OOC: Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's just every time I went to post I realised that that meant I'd have to do battle rolls and stuff, and I was like "eeehhhhh I can do it tomorrow". I'm the best at procrastinating. Big Game Hunting Fordington, Forge: The Drakes, attracted by the warmth that Lyra's fire created, began to head over to the flaming patch of land. The little drakes began to fight among themselves for the fire, but were quickly overpowered by the big drake who made itself comfortable in the fire. Fordington, Wizards District: Bryce, like a boss, stepped forward and swung his battleaxe bravely! Unfortunately he was super tired and completely missed, almost hitting Aedan! Aedan backed into a corner He then used Overgrowth on the tiles. Congrats. There's now grass. Tada. He then made some brambles happen. The skeletal drake made a noise that could have been a chuckle as Bryce lunged ahead, swinging wildly. It looked over to the man with the rifle, but as it contemplated heading towards him suddenly thorny brambles sprouted out of the ground around the man. It growled and turned back to the exhausted warrior, its skull contorting into a twisted and humourless smile. It snapped forward suddenly and clamped its jaws around the man's arm. Though it couldn't quite bite through the metal armour, a cold began to spread from the bite and ice crystals began to form on the armour slowly. The drake did not let go. The Frost Drake then decided to act. It uses Frostbite! It bites Bryce's arm and holds on Bryce's armour fortunately negates the damage, but his arm is slowly freezing. Bryce is made cold. Sanderson reloaded his rifle. Darklight Disturbance Arak'Un, Rayyad's House Rayyad was slightly overwhelmed by all these people talking at him but his attention was drawn to the one who was accusing him. Laurentinus was it? Rayyad hardly heard what he was saying but he got the message. "Oh... that wasn't me that was... him" he said nervously, before screwing his eyes shut and holding his hands against his head "You won't believe me! None of them ever did! It wasn't me it was him. The guy who lives in my head and works as hard as he possibly can to make my life a living hell! I hate him! And he hates me! And we fight together and go down in a downward spiral, this always f*cking happens! It happened in the village too it happened in the forest it happened with the other guys and why!?" Rayyad bashed his head against a nearby wall "GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD" he yelled forgetting the others were there. For a moment he paused. Then half-turned, staring at the group with tear-stained cheeks "...I'm sorry" he whispered softly, before beginning to walk slowly towards the palace "...Come on..."
"Hey, I also got the man part right. Want me to prove it?" Alexei grinned as he leaned against a wall, arms folded. Serious conversations weren't really his thing so he didn't really pay attention. "Well it looks like everything's fine here. I'd better get back to doing whatever it is I do around here. I haven't even reported to my new boss yet" he laughed shortly. That was the good thing abotu being unimportant, nobody really cared what you were doing as long as you looked like you were doign work most of the time "Nice to meet you inspector" he nodded respectfully at the man, before winking at Clarity "See you around Clarity. Unless there's anything else?" The Scout wandered among the ruins of the once-great Cirifex city. It was all alien to the man, a Varuna. He was comfortable with uncharted space, but this was just beyond anything he'd seen before. Alien geometry, indecipherable scrawlings written in chalk on the sides of old rusted bits of metal, as if they were written by some madman. Little did he know, he was right. Then there was the machine itself, a great hulking construction, a massive circle. Like an enormous turbine, with alien lights and patterns covering it, most of it falling apart and buried in sand. The scout stared up in wonder at the machine "Le Gasp!" Came a voice from a behind him. Shrill, yet deep. It seemed to echo through the man's mind "Could it be?" the voice oscillated. The scout turned, gun raised, the find the source of the voice. But he could see nothing "A new student!" The voice was behind him this time, and as he turned there was suddenly a man in a suit with a white mask and a cane. The man approached him ecstatically. The scout, terrified, raised his gun and started to shoot. But as abruptly as he had appeared, the strange man was gone. Suddenly, white gloved hands from behind him ripped the gun out of his grasp "No guns in the classroom" Saturday instructed disparagingly, before forcing the dumbfounded scout to sit down on a rock. He ran over to a makeshift blackboard and took out a piece of chalk "Right, so what can you tell me about the nature of dark matter?" he questioned, gun aimed right at the man's forhead "Please! I'll give you anything? Just let me live!" the scout pleaded. Saturday's one eye glinted in anticipation "Oh I'm not going to use this thing, it's just to prove a point" he waved the gun in the air recklessly. Suddenly the gun released a couple of shots into the air "Whoops. It would be a shame if that attracted a rescue party" Saturday said without humour, eyes glaring at the ships orbiting the planet "Anyway, you said you'd give me anything right? Okay. Give me the value for X" Saturday began scrawling an equation on the blackboard. His hand moved quicker than the human eye could follow as numbers began to appear in the form of an excruciatingly long equation "Solve. I'll give you ten seconds, that should be long enough"
White queen was startled. They had a lot of money on them they were willing to trade and it was unneeded. She exchanged a glance with Black Rook, he rolled his eyes. "I wet the bed until I was 13 years old" He mumbled under his breath. White Queen raised an eyebrow. Black Rook looked away. She turned back to Hestia "Very well... Forgive me father for I have sinned" White Queen said sarcastically "I stole from a candy shop when I was 10 years old" She admitted Nick raised his eyebrow as the girl came to get them "Strange. I guess we'd better not leave her waiting" He said as he followed Morrigan "Danger?" Masque said nervously. Honestly, if there was danger he didn't want to get close to it... but if Morrigan was involved somehow... then something struck him "But this is Gaia's jungle, what could possibly be dangerous? Doesn't she have supreme power over everything?" if the others were in danger then that could only mean Gaia was letting them get in danger... and if Gaia was against them they were all doomed. Masque suddenly exploded "Stop trying to trick me! It won't work! I hate being tricked!" But the guy was moving away. Masque followed angrily, he hated being tricked but he would find the source of this trickery.
Timothy was about to follow Kala into battle, metal fists raised to attack, when suddenly he caught something out of the corner of his eyes. Woman. Injured. On the battlefield. Friend or foe? It mattered not, for she had certainly not harmed Ms Kala, nor could she if she intended to. He slowed down, his momentum difficult to stop, and ran away from Kala and the battle towards the injured woman on the battlefield "Worry not Ms Kala! I shall return!" He yelled backwards politely. Come to think of it, there were a lot of injured, but alive, people on the battlefield. They would all need assisstance. Timothy strode over to the woman on the ground "Good afternoon" He greeted pleasantly. He gently picked her up and took her away from the main battlefield. Behind a small dune, he set her down "Be more careful next time, young lady" he warned, before placing a cup of tea next to the strange woman, and disappearing as abruptly as he'd appeared.
Sparky had a feeling this Clarity would become one of his only friends on the starship, he could have bantered with her all day long but it was time for her to go. Alexei gave Clarity a quizzical but good-humoured expression as she made a reference he did not understand, and then she was gone. He could hear conversation though, clearly she had quite literally dropped in on someone. "Blackmail, sir?" Sparky smiled as he dropped out of the vent, being careful not to land on his co-conspirator. "All I was doing, sir, was performing routine maintenance. It's hardly my fault she decided to follow me. Perhaps she couldn't resist the romantic idea of crawling around where she shouldn't be with a roguishly handsome young man" Alexei grinned and winked at Clarity "Ensign Alexei Pavlov, sir. Don't worry, I won't tell the captain. You can drug yourself up as much as you like, sir"
"You're a cruel man" More than you'll ever know Alexei thought to himself, but on the outside only smiled at the joke as they crawled through the tunnel. He was facing forward so she wouldn't be able to see the sadness that flickered across his face for less than a second. "Oh believe me, many have appreciated this art" He said with a little wiggle. As they continued through the tunnels she asked some more of him "Long enough to get a basic idea of the ship, but it's really new, I haven't had much chance" eventually, Alexei stopped and analysed a nearby machine while biting his lip. He flashed a smile at Clarity "You have arrived at your destination" recklessly, he knocked out a ceiling tile and crawled over to the other side of the hole "Ladies first"
As soon as the strange man strutted out of the fog Vyle's hands went to his weapons and he stood by Ana protectively "Greetings" he responded cautiously and emotionlessly "A more important question is, what brings you here? A battleground is not a safe place for an unarmed man" this man was undoubtedly either mad, or the cause of the dark magic and unnatural fog that infested the city. He acted as if he owned the place, he surely would not be so confident if he didn't know what lurked in the mist. "I don't trust people who hide their face, and I don't answer the questions of people I don't trust" Vyle continued suspiciously. Under his cloak, his hands were on the hilts of his daggers in case the stranger was not as friendly as he acted. As willow crested a hill she saw a group of people going the other direction. Thinking they may know something, she trotted forwards on her horse towards the convoy "Hail!" she greeted in a friendly manner "You look like you've been through hell and back, did something happen in Oxenfurt?" she asked with concern, feigning ignorance
White queen drew herself up regally as they were greeted by the high warlock "Greetings Hestia, or Lady Sunspoke if you prefer" she said as she curtsied respectfully. Black Rook rolled his eyes and grumbled but nodded his head in respect "We are here because there is nowhere else we can go to, we need to travel somewhere quickly, but, oh my gosh, most conventional methods of travel are simply far too slow" she sighed melodramatically "And I heard that you could help in that regard. Could you make a portal for me and my friends? We can give you anything you would like in return" "Brianne! How lovely to speak to you again..." Paragon greeted cheerfully, before his tone sunk to one of despair "... but in such terrible circumstances. I'm so sorry about what's happened and I'm afraid I only have more bad news to pile on" Paragon paused for a moment for dramatic effect "The Seelie Queen. Titania. She knows... and she wants you dead. From my observations I have managed to gather that she needed you before you became infected. Beware. She asked the inquisitor, Corvo, and your fellow shadowhunter Roxanne to kill you. In fact she's coming for you right now" he let that sink in "Everyone seems to be against you Brianne, but I will always be an ally to the forces who keep order" Nick was about to make some witty comment of some kind when he suddenly stopped in awe of Gaia. He could feel the true magical power that emanated from her presence. It was very impressive. Was it just him, or did she stare at him slightly longer than at the others? As soon as she was gone he let out a sigh of relief that he hadn't realised he'd been holding in. He turned to Alarick with a gentle smile "So are you going to ask her something?" Masque looked down awkwardly "Before I could use glamours... I couldn't hide my horns... everyone noticed. Called me a witch... a freak... an abomination... my own mother left me" Masque stuttered "And nobody was willing to help this poor little warlock who had no idea why everyone hated him and couldn't hide so all he could do was run and run and... sorry" Masque hadn't realised he'd been rambling and backed away from Shadi apologetically. As soon as Gaia entered he was struck with awe much like Nick. She was beautiful, she was carved from stars themselves, and she was powerful too, she simply radiated authority. As soon as she left, Masque sat on the grass and got out his sketchbook as he started the long gentle pencil lines of his drawing.
Alexei gave a short laugh at her comment on men "I won't even bother to deny it" he said with a smile. She seemed to be impressed by all the machinery and his knowledge of it. "I'm more than a pretty face" he smirked "Honestly this minor stuff all that complex, I couldn't even begin to understand how the Aether drive works. That's the job of higher-ups" he affixed the ceiling tile back in place and they were suddenly in complete darkness. After a moment of fumbling he switched on his head torch "I just deal with the minor stuff on the ship, there are so many things that could go wrong and so few of them are actually that urgent" he explained modestly. When she mentioned Aeros he raised an eyebrow "That guy? Pfft, no man who rejects the chance to crawl through the maintenance tunnels of a fancy spaceship is worth putting effort into" he grinned "Anyway, follow me" he turned around and lead the way along, crawling "And try not to stare"
"Hello Clarity" Paragon greeted in a deep, electronically altered voice "I have a message for Brianne Lightwood. Tell her it's Paragon" Paragon didn't have any cameras inside the institude unfortunately, but a CCTV camera across the street was currenlty fixated on the building. The other screens showed Alarick's safehouse, empty now, and an apartment building in uptown New York, outside of which stood some of his agents White Queen and Black Rook stood outside the building with slight trepidation "You must let me do the talking" White queen requested. She was a vampire, and one of Augur's greatest agents. Black Rook simply grunted in affirmation. He was a werewolf, and did most of the muscle work. She rang the buzzer "Greetings Hestia Sunspoke, I represent Paragon and... oh... you're not Hestia? Terribly sorry" White Queen blushed and cut off the connection "You pressed the wrong button" Black Rook commented "Shut up" she muttered before pressing the right button "Hello? Is this Hestia Sunspoke? High Warlock?" White Rook raised his eyebrow and smirked at Grayson's comments "We're going to be pitting you up against a foe of equal measure. Only rule is you cannot kill him" Doctor Bishop warned. The werewolf held up a circular thing that looked like a collar "Put that on. We'll make sure you don't kill him if you do lose control" Nick listened quietly and smiled at Alarick from time to time, comforting. He felt somehow special that he was the only other one trusted with the secret, and tragic, information that Alarick had told him. This Shadi fellow was odd, but was clearly just another servant of Gaia. He felt a negative attitude coming off Ash and wondered what could have caused that. Maybe he was just this bossy and uptight all the time. He didn't mind, Alarick had seemed that way at first after all. Morrigan was very nice and seemed too trusting of all these strangers. "I think it would be difficult to startle the Mother of Fairies" Nick chuckled. Suddenly, Nick's phone vibrated. Who could it be? Who could possibly text him at this time? It was from an unknown number, but Nick knew who it was as soon as he saw the message. Keep an eye on the Fairy. We need her. The message deleted itself soon after. Nick stared at nothing for a while. That was troubling. Oh well. For the greater good. Masque beamed at Morrigan, though it was hidden by his mask, and followed her. The jungle was incredible, a surreal landscape, it didn't belong in the desert. "It's beautiful... I didn't think something like this could exist..." he stated with wonder. Suddenly he turned to the new warlock hesitantly "You have horns. Have you been able to hide them? I've had... trouble in that regard" he asked with trepidation.
Alexei laughed at her story "Finally someone on this ship with a sense of humour" he said grinning, before flipping down and planting his feet on the floor, his hawk-like wings spreading out as he landed "I've never been between two men, it was always one at a time. I've been between two women though" his eyes flickered over to the third member of the group "Of course, we're talking about seating arrangements right?" he winked at her, before grabbing her around the waist and hoisting her up so she could climb into the hatch. Once she was in, he flapped his wings and scrambled in after her. "Last chance Airman. In or out" he called down to Aeros
Paragon sighed. That was rude. If he wanted he could have just teleported into the room but he was more tactful than that. He called up one of the other people in the room, an ifrit by the name of Clarity. "I would punch you, but Bishop wants you unharmed" Black knight responded calmly, and said nothing else as she guided him into a large room "Ah yes, your upgrades. Would you like to test them out?" The door at the back of the cell opened. A werewolf walked in wearing a white coat and carrying some clothes "Would you like something to wear? Your old clothes are too small now"
Lexander stood still on shock as his masters considered the ways they would beat him up, and mumbled something about not being a punching bag. He cleared his throat "Uuuuuhhhh" Lexander hesitated "I like my face... but a black eye would be pretty convincing, so we'll start with that? And I guess you can hurt my arms?" he sighed "This had better be worth it..." Galadorn just stood there in the Queen's office being a bodyguard, though he wasn't sure who he was protecting truly, Kala or Flame? Both women could hold their own, but he felt some dark presence approaching that even they couldn't fight. He had heard no birdsong on his way to work. The animals no longer scurried alongside him on his morning jaunt through the forest. Nature itself was telling him something, but what?
Archon smiled slyly at the gathered crowd. He clicked his fingers, and all along the battlements guards brought forward a line of figures. They were bedraggled and injured, but they looked like ordinary people other than that. "Do you recognise these people? They have walked among us, pretending to be like us. But they aren't like us" Archon bellowed to the crowd. He brought out a knife, the silver edge gleaming "Observe!" he commanded, as a guard brought forward one harmless-seeming man. Archon grabbed his arm, and raised the knife dramatically. Swiping down, he cut the man's arm. The man shrieked, his form flickered, and he suddenly transformed into a horrible trollish creature "Dopplers! Every one of these people are secretly dopplers! Living amongst us, plotting. They destroyed Oxenfurt and given the chance they would surely destroy Novigrad. No longer will we allow these creatures to plot against us, they are a threat to us all, they are a threat to humanity. This is a statement from Archon, Supreme Ruler of Redania, all dopplers are hereby banished from Redanian cities, if caught they will be executed. And so you know this isn't an empty threat, observe" Archon waved an arm dramatically, along the battlements the dopplers had nooses placed around their necks by the guards. The crowd below had begun cheering and roaring for the justic Archon was delivering, and this rose to a crescendo as the guards systematically kicked them one by one from the wall. Some died immediately, some hung there for a moment, strangled. Men and women, they all died. And the crowd loved it. Justice for the destruction of Oxenfurt, justice for humanity.
Darklight Disturbance Arak'Un, Rayyad's House: Rayyad was getting slightly more nervous now, but he didn't know why "There's nobody else in the caves..." he responded to Laurentinus slowly. This was most certainly not his comfort zone. He decided instead to talk to Conrad "Uh, yeah they're pretty extensive if you go the wrong way. I... there were others with you? Oh...I can't detect them. Which is... uh... strange..." A puzzled expression crossed his face as he considered this "Oh, and the totem is a binding totem, it's keeping me locked here. If we take it into the palace we can do the ritual there to destroy it, which will be great! Even though I'll then be on the run for the rest of my life from the Hirokiri Government... but that's better than being trapped, right?" he smiled uncertainly Big Game Hunting Fordington, Wizard's District, Library: Sanderson was casually looking around the library at the gathered tomes when he heard a roar from behind. Turning, his face suddenly went pale. He was sure the drake was dead... the dead walked again. It was just like the tales said, but he hadn't believed it until now. The drake didn't want to eat anymore. It didn't hunger. It didn't didn't fear. It didn't feel. It merely felt cold. So cold. Everything should be cold. It gazed at the druid emotionlessly. I will make you cold. Suddenly a it was struck, a bullet came hurtling through its body, shattering bones. The drake turned slowly, its cold gaze now affixed on the rifleman behind who had shot it. "Stay back, foul creature" Sanderson growled, barely hidden fury behind his impassive expression "Go back to hell" Sanderson shot his rifle at the drake it did 42 damage, but with armour it did 37 Sanderson then stepped back a bit
Paragon sat in his office, his armour gone. He watched the various screens in front of him with interest. Slowly, he leaned forward closer to the mic, and entered a command onto the computer. There was a beep, and then the sound of a phone ringing, as Paragon tried to get through the to the phone of the werewolf named Rhett. Doctor Bishop listened to the story with interest and growing disgust "You are truly a horrible person, but I don't know what else I expected from a demon. It makes me sick to be the son of one of your kind" he shook his head with repulsion. "Black Knight, escort the demon to the arena. I think we will begin" the doctor commanded, and the nephilim opened the back entrance to guide the demon out along a corridor. Meanwhile, the Doctor moved to another cell, within which lurked a hulking mass of fur and claws. There was more muscle beneath that matted black fur than there had been before, and he seemed larger. Doctor Bishop knocked on the window of the cell "Oh Grayson? Could you please transform yourself into a more appropriate form for conversation? I don't want to come in there and do it myself" the doctor asked. He smiled, the experiments had worked. Grayson had more demon in him now, he was faster, stronger, better. Nick thought he was ready for anything, but when Alarick told him about Brianne his eyes widened and his hands went to his mouth. She's a werewolf?! She got infected?! By Rhett?! No wonder he wanted to kill him... he couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea of Brianne, his mentor since he'd joined the shadowhunters, and his friend, being a werewolf, and evidently neither could Alarick. Without warning, he began to cry. A combination of his own shock and Alarick's grief. Taking a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest, he knelt beside the other shadowhunter. What could he say? "She's still Brianne, she's still your little sister. No matter what she is, all that matters is who she is. And so far you've done a great job of protecting that" Nick said, trying to be calm for his sake "You don't have to blame yourself for everything. There's nothing any of us could do" As he said this he began to lose his composure and choked on the last words, holidng back sobs.
Alexei smiled back as Clarity offered her tragic tale of wrenches "How tragic. I could cry. But I happen to know it's bullsh*t. Besides, a wrench is a really ineffective murder weapon" Alexei replied before grabbing the wrench gratefully. For a moment, he retreated back into the ceiling and tinkered, then lowered himself out until he was hanging by his knees and grabbed the ceiling tile. "I hope that isn't how you respond to everybody who asks you for anything" he casually commented as he worked. His shirt was falling down and exposing his midriff, but he didn't care. Once he had the ceiling tile, he affixed it to one side of the hole so it hung like a hatch door. "I'm Alexei, but you can call me Sparky. You're looking for the medbay? I know a shortcut, if you're willing to crawl through maintenance tunnels"
Suddenly, in the corridor Clarity and Aeros were in, the PA screeched loudly as it malfunctioned. A tile dropped out of the ceiling and landed just in front of Clarity, followed by a wrench which fell to the floor with a clatter "Whoops. I slipped" a voice stated casually. A head poked out of the ceiling, it was tanned and roguishly handsome with bright green eyes. It smiled at the girl and boy gathered, its long hair hanging down in his upside-down position "Hey blue lady. Mind handing me that wrench? Honestly I swear every time I fix something, something new pops up" he sighed "The struggle is so real"
Name: Alexei "Sparky" Pavlov Sex: Male Age: 28 Species: Maraku Appearance: Alexei has tanned skin and dusty blonde hair Rank: Ensign Division: Engineering Bio: Alexei spent much of his life as a space pirate. Alexei used to be a roguish scamp who sailed the cosmic ocean without a care in the world. He didn't care about those whose lives he hurt, he didn't care about other people. That was until he did something he super regretted and finally realised the impact of his actions. This affected him deeply and he felt he needed to redeem himself for his actions in the past. He joined the Coalition corps to help people, and although he's been in the corps for a while he has chosen to not rise through the ranks, he'd rather keep a low profile. Alexei is plagued by guilt and likes to be alone, but you'd never know it from his personality. Alexei is still very much roguish and charismatic and doesn't seem to care much for other people. He tries to keep a positive attitude, almost as a way of dealing with the guilt.
"Oh my!" Timothy exclaimed as Kalak deftly escaped the situation. Kala was screeching towards the demigod, but Timothy knew that wasn't a good idea. He seemed to be standing defensively, he probably had some trick up his sleeve "Be careful Ms Kala!" Timothy's pneumatic limbs started up and he began to join Kala in her charge against the demigod, but approaching from a different direction. Ashleigh considered this "Hmm. Perhaps you are right. If we knew more about the layout of their camp I would have gone with that plan, but as it is we have no idea what's in there. Hmm. In that case, ready the troops, we;re going to send the army on the march. Let's give them no time for preparations" Ashleigh walked away and climbed atop her horse, Symphony. "We will not be working alone after all Veera" Ran's eyes sparkled "That sounds good. I do like money" he replied enigmatically "So what do you need? And if you want me back there I'll need kit. Good kit. I only got in last time from sheer luck"
