Well, it didn't turn out quite like the boy expected. The clown, though unamused, just took the insults and disappeared. He'd be lying if he said that the ineffective trolling didn't disappoint him a bit. Still, the main point of the insult - to get the kicking of the frozen fire-magic guy to stop - was accomplished at least, so it wasn't a total loss. Now he had to just wait for the guy to break out of his frozen bindings and get the rest of them out of there...
Or at least, that was the plan, but confusingly enough, a priest that seemed to be working with this group came over and sped up the process by defrosting the man personally, and the boy too to boot. But as if to show he's not actually on their side he also erected a giant ring of white fire around all of the kids and the fire-user, then just up and vanished without any further elaboration. Kotaro was familiar with priests as being similar to his master's own occupation. Tai told him that they were essentially exorcists and holy men who often do good for people around them....what was someone like that doing with these people in the first place?
"Umm... Thanks?" Kotaro confusingly said to no one, meant for the priest who disappeared before he could say it. Then there was the other chick who had a face that portrayed the kind of imagination a 10-year old like him shouldn't ever step into yet; a very creepy lust plastered over it that made the boy cringe and a shiver run down his spine. She snapped herself back to reality and summoned up candles, which in turn seemed to summon a giant humanoid monster of some kind - a "puppet" as she called it - before she too left the area.
Either these people are really confident they can't get out of this situation, or they're really stupid for leaving them alone like this. As much as Kotaro would like to, he can't take a chance on the latter. This marionette, Nemesis, was unlike anything the boy has ever seen before, and his legs were shaking in fear at the sight of it. Not to mention, the woman on the throne was still present, and there's no doubt in his mind that she's the strongest of the group. Even if they managed to beat this thing, she wasn't going to let them go easily herself.
Even so, he can't help the fire-user like he is. Not with the anti-magic cuffs still on his wrists keeping him from using Taigetsu, and without his sword he can't use his Raigetsu either. As it stands, he's just as much a sitting duck as the other kids by him.
As he kept instinctively stepping back more and more - as if his body was wanting to get away from this throne room on its own - he noticed that his heel was right in the white flames, and just as instinctively, he jumped away from it. ...But the strange thing is, there was no indication of that other than him seeing that. There was a little heat but that's it. Curiously, he then touched the flames with his finger as if to confirm he wasn't imagining it, and sure enough, his finger wasn't getting burned.
Why did the priest make a wall of flames that doesn't burn? Was he bluffing when he made it, or is there some kind of trap on the other side?
He couldn't think about that right now, as his cuff was having some effect from getting close to the flame. This was a magic flame on anti-magic cuffs after all...Maybe...
"Hey, Fire man, mind keeping that thing distracted for a bit?" Kotaro asked Kaiga. Not waiting for an answer, he sank both his wrists into the white flames to let the anti-magic cuffs get constantly hit by it. Sure enough, even though the white flames weren't burning him the cuffs couldn't say the same. They were becoming quite hot - perhaps due to an overload of magic - and eventually broke, opening up on their own and dropping off the boy's wrists.
That was one problem taken care of, but he's not at his best yet. If he couldn't be hurt by the flame, then he could probably pass through it. He'd hate to leave the guy and these kids here with the monster and that woman, but he couldn't afford to play escort right now to the kids, and Kaiga... Tai looked over and noticed that the guy was content on fighting this monster-puppet on his own, even seeming to have delivered a rather clean blow to it with a sword he summoned out of nowhere...so he's re-quip swordsman as well, huh? Kotaro was convinced; he could probably handle this thing for now.
So while the lady - he hopes - was distracted by Kaiga fighting Nemesis, Kotaro snuck off out of the ring of fire.
But he wasn't going to escape just yet, he needed to get his sword back.
This was quite a castle; there's probably some kind of armory they casually dropped his sword into as a trophy. If he can just find it, he'll be able to help fight off that monstrous puppet alongside the fire-wizard, maybe even be able to get the other kids out of there as well. One problem though: He had no idea where the Armory is, and this place is likely loaded with enemy guards all over the place. Still, he couldn't turn back now.
"At least they let me keep my water." He muttered to himself as he then clapped his hands together in a hand symbol and closed his eyes.
"Taigetsu..." he quietly said as he became enveloped in blue flames. his hands and feet shifted and became more fox-like paws as his arms and legs gained golden-yellow fur, his ears perked up and became points upwards as a fox, and three tails of the same golden fur appeared from his backside. Opening his now red eyes, he moved towards a Wall to keep from sight, then looked around to see if there was any guards anywhere.
Since he has no map for where the Armory was, he'll have to just guess and comb the castle for it. It's more likely it's on the lower levels than the upper levels, so he'll have to start there.
Ever got into a situation so bizarre or dangerous or just plain different from the norm, that you have to sit down and ask "How the hell did I get here?"
Well, for the little 10-year old samurai vagabond Kotaro, this was one of those situations. His journey from the island nation of Hizuru to Avalon was evidently not off to a good start; bonded to anti-magic cuffs, his sword far away from him, and currently in a room surrounded by weird-but-powerful wizards who apparently are indecisive what to do with him, and the guy who came to rescue him only to get his insides turned to iron-flavored popsicles.
Looking back, the boy was naive in thinking he could travel from Hizuru all the way to Avalon by his lonesome without any trouble. He suspected common thieves or kidnappers on the road, maybe even a rogue wizard or two wanting to grab him for profit of any kind. But he figured he could handle whatever came his way. He was after all the Fox Sage's pupil, and learned how to be decent with his wind raigetsu and swordplay; anybody who'd stand in the boy's way would have a lot more than they bargained for. In a way, the fact that he's a wandering kid on the younger side of the spectrum is something he could use to his advantage; people of a child-harming profession tend to underestimate their prey and master Tai always taught him not to waste an opponent's underestimation in battle. How did he put it again? "Hunters who chase a little black fox into a corner, will find themselves led there and becoming the prey." ...Something like that anyways.
But never did he expect the opponent blocking his path be some clown freak apparently made of crows. Something about this..."thing" freaked the boy out more than any thief or hooligan ever could. That gaudy ridiculous attire, the crows that seemed to be around him, those big black eyes that were as if the boy would be sucked into the Void just for looking at him, and this feeling, this darkness he could sense... Screw "butterflies", there were outright moths in his stomach as this guy chatted about him being perfect for... well, Kotaro wasn't really paying much attention to whatever he was saying. This guy was a particular brand of bad news he wasn't prepared for, instinctively going into his Kitsune form, The boy and Brandon the Jester fought off the trail...well, it's more accurate it turned into a fight as Kotaro tried to run off the path to get away and the clown followed suit.
Kotaro tried to fought him off, and to his credit, the boy seemed to be doing well at it, giving the clown a hard time. But, there was a moment of weakness, his mind starting to go dark, his body getting enervated and sleepy... was it the clown's magic, or was it something that hit his head during the battle and giving him a concussion? His mind was too scattered to focus on that or the fight for much longer until eventually...he just blacked out.
Next thing he knew, he was in a dungeon, his weapon taken from him, his hands cuffed to keep from using any magic, and surrounded by other kids roughly around the same age as him.
For a little while now, Kotaro was in his cell with the others, sat down near the middle, trying to keep himself calm and figure out how to get out of this situation - hopefully without any random blackouts this time - and free the rest of these children with him. The fact that they were kids and so not the least bit quiet about their situation did not help matters at all, some of them even tried to pick a fight with him as the weird new fresh meat. This was far from the kind of thing master Tai trained him for, and the cherry on top is that while he tried his damnedest to hide it, he was just as terrified of this situation as the rest of them.
Which brings us to the present. Kotaro and the other kids are lined up in what seemed to be a giant throne room, a giant heart-shaped Lacrima - the likes of which Kotaro has never seen before - chained up in the back behind the throne. That clown from before is there suggesting the many things they could do to him including - oh, how cute - feeding the "fox" to a bunch of hounds outside, said iron-popsicle guy the clown was kicking, and sitting on the throne was the one whom the clown was talking to, a woman that looked almost like royalty, her eyes as blue as the giant lacrima on behind, and a look in them that was just as cold and stone-like. He didn't know what the clown who was still chatting it up was talking about, but while he never heard of the name 'Rajabel' before, something about it irked him in a way he couldn't explain...A demon perhaps? Could it have been the same one that attacked the forest that day? ...No, it sounds like whoever this Rajabel is, he isn't materially present in the world yet...and these kids - himself included - are the ones that are going to be that material to bring him into the world.
Just looking at this "Setsuka-sama" on the throne, Kotaro doesn't know why but he can tell, ...this lady is gonna sacrifice him and the rest of these kids for this Rajabel demon if nothing was done. Moreover, by the sound of things, that's the "lucky" way out of this. One's gonna be a lot worse off as a vessel if nothing is done.
The guy coming to rescue the kids is incapacitated from the ice, but judging by what the clown was saying, this guy's a fire wizard. While it's true that ice magic might beat out fire magic, ice itself might be able to melt off from the fire magic; he won't be able to focus on that with that clown kicking him though. Considering that Setsuka lady over there, never mind the other mages in the room, he didn't like this guy's chances in a fight. But with his own hands tied and his weapon out of reach, he was the best chance they had at getting out of this.
And so, Kotaro took a deep breath...
"If you care so much for those hounds' stomachs, how about feeding them some of those birds of yours instead!? In the meantime, how about not threatening to kill off kids you need so badly for this ritual or whatever? Seems a bit stupid and short-sighted to think about how to kill us 'vessels' you spent a lot of time gathering for such an event. What if you end up killing the one kid that's perfect for hosting this Raja-whatever, and you end up with a failed ritual for it? Did it occur to you how her royal highness over there will react if that happens, or do you happen to have a crow's brain to go with that bird-magic of yours?" He yelled to Brandon, a smirk on his face. Chances are the other kids were trying to calm Kotaro down or shut him up for his own sake, but if the clown got pissed at his taunts, then his job was done.
He just needs to keep him and everyone else distracted while the fire-guy melts off his ice and fights back.
D.O.B X783Β·01Β·01 | Age 10y.o. | Guild Fenix Tear (Eventually) | Type Independent | Race Human
Kotaro Kuzunoha
π΄πππππππ Kotaro Kuzunoha is essentially what you'd expect from a 10-year old. Upbeat, emotional, adventurous, ambitious, vindictive, and quite a bit pretentious with his sense of honor and code.
Kotaro was raised by Tai to be capable of helping himself sooner rather than later, but that doesn't mean he was strictly about training the boy to fight. Everyday was spent training, but that doesn't mean he trained his entire life. The boy had more knowledge and skill jammed into his little brain than any normal 10-year old should, and it shows. While Tai tried to give him a proper childhood, he was a mentor first and a father second.
As such, what we have is a boy who chooses to act more mature than his age suggests, but is ultimately awkward to society and having little experience of the world outside his training, and even less of a childhood as a result. Kotaro is booksmart, but street average; clever, but naive, and tries to hide the rather large inner child underneath his mentally grown-up facade with mixed success. As such having potential episodes of various emotions, and an internal thought process that may be much more nervous and fearful of bad situations than he'd ever let show on the outside. As such, easily flustered by taunts and perversions of others.
On his negative emotional highs, he thinks back to his masters words and teachings and repeating them like mantras to calm him back down. He has a great respect and need to protect his master and father figure, refusing to accept insults or critiques upon him, and this respect is what drives him to do something as reckless as attempt to travel across the world and hunt particularly powerful devils just to clear his name.
However, his master's training has conditioned his mind to focus in the face of a battle. In combat, he puts aside all his thoughts and emotions, focusing only on the opponents in front of him, and how best to take them down. The boy is perceptive and taciturn in this state, not just relying on his own skills and strengths but the limitations of the opponent and any advantage or disadvantage of the environment around him.
But ultimately, the greatest thing his master has ever taught him, is both empathy and willingness to help. Kotaro is a kind and generous child, and when he sees someone in need, he's compelled to help aid them, sometimes to literally stupid degrees. A bit selfish in that regard to a point where it could considered a hero complex of a kind, but ultimately with his heart in the right place. Save devils, it really doesn't matter what they are; if anything, he was trained to help spirits find their way to the afterlife as much as possible. π±ππππππππ There's not much to tell of the boy's story. Being a mere 10-year old, one could argue his story is only just beginning.
For as long as he could remember, Kotaro was raised in Hizaru by his mentor, a 9-tailed Kitsune yokai renown in the region as the "Fox Sage" Wizard, Tai Kuzunoha. Before that, the earliest memories he had were flashes of a man whom Tai states is his father, and this feeling of sickness that made those early memories feel like a fever dream. Life under the Fox Sage's tutelage was all he ever knew, and were it not for Tai giving the boy info regarding his real heritage, Kotaro would have likely assumed he was practically Tai's son. To that end, He inherited the family name "Kuzunoha" from Tai.
That was a peaceful life, with the only hardship the boy knowing was his master's training. From the moment he could walk, he was taught the ways of magic and combat. Tai knew he had a potential talent for wind magic, but also for the spirit arts themselves. Being a Yokai affiliated with fire himself, Tai also knew there was so much he could teach the boy without knowing about wind magic himself. As such - despite knowing the boy wasn't old enough to have an affinity for anything else but wind - in addition to teaching him the basics of Raigetsu, Tai taught him as much his own yokai spirit arts as he could, calling them "Tai"-getsu as a way to help the boy differentiate between the two, starting with the ability to become a kitsune yokai temporarily himself using spiria as the basis. In the end, however, all he could teach the boy was the capability to produce fox flames and how to implement and use it in different ways both inside and outside the box.
Tai was also Hizaru's spirit guide. He claims he once had another job far from this island, but retired from it; never elaborated further on it for whatever reason. As a Spirit guide, it was his job to encourage and aid people of the living while guiding the dead into the embrace of Ankhselam, and as his pupil, Kotaro was also to learn how to be a spirit guide himself via his yokai magic Tai taught him. To that end, across the whole of his training, he was taught Tai's signature ability of "Guiding Star" to allow wayward spirits to pass onto the afterlife. He was only ever taught to exorcise one soul at a time, tapping into the soul and slowly using psychology to unchain them to the living world. But he wasn't ready for a mass exorcism of multiple spirits at once.
But one night during one of their escapades to haunted places for Tai to exorcise - specifically a haunted forest near a rural village - the two were surrounded, and a careless mistake led to Tai getting injured. He told Kotaro to run, but instead Kotaro could feel as if something was telling him to stand his ground to save his father figure. The boy used guiding star, and against the orders of his teacher, he used it on every spirit in the area, burning them away by force. The last thing he could feel with that event was a stabbing pain and a thunderclap headache, before he blacked out.
When he came through, he was in a bed with his master overlooking him, a small look of dread instantly going to relief, and they seemed to be in a different place from the forest, a building by the looks of it, but not their home, and seemingly a bit more civilized than the rural village they were at before. They seemed to be at a hospital in Hizaru's capital, with Tai stating that the boy blacked out after using Guiding Star, and that using Guiding Star to force spirits out of the living world has dangerous consequences. He never elaborated further, just stating that it unwittingly drew in the attention of a great devil to the area. Tai fought it while the boy was unconscious, burning away its influence on the area around it, but unfortunately it led to the village being caught in the crossfire.
The whole village area they tried to save and give peace to, was wiped out.
Needless to say, the boy was saddened and guilty over it, but as if his mind was read, Tai stated it wasn't the boy's fault. He couldn't have known there was such a powerful force of evil in the area. If anyone was to blame for it, it was Tai himself for not teaching the boy anymore about Guiding star than he had. He told him that when someone makes a mistake, they must recognize and own up to it, no matter how large or small. ...It was around that time the boy realized that Tai's little fox paws were cuffed. Turning his focus away from him, he also noticed a few of Hizaru's cops behind him.
As it turns out, Tai was made the scapegoat for the incident; not only was the village and everyone in it up in smoke - creating a charge of multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter - but he failed to capture and exorcise the devil partly responsible for it. The only reason he was at Kotaro's bedside was at his request before the sentencing, wanting to inform the boy of the situation and stating he'll need to move into a new family. Before the hauled him to jail, having satisfied this request, Tai whispered something to the boy.
"Go west, to the land of pendragons where the flaming bird cries, You will find what you need at the gathering of its tears."
Tai has given the boy riddles before as part of his training and education. However, if ever he tells him a riddle outside his training, it's generally to keep what he says a secret in case someone decides to listen in. In this case, it seems he didn't one the police to listen to what's being said, before being hauled off.
Before Kotaro was sent to an orphanage, he ran away from the hospital with weapon in tow, heading west. He didn't know where exactly his master was telling him to go, but what he was taught about the world solved the first part of the riddle already:
Raigetsu Wind Arts and "Tai"-getsu Yokai Arts Kotaro Kuzunoha is a little expert of spirit arts, specifically Wind Raigetsu, making able to use sky magic to attack, defend, and heal using the wind. In addition, while he lacks an affinity for its element, he was taught how to use Yokai spirit arts by his master, Tai, turning himself into a yokai temporarily and being able to cast spiritual fire magic in place of his sky magic.
Raigetsu- Immovable Wind Arts With his sword as a Conduit for his wind Spiria, Kotaro is able to harness the wind to produce and release sword beams of razor sharp winds, capable of cutting through wood and flesh with ease. He can also use charge the wind around his sword to create a particularly strong gust of wind in front of him, capable of blowing back most creatures at max. Sharp as they may be however, that can still be blocked by particularly hard materials, such as magical shields and walls of stone or metal.
Raigetsu- Healing wind arts Focusing the Wind spiria into his hands, and his breath, Kotaro is able heal wounds and ailments using gentle motions of his hands hovering above the afflicted. Depending on how big or deep the wounds are, or how bad the ailment, this could take anywhere from less than a minute to hours on end. Curses that interfere with the healing process or negate magic - as well as fatal wounds - would make healing them impossible. It should be noted that the First Aid he was taught by his master served to help lessen the time it would take to properly heal wounds and be able to provide some comfort at least for those too badly damaged or sick for a proper healing.
Raigetsu - Hurricane Shield By charging up a considerable amount of wind spiria into his blade and hands, Kotaro is able to envelop himself and others in a sphere of heavy typhoon like wind. Hard enough on its own to break into or get out of even with weaponry, but it also produces shockwaves on the outside that continuously blow strong winds around the area without distinction, making it hard for anyone on the outside to even get close to it. The area of the shield is roughly large enough to be capable of holding himself and about six adults at best - with him at the epicenter - but can adjust the size accordingly. If it's too big, he can't hold it for long, and if it's too small, it could become an inconvenience for allies. While he uses this generally for protection purposes, due to the walls of wind being thick on both sides, it could also be used to entrap others if the need ever arises. Of course, in addition to the long charge time, it takes a rather large amount of spiria to set it off, and as things stand, he can't hold it for much longer than 5 or so minutes, and if he himself was knocked out or drained from the experience or dies while in it, the shield will fade away and shut off immediately.
Tai-getsu (Raigetsu) - Yokai form: Kitsune Kotaro's master Tai is a Kitsune Yokai, and so naturally knows spirit arts associated with Yokai, or more specifically, spirit arts involving their form. While he hasn't mastered it like Tai would, Kotaro is able to partially turn into a Fox Yokai temporarily - the only real difference being a golden tail, some golden fur around his hands and feet, both of which become paws and his ears moving upwards and becoming those of a fox, While it may not look like much, Kotaro in this form sacrifices any defensive capabilities he may have had for strength and agility. While he can use a sword in this form, the paws make it more difficult to wield it properly, so he prefers to fight with his fists.
Tai-getsu (Raigetsu) - Kitsune Magic: Fox Flame While in Kitsune form, Kotaro is able to generate blue flames made of Spiria that he can shape how he fits, be it of a stream of fire, coating his flames on his fists and feet, or generating fireballs on his tail. While these flames are indeed hot and have physical mass to them, it should be noted that they do not physically burn like normal flames, but rather they burn spiritually, charring the soul of anyone who touches them, causing a disconnect between the soul and the mind, leading to disorientation and vertigo. As these aren't actual wounds, healing magic won't be effective against this attack. However, strong emotions can turn this flame from blue to natural flame colors, causing them to work like actual flames, and while it can be healed at this point, the wounds inflicted are still resistant to said healing magic.
Tai-getsu (Raigetsu) - Kitsune Magic: Hollow Forest Mist By combining his fox fire with some water, Kotaro is able to evaporate the water into an intense steamy mist. While it can work as a smoke screen to help get away from certain situations, its main function is to allow to use the concentrated spiria within the steam to produce illusions and hallucinations, the spiria giving them a ghostly mass. Kotaro can't control what the person sees within the fog, but he can control the movements and actions of the illusions conceived, provided he concentrates on them. Otherwise they'd just be standing there, and what they are and what they hear will be dependent on the subconscious of the individual that sees it. Useful for distractions and mind games, but - ironically - can be blown away rather easily through wind magic.
YΕ«dΕboshi Star Guide θͺ ε° ζ Guiding Star Type: White Arts, Shaman Exorcism, Organic Link Magic, Ancient Spell, Enchantment, Law Range: AoE Target: YΕkai Exclusive The venerated reijutsu of Hizuru no Senko-Tai that's bequeathed to Kotaro by the highest honor of discipleship as a coming of age rites upon the culmination of the Raigetsu Magics.
An ablazingly enchanted radiant blueflame-solacing starbeads illuminated mirage, Guiding Star glistens wayward with the unresting souls, emotionally entangled and pacifying to its mechanism. A wordysome series of prayerful sacraments divised to encroach yet quell the unresting souls from their earthly strongholds, flickering set ablazing them to resoluting rest by sevenfold. An Ancient Spell requiring heartfelt sincerity to cast, therefore ineffective if the heart is at the wrong road.
Those without remorse of their actions, cancels this Ancient Spell immediately.
Poetically built to precise in Kitsune aesthetic, Hizuru no Senko-Tai is established handling nine spirits at once and at a time in a bustling 99-meter radius likened to the Mythical Nine Tailed Fox. Kotaro by virtue of high magic potency is established with three tails, making him a Sanbigitsune whose range is 33-meters radius true to his moniker; Tenko no Kotaro, Heavenly Fox Kotaro. Neophyte in his skill grasp, Kotaro earnestly trains to master Guiding Star.
Likewise, the penalty of improper execution is likened to abusing and finding a cheating loophole for kicks will warrant users to be cursed by Ankhseram.
Talentstree Melee Combat Master Tai taught the young Kotaro that while magic is a vital tool for anyone in this world, but not all there is to a fight. To rely too much on magic is to be helpless when that magic fails him, to rely on a weapon is to be helpless when that weapon is out of his grasp. But to rely on his body is to be helpful to himself and others when all other options run dry. Knowing this, the boy was taught and trained in the art of melee combat, both with his trusty sword, and with his fists. He's still very young compared to others in the guild, and so naturally he's not as strong as full grown adults, but he has the will and technique to at least put up a fight if nothing else. Furthermore, he was trained in the art of the sword, being able to wield one - albeit a small one due to his stature - with the grace and capability you'd find in an adult samurai.
First Aid Upon learning that his magic has the capability to heal others, Tai taught him some basic first aid treatments to help him and others recover from any sudden ailments or injuries. Since his magic takes some time to fully heal an individual depending on the severity, the logic of learning first aid stems from shortening the time it takes to heal individuals, or failing that at least comfort and keep things from getting worse so that others more experienced and capable than him can take it from there.
Amateur Tactician Master Tai was, above all, a wise sage that taught Kotaro the importance of the world around him and the need for observance and perception of that world. He educated the boy as best as he could for as short a time as he had, and Kotaro took in that knowledge as best as a 10-year old possibly could. As such, Kotaro tends to try and continuing learning about his allies, his adversaries, and the environment around him so that he may use it to the advantages of himself and comrades. That said, he's still just a kid, and has a lot to learn about the world of strategy and tactics in a fight. Any actual tactician could walk circles around him easily as things stand. Still, for a 10 year old, he's better at making plans than most adults.
YΕ«dΕboshi Star Guide θͺ ε° ζ Guiding Star The venerated reijutsu of Hizuru no Senko-Tai that's bequeathed to Kotaro by the highest honor of discipleship as a coming of age rites upon the culmination of the Raigetsu Magics.
An ablazingly enchanted radiant blueflame-solacing starbeads illuminated mirage, Guiding Star glistens wayward with the unresting souls, emotionally entangled and pacifying to its mechanism. A wordysome series of prayerful sacraments divised to encroach yet quell the unresting souls from their earthly strongholds, flickering set ablazing them to resoluting rest by sevenfold. An Ancient Spell requiring sincerity
Thanks for this.
@Gerlando With that, I've made all the necessary edits to Kotaro's CS for now. ^^
D.O.B X783Β·01Β·01 | Age 10y.o. | Guild Fenix Tear (Eventually) | Type Independent | Race Human
Kotaro Kuzunoha
π΄πππππππ Kotaro Kuzunoha is essentially what you'd expect from a 10-year old. Upbeat, emotional, adventurous, ambitious, vindictive, and quite a bit pretentious with his sense of honor and code.
Kotaro was raised by Tai to be capable of helping himself sooner rather than later, but that doesn't mean he was strictly about training the boy to fight. Everyday was spent training, but that doesn't mean he trained his entire life. The boy had more knowledge and skill jammed into his little brain than any normal 10-year old should, and it shows. While Tai tried to give him a proper childhood, he was a mentor first and a father second.
As such, what we have is a boy who chooses to act more mature than his age suggests, but is ultimately awkward to society and having little experience of the world outside his training, and even less of a childhood as a result. Kotaro is booksmart, but street average; clever, but naive, and tries to hide the rather large inner child underneath his mentally grown-up facade with mixed success. As such having potential episodes of various emotions, and an internal thought process that may be much more nervous and fearful of bad situations than he'd ever let show on the outside. As such, easily flustered by taunts and perversions of others.
On his negative emotional highs, he thinks back to his masters words and teachings and repeating them like mantras to calm him back down. He has a great respect and need to protect his master and father figure, refusing to accept insults or critiques upon him, and this respect is what drives him to do something as reckless as attempt to travel across the world and hunt particularly powerful devils just to clear his name.
However, his master's training has conditioned his mind to focus in the face of a battle. In combat, he puts aside all his thoughts and emotions, focusing only on the opponents in front of him, and how best to take them down. The boy is perceptive and taciturn in this state, not just relying on his own skills and strengths but the limitations of the opponent and any advantage or disadvantage of the environment around him.
But ultimately, the greatest thing his master has ever taught him, is both empathy and willingness to help. Kotaro is a kind and generous child, and when he sees someone in need, he's compelled to help aid them, sometimes to literally stupid degrees. A bit selfish in that regard to a point where it could considered a hero complex of a kind, but ultimately with his heart in the right place. Save devils, it really doesn't matter what they are; if anything, he was trained to help spirits find their way to the afterlife as much as possible. π±ππππππππ There's not much to tell of the boy's story. Being a mere 10-year old, one could argue his story is only just beginning.
For as long as he could remember, Kotaro was raised in Hizaru by his mentor, a 9-tailed Kitsune yokai renown in the region as the "Fox Sage" Wizard, Tai Kuzunoha. Before that, the earliest memories he had were flashes of a man whom Tai states is his father, and this feeling of sickness that made those early memories feel like a fever dream. Life under the Fox Sage's tutelage was all he ever knew, and were it not for Tai giving the boy info regarding his real heritage, Kotaro would have likely assumed he was practically Tai's son. To that end, He inherited the family name "Kuzunoha" from Tai.
That was a peaceful life, with the only hardship the boy knowing was his master's training. From the moment he could walk, he was taught the ways of magic and combat. Tai knew he had a potential talent for wind magic, but also for the spirit arts themselves. Being a Yokai affiliated with fire himself, Tai also knew there was so much he could teach the boy without knowing about wind magic himself. As such - despite knowing the boy wasn't old enough to have an affinity for anything else but wind - in addition to teaching him the basics of Raigetsu, Tai taught him as much his own yokai spirit arts as he could, calling them "Tai"-getsu as a way to help the boy differentiate between the two, starting with the ability to become a kitsune yokai temporarily himself using spiria as the basis. In the end, however, all he could teach the boy was the capability to produce fox flames and how to implement and use it in different ways both inside and outside the box.
Tai was also Hizaru's spirit guide. He claims he once had another job far from this island, but retired from it; never elaborated further on it for whatever reason. As a Spirit guide, it was his job to encourage and aid people of the living while guiding the dead into the embrace of Ankhselam, and as his pupil, Kotaro was also to learn how to be a spirit guide himself via his yokai magic Tai taught him. To that end, across the whole of his training, he was taught Tai's signature ability of "Guiding Star" to allow wayward spirits to pass onto the afterlife. He was only ever taught to exorcise one soul at a time, tapping into the soul and slowly using psychology to unchain them to the living world. But he wasn't ready for a mass exorcism of multiple spirits at once.
But one night during one of their escapades to haunted places for Tai to exorcise - specifically a haunted forest near a rural village - the two were surrounded, and a careless mistake led to Tai getting injured. He told Kotaro to run, but instead Kotaro could feel as if something was telling him to stand his ground to save his father figure. The boy used guiding star, and against the orders of his teacher, he used it on every spirit in the area, burning them away by force. The last thing he could feel with that event was a stabbing pain and a thunderclap headache, before he blacked out.
When he came through, he was in a bed with his master overlooking him, a small look of dread instantly going to relief, and they seemed to be in a different place from the forest, a building by the looks of it, but not their home, and seemingly a bit more civilized than the rural village they were at before. They seemed to be at a hospital in Hizaru's capital, with Tai stating that the boy blacked out after using Guiding Star, and that using Guiding Star to force spirits out of the living world has dangerous consequences. He never elaborated further, just stating that it unwittingly drew in the attention of a great devil to the area. Tai fought it while the boy was unconscious, burning away its influence on the area around it, but unfortunately it led to the village being caught in the crossfire.
The whole village area they tried to save and give peace to, was wiped out.
Needless to say, the boy was saddened and guilty over it, but as if his mind was read, Tai stated it wasn't the boy's fault. He couldn't have known there was such a powerful force of evil in the area. If anyone was to blame for it, it was Tai himself for not teaching the boy anymore about Guiding star than he had. He told him that when someone makes a mistake, they must recognize and own up to it, no matter how large or small. ...It was around that time the boy realized that Tai's little fox paws were cuffed. Turning his focus away from him, he also noticed a few of Hizaru's cops behind him.
As it turns out, Tai was made the scapegoat for the incident; not only was the village and everyone in it up in smoke - creating a charge of multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter - but he failed to capture and exorcise the devil partly responsible for it. The only reason he was at Kotaro's bedside was at his request before the sentencing, wanting to inform the boy of the situation and stating he'll need to move into a new family. Before the hauled him to jail, having satisfied this request, Tai whispered something to the boy.
"Go west, to the land of pendragons where the flaming bird cries, You will find what you need at the gathering of its tears."
Tai has given the boy riddles before as part of his training and education. However, if ever he tells him a riddle outside his training, it's generally to keep what he says a secret in case someone decides to listen in. In this case, it seems he didn't one the police to listen to what's being said, before being hauled off.
Before Kotaro was sent to an orphanage, he ran away from the hospital with weapon in tow, heading west. He didn't know where exactly his master was telling him to go, but what he was taught about the world solved the first part of the riddle already:
Raigetsu Wind Arts and "Tai"-getsu Yokai Arts Kotaro Kuzunoha is a little expert of spirit arts, specifically Wind Raigetsu, making able to use sky magic to attack, defend, and heal using the wind. In addition, while he lacks an affinity for its element, he was taught how to use Yokai spirit arts by his master, Tai, turning himself into a yokai temporarily and being able to cast spiritual fire magic in place of his sky magic.
Raigetsu- Immovable Wind Arts With his sword as a Conduit for his wind Spiria, Kotaro is able to harness the wind to produce and release sword beams of razor sharp winds, capable of cutting through wood and flesh with ease. He can also use charge the wind around his sword to create a particularly strong gust of wind in front of him, capable of blowing back most creatures at max. Sharp as they may be however, that can still be blocked by particularly hard materials, such as magical shields and walls of stone or metal.
Raigetsu- Healing wind arts Focusing the Wind spiria into his hands, and his breath, Kotaro is able heal wounds and ailments using gentle motions of his hands hovering above the afflicted. Depending on how big or deep the wounds are, or how bad the ailment, this could take anywhere from less than a minute to hours on end. Curses that interfere with the healing process or negate magic - as well as fatal wounds - would make healing them impossible. It should be noted that the First Aid he was taught by his master served to help lessen the time it would take to properly heal wounds and be able to provide some comfort at least for those too badly damaged or sick for a proper healing.
Raigetsu - Hurricane Shield By charging up a considerable amount of wind spiria into his blade and hands, Kotaro is able to envelop himself and others in a sphere of heavy typhoon like wind. Hard enough on its own to break into or get out of even with weaponry, but it also produces shockwaves on the outside that continuously blow strong winds around the area without distinction, making it hard for anyone on the outside to even get close to it. The area of the shield is roughly large enough to be capable of holding himself and about six adults at best - with him at the epicenter - but can adjust the size accordingly. If it's too big, he can't hold it for long, and if it's too small, it could become an inconvenience for allies. While he uses this generally for protection purposes, due to the walls of wind being thick on both sides, it could also be used to entrap others if the need ever arises. Of course, in addition to the long charge time, it takes a rather large amount of spiria to set it off, and as things stand, he can't hold it for much longer than 5 or so minutes, and if he himself was knocked out or drained from the experience or dies while in it, the shield will fade away and shut off immediately.
Tai-getsu (Raigetsu) - Yokai form: Kitsune Kotaro's master Tai is a Kitsune Yokai, and so naturally knows spirit arts associated with Yokai, or more specifically, spirit arts involving their form. While he hasn't mastered it like Tai would, Kotaro is able to partially turn into a Fox Yokai temporarily - the only real difference being a golden tail, some golden fur around his hands and feet, both of which become paws and his ears moving upwards and becoming those of a fox, While it may not look like much, Kotaro in this form sacrifices any defensive capabilities he may have had for strength and agility. While he can use a sword in this form, the paws make it more difficult to wield it properly, so he prefers to fight with his fists.
Tai-getsu (Raigetsu) - Kitsune Magic: Fox Flame While in Kitsune form, Kotaro is able to generate blue flames made of Spiria that he can shape how he fits, be it of a stream of fire, coating his flames on his fists and feet, or generating fireballs on his tail. While these flames are indeed hot and have physical mass to them, it should be noted that they do not physically burn like normal flames, but rather they burn spiritually, charring the soul of anyone who touches them, causing a disconnect between the soul and the mind, leading to disorientation and vertigo. As these aren't actual wounds, healing magic won't be effective against this attack. However, strong emotions can turn this flame from blue to natural flame colors, causing them to work like actual flames, and while it can be healed at this point, the wounds inflicted are still resistant to said healing magic.
Tai-getsu (Raigetsu) - Kitsune Magic: Hollow Forest Mist By combining his fox fire with some water, Kotaro is able to evaporate the water into an intense steamy mist. While it can work as a smoke screen to help get away from certain situations, its main function is to allow to use the concentrated spiria within the steam to produce illusions and hallucinations, the spiria giving them a ghostly mass. Kotaro can't control what the person sees within the fog, but he can control the movements and actions of the illusions conceived, provided he concentrates on them. Otherwise they'd just be standing there, and what they are and what they hear will be dependent on the subconscious of the individual that sees it. Useful for distractions and mind games, but - ironically - can be blown away rather easily through wind magic.
YΕ«dΕboshi Star Guide θͺ ε° ζ Guiding Star Type: White Arts, Shaman Exorcism, Organic Link Magic, Ancient Spell, Enchantment, Law Range: AoE Target: YΕkai Exclusive The venerated reijutsu of Hizuru no Senko-Tai that's bequeathed to Kotaro by the highest honor of discipleship as a coming of age rites upon the culmination of the Raigetsu Magics.
An ablazingly enchanted radiant blueflame-solacing starbeads illuminated mirage, Guiding Star glistens wayward with the unresting souls, emotionally entangled and pacifying to its mechanism. A wordysome series of prayerful sacraments divised to encroach yet quell the unresting souls from their earthly strongholds, flickering set ablazing them to resoluting rest by sevenfold. An Ancient Spell requiring heartfelt sincerity to cast, therefore ineffective if the heart is at the wrong road.
Those without remorse of their actions, cancels this Ancient Spell immediately.
Poetically built to precise in Kitsune aesthetic, Hizuru no Senko-Tai is established handling nine spirits at once and at a time in a bustling 99-meter radius likened to the Mythical Nine Tailed Fox. Kotaro by virtue of high magic potency is established with three tails, making him a Sanbigitsune whose range is 33-meters radius true to his moniker; Tenko no Kotaro, Heavenly Fox Kotaro. Neophyte in his skill grasp, Kotaro earnestly trains to master Guiding Star.
Likewise, the penalty of improper execution is likened to abusing and finding a cheating loophole for kicks will warrant users to be cursed by Ankhseram.
Talentstree Melee Combat Master Tai taught the young Kotaro that while magic is a vital tool for anyone in this world, but not all there is to a fight. To rely too much on magic is to be helpless when that magic fails him, to rely on a weapon is to be helpless when that weapon is out of his grasp. But to rely on his body is to be helpful to himself and others when all other options run dry. Knowing this, the boy was taught and trained in the art of melee combat, both with his trusty sword, and with his fists. He's still very young compared to others in the guild, and so naturally he's not as strong as full grown adults, but he has the will and technique to at least put up a fight if nothing else. Furthermore, he was trained in the art of the sword, being able to wield one - albeit a small one due to his stature - with the grace and capability you'd find in an adult samurai.
First Aid Upon learning that his magic has the capability to heal others, Tai taught him some basic first aid treatments to help him and others recover from any sudden ailments or injuries. Since his magic takes some time to fully heal an individual depending on the severity, the logic of learning first aid stems from shortening the time it takes to heal individuals, or failing that at least comfort and keep things from getting worse so that others more experienced and capable than him can take it from there.
Amateur Tactician Master Tai was, above all, a wise sage that taught Kotaro the importance of the world around him and the need for observance and perception of that world. He educated the boy as best as he could for as short a time as he had, and Kotaro took in that knowledge as best as a 10-year old possibly could. As such, Kotaro tends to try and continuing learning about his allies, his adversaries, and the environment around him so that he may use it to the advantages of himself and comrades. That said, he's still just a kid, and has a lot to learn about the world of strategy and tactics in a fight. Any actual tactician could walk circles around him easily as things stand. Still, for a 10 year old, he's better at making plans than most adults.
Joey gave a smirk as soon as Avelyn made her request for information, extending her arm to her. He knew by now what her powers were all about, it'd make things much easier on them both if he just allowed them to scan his head for the information she seeked. That smirk continued when Nero...'forgave' him, for lack of a better word.
But he said nothing else on the matter, and once everyone was ready to go, he was quick to head to the docking bay.
Within the Docking bay, The only ship outside of the single-pilot fighters here and there was the ship was riding on. As he said, despite being able to fit within the Xuanxang, the dimensions of the ship did prove rather spacious. It seemed designed as some sort of small carrier ship, likely a small black market smuggle ship. Interestingly, however, the Jeep he rode in with Avelyn didn't seem to be anywhere, despite this being the place it was last left.
Joey began going from wall to wall, slightly knocking on every part he could, as if he was looking for something.
"So, a little backstory for you guys. Back when me and the Captain were still Ascendancy, we picked up this ship together with the rest of the gang. She was interested in the technical specs of this beauty as any ship Captain should be. But me, ...I was more interested in some of the ship's...finer details. ...For example, the fact that this ship was designed for smuggling some rather big cargo, and so has some equally large spaces to tuck them under. We were more looking for a ship that could stand toe-to-toe with any Ascendancy ship that comes our way, but the Cap'n had some 'privateer' experience already, so this was something of a bonus for us." He said as he continued searching the walls.
He finally found what he was looking for when one of the knocks had a different, more hollowed noise. Removing the wall panel, he found a hidden lever and a touchpad. He seemed to select things on the pad, then immediately pulled the lever, opening up parts of the floor, revealing elevators reeling up other ships about the same size as his own.
"Counting my own, these three are pretty much the best catches we've had before Moonstrike...they're also the only catches we have of that size, so try to get them back here in one piece." Joey said, at first with pride, but then saying the second part more hesitantly and scratching at his cheek, an awkward smile on his face.
"So, if everyone's ready, then all aboard, and best of luck."
With that, once everyone was aboard, the ships blasted off and scattered.
Each to their respective mission.
Xuanzang - Bridge
After everyone went on their merry way, Maria was quick to get to business. To control a ship of this size would be difficult for just the three of them on their own. Hopefully backup would arrive soon to make the work load significantly less. Until then though, they'll have to manage.
"Laurey, is there any chance you can re-route power to an auto-pilot function?" Maria asked. Auto-pilot was a convenient little thing for situations like this and makes for one less thing to worry about on their part, useful for just this situation where there's very little crew members on board to pilot the damn thing. Though the downside is, they'd likely lose the luxury of precise maneuvering, and they'll have to pray they can get FTL working and coordinates exactly spot-on so the ship doesn't crash itself onto a planet.
Meanwhile, an message popped up on Natasha's Omni-tool. The sender's name being a mess of symbols, letters, and numbers. Most likely either encrypted or purposely pushed buttons at random for a one-time use of the name in question. The Subject Matter was simply labeled "New Moon's Secrecy". Before opening, another peculiarity was that it was locked. An attempt to open it resulted in a pop-up of a speaker phone symbol and a straight line.
Awaiting password...Password hint: "New Moon's secrecy..."
Once Natasha says the right password, the line changes to match her tone, authenticating her voice, and eventually the image changes to a green lock becoming unlocked, the words "Voice Recognition Found" shown on the screen before it then opens the small message the lock was hiding...
Planet Zanza. Reserve 47. 53.393816,-98.258990
- "Edo"
This was all it said.
A message locked and capable of an ID check of an Omni-tool suggests either a really good hacker, or someone with the authority to breach privacy guidelines. This is likely the Tipper...but it raises the question of just who this guy or girl was...
On the Planet in question, a bountiful nature-filled planet of forests as far as the eye could see, laid a little cave off the cliffside of a plateau, within which was a man in the shadows of this cave, staring at the doorway at the beautiful world outside. A message popped onto his own Omni-tool which diverted his gaze from mother nature...
"Message Delivered."
"...Won't be long now." The man said, seemingly to himself.
If you were a very successful rebellion against an interplanetary government, where would you hide? Another planet is always considered a viable option, and most cells to this day still use outer rim planets outside their enemy's jurisdiction as locations for their bases. But in an age where fleets of ships can sail across the galaxy as easily as a boat across a sea, if you mess with a corrupt intergalactic government enough to consider you worth hunting, they'll do whatever it takes to find and destroy you. On a planet outside their jurisdiction? No problem, they'll just hire some..."professionals" to take you out in their stead, or they'll just gather a fleet and attack you outright if you really managed to piss them off; they'd find a way to justify the attack.
That in mind, The smarter rebellion cells take the nomadic approach to their base of operations, need it be simply not having one and moving from one spot to another, or having some kind of moving base such as a space station serve as headquarters. More maneuverable and elusive, but unless you change it up in some way, all they'd need is ID'ing that the station in question is in fact the rebel base, and they'd hunt you to the edge of the universe and beyond.
But Moonstrike has considered all of these and took a more tactical approach for their headquarters: A giant asteroid the size of a country that they hollowed out, made a base within, and added thrusters for good measure. A drifting asteroid amidst other asteroids, and capable of slight maneuvering to keep the enemy guessing. Took a lot of time, manpower, and money both given by other rebels and stolen from the Ascendancy's coffers, but it was worth it to make a base hidden in camouflage.
At least, it was. But they never would have asked for the other rebel cells to help with this if they knew something like this was going to happen...
Outside the Asteroid Field the base was hiding out in, the Rebel Civil War was full swing. On one side Moonstrike units and ships defending their base from attack...With varied levels of success unfortunately, as a few lucky shots got passed and hit the field in question. Even if the shots didn't hit the asteroid base of Moonstrike directly, (and unfortunately, some of them did) they hit other asteroids with enough force to knock another actual asteroid into them. The whole area was like a billiards table with every missile and laser acting as the cue ball.
On the other side were the ones doing the firing. To call it a group of ships were an understatement. It was more akin to a collective Armada formed from multiple rebel factions combining their forces against Moonstrike's own. On their own, none of them would stand a chance against Moonstrike's fleet; they're one of the largest and most successful rebel factions in the galaxy for a reason. But together, they were really giving them a challenge.
Inside the base, Many members of Moonstrike were frantically moving about, trying to gather more men to send, trying to command their fleet from where they were. The elusive "Moonstrike One" was at the center of it all, taking command of the fleet outside and trying to take control of this chaotic situation.
On board the Slinger, Joey watched the battle from a distance, giving out a whistle as he did.
"More people pissed at Moonstrike than I thought. That's a lot of ships, pretty big ones at that, not all of them I recognize which is...particularly interesting. Hmm... Welp, looks like there's no time for formality. Let's get these guys pacified before anything else. Time to go save the day." He said. Cocking his own guns, he went to the cockpit and drove the ship towards the crossfire.
"Hang on ladies, this is gonna get a little bumpy." He said, as they headed for the enemies head on, guns a blazing as the ship dashes headfirst towards the enemies.
On the Korta's home planet of "Mother", the Pirates seemed to be at it again, being right in the middle of a major heist. Not necessarily of money, oh no, This was a different kind of vault, for the Korta were a race all about technology, it only makes sense they'd make a storage vault for some of the finest inventions, materials, and machine parts they have ever made with their gifted pachyderm minds.
Just like the stock heist back at the Bazaar, they were being methodical in how they steal from a highly-secured place as this.
For the most part, they were keeping a low-profile, but they were about ready to make their move, as a few of the pirates became distractions keeping the officials eyes away from the disguised, but very real threats coming in.
"...Rgh, You sure this is the only way, Bones? This shirt's so itchy and these pants are uncomfortable as hell." The Captain said, pulling on his dress shirt and pants and struggling to keep the big round glasses affixed between his eyes.
"It's the way of least resistance. Just hang in there for a little while." The old man said, now back in a white lab coat. It seems they were disguised as a Scientist and his Assistant, heading in to study the technology within the vault, even came with passes (Forged, of course.) to verify their identity and permission to enter the establishment.
Arms, meanwhile, was camouflaged and keeping away from any thermal imaging technology the vault may have had. (Not that it'd matter much, being cold-blooded has its perks...) Sneaking his way through the area, he planted charges about the entrance and in particular spots of building stability. Should things go south, it always help to have some backups, especially in case the "other" plan the Captain is so interested in doesn't go as well as hoped.
Aboard the Blowfish
As they traveled on the ship towards the planet Mother, Alan took a look around what little space this ship had. Honestly, it was fitting for a small unit like theirs, but it still felt too cramped for his liking.
He stared out into the darkness of space, and spotted the planet they were heading too.
The area around Mother was loaded with ships going in and out, or with space stations just floating about in its orbit. The Korta were after all the top engineers of the galaxy and this was their home, so naturally there'd be a showing of their skills and customers from far and wide wishing for their services.
"So...Anyone wanna guess which ship has our pirate pals in them?" He asked.
(The following is the GM Post and Time-skip. Let's get this kick-started back up. ^^)
Capta-Err
...First-ma-
...Vice-Cap-
...Fuck it, Joey's Log. Star-date: 0612
It's been about almost a week since Moonstrike the Second gave us our briefing on the situation with the pirates and our mission to stop them. ...We would have been rather quick to proceed with that mission, but things started happening at rapid-fire pretty much right out the gate that prevented us from doing so. In other words: This week really fucked us up.
Where do I even begin with this...? I suppose it started with the wonder-twins, Sam and Iris. I wasn't on the ship in a while, so I had no idea what was going on, but from what I gathered, Iris fell in love with a female Zvezd by the name of Amy, who got attacked by pirates on a mental level, some kind of mind magic or something. She's been locked in a comatose state ever since we left the bazaar, so we've had her in a life-support capsule to keep her safe until she wakes up - if she wakes up. Understandably, that left Iris pretty down in the dumps as of late, not that I'd know how she was beforehand. It's probably because of that, because of Amy, even more specifically because there was nothing our Doc could really do for her at the time, that Iris and Sam gave Natty the 2-week notice and decided to take Amy with them on the way out. Well, I say 2 weeks, but it was more like 2 days. Still, it was a pretty graceful send-off, all things considered. There was no way of knowing how they'll get Amy out of that coma, but I'm confident they'll be doing whatever it takes to wake her up. That said, I don't really know where they went. Natty told me how they were talking about starting up a farm, so maybe they went to an Agricultural planet to get started on that.
Next was my two friends, Abby and Doc. Abby was on a mission by the time I got here and was supposed to come back by now, but I guess they sent him on another mission immediately after the fact. No idea when he'll get back, but of all the people on this ship, Abby's the one I least worry about. That guy can handle himself fine. Doc, on the other hand, went off with Doruva and Gabe on a mission. Seems something happened near the Kanarusian home planet, some kind of unknown plague spreading itself about - real nasty one by the sound of it. Doc's been sent to contain and neutralize the disease, and since it's so close to the Kanarusian home planet - and it's possible it was a terrorist attack by a certain alien-hating government - Doruva and his pal followed right behind. Until either Abby or Doc comes back, it looks like I'm the last executive officer besides Natty on the ship. ...Which also means if I decide to leave again as usual, I'd be leaving Natty all alone. So, I guess I'll be stuck here for a while.
After that, Tarak of the Star Marines was the next to go. Don't really know why he left. Happened upon him and Maria staring each other down in the hallway; seemed like a private mental chat thanks to Maria's telepathy. Next thing I know, he comes walking to Natty's room to tell her he had to go on a mission and wasn't sure when - or if - he'd come back to the ship. He said his goodbyes to everyone - even me - and went off on his own. I asked Maria about it, and all she told me was that allies contacted him and asked for his help. ..."Allies", heh, Interesting word to use.
In any case, lastly, there was an incident that happened on Titan that recently came to our attention. Sounds like it got hit with a bad case of civil war over the minerals and what to do with it. It could have been sparked by a third party; Finny's family is on that planet and I doubt that's a coincidence. Since she was the one who brought it to our attention, I talked with Ave to see what she thinks on the matter and we seem to be in agreement: Someone was definitely attacking the kids' families, and indirectly so at that. In the line of work these Star Marines are in, one can probably tell what kind of person they're dealing with by how they do their attacks on someone or something. Manipulating a planet into civil war and then using it as a cover or the smoking gun outright to kill a certain group - a family in this case - reeks of a Black Op. Most likely the Ascendancy, but given how these pirates have behaved so far we can't dismiss the possibility they're involved in this.
Either way, Finn, understandably didn't take it well. Guy made for a ship immediately and just took off to Titan to save them. We of course told MS2 about this, and we agreed our lil Ms. Negotiator, Melinae Vandris, should follow suit. She could help quell the situation on the planet and cool off the war, and if there's anyone who might attack, Finn would be there to help her out.
Personally, I actually proposed that Narvia should come along with her to help Finn out. It's pretty obvious those two hit it off, and despite her...'personality', she seemed perfectly capable of handling herself in a fight. Plus, I can only imagine how she's taking not being around him. But Natty and MS2 seemed in agreement to keep Narvia here. With everything that's happened, we're now short-staffed, and we haven't even started on trying to fight these pirates that we've been on duty to fight. We need all the help we can get...
Sooo... On that note, with quite a few members now gone, that led to our divide and conquer plan getting a bit borked. We have to re-organize the groups of who's doing what when it comes to the tasks at hand. I've already taken the liberty of starting off our efforts by dealing with the Search for that problematic Star Marine we were told about. Most of that team jumped ship, and the only one that was left was Nirrti. While I don't know how good Nirrti's battle capabilities are - maybe she was designed to also fight Star Marines like this one - but I wasn't taking a chance on sending her to fight someone that we felt needed to have a whole team of magic-users to fight against.
In fact, at that point, I wasn't taking any chances, period. So I personally took a ship and rode to the coordinates to deal with this Star Marine. ...Yeah, I know, hypocritical right? But at least if I die, no one on that ship'll miss me that much, and it's not like I didn't have a plan in case that happened. I went down there and met with this Star Marine, 'Shineyd'. Didn't take me long to see what MS2 was talking about with her. I don't know what kind of experiments they were doing with these kids, but I can't even imagine what kind of extra-horrific crap they did to make someone with the kind of magic she's got. We had an encounter and to make a long story short: I... 'persuaded' her to join us on our ship. Due to personal reason and in the event someone - coughnerocough - Ugh, sorry, something got caught in my throat - in the event someone comes along and hears this without my knowing, I can't say how I pulled it off. What I can say is it involved guns...and eventually big guns. Point is, she's now on our side, and I'm heading back with her as I speak, so that's one objective scratched off the board.
Even better news, I just received a message from MS2 not that long ago, it seems they're sending a group to help accommodate for the crewmen we've lost.
Once we reach the ship again - which is probably soon since I can see it right now - we'll be re-arranging our teams up and then getting on with the task at hand. We're down, but we're not out yet.
-Joey Out-
The Xuanxang - Conference Room
A meeting was called by the Captain, though in actuality, it was called by Joey using Natasha as his proxy. The whole lot of them probably wouldn't have come to hear shit if that was outright said, so he needed a way around that if he had any hope of getting everyone re-organized after the insanity that's been happening of late. Of course, there was a possibility at least one of them was gonna avoid going into a meeting regardless. In the event of that, Maria is to open up a mental link so that any who are indeed disobeying a direct Captain's order would at least know what's going on.
Now with the new girl in tow, once people started entering in, Joey made a few claps of his hands before beginning to speak.
"Alright ladies and gents, gather round. Now, it's been a bit of a rough week for us, I know. So in light of that, let me start this off by saying that if Natty hasn't already done so herself, effective immediately, consider your punishment lifted. Of course, I know a few of you already been doing so behind my back - lookin at you, Little Caesar - but consider this an official notice that the menu's back in full swing. ...To be honest, I've never been a disciplinary type of guy. Usually if somebody gets in trouble on this ship, we leave it to Abby to deal with it. Still, people did fuck up and Abby wasn't around to deal with it, and so I tried to get a handle instead. And as I've noticed this past week even before the people started dropping off, it backfired hard. ...Guess beginner's luck doesn't always work. So, I admit: I fucked up, and I am sorry for that. ...But the fact is, we're now understaffed, we're still clearly being targeted by pirates, and we can't rely on Moonstrike to give us any more aid than they already have on account of their asses being put on a frying pan just as big if not bigger than ours by the same chef. All the while, if the Ascendancy hasn't noticed by now that all the rebel factions' crosshairs are on each other right now and not them, there's no doubt Kherol has, and believe me, that alone is a thought of nightmare proportions." Joey paused for a moment to take a deep breath, taking a quick look at Natasha before once again turning his attention to everyone present.
"The point is, we're in a bad place right now, so if you have any sort of bitterness, or hatred, or vindictive thoughts towards anyone on this ship - and I do mean anyone on this ship - then consider this an order. Not from me, but from Natasha over here. From your Captain to all of you: Get, the fuck, over it...Quick. We're not telling you to like everyone here. You want to despise somebody on this ship for whatever reason, that's your right. But being hostile and making an enemy out of anyone here is a luxury we know longer have. We can't afford anyone making any mistakes from here on out because everyone still on this ship may be the only thing we got left at this point." He paused again, and turned to what everybody probably noticed the whole time, the new face that appeared with him on the ship.
"Well, ...Maybe not all we have. First off, Let me introduce you guys to our newest member of this team, the Star Marine that Moonstrike wanted us to bring in to help us out. This is Shineyd. Since we were understaffed, and most of the team we sent to..."ask" for her aid left, I took it upon myself to go and convince her to join us. She'll be accompanying us on this ship for some time, so do try to get along with her. The one that our Tipper is going to be giving us decided that she's not coming to us. Instead, it seems she's gonna be with said Tipper and join us from there on her own terms. But even better news, it seems MS2 did manage to squeeze one last free unit to us. Counted about 24 of them, four of which are apparently exceptional. But they've stressed that this is the last they can do for us. Every other unit, fleet, and ship are focused on defending themselves from an angry mob of rebels. ...Which brings me nicely to the main reason we're here: A briefing." Joey paused a third time, switching on the holographic projector in the middle of the room, screens popping up out of nowhere, including a few news channels detailing stories relevant to their mission.
"You guys already heard most of our situation from our chat with MS2. Maria, give Shineyd a mental run-down while I do this. For the rest of us, I'll cut to the chase. We have three main objectives in this operation: Our First-Priority is finding out what these pirates are up to, and ultimately stopping them. This objective will be split into two teams. The Captain, Maria, and Laurey will be meeting up with Mr. Anonymous Tipper. To be clear though, you're not just going there to listen to him spill some beans. He and his ally is also requesting your services to help him take these pirates down. Guy insists on a stealthy team, so you guys be prepared to do some sneaking around. Might even need to do some hacking which is where Laurey comes in." The holographic screen showed a map with three dots heading for a humanoid silhouette with a question mark on the face. Maria nodded when Joey gave his order, telepathically giving a summary of the situation everyone was currently in to Shineyd.
"On flipside of this objective is the team that will follow after the pirates themselves. I believe that team was Ki'Tlex, Alan, Flame, and the Little Caesar himself, Nero. The Pirates are currently moving about in the Outer Rim. Specifically, it looks like they're on their way to the Korta's home turf. Now, You guys already heard it from MS2, but it bears Repeating: you guys are in a difficult and volatile position, and basically, you're walking willingly into a trap. These pirates will be expecting you, and likely knows we want them dead. Good chance we're dealing with a dead man's switch for this trap, so we can't take any chances. As such, your mission is to follow after them and put a wrench in whatever they plans they may have at the time, and try to figure out what this trap is on your end, but do not kill them yet. ...I reiterate we have no idea what this trap is, but Moonstrike seems to have a guess, and sees it as a major threat. Falling for this trap and having it sprung on us, accidently or not, is not an option. That said, We'll get nowhere tip-toeing around without knowing anything. So, in the event our Tipper can't explain what this trap could be, you have permission to fight and get them near the point of pulling the proverbial trigger. Basically, poke at them to try to get them to show their hand without actually making them play that hand. Bottom-line: this one's gonna be tricky. So be careful." Joey explained, the hologram showing four dots heading for a typical jolly roger image.
"The next objective is to assist Moonstrike in this Civil War against the rebels that turned on us. This team will consist of Nirrti, Queen Anne, myself... and our new girl, Shineyd. Ideally, it'd be best for all of us if we could sit everyone down, talk it out, and get the facts straight. But these guys have made their decision regarding Moonstrike and as we speak, are on the attack; they're in no mood to talk, so we can't be either. We'll be jumping right into a warzone, lot of them are gonna be firing at us and we're gonna need to fire right back. We are to serve as Moonstrike's Cavalry and stop this fighting by any means necessary. A relatively simple mission, but don't think for a second it'll be easy. These guys are rebels just like us, so whatever we got for our arsenal, they probably got it too. Underestimate them at your peril." Three more dots headed into an explosion symbol overlaid by the symbols of Moonstrike and other Rebel cells.
"Which brings us to the most personal objective of the bunch: Search and Rescue for any and all family relatives to the Star Marines. Let me reiterate that this is a mission not given to us by Moonstrike, but a personal request by the Star Marines themselves. As such, it's only fair that Star Marines Avelyn, Narvia, and Ashton will be the ones responsible for taking care of this. What happened at the Bazaar has put you kids in a spotlight. If the Ascendancy didn't already know you lot were still alive, they do now, and the possibility of your families being targeted is no longer just a possibility. You all already know why Finnbar and Ms. Negotiator left us; Titan was attacked and thrusted into Civil War, and there's evidence to suggest someone outside Titan had a hand in it. We still don't know who's responsible for that, but it basically proves someone's on the move against your families. They clearly know a thing or two about black ops, which means there's a good chance whoever you're up against has read from the same books you guys did back in your Ascendancy days, so be careful." Three dots began going off the course of the others towards what appeared to be a gif of stick figures grabbing other stick figures from a platform seemingly surrounded by lava...Out of all of them, this was probably the most unprofessional looking of the bunch, clearly made last-minute.
"That's everyone's missions. If you have any questions, you should say them now. Otherwise, we begin the operation immediately. Each team's jumping on a ship to go their separate ways. Avelyn, My own ship has a bit of space to it. You can use that to rescue you guys' parents. The other two ships should work for our team and the Pirate hunters, Leaving the Captain and her team, with the Xuanxang itself." He puts a bow on his briefing and waits for someone to ask him a question, and if no question were asked, or if there were questions but no more after the ones answered, then the briefing is dismissed...
"Alrighty then guys and girls, We're commencing "Operation: Kraken". ...Let's sink these bastards." Joey then said, loading up one of his smaller guns between the two sentences, and walking out.
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