Konan375

Rebirth: At World's End

But isn’t what makes a word pejorative the intent and meaning behind it? There are a lot of other words that are pejorative that have different definitions.

Idk, those are just my thoughts on it.

Rebirth: At World's End

@Italicized

Haha samesies. Think Mortimer and Joseph worked together at some point?

Rebirth: At World's End

You know what. I think I'll throw my lot in with this group. Looks fun.

Mortimer Vandaal

Mortimer Vandaal

Character Summary

Name: Mortimer Vandaal
Aliases: None
Titles: The Tillerman, The Undying One, The Reaper,
Age: Stopped counting after the last few millennia. Looks like he's in his 40's
Place of Origin: Marelle
Kingdom: Igros
Gender: Male
Time of Death: 3,000 years ago

Physical Attributes

Eyes:Amber
Hair: Straight black shoulder length hair.
Day To Day Attire: Dark grey's to black clothes of an undertaker.
Strengths:Strong magical capabilities. Knowledgable
Weaknesses: Frail, Taciturn, Bad social skills, Poor memory

Psychological Attributes

Aloof* Bitter* Stubbron

Sexuality: Asexual
Relationship Status: Single
Personality: Mortimer has seen many many many years. Friends and acquaintances died while he continued on. It has made him cynical and hard to build relationships with people.

Skills

• Grand Master Necromancer: Mortimer has a way with the dead. Whether it be putting the raised dead to rest, or ensuring that the souls of those recently deceased move on peacefully. It was through Necromancy that Mortimer learned to extend his life. A secret that he has ensured that no one else learn.
• Master Mortician: Before he learned the art of Necromancy, Mortimer was a mortician. He determined the cause of death and prepared the dead for burial, cremation, whatever the next of kin wished done with the bodies.
• Master Healer: One doesn't learn how one dies without learning what can be done to prevent death. At least that's how Mortimer believes it to be. Give him sutures and medicine and he'll have you patched up quickly.
• Expert Cartographer: Mortimer has traveled almost all the World. As a way to pass the time, he mapped out his journeys and all the places he'd been to.
• Expert Notetaker: Mortimer's many years of life has taken a toll on his memory. Now he needs to take notes to remember what happened in the past few hundred years.

Magic

• Raise Dead: If need be, Mortimer can animate corpses to do his bidding. Souls need to be present for the bodies to rise. If no bodies are present, Mortimer can give a present soul a incorporeal form that can affect the world around it.
• Rest: Mortimer removes the souls from animated dead.
• Speak with Dead: Mortimer can communicate with the souls of the dead who haven't moved on

Artifacts

A listing of acquired artifacts. Maximum of three.

• Soul Jar: A small black jar that Necromancers can put souls into. After reclaiming the artifact from an errant Necromancer, Mortimer fills the jar with souls willing to help him in his journeys. Currently, he has three souls.
• Infinite Journal: A small leather-bound book the size of a regular journal. Open it and focus on what's needed and if there have been notes made about it, they will appear. Otherwise it will remain blank and allow for more notes to be put in.

History

Myth / Legend: There is much to be said about The Tillerman. The wandering man with the strange skeletal bird who helps with those that are dying or who have died. Unlike most who have taken up the art of Necromancy, Mortimer has only used the magic for good. People are born, they live, they die, and they stay or they move on. To take that choice from the dead is a perversion of the natural order. Mortimer spent his life searching for those who pervert the way of life and stop them, one way or another. Luckily, the souls of those killed and not havested by these rogue Necromancers are happy to help Mortimer. Once he had done his part, he would move on to the next town/city/village, leaving people to wonder who the man was.

This cycle went on for years. Sometimes, Mortimer would be hailed as a friend, and others he would be shunned. Over and over and over and over. It was peaceful. There were a few moments that made his life interesting. The rise and fall of several liches. Some he helped overthrow, while others he watched from afar, taking notes on what happened as he prepared for the next rise of a lich.

Soon, Something started to worry Mortimer. Slowly, too slow for those who lived normal lives to notices, signs that there was something wrong with The World started to appear. As he began to look into it, the more worried he got. Before he could research much more, he died while he was sleeping.

Parents: Long forgotten morticians
Siblings: None
Childhood: Mortimer had always been fascinated by the dead. The macabre nature of his parents' job took away the horror that seeing the dead would bring to normal people. He was destined to be a mortician. As he learned under his mother and father, he began to notice that he could see the spirits of the dead. They wouldn't always be there, but for some of them, the spirits would linger with the bodies. They'd come, they'd go, and that was it. Sometimes they would stay. He tried to talk to the ones who stayed, but their answers barely reached his ears, whispers caught in the wind. It became his duty to help these spirits move on to whatever came after.
Adulthood: Once his parents had died, he helped their souls move on and began researching more on his abilities. He found a Necromancer that took him on as a understudy. Soon, Mortimer realized that the Necromancer didn't care for the souls of the people he bound to the bodies. When he confronted his master, he was set upon by all the undead that the Necromancer raised. He barely escaped with his life and dedicated himself to learning more about Necromancy and ridding the world of those who would abuse its magic.
Special Moments: When he bound the soul of a dead raven back to its body when he was young, then unbinding the soul to remove the rotting flesh of the bird years later. Discovering how to extend his lifespan.

Relations

* ☠ Enemy * ⚜ Unfriendly * ☯ Neutral * ☮ Friends * ღ Ally * ♥ Crush/Significant Other *

• TBD

~Chrono Asylum: Devil's Plague

Olivia stared at Angel in shock as he shifted the attention of all the students from him to her and Cade. As they swarmed the two of them and Olivia saw the look on Cade's face, she started laughing. "You're an ass, Angel." She looked at the students swarming her and Cade then nodded. "Alright fine." She picked up a sheaf of blank paper from one of the desks, a hardcover book from another, and a pen from the desk at the front. She scanned the room and noticed five or six students hanging back looking apprehensive. A plan started to come to mind.

She was in control.

"Alright, listen up!" She shouted over the talking students. "Those of you that are just looking to pass this class, go see Cade. Otherwise, I guess I'm going to be your teacher. Know that you have been informed wrongly about us, I am definitely not a master of seduction. I'd say that in this room, the title goes over to Maeve right there." She pointed over to the Banshee "So, since I have no clue about any of you here, so I want one of you to show me what you know so far. I need a volunteer for a demonstration."

A tall student with slicked back brown hair approached Olivia. He had a smirk on his face and was twirling a pencil in his hand. "I'll volunteer." Olivia made a note on the sheet of paper. Before he even started to talk, Olivia felt the activation of the student's drive. It was messy and completely obvious. She made another note. She felt a tugging at her mind as the student walked forward.

The student opened his mouth and immediately let out a shriek of pain. He fell to the ground with a groan. Olivia tilted her head. Was the student overreacting? It was supposed to be a simple shock like a dog collar. She looked over at Lawrence, who was watching the student with a frown. She got his attention and signed to him. Can you attempt to invade my mind using Alchemy? Lawrence nodded and started muttering under his breath. Again, Olivia felt a tug at her mind and Lawrence flinched.

Too strong He signed back to her. Olivia shrugged. Oh well. She looked back to the students, who had gone silent. Some had gone pale. "Alright. First lesson." Olivia turned her paper over to show them the sigil that was burning itself away on the paper. "Do not attempt to use Alchemy when you're trying to seduce someone. They may notice and react poorly." Olivia walked over to the student on the ground and helped him to his feet.

"Oh, come on. A little pain never hurt anyone." She said with a smile.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

(dbl post)

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Leith Calder

Leith went whiter than usual when Henri told him that Lyn had run. All the things that could happen to her ran through his mind. Yes, while she was no longer a child, she still had very little life experience outside of the college, and in a city like Shimmerston, even though it had prettied up for the festival, it still had some pretty dark parts. He realized that if Keri saw or heard about Lyn running away she would have gone after the her unless someone else had. While he still worried about Lyn, it was less so.

As Henri explained what was going on in the exact opposite way that Leith had asked, a crowd of children had gathered around, awed by Henri's knife skills. They clapped and cheered once he had finished twirling his knife. They quickly dispersed with giggles and screams once Henri started flirting with Helena.

Leith rubbed his face with a hand. Even though Henri had done the opposite of what Leith wanted, he got a good enough idea of what was going on. He chuckled as something that Henri said registered. "I think Althalus will get a good laugh out of being called an it, but in my honest opinion, I really believe that no one at this college is threatening you near as seriously as you think they are, except maybe Tyrael, but Tyrael threatens everyone. None of who you mentioned would actually do harm to the person who saved Lyn's life. It would destroy her. I actually didn't overhear what was going on in the carriage, which was why I asked, but you have given me enough information for me to say-"

"Excuse me, Henri. If you do not mind, I would like to pull you away for a moment and speak in private. There is something important I would like to discuss."

Ssarak had approached the three of them. Leith had been too busy talking to Henri to notice the Esyire walk up to them.

"Ah, perfect!" Leith said with a smile. "A better mediator than I ever could be." He bowed his head to Ssarak. "I'll leave Henri to you and head back to the others." With that said Leith went back to the group.

"So, I don't think that Henri actually knows you're Lyn's father." Leith said to Althalus as he approached him, a smile on his face.

Althalus would feel something wet on his sleeve. Water mixed with mud for visibility scrawled out a message. Keep a close eye on your hand. The shapeshifter is The Eternal Hunger's sister. Once Althalus had read the message, the water-mud writing wicked away, leaving his sleeve dry and unstained. Leith chuckled nervously. "He called you a goon, too, I think."

Torn Across the Rift

XIII stared at Rozalind. He had been thinking of some sort of item or object collected by TRIDENT that would have been the target of theft or destruction. The thought of the fleet being taken or destroyed sounded even worse. He cast a glance around the walls of the submarine, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. A small part of him thought dryly that the walls were doing a better job than Rozalind's hand and taking his breath. The more rational part of him took the time to calm down, taking a few deep breaths.

"Okay, who would know where these contingencies are? Because if someone is trying to sink us, that would be what they'd go after...after dealing with Tristian, of if they're acting as a group where they'd go while someone else dealt with Tristain." XIII grit his teeth. This was starting to feel like the invasion of his base back home all over again. The air around XIII started heating up. Like hell he'd be fooled again so soon!

"So," he asked. "Where do we go?"

Torn Across the Rift

Coolio, though one thing. Rozalind and Twain had met up.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Leith Calder

A month after the mission to Djarkel

A month had passed since Leith’s mission to Djarkel. After making his choices, a lot of weight had been taken off his shoulders. Now he was able to go to the gardens for the purpose of helping the garden instead of keeping his mind off things. It was as he was pulling at a rather stubborn weed that he noticed Henri, the new student that had helped them on the mission.

He hadn’t gotten to know the man more than what he had learned on their way back from Sanguine.

”Hey!” It was at that moment that the roots gave way and Leith fell backwards with a shout. He was back up quickly and making his way over to Henri. ”It’s Henri, right?”

Things were a bit… tense around the college, especially after what happened with Tyrael. It was safe to say that Henri didn’t feel exactly… comfortable there. Save for a few students that he trusted, Tyrael and even Gray were seen as potential threats by him. That said, the garden was a place where Henri could stretch himself and train away from annoying people such as said teacher and his minion. But to his surprise, he wasn’t alone that day, as another student called him, interrupting his stretching session that was almost uncomfortable to watch as it looked much more like contortionism than stretching per se.

Yes?” Henri said, looking to the other student coming from behind him inquisitively as he saw him with dirt on his hands. Apparently he was tending to the garden.

“Henri Larue. I didn’t knew that there was someone taking care of the garden. I’m afraid I was using it to train. It’s much more peaceful than the normal training grounds.” Henri said as he instead of turning towards him, he simply walked backwards bending his back as he put both of his hands on the ground, slowly, but gracefuly making a cartwheel, stopping only a few steps away from the other student, finally turning around after that.

Leith raised his brow when Henri cartwheeled over to him. ”There’s always people taking care of the garden.” He grinned. ”How do think it got to look like this? Magic?”

”Training in the garden’s perfectly fine, though just make sure that you don’t crush any of the plants or Rathel will have your hide.” He made a grasping motion with his left hand and a ball of water formed around it. ”I’m joking, of course. Rathel wouldn’t hurt any of the students here. Strangest demon I’ve met.”

The ball slowly became murky, and when Leith pulled his hand out, his hand was clean. He made a pulling motion, and the water cleared and a clump of mud soon fell out of the ball. ”It’s Ghell you have to be wary of. Any damage done to any of the gardens here and he knows. It’s uncanny. But he won’t do anything too harsh. Before the mud hit the ground, it was dirt again. He used the ball of water to clean his gauntlet before dispersing it over the plants in a mist.”He’ll probably make you work to fix what you wrecked. And complain about you training here, but that’s it.”

Leith frowned. ”Larue...I’ve heard that name before.”

"I was born and raised in the Larue Circus. It safe to say that we're the most famous circus there is. Most of the people working there trained since they were young." Henri said, looking to Leith’s hands as he used water magic to clear them.

To be honest, it wasn’t very hard to link Henri to a circus of some sorts or to think he was some type of artist based on many of his habits, such as the performatic bow he gave whenever he met someone and other small things.

"Grew up with daggers on my hand. With time my tongue got as sharp as the very daggers I was so used to play with. It also became kind of a habit to always have them with me. Even though we are famous, street artists aren't always loved by everyone, and... well... There is nobody to defend us other than ourselves as we are basically foreigners in every city we go. We are accustomed with having to deal with troublesome situations." Henri said with a chuckle. He more than any other member from the Larue knew very well about that. The amount of times he had to use his skills, his agility or even his creativity to get out of sticky situations was honestly absurd…

“About others wanting my hide… Used to it. Don’t worry. After my little meeting with Mr. I’m going to skin you alive for no particular reason, I kinda got the feeling about how things will be around here.” Henri said, rolling his eyes.

As soon as Leith mentioned that Ghell would probably know about any damage that was done to the garden, Henri pulled his hand away from one of the daggers he had hidden on his clothes.

“So… Probably not a good idea to use the trees as targets to practice… yes?” He said laughing.

”Mr. I’m going to skin you alive for no particular reason?” Leith frowned. ”Oh! You mean Tyrael. Yeah...he’s not entirely the nicest guy, but dealing with demons for as long has he has is bound to make anyone abrasive, wouldn't you think?” Leith shrugged. ”But try not to think that that’s what the whole college is. I mean, even in your circus, didn’t you have at least one abrasive personality? And this college is certainly larger than any traveling circus.”

He chuckled when Henri mentioned not using the trees as target practice. ”Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Let’s see, there should be a training grounds around here.” He beckoned to Henri as he turned around.”Come on.” With that Leith started making his way towards the nearest training grounds.

“Back in the circus? No… We pretty much treated everyone as family there. And we are all artists. We sell not only our skill, but our charm, our smiles. So we all know very well to control our emotions and exactly what we need to speak to make the public satisfied. Yeah, the college is certainly larger than the circus. Even though we’re very famous, we’re still a… well… I wouldn’t say ‘small’ but we’re not that big of a group since every member has been training under the Larue for a long time. Most of us either were born already in the circus or we were orphans before the circus took us in.” Henri replied as he followed Leith to the training grounds.

“Speaking of training grounds… I don’t want to sound rude but… What’s with the huge gauntlet? It’s certainly not that useful for gardening, is it? If anything, I would think it’s exactly the opposite… Unless you’re going to be punching some demon plants or dealing with a particularly annoying herbamancer…” Henri said with a chuckle.

”You don’t sound rude at all. Imagine all the staring that this thing brings.” Leith picked up a large rock on the path and showed it to Henri. ”Simply put, it’s a demon made gauntlet that fused to my arm, oh, about a year ago. Sure, it might be bulky, but.” Leith closed his hand around the rock and squeezed. He turned his hand over and opened it. Fine dust fell from the gauntlet. ”It has its uses.”

Leith grinned. ”Now it’s my turn to ask a question. What branch of mageblood do you have?” They had arrived at the training grounds. Other than the two of them, it was empty.

A demon gauntlet, he said? Henri himself couldn’t think on using such bulky and unwieldy thing… Much less having it fused to his arm… The added strength was an extra but on Henri’s oppinion? Not worth the hassle… His thing was much more agility and dexterity than brute strength.

“It looks… unwieldly and uncomfortable… Well… at least it makes you stronger.” Henri said, still looking at the big and weird gauntlet.

As they arrived on the training grounds, Henri was grateful that they were the only ones there. It was actually pretty rare for it to be empty like that.

“Me? Aeromancy. It’s actually very nice when i use it together with my daggers when i worked on the circus to give my numbers a bit more suspense and… well I have some tricks up my sleeve in case things get ugly.” Henri said with a mischievous smirk.

“It has actually saved me from some pretty troublesome situations already.” Henri said, as he raised his hand, making the end of one of the long silk bandages wrapped around his arm form a spiral with a current of wind.

”I don’t doubt that. My magic has ended up saving my life as well a few times, actually. And Aeromancy can be quite powerful. One of the guards here is an Aeromancer. There was a fight that broke out a while back, and to this day I have never seen anyone that large move that fast.” Leith shook his head. ”Anyway, do you need help setting up? I’d be happy to lend a hand” Leith chuckled at his joke.

“No need to, I’m fine. It’s just my daily training routine. Something I always did since I started training on the circus. Thanks for the offer though. I would shake your hand, but I’m afraid that my hand will end up like that rock you turned into dust a few moments ago.” Henri said with a chuckle.

”You wound me, thinking that I don’t have the control to not crush your hand.” Leith said as he held a hand up to his chest. A smile on his face belying his words. ”Or that I am unable to use my other hand. Ah, oh well. I should get back to gardening. I hate leaving something unfinished.” He waved to Henri. ”Goodbye.”

“See you around, Leith. It’s always good to be able to meet someone I can trust. You don’t seem to be a bad person.” Henri said as he got five daggers from inside his clothes as he prepared himself to throw them at the target a few meters ahead of him.

Leith nodded as Keri walked away to find Lyn. The vampire could probably find her faster than he could. With a sigh, he turned back to the carriage. He grabbed the scabbard with his new sword inside. Six small pouches and a small sheath for the handle. It was an idea he had a few months ago to utilize his Hydromancy a bit more effectively. He removed his cloak and strapped to his back with the handle sticking over his right shoulder. He put his cloak back on and made sure his sword was hidden well enough.

Satisfied, he left the carriage and made his way towards Ssarak, but from the way that the Esyire sighed and shortly after the other students stiffened up, he figured that Keri had let Ssarak know of the situation. Now that that problem had been dealt with, there was another problem that needed to be rectified. He looked down at the yellow gemmed ring on his hand and tapped it once. He needed to find Henri.

The gem blinked as he turned around and walked into the crowd. Soon enough he heard a voice.

"I'm sorry, Helena. I don't think I'm in the mood to do anything right now. If you want to group with someone else I will certainly understand. You don't need to worry about me regarding the shapeshifter. After all, I'm not Keri's family. The only 'family' I ever had was the circus, which I was foolish enough to leave behind."

Leith frowned. What? What did Keri say to Henri? He rubbed his forehead with a sigh. Maybe he should have been following the conversation in the carriage. No matter, he needed to make sure everyone was on the same page before they went out into the city.

"I'm glad that Keri thinks of me as family, but that's not what's happening. The college is being targeted. That makes you a target as well. It's being targeted by a shapeshifter, so they could become anyone. But before I say anything else, can you tell me, as best as you can, without bias or paraphrasing, what's going on right now? We have a situation right now and I believe this misunderstanding, or argument, or whatever it is will hinder us from working seamlessly against our enemies."

---

Darius Jura

Darius crossed his arms as the half elf walked away. He was sure that the woman would try and challenge Darius in the Grand Melee. He shrugged, oh well. He was still going to join anyway. Less people in his way. Ssarak declined the Grand Melee as well, and Althalus complained that he'd have to place his bet on Darius. Darius grinned and took a few coins out of his pocket and held them out to the man. "And I expect you to place my bet as well. I cannot do it myself." He paused for a moment, eyeing Althalus carefully "I expect to get my winnings back after the fights."

Then Ssarak spoke telepathically with them and Darius sighed seeing the look on Althalus' face drop. He put the coins back in his pocket and folded his arms. "What should we expect from this?" He muttered under his breath used his Aeromancy to carry his words to Ssarak. Too many ears to converse in normal tones.

~Chrono Asylum: Devil's Plague

"Emotional manipulation." Lawrence spoke to Rena as Olivia stared after the man in confusion much like Angel.

"Say the right words and act a certain way and you can convince people that they like you." He had stopped fiddling with his stupid puzzle cube to talk to the Chrono. "Personally, if I'm close enough to manipulate my mark, I'm doing something wrong." He looked over to Olivia and frowned, and a rush of thoughts and images hit her like a freight train.

She was standing outside the Room.

She tried to shake her head, but she was stuck. No, she couldn't be here. She had left that place years ago. She had proven herself able to be trusted. Why was she-

"She's never going listen to you. She surged and killed her captors, she's going to fight you every step of the way." Lawrence spoke, but Olivia couldn't see where he was. All she could see was a man in a suit holding a clipboard. He was looking through the window into the room.

"We can fix that. Why do you care? You've been killing other rogues for how long now?"

"Never children," Lawrence seethed. Strange, Olivia had never heard Lawrence angry. "I have standards."

The man barked a short laugh. "A noble rogue, how quaint." He cleared his throat and consulted his clipboard. "Very well, if you think you can get her to cooperate with us be our guest, but if we think she's going to be a threat to you, we will put her down in an instant. A sharp knife is better than a broken one."

click, click, click, click.

The familiar sound of clicking brought Olivia out of whatever hallucination that was. Lawrence had once again started working on his Rubik's cube. Olivia never understood why Lawrence bothered playing with that thing, he already knew how to solve it without even looking at the thing. Her head was throbbing.

Are you okay? Lawrence was staring at her, his hands moving over the Rubik's cube. Soon all the colors matched and Lawrence paused to take a look at puzzle cube. As soon as he stopped, Olivia was hit with an uncontrollable rage. Her hands clenched into fists and she wanted to punch or strangle the nearest person. Lawrence mixed the colors up, and the rage dissipated.

Olivia nodded. Yeah, fine. I'm just getting a headache

Okay. Seems like... Lawrence's mental voice cut out, and Olivia understood what was going on. They were experiencing a link disturbance. Though that raised a few questions for Olivia. As she waited to figure out where to go one question burned in her mind.

What was Lawrence so angry about?