EchoWolff

Afterimages: The Mirrored World

Time is irrelevant.

All that matters is the here and now.

An ephemeral footstep echoed through the Darkened heart of this world, a void that overlooked everything, a window into all that is, and what could be. The cowled girl turned as she gave a huff.

“Oh, so you've finally decided to find your way here Elio? Took you long enough.”

The man in the mask did not react to his sibling, instead his gaze leveled on the cards that shimmered in his hands, like a crystal of a chandelier refracting into a singular playing card.

The form of Elio was unclear, it never was. A shifting echo of all forms taken in the past, a formless and infinite adaptation to the twisted environment. They came to the table, fingers tapping on the solid surface, as they answered the one hidden beneath the cowl, their voice chiming like a glass bell, finely tuned.

“Time does not apply here. You of all people should know this well, Nyx.”

Elio then turned to their brother, head tilting to the side, like an owl peering through a rodent's soul.

“You called us for this game of yours, yes? I suppose these souls you've contracted have some part to play. If only you had told me you were using humans for this plan of yours…” The formless one whined, materializing a chair for themselves as they sat.

The girl beneath the cowl gave a small scoff, as what seemed to be consistent with her… deposition.

“Yeah yeah, let's just get this going. It's more interesting than what I've had to put up with… As fascinating as you say they are, they are just so stupid…”

“Let's not get ahead of ourselves.” The man of the mask finally spoke, his head tilting upward as the cards in his hand coalesced into a stack. He then picked from it three hands, and placed one before each of his siblings.

“Play your hands wisely. What you play shall help or hinder them… I'm sure there might be some inkling of enjoyment that may be hidden here.”

The Figments bring forth their hands. And Cards are played.

---

The first card to be played is the 4 of Shields by the man of mask, as the Glasshead sustained strike after strike, fragments falling and flying… Thrashes of heat and pinpointed strikes of frost…

The beast shattered.

Glass cracked and crumbled, as it was left struggling on the ground.

Then is the 6 of Seraphim. As the world cracked open, the twisted angel that was Tohato crashed down to the world beyond the veil. Landing on the crystalline remains…

Shards fly. A Hunter becoming the hunted.

The prismatic shards lay strewn across the ground. A beat of sweet silence raptured the space…
@Kronshi@CorviDoggo@Baphomini

---

Chihiro stayed frozen for a second, staring at the fallen angel that had come out from seemingly nowhere… this place seemed to have a habit of doing that. Her eyes stayed on the figure, as light seemed to bend and distort around it, glass shards seeming to start hanging into the air… She wasn't sure if it was friendly or not…

“Uh… Are you going to try and kill us too?” She shakily inquired, the adrenaline flowing through her blood starting to ebb as the unsettling calm continued…

As glass floated through the air, as if ignoring the inherent laws of gravity, a few caught her eye… some more colorful as they glided past…

---

3 of Void.

As glass floated, shards less prismatic began to be drawn closer to each other, magnetized by the polarity of their mass.

Prisms of crystal, windows of sorrow and soul.

A new beast was in the making.

The stakes are raised.

GET OUT.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

---

Joker walked alongside the caravan, his tailcoat slung across his shoulder as he let the cool breeze flow past him. Why did his outfit have to be black? Being in the direct sunlight, his coat got hotter than usual... He kind of missed the Tokyo subway system, albeit it was constantly a tight squeeze, it still got him from place to place when he needed it... Alas, modern-day innovations were non-existent, as he fully realized when he pulled out his phone, clicking the power button a few times, the black screen of the device refusing to glow to life.

Dead. Great.

He sighed, slipping the expensive paperweight back into his pocket, just in case it would be of use later. His mind wandered to Aventon, and what had happened... and what could have become of the town if they couldn't had been too late.

As the conversation of diplomacy and getting themselves heard by those higher up in the rankings, the masked boy glanced over to the girls as they talked amongst each other. He knew some things about the old shogunates of prior eras of Japan, but wasn't quite sure about this country's governmental structure.

Some knowledge is better than ignorance at least.

Yet, he stayed quiet.

The Nova Hotel

A brisk wind whipped around the Business Square of Alengras, the hustle and bustle of the city just beyond the hotel grounds, a few people, presumably guests, were loitering around the front lawn overlooking the street, some simply enjoying the afternoon sun, others talking amongst each other. The people seemed to be minding their own business... However, someone seemed rather lost in the crowd... a fish out of water.

@Girlie Go Boom@Wayward

---

The seemingly automated kitchen around Rebecca seemed to slow in its clamor, the hotel sensing that this wasn't exactly what its new cook was hoping for... a receipt was conjured on the counter nearby, words scrawled in neat writing...

We apologize, we assumed as a caster you would rather oversee... However, if you wish for things to be more in your control, we will gladly comply. - The Kitchen

@shagranoz

---

The slime considered the dragon's words, before plucking the sticky not from the wall, the writing on in changing to direction to the room that needed cleaning... Sora's face lit up, looking over to Cythena before going to the door to the staff room, toward where the note directed, the first day on the job...

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

♫

---

Let's get this going then.

Joker's gloved hand slipped into his coat, drawing the knife from his coat, the blade glistening from the light. The dual-wielding woman was a few feet from him, fingers dancing as she twirled one of her daggers, waiting for the boy to assume some stance.

Feet shoulder length apart. Angle the body to reduce the targeting area. Bend the knees, lean forward, and let your blade cut through the wind.

The woman assumed her stance, crouching as her blades fell low...

The wind's howl was their signal, as the two rushed each other, blades crashing as the instruments of metal hummed with latent kinetic energy, sparks flying with acrobatic grace...

Joker's blade was honed toward the mercenary, both fighters agile and quick with their strikes.

"Left." Arsene's voice chimed in Akira's mind, blades locked by mutual force, a temporary stalemate balanced on a razor's edge, as his knife, like threads guiding the edge, parries to the left, following up with a pommel strike to the gut.

Joker's opponent stumbles back slightly, before reassuming her stance once again.

"You're fast... Good. Just how I like it!"

The clash of iron on iron was heard again, as the woman charged the boy's blade meeting her own again.

He couldn't keep doing this. Holding back this much wouldn't get him anywhere.

"I'm not done!" His voice burst out in a wave of force, no more holding back and playing defense.

Blades cracked as the mask burned away, eyes wide and sparkling with something only akin to madness, as the spectral facet of his psyche manifested behind him, a cocky grin painted across his face. Time to have some fun.

The woman fell backward looking down to her daggers, one of them had snapped in two... She looked back up at the boy, the flaming figure behind him bound by chains, wings outstretched... A summoner? How? This isn't what she signed up for! She frantically tried to scramble backward, anywhere away from this bastard.

"Don't move!" His voice resonated as Arsene's wings flapped forward, strange magic enveloping the woman as her movements slowed, spectral chains coiled around her limbs as Joker stepped forward. Sukunda. One foot after the other the woman was trembling, was she going to die here? Is this how she left this world, at the hands of a psychotic teenager?

He was chuckling to himself, was this going a bit too far? Nah. He'll hold back just enough not to knock her out, so she can still say she yields... The cocky look in his eye never faltered for a second, as another two words echoed from him.

"RAVAGE THEM!"

Arsene gladly complied, as a burst of dark energy concentrated in the hands of the apparition, before releasing it in a destructive blast.

Eiha.

The woman, battered and bruised, lay on the ground as Joker dismissed Arsene, walking over to the woman and crouching down near her face.

"You done now?"

"Y-Yeah... I y-yield..."

Joker offered a hand and helped up the woman and assisted in getting her back to her caravan, before heading toward where Anne and the kids were.

He was hoping for a bit more fight once he brought out Arsene though... It was fine, at least he got to have some fun.

Afterimages: The Mirrored World

TIME IS LOST

🝮

A Rapture in Black and Blue.

The world fell away from Tohato, Colors blending and darkening as the wrenching feeling in his gut of gravity betraying him became painfully evident... He was falling. Falling fast and far.

Wind and air blew past him in sharp whistles and wails, the void around him only growing darker in his peripheral...

"Another Mirrorwalker...? No... There's something off about you... You were brought here, contracted by my brother no doubt..."

A gentle voice, feminine yet also masculine at the same time, a small chorus of sound that seemed to blend and adapt from formless noise into words...

A cacophony of crescendos and diminuendos, an emphasis of vocal symphony transforming into the hissing of a snake, a howl of a coyote...

A faceless pigeon falls alongside the one who fell from his cage.

"Tohato... Tohato... It's time to spread your wings..."

"It's time to mend these broken wings. You can't keep yourself caged forever..."

As a light shines deep below him, the distant sound of shouting and screeching from below echoing through the void...

@CorviDoggo

---

A Seed Sown, Thorns Entwined.

The brambles filled the space in between, piercing through and stitching together the two halves of reality... closer then they ever should have been.

Animosity held so much power... A seed of discord sprouting as it prepares its blasphemous fruit...

A forbidden puzzle being formed into a complete picture. A tapestry of malice, anxiety, avarice, and all things wrong with humanity being forced into the limelight...

As it always should have been. Their 'truth' had always been flawed, their focus on the physical in front of him limits their vision...

Well, what a fitting way to test a race's mettle.

---

A Fragile Balance.

The grinding screech of the creature rang like a badly tuned viola, as prismatic splinters flew in every which direction with the impact of the frosted beast with the crystalline effigy, glass cracking and shifting as its body cracked and contorted in odd angles to escape. The force of the grim hold seemed to be starting to grind the glass into sharp sand...

Before the powdered substance began to ebb and flow like a liquid. shifting and moving as the shards that made up its 'face' cracked as it opened its own maw...

Two can play at that game...

However it didn't get to play its hand. Not yet.

The honed strings of the marionette struck the creature, the wires eliciting finite control over the creature, fragments flying as it continued to chip away... The creature whipped its head around, roaring like the wind through a subway tunnel, as the fragile prismatic filaments began reacting to the crystalline beast's will.

Concentration, Sublimation, Expulsion.

Within seconds, glass bullets were dashing through the air... A ranged attack...

@Kronshi@Baphomini

---

A shard, a bud, of one's perception.

When her eyes opened, she had found herself crouched low on the ground, tail flicking behind her eagerly, her body wanting nothing more than to aid its pack of sorts...

She didn't even know these things if they even were people... Her senses were on overload as if everything had been put through some kind of amplifier, as she ran forward, her pent-up energy finally saw the light of day along with the side of herself that she tried to hide... true nature always seemed to find it's way...

A true battle brings out the fear in those fighting it... But also the fiercest of beasts that live within.

Catching, or rather swatting, a bullet from the air, she slid to a stop next to the wooden doll-looking thing, a soft thrumming aura seeming to emanate from around her, a soft radiance shed through the space as if moonlight were shining down from above...

"So, hope I'm not too late to join in on this-!"

---

So much happening... So little time.

They would probably be on her ass this time. But then again, she couldn't keep just listening to what they told her like they could control her in the first place.

The hooded girl watched from beyond the walls, sitting at the events unfolding. Her head lifted, company had arrived.

"What took you so long? I expected you to come earlier, dipshit."

"Tch... Has that body been what made you so... what do humans call it... angsty?"

The man bearing the mask of the oni walks in, shadows clinging to the boots as his footsteps hold steady, stopping just shy of a meter away from the girl.

"Where is Elio? I expected them to be here." The man crossed his arms over his chest, rubbing his glove against the lapel of his coat.

"If I were you, I wouldn't count on it. They are always lost, to begin with, I wouldn't be surprised if they were off exploring Fracta again." The hooded one responded, tossing a knife of some caliber in the air before the weapon slowed its momentum and she snatched it out of the air, repeating this cycle repeatedly.

"You orchestrated this, right? Or was this one of Malgam's old plans that you've 'salvaged' again? I came to play this little game you promised." Though the face could not be seen under the cowl's shadow, her glowing gaze could be seen from beneath...

From beneath his coat, the man of the mask pulled a deck of cards before nodding.

"Of course. I remember, I'm not as untrustworthy as I might seem. We are siblings, are we not? Why would I neglect to keep my promise? You are familiar with human 'props' for games such as these, right?"

A table forms itself from the shadows beneath, brought up for the man of mask to place the deck. With a flick of his hand four cards are drawn from the deck.

9 of Constellations.

10 of Watchers.

Jack of Mirrors.

Queen of Artifacts.

The girl snickers...

"Well then... Let the game begin!"

The Nova Hotel

Perhaps. If nothing goes up today, i'll put up a post

The Nova Hotel

U-uhm... are you all alive?

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

---

The Phantom Thief let out a sigh.

The nagging of his spectral counterpart in the back of his mind was incessant, the figure of rebellion constantly wanting to break through its chains... In the way that Remilia put it, it would seem justified...

But he would need to make sure he didn't get carried away...

"Hmm... I suppose this could be a good experience. Who knows, could help as a bonding exercise..."

He stepped forward, taking a glance toward the duel group. He refrained from taking off his mask for now, he didn't want to reveal his hand just yet...

The Nova Hotel

@Wayward

Sure thing

The Nova Hotel

Before the front desk stood two people, a tall and well-dressed male elf of a more contemporary vanity, and a younger tigerkin woman of a more rustic style of dress. The elf appeared to have more eyes for getting on with his day, the tiger woman's eyes were light ablaze at the sight of the hotel, the light streaming in from the windows like thread through a needle as it shined down onto the vinyl wood flooring and various sitting areas near the hotel bar.

Colors shined through bottles as they blended in a spectrum of light, the vessels of firewater creating a kaleidoscope of refractions on the floor below. The tigerkin's gaze was transfixed upon the sighs, her tail flicking gently from side to side as she started drifting off before the elf looked over and saw his companion being led astray...

"Selphie, let's not go wandering off now." He stated in a stern voice, turning back to the ghostly apparition. "Yes, I do have a reservation, now where did I put that damn paper..." The elf dug into the pockets of his coat and pants, before producing a small card with a seven-digit number and a symbol. The number glowed with soft light, the ledger book's pages shifting a little as if in a breeze as the inked writing of a reservation started to change, the color going from black to green, and a small bit of writing appeared next to the indicated reservation.

Assigned Room 394, Cleaning Required.

@Wayward

---

Another shrill ringing sound of a bell echoed through the staff room, this time closer. On a plain wall, a sticky note appeared in a burst of ethereal lavender flame, as if someone, or something, had stuck it there. On the sticky note, in neat handwriting, read "Cleaning: Room 394 requires freshening up, the customer is on hold until action is taken." Beneath the writing was a small line of icons, a chibi art style depicting the faces of Hua Li, Sora, and Miss DeeDee, a representation of those fit to take the job.

---

The lavender slime got up from the floor as the second bell rang, fixing his bandanna as he walked closer to the wall with the newly placed sticky note, tilting his head slightly with curiosity. He noticed the small version of his face on the piece of paper stuck to the wall, and turned with a puzzled look to Cythena...

"Uhm... Miss Cythena? What's this?"

---

The dragon directed her gaze to the slime, giving a small smile. "That's the job board, it's the hotel's way of letting it's workers know about things that need to be done within its grounds, as well as making sure it's outward needs are known as well, like supply runs and the like. Requests from customers might appear on there as well. Any other questions?"

@Girlie Go Boom@Sunny Suzuki@Zer0Solution@cyberhead@shagranoz