Hero

Of Blood and Magic

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Lilie held back her giggle, her free hand over her mouth as she continued to pull the count along. "Actually, I was watching the whole thing. I couldn't get to you, but it was like I was floating on the water. Kinda reminded me a little of whenever I meditate in the sea with Esi," She admitted. "I was a little worried at first, but honestly, I think I would've done everything that you did."

Well, she probably would've had a lot less dignity, but she meant what she said. It was nice to see him do something nice instead of scolding her--maybe he didn't think so badly of her after all. And he didn't even know she was watching, so it's not like he was faking it, either. She smiled to herself, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. If she had to be stuck with any vampire, she was happy that it was with him. At the very least she could say that the princess was succeeding in bringing them closer together.

"I could tell you were really worried about me. It was sweet to protect me like you did," She told him as she looked back at him, though she remembered that he probably couldn't see her. Focusing instead on the path ahead, she guided him carefully over a root. "And don't worry, there's not a challenge we can't get through together. We're basically unstoppable now." She grinned.

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Leading @Bert Macklin.

A Hero's Training!

🇳🇴🇹 🇲🇦🇳🇾 🇸🇹🇮🇱🇱 🇨🇱🇮🇳🇬 🇹🇴 🇹🇭🇪 🇦🇳🇨🇮🇪🇳🇹 🇼🇦🇾🇸
🇧🇺🇹 🇹🇭🇴🇸🇪 🇼🇭🇴 🇩🇴 🇨🇦🇳 🇦🇱🇼🇦🇾🇸 🇫🇮🇳🇩 🇦 🇫🇷🇮🇪🇳🇩

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_{🇼🇭🇴 🇰🇳🇴🇨🇰🇸 🇦🇹 🇹🇭🇪 🇬🇺🇦🇷🇩🇪🇩 🇬🇦🇹🇪‌?}

🇴🇳🇪 🇼🇭🇴 🇭🇦🇸 🇪🇦🇹🇪🇳 🇹🇭🇪 🇫🇷🇺🇮🇹 🇦🇳🇩 🇹🇦🇸🇹🇪🇩 🇮🇹🇸 🇲🇾🇸🇹🇪🇷🇮🇪🇸.

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Once you choose hope, anything is possible.

Of Blood and Magic

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Now that Max had pointed it out, Eris realized he hadn't even considered asking about how the other tests went. He really was slipping, that should have been one of the first things he should have asked. The thought had successfully grounded him out at the very least, snapping him out of his funk. Right, whining wasn't going to get him results, he needed to pull his head out of his ass and think properly.
That said, seeing that their experiences were so different did comfort him a little--he wasn't crazy, something was up. If the clones regardless of being could do magic, then some of his panic had been misplaced.

But Eris wasn't willing to dismiss it just yet, even if he was just going off a gut feeling. Not yet, anyway. The idea of him directing did get a chuckle out of him, and Eris turned around to face Max with his arms crossed. He was distracted by the kid's lack of armor for about two seconds, eyes flashing red as he eyed his neck, but he shoved that aside for now.

"At first he did say something about me--saying something about a pretty face, I can't remember--but that lasted all of two seconds. From the way he spoke about it, he wasn't doing it out of choice, he was being forced to, and specifically mentioned a human insisting that he 'insult, degrade, and demean you before threatening to scar your face permanently', that much I remember for sure," Eris said, a lot calmer as he spoke. "Once he got rid of the hooded mage, that was when everything got really weird."

What clone-Varis had said was certainly a clue, but it wasn't related to the test. Eris was willing to bet his life on that much. "It was magic. Or something like it, either way, it's..." How would he even describe it? And to Max's defense, Eris wasn't exactly an expert on magic. Looking down at his arms, he lifted his wrist to look at the mark. "This is the only reason I think there's more to it. I just don't know what. I've never seen this symbol before."

His finger traced the the moon's curve, his nail pressing into his skin. "That's why I'll be visiting the Count. I doubt I'll get anything out of him now, but I'll see if I can get some sort of hint or clue. It's a start, at least," Eris dropped his arms, giving Max a look. A lot was being said right now, and he needed to cover all his bases. He made a decision right then and there: the kid was going to have to start pulling his weight around here.

"It goes without saying, but none of this can leave the dorm," Eris stated. "Once I get the information I need, you're the one that's going to be looking into it."

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Getting to the bottom of this with @Scribe of Thoth.

Current Mood in One Gif

Of Blood and Magic

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"I'm not talking in riddles, I'm still trying to understand what happened," Eris couldn't help but snap in frustration. Obviously he wasn't making any sense, he didn't even completely get it. He had half a mind to tell the kid to fuck off, but he felt like he needed to tell someone or he was going to go insane. He needed some sort of proof that he wasn't crazy, but he still hesitated. What if he did tell Max and got dismissed? Then what?

Eris rubbed his temples as he squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the pointless motion would help steady him. Ugh, being stressed was the worst, was this how peasants lived? No wonder they were so miserable. Right, he needed to properly ground himself. All this was doing was making him appear weak-minded, and like hell was he going to dig himself deeper right now. He needed to gain the kid's trust and get him on his side, and as much as his actions were about to contradict that, he needed to reel Max in sooner than later.

Opening his eyes, Eris opened his mouth once before closing it, wondering where to start. The beginning was as good a place as any, he supposed. "I thought I was dealing with Varis, too since he spoke and acted just like him. But at one point he seemed to have forgotten his own name. Strange, but I didn't think much of it until he somehow used magic against a mage. She must have been puppeting him, or at least had been one of the few that was in charge of the test since he spoke poorly of her 'disrespecting' him and specifically referred to her as human. And then he began interrogating me as he tried to 'remember' who he was," The blonde spoke carefully, crossing his arms. "He spoke of things outside of our lifetime intimately--he was shocked when I mentioned the current Lord Marivaldi was Salazar and not Ralmevik. He stated he was a villager of sorts, but he lost me around there. At that point I actually thought the test had changed, or shifted into getting him to remember himself properly."

He paused for a moment, shaking his head as he remembered the next part. He wasn't about to go and admit certain parts of that conversation, that was for sure. For now, he would stick to what mattered. He was well aware nothing he said made any sort of sense, so he doubted the kid would notice, but until he spoke to Her Highness, he would keep the contents of it to himself. For now. "I reminded him of the night we met, and it seemed to have done the trick, but he seemed horrified," He continued. "It was like he was someone completely different, the way he spoke, the way he carried himself, his mannerisms...and realizing he was 'Varis' shook him to the core. At that point, however, he--" He nearly added in the exchange they had, but changed it at the last moment. --bit my wrist and then dropped the coin in my hand."

Ruffling his hands through his hair, he did feel another prick of frustration. Saying it out loud didn't seem to help him as he secretly hoped it would. "I checked myself when I came out, and that's when I saw the mark. It's the same place he bit me, he used magic to do this," Eris sounded a little hopeless as he spoke. "I didn't even know vampires could use magic, but unless it was a blood-drinking mage masquerading as a vampire, I know what I saw."

Slumping his shoulders, the blonde turned away from Max. "...if you don't believe me, fine, but that's what happened," He lowered his voice.

---

Getting to the point with @Scribe of Thoth.

Weird Spacing Above Table

@BrokenPromise Oh I fixed it earlier today, but thank you, now I know for the future since I left some spaces for organizational purposes (i.e. I'll leave this space so I know to edit in X character later) and clearly that is no bueno.

Weird Spacing Above Table

Like I mentioned in the post, the table fix is an upcoming update, not already active.

@LegendBegins

I was teasing, haha, sorry if I didn't make that clear.

@Roach I'll get it fixing that sooner than later, thank you!

A Hero's Training!

ARCANA	CHARACTER	PERSONA	PLAYER
	NAME	PERSONA NAME	PLAYER NAME
	Felix Volpe	Reynard	Ryteb Pymeroce
	Gloria Hathaway	Circe	Landaus Five-One
	Rose Hadley	Kore	Crimson Flame
	Fiddle Astor	The Mothman	Smike
	Liam Koehl	Virgil	CriticalHit
	Cara Lucero de la Barrera	Philomena	Hero
	Tate Hwang	Alexander the Great	Condor Talon
	Rei Sato	Themis	Bee
	Tyler Blackmore	Sun Tzu	The Jest
	Alina Sanford	Leir of Britain	BCTheEntity
	Beau MacGuaire	Antaeus	AdmrlStalfos19
	The Raven	N/A	NPC
	Alistair Parton	Horatius	Nimbus
	Thomas Robinson	The Black Death	Aurrorian
	Kirsty Ramaswamy	Gregor Samsa	Lugubrious
	NAME	PERSONA NAME	PLAYER NAME
	Jory Hesson	Rasputin	Riegal
	Laurence Newman	Desdemona	LetMeDoStuff
	Adonna Borromeo	Wendigo	Kal
	Leo Gremminger	Sol	Scribe of Thoth
	John Doe	Minos	Not Fungus
	Tryg Truman	Mist	Rethel34
	Kjell Granum	Elpis	Theyra

Weird Spacing Above Table

1. Tables are completely fixed™. Half a dozen other glitches are fixed. I've requested that fonts be enabled, but that's my stretch goal—people use weird unicode anyway, so we might as well unify it under a feature to prevent it from breaking on unsupported devices.

@LegendBegins

This is the table I've been working on, but I'm not sure if it's because I crammed a lot of cells into the table or maybe it's the sizing addition I made? Still weird that I have that giant gap at the start, I left a few spaces in the table for some slots that need to be filled but the space is there even when I take out the spaces in the code.

Edit: after a little testing, looks like the space increases with each row added.

Of Blood and Magic

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Aha.

At the very least the blonde could give the princess something resembling a small smile as she finished. No opportunity for a followup, but probably for the better considering this was best discussed privately. Whether this made things better or worse was beyond him, but at the very least he would have some time to carefully think about how he would approach the princess. There would be plenty of time tonight to properly think that over, he was going to get both the message delivered and that favor from Ryner. He had to get something out of this.

"You're too kind. Thank you, Your Highness," He did at least say that much before she left, his hand running through his hair. He immediately grimaced, looking at his hands. Good grief was he filthy. First things first, he needed a decent scrubbing, his poor hair was disgusting and he was pretty sure he smelled like dirt.

Right, then, time to scoop the kid up and get going. As the thought crossed his mind, though, the vambrace suddenly moved on its own. Looks like Max had found him first, but was a prod or a word of warning so hard? Eris matched Max's scowl with his own, clearly annoyed, though his expression fell as he mentioned Varis. Ugh, did he have to remind him?

Eris openly rolled his eyes, muttering, "Mhm, lucky you since you'll be modeling them before I put them on. Now come," He wasn't about to wait for some snarky retort, taking Max by the elbow and essentially taking them both to the cars. They weren't going to be talking about anything until they were back at the dorm for one, but Eris wasn't going to say anything until then.

The car ride was mercifully quick and silent, and once Eris stepped out, he made a beeline for their dorm. Once the two were in and the door was closed, Maxie came out of Eris' room to greet them. The blonde let out a short whistle, the pup immediately turning around and settling herself into a bed in the living room.

"Crash course on secrecy: don't go talking about shit when there's dozens of people around," Eris stated, yanking at his shirt and pulling it over his head. "Also don't go talking when there are royal guards--don't go forgetting that aside from the Revel showing you that most of them are useless good-for-nothings, there's also the fact that they report everything."

Ugh, he thought he would feel better with his shirt off, but he still felt grimy. For now he would put that aside. "I'm still reeling over half the things that were said in that 'test', it was all kinds of weird and I actually don't even know where to start on explaining anything."

He held his head in his hands for a moment in frustration, teetering on whether he should even bother telling the kid or not. It had been his idea, but he hadn't completely earned Eris' trust. Before he would begin, however, his phone went off. Who the fuck was calling him right now?! He took it out of his pocket with every intent to mute it, only stopping when he saw Ismene's name. "Hold that thought," He told Max. "What?"

"Hello to you as well," Ismene replied. "I thought I'd call to inform you on my progress and to ask permission."

Eris didn't really have the time or patience for the conversation, running his hand over his face. "I'm busy right now."

"This is important. I've found out one of my colleagues will be going to a convention at a Marivaldi mage academy where a historian specializing in mage history will be doing a lecture," She ignored him and continued to speak. "Do I have your permission to attend?"

"For what--" Eris stopped himself, suddenly remembering as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, whatever, take notes, record it, ask questions, do what you need to do. Is that it?"

"I suppose. Are you under duress?" She asked.

"You can say that," Stressed was more like it, but he didn't think informing her was the right step. "I'll call you back later." He didn't wait for a response before hanging up, deciding to tackle that issue later. Truly, the universe was testing what little patience he had left. Still, at least the call--as frustrating as it was--grounded him slightly.

He turned back to the kid, deciding to focus on the issue at hand. "I feel like Sunny saying we'd come out of the illusion unscratched was just setup for this--" He showed Max the symbol on his wrist, his expression darkening. "I don't think I ran into a shadow or clone. Or it was the work of a mage or...something." He rubbed the mark, scowling at it. How would he even explain this?

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Getting to the point with @Scribe of Thoth.