drewccapp

Unquiet

Rain simply stood their flabergasted as these two beings seemed prepared to fight over... her. Two words in her head.

Two names. Ngubrath. Th'ctu.

Two choices.

Something in her told her that all of this was not right. Two immensely powerful beings, and they were trying to get into her head. She didn't deserve this. She never earned this. No human should have this much power. That was the reason she rebelled against Venitech and her government. They controlled everything.

She closed her eyes nearly buckling at the presence of these monsters. These things. These gods. She knew that if she accepted any one of them, her own ideals would be shattered. That thought made her angry. She imagined their reaction would be less than pleasant, but one thing that rattled around in the back of her head was that if she accepted either one of these things: She. Would. Regret. It. No amount of fear could overcome that feeling.

Rain cleared her throat to get the gods' collective attention. This was her show. Not theirs. "Excuse me, Kitty and Birdie." She would not ever use their full names as they were no god of hers. "I regret to inform you, uh, big fellas that I'm not buying what you're selling. N-nope. I refuse both of you... I mean... all of you. You can't just walk up to a girl and proposition them out of nowhere. You have to earn her trust first."

She could feel her heart pounding like crazy as she finished her statement. Right now, it would be easy for her to panic, but she had to remain calm. As calm as possible anyways. She was fairly sure her hands were shaking. She cleared her throat one last time. "I don't think it's in my best interest for either of you to take my soul either way." She had a tight grin and was fairly sure that if she wasn't locking her jaw, her teeth would be chattering something fierce.

New Elysium [High-Casual]

I completely forgot that I have plans today and that's going to keep me from posting at all. I promise to have something up tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience guys!

New Elysium [High-Casual]

@drewccapp

plus I have something planned for you >:)

@FallenTrinity

Oh I'm excited now! (As if I wasn't already)

New Elysium [High-Casual]

I'm working on a post but it's coming slow... I'll try and have it done by tomorrow.

Moonfiend

"I was under the impression there were more of you."

Vincent shook his head. "There were. We lost track of them." So much had happened that even his ability to remember everything he has seen could only help so much. Much of his efforts had been in keeping himself alive. He remembered when the others were separated from them, but he hadn't noticed what happened to them.

"I will try to answer all your questions to the best of my ability. I hope I won't bore you, but I'd like to be fully honest with you all -- since we may be all that is left.

"Since the Grit first appeared during my father's reign, there have been . . . scientific endeavors . . . committed to understanding them." She winced a little -- it was a description much too kind for those amoral experiments. "About a year ago, one such experiment failed. If you will remember the sudden deadly explosion at the plastics manufacturing plant in winter -- that story was a coverup. Our research had been stolen and teleported out of the city. The Grit got ahold of it. Shortly after, rumors began to spread that the Grit had learned to fly. They've learned so much more than that, I fear."

Vincent opened his mouth in realization. He remembered that incident. Something about it had felt off. At the time he simply dismissed those thoughts as his imagination going wild, and besides there was a girl he was interested in at the time and thus he had better things to do with his time.

"I don't quite know what has happened to the sky; I'm told that it only appears split to us, here within the walls, and nothing is wrong outside the city. I am not personally familiar with the research that was stolen, but it must have to do with it. But the sigil of protection that has kept us safe -- the shape taken by our roads, powered by all of us who live here -- ceased to function the moment the lightning struck the Spire. The Spire itself is the center of the protection sigil and the source of its power. This," she spread her arms to indicate the entirety of the glimmering cavern, "is the power that had been keeping us safe. And now . . . I believe it is also the power that is to blame for the statues that now stand as gravestones throughout the city."

He knew the sigil that the city made up quite well. After all, Father made sure that he knew at least the history of sigils as they were after all a part of the basis for a rune mage's knowledge.

"But all is not lost. The stone people can be returned to their former selves. We only need to draw a rune on the statues and place a soul stone on the rune, and the person will breathe again. It is a simple rune, I will teach it to you, if you don't know it.

A hint of recognition briefly flashed on Vincent's face. Of course. He knew exactly the rune that would work for that. The thought hadn't crossed his mind until now. This rune was the basis for the creation of items like his pen. While he lost himself in thought he blanked out part of what the Queen said. Then she turned to face him calling attention to herself with an apologetic expression.

"The Grit can be defeated, as long as they have not absorbed soulstones. Their only advantage is that they can use a sigil to resurrect their fellow Grit after death. We need only ensure that their resurrection sigils are destroyed, then proceed to destroy the Grit themselves."

Vincent looked away from the Queen, uncomfortable with her expression and tone. She was supposed to be an authority figure. Someone imposing. This was completely different than how Father behaved towards him. This didn't feel right. Vincent then reminded himself that she was a woman, and women did things differently. Regardless, he didn't want to back down. He didn't want to feel like he lost to her.

At least there was way to destroy the Grit. He had been certain that he had seen the same one twice after it had been killed.

"My only soldiers now are robots, which are incapable of activating sigils and runes on their own. They cannot revive the cityfolk. I have sent a squad to the mine, but I have not heard back yet whether they will be able to complete their mission. I suspect they will not be able to, for the same reason. I know it is a lot to ask . . ."

Vincent tightened his lips in thought and let out a low. "Hmmm." He looked at the Queen. "So, you've told us what we should do, but what will you be doing? Staying here with your robots? Or will you help another way?" He knew the Queen had a history of being sickly, but her sitting around doing nothing but wait only left him feeling more irritated. He didn't want to hear the Queen's response, he simply wanted her to think about it.

He glanced around the room looking for ways out and then looked back at the Queen, but not before he looked briefly at Kat. "How do we get out of here? I'm not at all interested in sitting around doing nothing, and there are those of us that have family to save." He had no interest in saving his family, but he knew Kat was particularly close with her family and he imagined everyone else here had their own to worry about.

When he had a moment, he had a few things he wanted to try out anyways.

Moonfiend

@Mokley Vincent is probably going to realize this and might have some wild and selfish ideas...

New Elysium [High-Casual]

Exodus: Aurora, Abandoned Outpost, Player Housing

Watcher noticed a few things that were different with his UI when he opened the fast travel interface. He first noticed that the EXP bar that displayed in the corner was no longer full. He stared at it for a good few minutes and the numbers there counted out the experience required for him to earn the next level. Hadn't he hit the level cap? A chill of excitement and confusion and fear ran down his spine. Who had done this? Had he hacked the game accidentally somehow? Did this show him as a target of R3v314t1on? What if the developers had chosen him? Did they know just how much motivation he had to bring the bastards down?

Watcher found himself grinning at the prospect of his level cap being raised by the developers just for him to take down R3v314t1on.

The next thing he noticed on the interface was a new quest location in Genesis, Sanctuary: Pyre. The marker for the location was completely different from any other quest marker he knew of, and the marker was nowhere anywhere near any quests he knew of. After all, he and his guild: the First Operation, had completed every quest available in the game. The only people he knew that were capable of adding new quests could only be the developers.

He then noticed a message had appeared in his inbox. He had been so distraught and distracted by everything that had happened that he had failed to notice it earlier. The sender: The UN. THE UN?! He stared at the message unblinkingly for a few moments. He then shuffled in place a bit to loosen up. "Alright. Alright. Seems legit." He had a small amount of skepticism about this message, but everything that happened left him with no small amount of doubt about his world. He opened the message and scanned through its invitation for him to basically work to save the world.

Genesis, Sanctuary: Pyre

Just as he closed the message, he found himself in a loading screen. Before long he popped into Genesis, Sanctuary: Pyre with several others around him. He quickly assessed they had been brought here just the same as he had.

Watcher, the last survivor of the guild First Operation, had just been throw into a situation that he would have only dreamed of a few moments ago. He had been chosen by the developers to work with other players to take down R3v314t1on. This was perfect!

"Hello everyone," he figured he might as well introduce himself. "I'm Watcher. Looks like we've all been chosen for something great. I'm ready to get all star spangled and kick some of those monsters' asses."

That's right. This was his game. He had earned his way up the ranks. As the fourth son of a business leader, he had no prospects as far as positions within his parents' company, but he had the most freedom of them all. This was his game. He was going to win it all back. Revenge would only be the very best icing to his most excellent cake.

New Elysium [High-Casual]

I'll be putting in my post for Watcher's transportation to Sanctuary: Pyre. I put in such an open ended post the other night just to start getting a feel for my guy.

New Elysium [High-Casual]

Sounds like a good game plan. I like what I see so far. I'm pretty eager to see what else comes up too. I already have an idea how Watcher is going to feel about the hackers, but I still don't entirely know how he'll react to everyone else. Pretty excited overall regardless.

Lantern

Epic double post time!

I find it pretty funny how each of our characters is figuring out how to write runes in their own way. One's getting a "formal" education so to speak and the other is basically trying it on a gut feeling. I'm interested in seeing the results.

God am I eager to see what happens next and what's to come even further down the road.