FujiwaraPhoenix

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

Ren threw his arms up in the air as the younger girl pointed her weapon at his face, a somewhat worried expression on his face as his glance flitted between her and the wooden sword.

"Well, I mean... If you saw something weird poking out from behind a wall and nobody else saw it, you'd want to check it out to make sure you weren't going crazy, right? Besides, you really think this--" he said, motioning to the sky as he continued. "--is normal? Seriously, what kind of New Year's Eve...?"

As he was about to start complaining to himself, though, the spontaneous appearance of a few other people (who were also presumably dropped in from the middle of the festival) caused him to hold his tongue and turn to address them. While one was a pretty apparent drunkard (which probably meant there wouldn't be much use in trying to talk to them), the other seemed to be a rational human being asking questions that weren't obvious to the point of rhetoric. That was something he could get behind.

"Ah... Well, I saw a weird skeletal arm... Thing... Poking out from behind the shrine. Went over to check, found nothing; turned around, felt like half a dozen things were grabbing me, and then darkness. That's about as succinct an explanation I can give from my end," he said, getting off of his seat on the railing and slowly lowering the girl's bokken with his right arm. "Also, please don't point that at me. There's only so much my mind can take before I start getting anxious."

The pseudo-sarcasm loaded in his voice was half-serious, and though the girl definitely seemed to be a few years his junior, she was armed and he was not. A bunch of bruises from being whacked by a wooden blade was not something he wanted at the moment.

"Well, regardless of what's going on, we're not getting anywhere without some exploration..." he began to say before noticing the ground starting to shake under the group--the pebbles that seemed to jump into the air every few seconds was an indication of that, if anything.

"...Huh? Okay, what's--"

Before he could finish that question, though, an unearthly roar came from the bottom of the steps to the shrine before a giant skeletal arm came crashing down right in their field of view. Another one soon followed, dragging a giant skeleton that seemed to be the size of a large house up towards the group.

Ren stared in shock for a few moments before the skeleton moved again, dragging its body further up the stairs.

"Oh, shit," he swore before taking a few steps back up, moving closer to the shrine. "Nope. I'm running. Not dealing with that. No way."

With a few more steps back as the monster let out another scream, Ren took a look around before noticing that a few smaller skeletons were beginning to claw their way out of the darkness under the thing's ribcage.

"Er... I vote... We run. NOW."

With that last statement, Ren turned around and began to run, passing by another girl and a... Weird headless person of some sort okay it was probably long past time to freak out by now but there were bigger problems at hand. No way that sort of thing would go down to anything less than a few RPG blasts to the head. Or some sort of magical sword from a game bisecting it.

What the heck was up with today?!

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

@VitaVitaAR: Accepted. iirc you're introducing her later anyhow, so that's fine by me.

@blumenk: While there's nothing wrong with the character itself, uh... I feel like we'd have too many characters from outside of Japan with the addition of yours. Also a lot of non-humans, but that aside, having nearly half the cast from outside of Japan in an RP in Japan seems... I dunno, strange?

It may seem like flimsy reasoning, but I think that the cast should make sense within context of the setting, and having too many outsiders doesn't make sense in context. Maybe if this was like, America or something, that'd fly, but... Not here. Sorry.

Fate/ Transcendent Paradigm (A Fate/GO Based RP)

@GreenGoat: Yes. The Caster that was shot was a fake and the trigger for the gargantuan golem now forming over the horizon. Once it was shot, the ground under the fake rose up and became the basis for what's now slowly moving towards the city.

Fate/ Transcendent Paradigm (A Fate/GO Based RP)

Yeah, the second the post came I basically dropped everything and got to writing. Helps that I'm on break.

Fate/ Transcendent Paradigm (A Fate/GO Based RP)

Scandinavia

The wolves snarled as their opponents charged forth, the pack quickly splitting up to flank the group just as a few other members of the group had predicted. Five of them continued rushing forward as before, meeting Edeltaud and Nevsky as they rushed in from the opposing side. One of the wolves was his dead in the center of its forehead by the spear thrown by Victoria, and though it pierced through its head and nailed the beast to the ground, it seemed to still be alive. The blood that was pooling under the creature's wound seemed to be sizzling as it touched the ground, burning it as black as the night around them. The other wolves seemed to not notice their ally's troubles as they headed forward; while three of the wolves were already attempting to isolate Nevsky and his horse from the group, the last remaining wolf within the set had taken the blow from Edeltaud to the face, and blood was now visibly dripping from its nose and mouth. Such a blow was not without cost, though, as the creature quickly retaliated and bit down on the offending limb, growling as it pulled its head back in an attempt to tear the limb off.

The three wolves around Nevsky seemed to be having much more trouble, though; within the first few seconds of combat, one of the beasts already had a large gash running down across its eyes, blinding it and forcing it to retreat; another, in an attempt to attack from behind, took a pair of hooves to the face before being skewered by Sinfjotli's weapon. The third, however, seemed to be in far better shape, ducking and dodging past the swings of the sword aimed at itself. The stalemate lasted for a few more seconds before the wolf back up and barked to its semi-blinded companion before the two rushed headfirst at the Rider and his mount simultaneously, the insanity almost palpable within their bestial eyes.

At the same time, the remaining wolves had split into two groups, eight on the left and seven on the other. The suppressive fire from Margerita was enough to hold off the wolves on the left flank from advancing, causing the tornado cast by Tamamo to launch them all high into the sky; while they fumbled about in a valiant (but ultimately fruitless) attempt to escape, the right flank proceeded to bound over to attack through. In an instant, Siegfried dashed over and drew his sword to block their advance. Half the wolves immediately moved to surround him, while the other half found themselves blasted in the face by Walgrave's magic and thrown backwards into the tornado. As the wolves began to leap at Siegfried, the Saber frowned and began to slowly dodge and parry every single blow they threw out, careful to not end up like the familiar being used like a chewtoy in the center.

Seyrun's spell, sadly enough, would prove near-fruitless; the magic traced itself between each wolf, but extended absolutely nowhere else.

There was exception to that internal chain, though; a single wolf who was previously caught up within the cyclone, but had since managed to somehow free itself of the magic and was now slowly pacing around the magic, trying to figure out a way to free its packmates.

@VitaVitaAR@Lonewolf685@GreenGoat@Nanashi Ninanai@ADamnFiddle@KoL@Beloss

---

Babylonia

Kumozaki Keisuke

Keisuke paused for a moment as he saw Atalanta drawing back her bow, even all the way down from his current position on the ground. Most of the nearby threats had been dealt with, at the very least, so the fact that he could even see such a spectacle meant more than it should have. The arrow seemed to glow with an almost-otherworldly light as it flow overhead, but after a few seconds the golems amongst the crowd seemed to stop moving and melt into the ground.

"...Did it work?" he asked, blade still at the ready as he looked over the horizon to where the arrow was headed.

...

At the other end of the battlefield, Jekyll would be able to see that the arrow had definitely made its mark; the Caster's head was now skewered by the arrow, and he was now standing there motionless. The golems guarding him did not move, but after a few moments the sound of ominous laughter seemed to echo through the area.

"Hahaha! So they managed to find me, then?! What was it? An Assassin? Scrying magic? Familiars?" it seemed to ask mockingly before the 'Caster' that had been shot rose into the air atop a clay pillar, its form slowly melding into the ground beneath itself. "Well, regardless, it seems as if that pharaoh was correct! Well, in this case, only more more portion of this contract remains before I can experiment to my heart's content! Come, defenders of Babylon, for I know at least one of you can hear me! To play the part of the villain means nothing compared to what I may gain--best of luck to you all!"

Immediately after the Caster's monologue was complete, the beasts in the area seemed to retreat, almost as if in sync, and the figure seemed to disappear into the earth...

Sakata Kintoki

Kintoki lowered the axe in his hand as the the army seemed to pull back, only to notice a rather gargantuan humanoid figure slowly taking form over the horizon. A bit of a nervous smile crept onto his face as he turned to Enkidu, who was also staring at the thing now slowly gaining size as more and more time passed.

"Hey, uh... So, what the heck's that supposed to be?" he asked, glancing back and forth between the two as Enkidu frowned sternly towards the construct, which had quickly gained enough size to tower above the walls of Uruk.

"It's a golem like the ones you had just been destroying; I can feel it sapping the energy from the earth with every step. I'm moving ahead to stop it; follow me. We can't let it reach the city!" Enkidu cried out to the group as he leaped forward, Kintoki taking a moment to nod to his Master and give her a salute before following behind. Something like this... Was probably too dangerous to handle at close range, especially with a Master who specialized in that sort of thing.

The northern front, on the other hand, seemed to be in a bit of a stranger position. The Servant mounted atop the skeletal elephant let out a guttural roar that seemed to shake the battlefield before dismounting, still barely out of range of Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon. The Golden King clicked his tongue as he watched the army part before the enemy Servant...

And around Lancelot.

With the rest of the skeletal army continuing to advance towards the walls, Gilgamesh was forced to continue firing barrage after barrage away at the swarm, sparing only his sight as he watched the skeletons around the two Servants create an open space within which the two could (presumably) fight.

With another roar, the Servant pointed his right axe at the knight before adopting a battle stance.

"...Hmph. Does that mongrel wish to duel? I guess it would be fine for some spectacle; a fitting ring of death for two dogs to bite away at one another," Gilgamesh remarked, turning towards the Masters waiting around near himself. "I should think your choice of victor is obvious, so instead of asking that, I shall instead ask you this: will the King of Knights defeat that skeletal commander over there before that mongrel lies dead on the ground? If you are correct, I shall... Hm... Allow you and your group to explore the city without being watched. That is a decent reward, is it not?"

With a laugh, Gilgamesh continued to fire away at the crowd of skeletons, waiting for the duel to begin.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Lonewolf685@GreenGoat@ADamnFiddle@KoL@Beloss

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

@Kidd: Yeah, more or less.

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

I could tell from the infinite sake gourd.

But, uh... Actually tho let's avoid wanton property damage for the moment? :3c

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

@GreenGoat: Actually, they shouldn't be within the 'mirror world', so to speak. Everyone should be originating from this side, so.

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

@Cuccoruler: "Got in" as in "the seal is being broken and he was dragged in", more like.

So yes, they can. The seal shouldn't even be common knowledge, if at all.

And that one... Will be explained later.

Boundary's Edge -- An Urban Fantasy RP

New Year's Eve was always hectic in Japan, and Yuzoraku City was no exception to that. The liveliness of its people during the day couldn't compare to the insanity that was at night, though; with festival stalls lining the path to the Koumi Shrine (which had been erected who knew how long ago), Ren couldn't help but let out a sigh as he was bumped around like a pinball inside a machine.

"...Why am I even here right now?" he sighed to himself as he slowly moved through the crowd to get somewhere with notably less congestion. While he had been here to help man a stall, the abnormal amount of people (coupled with a lack of foresight by the owner) caused them to be done before 9. That was fine and all for him, given the yen that was now lying comfortably within his wallet, but because of how many more people were entering rather than leaving, the young man was, for all intents and purposes, stuck here for at least a few more hours.

Thank the heavens he had his phone charged before he came.

With music now attempting to drown out the chattering of the crowd in one ear, Ren slipped his way back into the crowd and began to walk towards the shrine itself. Though it wasn't the only shrine in the city, it was certainly the largest; this, in turn, made people tend to cluster here more often than anywhere else. But hey, a job was a job... And since he was already here, he may as well get his prayer out of the way.

The line for the shrine's donation box was longer than he would have liked, though, but as he stepped up to the donation box (after however long that took), something weird seemed to catch his eye--something that looked like a skeleton's arm stretching out behind the shrine. THe scene caused him to take a double take as he looked around for a moment to see if anyone else had noticed. He couldn't tell if anyone actually had, though, with the chaos of the crowd, but when he looked back to where the arm had been, there was now nothing.

Weird.

Shaking that thought out of his mind, Ren quickly finished praying and walked down the steps, only to notice the skeletal arm again.

...

"Okay, that's--I'm checking this out," he affirmed himself internally as he once again slipped out of the crowd to walk off to the side of the shrine. As he drew closer, though, the arm seemed to draw back behind the wall, which... Irked him, to say the least.

When he arrived, though, there wasn't a sign of anything like a skeleton--no arm, no bones, nothin

"Maybe I'm just tired. Yeah. That'd make sense," he sighed, shaking his head as he massaged his forehead with his right hand. Right as he turned around, though, the feeling of something firmly grasping his left shoulder took hold.

Then his right.

Then his waist.

Legs.

Before he had a chance to break free or even see what had taken hold of him, Ren was dragged backwards, his vision fading out as the sight of the foliage behind the shrine faded away past a distorted crimson tear in the air.

---

"Nngh... Ah, damn, my neck..." Ren groaned as he came to, slowly pushing himself off of his back and into a bit of a seated position as he massaged his shoulders and rolled his neck around a few times. "What the hell was that about?"

With his whole body feeling stiff and sore, the young man struggled for a moment to shake his body out before dragging himself up with the aid of a nearby metal ba-

"...Wait a second."

With a quick look around, Ren's eyes widened as he noticed that everything around him had changed. Instead of being near the back of the shrine as he had been, Ren was now standing in the middle of what was the steps up to the shrine, complete with the railing and everything.

Well, that's what he would have assumed, had the sky not been painted an eerie shade of red and there being absolutely no sign of any life nearby whatsoever.

"...Okay. This is just... Wait. No. Don't freak. Calm yourself. Calm down. Caaaaalm down."

With a few deep breaths, Ren walked off to the side and took a seat on the railing. Given how he could still feel things, the young man was assured that the current situation definitely wasn't a dream.

But... What was it, then?