VVVVVigil: Valorous Veterans Vanquishing Venal Vermin

[Deathkeeper]

Early Morning Training

The bird “shrugs” again.
”Well, yeah but-“ he hops off the table and flips into his usual shiny winged kobold shape.
”Still quite a few kilos in the chest and arms short of matching anyone capable of that. Why I stick to the small stuff.” he says, tapping the mithril dagger at his side he’s calling a sword. It’s in a scabbard, but judging from the hilt he keeps it very shiny. It seems exceptionally well made.

[5a Violista]

[Arriving for the first time]

A guy gets off the airship, finally arriving here. He's been looking to join ever since Magtok told him about this place, but he got lost on the way here. Zophiel the paladin arrives.

Imagine a classic knight-in-shining armor. Except imagine he worked out just a little too much and now his armor doesn't fit him, so he decided he was better off without it. That's him.
He's got two huge swords strapped to his back - seriously, their size would make it hard for somebody to hold even one of them if they had three hands. Given their appearance, there's a good chance he's actually an anime character in disguise as a knight.

Alternatively, he just has a thing for big swords.

After confirming that this floating island is, in fact, Vigil's base, he starts asking around about where he can sign up.

[Morty]

[Commanders' Village]

"No, that seems to be it," Wenomir says, looking over the information. "We'll see what we can find."

[Arriving for the first time]

Zophiel will meet a slender, tall dark-skinned human woman wearing what looks like an armored robe with a hood, an elaborate scythe slung over her back.

"Welcome to Vigil. Are you interested in joining us?"

[Airship Gantry]

Emily will be met by a familiar face, though Calm Reed is wearing a buff jacket made out of some strange material, instead of the simple robe the crocodile-woman saw her in before.

"Greetings, Emily. What brings you to Vigil?"

[5a Violista]

[Arriving for the first time]

"Hi," he says as he holds out his hand to shake. "Nice to meet you."

Then, he answers the question: "Yes, I am. Someone recommended I join, and, well..." He laughs. "I got a little lost, looking along the shore for this place."

[Halae]

[Airship Gantry]

"Rumors I confirmed," Emily says, holding out her notebook for Calm Reed to take if she so chooses, "There's a large invasion force to the south among the mountains, manned primarily by different automatons but led by what appear to be highly skilled normal people. They're slave-taking, replacing the local wildlife with automatons to watch their surroundings, and cutting deals with all sorts of bad folks. It seemed like the kind of thing Vigil would want to be aware of ahead of time."

"I lost a bit of gear during the reconnaissance effort but got away before whatever they sent to track me down could find me. They're extending their control into the surrounding region at a downright alarming pace, and based on one of the men they've been meeting with, I have reason to believe that one of their targets is going to be the high technology of Magtok in Mt. Enn," Emily's explanation is more formal than Calm Reed was likely expecting; she's taking this whole situation extremely seriously, given she's already committed resources and significant time to her observations in the notebook. It may even seem like she's done this before; she has, not that Calm Reed would know, though Emily's never done this kind of action against a proper military force.

[billtodamax]

Dumb loner

I'm real convincing. Violet says, lifting off of Awen. Celestia, girl, you gotta get this sun thing fixed. She says, her tone changing to one more jovial. Next time I'll kick some clouds in front of the sun, how's that? She asks, flying further off and starting to leave. Figure out this brain thing! She yells back. If Awen wants to keep talking with her she'll need to yell.

[5a Violista]

[Dumb Loner]

"Okay, thanks," Awen says to Violet's gracious offer to kick up clouds.

"I-I'll see what I can do about all of it!" she yells back, before Violet gets too far away. Her voice isn't that loud, so she actually can't carry on any more of a conversation.

Then, to herself she says, "What did I just get myself into? I hope everything works out." Still lying on the ground with the book in front of her, she goes back to reading about the body-swapping and altering ritual, and scratching out on her forearm what she needs to prepare.

[Morty]

[Airship Gantry ==> Commanders' Village]

Calm Reed's dismay grows as she listens to Halae and reads the notebook.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is extremely important news and a thorough report. But one of the commanders needs to hear about it immediately. Follow me."

The monk leads Emily towards the commanders' village at a brisk pace, occasionally stopped by other members, to whom she explains she bears an urgent report for the commanders.

[Arriving for the first time]

"My name is Naraisha. I joined here with my guild some time ago. I'd ask what skills you bring to our group, but that's rather apparent..." She pauses. "But then, there's often more than meets the eye to people in our profession, so do tell me."

[5a Violista]

[Arriving for the first time]

He looks over his shoulder at the hilt, and laughs. "Yeah, I guess it would be obvious," he concedes.

He doesn't stop there, however: he decides to introduce himself and explain the not-quite-obvious parts. "I'm Zophiel, a paladin. Independent."

Zophiel shrugs, and continues: "Besides the obvious, I can do some basic magic things but nowhere near as good as a magician or whoever, and I'm actually pretty decent with magical seals." As evidenced by the one he put on himself, on his upper back - unfortunately, clothes are in the way so it can't be seen. "That's about it."

He leans against whatever is available - desk? Wall? "Don't really know my way around the..." He pauses. "Nexus. It's changed a lot since I was last around. So, at least for now until I get a new map that's one of the things I won't be good at."

[Halae]

[Commander's Village]

Emily will be following behind Calm Reed as she heads in towards the Commanders' residences, fidgeting slightly. Seems she's anxious about the situation as it stands, and she can't contain all her nervous energy behind the serious facade she's adopted.

[Zefir]

Early Morning Training

Mia has stopped drinking more of the tea/coffee mix. She learns quick. Still the coffein has at least a little impact on her that she got aware of the surrounding.

"Not my taste." she replies to Jezebel. she takes a look from afar at the weapons.
"If you need them lightened, I could take a look. I worked on such before, but they got replaced by energyweapons."

She then turns to the Kobold. "I guess everyone around here got their favorit weapons" she points at the sword on her back to confirm she got one, too.

[Morty]

[Commander's Village]

The two will eventually find Wenomir, who is talking to some members. He looks up when they approach and Calm Reed wastes no time getting to the point.

"Commander, this woman brings news of a military force that has arrived and begun establishing themselves. She wrote a report." She lifts up the notebook. Wenomir takes it and pages through it, looking up at Emily from time to time.

"That does sound concerning."

[Arriving for the first time]

"We've only been here for a short time, but I'm sure there's some maps around here," Naraisha says. "I'm not actually sure about the process of introducing new members, but if you'll come with me I'm sure we'll find someone to help."

[5a Violista]

[Here for the first time => Following Naraisha]

Zophiel nods, and says okay, he'll find a map later.

"You know it better than I do," he then says, following Naraisha wherever she goes. "So, whatever works."

[Rebonack]

[VIGIL Grounds]

Asher flies besides her, as does Ruth, though the latter is mostly quiet and just content to enjoy the kids interact. "600 years isn't l-long, Momma's still young! Right, Momma?" Asher says, and Ruth confirms his statement with a series of nods. "Yes indeed, and I know angels that have existed for tens of thousands of years." The next thing that comes is a loud surprised gasp from Asher, and he reaches over to hug Lapis. "I like fish cakes too! Though I don't know about y-you but w-we don't need to eat or sleep, w-we only do to blend in, a-and cos food tastes so nice! I w-was born with things in my h-head too!" He declares, grinning cutely.

"Ah, different words for the same thing, it's one thing I discovered on coming here. For instance, for us Empyrean is another name for Heaven that mortals use. Or Paradise, a divinely inspired name. The faeries you speak about sound like demons, however. There are some who would refer to angels as faeries in the Nexus, I've also seen." Ruth comments on Lapis' words, smiling when she learns how much Lapis' mum loves mortals. Indeed, that's the mark of a good angel. "We're angels, we are supposed to love all mortals. I do as well. Do not worry about size or radiation aura, however, being an angel I can handle it. At most I will be forced to gawk at her light." She finishes, already looking forward to meeting this seraph. She decides she's going to find out who this angel is and befriend her. "Do you know where your mom is?"

And then they get to their location! Asher and Ruth stare at the cobbled-together nest, with the angelic material used to hold things together. The smile on their faces grows wider, but the younger of the two is the first to speak. "I like your fort, L-Lapis, and if you want to make it look prettier, I can help!" He only pauses to look back at his mother once, and disappears in the hole after her.

He needn't have bothered, because Ruth's coming along, too!

The inside of Lapis' 'fort' is more or less what one would expect from looking at the outside. A bit cramped and woven together from branches and leaves and pure Truth distilled into a coherent substance. Or at least the closest analog that can exist in a physical universe. Lapis is pretty excited about showing off her fort! Usually people look at it and tell her that it looks nice but they don't really mean it probably because it isn't made out of boxes like most mortal buildings.

Mortals really love their boxes!

Lapis has tried boxes before. Sometimes they have leftover one from moving things around and Lapis hid inside of one of them and jumped out at people when they walked past but they told her not to do that anymore so she stopped.

"I'm still made of matter sort of so long as I'm in the Game so eating stuff is a good idea," Lapis admits. "I guess maybe I don't have to? But I should. The Game has lots of rules to follow."

So many rules!

They can be kind of a pain sometimes.

"I'm not totally sure what demons are but I heard that some attacked VIGIL once so people here don't like them. Faeries are things that don't exist and they want to make everyone else not exist, too."

Man.

Faeries are just the worst.

Lapis rearranges some of the interior furniture (actually several stumps she uprooted) of the fort to make more room. "Mom's usually at Trog's? Or going around the Nexus helping people. She likes doing that."

And at the offer?

"Ooh, are you good at making things pretty? The half-sister my Mom made, Karaglen? She's really good at making pretty things! I'm not so great at it, though. What sort of things do you know how to make?"

[Halae]

[Commander's Village]

The two will eventually find Wenomir, who is talking to some members. He looks up when they approach and Calm Reed wastes no time getting to the point.

"Commander, this woman brings news of a military force that has arrived and begun establishing themselves. She wrote a report." She lifts up the notebook. Wenomir takes it and pages through it, looking up at Emily from time to time.

"That does sound concerning."

[Commander's Village]

Emily reaches into her pocket for a moment, and pulls out a tiny black plastic thing, "This can fit over a normal person's ear, and pressing the red button on the side lets you talk into it with other communicators of the same design," Emily takes a second one out, and waves it a moment for all to see before tucking it back into her pocket, "I'll be keeping mine with me if you need to contact me. For now, though, I'm going to run some counter-ops against the invading army, do what I can to slow them down."

And with that, Emily is going to turn on her heel, intending to leave Vigil to get back to her work at fighting CAVE. She'll stop if Wenomir or Calm Reed has anything more to say, but for the moment there's only one thing she wants to be doing with her time.

[Arkhosia]

Early Bird Lessons

The catgirl blinks, a little surprised by the offer, before carefully grasping the handle of the heavy blade. The full weight and size of it all catches her by surprise as Jezebel withdraws, and she briefly struggles to keep the tip from instantly plummeting to the ground. The best Blanche can manage is to stagger back a step and shift a hand to press against the flat of the blade, distributing the weight to better cope with it as she examines the Eviscerator's rugged exterior. The mention of her name doesn't go unnoticed; her ears flicker and a brow raises, but she decides to put off questioning it for later.

"Melee weaponry isn't my area of expertise, but I've never really seen anything in a style like this. Much more complex than the stuff I know - most folks I knew used monomolecular axes and blades. There were a couple piston-based punching weapons or mechanical hammers, but those were rare." She moves a hand to the chain, testing the spinning motion with a gentle push. "So this spins around the chassis, right? You could get some savage cutting power with that, I know that's what those old tools did to carve up trees, but these things are not razor-sharp. Maybe rapid blunt force trauma to, like, break open armor? I think some machinery does a similar thing to smash through rocks and stuff." Finished with her analysis, she frowns, lowering the hefty blade to gently rest against the ground and relieve the stress in her muscles. "I don't see why anyone would favor something like this over energy weapons or something like a monomolecular lucerne, though. Both things do a damn good job slagging or punching through plating, and the sheer battering power this thing has is just way beyond overkill. I mean, I dunno where you're from, but where I come from, people don't usually go running around covered in twelve-inch thick steel plating."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Arriving for the first time]

It won't take long for the duo to find someone to help out. The bulk of one of VIGIL's larger members can be seen making his way from the barracks to the training grounds. Quin Mantha.EXE might look like an 11-foot tall mech suit, but the NetNavi is far more friendly and helpful than his enormous stature and imposing form would imply. Although he appears to be on his way to the training grounds, it doesn't seem as though he's in any hurry to get there, and as the duo get closer, they can see why. He's eating breakfast as he walks, (large) cup of coffee in one hand, and doughnut in the other. Watching him eat is a bit interesting, as there's nothing but a black void behind his helmet's faceplate, where the two disembodied pink orbs that serve as his eyes float, but somehow, when the donut is inserted into the void, it comes back with a bite taken out of it.

The pair will probably have to get his attention, because he's obviously paying more attention to his breakfast and the birds in the trees than the people around him, but at least they haven't had to go very far to find someone.

[Morty]

[Arriving for the first time]

"On there's... his name is Quin, I think. He's been here longer than my guild has, so he should be able to introduce and test you," Naraisha tells Zophiel, before waving and raising her voice to get Quin's attention. "Hey there!"

[5a Violista]

[Arriving for the first time]
Somewhere between barracks and the training ground

To understand what Zophiel looks like, all you have to do is imagine what a knight-in-shining-armor looks like without the armor, make him bulkier and bigger, and then strap two too-large swords on his back.

Once Quin's attention is grabbed, he waves as well. "Hi, I'm Zophiel," he calls out. "In the process of joining. We were looking for someone to run the test for me."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Arriving for the first time]

Quin pauses as Naraisha calls out to him and looks over at the pair. He appears to raise an eyebrow as one of his orb-eyes gets larger than the other for a moment.

"Well, you're in luck, then. I was just on my way to the training grounds for a bit of practice. I'd be happy to get your test out of the way."

[Morty]

[Arriving for the first time ==> Training Grounds]

"I thought I could run the test myself, but I've never done that before, so maybe it'd be better if a more senior member does it," Naraisha says. "I think the commanders have authorized the use of various equipment for this..."

[5a Violista]

[Arriving for the first time ==> Training Grounds]

Zophiel nods. "That is pretty lucky," he comments.

He follows them into the training grounds and removes his own large swords, placing the down. Then, he goes through the practice weapons and so on. "So I assume any of these are fine, right? I'm used to heavier things, but I suppose this isn't actually a fight but instead just to show what I can do..."

The paladin grabs several of different types of practice weapons and practices their movements.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Arriving for the first time ==> Training Grounds]

"I'm not terribly senior, either, but I understand your apprehension," Quin says kindly to Naraisha, before cramming the rest of his doughnut into his face, washing it down with the rest of his coffee, and stepping onto the field, looking to Zophiel. "If you're more used to your normal weapons, just use them. Normally, we'd send you against a few targets to see your abilities, but I could use a workout this morning, so we're just going to spar instead. I'm pretty resilient, so don't worry too much about me, ok?"

Quin stands for a moment, before reaching into one of his shoulder binders, not where the obvious handles of some sort of energy weapon are held in their recharge racks, but simply into the shadow of the structure, before withdrawing his hand, now closed around the hilt of an ornate greatsword that he withdraws from its storage, before holding it aloft one-handed.

"I need some practice on my defense, anyways."

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

Zophiel nods. "Okay."

There's a practice spear still in his hand, and he doesn't put that away. However, he does grab his huge swords and places them both on his back again. Realistically someone would need three hands to hold these swords but it's okay, he can do it with one.

Holding the spear in both hands and pointed upwards, he follows Quin out to the training field. He tests the feel of the ground with his feet. "So an open, flat area?" Probably a good place to start a test, but considering how large his swords are, a corridor or uneven ground with hiding spots might also be useful to test, he thinks. He's not sure if it'll be wholly necessary, however, because this is just a basic test, and training in these other areas might just be a thing they do later.

"Anyway. Anything you want me to do, in particular?" He pulls one of the swords out - the red one - and jams it in the hardened ground so it sticks up, in case he needs to grab it and can't reach his back for some reason.

And he readies the spear.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Training Grounds]

Quin takes a guarded stance, and focuses on Zophiel.

"Nothing in particular, just show me your moves."

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

"Haha, sure," Zophiel says with a smile.

He relaxes for a moment and releases his grip on the spear with one of his hands. He makes motions as if he's going to pull out the sword that's stuck in the dirt, but ultimately decides to put his hand back on the spear.

"Okay, ready."

He starts approaching Quin with the spear out, moving towards Quin, yes, but not directly towards - it's like he's trying to get around his opponent to his back. "I've never really gotten used to open fields," he says. After having gone an eighth of a circle around him, Zophiel readies his spear to strike.

"Never really had the chance." He lunges with the spear, aiming at Quin's midsection on the near side.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Training Grounds]

Quin shifts slightly as Zophiel moves to one side, taking a careful, sliding step with his back foot to rotate just a bit. When the man lunges, he parries with his sword, moving far more quickly than his bulk would suggest he's capable of, knocking the spear aside and downwards, so that it moves past his thigh, rather than hitting him in the waist or chest. It's a near thing, though.

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

Down past his thigh...perfect. He was hoping an opportunity like this would open up. "What about you?" the paladin asks, adjusting his body to match the momentum of the spear.

He steps forward, trying to get a little more around Quin, and crouches down in case Quin tries a riposte with that sword. "You look like you're-" Zophiel alters his grip on the spear to make pulling easy, and tries to line up the tip behind Quin's nearer ankle-joint.

In the same crouching motion, he swings the spear with his whole body, in an attempt to throw off Quin's balance at one of his ankles. "An open-fields guy."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Training Grounds]

As Zoph steps in and crouches, Quin gives a quick jump backwards. Zoph doesn't manage to trip him in the normal sense, but the spear connects with his ankle and rotates him in mid-air, causing him to stumble backwards for a moment when he lands. He quickly regains his balance though, and set his blade in a defensive stance once more.

"I suppose you could say that. Tight areas aren't really my forte."

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

...Shoot. He stumbled the wrong direction.

Zophiel takes a step back and stands up, resetting his position and glancing back to where he stuck his first sword into the ground. He was hoping his opponent would fall forwards, because that would mean he'd be directly between Zophiel and the ground-sword.

Zophiel slowly side-steps, trying to circle in the same direction around Quin again."Yeah, I feel you," he says, as he stops side-stepping and then raises his spear in one hand, in preparation to throw. "Some places I just don't fit easily."

He hurls the spear at Quin's arm, on the side Zophiel hasn't been targeting yet.

Using the momentum from the throw, he pulls his back-sword out and spins in the same direction he was moving earlier. With a bend in his knees and hip, he springs out in a jump at Quin. His massive sword is swinging like a club - with its flat surface facing Quin - and he throws his and the sword's weight and momentum at the pauldron on the original, targeted side again.