Orpheus

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

“She didn’t just kick Rainbowzilla.”

“She did,” Numair’s eyes, in contrast to Gary’s offended and slightly surprised expression, were narrowed at the sorry state of his fellow humans. A pink-haired person was cradling a heavily bleeding boy, a pale girl was flat out sprawled over the ground, and well, they all looked like shit. He turned a worried glance to C and Luke to see what they would do, but as usual they were in their own world… Rainbowzilla ran to Sacha who scooped him up and petted him, while Gary…

Gary was thinking.

She opened her mouth hesitantly, then pursed her lips together. “I made a song about this so I wouldn’t forget,” The girl murmured and at once broke into a subdued, but still unmistakable melody, “Ivor’s skull, it may be fractured and/Jane’s arm is severed to the bone/Miranda is dying/I think Carl is frying…”

Numair recognized the melody after a moment. Circle You, a VOCALOID song.

As if she had suddenly absorbed the meaning of her words, Gary’s brows knitted together and she scowled. “Hey Sacchin, that thing killed a lot of everyone,” She spat out to her best friend and then readied her pole, completely oblivious to the presence of the Lost Souls.

Numair, on the other hand…

“You’re that girl from the SSF,” He knelt down beside Leila and observed her expression. Did she die with her eyes open? … Ah. Nope; the young lady blinked. He bit his lip, relieved, and then realized that the glazed look in those irises meant that Leila was looking at something. Numair turned his head and saw… Oh, that guy’s probably dead. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure though… He just didn’t want people to die if there was so much as a tiny chance that they could, y’know, not die. Especially if he was around.

The surfer briskly walked over to Lesley while the other Hooded Figures did their thing. Upon reaching the two, he knelt down again, checked for a pulse, and then studied the injured boy’s wounds with a critical eye. Back in the … er… human realm, one of the competitors in a surfing competition he was in got bitten by a shark. He wasn’t one to get sick at the sight of blood, so he got a load of the gore when he tried to help. This kid… He had it okay, since the wound wasn’t serrated or widespread.

“Hey,” He called out to Lesley, lowering his voice and speaking gently so as to not scare him. “I’m here to help, okay?” Numair waited for a moment before softly prodding their heads apart and then forcing a strange bottle to Harper’s lips. After the boy had a few drops of the tart liquid inside he pulled it back and dropped it in his pocket, and then pulled his sleeves up and stared at his watch. “Okay, that should do it,” Numair said, and he fished out a roll of bandages from his pocket. “These are in case Gary and Luke have another one of their fights,” He briefly peered up at Lesley as he started to clean the area around the wound which was not bleeding anymore, keeping conversation, despite one-sided, just to prevent the Lost Soul from collapsing into shock, “And that thing I made him drink? You’re not gonna like it, but it was poison. Don’t worry, it’s not deadly. It got tested on me when I broke my leg. It should slow his heart down and mitigate the bleeding for a few hours, and it would take a day for him to get his mobility back, but it was the only way, yeah?”

Back to the assault team.

“Curty. We know our specialties, let’s go with that one. They’re going to keep those trees away, right?” Gary nodded at the humans but kept her eyes on the witch, who was staring back at them with an unparalleled amount of malevolence. “Diaper, I’m gonna need back-up!” She let out a loud war cry before charging at the hag, feinting a swift jab at the witch’s face and then stepping to the side when the earth rose from under her feet. “Earthbending, eee,” Gary grumbled as she jumped away, then twirled her pole once more.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Man, I love your AUs, Aki. 8D

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Performance Hall, Corridor

“Oi, you got this coming, kid. Don’t sniffle or … You know, any of that gross emotional stuff,” Lute gruffly said as he held on to Fabian’s legs for Syed to do his scarf thing. Amy was now the one in charge of the lights, and now that he wasn’t getting his cheeks clawed off Lute had the chance to watch what was happening between the others.
“Go Moira, go Estelle!” The virtuoso cheered quite meekly as he raised his fist in the air. Er… Moira was kinda scaring him with that weird laugh. She looked like she was gonna tear Bunnyface’s head off with her teeth or something… Lute shuddered and made a mental note never to get the berserker upset in case she punched him to the high heavens.

… Oh yeah!

“I should probably help!” POW! “Or not. Looks like they got it.” Somebody got punched again and there was that scary sound of bone hitting flesh. You know what, he was content here. Besides, his sword was out of reach. Yeah. Lute spread his leg out and inched towards the pole, intending on using it to take back his sword before Bunnyface had the chance to steal it. The cold metal clinked against his heel and he rolled his knee back, then grabbed the pole and-

Ssswhing.

-it crackled and reverted to its old, tiny form.

---

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Performance Hall, E Sector

A cloud of smoke, the color being the only thing lovely about it, rose from below and blanketed a fair amount of space. Francesca had no doubt that the young gunner was down there somewhere, waiting for her… C’est magnifique! Under cover of darkness she reigned, but this just leveled the playing field. What a clever little girl. A smile formed on her lips as she lifted her right hand and adjusted her gloves, a crease forming in between her brows as she concentrated. It was time to break the stalemate. Thin inky wisps grew from her right shoulder blade, growing in width and length as they circled down her arm until it looked like she was sporting swaying black snakes on her satin glove. Her ‘hands’, as she affectionately called them.

"I know you're here!" she called. "I can... uh... I can smell you!"

From this height, the voice was disembodied and difficult to pinpoint. Knowing that a barrage of bullets would most probably follow her voice, she directed her arm at the next, lower chandelier and two tendrils shot out like grappling hooks. “And you know how to bluff too! What a darling,” Francesca cooed out from above, intentionally raising her voice so that Trixie can hear, and then stepped off her place, dropping down mid-swing to the floor. No doubt the little lady would see through the ruse quickly enough, but hopefully she would learn of the child’s location from the gunfire.

… Ah, on second thought, hearing gunfire from this close a distance might not be a good idea.

Francesca’s mouth twitched as if she was trying to prevent a grimace and her ‘hands’ shot forth, seeking blindly through the fog for the enemy.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

The booty can get cramps? o u o *new information added*

I'll go write up my post. OTL If it takes long that's probably because internet is being a douche again.

… Michi you meanie don’t make me feel bad for catching Fabbee

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

ffs electricity comes back after half a day and I see my schedule for this school year's first term completely wiped from the school's "handy" website and not only that my dream subjects and their preferred time slots are full and I'm waitlisted everywhere OTL

I'll take a lot longer than usual to post. Trying to fix that ^

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

I thought school registration was today and it wasn't @ w @

Hey Rex, if you want I'll toss in a Francesca post so Trixie can have something to respond to, or maybe we can skip it and leave it for the next round so things go back to their normal flow?

Edit: Nevermind! Also I've got a great(-ish) surprise in my next Frances post if things go out as planned. > w < /

Also I really want the Academy to explode.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Outside the Performance Hall

"That's a stupid name!" Brat Jr. said before pulling down on his face like- Ow! Hey! “Yeah well, you’re stupid!” Lute spat back and returned the favor by pinching Fabian’s face in the exact same way he was being treated. The kid even had the gall to make mincemeat of his face! “You ain’t no fucking prize either, twerp!”

The two of them continued yelling at each other until Syed finally snapped.

"Right!" he shouted sternly, stamping his foot to get their attention. "That. Is. It! You're both acting like a pair of kids! You tell us you're not a child, then stop acting like one Mister! And Lute, you should really know better. How is clawing at one another's faces even going to help?! Just... stop and think about what you're both doing! I mean it!"

Man, Syed was scary. School principal scary.

Amazingly, the thief let go of his poor bruised cheeks and Lute relented. It looked like that they were up for a truce… until that godforsaken brat made a move for his sword! “Oh no you don’t!” The virtuoso screeched and lunged towards Fabian, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy’s waist as the two of them fell to the floor with a loud thud. To his credit, the thief still continued wiggling after the weapon, but with Lute’s weight on him plus the fact that the virtuoso was trying to pull him away, progress went very slow.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Posting after Mochi since my internet will be ending soon. I'll probably not include Francesca's part, sorry OTL

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Kimchi, your avatar is so cute! .... omfg those gifs |D Aight, thanks for the heads up!

In celebration of Thunda's first IC post!!! *throws confetti around everywhere* 8DDDD

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Outside the Performance Hall

Oh sweet revenge. “Flattery won’t work on me,” The virtuoso announced as he stalked towards Fabian, his eyes gleaming with dark enthusiasm. He didn’t have a stink bomb, but making the knave listen to the same song for an hour straight ought to be enough.

“What the fuck!?” Lute screeched as the kid suddenly lunged at him and started clawing at his face. While Estelle, Moira and Bunnyface were having a glorious and dignified battle, here he was tottering from side to side with some brat clinging on to him like a koala. “Get off me! You’re heavy!” He slammed against a wall and let go of his sword too just to fend off Fabian’s claws.

Does this kid think he’s the only one who can play at this game!?

“FOR THE PRIDE!” With uncharacteristic aplomb and immaturity, Lute suffered through a round of Fabian’s slaps before sticking his hand up and pushing the boy’s nose upward until it looked like a pig snout. “I won’t let you… win!” The virtuoso shrieked back at the thief who was spewing cusses all the while as they continued clawing at each other's faces.

‘Oh gods, this is embarrassing.’

---

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Performance Hall (E)

Ah, how unpleasant. Francesca pulled herself up from the seats and held her head. A strange flash caught her eye and she glanced towards that direction, startled by the sudden light which suddenly turned on and off in rapid, inhuman intervals. “Mon dieu, you perverted little man!” She exclaimed at Simon who had suddenly surfaced from the row of seats behind hers. “Shoo, before I- Oh!” He took another picture again- without her permission too- and Francesca just about had enough. She raised her arm and made circular motions in the air, and then…

“Go away, little man,” Francesca turned Simon around and prodded him away, and in case he decided to have any grand ideas and whirl around to take shots of her in who-knows-what position…

WHAP!

Right in the… Well, she supposed she had to be blunt about it, derriere. That ought teach him the errant ways of his sneak photography…! One must never ever take pictures of another human unless they’ve agreed to be a model, or at least that was what she believed. “And pray, don’t come near me again!” She added and let go of the boy once he was at least a few steps away. Her ‘whip’ dissipated and Francesca smoothly climbed over the next set of seats. Jay was right, these people had their own magicks. Maybe she should use her own…?

While she was musing, a girl chucked something at her and the thief recognized it as one of Fabian’s various gizmos. How could she not when that child adored flaunting his bag of tricks every day? A cloud of confetti exploded above her and Francesca sighed, her eyes scanning the area around to look for the enemy. Well, there was a little girl running away from her, but…

Oh my…

“Why does she have firearms?” Back in her day, proper little boys and girls did not deal in black market weaponry, thank you very much. But at least she found that gunner from earlier… Francesca glanced up at the overhead chandelier and summoned her hands again, pulling herself up into the darkness of the ceiling for now. She loathed guns from the deepest reaches of her soul. It was gunfire that took everything away, after all… But that was another story for another time. Now she had to focus on fighting with a little girl. She sighed distastefully at having to hurt Trixie in a job that was supposed to have been a walk in the park.