Lugubrious

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

Somewhere in the Desert

With Bert looking on from on high, Amaya and Fleo crashed into the ground. The impact partially freed Fleo from the grip of her ice, but it didn't do much to improve her situation, for the second that she hit the earth was the second she, and the Ice Dragon Slayer as well, began to sank into Bert's treacherous Sand Tumult. All because of a small misfortune in an intense moment, things suddenly seemed bleak for half of Powder Keg.

Of course, with the sand wizard's eyes on the girls below, the action ahead was lost to him. Even if he had been fully intent on fighting Nolan, his bag of tricks would have been useless against the combo attack's rocket-powered speed. As the Ash God Slayer picked up speed, however, so did the adrenaline rushing through Bert's system, slowing down his perception just enough to fully and coherently understand that his curtain call had been issued. It was in this moment that Bert knew how deeply he'd screwed up, and in that bare instant, he felt a greater sorrow. Lights out, then. It was a pretty good life. A pity I that history will only remember me as a killer, when I was really just a killer's pawn.

Then the Rising Sabre, wreathed in searing ash and glittering ripples of violet, sheared cleanly through him. Its infernal heat allowed it to shear through flesh and bone alike, though with enough deviation that the huge cleaver exited through his collarbone rather than the top of his head. Without a second passing, every grain of sand in the vicinity suddenly lost all magical property, and the sand castle crumbled. In a grand landslide the sand fell, degenerating into nothing more than a dune speckled with ice. Lucas and Nolan fell to earth, but there was no sign of the remainder of Bert's body; buried it was in the sand he had wielded in life.

Lying on top of that sand, though, were two curious objects. One was Bert's hat, discarded in the battle, and the other was a strange little artifact. Though the size of a pine cone, it was teal in color, and on closer inspection turned out to be a carved fish, glowing brightly, though every second that glow faded. When the light had died down completely, the statuette melted away into mere water—a soggy patch on the sand, soon to evaporate into the impartial sun.

In a burst of sand Fleo jumped to her feet, shaking the coarse grains from her hair and spitting them out. “Yuck! He got me again!? This guy's a major douche canoe.” After clearing her face, she looked around, still hyped up for a fight. “Where'd he go? I lost sight of him after he grabbed me....did we win?” A grin appeared on her face. Evidently she hadn't seen anything.

Nero – Guild Hall

Nero turned toward the source of the voice. Penny, though easy on the eyes, gave of the impression of tenacity, and her assertiveness to judge him poorly didn't discredit the notion. Fortunately, the genie's smile weathered opposing forces with greater fortitude than many seawalls the continent over. “Hidey ho! People are a lot like food, you know. You can't really say something's awful until you try it. Otherwise, nobody would eat turnips at all! Uh, not that I'm trying to defend turnips...they are pretty awful. Maybe not a good example, heheh. But cursing him? Never! To use power without reason is to make power meaningless. Funnily enough, a guy I knew once said that before being cursed. Bottom line is, eventually I'll earn some money, and then I'll pay. Not many places give you food before saying the price; I'd hate to lose access to this one. Hell, I might get three meals a day for once! Wouldn't that be hilarious?”

So saying, Nero eagerly removed a small vial from his pouch and poured a drop of it into his water. He waved a hand over it, muttering, “I summon the power of the Law of Embodiment,” and the entire contents of the cup transformed to match the drop, becoming a dark yellow-green liquid. Of this Nero drank deeply, and sighed in satisfaction once done. It seemed that he fostered no commitment to further conversation with Penny.

Protea - The Ebon Flow

Udo Koro Kai – Cistern

The torrent of offensive spells proved more than enough to dispatch the wretched sewer creature. Its flesh sizzled and melted beneath the combined might of Potentia and Ignis, and with a final gurgle it ruptured like a salted slug. The remains slid back into the water, and without a source the poisonous cloud dissipated to harmless levels. Kai watched soberly, speculating a relationship between this colorless monster and the amorphous being that nearly drowned him. His thoughts soon strayed beyond the short encounter, however, as his attuned senses picked up new sounds from one wing of the junction, the one that sloped uphill. “There is...some sort of commotion that way,” he murmured, closing his eyes to focus his hearing. “Dim shouts...human shouts, and faint echoes of magic. There are denizens of the sewers that form their own micro-communities, yes?” he asked, addressing Aron, the resident cistern expert. “Perhaps they might be able to give us guidance. But it sounds as if they are in trouble. Idou!” In a flash, Kai stood at the head of the group, poised to sprint toward the source of the noise. It is as much of a lead as we can get. “Watch your footing and keep an eye on the water as you move. Let us make haste!“

Depth Plumbers HQ

Whether assailed by bronze blade, ice magic, fire magic, or bucklers, the slimy dwarfs did not last. After they crumbled beneath the team's panic induced-attack, they fortunately exhibited no tendency to reform, and merely lost all cohesion until the carpet was soggy with mundane water. Though brief, the brawl had been furious, and what the slime beings lacked in survivability they made up for in brutality. When still alive, they could stretch their limbs and harden their fingers into stabbing points, a trait they used with gusto on the weakest fighter in the building: Helvetica. Before the combat was over, the mage had been pierced a half dozen times, and now she lay bloody on the ground. Neither she nor Joshin were dead, but clearly their physical wounds -not to mention potential psychological damage- would effectively keep them from continuing in the quest. Only the germina's kitten had escaped unscathed, though sodden and badly frightened.

Mancer, though not seriously injured, was as majorly shaken as the cat, if not more. He shivered as he watched the last vanquished slime dwarf dissolve completely, and stepped with light, nervous feet as he left the living quarters, picking up the mewling mite on the way. The team reconvened in the hallway. Eresa, Levi, and Malte didn't seem permanently worse for where, although the afflicted mage had no notion of where Kadoodle might be. Dane had regained his feet, though the necessity of someone guiding him made it clear he had lost his sight. Helvetica had yet to be helped up, but Mancer didn't think he could support her weight. “Figures that the healer gets incapacitated,” he complained, trying to make light of the situation, for he couldn't begin to explain it.

There was a slurping noise, far more vast than those squelches emitted by the slime dwarfs, toward the hallway's other end. The room there, large, gray, and well-lit, looked to be the plumbing control center. If any individuals were to enter it, they'd find a chaotic tangle of pipes, valves, and basins, and a murky liquid beginning to pour en masse from one of the more expensive-looking linkages. No people, gelatinous or otherwise, occupied the chamber.

Protea - The Ebon Flow

Apologies for the delay, I've been very occupied with Uni for my finals and it wasn't until today that I found out that I thankfully passed all of my classes with good marks but what really made me delay was something else that happened that hit me pretty hard. I found out that one of my friends passed away about a week ago (I wasn't told until a few days ago when I got back home) and I've been feeling very terrible the moment because his family, friends and I have been arranging a funeral for him. So I'm not sure if I can continue on with the RP for now sadly. Not to worry, I'll probably write something down in a day or two though I'm not at all in the mood at the moment to come up with anything. I'll be sure to write something soon, I hope you guys can understand. Sorry again for the delay.

@Blubaron45

No problem. Real life takes precedence, I will simply look forward for your next post whenever it may be. I'm sorry about your friend.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

<Snipped quote by harinezumikouken>

What are we making canon now?

<Snipped quote by Lugubrious>

But the line between Justice and Vengeance is very thin.

@KabenSaal

Justice isn't a facet of human behavior either. It is a moral construction to ensure societal stability.

No rest for the wicked (Cyberpunk rp with Vigilantes and crime lords)

I am interested by this. If a couple other people finish their sheets, I may very well cast my lot in with you all.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Can we add vengeance to the mantras? O=)

@Forsythe

Vengeance isn't really a facet of human behavior. It's a desire that results from wounded conceit, prickled rage, or the like. It can be a part of a character, but I don't think it should be the main idea.

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

Hmm...what best summarizes Asura's Wrath?

It might be this.

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

Somewhere in the Desert

It was frustrating, but not exactly surprising, when Bert witnessed Powder Keg collectively dealing with his Sable Dance. He did draw some satisfaction from the fact that two of them bled now thanks to his sand blades' handiwork, and as he watched from atop his pillar, Lucas -who didn't appear to have reacted to the Dance, instead going for a fistbump with the dark-haired boy- received a healthy slash on the back of his leg. Before he could examine further through squinted eyes the interaction of Lucas and Nolan, his attention strayed to an oasis of ice in the middle of his Sand Tumult: the frigid terrain resulting from Amaya's defensive Ice Dragon Wing. When she began her approach, Bert readied himself, but not to such a degree that he was oblivious to the advancing Fleo, whose Siroccos bore her from sand tower to sand tower in a quest to get closer. Judging by Fleo's height advantage, she'd reach him before the Ice Dragon Slayer would.

His suspicions proved double correct when the words “Vortex Impact!” sang out from his right. Turning away from Amaya for the time being, trusting his Sand Tumult to impede her enough to prevent her getting to him preemptively, Bert crafted a sand shield -albeit with arms aching from the aftermath of the burning Ash God's Bellow- and held it out for Fleo to kick. His surprise was palpable, then, when Amaya popped up behind him and shouted at him before attacking. Caught by surprise in his miscalculation, Bert span around to defend himself with his shield, and immediately a casing of ice enveloped his shield courtesy of Amaya's kick. Her next attack shattered the shield, but Bert, frozen not by her ice but momentarily by her words, hesitated. Phoenix Wing, the hero guild? And since when did water monsters have such varied powers anyway? For just a second, Bert looked upon the scene from an outsider's perspective. That hesitation allowed Fleo's skull-rattling spinning drill kick, the Vortex Impact, to connect with his lower back. Empowered by the dusty rotation, her foot was driven into the sand wizard's back with force, prompting him to yell in pain and anger.

However, the Vortex Impact's weakest iteration wasn't nearly enough to stop him. Amaya, having obviously seen this, aimed another strike at Bert, but he wasn't ready to give up quite yet. Reaching behind him, the sand wizard grabbed Fleo, who by this time had lost enough momentum to be merely hanging in the air, by the throat. “Gurhk!” she garbled as Bert swung her lightweight frame around bodily, positioning her directly in the path of Amaya's kick. The dusty woman didn't have time to protest before she was accidentally frozen, and a wrathful kick from Bert pushed her right into Amaya, and together the two fell from the tower. Wiping sweat out of his eyes, Bert stepped to the edge of his tower to look down and see what happened, unwittingly exposing himself to Nolan and Lucas, who he'd momentarily forgotten.

Nero – Back in Magnolia

Nero shrugged cheerily. “Doesn't matter! When you're ready to start lookin', just tell me who, or even where. Or just ask for a power boost that'll make it easier for you. If I made you a foot taller, you'd be able to walk through any crowd and see everyone! Doesn't get any more neato than that, heh!” When the jolt of the train announced the journey's end, the genie was among the first to his feet. Eagerly he stepped from the carriage, expecting Prince to take care of Lazarus if he thought of the afflicted light mage at all, before waltzing out the doors and onto the platform. Without anything better to do than find wizards with wishes, he decided that he'd continue to tag along with the Phoenix Wingers and head back to the guild hall. On foot, the cross-town trip of Magnolia took some time, even on a direct route, but with a sick man in tow the Balsam squad made it back in remarkably good time.

Upon reentering the hall, Nero raised both arms theatrically. “Ta-dah! Lazarus got sick, we found Sasha's long-lost bro, and I didn't curse anyone, I swear! ...Not effectively,” he muttered the last bit. After that, he didn't pay much more attention to his former comrades, particularly in a minute or so after Trinity started doing something weird to the catman.

He found his way to the bar again, and after recognizing him the tender suppressed a grimace. “...can I help you?”
“Yes, hello again! Did you save my potatoes?” Nero cracked up. “Just kidding! It's been, what, five hours? They'd a' probably gained sentience by now.” The bartender's stoic face cut through his mirth like a razor through skin. “'Cause of mutation...? Ah, never mind. You'll learn to laugh some day, friendo. How about carrots? Have any a' those?”
A few minutes later, the dark mage had wolfed down his carrots. Either he hid a prodigious appetite, or food had been paltry for him as of late. As the bartender watched Nero finish off the last bite, he smirked, and asked, “You know this food isn't free, right?”

A few second passed before Nero, eyes uncharacteristically wide open, peeped, “What?”
“Yeah, it's not much, but you have to pay for food here.”
Nero's thoughts drifted back to when he'd played with a coin in Balsam—his only coin. “Do you take wishes?”
“Sure,” the tender said, still grinning. “I wish for exactly enough money to pay for your food.”
After a few seconds, Nero patted his pockets. “Um, I think I left my wallet in my other poofy pantaloons, so I'm gonna hafta owe you. But you'll get your wish! Scout's honor.”

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Hey, Lugu, I'm here. Sorry for my absence but I was moving and working on school stuff just after I last poked my head in here, and I fell off the map a bit when I couldn't seem to get in touch with some of my teammates.

School year's wrapping up, and I'm no longer swamped by things I need to do, so I should be back to full presence. I'll try to have a post for Ben and relevant parts of BAST done today or, at the latest, tomorrow.

@Krayzikk

That's awesome! Glad to have you back!

I'm so happy! All of BAST and RPDG are back in business!

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

So, Lug, if I read the new contest correctly, you want us to write a character sheet for a Human Female, aged 21, who is a leader and represents one of the "mantra"? Am I right?

@PyroDash888

Yeah.