... She wasn't sure whether to call them jobs or not, but she wasn't too fond over the fact that she was a type of terrorist in one of her past lives. Now they're all on this well and also she noticed that there was an expansion in this... team. "Oh, a new recruit".

[ArlEammon]

Jacob
"Well, there isn't much to do that's productive here at the estate. . . maybe grab some things from Nathaniel Peaslee and take him to New York with Doctor Strange, he should be safe there. Oh, and I'm a bit worried. With the estate like this, if we are liable for damages, but I think that I can put everything back together with my magical powers. . . In fact. . . ::Jacob raises his hands in an incantation, casting a spell, and in a few moments, the entire structure was put back together. "I hope that appeases Nathaniel Peaslee. It's such a shame when someone loses their home. Even if he won't be able to enjoy it for a while. Merlin is telling me that the Well is a powerful magical "Well of Souls" that is used as a focal point for the Temple of Cthulhu, the Cthulhu Cultists used this place as a temple eons ago, and the gate that Nathaniel closed will be open again. Not to mention, Samael has given up on contacting us and is gone. Well, the Gate will open up again but we can enter the area and take down whatever threat we need to when it does. Nathaniel will have to tell us everything else though. Merlin's magic is strong and he's wise, but he doesn't know much about magic based on the Great Old Ones."

[Sapphira Jade]

Jacob
"Well, there isn't much to do that's productive here at the estate. . . maybe grab some things from Nathaniel Peaslee and take him to New York with Doctor Strange, he should be safe there. Oh, and I'm a bit worried. With the estate like this, if we are liable for damages, but I think that I can put everything back together with my magical powers. . . In fact. . . ::Jacob raises his hands in an incantation, casting a spell, and in a few moments, the entire structure was put back together. "I hope that appeases Nathaniel Peaslee. It's such a shame when someone loses their home. Even if he won't be able to enjoy it for a while. Merlin is telling me that the Well is a powerful magical "Well of Souls" that is used as a focal point for the Temple of Cthulhu, the Cthulhu Cultists used this place as a temple eons ago, and the gate that Nathaniel closed will be open again. Not to mention, Samael has given up on contacting us and is gone. Well, the Gate will open up again but we can enter the area and take down whatever threat we need to when it does. Nathaniel will have to tell us everything else though. Merlin's magic is strong and he's wise, but he doesn't know much about magic based on the Great Old Ones."

Mia nodded. "Safety, good". " I'm up for it. "
"It seems they have good reason to leave." "And you have the right idea." "But personally I wouldn't feel too relieved."
Lucy: "WHA?!" "Who are you?!"
Egon: "We have a new addition?" "I thought dear Mia only had 5." "Us."
"Who are all of you?" "Mind someone explaining to me what I'm doing here?"
Blake: "He must've come from the well of souls while everyone was down there"
A. May: "Look, I'm Agent May and the others are Lucy Heartfilia, Blake Belladonna, Egon Spegler, and Albert Wesker." "We're all apparently someone that this girl Mia was in the past." "A reincarnation thing that we're all still trying to make sense of"
Mia: "You think you can enlighten us with who you are?"
"It's Zero." "Zero Kiryu."
Mia: "And what was I as you?" "I've already got a scientist/ghostbuster, a bioterrorist, a celestial wizard, a professonal huntress, and a high-ranked secret agent."
Zero: "Heh, you must be quite into the supernatural then." "Because you have a professional vampire hunter to add to the list now"
Mia: "Wow, good point." "I've never thought about that before."
Wesker: "For a new addition that's never dealt with this before you're sure taking this rather calmly."
Zero: "I'm trained enough that I can keep my emotions in check."

Mia assumed that meant he won't say much more then that, so she didn't push it.