13org

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

To have a well patrolled and used stretch of the river silent like that, Nellara had expected an organized military force from another kingdom, which somehow, got to know about the humans. Due to that, her eyes were not on the water, but on the river's margins, watching every single movement, expecting something to appear behind every bush and tree. Despite all her alertness, nothing could have prepared Nellara for what was about to happen. The first alert that there was something strange going on was feeling the barge quickly getting slower and slower, until for some reason, it seemed to struggle hard just to move a single inch. The culprit showed itself to be a strange, viscous, black substance that appeared in the water, completely surrounding the barge.

"The water! There is something in the wat-" Nellara began, before she was interrupted by the very same black substance, which had already corroded a hole through the floor of the barge, quickly enveloping one of the soldier's foot, making them immediately fall down. Nellara was expecting the soldier to be heavily wounded, giving how easily the substance corroded through the barge, but fortunately, his leg was only paralyzed.

Just as she saw what happened to the soldier, she heard Zeynep shouting to abandon ship, which only made Nellara even more alarmed.

"Whatever you do, DO NOT TOUCH THE BLACK SUBSTANCE!" Nellara shouted, not only to the humans but to everyone present.

"I know not if it's capable of corroding us just like it is corroding the ship, but it is more than capable of paralyzing whatever member it touches. Going to the water right now will only get you either drowned or captured... Maybe worse." Nellara said with a grim tone, warning Zeynep and the humans.

"Someone, help him stand up! The rest of you, get away from the edges of the barge and mind your step!" Nellara shouted as she pointed to the soldier that had it's leg paralyzed before turning to Kareet.

At first, she was intending to ask Kareet if she knew what the black substance was and if there was a way to stop it, but upon noticing that she was trying to lift the barge from the water, Nellara rushed to help her, putting her hands on Kareet's shoulders. Due to the urgency of the situation, Nellara had no time to use her magic herself and talk to Kareet to coordinate their efforts. Instead, she would do the next best thing... To focus her own magic through Kareet and leave controlling it to her. Controlling it might take a toll on Kareet's mind, but it would be the best course of action at that moment.

"Sorry about this, but I'll focus my magic through you, Kareet. Control it as you wish." Nellara said, as she began merging her magic with Kareet, letting her take control of it. Kareet would feel the surge of power going through her almost like an electric shock the very moment Nellara finished saying that sentence.

"Any capable mages, assist Seeker Kareet immediately! The rest of the soldiers, do not let the black substance touch you or any of the humans!" She ordered before she turned to Kareet once more.

"Kareet, please tell me you know what this... thing is? Do we have to worry ourselves about someone controlling it?" Nellara asked, with a clear worried tone in her voice.

Avalia

Time: Night
Location: Guarav Village
Interactions: Cyrus @Helo, Menzai @samreaper
Mentions: Ophelia @princess
Equipment:

Steel Dagger of Unbreaking

Cannot break or become dull.

243 Amas

Normally, Viola would have preferred to keep her own thoughts to herself, but the conflicting opinions and her emotions in check was starting to get hard for Viola. The frustration of knowing her beloved sister did not remember her only fed the negative emotions that seemed to always be present after the time she spent as a prisoner in Daka Island... Due to that frustration breaking the delicate balance inside Viola's mind, more and more she saw herself falling to such dark thoughts, such as how Ophelia was the one to blame for having forgotten about her, how she shouldn't be exempt from the suffering both her and Cyrus felt... Such thoughts had gotten to the point that she felt she had to talk to her brother, worried that she might do something.

"I don't know how should I feel, brother Cyrus... It's getting... difficult... to deal with the frustration and keep my thoughts under control... It's hard to view this in anything but a negative way..." Viola said, with a deep, exhausted sigh.

"I do care deeply about our little sister. To see she is still the same cheerful, kind and sweet girl we know makes me... Satisfied... While knowing she doesn't remember us is incredibly frustrating, just knowing she is okay is good... Far from ideal... but still better than not knowing where she is or knowing she might be dead. But my other half..." Viola said, her face growing darker as she continued.

"The other half wonders why does she deserve happiness while we suffered so much... while I suffered so much! Why does she have the right to forget about us when we never gave up or forgotten about her!! While I was a prisoner in Daka, while my hopes of being rescued by someone... by anyone who remembered and cared about me were crushed, she was living happily like nothing wrong had ever happened... What makes her so special? What makes her different from the rest of us?" Viola said, the words coming out like a torrent, something that was very rare and unlike of her. In a similar manner, while Cyrus might be already accustomed to her usual apathetic behavior and lack of consideration, and sometimes even cruelty, to anything and anyone that didn't concern her, the amount of negative feelings in her words were much more intense... and worrying.

"There is nothing more I want than having my dear siblings back... I deeply care about Ophelia... But I don't know what to do... It's getting hard to ignore those thoughts and I-" Viola continued, before hesitating as she felt someone approached them.

Before she could continue talking though, a voice interrupted them, making Viola quickly turn towards it, alarmed. As Menzai walked towards them, Viola's eyes were like daggers as she looked at him, not knowing if she had heard her words or not. If the entire situation with Ophelia wasn't already frustrating enough, to be watched upon, heard and treated like a prisoner only made it even harder for Viola to keep calm.

"It is not a pleasant feeling... Both to be watched and treated like a prisoner and to be interrupted in the middle of a personal talk with your sibling..." Viola said, looking to Menzai with sharp, cold eyes as the vines from the blood rose shifted and tightened uncomfortably around her, clearly aggravated by Menzai's presence.

"I have nothing more to say... Other than what you have already heard." Viola finished, glancing towards Cyrus, silently asking for Cyrus to lead the conversation, should Menzai inquire any further about what he heard.

Avalia

Time: Night
Location: Guarav Village
Interactions: Cyrus @Helo, Ophelia @princess
Equipment:

Steel Dagger of Unbreaking

Cannot break or become dull.

243 Amas

While Viola didn't really care about the stares she received from the other people in the village, she wasn't exactly comfortable being around them either... Especially after the 'warm' welcome the wolves gave her and her brother. To make things even more complicated, there was another pressing matter that still worried Viola... Her sister Ophelia... or 'Phia' as she was known now and Viola's own feelings about her. Even after the peaceful, albeit silent (at least regarding Viola herself) lunch, her mind still raced. Her two 'sides' battling each other, only giving Viola even more to think about.

Due to that, when Phia offered them a place to rest, Viola was grateful. At least at first, before she realized it would be Phia's own bedroom. The moment they entered her room, Viola was almost overwhelmed by it's rather... 'peculiar' style. While it was impossible to not notice the amount of animals Phia kept in her room, Viola wasn't really bothered by them, instead, the main culprits for that were the amount of crystals, lights and colors inside her room. The fact that Phia would also be there would certainly prevent Viola to take a moment for herself to organize and calm down her thoughts. She was about to excuse herself and go for a walk on the forest nearby when Phia mentioned she had some matters to attend to.

Viola gave a silent nod of thanks before Phia left, before sitting down, albeit a bit uncomfortably, on one of the swing seats. To most people, Viola's expression was the same cold, distant expression she often had, but Cyrus, who was already traveling with her for some time would be able to see the small signs that there was something troubling his sister.

Much later in that night though, when Phia was already sleeping, Viola finally felt she needed to talk to Cyrus about what she was feeling.

"Brother... Cyrus... Are you awake?" Viola whispered, approaching Cyrus' bed and gently nudging him.

"Please join me for a walk... We... We need to talk about our 'sister'..." she said, giving a step back and heading to the door, hoping he would follow her for a walk outside the village.

While Viola truly trusted Cyrus, it was still incredibly difficult and unlikely for her to ask for help or advice, like she was at the moment instead of keeping her problems to herself and dealing with them in silence.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

Nellara merely nodded, agreeing as Kareet added to her previous remark. While it was true that her statement was somewhat neutral, it would probably still be comforting for the humans to know that Nellara's words were being corroborated by Kareet.

Despite her being watching the surroundings, Nellara still was curious about the question Kareet made for the humans regarding their usage of boats. Seeing what their technology was capable of, it was difficult to believe they wouldn't have just abandoned older, obsolete means of transportation for advanced ones, such as the Jotunheim itself. Once she heard Vigdis' reply though, it quickly made sense why the humans would still use even those apparently 'obsolete' means of transportation in some cases. In the end, it was all about efficiency. It was slower, sure, but at the same time it was cheaper and more robust.

The ongoing conversation, other than being quite interesting, also further reinforced the vast differences between the human's world and Kanth Aremek. It was beyond mere technology and development of their race. One of the biggest obstacles they had in K-A that prevented them to freely explore the lands beyond the sea seemed to be completely absent in the humans' world.

"The Leviathans' biology is still not fully understood. They are mighty, incredibly dangerous creatures. As Kareet mentioned... It is rather... suicidal to study a creature and perform experiments while you are in the middle of a battle to the death, after all." Nellara said when Vigdis and Kareet were talking about Leviathans.

"You are most welcome, Captain Zeynep." Nellara replied, with a nod towards Zeynep as she thanked her for her hospitality.

"Most of our military forces are often stationed and operate around our cities, keeping the surrounding areas safe by doing regular patrols and excursions to the wilds outside each city. Camps like these are only made when there is something significant enough happening for the Ascension to deem necessary to deploy an increased number of soldiers to a smaller city." Nellara explained.

"Even though these rivers are already busy and well patrolled waterways, we have intensified the number and frequency of said patrols in order to ensure your safety. The river will start getting more busy as we approach Lenkik and after that when we are on our way from Lenkik to Arcaeda." Nellara finished.

The journey went perfectly well for the most part. Exactly like Nellara had said, the rivers started getting way busier as they approached Lenkik, with patrols being more frequent. As they approached the very last part of their trip though, Nellara and her soldiers slowly felt there was something wrong going on.

Even though the stretch between Lenkik and Arcaeda should be by far the busiest part of the trip, for a noticeable amount of time, neither her nor her soldiers were able to see any other vessel on sight. Such quietness was very rare, considering where they were and definitely not common.

Regardless of how strange she was, Nellara looked at her soldiers with a serious expression, a silent order for them to stay prepared and vigilant. The idea that something could ambush them despite being so deep in Ascension territory, especially being this near Arcaeda was almost absurd, but Nellara was taught and trained to never lower her guard, no matter how unlikely it was for something to happen.

The Five Senses - Second Arc (Accepting New Players!)

Karina Frost

Especially after the little 'prank' someone pulled on her, it didn't take long for the exhausted Karina fall asleep. Despite the several... uncommon situations they faced recently, she still didn't think there was anything wrong... apart from the obvious effects of the divergent, of course. Unfortunately, she would soon find out how wrong she was...

It was already late when out of nowhere, Karina heard a piercing scream from a familiar voice, Sil, screaming through the hallways, loud enough to wake up Karina. While she didn't quite catch what Sil had said, the sheer volume of her cries were loud enough to send a wave of irritation going through her, forcing her to open her eyes.

The very moment she did though, she was met with an alarming scene. Pairing on top of her, the figure of one of the servants held a dagger high, ready to plunge on Karina as she slept. Out of pure reflex, Karina rolled to the side as the blade plunged, evading it by a hair's width as she fell down from the side of the bed. In the blink of an eye, she immediately reached to her rapier, leaning to the side of the bedside table. In one fluid motion, from her current posture still kneeling on the ground, Karina unsheathed her rapier and stepped forward as she stood up, aiming to strike the servant in an upwards lunge, only for her blade to be reflected by the servant's dagger in a quick, surprised movement.

"Karina?! W-What's going on?" Akai shouted, alarmed as she woke up to the sound of combat inside their room.

"Shit... I should've known... It was just too good to be true. Everything was going just far too smoothly..." Karina said, cursing.

"Unfortunately for them... Magic is not my only strong point." Karina said, assuming the elegant posture that was a symbol of her fencing style.

"WAKE UP EVERYONE!" Karina's voice echoed through the halls as she shouted.

"Kill everyone who isn't either the princess or one of ours. We've been ambushed. The princess was probably already captured." she finished as she slowly walked towards the servant with her rapier on hands. The confidence, measured arrogance on her expression and posture were clear indications that Karina wasn't bluffing. Even without magic, her cold stare emanated danger.

The servant knew it had lost the element of surprise and one of the best opportunities they had to deal with Karina. The one saving grace it had over Karina was the fact that she was clearly unable to use her magic.

The Hunt, A Modern Fantasy Smorgasbord RP

^{Interactions: Amanda, Baba Yaga @Kumbaris, Micheal Crane @BigPapaBelial, Scarlet [@AWACS]}

---

Scarlet's .50 shot echoed loudly as it hit the titan, piercing it and entering one of the portals Faye conjured, just to be redirected and hit the titan again, with the bullet getting stuck inside it this time. Before the titan could even fall to the ground, Amanda quickly followed Scarlet's shot with one of her own, just to reassure the titan was indeed dead.

While Faye was relieved that the creature was finally dealt with, not everything went as they had planned... Amanda suffered extensive damages while fighting against it, enough to make Faye quite worried about it. Despite how worried she was, Faye still turned towards Baba Yaga, bowing respectfully to her in a silent show of gratitude before she went to Amanda.

"Amanda, are you sure you are... like... okay to be walking around?" Faye said, looking worriedly at her after Amanda gave her and the rest of the team a hug. Normally, upon seeing someone wounded, Faye would probably try to help them, maybe try to staunch any bleeding but with Amanda, she was just completely clueless about what to do and instead, simply hovered around her, nervously. Hearing Amanda speaking only made her even more nervous.

"Are you guys sure going by car is a good idea...? Amanda doesn't look too well..." Faye asked, looking to the rest of the team and Baba Yaga, who was the one driving.

"I can at least try to hasten the arrival of the care package from America, if you are okay with it, Amanda." Faye offered, wanting to do at least something for Amanda having protected them by keeping the titan busy for so long.

The Envenomed: Military Science Fiction Deniable Operations

The assault from the gunship was relentless. The hail of bullets and explosions going on all around the Envenomed made it very hard for Alice to concentrate herself to aim the large and unwieldy AP rocket launcher at the moving gunship. With the assault from the gunship getting dangerously close to her position, despite most of it focusing on Echo and the rest of the Envenomed, Alice started to get a bit desperate, waiting as much as she could for a clean shot.

Fortunately, Kleo's missile was able to hit the gunship, creating a huge fireball on the gunship's fuselage. Even before the smoke dissipated, Alice aimed the rocket launcher as best she could, believing that would be her chance. Much to her dismay though, Kleo's missile was completely ineffective, being halted by the gunship's energy barrier before it could do any considerable damage to it.

"What?! An energy barrier?" Alice said, incredulous as she looked towards the gunship, still somewhat hidden inside the tent where the rocket launcher was.

The gunship continued raining down bullets and explosions at the Envenomed team. Alice, even though wasn't the direct target of it's firepower, was starting to get very worried. She didn't know how long Echo would be able to hold the gunship's attention... Every second that it passed with the gunship still airborne was a huge risk. Should she decide to fire the AP rocket, her position would undeniably be discovered and due to how clunky and big the rocket launcher was, she would be forced to leave it behind as it would undoubtedly be destroyed by the gunship, but at the same time, if she didn't do anything, they would continue being easy targets.

"Damn... I'm going to fire! Let's just hope it'll make at least a dent on that energy barrier..." Alice said, using the comms.

"CLEAR!" she shouted as she fired the AP rocket directly towards the gunship while it was using it's nose-mounted chaingun to suppress them.

"Come-on, come on!" Alice said to herself, as she immediately turned back into the tent to get another AP rocket from the ground nearby, without even seeing the result of her previous shot. She hoped she could at least fire another round before the gunship could destroy the tent and the rocket-launcher.

"It's the last AP rocket on this tent! I need someone to cover me for a few seconds until I load this damn thing!" She said by the comms, with an audible noise of her kicking the rocket-launcher tube, frustrated due to how old and archaic that particular weapon was.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

Even though it was highly unlikely something would happen inside Ascension territory, Nellara still kept vigilant for most of the trip, watching the surroundings like an eagle, watching every movement and every shadow. Her orders for the soldiers were similar. Always have a group of soldiers up at all times while the others rested. Upon arriving at Ertiseda, a small village between the human ship crash site and Lenkik, the humans would quickly notice that the vigilance was even more intense, with a surprising number of soldiers camping near the small village on a military encampment.

Such intense vigilance might have had an adverse effect on the humans though, as Nellara noticed Captain Zeynep asking Kareet if the waterways were indeed safe.

"Worry not, Captain Zeynep. I can assure you the waterways, just like the vast majority of the Ascension territory is quite safe." Nellara said, nodding to Zeynep reassuringly.

"With that said, we do not like to leave things to chance. Especially giving how important and significant your visit to Arcaeda is." Nellara said, nodding towards the soldiers stationed nearby Ertiseda as they guided them to the barge that would take them upstream.

"Even in the very unlikely chance something happens, we are well prepared to preserve the well being and safety of you and your crew, as both our guests and diplomatic envoys." Nellara reassured, looking to the large amount of soldiers that came from Lenkik, to be sure everything would go exactly as planned while escorting the humans to Arcaeda.

The Envenomed: Military Science Fiction Deniable Operations

Echo's oppressive firepower and durability quickly showed themselves to be quite vital to the group as it was still able to stop the power armor soldier on it's tracks, despite the heavy assault it was suffering from the enemy forces, which made the task of eliminating the rest of the enemy forces much easier to the rest of the group. One by one, the automata began to fall, hit by continuous attacks from the Envenomed.

Fortunately, despite how resilient the power armor soldier showed itself to be, their relentless attack was starting to have effect. Alice's needle rounds were definitely hindering it's movement as it became clear by the somewhat sluggish way it was moving after she pierced it's legs and how he lost control of his gun for a moment after she shot his arms. Taking advantage of the opening, Echo immediately lunged towards the armored trooper before it raised it's gravity maul.

At that very moment, from the very back of the enemy forces, a tubular protrusion Alice herself haven't given much importance earlier made a loud noise as it finally revealed it's true purpose. A very old, anti-tank rocket launcher. Despite how dated it was, receiving such a hit at close range would definitely cause some damage to Echo.

"ANTI-TANK ROCKET INCO-!" Alice shouted, trying to warn Echo. Unfortunately, there was not enough time for her to even finish her phrase as the rocket exploded on Echo's side, at the exact time his gravity maul struck the power armored trooper's head, crushing it in a loud, disturbing noise.

Immediately following Echo's attack, Ilshar sent a wave of chasm-spores towards the enemies, aiming to rot and cripple everything they touched. With most of the automata dealt with, together with the power armored soldier, Ilshar's attack would immediately start killing the remaining enemy forces in a truly gruesome display, as their feet rotted after being touched by the spores, making their legs crumble under their own weight as their bodies decomposed in front of their eyes, quickly incapacitating even the soldiers who had fired the first rocket at Echo, before they could load another one.

But things were far from over. Apparently, even in the middle of the ambush by the Envenomed, the CivSec forces still had time to call for backup, once it became clear that they were losing. Much to Alice and the rest of the group's misfortune, the reinforcements they had asked for had finally arrived, laying down heavy artillery fire from above. A call for help from the allied Gealtirocht forces quickly confirmed Alice's worries, that they were being attacked by a gunship.

"A gunship?! Why now of all times..." Alice said, with a heavy sigh. Even if her needle bullets could likely deal with the gunship's armor, hitting some kind of minuscule vital component on a target of that size, flying above them and sending suppressive fire was just impossible. The only hope they had was to find something able to deal significant impact and damage to the gunship...

"There should be still a few rockets around the rocket-launcher used against Echo! It might not be ideal, but if we do not find any anti-air weapons, it should work if we somehow can make the gunship stay still for a moment!" Alice said through the comms as she heard Salvator's order, before she began running towards the enemy encampment, following Salvator's orders and searching for anything that could help them take down or at least damage the gunship laying fire above them.

Alice began to quickly scan her surroundings, searching for anything that would be able to help their situation, but found little more than anti-infantry weapons. Unlike Alice though, Kleo seemed to have found something that would definitely help them. A TitanKiller from one of the CivSec soldiers. The moment Kleo dove behind one of the rocks and began aiming at the gunship, Alice immediately knew what to do.

Rushing towards the tent where the anti-tank rockets were, she entered inside, almost gagging as the hot, fetid air of the rotting and decomposing bodies assaulted her nose. Enduring the horrid smell and fighting against the desire to throw up, Alice quickly located the anti-tank rocket one of the soldiers was trying to load before they died, halfway submerged in the rotting remains that once was a CivSec soldier. While she had never thought about such things earlier, the very moment she picked-up the anti-tank rocket, Alice found herself thinking of how fortunate she was for not having feet to touch the disgusting rotting sludge beneath her.

Taking the anti-tank rocket from the ground with a disgusting squelching sound, she immediately loaded it in launcher as she pointed upwards, waiting for Kleo's shot. The moment it struck the gunship, it hopefully would impact it enough to make it stop moving or at least slow down enough for Alice to hit it with the anti-tank rocket.

"Kleo, waiting for your shot! I'll try following it up with an anti-tank rocket." Alice said, grunting as she moved the heavy launcher around as she aimed.

"Clear!" she shouted, warning for anyone nearby her that she was about to shoot.

Avalia

Time: One week after Zora arrived into Avalia.
Location: Riverbloom, The River
Interactions: Aurora @mole, Barrock @Conscripts, Rowan
Mentions:

---

Zora listened in curious silence as both Aurora and Rowan made their offers to Barrock. Honor, while not something material, was definitely an offer that would be of great interest even for Zora as it also meant respect, power and influence, but the one thing she was even more curious was the word Rowan mentioned next. Freedom. For someone like Zora, it was most precious than an entire world's worth of riches. No amount of gold, power or influence could match something as simple as freedom for her. True and complete freedom. Which was why Zora's final months on Earth were so agonizing for her after realizing that the power and influence she sought came with a cost... Her own freedom.

After that very word was mentioned by Rowan, Zora's stare became even more curious as she watched Barrock's reaction. While she still knew little about him, the way he replied to Rowan's offer would say quite a bit about his values. Especially since Rowan hadn't specifically mentioned any kind of material rewards to his aid.

Surprisingly for Zora, Barrock would surprise her yet again with his reply, clearly stating that he had no interest in riches or even honor. Her expression as she heard so was a very satisfied one almost as if Barrock had passed some kind of test.

"Freedom. No amount of riches, power or influence would be able to match true, unrestricted freedom. More than anyone else, I would know that well." She said with a satisfied expression, letting out an acid chuckle at the end.

"I feel genuinely happy to see you know exactly how precious true freedom is." she said, looking to Barrock with a genuine smile.