shadowsaint007

Titans: Dawn of a New Tomorrow

Looks interesting. Got room for an energy blaster/tech expert?

Crystallis

Sarah

Given the banquet was to be thrown in their honor, Sarah expected that Stephanie and herself would have seats of honor somewhere. What she didn't expect was that they'd be seated on thrones next to the King himself, dressed in overly elaborate finery and jewelry, being approached and praised by the populace. It just feels awkward to sit before everyone like a golden idol, being praised and lavished like so - and they didn't even do anything yet! All Sarah can do is manage an awkward smile and accept the praises uneasily. If she's to be entirely honest, Sarah would have told them they didn't need to go this far.

She looks up at the ceiling, studying the depiction of the eight Oracles if only to keep her from how awkward it feels to be the center of attention. For some reason, the pink-haired one depicted was representative of 'laughter'. If that's meant to be her, she doesn't feel particularly giggly or funny. Heck, she wouldn't even know how to tell a good joke. Though if by 'laughter' they meant 'joy'... well, maybe she can do that. Assuming that's even what her creators intended.

She looks over to see how Stephanie is holding up through all this.

Crystallis

Sarah

"Well, the King was angry with Tornel at his actions," Sarah says. "Maybe it's his way of an apology?"

She still remembers the fury in the King's eyes at Tornel's actions, and while she's still a bit upset about how Tornel had tried to kill her earlier, maybe he saw the error of his ways? She's a bit full after her brunch with the King, but she's certainly curious about the entertainment for the meal.

"Either way, sounds like there's going to be quite the spectacle there, and I'm kind of curious to see what they have."

Crystallis

Sarah

Up in the tower, Sarah was looking out at the landscape, letting her pink hair dance in the wind, brushing it out of her eyes to get a clear view, a bright smile on her face. To her left is Sir Gravy, doing little more than admiring the view himself.

"It's not as high up as it was on the sky-manta's back," she tells Stephanie when the other girl joins her. "But here, I can see things better. I can see the people in the towns, the farmers in the field. It makes me wonder what they're thinking of, how they're living their lives. It's just... so strange, thinking about how these people spend their lives.

"To be honest... I envy them a bit," she admits, a warm smile adorning her face.

Peter, by contrast, is rather green in the gills, leaning on the inner wall away from the battlements, and trying not to throw up. He's clearly not comfortable way up here.

"Begging your pardon, Sarah, but I don't think I'm cut out for heights," he admits. "I've never been this high off the ground, to be honest, and I'm finding it's making me sick."

"Oh don't be silly, Peter," Sarah giggles. "You just don't look down. I mean, I've been 'alive' for the past week and I already guessed that bit."

"Easier said than done!" Peter says. "You told me not to look down and it got stuck in my head! You just don't tell someone that, especially if they're afraid of heights!"

"Well, maybe it's dangerous if you fell from a great height-"

"Exactly! And I'd rather not find out!"

"But as long as you're standing on something solid, you'll be fine." Sarah stamps the stone. "See? It's safe. Even if the heights look scary, you're safe."

She looks down to prove her point, but then something draws her attention. It's the scorch marks left by Bandersnatch, blasting the castle walls with fire and magic. The walls had weathered them well, but the scorched black contrasted against the majesty of the stonework, marring the appearance. The paladin notices her gaze.

"It's a shame what that brute has done to the walls," Sir Gravy admits. "Fret not, dear ladies, we'll have the painters and stonemasons clean that up as best as they can. This castle's survived worse, so no need to worry."

"That's nice," Sarah muses. "But it's what he tried to do. He tried to destroy the castle..."

"As I said, this castle's survived worse. Trust me when I say this castle might stand for centuries more yet!"

"Certainly not for his lack of trying," Sarah replies bitterly. "Why do Draygon's servants do this? They seem keen on destroying everything... why? What do they gain from this? It's bad enough the world's fallen from the days of the ancients, they're trying to destroy more of it..."

Crystallis

Any objection if I made Peter acrophobic? :P

Crystallis

Sarah

"Well, hopefully that will make our search a little easier," Sarah says as they leave the Archives. "It's still a bit daunting to try and find the Oracles all over the map."

"I'll be honest, Peter says, rubbing his head, "This is probably the furthest I've ever been from home. The idea of going even further is rather intimidating... though I have to admit, also a bit exciting."

"It is, isn't it?" Sarah muses. "I mean, the view from the sky-mantas was wonderful. A bit windy, but you get used to it. The view was definitely worth it. I mean, you're way up there in the sky, and you look down and everything looks small, like doll towns. I couldn't even see individual people, I was so high up..."

"I don't know, what if you fell?" Peter replies, looking a bit green at the thought. "It's an awfully long way down..."

"Well, Pip almost slid off the wing, but that's because he was so small," Sarah admits. "Still, he didn't mind. Did you, Pip?"

Pip barks cheerfully at the mention of his name.

"Oh, I wonder what the view from the towers is like?" Sarah speaks up cheerfully.

"Oh, no thanks, I'm fine around here, ma'am," Peter says nervously. "Maybe we should tour the rest of the castle first nice and slooOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!"

Despite Peter's protests, Sarah grabs him by the arm and drags him along to get a view from the tower. Pip barks and chases after them.

"Hurry up, Stephanie!" Sarah calls out cheerfully. "I bet it's a wonderful view from up there!"

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

“Yeah, I guess it’s not much to look at,” Dana agreed when Penny noted the somewhat ugly aesthetic of the city. “But, when ya think about it, it’s really the people inside the buildings that count,” she added with a grin.

"You're hopelessly cheerful, aren't you?" Penny muses. "Eh, as long as they have a decent pizza joint in town, I'm fine with it."

Dana’s cheerful exuberance returned, when she learned that she would be sharing a room with Penny. “Awesome! Put ‘er there, roomie!” she said, while holding her hand up for a high five. “Or, uh, maybe we should just gently fist bump…” she added, remembering the bespectacled girl’s numerous injuries. “And don’t worry, there’s no one else I’d rather be stuck with! I think we’re gonna get along just great!”

Penny rolls her eyes.

"I'm not crippled, Dana, just wounded," she says, but returns the fist-bump with a smile. "And thanks for the vote of confidence, I'm looking forwards to rooming with you too!"

Her happy grin spreading from ear to ear, Dana listened as Penny “warned” her about a few things.

“Hey, that’s fine!” Dana reassured Penny after the later said she might be taking some extra long baths. “I totally understand! I like my showers nice and refreshingly chilly, so it’s no problem if ya use up all the hot water. I don’t think I snore too loudly,” she added. “At least, not as loudly as an industrial drill! I’m pretty neat myself, but if I don’t meet your standards, please don’t hesitate to let me know! Oh, and I can sleep through pretty much anything, so don’t worry about that! Feel free to crank up your study music as loud as ya like!”

“I’d love to know the kinds of games and music ya like, and all sorts of other stuff, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to talk about that later. Right now, we should probably hit the sack,” she advised, pointing her thumb at the bed closest to her. “After all, it’s gonna be a big day tomorrow!”

"You are an eternal optimist, aren't you?" chortles Penny. "Though we're going to have to leave the games and music for later. Right now, I just wanna lay down and sleep like the dead. It's been a long day, it's really late, and I think I've been up most of the way from Ciscia."

She tiredly gets changed into shorts and a tank top, sets her PDA's alarm, then flops onto the lower bunk in a way that wouldn't hurt her arm.

"'Night, Dana," she says. "Sweet dreams..."

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

Penny only managed to get some sleep before someone wakes her up again, announcing their arrival at Palmyra. Yawning, she tries to rub her eyes only to wince at the pain in her arm, reminding of the run-in with the Void. She sighs.

'And here I'd hoped it was just a bad dream,' she thinks.

Penny looks out to the city once they descend past the protective barrier, and finds the architecture (even in the low light) rather depressing.

"So there's the answer to 'what happens when you make a barracks into an entire city'," Penny quips. "And here I thought Ciscia's D-Fens Quarter was ugly and blocky."

When it's time for the tests, Penny is compliant despite her tired state, only too glad to get some proper treatment.

"Thanks, doctor," she says once she's had her arm in a cast and shoulder set. She downs one of the painkillers with some water.

At the Academy, though, Penny gives an appreciative whistle.

"Well, at least this place looks good," she says. "Too bad it's too dark to properly appreciate it. Probably look a lot better in the daylight."

Upon being escorted to their room, Penny thanks the escort for helping her carry her bags, and turns to Dana.

"Well, guess you're stuck with me, for however long we're here," she says. "Just a few things I should warn you about; I don't snore... too loudly anyways, though unless you have a snore like an industrial drill, I'm fine with it since my family can be a bit noisy when they sleep - well, okay, LiznLiz sound like someone starting up a racecar. I don't cause a mess, always clean up after myself - being around four younger kids and two lazy older sisters makes me a bit of a neat freak. If I stay up late, it's usually to study, so I'll try to keep it quiet. Also, for the next few weeks you might find me hogging the bath for up to half an hour; we have a shower to share between nine people and someone always uses up the hot water before it's my turn, so I want to enjoy a hot bath for once.

"Anything else you want to know, or do you want to share anything?"

Crystallis

Sarah

As they followed the paladin, Steph returned Sarah’s sympathetic smile. “Thanks, Sarah,” she told the pink-haired girl. “It was really nice to see her again, even if it was just a holographic recording. Mom worked on a lot of stuff, to be perfectly honest,” she added with a chuckle after Sarah had voiced her question. “As you saw, she even did some work on Project Prometheus, back in its early days, but her real focus was nanotechnology.”

@Ponn

Sarah nods.

"Just glad you're alright," she says.

“Aha! Here we are!” Sir Gravy declared, gesturing to a large map.

Steph couldn’t help but gasp at the sight. The land masses depicted looked nothing like the world she had known.

Could Harbinger really have changed the world this drastically…? she thought as she scanned over the map and its legend, committing their various details to memory.

“Hmmm… Even if the world’s geography has been completely altered, and taking into account that this map may not be scaled correctly, we can still use it as a rough guide,” Steph told them as she placed the holographic map atop the physical one. “If we use the complex my parents and I worked in as a starting point,” she began, moving the holo map to place the complex’s location atop where Tinkertown was displayed, “we can extrapolate where these other locations might be found.”

Sarah then spoke up, noting that potential Oracles might be found by following up on rumors of people exhibiting strange abilities.

“Good thinking,” Steph commended. “Although, I doubt such news travels all that quickly these days, unless you have some form of rapid communication I don’t know about,” she added, while glancing at Peter and Sir Gravy.

Sarah nods.

"That would make a good frame of reference," she replies. "Makes our search easier."

"Just one question," Peter asks bashfully, "what is 'Project Prometheus'? Both you and the image - your mother, that is - mentioned it a few times..."

OOC

Project Prometheus is basically the Oracle project. As for the rapid communication, I leave that to the GM.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

“No.” Victoria replies to Nicole’s question. “It was…unexpected.” It’s hard to tell how sincere the Ars Magi is, given her expression seems never to change that much. Yet there’s the slightest hint of a frown, a small note of displeasure with this fact that she shares.

Her frown deepens slightly when Astrelle speaks. Crimson eyes turn toward the dark-haired girl, the Ars Magi holding her gaze for a few icy seconds.

“It was an Ars Magi.” She replies. “Or something similar enough that I wasn’t able to tell the difference.” Astrelle manages to pry that loose, at least. “It shouldn’t be possible.” Victoria seems fairly certain about that. Regardless of the actual reality.

“That’s the transparency I can offer you.” She finishes, adding, “But Miss Cognoscenti has it correct. If you’re going to serve the Imperium as an Ars Magi, Miss Lennox, obedience is what’s expected of you.” There’s been very little indication that Astrelle has a choice in the matter.

“If you’ll excuse me.” The Ars Magi steps back, heading toward the control console. Soon she’s deep in discussion with the pilot manning it, and the surrounding soldiers after that. She doesn’t leave this time, but she makes herself busy enough to avoid further questions. The five girls are left alone in the meantime, with not much in the way of privacy.

@Inedible

Needless to say that particular revelation is a shock to Penny; Imperium propaganda and whatever information services she could access never mentions this sort of thing. Then again, it's clearly classified information, and she can understand why; it would hardly help morale if the amazing super-soldiers that Humanity's very existence depended upon could go rogue. People had enough to worry with rations and the ravages of Nox and Void to worry about whether their superhuman protectors would turn on them.

She wants to ask Victoria more, but she's clearly not getting the chance as the Wing of Justice goes off to check something. That leaves her with more questions; is there a risk of another attack? Were they the target or were they just collateral damage?

She should probably be madder about this, she's quite pissed off to be honest, but right now, she's exhausted and has broken bones in her forearm and a dislocated shoulder. She's been up since about the time they left Ciscia. She just wants to sleep.

"Well, that was... something," she finally speaks up wearily. "I'd argue this, but right now Vanna has the right idea, so I think I'll crash. Wake me up when we get to Palmyra, and just pray we don't run into any other surprises."

She picks a couch, takes off her shoes, and lays down on it, and is soon fast asleep, snoring softly.