Avatar of Crusader Lord

Status

User has no status, yet

Bio

User has no bio, yet

Most Recent Posts

Charlotte


High-Rise District (just barely across the river from the Eiffel Tower)

Penthouse Suite, The Golden Shangri-La Hotel





"Ah, my love, you misunderstand. Spiritual form would only be to leave the building, after you may walk about with me in the moonlight. I merely wish to have a private walk with you, and you alone. No prying eyes, no Rinaldo to interrupt us, no Saracens to molest us, just the two of us where our love will shine without any jealous eyes~"

Charlotte could speak words like sweet honey, spin them like silken threads, and for this Berserker playing the act of the happy lover was as easy as taking candy from a baby. And as soon as she could get her servant to leave the building with her as desired, without inflaming his maddened rage, she would make haste to their ultimate destination. Not a bad place, but a peaceful one where she could talk with her servant and seek to avoid prying eyes for this first night. She felt that tingle of her command seals...there was something going on for sure in this area or close enough to it thereof.

Bois de Boulogne

Near Lake, Within The Park


Eventually, she would get her servant to their destination. A lovely lake, reflecting the gentle moonlight that had so been the container for her servant's sanity. She was no Astolfo, dressed in woman's garb in order to satiate the crazed knight, but being his Angelica seemed an easier route right now for the most part. Yes, and she would use this man's maddened obsession with love to seize the spiritual land of Paris, and if she cared about it then that backwater cup that had been used to make summoning a servant possible. The former was her primary goal, the latter....well, she supposed it would be worth study and examination after her victory. Summoning of heroic spirits would be useful to protect this land, should such a thing be exploit-able in some manner or another.

Ah, but for now that was something that needed to wait. Because-

"Ah, my love, is the park not beautiful tonight? Especially with just the two of us here, to enjoy our love without any seeking to taint it so?"

@Reflection@Red Alice
Annabelle Irons





As the Rose Knight had continued to make her way towards the graveyard and its crypt, Annabelle had been trying to do what she could on her end. At least whilst her Patron was busy looking at other things. She was being drained of her life and magic, but...what she still had left not in her chain arm would perhaps suffice. Anything to save a bit of, er, 'juice' in case she needed it.

...and she probably needed it.

[MAGICAL SIGNATURE: RECOGNIZED - SECONDARY ASTRAL BARRIER TETHER ESTABLISHED]


She'd managed to do this much, tap into the barrier surrounding the crypt itself. It was not a huge feat from the inside for her, due to her "unique" nature in regards to her and her patron. Though if she tried anything, Soth would in all likeliness notice. Plus it wasn't like she had the amount of power to remove the entire barrier, or force it all to power down at this rate. She was, after all, currently being drained like a battery in an old MP3 player.

[BARRIER CONTROLS - LIMITED ACCESS GRANTED]


A shudder of pain ran down the white haired magical girl's spine, even as the ritual chanting continued and she dug deeper into the magic of the barrier. Her face twisted into a scowl as the magical message run out inside of her head. Only limited access?! How limited was the access? Like "take down half of this thing" access, or "alter the permeability", or something else?!

Annabelle dug deeper as her nervous system screamed at her like it was on fire, the void-touched magical girl looking at various options and tasks that she could perform right now. Though the more she looked, the worse her options seemed to be. Most things seemed locked behind a required amount of power that she couldn't output, at least as a lone and not-well-off-right-now magical girl.

Though a singular option eventually flashed in her mind as she thumbed through everything.

[ASTRAL BARRIER PARTITIONS - ACCESSIBLE OPERATIONS]


[OPERATION 1 - REINFORCE EXISTING PARTITIONS]


[OPERATION 2 - ADD A NEW PARTITION]


[OPERATION 3 - REMOVE PARTIT-...ERROR, REMOVAL FUNCTION HAS BEEN DISABLED BY ADMIN]


[OPERATION 4 - OPEN LIMITED ACCESS HATCH]


She only needed to see the options that far down, though it was surprising how many more "operations" were here.

Maybe she could force open a small hole, though? Er...maybe enough for one or two people, but only for a moment. Maybe.

It seemed feasible enough, and it seemed her patron had disabled the ability to remove parts of the barrier already. Why, though? Did he halfway think she'd be able to do this much if he turned his back for a second? Or had he just been lazy about it all?

She could feel Amaryllis getting closer and closer, however, too soon to think on any other ideas. She had to do this, and now!

[OPERATION 4 COMMENCING- OPENING LIMITED ACCESS PANEL FOR 'PARTITION 27']


'Hurry inside! I am opening a part of the barrier, but it'll only stay open for a moment! And...be careful once you get inside! she communicated to Amaryllis, trying to urge the other girl inside. This, as an opening would appear before the Rose Knight's very eyes during her approach to the crypt...and not too soon or too late, either.

Annabelle gave a grunt as she tried to channel some of her Soth-given magical power, the stuff being drained from her actually, as she selected the 4th Operation. She could feel the power swiftly dissipate from within her, like casting a spell, and she could feel the part of the barrier open up.

Success!!!

But as soon as she did that the creatures and minions in the room stopped cold. Their eyes (many or fewer depending on the creature) swiveled towards her, cold, calculating, but most of all...alarmed. They had felt what she did, but more than this the darkness magical girl felt a tremor from the tentacles of Soth that were holding her up in the air. That only meant one thing, and perhaps it was the one thing she had forgotten to take into account. Or rather, she hadn't had the time to calculate if he-

Oh no.

No no no.

NONONONONONONO!!!

'Well well well...i took a moment to examine the handiwork of that Laat', not too shabby but still an inferior product i can improve upon in my own fashion.

Yet in the meantime, you seem to have gotten busy.

I must say i am not surprised, but instead i am rather pleased! I shall let but this one in, as a token of my amusement.

My hopes that a failed avatar would last this long have proven true, and more.

To be able to still access my power within you and some of your own, even with such sheer and raw agony flowing through your fleshy coil? Mmm~

Hahaha! Its spectacular!!!


Soth had noticed. No, he'd even picked up on what she'd done when he wasn't looking. Was he that fast on the uptake, or just that powerful?!

Annabelle struggled as the laugh of her patron rung out again into the ritual chamber, rebounding against the walls like a great hammer. But as she panicked, her mind racing with thoughts, she lashed out with the magic in her right arm as well. Or rather, reached out was perhaps the better term for it. She'd recalled the image not too long ago with Amaryllis, even if unintentionally, and her magic grasped out at the one from that image like the hand of a drowning person.

In the girl's own mind, a message or few flashed by. But-

[EMOTIONAL LINK - RECOGNIZED]


[OPERATION 5b - ONE-WAY PSYCHIC TRANSMISSION - ENABLED]


[MESSAGE RECIPIENTS - IDENTIFIED - TRANSMITTING MESSAGE]


-wait a second.

'Oh? I had installed that when forming this barrier...

Twas' merely to announce my arrival to any possible remaining life upon the ritual's completion...an automatic process if you will~

...But let us sever this to avoid more amusing incidents~"


[SECONDARY ASTRAL BARRIER TETHER SEVERED - BY ADMIN]


Annabelle felt her connection to the barrier shut down instantly. Such was the power of her Patron, and she couldn't even feel out where to access the barrier anymore at that. It was terrifying, but before the connection had severed...

[MESSAGE SENT - ERROR: INCOMPLETE TRANSMISSION RANGE DUE TO INTERRUPTED PROCESS]


...The accidental message had made its way out. Albeit, within a limited range.

The call would echo across the graveyard, into the minds of all of those there. It rang in the heads of all with a blood-curdling echo, yet at the same time carried the weight and raw emotion that only the human spirit could ever output.

Yea, it was a cry for help in the most primal and easily understood manner possible.

'Regina!!!'


@t2wave@MadManMoon@Shifter_Master@Ariamis@PlatinumSkink@Vocab@FamishedPants@Flamelord@ERode@DarkwolfX37@Card Captor@BrokenPromise
Autolycus


Foreign District
Abandoned Subway Station, Paris Metro Underground





Oh? Someone who recognized his name? Based on the catalyst that had been used, and who he'd tried to call, made sense if he knew that bit of legend from the annals of Pankration's long history. Or maybe because he'd carved his name on the outside of Herc's 'tomb' after the big guy had passed on. Didn't matter either way. Assassin continued to grin, however, as his own body took on a basic Pankration fighting stance...doing so as easy and natural as breathing was to a normal living thing. He could see the body of his master, well actually 'modified' body of his master, and it wasn't hard for him to gauge the man's capabilities and inspiration for certain parts. In particular it stood out like the armor of "that guy's kid" who'd been at Troy with one of his grandsons.

"So ya wanna have a spar, eh? Copyin' the armor of one-na' Chiron's boys too. But i'll give ya a few seconds, to see how ya fare, then we gotta get started on this cup stuff.

I gotta warn ya though, i'm just an old man~"


One could not perhaps tell if Assassin was being serious, or not, at this point in time. His stance remained flexible, but taught, strong, yet adaptable. As one who had trained in Pankration for so long, Isidore could perhaps tell this man was no joke in terms of skill. Not even if he was perhaps jesting with him, which was always a possibility. This was a heroic spirit, a legend who had spawned and trained other legends, a man whose skills hadn't been seen in the world for quite a long time.

"Heh, you should've seen Herc back in the day. Handed his ass to him at first, because when it comes down to it-"

Autolycus seemed to relax his stance more, as if stopping for a second, before out of a blue he threw a sudden punch with his left hand. It surpassed human speeds, breaking into the realm of servant with a frightening ease, but was also a very direct and basic kind of move. Something a beginner might attempt to use to start a fight, even, though the raw speed of it would be something to take into accounting for the cyborg. Was he being serious, though, or was he playing around with this first move? His face was hard to read as it was, at least.

@Cu Chulainn




Charlotte


High-Rise District (just barely across the river from the Eiffel Tower)

Penthouse Suite, The Golden Shangri-La Hotel





...This was indeed Roland, but more than she had ever bargained for with Roland as well. She could tell it with her eyes alone, those parameters, those abilities...and his class. Berserker. The class of the insane, gaining power through their madness when summoned like this. It was far from the knightly Saber she had wanted to summon for herself, though it was also a unique situation that wasn't un-salvageable either. Actually, it rather worked in her favor in a certain regard.

He saw her as his dear Angelica, the love who had cast him off to marry a shepherd. Oh so cruel...albeit understandable perhaps from the looks of Roland in this state. She could perhaps say the very word, and he would slay any "Rinaldo" or "Saracen" she pointed him at. Of course there were command seals in case things went south, but her base had been initially prepared so far at least.

"Yes, my love, you shall scatter his bones and those of the Saracens to the four winds...but for tonight, shall we take a walk outside? The weather seems so lovely, though to exist this building i will need you to go into spiritual form so we may avoid unwanted eyes..."

A lovely moonlit walk would be nice, yes? She had to scout out the competition, and already she could feel the thrum of Paris' spiritual land in her very magic circuits. This land would be hers, her castle, her kingdom that would be ruled under fist. It would be good...leverage as well for her personally. She'd sent letter to the current Second Owner on her plans should she win, but the details didn't need to be mentioned at this point in time. There was a long ways to go, after all~

Besides, testing the waters of things this early would be most interesting.

@Reflection


Full Name: Lina Ericksdaughter

Nicknames/Aliases: “Rune of Uruz”, “The Mighty Tinker”

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Rune/Location: Uruz; the rune is visible lower on her collarbone down towards her chest, and is a deep blue color.

Rune Powers: (While some Blessed do have magic, and World Eaters do have powers, you would remove the “Rune” bit for them if using them)

Enhanced physical attributes, including strength, speed, and senses. Her might is comparable to a jotun, allowing her to lift loaded mini-vans at most and tank serious hits. Likewise, she can ‘expand’ her senses to reach farther than normal, but this requires focus. Little focus is needed to enhance senses within the normal range, so in-battle use is practical. Yet the longer the range the more focus that is needed increases exponentially, to the point that long-range stuff it isn’t practical for in-battle use in those situations.

Her reaction time and movement speed are also boosted, the former more than the latter but both being distinct from normal human beings’ capabilities. The overall boost in physical attributes makes her like unto a street-level superhuman of some sort, from from unbeatable or unable to be harmed...but also very bad to get in a fist fight with.

Description: A lightly tanned Caucasian beauty, boasting a head full of soft, red hair that has been stylled into a ponytail. Her eyes are a soft blue, almost like an ocean, and usually one can find her in an upbeat kind of mood. She has a very shapely and well-endowed figure, though nothing inhuman in its quality. Her penchant for tinkering has left her wearing clothing she finds most comfortable for tinkering in, though when out in public she tends to wear comfortable jeans and a comfortable T-shirt or tank top normally. If its cold she tends to pull on a jean jacket she has, thick and durable and very warm to wear in her opinion. Tinkering has also left some wear on her hands that is visible on the palm, though she usually tends to wear gloves when fiddling about with things.

Personality: An upbeat and energetic kind of individual, who enjoys a good swim as much as she enjoys a session of tinkering with something or another. She can be rather laid-back when not busy, though when she is doing things she enjoys she gets very excited about it (and potentially a but hyper). She has a passion for building things on the side, however, crafting them with her own two hands and putting them to use. She takes pride in the super-custom gas-fueled grill she made for herself, as one example of this and her high intelligence.

She does hate if people dismiss her work as “trash”, however, and frankly her temper is a bit “fiery” in general if it is set off. Her excess of energy also seems to be offset by a certain level of anxiety about herself. Does anyone in this world want her for who she is? Is she worthy of the love she has received in life so far...but also desires to gain one day as well? Things such as this are questions that “side” of her is apt to fill her mind with, dragging her down mentally and emotionally. Such things in her are normally triggered by an existing negative state of mind on her end, usually spurred on by some kind of event or interaction.

Skills:

-She is very skilled with mechanical and computer-related forms of work, tinkering to make things like a super-customized gas grill and even put together and get her own computer working from salvaged and customized parts. She is a tinker who enjoys her craft, perhaps being comparable in this manner to the dwarves of Norse legend.

-She is an average kind of cook, with it being an area she wants to learn more about and has been improving in steadily over time.

-Helping about the house, she has a good grasp of general housework...especially in regards to cleaning due to her tinkering hobby. Home repair also isn’t a thing outside of her reach, being as she is with tinkering.

-Great at swimming, and able to hold her breath underwater for about 5 minutes.

Weaknesses:

-Her anger can be exploited.

-Her anxiety can be exploited as well.

-Despite being the Uruz rune bearer, she does not have any combat experience, capabilities, or training for that matter in that area.

-She is a killable mortal

Brief History: A girl with a middle-class upbringing in the Deep South, her father (a Scandinavian immigrant’s son) was a local mechanic who took to fixing cars and had married his high-school sweetheart after she got out of college with a Criminal Justice degree. Though his wife became a lawyer, they were always very close and kept in contact with each other despite the stress of their jobs. They eventually had four kids: Lina, Erik, Kristie, and Wade, and their home was filled with the scampering of the kids and much of the usual hijinks four children could viably get into. Yet for Lina herself, she caught her father’s “mechanic bug” and eventually started learning with him how to fiddle with things, make them, and put them together.

Eventually, by some unknown event, Lina’s father died when a gas explosion happened at his place of work. The result left Lina’s mother the only financial provider at home, and the then 16 year old Lina was in turn left virtually alone to help manage the house and care for her siblings in part. It was a...growing up moment, a struggle at first that she had to adjust to and master as best as she could. Her tinkering and such hobbies picked up along with this, however, to help her cope with the added stresses of being an older sibling having to pick up what slack her dad’s death had left behind.

When the Uruz rune appeared on her body, she was swimming at the time and found herself ramming head-first into the pool wall....and making an actual lengthy crack into the side of it with great force and speed. She was surprised like anyone else there, to say the least, and she walked off after the incident was theorized to be because of a structural fault in the pool by staff.

She'd barely been home a few hours, caring for her siblings, when a ring came at the door. Several people in suits were there, like some kind of secret service members in appearance, and it soon evolved into a conversation at the door about her being the "last Rune to be found" and "chosen by Odin" and something about preventing the apocalypse. However, this was quite a lot to throw at the tinkerer, enough that even after she thought about it she politely refuse and closed the door. She was no battler, she was a tinkerer, and frankly she had her own thoughts about the end of the world.

This...did not seem to sit well with the other party, who after a week of her pushing their approaches away made a public announcement in her town that "one of the saviors of mankind doesn’t want to prevent the apocalypse cause she doesn’t feel like it".

Safe to say, this went very badly for Lina as a result. It started with just angry emails, phone calls from strangers, and some people in public giving her dirty looks. Eventually, her usual tools and parts place eventually blocked her from coming on the premises, and her siblings began to see harassment and bullying at school. She couldn't get a job, even, after her mother was fired from her job for reasons of "her daughter" when the Blessed's announcement continued to go viral. Even the local grocery stores wouldn't let them buy groceries, or would otherwise drop eggs and spill products without giving refunds.

It culminated in one night, where several people threw rock at her home. Teenagers, with supporting adults watching on from their cars they had driven over in. All that pressure, all of that anger, it pushed Lina to finally snap after hiding her siblings and mother in a nearby closet. She stepped out, catching some stones and trying to plead for the people to stop. Then began the taunts and jeers were made at her by the attackers and their parents, a few whom began drinking and enjoy the sight like it was a picnic.

They acted like they were somehow just in this. Like any of those assholes were JUST in all of this. The rocks didn't even hurt her, they couldn't but as windows were smashed and she heard the laughing...and she snapped in that moment. Jeers at her ancestry, the hate thrown at her family members, the vile side of the people of this town tossed onto her...as a scapegoat for the world's suffering. Her family barely could get food as it was, their vehicles were broken, life had become literal hell all because she was chosen for something she didn't want to do.

She returned the stones, then, without thinking about it in her blinding pent-up rage that had finally erupted from within her. Then the police showed up after neighbors called them on her, and their bullets plunked off of her skin harmlessly. It became a sort of small rampage, resulting in the Blessed rapidly arriving on scene after being called about the incident. Lina was rapidly incapacitated, bound, and then carted off by the group to some facility or another.

Safe to say, Lina’s not exactly a happy person with what has happened, or the death, or being arrested and contained by the Blessed. She's not happy about all of the “hero” and “stopping Ragnarok” nonsense she was told to boot. Though its not like she’s made an escape attempt....yet, anyways.

Other: Cooks good burgers, and was voted “most likely to MacGyver her way out of a bad situation” in high school.
Mina Kreiger (Alloy)





There were so many capes here...it was like the entire populace of a comic book universe had been thrown up into the real world. Like some kid's dream come true, but under the worst possible circumstances. Well, "worst circumstances was a massive understatement. It was a nightmare scenario that brought anyone with a brain together to fight, a band of suicidal maniacs ready to die to avoid the nightmare consuming everything and then some. Even she might not walk away alive, and that "foreboding feeling" had crept up into her gut so far. But

There were more important things than her own life, though. Helen...her mother...she hoped they were safe, out of the city as far as possible. Her father was a wealthy man, at least, the kind who'd get his stuff and be gone before the sirens went off if he felt a bad vibe from things.

...He was still a jackass though, no questions about that.

After the third strongest member of the Triumvirate spoke, and she got her communicator placed in her ear, Alloy stepped forward towards Legend.

"Alloy here, local and a Jacks member. I've got metal skin, and i can control and generate electricity. The more i do the latter thing, the more of my metal skin disappears.

Just find me some knocked over light pole, or some wires attached to the city power grid, and i can light this bastard up like its the Fourth of July from afar without any problem. At least for a time."


She didn't blink and eye as the ground shook, and Behemoth's roar rang out. Less from not fearing the monster...but more because she was pissed.

This was her city, the city of the people of Denver, Colorado, and this thing would pay for stomping onto HER turf.

-------


As soon as everyone began moving out, however, Alloy made her way along with Legend's crew on the ground. Climbing over rubble, push through intact streets, anything to get within enough of a spitting distance of this thing to stay out of the Kill Aura and start firing. Some around her would seem to stop and fire along the way, sometimes with a retaliatory blast that she never looked back to see the results of. She could see some flying overhead, including some strange monster-like creature, a titan of some glowing sort that was going hand to hand with the damned thing, and various other 'interesting' sights.

That was, however, a very minor detail about all of this.

The sounds of death and attacks made by capes as they whizzed through the air, blasts coming off of Behemoth's massive frame, the heat of explosions, the ringing din of destruction...it all was something maddening and fierce.

Eventually, however, Alloy managed to find what she had been looking for amidst it all.

A street light, stuck in what was now an open space filled with rubble, ripped from the ground by Behemoth's blasts and resulting damage they caused.

It was perfect.

Alloy ran over to the spot, watching as spark still flitted about where one of the cords was touching the bent metal of the post, exposed and frayed and all to filled with juice still. Reaching over with her right hand, the cape grabbed the exposed end with her bare metal-covered hand. She could feel the thrum of the power going into her body, the surge of might and energy flushing into her skin and body, but to try to avoid damage to her own body the parahuman quickly stuck out her left arm at Behemoth. She was to the left side of him, far enough out of the Kill Aura to still be alive anywho, and without hesitation she began to unleash her wrath as she screamed at the Endbringer at the top of her lungs.

"Take this, you massive son of a bitch!"


She drew in as much of the power left on the city grid in from where she was, moving it from her right arm and out of her left one that was pointed at Behemoth. A great array of electricity was jumping out of her left arm, like a great laser beam had been unleashed. No...more like the wrath of a vengeful Zeus, throw out upon those who dared defy him. It lit up the sky like a gigantic Christmas light around where Alloy was standing, and frankly the display was actually rather impressive....but at a cost.

She could feel the heat building in her body, sweat running down and forming on what normal human skin that was exposed on her body still.

She could feel the metal skin being eaten away, but by bit, part by part...wasn't like she could do this forever, after all.

And frankly she could feel ebbs of pain from parts of her skin not covered in metal, as she used her powers to conduct the electricity out and at the Endbringer. Eventually, if she didn't let go and stop, she'd be burnt to a crisp once all that metal skin was finally eaten up by her power use.

The metal-skinned woman muttered under her breath, profanities flying out of her as quietly as she could manage. But, at least, she would see the results of her work beginning to pay off. Chunks from the carapace of the Endbringer, singed off by the lightning of her anger and falling to the ground. She did her best to avoid zapping any capes flying about the Endbringer, but it was a struggle to adjust aim as she was doing this.




Allison Mead (Excaliblast)





The entire thing seemed like a blur, like a dream but without falling asleep. She'd gotten a port to the PRT HQ, and before that a bandanna and small disposable mask to use to hide her face entirely. That was, perhaps, the one nice thing done for her after what had just happened. Hide her identity from the rest of the capes, at least, though Patriarch and his lot had ruined any chances of an normal life for her now.

She was a parahuman, what some considered a freak of nature, and her school had been attacked with her being blamed for it.

She had been pulled into all of this, even by a man who was mad in the head. Mantis, that idiot among idiots, dragging in a vulnerable bystander into a battle that got too many killed and at an irreparable cost. Her only joy from that was finding out Farce, at least, was alive after all of it...one of the few more level-headed-seeming individual that had been around that fool Mantis.

Before she knew it, though, she was now again in a warzone and alongside other parahumans....ironic. No, poetic perhaps? It was stupid as hell, but she didn't want Denver to be leveled because they were short one helper either. Perhaps it was her excuse to get away from that school building, though...or an excuse to just go die and end it all. She'd considered that when she'd cornered Mantis after his "little excursion", after all...what was to stop her now? Alexandria swooping in to grab her up and carry her off to safety?

-------


"Stupid Endbringer...stupid MB....stupid Patriarch, and Mantis...,"

Allison swore under her breath and mumbled to herself, even as she did her best to keep up with the other capes who were also heading around the outside perimeter to attack from a distance. She stopped to fire a burst at the beast here and there, but all this did was slow her down quite a lot as compared to others who had "movement abilities". Argh. Maybe if that vial thing allowed her to teleport, she'd have been able to catch up.

She was one of the ones far back enough, at least, to get glimpses of the groups helping evacuate or get people out of the area. It was almost surreal in a sense, like a natural disaster movie on steroids. At least if one thought of the Endbringers as "natural disasters", and not as something some asshole had to have made for all she and humanity knew.

Yet after firing a few more showers of metal blades from her wrists at the titanic Behemoth, Allison turned around and began to move to another location once more.

"...I hope Farce is alive, at least...or i swear if i find Mantis i am going to-"

Aerith Hastings


-Outside Gate 1-


Resets: 5

Deaths: 4





One could call this man equal parts insane, or perhaps uniquely insightful in a bizarre way, depending on the words coming out of his mouth perhaps. Mostly the former, though all parts he was a madman, a true madman who cast magic without words and was leading an army of witch cultists. He went in and out of these spurts of mania like a river flowing down a crooked path, the obsession with this "Witch of Envy" being very clear cut amidst other oddities or facts she could pick up from it all. She tried to pick up how the cultists were feeling about this, but it wasn't like she could read this well when listening to Vaux right here before her. But she got the feeling he either thought her breasts were more valuable than her, which could be true, or that...maybe Joy? Aerith knew she herself also had a new power, albeit unique in its applications-....no, she was thinking too hard on this.

Wasn't like she had any answers right now to a madman's raving, and she didn't want to become so mad as to be able to perhaps. Right now her situation was precarious as it was. Cultists wanting to raze Priestella to the ground, already a frightening thing. Then there was a probably-more-powerful-than-he-seems madman, leading a cultist army and wanting her boobs to seemingly secure the location of a witch's body hidden and buried in the city. Then, of all things, he wanted her to come back by his side to raze the city along with him. This, with instructions to come back as soon as possible with the location.

By "Od Laguna", whatever that dove-like girl had mentioned that time ago, this was tense enough as it was! Frankly, how would she find a witch's body? Did she even want to find it, much less give its location? More important than that, even, her life, and those of any one of the others were still in this city and any civilians there, were going to be obliterated regardless if she came back or not. Genocide of human and demi-human alike. Maddened "affection" shown for "the one who loves us"....what made the influence of the witches like this, perhaps? What drove some to go so mad into this that they went about doing these maddening things? Had they been like her, but more desperate and less asking of questions?

Ugh...

Deciding to stop overthinking things for the time being, Aerith nodded to Vaux before he had turned around. Then as he turned to leave, she took out the scroll from between her breasts, and walked promptly over towards the cart with a land dragon attached to it. She'd have to borrow a cloak to get into the city in the first place, and it wasn't like she couldn't guide a trained animal perhaps....right?

As she eventually got on the cart to drive it, though, Aerith said a meek but directed prayer in her mind. A desperate, personal, private little thing.

'Od Laguna? If you are a god of this world that people worship, i am in a bit of a bind right now and could use a listening ear if possible. Witches, new power, being drug to a new world by Talus, and being saved by Joy...frankly i just want to understand it all, and find the others safe if i can. Even just being able to save Hiro and Chieko would be...nice if nothing else.

I don't know if you are listening or not, or if you exist frankly. But if you can hear me, it would be nice to get some help in this situation as a sign...and maybe some helpful info, though not about where this witch's body is. I get the feeling you might not like that if i asked for it, and i would agree...'


Though Vaux did have one thing right, the dark-haired girl thought to herself, potentially.

She'd lower herself into the mud to get things done and save those she cared about enough, and push through it to soldier on and survive now. And right now was no exception.

-------


-Main Road, Cham, Priestella-


Sure enough, her merchant act had at least gotten her into the city itself as a "humble clothing merchant". The cloak had helped as well for purposes of...trying to blend in better. Look like a traveler of sorts who was coming in, at least. Though despite her mask to put on appearances, her ribs still hurt just a tiny bit from Vaux's ironclad grip before. Made it slightly hurt to breathe, but little enough to mostly ignore it.

But where should she go right now? That was the big question. She had been told to head down to the Docks to peddle wares, but...she did have one idea of where to go. Not the safest idea, mind, but she had the supplies to do a little something at least...well, try to. And if nothing else, maybe she would get out of being stabbed to death this time for all she knew.

"Cheiko might be there...maybe. That was where the bandits came from, where we first met Fritzi, and where everything started to go downhill..." Aerith mumbled to herself as quietly as possible, letting out a quiet sigh afterwards.

Headed to:
["Suttlings Basin, Priestella"]


@BrokenPromise@Rune_Alchemist
@EchoicChamber


Tagged for this and the above Surtr app (forgot to tag you there...sorry DX).

Autolycus


Foreign District
Abandoned Subway Station, Paris Metro Underground





As Isidore would finish the incantation, magical energy that had been swirling about within the magic circle came to its climax. Light erupted from the magic circle as a servant accepted the call to arms, and smoke filled the area of the magic circle in the immediate aftermath. But what heroic spirit could he have summoned? The great Chiron, he who had trained heroes such as Achilles in the arts of Pankration? Was it Plato himself, the wrestler and servant the robotic magic had imagined in his very mind to try to summon? Was it the hero Heracles, mightiest of all Greek heroes who had completed many labors and fought many foes?

"Well, well, well...so this is the kid who summoned me, eh? Seems to be a biiiiiiiiiiit too serious, but maybe we can change that."

Wait...that didn't sound like something Plato would say, right? Nonono, maybe it was Achilles? Yes, of course! It had to be-

"Ol' Plato pointed me this way, didn't wanna walk away from his match against the Chiron guy back in the Throne. Damn shame he didn't want to come for all of this fun though~"

-...what?! That was a lot of sarcasm, and if his words were right he wasn't most of those other well-known greeks! But who was he then? Was this some younger form of Heracles or something?! Maybe some ancient and experienced Olympic champion who had managed to answer the summons?

As the smoke from the summoning began to quickly fade, the figure before Isidore became clearer and clearer. Until eventually, it was easy to see the rather strangely-dressed individual standing before him:



"You are going to get a little lesson in trickery while i'm around, kid. Even Herc had to learn the hard way from me, and look how he turned out! Bwuahahahahahaha!!! He's the Greatest Hero of Greece!"

This strange man seemed very amused by his own words and the situation, laughing like a happy idiot. He then crossed his arms, looking Isidore in the eyes with a gleeful grin and glint in his eyes.

"But that cup said to ask you something, i guess, before we get started~

I ask of you, are you my master?"


@Cu Chulainn




Charlotte


High-Rise District (just barely across the river from the Eiffel Tower)

Penthouse Suite, The Golden Shangri-La Hotel





All would say she looked no older than 19 or 20, her hair drills cascading down onto and around her body. Her Caucasian skin somewhat reflected the gentle moonlight, her blue eyes reflecting a large sense of pride and determination as she looked down upon the spare sheet she'd drawn her summoning circle upon. However, her clothing left little to the imagination, and the most telling feature was-

"Oh, hohohohoho!"

-...that laugh. That trademark, "ojou-sama" laugh that she had seemingly perfected in only 27 years of life.

But who was she, a proud magus of noble blood, to not be able to strike an impression of noble pride upon the peasants who struggled against the weight of this world? She would have been nothing! A sham! Thus she would laugh, laugh in the face of the foolish, in the face of her foes, and in the face of the people who dared to try to stop her here. This land would be the jumping-off point, a great gain of glory as compared to that pathetic little cup she had also been promised here. A wish? Surely whatever backwater hillbillies that had made this were desperate to chase the coattails of some better magus such as herself!

But no, this was a serious matter. Dirty peasants and tricky fools, one had to keep a careful eye on ones like them. A dog driven mad into a corner was more dangerous than some might think. And to this end, she had procured nothing short of the best, an artifact of a great French heroic spirit who would serve her! They would follow her very will, slay her enemies, and assist in her conquest of the spiritual land of the beloved Paris. That would be sufficient, yes.

Charlotte stepped into the circle, gently placing a deteriorated piece of shoulder armor in the center before stepping back out of the circle. A relic, as it was, of one of the great Paladins of Charlemagne. It seemed to barely hold together, metal worn and dented and heavens knows what filth had once clung to it when it was excavated. Frankly the Durandal would have been a better choice, but with so many fools eyeing such a piece it would be easy to tell who she was summoning if knowledge of that being stolen had gotten out.

Nonono, this was subtle enough to a "T" to work for this situation. Her presence would be known, along with a few others who she knew had come to this city as well to claim her prize, her land she would rule over, but they would have no idea who her servant was until it was too late! They would fall before her chosen knight, and their heads would be placed before her feet as punishment for their impunity!

"Heed my words. My will creates your body-," the girl began to chant, the incantation slipping off of her lips like a well-rehearsed bible verse, becoming somewhat more mechanical for a moment a she uttered the summoning spell, until eventually-

"...oh keeper of the balance!"

-her servant would finally arrive.

@Reflection
@EchoicChamber How you been doing today, btw? The RP's discord going well? Just got internet back after 7 hours so i am a tad hyper XD

© 2007-2026
BBCode Cheatsheet