Lugubrious

Persona ~ The Beholder

Still here.

World of Light

Tora & Poppi

Level 8 Tora (19/80) and Level 7 Poppi (65/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky – Shadow of Vah Naboris
Primrose's @Yankee, Fox's @Dawnrider, Sectonia's @Archmage MC Midna's @DracoLunaris
Word Count: 754

Midna's arrival and subsequent extension of her dark field forced Urbosa to pause and consider her approach. The rumbling and unmistakable downward movement of Vah Naboris confirmed that the other invaders must have brought the Divine Beast to its knees. Needless to say, things could not be said to be going well for Urbosa. Yet a true warrior did not flinch in the face of danger, at the prospect of taking pain and accomplishing the mission, and neither did one yield to derision no matter how vile. “You'll regret uttering such slanderous filth. Prepare!” So saying, she stepped into the field, shield poised in front of her. In an instance Midna's wolfos lunged, crossing the distance as a blur and slamming into the shield with remarkable force. Urbosa staggered backward, but she did not fall. The wolfos clung to the shield and snapped at her face, aiming to rip out her eyes or throat, but the warrior held firm before flinging the beast off. Her shield arm then dropped, numb from the impact and useless from the herculean effort of keeping the dead weight up.

The seconds afford to him allowed Tora to pull himself up, head spinning, but the Drill Shield firm in his grip. Joker approached from the right to help steady him, sizing Urbosa up. “We'll surround and fight her at once. Two swords, one shield. On my mark.” He conjured Arsene in a curtain of blue flames, and the specter loomed behind him. “Sukunda!”

Arsene snapped his fingers, and a dark aura surrounded Urbosa. She shook her head as if dizzied, swatting at the cloud, but even as it disappeared her disorientation remained. Joker nodded to himself. “Her agility is compromised. Now!”

With as ferocious a cry as he could muster, Tora charged straight at her. Joker followed, circling around to the left and trusting Midna to do the same on the right. Owing to the Nopon's stubby legs they converged on Urbosa at the same time. Joker began with a feinted stab to cover a clean gunshot, and Tora clubbed the warrior's shin when she didn't give him her attention, giving Midna an opening. For a few brief but furious moments the trio scuffled against the champion, their teamwork pitted against her masterful technique but diminished agility, wearing her down to such an extent that even when she regained feeling in her shield arm the tides did not turn back.

Meanwhile, as Primrose and the Phantom Thieves navigated up toward the humps, which was by no means the work of mere moments, Sectonia continued to square off against the vicious Thunderblight. Her light ring sawed through its stony, goopy exterior, but the unfeeling brute continued to rage against her. It darted around with blistering speed, able to track her teleports effortlessly and zip around to strike from different angles. As much as she thought herself above this thing, even her strength and magic found themselves challenged on their own. That cruel hooked blade of blue energy carved into her carapace and even nicked her precious wings a few times.

The arrival of Primrose did give her reprieve, granting a power boost potent enough to push Thunderblight back. Perhaps trusting the beast to retreat and lick its wounds, Sectonia immediately turned to lend a hand to the fight against Urbosa. Her participation meant that the tired and wounded champion faced not three but eight enemies. Worse still, one immediately started summoning icy minions. She gritted her teeth and hissed at them. “Relying on strength in numbers, hm? Face me like warriors, cowards!” Her scimitar flashed and carved two of the antlions up, then flew into a glittering spin attack to keep the rest off her. Yet they seemed happy to stay out of range, releasing a chilling spray.

A howl echoed through the structure as Thunderblight zoomed in. It bounced between the assembled fighters like an electrified pinball, slashing again and again. A glimmer of hope lit up in Urbosa's eyes, and with the moment's distraction she charged and released a smaller burst of Urbosa's Fury to take out the antlions and keep from freezing to death..

Skull, however, shrugged off the lightning. “Waste 'em Captain Kidd!” Obligingly the Persona appeared and smacked the champion with his ship. Caught off guard, she fell back, wide open. Thunderblight, also undeterred by electricity, shrieked as it darted around to share its pain. Feeling mighty loopy from the second electrocution, Tora could only on Poppi as she self-repaired, shielding her with his body.

World of Light

Tora & Poppi

Level 8 Tora (17/80) and Level 7 Poppi (63/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky – Shadow of Vah Naboris
Primrose's @Yankee, Fox's @Dawnrider, Sectonia's @Archmage MC Midna's @DracoLunaris
Word Count: 815

With its heavy slash turned away, Thunderblight presented no defense against Sectonia's magic. Her ring of light raked across its bizarre body, loosening shards of some kind as well as a spray of malefic corruption. The globules of dark magic threatened to spatter across her if she wasn't careful, but her opponent remained a greater threat. Though subjected to a direct hit, the thing barely slowed down. It zipped backward in a blur, faster even than she, then dashed three more times to come at her from above and behind. Its vicious swings came relentlessly, forcing her onto the defensive.

Midna arrived during the onslaught to lend a hand. She caught its sword arm mid-swing and held on tight, even as the corrupter uttered a loathsome gurgle and tried to wrench away. Sectonia got her chance to attack, but only for a moment. Lightning covered Thunderblight's weapon, discharging into the imp's hand.

Down below, Tora struggled against Urbosa's assault. The champion moved with both immaculate grace and uncommon strength, raining down blows upon him. Her speed and reach far outstripped his, allowing her to attack from every angle. For every harmless clang of her scimitar against his Mech Arms, she landed at least one clean blow, and Poppi could only mitigate so much. Red slices quickly spread over Tora's head, torso, and wings, his clothes gaining more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. His vast store of HP was draining ast. She gave him no window to counterattack or even start thinking of a strategy, forcing him instead to endlessly protect his face and eyes. It wasn't long before she concluded that he presented no threat and ceased respecting him altogether. Urbosa brought her leg up and slammed it down across Tora's Mech Arms, dropping his block, and raised her sword to chop into his head. “Mehh!?” The Nopon's eyes went wide, and Poppi reached out her hand with a scream.

At that moment, Joker made his move from his vantage point. “Leena! One-shot kill!”

His persona, looking down her sights at the small of Urbosa's back, placed her finger on the trigger. “Affirmative.” Her rifle issued forth a bright yellow blast that drilled into the champion's back, dealing critical damage.

“Ugh!” she cried, but before she could turn around Poppi cannoned into her from the front. “Bad lady not kill masterpon!” Though much smaller than Urbosa she tackled her bodily to the ground. Urbosa brought her arms up to block as the artificial blade pummeled away. Tora ran around to the other side to start punching, but the champion would not be so easily beaten down. She rose with a dancer's elegance on her hands, spinning her legs like a sawblade to strike both driver and blade at once. As she landed on her feet she hurled her shield toward the upper section of the chamber, forcing Joker to throw himself from his perch and grapple away. Tora used the precious moment to launch himself into the air with a blast from the Mech Arms, avoiding Urbosa's slice, and deliver a two-handed wallop to her head. Poppi followed up with a strike to the champion's back where Joker's persona shot her, forcing Urbosa to her knees with a gasp of pain. Overhead, Joker swung in with his knife at the ready to deliver a plunging slash. The champion clenched her teeth. “You curs...! Feel my fury!”

A greenish-yellow field expanded around her, enveloping Tora, Poppi, and Joker. Unprepared for such an attack, all three went on full defensive. Without being ordered Poppi switched to her Alpha form, allowing Tora to defend himself with the Drill Shield, and Joker canceled his attack to bring forth Leena in front of him. The next second a calamitous blast of lightning shook the Divine Beast, filling the entire cavity of its body.

When the light faded, there lay Poppi, down for the count, as well as Tora and Joker, both smoking. Urbosa was on her feet, both weapons at the ready, and she wore a grim smile. “Your death is at hand!”

Below, the collective efforts of Yellow Team bore fruit. Pursuing and landing hits on the hooves of the Divine Beast might have been difficult for a lone fighter, but with a dedicated pair of hands on the wheel of the Morgana-car and a slew of projectile-slinging heroes free to let loose, two of the four hooves went red in no time. Fox's maneuver took care of the third, and while he needed to focus on himself to avoid another lightning strike on his way back, his fellows took out the fourth after only another handful of seconds. Once all four hooves glowed red from sustained damage, Vah Naboris let out a distressed rumble before coming to a stop. Its legs bent as it lay down, like a camel waiting for a rider to climb on.

Edge of the Blue – Seaward Bay

Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link's @Gentlemanvaultboy, Junior and Kamek's @DracoLunaris, Hat Kid's @Dawnrider, Geralt's @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Isabelle's @Eviledd1984

Regardless of final destination, the first step on Blue Team's tour of Limsa appeared to be Mealvaan's Gate. Peach led the party as they caught up to Junior where he queued behind Shropshire, Northampton, and a dapper man going through customs. The fellow ahead of the three appeared to be finishing up, and after the two ship girls gave the customers officers a look at some loot they evidently collected on their voyage, the kid koopa was up. “Not selling anything?” The officer asked. “No cargo? No fruits or vegetables? Well, if there's nothing to tax, there's no reason to hold you up. Move along, please.” Accordingly, customers went quickly for everyone.

Once through, the gate, the Arcanists' Guild the officer came from lay to the left, its learned members well-versed in the sums needed to to their jobs. Ahead lay Hawkers' Alley, quite unavoidable even for those uninterested in shopping who walked this route. It bustled with a great many of people, some looking to buy but a great many milling about, chatting and trading among themselves. Some even sat around crafting in the open, putting together products for sale at the market board. Peach found herself looking around as though her neck were on springs, constantly distracted by new sights, sounds, and smells. True to Shropshire's word, just about everything one could possibly buy seemed to be on sale here, from weapons to armor to jewels to materials to monster parts to food to furniture to pets. She couldn't help but stop by the stall labeled 'Minion Mart' and look at all the little critters on sale. Beyond Hawker's Alley lay a circular plaza with an uncommon amount of people. There were people talking, arguing, taking pictures, and more. There were humans, people with cat ears and tails, big bulky folk, tiny potato people, reptilians, blocks caricatures, more ship girls, and more. Most interesting, however, seemed to be on the young lady dancing by the giant blue crystal in the center. She put on a breathtaking spectacle, to say the least. Still, the red eyes of every single person present provided a sobering reminder of the reality Blue Team faced.

On the opposite side of the aetheryte plaza from Hawkers' Alley, another large bridge led to Bulkwark Hall. Stairs to the right led down toward the main harbor, where fishy smell wafted from on the breeze. It was here that Limsa Lominscuttle Town truly opened up.

Dead Zone – Hell-bent City

Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Banjo & Kazooie's @Dawnrider, Linkle's @Gentlemanvaultboy, Bowser's @DracoLunaris Doom Slayer's @Eviledd1984

The ground shook and alarms blared as the reactor spiraled further and further into ruin, and those within the Super Gore Nest had no need to think twice about what to do. The four fighters cheesed it with every bit of haste they could muster. Acting on some indiscernible intuition, Raidou's spider demon carried him up a wall and through a patch of loose ceiling tile. Whether or not the unusual path lead toward the surface and salvation couldn't concern the others for the moment. Behind him, Nero could hear the roar of approaching fire. There wasn't a moment to loose. With a yell he shot out his Punchline arm, which extended into a missile that swerved back his way to pick him up. Nadia jumped and clung to the devil hunter's back as he rode down the hall, desperately trying to remember the way the crew came in. “Radiation, hallways, lab, atrium, hallways...whoa!” A Penance demon pounced out of a nearby room, but Nero managed to sway his makeshift rocket-board out of the way. He dared to look back, only to wish he hadn't; the unlucky monster vanished into a wall of flame sweeping forward far too fast for comfort.

He rounded a corner, gritting his teeth to make the turn with the unfamiliar weight on his back, and saw to his dismay a dead end. “No!” Not a dead end, but a corridor leading straight to the elevator he rode in on. But even if it worked, it would rise far too slow to escape the deadly blaze. He leaned forward to pick up speed, ignoring the panicked yowls of the feral girl holding on to him, and at the last moment jumped off the arm. His shoulder hit the elevator wall with negligible damage, and he hurried to pop the arm back on. He spotted Nadia staring back at the flame wall, hear ears flattened in fear, and began to charge the arm. “Grab on! We're gonna blast off!” Punchline heated up as he crouched down, its engine's speed and pitcher getting higher and higher. Nadia clamped her arms around his neck, and with considerable effort Nero growled, “Boost...Knuckle!”

Punchline blazed upward in brilliant jet, pulling the Devil Hunter and his hanger-on after it. Its fist blew straight through the elevator roof, then rocketed up the shaft, just ahead of the raging firestorm. The duo flew up, up, up like a screaming firework until Punchline struck the top of the shaft and promptly blew up, throwing Nero and Nadia out into the facility's ground-level lobby. They tumbled across the ground in a chorus of grunts and groans, with Nadia falling to pieces, but altogether not much worse for wear. A few moments passed before they picked themselves up, only to find Doom Slayer and Raidou waiting for them. The skateboard in the berserker's hand told them everything they needed to know about how he escaped. And the man still hankered for more, judging by his question.

Nero shook his head, trying to catch his breath. “Hey, give us a sec, will you?” An awkwardly silent couple of seconds passed with the others looking on while he and Nadia composed themselves. “...Okay. Well, we helped you clear out this mess, so I guess it's on to the Qliphoth root. Let's just hope that blast didn't get the attention of every monster in the city.”

“Hey, kid!”

After a moment of confusion, Nero remembered the strange fate befallen Dante and got up. “What is it?”

He watched his aunt drop from the half-deli a few hundred feet away -where she'd either been keeping watch or slacking off while the others slogged through the gore nest- and point roughly northward. “We've got a bunch of weirdos headed this way! Animals, robot, ghost, tentacle turtle, you name it!”

The devil hunter sighed, and Nadia gave a dry laugh. “Ya just had to open your big mouth, huh?” She tried to stand, only to wince and nearly hit the ground again. Nero caught her just in time. Without his demonic vitality, or Raidou's demon proxies, she'd put a lot of energy into the fighting back there and gotten a few good wounds for her efforts. Whatever kept her alive despite being cut to pieces clearly didn't make her invincible, so if forced to fight again, things could end badly. Raidou seemed low on energy himself, so that left just himself, Dante, V, and the Slayer against any enemies. While on paper that seemed like an unstoppable team, things could still get messy. He looked around for Nico's van, hoping that his friend and Pandemonica wouldn't end up caught in the crossfire.

Although Dante wore a cheery smile, her eyes betrayed her concern as well. “We should intercept 'em before they get close. Stay here and look after 'em, huh Nero? You there, with me.” She took off, and the Slayer followed right behind with V in the rear.

Less than a minute later, the three crested the edge of a building overlooking the street on the great crater's edge. Sure enough, a ragtag team was moving quickly down the road. Dante narrowed her eyes. “Not zombies or demons. Or those stinking parasites. But if there's anything I know about this city, it's everything's out to get you. Might as well get 'em first. C'mon, tough guy!”

After beckoning to the Slayer, Dante jumped down, and at the same time Griffon flew up to flap in front of V. “Hey champ, get a load of this! It's those wackos from earlier!”

Squinting, V realized the truth of the demon's words. “Oh, no...”

---

As Red Team neared the Super Gore Nest, attracted by the tremendous spectacle of it exploding and sending chunks of demonic flesh flying for thousands of meters, a blur fell from a nearby building. It hit the sidewalk without even a suggestion of damage and began to walk forward. She turned out to be a statuesque woman with fluffy white shoulder-length hair plus a short ponytail, with a red headband and a number of short black spikes plus two white horns that blackened toward the tips. She wore a red and black suit with many silver fly accessories plus a black tie and dark red longcoat, although she wore them rather sloppily. Beneath her aviators lay a cheerful smile, brimming with the sort of joy that could never be faked. She would not have been threatening at all if not for the rather ghastly sword. She held across her shoulder.

“Well hey there,” she greeted them, waving. “If I knew the circus was in town, I would've brought some popcorn. So whatcha guys got for me? Elephants? Trapeze? Ooh, how about juggling? Here, let me getcha started.”

She wound back and flung the sword, which span through the air like a helicopter blade. It hurtled among the group, forcing them apart. Tess flew up to avoid it, then dove toward the enemies. “Allow me!” She slashed at the Slayer, then swung toward Dante.

Her cleaver descended, but Dante pulled a black pistol from her back and fired once, nailing Tess straight in the face. She fell back, shrieking, and Sparda completed its Round Trip as it flew back into Dante's hand. She swung it upward to send the wraith flying away.

“Dante!”

The woman glanced over to see V descending from the building with Griffon's help. “Stop now! These aren't enemies!”

Dante's red eyes flashed. “No dice. These jokers are aimin' to kill me!”

“What!?” V looked and sounded baffled. “Have you lost your senses? Only one has even attacked, and in self-defense no less!”

Dante ignored him, her eyes blazing. She stood with the Slayer against the whole of Red Team, both of them aggro'd. “You ready? 'Cause it's showtime!”

Persona: Shadow of Virtuality (Persona RP except with futuristic cyberpunk VR and hackers; prior knowledge not required)

Gremlin Man Kyle

Name: Kyle Nucci

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Appearance: Kyle stands at 5'5” and is of average build, although a little pallid for one with strong Italian blood. His black hair is short but croppy, a mess that adamantly refuses to be tamed, even if its owner was so inclined. He's got a somewhat big chin and a flat nose, as well as a wide smile, but while this makes him look somewhat goonish he's not ugly. His eyes are brown, trending toward hazel around the pupils. He can typically be found in black v-neck with blue blotches, a big brown leather jacket with a hood, a black ball cap with a rather long, blue-lined brim, and really baggy dark blue pants plus black sneakers. His hood and sleeves have holotech projectors in them. When his hood is up he can completely mask its contents in holographic shadow before projecting various scary faces from it, and he can project claws over his hands as well.

Personality: In most regards, Kyle is a gremlin. He's mischievous and joking, sometimes to the point of being obnoxious, with the sort of personality that loves getting other people's goats. He doesn't particularly seem to care about what others think of him, and although he's not malicious, he's not very social either, leading him to be mostly alone in real life. Day to day out in the world -when he goes out- he's pretty normal, albeit content to mind his own business without looking beyond himself. His friends are in the virtual world, however, and when not playing games with them he loves indulging in his favorite interest: horror. He's a major horror geek and loves to be scared almost as much as scaring other people. While he's pretty composed for an introvert, he does have a habit of moving almost constantly, as if he's unable to sit still.

Backstory: Kyle's upbringing was one of comparative isolation, but not loneliness. Although sometimes he missed out on good times, he never really felt inclined to be around other people, nor bothered by their absence. He didn't push people away, but never tried to pull them in—and so the world left him alone. If people called him a weirdo or a freak, he'd accept it with a laugh and embrace the role of 'monster'. Eventually he would make some friends, mostly online, but over the years he became quite accustomed to keeping his own company, and during that time he developed his real passion. He had a real head for horror, with nothing quite matching the thrill of fear. Be it through movies, games, or even real life with scarehouses and such, he enjoyed it all. And never did anyone keep the spirit of Halloween alive than he. Of course, more than anything, virtual reality made this possible. Nothing could match its ability to simulate nightmares.

Kyle couldn't stand to keep his enjoyment bottled up. He wanted to share it with the world. For a while he'd been studying electronics in school with an interest in theater, and both of those came in handy as he pushed forward with the idea of making his own virtual reality house of horror. Given the improbability of that, however, he ended up joining an existing one with ambition fueling his efforts. In seemingly no time at all his passion carried him to a co-leadership role, and he worked to bring his own visions to bear. His eagerness to explore new horizons, however, brought him down a dark path. He got involved with a few individuals on the shadier side of the law, seeking to impart an extra edge to virtual reality by delivering stimulation to customers who took a hit in the virtual world. His contacts made it happen for the right price, and after a lot of testing the new feature was quiet slipped into the existing system. As Kyle would later bemoan that he should have expected, things did not go well. During the first day with the new feature installed, one customer's VR device zapped her strong enough to send her into a coma. Horrified, Kyle pulled the plug on his operation and fled, quickly cutting all ties while leaving the traces of his contacts available. In the end, the ensuing investigation narrowly passed him by in pursuit of the hackers, and Kyle himself got away scot-free. Rather, he got away with the crushing guilt that his gullibility and lack of foresight had nearly killed, and probably ruined the life, of an innocent person who'd been a kindred spirit in his love of horror. Kyle sank into a depression, feeling that he'd been on the wrong road all along, that he'd wasted his life with selfish indulgence rather than growing to appreciate other people.

Skills:

• Observant – Maybe he's just restless, or needing constant stimulation, but Kyle's always looking around. He checks corners, peers inside things, and looks up. Not everywhere is a thrillhouse with surprises lurking around every turn, but in his own words, 'in this reality, you never know what you'll find'
• Desensitized – Getting scared out of one's wits with some regularity and seeing a lot of what the virtual world has to offer will do wonders for one's susceptibility to shock and surprise. With as much resistance as Kyle has, it'd take a lot to faze him, allowing him to deal with situations that might leave others rattled
• Vigor – Strength isn't Kyle's thing, but he's got a surprising amount of pep in his step. Those nerves of his might be permanently wired, allowing him to spring into action at a moment's notice and go a while before he starts running out of gas
• Wise to the Act – When dealing with the unknown, one never knows what might happen, and impetuousness is how people die in horror movies. A little patience, self-control, and sense has carried Kyle through many tricks and traps, and he's done his research on horror tropes too

Abilities and Equipment: In the real world Kyle is unaugmented, with no abilities beyond his own wits and no equipment aside from his projectors. While his hood projectors are mostly for visuals, they can shield his face in a pinch. His wrist projectors are less adaptable, only able to generate claws over his hands, but those claws can actually be used if necessary. As such, they qualify as holo-weapons. However, he does have a third holomatter projector not attached to his coat. Very loosely resembling a spray bottle, it is capable of scanning normal objects in a certain size threshold (crates, barrels, trash cans, cabinets, etc) and then projecting a hollow copy of them around itself once set down. Kyle himself can hide inside the projected shell, which he can move by picking up and moving the projector, although this can easily give him away if someone sees it.

Arcana Code: The Moon card features a gradient of deep purple and blue lightening up to embrace the silver full moon at its center, with its phases from gibbous to crescent extending up and down toward the top and bottom of the card respectively. Just as the moon, unseen during the mundane day and shining, distant and eerie, amid the blindness of the night, Kyle is an outsider that presides over the dark whose affinity for stealth and stasis prolongs an uncertain battle.

Shadow: Kyle's shadow is himself with his hood on and projections permanently engaged, although perennially hunched over. Largely incoherent, he skitters around just out of sight, hounding everyone it contacts with vicious tricks, traps, and scares. He obviously cares only about deriving pleasure from the fear and pain of others, with no concept of human warmth or morality. In its berserk form, Kyle's shadow is a nightmarish combination monster meant to embody human fear in a single beast: a shark-scorpion hybrid. The monster's is capable of projecting its aura across the battlefield, coating the floor with water and the ceiling with (or if there's no ceiling, making one of) darkness. It can sink into and swim through the water, or climb into the dark to move around and attack unpredictably. When enraged, many more jaws, claws, and tails can emerge from the water and dark to attack than it actually has.

Persona: Bogeyman, the thing that goes bump in the night. Arriving always from behind or beneath things, silent and leering, the Bogeyman is a legendary tormentor that terrorizes its victims, and if they don't learn their lessons, steals them away for good. It appears as a gaunt man in rags with unnatural proportions, a sack slung over its shoulder. In battle it uses its abilities to employ a hit-and-run fighting style that starts out weak but gets stronger as the fight goes on. It swipes with its claws or swings around its heavy sack, attacking slowly but with respectable strength, chilling foes with every hit to slowly turn the tide. It is nimble and wily, elusive as a haunting shadow, which is good due to its primary weakness: durability. The Bogeyman possesses little staying power and will not hold up under intense scrutiny. Bogeyman's stat spread is 13-11-6, and it is resistant to water and dark, while operating loosely in those affinities itself.

• Stealth – Bogeyman's signature ability. With a wave of its hand it can fade from view, along with its user, in a wave of cold mist. Stealth allows attacks without worry of counterattack or defense, provided one's foes don't have acute holo-sense. While stealthed, Bogeyman emits a wide-range chill that gradually ices up all enemies, with the cold growing more intense the closer Bogeyman is. Any attack by a stealthed party has a chance to inflict Fear.
• Spine Chill – Bogeyman's touch has a freezing effect, inhibiting the movement of those struck by it. Even if its attack is blocked and does no damage, physical contact still imparts some chill
• Kidnap - if a target is sufficiently weakened or is willing, Bogeyman can stuff it into its sack regardless of size. While in the sack, an enemy sustains minor but constant dark and water damage. The enemy can struggle to break free, and if the sack is ripped, it must be reconstituted before it can be used again. If a kidnapped victim is struggling, Bogeyman cannot attack or use its other abilities, but it can move and throw the sack.

Persona: Shadow of Virtuality (Persona RP except with futuristic cyberpunk VR and hackers; prior knowledge not required)

Here's my character proposal. I hope everything's alright, but let me know if it can be improved.

Gremlin Man Kyle

Name: Kyle Nucci

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Appearance: Kyle stands at 5'5” and is of average build, although a little pallid for one with strong Italian blood. His black hair is short but croppy, a mess that adamantly refuses to be tamed, even if its owner was so inclined. He's got a somewhat big chin and a flat nose, as well as a wide smile, but while this makes him look somewhat goonish he's not ugly. His eyes are brown, trending toward hazel around the pupils. He can typically be found in black v-neck with blue blotches, a big brown leather jacket with a hood, a black ball cap with a rather long, blue-lined brim, and really baggy dark blue pants plus black sneakers. His hood and sleeves have holotech projectors in them. When his hood is up he can completely mask its contents in holographic shadow before projecting various scary faces from it, and he can project claws over his hands as well.

Personality: In most regards, Kyle is a gremlin. He's mischievous and joking, sometimes to the point of being obnoxious, with the sort of personality that loves getting other people's goats. He doesn't particularly seem to care about what others think of him, and although he's not malicious, he's not very social either, leading him to be mostly alone in real life. Day to day out in the world -when he goes out- he's pretty normal, albeit content to mind his own business without looking beyond himself. His friends are in the virtual world, however, and when not playing games with them he loves indulging in his favorite interest: horror. He's a major horror geek and loves to be scared almost as much as scaring other people. While he's pretty composed for an introvert, he does have a habit of moving almost constantly, as if he's unable to sit still.

Backstory: Kyle's upbringing was one of comparative isolation, but not loneliness. Although sometimes he missed out on good times, he never really felt inclined to be around other people, nor bothered by their absence. He didn't push people away, but never tried to pull them in—and so the world left him alone. If people called him a weirdo or a freak, he'd accept it with a laugh and embrace the role of 'monster'. Eventually he would make some friends, mostly online, but over the years he became quite accustomed to keeping his own company, and during that time he developed his real passion. He had a real head for horror, with nothing quite matching the thrill of fear. Be it through movies, games, or even real life with scarehouses and such, he enjoyed it all. And never did anyone keep the spirit of Halloween alive than he. Of course, more than anything, virtual reality made this possible. Nothing could match its ability to simulate nightmares.

Kyle couldn't stand to keep his enjoyment bottled up. He wanted to share it with the world. For a while he'd been studying electronics in school with an interest in theater, and both of those came in handy as he pushed forward with the idea of making his own virtual reality house of horror. Given the improbability of that, however, he ended up joining an existing one with ambition fueling his efforts. In seemingly no time at all his passion carried him to a co-leadership role, and he worked to bring his own visions to bear. His eagerness to explore new horizons, however, brought him down a dark path. He got involved with a few individuals on the shadier side of the law, seeking to impart an extra edge to virtual reality by delivering stimulation to customers who took a hit in the virtual world. His contacts made it happen for the right price, and after a lot of testing the new feature was quiet slipped into the existing system. As Kyle would later bemoan that he should have expected, things did not go well. During the first day with the new feature installed, one customer's VR device zapped her strong enough to send her into a coma. Horrified, Kyle pulled the plug on his operation and fled, quickly cutting all ties while leaving the traces of his contacts available. In the end, the ensuing investigation narrowly passed him by in pursuit of the hackers, and Kyle himself got away scot-free. Rather, he got away with the crushing guilt that his gullibility and lack of foresight had nearly killed, and probably ruined the life, of an innocent person who'd been a kindred spirit in his love of horror. Kyle sank into a depression, feeling that he'd been on the wrong road all along, that he'd wasted his life with selfish indulgence rather than growing to appreciate other people.

Skills:

• Observant – Maybe he's just restless, or needing constant stimulation, but Kyle's always looking around. He checks corners, peers inside things, and looks up. Not everywhere is a thrillhouse with surprises lurking around every turn, but in his own words, 'in this reality, you never know what you'll find'
• Desensitized – Getting scared out of one's wits with some regularity and seeing a lot of what the virtual world has to offer will do wonders for one's susceptibility to shock and surprise. With as much resistance as Kyle has, it'd take a lot to faze him, allowing him to deal with situations that might leave others rattled
• Vigor – Strength isn't Kyle's thing, but he's got a surprising amount of pep in his step. Those nerves of his might be permanently wired, allowing him to spring into action at a moment's notice and go a while before he starts running out of gas
• Wise to the Act – When dealing with the unknown, one never knows what might happen, and impetuousness is how people die in horror movies. A little patience, self-control, and sense has carried Kyle through many tricks and traps, and he's done his research on horror tropes too

Abilities and Equipment: In the real world Kyle is unaugmented, with no abilities beyond his own wits and no equipment aside from his projectors. While his hood projectors are mostly for visuals, they can shield his face in a pinch. His wrist projectors are less adaptable, only able to generate claws over his hands, but those claws can actually be used if necessary. As such, they qualify as holo-weapons. However, he does have a third holomatter projector not attached to his coat. Very loosely resembling a spray bottle, it is capable of scanning normal objects in a certain size threshold (crates, barrels, trash cans, cabinets, etc) and then projecting a hollow copy of them around itself once set down. Kyle himself can hide inside the projected shell, which he can move by picking up and moving the projector, although this can easily give him away if someone sees it.

Arcana Code: The Moon card features a gradient of deep purple and blue lightening up to embrace the silver full moon at its center, with its phases from gibbous to crescent extending up and down toward the top and bottom of the card respectively. Just as the moon, unseen during the mundane day and shining, distant and eerie, amid the blindness of the night, Kyle is an outsider that presides over the dark whose affinity for stealth and stasis prolongs an uncertain battle.

Shadow: Kyle's shadow is himself with his hood on and projections permanently engaged, although perennially hunched over. Largely incoherent, he skitters around just out of sight, hounding everyone it contacts with vicious tricks, traps, and scares. He obviously cares only about deriving pleasure from the fear and pain of others, with no concept of human warmth or morality. In its berserk form, Kyle's shadow is a nightmarish combination monster meant to embody human fear in a single beast: a shark-scorpion hybrid. The monster's is capable of projecting its aura across the battlefield, coating the floor with water and the ceiling with (or if there's no ceiling, making one of) darkness. It can sink into and swim through the water, or climb into the dark to move around and attack unpredictably. When enraged, many more jaws, claws, and tails can emerge from the water and dark to attack than it actually has.

Persona: Bogeyman, the thing that goes bump in the night. Arriving always from behind or beneath things, silent and leering, the Bogeyman is a legendary tormentor that terrorizes its victims, and if they don't learn their lessons, steals them away for good. It appears as a gaunt man in rags with unnatural proportions, a sack slung over its shoulder. In battle it uses its abilities to employ a hit-and-run fighting style that starts out weak but gets stronger as the fight goes on. It swipes with its claws or swings around its heavy sack, attacking slowly but with respectable strength, chilling foes with every hit to slowly turn the tide. It is nimble and wily, elusive as a haunting shadow, which is good due to its primary weakness: durability. The Bogeyman possesses little staying power and will not hold up under intense scrutiny. Bogeyman's stat spread is 13-12-6, and it is resistant to water and dark, while operating loosely in those affinities itself.

• Stealth – Bogeyman's signature ability. With a wave of its hand it can fade from view, along with its user, in a wave of cold mist. Stealth allows attacks without worry of counterattack or defense, provided one's foes don't have acute holo-sense. While stealthed, Bogeyman emits a wide-range chill that gradually ices up all enemies, with the cold growing more intense the closer Bogeyman is. Any attack by a stealthed party has a chance to inflict Fear.
• Spine Chill – Bogeyman's touch has a freezing effect, inhibiting the movement of those struck by it. Even if its attack is blocked and does no damage, physical contact still imparts some chill
• Kidnap - if a target is sufficiently weakened or is willing, Bogeyman can stuff it into its sack regardless of size. While in the sack, an enemy sustains minor but constant dark and water damage. The enemy can struggle to break free, and if the sack is ripped, it must be reconstituted before it can be used again. If a kidnapped victim is struggling, Bogeyman cannot attack or use its other abilities, but it can move and throw the sack.

More Than Human

It's been some time, and I'm grateful for the three applications so far, but it looks a number of the others have ghosted. I confess I'm wondering how I should go about this.

World of Light

Tora & Poppi

Level 8 Tora (15/80) and Level 7 Poppi (61/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky – Shadow of Vah Naboris
Primrose's @Yankee, Fox's @Dawnrider, Sectonia's @Archmage MC Midna's @DracoLunaris
Word Count: 836

The assembled heroes rested for a few moments, working to calm down their spiking heart rates. Nearly getting lightning-blasted might have bid the average adventurer to steer clear, but more than a few of the Yellow Team members were already thinking of paying their attacker back. Midna voiced her anger the loudest, apparently hurt by the flash of light, but Joker felt pretty similarly. He might have been fine putting the 'walking temple' in Morgana's rear-view mirror before, but now that he and his team nearly got fried by its potshot, he felt like taking it down.

Primrose established a little more of her character as well as her role in the mental space of the team by providing a voice of reason. The camel definitely seemed to act in self-defense, and it being an elaborate tank with a pilot tucked away somewhere made definite sense. And everyone did need to get a move on given the sheer distance the team needed to cover. But Joker could feel the general mood, and everyone wanted to teach that ancient mecha a thing or two. “It's not that big,” he reasoned as the team piled out. They lined up facing Vah Naboris, with Sectonia and the Courier overhead, sizing it up. “We can clear it out in a few minutes, probably.”

When Sectonia declared her intent to go and asked for volunteers, Joker obliged. Tora and Poppi also invited themselves on the condition that they follow behind Sectonia, who seemed to have a plan in mind. The rest got back into the car or fanned out at Fox's prompting, poised to use the opportunity the queen provided to get beneath the divine beast and disable it.

Joker watched the Morgana-car rev up and turn back toward the camel. Go time. He prepared his grappling hook and latched onto the oversized wasp's stinger when she took off, trailing behind her as she flew. While quick and stylish transportation, this also meant that in the case of a direct lightning bolt, his hook's cord wouldn't transmit the shock. Despite this knowledge he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy when the queen got into range and Vah Naboris started charging again. But Sectonia came prepared, and she cast her own thunderbolt to divert the camel's away from her. The blast went wide, but close, so close that Joker could smell the ozone and feel its heat on his eyes. Still, the queen bore him and Midna safely inside its hump.

He released his hook and landed on polished stone, and a moment later Poppi alighted beside him. With thrusters on her back now and a slender chassis now she could only carry her Masterpon like a beach ball, but Tora shouldered the humiliation. He quickly forgot about it as his dazzled eyes took in all the machinery within the divine beast. “Meh...so cool!”

Midna thought so too, at least as far as a certain symbol was concerned. The systems and inscriptions in here apparently struck her as familiar enough that she said she could do something with them. Tora couldn't say what that meant exactly, but since she started studying straightaway, he figured she would need some time. That meant that it fell to the others to keep her safe. But safe from what? Now that Tora thought about it, there didn't seem to be any security. “No defenses on beastypon inside? It Tora lucky day!”

“Not quite,” a commanding voice rang out from behind them. Tora and Poppi turned to see a towering woman sauntering the heroes' way, a magnificent sword and shield in hand. Behind her floated a strange creature with similar weapons that glowed a bright blue. Tora's eyes went wide, but he knew better than to stop and stare, Instead he bid Poppi switch to QT mode and readied his Mech Arms. “To challenge Vah Naboris is to challenge me. I am Urbosa, and as a champion of Hyrule, I will show evil no mercy!” She held out her scimitar, and the thunderblight behind her spiraled forward. It hurtled at Sectonia with a shield bash, then swung its hooked blade to try and chop through her narrow waist.

Joker pulled his pistol and fired several times. His rounds rang off Urbosa's shield as she ran forward. He dipped to the left just in time to avoid a deadly slash, then vaulted over Tora as he came in to block her second swing. With a grunt he grappled away, zipping past where Sectonia and the thunderblight tangled to safety on a higher platform.

Meanwhile, the Morgana-car wove between the great camel's legs. Unfortunately the divine beast could target beneath itself quite well, but a little panicked swerving went a long way. While Skull took the wheel, Panther called upon her own Persona. “Dance, Carmen!” she called, manifesting a woman in red atop the car to hurl fireballs at the hooves of Vah Naboris. Panther joined in on the fun herself, peppering the nearest leg with submachine gun fire.

Edge of the Blue – Seaward Bay

Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link's @Gentlemanvaultboy, Junior and Kamek's @DracoLunaris, Hat Kid's @Dawnrider, Geralt's @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Isabelle's @Eviledd1984

Consenting to observe the 'street fight' along with Sakura, although not nearly as pumped. The pugilists in question certainly made for an odd pair, one a too-pretty, almost doll-like girl wielding some sort of electricity and the other a clown who might as well have been sculpted from clay. While both noticed the sudden jump in spectatorship, between the two the clown seemed to appreciate it far more. For whatever reason his paradoxically dour features lit up at Sakura's cheering, while his opponent ignored it. From that moment onward, however, the clown fought with renewed vigor. He busted out move after tricky move, gradually overwhelming the more traditional fighting style of his foe. By the time the fishing trawler went by he'd turned the fight around, and pushed his advantage with a leering grin on his face.

Sakura could move around the perimeter of Shippy and up to the steersman's platform to continue spectating, but Peach didn't move on. Instead she raised an eyebrow at Kamek's suggestion. “An intriguing prospect. From what we've seen so far, the boss spirits are serious business. They command great power and cannot be broken, after all. Given what that lady in black said, as well as the two so far, I'd expect it to be a huge monster, so I don't believe I'll be baiting any lines just yet.”

Still, when the Cadet offered her a rod, she accepted it without complaint. Turned him down would be impolite if not joy-killing, after all; even with a changed mind, Peach had an eye for these things. She watched as Junior attempted spear-fishing, which from the height of a ship's deck and the strength of a tyke's arm didn't pan out too well. The Cadet tried a different method too, but his net worked wonders on the passing shoal, hauling up an impressive batch of flopping black bass. Even Isabelle got in on the fun, quickly showing that even a desk-sitting secretary could have some serious fishing chops. “Wow. Amazing.” Peach complimented her, a little worried that her tone was too flat to be taken as genuine.

A few minutes of fishing went by before the shoal petered out completely, leaving Brineybeard's passengers with little to do save watch their destination grow closer. Bit by bit they could make out more details: the seastack foundations, the cloud-white masonry, the banners in the breeze, the townsfolk hustling and bustling across bridges and walkways. In fairly short order they found themselves in the shadow of the city on the water, Limsa Lominscuttle Town, with an energizing song reaching out across the waters.

Brineybeard cruised in to a dock, albeit one barren of dock workers and utterly devoid of other ships. Having a living vessel made docking easy, so the captain himself mostly walked to and fro across the deck. “Well, here she be! Good ol' Limsa. A livelier place ye'll ne'er find, mateys.” He eyed the passengers. “So, which one of ye caught the most fish? Wouldn't mind keepin' a few fer me dinner tonight, seein' as I hauled ye fer free 'n all.”

Peach said nothing for a moment, wondering what she ought to do. While getting familiar with the town couldn't hurt, the ultimate goal was to call forth the Maw. No matter who would be going aboard, that apparently meant having enough people around who wanted it. How strange. At the very least, she guessed that she should meet with Limsa's leaders. They should know how to proceed. “Captain, who's in charge here? Is there a...a mayor?”

“That'd be Admiral Merlwyb Blue..uh, Bloefhiswyn,” Brineybeard replied, his pronunciation less than dependable. “Still got me a sour spot fer that ol' screw after she cracked down on piratin'. She ain't the least bit flexible...”

“Good,” Peach cut him off. “Where is she?”

Brineybeard gave a grunt and shrugged, uninterested. “Dunno. Got an office somewhere, but I ain't gone by. Now if ye'll 'scuse me.” He hobbled off in a huff.

Frowning, Peach looked out across the sea and spotted a pair of incoming shapes zipping across the water. “What are those?”

Although Brineybeard stopped to take a look, the expression on his face made it clear he regretted it. “The new navy,” he grumbled before disappearing inside the cabin.

Peach watched, intrigued, as the incoming 'ships' drew nearer. As far as she could tell they looked an awful lot more like people than boats, but people couldn't skim across the surface of the ocean like that. Something buzzed over Shippy, and the princess looked up just in time to catch sight of a tiny green plane the size of a bird. The newcomers eventually swept into port, gliding up to the docks and stepping on with practiced ease. Fascinated, Peach walked down the ramp, waving to them. “Hey!”

Both looked her way. While definitely humans, and both girls, they possessed odd-looking attachments that did look like ship parts. The green-haired one waved back. “Oh, hello.”

Peach came to a stop and crossed her arms. “If you don't mind answering me, how did you do that? What are those parts?”

The girl's eyebrows rose. “Huh!? Oh, I'm sorry. You must be new here.” She smiled, giving a bow. The miniature green plane flew in and landed on one of her runways before it folded up. “We're ships. HMS Shropshire, at your service. And this is...”

“USS Northampton,” the sporty-looking one said, her voice low.

Now what Brineybeard said, as well as the utter lack of boats around this seabound city, was starting to make sense. Peach also felt like she understood his attitude a bit better. If piracy was outlawed and traditional ships sailed no more, his entire way of life had either been regulated or antiquated. “I see!” she told the ships. “Nice to meet you. Maybe you could tell us about this city?”

“Oh, sure! You go ahead, North.” Without a word the green-haired ship's serious counterpart left. Shropshire raised her fingers and started counting off. “Well, up ahead is Mealvaan's Gate, which is customs and stuff, then the Arcanists' Guild, and Mimic's Workshop. Then Hawker's Alley, where they sell everything you could ever want. After that the whole place is split between the lower decks and upper decks. On the lower decks, there's Bulkwark Hall, where you can ride lifts to the Admiral's office, the Drowning Wench tavern, Sky's Hatchery, and the Airship Deck. Lower decks also has Fisherman's Bottom, but...that place really reeks. Upper decks has Seventh Sage imports, which are to die for. Oh, Bismarck! A restaurant with super-yummy food. There's also the Coral Tower, which is for the guard, Maelstrom command, where we ships report for missions, the Smiths' Guild'...and...uh...” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “'Missing Member'. It's another tavern,” she giggled. “Um, I'm sorry, I went on a bit there. Anything else?”

Peach shook her head, hoping her teammates got all they needed to from that. “No, thank you, that was great. Take care.”

“You too!” Shropshire hurried off after her teammate.

Turning to the others, Peach asked, “Thoughts, everyone? Or if you've already got an idea, go ahead and go, I guess.”

Dead Zone – Hell-bent City

Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Banjo & Kazooie's @Dawnrider, Linkle's @Gentlemanvaultboy, Bowser's @DracoLunaris

Water jets blasted and tentacles whipped, felling lerks and knocking back the speediest Flood. With a transformed, hydro-powered Bowser in the vanguard clearing the road, the shockdozer pulled away from its pursuers cleanly to accelerate down the slope. Unfortunately, that meant leaving their newly-strengthened bruiser behind. In the mean time, Jak more or less commandeered control of the vehicle from Blazermate, and the Medabot flew out both to lighten the load and attend to Bowser. Getting airborne gave her a good view of the incoming bomber, however, and she recognized it as serious trouble straightaway. Jak steered around the bulging gas sacs as best he could, but he possessed very little room to work with as the path got narrower and narrower. Before long he hit one, and the living mine dutifully ruptured in a burst of foul-smelling smog that would have sent the shockdozer spiralling toward the lava if it weren't so heavy.

A shriek echoed out from above. Anyone looking up in the direction of the Flood bomber could spot a ghostly figure emerge from above the cliff and dive down. Jak and Daxter would recognize the specter as one fought back in the Police Station alongside Jones and that helmet-wearing dog Caesar: a wraith. Yet something wasn't quite right. Its cloak wasn't blue but red—plaid, in fact, and two empty sleeves fluttered behind it. Brown hair spilled from the hood to flutter in the wind as she dove. Instead of flying for the shockdozer, however, the wraith swooped toward the bomber. She sank a twisted cleaver into its flesh as she passed and pulled, ripping it open. Wailing, the Flood abomination deflated like a blimp, drifting downward toward the molten rock far below.

A moment later, the ramp bottomed out, and the shockdozer hit the air. For a heart-clenching moment the mammoth of a vehicle sailed through open air. Then it slammed down hard on the opposite side of the chasm, hard enough to rattle bones and stun its passengers. On the opposite side the Flood washed up against the edge, a few unlucky wretches tumbling over, and a number of them jumping for it. Although the combat forms jumped disconcertingly far, none could latch onto and climb the sheer stone wall like Bowser did. With a hearty exhale the koopa king pulled himself up with everyone else, and Blazermate touched down a moment later.

Then the wraith appeared. She rose upward from below the cliff, cleavers in hand. ”Wait!” came her voice, an ethereal whisper. She dropped her weapons on the ground with a resounding clatter. ”Friendly.”. She pulled at her hood, and when the light fell within the heroes could see a face some would find familiar. It belonged to Tess, the woman sliced in half at the police station. A little embarrassed by her new appearance, she cleared her throat and let her hood shroud her face again. ”I was floating around for a while, but I heard the commotion just now. I was afraid you'd think I was a monster, but I saw the chance to help. Dead or not, I'm gonna keep fighting to keep people safe.”

At that moment a crack rang out, and the ground beneath everyone lurched. Maybe the shockdozer landed a little too hard. Tess grabbed her cleavers before flying upward toward solid ground in the form of the remaining half of a street. “Hurry!” she called. The street led south, in the rough direction of the Qliphoth root, although some sort of fleshy mountain stood in the way a couple blocks down the road.

Dead Zone – Super Gore Nest

Doom Slayer's @Eviledd1984

Nero yanked his sword free from the disintegrating corpse of a Red Arremer and pulled off a Shuffle to dip backward out of the claw swipe of a Penance fighter. He slid forward again with a rising slash, then transitioned into a Streak that sent the foul thing flying away in quarters. In front of him, two Penance attacked Nadia at once, but the Feral deftly dropped into a split before rotating her torso to slice both across the gut with her new scythe, then switched it to spear mode to impale both the fighter on the right and the runner behind it. The remaining fighter swiped at her again and knocked off her head, only for the detached head to fly up and chomp into its eyestalk. “Bleh!” she spat as the demon writhed, watching her body get up to execute a revolving kick and take the eyestalk off fully.

Her head fell into her waiting hands and she popped it back on. “Geez, these things are gross!” A Penance ranger flew in from the hallway only for Nero and Raidou to plug it right in the eye at the same time, standing back to back. “Ooh, cool!” Nadia remarked, grinning, but the arrival of more Penance made her sigh. “Jeez, these things just keep coming! Is this flesh hive spawning 'em or something?”

Nero didn't answer. Instead he yanked an incoming fighter toward the group with Wire Snatch, allowing Raidou and Nadia to dispatch it with a slash each. Behind them came a beep, and they turned to see both lights on for the generator. “Slayer did his thing. Want to get that, Fortune?” Wasting no time, Nadia climbed through the broken window and jumped onto the generator catwalk. Once she pulled the big lever the core started power up immediately. Lights grew brighter, machinery began to spin, and the grotesque heart clinging to the device started to wriggle. Getting a bad feeling, Nadia turned to jump back out. The heart flexed and shuddered, twisting in silent pain, until the rising storm blew it apart in a harrowing shower of viscera.

Nadia yowled, narrowly avoiding getting splattered, as she clambered back into the control room. “Holy hell! Can't a girl cat-ch a break?” She grinned hopefully at Nero and Raidou, but neither laughed. Her face fell. “Aww, come on.”

Raidou blinked. “Er. It was good,” he tried to reassure her, his voice less than convincing.

All around them, the matter composing the gore nest was breaking down. In a nearby hallway, a chunk of flesh fell down to expose the second Sentinel crystal. Nero, however, was more concerned with the warnings scrolling across the various screens. “Uh, guys?” He motioned his head toward the big monitor. It read MELTDOWN IMMINENT. “Maybe we ought to get going.”

An explosion shook the facility, and the three took to their heels.

More Than Human

so my work hours have just gone back up to pre-covid levels without any kind of forewarning, so i won't be picking this up after all. Sorry bout that

@DracoLunaris

I see. No worries.

Persona ~ The Beholder

Kirsty Ramaswamy

Kirsty stood there dumbly as the Raven ran out into the fight, looking at the object pressed into her hand. A knife? It looked more like a machete, but a tiny one. The sound of running feet to her left took her attention from the weapon, and for a moment she dreaded having to actually use it. When she looked, however, she saw only Alina, speedwalking away from the action as fast as her stride could take her. Oh, right. She felt guilty about it, but with everything that happened she forgot Alina was around. She hadn't actually said or done anything the entire time. After the guilt came embarrassment that Alina -and Liam too, actually- witnessed the entire exchange. As much as the didn't want to see what the shadow showed and hear what the shadow said, having those secrets come out in respectable company felt like a punch in the gut. She couldn't imagine what the two might think of her now. If we live through this somehow, she thought, Maybe I can convince them to not tell anyone. Or maybe prove the other me wrong.

Before that could happen, of course, she needed to survive. More footsteps reached her from in front of her hiding place, and these most certainly did not belong to frightened college girls. Swallowing, Kirsty stood up and turned to face the incoming threat with her knife brandished, and immediately her heart sank. Four out of the ten remaining Rudras had come for her, two black and two white, all with tridents at the ready. Behind them she could see the Raven facing the false idol, and yell something to make an angelic creature appear to apparently fight at her side. Oh. I guess she's okay then. Wish I had something like that. The Rudras, however, weren't wasting time watching the spectacle. Kirsty's heartbeat kicked into overdrive once more, and she held the knife out with both shaking hands. “Stay back! I'll...I'll do it! I'll shank you, you...you freaks!” In response, the black Rudras came at her. Gritting her teeth, Kirsty moved forward and to the right, trying to get one in between her and the other. She intended to run at him and thrust it right into the monster's oversized heart, but the Rudra promptly jabbed her with his trident before she could even get close. Kirsty gasped, twisting away like a frightened animal, and staggered backward.

One hand went to her hip, and it came back wet with a warm liquid. “Oh no...” For whatever reason she couldn't feel anything more than a lancing pain right now, but having this much blood on the outside couldn't be good. Wildly she looked between the black Rudras moving in on her again, then the white ones fanning out to the sides. In another moment she'd be surrounded. Outnumbered...out-ranged...what am I supposed to do against spears with a knife!? With a wordless cry she flung the knife at the head of the nearest monster, then turned and ran. She fled down the street, one hand trying to hold the blood in, the other pumping wildly. There had to be something else. On a London street there might be construction equipment, tools to swing or bricks to throw, or trash cans to throw down behind her, but this opulent avenue was another matter. She snaked through a sea of dining tables, upending them with adrenaline-fueled strength as she ran by in order to slow down her pursuers. The Rudras moved fast, even jumping from table to table, but Kirsty's meddling caused them to overbalance and fall down. The sound of crashes from behind her give Kirsty an inkling of hope, but she felt herself running out of breath. Running from the hounds earlier already made for a remarkable feat for a soft city girl who never exercised, so by now only seconds remained before her shallow well of stamina ran out. She came to a stop by a fire pit, her eyes on the branches and coals crackling merrily away, and an idea hit her.

Kirsty tore down a length of colorful silk from a nearby arch, and tossed about half of it into the fire. It caught immediately and started spreading up the cloth. “Oh, fooey.” She couldn't use it if she couldn't hold it. She grabbed a jug from a nearby trolley and emptied it over the halfway point on the silk. When the fire reached it, it spread no farther. “Phew,” she wheezed, glad the liquid wasn't flammable. But there was no time to waste; a quick look confirmed the Rudras to be nearly upon her. With a deep breath she pulled the silk from the fire and began to swing it around. Holding the cloth over her head, she spun it in a circle, and as the monsters arrived they stopped short of the whirling firebrand. Impatient, the black ones tried to jump in on her in the middle of the rotation, but despite her own hair whipping her in the face Kirsty wasn't messing around with her spin. The fire batted them, sending up sparks and driving them back with angry snarls. Meanwhile the white ones surrounded her, staying clear of the flame. After a moment one of them held up its trident, and when the flaming silk hit it, it wrapped tightly around. Panicked, Kirsty yanked the silk toward her. While the firebrand held fast, she did lower the Rudra's guard, exposing its heart. With her other hand Kirsty grabbed the first thing that came to hand on the trolley -a bottle of clear liquid- and hurled it at her enemy.

The bottle shattered on impact, its contents flying outward, and when they touched the flames the monster disappeared into a brilliant fireball. Kirsty stumbled backward into the trolley, and one of the black Rudras jumped at her. She hid behind the trolley, using it as a shield, and shoved it onto the monster to force him back. One after another she grabbed and flung the bottles, some of them breaking into shards that sliced up the monster's heart and others just thumping it soundly. After a few seconds the wounded Rudra got a little too close to the spreading fire and went up like matchstick. Two down! Kirsty's mind cheered, simultaneously disbelieving and euphoric she'd done it. Then the remaining Rudras closed in on her all at once. The prongs of a white trident stuck into the flesh of her right thigh, immediately compromising her leg, and the black one leaped to plunge his into her chest.

One to cut off her escape and one to finish her—a sound strategy, except that Kirsty instantly plopped over to the right, and the black Rudra's trident instead pierced the heart of his partner. Letting out a confused, angry bellow, the white one immediately jammed his own weapon through the head of the traitor, and both slumped over. Only Kirsty remained alive, but not for long. She couldn't get up, and the fire overtaking the area that snapped up two of her assailants would soon devour her as well.

Meanwhile, the false idol shrugged off the cursed energy that unmade two of her minions, and sneered at the Raven's Persona. “Ah, so you've made peace with your inner self. Now I understand why you seem untroubled when faced with certain death. Yet I still wonder why you choose to die for that insipid cow. She has no will, nor power, nor identity. All she is, is what others deign to give her. When I eat her the world will be better off. Am I not generous in my mercy? My providence?”

Latching herself to another high point with her grapple, she let her persona loom over the street with a wolfish arched back. It drooled, and all the while the Raven grew impatient of the shadows impurity. "Save the goddamn dramatics for after I shove my foot up your arse." The rattle of gunfire from her promontory dropped another Rudra to his knees. "I've seen you things before, all you do is just talk shit. Hurry up and die so I can move on to more important things!"

In reply, the false idol zoomed upward, avoiding the spiraling darkness as she drew even with the Raven's perch. "Then let us not waste time." She raised her hands, forming between them a concentrated ball of dark energy, then allowed it to surge forward. A heavy shockwave of dark force expanded outward, fragmenting stone, crushing windows, and scattering tiles. Despite the Raven's attempts, she dove to the side to dodge. Unfortunately, her reactions had faltered too far. In motion, the energy clipped her torso, tossing her aside and against the pavement with a heavy thud. The pain shot through her body, bruising her and bloodying her cheeks. Of course it wasn't going to play around. She remembered never being quite so good at following through with her threats. "What part about die did you not get?" Rising to her feet with an unsteady gaze, she pointed her handgun forward and pulled the trigger, sending a volley of bullets the shadow's way. Her strength had wearied under the influence of pain. As the clip ran out, she called upon her persona a third time. However, on the thrice barrage, she beckoned a different approach. From beneath the shadow, a strange rune forming in the road beneath her lit up, and from underneath an attempted rising storm of the curse tried to undermine the creature.

Sighing, the false idol drifted back down to street level. The Raven's barrage left a number of holes in her robe and golden skin, but her overall vitality remained high. She approached the Raven without looking beneath herself, oblivious to the forming curse geyser until it exploded upward beneath her. "Hnng," she grunted, frowning at her newly-disheveled silks and hair. "Your element of choice..so unfortunate. You should be grateful it does not heal me. Such curses make mine only more magnificent by comparison. Behold."

The shadow started channeling. A wave of black spread across the ground beneath her, expanding to cover the entire plaza. It broiled and bubbled, plainly about to erupt much like the Raven's own spell. In the last couple seconds before the blast, a small patch of ground cleared itself directly behind the false idol for her minions to stand on, though not quite big enough for all of them. Then, a forest of dark pillars erupted from the blackened ground, laying waste to the whole area and everything in it.

Through the entire battle, she hadn't really been paying too much attention to Kirsty. She had no time to even think about her. This was like the old times. A do or die situation with the stakes being her life or the shadows. It was an obvious answer for her to choose. And as she became more wounded by the assault of the shadow's violent staging, the whispers of the coarse mind began to return. Not here, they said, over and over again. Not here. Not here. Only when it's done. Not here. The hunger that she'd tried to ignore tempted her adrenaline, giving her a burst of energy and focus. She moved precisely and her expression became far more aggressive. "Step aside!" She screamed, noticing a patch where they all decided to seek safety. Firing her grapple into one of the minions that hid and yanked it back into the fray. Alternatively, her persona lunged forward, physically grabbing two more and tossing them to where she hid. Whilst forcing herself into the safe zone, she reloaded her firearm and fired in bursts to the minions that tried to force her out as well, acting in crowd control rather than for killing blows.

In the aftermath of the attack, the false idol found her enemy unscathed and several of her minions pushed out into the danger zone instead. Now she opposed the Raven alone. “Loathsome thing. That mercy was not yours to take.” She turned around to face her foe, the rest of the street at her back. “When I am done, that ungrateful voice of yours will be begging my forgiveness.” She floated up and then slammed down, releasing a dark wave across the ground.

More Than Human

@Archmage MC @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, @Randomness, go ahead and post your characters in the characters tab.

@The Ghost Note, we have some accepted characters, and since there aren't any other posted WIPs yet, you might consider proceeding with what we've got so far.

@Martian, @Tojin, @DracoLunaris, @MagratheanWhale, @Sanity43217, how's progress so far?