King Cosmos

Urban Starlight Wonderland: Tokyo Stardust, a team-based Magical Girl RP!

I'm interested in giving this another shot.

Decibitus [Moved to a new thread]

Ogawa Nakai

Ogawa Nakai

✦ Age: 26 (plus 34 years post-death)
✦ Gender: Male
✦ Weapon: Claw Hammer – A simple workman’s tool with a broad, flat head on one side for hammering nails into wood and a hooked wedge on the other side for levering nails back out. The only thing noteworthy about its appearance is its pure matte black finish, but it is otherwise unremarkable. It does, however, have a power; like a regular hammer, it can be used to nail things down, though unlike a regular hammer it does not need any actual nails to do so. When the hammer strikes an object, if there is an suitable flat surface on the other side of the impact, the hammer can create a projection of a nail which will pin said object to said surface; though the nail has the appearance of piercing the object, it causes no actual harm to the object, aside from the fact it was struck by a hammer obviously. The larger the object the larger the nail required and the more energy required; the duration of the effect will also be shorter.

✦ Appearance: Ogawa is a rather unassuming individual, standing at 5’ 9” and having a fairly average build. His face is plain on inexpressive, his posture is slouched and almost lazy; even his chosen weapon as a Reaper is dull compared to most. The only thing that really makes him stand out from a crowd is the way he dresses; flashy, expensive looking suits, gold jewellery and watches, dress shoes shined to a reflective sheen. The same things he used to wear while he was alive, back when Japan’s bubble economy had yet to burst and reckless spending was at a high.

"How did you die?"

Ogawa raised the cigarette to his lips, taking a long drag and making the interviewer wait awkwardly until he was finished; intentionally so, if the deliberate eye contact was anything to go by. He exhaled, blowing a plume of smoke into the air above the table and watching as it slowly dispersed around the room. It was only the sense of anticipation between them, the feeling that an answer was coming, albeit slowly, that prevented the interviewer was asking again or moving to a different question. The pause felt thoughtful, rather than negligent.

“I don’t know.”

More silence followed and Ogawa took the time to take another drag, shorter this time, before stubbing out his cigarette in his ashtray. “Well, I have an idea. Bullet to the back of the head I assume.”

There was another pause, then the interviewer put pen to paper and the sound of the nib scratching across the notepad broke the quiet at last. “I was out on a job; nothing too serious, normal day-to-day stuff. Normal if you’re a Yakuza anyway. I had a couple of our guys with me, younger faces, practically kids, but I knew them; I’d worked with them before. Next thing I know I’m waking up here; just as sudden as that. Didn’t hear or feel a damn thing.”

Folding one leg over the other, Ogawa leaned back in his seat. “Pretty sure it was one of them; the guys with me I mean. It could have been someone else, another family or something. but we were in our own territory, weren’t on bad terms with any other groups beyond the usual and I didn’t see anyone coming; trust me, I’m pretty vigilant about that sort of thing.” The Yakuza-turned-reaper let out a sigh. “I would have seen an enemy coming. The fact that I didn’t probably means it was my own family that took me out and I don’t have any idea why. It also means they used some kid to do the hit, which pisses me off almost as much as the killing itself. Use a damn professional if you’re gonna take me out.”

The reaper let out a sigh, but it sounded more tired than angry; it was an old annoyance at this point.

“I guess that’s why I stuck around; wanting to find out why I was killed. That’s also why I became a Reaper as well; to have a better chance of finding answers, in between the work we do. Besides, being a Reaper isn’t that much different from being a Yakuza; you’ve just gotta follow orders and pay your respects up the ladder, and not worry about getting your hands dirty every now and then. It’s good work and I’d say I was good at that sort of thing but… you know.” Ogawa raised a hand to the side of his head and placed a finger against his temple to mime a gun, then rocked his head to the side as if mimicking being shot. “Had to have been a reason, right?”

✦ Magic Branch: Familiars – Ogawa’s magic is based around summoning temporary familiars in the form of animals to do his bidding. Using written spell talismans he is able to summon various animals to carry out his orders, usually scouting, but can also include tracking and fighting. In order to make the process of summoning smoother and more consistent, Ogawa has tattooed the forms of the animals he is able to summon onto his body; when he uses his magic the animals are created in the image of these tattoos, making them look more like living pieces of art than real creatures.

✦ Magic

✧ Tsubame: a swift flying bird, particularly useful as a scout due to the bird-eyes view it can get. Ogawa has a tattoo of a sparrow on the inside of his left forearm.
✧Kitsune: a cunning canine, able to track spirits using its sensitive nose. Ogawa has a tattoo of a fox on the outside of his left bicep, appearing to chase the sparrow down his arm.
✧Hebi: a serpent, able to sneak its way into places his other familiars cannot, but isn’t much use otherwise. Ogawa has a tattoo of a snake coiling around his right forearm.
✧ Tora: a powerful predator, it is the only familiar Ogawa is likely to call on in a fight. Ogawa has a large tattoo of a tiger covering most of his back.

Decibitus [Moved to a new thread]

@PapiTan@ERode I have updated Ogawa's profile with the suggested fixes to his magic.

Decibitus [Moved to a new thread]

Took a while, but here's my submission.

Ogawa Nakai

Ogawa Nakai

✦ Age: 26 (plus 34 years post-death)
✦ Gender: Male
✦ Weapon: Claw Hammer – A simple workman’s tool with a broad, flat head on one side for hammering nails into wood and a hooked wedge on the other side for levering nails back out. The only thing noteworthy about its appearance is its pure matte black finish, but it is otherwise unremarkable. It does, however, have a power; like a regular hammer, it can be used to nail things down, though unlike a regular hammer it does not need any actual nails to do so. When the hammer strikes an object, if there is an suitable flat surface on the other side of the impact, the hammer can create a projection of a nail which will pin said object to said surface; though the nail has the appearance of piercing the object, it causes no actual harm to the object, aside from the fact it was struck by a hammer obviously. The larger the object the larger the nail required and the more energy required; the duration of the effect will also be shorter.

✦ Appearance: Ogawa is a rather unassuming individual, standing at 5’ 9” and having a fairly average build. His face is plain on inexpressive, his posture is slouched and almost lazy; even his chosen weapon as a Reaper is dull compared to most. The only thing that really makes him stand out from a crowd is the way he dresses; flashy, expensive looking suits, gold jewellery and watches, dress shoes shined to a reflective sheen. The same things he used to wear while he was alive, back when Japan’s bubble economy had yet to burst and reckless spending was at a high.

"How did you die?"

Ogawa raised the cigarette to his lips, taking a long drag and making the interviewer wait awkwardly until he was finished; intentionally so, if the deliberate eye contact was anything to go by. He exhaled, blowing a plume of smoke into the air above the table and watching as it slowly dispersed around the room. It was only the sense of anticipation between them, the feeling that an answer was coming, albeit slowly, that prevented the interviewer was asking again or moving to a different question. The pause felt thoughtful, rather than negligent.

“I don’t know.”

More silence followed and Ogawa took the time to take another drag, shorter this time, before stubbing out his cigarette in his ashtray. “Well, I have an idea. Bullet to the back of the head I assume.”

There was another pause, then the interviewer put pen to paper and the sound of the nib scratching across the notepad broke the quiet at last. “I was out on a job; nothing too serious, normal day-to-day stuff. Normal if you’re a Yakuza anyway. I had a couple of our guys with me, younger faces, practically kids, but I knew them; I’d worked with them before. Next thing I know I’m waking up here; just as sudden as that. Didn’t hear or feel a damn thing.”

Folding one leg over the other, Ogawa leaned back in his seat. “Pretty sure it was one of them; the guys with me I mean. It could have been someone else, another family or something. but we were in our own territory, weren’t on bad terms with any other groups beyond the usual and I didn’t see anyone coming; trust me, I’m pretty vigilant about that sort of thing.” The Yakuza-turned-reaper let out a sigh. “I would have seen an enemy coming. The fact that I didn’t probably means it was my own family that took me out and I don’t have any idea why. It also means they used some kid to do the hit, which pisses me off almost as much as the killing itself. Use a damn professional if you’re gonna take me out.”

The reaper let out a sigh, but it sounded more tired than angry; it was an old annoyance at this point.

“I guess that’s why I stuck around; wanting to find out why I was killed. That’s also why I became a Reaper as well; to have a better chance of finding answers, in between the work we do. Besides, being a Reaper isn’t that much different from being a Yakuza; you’ve just gotta follow orders and pay your respects up the ladder, and not worry about getting your hands dirty every now and then. It’s good work and I’d say I was good at that sort of thing but… you know.” Ogawa raised a hand to the side of his head and placed a finger against his temple to mime a gun, then rocked his head to the side as if mimicking being shot. “Had to have been a reason, right?”

✦ Magic Branch: Familiars – Ogawa’s magic is based around summoning temporary familiars in the form of animals to do his bidding. Using written spell talismans he is able to summon various animals to carry out his orders, usually scouting, but can also include tracking and fighting. In order to make the process of summoning smoother and more consistent, Ogawa has tattooed the forms of the animals he is able to summon onto his body; when he uses his magic the animals are created in the image of these tattoos, making them look more like living pieces of art than real creatures.

✦ Magic

✧ Tsubame: a swift flying bird, particularly useful as a scout due to the bird-eyes view it can get. Ogawa has a tattoo of a sparrow on the inside of his left forearm.
✧Kitsune: a cunning canine, able to track spirits using its sensitive nose. Ogawa has a tattoo of a fox on the outside of his left bicep, appearing to chase the sparrow down his arm.
✧Hebi: a serpent, able to sneak its way into places his other familiars cannot, but isn’t much use otherwise. Ogawa has a tattoo of a snake coiling around his right forearm.
✧ Tora: a powerful predator, it is the only familiar Ogawa is likely to call on in a fight. Ogawa has a large tattoo of a tiger covering most of his back.

Pokemon: Ascendancy

Sebastien Tomas

With so many gym leaders grouped together and the numbers advantage reversed, the battle was over almost immediately; the strange hybrid Pokémon were assaulted from all sides and turned against each other and the mysterious assailants soon recalled their Pokémon and made to escape.

Sebastien made to chase after them, breaking into a run with Murk loping behind him once the frenzied Pokémon were recalled, but when they mounted their Pokémon and began to ride away he was forced to give up on that idea; none of the Pokémon he had on hand were particularly fast, not on land at least, nor designed to carry a person comfortably. Frowning, he watched as the strangers disappeared into the distance before turning around and walking back to the others.

“What was that about?” It wasn’t a question he really expected an answer to, but as Sebastien angrily waved an arm in the direction he had just come he didn’t bother to hide his frustration over their attackers escaping. The battle had ended in their favour, if you could even call that mess a battle, but given that those people had got the jump on them, caused a lot of havoc and then got away scot free afterwards he couldn’t help but feel like this was their loss. Especially since he didn’t even know what their objective was in the first place.

He would have asked more, but he knew no one would have the answers he wanted and taking his anger out on them wouldn’t help matters. Besides, other people were already asking them. Astrid’s question told him that he wasn’t the only one in the dark as to what those Pokémon were and the fact that she hadn’t even called them Pokémon at all meant he also wasn’t the only one who thought there was something… wrong about them. They had been vicious in a way that no Pokémon he had ever seen had been, almost feral in the way they tore into each other and the damage they had done to Hestia’s Salamence meant they were stronger than normal too.

“What were they after? Why here? There’s nothing important in Postwick other than the gym.”

Decibitus

I'm interested in this, if there's still room.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Next Gen

Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue

Approaching Haruko directly seemed like it would be impossible. The spirits circled her relentlessly, surrounding her and blocking all paths towards her; even more spirits filled the trees around her and, when one tried to get close like Helena had, they would swarm them. It was only because the other girl and her spirit were distracting them that Cassandra had made it this far without being attacked herself.

She walked towards Haruko with feigned confidence, her head held high, only for her steps to falter about ten metres away from the possessed girl. It seemed this was as far as her courage would take her. She hesitated before speaking, her hand instinctively reaching for the deck in her duel disk for comfort, for reassurance, before finding her words.

“Hello?”

Like a weight pressing down on her shoulders she felt the attention of just some of the spirits shift her direction; the heavy feeling in her chest doubled, but the hand on her deck kept her steady. “I’m here to duel you. To put a stop to this.”

“Human.” Despite the many eyes on her, there was only a single voice that called out to her. “So many of you have come to the forest tonight; drawn to our power, drawn by our wrath. If only you had thought to show us this much attention before, but you didn’t think us worthy then. You thought us weak and abandoned us, left us to fester and grow hateful and strong. We are strong now.”

As they spoke, from amidst the formless mass of spirits, a single silhouette began to take clearer shape as Cassandra watched. It was large and round at first, nothing more than a circle, but soon she could see the outlines of legs and antenna as well as a pair of glowing red eyes. At the same time, a single, solitary voice began to stand out from the rest, though the mass still spoke as if it was a whole, rather than a group of individuals. “If it’s a duel you want, then I’ll gladly give you one. I’ll show you and all the others that I have grown strong enough not to need you anymore. There is no need for the humans anymore; I alone am enough.”

The spirit she would be facing finally took form; it’s large, round body covered by a glossy black shell and its many chitinous legs and feelers. The oversized insect, like a tick as wide across as Cassandra was tall, scuttled towards her. Cassandra stood her ground, feeling Naga behind her and giving her confidence even if the small snake was pressed against the small of her back for safety.

Rather than attack, the giant insect instead manifested a hand of cards of its own; the illusory hand hovering before it taking the place of a regular duellist’s holograms as her duel disk activated and she drew a hand of her own. “I activate Terraforming and add Forest to my hand. Activate Forest.”

Nothing changed outwardly when the field spell was played. They were already in a forest after all, but as the card was played Cassandra couldn’t help but feel like the trees around her had grown more… real, somehow. Taller and sturdier and more full of life. “Set one monster. End turn.”

Cassandra drew for turn and added the card to her hand. Under the watchful gaze of the insect’s compound eyes she picked out another card and placed it down on the field. “I normal summon Reptilianne Scylla and move to the battle phase. I’ll attack your face-down monster.”

Scylla rushed forward to trample the set monster, but when she got close the card suddenly flipped and she was ambushed by a spindly-limbed insect with razor sharp claws; the insect was destroyed, but not before taking Scylla down with it. “Man-Eater Bug is destroyed by battle, but when it is flipped it destroys a monster of yours too.”

Cassandra nodded. “Hmm, okay. I’ll set a can and end my turn.”

“My draw.” Upon seeing the card, the insect began to rapidly click their mandibles together in an act that roughly mimicked the sound of laughter . “I summon Gokibore. I attack.” Her opponent played quickly, adding a card to its illusory hand, summoning a monster that looked identical to itself and attacking her directly before she had much chance to respond or think. She had a chance to activate her set trap, but chose to save it for a direr situation, though as the Gokibore lunged forward and lashed out at her with the end of its sharp leg she regretted it. The monsters leg cut through her thin pyjamas and into her skin. Rather than just being struck by a simulated amount of force equal to the amount of damage taken, she felt real pain as the monster’s attack bit into her leg and drew real blood.

[Cassandra: 8000 > 6600]

Wincing in pain, she buckled but managed to catch herself before she could fall. She felt the concern radiate from her deck and hurried to reassure her friends she was okay. “I’m fine, I’m… hmm, I’m fine.” Across from her, the spirit of Gokibore was leaning forward, mandibles clicking and eyes gleaming as she felt a sense of satisfaction from it. “I draw.”

It was unnerving facing down this particular opponent; not because it was an insect, she had no problem with those and even found this one’s overly round body to be kind of cute, but because of the blatant malice towards her she felt coming from them. That kind of emotion was something she had never felt before; even at her old school, though her classmates had never liked her and even found her unnerving, no one had hated her like this. Wanted to see her come to harm.

“I normal summon Reptilianne Gardna. Then, I activate the Reptilianne Lamia in my hand, targeting your Gokibore.” She revealed the Lamia in her hand, reducing the attack of the opponent’s monster to zero to special summon it, before taking damage equal to its original attack. Cassandra braced herself against the oncoming pain as her life points were reduced, but it never came; it wasn’t just taking damage that had hurt her then, it was just the attack itself.

[Cassandra: 6600 > 5400]

“Next, I’ll Synchro summon Reptilianne Hydra.” Her Gardna and Lamia disappeared from the field, replaced by a larger, more gruesome looking creature with multiple long necks each ending with a human head with long, lank hair obscuring its many faces. “When Hydra is summoned she destroyed all of my opponent’s monsters with zero attack and I get to draw a card for each.” Cassandra drew a card and added it to her hand, immediately feeling the weight on her shoulders lessen at the sight of a familiar face. “Then I’ll go to battle and destroy your Gokibore with Hydra.”

The Hydra swept forward, its many heads lunged forward and crashing down on the now weakened Gokibore to tear it to shreds. Her opponent flinched in response, though if it felt pain too from the attack or was just unnerved to see a version of itself destroyed she wasn’t sure; either way, its rapidly clicking mandibles and waving legs gave away its agitation even if she couldn’t feel it. It saw her looking and immediately calmed itself down.

[Gokibore: 8000 > 5900]

“You are strong too. But it doesn’t matter; I won’t lose to a human. Draw…”

There was a pause, which somehow led into an even longer pause as the Gokibore looked at the card it had just drawn. “I… set one card and end my turn.”

Some of the tension in the air seemed to have gone as Cassandra drew for turn, the intensity she had felt from her opponent fading. The card she added to her hand was yet another familiar face and she felt Naga shift behind her back and poke her head out again to see. Feeling more confident, Cassandra put on a small smiled as she activated a spell card. “Hmm, I activate Reptilianne Poison, targeting your face-down monster. It is flipped into face-up attack position and has its attack reduced to zero.”

The set monster was flipped up to reveal another Gokibore, though far from being menacing this one was curled up like a ball with its legs tucked under itself. Oh, it was like a wood lice; cute.

“Wait…”

“Next, I’ll normal summon Reptilianne Naga to my side of the field.” Cassandra was now duelling like her normal self, smiling and even starting to hum to herself as she summoned Naga to the field. “Now, I’ll tribute both my Naga and your Gokibore to special summon Reptilianne Vaskii from my hand.”

“Hold on, that’s…”

Both Cassandra’s and the spirits monsters were tributed, melting away into puddles of acid that flowed and merged into each other before rising again as the four-armed, crowned Vaskii. “Battle phase.”

“I wasn’t expecting…”

“I’ll attack you directly with Reptilianne Hydra.”

[Gokibore: 5900 > 3800]

“Then attack you with Reptilianne Vaskii.”

[Gokibore: 3800 > 1200]

“I end my turn.”

Across the field, staring down two imposing snake-like creatures and having nothing in its hand it could summon to defend itself, the spirit of Gokibore slumped down as much as its insect body would allow. “I… I concede.”

Admitting defeat, the illusions surrounding the spirit faded; the cards in its hand disappeared, the forest returned to normal, leaving just the oversized insect itself. For her part, Cassandra deactivated her duel disk and returned her deck to her pocket, but not before whispering a thank you to her friends again for helping her with another duel. She approached the spirit, cautiously, but got the sense that it was no longer going to be a threat to her.

“Hmm, can you let me past now? I want to help that girl other there.”

The spirit didn’t answer at first; in fact it showed no signs of responding at all. Cassandra frowned and waited a few moments more, but when it didn’t move she turned to walk past it instead.

“How…”

“Hmm?” Stopping, Cassandra turned back to look at the spirit again, finding it still slumped over, but now with its feelers wiggling with agitation.

“How are you so strong? You defeated me, defeated my anger and hatred for humans so easily; I was supposed to be powerful enough to beat you.”

Frowning even deeper, Cassandra walked around to stand in front of the Gokibore. “Hmm, is hatred supposed to make you strong? I don’t know, because I’m not that strong myself, but that doesn’t sound right to me.” She always felt like she was at her best when she was just having fun while duelling and not really thinking about winning or losing; it felt easier that way, more natural, and the right plays just came to mind by themselves. Hatred and anger seemed like they would get in the way of that. “I just tried to duel the way I always do and counted on my friends to help me out.”

The Gokibore raised its head slightly, until Cassandra could see its eyes again. “Your… friends?”

Smiling, Cassandra nodded her head and brought her hands up so she could count them off on her fingers. “Hmm; Naga and Vaskii and Hydra and Scylla and all the others. They’re my friends.”

Red eyes stared back at her, Gokibore seeming to have trouble comprehending what she had just said. “I see…” The insect lowered its head again, lowering its compound eyes to the dirt. “No, I don’t see. I don’t understand at all. Maybe… maybe they were they right to abandon me; maybe I really am as weak and pathetic as they said. If I lost this badly, then they were right to throw me away.”

“That’s not right either.” Cassandra crouched down, balancing on the balls of her feet so that she was at eye level with the Gokibore when it raised its head again. “It can’t be right; no one should be abandoned.”

“But… our duel…”

“No!” There was intensity to Cassandra gaze that was hard to argue with as it bore into the insects own, a fire that hadn’t been there even as she duelled with her own personal safety on the line. “Everyone has something they are good for, you just haven’t found yours yet; that’s no reason to abandon someone.” A hand moved towards the deck sat in her pocket and she ran her fingers over the outline of her cards reassuringly. “My friends were abandoned once; nobody wanted to play with them, because they were creepy or weird or because people thought they were weak, so they threw them away. I was alone too, so I picked them up and learned how to duel so I could play with them; so that neither of us would be alone. It was because of them that I became a duellist. It’s because of them that I’m strong; not the other way around.

“I’m sure you can make someone strong too. But, if you really hate the people who abandoned you that much, maybe you can be my friend instead?”

For a moment all that happened was that the Gokibore stared back at her and for a second Cassandra thought that the spirit was going to turn her down. But then they nodded, the insects feelers wiggling around animatedly before the spirit began to fade and in its place left a single card behind.

Cassandra reached down and carefully picked up the copy of Gokibore. She slid it into her pocket, along with her other friends and smiled. “You can stay there for now. I’ll find a deck for you later.”

Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Next Gen

Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue

It wasn’t hard to find the source of the trouble. Even though it was deep in the woods and the middle of the night Cassandra had no trouble following the feeling of foreboding in her chest like a compass towards the centre of this mess; the ritual that Haruko had created and was still in the middle of.

Even though, traversing the woods at night wasn’t easy and Cassandra stumbled out of the dark into the ghostly glow of the clearing with her jacket scuffed and scraped by branches and her face and hands marred by dirt where she had tripped over roots. She was breathing heavily as she approached the mass of spirits, both from exertion and also because the feeling in her chest had reached a peak; the feelings of anger and pain and misery emanating from what she could now see were dozens if not hundreds of discarded spirits.

It hurt her heart too, just being near them.

Feeling a nudge at her elbow, she looked down to see Naga at her side, or at least peeking out from behind her back. The duel spirit met her eyes and nudged her arm again before pointing towards her duel disk. “Duel them?”

The snake girl nodded, before retreating behind her back for safety. Cassandra turned back to the maelstrom of abandoned spirits, to the girl who had awakened them and the other girl and spirit who was trying to fight them. She felt for these spirits, because they were hurting, but the only way to calm them down might be to fight them first.

“Hmm, okay then.”

Pulling out her deck, she readied her duel disk and stepped forward.

----

Leo Wilde – Slifer Red

“Huh? What do you mean they're missing?”

Leo’s eyes drifted towards the forest. Could they have gone there? It was the first thing he thought of, but to be honest he wasn’t sure why; why would anyone wander into the forest in the middle of the night? They’d have to be stupid. More likely they’d headed down the path towards the main building or one of the other dorms, sneaking out to go see someone else or, he didn’t know, have a late night duel to settle something? Maybe they’d even gone to the docks, trying to run away because they couldn’t cut it.

Any of those were more likely than them heading deep into the woods at night, and yet…

“Alright, I’ll help. Where should we look first?”

Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Next Gen

Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue

Rather suddenly, Cassandra found herself pulled out of the rather pleasant dream she had been having to find herself sitting up in her bed as an indistinct sense of dread gripped her heart. Glancing around the room she found nothing immediately amiss; everything was still in place, her deck was still sat beside her pillow and the shared door between her room and her neighbours was still shut and locked from her side besides. Nothing was wrong and yet she knew that something was very wrong.

Taking a deep breath, she placed a hand to her chest and felt her heartbeat slow from its rapid pace to something more normal as she calmed herself down. Once that was done, all on their own her eyes drifted towards the window, to where the eerie light from outside was just barely peeking past her curtains. Too sickly looking to be moonlight, too pale and soft to be a streetlight, the unnatural beams of light danced and waved as if whatever was causing it was constantly moving.

Throwing her covers off of herself Cassandra got out of bed and moved towards the window. She gingerly lifted a corner and peeked outside to see the stormy sky and geyser of otherworldly light rising towards the heavens. She also saw Naga, her duel spirit sitting on the window with her little hands pressed against the glass; when Cassandra saw her, the snake turned towards her and met her gaze with a concerned look.

“Hmm, you’re right; that’s not good.”

Hurrying over to her wardrobe, Cassandra quickly put on a jacket and some shoes before rushing back to her bedside and grabbing her deck. The cards were practically vibrating as she picked them up and she could feel the warning, concern and eagerness from her friends all mixed together. “I know it’s dangerous, but I have to go see. Don’t worry, I know you’ll keep me safe.”

Still in her pyjamas, Cassandra left her dorm room and ran towards the main doors of the dorm building and out into the night.

----

Leo Wilde – Slifer Red

“What the hell?” Leo shot out of bed, awoken by the commotion going on in the other dorms; even if he wasn’t a light sleeper, the talking, the footsteps running by outside and the banging on walls would have woken anyone up… well, almost anyone.

Above him, he could hear his roommate still snoring away and Leo left him as he grumpily put on a pair of shoes and threw open the door to the balcony outside. “Hey! Keep it down, people are trying to sleep!”

As he spoke, Leo found his gaze being drawn towards the forest. He couldn’t see anything out there, but as he looked out towards the trees he felt a shiver run down his spine. Turning away, but finding the forest still annoyingly obvious in his peripheral vision, he walked off to try and find someone who could explain what the hell was going on.

Pokemon: Ascendancy

Sebastien Tomas

Following the other gym leaders out of the stands, Sebastien stepped outside of the arena to find himself in the middle of a battle taking place in the streets of the formerly sleepy town of Postwick; one that seemed a lot more interesting than the one taking place inside right now. Hestia’s Salamence and Astrid’s Ampharos and Rotom were dealing with two Pokémon that he had never seen before and from the looks of things, the strangers were winning.

Why they were fighting, why people were running past them in fear and who the strangely-clad and intense looking trainers were he didn’t know, but when Hestia demanded for help and Astrid called for a Ground-type he moved to accommodate. “On it.”

Sebastien pulled a Pokéball from his waist and sent out Swampert, the large and squat Pokémon’s head swivelling from side to side as it appeared and began taking in the situation. “Murk, hit those two with Muddy Water.” With only two Pokémon in front of him, it was clear who Sebastien intended the Water-type to use the attack on. The Swampert widened its stance before opening its mouth and sending out a torrent of brownish, dark water that swept down the street towards the unknown assailants.

@Ambra@LuckyBlackCat