Dragoknighte

Darke Magyk - Concluded

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Atkin Bowman

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Location: Wizard Tower

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Atkin looked at the Grula-Grula with a mix of incredulity and weariness. The more he saw of this thing, the less he understood or cared to be around it. When he first saw it, he might have considered it almost cute in the same way you'd consider something like a stray mutt cute. But after having to chase it through a book store, wrestle it into submission and then listen to it whine and plead continuously in his ear for the past half hour, an charity he had towards it had been converted into annoyance. And to top it all off, the nuisance tipping a hat it didn't have just made the entire situation excessively ridiculous.

Taking his eyes off the furry little creature, he directed it first to Rowland's hand, which he took in his own for a firm shake. He could feel just how much age had affected those hands immediately. The skin was loose and he felt like the bones would crumble if he squeezed too hard. He knew this wasn't the case, but the immediate difference between his own hands and than of old timers always caught him a bit off guard.

"Sorry, but I don't think I can do that. How 'bout just Rowland?" It didn't sit right with him to call any senior citizen by their first name, especially when he didn't know them like in this case. Perhaps it was that bit of politeness that his mother, siblings and society had beaten into him over the years that said you should respect your elders. Perhaps it was that he couldn't treat someone with such an age gap with that level of casualness. Or it could be that he was ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard and his brain told him that it'd be wrong to act as if they were anywhere close to equal stature. But he was fairly certain it'd be near impossible to just call him Blaise. The name just wouldn't fit in his mouth correctly.

"Why don't I just not draw from the pot?" Atkin asked in response to all this information. It was the first thing that came to mind and he couldn't keep it down. "Most Apprentices don't go on this Queste in the first place, if only two of 'em ever actually survived being given the task. Then it's not really important to finishing my apprenticeship, is it? If it's something that almost nobody ever survives, then it's not really a tradition worth upholding, innit? Like if this is the reason you set up the wards, then there ain't really a reason to play along with whoever rigged the pot in the first place."

He followed the adults into the tower, puzzled at everyone else's reactions. This seemed to be enough to stick a stick right up their anuses, but the danger seem entire reliant on doing something that could be easily avoided. Just, don't draw any stones. Or just dump the whole thing out and fill it with normal rocks. He really didn't see all the danger everyone else was zeroed in on. However, he could feel he was about to get some lecture about tradition, blah, blah, responsibility, blah, blah, blah, everyone's expectations for you, blah, blah, blah. But this really didn't feel like the proper for such a thing to take precedence.

The Wolves of Red Lake (Completed)

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Harry Kingsfield

Location: B&B

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And with one sentence, his existential crisis on whether he'd be able to eat breakfast today abated. It was as if a great fog that had rolled over his emotional state suddenly cleared to reveal the morning sun. Thoroughly more relaxed than he had been a few seconds prior, the private investigator took a seat at the table and took a couple napkins, placing one in his lap, and tucking the other into the collar of his shirt. It probably looked out of place in such a humble establishment, but the ultimate purpose of the action was the same. His job could be rather dirty at times, but his clothes were fairly nice and he didn't like messing them up unnecessarily. It was just an unnecessary waste of funds.

"Morning, Mrs. Walker. I'll take... buttermilk pancakes and bacon with coffee. Black." Some might consider it a bog standard meal, but Harry saw that there was a reason it remained a staple in diners, and in American cuisine in general. It was a damn tasty breakfast. And simple dishes had a way of showing the cook had a solid grasp on the basics and that there were quality ingredients being utilized in the kitchen. Yeah, those cinnamon roll pancakes with cream cheese filling looked fancy, but there was just as good a chance that it was all covering up a crappy pancake.

"I know it's difficult having to wait, but I have to ask that you don't inquire too much about my investigation." Customers in any industry had a habit of being too nosy about things they didn't understand and then making knee jerk decisions in ignorance because there just wasn't time to fill in all the context required for an informed opinion on everything. So part of the reason for his answer was keeping the Walker's relatively calm. Another aspect was that was that what answers he did have were so out there as to be unreasonable and get him fired immediately. A magical shadow man in the forest stole your daughter? No. It was better to not bring that up. He would just need to find Riley and then never mention it to anyone ever again.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Cyne

Location: Tower 3F
Interacting with:FC

Just as they were clearing out the enemies, a fresh new batch appeared for them to kill. Whilst it was extremely frustrating, she was also high on a hormonal cocktail that welcomed the challenge. Yes, more things to kill, nothing can stand in my way right now. The bit of her that was still rational knew this wasn't the case, but she liked nothing about this situation and the only way to improve it at this point would have to involve plenty more bloodshed. If you were in an extended fight for your life, there were worse things to experience during it than a rush that brought the sensation of being into hyper focus.

And then Sana got grabbed by the zombie. Her first instinct was to go after the grey abomination herself, but there were a few immediate problems that managed to stop her from following through this line of thinking. First was that as far as combat went, she didn't have the finesse to try attacking that thing without endangering Sana. She almost certainly had the power necessary to get her out, but given the shape the bard was in, she didn't want to chance it. Second was that Keystone had gotten there first, and her being there as well would probably start to make things difficult to maneuver around properly.

More importantly, she could smell another enemy, one that was right behind them and too close to Satilla than she'd like. The scent was familiar and when the bear turned around, it found itself unsurprised to find a big, demonic crocodile. That wasn't going to fly. Getting on all fours, the bear rushed at the reptile. The first image that flashed through Cyne's mind was to attack as she had been before with another claw attack; however, that mental simulation quickly ended with the thing tearing the offending limb off. Having just been a crocodile a few days prior, she was well aware of the form's strengths and weaknesses.

Rather than present an easy target for biting, she'd give it something far more difficult to get ahold of: the bear's entire body. She threw her significant bulk into the fiendish crocodile with enough force to smash it against the wall. The impact certainly seemed like enough to at least crack a bone or two, but not nearly enough to bring the thing down. However, it had a target that wasn't a delicate scholar, which would be enough for the moment.

🦄 The Paradoxical Emendation - Merged With T.S.

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Giosue Zino

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Location: Road leading to the Abandoned House->The Main House
Skills: N/A

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Gio's first instinct was to immediately object to Eve and Gil's conversation about the Paradoxes. While what little he had seen of this batch of new recruits was mostly unimpressive, there was no doubt in his mind that each of them would be more than capable into growing into someone of great worth if they put in the time and work (that was always the hard part, wasn't it). Maybe he was just more idealistic than the dice when it came to humanity and the potential of the individual than the rest, but to doubt their ability to help when they'd all been there for a few hours at most was highly uncharitable at best.

But he didn't say any of this. Now was not the time or the place to have an argument about ideals. Especially not literally over the dead body of another Paradox. He wasn't sure what exactly that would constitute, but at the very least it would be some kind of highly disrespectful. If the topic came up later he would be sure to protest in full.

When they finally arrived at the Main House Gio elected to stay back and let Gil take Peter's body to his room alone. Let the man pay his respects or whatever he wanted to do in privacy. For the time being he would content himself with keeping his mind busy while Eve and Andromeda were preparing for the burial proper. Gio considered whether they should have all the Paradoxes present for the ritual, but almost immediately decided against it. Having such an immediate reminder of the risk of their mission would likely only serve to unsettle them further, and the last thing they needed was for somebody to get bummed out and accidentally set Peter's body and half the estate on fire due to a power newly manifesting. It didn't really matter that they had a weather controller and that it would be good as new in the morning, at the moment, each of them were an active explosive, and you kept those away from potential triggers.

🦄 Darker Than Black - Merged With T.S.

Mali Anson

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Location: Queensguard
Skills:N/A

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Well, it looked like she was starting to get somewhere here. In her head, she was starting to piece together exactly what kind of persona she'd need to continue this conversation productively. The difficult part was knowing how strongly she'd put the facade forward. Not enough and he'd probably figure it out or lose interest; to much and he'd definitely know that she was faking the whole thing.

"Agreed." With this single word, Mali shifted her weight to her left leg and rest he casted hand onto her hip, letting her right hand rest upon the countertop. She felt a bit bad for the hapless bartender; it was quite busy, he had to make a drink he had already created and he wasn't being treated very well. But she was also a bit irritated about having to wait for her drink in the first place, she couldn't show anything that Wentworth could interpret as weakness lest she lose what bit of favor she seemed to be currying from him, and to top it all off, the darker aspect of her personality twittered into her ear that the guy was probably making more tonight than she made in months. He could afford to be kicked around a bit.

"Seems like Queensguard didn't downgrade in security alone," she quipped to Wentworth when she spotted his own impatience at the speed of service provided by the bar. Sorry bartender, that probably made your night shittier than it had to be, but she had a character to play right now.

"So how are you planning on striking back at MSS tonight?" She considered immediately offering to assist him in anything he had planned to undercut his competition but decided against it. Firstly, that would likely be laying it on too thick. She just met the guy, and aside from a supposed shared hatred for MSS and/or Alicia, there would be not enough established in this interaction for it to appear suitably beneficial on her end for such an enthusiastic approach. Secondly, while it potentially could earn her personally an ally in Wentworth if she did go through with this, she was relatively ignorant of the larger "playing board," so doing this could potentially fuck up things that wouldn't have anyways. Third, she didn't want to get overly involved in something tangential to her real purpose here: acting as a cover for Zoie. Speaking of which, she hoped that was going over well, wherever they were.

Darke Magyk - Concluded

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Atkin Bowman

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Location: Wizard Tower

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He'd been around the tower for a bit, but he still wasn't used to people just suddenly showing up out of nowhere. When Rowland and Jarvis Appeared he recoiled back and almost messed up his hold on the furry little bugger in his arm. He recognized Jarvis nearly immediately, but Rowland was a complete mystery to him. He figured the old man was a wizard of some sort, perhaps an old friend of the Ordinary Wizard beside him. A street rat like him wouldn't have taken much note of the elderly man even if he had met him during his tenure as ExtraOrdinary Wizard.

"Dunno," he replied to Jarvis' inquiry. "I got roped into dealing with the mess it was making back at Larry's Dead Languages. Ain't had a clue what to do with it once I wrangled it like this so I figured I might as well take it back to the Stranger Chamber. Also pretty sure it was stealing some of the dress robes 'round town. Shot a great stream of them at me back at the store." As Atkin recounted his little run-in with the creature, he noticed the spark of recognition in the old man's eye.

The old man first complimenting the little furball was the first surprise. The second being that he actually turned out to be the former ExtraOrdinary wizard, which would make him his grandteacher. If such a thing existed. This bit of information, along with the warning indicated to Atkin that the greeting probably had some greater purpose, but he wasn't going to let the thing go any time soon. Not while he had no insurance that it wouldn't start causing another ruckus that he'd have to handle.

It was around this time that Arya showed up and he felt his heart rate increase by at least 5 bpm. At the same time, a small part of him quipped that at this rate, the entire body of wizards would be gathered in front of the tower and the extra security would be wholly unnecessary. He wanted to say about three different things then, but another visitor decided to show up to this impromptu meeting: this one a messenger rat.

"Sorry, hold on for a second," he interjected, turning to face the rodent messenger. "Speake, rattus rattus." He'd listen to the entire message, but be thoroughly unimpressed with it all. Did whoever sent this message think he was a toddler who couldn't think? Even his sense of curiosity could be quelled when something was an obvious trap. He'd learned enough about suspicion and skepticism on the streets to know any such proposed meeting from an anonymous source generally ended up with getting jumped and mugged. Not to mention it was Coronation Day and the Winter Solstice. No thank you, sir. He was a bit intrigued if there really was any such book or whether it was some half-baked ploy to kidnap him, but he was too busy with other things to pursue it any further.

"I'm not going to reply. You can be on your way," he told the rat before coming back to the conversation at hand. Now what was he going to try asking about first. What the blazing hell was a Grula-Grula? A Queste? What should he do with this thing anyways? Could you please let him through so he could get his clothes for the impending ceremony? But a lesson from his mother flashed to the front of his mind.

"Don't ya know it's rude not to introduce yourself to others?" WHAP.

"Oh Mr. Rowland, nice to meet you. I'm Atkin Bowman, the new ExtraOrdinary apprentice." As he spoke, Atkin offered his free hand to shake the elderly ex-ExtraOrdinary wizard's. He was far more polite than most anyone got from him, but maybe it was recalled fear that produced the greeting. "And uh, by the by, what's a Queste?" Of all the questions he had, he felt like that one was the one most likely to have the opportunity to be answered directly would pass the soonest. The way Arya spoke carried with it the kind of urgency that people who weren't going to explain concepts they were discussing used before twittering among themselves. The furball could wait until the other stuff was taken care of.

The Wolves of Red Lake (Completed)

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Harry Kingsfield

Location: B&B

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Harry lied half-dressed in the hotel bed, staring up at the ceiling. What time was it? It was some time in the day, way later than he'd normally be up. Anything more than that would require moving, and while he was fully capable of doing so, his body felt like 5 pound weights had been strategically placed under his skin all over, and while 5 lbs didn't seem like a lot, a bunch of them evenly distributed across the body certainly was.

The last thing he remembered was driving in from the reservation and it had gotten quite late by the time he had arrived. Something in the back of his head told him that his lack of a proper sleep schedule and abuse of caffeine had caught up to him. Everything felt awful. His mouth was dry and his tongue had taken a furry texture on its surface. His eyelids felt heavy and the orbs underneath ached. Furthermore, up and down he felt all sorts of kinks and aches that he swore weren't there when he'd passed out.

After laying in a stew of unpleasantry for what felt like hours, but was really a few minutes, Harry managed to gather the willpower to get up out of the bed and get on with his day. Still in his half dressed state, he walked over to his notebook and flipped through it. He'd felt as if he'd exhausted all he could from the reservation over the past five days, at least with the limited amount of information he had available to him at the time. If he had more, perhaps he'd be able to get more than one person to act helpfully, but as of now, that was a dead end. He still had a couple of other locations to check out, so one of those would be his target.

The so-called Johnson House might still be occupied, so that other house seemed like the next best place to check. With his course of action decided, Harry got properly dressed for the day to come and headed to the front of the building. There was a busy day ahead of him, but he wasn't going to leave immediately. His stomach was grumbling and it said it wanted breakfast, and who was he to tell it no. As he mentally prepared himself to eat, a horrifying though occurred to him. Were they still selling breakfast? Did he oversleep through the best meal of the day? Hopefully not, but that was to be seen when he got to the dining room.

🦄 The Paradoxical Emendation - Merged With T.S.

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Giosue Zino

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Location: Road leading to the Abandoned House
Skills: N/A

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A few more words, and it seemed that Emendators and Paradox alike lost the taste for words. Although he tried to continue acting as he usually would, he couldn't blame them. Gio could shake these kinds of things off externally, but that he was something of an outlier in that regard, and he could tell that anymore idle conversation would be more likely to annoy than lighten the mood. So everything grew quiet, other than the soft breathing of those walking towards what was to become Peter's resting place, the sound of footsteps along the road and the rustling of cloth.

Or at least, those were the only sounds before off in the distance there was the squealing of a wild pig. How did one of those get on the estate? He was fairly sure that they weren't common to the area, nor did he recall them turning up previously. Maybe this was the doing of a Paradox. Unbidden, an image sprang to mind of a Paradox whose power was to summon some nearby wild animal that would be sympathetically disposed to its caller. Or perhaps one of them was just really good at pig calling. The one of darker complexion certainly had the dialect of one who would possess such a skill. It didn't matter ultimately, as long as the porcine visitor didn't try to attack anyone while it was around.

"You wouldn't happen to know of a method to lure it off of the campgrounds, would you Gilbert?" However, just because it didn't matter didn't mean he liked the idea of some dirty, wild beast roaming around the grounds. Although he was no stranger to outdoor living, most of Gio's consciousness had been spent in more civilized areas, where the only animals he really needed to handle were of the domesticated variety. However, if any of them were likely to have some knowledge of wild animal behavior he figured it would have either been Drem or Gil. Drem for just being the kind of guy to know an off the wall skill like that, and Gil due to being the oldest, most far traveled and experienced of the lot.

🦄 Darker Than Black - Merged With T.S.

Mali Anson

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Location: Diamond District
Skills:N/A

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Well step one accomplished. She had gotten him to engage with her in a way that wasn't completely offputting and made her want to punch his face in. Punching people in the face would probably (but hopefully not) come later. And she only had one hand available for that now. She had to hold herself back, lest she end up with two broken hands and an even longer waiting time before she could get back to being able to weight train. Also not effectively being able to use her hands in every day life. That would also being really annoying to have to deal with for 10-12 weeks.

The downside is that she'd now gotten herself involved in a conversation where she didn't really know what she was talking about and had to make due. That particular downside was a problem she had expected to face coming in, so it wasn't really all that surprising that it came up in the conversation at hand. Perhaps she didn't need to know a lot, though. She had a feeling if she could get him talking, that her input into the conversational could be kept to a minimum.

"I'm not a fan of them, no." Truth, but she didn't exactly dislike the company either (as it goes for most companies one was unfamiliar with, large or small), but the implication of the words indicated her being more antagonistic towards them than she actually was. "How did they snatch it away from you? It was the fault of that Gonzalez woman, right?" An unexpected place for her research on the inhabitants of Boston Heights (living and deceased) to pay off, but having at least a couple names of the MSS Top Brass would be enough to give her the aura of being more familiar with the topic than she really was. In the back of her head, her brain scrambled to piece together a compelling back story for how she would have had a run-in with Alicia other than merely passing by her occasionally on her way up to her apartment. Better safe than sorry after all.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Cyne

Location: Tower 3F
Interacting with:CMC

A rational mind's next move might say something along the lines that her next course of action should be to focus her considerable physical bulk on taking out as many foes as possible so the rest of the group could focus their efforts on more challenging foes that couldn't be dealt with so easily. The horomonal raging bear brain said to Smash Puny Bug, Cyne the strongest there is. The veracity of the bear brain's assertions were questionable, but seemed to be supported from the battles that'd occurred in the tower so far. However; both minds would agree that that big centipede on the ceiling would be the next to go.

Taking a good swing, with a single blow the invertebrate was slain. Unlike most of the other things that had died messily due to her bear claws, this was relatively clean. Instead of being rent until its innards looked more like ground beef than organs, the blunt force of the swipe was great enough that its body broke almost cleanly into two separate pieces, with the part not fortunate enough to be pinned to the ceiling soaring across the room before it slid to a stop somewhere in front of the troglodyte zombie. The centipede's legs squirmed a bit before it realized it was dead and froze up. The rational mind considered that maybe the bear was right about being the strongest.