Psyker Landshark

Iris Ascendis

Iraleth Kyrios

Shaktan advances, so jealously hoarded. And only now given out to those deemed worthy. A small victory, at least. Though the knowledge that her home was suffering from arcane shortages just so the Shaktans could keep their quality of life still rankled at her. That resentment prevented her from feeling much else about the evident headmistress's speech, but she got the gist of the important parts.

Touch the wisp. Endure a trial. It figured that the tests weren't over yet. And fortunate that it wasn't another of the body. Iraleth wouldn't have lasted in that. In a test of her resolve? She would prevail. The paladin took a breath, steadied her mind, and made to clench a gauntleted fist around the Adapa.

___

Flames. Shadows. Chaos. The stench of blood and ash in the air. She knew where she was. How could she not? This was the one event that had defined the course of her life up until now. Iraleth was but eight years old again, cowering and hiding in the ruins of the orphanage as paladins and cultists battled throughout her village.

She was weak again. Powerless. Unable to defend her world around her or even herself. The screams of the dying haunted her now as they did in her nightmares, but she forced herself to listen. A stray bolt of darkness caught the girl cowering next to her, and she withered away without being so much as able to scream. Beth. They'd been good friends, once. Iraleth had lived this nightmare once already. To simply experience it again? She already did that in her dreams.

And if she were correct, he would be appearing any time now. The sounds of battle were dying down, and Iraleth knew what was coming. As if on cue, the armored form of Eltoras Kyrios strode into the ruined building, and his armet gazed down upon the child's prone, half-dead form. But he didn't speak as she remembered.

"Iraleth died here." The paladin's voice boomed, his sword planted into the ground as his helmet gazed down in judgement at her.

"What..?"

"Any semblance of your own will died when you decided to follow someone else's dreams out of gratitude for saving your life. Past all your delusions of legacy and idealism, this is the last time Iraleth as her own person existed."

"How dare you?!" Iraleth gnashed her teeth, her childlike form slamming a fist against the ground. "You speak this nonsense to me wearing my father's armor?"

"I dare." Eltoras's armor nodded. "Do you truly believe that you have any strength of spirit while carrying on the dream of another? The only thing that sustains you is a borrowed dream. How sad, for one to lack a will of her own."

Iraleth let loose a wordless scream of defiance as she rose, her body in the dream returning to as it was in real life. Ten years older, clad in plate, and clutching a sword. She charged, and the two clashed, a maddened duel beginning.

"This is your answer? Base violence? Defeating me will not make my words any less correct. Did you not just condemn two others for attempting to do such this past hour?" Thrust, parry, riposte. Their back-and-forth went on.

"You defile my father's honor." Iraleth hissed, taking her left hand off the hilt of her sword to seize her foe's weapon by the blade. "I have never denied that what drives me is not entirely of my own will. But I will not let you mock those who put faith in Eltoras Kyrios, who put faith in me!" With her opponent's weapon locked up, she raised a plated boot and stomped down on her opposite number's foot, causing him to recoil and stagger.

"Bold words. And when the weight of those borrowed dreams crushes you? What then? You may as well fight out of mere obligation without a will of your own." The armored figure raised a fist and slammed it into Iraleth's jaw, the both of them stumbling back after a round of brutal melee.

"It can try. These wings of mine are not mine own, but I soar all the same!" Iraleth bellowed, raising her sword in front of her to present arms as wind whipped around her armor. "Obligation is duty. Duty is its own reward. I would rather the world praise those who came before me, than praise the one carrying their legacy onward. Now, enough of this. I reject you! ON BORROWED WINGS!"

The Inheritor's armor manifested around Iraleth, and she shot forward, impaling the simulacrum of her father's likeness in one sudden stroke.

"Spoken...like a good and proper knight..." The figure gurgled its last words, the dream collapsing around the two of them as the Inheritor watched on dispassionately.

___

Iraleth slowly opened her eyes, finding Principal Raja's and meeting her with a stoic gaze. This little test had failed to break her. Now to see who it would. To her surprise, it seemed two of her compatriots had already broken free before her. Impressive.

Augmented Machine Mobile Armor: A Gundam and Armored Core-inspired Mecha RP

Banshee

<<"Decided to take in the scenery, new meat? Get your ass in gear, double time.">> Ariela replied conversationally as they set out, raising an eyebrow within her cockpit at the aforementioned pilot's sudden change in demeanor now that they were in the field. Who knew, maybe she was just the type to get her shit together on duty and nowhere else. If that was true, it was good enough for her.

On the approach to the comm site, Ariela mentally reviewed the basic readouts of her squadmates that VALKYIRE had so generously provided.

Platzragen: missile boat with a highly advanced FCS. Reminded her of some of the AUGs she'd seen on her side in the war, really. Probably a leftover like LINEBREAKER, then.

Red Power: some godforsaken supermech with way too many proprietary designs. Too fancy not to be a corporate model, military wouldn't have stuck in this much complex gear instead of just strapping more guns to it. Kid inside had to be some kind of corpo-plant sent out to use the Neutral Zone as a live-fire testing ground. Hopefully, the machine's specs would make up for her inexperience.

Two fast units and a siege specialist. She could work with this. Watcher wasn't objecting to her taking the lead so far, so she may as well keep at it. Wasn't like Ariela didn't have enough experience, anyway.

As they finally reached their target area, a quick scan revealed the current force composition lined up against them.

<<"Comms squad, listen close. Here's how we'll do the attack run. Heavy kinetic cannons're our biggest problem, so knock them out first. Following that, pick targets of opportunity, but try to focus on the MAs if you can. I'll take the lead and draw their fire. FA, you'll follow after and clean up while they're distracted. Watcher, you've got free reign to go wild. Everything clear? Good. Break!">>

___

Jimmy yawned as he barely kept an eye on the sensor readings from his MA's cockpit. God, who did he piss off to get sent out into the middle of this shithole? He idly tore open a MRE packet, only to grimace as he realized what he'd gotten. Pork patty. Fuck's sake, he could've sworn he'd taken the one marked kung pao chicken from the garrison's communal box. Worse, there was no candy bar. He was gonna find that ratfucker if it was the last thing he did. With a disgusted sigh, he prepared to take an early, mediocre lunch on duty, before alarms began to blare in his cockpit.

"Holy shi-" He swore, looking at the sensor readings before queueing up his comms.

<<"Command, we have incoming! Three Matsuzawa Drive readings, closing in fast! We have AUGs on site, I repeat, we have AUGs on site! The lead's coming in at three times the speed of the others!">>

LINEBREAKER tore through the sky in its overboost, the laser cannon mounted on its shoulder charging. Ariela grinned to herself as her FCS got a good lock onto the first of the kinetic cannons, and she opened fire. As the laser blast ripped through the heavy cannon, Ariela ended LINEBREAKER's overboost, touching down on the ground and starting to slide along with the regular boosters, opening up full auto with both of her carbines as she maneuvered towards cover behind a building.

Jimmy never stood a chance, and he screamed in panic as his MA took a dozen rounds and went critical.

@Eisenhorn @The World

Iris Ascendis

Iraleth Kyrios

Squire, again? What was with these arrogant nobles and their insistence that she couldn't possibly be a full-fledged knight? Iraleth gnashed her teeth, but spoke no more of the matter as a member of Wingram's faculty finally deigned to show herself. Besides, the rest of Valen's words had no effect on her. If she should martyr herself young, then so be it. She held little fear at the prospect. After all, her life should have ended when the Umbralists razed her orphanage as a child. Every day past that was a gift.

The shadow witch's response echoed across the link but once before the Strigdae shut it off. Well. That hadn't gone over as poorly as she'd imagined it would. Fine, then. Once Iraleth was rested, her first order of business in whatever free time she would have at Wingram would be to track that girl down and get an explanation. Not that she was looking to be an inquisitor, but her abilities still gave cause for concern. Better to trust, but verify.

The woman in the beautiful dress spoke, and Iraleth shifted her attention back towards her. Time was finally up, then. Iraleth watched dispassionately as one of the Mannekins dropped a chair in front of her, and she simply sat in it without complaint, offering the Strigdae responsible a brief nod of thanks. He was keeping to his word for the moment, at least. Her magic could have afforded her a backup plan should the boy have welched on his word, but fortunately, it hadn't came to that.

Otis and Ciara asked their questions, and Iraleth looked on without a word. If Bronsteel had truly been a hired hand, he would have been an utterly incompetent one to lose his head so completely and throw what could very well have been a lethal spell at her. Even so, it would vindicate her personal decision to let him live all the more. For now, she conserved her energy, not speaking more than she had to. In truth, Iraleth would have liked nothing more than to collapse into a bed and slumber for the rest of the day after the effort she'd exerted and the injuries she had taken. But there were yet miles to go before she could sleep. Besides, all Iraleth was doing at the moment was sitting. If she couldn't manage that without passing out, she wasn't worthy to be a paladin of Astra.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

Renar couldn't help but chortle slightly at the double entendre, whether Serenity intended it or not. Though judging by her comment of bedding, she likely did.

"He's still a squire, and we're in a time of ostensible peace. Actual experience is hard to come by when we've been putting out the bush fires. Last I evaluated him, though, he isn't bad. A few more years of training and experience and he'd be Crown Knights material." He said simply, to which Elias sighed.

"But not the Iron Rose, eh, elder brother?"

"We'll see, won't we? At the very least, you aren't going to do worse than Felix. As for the other understanding, well." Renar shot his younger brother a teasing grin. "He isn't completely innocent, at least. How is that merchant's daughter I helped introduce you to last festival season? Elise, was it? You bed her yet?"

Elias flushed again, but answered nonetheless, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

"We've not gotten that far, though I haven't seen her in a while. I'm kept rather busy as Sir Galmeth's squire."

"You'll get there. Just try not to get her with child." Renar patted Elias on the shoulder in commiseration before glancing back to Serenity.

"Does that answer the question to your satisfaction?"

@ERode

Rise of Rasalhague

Jaromir Zhu

Jaromir grit his teeth in annoyance as the LRM barrage rocked his Trebuchet, his gaze briefly shifting to check the damage readouts. Nothing breached, but another good barrage like that would definitely be a problem. Of course his live ammo had to be stored where he'd taken damage, because the god damn Dracs who overhauled this thing didn't think to do anything sensible like putting the autocannon rounds and missiles into the fucking legs like any sane Mechwarrior would want.

"Damage sustained, returning fire on the Javelin." His frustration didn't carry over to his comms discipline, already sighting the Javelin as his weapons finished cooling down. Time to finish the job. Again, he zoomed in on his neurohelmet's sights. As the opposing mech juked Karel's Medium Lasers, Jaromir lined his shot up for the right torso again. This time, both the PPC and the AC/5 scored a direct impact against the Javelin. Combined with the damage it had already taken, the Trebuchet's fire ripped through the enemy Mech, taking it out of the fight entirely.

That amount of damage likely meant there wasn't any salvage left. Too bad. Though at this point, that was entirely his fault. Still, having his own ass take fire was one way for Jaromir to discard the thought of anything else besides how to most efficiently mission kill a Mech.

"Good hit, good hit! Javelin KIA." He reported, briefly scanning over his radar to keep an eye on the wider battle. "How're we on the Locusts? Try to leg them or go for headcaps if we want salvage, yeah?"

Rolls

PPC against JVN-10A, RT hit
AC/5 against JVN-10A, RT hit

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

As Renar chortled at the jibe, Elias scowled, forgetting his decorum for a moment as he raised his voice.

"I've not hit my growth spurt yet, simple as that! I'm still a few months off from fifteen!" Then he caught himself, raising a fist to his mouth as he coughed awkwardly. "Er, my apologies for the unseemly display."

"You weren't minding your manners to begin with in a casual setting." Renar waved it off, though not without some chiding. "Just remember to never let your guard down when it's important. Otherwise, you'll end up like Felix. How did our lord father take the news of that, by the way?"

"He was livid." Elias chuckled awkwardly, whether it be at the chastisement or the reminder of Lord Brias's reaction. "Very much so at you, but worse at Felix. He'll probably let you have it the next time you see each other."

"Father can seethe all he wants." Renar forced an expression of unnatural calm onto his face. "What, is he going to disinherit his bastard? By all means, I've nothing to lose." He glanced back towards Serenity, suddenly breaking up his expression with a smirk.

"Which is clearly why I'm trying to make arrangements for Elias instead. Besides, last I checked, the Arcedeens were a more prestigious family. No offense to our Knight-Captain, of course."

@ERode

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

"Indeed. For all that Gerard and Fionn despised them, that lot died as easily as any other mercenary I've come across. There's little point in atrocities without generating an advantage, and considering the strength of the Boars we fought..." He shrugged, idly observing the varying portraits of Tyaethe over the decades. Goddesses above, why did they even bother? The vampire would continue to be the same ten years from now, twenty, fifty. Actually, a better question was why Tyaethe deigned to actually sit for all of these.

"Well, if I'm to consign myself to the darkness when I die, I'd at least have liked to actually accomplished something in life. Without that, one might as well leave their soul lily-white."

"What are you two whispering about?" Elias called over from a distance away, having noticed the two having a furtive conversation.

"I'm trying to gauge if she has any interest in a betrothal with you." Renar shot back instantly, causing his brother to flush. "You're only two, three years apart in age, after all."

@ERode

Iris Ascendis

Iraleth Kyrios

How dare he. Iraleth gnashed her teeth as Valen delivered insult after insult, her ire rising all the while. The urge to thrust her sword into his gut grew with each word, even as she briefly noticed the boy from the bridge joining them while in an obvious state of rebound. Iraleth wasn't so far off from such herself, an outline of her Ethos briefly flaring around her and a gash opening across her cheek in response before she forced her power back down.

"The only member of your family I venerate is Nero." Iraleth spat in response, only lowering her blade as the redhead relented on his fireball spell. "You mock him and the Star Sorcerer for abandoning your family, and yet they are the only Leuvalts known to the rest of the world for accomplishing anything with their lives. Does it irk you, that the only worthwhile members of your misbegotten family to have contributed anything to the world were the ones that wished little to do with it?"

She deliberately turned her back on him, her sword returning to where it had been planted before.

"And yes. You are wrong. Twice today, I cross paths with someone who believes their power gives them the right to simply toy with those below them. It does not. Might alone does not make a hero. A wicked man could slay all the monsters he wants. It means nothing if it does not benefit society. Principles and devotion are what drive people to perform great acts in service to all. You clearly lack such. Even the shadow witch, if she is an Umbralist, at least did not threaten to commit mass murder on a whim. Must I explain basic morality to you as well?"

She deliberately turned her back on him, returning to her former position and planting her sword back where it had been.

"If you take umbrage with my words, by all means: Cast a spell. Try to kill me for no reason other than wounded pride. Prove me right about your unworthiness. The thought of you having to desperately explain causeless murder to the faculty will fill my last moments with joy."

Her piece said, Iraleth returned to silently observing the Strigdae's machinations. His words betrayed no ill intent, to be certain. She actually agreed with him, in fact. Their failing now was not the end. There was always another chance, and judging by what she'd seen, some of these teens certainly needed more time to prepare. To train. They weren't worthy now. But in the future? Perhaps.

Still, the ease of which he'd taken complete control of the situation sat ill with her. Liars with good intentions were still just that: liars. What would be his line in the sand? To which he'd put his foot down and not take the easy path? Whatever his name was, he would bear watching.

And speaking of watching...

Iraleth's gaze shifted towards the shadow witch again. Her thoughts crept across the mental link. While the rest could hear her, the question was directed only towards Ciara.

"That wretch bore a singular good point. What are you? Considering your actions thus far, I doubt you to be an Umbralist in truth. But shadow magic carries a stigma for a reason. You may explain later in private, once this pageantry is done with. But I am inclined to give you a chance. For now."

@ERode @Estylwen

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

"I'm more partial to the Pig-Sticker. Or the Goblin Grappler. Brother did make his name against orcs, after all." Elias chortled back, starting to head off on their little tour of the keep. Renar just sighed, following along at a more sedate pace, only really bothering to stop Elias should he wander into a more restricted or private area.

"The bards can do as they will." He rolled his eyes. "What's one more lie compared to the hundreds they sing regularly? The only opinions that matter are the ones that are held by those with power, anyway."

"Always so cynical." Elias tutted, seeming completely used to Renar's bitterness. "And yet Father will never acknowledge that you're the one who internalized everything he said best."

Renar simply sighed at that, seeming far less hostile than one would expect of someone mentioning himself and his father in the same breath. "Let's not discuss family issues in public, shall we?"

"Fine. Honestly, I'm the only one that even wants to discuss them at home, anyway." Elias shot back as they headed inside the keep. While he was admiring at the various pieces of art that decorated the great hall, Renar turned back to Serenity, his voice lowering.

"We've not spoken since last we marched. So, the Boars. Vastly overrated, wouldn't one say?"

@ERode

Iris Ascendis

Cue running gag that Iraleth is chronically blind to Ciara's (platonic) (predatory) interest in her.