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Post by Carillus on Sept 12, 2010 23:46:09 GMT 8
Jennifer Dagwood, Blitz Regia
The warning klaxon in the upper left corner sounded. Air pressure.
"Crap, they got the air... bloody air elementals, full of nothing but hot air."
Her fingers a flurry of activity, Jennifer tried her best to pump the intake, increase the compression, enrich the mixture, everything - but nothing worked. The dropship, just speeding up, started to slow down again - and dropped.
The altitude loss buzzer started to sound. The cockpit was awash with noise, with a boulder flying to meet them to boot.
"Goshdarnit idiots, your mission's to escort, not kill the final boss! Now get your asses back here, I need protection and I need to get everyone out right now!"
Five seconds to impact. No choice for it. Flipping a dark brown switch in the upper right, she pressed the button down - hard.
The dropship lurched, and a deafening roar came to bear. Four plumes of flame rushed out of the quad-exhaust of the Dragonfly, sending it slowly forward.
"Experimental rocket propulsion system activated..."
It was moving... but not fast enough.
The boulder swung right through the rear of the dropship, a sickening crunch echoing through the cabin as the entire craft jolted from the impact.
Jennifer, braced in the front seat, immediately turned on the cabin intercom.
"Catherine! Are you alright? We lost the tailfins, but she'll still fly! Are you alright? Answer me, Catherine!"
Catherine Ludwig Bostock, 185th Digital
"Ughh..."
Catherine opened her eyes.
She was lying on her side on the dull green floor of Blitz Regia. A sizeable bump was making its presence felt on the side of her head.
"Catherine, answer me!
"Yeah, I'm fine, Jennifer. Keep your socks on."
Looking up, she saw blue sky.
"...Uh, but try not to fly too high. Your ceiling's kinda not really there."
"...The Big M's gonna kill me for this."
An urgent bleep from Pigeon 3. Switching to the camera, she peeked around the area.
Just then, she saw the golem explode below. Dozens of shards of rock and concrete flew through the air in a huge hemisphere, impacting on everything it hit.
A rock was heading straight toward her.
"Oh shit no-"
Blackness. The blue sky slowly faded back in again. Pigeon 3's indicator went offline.
"...Jennifer, go straight up. ASAP. We've got a large barrage coming from below, and there's just too much moving too fast for me to stop properly. I'll follow up with the rest."
Silence from the cockpit. The craft jerked, the clouds in the sky rapidly becoming bigger, the air rapidly getting thinner. No choice for it - she'd have to suffer the consequences if she wanted to survive.
Recalling the two Pigeons (one still with Jasper strapped to it), she flew them up as fast as she could, taking care not to drop the cargo still resting on it.
"Pigeon 1, Pigeon 2, engage Experimental Phaseport System. Give me a system net, 20 by 20."
Green dots. Both Pigeons' EPS were still online. Good.
The Pigeons flew into formation below Blitz, throwing up a glowing orange field below it, a 20 by 20 square.
Hope this works...
Jennifer Dagwood, Blitz Regia
On rocket power, the dropship was steadily rising through the air, but was consuming copious amounts of fuel as a result.
Shit, I'll really need some help if I want to get back to base...
"T-122F, callsign 'Blitz Regia'. Do you read me, over?
A call? From who? And why now?
"Loud and clear. Designation and callsign, over."
"FS-001, 'Recon Laser'. Reinforcements inbound."
An FS designation...? A Starlet fighter?
Jennifer let out a breath she did not realise she had been holding. A Starlet fighter - they'd be good enough for her to break off.
"Roger that. You really saved our asses over here."
"Wait for the actual saving bit first. Hang tight, ETA 10 seconds from your one position."
All that was left was to wait. The dropship rose ever higher.
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Post by schrodinger on Oct 1, 2010 0:51:44 GMT 8
Oh, spare me.
Venser could feel his unfortunate adversary twist in his grasp, lashing back at him with whatever he could get his hands on, so to speak. Memories were the order of the day - an interesting choice, as far as attempts at resistance went. Lacking the creative freedom that imagination would have afforded, or the sheer vehemence that a pure mental push would have had, memories were nonetheless potent in their own right, their solidity and personal resonance giving them a unique power over the mind.
But to someone who'd walked through thousands of minds, seen through countless inner fictions, and overcome the mental defenses of fools from all over the worlds, memories were just another trifle. If all it took to fend him off was a disturbing image or two, his career - no, his life - would have been much simpler. Also probably much shorter.
Listen, buddy. You seem like a nice guy. Actually, you don't, but I'm just saying that to sound like I'm being sympathetic here. Actually, I'm not. I'm not telling you this for your own good or even mine. This isn't going to help you or me, but it's something that has to be understood.
You can't push me away by thinking of bad things. Yeah, you've been through bad shit. Who hasn't? I've seen into the lives of - I had -
I once found myself in the mind of a girl who'd been abused by her father. Sexually. Repeatedly. While her mother stood by and did nothing. People may think that it's a terrible thing. They may even know that it's a terrible thing to go through. But what nobody else can know is what it's like to experience that horror. Words, pictures - they don't even begin to approximate towards it.
But I was there, in her, as her, being held down, being violated, powerless, broken, alone.
I've seen through a man's eyes as he reads his wife's suicide note, realizing that the love of his life is gone forever and it's his fault. Walked in the shoes of an outcast forever shunned by society because of a cruel trick of fate. Tasted the bile rising in the throat of a philanderer's wife as she sees him with his mistress and forces a smile to keep her dignity. No, it doesn't seem like much. Not to you, not to anyone else. But to them - to me - that was the world.
Pain like that, it screws you up if you don't deal with it. I've learnt to deal with it, and I'm still screwed up. See, when I look back on those times now, I don't remember what I felt or if I felt anything at all. That's what really scares me - that I've had to become someone else to stay sane.
You're not going to break me. I am broken.
And you're coming with me.
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Post by Mathus on Oct 1, 2010 13:29:58 GMT 8
Sol
Sol was deciding on how to attack the golem when it suddenly explode, flinging a barrage of shards at him. He hastily reconstruct the metallic blocks around him into a ten-layered wall, stopping most of the projectiles but some of those that pierces through manages to graze him.
Phew, good thing none of them hit me accurately, but I was sure that the wall was enough. Better prepare for an attack, the enemy will definitely know that I'm here.
Zerus, Zurean Invasion Commander
Realizing that he isn't going to win the mind battle, Zerus force himself to trudge onwards to the palace. He then decide to show his attacker a memory, a memory of the time he ventured into the 'abyss'.
Will you be able to take this however? I doubt you have ever experience something similar to it in this world.
Concentrating on that specific memory, he tried to replicate it, the endless darkness, the deathly silence, the fear of being strike from nowhere, the constant feeling of being strangled and sinking into the ground, and of course, the mental attacks that came due to being exposed to a high concentration of miasma.
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Post by Carillus on Oct 1, 2010 23:51:24 GMT 8
The blue sky faded back into view.
I was...?
Ah, yes, the typhoon. She'd been caught unawares by the enemy formation that had crept up around her, and thanks to which she now found herself completely and utterly disoriented.
The liquid in her inner ear screamed at her brain for attention. What this meant was that she had a massive throbbing headache, and that she had no idea whether her feet were pointed toward Altair or the ground.
The troops had momentarily diverted their attention, though, so she was safe - temporarily.
Jennifer's indignant voice came ringing out of the momentary tinnitus that was fuzzing up her hearing.
Oh yeah - the job. Whoops.
Feeling strangely level-minded (probably something to do with how she'd been caught in the eye of a storm and probably reached Nirvana or something), she flew - in a not-entirely-level way - up - or was it down? - to the green dropship that was currently spewing massive clouds of smoke.
Oh, there's the bunch o' nuts.
Raising her finger, she pointed dazedly at the men attempting to pull the dropship out of the sky, and muttered a few words under her breath.
"Irefir Sagitta Conflegor Ercindis."
A moment as a few magic circles opened slowly up around Kamin, then fired a volley of shots into the unnoticing crowd. The soldiers, caught unawares, dropped like flies as their clothes caught fire, razed by the incendiary arrows of light that peppered their bodies.
"Hey, Blitz. Sorry about that. I'll take on air support and evac the rest. Just get Bostock out of here first."
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Post by Phagetthree on Oct 3, 2010 16:10:01 GMT 8
A steadily rising pitch, a mournful whine, then an earthshaking explosion. Luckily for Faranella, she had just moved behind a partially demolished building into its shadow, which protected her from the blast of lethal projectiles. With Venser's trail already far out of her enhanced sight, she decided to put that worry out of her mind, for now.
He's well experienced, extremely skilled, and greatly intelligent to boot, he will be fine.
Peering up into the sky, she saw that their transport was heavily damaged, though fortuitously, a member of their party had taken it upon herself to dispose of the pesky fliers whom she surmised had been pestering their craft.
With their pursuers satisfactorily out of the way, their transport began sluggishly moving away, leaving a trail of thick smoke in its wake.
I suppose jumping down into battle was foolish of us. Our primary objective was to rescue, not attack. Now we're in danger of failing our mission, and it would be nobody's fault but mine.
She stood and watched as the transport moved away. With no ability to fly or get herself aboard it, she resigned herself to either fighting her way out of the city or hiding until additional reinforcements arrived, if at all.
Collapsing to her knees, it was only then that she realised how exhausted she was. True, her corrupted half felt no fatigue, but her legs, which were still whole and human, felt the strain from the previous encounter. Still concealed by the shadow of the building, Faranella lay her sword across her lap and allowed herself some rest.
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Post by NPC Controller on Oct 3, 2010 21:37:42 GMT 8
Jennifer Dagwood, Blitz Regia
The air pressure gauge was slowly returning to normal.
Ah, good. Someone's handled the elementals. Pity 'bout the back end, though.
"Hey, Blitz. Sorry about that. I'll take on air support and evac the rest. Just get Bostock out of here first."
"Like hell, idiot. Losing half a dozen fine fighters for one person is the last thing I'll do if I had to swear my life on it. I've got a bit of backup just arriving, so just try to get them all up for now."
The air pressure was back to normal now. Switching back to standard propulsion and throwing the throttle to full power, the purple plume of afterburners glowed in the midday sun as the dropship quickly rose out of reach of the debris from below.
"Catherine, we need to evac the men on the ground ASAP. Kamin, clear a path down for the UAVs while you're on your way, your magic's better than bullets for sheer cleaving power."
Jennifer tracked the fighter jets out of her cockpit, three little green marks on her heads-up display slowly growing into sleek silver planes as they came into view. She saluted as they screamed past overhead.
"Blitz Regia, we have your six."
"Affirmative, Recon Laser. Setting course ID five-one-one-five, emergency evac procedure. My longwave antenna's dead, I need a call back to HQ for an IAR."
"Gotcha. I'll relay your message."
The three fighter jets, two Mantises and one Grasshopper, started circling the hovering dropship, spraying fire every once in a while to keep the enemy at bay.
"Catherine, how's things going down there?"
185th Digital, Catherine L. Bostock
"Catherine, how's things going down there?"
Her vision was filled with a rapidly growing ground. Her UAVs were rushing down after Kamin, who was now cutting a swathe through the debris down to ground level with a light shield just large enough to cover her and the width of the surfboard-sized UAVs.
"Going alright here. I'll be coming up on them in just a bit."
The IFF tags of the charges who had come to save her flashed urgently on the display of the Pigeon. Following it, she swiftly came across Faranella, who had put herself behind the remnants of what used to be a rather grand residence. She set the UAV to hover and sentry mode, keeping other enemy units at bay with withering cannon-fire.
"Faranella? Hop on. I'll bring you back up to the 'ship. Kamin and the other Pigeon will cover the rest for now."
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Post by RaineScarlet on Oct 5, 2010 3:34:27 GMT 8
The explosion that had originated from the golem threw Sierra, who had been floating steadily towards Blitz Regia, off balance, causing her water droplets to fly all over the place, but she willed herself back together and continued her climb. It seemed that the battle was dying down and an evacuation was in order. Kamin had disposed of the elementalists who had been harassing the drop-ship, which was still miraculously airborne.
Well, I suppose technology is really something else these days.. Though she didn't really understand it herself.
The first of the water droplets touched the drop-ship and a thin layer of ice grew around its shell, filling its damaged holes and returning structure back to the beat up air ship.
That, should hold the ship for any further attacks...
As for the rest of the group... She looked down from the drop-ship. Kamin was flying some distance below, protecting the Blitz Regia. Faranella was being aided by another marvel of technology. Sol was ... probably behind that crude wall. Venser, however, was still nowhere to be seen.
I know I said that he was trustworthy, but he's been missing for a while. Was he maybe... chasing after that person who detached himself from the golem earlier?
He wasn't in his human form--that much, Sierra could deduce, seeing as how the little flying machine that had been carrying Venser and Jasper was empty, and Jasper was safely on board the ship. And there was also his presence earlier... She hesitated, and then dug into her fountain of mana, pulling out a thread of pure magic and dropping it into the earth like a lifeline.
Come back safely. She thought, and closed her eyes, relaxing her senses so she wouldn't black out from fatigue.
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Post by schrodinger on Oct 6, 2010 1:47:39 GMT 8
You really don't understand, do you?
Your pain means nothing more or less to me than anyone else's. Life is not formulaic with its agonies, and your particular brand of suffering does not confer some special status upon you. You cannot touch me. I fear that no one can.
It was foolish of me to seek understanding from you. It's just that everyone wants, on some level, to be understood. That's not a platitude. That's something that I've learnt over the course of a life spent looking through the eyes of others. This gift has let me understand each person I met more intimately than anyone else could.
...Why can't it be my turn to be understood?
It was absurd to confide in an adversary in the heat of battle and expect anything constructive to come from it, but this bastion of ignorance had not only lived down to Venser's low expectations, he'd gone the extra mile and missed the point entirely. At least it provided him with the solace that a mind so profoundly incapable of grasping even the rudiments of his message was not one that he would find wasteful - or difficult - to destroy.
I'm glad we had this talk.
Goodbye.
And as he let the full force of his mind ravage the inner workings of Zerus's, Venser took a moment to reflect on how he'd become so callous towards what he knew was a decision that spoke volumes about him as a person.
But only a moment.
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Post by Phagetthree on Oct 9, 2010 23:32:05 GMT 8
More sounds of battle.
Glancing up, Faranella saw that the sky was awash in lances of light, beams of energy which seemed to cleave the air in two as they wrecked havoc amongst the enemies who were still standing. Rising up to return to the fight, one of the airborne units accompanying their transport had come down to her.
"Faranella? Hop on. I'll bring you back up to the 'ship. Kamin and the other Pigeon will cover the rest for now."
Not knowing how it knew her name, or even how it had articulated those words without a visible mouth, for that matter, Faranella was rather taken aback by its sudden introduction. However, her doubts were quickly assuaged when the voice seemed rather familiar, the voice of Ms. Bostock.
She may possess machines? That is a most intriguing ability indeed.
Keen to complete their mission, however, Faranella stowed whatever queries that had surfaced and hastily boarded the aircraft.
"I am aboard, Ms Bostock. Thank you."
A part of her yearned to return to battle, to rush back into the fray, and enjoy the spray of blood. But another held her in check, reining in her rampant emotions as the machine she was on slowly began rising, bringing her up towards the transport.
Sitting idly, she took the time to further explore her 'mutation', jabbing at it with her finger, amazed at its flexibility, able to be soft and fluid at once, while being rock solid and unflinching the next, she found that with the proper manipulation and concentration, she could will it to form more discrete shapes than the crude ones she had been using earlier.
A handy tool indeed...
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Post by NPC Controller 3 on Oct 10, 2010 21:09:39 GMT 8
Zerus, Zurean Invasion Commander
Not... Working!
Helplessly attempting to stave off Venser's mind-fuck flurry of mental assaults, Zerus could almost literally feel something burrow itself directly into his mind, before exploding within.
Everything went crazy as the world (or earth) before him exploded into a rainbow display of warping colors, twisting in every possible direction. He felt hot and cold at the same time, while his ears registered nothing but an increasingly higher pitched noise. Unable to bear the sudden torment, he burst out of the ground again, but this time not in a controlled display of hard power, but rather an involuntary attempt to get away from the presence destroying his very mind.
Why does everything feel so loud?! Why does my mouth taste purple?! What have you done to me?! Get out! Out!
As he landed ungracefully on the ground, his mouth foamed up as his limbs flailed about uselessly, then he forgot his purpose, he forgot who he was, he forgot how to use his limbs, he forgot how to breathe. Lying face down on the floor, his last, jumbled, incoherent thoughts faded from him as his eyes rolled up into his head.
[OoC: Zerus is more or less dead, heh.]
Zephyr Infantry, New Orlanian Airspace
Violently thrown about and disrupted by Kamin's surprise attack, more than half of the original force of Zephyr infantry were dead or were about to be as they plummeted towards the ground. Struggling to regroup, beams of energy sliced at them and threw them into disarray once again.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
Flying off as fast as they could, those who were still in possession of their senses made a hasty exit, but not before firing off a bright, red signal flare.
All around the zone, the glaring flare immediately caught the attention of those who had been idling at their posts. Instantly, various Zephyr troops from allover the sector rose up into the air to join the fight. Eager to avenge their fallen fellows, they gathered together before zooming towards the combat zone in a tight phalanx formation that offered superior defensive abilities.
[OoC: This does not mean that ALL Zephyr troops are engaged, only a portion of troops from each garrison in the nearby zones.]
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Post by Mathus on Oct 11, 2010 5:59:20 GMT 8
Neilla, New Orlanian Airspace
Time to prepare to execute my real mission, if what master says is really true.
Arming her right hand with a demonic claw, she readied herself to dive. It was a mere second later that she felt an intense surge of malice emanating from Zerus' corpse, which had risen as if it was being controlled and is currently trying to transform itself into something.
Fearing what it could be trying to do, Neilla dived towards Zerus with an uncanny speed. Zooming pass him whilst ripping two-thirds of his chest in the process and stopped some distance away. Inspecting the claw, she discovered that she was holding onto two crystals that was emitting the malice and some chunks of earth instead of flesh. She turns around only to see the corpse reverting back to earth and crumbles away.
So he really was already dead before we left, using the crystal as a mean to prolong his existence, and I have to deal with these tainted gems too. Though, I'm not sure if I'll have enough mana afterwards to sustain myself, especially if the one who killed Zerus interfered.
She created a magic circle, whilst levitating the crystals above the center, and proceed to configure it to suppress, cleanse and seal.
Zurean Army, All Divisions
The wave of malice was more than just a sensation, it was also a trigger, a trigger to a poison that had affected more than seventy percent of the soldiers. It distorts their mind, but enhancing their abilities slightly, creating chaos among the ranks as they randomly attack each other. Some of the stronger ones that were infected, were slowly transforming into elemental beings of their elements.
Sol
After feeling that malice, Sol was feeling sick right down to his core of being, like something is trying to get out of him. Eventually, he let out an agonized scream as intense pain swept over, powers he never knew he had were forcefully torn from him. A hooded figure materialized in front of him. It then removes its hood, to reveal an old man, and materialized a wooden staff with a wooden skull at the end and a black crystal atop the skull.
"Ah, how long has it been since I have a body? I'm surprised you're still conscious, usually people would have already faint from the shock or pain"
"Wh-who are y-you? Wh-what have you do-done with m-m-me?"
"Oh~ you'll remember in due time since some your memories will return. A pity that I won't get crystal your friend possess, it'll slow me down but it won't stop me from getting and corrupting the crystal of hope in Zurea."
Friend? Crystal? Zurea? What is this geezer talking about? Ugh, dammit. I'm starting to lose consciousness.
The wizard then tap the ground twice. The first one created a portal that leads back to Zurea. The second one however, sends out a wave of tainted mana.
"Heh, that should slow you down considerably, after all you're responsible for the all disasters that will soon occur."
Sol vision began to fade as the portal closes.
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Post by schrodinger on Oct 15, 2010 2:09:46 GMT 8
Well, that's that.
It was almost liberating not to have the weight of decision on his hands any longer, and although it didn't change the fact that the blood on his hands was getting harder and harder to ignore, Venser felt... alright. It was one thing to kill. It was another to be at peace with yourself after doing it.
And yet he was. He didn't think too much about it.
There were, after all, more pressing concerns for him to occupy himself with. His brief (if eventful) foray into Zerus's mind had given him insight into several areas that he had hitherto been ignorant of, and he needed some time to process what he'd learnt, and decide his next steps carefully.
It was not to be, however.
At that moment, a pulse of magic caught his attention. It wasn't remarkable because it was nearby, or far off, or directed at him - he knew how to hear past the standard noise of combat. It was remarkable because it was an interplanar disruption, not something he would have expected to observe in the middle of a fight. Grabbing on to it as it started to fade away, the light of realization rapidly began to dawn on him.
... a link to their homeworld?
He didn't wonder about the identity or the intentions of the mage responsible - all that mattered to him was that he held in his hands the key to repulsing the invaders, dropped into his lap by the whims of fate.
Serendipity strikes again.
It's all coming together now. Perfect.
And with the addition of this last gear to his machinations, he set his plans into motion.
In a tower rising high above the Zurean invasion's base of operations, a corpse gazed lifelessly at nothing at all whilst a pattern of light blazed forth from within its eyes, refracted and magnified by its corneas, as Venser's sigil of ownership glowed and pulsed with the spell that he was weaving through it.
Deep beneath the Zurean compound, an earthen dragon paused in the middle of its excavation. New orders from the master. As it moved to its assigned position on a cardinal point of the massive runic circle that it had only recently finished inscribing in the earth, its brethren followed suit, taking up the other cardinal points. For a long moment they merely stood in place whilst their azure eyes shone ever more intensely, flooding the circle with light.
From just outside the Zurean base, Venser readied himself for the coming storm. He had all that he needed - a magical conduit into the compound, a runic circle encompassing his targets, and the signature of their homeworld - all that was left was to finish the job.
As he hesitated, a shadow of doubt fell across his resolve. Something was bothering him. Years of experience had inured him to being in the aether - and yet now he was feeling something different. Something new. It wasn't consistent with any aetheric experience he'd ever come across before, and it felt strangely... personal. Almost as though something were guiding him, pointing out a path.
But there was no time for doubt now. He had to do what he had to do.
Initiating the banishment spell, Venser immediately felt it drain him, consuming nearly all of his mana in order to sustain its function. It was all he could do to keep himself in the aether, using his direct connection to it to expedite the spell - which, ironically, made the toll on him even more pronounced.
It's too much - I can't keep this up - (But I must)
I can't do this (I am doing this)
It's going to kill me (I'm holding on even if it does)
I need more -
And as he approached the limits of his mana pool, something reached out and touched him. It was something unlike anything he'd ever knowingly felt before. It was something new, and it was giving him what he needed. As energy flowed into him, he began to understand what it was that he'd felt earlier. It was the world, and it was with him.
Now I see. You were using me, weren't you?
Once, in a moment of desperation, he'd absorbed a part of the world. Now, he supposed, it was recognizing him as part of it as much as it was part of him. He didn't think that it was sentient enough to consider his intentions beneficial to itself, but the most plausible explanation he could come up with was that this was its form of an immune response to a foreign invasion, and he was acting as an antibody. The guidance he'd felt, the energy he was receiving - it was all the world moving to defend itself.
But even as he realised this, he could tell that the rite of banishment was still taking more out of him than he was getting back. He suspected that it was his own status as an outsider that was preventing him from being able to fully benefit from this world's movements, but he wasn't about to give up on account of that. He could just barely sustain his hold over the spell without running out of mana, but without more, he couldn't successfully resolve it either. He was stuck.
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Post by NPC Controller on Oct 15, 2010 21:52:04 GMT 8
The boy was holding up.
Time for me to jump in, then.
With a swish of the fan in her hand, she cut a thin line right through thin air - a line that fell open at her gesture to reveal the entirety of the Port of New Orlania. Stepping through it, she walked purposefully over emptiness, her feet over twenty thousand feet from the ground below.
There he is.
The boy - Venser was his name, wasn't it - was standing in the middle of a field of carnage, buildings riddled with bullet holes, others stricken down into molten slag by the fiery artillery barrage of the invasion force now floating, a black ball of darkness, above the sea.
The connection he had managed to grab on to was still pulsing, connected through him to the beat of the land, which was in turn irrefutably bonded to her being as an extension of Gaia, a construct created from an offshoot of Mother Nature's energy. It was through this connection that she now poured her own energy, her own magic, supplanting the planeswalker's foreign power with that of the Earth itself.
"Planeswalker! This invasion force is boring. I'm tired of its insufferable shortcomings and incompetent leaders. This will ease the weight of the bond you carry, but don't let it break now! It'll be inconvenient for me if you go and off on me without notice."
Maintaining the channel of energy, she could feel the steady force growing, the crack in the space-time continuum that had rapidly healed just moments before already starting to grow. There it was, right behind the black sphere of foreign mass; a small black spot, fine lines surging along the edges as the anomaly struggled, fought against the overwhelming might of Gaia's natural immune system. Reaching out a hand, she put two fingers out in front of her, aligning the spot with her digits in her vision.
"Border: Time and Space."
She swept her fingers apart. Instantly, the gap widened, the portal suddenly enlarging to gargantuan proportions. Seconds later, she heard the boom of air rushing at supersonic speed as the vast emptiness ate at the atmosphere, sucked at everything it could reach.
The foreign bodies that littered the land - there were many hundreds of them - she retethered to their origins, little persons and corpses alike flying up through the air and straight into the portal as with moths to a flame. From here, she could just make out the screams of hundreds of men - drawn as they were into a gaping rift in the continuum, a trip they were unlikely to survive.
The vast black sphere tore at its holdings, ripped slowly from the magical pillars that held it fast to the ground. Within moments, it, too, had disappeared into the vast darkness.
"Border: Earth and Space."
She swept her fan across the sky where the rift had been, and lo, it was gone, with nary a trace of there having been anything there to begin with.
"Good work, planeswalker. It would have been a lot more of a hassle if you hadn't gone and stopped the connection from breaking."
Then, she spoke directly into his mind.
And she was gone.
[Venser gains whatever - up to you to decide, whether to further your personal story or to increase your ability or whatever. No limits but your common sense. Invasion is over, assume everyone has already boarded the dropship. Continue using this thread for the dropship, back to Daenelis when done.]
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Post by RaineScarlet on Oct 16, 2010 3:17:17 GMT 8
There’s something calling me... It’s like... a call for help. There are screams everywhere. The spirits are being consumed in a vortex. Wind and rain attack the small port city. Orlania.
Sierra woke with a start, still feeling chills from her recent “dream.” She looked around at her companions. They had recently been through a strange invasion, and were resting. Even now, the Undine wasn’t sure what the outcome of it was. It seemed as though their group, with the help of a mysterious benefactor, had driven the invaders to retreat. Their victory then.
Still, there was something a little off. Like a sick pit in her stomach that sat there and weighed her down. It had started when one of the invaders had sent out that wave of dark energy. At the time, it hadn't affected her that much--only made her a little dizzy, but still... there had been an odd... vibration of sorts in the world.
She got up from her small corner which she had made her bed and walked over to a port-hole window. It was very foggy outside so she couldn’t make out any of their surroundings, but it appeared as though Blitz Regia, their airship, was cruising steadily towards New Technia. She reached her senses outside, tasting the moisture outside the ship and thinking about her "dream." What would be the implications of that, if it were real...? She had no reason for believing it to be real, but over the years, intuition had proven to be her important ally.
The spirits are quiet...
Sierra sighed, producing a stream of cyan air which brushed against the glass window and then dissipated. She was still tired from her mission, and didn’t really want to think about how she’d had no time to herself since deciding to join the Round Table. Her decision had initially been to join the group and support them so that they wouldn’t die like the many other people who ventured into this perilous land. But now looking at them, they had each grown strong--stronger than she was--because of their hardened bodies and minds. She was still soft--unwilling to hurt, too merciful.
I’m not really helping them more than hindering them in that sense...
Her chest suddenly throbbed painfully and she gasped, grabbing on to the railing for support.
If you’d just let your powers go and stop restraining yourself, you’d easily be stronger than all of them. Isn’t that what you want?[/b]
Sierra coughed and tried to breathe, but there was a force crushing her, suffocating her. What was going on? She looked over at her companions again. None of them had realized what was going on. Her vision blurred.
Someone...
You have the potential, really. Just let it all loose... Give yourself to me...[/b]
No...
The quiet voice turned into an unending echo of whispers, permeating her mind and spirit, corrupting her very core. She tried to cry out, but she couldn’t control any part of her body. She slipped from the railing and fell to her knees.
Give it to me...
Help...
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Post by Phagetthree on Oct 17, 2010 1:11:22 GMT 8
Safely back in the transport, they were swiftly returning to whatever place that they had to go, and Faranella didn't particularly care where they were headed, anyway.
Sitting against the wall, she hugged her legs close to her and rested her head on her knees as she stared at the opposite wall in an empty minded trance. Now that she had greater expertise with the manipulation of her arm, she had shrunk it to more closely resemble an ordinary human arm in terms of size and proportion, although its black coloring and prominent, pulsing veins still stood out.
Someone, or something, had, with enormous power, had ripped the entire invasion force from the world itself just a few moments ago. It was gone, just like that, not even their dead were left behind.
Why did we go through all that trouble if somebody could've just done that anyway? Whoever did that could have saved alot of pain and suffering.
Still staring off into space, her reverie was punctuated by a sudden impact to her right. Instinctively jerking her head to look, she saw that Sierra had collapsed, shivering, quaking, perhaps in pain. Getting up, Faranella moved over to take a closer look, but dared not touch her lest her own condition worsen Sierra's malaise. Unable to help, Faranella silently cursed herself.
I'm no use to anyone now! With the loss of my healing abilities, how can I expect to help anyone in times of need?
Taking a closer look at Sierra, she closed her good eye, peering at Sierra once again through the Immaterium, and saw something most peculiar.
She's not human! Within her, this glowing core, I can see her spirit, but there is another...
It was difficult to make out, since the other was so intertwined with Sierra's core, but deeper concentration revealed the intruder, perhaps the cause of her suffering. Even with the culprit identified, however, Faranella dared not intervene lest she damage Sierra as well. Guilt tugged at her heart as Sierra whimpered at her feet.
For all it's worth...
"H-how can I help you, Sierra? Are you going to be alright?"
[OoC: If I've mentioned anything incorrectly (e.g. about the thing in your mind and stuff) feel free to correct me, I will make the respective changes.]
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Post by RaineScarlet on Oct 18, 2010 2:20:10 GMT 8
Sierra felt a flurry of motion around her. Faranella...
And then...
Nothing. Her eyes glazed over.
The Undine’s tangible body evaporated and disappeared, leaving behind a bright turquoise ball of light. But that too, flickered and then spirited away, towards Port Orlania.
Ayasaki Hayate, Machigai Teahouse “Uh, hello?” The radio in the cockpit of Blitz Regia sputtered and then came to life. “Hello, hello... Wait, Soap, why don’t you... oh fine, I’ll do i-- AH, the roof, Soap, the roof! Oh, I’m on air. Hello?”
In the cockpit, Jennifer Dagwood listened to the radio with bewilderment before realizing that it was being broadcast on the universal S.O.S frequency. That meant that every instrument capable of picking up the frequency was hearing this.
“Speak, we’re all listening,” another voice pitched in. Was that sarcasm?
“There’s something-- AHHH TIE DOWN THE TABLES-- wrong here. The uh... New Technia CG display is getting out of hand... What was that? It's not CG? ... Uh.” There was a sudden rush of wind, followed by the sound of glassware getting destroyed. Jennifer cringed.
Hayate had just started wailing ‘Noooooooo~’ before a female voice pitched in.
“Erutaretil here~ The libraries are in danger too. Lotsa tornadoes touched down outside... Patchouli-sama is trying her best, but I don’t know long she can hold the barrier.”
“We’ve recorded an earthquake by the great Propella Tree. There have been no casualties, but we’re worried about the equipment... The rabbits in the nearby forest are also acting up...”
Jennifer turned the intercom to on and spoke to the group in the storage hatch. “Are you guys hearing that? Freaky isn’t it?” Then she turned the mic over to the S.O.S. frequency.
“Any ideas on what might be the cause? The invasion is over. In fact, we watched the last of the aliens turn tail and run for home.”
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Post by RaineScarlet on Oct 20, 2010 14:48:00 GMT 8
Wind Spirit, Lucifer Rose “Ah, there it is. Still cruising above the clouds. No wonder they haven’t crashed yet.” The wind spirit floated around the airship for a while, investigating the happenings on board. However, it didn’t seem like the ship’s occupants had made any move to do anything--still in confusion, like the rest of the earth-bound world.
When he had heard all there was to hear, he composed himself and transferred his spirit into the air of the drop ship.
“A word of warning, my dear humans. Please don’t shoot at me, for I mean you no harm.” He projected his voice out before flashing bright emerald and then materializing in the airship in human form. Lucifer Rose stood in at the forefront of the rag-tag group of travellers, holding up a magic barrier in case one of them didn’t understand English. His brilliant silver eyes glowed with potent spiritual energy, and his long hair flowed about gracefully in his personal aura of wind.
Not a bad entrance if I do say so myself.
“My human name is Lucifer Rose, but please call me Luke, for I despise being mistaken for a devil. I am an acquaintance of Sierra’s, and I have a proposition to make concerning the current... events.” He bowed deeply and then scanned the group once again.
Hm, none of the females here look particularly... oh, that girl with the angel wings isn’t bad. Maybe I’ll talk to her later when we have some alone time.
“The first thing on the agenda is to move you all to the Machigai Teahouse, where the unfortunate 95th Knight seems to be trying to salvage his shop.”
The intercom buzzed, and Jennifer’s voice resounded in the storage hatch. “Sorry, I was distracted by these radio feeds. ... Apparently I missed something.” However, the pilot had seen enough in her lifetime to not question what happened at the Round Table. As long as the new recruit didn’t start tearing her ship and its contents apart, she was content.
“My dear, I am simply a free spirit who wishes to save what is left of this world. After all, 500 years here has caused me to grow attached to it, see. And I am sure there are many humans here who would rather live than die.”
He turned again to the RT group, not wanting to neglect the poor travellers who had probably gone through more than they had asked for, and who were about to be plunged--if they so desired--into another mess.
“You are probably all confused. Worry not. I will explain what I know, after you all have some rest. Or before, even, if you are so impatient. However, it is against my morals to work a group of mortals to death, so I will arrange for you to stay at the Teahouse.”
Jennifer buzzed in again, “That sounds great and all, but I’m getting some nasty readings beneath the clouds. I don’t know if we will be able to land safely.”
“No worries, Ms. Dagwood,” Luke called back to the cockpit, “I’ll take over air support until we touch down.”
“If you say so,” Jennifer mumbled. She was still doubtful about this new person, but something in his tone--confidence?--was reassuring.
As Blitz Regia entered the swirling swath of clouds, the ship shook violently for a second, and then calmed. Luke had his hand pressed against the wall of the ship, and a pale green bubble of air had formed around its perimeter. Beyond the bubble, one could see the buildings at Port Orlania being bombarded by monstrous waves and torrential wind and rain. The sea spun maliciously in a vortex of darkness.
“My god. I didn’t know it was this bad...” Jennifer whispered as she brought the ship in for landing.
Just beyond, the Machigai Teahouse was surrounded by its own copper bubble. It was safe to say that without the bubble, the Teahouse would have been washed away by now.
“Hm, it seems like my companion is already there.” Luke indicated the copper bubble. “After you disembark, you are free to do as you wish. We have... some time to spare--158 hours, to be precise--before the world goes beyond saving. I will give you all one day to rest. Sleep in a room, frolic in the lounge... and such.” He flicked his hair suggestively, as if saying ‘I’ll be there if anyone wants to get to know me better’ and leapt on to the ground, creating a bubble-path towards the Teahouse.
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Post by Mathus on Oct 22, 2010 22:37:31 GMT 8
'You're responsible for all the disaster that will soon occur.' Is this what he meant? That I'm responsible for all this mess? Ugh, remember dammit, what did I do that might cause something like this? He said my memories will return, but nothing has returned so far except for this premonition that I'm forgetting something very very important.
His train of thoughts was interrupted when the craft was covered briefly in an emerald hue and something suddenly materialized out of nowhere.
Hm? A male? An enemy? He doesn't look threatening though. !!?!
Upon looking at the figure, he was suddenly assaulted by blurry images of a girl with long hair which immediately disappear as instantly as they had appear.
Ugh, what was that? Dammit, my head hurts now.
The figure then introduced himself and gave them an explanation of the situation.
"-Sleep in a room, frolic in the lounge... and such."
He then leave, heading into the tea-house whilst creating some sort of passage way in his wake that Sol followed.
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Post by schrodinger on Nov 13, 2010 23:58:26 GMT 8
A gift...?
How am I supposed to take this?
The term 'gratefully' sprang to mind, but that was just a cute deflection to distract him from the greater issue at hand.
If life works the way I want it to, then effort - accomplishment - is rewarded. Good things happen to people who make them happen. But I know that's not how it is - gratification doesn't come to you just because you think you deserve it. It has nothing to do with deserving.
And that's the point. I didn't earn this - it's a gift, and a gift has to be given. By whom? Her? I don't even know who she is, and I don't - I can't - make any sense out of a gift given to me by a stranger.
I need this to mean something.
I have to believe that it's all part of something greater. And if this gift is being given to me because of the part I've played in it.. I think I'm fine with that. I can accept this.
Not what I need, not what I want, not what I deserve.
But what I'm getting.
And with acceptance came peace. For the first time since he'd murdered the strangers he'd never met, Venser felt like he could breathe easy, like he'd been forgiven for a crime that he could make no excuse for. In truth (if ever it existed), the only forgiveness that he could really be granted was his own.
Still... that was enough. He could feel the shadow on his soul lighten, then dissipate, as a drop of ink fading in a stream of water. Nothing had changed. He was still a killer of his own volition. But the simple knowledge that his deeds - his will - could bring about good in the world (or good for the world)...
It was enough. He would have been smiling, if he'd had a body to do it with, but already he was traversing the aether, seeking out his companions.
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