HereComesTheSnow

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

As luck would have it, I’ve gotten the coof. Will post when I can.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

I’m playing host right now, but i was looking to get another post out after one or two more— should they not come, i might crank one out over the weekend

Secundi Lux

---

"There you go pouting again, mein reizender komponist~"

As ever the study in contrasts with Rivka, all dark, stormy, and moody (probably the rain and being in it), Selma seemed incapable of containing her vigor from the moment the words "draw fire" had left Liam's lips. The big girl's emerald hair was tossed to and fro in the thick, moist air, the moisture buildup seemingly weightless when faced with the energy carried in actions as simple as rolling her shoulders or bouncing upon the balls of her feet.

"You gotta look at the big picture, babe!" She continued jauntily, suddenly sinking down below even Chie's level as she shifted all her weight onto her right foot, hand propped upon the knee, as her long, long leg opposite bounced into a stretch of the hamstrings for one, two, three moments. "We're the distraction."

The spot of green atop the tawny leather and hide rose and fell as she mirrored the motion on her other side, heedless of how it might seem improper in front of the lads present— her mind was on much more important things.

"That means we get to take center stage— and I've never known you to hate havin' all eyes look your way~" she crooned cheekily, rising and pulling the white scarf free from her neck. Rising again to her full height, her arms blurred— to the view of the officers. Even at speed, however, the other girls' transformed eyes could quite comfortably track the biggest and admittedly slowest of the girls in "Team 5" (so lame.) as she very deliberately wrapped it 'round the Baeterran's simpering chin and neck.

A gauntleted fist slammed deep into the palm of its twin, a dull thud resounding through the floor and even a ways up the outpost building as sternly arcane metal met sternly arcane leather.

The Maiden of Mountains sported a familiar look on her face as her eyes met Crystal's. She was transformed. Alive. One with All the Earth, as All the Earth stood behind her and her peers. The snow carver was right— she did already know the answer.

"An' who does that much better than Kheper? We're old hands at getting trouble sent our way— We'll have to see if they can even keep up to begin with."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

found some

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Gerard Segremors

The ride back had been a quiet one, as it so often was, for Gerard— though upon their arrival the attending healers had broken into a bit of a sweat regarding his pallor. This redoubled, much to his and their mutually weary chagrin, when he responded with confusion regarding why he'd not at least allowed Martin to take a look over him— something to the tune of "Was he there? I never saw him."

He... could only reason a guess as to why: mainly being a little too involved in his own head, and own duties confirming the knights' kills. He must have blundered past his compatriot at some point while gutting it out, and not drawn enough attention to himself in doing so. No fault of the healer's, seeing as the knight's mind was a thousand leagues away by that point.

Very well~ I hope to see plenty more from you~

He'd gotten the urge to snap back at the lilting, cheshire tone, and in his tightly bundled haze of thoughts had begun to jumble out the half-formed concept of a steely-toned promise that he wasn't going anywhere... but no matter what happened through the rest of the night, the voice had been content to let the knight stew upon it in silence.

Not a word more in his head. Baffling... but, if nothing else, the "solitude" helped him focus on the important things like managing the canter and his stance upon it on the way back. A cold, stinging, and achey ride, but one he didn't slump out of his stirrups in— good enough. He had managed to escape serious, serious harm— no loss of limb nor break of any major bones. Once the medical and esoteric arts of healing had gotten their hands upon him, they'd seen to it that his wounds were closed, muscles treated with pungent balms, and his torso pockmarked by a manic scattering of bandages. That pull in his right elbow had manifested into a sling, even.

A loss of blood and the multitude of lacerations had also meant a day of harshly enforced bed rest, and so the knight was confined to his quarters for most of the direct aftermath of their excursion to the moon stone, only meeting any compatriots who had elected to drop by (mainly those that had been kind enough to chauffer meals from the mess to help him get his strength back) and spending the rest of his time bored through his skull.

Only today had he managed to get out into the fresh air of the halls proper, damning his idle hands as he walked and took in the morning sun as it warmed his drab black shirt. Truth be told, that was the worst part— he hardly minded the solitude and quiet, but the fact that he spent the entire time without doing something had made it as agreeable as pulling a rotted tooth.

He'd always favored the Training Grounds for this much, but with a sword arm out of commission...

He grimaced openly, the patch of gauze over the numbly painful line down his cheek wrinkling some as the corner of his mouth pulled into it.

That one's gonna scar. I know it.

He desperately wished to hone his form.

He half-turned. Further down the path that branched off to his right lay Candaeln's library, somewhere he'd never really found himself visiting in anything more than passing, or as a favor to a tied-up compatriot looking to grab a novel and seeing a free hand. Maybe further on, the kitchens? Well, not much reason to visit there...

But even he had to admit that probably wasn't the best idea.

Not yet.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

have a cold so bad we needed to deconfirm both the rona and the flu, so between that and a month of preparation for this current month of being really busy i’ve been pretty wiped out. checking in to say i’m alive, but im not sure when i’ll be able to post next.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

historical recreation of Sir Sagramore Gellért looking for the voices (colorized, 1992)

Secundi Lux

---

As the music wound down to its denouement, and the cordial pair's sweeping arcs too dwindled, Selma nodded along as her dance partner replied in earnest to her (by conifer standards) careful probing. Seemed that word of the specific difficulties her team had suffered in the long ride over to Palmyra hadn't quite gotten out... Good, honestly. That encounter following them like a stormcloud would weigh on everything they did after— the judgement of their actions, their progression as Ars Magi, their reputations— and even if it were in a positive light, extra expectations could be a burden all their own on the girls.

It would be best if it stayed this way, you know?

Best they all took only the lessons they needed from it, and nothing more.

Hyun cracked a grin.

“Personally I’d rather hear what Selma has to say about Selma than read about it in a report.”

She could only respond in kind, but while his was wry, the verdant titan's was all but leonine. Far removed from her affectations of princely bearing for Chie's sake, Hyun looked up at a girl who knew, down to her bones,

"I say they're not ready for me out there. And if the manifestation at the exams are anything to go by? They know it, too."

Their hands parted soon after, courtly bows exchanging before a much more easygoing farewell in the spoken word. She took the invitation to the cadets' table into the back of her head for now— every chance she might wind up over there to drop by and say hello should the night drag on enough, but at present, she had a Chie and a Crystal to scoop back up— and, hopefully, not a band to save from Rivka.

---

WHUMP-"Aaaaah..."

The well worn springs of the mattress strained heroically as an all-too familiar weight of one Miss Rosmarie collapsed upon it, a graceless flopping that only tower demolitions, sequoia deforestation, and wiped Ars Magi could replicate.

It wasn't as boring a night as she'd expected, in all fairness. Spending time in various duos and trios with her favorite four girls on the planet, as it turned out, couldn't manage to turn out that way, but cripes if it wasn't a long one. What was more, she might have snatched one or two hors d'oeurves too many off the revolving platters that the serving staff had so graciously carried (she hoped they got paid well enough, in retrospect) throughout the night, if the rock she felt in her stomach was any indication.

Tonight was gonna be one for a good, looooong snooze.

She stretched her limbs on the bed, back arching until she pulled a fairly satisfying pop out of somewhere between the shoulder blades. Mossy hair splayed in a wave all across the pillow, she let her head lull to the side to regard her partner in crime across the room, before letting her gaze turn up towards the ceiling.

"Say," she began, breaking their companionable silence almost in time with the sounds of running water through the walls between them and their next door neighbors. Fitting, because for all intents and purposes...

"Whaddya think the like... funniest thing you could do with your Elementum would be?"

After all, it was kind of a shower thought.

"Because, you know how we basically always are being watched by the staff? Like, I even saw some people at the ball keeping an eye on us— and they put us in teams, right? So I'm guessing they expect us all to synergize, have good teamwork, have powers that complement eachother, all that stuff—"

Clearly thinking aloud at about the same clip as the words came to her head in the first place, she made the herculean effort to prop herself up onto an elbow as she rolled on.

"So at some point, I'm gonna guess we need to come up with combo moves, too. And with Earth and Gravity... is it weird that I immediately just think of dropping a rock really hard on a Void?"

And it wasn't just themselves they'd be graded on ease of teamwork with, she reckoned...

“We’re supposed to be receiving individual dossiers for our next exercise. With most of you having unique powers, we have to understand what you’re capable of to do our jobs.”

The Officer cadets were there for a reason too.

She would be more than a little surprised if, whenever joint exercises began, they didn't meet a face that wasn't familiar to at least one of the girls.

To that point of Hyun's, maybe it was time to start considering how their tandems played out.

"...I dunno how seriously I could take splatting a void like what's in my head, is all. What's your take?"

Rivka never did get that crucible she wanted out of her...

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

Gerard Segremors

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin

Fleuri was tense. He could hear it, if only just, beneath the reassurances in his words. Gerard had heard the same tone out his own mouth many times— though he was having a little trouble divining why the man was still holding himself to caution. They had, for all practical purposes, beaten the mercenaries handily, hadn't they?

"That's good, sir." he let out, a shaky breath that was halfway laughing hitching the words a little beneath a lopsided smirk. "All the better to enjoy double pay, eh?"

His face then fell, as he noted the man's eyes affixing themselves to something beyond his back— in the direction of tight and raised voices both. No time for jokes— their duties were far from over.

Gerard, ever the faithful student of his betters, scanned the field as Fleuri had— looking for breath among the stricken bodies of gilded swine. Even if he couldn't quite read him, his esteem of the man told him that the Jodeau household's noble son did not rankle easily, nor without reason. Watching him march forward, towards the corpses, then to the congregation at the center, Gerard drew in a breath through his teeth, deep and slow. Talking was necessary, and he'd muscled through worse— but damn if moving his mouth hadn't made the scratch on his cheek—

My, does it hurt?

He blinked once, then twice. Well, yeah, it definitely did, but... was that somebody? It didn't sound like Dame Runa, as sparingly as he'd heard her voice, nor was it any of the Captain, Tyaethe, or Maritza—

His eyes darted to and fro, searching the erstwhile battleground for the source of the words, yet finding nothing. Nobody but him... at least nobody but him close enough to hear that clearly. ...What the hell? He didn't recognize the feminine tones. He didn't think he did. Did he? No, that's getting ahead of the point.

His self concept?

He... didn't remember his thoughts sounding so girlish.

"Hmph." He grunted, feeling himself begin to think in circles. He had better uses for the energy. "I'll live. Nothing some rest can't get me through."

Might as well reassure whomever the hell it was, and move on.

Of all the lies a man could tell, this came by leagues the most easily and naturally.

Hell, maybe that's what had Sir Fleuri all terse. I probably look pretty bad.

His brow furrowed, mouth drawing into a tight-lipped line, as he stalked forwards, opposite the sounds of continued standoff with the young scion of the disgraced house of Cal. He was no interrogator, and he'd already pushed his luck once in trading words with young ladies of the upper crust at the ball. The last thing the Knights needed was him cutting in with the wrong approach. He hardly trusted himself to speak gently.

Nah. He'd be better served with work that was silent until it needed not to be. Sword still in hand, his march arrived at one of the fallen Boars, scalded flesh and blood burnt black wafting up to his nose in an acrid stench. Runa's kill. That bastard sword of hers, cloaked in crackling blaze, had certainly done a number on mortal men— and yet.

The tip, a point of umbra-streaked silver in the blueing light of the full moon, sunk into still flesh. He looked the fallen man over. Young guy. No older than Gerard himself. Could well have been a man much like him, really...

Nothing interesting on him, though, Least of all movement. Dead for sure. He moved on a half-step to the next of the fallen. Especially with the magics and unrelenting force so manyt of his compatriots commanded, this much was a formality—

But, a glance down his gambeson revealed similar stains blossoming out onto the cotton, points of darkness that matched sting, burning Mistakes all along his frame.

He continued down the line with a chuff.

You never really knew.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Fantasy Knight RP

I appreciate the patience, everyone. I’m looking at posting this evening, if all goes well.