Atrophy

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

That doesn't mean I'm the only person you can collab with, though; again, please feel free to reach out to each other!

@The Darklight Project

Oh! Oh! I wanna do a collab with somebody!

Amongst the Lonesome- A return to Santa Somabra [Fantasy Noir]

So to be completely transparent, I'm currently waiting a few days to hear word from Lexicon on what to do regarding our mostly complete collab. And since it seems that most people are kinda waiting around for stuff and things, I think it's time for another round of super best pals questions! Get psyched!

ROUND THREE!!

_{A.K.A. ROUND YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT THIS BIT!!}

Question 1!

Let's talk about posts, baby, let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about brainstorming new posts and let's see how to stop the waiting. Let's talk about posts, let's talk about posts, let's talk about post, let's talk about post.

Uh, sorry, okay, so who is working on stuff and who wants help working on stuff?

Question 2!

Okay, so we talked books, we talked movies, so let's talk about music. What's your latest earworm and why are you not more embarrassed that you listen to that pop shit, I mean, I know it's good but don't you realize to appear cool you have to hate T. Swift even though she makes amazing tunes? Have you been to any concerts lately? Really, you gave them money? You ever play any music? No, I mean besides that shitty plastic recorder thing they give you in second grade to play Hot Crossed Buns on.

Hell, give me a Top 5 list. Everybody loves lists.

Amongst the Lonesome- A return to Santa Somabra [Fantasy Noir]

Present. Still working with Lexicon.

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

Vesta

Told you we shouldn’t have let that bastard go, thought Vesta venomously as the Queen was retreated from the field of battle, stepping out of the cracks that she had thrown herself into the moment Gartian had begun barking again in anticipation of what was coming next. From her hiding spot she could hear the familiar sound of a flock of bows firing, although the noises following were decidedly much different than what she was used to experiencing during her days of war. The ground where she had stood was cushioned with arrows that would have shredded her lightly armored body, but closer to her allies the earth lacked the usual porcupined appearance that followed a volley. Perhaps if she had known that the very men she distrusted were responsible for the rather magnificent defense she would have better opinions of them.

Okay, well, she definitely wouldn’t, but maybe she’d be a little grateful just this once.

As others charged past her to cut down the archers, Vesta calmly held her ground and drew her bow. She knew that running headlong into the fray was something she no longer could do, at least not until her hand was forced, and trekking back to her horse would just result in her needlessly butchering a fine mount. Besides, the H’kelans had been so kind to leave her with a fine supply of decent arrows and there was something poetically just about maiming a prick with his own ammo that Vesta could not bypass. With shaky hands fueled by anger, not whiskey, the woman ripped a small handful of arrows with still usable fletching from the ground. Properly equipped with enemy arrows, Vesta nocked one, drew back, and took aim.

The good thing about war was that it didn’t matter if your aim was shit. As long as you could fire an arrow far enough over the head of your countrymen, you were bound to hit some bastard who deserved it—and if you did, Divine’s forbid, hit one of your own, you’d never know anyway. One, two, three arrows flew out in quick succession in a high arc. With all of the chaos, Vesta could not tell if they hit any of the less-protected archers in the backlines or not. Regardless, she fired off another quick four, five, six shots before she began walking perpendicular to the frontlines, grabbing more arrows as she went and firing them high above so they could pierce down into the surging mass of yellow below.

However, at the sight of Cyril’s back charging towards the fray the woman, cursing under breath, began limping forward as fast as her crippled leg could carry her. The Prince may have claimed to be nothing like his father, but he sure had that foolhardy “lead from the front” attitude that the late King held. No longer trusting her bow arm to distinguish between the foes in yellow with the friends in blue, Vesta drew her blade. The snicker-snack of it sliding from its sheath seemed to shout out a challenge to those around her, for three enemies that had been moving towards the Prince now broke off to make the easy kill of a crippled woman.

Growling deeply, the woman wasted little time making her way towards the men, and was determined to spend even less on wasting them. Deflecting the first blow away with her scabbard, she tucked her body fluidly under the man’s arm and drove her sword through the gaps in the helmet of the second man before he could even scream. Withdrawing the crimson blade she smacked the third man in the head with her scabbard, the shaft ringing loudly against the metal, before twisting and slashing the first man through his less protected back.

She was about to drive her sword through the third man when she stepped awkwardly and, long used to falling, twisted to avoid landing on anything important. Dropping her scabbard and grabbing her knife, she reached up and jabbed the last man between the joints in his knee. As he came down she forced up her sword and caught him on the point, gravity and his weight doing the rest. The man fell to her side, dead, and Vesta began stumbling to her feet. During the struggle another H’kelan came at her, turning just in time to have a blade scrape against the front of her gambeson and flash within inches of her eyes. Blood pounding in her ears, Vesta jammed her sword underneath the shoulder of her attacker and righted herself.

Too close, she thought, eyes darting in anticipation of other foes.

All she saw were soldiers blue; she heaved a sigh of relief. As she bent down to pick up her scabbard she noticed blood dripping on the man below her. Touching her chin with the back of her glove, she pulled it away to see the material stained a darker color. Way too close, she thought, sheathing her weapon and taking a second to catch her breath while amongst allies.

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

I'll just leave this here for you guys...

Hider

I'm just secretly jealous none of my friends wanna participate in my tabletop dreams.

Amongst the Lonesome- A return to Santa Somabra [Fantasy Noir]

Let's see, well, I've been trying to watch the Walking Dead despite my waning interest, finished rewatching Community for the third time through, and just watched the original Mad Max and only fell asleep once. Also, trying to convince myself if I should spend a hundred-something-bucks on a MIDI keyboard despite having not touched a musical instrument in over a decade and some change. Oh, and I am having an absolute blast pretending to really be into Russian literature by reading through Anna Karenina. It's actually kinda rad and gives me some Count of Monte Cristo vibes, which is one of my favorite books of all time.

_{Oh, and, like, my sister got engaged or whatever. But who cares about that shit when I got Gears of War betas to play?}

Persona: Crossroads

Taro was shocked. All night he had been tossing and turning in his bed as he replayed the insane events of that evening out in his head on a loop. Finally, around the time the sun was peeking up from the horizon and casting a light across his small apartment room, Taro had made his decision: starting today, he would start saving up money to buy a car. Until then he’d bike everywhere, because he sure as shit was never going to set foot on another damn doom train ever again.

Of course, his bike had a flat. Nevertheless, it had served as a great excuse for him to bail on his classes for the day and spend the afternoon inside furiously trying to ignore the messages on his phone. Yesterday had just been a strange group hallucination, he had told himself, and if not for the shapeshifting compass on his desk he would’ve actually believed himself. Still, if he ignored it all then it would eventually go away. Kantou was a small city, but it was big enough to avoid any awkward run-ins with the others. It wouldn’t be the first time he had alienated himself from a group of people, although usually they were the ones trying to avoid him.

Yeah, there was no way in hell he was going along with this nightmare nonsense.

Which explains why Taro was shocked, because for some reason that was unclear to even him he found himself arriving exactly at six o’clock to join the others on the train. Maybe he didn’t want to let the others down after he had promised them that he’d help out. Maybe he was just afraid that some of them, namely Izuki, would find a way to break into his apartment and drag him, kicking and screaming, onto the train if he hadn’t shown. Maybe it was a little of both. Either way, he was there. That had to count for something, right?

Hopefully he cried less this time.

---

Man, did he hate hospitals. The childlike wonderment that he carried with him during their entire underwater journey (Taro had spent a good amount of time with his face pressed up against the glass, despite the disappointing view of dark and little more) had been replaced by a strong feeling of unease. Hospitals were already bad enough with all of its diseases and death and old people, but this one with its overgrown vines as decor and its creepy, static-distorted announcements really did a good job at making Taro want to beat feet back to the train. Unfortunately, he did not know the way back to the train.

That he could blame on Izuki, although he’d never say it outloud.

He had followed after her when she had dashed ahead of the group, claiming that she was off to go rescue “bitchtits” before Taro even had a chance to question her on the nickname. Of course, he hadn’t followed her to ask about bitchtits, although he did find it absurd for her to name someone bitchtits without seeing if they even had the prerequisites, nor had he followed her because he wanted to be seen as proactive or brave. Really, it was because if they ran into any devil dogs then Taro would want to be with the girl who wasn’t afraid to go up to the mutt, shove its nose in the ground, and smack it with a rolled up newspaper.

As he ran after Izuki he could feel the small pocket knife bouncing against his thigh. He had brought it along as protection at first, although he doubted he could harm anything but himself with it, but that effort had been nullified by Akito’s present to the group. Taro could not tell if he liked Akito for the mafioso-style of weapon packaging (sure, no tommy guns, but that’d be impossible) or if he was afraid of the guy for the number of sharp objects he apparently had just lying around his house. Still, it hadn’t prevented Taro from grabbing a spear that had been unscrewed into two pieces to fit better inside of the case. The weapon was now gripped awkwardly between his hands, but it was nice knowing that if something were to jump him he could, in comparison to a pocket knife, keep his body a decent distance away from the spook.

Of course he decided, as he rounded the corner in time to witness Izuki literally beat something into a black pulp, that it was even nicer knowing that he wouldn’t have to do anything as long as she was there. It was better that way; Taro really didn’t want to dirty up his gray chinos or his “no, it’s salmon, not pink” polo. As Izuki beckoned to the others, Taro turned his focus onto bitchti—the guy who they had come to discharge from this nightmare hospital. Three things stood out to him immediately. One, he had an acoustic guitar. Two, Taro wasn’t used to looking up at people, and he was now which meant this dude was probably a giant. Three, he looked like a foreigner and Taro had spent most of his time in English class either flirting with that cute-in-a-weird-way goth girl or drawing pictures of robots.

So this was going to go well. Taro had no time to embarrass himself with his horrible English, however, as the door around them slammed open and more nightmare men came shuffling out like zombies. Strangely, this was momentarily relieving to the young man before he realized he was actually going to be in some kind of trouble. His eyes darted between Izuki, the tall guy, the bad dudes, and the others; a plan quickly formed in his mind. He could have Izuki grab the big dude (she could carry him, right?) and they’d bolt to the others and skedaddle to the exit. Okay, so running away wasn’t really a plan, but it was the best—

More corpse guys stumbled out into the hallway, effectively cutting them off from the others. So much for running. So much for having Izuki do all the fighitng.

“Okay, great, yeah, this is great. Izuki, make sure the foreigner doesn’t do anything stupid,” he said. “Zombie things, huh? No sweat, right? Okay, buddy, don’t fail me now.”

He pulled the ever shifting compass out of his pocket and held it aloft in his hand. The goo hardened around his wrist again and the needle pointed toward his south at the foes cutting the two groups in half. The sound of galloping echoed through the hallway as Bellerophon appeared astride his Pegasus, a bolt of lightning turning one of the creatures into a pile of black goo. Meanwhile, Taro shoved another creature back with the blunt end of his spear as his Persona faded into the air.

“Guys, let’s just focus on the freaks in the way and get out of here, okay? No reason to hang around this creepy hospital now that we got bitchtits.” He flashed a smile back at the tall guy, who he still assumed couldn’t understand him. “<It okay; we have no lose,>” he said in horribly broken English.

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

@The Darklight ProjectBut how can I be a true warrior of the Three Kingdoms if I don't K.O. a thousand dudes?

Persona: Crossroads

Bring it on. #Carmengheddon #Apollocalypse

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

@The Darklight ProjectXbox One.

And I also beat the Nameless King inbetween the time of this post and the last one!