Lugubrious

The Crucible - a 'multiversal' tournament with your soul on the line

No story works without want. Whether the object of one's desire is a person, an object, an experience, status, power, or something as simple as to survive or to be remembered, it drives every living thing -and some things that can scarcely be called living- to action. Of course, this isn't a revelation—in fact, it borders on asinine overcomplication. All the same, motivations are vitally important, foundational elements of characters of all shapes and sizes. But what if I told you there was a machine that could makes such wishes reality?

For 3000 years, a city stood on a stretch of land in the middle of the ocean, two isthmuses connecting it to the bordering countries. More than 500 square miles across, and situated in the middle of the most ancient part of the world, it is a city that has seen it all. It's seen empires rise and fall, felt iron grip of totalitarianism, enjoyed golden ages of trade, culture, and exploration, and been home centuries upon centuries of art. It's a place people have gone to find fame, fortune, family, and even themselves, and millions have lived and died there. It's a place like nowhere else on earth, a pillar of civilization whose face changes and changes but never fades away. Yet, today its streets are empty. The rain spatters on cars abandoned in the streets, the storefronts' lonely lights have no-one to see them, the churches once alive with song now host a silent mass, and goods sit untended in the market stalls.

Only one little islet off the shore of the mainland still stirs: the land that belongs to the Inquisitional College. Established as a joint venture between various governments after the world's brightest city went dark, the huge institute of sends its historical scholars and seekers of truth into the place now known only as the City of Echoes to find out what happened. Years have passed since then, and the lack of any findings coupled with the eeriness of the anomaly have conspired to make the world want to forget the city ever existed. Not long ago, however, the College began to turn up odd objects throughout the city, culminating in a singular, fascinating discovery: a device the size of a truck, nestled inside the Old Basilica, oddly shaped and of unknown origin. When a man possessed by curiosity placed his hand upon the dial in its center, the machine turned on, and from it issued a proclamation the scholars would never forget.

Thirty-three souls will mark the road to granting one's greatest desire

Since then, the machine has been silent, but the light bleeding from between its metal plates has never dimmed. All attempts to breach its exterior and determine what makes it tick have failed. In the meantime, more anomalous objects have turned up throughout the City of Echoes, including a case of thirty-two egg-shaped devices to be worn as pendants. The College's top minds, having brainstormed in secret for weeks on what the machine could have meant, finally hatched a plan: to bring together thirty-two contestants with hearts full of desire to fight and lay claim to one another's souls, so that the winner might find out for them what this 'wishing machine' could really do.

Welcome to the Crucible

In summary, the Crucible is a tournament being held by a creepy college investigating the goings-on in an abandoned city. The premise revolves around the use of items discovered in the city known as phylacteries. These pendants, when worn and activated, synchronize themselves to the soul of the wearer. When a competitor is defeated, the soul of the loser is transmitted to and stored in the phylactery of the winner, and the grand winner of the tournament -having amassed the souls of every other competitor- will have the chance to use the Machine to grant his or her wish.

This RP will depend a great deal on the characters. The title says multiversal, but do take note of the quotation marks. In this story, you may make your own character or any character you've previously created, ever, from any universe. You could have a character from the world of any game, movie, book, or whatever, including pre-existing RPs (this is your chance to revive an old character you liked from an RP that died). However, this character does have to be your original creation. There's one other way in which your character is important: in the sheet, there's a section called 'Echo' which will be explained in the sheet, that in essence I will use to create a zone in the ever-changing City of Echoes with personal significance to your character. I hope that you will be able to enjoy the extreme freedom you have in creating your character to the fullest. You could have a human, a dwarf, a robot, a golem, an animal, anything, from any era, whatever you please.

However, this does not mean that things will be entirely character-driven. When you begin, your character will be randomly placed in an area in the City of Echoes along with a randomly chosen opponent. You won't need to get to fighting immediately; there will be a lot to explore and do. The maximum amount of players in this RP is 16, and every player can have two characters. However, one character will have to be designated as your main character, and the other (if you make one) as a side character. Side characters will become NPCs, and in the first round of the tournament, every player will fight an NPC. After that, it's PvP. College officials will be in the city to make sure that matches proceed in a proper tournament fashion; the first person to win a duel won't be able to fight again until there's another winner so that a 'Round 2' match can begin, for instance.

The other big thing to note about this RP is the manner in which PvP will be going down. My own experience with PvP across many roleplays hasn't been great. Some people, wanting to avoid things like unsightly wounds or consequences for their mistakes, don't let their character get hit. Others autohit. Some fights progress terribly slowly, with every little thing requiring input from both parties. All of these are problems that I hope to solve with my system.

The Combat

When two players get into a fight, here's how it's going to go down. Each person will write a couple paragraphs about the fight, including the scenery, the interactions, the actual battle, and so on. This includes taking control of the other character. Hold on, hear me out: once each person posts their version of a part of the battle, all players (including the fighting players) will get the chance to vote on which one they like more using the Like feature. The suggested criteria include quality of writing, coolness factor, handling of the opposing character, and overall flow. After an amount of time agreed to before the battle, the votes are tallied, and the winning version becomes canon, with the losing portion being edited into a hider. Then the next stage of the battle begins, with both players playing off what became canon, but the next portion could go either way. The first to three rounds won is the overall winner of the fight, with that player's third round deciding the battle. If players feel like they want to go on longer, the amount of rounds needed to win can be changed. In terms of voting, I am able to jump in and make a decision if I feel foul play is going on. So write well, write fairly, and judge fairly.

I mentioned before that defeating an opponent wins their soul, but the truth is a little different. To get the opponent's soul, the easiest and fastest way is to kill the opponent. After the loser dies, his or her soul is immediately stored in the winner's phylactery. However, a soul can be 'extracted' from an opponent by linking two phylacteries—one is 'plugged in' to the other, and the one that's doing the plugging is the one that gets the soul. Soul extraction, unfortunately, causes a lot of pain to the loser, and after the loser's soul is taken, the loser becomes the winner's ally, unable to view the winner as an enemy and compelled to do what the winner commands. Death is a real possibility in this game for your character, but if you are so inclined, there are ways you can be revived, or you can make another character who can enter the city as a 'spectator'. There's lots to do in the City of Echoes even if you've lost the tournament, such as find special Artifacts that the College found that will help your character (or an ally) fight, survive, or discover the place's secrets

One last thing: the phylactery has one other function. If the wearer is in a high emotional state, usually from despair, grief, or anger, it is capable of transforming the wearer into a monstrous form if the wearer loses control. The means of transformation and the resulting form varies immensely between wearers, but all transformations result in more power and a 'bloodlusted', insane state of mind, though the severity of the insanity can also vary. This frenzy can only be naturally reverted by taking another contestant's soul. If a frenzied competitor loses their soul but doesn't die, that competitor 'shrivels' down into a weakened and pitiful but still monstrous state, regaining some sanity but not all. If your character has a transformation ability already, that ability will be locked for use with this mechanic

General F.A.Q.

0. Why did you make the combat this way? To make for more interesting, more engaging, more dynamic, and more complete fights that can tell a story and don't drag on and on. It also eliminates arguments along the lines of 'that should totally have hit' 'no way you could have dodged that/seen it coming'. Overall quality, entertainment, and character faithfulness become the focus rather than trying to trap, one-up, or pull one over on the other player. There will be rules to prevent cheapness as well; if your only goal is to win, and not to write some cool and interesting stuff, your chance of actually winning will plummet

1. Will there be enemies or dangers in the City of Echoes beyond the participants themselves? Yes, absolutely. There will be a lot of freedom for players to pursue subplots while not fighting in the tournament; some can stem from the players, some I will manage as the 'dungeon master'. I will also try not to arbitrarily seal stuff off; if something exists (like, say, a tower the tournament announcer is in) you could go and do something with it

2. What's the level of technology/magic/whatever in the City of Echoes? The general idea is that it's nearly impossible to tell if the city, its artifacts, and so forth are all magic, crazy-advanced technology, or the products of such; after all, any technology that's advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic, right?

3. Are characters who get their souls stolen without dying are still under the control of their players? Yes, but they are linked to the one who possesses their soul and subjugated to an extent, which depends on the amount of interest the winner has in controlling the loser. Thus, a loser can be sent off as a good friend, or forced to serve as cannon fodder for the winner

4. What's the possibility of teamfights? It's a possibility. Instead of having four versions of the same fight, however, each team would need to collab their entry.

5.Will there be consequences for breaking the tournament rules? Yes. If a character breaks the tournament process, say by killing anyone they come across even if they're not due for a fight, the College will intervene. Its extensive inventory of artifacts makes its staff formidable, and while very difficult to defeat, they could be defeated. Fights with me playing the College will be done in normal RP format, rather than the special format, so I'll have a substantial advantage.

6. Is there a way to heal between fights? Yes, there are numerous ways to recover following battle, from a makeshift hospital run by a College nurse to findable potions to healing pods or saunas.

7. Doesn't an opponent who wins writing your character into death sound a little harsh? Well, yes. On one hand, I want to preserve the potential high-stakes nature of this particular RP; its a competition as well of a story. On the other, if you're really attached to your character, I can work out a way to revive you. The City of Echoes is home to all sorts of mysteries

8. Can I leave out part of my character sheet for spoilers? Only the significance of your character's Echo. Potential opponents need access to all the other stuff, including Frenzy and your character's Wish -which can really color an individual personality- to write your character better.

9. How do you deal with voting ties? In the case of a tie, I can break it by adding my vote, or by subtracting a vote I already did.

It's worth noting that none of the ideas I have are completely set in stone; if you have any suggestions, please do let me know.

Sheet

Name:
Alias: (The name your character uses in the tournament)
Race: (Not ethnicity, but what your character is, per se, like 'human', 'elf', 'wallaby', and so forth)
Sex:
Class: (a short descriptor that summarizes your character's abilities, equipment, and fighting style, like 'swordfighter', 'pyromancer', 'sniper', 'stand user', 'grenadier', 'mech pilot', 'alchemist', etc.)
Equipment: (list your character's gear, not including standard clothes and/or armor)
Abilities: (include both notable natural and supernatural abilities. If your character starts out too strong, I may request limitations)
Fighting Style: (describe how your character fights. Don't list moves or spells or anything, but give a detailed approximation. This is a big part of how your opponents will know to handle your character)
Personality: (this is also a big part of how your opponents will know to handle your character, so don't get skimpy)
Bio:
Wish: (what motivates your character to risk life and limb in this insane tournament)
Echo: (describe and explain a place of significance to your character, perhaps relating to the wish)
Appearance: (image or written description are passable)
Frenzy: (describe your character's frenzy-induced monstrous form, and what abilities are gained in this state. Note that it doesn't have to specifically be 'turns into a big monster'; a mage could surround himself in an avatar of lightning, or a robot could change color scheme)
Inventory: (special items you have acquired. The only one you start out with is a phylactery)

Interested Parties

I would love to get the full roster of 16, but I'd consider 8 people interested enough to get started on the OOC.

@Lugubrious
@Lazo
@Deadnaut
@Hostile
@Flamelord
@Hatakekuro
@DracoLunaris
@Banana
@Roughdragon1

[9/16]

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Due to a personal issues in my life involving death in the family, robbery, attempted murder, successful murder, and other drama, I'll be missing over the course of a week. I'll try to keep up to date and connected via cellphone but otherwise don't expect big posts from me.

@Lucius Cypher

Understood. I wish you and your family well.

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

The coin Nero have Trinity so long ago? :x

@CirusArvennicus

That sentence doesn't make sense, but it sounds familiar. Yeah, Nero would grant Trinity a wish were she to ask.

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

@Demon Shinobi I'm not happy about it, but it's a very strong possibility. The RP's GM...left a lot of the meat of the RP up to the players, among other issues, and it's starting to stagnate. I have very little drive to post in it.

@Zarkun

I thought you were talking about this for a second, but then I realized you were talking about the Pokemon one. I'm pretty much with you. It's hard to dredge up motivation for that thing.

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Slayer
Level 2
Day 1
Location: Abandoned Castle
@Hylozoist @Holy Soldier @Gentlemanvaultboy @Lmpkio @Zarkun @ToadRopes @Bright_Ops
Word Count: 714
Experience: ||||||||||||||||||||

Given his prediction, Slayer had not expected that his fist would cannon straight through Brigan's body, though under ordinary circumstances such an outcome would not have been completely out the question. Nor did he imagine that the magical protection would shatter in an instant beneath the vigorous strength of Dead on Time. However, he failed to anticipate that the killer technique would have glanced off the barbarian's silver buckler as though his sinews were stringbeans, leaving the gentleman in a precarious spot. Not burdened by overbearing recovery time on his chosen move, Slayer thought to immediately disengage with a Dandy Step and perhaps follow up with a Pile Bunker. His plans did not come to fruition. ”What!?” Before he could even begin to act, Brigand's hand slammed into his torso with the force of a steam roller, smashing the breath out of him and giving him a one-way ticket to the opposite side of the burning hall...with no return ticket.

For a handful of moments after his tumbling ceased, Slayer floundered like a bird that crashed into a glass window. As his breath returned, he steadied himself, and at a careful pace picked himself back up. With an annoying expression he fished the crushed remnants of his pipe out of his breast pocket and discarded the litter into a nearby patch of fire. A quick look around, during which he coughed more than once, helped him make up his mind. ”Blast...what a blow. Rattled me teeth to toenails, I'll admit.” The smoke made his eyes water, and Slayer produced a hankerchief to hold over his mouth. From this distance at which he now stood, none of his allies could hear him, but nevertheless he remarked. ”An instant, unblockable, undodgeable counter to melee attacks...rough indeed. Range would be the way to go, but alas, I have none.” He watched Brigan flounce around the room, knocking down columns with ease. One after another, the load-bearing pillars fell, the the entire castle rocked dangerously. ”What I wouldn't give for young miss Elphelt right now. A steady barrage from her rifle would chip away those shields. With any luck, the soldiers will figure it out. I, however, elect to get while the getting's good, as they say.”

Slayer, his back somewhat bent and a hand across his aching chest, huffed and turned to leave. He made his way to the castle door, and worked as he did to remember any advantageous terrain surrounding the place. Crash after crash resounded through the hall as increasingly large chunks of the upstairs rained down. One such hunk of stonework plummeted straight for Slayer, who was alerted by the disturbance of wind. After breathing a light sigh, he tensed up and then let loose a flame-wreathed uppercut that sent chunks flying and redirected the rubble's force to his left. Without pausing to admired the handiwork, Slayer brushed some of the stone dust from his suit and hurried toward the exist, both hands now throbbing. ”What a pain...a nice glass of red would be just the ticket to patching me up, yet I imagine that vendors would be hard to come by in this 'neck of the woods'.” He glanced over his shoulder as he crossed the threshold. ”Were I not ejected so suddenly, I would have liked to advise the others to depart as well. That mess will be a tomb in only a few minutes.”

Outside, the dusk lay solemn and pleasant, lit by the inferno that was consuming the abandoned castle. Not for the first time, Slayer wondered what had become of his own teammates. More manpower would go a long way to rectifying this situation. Of course, Slayer did not pretend that the fight couldn't shift outside in a speedy manner once his comrades realized the peril of their surroundings and, upon hoofing it, drew Brigan along as well. Out in the open, though, the brute would have a disadvantage. Numbers would wear him down and divide his attention. Actually, Slayer found himself wishing that the General would come out. Possessed by a sudden competitive spirit, Slayer wanted to try ducking and dodging around him. The thought of reducing the giant to a wrathful tantrum by being a hard-to-hit annoyance brought a subtle mischievous smirk to the gentleman's face.

Capes of Denver: A Worm RP

Even the most cunning of geniuses could be struck by misfortune and compelled to miss the obvious. As it happened, such an occurrence would have looked completely ordinary compared to Elliot's oversight. So busy had he been thinking about the brashness -and potential collateral damage- of turning off his power without so much of a warning, the toymaker failed to realize exactly what such nullification meant for one whose abilities had become a terrible curse. When the thought, galvanized into action by Alesa's own realization, came to him, Elliot's eyebrows shot up. Of course! Sitting right before the Wards this whole time lay a piece of technology capable of freeing Collin from his fresh new hell.

Of course, Elliot did not receive the urge to rush over and foist a couple kisses on Ira. One of his eyebrows remained raised as he considered Alessa's rather impulsive act. No way in hell he could have gotten away with something like that, whether or not it originated from pure joy. Perhaps he'd been missing out on certain developments between his teammates? Such a discovery wouldn't have surprised him. Who, after all, would just go and converse with the eccentric, eloquent outsider, as if he were a human being? Being a chosen one -fate's champion in the earthly realm- came with the steep price of getting the memo last if at all. No matter; Elliot found himself wondering instead if this new invention might even be capable of returning Collin to duty as the Wards' leader. The kid couldn't offer much in the way of combat, but Elliot liked him more than the new leader by a long shot. He'd always been too innocent to intuit, as the others did, that chosen ones were best pushed to the fringes. Plus, a return to the old system would mean knocking Dean back down a peg—his tenure as co-captain already felt too long.

Soon after the Wards dispersed. Needles of relief and comfort pierced Elliot's mind, but the potential resurrection of Collin did not mean the kind of danger that put him down for the count in the first place no longer existed. From this day forward, Elliot knew, it would be a different world out there.

-=-=-

The next day's training session landed the antihero back in the facility's gymnasium. Instead of the usual fare, Elliot found an unfamiliar face ready to begin the day's physical education, which in a secure location like the PRT meant only one individual: Protean. This change hardly fazed him; after all, a true sixth ranger needed to adapt to stay with the times. In a shifting world, where governments and cultures rose and fell, right and wrong dueled like rock'em, sock'em robots, and nothing was as it seemed, any hero bent on standing his ground would be swallowed up by history in the blink of an eye. Elliot crouched, adopting a quizzical expression and placement of hands, to await further revelation.

It wasn't good—superficially. So, big Dean, the brave one, the right-hand man, the dependable ally, had flown the coop. Elliot never would have expected it, but he welcomed it. It would only make him look better in comparison. Of course, it also meant that he was the only gentleman in a battalion of ladies. How would that play out, he wondered? No difference at all, he felt sure. Standing, he gave a dismissive shrug and turned to stare into the distance, hands spread wide with palms up. ”I knew it from the start. He wore a mask of audacity and ego, but when the going got tough, he let fly his true colors. Even if we are gripped by tragedy or plagued by fear, heroes never give up the fight.” And with that, he gave up on Dean completely.

Only a few moments later, Elliot and the bunch were off running. For a brief moment he wondered who might replace Dean as second in command, but brushed it off to focus on the task at hand.

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

That coin's good for a wish, right, @Lugubrious?

@CirusArvennicus

What? I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about.

Pokemon: New World

A few moments of tense conversation passed between the trainers, and Darkrai waited. As the seconds passed, however, his countenance grew more and more unhinged until finally he reeled back, clawing at his face. ”URGH! Why don't you do something already, you morons!? I'm the villain, and you're the heroes, so fight me! I thought for sure when you started to rebel that you would be the ones, but lo and behold, it's another grand disappointment!”

Purple and black energy surrounded him in a terrific maelstrom, but it lacked any direction. It raged with magnificent fury, but not so much to attack as for the sake of raging itself. Darkrai thrashed from side to side, snarling and muttering curses, until it straightened up with sudden stillness as through shocked. ”What?!” A second of silence passed before it exploded in a tumultuous wrath, ”Shut up, you hypocrite! You don't know what it's like to be bored to death! What I'm trying to do is create a story that nobody will ever forget—a legend, fit for the ages! What the hell is our power and status for if all we do is wait around in some cave until some idiot with a Master Ball comes along and consigns us to servitude?”

Another few seconds' interlude passed, during which Olivie could only stare in confusion, before Darkrai growled and pointed a clawed finger at the four trainers. ”Of course I can force it! Why do you think I'm playing the villain? But these stupid humans can't play along, same as all the rest. They don't want to go wild with power, they don't want to take a stand and defeat me, they don't do anything! What kind of story is that? Just stagnation and disappointment, summarizing my life perfectly.” His cyan eye turned upward, staring straight into the Stygian dark above. Still baffled, Olivie imagined that he must be communing with some being beyond her awareness or comprehension. She did take a quick look around, though, and found that the dreamscape was a little...off. Objects, like rocks and the grass, were losing their definition. Everything was getting hazy, even Darkrai himself. The wraith hissed, shaking his fists in wrath, but in him, too, something changed. A lethargy came over him, and he lowered his hands. His sharp tone, formerly derisive, now came bitter and cynical. ”It's useless.” His eye, making contact with Olivie's, held more hopelessness than anything. ”The sun is rising. What a waste of a night. I will let you go now, but listen to this: I might not be able to make a good legend out of it, but people are going to keep looking for escape in their dreams, whether from misery, monotony, or responsibility. Or people who are dying—one final dream before they pass on. I won't stop giving them this release, and even if you could find me in the waking world, there's not a damn thing you can do to stop me, either. Get lost.”

Without a second's delay, the pitch black of the sky collapsed, falling upon the trainers like a tsunami and washing each one away into darkness. Olivie, full of questions and confusion, tried to hold on, but the world slipped away with dizzying speed. Only one sensation remained: rising, like a balloon, or a diver shooting to the surface.

Olivie awoke with a gasp, making a piece of grass to fly in her mouth, and she immediately set to hawking it up. The tears on her eyes from all the coughing, added to the sheer suddenness of the light blasting her retinas, prevented her from seeing well for half a minute. When she blinked away the wateriness, though, she found herself in a sitting position, greeted by a beautiful orange sunrise on the ocean horizon. A quick look around turned up Leisy, Ella, and the girls' Pokemon, but no other people save Bernard, zonked out about twenty meters away. She appeared to be on the sea stack where the dream began last...night? Olivie rubbed her eyes. Her head hurt from everything she remembered, and she couldn't even remember that much. All she could recall was a black void, a blue-eyed specter, a bunch of Pokemon, and...not much else. The entire ordeal stank of anticlimax, but then again, what else were dreams good for?

With shaky knees she got to her feet. Buck, sprawled out on his back, rolled into his belly and stood up. He stared at her with a bewildered expression on his chubby features, and chattered. Nearby, her other Pokemon were waking too. Olivie scratched her head as she developed a scowl. ”Freaky dream. Hey, Barnie! Get up!” She walked over to give the dozing boy a hefty kick. ”We're outta here!” Without any further ado, she marched back toward the natural arch that connected the seastack to the mainland. She only paused long enough to glance at Leisy and Ella, and to give the two a stiff nod.

The benevolent Beauty Boisterous Bruiser

Current Location: Seastack near Stillwater
TP: 36 + 1 = 37
CP: 25 + 1 = 26

Interaction:
@Dusksong's Leisy Takagawa
@LuckyBlackCat's Ellanor Beaufort

-=-=-

In the depths of the secluded seashore, a great, empty cavern turned even the slightest of sounds into an echo. Right now, it resounded with the irate sigh of a wraithlike creature, dejected and alone, laying against a stalagmite on the cave floor. He stared upward at the place's only source of light: an elegant creature radiant with white and violet light, trimmed in gold. She hung from the ceiling, looking back down at him. A soft croon issued from her throat, causing her inky counterpart to snicker. ”Hmph. I'll admit I haven't been the most...vocal about what's been eating me. I did not think that you would even want to help me, given our dichotomy. The moon shines through the darkness, after all. Jealousy, of your purity and popularity, made me think that we were enemies, but you may be right in saying the solution is to come together. Perhaps I don't even need a legend to keep me from losing it."

The bat gave a light chuckle, and the specter crossed his arms. ”So, 'friend'. What's the plan?"

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Slayer
Day 1
Location: Abandoned Castle
@Hylozoist @Holy Soldier @Gentlemanvaultboy @Lmpkio @Zarkun @ToadRopes @Bright_Ops
Word Count: 683
Experience: ||||||||||
LEVEL UP
Physical Strength += 5
New Ability: Dead on Time
Level 2

The winds of fortune did not, regrettably, conspire to give Slayer the amicable, conversational solution that for a moment he had held high hopes. In a tremendous splash of energy, the grenade of one of the soldiers engulfed the form of General Brigan, but a moment later the giant shouldered his way out of the dark maelstrom toward the green-clad plumber who'd dared to attack him. A flash of flame, almost too quick for even Slayer's eyes, carried Luigi to safety in the nick of time. No sooner had Oswald, who Slayer judged by his actions to be on the heroes' side, whisked him away than a ball of power cannoned into Brigan. Instead of burning through, however, it fizzled out. This sight caused Slayer to raise his eyebrows. No sell? Blocking could mitigate much of a blow, and evasion could render it harmless, but this appeared to be neither. Not even a smidgen of 'chip' damage appeared to bleed through whatever protection surrounded the great lout. Slayer observed as the heavy, rock-hard hooves of Mudsdale failed to bother him as well. No mere projectile immunity, then. This is some sort of advanced state. What could be causing it...?

As he wondered, the voice of Oswald interrupted his thoughts, and Slayer glanced at him to discover with some alarm that the shadow knight had not saved Luigi as a token of some newfound alliance against the greater evil. For the first time, Slayer's grip tightened around his tie. For some reason -one now deemed insipid and reprehensible by the gentleman who made it only moments ago- he'd expected that opposing one side of this fight meant allying with the other, but just as in his world, things were not so simple. Then again, Oswald's demand wasn't unreasonable—merely solidifying a supposed truce by calling off the pursuit of those he held dear, though Slayer couldn't say with any honesty that the pursuit ever truly began. This train of thought, too, was dashed when Brigan took a monstrous swig from his horn and breathed a colossal plume of fire across the room. In moments every remotely flammable thing in the room was alight, so much tinder for the roaring flame. It licked at Slayer's pant legs and coattails, threatening to consume him too, but the gentleman hurried to beat them out. When his gaze returned to Brigan, something in his eyes had changed. Their rich, mahogany brown had become harder than hardwood, and if they gleamed, it was not his characteristic gregarious twinkle but instead a shimmer of intent.

Around him, the situation had turned catastrophic, especially with the inferno draining the air of its oxygen, but it was with the same measured pace as always that he began to move forward. No rage clouded his face, but it held the tired look of a parent done entertaining the tomfoolery of his child as he slipped his pipe into his pocket. ”He was untouchable before he took his drink, so it is not some potion protecting him, but instead those shields upon his chest. Something so ludicrously impractical could only be useful by some magic property. Loathe as I am to render this buffoon more nude, I suggest we strip him of those shields.” The vampire polished and replaced his monocle as he drew close to melee range. The picture of dignity and cultured sophistication, he opposed General Brigan. Though the barbarian before him outmatched him in terms of height, Slayer stood far taller where it mattered. ”As for you...my mind is clear. It is time I perform my first act...”

He stretched out his arms to either side of his waist, flexing the fingers into fists and chambering his right hand. Rather than call his attack, he began immediately; his fist shot forward like a rocket, surrounded by purple fire, and its pull combined with his own leap sent him flying forward. He aimed for Brigan's upper-right shield, hoping to destroy it with the full force of his special Overdrive technique, Dead on Time. Slayer drove the bunker-busting punch home and exclaimed, ”As a hero!”

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Post incoming within a couple hours.