BreathOfTheWoof

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

Speaking of Greed, I'm actually handling other projects rn outside of this, so I don't think I have the mental capacity to keep up all of it, so I'm gonna go ahead and drop out before I have my foot in the door, per se.

The Hourglass Order

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Lorentine Queen, Main Deck, Outside of Cargo Hold | Nighttime
Leon@Jumbus | Carmillia@Animus | Eun-Ji@Medili | Dorothea@jasbraq

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After entering what Zarra has dubbed the "Greyborn dimension" there's a large flash of light, Zarra is entirely taken off-guard and he feels ears and eyes suddenly shut-down for a moment. Developing one of worst migraines he's ever experienced in his life in an instant. Just when he thought he would cry out in anguish, it was gone, and his senses became clear again. Obviously, this has never happened before. Maybe he was slightly too slow, and one of the chemical mages messed with his neurotrasmitters. The idea of that is scary to him, he'll have to be careful this time around.

Despite the strange attack no longer effecting him, what he watches does little to fix his feeling of being overwhelmed. Eun-Ji and Carmilla being engaged by the enemy. Dorothea is holding an actual gun to the one person who can't even defend herself. The arcane mages, the last people he wanted to see, are now in the fray, and Leon is entirely gone. As this is going down, he sees a piece of exploded table shoot at him, despite being intangible, he instinctively dives away. He stops himself midlanding, facepalming himself for forgetting something so simple. As Zarra considers what to do in this situation, under the effects of analysis paralysis, Manfred shows up to the rescue and subdues Dory.

He observes Eun-Ji and one of the villains fighting mano-a-mano, with each giving each other very little to work with in terms of openings, Zarra admits he's impressed with their foot work, almost forgetting that they're fighting for their lives. Does the guy even know he's there? Does he have the element of surprise here? He guesses there's only one way to find out.

The young noble materializes behind Forceful, not realizing the irony of what he's about to do. Summoning what kinetic force into his leg he can within as little time as possible, Zarra dishonorably attempts to kick the male Kinetic mage between the legs from behind with the ball of his foot.

Finish the Sentence, Create a Story (2.0)

There once was a fox, who collected souvenirs from near and far. The fox kept their collection stored in a pocket dimension that looked like a mimic chest. However, one of those souvenirs was more than what it seemed. It was in fact, a mimic souvenir. This small mimic souvenir resembled a singing mermaid that would lick skulls clean with their six forked tongues that molt preposterously acidic jewels. With these jewels, the mimic souvenir was rumoured to be the most powerful souvenir of all.

Until one day, the fox had an unexpected visit from his mother. She said, "wassup son, y’all look bummed out” whilst placing a freshly baked pigeon pie on the kitchen table.

The fox sighed. "My mimic chest is missing." He confined in his mother, someone had eloped with it, leaving behind only a single strand of blue hair.

His mother looked perturbed at the news, and she reached into her pocket for something. "Son, it's time you knew that a sorcerer Wyvern has been around, and left behind them a map.”

"A sorcerer...and... a map?" The fox was both shocked and curious. What was the map for? And what did Wyvern want with a wig of Morth from that tactical strategy game Blaze Insignia?

What Are You Listening To?

The Hourglass Order

boop

(Hi Force >:3)

Lesser Evils. (CoGM Found!)

I'm rather interested if you haven't done a Lesser Greed character, but I can do Wrath if needbe, it's entirely up in the air for me.

The Hourglass Order

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Lorentine Queen, Main Deck, Outside of Cargo Hold | Nighttime
Leon@Jumbus | Carmillia@Animus | Eun-Ji@Medili

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Zarra had paid little mind to Eunji's commands, instead only watching the chaos unfold. However, he gets a glint of something he didn't like. He saw a man with missing arm, no hand in site, and a man staring over with almost sadistic pride. Zarra knew immediately what was up, a bloodmage.

He has known about them for a long time, he is aware of the bad and the good they can do. But this man, who is taking joy in bringing about one of the greatest ways of suffering, it sickens Zarra. It takes Zarra a few seconds to really process the situation, and in that time, Eunji had made her first move, knocking the mage over and leaving them prone. The blond student doesn't even take into consideration that these are Traveler agents, not that he'd care from the apparent disgusted look on his face, just because you mentally allegiance yourself with a revolutionist doesn't mean you have to tolerate actual psychopaths.

Zarra sees his opportunity, and strikes. He takes the pipe, which is still rather hot, and puts his fingers onto the tip, leaving a visible red burn on them, he logically winces, but nonetheless sharpens the pipe into a javelin, using wind magic, he spins and hovers the metal spear above his hand. He carefully lines up his shot above the still sprawled binder. Finally, using his 3rd but final proficient magic, he magnetizes himself and the makeshift weapon with the same magnetic pole. He then slams his palm straight into the world's most basic ballista, spending all his mana amplifying the launch speed of the projectile

Normally Zarra would not be a very good shot with such an attack, within the hot mist of the whole room and the inconsistent lighting giving little in the way of depth perception. But with the bloodmage completely out of commission, there was little to account for. With a very violent pop that can only come from the loosening of bone and muscle, the sadist feels his entire body go limp. He has a giant tube of metal sticking out of his neck, the sharpened tip bloodied and holding a piece of flesh still left. The mage's entire body shuts down as Zarra has incidentally severed his vertebrae with the assault. The world goes black for the Traveler Agent as his last thoughts dawning that his cruelty was likely his undoing.

Despite knowing exactly that was gonna happen, Zarra is a little spooked how brutal that was. He looks at the kinetic and internal chemist mage, not really with intimidation, but more of a "holy crap, do we all want to have such a fate" kind of stare. Before the other combatants react, Zarra realizes how much of a mistake it was to just now leave himself open like this, and reactively shifts away as chaos immediately ensues, a butterfly effect of his own devising.

The Hourglass Order

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Manfred:@Force and Fury, Eun-Ji @Medili, Carmilla @Animus, Dorothea @jasbraq Leon @Jumbus

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"I'll meet you down there, expect something big!" he says offhandedly to the duo.

Rather than attempting to vainly cut through the crowds down the stairs and draw possible witnesses to himself, Zarra goes into a men's bathroom, which to his luck is empty. He goes inside a stall, stands on a toilet to hide his presence, and goes into deep thought. After what could be interpreted as an eternity, he decides his strategy. With a little bit of concentration, all sense of touch, pain, and even temperature, fade away. Once again, he is left levitating in a world that breaks the boundaries of the ship. It's an experience only a Greyborn can truly understand, becoming beyond permeable. He uses what illusion of gravity left to fall through the floors. He lands inside of a utility closet on the middle deck and singlehandedly dismisses his astral surroundings. He takes as damp towel, possibly needing it for his idea. He leaves the closet cautiously, like a superhero worried about their secret identity.

His first instinct was in fact, to go to the hull itself, and rip a nice, jagged, gaping hole into it. However, that would have to unfortunately be a last resort, as the instant drop in pressure would likely instantly flood him away and make it impossible to reach the hole again, assuming he's lucky and isn't KO'd upon impacts. He could also go to the riled workers right now and say a Volti is after them, but they'd likely question him and he'd eventually crack from lack of good responses. If Manfred is going for the captain, that could be used a distraction. And so the cunning boy has an epiphany: What if he sabotages the engine? Leave them all stranded, well, except for his team of course, Hugo is on their side. Everyone else? I hope they know how to bind rafts, he snarks to himself, acknowledging the irony of having survived a sabotaged boat only to have to do that himself.

Now, he could just use his intangibility to reach the engine itself, but the issue the longer he stays in that form, the more annoying it is come back, it's logarithmic in its time like that. Be there for 30 seconds? You're not gonna come back for another 6, that's just enough time for many things to go wrong, including accidentally getting stuck between ebbing stories of the ship. He's done something similar before and it is not an experience he wants to repeat. Besides, that's exactly why he asked Hugo to give him this effective, although fashionably outrageous, employee outfit.

He makes his way through the corridors of pipes and mechanism beyond his current education, stealth in mind. Why do the inner workings of boats, or just buildings and general, give off such a creepy vibe? Is it the shadows of stow away rats? The flickering of torchlight on the dirty metal? Is it just the pipes themselves that brings out some inherent human fear of looking at the unknown? These sort of metaphysical questions would be very easy to get lost in, but he refuses to let them dominate his full attention as he walks with quiet purpose.

Zarra reaches a very large and complex room. The noise is nearly unbearable at this point, the sound of blast furnaces, steam regulators, and chugging gears creates a cascade of mechanized cognitohazard. He spots 3 men and a woman: Two watching some sort of terminal, likely keeping track of the everchanging states of the ship's power. Nearby, Zarra spots the other two having a drink and arguing over some kind of schematic. Maybe they're on break, or trying to fix an underlying issue? Regardless, this is a strangely exhilarating experience, he feels exactly like a Traveler Agent. He always admired the Traveler, seeing him as a legacy of change, not the terrorist that everyone propagates. He's only dishing out the very suffering that the higher classes have been perpetuating for years.

Finding himself getting distracted, he kicks himself back to reality. Analyzing the whole system, he notices that all of the small pipes come from a very colossal pipe. He could bind the metals open, but only an actual fool would do that, as the pipes would easily melt someone's skin onto its surface, even with the frigid towel to protect him, The cruise is currently slowing, that means the pipes are low pressure, atleast, what's what his limited understand of engineering is telling him. What about creating a small slit? He feels that's a little bit underwhelming, they'll inevitably fix that... Unless they don't have the very thing they need to fix it. He prides himself on his cleverness.

Being careful and patient, he slowly uses magnetic to remove the rivets out of the frame of the pipe, a magic so simple nobody should sense it. Tink as the first one hits the floor. He looks back instinctively, nobody yet. He does it again, a little more confident, nobody again. He decides his wasting his time, and start doing all of them in quick succession. He removes the last screw, leaving them sloppily left on the floor. He takes his yellow soaked linen, and heaves the pipe off. There's a distinct clunk as the pipe comes lose into the mage's hand, who had pulled way too hard an attempt to do dodge the steam shooting out. He falls forwards and makes a very loud CLANG as the boy uses the pipe to catch himself, almost putting his face onto it's blue hot surface. “Crap!” is the only thing he can pronounce as he has indubitably given himself away. He shifts through the wall on pure panic. He enters another part of the hallway where he stops in front of...

Leon and Eunji, who sees this skinny dusty fake-employee now holding an integral part of the ship's power.

The Hourglass Order

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Dorothea Hohnstein

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Carmillia Carbonneau

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Interactions: Manfred:@Force and Fury, Eun-Ji @Medili, Leon @Jumbus, Dorothea @jasbraq, Zarra @BreathOfTheWoof

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Zarra took Hugo's words of waiting to a more literal extent than the archmage may have expected, opting to instead be the last person to have their questions addressed. But he had an important one nonetheless. "My issue with all of this, is that, look at me? I'm basically a noble from a children's illustration book. If you want me to go anywhere near rioters, you're gonna need me to wear something that will scream that I'm on their side. I can't look like a peasant because my education would give me away irrationally quickly. Logically, I need to look like staff on the ship. This'll also allow me into areas of the ship I'm not normally allowed in emergencies; is it against the rules? Absolutely, but riots are their own beasts, you know?" Zarra with all his discipline attempts to justify his thinking to a man who's 4 steps ahead of him on every front.

Hugo blinks. He strokes his beard. There is an intense rush of magic. He disappears and there is only the sound of conversation overlying ambient noise. He reappears with a rather fanciful uniform: all frilled cuffs, brass buttons, and bright red with coattails. "Go slay yourself a beast, young fellow." He holds it out to Zarra.

The young man appreciates that bit of banter. Investigating the attire, he feels more ridiculous than if he just wore his distinctly purpled but practical clothes. In short, he feels like a clown. How does anyone stand to wear something this outlandish? Regardless, he's not gonna sabotage the mission over self-consciousness and puts it on in a shadowed corridor of the room.

Almost immediately after Hugo addresses Zarra's concerns, does he notice his teammates either being entirely standoff to each other except for the 2 distinct girls whispering to each other. He always thought that was a thing kids do, he reevaluates his stereotype, that woman of any age will do that. Regardless, they've seemed to doing it for a hot minute, though they're careful to look around themselves, his wonder deters any worry that may have stirred. He pretends to be distracted in his notebook as he eavesdrops on the girls, catching the full details of Dorothea's strategy.

“I’m trying to convince the Kerreman queen to help me overthrow the Feskan nobles… Sorry if it sounds weird…”
“That said, I doubt the queen would be able to overthrow them without any justification. It all depends on the scale of the riot. Too small and it will be quelled without consequence. Too large and the aid of those three houses become essential to maintain order. Either way, her hands become tied."

Carm's willingness to manipulate the riot in their favor intrigued him about her true agenda. Still, she made a very solid point, if it's too small nothing will happen. If it's too big, well, I think they'll have other issues at hand if that's what the fates decide.

“As someone from the merchant caste this might seem absurd, doesn’t it? Why would a noble care about their people?”

Despite being a noble himself by blood, Zarra gives little thought to his status and what it means to turn his back on people of his societal scale. He grew being told to adapt, to think, to question. More often in situations like this, with disgruntled workers and high classmen flaunting luxuries, that yes, the rich are the bad guys. He wanted part of this plan, and surely follows the other rest of his team into the portal. Maybe Hugo, assuming he's still around, can one day teach him the secret of instant transportation.

Aware that the others were watching, Carmillia addressed Dorothea.

"I had hoped for more time but it's now or never," she said. "What'll it be? Do we quell the riot and help the nobles keep power? Or will you stand up and make a difference?"

Manfred was already headed toward the pilothouse to speak with the helmsman when he heard her. He had his opinions. Carmillia was dangerous: the sort of pretty girl who manipulated others for gain. She fairly smacked of it and he had little use and even more wariness for those sorts. Mind you, sometimes he wondered if Dory wasn't the same. He kept those feelings to himself, however. "I am headed to the pilothouse. If the two groups meet up, this will become a situation beyond our ability to control it. The lyre is our goal."

Before Zarra can engage Carmilla and Dorothea, he listened to the dialogue of Leon and... He doesn't know that girl's name, how embarrassing. Maybe he can ruse one of the other classmates into telling it to him, he hates looking like he's not up to date on information. Despite this, he responds to her, "Oh, I can do that, I bet. Like Leon said, I'll have to you know, find him first."

Zarra gives little care to that fact he will need to admit to eavesdropping, having been naturally curious at the fact Dorothea and Carmilla were making quick friends of each other, and more importantly, clearly plotting something. He goes over to them and without consent, inserts himself into the conversation. "You really think you're gonna do this without an extra hand? You said it yourself, you can't risk the riot being too small, there's where I come in." He makes no hesitation to flash a cunning smile to the girls.

The Hourglass Order

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Onarr @Bork Lazer, Desmond @Th3King0fChaos, Trypano @A Lowly Wretch, Ingrid @dragonpiece, Eun-Ji @Medili, Carmilla @Animus, Dorothea @jasbraq, Leon @Jumbus, Manfred, Jocasta Re, Hugo Hunghorasz @Force and Fury

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In an instant, that's all it takes...
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Zarra was also spooked by Onarr's confidence, his heart spiking from the back of misfit party. His first instinct is to shift and bolt for the door. However, as the dark tower changes in contrast, the door is seemingly despondent, rather than slam shut deafeningly like he expected. He takes a process that Onarr had in fact said the right answer. He was a little unconfident in the other's arithmetic, thanking the gods a little in while nobody can hear him.

He quickly realizes his mistake that maybe shifting in front of bunch of random students wasn't a good idea, but he undercuts that logic, he's gonna be studying and living with them, it'd be an uphill battle hiding such a fundamental part of himself, it might as well be now than never... But to his surprise, nobody notices he's gone.

What happens next can be only described as surreal to Zarra, the normally lifeless dimension around him explodes in iridescent colors, magentas and aquas his eyes have never processed. He has a feeling like he's never had before: While not painful, it's almost like his very soul is being pulled forward, Zarra wonders if this is what it's like to die as he's transported into a room he's never seen before, one of age and wear. The mirage of deathly grey fog reemerges, ironically comforting him, it was familiar, not aggressively hued like whatever the hell that was. He wonders if anyone else felt that, but every single student seems unphased, like their transport process was unhurdled. Strange...

Instead everyone is staring intently into the room. Words come from the room, impossible to decipher in the alternate plane, sounding like a locomotive underwater than anything tangeable. Despite his disassociation, Zarra still manages to be surprised again within ten seconds of the first time. Even without any shades or hues to guide him, his memory sparks at the sight of an elderly humanoid, one he swear he'd only see in texts... Unsure of his assessment, he takes a very generous look to see, Hugo Hunghorasz?!

He solved a puzzle designed by Hugo himself?! Zarra basically jumps for joy excitedly as he then punches his own hand in excitement. "I get to meet the best mage of our era! What do I even say? How do you even engage someone so out of your league?" Zarra is used to talking outloud to himself in the second person, people can find it strange all they want, often it's all he needs to get his thoughts into a more cohesive manner. He must be the reason for the strange experience, it's almost blissful to him that Hugo of all people has the power to teleport even a shifted grayblood to his abode. At the same time, it's scary, is that some sort of omen? Are him and Luna simply beings of time? He decides to save the thought for a later date, a theory worth investigating at a better time.

The exchanges between Hugo and the other students mean little to Zarra, he can barely make out something about Pirates, and that's only making assumptions based of what syllables he heard. He's far more preoccupied about what's the best way to engage Hugo. He comes to the epiphany that overthinking it will only dampen the impression, so rather than let anxiety take hold, he audibly inhales.

Zarra steps forward, intangibly passing through the other students, and directly in front of Hugo. He re-entries reality like it's second nature, doing it in the sights of the entire students body. If anyone could make an impression on the whole class, it was him. He proceeds to hijack the conversation, interrupting anything the students said before him, who had questions after Hugo asked everyone to either stay a leave. Clearly a detail the audacious achievement hunter missed in his mission to be the wizard's center of attention.

"Hello, Archmage Hugo, my name is Zarra, and this is how we solved your puzzle." The blonde scrawny boy hands the aged man his now written-in notebook. His proud face betrays the sheer level of excitement ready to burst from him, only thwarted by Zarra's need to not embarrass himself in front of such a legend.