Lugubrious

Protea - The Ebon Flow

Heading through Ebb from wherever you've been staying, through the rain and past the various features of a city both remarkable and stuffed with barely-contained panic, injected with a threatening hint of anarchy, ruminating about the past and future and condition of Ebb, and the investigatory job the character signed up for and is now on the way to a meeting for, and then entering the parlour of the prestigious mayor of Ebb, who seems rather anxious, and her ninja associate.

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

There we go, my post is out. It takes me a while sometimes because of frequent interruption and a perhaps vain attempt to keep my writing spicy and nice.

Posted but Lub ninjaed me... DAMN YOU LUB!

@Joshua Tamashii

Me?

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

Fleo Plector – Reezun Town

The return of Nolan heralded a bright look from Fleo, though this expression contained more depth than her commonplace happiness. Whether from within, from the visage of sand-pitted Reezun, or from the tale imparted to her, she'd stoked up a new fire. With three comrades at her side, she would be completing her first job in no time, and not with the mindless earnestness characteristic of most first-timers either, thanks to the warnings of old Hemwick.

While the horses, plain as they were, delighted Fleo, she knew that there was no time to spend stroking their noses or scratching their necks. Using a tiny Sirocco to boost her up and negate the obstacle of her own height, Fleo mounted one of the horses. Only once before had she ridden, but the confidence that beat within her heart assured her that it'd be easy. So focused on dredging up what snippets of memory she could about riding was Fleo that she almost forgot to share her newly-acquired information with the others.

“I heard about the guy we're going after from this cool old dude named Hemwick. Obviously, the rogue is crazy, and definitely violent, but not sadistic. When he came by Reezun he was ranting about some sort of monster...some sort of awful, watery thing who's invisible most of the time. Apparently the rogue's guild had become aware of the thing and tried to capture it, if sense could be made out of his ramblings. From there the details are pretty shaky, but the rogue was terrified that the thing was 'coming after him to finish the job'. I wonder if that means this monster was what killed his guild? If, uh, it exists. Might be the guy's just a loony. Are we heading off now?” Fleo, ever hungry to experience new and interesting things, couldn't help but consider the rogue mage's case with intrigue, and whether or not this would affect her fighting ability remained to be seen.

-=-=-=-
Nero – Train

As Prince slimed languidly to the floor, taking up a fair share of the carriage's horizontal real estate, Nero smirked. Even someone who tended to disregard authority and propriety, as the genie admitted with reluctance that he himself was wont to do, it took a fair share of feline possessiveness to impose in such a manner on a public place. People with the semblances of animals were rather rare of Fiore, but they wore away at Nero's cheer to no end. Aside from being immune to the Law of Atavism, they tended to digress so remarkably from the discernible bounds of human nature. That sort of unpredictability certainly eroded at the inner peace of one who craved feeling in control of the situation.

It took a pinch of self-restraint, a healthy dose of remembrance concerning Nero's physical abilities, and a smattering of wishful thinking to keep from planting a palm on Prince's nose when he mimed what looked to the genie like a window opening in front of his face. Though Nero stood remarkably far away from white knightdom, the catman's following commentary on Sasha's looks, coupled with his flirtatious advance, ruffled his feathers. What a creep! Do girls let him get away with this ogling because he's handsome? If I were to act like that, they'd clap me in irons! And then they'd bleed internally, of course, but that's beside the point No trace of bitter thought wormed its way onto his smile, however, as he responded to Sasha with gusto now that animals were concerned. “Mockingbird!Brown tops, white bottoms, and the most talented voices of all birds! They so masterfully mimic the songs of others that they let their own songs lie buried, true secrets to the world! I'd love to come back as a mockingbird. Maybe with more research...oh, and the Horned One is indeed a goat. Well, kind of. Here...”

Nero pulled the stuffed toy from his pouch and presented it in all its adorable, misshapen hideousness. “I was so proud the day I got him! Took me, like, a week to track him down. It was a tough fight, but I got 'im in the end!” Of his little plush the genie seemed inordinately proud, seemingly implying either there was more to it than met the eye, or less to his sanity.

Next came Lazarus's reply, and Nero was only too pleased to rattle off a rebuke to that, in a manner that spoke heavily of gibing. His mention of the unidentified watcher went ignored for now. “White...the color of marble, the crumbling legacy of the ancients! The color of swans, graceful but fragile! And of clouds, huge but insubstantial. All so gorgeously idyllic, but detached, and...devoid. Fascinating! Tehee.”

Finally, Nero elected to give the nondescript intruder his warranted attention, though he could not stop himself from laughing out loud at Prince's continued flirtations. Once the realization came that Prince, like him, was merely trying to get a rise out of the others for amusements' sake, it was a lot easier to smile at his ridiculous display of poor manners. In fact, what began as a contemptuous rivalry rapidly morphed into a game, though Nero suspected that to win someone had to be obnoxious enough to get kicked out of a moving train. No matter—he was up for it. But now it was Prince's turn, so Nero patiently waited to see how the stranger reacted, and to see if Sasha would knee Prince in the chin for his invasion of her personal space. Given the general attitude of women of the brand Nero judged her to be, she couldn't possibly stand for it.

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

hmmmm

I dont know if I should post now, or wait for Prince and Nero

@Caits

I'll have a post in a moment sorry.

Protea - The Ebon Flow

Great and yes.

Protea - The Ebon Flow

Exeter Parlour

Though it was not yet the prescribed time for refreshment, Margaret could not stifle her nerves enough to prevent a sip from the crimson bitterness of her wine. Neither could she stop from downing the entire glass afterward, but still the skin of her hands itched unbearably, inspiring a jitter in her nerves that the steady, thick beat of rain against her parlour’s cross-latticed windows. From behind their glossy security, Ebb shrouded in lane looked all too much like the ocean, the same primeval sea that lapped in her nightmares for the past fortnight. “Someone had to do something,” she quavered aloud, watching the blurry yellow-orange lights of the city through the latticed pane.

The mounting evidence of a lurking continuity beneath the waters of Ebb had forced her hand. Families distraught at their loved ones still, soaked forms laid to barnacled rest by the departing tide, an entire building reduced to ominous nothingness by an impossible whirlpool, and beside it all that accursed phantom submarine. Before Margaret had sent down the first team, the nearly-nightly sojourns of the Ankou's grim, diving-suited crew turned a smoldering ember of fear into a roaring fire. Surely no normal citizen could lend a credulous ear to the pleas of those horrid sailors? And yet, with the recent events, the scuttling, gangly shapes in gutters and murky, foul waters pouring unbidden from sinks and bathtubs, the people of Ebb were in a tumult, and ready to believe anything.

And for now, and amongst other things, they believed that the ill-fated investigation team ventured still beneath the slimy cisterns of the city, pinpointing the source of the dilemma. In truth not a peep had reached Margaret or her detective since they had departed; the Sensus-laden conduit radio stood silent and untouched upon the coffee table in the parlour's center as it had for days. Margaret had planned to use it as part of her presentation to the newly-enlisted investigation team B, but now, with her hands trembling and mind clogged with worry, not just for the drowned, or the first team, or herself, but for the whole city, the urge to give in threatened to burst from behind her dike of resolution. No amount of study in Ebb's college, Tarpon University, could have prepared her for the slow terror of creeping calamity to which only she and her detective were only remotely aware.

But it was too late to back down now, even as she tentatively reached her hand out the window and beheld telltale spatters of red on her palm. The noise of entrance by way of the front door, and the admittance of entry by the butler, cemented this fact in her mind. Margaret pulled herself away from the window and placed her glass upon a driftwood-carved cabinet. She noted with no small degree of wry humor exactly how much Ebb depended on the sea, always assuming that while fickle, the sea held no greater hatred of human life and would never see fit to conspire against mankind.

Making sure that her nut-brown hair, tinged with streaks of gray, was in order, Margaret cast her cerulean eyes upon the first arrival. True to form, it was the detective himself. No ordinary investigative authority, the strong but silent figure who had assisted her in the organization of her approach to this crisis hailed from a southeastern island chain off the coast of Chalcedony, where cherry blossoms bloomed and the mountains tall, somber dignity served as model for the likes of Udo Koro Kai. Previously no more than an enigmatic foreigner when he had arrived on foot, Kai had experienced in order to curry her favor a horrible event, made all the more horrible by the admission of so formidable a warrior. To hear him tell it, the ninja had been prowling the riverbottom canals at the day's lowest tide, and identified a writhing, goopy mass puddled on the canal's edge. Further investigation proved the sludge to be detestable manlike, fluctuating between an amorphous, runny white gel and pale-skinned person constantly. When Kai had approached, the creature had oozed into the water, only for clammy, grasping fingers to stretch from the canal seconds later, seize the ninja, and forcibly submerge him underwater. If Kai's mastery of the Motus affinity hadn't been so great, he surely would have been dragged to the depths, but as it was the man had escaped with his sanity attacked and returned with his tale. Just the thought of it made Margaret's skin crawl.

Kai's voice yanked her from the past, however, letting her know that a couple distinctly interesting characters were headed this way. “Time to meet the team, then. Let us pray to Lugus that they...fare better.”

MetaOps - Project: God Complex

Fine by me! I meant to make a post for Revel, but I've been pretty busy and stressed over the last couple of days. I'll do one once you start us off.

Phoenix Wing (A Fairy Tail RP-Always Open, Open)

Nero - Train

Still unsure of the specific reason for which he'd been coaxed away from a tantalizing second helping of potato to ride a train, but adequately impetuous and mellow to give it no second thought, Nero arrived at the platform at the rear of Trinity's merry band. The trip to the station would have been thoroughly uneventful had the genie not obsessed himself with thinking up puns for everything he came across, and despite a natural affinity for word-based humor, Nero's fickle proficiency in puncrafting made for an alternatively entertaining and excruciating trip. Now, with most of his Phoenix Wing buddies in the train, he saw fit to enter himself.

From Sasha's expression Nero judged her to be on the lookout for her entourage. Well, it had arrived! “The greatest genie on Fiore, present and accounted for! Don't get too worked up over my awesomeness, thought...you might lose your 'train' of thought! Heeheehee!” A sudden hack interrupted his merriment, but that everpresent smile remained, unflappable to coughs. “...I'll take a seat.” He sat by Lazarus, and without ado began to chat. “Whoa, I wonder what your favorite color is! Don't tell me...fuchsia? No? You seem the type, tehee. I kid, I kid! Have all the beauty sleep you want, just don't ask why I'm here.”

He left the angel alone and addressed Sasha. It was hard to ignore a furry-eared giant, but Nero managed it admirably. “So what's incarnation like? I've always wondered what I'd come back as. With my luck it'd be a mythical creature, like an honest politician. Zing!” Nero leaned back luxuriously, stretching his arms. “Unless you all teleported, of course. Where the heck did you come from? And how in the name of the Horned One did all of you teleport at once?”

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Lugubrious is the art teacher position still open like it says on the doc?

@Plank Sinatra

Yep!

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Abel Fulgurate

An uncommon jitteriness grabbed hold on Abel's throat for a second when the door to the airship yawned open to admit team SASG inside. For one of the few times in his life, he was leaving the comfort and company of other warriors behind and venturing out into the unknown with only a few comrades by his side. For a young man conditioned as a sentry atop walls, entering the airship's belly screaming against his instincts, but Abel bit back his unease with a fortitude that surprised himself. After all, even though he had only spent a week with Gren, Sapphire, and Shiro, he was pretty sure they had his back. This embodied more than simple spirit, though. Abel needed to believe that he and his friends had what it took. When he had perused the details for the Shelter mission a few minutes ago, his mind had flashed with storybook visions of mad scientists, bristling with needles and sutures and belting out maniacal laughter.

It intrigued him more than in worried him, however; perhaps that was why the mission's ominous portent had only instilled him with a few seconds' worth of dread. These weren't Grimm he'd be facing. Today there would be no running in terror, no desperate fight for survival, and no gloomy resignation to an immutable fate. No matter how hairy the ears of the mad doctors of the Shelter, they were just people, and people did not scare Abel.

Gren's search of the internet for any useful tidbits pertaining to the Shelter turned up the place's website pretty quickly. While colorful in its cool hues of blue and green, its design exuded more of a sense of friendliness than of tacky vibrancy, and its content carried much the same outlook. The Shelter had been established on its little island on the bay for forty years, ever since it had been made public knowledge that animals, like humans, had aura. Nothing of particular interest jumped out at him, except that according to the 'guests' section, there weren't many pets staying anymore. It did help kill time until Shiro arrived, however, and after Abel quit admiring to vista to join the team, the four got on the airship. Abel, not sure whether or not Sapphire had been with them during Port's presentation, greeted her congenially before settling in.

Of course, Shiro's mad antics cost the team some time, and earned them the ire of the main pilot—a Beacon senior and the only male member of Beacon's ace senior team, Fallow Mort. Gren, wishing to avoid provoking Fallow further, was happy to anchor Shiro to the wall with his friction semblance. In short order, the airship, containing a resolute mix of optimism and sobriety interrupted occasionally by the team's loose cannon, made its way to Tourmaline bay.

Sooner that might have been expected, the airship touched down near the docks. Fallow, now pleased that some underclassmen had seen his flying skills, cheerfully announced that he'd be navigating SASG the rest of the way to the Shelter by boat. “The buildin's expanded to every part of the island remotely flat,” he explained, “there's nowhere to land and lots of sharp rocks just waiting to break ankles if I had you jump.”

Fifteen minutes later, after another round of trying to secure Shiro's unrestrained enthusiasm into extremely restrained enthusiasm, the speedboat was off. Despite Fallow's repeated assurance of the mission's easiness, he had seen fit to bring his own weapon, a strange device that blended together a shield, a scabbard, and a spinner launcher, complete with whip-sized ripcord. As the boat approached the island upon which the Shelter loomed, it gave off more of an impression of a resort hotel than a state-of-the-art veterinary facility, with its pored beige walls and red-shingled roof. Abel allowed the others to disembark first when the destination was reached, curtly nodding to Fallow before the senior sped away. He turned back and regarded the Shelter with dull blue eyes. The main entrance sat atop a shallow flight of stairs leading up the stony slope of the island, and the glare of white light shone within. Considering the phrasing of the mission statement, it hadn't been an unreasonable expectation to think that they'd be encountering a dilapidated old house of horrors. This seemed too perfect; Abel waited for somebody to say that the team needed to be on their guard as they approached.