vietmyke

SPIRITUM

Gerard Biserus

"Love the optimistic outlook, boss." Gerard chuckled sarcastically, but didn't otherwise argue the point. The princess for her part seemed to be concerned at the thought that others might have known about her innate properties without telling her- though she seemed most alarmed at the fact that she was only now learning about this, from what more or less amounted to a group of enemy soldiers no less. Unsurprisingly, none of them- save Silje seemed too keen on being particularly kind to her, not that she could really blame them. Collette more or less fell silent, stiffly nodding at the suggestion/declaration/order to continue the mission. It was true, the sooner they parted ways, the easier everything would likely be for all parties included.

Not wanting to waste Ivan's stock- but not necessarily having the ability to smuggle things through checkpoints, the squad took what they needed, and shoved what they could into necessary mist pockets. An impromptu bonfire later, and the WARDENs were piled back onto the truck and on their way.

---

Dunbarton

The next day.

Following the crash site, the drive was surprisingly uneventful- luckily for them. Save for a rather large pothole that rattled their breakfasts, the next day found the WARDENs once again unmolested until the city of Dunbarton began to show up on the horizon. Dunbarton was an old city- older than the Capital city of Orestia by far. Supposedly having been around since the late middle ages, Dunbarton originally began as a trading outpost, connecting the upper cliffs of the region with the forested lowlands, and for a stretch of time during the budding years of Rassvet as a nation served as its Capital for a time. The old bones of the city had been rebuilt several times at this point, both old and new buildings combined together in a hodgepodge of styles and purpose.

Nowadays, Dunbarton wasn't really forgotten about, but it was hardly a tourist destination. Outside of some centuries old museums about ancient heroes and the site of the nation's oldest power plant. Their were rumors of an undercity built in the wall of stone underneath the city proper, but no official acknowledgement of it had ever crossed the WARDEN's notice.

"We'll be out of your hair soon enough, princess." Gerard commented idly, poking his head out of one of the flaps on the side of the truck to observe the oddly arranged city skyline. "Just gotta find Veld's agents in all of this. Speaking of, how are we-" As if on cue, Gerard's phone- the one they'd used to contact Veld with, buzzed. It was a text from an unknown number, and the message had nothing but a series of numbers. "Oh, of course, why send us an address when they could just give us a coordinate string. God forbid someone types out a street name."

Poking his head into the truck cabin itself, Gerard took a peak around. "Veld's boys sent nothing about getting us past a checkpoint, so I guess we're on our own with that." Gerard remarked, as the Barghest's truck slowly pulled into a small line in front of the city checkpoint, a quartet of tired looking guards waving vehicles in one at a time.

"Halt." Came the tired command of one of the checkpoint guards as the battered old truck rolled up. "Papers. Purpose of visit." He recited tiredly, basically off a script as another guard walked around behind the truck to poke his head in the back. "Lot of you in here, ain't it? What yall doin' in a surplus truck?"

Regalia

---

_{[Location] Landow, Estren
[Time] Sunday, 07:00 AM
[Mentions] @Teyao@Mirandae}

"You are a kind sort, no doubt!" Akamu grinned, scratching the back of his head as the man before them introduced himself as Matthias Voss. Akamu didn't recognize the name, nor did he quite put two and two together with the man's more fiery personality. Akamu had never considered calling Mother Gaia or Titan a 'they' or 'them', but he supposed the customs of people were different in different regions of the continent. Accadians at the very least had a very 'familiar' style of worship when it came to the Dominants. Especially among South Accadians, shrines, rituals and prayers to the Dominants were often performed at the community level, with an intimacy close to that of families or neighbors. A bit unfortunate on the man's part that he'd found the two Accadians to ask such a question of, at least if he were looking for something a bit more philosophical. "Unsure if I'd call my line of thinking 'deep', as my kaikuahine says, for us, Hakuna Matata is sort of a way of life. We're a simple people- we just do what needs to be done."

Any further discussion was derailed by the presence of some countless number of falling stars, which captured the attention of most of those around them- particularly the children, though Akamu was no exception himself. He'd never seen so many fall in such quick succession, even during the clearest nights in Accadia. As Matthias excused himself, Akamu offered a friendly, if a bit confused nod, and waved him off regardless. "Next time then, hoaloha!"

Feeling rather than hearing the sound of his own head of security, approaching in tandem with Laura's, Akamu leaned over as the man beckoned for him to listen, gently dropping the children hanging from his arms to the ground. "Mister Lafaele," the guard more or less echoing what was being said to Laura. "We recommend moving away from the harbor. Our security specialists recommend relocating to the Downtown area." Akamu cocked a confused eyebrow at the man.

"Why? Is there something dangerous happening?" Akamu asked quietly, his voice low enough to remain undetected by the children around them, though his demeanor grew a bit more serious for a change.

"Unsure at this time." The security personnel replied, "Unlikely at best, but this is just a precaution. Miss Genevieve's team will be relocating her to the Downtown area as well. I think it'd be safest to keep both Accadian Regalia fairly close so our teams can support one another in case of any actual danger."

"I suppose that makes sense, strength in numbers and whatnot." Akamu nodded after a moment of thought. "If your team can spare it, reassign a few of them to Gaia's detail. I can make do with less- just, don't overcrowd her. Or make it too obvious."

"Wait for me, Kika!" Akamu chuckled boisterously, any hint of seriousness quickly hidden away as his bounds overtook Laura's smaller steps quite easily. There were more cheers and giddy laughter as Akamu's broad arms popped one of the children onto his shoulders, the child pulling at his hair and pointing forward excitedly. "Can't get rid of me that easily," He chuckled, his eyes glancing over as his security captain walked alongside Laura's, their two helmets dipping closer together as they exchanged words and nods, coordinating their next steps. Catching the polarized faceplate of Laura's security captain Akamu gave him a subtle nod, but didn't acknowledge the shifting of personnel otherwise. His eyes spotted the rather obvious figures of other security personnel from other teams- all of them starting to filter their charges towards the Downtown area as well. Akamu may have been a bit concerned, but as his own security had told him- this appeared to be mostly precautionary.

"Seems we're not the only ones with a similar idea," Akamu noted, glancing around, his height allowing him a better view than Laura might have had. "Anyway, I hear Landow is known for its seafood, wonder how well it stacks up to back home ah?"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Galahad Caradoc

---

The past few days had brought Galahad little comfort, broken rib and injured shoulder aside, the thought of Valon having joined the enemy troubled him. He'd yet to talk it over in depth with the others, as he was busy trying to get his head wrapped around the idea itself. Valheim now had their own dragoons- fake as they were, they still had potential against the people of their lands, perhaps the Kirins were a bit too much sport for them to handle, but an average infantryman? That begged the question, just how long had Valon been a traitor, to have trained them like he did, and were there more than just him? What or who was this 'True King' he mentioned? Valheim? Valon had more or less made himself an enemy of the crown with such a statement. Even after his wounds healed, his mind remained troubled still.

Drana Asnaeu, even it's idyllic city of Costa Del Sol, would grant them little reprieve it seemed. Guardsmen accosted the the moment they stepped off the ship, spears pointed and tensions flaring almost immediately. As Esben made his attempts to smooth things over, Galahad placed an armored arm protectively in front of their white mage, though it seemed more spears were pointed at him than at her.

Eliane, for her part laid things out rather plainly, Team Kirin- though perhaps not starting as such, was now more or less a combined delegation of both Skael and Edren representatives- one could even argue Ciradyl and Izayoi constituted representatives of Osprey's government in exile. The Kirins may have been outmatched numerically, but as Valheim's continued attempts to defeat them had proved, they were certainly not outmatched in quality and skill.

Tucking his helmet in the crook of his arm, his wicked halberd- for the lack of a better place to store it- resting on his shoulder, Galahad merely glanced at the men surrounding them and shrugged.

"They speak the truth. We are not abductors, quite the opposite in fact." Galahad said in a tired voice, glancing around at the speartips pointed at them. "I do believe my dearest cousin, Leonhart VII would be rather upset to learn if I've been taken into custody, after all we have been led to believe that our nations have shared fruitful relations up until this point. To put it plainly: rest your spears. I believe this is best a matter settled with words and the Grovemasters, armed conflict will benefit few, nor would I feel comfortable harming the countrymen of a dear friend."

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

Rathello

---

This boss was proving to be a bit hardier than Rath had expected out of a C level dungeon. Engaging enough of a fight that the game was still fun, though not so tough that he was struggling to keep his life. Honestly, between his own regeneration and Elian's healing, Rath probably still had more hit points than several of their squishier members combined- even as he soaked up damage as it came through. He was glad to have other members of the party calling things out as they saw, it was hard for him to communicate in wildshape, so having the others on top of things was nice. Even Goibnu, who was rather underleveled for this dungeon was performing admirably despite his lesser focus on combat compared to others of their group.

Electrified claws tore at spawn as they came close, rending through them as Rath continued pushing their advantage, following the boss as it backed away from them. The Death Knight's minions were finally breaking through the lines of spawn, presenting the party with an opening. Surging forward, Bear-Rath charged and leapt at the boss, hoping to use his weight and claws to pin the boss down in place, setting it up for more damage from the rest of the party.

Getting in its face, Rath let out a thunderous roar, aiming the shock wave to hit both the boss and the newest batch of enemy spawn.

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

Been slowly knocking out all of my replies for my rps, this one is next!

The Things We Fight For

---

An explosion followed by the scream of a sonic boom could be heard overhead as the Wyverne zipped across the sky. Vapor cones formed around and trailed behind its wings as the pilot's squadnet was filled with the high pitched sounds of a woman hurling obscenities and taunts at creatures that could neither hear nor understand her. Practically as deadly as her missiles, some of her more colorful insults could've even made a sailor blush. Clearing the skies above them was a tall ask of two fliers, but they were managing, as jetsam after jetsam exploded in balls of fire, debris raining down on the heads above them.

"Fuck! Shit! Fuck! I've got one- no, two on my tail!" A panicked voice cut through the midst of Sabine's chatter. His lit up name on the tacnet identified him as 'Hefron', the other flier in their small ad hoc unit. Sabine glanced over her shoulder and spotted him, his mech trailing after hers, a pair of Jetsams on his ass. His machine was a bit older, and it's shoulder thruster was currently leaking smoke and sputtering as he took a burst of laser fire to the back. Damaged, but still intact, still in the fight. "Increase speed, maintain course, I've gotcha." Sabine cut in, her voice clean and crisp- a marked difference compared to her sailor swearing just moments earlier. As the two jetsams lined up behind Hefron to put him down, Sabine cut speed and yanked up on her controls.

The Wyverne's nose pitched up, the mech suddenly cutting to a fraction of its speed as Sabine initiated an impromptu cobra maneuver, loosing a missile simultaneously. Hefron and one of the jetsams rocketed by her, the jetsam flew headlong into the missile, exploding in a ball of fire, the explosion scorching the armor both Sabine and Hefron's mechs, but superficially at most. The other jetsam found itself with a 30 ton mech flying into its face as Sabine shifted the Wyverne back into its biped mode mid maneuver. A beam saber in the Wyverne's left hand sprang to life as the two machines collided. Sabine's cockpit rattled as the jetsam fired its laser cannons wildly, a few shots scoring hits on her, warning signs flying across her HUD before the Wyverne silenced it with a stab into its core.

The jetsam's core sparked and flared, as Sabine punched her controls and kicked off of the abberrant, strafing away as it exploded.

"I do love me some clear skies," Sabine chuckled, "Hey Howie, did you see-" Sabine's voice and face on the comms disappeared in a wash of static as the shrimp fired, it's waves of light cutting through the area and interfering with the comms for a split second. Just the backwash of the blast was enough to nearly send the fwo fliers into a tailspin. Sabine whistled low as the shrimp made itself known. "Well that's an unpleasant little fucker, isn't it?"

The commander's voice finally cut through the din. They were going to have to split their already thin forces into three. Well, their odds were already bad, but desperate times heralded desperate measures. The damaged mechs were staying in place with the infantry to hold back the tide, with Howie at their lead. Rudis was taking a few to handle the Shrimp before it vaporized their static position. Which meant...

The Wyverne screamed to ground level, shifting to its biped mode and landing with a heavy thud, its rotary gun opening up to clear the immediate area and give the men and women on the ground at least a modicum of breathing room. Its massive thrusters flared, ready to kick off at a moment's notice. She was going for the princess- Sabine didn't much fancy her chances as a solo aircraft flying into the shrimp's AA guns, and while valiant last stands were fun, they didn't exactly suit her mech's specifications.

"All aboard bitches, we're going hunting!" Sabine's voice drawled over both the squadnet and her external speakers. "Take care of the boys, Kirkie- don't die yet." Sabine called out in a sickly sweet voice, swapping back to the squadnet, "I want to go duty-free shopping at the spaceport after this, and it'd be nice to have an entourage."

Regalia

---

_{[Location] Landow, Estren
[Time] Sunday, 06:00 AM
[Mentions] @Teyao@Mirandae}

Akamu's laughter was from his core, and borderline threatened to shake the earth. To those next to him, it certainly may have felt as though rumbles and tremors were all around them, as he bent down for Laura. The two of them often struck an odd pair of Accadians, Akamu standing head and shoulders taller than his smaller compatriot. In many ways the two of them embodied the soul of the Accadian people: Opposites in some ways, north and south, large and small, separated by tradition and modernity, but sharing a similar spirit. Akamu beamed his ever famous bright, toothy smile at Laura as she accepted her gift, though cocked an eyebrow as she fussed over his safety.

"Trouble? Why- what trouble?" The large Accadian asked, genuinely confused, though touched by Laura's worry nonetheless. Akamu was always the type to run into a fire for others- it was literally his job. Though despite the inherit danger fire often held, Akamu himself never really felt any sense of fear. Not necessarily out of a lack of self-preservation instincts, but rather a confidence in his strength. The fact that in a worst case scenario he could cover himself in stone always helped as well. Stone didn't burn- and while he ran the risk of baking himself in an earthen oven of his own making, Akamu could typically just throw himself out of a fire just as easily as he threw himself into one. "No need to worry your pretty head about me, Kika." Akamu grinned, fondly patting the top of the smaller Accadian's hair. "Titan protects me so I can protect others- and I'm sure if I get into a real pinch, Mother Gaia will save me as well." He added, glancing at Gaia's shrine and gave her icon a broad wink.

Any and all thoughts of confusion or worry about personal safety quickly disappated as Akamu was subsequently stormed by a mob of children- all of them followers of Gaia. Not that Akamu ever worried much about that. He was nearly as devout in his reverence of Mother Gaia as he was with Titan, the relative closeness of the Dominants seemingly reflected in their Regalia. Children clambered onto him and some half dozen hung off of his broad arms as he spun them around like a sort of carnival ride.

Though he originally meant to excuse himself from Laura's conversation, it seemed her visitor had a mind to talk to both of them. Akamu grinned, giving Laura the lightest of elbows. "Hear that Kika? Landshaker. I like that name!" The man in question was tall and seemed intense, he had a seriousness about him that Akamu found atypical of Accadians- though this man wasn't Accadian, so that probably made sense. Not that Akamu thought lesser of the man for it of course, it just wasn't his style personally.

"Ah, purpose?" Akamu scratched the back of his head idly as he thought on the question, a few children laughing behind him as they dangled and fell off of his arm. "Not sure if I know anything about that. I do what I do and Titan keeps granting me his blessing, so I suppose I'm doing something right."

"I don't really pray to Titan- not in the typical way. Titan sees my value through my actions, and I see him through them as well. Unsure if that answers your question adequately." Akamu shrugged and looked over at Laura. "Kika?"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Galahad Caradoc

---

"Etro be damned, what now?!" Galahad grunted as the ship began to rock harshly. In a moment like this, Galahad was almost glad that he was pinned upright to the mast. Almost. He saw and felt Neve's healing light slowly filtering across the deck and took the opportunity to rip Valon's spear out of his shoulder. Blood spurted for but a moment before Neve's spell sealed it, soothing the wound and dulling the pain, though not completely.

The mess happening around them was hardly a hopeful sight, but it was a far sight better than where they were a few moments ago. At the very least Valon and the remnants of his faux-dragoons were pulling back, though the Kirins still had a Siren in the water to deal with. In the chaos of the fighting, Galahad hadn't realized that Esben too had been sent overboard, but a quick glance to the side of the ship displayed the Kirins' current rescue efforts. Unorthodox was something of an understatement, as Izayoi had literally split the sea, sending the two flailing Kirins high into the air. Arton and Rudolf covered their allies, as Miina prepared spell and Robin used speed in an attempt to reach them before Eve and Esben fell back into the sea. Unfortunately, Galahad could already see the angle of her swing, she'd miss them by a mere foot or two.

Ignoring the pain on his shoulder, Galahad sprinted for the side of the ship, his eyes darting between Robin, Eve, Esben and the Siren as he rushed a series of haphazard calculations in his mind. A long shot, but the best plan he could figure to keep everyone relatively alive and unscathed.

Deck wood splintered and cracked as Galahad kicked off the deck, his body hurtling past Robin, and towards Eve and Esben. As he passed by the two falling Kirins, Galahad planted his foot on Esben's back, and kicked off of him, pushing the two into the swinging Robin's grasp, and him careening into the water.

Armor and water hardly mixed, but as Izayoi's cut had removed some of the water from the equation, it allowed Galahad to crash into the water but an arm's length away from the inert Siren. On another day, at another time, Galahad might've considered what he was about to do to be disrespectful of the dead and dying- but with water threatening to fill the void and crush him beneath its weight, it was hardy the time to worry about that. Galahad muttered a short apology of sorts as he more or less climbed on top of the sinking body and used it as a surface to jump off of.

Not nearly as good as solid ground, but infinitely better than trying to jump on water, Galahad got just enough air to avoid the crashing water, waves pulling at his feet as a dull thunk was heard against the side of the ship. Embedding his halberd and dagger into the side of the ship, Galahad's shoulder radiated pain, as he used the two weapons to slowly climb his way back up to the ship's deck. Galahad rolled onto the deck with an ungainly thunk, perhaps less than graceful then expected of one of his station. It was times like these where he envied the Eve's ability to basically fly.

The Envenomed: Military Science Fiction Deniable Operations

ECHO DOMAIN - PLATFORM #2884

Echo watched the ensuing back and forth with something akin to confusion. Its request for reduced unnecessary communications having been seemingly ignored. The Endoform's broad shoulders moved in what was seemingly akin to a frustrated sigh, though no sound other than the creaking of metal plates was heard. The potential conflict was seemingly defuse and its interference was no longer necessary. Echo's collective forms stood up to exit, seemingly finished with the current interaction, though did pause as it turned to the support team's squad leader.

"Notice. Echo Platform entity: 'Warform' will be attached to support team. Notice. Forwarding technical weapons data. Elaboration. Direct fire platform to be assigned to support unit. Elaboration. Warform will provide direct link and exact coordinates to away team. Notice. Etheric interference may have effect on coordinate accuracy. Elaboration. Will manually update coordinate location as necessary."

The Endoform's 'head' turned towards the rest of the team.

"Alert. This communication has reached conclusion. Request. Please proceed to staging area."

SPIRITUM

Gerard Biserus

"Wait Kali-" Any further protests by the snake oil salesman was quickly cut off by Kalina's blade snipping his tracheal artery. Hands grasped at his throat, as though he were attempting to keep the blood from spilling out of his throat. He gurgled something that was probably something along the lines of 'Fucking bitch', but his final words were hardly audible to any but the most adept ears in the vicinity.

Gerard tutted in annoyance as he quickly took a step back, scowling as a splatter of blood found it's way onto the hem of his pants. "Dammit Kali." Gerard grumbled, shaking off what blood he could, proverbially and literally washing his hands of the situation, grabbing an armfull of hand weapons as a consolation. "What a waste of mist, I shouldn't have even bothered healing him. Why bother burying him? just torch him with the RV."

Making his way over to the truck, Gerard tuned in just in time to watch Collette cock a confused eyebrow at Justice and Silje. "I-I don't understand." Collette replied, watching Silje point to seemingly random spots around her in bewilderment. "What do you mean leaking? Humans don't leak mist- that implies-" The young princess nervously took a step back as Silje implied keeping her and turning her into a war machine. "W-wait a minute-"

"Well this trip just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? More party favors for you, boss." Gerard drawled, handing Justice some half dozen of assorted weapons for her ever growing and shrinking arsenal of throwaway tools. _{"Warhammer, tactical tomahawk, another breaching axe- oh, two actually, rifle, big pointy stick, cavalry saber- how archaic, why are did he even buy that..."}

"This is the first I've heard of this." Collette insisted, "My father had assigned me some of the best tutors available when it came to using magic- surely one of them would've noticed-"

"Or maybe they're just not as good as we are." Gerard interrupted with a wink, "Though I'll be honest, until you pointed it out, to me it just looked like you're poking at air." Gerard shrugged.

"Does this change the plan any? We were always going to have to be sneaky with her anyway- now we just need to be sneakier." Glancing back at the wreck, Gerard shrugged. "Sooner we hand her off to Veld's spooks, the better, I say."