MiddleEarthRoze

Avenger's Academy; Volume 1

Nodding her head lightly to the beat of the music blaring from her headphones, Angelique kept her eyes fixed firmly on the skyline as she tapped her fingers absent-mindedly to the tune. She was sat atop the roof of some random block of backstreet flats, in the run-down area of the Tenderloin. She had been offered a lift straight to "Superhero school" from Stark tower, but she'd rejected it. There was shit she had to take care of before running away to some high class school to get her powers in check. Unfortunately, said shit was still at her supposed "home" in uptown 'Cisco. There were old friends to say swift goodbyes to, and certain items she had to collect from her bedroom... none of that materialistic rubbish that her cazzo of a father had bought her, but the things that actually meant something to her. An old locket of her mother's; a woven bracelet made by her youngest cousin; a tattered postcard sent from Venice by her Aunt and Uncle; and a thirty-year-old bottle of grappa, home brewed by her crazy, alcoholic Nonno, her grandfather, among other items. The liquor inside was divine, and likely had an alcohol content higher than the country of America allowed, but the grapes bobbing about within the liquid? They tasted of pure death, and she was going to take great delight in sharing them with her future comrades.

Unless, of course, they were some kind of goody-two-shoes that would just report her for having alcohol. The silly American laws on youthful intoxication was yet another thing she hated about having moved over here, and Angel wasn't going to let someone try and use that on her. Not on a place like the heli-carrier, after all.

"Well, well. Speak of the devil." Angel murmured quietly as her eyes caught sight of the quin-jet, slowly yet smoothly descending on the rooftop behind her. It was quite the beauty, that was certain. She'd seen it a few times, on various new stations whenever the Avengers had come to save the day - she hadn't expected to be picked up in it, that's for sure.

Pulling the headphone jack from her iPod to halt the music, Angel threw her carry-all over her shoulder as she stood up, wincing ever so slightly at the motion. When she'd been hastily collecting her things, she'd tripped a silent alarm. Stupid, and reckless, but she'd been pretty emotional at the time - enough so to not think straight. Anyways, the sentry bots her father had had put in were awakened by it, and started attacking her. Angel wanted to think that he'd programmed that purposefully, but she knew that wasn't likely... he wasn't that heartless, after all. Either AIM had gotten their filthy paws on it, or he'd just programmed it wrong. Knowing what failures went on in Hammer Industries, it was likely the latter. The stupid things were always malfunctioning. Still, it probably didn't help that she'd broken in. Either way, one had pulled a lucky shot as she'd taken off with her bags of stuff, and grazed her arm. Thankfully, it was a lousy shot. Still stung like a bitch though.

Shaking off the thought, Angel pulled the headphones from her ears and gripped them in her free hand as she entered the quin-jet, glancing at each of the four individuals.

"Okay... so, we've got a new-age viking minus the beard... the token Broody "Don't-Make-Friends-With-Me-Because-My-Life-Is-Full-Of-Darkness" McGlower... a guy who looks about twelve-years old... and some normal brunette. Cool." She thought to herself as she took each of them in. There was some modicum of diversity here; irregardless of the lack of women.

"Ciao! I suppose I'm the first female?" She began with an easy grin to the four of them, setting her bag on one of the many empty seats. "I'm Angelique di Diavolo - please call me Angel. It's less of a mouthful for you, and less of an annoyance for me." Her accent still carried traces of her Italian heritage, some strong in some places, others not so obvious as the generic American accent took over. Sitting down in a seat by the blond, Angel wrapped her headphones up and placed them back in her satchel, which hung from her shoulder. "I look forward to working with you all - this should be interesting." Said with a somewhat foxy grin, she waited on the names of the others. They certainly seemed interesting, in their own respects.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

As the others began making their way upthe icy cliff-face, Roze was still making no progress with the lock. Not only had the ice warped and rusted the metal mechanism within, but the cold climate was making her bare fingers numb and very uncooperative. After several broken picks had yielded nothing but small cuts on her freezing fingers, she was only too happy to let the sailor take over in a more brutal manner; standing back and sucking on her bloodied fingertips as the door was kicked open.

How thankful it was that her hand was by her face when the door did open - the group barely had time to react when a blue orb had sped from the open door, slamming into one of their comrades, and swiftly being followed by a number of others. Roze only just managed to cover her eyes with her raised hand as one of the anomalies slammed into her face and knocked her to the floor. With her other hand, she ripped the dagger tucked in her boot out and stabbed wildly at the orb, stopping in surprise to see how easily it had dissolved from her blade. It had left a bruise on her cheek, but Roze wasn't complaining - better her cheek than her eyes.

"Or my neck - unlike that poor bastard." She mused in afterthought, glancing at the edge of the cliff where the sailor had fallen. The sickening crack of his bones had reverberated all the way up the cliff to them. It had not been a pleasant sound, that was for sure.

Thankfully, no more deaths followed, and the group continued on into the depths of the tower. There were strangely no other obstacles - no traps, no weird glowing magic things, and nothing vaguely Kamal or Daedric looking in sight. Roze contemplated as to whether the people at the College were even aware of what had transpired at Windhelm... if they didn't know about the Ice Demons, perhaps it was good that the group had joined in on the rescue. The College would be sitting ducks to the Kamal otherwise. And Roze didn't want to think of what such creatures could do with their hands on some of the things in the College. She'd heard stories of weapons of great power, ones that could rip open the barrier between Oblivion and Mundus itself; things that could summon, kill, or even control Gods; access to old powers, ones strong enough to sink cities and obliterate mountains. These were stories she had been told, and more often than not, she had simply accepted them as nothing more than fables or children's stories. But with what she had seen in the past few days? Roze could no longer be blind to such possibilities - especially if such items could fall into the hands of the Kamal.

After all, something like that had to have been what had destroyed Winterhold.

Noticing Ariane's comment, Roze followed suit and cast her own Life Detection spell, smiling slightly as blobs appeared above her. They did look vaguely humanoid, so that was good. Once Farid gave the go ahead for them to follow, all she had to do was to keep an eye out for Sebastian...

As it happened, Sebastian was right above them - puffing on a pipe quite happily in an alcove, to avoid the howling blizzard outside. Only when he heard Farid's voice did he cast his eyes to where the Redguard stood, and a smile danced upon his lips to see the newcomer - and the fairly defensive stance he was set in.

Resting his pipe on a crate out of the way of the snow, the mage walked around the alcove, staff in hand as he came up behind Farid - standing a good few paces away from the Redguard before talking.

"There's plenty of us to be found alive, friend!" He called out with a smile, casually leaning against the wall as if the situation was an entirely normal one. "However, now's not really the time for tourists - the College is far nicer in the summer months, after all. If you're here for the Archmage, he took a convenient little holiday somewhere before this all happened and remains there still. If you're here to take advantage of us poor little Mages and rob us, please feel free and try - we haven't had much in the way of entertainment these past few days." All of this said with a roguish grin, Sebastian waited on Farid's response, wondering silently just where the fellow had come from.

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Rhasha was pleased to see the ship sailing towards the campfire, despite the Cat-Kicker's objections. The prospect of docking and walking upon solid land was a warming one; however, the situation on the shore wasn't looking all too friendly. As the hailstorm became worse, the fire died, and after a moment, the Khajiit realised what was happening.

"Ice-Wraiths? Azurah, why does your favour seem to avoid this one these past few weeks?" Grumbling silently to himself, Rhasha'Dar - carefully - made his way down the boards, teeth gritted as he watched the roiling waters beneath. He couldn't decide what would be worse - dying to the icy bite of the wraith, or drowning in waters that were likely just as cold. Thankfully, he didn't have to test the latter, making his way onto land quite safely, and pulling one of his war-axes from his belt as he approached the fray; his other hand grasping the torch Leif had thrown. Rhasha had ran into Ice-wraiths plenty of times before, what with traversing such frosty climates with the caravan. The worst injury ever sustained from one of the beasts had been an awful bite to the leg of one of their guards; had it not been for Rhasha's efforts, the leg would have blackened and died from the ice. He only hoped that if it happened to someone here, he could once again do something to aid them - after all, an amputation in a place like this would likely not to do much to save a life.

Jabbing his torch towards the wraith that faced him, Rhasha slashed with his axe as it dodged the flames. It was unfortunately quick enough to avoid the main force of the weapon, but it glanced off the ice crystals that made up it's ghostly body, and it recoiled momentarily, hissing in pain. Rhasha hissed in response, fangs bared in an automatic reflex against the danger.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

Updated Roze's CS, and added a picture (Courtesy of @MacabreFox - thank you!). I'll update Rhasha'Dar's another day, and will eventually get those opinions done too. It'll probably be after exam season.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

<Snipped quote by MiddleEarthRoze>

Pure black, obvs. Yeah, plot twist, Sagax is actually Clavicus Vile. GCold and Schaft were really iffy about it, but they decided to let me test-run the idea and then later allowed it in full. Real great chaps they are, allowing for such a diverse cast

Joking aside, coulda sworn I had his eye color in there somewhere, but I guess not. Updated.

@Frizan

Well shit, now if Clavicus does actually show up during the RP, he'll have to bear a striking resemblance to Sagax. XD What a fun encounter that would be.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

@Frizan

Y'know, looking over Sagax's appearance bit, I've realised that you haven't mentioned what colour his eyes are!
TELL US
WE MUST KNOW

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

@MacabreFox

Funnily enough, on my search I found several that reminded me of Sevine. XD

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

@MacabreFox

Love the picture! I'm trawling the interwebs to try and find a decent one for Roze, but as usual, nothing's coming up. ;_;

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

@Dervish

I wasn't sure if Do'Karth had actually broken the lock on the door or not, so I set Roze to work on it - if it's already taken care of, do let me know and I'll rectify the post. :)

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

Roze found herself chuckling quietly at Solveig's comment on the weather, but said nothing of it. Normally, sentences like that were uttered when one was at a loss of what to say - and in their current situation, there was plenty other than the roiling skies ahead to be chatting about. Perhaps Solveig was feeling cowed by Sevine? For any other, Roze would have assumed so - her flame-headed friend was in no doubt a stoic figure, but to one as feisty as Solveig? Perhaps it was something other than a feeling of intimidation that the spear-woman was feeling...

Any internal musings over the thought were brought short by a commotion behind them - someone had decided to go for a swim, it would seem. Watching on with a grin as a rope was cast to the poor man, Rozalia couldn't help but make a joke - she had been sorely lacking in making light of situations lately, after all.

"If he was that anxious to get in some swimming practice, he should have tried back at Windhelm. Myself and Sagax found the waters there quite inviting." Said with a wry chuckle, Roze turned her gaze from her fellows in the boat to the wall of ice they steadily approached. That would not be fun to scale, that was for certain.

Docking soon after the near-drowning experience, the groups clambered from their boats and went about their business - for their newest recruit, he went about seeing to the shivering Breton - and what a fun spectacle that was to witness.

"My my - swimming and a strip tease? All we need now is some wine and music to make this into a party." Roze chuckled, eyeing up both the stripped Breton, and Almad the Redguard. She didn't know all that much about him - he had kept himself to himself for the voyage, it had seemed. She wasn't entirely sure, as Roze herself had spent the majority of the journey above decks, usually atop one of the masts. He didn't seem to be all that older than herself, but was likely more experienced. There was something familiar about the man, in the way he moved - something Roze recognised as one who saw shadows as a friend, and spent more than enough of their time traversing through them silently.

As the sailors announced the supposed readiness of the rope up, Roze's gaze soured as it turned towards Farid, hearing his "volunteering". While before she had seen the man as a good source of friendly - and increasingly flirting - banter, following the siege on the Kamal, her opinion of him was swiftly going down. First, he had remained unscathed from the Kamal - she seemed to vaguely remember him insulting Sagax? - and was just being generally unpleasant and cocky. He had then started a fight on the boat, which had been the last thing anyone had needed, and now here he was, offering up Sagax like a slab of meat.

"What does he have against Sagax?" She wondered, not even managing to get a word out before Do'Karth quite bravely offered to go first. Watching on just as uncomfortably as the rest, an ease was lifted from Roze's heart to see him make it all the way to the top, in one piece. As Sevine talked to Ariane and Farid, Roze walked over, slinging her bow over her shoulders and back as she did so.

"A ladder - or more ropes - would likely serve us better on the way down - but also on the way up." Roze chimed in agreement, looking between the three. "I can head up next - I'm sure myself and Do'Karth could find some more things to help everyone up." She suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. "It's up to you; I'm just not sure it would be wise sending all of us up with just an ice axe and a rope. Not everyone is talented in scaling walls, after all. Especially the icy ones." At this, her gaze cooled as she turned to Farid. "It'd be a damn shame if one of us fell."

On that not-so-vaguely threatening note, Roze made her way to where the climbing equipment had been dropped, grabbing what she needed, and then the rope. The hours she'd spent on board The Courtesan would probably help her here - she just hoped that neither her shoulder nor the ice would give out beneath her. It would be a damn shame for her to fall and die after that scathing remark to Farid - it would be humiliating.

And fatal - but a girl needs to think about reputation first, right?

As it happened, the climb wasn't as hard as she anticipated. It was easy to follow the same path Do'Karth had taken himself, digging the axe deep into the crevices he had already made. Compared to the mast of the ship, it was easier in that she wasn't being thrown and tossed about with a boat upon the waves. However, wood - no matter how slippery with rain - is inherently easier to scale than sheer ice. Roze avoided the wooden struts at first, seeing how easily they had come away from Do'Karth, but as she climbed she began using them as footholds. Being far smaller and lighter than the Khajiit, they were somewhat happier to take her weight. They still groaned and slipped, but hey, she wasn't falling just yet.

The top of the cliff could not have come sooner - by the end of the climb, the air was burning Roze's lungs and mouth, breath billowing out in a cold stream and obscuring her vision momentarily. Roze's shoulder was not pleased with her, but it was aching rather than hurting... for now, at least.

"Phew... that... that was quite... the climb..." Roze panted as she clambered over the edge, darting a tired grin at Do'Karth as she caught her breath. Straightening up eventually, she staggered over to the door, silently thanking the Gods that there wasn't another icy climb. Noticing the strut wedged in-between, she tried the door a few times... it was either locked or frozen shut. And she could certainly help with one of those.

"If my lock-picking "magic" doesn't work here, we may need a mage. Ironic, huh?" She chuckled, glancing up at the college above before taking out her lock-picking equipment. Prior to this, she had thrown the climbing things back down, in case Farid and Ariane followed Sevine's plan rather than her own. Scraping away ice from the nearly obscured lock, Roze knelt down and got to work. There was indeed a lock, and it was indeed still locked, despite Do'Karth's efforts with the pick. It had cracked the metal on the outside, but the mechanism within was still working nicely... however, breaking it open wouldn't do much good if the ice didn't want to shift. They'd just have to wait and see if her efforts were wasted or not. But hey, it's never a bad time to get in some burglary practice.

Lord of the Rings.

Very interested! I've been looking for a good LotR roleplay - and one with lore from both the books and The Silmarillion? Dude, I'm in.

Am I correct in assuming that this would be a High-Casual/Advanced gig?