TheWendil

Malevolence from Beyond

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Mana’s eyes snapped open with a startling sense of emotion and a dashing passing of alertness. Blurred delirium was what drove her vision for the first few moments before light and the natural world around her came back into focus. A swift look around confirmed she was still in her bedroom, still splayed out among the tangled bedsheets and riff raff of her unkempt spot. But as she tried to sit up, a seething pain gripped at her chest, one so dense she held a hand over it with gritted teeth.

Something was wrong, yet everything was perfectly normal. Blankness and delusion played themselves over her eyes like a slow-moving reel in an old-fashioned film. The sensation dulled down as her breath slowed; she didn’t realize she was near the edge of a panic attack until she heard her own voice quiver in the silence of darkness. Closing her eyes, Mana sought to focus on the last memory she had, the last bit of imagery and thought to come to her mind.

She recalled what happened in her dream, before she dozed off…there were voices, ones that pushed against her mind as if her head was ready to explode. Above those voices was silence, a creeping sensation that sought to coat her body and form with an icy embrace. Once it did, a great force slammed into her chest with its weight, seeping into her bone and flesh until even her veins saw fit to freeze over though her skin. For what was probably a night terror, the dream felt all too real to her regardless.

Perhaps then, that was why she continued staring at the darkness. The gleam of her eyes and the weight in her chest never left, only subsided for now. And when she did close her eyes, she could still hear the deafening silence, one so sharp it was almost as if she could pick apart voices among them. More focus, and the same, creeping sensation washing over her came again like a wave of ice rolling itself over her body in turbulent waters. She may not have understood it or comprehended what happened to her, but she knew something had.

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Monster Federation Force (Monster Girl RP)

@KoL

I suppose she's accepted.

Monster Federation Force (Monster Girl RP)

@Darkmoon Angel

Indeed, though you can always bump into Terrorkeat or one of the other GMGs. They may be in the city under disguise right now.

Monster Federation Force (Monster Girl RP)

@Darkmoon Angel

-The GMG codenamed Terrorkeat attacked Central City.
-MFF deployed to combat the monster.
-Terrorkeat escaped through a funneled tornado.
-Soon after, the GMG codenamed Dragon Queen appeared and caused minimal damage to the area.
-Dragon Queen retreats as the MFF regroup.
-One of the MFF's leaders, Akane, went after Dragon Queen herself.
-Currently a debriefing is occurring about the recent incident and the MFF's performance.

Monster Federation Force (Monster Girl RP)

@Darkmoon Angel

Accepted. Place her into the Character Tab; do you need a rundown of what's happened in the IC so far.

Monster Federation Force (Monster Girl RP)

@Darkmoon Angel, have you edited your CS.

Tower of Fable

Under Akiko’s stare, a flurry of images poured forth for her to comprehend. Most notable was Itsuko spray painting some lovely words on the side of a random building in a random harbor in a random district of the town. The noise of sirens and hasty running was heard both in her memory and in the waking world. Clearly the floor they’d stepped into was one of lawless endeavor and flat out delinquency. Strangely though, the robotic cop gave her a confused look, or rather, as much confusion as a robot muster.

None was stranger than Takara’s request, the robot looking down to see the half-awake boy. “Ugh. They don’t pay my servers enough for this,” the robot blatantly muttered. It reached to its hip where a portion jutted out, and deposited a thick cloth that was probably supposed to pass for a napkin. “Look lady, I don’t know what cover story you’re going with, but you can’t just start doing crime past curfew hours. But I’ll let you slide this time with a warning because I don’t want to deal with-”

Something low and hard bounced off the robot’s head. It was followed in short by a spitting sound and it looked up to see Itsuko sticking her tongue out, another rock ready to launch in her hand. “She’s your problem. Get to your designated quarters and you can start your crimes at the next interval.” If robots could have attitude, then this one was done with dealing with dumb children. Scooting backwards, it easily slid right into its car before pulling out of the alleyway.

As sirens faded into the distance with its departure, a low thump was heard with Itsuko landing beside them. “Woooh, kill joys, am I right? Those crime curfews really are a bummer. Too short for anyone to be having any real fun,” the girl said keenly. “Don’t think I’ve seen you three before though. You some new transfer students or you just really like to get your jollies before the others? Oh, and speaking of jollies, I know this real nifty candy store a few blocks down! You like candy, right kid?” she asked, looking at Takara.

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Malevolence from Beyond

Mana

Appearance

Ta'ge Symbiont

✣ Name: Mana Kuroi
✣ Age: 16, 2nd Year

✣ History: Mana’s life was never labeled as “normal”, especially in her earlier years. As the daughter of a powerful Yakuza who oversaw many of the local comings and goings, it was only natural that those who found out the truth to her heritage would regard her with scorn. By choice or chance, Mana’s early life involved making several enemies, though not of her own making. The sins of her family lineage weighed heavily in her blood and one day those sins would be hers to pay.

Even so, Mana generally ignored the shady dealings of her family and committed to living a regular school life. Those that stuck close even through hardship were true family as far as she was concerned and worthy of her presence despite the risks it gave. Of course, she couldn’t ignore the Yakuza forever; indeed, it was only a matter of time before the darkness within her clan began to grow rampant and spread like wildfire.

Only Mana knows exactly how she came to obtain her Ta'ge Symbiont. Some have come to guess it was by experimental summoning on the Yakuza’s part, to bring about more power and control through means of other worldly forces. After all, the perfect vessel would be the up and coming Yakuza Princess; but in the end, these are just rumors. Who really knows what occurred in these certain events? The only one willing to share is Mana herself and only to those she deems worthy.

✣ Personality: Mana is a girl of few words. That much has been bred into her just in proximity to her family, though she’s not to the point of becoming a social recluse. She prefers to rely on actions more so than words and values the intent behind them. After all, words can hold little to no meaning, but there is no questioning the extent of one’s actions; or so Mana believes. She speaks only when needed to and only when addressed, but in Mana’s experience, getting things done is more favorable than any sort of empty talk. This dogma persists even under the influence of her Ta'ge Symbiont, though in more drastic measures. When transformed, she has a certain tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.

✣ Ta'ge Symbiont: As per all Tagers, Mana has access to powers unbefit of mortal beings. Her particular Symbiont takes the form of a monstrous gunslinger clad in crystal. Whether this form has any bearing on the being attached to Mana or something more personal has yet to be seen.

• Natural Weapons: Mana’s natural weapons come in the form of two pistols budding with magical power. Easily disposable after one shot each, they can be summoned infinitely per her convenience. So far, two types of bullets have been displayed; energy shots and crystalline-structures. Furthermore, the spikes and tentacles on her shoulders can be extended to either puncture and barrage the enemy or act as defense in providing a bristling shield and sweeping counters.

• Limit Weapon: When pushed to her limit, or when she desires to decimate her enemy, Mana will utilize her Limit Weapon, Wolve’s Bane. With a shot of her pistols each, a houndish creature appears in place of bullets and it’s not very long before a pack of them can be summoned forth. Acting almost like ghosts, these ghastly hounds seek out their target with frightening precision and unrelenting hunger before feasting on the poor fool who’ve slighted their master. Their speed is horrific to witness, as if they phase out of reality itself, and their ghostly nature make them difficult for most magic to pin down and destroy.

• Abilities: Mana’s developed an uncanny ability to slightly alter spaceto her making. More often than not, this manifests in a power to teleport freely and crossing vast distances in a single step, albeit none that exceed more than a few miles. Even so, she can teleport either her entire body or, more often than not, parts of her body if need be. She can also track down others via their shadow and scent, as well as see perfectly in complete darkness. Finally, she’s gained a resistance to near-frigid levels of intense cold and weather.

✣ Ta'ge Persona: While ordinarily quiet and almost reserved, Mana’s personality becomes slightly skewered when transformed. Communication is almost nearly impossible to make with her as she prefers to let her guns do most of the talking than anything else. Some could say she even enjoys the act of murder and gunning down her enemies, though it’s difficult to tell when she’s so close-lipped. Even so, closed-eyed observers can note the subtle body language she gives off to display her enjoyment of bloody and wretched situations, especially in combat.

✣ Hybrid Form: When sliding into her Hybrid Form, Mana’s eyes become slit like a cat’s pupils. When using her powers in this way, she gains her control over space. She’s freaked out her fair share of hapless victims by suddenly tapping them on the shoulder via an arm sprouted from a portal behind them.

✣ Theme ✣

Malevolence from Beyond

@TheWindel
I'm going to be honest, the pistols disposed of and replaced wholesale gives me this unavoidable mental image of Reaper tossing his empty shotguns everywhere. But that's the only actual issue I have and it's really not big enough to stop me when I like the rest of the character so much.

Since the teleportation ability is new, I do have some comments on it. I did briefly wonder what was meant by only teleporting parts of her body, but its via portals, so that's cool. Can others reach through these portals (ally or enemy)? And are there any limits on things in general, such as requiring line of sight?

@Vega7285

Considering it's eldritch magic, it's not hard to imagine the shells probably disappear when used and disposed.

No one else can use these portals since, as said, they can only teleport herself or parts of her body. As such, they're not big portals to begin with, only begin enough for her body. As for limits, line of sight would probably be one of them.

High Ground Online

Despite the timer for the undead event trickling away, it felt like an eternity before the game forcibly shut down the enemy NPCs and cleared the area for the battle-weary players. In that time, Black Cat wouldn’t have been able to find any useful hints or tricks via the internet or even Gudanko’s stream. It was more so a collection of angry gamer complaints at the unfairness of the beta and compilations of player fails during the event than anything useful or worthwhile. However, on the other side of the playing field, both Pestilent and her loyal knight survived the horde.

With survival came, hopefully, an energized and curious approach to the event’s mechanics. In time, it wouldn’t be long before the Deputy could construct a strategy guide of her own regarding the undead enemies. As for Thea, her attacker would go unknown for the rest of the night, but it wasn’t like she’d keep it secret for long. Indeed, it wasn’t long before Kenji was told of the strange encounter. Mention of Moon Rider, or specifically, a player taking the title of the infamous Black Guild player back in the days of archaic Deep Ground Online, soon sparked a charge within the game’s community.

In the span of overnight, HGO became the trending topic of discussion once again for two reasons. First was of course the new circulated rumors and public interest in the so-called new Moon Rider. Where had she come from? Was she an enemy NPC that only spawned during the undead event? Was Thea making her up just for publicity? The last part was disproven as quickly as it sprung up if only by Thea’s laced and not so subtle threats to anyone who dared to question her validity. But it wasn’t the only discussion going around.

It was a bittersweet day charged with confusing emotions run rampant, not entirely helped by the news that Jin Adamano was dead. More aptly named Saffron Star, it wasn’t long for the discovery to break out of the Blue Deputy’s passing. Nor was it long to find the body riddled with holes in specific locations of her corpse, hoddled in the darkness of a back alleyway. Not wanting to face legality pursuits or negative coverage, it was understandable that HGO’s devs would be upfront and honest about the tragic passing of an unknown murder.

That was probably why the game was put on a technical hiatus, much to the outcry of many. As tragic as Saffron’s death was to those who knew her, most players saw it unfair to suspend the game just for a death that was still under investigation. Coupled with promises to fix the undead mode and make it more balanced meant there were few and far opportunities for HGO to be playable. As a last-ditch effort to please its customers, an online version was released entirely in VR.

Granted, as an outdated model, no doubt a beta in its own right, the new “HGO” was sure to detract some players. But with no other alternative and with all AR functions being suspended for the time being, it was deemed safer both by the media and the general public to move the game over to an older but more reliable method. Knowing this, just as many players stayed to at least try out the VR method. Such as it were then that the first day of true VR HGO began, many a player settling into what was a crude version of a character selection hub room. Still, there were many strange anomalies that were too off-putting to ignore forever.

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