Ciaran

Zameen (High Casual, political RP)

I like the look of this. Interested.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

@Ruler Inc Yeah, makes sense to me. Bit strange but that's what I signed up for.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

A Strange Place

---

It took some time getting caught up, but Paige had reunited with the rest of the group soon enough, and changed back into her regular clothes just in time to see the vision of Britney hiding Andrea's body. It was not a pleasant thing to see - though Paige had guessed while they were there that she was dead, it was not something Paige was happy to be right about. It did mean that her quarrel with Sharon before had been justified. Not that Paige was worried about Sharon right now, though. Britney was the center of her focus right now, as Paige's heart fought against her mind. Logic said Britney had made the smart choice, emotions said it was a cold and cruel thing to do.

Her decision didn't matter much, anyway, because she was interrupted at that point by a being she had never seen anything like before. Those members of the group who'd been around for longer than her seem to recognise it, though - and she did, as well, when she heard its voice. That voice had been in her last dream before she woke up, a few minutes ago.

She murmured, quietly "This shit gets weirder by the minute."

A little more magic-talk later and they were being asked if they wanted to see something beautiful. Paige was halfway through coming up with a sarcastic comment about how anything was beautiful compared to them when she took the child's hand and- Oh.

What she saw was near impossible to describe. Beautiful, yes, but she hadn't been prepared for the sheer scale of it. This was beyond what she was capable of imagining - the human mind simply wasn't built for understanding things like this, and when one was placed directly in front of it, it struggled to do its job correctly.

Anyway, she had to focus. Big tree or no, her life, and the lives of many others, were in danger, and this could provide them with the information they needed to win. Greater understanding of their Abstractions would no doubt be useful, as Abstractions had been the only thing that even slightly affected the Glutton, and there the "slightly" really was correct. If Paige understood this correctly, they were in front of the source of their Abstractions - since an Awakened is essentially just a person with an Abstraction - and the same thing was also the source of human emotions. Presumably, the two were linked; pretty much all of the Awakened she knew of had, well, big personalities, in one way or another. If there was a link between how emotive a person was and whether or not they were Awakened, that would explain a lot. For example, it would explain why the Glutton was so fixated on them; Britney had said before that it fed off emotions.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

@Ruler Inc It's been great, genuinely nothing to criticise. I've been here for almost a year now, I think that says enough about how much I like it (also weird to think about that, it only just occurred to me).

D&D Fifth Edition: Land of the Old Curse

Though Lillith had no way of knowing beforehand or detecting that a spell had been cast to attempt to influence her emotions, her will was strong, and even in idleness it was difficult to manipulate her. However, as the spell had failed, she had no way of knowing that one had been cast on her in the first place, unlike what would have happened had the spell worked, but completed its duration. Thus, though she certainly wasn't happy when receiving Morgan's message, she was not antagonistic or aggressive, either.

Morgan heard Lillith's voice in her head, saying "I don't know who you are, Morgan, but I have to work to do. State your business, quickly."

---

Meanwhile, in the tavern, Verdan was struggling to find anything useful in his book. It simply wasn't written with anything like this in mind, whether what had killed and raised the villagers was a disease or something else. At least the vodka and food he'd asked for arrived in short time, the vodka contained in a small, sealed flask.

Milo's ale arrived very quickly, and only a moment later Vlad was passed his change - 8 silver pieces, and 8 copper - while Barric matched his grin, and said "Well then, if the noble sir wants change, he shall have it.

"And likewise," he continued, as Anne asked for her drink at the bar "if the young miss wants water, she too, shall have it." And with that, he rapidly filled a mug and supplied it with a smile.

All-Verse: The Initiative

---

Eodyth blinked, struggling to keep track of the new situation she had found herself in. Though impulse had led her to decide to help these people - if "people" was even the right word - there were so many and so varied beings in this room alone that taking it all in was taking her some time. After a few seconds, she decided that the best course of action would be to learn as much as possible immediately. Eventually, she would understand it all, and in the meantime, she'd just have to deal with being confused and unable to remember the names of things.

So. The quest. At least that was simple enough. Find the bandits, take their stuff, get back to base. It would probably but not necessarily involve killing the bandits. Presumably, that was where she was meant to come in - most of her useful talents revolved around killing things and not getting killed back. That, and helping others do the same. Speaking of talents, she had been asked to introduce herself and her capabilities.

"I am Eodyth, the Miklagardian goddess of honour, war and death," she said, to whoever might be listening. "Yes, you heard right - you stand in the presence of a deity. You may kneel, if you wish, though I do not require it of you, as this is not a formal occasion. I am a fast, strong, and resilient fighter, and wield two mighty artefacts of my people. Die in my presence, and I will offer you a second chance at life, in my honourable legion, the Glorious Souls."

Eodyth voice was loud and prideful. Little effort was needed to distinguish it from others, now that she had started speaking again.

D&D Fifth Edition: Land of the Old Curse

@Cao the Exiled Not right now, sorry. 8 players is more than enough. Still, if anyone does decide to leave, I might consider you.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

@Ruler Inc Yeah, works for me. Probably my fault honestly, I've been real slow posting recently due to tiredness.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_{@Ruler Inc}

---

Paige's initial reaction to Lynette's response was one of anger. She was no mind-reader, but she could tell from Lynette's tone of voice what motivated her not to go to these people's aid: fear. And whatever was going on, people were fighting, and the wrong side might be winning. Either of them might be enough to change that, and it would be selfish to let people suffer the same thing that you fear, especially if that fear is the reason you leave them be. Plus, Lynette clearly doubted both of their capabilities. Of course, she could speak for herself, but while logic stated that Lynette was right; Paige was not a useful fighter, the fact that she now had an Abstraction, and one that could help, bolstered her bravery considerably. So, in a brief moment after Lynette told her that they shouldn't go to help, Paige's face twitched in anger, for a fraction of a second moving towards a furious expression before logic took hold and she accepted that though she may not like the truth, it was the truth. Makes more sense to live fleeing than die fighting.

But that still left the pair with a problem: if not that way, they still had to go somewhere. And all they'd established so far was to avoid one particular direction. The others were still fair game, and none in particular seemed any more appealing than the rest. The only advice Paige could find from logic was to pick a direction that didn't sound dangerous, and walk that way.

The sounds of fighting had stopped. Someone was dead. Bad guy, good guy... there was no way to tell. All she knew was that the fighting was over.

"Which direction do you suggest, then?" Paige asked Lynette. "I've never been here before, thankfully, though I've only been in town a few weeks. I don't know where our clothes might be, I don't even know where the front door is." She didn't say it out loud, but it occurred to Paige that she might not have just been in town for a few weeks, any more. She had no idea how long she'd been unconscious - she made a mental note to find out the date as soon as possible.

All-Verse: The Initiative

---

---

---

Eodyth breathed deeply, slowly, gripping her two weapons firmly, but not forcefully. Through the circular opening ahead of her, she could see flashing white lights like gunfire in front of the night sky, and a huge structure which was barely visible, a silhouette, black on black. An immense sound was audible, too: screams and roars. Those screams and roars were not born out of aggression, but excitement. Thousands and thousands of them, above her and to sides and straight ahead, as well. She steeled herself for a moment longer, before walking powerfully up the slight incline of the darkened tunnel, into the great space outside.

She was in a circular arena. The flashing lights were cameras, they were fireworks, they were screens, and they were the bolts of lightning just a few dozen meters above the top of the circular stands, which themselves were colossal. Above, just outside the dome of calm, blue energy where the border of Order was visible, there was Chaos. Lightning, fire, and energy. All the elements reacting in myriad and unpredictable ways.

It was impossible to see anything clearly. The lights were too bright, but each was gone a moment later, so Eodyth's eyes could never adjust. Instead, everything was too dark except for the handful of instants when it was too bright. It was disorienting.

The crowd saw her entering, and slowly, they grew quiet in anticipation. This was not her first battle, though she wondered if it would be her last. Once, she had been a great hero, someone who fought in order to protect her homeland, her people, and her honour. Her homeland was now a ruin, her people were now scattered, and her honour was now in question. Now, she fought for things as common and worthless as money. But there was little fighting to be done. Were she not to fight for money, she would not have the opportunity to fight at all. And fighting was all she knew.

One thing was for sure: she needed a cause.

Perhaps Eodyth would give up arena fighting, perhaps not. At the end of the day, she was in that arena right now, and she would soon have to defend herself. Her opponent was now visible - a man, in that strange mix of traditional garb and modern gadgetry typical of a Hisogawan street samurai. Of course, no street samurai would ever stoop so low as to fight in an arena, not when their bosses had work for them - clearly, he had either defected and managed to escape punishment, or had never been a street samurai in the first place, instead simply expropriating their famous appearance and fighting style. It didn't really matter which this one was - either had the capacity to be dangerous.

In a flash, he was on her, cybernetically-enhanced arms driving his two-handed sword with impressive power - for a human. Eodyth deflected his rising attack with Neskin, knocking it off course enough that the downwards strike that would have followed was out of reach, and so instead he twirled the blade around into a guard position and prepared to defend against an attack from Eodyth.

Though the samurai was not as strong as Eodyth, the difference was small. He was also faster; she'd been right to take him seriously.

He was still waiting for Eodyth's attack. She was happy to oblige. She swung Irasjon around in a wide arc, hoping to bludgeon him with the handle of the weapon close to its tip. He swayed back easily, wasting no energy blocking an attack he didn't need to. However, he did not account for the fact that Eodyth did not have to dedicate herself fully to the swing, as most would with that kind of attack. Her strength let her stop the spear mid-swing regardless of its momentum. She caught him off-guard in that moment and thrust with the spear, stepping in to increase her power. The short movement of the attack denied it significant speed and therefore power, so it could not pierce his armour, but the force knocked him off his feet and onto his back.

Eodyth then rushed in to finish the samurai with a blow to the head from Neskin, but - astonishingly - he discarded his own blade and caught Eodyth's as it swung down towards him. He twisted, and before Eodyth knew what was happening, her knees had been taken out from under her, her weapons were five feet away, and she was lying on her stomach with punches raining down on the back of her head. Karate gimmicks. Perhaps the most frustrating thing in the history of human combat, but you can't argue with results.

It was at this moment the samurai remembered he was fighting a god, and what that entailed. Firstly, his punches weren't affecting Eodyth all that much. Secondly, he wouldn't be able to keep her pinned for long. She got her arms under her and started pushing, literally performing a push-up with him on her back. After a moment he was off, and Eodyth rapidly got to her feet, retrieving her weapons, and then her crown, which had rolled off during the grapple. His sword had also fallen this way, so she had intended to throw it back to him, so she could kill him fairly, when she turned to see him drawing a sawn-off shotgun from a compartment hidden in his mechanical left arm. Before she could react, she heard a gunshot, glimpsed for the tiniest fraction of a second a lethal shot directed at her head, and then there was blue light, taking her somewhere... else.

---

Eodyth fell into the chamber, weapons clattering to the ground, gasping for breath as she realised she wasn't dead.

"So who's with me?" she heard someone say. It was a good, simple phrase, perfect for inspiring a group of people into action. She'd used it in speeches herself, on a few occasions.

It sounded awfully like what Eodyth had just been thinking she needed a few minutes ago; a cause to fight for. She was still shocked from her near-death experience, but her actual injuries were very lacking, so she simply said, between deep, heavy breaths "Alright, who... do I need to kill... where... and when?"