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2 days ago
Current It's the spooky day!
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3 days ago
You feeling ok, slime? What's up?
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4 days ago
Shaved Gendo Ikari isn't real, he can't hurt you.
8 days ago
*swigs the open Gatorade in the fridge* Oh, someone spiked this.
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8 days ago
Somebody, design a neuralink that will write my posts for me as I vibe on them.
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Bio

It's me, that dood, Citrus Arms. I'm 33, I sometimes work on a book a little bit, and I play a lot of games. I like me some MechWarrior or the X-Frontier series, but I also adore some good magic-fantasy. I grew up with Final Fantasy VI's magitech world, and worlds like Chrono Trigger, Zelda, and Star Fox. Lots of Nintendo, but some other stuff, too.

I like sci-fi and fantasy and space and combinations thereof, mostly. I have a setting take takes place after a galactic apocalypse, in a galaxy of recovering empires and new interstellar nations rising from the ashes, all while machinations from the apocalypse cause a rise in magic.

Discord: CitrusArms

Most Recent Posts



Regan Hadou
Somewhere in the Fiore countryside


After that nice little mini vacation in Magnolia, it was time to get back to it. Regan had a whole guild to track down. She'd heard rumors from several merchants, of a local thuggery of dark mages. Not a guild presence, but she didn't really have enough information to say what it was, either. Just that they have appeared on the roads around this place. If they were staking out this area, they might be someone she was looking for.

The bounty hunter checked her handheld LLD (Liquid-Lacrima Display) map. "It's supposed to be around here. Cause it's that road, and that road, and..." She put it back in her pocket, figuring she'd just wander around a bit more and stumble on it. As she did, meandering through some local woods, she started to hear some kind of commotion. A hustle and bustle. Now curious, she wandered further in, carefully watching her step for traps.

She found a building that would seen abandoned, if it weren't for the number of people she could see coming and going. It wasn't crowded, but it was clearly occupied. She saw tarps and other coverings hung in the air to cover from being seen from above. There were shopping carts outside that the people were using, was this some kind of secret market? This couldn't literally be a black market, could it...? Well, she could probably find a lead here. Tidius needed to peddle his wares somewhere, this seemed perfect. There didn't seem to be a dress code, so she pulled out a hand basket and made her way inside.

At first glance, it seemed like a regular department store, but as she wandered further in, she noticed details. The way the shirts were decorated, for one thing. Depictions you'd never find in a regular store, like certain pubic figures getting murdered. Definitely black market. As she went further, she found an entrance to an underground area. There was a whole shopping mall, sitting abandoned. As she looked closer, there was a lot of steam infrastructure in the building, old and broken. An old steam mall that was abandoned because of the war, 30 years ago? Interesting, but not why she was here.

It was a magic shop she stopped in front of. She looked the shop over, noting the "no questions" and "don't touch" signs. That makes business difficult to conduct, doesn't it? Committing the instructions to memory, she entered the shop. Regan nodded to the shopkeep before looking over the wears he offered. Her eyes stopped on a Holder-Type Make magic. They were calling it "Energist Maker". Holder Make? That wasn't anything she'd ever heard of before. The device itself seemed to be just a rod of some sort. "Show me this one."

The shopkeep came around the back of the counter and plucked the very one Regan was eyeing, holding it in his hand and activating the magic. The rod extended with a glowing golden material, almost like hardened light, "10k."

"Oof. Hold on now, it's a Make. Mould it." The shopkeep obliged her, forming it into a disk and then pinching at it with his fingers. The substance bends and flexes to his touch. He then holds up a piece of paper and cuts through it with his newly-formed chakram. "Mmm, ok. 6k."

They haggle back and forth before landing on 7k, and Regan leaves with a new lead in her hand. It wasn't much to go on, but she could follow the trail of this piece of merchandise. She had a feeling she knew where it came from.

Before she could make it far, a group surrounded her. She tucked the holder magic artifact away, eyeballing the thugs that had come from the surrounding woods to corner her like this.

"Sorry, lady, you need to join our loyalty program before you shop here." One of the goons spoke.

"Oh? That's the first I've heard of it."

"Yeah, tell you what. We'll run a special, just for you." His tone was rather threatening. The group chuckled, flashing brass knuckles and brandishing bats.

"Oh yeah? What wonderful news, sign me up." Were these even mages? No matter. The first one charged her and met her blade swiftly. Pain flash through his body before he fell, his body in shock and not realizing it wasn't harmed. As quickly as it had come out, the blade was back in its sheath. "Was that the sign up procedure? I think we're done."

The leader hesitated before ordering his other two companions in to attack her. The first, she deflected his knuckles off her sword and countered with a cut across his guy. As she did, she kicked the third assailant and launched her with a shockwave into a tree, and then had to twist past a spike of ice coming her way from the leader. A mage! Regan charged him, sword in hand, chopped another icicle in half and ended the fight with a cut from his hip to his shoulder. They'd all wake up soon, but she needed information. She carried that young lady she kicked earlier off to somewhere she could tie her up and question her.
Trinity Stratos
Stratos' Gizmos & Gadgets, Magnolia


The weather has said sunny weather for the day, but when she woke, it was still overcast. That just made it harder to get up. Oh, but she had some few appointments this morning, she had to, she had to. With a groan, Trinity pushed herself upright in bed and grabbed a comb from the windowsill just next to it. It was a second floor bedroom, up a half-flight of stairs. There was a basement below, something that had been believed to just be crawl space, but that's another story. You took a half-flight of stairs down to get there. The main floor was her workspace and shop floor, where she sold gadgets she had no particular use for, herself, or spoke with customers regarding custom orders. Like the local apothecary apprentice. Poor guy had his leg off in a Vulcan attack, so she'd made him a lacrima-core prosthetic.

The young lady hopped out of bed and slogged her way over to the kitchen area of her upstairs studio living space, wearing kitty pajamas that had a hood and cute kitty ears on it. She flicked on a specialty lamp she'd purchased for mornings like this one, it was very bright. She stuck her hand into the light and manifested a skillet, and then a spatula. The skillet went on the stove and she went into the fridge to get some bacon and eggs.

Luckily, Solar Make interacted with heat and fire similarly to Energy Make, but it just shattered when superheated. At least she could still get it hot enough to cook on.

One breakfast later, Trinity found herself staring out her window, willing the clouds to part. Using the lamp did the job, usually, but sunlight was so much better. Well, her appointments wouldn't wait for the sun. She'd better get dressed and downstairs. Though, she had to wonder how her patrons would feel about her going to work in her pajamas. Would it draw in more customers? Hmm... Maybe the wrong kind of customers. Yes, let's not and say we did.

So she got dressed. Something a little more conservative, today. She went with a button-up shirt and slacks, debating a tie and deciding she couldn't be bothered to put the effort into remembering how to tie it.

As the day went on, Trinity found it difficult to get into her work until the sun came out about mid-morning. She'd already had one appointment stop by, and the other one wasn't due until late afternoon, so she had all day. She reached her hand into the sunbeam coming through her skylight, getting to work on a prototype for her client.

At about mid-day, two familiar figures passed by the window she happened to find herself gazing out of. She had to get up and go look out the window to confirm, but yes, it was Damian and Penny. Good to see them back again. They were likely too wrapped up in coming back to the guild to notice the guild mark contained within the sign of her store. It wasn't a painfully obvious thing, should she have it changed? Maybe... Then again, her guild wasn't always known for finesse, so maybe not.

Aah, but she had to get back to work! Those orders wouldn't make themselves, and the Sun was out.
"Kawaken, I'll direct you, come." Her Poliwhirl came to her side and Regan directed him, pointing at Spearow as they came through the loose bubble dome. The little birds started picking at the dome, bubble by bubble, while the smartest or most agile slipped through. She saw one bird get thrown by an invisible hand. That must have been Sarah. She turned, and saw her Girafarig! "Good thinking. Focus more on the ones picking at the outside." Gira was more of a physical attacker, wasn't he? Well, he seemed to be doing alright, despite. Small fry, then? Usually, a flock this size would have Spearow of a wide range of strengths. She was too busy to try and find them, though.

Above, Rapier was a little baffled that his target had disappeared. Fearow were too big to do that... So what happened. He hovered for a moment before evading a Spearow diving at him and rolling into a dive. They'd come to reinforce? Heh, they would have been trouble before, but now, he'd have little difficulty. There were more climbing on him from below, and he blew past them, striking a few as he did. He had an idea.

He swooped past the group of Spearow gathered below and grabbed two, using his gathered speed to pull back up and come around on his pursuers. With a quick vertical U-Turn, he flung his captive Spearow at them, missing with one but hitting with the other. That was worth a good laugh, at least, hah.

Regan saw her bird pass by close and looked up. The Fearow was gone? Had Sarah done something with her Abra? She'd noticed the Pokemon was out, but she had a hard time hearing with all this flapping. No matter, Rapier was freed to deal with the rest. He seemed to be having fun, though.

Rapier let out two Air Cutters, knocking down a few of them, and then drove forward the dome again. He rolled to the side and used Steel Wing to attack the Spearow and to help him make his curve around the dome of bubbles, clearing out a swath of them.

"Whew. Alright, ready to make a break for it?" Regan identified a chance, and knew she should take it, but... Where were they going? They couldn't outrun birds, maybe they could find a cave? She really wished she had a vehicle, after all. Or that she had Terra, the flygon could sing to the Earth with her wings and hear it in return. Ah well. She could try to mimic the technique, but she needed to focus and wasn't nearly as good at it. They'd have to be on top of it, practically. "Look for a cave or something while we run."
The situation on the roof exploded! Literally. Crysalis readied himself for the villain to emerge again. The last civilian he was guiding entered the gathering area, and the care of the heroes and authorities there. Still no commotion from the villain, was he done? Ah, he'd been tied up. That was good... Now for damage control. He saw a response vehicle with an officer inside, on the radio, he'd just arrived, and must be communicating the situation. Crysalis approached him and explained the situation as he knew it. He saw rescuers and medics approaching, and turned his attention.

He should see what the story was with the villain.

He approached the gathering group of heroes and quickly spotting the injured hero on the ground. Crysalis hurried to his side and looked over his injuries. "You got hit by those grenades? Oh, jeez, dude. You, uh... You want me to call you a medic?" He seemed to be laying rather leisurely, as though his injuries weren't serious. "I'm gonna call you a medic." As he looked around for a medic, he spotted the villain hanging inside the building. "Aaand the capture squad."

He flagged down the appropriate responder teams and volunteered to accompany the capture team to apprehend that... Gross villain suspended in the building.
As Crysalis came out from the alley, he noticed he had two pros following after him. "I think I saw something ascend to the building top." He looked, all he could see was the overhang. "I think it was the villain, I heard him. I can handle a little rescue work, if you want to chase the-" thump! Crysalis looked up toward the noise. "Oh, someone's got him? Hmm. What's his Quirk, anyway...? It's gross." The student hero looked around, thoughtful, for just a moment. "If he's got this many grenades on him, he may have something else up his sleeve." He bounced on his feet as he turned and moved toward the shop next door. He heard the announcement from Doombreaker, but she was across the street. It didn't seem like anyone had come through this building. Despite the blown out glass, Crysalis propped the front door open. Safer than people stepping through it. It looked like three grenades had landed in here, but anyone in the front room had the good sense and was fit enough to run away, apparently. They'd also had the time to do so, which meant... Something, but he was too busy to figure it out just then.

"Is anyone in here? I'm a hero, here to help." He smiled and greeted the few people that came out, but learned there were more people inside. It didn't seem like damage from the grenades went too deep into the building, but there was also another floor above him. Just as he was thinking that, he heard the ceiling starting to give way. He worked whipped around to see, wondering if it was a person or furniture. If it was a person, he'd have to catch them. He moved quickly, and heard no shrieking or anything. A filing cabinet fell through! It fell mostly upright, but poised to fall over on someone from tilting. He deflected the heavy thing away from the citizens, relieved he didn't end up crushed himself from being too eager to catch a person.

"I need to clear out the upstairs. This room isn't safe, so come in past the damage and we'll go together to Doombreaker when I come back down." If either of those pros were still following him, he'd feel a lot better if one of them could see them safely across the street. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he had a bad feeling this had been too easy.

Upstairs, he had to contend with a weakened floor. The shockwave from those grenades just have done it. The upper floor was a maze of cubicles, but he could see where the filling cabinet had fallen through. "Jeez, talk about the labyrinth of work. Anyone in here?" Crysalis tried to remember the floor plan from the floor below, and stick as close to those walls as possible. Further collapsing the floor would only make things more dangerous, and his crystals and gear made him heavy.

He walked very carefully as he called out. He got a few responses, but there were also weak sections of floor in his way. After considering things for a moment, he got the idea to use the cubical walls to support his weight. If it would support him, it should support them. With pathways laid, he brought the civilians down from the second floor and out the building. "Alright, let's go."

He looked over his shoulder at the rest of the street. Damn... Did they get the rest of the buildings already? Or was there work to do? Crysalis put himself between the small group of civilians and the threat, hopefully still up on the roof.
Here's some developments. Mostly history, maybe.







Crysalis had the window open to vent the strong scent of bacon, from his cooking bacon and eggs. His plan was to scramble to egg part way after letting it cooks just a little bit. But, as it started to cook, he thought he heard something. It was faint, hard to hear past the sizzling. Sometimes his eggs screamed at him, but... No, it wasn't that. There it was again. It was from outside! "Damn!" He cut the fire and dumped the contents of the pan onto his plate. Sunny side up, bleh. Oh well.

Someone addressed him, he turned, the second of two sunny-side up eggs hanging out of his mouth, "Mm? Mm!" It was Blizzard, asking if he wanted to join the fight outside. He slurped it up and swallowed it. "Yeah, sounds like they could use a hand." He took the bacon from his plate and put his plate in the sink. No time to clean up, unfortunately. He'd have to come back.

He heard explosions and turned toward the sound. These guys didn't care about collateral, either, apparently. Those kind of guys are the worst. "Before they cause any serious damage. Ruffians." There was a good street vendor near here, he'd stopped there for a bite to eat before. Crysalis took the kitchen exit to the alley. "Where'd this guy get all the-" another wave of explosions cut him off, this time with the sounds of breaking wood and shattering glass. Cliff thought he saw something leap up to the top of the building, and he thought that's where he could hear the villain now, too. But... He didn't exactly have the best offense, so what was he gonna do? And getting up there posed a problem. Another hero could get up there. For him, there were likely people on the street in need of help that he could get to efficiently. There were likely some injured, but hopefully no casualties.


Clifford Blackwell had a quirk that made itself very difficult to hide in his current environment. If he really wanted to hide it, without risking exposure, he'd have to cover his arms and legs and be rather... Energetic. The problem with that was the climate. It was difficult for him to remain so enthusiastic and covered in this hot, humid weather. It was much easier, much for comfortable, and much safer to stay in costume and be his usual, low-key self.

So he was Crysalis. Clifford Blackwell was as his pupa, and he was wrapped in the cocoon of school, to become Crysalis, the hero. He'd made his decision to become a hero, and he knew what that meant. For him, it meant that his quirk could readily betray his identity, and he couldn't let that happen. Just a little bit of crystal growth on his face was all it would take. Someone finding a chunk of crystal he'd accidentally shaken off. His sleeve or pant leg lifting too much. And he could not let that happen.

So he was Crysalis.

Crysalis was, in fact, also in his way to the kitchen. Difference was, he was hungry and not looking for tea. Also, he was watching where he was going. He saw the girl coming, staring up into the beautiful blue, and he stopped to let her pass him. "You'll bump into someone that way, y'know." He smiled softly, ready to lift his hand in greeting when she turned toward the voice.@BlackMaiden




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