Psyker Landshark

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

Well. Renar had been half expecting his attempt at comforting the girl to be in vain. Seemed he was less bad at this than he'd anticipated. That, or Fanilly was just easily influenced. One of these thoughts was more distressing than the other. The thought crossed his mind to bring up a certain...issue he'd been having. But that would be overreaching. Too blatantly greedy. Besides, judging by her demeanor, Fanilly was more likely to take pity on the idiot than anything.

He glanced over to Cecilia for a moment, who was still more focused on getting absolutely sauced than anything. And here he'd thought she wanted to comfort the girl more than he did. Suppose that with someone else here, it was more convenient for the archer to take advantage of all the free alcohol instead. Good thing he wasn't in charge of managing things down here. Pity the poor bastard who'd have to account for the missing wine in the evening. And on that note...

"Speaking of such, you may want to inform whomever is in charge of kitchen inventory of the better part of a cask mysteriously going dry today." Renar said wryly, jerking his head over in Cecilia's direction. "That all said, should an opening ever arise for administration, I'd like to put my name forward. I'm told I've something of a talent for these matters. Understand that this isn't me asking for a favor, of course. Just that I'd simply like to be considered in the running. Test me on this however you wish."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

Ugh. Had he been this moody at the captain's age? In objective, unbiased terms, probably. But Renar would never actually admit that. So instead, he took a fortifying sip of wine, trying to determine how best to break up Fanilly's little pity session. He'd never interacted with Sir Rickert much, but from what he had, Renar suspected the senior knight had wanted little to do with him. Any...commiseration on his part would be rather insincere.

So he sighed.

"Good men die. Bad men die. There's no way around saying this, but as a leader of men, it's something you'll have to get used to. The goddesses only know I'll probably die in battle before I get what I want out of life." He chuckled grimly, finishing his cup and pouring himself a second one. Probably best to cut himself off after this one, if only to make sure someone in this group stayed relatively sober. "Unfortunately, the realm needs the Iron Rose to accomplish the crown's goals more than it needs every single knight to live long and healthful lives. I've no other advice other than to keep the long-term in mind. Always remember that your knights fight and die in service of duty, so that threats to the realm are eliminated."

Renar had no personal attachment to the concepts of duty or service, but hopefully it was something that would motivate Fanilly. Based on his own personality, any talk of helping others would rightfully come across as a lie, so this was the best he could do. Best to move the conversation on.

"That all said, how has administration been thus far? I've been rather concerned with the state of the Order over the last few years, given how we've had no central leadership thus far. Some matters of bookkeeping have wound up falling to me at times." If only because he'd forcefully taken over from certain idiots who'd had no idea how to balance an account book to save their lives.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

@VitaVitaAR @Rune_Alchemist

Of course, it wouldn't do for the Knight-Captain to be caught getting sauced when she was ostensibly on the job in the middle of the day, no matter how much the girl probably could actually use a drink to decompress from her first command. So Renar had the decency and tact to at least sneak the three into the wine cellar, where there was a table and stools in a side room for exactly this purpose.

"Apologies for the accomodations, Captain." Renar said conversationally as he strode back out into the actual cellar to pick out a decent wine. Not that Cecillia was helping, given that she just picked a random cask to pour out of for herself and started imbibing liberally. So it fell to him to find something suitable for someone younger. After some searching through the cellar, he managed to find a semi-sweet bottle of red blend. Not too harsh, not too cloying. Easy drinking, especially for someone likely unused to alcohol.

Renar returned to the side room with some cups, pouring Fanilly a moderate measure of the wine and passing it over.

"Pardon the assumption, but I would believe you've not had much opportunity to imbibe?" He asked, casually swirling his cup before taking a brief sniff. If whoever taught her etiquette had any idea what they were doing, she would know this step already, if only to appease the wine snobs among nobility. If not, well, it was a good thing he was demonstrating now.

"In any case, Captain, try not to feel too bad about drinking in the middle of the day. No reasonable person would begrudge you a chance to collect yourself after the stresses of both your first command and your first battle. Which, again, I believe Dame Cecilia and I could both reiterate until we run out of air that you cannot control every casualty on the battlefield. We got off extremely lightly, thanks in part to correct strategy. Please just accept this before I start believing to myself that I'm brown-nosing." He chuckled ruefully, sipping at his wine. Hmm. Not his favorite, if only for the sweetness, but it'd likely be more to her taste than hers anyways. Still, he couldn't find any fault with the actual wine beyond personal preference.

Of Steel and Hope: An Academy-life

Oh right, weapons-wise, is there melee or just ranged weapons?

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

@VitaVitaAR @Rune_Alchemist

Ah. Evidently, Cecilia had been trying to divert the captain from this topic, judging by her reaction when he'd brought up. Still, he couldn't exactly see the past now, could he? How was he supposed to know? Still, Renar supposed he ought to at least join in on cheering Fanilly up, if only to make sure he didn't face an arrow in the back some time soon.

"Captain, with all due respect, that's impossible. Men will die on the battlefield, whether it be to poor fortune or just a moment's distraction. Frankly, the fact that there weren't more casualties with the ambushes the bandits sprung is a small miracle in the first place. I'd say you did far better than anyone could have possibly expected in your position, really. Especially considering it was your first command."

He sighed, not stopping Cecilia as she started dragging their commanding officer from the chapel. Someone more dutiful would have stopped this, but really, the Knight-Captain was a teenager. She'd have to face alcohol eventually, and better to have someone supervise and make sure anything idiotic didn't happen. Renar didn't need the Iron Rose to lose its first captain in five years off of random stupidity or scandal.

"Oh, very well. I could use a drink, and I suppose someone has to chaperone and make sure no one loses their lunch."

Renar walked by Cecilia's side, briefly murmuring in her ear quietly, just out of earshot of Fanilly.

"I can't exactly scry the bloody past the moment I walk in a room, now can I?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

@VitaVitaAR @Rune_Alchemist

"Oh, I'm sure." Renar smirked back at Cecilia, playing along with her game for now. Unless she was an idiot, she knew he knew that she knew he knew. He casually took one of the aforementioned pastries and popped it into his mouth, chewing. Hm. That was quite spicy. If he hadn't been prepared to taste something like this, no doubt he'd be having the same reaction the captain had when he walked into the chapel. With that said...

"For shame, trying to kill people with your baking in a holy place?" Renar let an exaggerated cough out, if only to cover up the fact that he actually needed to. The spice had been getting to him a bit.

"Anyways, all that said, I think everything went rather well on the previous mission, yes? Minimal casualties, and all targets accounted for."

Of Steel and Hope: An Academy-life

Applying
me like mecha

Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Next Gen

Valerie Durand

___

Homeroom, First Day

What a bunch of...quirky people she was stuck with. With a resigned sigh, Valerie stood up as she came up in the rotation for introductions, starting to speak.

"Hey," She waved lazily, looking around the room. "Name's Valerie Durand. Let's see...something I do besides dueling...well, I read a lot. Mostly fiction." She said plainly, clearly unused to talking about herself. "As for fun facts, my favorite pro duelist's Chazz Princeton. Chazz it up. Woo." She sat back down without another word, looking bored.

Seemed Ceruli was being too skittish to materialize. Something he'd said last night about want to take the measures of others first before he demonstrated her own spiritual awareness. Still, without his help, Valerie couldn't exactly tell if there was anyone among her classmates similar to her unless their spirits decided to manifest. Without anything better to do, she found herself being forced to just keep sitting through the introductions, waiting for the bell to ring.

___

A few nights later...

Valerie had been in the process of getting ready for bed when it hit her. She staggered slightly, cursing under her breath as she looked out the dorm room's window. What the hell...? What was that light?

"Ceruli, you got any idea what's going on here?" Valerie asked quietly so as to not wake Roche up from her slumber, already putting her clothes back on.

"None whatsoever." He said, looking resigned at his charge raring to go put herself in danger. "I realize that I cannot stop you from running into this crisis head-first, but might I suggest you at least caution? This...spirit geyser is dangerous, if nothing else."

With her uniform back on, Valerie just nodded briefly at Ceruli, slotted her deck into her Duel Disk, and left the room, starting to make her way towards the forest.

___

She'd barely made it a few steps in before she'd met her first duel spirit that wasn't her own partner. An Adhesive Explosive. Reminded her a little of Roche's Blast Sphere, really. Too bad the little prick was both mute and obstinate, immediately challenging her to a duel. And he was a prick. Five turns of stalling, followed by Val finally having the resources to just roll him over. As the duel concluded, Valerie barely spared the spirit a second glance before rushing further into the forest, curious as to what exactly was going on here.

If nothing else, she wasn't insane after all. There had always been an underlying current of doubt in her mind over the years, wondering if she'd just hallucinated Ceruli's presence and voice out of sheer loneliness. But if anyone else on this island had a spirit, or, hell, could even see them, that would put her worries to rest for good.

As she stepped into the clearing, Valerie was greeted with a bewildering sight. One of her classmates...shit, what was her name? Haruko? Helena? Whatever. But she was floating, and-

"Possession." Ceruli manifested beside her, his lip curled as he called out to the floating girl and the multitude of spirits surrounding her. "How distasteful. You would take your resentment out upon an innocent child with no responsibility for your predicament? And here I thought I was free from the barbarity of the Dark World under that idiot. Girl, for your own safety, I recommend dueling. These little fools won't stop hounding anyone until they're defeated."

"What happened to being careful?" Valerie snarked back at her partner, but trusting him implicitly as she raised her duel disk. There was another girl here, in the same Ra Yellow uniform as her. What was her name...? Screw it. "Yo," She called out to Mina. "So I'm pretty sure you can see spirits, same as me. Mind jumping in on this duel at all? Not gonna turn down free help when it's not an official game."

Pokemon: Ascendancy

Fiona MacConnell

MENTIONS: Sawyer @Vertigo, Nordrin @Yankee, Isaiah @PrankFox

Small wonder they'd gone for her Talonflame first. Judging by the number of moves she'd had her Pokemon try on the weird unknown Pokemon, Fiona could surmise that they were probably Steel and Bug type. Fiona scowled at the thought, continuing to command her Pokemon. She couldn't exactly tell who was commanding them, but someone was clearly giving orders, based on how well the fusion Pokemon were moving.

"Nuts tae butts, th' odd fuckers're probably Bug! Definitely Steel! Hit 'em with Fire if ya got it!" Fiona yelled out towards her fellow Gym Leaders while continuing to keep an eye on the battle. The sudden arrival of reinforcements had started to turn the tide, with several of the robbers' Pokemon being knocked out.

Apollo's Flamethrower scored direct hits in the sides of all three of the strange Pokemon, their pained reactions definitely revealing that they were at the very least, weak to Fire-type moves. Unfortunately, this also gave Nordrin's Pokemon more to deal with as they were putting out the fires. As the rest of the criminal Pokemon began to fall and the odd ones were further weakened by stray attacks flying back and forth across the street, the thugs began to panic slightly. Just then, however...

"Damn it, you're all useless. A few people that can actually battle worth a damn show up, and you goons start falling apart. Hell, even the party favors don't look so hot. We can't afford to lose the prototypes to these idiots. Boss'd have my ass, which means I'd have every single one of yours." A male voice boomed, its owner stepping out of the lab with a steel briefcase in hand. A heavy coat, a hood, a high collar, and a cap all served to obfuscate any noticeable feature the man had, and he casually pulled three Ultra Balls out of his coat pocket, recalling the three mystery Pokemon. "Fall in and rally behind me, we're pushing out-" He was cut off by Felon's roar, and the apparent leader of the group tilted his cap up towards the Mega Salamence, seeming to start for a moment before staring straight at Fiona. "...You."

"What, do I know ya?" Fiona raised an eyebrow, even as she commanded her Gliscor to sucker punch a few Pokemon who were turning away to rejoin the main group. "Don't think I owe ya money...fuck it, just get on wit' it. Who tae fuck're ye?"

"Someone whose property you stole, bitch." The hooded man snarled, fishing another Pokeball out of his pocket and releasing an Alakazam.

"Wait, wha-"

The Alakazam gripped its spoons tightly, snarling and drooling slightly in a disturbing fashion. This species...wasn't supposed to be that animalistic.

"Wide-range dispersal." The apparent admin commanded, and the Alakazam actually howled as it smashed its spoons together, black tornadoes forming around the entire street as they ravaged through friend and foe alike. By the time it was over, whatever the attack had been did a number on nearly every Pokemon in the street. No matter their Type, every Pokemon staggered like it had been hit by a super-effective attack, knocking out even Pokemon on the criminals' side that either had already been weakened or were just fragile enough to be unable to take a hit.

On Fiona's side, she gaped for just a moment as half her team was knocked from the air, having already sustained enough damage from the ongoing battle to knock them out. Of her team, only Raptor and Felon remained conscious.

"Crazy fuckin' bastard!" Fiona snarled as she recalled her KOed Pokemon. In the confusion, the thugs started to disperse, recalling their Pokemon and running every which way. "Dammit, let th' coppers get after 'em, we gotta take this one!"

"Come on, assholes!" The hooded man screamed back, releasing an equally vicious-looking Steelix as backup for his Alakazam, briefcase no longer in his hands.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

@VitaVitaAR @Rune_Alchemist

For a moment, Renar had to remind himself to be patient, lest he start thinking like Serenity. He had to be patient with the captain acting like a teenage girl, because she was a teenage girl. One that didn't exactly ask for this role, unless he was catastrophically mistaken about how the selection process worked. And so Renar simply didn't comment on Fanilly stammering, instead giving her a patient, blank stare. Smiling would just be brown-nosing.

"How have you been settling into Candealn, Captain?" Time to continue taking the girl's measure. Judging by the fact they'd mopped up a group of war veterans while losing only a single man, Renar had little to complain about thus far. But that was only one battle. Flukes could happen. He glanced over to Cecilia, eyeing the little snacks she'd brought.

"Mind if I take one? Now I'm just curious as to what had the Captain in such a fuss."