Crowvette

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

I'm gonna need to edit Io's post, I missed something! I was a silly billy and started the post a bit ago and came back to finish it and missed Shizuka's post that happened in the meantime. Bear with me.

@Crowvette

Edited the post now. Sorry again for skipping you! ;~;

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

I'm gonna need to edit Io's post, I missed something! I was a silly billy and started the post a bit ago and came back to finish it and missed Shizuka's post that happened in the meantime. Bear with me.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Io at Terauchi Temple

@The Irish Tree

Io quickly realized that she had went a little too far in her explanation. It had been a long time since she gave any lectures, she supposed the desire to ramble on about magic was building for a while. However, if she wanted to continue lecturing she realized that she would have to adjust for her pupil's level of magical knowledge. It would be... a challenge.

Io took some time looking over the fairy's sword as she talked, trying to find the right word to describe it. Such a chaotic and vigorous type of magic was the antithesis to Io's structured, cold magical designs. It was like an artist looking at spilled paint, trying to find a still life within it. She nearly smiled at the absurdity of the weapon. It was strangely fascinating, though Io feared what would happen if it got close enough to interact with the various enchantments she interweaved into her own body.

Io had once again found herself completely sucked in by the allure of magical analysis, noticing that a long pause of silence had fallen. She quickly regained track of the conversation, eventually breaking her eyes off of the sword. "Hm. It would be interesting to see if fairies can achieve lichdom... It would be strange. I'm not sure if I should share those kinds of secrets..." Another thing Liliana said sparked Io's curiosity, and she followed up with a question of her own: "How many books are there at your home? I'm curious what fairy literature is like. Or what literature fairies prefer." A concept of fairy literature at all seemed... Well, Io didn't want to label it as "a paradox," but there may not have been a better term for it.

Before she could get an answer, another task force member came in to ask Io a question. This came as sort of a relief to the lich, given the erratic qualities of the fairy. By comparison, Shizuka was a beacon of rationality.

"I not too versed in cursed weaponry or in the finer properties of mamono not native to these lands. But, there seem to be combative ids in the girl that are at odds, competing for control. While she wasn't entirely at fault, it caused her to lash out at some of the other members. Do you perhaps have any insight into what may be going on with her and a way to effectively aid her?"

@AzureKnight

Io furrowed her brow. "Ah. Cursed weaponry." Io had made her fair share of them, though the first few were on accident. The rest... Well, it was the adventurer's fault if they found them, given she left them in a very private place, far from where she was now. "I believe Lady Kyouko said something about this. Would need to study it. There's so much variance for us. Psyche. Magical inclinations. Desire. But a different id within a weapon... No easy feat." Io considered the question of how to help, realizing she was going off on a mental tangent about its creation. "Ah. Helping her. Well... I will need to work with Alice. It depends on the details. I might be able to confer with the weapon directly, barring other options."

Io refrained from adding, 'Because I'm not that different from a spirit inhabiting an object myself.' The similarities were there, but she probably didn't want to draw comparisons to something that was putting the task force members in danger. Plus, her body was far superior to a meagre weapon. Even if she didn't need it, she took pride in it. Its magical enhancements were like a beautiful tapestry; a mere cursed weapon was a charcoal scrawling on cave rocks in comparison.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Didn't mean to hang that conversation out to dry, hectic start of the semester for me. Should get to posting within 24 hours

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Alexandria

@Scarifar

Alex had opened her mouth to speak further... but someone else started talking, too. The situation was far too gone now for her to reach Vera. Alex had to watch Vera walk away, even though she felt like she should run after her. The truth was, it felt like something that would need time. Perhaps there was a tiny bit of hope, since she had mentioned where Wolf was. If Vera completely gave up on Alex, it was unlikely she'd bother even telling her that much.

It didn't make the feeling of rejection go away, though. She had gone over what she'd say in her head when she finally met up with Vera... and it all went completely out of the window. Alex realized all too late that she expected everyone to be the same after her time away from them. It was clear that was not the case.

After some time silently thinking over the situation, she eventually turned to Michael. "Um. Sorry you had to see all of that..." She wiped her face with her sleeve, clearing up the last of her tears. She gave a somewhat forced smile, looking the direction that Vera left from. "W-With friends like these..." Her weak joke and fake laughter belied her inner turmoil. "Right... Let's go." Alex didn't feel like talking much, but she would feel better walking with someone compared to doing it completely alone. Which was how she felt, after this long, long night. Alone.

'Wolf... Don't be too mad at me.' Alex thought to herself with all of her heart. She didn't know what she'd do if this happened again.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Alexandria

@KillamriX88 @Scarifar

Alex looked visibly confused. "Replacement? Priorities?!" Her stomach twisted as she considered what Vera said. What was she saying?

What was it Vera once told her? Alex thought back to a moment years ago. Parts of it felt like a faded memory, but Alex remembered the feeling of her own tears. Alex was sitting there, curled up, just wishing that Vera would go away and leave her alone. And Vera said something she'd never forget:

"You're one of the two people in the world who I want to hear from, and you won't talk to me even to smooth this over. Do you see the issue here?"

Alex had nearly forgotten what the argument was about. That part didn't matter. But Vera back then was right. There was an issue here and Alex wasn't going to let it hang over the two. Alex gathered up her courage to be as forthcoming as possible, thinking through what she was going to say.

"The doctors said that I might have stunted my growth spurt due to my coma." Alex blurted out.

'Ah. I jumped too far ahead in what I wanted to say right into an awkward spot.' Alex had already screwed up her confident retort.

She had to keep going, before Vera cut her off or her own tears made it too hard to speak. "I-I mean to say... It's not been all fun. And you're not making things easy either. It's not like I didn't want to see you or Wolf..." Her vision blurred from her tears. "I don't know what happened. I had a little bit of resentment, maybe, to wake up after a year and only be greeted by my parents. No Wolf or Vera." Alex emphasized her displeasure at that. It was true. One of the first things she and Vera bonded over was their parental issues - different types, but issues all the same. "But maybe, I thought, it was something wrong with me. Maybe I wasn't good enough to be with you two again, since I had... Left so suddenly. I shied away from trying. Not until I had done something amazing. I had made up some fake bargain with myself to solve a problem I wasn't even sure existed."

Alex had wanted to say more, but she felt her throat tightening, and tears beginning to fall down her cheeks again.

...And then she heard Michael's voice behind her, and her heart sank like a stone. 'N-Not now! W-Why is he leaving from this exit?!' Alex quickly pulled her hood up, trying to hide her tear-streaked face. 'I was just trying to clear up one misunderstanding and another shows up in its place!! And how much of that did he hear?!' Alex felt like she might die from embarrassment, anxiety, and sadness all at once.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Alex

@KillamriX88

Alex felt pleased with herself that she managed to sneak out with Vera in tow even amidst a dangerous situation. As she walked into the alleyway, she whirled around, her chest puffed out with pride - Only to find nobody following her. "Huh? Vera?!" Her ears were still ringing slightly, but she couldn't even pick out anything that sounded like Vera.

Alex thought out what could have occurred, her gut sinking with dread. 'Okay. She's fine. Don't panic. She didn't get shot. Or trampled by the crowd. Don't panic. She wasn't kidnapped by that weirdo stalker guy who was snooping on us. Don't panic. Don't panic don't panicdon'tpanic-'

Alex was panicking. And just before she was about to dash back inside, Vera appeared through the exit.

"Where were you?!" Alex wiped her eye with her sleeve. "Did you go back IN there?!" She gave Vera a look of incredulity. "I don't even think we should be stopping running right now!" Alex quickly shot glances up and down the alleyway, as if she was looking out for more danger. But at this point, she would deal with danger. She couldn't let Vera leave, especially on such an awkward note for both of them. Alex wished they had run into each other in a situation other than a pit-fight-turned-shooting. Couldn't they have met at a library or coffee shop?!

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

"Woah...how's your book doing that? Is it magic? Are you a wizard!?"

@The Irish Tree

Io opened her eyes as someone asked her a question - but she couldn't see anyone standing in front of her at first. Then she realized it was coming from someone floating in front of her. A fairy. Io had not had much contact with them, given their chaotic nature... but she trusted a member of the Task Force would behave themselves. Plus, Io could vaguely recall that there were varieties that were less... capricious than ones she knew in the past.

It had been a while since someone asked her that last question. "A wizard... I was, perhaps." Io didn't want to brag, but she considered herself beyond that title now. She then circled back to the initial question, "The grimoire's pages are magically linked using a small component inlaid along the edges of the page. I've learned how to subtly influence the leafing in the physical world through a minor spirit link, allowing the pages to turn themselves as I will them, which happens to be very energy efficient due to the lightness of the pages. Of course this requires decoupling the spirit to begin with, but after that it is a trifling manner to correlate certain lines of thought to the link given some training. As a bonus, if the grimoire is sealed, any interrupting noise will simply not be strong enough to open the grimoire, even in a particularly overloaded area like a graveyard. Provided you've learned certain fundamental arcane combinations, and freed your ego from a body once before, I would consider it 'easy,' even." Io doled out her torrent of words without so much as a breath in between, her eyes gaining the slightest glint of passion. "You can see the basics of it in this page's inscription." The pages quickly flipped to a page in the front of the grimoire, which was scrawled over with Io's inscrutable personal language.

Io nodded to herself, satisfied with her own description. She slightly adjusted her posture for Liliana, as if to ask, 'Any questions?'

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Io at Terauchi Temple

Io nodded wordlessly at Ayu's thoughts. It was true that the task force was... unconventional. It was actually a benefit, in Io's eyes. She had already encountered things that living things wouldn't see in dozens of lifetimes on her first day.

She saw Ayu off, taking a moment to scan the temple grounds before returning to taking notes; sketches, thoughts, theories as she considered some of the task force members she had just recently met. In this case, the extremely rare male. 'I must study more closely in the future. Perhaps tonight. I'll need some spells to sneak through the area...'

Io began studying her grimoire, mentally sorting through her accumulated knowledge to find the right spells for the job. Something simple so as to not take much energy... Something that would let her blend into the shadows. Her eyes closed as her grimoire's pages quickly flipped to and fro, mimicking her internal search. There were other spells she should prepare, but this was important. This was for the sake of rare knowledge, basically uncatalogued by others. If Io's heart could beat, it would be pounding with excitement.

Her outer appearance of deep, thoughtful meditation was incongruous with her inner desire to gawk at her fellow task force members in secret, but luckily nobody else could possibly know what was going on in her head.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Put the wrecking ball down! And the spoon, too.