vietmyke

Under the scorching sun (Fantasy western)

@Hellion idea was someone who didn't care if being a thrill seeker killed him, to the point that it did in fact kill him eventually

Under the scorching sun (Fantasy western)

I've got a thought about an undead gunslinger, very personable and easygoing, bit of an adrenaline junkie

Under the scorching sun (Fantasy western)

Also have my eye on this if there's space!

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Galahad Caradoc

---

What Galahad was expecting to have been a relatively slow and relaxing day- as they had proclaimed they needed, was quickly turning out to be not nearly as slow nor relaxing as promised. He hadn't expected Izayoi to have been spotted so quickly, and yet somehow she was. Furthermore, he wasn't expecting- though perhaps not as surprised- that a messenger from his home had appeared, bidding them to all visit his family home. He sighed as he watched the courier scurry off, sending slightly furtive glances over his shoulder as he returned home. Elaine's appearance didn't make Galahad feel much better either- she looked like she'd been in a rather one sided fight. Which also likely did little to improve his appearances to his own home.

"You might be slightly surprised to find that I agree with you," Galahad sighed in response to Izayoi, "For some reason, the thought of the Limbtaker- former or otherwise- being so close in proximity to my family does not exactly fill me with a sense of joy."

Galahad sighed, pressing fingers against his furrowed brow. "Unfortunately, my father's requests are never quite voluntary. In all honesty, it would likely be safer for all parties involved, if all of us were to join my father at the family estate."

Orbis: The Liberation of Gyrland

Ingram Feng

---

"Engaging." Ingram confirmed as he pushed forward on his controls. Taking a few sluggish, running steps up the beach, Ingram made sure he was clear of the Cavalier before he reached out for his control panel and triggered the Ogre's booster. As the first missiles from the Cardinals crashed down, the dark beach was illuminated by a bright flare of intense blue afterburners, water vaporizing behind it as the Ogre surged forward. It's shield was held in front of its cockpit even as the other arm hurled it's held grenades across the beach. Ingram's head was pushed back into his seat as the sudden force exerted pressure on his body.

The beach rumbled as miniature explosives rippled across their lines. Any infantry or light vehicles caught in the overlapping explosions would've been shredded, but direct damage wasn't the prime intent of the toss. Rather, the explosions and smoke were meant to further increase confusion across the field. With any luck, in the darkness the Ruzis might have thought they were up against a force far larger than a scant half dozen frames.

Panicked return fire from small arms and light cannons flew through the chaos, ricocheting harmlessly off the Ogre's heavy armor and shield as it charged through the smoke. One of the lancers straggling from one of the patrols had stopped when it noticed the explosions, firing wildly into the smoke. Despite it's large size, the Ogre was already upon it, smoke and flame trailing from it's armor as it burst out of the smoke cloud, maul unsheathed and held low.

The Ogre swept low with it's giant maul, it's handle extending to it's full length as it crashed into the legs of the unfortunate lancer, metal crunching as it's legs crumpled underneath it. The ogre didn't so much as miss a beat, a heavy foot caving in the cockpit with a hefty step underfoot as it continued onwards towards the bunker.

Witnessing the explosion that the first bunker created as one of the twins destroyed it, Ingram opted not to swing his maul through the ceiling. The ogre was durable, but not quite that durable. Instead the Ogre shoved another pair of grenades into the open slot, quickly backing away before the resultant explosions sent the second bunker roof careening into the sky.

"Second Bunker down." Ingram reported, "If they didn't know before, they know we're here now."

Harold's Academy for the Magically Inclined

---

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◈ Day 1 ◈ Time: Night ◈ Weather: Moderate Rain ◈ Location: Main Ballroom ◈
Participants: Leah @Vietmyke Anastasia Arslan @Ti, Mentions: Raffaella Struna @Emeth, Lisa Goldheart @Frettzo

---

---

Leah had never really been much for balls, at least for the past few years she'd been so busy with the planning of them that it sort of spoiled the fun of it all. Still, not being Illuminaire meant that for the first time in what felt like ages, Leah actually had very few, if any responsibilities for the night- a sense of freedom the strict schedule-keeper was not entirely used to. Leah managed to mingle a bit, and partake in some of the refreshments afforded to them. Despite her feelings of being left out, Leah had to hand it to the student government this year- they'd really gotten everything cleaned up quite well. It seemed that everything was going smoothly.

Then came the music, not from the ballroom, but from beyond. A beautiful, haunting melody that sent shivers down Leah's spine, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on edge as a chorus of mournful notes dropped one after another. She recognized the song- how could she not, the melody had been drilled into her head from the day she was old enough to understand. A hunting melody of the Ni-Seraphi. Sweet and slow, and if one was unfamiliar, it might've been beautiful, but like waves of psychic energy the music held haunting malice behind every phrase. Leah had been preparing practically every day of her life for this moment.

So why was she so scared? Fear gripped Leah like the ice cold grip of her telekinesis. She was terrified, and thoroughly unprepared, despite how much training she'd already taken on. Time seemed to slow as Leah's breath caught in her throat. Tension, her entire body felt taught like a band, she felt ready to burst- she needed to do something, if only she could will her feet to move.

The resulting explosion moved Leah for her, thrown to the floor as the world around them shook. Decorations, ice sculptures and tables crashed around them, followed by the panicked cries of students. Like water rushing into an open breach, Leah found her faculties returning to her, and sprung to life. Adrenaline overwhelmed fear and inaction, and training kicked in. She was a Clearwater, descendant of Eusebia. Time to act like it. As Ana's voice cut through the din, Leah leaped into the air.

Corkscrewing in the air as she channeled her vitesse, Leah found a pair of ornate suits of armor in the ballroom and ripped them out of their alcoves with waves of telekinetic force. Perhaps because of the overwhelming adrenaline, Leah's finesse was slightly out of check, but not her strength as hunks of metal ripped roughly through the air and towards her, pieces of plate armor stopping a few inches away from her body.

"Ana!" Leah called out as she landed facing outward, in front of Anastasia and what students she'd gathered, hunks of metal hovering around her body like some sort of amalgamated steel golem ready to be sent forward to shield the students from harm. "I'm with you! Where do you need me?"

In Ana's hands was one of their first years, Raffaella, and a few more of the younger students had already began congregating towards them. Leah didn't spot any Ni-Seraphi within their vicinity just yet- though that was more likely because their initial strike wasn't targeting the ballroom itself. Breathing deeply, Leah reached down and tore the bottom of her dress off so she could move later. A shame that- it was a lovely thing, but right now they had bigger problems.

"Defenders! Form up!" Leah barked, "Seniors, find your juniors and squad up, prepare a defense! Experienced fighters in the front, juniors form a second line.

"You, you. With me." Leah commanded, pointing at the nearest two combat mystics she could find, her eyes still scanning the ballroom itself. "Dammit, where's Lisa?"

The Envenomed: Military Science Fiction Deniable Operations

ECHO DOMAIN - PLATFORM #2884

Regardless of what anyone was saying or doing, as soon as Echo had probable locations on any of their unknown gusts, their locations were immediately pushed to the HUDs of everyone in the squad. Still playing dumb, Echo kept its microforms inconspicuously and surreptitiously moving towards cover as they continued 'scouting'. Its weapons weren't pointed in the right direction, still idly scanning as though they hadn't detected any of their targets just yet- moving at the speed of thought, it wouldn't be difficult for Echo to reorient its weapons in the right direction should fighting break out.

Still, Rasch and Ilshar seemed to be moving in the direction of de-escalation. De-escalation was notably not a skill in Echo's wheelhouse. Unztadlige were not beings of meant to defuse conflict, they were meant to end conflict- violently at that. Still, what time it spent in the ranks of the Intranszjednota had taught the platform that sometimes not shooting everything was sometimes the quickest way to end conflict. A strange paradox for sure, but for now Echo would follow Rasch's lead. Along with Ilshar, the two humanoids seemed to have a more firm grasp on the intricacies of covert operations than it did.

At the sound of Kleo's voice, the Endoform turned its optical sensor towards the object that the human held out to it. Object unknown. Object appears to be grenade. Use case most likely similar. The robotic voice replied a bit unhelpfully. Even Echo- a purpose built warmachine knew that tossing a grenade in the middle of a tense standoff might just be the thing that took it over the red line. Doubtful still that a human arm could toss it far enough to be effective given the approximate location of the unknowns.

This platform is League-unaffiliated. Request: State affiliations and intentions. The large Unztadlige broadcasted over its external speakers, its weapons lowering to the equivalent of a 'ready' stance, but not powering down. Not that the Unztadlige was capable of powering down its weapons anyway- the weapons were as much the Unztadlige as its coral core. Anyone that knew anything of Unztadlige knew that the concept of lying was foreign to most- if not all of them. On the rare occasions that they did speak, they spoke simply and truthfully. Clarification: This unit is not dressed.

Orbis: The Liberation of Gyrland

Ingram Feng

---

Introductions were made and orders were dolled out. His was by and large the most simple: A straight run up the middle. To be fair, line breaking was what the Ogre was built for, and in these terrible weather conditions, it was better for him to charge right at the enemy than to get lost faffing about in the wings. A wall of bunkers was a simple problem, and a frontal assault was the simple solution to said problem, so Ingram had no complaints. Had he been in the commander's shoes, he too would've sent the Ogre down the middle. What remained to be seen was the efficacy of their flanks. The majority of their frames were lightweight and not suited to heavy return fire. If they couldn't wrap up their respective bunkers quickly, Ingram would quickly find himself outflanked.

The introduction of their resident AI was a bit of a surprise. AI weren't anything that Ingram had ever seen first hand, so being introduced to one a few short moments before their first mission set him on edge. He didn't really trust anything he couldn't manipulate with his own hands, and the thought of a machine reading all about them and their backgrounds wasn't exactly something he was a huge fan of. As far as the mission itself went, time would tell if it was an asset or a detriment to their operations, but Ingram would've preferred a heads up or a practice run with it first- who knew what would happen if it went on the fritz in the middle of a battle.

All of his thoughts were pushed to the side however as the hangar doors opened, opening up the inside of the crawler to the monsoon outside. The Ogre took a few trudging steps off the crawler before crashing into the water below, where it began its slow climb to the beach. As expected, he could barely see anything, even using his frame's combined sensors and detection suite, he could barely make out the outlines of the beach and bunkers through the chaos of the storm.

Pulling the Ogre up alongside the Cavalier, Ingram lined himself up with the central bunker- if all went to plan, he'd move straight to it and smash it before wheeling around on what defenses they had. He quickly checked his comms, so far everything was still steady and strong. A few adjustments to his controls, and the Ogre's manipulators pulled out a pair of its grenades from their storage containers. It didn't seem like they'd been spotted yet, but they still only had a limited amount of time to get the job done. It was times like these when Ingram wished they'd had more practice together, so they could strike as a team, instead of carefully gauging each other's aggression so as to not get closed in on when one of them ultimately overstretched.

Ingram looked up as he heard the voice of the twins and Rimau crackle across the comm network. Reaching out to trigger his own comms, Ingram reported in as well.

"Shikari. I've got a line on the central bunker. Best we all strike at once. Waiting on signal."

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Galahad Caradoc

---

It seemed like coffee was the order of the day, Galahad concluded as the others chimed in on the idea of visiting coffee shops. He couldn't lie, taking rest when it came was important, and it wasn't as though Galahad was partial to coffee himself- who knows when they'd be able to come back after all. They might die in Osprey, what with the Valheim out there. The opinions were varied, a few seemed excited at the idea, while others- like Leifur seemed less enthused. Galahad couldn't help but chuckle as the gruff viera commented on how the coffee shops here couldn't have been that different from one another.

"Well, Leifur, you'd be right and wrong about that." Galahad commented, "Since all of these shops are more or less in competition with each other, a lot of them will try to stand out from the crowd with all manner of gimmicks and novelties. Unfortunately, they often eschew quality in pursuit of said novelties. As a result, they all start feeling rather samey- they're tourist traps, really."

Glancing over at the coffee shop that Neve had pointed out, Galahad nodded approvingly. "It appears our Neve has an eye for quality," Galahad chuckled, "My local opinion says that the best shops are the homier ones, that don't try to wow you with Dragonscale infused beans or Cactaur-nettle blends- like this one."

The coffee shop in question, was a hospitable, if small little building, built mostly of faded brick and warm woods. A sign above the door noted the shop's name as "Mara & Malen's". Most of its seating consisted of outdoor seating, both outside the shop by the street, and on the second floor and its adjoining balcony. The main floor itself displayed itself mostly as a storefront. Low shelves and tables laden with freshly baked breads, cakes and pastries formed a small aisle that one could take a tray and walk through, picking out what they wanted before reaching the coffee bar and till. The coffee bar in question was a mess of grinders and coffee machines, with quaint menus and prices listed out on hand written boards on the wall.

A short, older mystrel woman with prominent grey streaks in her hair waved at them as Arton pulled the door open, the scent of fresh bread and coffee cutting clean through whatever stench was lining the streets. "Welcome to Mara & Malen's." The woman greeted warmly, "Ah! Lord Caradoc, what a pleasant surprise! Welcome, make yourself at home."

Galahad nodded and smiled faintly at the woman as he ducked beneath the admittedly low frame of the door, gesturing towards the rest of the party to enter as well. "Hello there Mara, I've brought a few companions with me today, go ahead and add them to my tab."

"I recommend the flan," Galahad commented to Arton idly as they waited for the rest of the party.

The Envenomed: Military Science Fiction Deniable Operations

ECHO DOMAIN - PLATFORM #2884

Echo came to a halt as the squad took what cover was available. The Warform continued to hunker in place, as the Endoform too hunkered nearby the rest of the squad. The interference it was noticing was messing with its effective 'vision', but the link between the myriad forms remained steady. Its scanners regarded the mangled vrexul corpses before them. In some ways, the Vrexul and Unztadtlige had a sort of unspoken rivalry about them, filling many of the same roles only differing in biological versus mechanical. But, even if such a rivalry existed, these specific vrexul were allies, and whatever had taken them out, were capable of posing a threat to even Echo's durable armor.

As one of the Microforms felt the infrared lasers mark its position, it continued to maintain its course, as to not alert whoever was targeting it. If Echo showed them that it knew it was being targeted, that might set the trap off then and there. So long as Echo maintained the equivalence of being unaware, the unknowns might wait a moment longer before engaging. The other drone began to slowly return to the piles of rubble, searching for cover while maintaining the appearance of scouting.

The next step was to use the angle of the laser painting Echo's microform to trace it back to potential target locations, the main platform quickly running calculations as the marked drone continued to play dumb. The Endoform hunched down, switching to vocal communications to avoid interception, though keeping the voice low enough to prevent prying ears.

Caution advised. Unknown target has marked Microform 02: Attempting deception. Attempting trace. Warning. Unknown frequencies detected within Vrexul corpses. Recommendation: Avoid Approach.

Once Echo had managed to trace back the laser to its possible origin, the platform would attempt to extrapolate other possible angles of attack and relay all of that information into the squad net, marking the locations on the HUDs of its team.