ERode

After Era Mythos

//AE 53, Sol 13
//After Hours

---

_@PapiTan
Neo-Astraea at night was, for those Talents with heightened senses, perhaps worse than it was during day. Regulations by the Ministries meant that the majority of businesses shut down before 5PM, after all, leaving only entertainment and service facilities open and occupied still. From low-stakes gambling to simulated horse racing, from gorging at buffets or clanking mugs of frothing beer, the six hours of leisure that every working adult had to themselves was spent as if in celebration of the very prosperity that the city promised all its residents. Neon lights chased away the gloom of the evening, while even now, Talents clashed over the cityline, a mythic theater playing out overhead.

Tonight, three Districts were restricted from interference from other Agencies, due to bookings by various events. In the meanwhile, the Battle Tower once again featured sub-300,000 Fame Talents challenging the legends enshrined within, seeking to 'awaken' the latent powers dwelling within through suffering and hardship. The daytime concerts that a Talent like Kirara showed up for were dwarfed by the sold-out lives for Cabaddu the Carnivorous, who mixed horridly gluttonous displays of cooking with slasher metal. And, of course, all that noise, all that fervor, were simply appetizers for the midnight release of Scheifele the Coruscant Fatality's latest arthouse film: "Breakwaters Upon the Pentacle", where the famously reclusive and masked Talent (whom nevertheless peaked at 2,639,337 Fame) was rumored to finally do a face reveal!

And Amaris, her senses stretched taut by the worship of her followers, could feel that thrumming of the city, celebrity consuming heroism, greed and parasocial joys causing so many to turn a blind eye to smaller faults, crimes on an individual scale. Corporations, who manipulated belief just as freely as Agencies did, and the personal losses that would occur due to that.

It had been nothing if not fortunate that Elpis kept her mouth shut. She had failed to move the naive fool, but things turned out in such a way that the GAG representative was likely to not make any immediate moves. That young man came away with just a concussion and a cut to the head; likely, they would send an agent incognito to simply...redirect his memories of the accident in a fashion where it was only himself who was at fault. He'd be out a car and there'd be a mark on his driving record, but as far as such things go, it could be worse.

There were many times where things turned out for the worse.

Sparks spread, fell, burnt out. She was a comet too, flying, disintegrating.

Her personal device buzzed, a message from the idiot who somehow turned out to be her only friend.

lol so im in the hospital right now. get me my gibblewhizzler? sneak a couple beers in too pls.

_@Digmata
"Good evening, Miss Lunetta."

Phoebe didn't have to wait long for Pandora, otherwise known as Pearl Blanchflower, to arrive at the humble diner. Dressed in a dark blue tracksuit and with her black hair tied up in a ponytail, it was clear that the girl had been spending after hours at the gym again, even if she had at least done the courtesy of getting a quick shower before joining her fellow Aspera Agency Talent for dinner. A smudge of blue facepaint laid on the side of her neck, standing out against her pale complexion, but perhaps it wasn't facepaint at all, but simply a physical 'alteration' that was made permanent as Pearl and Pandora became closer and closer to being a merged identity.

While Magical Girls had the ability to Transform, the same couldn't be said for Fallen Magical Girls, after all. They had thrown away their civilian lives at the height of despair or wrath, abandoning their humanity for greater power...or so the lore went, at least.

Sitting in a prim and proper fashion with her back straight and her hands folded upon her lap, Pearl's sheltered upbringing was still clearly at display here. "Well, I am here. What's been troubling you?"

Shoujo⁴: Hatsukoi Reunion

Kinda lost track of this RP myself, but hey, if Lemons posts, I'll post.

We'll just turn this into a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things RP if it comes down to it. ;3

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Damn, gave me hope for a split second. smh

After Era Mythos

No worries, mate. Looks like this RP'll be a slower-paced one, so I don't mind dragging it along even if only two people end up posting consistently.

After Era Mythos

Don’t forget Od doing his Ghostblade impression.

After Era Mythos

Amaris about to have a whole weeklong rager with the girls.

After Era Mythos

You can decide that for yourself. It could be another day to collaborate with Amaris, but if she wants to bail, management would respect her wishes.

After Era Mythos

Aaaand thanks for the wait. It's a bit short cause I just wanted to power through it, but the day's activities are done.

This is now moved to the evening, allowing for either some reflections and thoughts on the day, conversations with management or friends, or perhaps just continued nightime heroics, if your character is NEVER off the clock.

If anyone wants a bit of a starting scenario, give me a heads up and I can provide.

After Era Mythos

//AE 53, Sol 13
//Day 1 of the Play/Tech Expo

---

_{@PapiTan@Digmata}
There was nothing else to be said. It was the space of a few meters, perhaps, but in that moment, in that frothing, seething moment, Elpis could feel it.

A chasm. A chasm unfathomable, one that could not be circumnavigated no matter how grand one's wings were. An alien gale whipped through sheer cliff faces, while beneath bubbled black waters whose toxicity caused birds themselves to plummet to their doom. Such was the hatred, the spite, the obsessive rage lying beneath the surface of the Moon Arrow, that all thoughts, all mirth, all childish petulance was silenced by the shadow within Amaris. There was no coming back from that. No coming back from this.

And perhaps, there never was any chance to begin with, that they could have been any friendlier than what the executives demanded. Not with this innate disgust would colour every interaction, past, present, and future.

The sirens caught up by then, the police having slowed their chase once Talents involved themselves. There was no need for Neo-Astraea's law enforcement agencies to be involved in anything more than the cleanup and aftermath. Two approached Elpis, still stunned by what she had peaked within the dark side of the moon, and statements were given, evidence gathered, the scene cordoned off. Within another fifteen minutes, traffic started flowing through this artery of District Mu. Within the hour, there were more exciting incidents for media drones to track.

They all left, leaving the Maiden of Hope alone, lost in the thought that she did something wrong.

_{@Taka@Psyker Landshark@Yu Narukami}
A hundred cameras were recording, and countless more were watching all across Neo-Astraea. Re:Arcade? The next advancement in VR gaming technology? Now THAT was something worth getting excited about in Play/Tech! There was not a single person under the age of 30 that hadn't fostered dreams of becoming a Talent, of becoming a superhuman worshipped by the masses, and if there was a simple device that could safely let one experience all that?

Well, of course people would get excited!

Even as the air seemed to be a couple degrees colder than it ought to be, the fervor of the crowd ramped up. News reporters were pushing forwards now, demanding answers to their questions about this new invention, the specifics behind the pseudo-scientific principles that it ran on. Fans online were already starting up their own little wars, especially with Zephyr's own gauntlet thrown down to challenge not just Ladyice, but also Armada himself, the KING of gaming. Sure, he didn't show up nearly so often in realheroics, but who could deny his skill in virtual environments, where he could literally supersede the code? It was the sort of overconfident brashness that people loved.

Both positive and negatively.

Which way it all fell, in the end, depended entirely on the three Talents performances in Re:Arcade tomorrow.

...

Anyone with a brain, of course, would understand then, that the victor would be decide before this demonstration of a fight began.

---

//News Round Up

Elpis

"Huh, didn't know she was tough like that."

"Aw, she reminds me of my daughter. As a matter of fact, I'm going to adopt her!"

"Did no one at Aspera teach her how to handle traffic incidents? That was an entirely reckless way to stop that car!"

Amaris

"Wasn't there supposed to be that collab stream with Elpis today?"

"Shot through the heart <3"

"What a bitch. Didn't even come back for Elpis afterwards. Typical het-Talent, too busy giving self-insert options."

LadyIce

"UOHHHHHHHHHH!"

"BROTHERS! LET US UNITE! Crush those bastard Zeph-Heads! I don't want to see a single ONE of them on stream tomorrow!"

"...hey, wait, how do I redeem that whole 'spend a week with her thing'? I was the only one to buy that thing, I think..."

Armada

"Prince Armada is radiant as always uwu"

"Ugh, why is he spending any of his attention at all to those skanks and bitches?"

"Anyone know anything at all about Re:Arcade? I can't even find like, a price tag for it."

Zephyr

"Sorry guys, we'll be locking down the discussion channels until afterwards. But don't worry, the Skybreaker is going to absolutely ANNIHILATE these frauds."

>several memes and 'highlights' of all the times Zephyr has fumbled in public, with clown music as the soundtrack

Kirara

"Hey, take that shit down guy. Camrips are NOT ok. If you were a true fan, you'd want other fans to support our Light properly."

"Anyone find the address of those scalpers yet? Think I got them pinned down to RD Chi."

>a 50 minute long reaction video to a three minute long music video, where the opera singer simply nods his head, replays the song, and eats some spaghetti.

Astraeus

There is but a single post tagging Astraea. In it features a Hero and a Villain. The Hero directs the Villain to fight him somewhere more empty, before the two of them transport to Astraea's empty 'Daily Posts' page.

Return of a Failed Generation

He walked out, and just like that, it felt as if the world opened up to him.

The sky was a pale yellow still, light itself still too mellow to sparkle against the gaps in the canopy. Almost without thinking, Ferrucio broke off from the beaten track, hopping over a ditch into thicker vegetation, before plunging headlong into the brush. These were Kaides estate lands, protected forests for the pleasure of the noble-blooded to hunt and fish as they please, but he couldn't actually recall if he had ever strode through such lands before. His heart thrummed, the anxiety of unbecoming slipping away as he continued to scramble through forest trails. Birds took flight in the distance, a chorus of chirps warning their winged kin of the bumbling fool trampling over bushes and roots. Critters scrambled up trunks and observed with curiousity and distrust, at this cloaked figure that ran without purpose, without even a desire to conserve energy.

His basket banged against his ribs as the bastard child continued to run without purpose, without direction. His lungs heaved harder than it did yesterday, and yet each breath drawn felt so full, the world brimming with a beauty that wiped away all past thoughts. It was a small thing, such a small inconsequential thing, just being able to go somewhere without fearing what was behind him, without worrying about what was before him. And yet that alone had been denied of him his whole life.

Strange, that the best thing in his life was dying.

The incline grew steeper and he scrambled on all fours, ascending the hill that he had wanted to find. Dirt clumped beneath his nails, a sharp sneeze accompanying the pollen from kicked up flowers. The earth was cool against his hot palms and he let his cloak fling off his shoulders, lost in a patch of grass behind him. Already, Ferrucio was imagining the view once he crested the hill, something that would take his breath away. Perhaps a view of Collegem Yllustre, bathed in daybreak. Perhaps just a clear view of an expanse of woodlands, a verdant bliss untouched by flame and devil-magic. Soil smeared against his face as he pushed his hair out of his eyes, the end of the hill in sight!

And when he stood there, at the top of the hill, surrounded still by trees that cut off his view of his surroundings, Ferrucio looked upon his foolhardiness and the futility of his actions, and managed to laugh regardless.

---

The guards found him there, in his nightclothes, sitting upon a hill with the crumbs of a savagely devoured meal around him. Perhaps they thought him mad.

His 'father' certainly thought him mad. Whether childish whimsy or adolescence rebellion, there was no room for either when their connection with one of the Patriarch's most promising branches were at risk. He had to sharpen up, had to remember all that he owed the House, mongrel that he was! The rant would have continued for much longer, would have likely incorporated some physical discipline, if not for the fact that Ferrucio was already slated to be running behind schedule.

The carriage awaited, as did the Collegem, and there was simply no time to get the youth into a fully-presentable state after his impromptu run through the woods. The servants scrubbed his face clean, got a pair of black gloves for his hands, and followed up with an outfit of browns and greens.

Then was the ride, a trip spent with his eyes wide open, absorbing the world behind the windows.

Then was the orientation, eyes wandering still, matching his 'present' with his 'past', seeing faces that he had thought he'd never see again, faces unmarked by the colossal loss during those years of a losing war. Perhaps a part of him despised them even now, despite what they would become in the future. But what he felt in the morning persisted still, a pleasant warmth thrumming within his person as he kept his head up, drawing in his surroundings with fresh eyes, a new perspective. This Collegem, that Estate, those lands, were never a home for him, a place that allowed him to belong...yet they were still a part of him, even now. The years spent here, how much could they have changed if he had kept his head up?

Presumably, it could change a lot, considering the sheer number of upsets that were occurring back-to-back-to-back. Even to someone like himself, it was clear that something was different. He had his memories of how people were in the past, and how they were just yesterday, and when matched together, it was clear as daylight which one was which. Back before her stagnation and the string of failures that haunted her, there was no way that Sherry could have lost so handily against Ophelia, and yet, here they were, positions swapped in an instant. Vincent, Lucas, Rodin, Isana, they all displayed something so alien to their childhood selves that there was no looking away from it.

This was a shared paradise. This had to be.

He would confirm it.

As murmurs of the 'rising of the failed generation' continued to buzz, as others of the Commoner Class wondered if they too ought to shoot their shot in these challenges that were becoming far less a noble affair and far more a desperate one, Ferrucio pushed through the throng of students to reach Rodin, all for the purpose of asking a single question.

"Did you fight the Demon Lord yesterday?"