Lugubrious

The Heroes of Beacon

For a moment, Abel's heart soared. To him it looked like Bridgett had gotten his message, facing his direction and readying her weapon. His heart sank like a stone, however, when a slab of the ceiling fell directly between them and sent up a cloud of dust. For a moment he was incredulous; how could life be so cruel as to allow a boulder to drop so spirit-crushingly perfectly? From his perspective, Bridgett was gone, crushed to atoms by hundreds of tons of stone.

A feminine scream pierced the consuming darkness. Abel perked up; Bridgett was alive? Every nerve in his body urged to him race forward and save her. Between the dense, powder-filled air and the abyssal darkness of the tunnel, however, there was nothing he could do. Realizing how infuriatingly helpless he was, Abel could only clench his teeth and squeeze the dented hilt of the Ampere in morose anger. The continued avalanche from above forced him to crouch down near Kukaku with his hands over his head for protection, staring wordlessly at the rock beneath his heels.

Though Abel lost track of time, the collapse eventually stopped. He rose to his full height, absently brushing chips of stone and dust from his coat, and frowned into the darkness. He could find no sign of the mecha; clearly it had fallen victim to the same rubble that had ended his partner. Abel was just getting to kicking himself for letting his new comrade down so soon when he heard voices from the gloom, on the other side of the fallen boulders. The omnipresent echo in the tunnel made Gren's words clear, and more importantly, restored Abel's spirits as quickly as lighting a candle. Bridget and the armored one had made it out after all.

A noise from Kuhaku stole his attention. Abel turned to look and found the boy in agony. He recoiled at the mere sight of Kuhaku writhing in the floor, streaming tears and drawing blood from his lips, in horrible torment. Abel tried to keep a cool head and think up a way to help, but the scene before him was too disturbing to be replaced in his mind. As soon as the fit had come, however, it seemed to fade away. Abel held out a slightly trembling hand to help Kuhaku up, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead, the Faunus called out into the darkness, talking to his partner. When he finally noticed Abel and introduced himself, the guardian took his hand to shake.

“Abel Fulgurate,” he intoned. Anything else he could have said had chanced to vacate his mind for the moment, so he focused on Kuhaku instead. The Faunus hesitated, then seemed to puff up before revealing his obvious heritage. Was this guy frightened of admitting what he was? Abel knew that there was some anti-Faunus hate out there, as there was for every demographic, but fear to introduce oneself?

“Obviously,” he replied. The brusqueness of his tone took Kuhaku by surprise. “Don't know why you had to spit it out, though. You just showed that you got a lotta guts. Next time, though, you might want to let me take those hits.” By saying that, Abel effectively accepted him, implying that the two would continue to work together in times ahead. “You gonna heal up okay?”

The Heroes of Beacon

harinezumikouken said
How is that name pronounced? Try-co or Tree-co?

Treecko


Also, Abel's lightning bolt didn't do much.

The Heroes of Beacon

Neat.

Any new requests for symbols or models?

RWBY - Haze

Sure thing.

RWBY - Haze

Hope that the encounter with my NPC is alright with you, killa.

RWBY - Haze

A rare smile escaped Abel's face as he gingerly assisted Gwyn departing the makeshift bridge. Her tight grip went unnoticed, negated by her new partner's beige glove. Abel's mind automatically associated her taking his hand as accepting him as her comrade. It wasn't every day he got to meet someone who accepted him like this. At the edge of the civilized world, guards like him were just background. Anyone of interest simply walked right by, regarding them with only vague, unspoken appreciation if at all. Of course, the utterly impersonal method of choosing partners by eye contact marginally degraded this feeling, but nevertheless Abel found himself liking this girl, though they'd just met. Given her physique -which had not escaped his notice- he would be obliged to take the role of protector. How fitting.

Not wanting to seem awkward, he half-turned away from the chasm in the direction he had gone before. “Let's head off then. We have artifacts to find.” He took the first stiff step back into the viridian trees.

Fifteen minutes later, Abel noticed the forest beginning to thin. “About time!” He remarked, out of breath. While there hadn't been any major encounters over the course of his journey, a few Beowolves coupled with rough terrain and thick woods made for tough going. While the pillars of the structure that contained the artifacts loomed some way to the northeast, his gaze fell upon a dark shape hovering about fifty feet in front of him. Upon seeing it, he froze. “What the hell?”

The nebulous figure turned to face him, and Abel saw that while it appeared to be human, its flesh and clothes were shadow-black and partially transparent, and that its eyes glowed green. Abel instinctively raised his weapon, pointing the Ampere's tip at the smoky being. While the specter tilted its head in response, it didn't make any move to attack. The guardian did the same, standing perfectly still, his partner momentarily forgotten.

The tense silence shattered suddenly as a sprightly laugh resounded across the clearing. Out from behind a nearby tree appeared a blond-haired boy clad in green, who Abel faintly remembered seeing at Ozpin's 'welcome' speech. While the boy seemed to be in good spirits, and totally unafraid of the shadow, Abel didn't lower his guard.

“Good morning!” The kid called. He paused in his light-footed stride when Abel didn't respond. The obvious connection was made, and the boy continued. “I hope you're not afraid of my shadow here. He's a friend of mine, just scouting around. You don't want to fight, do you? That would really suck, since the artifact place is just over there.” He pointed to the left, indicating the stony pillars towering above the nearby trees. Surprise appeared on Abel's face; how had he not noticed that?

At that moment, another teenager emerged from the trees. This one Abel knew a little better: it was Mary, the sheep Faunus he had accidentally smacked with the Ampere when leaving the airship. While she seemed to keep her distance from the eerie phantom, she didn't seem particularly put off by it either, indicating some degree of familiarity. Were she and this shadow-kid partners?

He turned to Gwyn and shrugged in a befuddled manner, waiting for some sort of explanation, direction, or at least confirmation that he wasn't hallucinating.

The Heroes of Beacon

Guess Who said
Didn't even realize the reference until you pointed it out.

Disappointing.

The whole backstory is a bit of a play on the biblical tale. The two brothers, alone on the edge of civilization, are cautioned to stay away from the Grimm (temptation or something similar). Cain, however, is jealous of the other guardians; he wants to be strong like them, to be admired and to be a hero. His jealousy drives him to try to join the fight, but it kills him (consumes him). In the old story, this act of jealousy is the end of Cain's goodness, but here it is the end of his life. Because of his brother's jealousy, Abel seems poised to bite the dust as well, but lo and behold his semblance activates (divine intervention?) and he wields the power of the storm that terrified him to strike down the Grimm that killed his brother.

I think I have it all in the 'other' section of my character sheet. It somewhat peeved me that our sheets didn't include personality and backstroy, since they're quintessential to a character, but that's the way it is I suppose.

Guess Who said
Since we're on the subject of what biblical, mythological, literary, etc. people our characters are based on, anybody want to take a guess at what literary hero I based Robert off of?

I would have said Ezio or Altair from Assassin's Creed but that's just modern fiction. As for what literary hero...is it Apollo? Perhaps the Pied Piper? I really have no clue.

The Heroes of Beacon

Guess Who said
Seems everyone has a tragic past. Does anybody's character still have living parents? Feels like I'm reading Batman's origin story.

Both of Abel's parents live still, despite their dangerous careers as guardians of the kingdom. It was Abel's brother Cain, too eager to play the hero, who fell at the hand of a Beowolf.

While this does still bother Abel, time has allowed him to make peace with it, so there won't be any emotional flashbacks or sudden breakdowns. Sorry.

The Heroes of Beacon

Despite the nature of Greyson's injury, and the idea that his aura was drained during the battle, it shouldn't be very long before it kicks in and starts to heal him, should it?

The Heroes of Beacon

I'm loving this tunnel battle.