OwO

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

Hollyhock

---

^{@Hero@Obscene Symphony@Abstract Proxy}

Hollyhock had mixed feelings about Princess Rosemary assuming the responsibilities of the prophecy. Hollyhock knew first hand how much someone's life was controlled by their status and how different her childhood was. However, Rosemary was already a princess and scion. No matter what, she would be forever tied to these statuses. The only thing Hollyhock could do for her was be there for her. As such, she nodded alongside Jannick's words.

Dom grabbing a bit of gift ham was also appreciated. Hollyhock gave her a smile and nod as she spoke and looked towards her. She could agree with her words.

The options made her choice simple. While Jannick and her had been practicing for a fight, she would prefer not to fight all manner of beasts. Frankly, she still considered herself a liability. She was more likely to scoop other Scions up in a storm than deal with the monsters they were sent to deal with. Going to Doumerc was also risky. Of course, not because she was a liability in investigating. Moreso, it was the people that had already declared their intention. Jannick's distrust of Renault had rubbed off on her. Not to mention, she didn't think her heart could take being beside Maya. Even though they had to form connections and bond, that didn't mean immediately. In true Hollyhock fashion, she'd push off that responsibility for later--preferably when Maya and Renault weren't together.

That left the final option being to converse with spirits. That option was much more reasonable and played more towards Hollyhock's talents.

With a nod to Jannick, she declared her intention.

"I'll speak to the spirits," Hollyhock said before adding a little joke, "I'm a little something of a gift specialist, you know."

Revue of Annihilation

🎕 Talia of Roses 🎕

//O11 - Deserted Backstreets

Of course, Talia responded to the halfling with her impeccable wit! Her penchant for theatrics was certain to help her escape the sticky situation she was in! She gave her strange reason for following her. In fact, Talia ended up spilling out her entire ethos for why she so strangely chased him down!

The halfling was having nothing of it. With each flowery flèche, the halfling gave a brutalist parry and riposte. It was rather deflating, in all honesty. Talia had began to boringly reply to the halfling by the end of their conversation.

Her conman-like speech didn't really have an effect on him either. In an effort to prove herself as more than a charlatan, she had utilized a drop of her divine power to bring forth a miracle. With a little hum and dance suitable for a woman of a bordello, Talia had invoked a miracle in the deserted backstreets: she had caused coins to glow. While the halfling wasn't too enthralled about it, his companions were more entertained by the glowing coins that had once belonged to the white-haired merchant.

Still, such an ability merited a modicum of respect from the halfling. Rather than be absolutely opposed to Talia's words, he at least saw some value in her. She was likely someone who was going to be found as a ditch-corpse, but she also might have a job for him in the future. They ended up introducing themselves in the end, Talia somehow slinking her way through a sticky situation.

With just as much gusto as before, Talia jumped back through the halfling hole. The grease made it easy--head, shoulders, chest, hips, and all. Her two men outside were surprised to some degree, but also not extraordinarily surprised. She had poisoned their minds with her words already, after all.

Once the halfling plugged the hole back up, Talia realized something. She actually forgot about the coins halfway through. Well, it wasn't like she could glib such an amount from a thief. If anything, she'd have to fight them on their own turf for it. Oh well, she thought. At least she made friends.

---

"Well, I suppose we should aim to fill our coffers." Talia hohummed to her remaining merrymen as they walked through the alleys.

"So let's find someone on the street and hammer them." The beefcake who seemed to have difficulty wearing a shirt replied.

"Or we can look for a job." Added the chubby one.

"We're thieves. We do thievey things. Though I suppose beating someone up for their coin pouch is also thievery. And not doing our job but collecting pay is also thievery. Marty, Mork, and Glimsby are all out picking pockets. That's good for living expenses. What we need is to start safely raisin' capital."

"By hammering someone?"

"That comes later. Right now, we're doing things danger-like. What we need to do is establish a hideout. Somewhere to stash our goods and prep for bigger plans." Talia posited. Though, how much time she had to ruminate on this idea wasn't certain. After all, who was to say that she wasn't just blindly inspired by the halfling's hobbit hole.

"But that ain't coins?"

"It's property. That's a type o' capital. A place to store our ill-gotten gains. It beats carrying it around in our pockets for another thief to slash and grab."

Silently, the beefy man and the chubby man nodded as if they had learned a valuable lesson courtesy of the white-haired merchant.
@ERode

SPIRITUM

Justice

"If you're a big fan of that one, I'll make sure to ask if you can go first." Justice snarked back to Gerard.

As much as she wanted to say something about it, she didn't really care that much about the sniper that had posted himself up on the radio tower. He'd sooner fall off than get a meaningful shot off, especially on herself.

Well, Gerard ignored her command. Thankfully, he didn't make the situation worse meaning that Justice didn't care enough to make it an issue. It was a welcome change from the interactions at the store.

"Tourism." She said plainly. "Just passing through this town."

While entirely the truth, it sounded like a complete lie. Tourism was often slang for special operations. If someone just openly stated that they were a tourist while at war, they were almost definitely up to something for the government.

With a brief flick of her hand, a thin paper folder materialized from her pocket. It was the papers she received when she had graduated. It had everything she needed on them. Most importantly, it stated her active deployment date as not right now. Thankfully, the marshal only needed one set. The thought of dealing with what could have happened to Silje's papers would have given her a conniption. They were probably half burnt and covered in grape soda.

Revue of Annihilation

🎕 Talia of Roses 🎕

//O11 - Deserted Backstreets

"Well, it's your coins--not mine." Talia said with a shrug. Nonchalantly, she backed away from the merchant, old man, and dragonkin trio. She wasn't going to gain anything from sticking around nor did she care too much about restitution. After all, he didn't want to pay for her services.

She found him a bit daft, in all honesty. The world they lived in was not one of niceties and selfless action. Even the churches functioned off transactional relationships. To ignore this fact of the world was to be a hopeless optimist. Someone who was much too good for this world.

"I'll spare you the lectures about walking in the backstreets alone with pockets full of coins," Talia said, "but I do suggest you run after them now. A halfling with a bruised posterior is quite easy to chase, especially if two of you have double his stride.

Without much care, Talia went to rejoin her merry men and leave the trio to hunt down the man's missing coins.

Of course, she wasn't actually going to drop the matter immediately. A handful of coins was a handful of coins. She'd go looking for them herself, even if it was just to have a conversation. A conversation with thieves meant the chance of making three more merry men. Plus, maybe she'd take all of the coins for herself if absolutely everything went right.

^{@ERode@Izurich@Theyra}

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

Hollyhock

---

^{@Hero@Obscene Symphony}
Unfortunately for Ionna, the time and place for snagging a cookie had passed. The dream of a ham and cookie sandwich was killed by the awful mood in the room. Only Rosemary was brave enough to take one. Of course, Hollyhock was tided over by constantly snacking throughout her trip here, so she didn't feel the need to scarf cookies down her throat this time.

As much as she wanted to plug her ears and hide in the corner of the room, Hollyhock was forced to bear witness to her fellow scions. She did not possess the nature of a child that allowed one to simply let discussion fly over her head. The words of her fellows were something that Hollyhock didn't want to exchange. Hawkish words, allegorical rebuttals, and serpentine insults were thrown around like nothing.

While she didn't want to participate in such a dour meeting, that didn't mean she was daft about matters. . She also had the mental fortitude to see Jannick shuffle over to place himself between her and the new Scion. She could easily guess that he was someone that Jannick didn't trust. That lack of trust quickly extended to Hollyhock. She wasn't going to interact with him unless he directly sought her out. Though, even if Jannick trusted him, Hollyhock probably wouldn't interact with him unless she saw him eating a parfait.

While her ham gift mostly failed, it was nice of Sara to partake and offer some ham to others. Hollyhock wasn't going to cut into the room's mood like she was. Though, only one of them was guaranteed to try the ham.

"I'm glad to hear you like it," she told Rosemary with a smile, "I could get you something even better for your birthday!"

Then came Lucas' recital of the prophecy.

While Hollyhock was pious, she didn't raise an objection to Lucas' actions. If what he said was true, then she couldn't personally blame him for wishing to accelerate Incepta's will. Or, given that the first verse was what they were familiar with, had the remainder not been transcribed and subsequently forgotten.

Her reaction to the prophecy was significantly less pious than Sara's. Rather, it was pensive. She was deeply thinking about its meanings. Being red of blood could have denoted the state of Terminus, but it could have just as easily denoted a metaphorical meaning. The red moon was another clue. While Hollyhock wasn't an astronomer, she still knew about the concept of a lunar eclipse. That checked all the boxes--namely, shadows and red.

Though, Hollyhock was a coward. Or perhaps she did not want to participate in a serious and intensive discussion about meanings. She had whispered to Jannick her thoughts about the eclipse and and pushed forward another topic to the others.

"If the prophecy is about forming connections with each other," she said as she stood from her seat, "the best time to start is ten minutes ago. Which can only mean one thing."

Hollyhock placed her hand on the plate that held her gift and pushed it forwards towards the centre of the table. She wasn't about to bond over conversations about war, insults, or overt violence.

"Gift ham."

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Mae Ah-ryeon

@Rune_Alchemist@Eisenhorn@Izurich@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

Well. Numako be damned. Ah-ryeon was going to go all in on incense in lieu of being able to perform an actual ritual. It would probably be unpleasant for her, but it was worth the suffering. Though, incense had different meaning for natural spirits and household gods. While spirits of the dead were usually banished or dispersed, the supernaturally divine were generally appeased. If Numako was lucky, she'd just have to accept whatever her deal was being very content.

Using the chaos of the whatever their resident anomalies were doing, she went to work lighting a large handful of incense sticks. As she blew on the bottom like a straw, a thick plume of incense smoke erupted from the other end and accelerated the burn process. With a few kept in her hand in case of emergency, she tossed the rest into the air. Naturally, they dispersed around her as incense, smoke, and ash created a counter-encirclement.

"I can't carry infinite incense, so do try to wrap up this. Or find a way to grant me two minutes of song and dance." She announced to the others.

Revue of Annihilation

🎕 Talia of Roses 🎕

//O11 - Deserted Backstreets

Talia and her men had naturally just stepped out of their way. Not out of the fear of being bulldozed, the fear of dust getting in one's eyes, or anything like that. It just wasn't worth the effort. What were they going to do if they won a fight? Steal their pants? Deal with a monetary hostage crisis? Give him back his money and beg for a share? Though, Talia had a strange look in her eyes. The scheme of someone about to do what they really shouldn't do.

The slender man had found himself sprinting through an easy gap made by the thieves stepping towards the sides of an alley. Talia began to spin around her arm in a windmill.

The bulldozer met nothing but dust. Her windmilling speed increased.

The halfling dashed through the blinding dust. His first sight upon cresting the cloud was Talia's smug grin and spinning arm. The second he ran past her—WHAM. His bottom cheek had been marked by a malformed five-pointed star. It was an old trick of the bordello—one that a customer usually paid for.

The band of merry thieves kept their eyes on the fleeing group, but they weren't going to do a thing to stop them. They didn't have an enforceable claim to this territory nor were they guardsmen. Talia and her men were thieves through and through. They weren't about to stop an unsuccessful theft. That'd be hypocrisy! Plus, honour among thieves and all that. Really, there was a half dozen reasons why they weren't going to punish them. The gold coins in front of them was another reason why.

"Well then," Talia said as she shook off her stinging hand, "I suppose we should talk about protection fees!"

With a brief nod to the other thieves, she approached the group of three on the other side of the alley with the muscular and ever-unbuttoned thief in tow. At where the white-haired merchant had been accosted by the halfling, she paused and turned to face the thief who had come with her.

"That nod was to watch the entrance of the alley."

"I thought we were-"

"No, that's what a brigand does. We aren't brigands. At least not right now."

"Oh. My bad."

The muscular thief returned to the other thieves. Talia turned back to the group of three with a smile and continued her walk towards the oldie, dragonkin, and accostee in a bouncy saunter, only to stop when she was within arm's reach of the white-haired boy.

"So, what do you think going to save your coin from thieves is worth?" She asked him as she ignored the dragonkin and old man. Their time would come. Plus, they didn't directly say anything to her so there was nothing to reply to; Talia felt it would be a little strange if she spoke to them first. It would kind of be like arriving to a ball and immediately making threats to a rival suitor. What was important right now is that they didn't get a leg up on her or screw her out of any possible protection fee!

"Of course, if you don't want to pay us coin, you could always repay our services in some other way~!"

Her tone was bouncy like the rest of her. While she was being playful, she wasn't making a threat. If it were, she would have brought some backup with her. Rather than looking at his coinage, she had looking directly at the white-haired boy. Her eyes, however, were looking at something deeper than his surface appearance.

Revue of Annihilation

🎕 Talia of Roses 🎕

//O11 - Deserted Backstreets

For Talia, Oratorio was a place of great opportunity. She didn't mind the smells of its pallid underbelly. They were certainly awful, but the smells didn't evoke the same memories that the stagnant salt sea did. Plus, a woman from a bordello always had a few tricks when it came to scents.

As a newcomer to the city, she didn't have anything to her name beyond her flesh, clothes, and the ephemeral companionship of recusants. She had enraptured the five of them with her words and dreams. It was hardly a noble dream. If anything, it could be distilled to sitting on a childish throne made of gold coins. Despite that, it was pure, simple, and achievable. It was a promise made from deep within her heart. One that they knew would never betray them.

When the opportunity came for coin, Talia wasn't one to pass it up. A man who smelled of gold was being shaken down by three thugs of descending height. Of course, their numbers were nothing compared to the merry band. The numbers became even more unbalanced when another group consisting of an old man and dragonkin child(?) arrived and declared their intention at the other end of the alley.

That cut off the thieves escape route. Unless they could run through walls, they had to either run through a dragon with gauntlets or a wall of merry men.

"The only one here that can take balls is me!" She exalted.

For a brief moment, the world was silent. The bluster of Oratorio had frozen for those that heard. Of course, it was only a moment; a strange and provocative statement could only freeze the city--even a deserted section--for a second.

Without a hint of embarrassment, shame, or fluster shown on her face, Talia turned and walked out of view. The merry men with her had mixed reactions. One raised an eyebrow. Another gave a deep sigh. One popped his lips as if to say "that just happened". Without missing a beat, Talia returned to the alley entrance as though she had just arrived.

"All thievery shall be done with my permission!" She iterated. "And if you don't play by my rules, then I suppose we'll need to enact some... aggressive taxation."

Her merry men were already ready to fight. Their weapons were questionable; they were entirely things you could find outside of the city for free. A buff, dark-skinned merry man who refused to close his jacket held a brick in hand. Two merry men of similar average builds--twins that were not blood-related--held wooden clubs. A jovial man who managed to remain chubby held a large stick that seemed half club and half staff. The smallest merry man had a simple sling (though it was closer to a discarded scrap of old cloth) and rocks in his pocket.

It was a strong provocation. Of course, she was ignoring the very real threat of the white-haired pretty boy being stabbed in the gnards by a man half his size. Talia wasn't going to care too much if he was stabbed or taken hostage. That just meant she could collect her protection fees postmortem.

But her greed was getting the better of her as she stood in front of her merry men. She saw that two others had something she deeply wanted. Something inside of them. Not their flesh, guts, or blood. She wanted something less material: something divine.

If it weren't so rancid out, she would have licked her lips.

^{@ERode@Izurich@Theyra}

Revue of Annihilation

Talia of Roses

The Backstreet Queen: Talia of Roses
^{"Do you think you have what it takes to be a merry man?"}

Human | 24 | Female | 175cm (5'9") | 64.5kg (148 lbs.)
0th Circle | Thieves

The nameless girl born in a bordello by the sea. She never knew her mother nor of the world beyond the bordello. The admiralty made it that way. She only had three comforts in her life: the smell of flowers that gave respite against the salt breeze, the exaggerated stories from patrons, and the company of the others who had been born in the bordello.

Of course, her story would not have remarkable if she lived her life inside of the bordello. The admiralty had been besieged by pirates. Though, such an act was not unusual. It was a mere change in management. Such was the way of life for those in a port town. If it weren't the monsters, it would be whichever fleet that had decided to lay claim to the town.

One of the bordello's new patrons had arrived with treasures in hand. Items that had since found their way to pirates in a miscellaneous trove. One of them spoke to her. It begged with her. It pleaded with her. It wanted her to grasp it from its owner. It whispered the stories that she would create if she just took it.

And so she did. When the patron was asleep, she grabbed it. It was a mere silver band among diamonds and gold; it was unnoticeable if it was taken, especially from a man who had been drunk enough to forget which pieces of jewellery he gave to which cocettes. It seared her soul when she grasped it. It taught her that all she needed to do to create her own story was take. Take, take, take.

With dreams of grandeur, she left the bordello. Onward to Oratorio she went. She'd make her own story there.

With silver tongue, she enchanted a band of merry men. Outsider thieves who found a glimmer of hope in her story.

With self-ascribed name, she envisioned the story that would make her the Backstreet Queen--the patron of Oratorio's thieves.

Path to Ascension

0th Circle Ichor-Blessed

♥ Ichor: 0
♥ Wealth: 0
♥ Followers: 5
♥ Resources: 0
♥ Artifacts: None
♥ Property: None

Divine Protection of Thieves

♥ Gentle Touch - Followers have a divinely gentle touch, especially when near other's pockets and purses.

Starting Benefit

♥ Band of Brothers - 5 Followers. Those you met on the way were moved or manipulated by you to joining your cause.

Revue of Annihilation

Yah, what works works. No donkey is a cowardly choice, ofc. Toss 'er in the Characters tab.

Do you have a general descriptor of what her five followers are like? Age range n all.

@ERode

Pretty much just Robin Hood's merry men. Thieves with enough honor to be chaotic good instead of maniacs.

Like 15-40 for their age.