Lillianna, turning and raising a curious eyebrow at Clive: "Yeah I overthought it all, and its mortifyingly embarrassing in hindsight to be honest, but somehow it all turned out to be the right decision for me in the end somehow. I'll take what little luck I had there, for what it's worth.
Also please come get near the fire, Clive, you're still soaking wet."
What Lillianna Thinks In The Heat Of The Moment: 'Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair! I am Lillianna, Queen of the Shelter!'
What Lillianna Actually Says, after seeing the others soaked the next day and feeling bad about it: "...I'll help build us a bigger one for everyone next time."
Well, for once in her life it was struggle to keep occupied, at least to a certain extent. Without the benefit of the books and internet pages to read at home, or even a good anime to watch for that matter, the cold reality of her situation began to settle in somewhat more than she'd bargained for. Not that she bargained to get here in the first place! The world could be cold and harsh, and with the sun beginning to dip it wasn't exactly like they had much room to debate when it came to setting up for the night. Ugh. What made it worse was the sensation that early sunset breeze seemed to bring on in her own mind...just another reminder of the home she'd lost.
...No. She had to keep busy for now. Survival was first and foremost....it had to be.
Meanwhile the rest of their 'merry band' had begun doing things of their own accord. Albeit one of them had gained a falcon, a beautiful falcon to be sure, but the use of it would remain to be seen for the most part. Birds of prey could lift only so much weight, after all, and that meant only so many small game animals at most could be brought back before it eventually tired. Adam also seemed to get a fire going before heading out in a direction of his own, whilst Zell was calling out to the man who had saved her (James was his name, eh?) to move a tree trunk into the camp near the fire. MacKensie seemed to quip at the duo before walking off to her own devices as well. She hadn't seen what the rest would be up to, and frankly had no idea of anyone was heading out for some alone time, but if they did nothing then this 'camp' would be nothing but huddling close to a fire with nothing else! She had to at least do something here if she was to survive the night, right?
Not much she could do in terms of magic or other skills in terms of their usefulness in the heat of the moment, unless they wanted a larger fire or no fire at all from one of her lightning bolts, so Lillianna would resign herself to a seemingly small task. Leaving her staff at the impromptu camp, propped up on the non-fire side of tree trunk (if Zell and/or James brought it over in the end) and began to scour the space around the camp for wood. Her intent was to gather up as many sticks and branches as she could manage, make somewhat sorted piles of them based on size back at camp for using on the fire. Nothing too big or insane, but sticks and branches big enough to keep the fire she figured. Maybe a few small log chunks too if she could manage to drag or carry them over as well.
Once she would eventually get a reasonable amount of sticks and branches stacked up near, but not too close to, the fire, then came the other matter: Shelter. Well, her shelter at least. She would be going out to get wood, this time at least, from the farther away woods just down the hill (going in the same general-ish direction MacKensie had gone, and getting everything she needed for the rest of her supplies before moving on in her plans, but not getting close enough to notice her) to get these supplies. Sticks, branches, and more leafy branches not attached to any sort of vines. Even smaller stones from the stony/tree-cluster hilltop they were on to boot, or at least what ones she could carry. She didn't even want to risk touching foreign world vines or bushes, though, just in case anything was odd or they tried to eat her or such.
After this she would take a small rest, drinking some water and likewise chewing on the jerky from one of her three rations, before scouting out a potential location to set up. This would ultimately be a small cluster of larger standing rocks placed close enough to the fire Adam had set, within the midst of the mage would fit an amount of the sticks and branches together on the ground in the middle/midst of the rock cluster to make it a tight fit and keep her off of the ground. Then she'd try to layer a fair amount of the much thinner, leafy branches she'd gathered on top of this to make it soft-ish to sit or lie down on. (All of this to the best of her ability at least, she wasn't dumb but she wasn't wilderness trained either.)
Once this was done, another rest. More water. Little more jerky from the same single ration, which she was (pun not intended) rationing out for her work.
Then she would begin work on the next 'part' of her plan. Longer branches would sit over the top of the rock in the cluster, with smaller sticks crossed over them in perpendicular, and then the leafy thinner branches placed over the top of these so as to make am impromptu 'roof' of sorts. Then she would try to carefully weight it down with some of the smaller stones, both around the edges and some in the middle, trying to not make it too heavy but also not wanting her shelter to 'blow away'. Then same using any remaining smaller stones she got and sticks/branches for making shelter to fill in the gaps of the 'walls' of her little shelter. At least so she left just one opening pointed at Adam's fire, and she could safely lie down under the shelter at least.
Anything left after this? If there was any, she'd add any extra wood at this point (if any) to the wood piles she'd made for the fire, and use any small stones left (if any) to stick with the other stones around the edge of the fire.
If she got this far and did all of this somehow, the mage would find herself sitting on the floor of her new shelter exhausted and chugging most of (but not all of) the rest of her water in her water skin and chewing down the last fragments of jerky from the one ration she'd opened up. A weak pang of hunger would grumble against her, however, making her stomach rumble audibly for anyone standing decently close enough to her.
Reasonable, Minions, Mana Font, Retrieval, Transportation | Insomnia, Quick Tempered, Health Sapping, Fearsome Reputation
STR: 03 | AGI: 03 | VIT: 04 | MAG: 04 | LCK: 03
STR: 3 | AGI: 3 | VIT: 6 | MAG: 20 | LCK: 9
Coins: None
Kiyome
Age: 16 | Gender: Female | Time, Space Underdeveloped | Focused Assault, Regeneration | Horror (Thos) Precognition, Monstrous Metamorphosis, Big Damn Hero, Enhanced Weapon, Immortality
Reasonable, Marked, Mana Font, Minions, Retrieval, Magical Overload | Insomnia, Quick Tempered, Health Sapping, Fearsome Reputation, Monstrous Form Thick Skin, Second Specialization (Oddball: Space)| Hoarder, Broken Reincarnation
STR: 3 | AGI: 2 | VIT: 3 | MAG: 4 | LCK: 3
STR: 6 | AGI: 2 | VIT: 16 | MAG: 12 | LCK: 6
Coins: None
The injured swordswoman would look over as even more new arrivals rushed in, a car of sorts seemingly swinging in out of the blue and stopping before its passengers would likewise disembark from it. The mark of her patron would seemingly grumble inside of her in their presence, indicating something about them that wasn't rather compatible with herself or her Patron. But having felt this sort of thing before, she could tell it was likely forces of The Beacon and their 'Spark'. Spark. Just a marked magical girl of a different sort, bound to an organization. However, this feeling seemed a bit more than the rest.
Hmm. It didn't matter for the time being, really, since they seemed here to help in some capacity. Hopefully at least help in regards to her mistress' goal of trying to help innocent civilians out of this place. Once those were gone they could escape, or at least try to with some of these others to increase their chances potentially. Whatever worked in the end that was best for herself and her mistress really. In turn she could see some of what they were made of, even without the greater senses of her mistress. One of their number clearly had the Duplication power, another was some blue-haired girl, a busty maid in some ridiculous outfit, and then some black-haired girl in a fancy dress who seemed to address her and the others there.
"We're here to help get the civilians out of here."
Help get the civilians out? Perfect. The civilians would no longer be their problem if these people got their butts in gear, and that would make the situation of escape that much easier to manage. Not to mention-
“Like, thankie wankies for the helpy welpy, mister wister Aurelio Welio~! (giggle!)”
...oh no. They had an idiot with them. No, that was no person. That was a magical noise maker made for torture purposes. A living torture device, which was cruel even by Beacon standards, from the dragon woman's point of view. But even so this one seemed to be an at least 'useful' living audio torture device for keeping the civilians better contained by putting them to sleep. Didn't make her feel better, though, as she reflexively winced at the grating of MDP's voice in her ears.
But no, it was no time for complaints. This one was an ally. It was time to get out of there once the civilians were gone, lest she'd have to drag her mistress out kicking and-...yeah. No that wasn't going to happen for a number of reasons. Further, professionality was something she would maintain in this case, but if she got trapped on a car ride with this particular magical torture device-person she would not be happy. She knew that much instinctively.
Even so she would very quietly mumble under her breath.
"Your timing is impeccably classic, the 'good old last second', yet is so horribly overdone it is incomprehensibly mediocre. I'd rate your civilian evacuation service about one or two stars on Glimmr if it were not for the horrendous ear-scratching noise made by that little-."
A prompt 'bap' would land on her head as her mistress next to her gently chopped her head with one hand. The sour yet somewhat understanding look on Eliana's face told all, and the swordswoman would let out a small sigh before looking again to the newcomers and keeping her mouth shut. Even professionals had a time wherein they could get annoyed a bit too much. And between her frustrations at the situation, the magical noise machine of torture's voice, injuries keeping her from doing more (to her own increased frustration), and wanting to ensure the minimum of her mistress' safe escape in a rapidly-deteriorating situation it did not all put her in the best of moods. A slightly sour mood, really, but not enough to break her professional and disciplined appearance/expression.
This time she spoke properly aloud to Eliana.
"Apologies Mistress.
Yet once the civilians have been evacuated we must look to our own exit from this situation. The robot monster girl out there fighting still invited us to join the general escape effort, but in the case things deteriorate too quickly I would advise letting me displace us out of town as an emergency measure."
One thing would potentially be made clear to the Beacon arrivals, however, and that was the fact Kiyome was 'Marked'. The taint of a horror lingering upon her, the touch of it that was palpable to others and both sent lesser monsters into flight. Like a signal flare of the magical sort, it marked her as someone who had contracted with a Horror of some sort. Not that she seemed to pay any mind to it all herself.
"We will join the others as they escape as well then, and help get the other defenders out of here as well. This will help both of us to best leave here as well, I believe. I likewise do not wish to push you too far with your magic either, not when you are as injured as you are right now..."
Eliana pursued her lips as she spoke to her sometimes worryingly-loyal companion, before looking up at the new arrivals herself. It was certainty a small weight off of her shoulders to not have to deal with the civilians anymore, them falling back asleep this time, and she would get rid of the smaller barrier she'd made that had been being used to help contain them inside the shelter. Likewise as the vehicle the newcomers had arrived in approached, she'd let them pass through to the inside of her grand protective barrier as well. Albeit she was still putting her efforts into the barrier as she had been already, forming more layers inside of it and augmenting its strength consistently and at a steady rate.
Eliana then looked over to Alicia and spoke, a slight tiredness in her voice as she addressed the Seraph with a genuinely happy (if not somewhat relieved) smile.
"Thank you for coming! I will maintain my barrier until the civilians are gone at least, but I pray the enemy's main force does not get here soon."
Then another voice would pop up soon afterward, this time addressing the Paladin Seraph and general Beacon people in turn.
"I will assist how little I can to move them, mostly relying on these two minions with me for it as I keep watch over my mistress here."
Out of the corner of Eliana's eyes, she could see Kiyome let herself sit on the ground as the two horror minions with her dropped their taken items (more of the dragon's 'trophies' of a sort the magical gypsy wagered) before bent sent off to help carefully and swiftly move civilians to the transporter alongside the new arrivals. She didn't argue against it, but she did hope the new arrivals would not be adverse to it either. Maybe.
On sight alone she could tell they were members of The Beacon with her magical senses, due to the Spark within them, not to mention the Beacon emblem on their vehicle and clothing that was more than indicative of their allegiance. But it did confirm they were probably here to help as the black-haired girl in a dress had told them, rather than imposters seeking to grab up innocent people in the heat of all this. Even so, the spark in these ones seemed stranger than usual. Brighter. Hotter. Yet even so it felt peculiar to look at even on a glance...but she'd save thoughts on it all for later.
Truth be told she was just glad to see more help arrive.
Perfect Life, Shinespark, Mystic Might | Vow of Humanity, Excommunication
STR: 3 | AGI: 3 | VIT: 4 | MAG: 4 | LCK: 3
STR: 5 | AGI: 10 | VIT: 9 | MAG: 23 | LCK: 7
Coins: 2 silver
As soon as the vehicle stopped, Serenity jumped out as quickly as she could and would begin to cast a basic speed-augmenting time magic buff on each of her allies and also on herself. Albeit she would not apply one to each of Aurelio's clones, but he had numbers to work with at least. She would then walk over to Hyun and put a hand on her shoulder, looking into her eyes and giving an understanding nod.
"We've got this."
It was more a response to the reaction she'd seen out of Hyun back in the vehicle, but all the same it was an attempt to reassure her ally as the mobile teleporters was set up. Because all of this? To her this was nothing compared to what she'd seen, done, and saw before to be honest. A tiny fragment of nothing in comparison to far greater horrors she could recollect with a terrible ease. And yet at the same time as a human being it was a horrible and terrible thing indeed, as well as humbling, and was an injustice that ate away at her heart and fueled the anger simply to look upon. In that sense perspective was truly something...even more special since her rebirth and reincarnation. It was also something she was working on, and hoped to work on, as she lived her new life. One day, one trial, one thing at a time.
Meanwhile, she had a job to do for the time being.
Once Oliver and Aurelio would get the teleporter up and running, she would start going out to move civilians alongside Alicia to try to get them to the teleporter as best as she could. Anything to as safely and swiftly get the civilians to safety as she could alongside the others. Yet as she dropped off a civilian, and turned to bring back another sleeping one from the shelter, she would briefly stop in her tracks. Or rather, she would stop on a dime and visibly freeze.
"I will assist how little I can to move them, mostly relying on these two minions with me for it as I keep watch over my mistress here."
...The voice explained it, at least, but seeing horror minions trying to safely pull unconscious civilians over to the teleporter was not what had caused her to freeze up on the spot for a moment. Rather, it was something else entirely that caused her to act as she did.
A familiar thrum of energy, or rather a presence, lingered in the area of the shelter. Its source? The one who had sent the two minions, a swordswoman who seemed unable to stand on her own next to the other somewhat gypsy-like girl who seemed to be maintaining the very barrier protecting the shelter. And sure they were protecting civilians, but at the same time the presence Serenity felt was nothing alien to her. Not alien to her at all, in fact being incredibly familiar to her past self's memories to the point she could tell who it was without thinking about it.
...And that was the problem.
She forced her body to move, even as the feeling of being a deer in the headlights screamed inside of her brain, before finally getting back into the groove of working to move the civilian bodies. Yet now? Now a cold sweat was covering her skin, running down the back of her outfit even. Likewise a chill felt like it lingered right above the back of her neck, tickling the hairs on her skin and only a moment away from sending mighty shivers down her spine. To those who knew her, such as Alicia and Aurelio, it would potentially be easier to notice. Even so-
-IT was here, or rather its agents were. That THING that she'd hoped to never encounter ever again for the rest of her eternity even more than she dreaded ever running into the rest of her former self again. A being that even the Inquisition, or Soth peeking into the mortal plane again, could not strike more fear into her in comparison to.
Thos!
THOS!
THOS!!!
The being that existed in eternal and most bitter enmity with that which spewed it forth from its own nothingness, even by the standards of Greater Horrors. That which sought to consume all things and bring all into one. The being which sought for all existence to grow, bloat, sag, rot, and decay so long as it grew and grew and grew forever. That which would devour and consume any traces of its hated foe, or destroy them, on sight without so much as a singular pause or moment of consideration to regard the situation or consequences of it.
Thos.
A being whom, for lack of a better word in the mortal tongue, one of the two 'children' of Soth. And they were the only ones, as well as being very well-known at the very least, for very good reasons.
She was going to die. He was going to find her and kill her. Wonderland? Who needed to worry about their tanks and guns and weapons and mindless soldiers when...when...
...HE WAS HERE AND HE WAS GOING TO FIND HER AND KILL HER
The Beacon maid paused for just a brief moment again as the panic tried to peak. Breathe. In and out. In and out. Good.
No, she had to focus on the work. Control herself. Just for this mission, and she'd be away from it. Just focus on the work in front of her. Yes. Carefully but speedily carry the civilian over. Put them down on the teleporter or next to it as her comrades wished for her to. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Do this until all the civilians had been sent over.
She was controlling herself. One step, one thing at a time. Focus. Help her friends, the only ones she had in this world. Yes. She could do this. She had to.
"It is, and no problem! I think everything about this situation has been odd," Adam joked with a smile as he grabbed the metal object and held it out, examining it as he spoke further. "I haven't had the chance to look at it much myself, being preoccupied with creatures who wanted to kill me at the time, but I'm not sure if it really is the 'heart of the skeleton' like Vadim thought. If it was, why would it scare away its allies? That's just a theory though, I think these people at Valheim will know more than I would. Anyway, please feel free to inspect this as long as you'd like."
The mage gingerly leaned her staff against herself as she stood there and used both hands to carefully take and hold the cube.
If there was one thing that made it easier talking to Adam in a rather silly sense, it was that he seemed to not be as giant as many of the other men in the party. Less craning her neck up simply to speak without looking rude, or something of the sort. But that was frankly a small detail at best, as he seemed to be confident enough when it came to going about in the wilderness like this (even if they had been traveling the roads of course). This despite his apparently younger age in her eyes, though his own eyes for that matter were a most peculiar color indeed. Hmm. But if she analyzed everyone too much, then it felt likely they'd all stand out like that. Peculiar people, in a peculiar place, in a world where they'd landed out of the blue in falling stone sarcophagi coming from a giant opening the sky.
...She was sure there was a joke somewhere about any combination of them 'walking into a bar', etc, etc, but for the time being decided against pondering such a thing in favor of what was in front of her: The cube.
Ornate designs covered the outside, symbols and sigils she assumed were magically inclined in nature, and from the firsthand accounts it had emitted a purple light. The result of all of this was the other skeletons running for their lives. Usually the loss of a leader would cause a drop in morale, if the undead had any really, but even then such a thing still stood out as odd to her. Why flee if this was lost? Was it a valuable crucible for creating powerful undead? Was it a device helping control the force, and its loss caused the lesser undead to flee? Was it a catalyst for whatever magic had created or was controlling the undead and monstrous forces? A beacon for the Witch Queen's magic to emerge from?
It was all a vast mystery with myriad guesses to be had, but Lillianna for the time being settled with doing some careful observation and testing on her part. For all she knew this thing would bind to her and she became part-necromancer or something, or someone would need to attune to it to make it work for them in some capacity.
And then came Adam's own question, snapping her head back up before she got too deeply focused on the cube she was now carefully turning over and running her fingers over the whole surface of in her hands. She even tried to draw upon it, or at least see if it reacted to her in particular somehow, in the meantime.
"By the way, if you know, what sort of magic do you have?"
Ah! That was another good question, and generally speaking was perhaps pertinent in her studying of the cube. Or rather it would be pertinent when she started a more magical means of looking (among others).
"Well, it feels as if some of the knowledge was shoehorned into my mind, so I can certainly tell you types I can use at least. Spirit Magic and Lightning Magic. As for the 'elements' involved in those schools of magic, as worlds like this seem to be inclined to classify things under this sort of manner in various forms of fantasy fiction back on Earth, so I can't actually say."
The 22 year old let out a small sigh before looking back at the younger man, her eyes running over his attire and so forth that was visible from her perspective.
"You seem dressed for the woods, but lack a visible weapon skill like swords or bows as I've noticed in the case of the others. Are you a pure magic user, perchance?"
Worst case scenario she would be wrong and get told something else, at least in her mind.
@Zool Lillianna, looking to MacKensie as the guys made their plans known very loudly and worryingly: "...I want to say this will go badly in a potentially entertaining manner, but would you like to get away before it all ends in disaster somehow? Or shall we wait to bail them out?"
The staff-wielding mage would increase her pace, moving herself closer to the man at the front of the 'pack' as it were: Adam.
From what she could glean on the surface, everyone seemed to be talking to someone else rather than saying anything about the camping situation. Not that being tired after all the walking really lent itself to anything but wanting to agree to get some rest perhaps. But that was just a guess on her part, as she could still go on for a little while yet! At least physically.
Mentally, however, she already felt a bit tired if she were to be honest about the matter. Not only had her arrival in the strange place been jarring, but she'd been mulling some along this particular walking trek about the last memories she had from back home. The last thing she remembered at all before waking up in that blasted stone sarcophagus that had been nearly lying on its side. Before the magic, the dead bodies, everything she'd seen her so far in what little time she had been here. All she could recall was having been in her lifeguard swimsuit, walking down a section of the beach to keep an eye on things. Then someone had called out to her when the wind gusts had gotten bad, and she'd turned around only to see the image of a large and heavier beach umbrella flying at her face faster than she could react.
Then nothing but instant darkness before she'd woken up.
It was like the plot of one of the recently popular isekai-genre anime she'd seen, albeit instead of a truck it was a beach umbrella. That comparison in and of itself made it frankly ridiculous, and yet the thought she'd died and been nabbed up elsewhere and summoned was increasingly becoming one of the most logical theories about their collective situation, comparatively speaking, when compared to the even stranger ren-faire theory she'd finally dumped out of her mind by this point.
But how does one present such a theory to people who had just as little an idea and a less pop-culture context to draw on? At least for all she knew. Even if the context was not a problem at all, the suggestion of the idea would be as silly as it could sound in the first place. Then again, the very situation they were in was far more than extraordinary in and of itself and would perhaps lend some credibility to it all?
...She wished her Uncle was here right now. Just to hear his stupid laugh and get a hug to make the crazy things she was going through feel like they didn't matter so much anymore. Even if it made those things feel just a little, but decisive, bit smaller.
...
...
...
Ahem. That would all be something to ponder more later. For now, she needed something else to occupy herself with for the time being, and with MacKensie seemingly occupied in conversation with the man who had first come to help her (before returning to his 'resting' face as she assumed) Lillianna's focus had turned to the object in the hands of the group leader: That cube.
According to what she'd learned back in the town, before they had left at least, that thing had fallen out from some skeletal minion leader's body after it had been slain. Glowing purple light, necromantic vibes, and the whole shebang included. Then the remnants of the army had up and run away. Like this thing had been keeping them in the fight somehow, or its loss was noted as being too much or too risky a loss to keep up the fight. At least those were her presumptions and guesses about the matter. Theories at best. But if she could use magic, perhaps she could look into it? Or at least as a scholar be able to take a peek at it, maybe be able to get a reaction out of it that could lend some kind of understanding to what it was made for and what it did in function and purpose.
With that in mind, the aptly-dressed mage felt asking Adam to look at it would at least be something.
"Adam, is it? Ah, I wanted to ask you something while we try to get settled in a spot to camp for the night. Mostly I wanted to ask if I could carefully examine that odd cube for a bit. I would like to see if we can learn anything about it in the meantime from that and such, ah, if that is ok with you of course."
Magic was fascinating, and the scientific method did not change simply because she was in some place with real actual magic. Plus if they could understand anything about their enemy in some capacity, then it would give them any sort of advantage possible. Especially if they could make undead go away somehow with this, if any of her theories about it were true, which would be a boon in case of, ah, another 'attack' surprising them along the way to the town they'd been directed to. Did she mention she could use REAL ACTUAL MAGIC?! Because there was real, actual magic here, and she could use it. That was still trying to sink in even as her attention turned to the cube.
"It...is an odd request to someone I've just met here, but if we could learn anything about it then maybe we could at least better understand why it had the effect it did back there at the village. Admittedly I wasn't there for the battle, but I did glean some basic information about what had happened as we got ready to leave at least."
ALlso: Halfway through writting the last line I remembered how Zell died
PS. @Crusader Lord MacKensie was talking towards James but I think your character started walking with them but was talking to Adam? sorry I became a little confusied when reding it
All good, I took that bit out of my post due to confusion. So even less worries then! XD
BurningCold,
Zapdos,
Xaltwind,
Spiffy,
dwyer austin,
The Otter,
Dezuel,
Izurich,
Danyel,
Aku the Samurai