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Post by Nova on Dec 13, 2009 1:03:40 GMT -5
Mage Manor
The door between the Underdeep and Mage Manor was sealed once again. People started to go their own ways, namely Celestial, Rikku and Ikkin. He thought he might as well too, and headed upstairs into the library.
Looking at different book covers, he took one about earthquakes. After skimming the short book, nothing mentioned earthquakes breaking holes or any of the like, so he put the book back on the shelf.
Nova?
"Yeah Fyren?" Nova turned around and faced the small blue fireball.
"..There's... something I need to tell you."
"What is it?"
Fyren grew larger, and formed hands made of fire. Digging into itself, the hands brought out the candle Nova had found in the basement. Plucking out the wick as if detonating a bomb, the candle magically transformed into... a candlestick. "My memory returned to me."
"It has?!" Nova exclaimed. "That's wonderful! What did you remember?"
"Everything." Fyren's yellow eyes narrowed. "Everything you did to me.
"What?! I didn't do anything to you! At least... I don't... remember. I don't remember anything before..waking up.. here." Nova searched his brain, but he couldn't recall a single thing.
"Oh please. That doesn't mean anything. You promised me life. You promised me riches. And what did you give me? Death. No, worse than that. Misery. Loneliness. Pain. You pushed me to the brink of death.
"I have no idea what you're saying!"
"Are you saying you don't remember this candlestick?!" Fyren was yelling now.
"NO!" Nova yelled back.
Fyren grew even more, and its body changed. It now was in the form of a human, and the fire was receding...into.. a girl. A girl with brown hair that ended at her neck. She was as pale as a ghost, and her green eyes made her look like a villain. "I've had enough of this."
Nova's eyes widened. "I want... to say... Sally.."
"So you do remember. Well... here's my thank you." Sally thrusted the candlestick into Nova's center. He screamed in pain, and watched Sally's angry expression change into an evil grin and evaporated into the air.
Nova fell to the floor, barely breathing. "Someone...help...m.." was all he managed to say, before he blacked out, and died.
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Post by A Dream on Dec 13, 2009 1:42:57 GMT -5
~A Place Between~
The man smirked at Juverna's falter, but it swiftly dissolved into a frown.
He tsked irately and scratched the large snowy feline in his arms between its ears, who's breath came in ragged heaves. "Stupid cat, he's not dead yet. But it would be too easy if a blow that simple could kill him. No. He's lived long enough as it is..." He ran a hand through his black hair and sighed in frustration.
Juverna took another step back, rubbing at the tight bands on her wrists and glaring at the man. Rivanth.
The cat began to fade, becoming translucent. "Ah, he's waking up already," the man, Rivanth, muttered. Approaching Juverna, he bent down to look into her face. "Looks like I've got a little job for you. I trust you can take care of it for me?" He twisted a lock of her hair in his fingers.
She snatched the hand away, wanting to tell him to get out, leave her alone, or just let her die like she was supposed to many years ago. But like always, no words could ever come out.
"Tch," Rivanth removed his hand and instead patted her on the head. "How cute. A pity you can't say a THING," he added in an unusually cheery tone of voice before stepping past her and taking out a small sheaf of cards. He selected one with a motif of full moon hung amid a mass of stars, bordered with black lace. Rivanth smiled. "You don't have a choice, Jun." His voice matched his gentlemanly appearance, but was edged with contempt and maybe even a touch of arrogance. "I would do it myself, but frankly, that would defeat the purpose of being here in the first place."
He put the other cards away, "I want that cat dead. It shouldn't be too hard, right?"
With that he fingered the card, watching it shift to a marionette's control bar. Black ribbons hung from each end; like Juverna's. He flipped the bar deftly in one hand. "Try not too take too long."
She glared at Rivanth, staggering and clutching her head in pain. No! I will not do this...
Then blackness.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2009 2:05:48 GMT -5
Near the outskirts of Brassport
Howling wind was all Sarn heard as he rocketed through the sky, beating his wings hard against the updrafts. The sun had dipped its fiery fingers below the horizon, staining the sky an ominous red with ribbons of dusky pink. A magnificent sunset, but one which foretold blood. Sarn had never paid much attention to the Star Gods of his people, despite the fact that his parents lived among them as Song and Moon.
He wasn’t even sure of their influence in this world, but he clung to the thought of his parents, lost in their mysterious eternity, and prayed to them for the safety of his beloved. “Aid your Lesser brethren,” he breathed, taking comfort in the thought that his mother, Moon, would soon grace the sky.
Pain. His muscles, utterly exhausted and strained beyond endurance, rebelled against his mind. He willed them to continue functioning, but they refused. More pain. The flight muscles which gave him strength to fly tensed up while the thin muscles of his wing joints screamed in agony. Sarn knew what was happening, and could do nothing to stop it. He had heard tales of Feberi falling to their deaths, having suffered from wing cramp.
Sarn panicked as first his right, then his left wings crumpled. The power that had kept him in flight had left him. The Feberi cried out in anguish, fear gripping his heart as he slowly began to fall. There was nothing but terror and an expectation of pain as he picked up speed. Curling himself into a tight ball, Sarn braced for impact.
He hit the ground with exceeding force, tumbling and flipping over and over, his body flying every which way, smashing itself against the hard ground. His head was jolted backwards as it struck the earth and Sarn finally, mercifully, lost consciousness.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2009 3:27:34 GMT -5
<<Castle Kestrel --> Brassport>>
Ro pulled up with a hard jerk to the reins, stopping to listen to the sudden silence around her. The dot she'd been following in the sky had suddenly disappeared in the brief moments she'd had to watch the ground underneath, and she was having a hard time relocating it. At the least, her mount was glad for the rest. She sighed, fingering her sword's hilt in trying to keep frustration and anxiety at bay. Where is he? Not that she was lost, but having a fellow knight disappear wasn't the best of signs.
Narrowing her eyes at the sun-dyed spread above, she guessed where the last place she'd seen Sarn was and started towards it.
It must have been fate; or maybe, it was just luck. In either case, Ro found her eyes widening in a rare moment of pure, unguarded shock. The moment passed, and she dismounted immediately. Starting towards the injured Feberi, she thought better of it and fished through her bag quickly, yanking out the first piece of cloth she found. A tunic. It'd do.
The Amaranth Knight growled and knelt by Sarn, ripping strips of rough cloth from the tunic with her dagger. Hurried splashes of water from a bottle were followed by the rough first aid Ro could provide to his obvious injuries. She swore under her breath as she worked, the iron scent of blood coating her nose in thick, surging layers. Not good. Not only did he have wings, which she didn't understand and just did her best to work around, but whatever pressure she put on any wounds, the bleeding didn't seem to stop. Slow, maybe, but not stop. darn!
With a grimace and a glare, Ro continued and hoped for the best.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Dec 13, 2009 8:54:00 GMT -5
Mage Manor
Lupehunter got up and decided to follow the chimera to an unused room. He felt that she was one of the few mages that he could trust for now.
"Umm..okay... how to say this?"
"Does it have something to do with the two mages that recently came out of the Underdeep? I don't know about you, but there's something about them that makes me suspicious, I just can't think what it is," he said, hopefully helping the chimera with what she was thinking about.
"Oh, by the way, before I forget, I'm Lupehunter. My real name is Ian Park, but I prefer Lupehunter," he added as he held out one of his hands.
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Post by Vyt: Down, but Not Out on Dec 13, 2009 11:07:21 GMT -5
((Tabloid Town))
"But Vyt-san! PFA-"
In an instant, the bubbly voice of Vyt turned grim and low. "THEN FIND HER!", he hissed out in a strange tone enough for the ninja to scamper off. That was the same intonation he had been starting to use recently, ever since he knew that the Ninja Superior was sick nowadays. He knew someday he would use it more often, for the Ninja Dojo would be leaderless in a short while.
It was sick for him to know that he was capable of sinking that low just to order someone to do his bidding. Vyt did not know if he could even take over the Ninja Dojo; leadership was never his kind of thing. For years, he had lived under the notion of making someone satisfied and being the number one subordinate. The plan was now backfiring on him when he last talked to the ailing Superior.
"Don't worry, Master. I will lead the Ninjas for you."
He regretted saying that to him.
Vyt looked at Bird, who was trying to escape now that they were alone. He could have just jumped and grabbed the thing before it could spread its wings, but it seemed determined to fly away from the scene, probably to meet someone else. Probably it was better that he take a look for himself, he thought.
Vyt stalked Bird from afar, jumping from building to building. It was then that he eyed the hospital not far from his location.
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Post by Kiddo on Dec 13, 2009 11:53:58 GMT -5
"NO!!"
And Kiddo flung herself out of the way, only making it out of the center of the blast radius by the time the fire impacted the ground. She was thrown like a skipping stone, tossed back through the air to hit the ground and bounce a couple times before coming to a stop. She flipped back onto all fours, shaking off a few singed feathers. It looked like the heat had been too fast to do much more than a flash burn.
It also looked like it hadn't done anything more than what one would expect from normal fire.
Kiddo had the bronze spear in her hand. She glared up at where the fire had come from, her eyes tracking Sev's form.
"I see you!" she howled, "Try it again, I dare you - mist-taint abomination!"
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Post by Fraze on Dec 13, 2009 13:27:05 GMT -5
Fraze had a message. "Yes?" "Sir, it's Satellite Monitoring. We've got an update for you." Ah, finally. "Go ahead." "All right. A preliminary survey shows the Underdeep has expanded about 58% since our last recorded survey, about was four and a third years ago. The number of places it opens up to the surface has increased by a factor of ten--even as we were watching, one or two new ones formed. There are currently about fifteen openings Tabloid Town, quite a few more in the surrounding area. They're all over the continent. A particularly large opening seems to have formed in the Mage headqua--uh, Manor." "Inside the building itself?" "Yes, sir. And, uh, if I could give my opinion?" "Certainly," Fraze responded. "Well, I'm a native. Grew up planetside in one of the better areas of Tabloid Town. In school they told us that the Underdeep was constantly shifting and changing, growing in some places and receding in others. They said it had a lot to do with the overall emotional state of any given area. But they always described it as a thing that took months or years to happen, or even decades. Now, we're seeing it shift and change real-time. In my opinion, something is very wrong." "Noted. Are there any other particularly notable openings?" "No, sir, that's about it." "Very well, then. Have the map sent to Surface Defense. Tell them to contact all affected areas and offer aid, starting with Mage Manor and Tabloid Town. Meanwhile, continue monitoring the Underdeep, and contact both Surface Defense and me with any significant developments. That will be all, and thank you." Oy. Not good. It looked like it would be another long day. To his surprise, the security drone flashed its red light one more time. An email, this time.
To all staff,
We shall be running tests on the network to check the security systems. Please ignore all strange activity which looks like a hacker as this is all part of the test. Try to keep all parts of the network online and connected as the simulation would not be thorough enough otherwise.
Zari
Fraze never authorized this--he hadn't even heard of it. To his knowledge, the scheduled security checks wouldn't be for another three weeks. And it was at the worst possible time--if there really was an impending crisis planetside, the 'Fleet would need all systems operational. He decided to contact Zari directly rather than wait for an email to go through. "Zari, this is Commander Fraze. Zari! Professor ZariKrahia Ailden, respond!" No answer. "Abort the security test immediately. I repeat, abort the test!" Fraze waited, but still no answer came. He cut the connection and tried someone else running the security network. "This is Commander Fraze. Abort the security tests you are running at once!" There was a stunned silence, and a more stunned voice. "Sir...with all due respect, we aren't running any security tests." It was now Fraze's turn for a stunned pause. "I just received an email from Prof. Ailden stating that you were." Through the connection, Fraze heard the sound of tapping keys. "It appears a mass message was sent from Prof. Ailden's email address, going to all departments except the security department." This...didn't sound good. "Is there any good reason why Prof. Ailden would do this? If you can think of any reasonable explanation, please tell me." "N-no, sir. Unless she were impersonating a hacker to see how Security would respond, but even then, I thought you would need to approve that." Great, just great. "Occam's Razor, it's a hacker." Fraze realized the person he was talking to had figured this out long ago, and was simply humoring him. "The security network is permitted and ordered to take whatever actions it deems necessary to stop this threat. Your priorities are the life support, defense, transportation, and satellite systems, in that order." "Yes, sir!" came the voice on the other end. It sounded excited, almost gleeful in a way. Fraze knew, these guys lived for this kind of thing.
The shuttle had landed now. Fraze was surprised to see a familiar, excited-looking face. "Fraze, I'm in a hurry. What's going on?"
"Well, let's see," he said with an exaggerated upward stare and chin rub to gather his thoughts. "The Underdeep is expanding at an unbelievably fast rate, it's broken out at Mage Manor and a host of other places, at least one person has been killed by it, and a hacker has broken into Spacefleet's security system. That's about it." His tone changed from sarcastic to serious. "What's going on with you? It looks like you're really in a rush somewhere."
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Post by Celestial on Dec 13, 2009 14:08:41 GMT -5
Spacefleet Network
Wow! The Author felt too much like a child who had stumbled into one of the most magical sweet shops in the history of existance. There was just so many place she could go to, so much she could investigate. Heck, even if her goal was to cause chaos, there were just too many ways she could make chaos.
She could down a satellite. That would indeed be fun and a great way to cause chaos but if she did that, the email would do no good. It would be clear that there was something inside that was the source of the problem.
She suddenly saw a communication, from the Commander himself if she wasn't mistaken. It seemed that her email trick was seen through. In a way, that was almost a relief. Now she could take on the whole of Spacefleet's security system head on and be free to do as she pleased. Also, The Author really needed to change her name to Blood Knight.
The satellites were isted in that communication. They were going to be well-guarded. Out of all the things that were going to be protected, that would cause the most chaos without harming too many people. Thus, she would go for the satellites.
The Author divided into seven seperate entities, the six being just shadow clones which would hopefully throw off some of the security. If they wanted a dance, they'd get one.
One clone sped off towards the life support systems, while another headed for the achives, another towards defence and so on. She herself took off towards the satellites.
The place was like a maze. There was simply no way for the Author to get to the satellite system on time and having something lead the way for her would attract too much attention.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Who are you?" a voice called out to her. The Author turned around, examining the army of mooks in flaming armour and with shields that alone would pack quite a punch as well as the laser swords which were so-clearly-not-lightsabres.
"Having fun," she said with an innocent smile and disappeared into the wall. The mooks panicked. One of them began calling for backup. The Author simply pulled him under with her, knocking him out and keeping him just below the floor. She then went right through the floor, ending up in the middle of the mooks.
She tried to drench them but their fire didn't go out. One of them tried to shoot her but she simply faded around them. So, these are the new mobile firewalls/password protectors. Cool!
The walls around the mooks turned into a thousand spikes, seeming to impale them but they were quick enougth to get out of the way. This only made The Author smile more.
Stealing their weapons wouldn't work, most programs except the most shoddily built ones could handle their own code. They couldn't be extinguished or trapped. So she'd just have to take them over.
Running up to the closest mook, she thrust her hand into his head. All the raw code of the program was there. In a split second, she had it and tore it apart, corrupting him. He melted away in a glitchy puddle.
The rest came at her, angering by their comrade's code on the Author's hands. She only did the same to each one of them, rearranging their code so that their basic programming gave out an error. Amazing how such advanced security programs could still be corrupted.
But they were finished now. The Author cleaned their code off of her clothing and skin before heading off deeper. Those guys were just the beginning.
((If the Security system encounters the clones, all they'll do is run into a dead end and then disintegrate by the way. ^^))
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Moonlight
Frequent Visitor
-insert something witty here-
Posts: 153
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Post by Moonlight on Dec 13, 2009 15:14:22 GMT -5
~Mage Manor~
Liyer snapped his eyes open, feeling an immediate throbbing pain in his head. Muttering a silent curse, he picked himself off the floor near the basement and noticed the whole room empty. How long...was he asleep this time?
Then, he remembered the dream he had had. It wasn't like the ones that tried to kill him, but it had the same aura...
Thinking nothing of it, Liyer went up to look for where the others had gone off to. Plus, he didn't feel comfortable staying so close to the basement anymore. Sniffing around like a regular cat(how embarrassing), he located a small room a few hallways away. The door was closed, but he pushed it open and peered inside. It was an office. Most of the other mages were crowded around the room, not looking in his direction. Liyer slipped inside, wondering if this would be worth his time after all.
~Outside the Manor~
Clutching a tree branch for balance, a figure stood in watch of the manor. She pulled a cloak tight around herself and knelt down on the ground, wincing at the sharp pain in her head. Just get this over with...
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Post by Huntress on Dec 13, 2009 16:01:54 GMT -5
((Tabloid Town))
The two city watchmen were leaning against the wall, having a quiet smoke.
All sorts of things had been happening in the city lately. They knew that all too well. They also knew that they had the duty to protect the order and the citizens, and they also knew that they had no desire to do so. Therefore they'd nipped away to this quiet little back alley that actually pretty much consisted of the backsides of houses and therefore was only ever used for passing through, and made a point of standing there and watching in case any evil demon or abomination wanted to drop in and steal one of those houses. They called it preventative policework.
"Excuse me, officers?"
The watchmen turned their heads and nearly swallowed their cigarettes.
Somehow, somewhere, a huge monster had appeared in the alleyway. It was nearly three stories tall, black, furry, tentacle-y, and they could only guess whether it was hungry. It seemed to be eyeing them with mild curiosity.
...and on its back, between the spikes, there were vaguely human figures. And on his neck that was reached down towards the watchmen, barely visible against the black fur and the night sky, was a young woman clad mostly in black, with stripey hair that was tied back in a messy ponytail. She gave them a cheerful smile.
"Hi. We're kinda lost. Which way is Dreary Lane, could you tell?"
"Gnk," said the taller, chubbier watchman with smoke billowing out of his ears, while the smaller one managed something like a terrified salute.
"Oh, you're way off the mark, miss," he said, shoving the stub behind his ear. "You should take a left at the end of this alley, then go on all the way to Window Street and head towards the art museum, its towers show nice and clear there. Dreary Lane starts from there, just look for the posh houses, can't miss 'em."
"Really? Crap. Thanks very much. You heard them, boy." The woman nodded to the watchmen, then disappeared behind the fur as the monster raised its head higher, sniffed the air and then lumbered past the officers.
"See?" they heard another, male and somewhat gravelly voice say. "Way off the mark. You just couldn't pull over and ask for directions."
"I just did, didn't I?"
"Should've done it sooner."
"Cork it."
The monster disappeared into the darkness. Silence reigned.
"Who do you suppose that was, Sarge?" the smaller man asked, retrieving his cigarette stub.
"Mighta been a demon," said the sergeant, lighting a new cigarette with shaking hands. "You know 'em, parading all over the town these days with their dark magic, scaring people to death. I swear, I'll never get used to that."
"She was rather nice, though."
"Yeah, well, guess they're integrating."
They went back to watching the houses.
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Post by Strife on Dec 13, 2009 16:19:20 GMT -5
Spacefleet Network
Username: Haggoth12 Password: ***********
Logging in...
Login complete. Standing by.
HQ:> tools\antivirus
HQ\tools\antivirus:> run omega.exe
Initializing Omega Security Suite...
Initialization Complete. Security System activated.
Scanning life support subsystems...
=============================================
Omega SS instantly materialized inside the computerized matrix of Spacefleet HQ's network. His orders were to protect the life support systems at all costs. Commander Fraze, afterall, had issued orders to guard it above all other systems.
Unlike the small mooks that scanned the network on a regular basis, Omega SS was a giant, hulking piece of hardware that towered over every other program in the database. He was the Godzilla of Spacefleet HQ's network - an immovable wall that blocked everything in his path. Afterall, 7.96% of the HQ's total allocated disk space was used solely for his program, which was an impressive amount considering how advanced the Fleet's technology was.
"LAWLZ, I SMELL A RAT," he exclaimed in a voice that was deep and booming, but had a hint of playfulness to it. Omega SS turned around and started walking in the direction of his senses. If he were a physical being, he'd cause small earthquakes with every step and crush anything beneath his metal feet.
"HEEEERE RATTY RATTY RATTY ONE ONE ONE!" he shouted cheerfully as he marched across the mainframe. "PLEASE COME OUT AND PLAY WITH ME!"
Soon enough, he spied - with his humongous eye - a small group of firewall mooks chasing after a foreign intruder. Just as he predicted, they were coming for the life support system. Well, they wouldn't get far with Omega SS around.
"OHEMGEE! IT'S THE RATTY!" he squealed with delight. "I WILL CALL HER SPLATTY AND WE WILL HAVE EVER SO MUCH FUN!"
Omega SS pounded his fist into his chest like a gorilla. His entire chest compartment quickly sweeped open, revealing a massive army of flying security mooks. There were hundreds, possibly thousands, crammed into there.
"HACK THIS!! ONEZEROZEROZEROONEZEROONEONEONEZEROZEROZEROONEONEZEROONE-"
Omega SS continued shouting in binary as his flying mook army left his chest compartment and descended towards the intruder, firing a cloud of lasers towards her exact location.
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Post by Celestial on Dec 13, 2009 16:43:05 GMT -5
Spacefleet Network
It saw the giant, elite mook and ran, trasmitting all information about the program that it picked up to the original Author, on their own encrypted channel. The clone itself needed to buy the original as much time as it could.
With any luck, they would be relying on this hulk to take it The Author. She will have a lot of fun, that was for certain. But if it died, it could be replaced.
The thousand security mooks were designed to chase after viruses and not an AI as complex as The Author. She'd manage. All the shadow clone had to do is run. So it did. As the binary and the mooks chased after it, the clone ran towards an area where there would be fewer firewalls, security checks and mooks in general while being long enough for the enormous hulk to be dealyed in.
The flyers would only pick up a virus signature from it. It pushed past all the various guards and dodged the firewalls as best as it could but it was no match for the original. The clone in life support was taking damage and was going down.
It had finished broadcasting the anti-virus program's specifications to The Author. She'd know what to do. The clone was almost finished. It collapsed in front of a firewall, code leaking out and being devoured by the network.
As the flying mooks reached it, it grinned and laughed so much that anybody looking would think it went crazy.
"You idiots, you thought I was an original didn't you? The real one is much tougher," it said and disappeared, all code disintegrating just as it was meant to do. =======
"A giant thing which was meant to be an anti-virus system is coming my way huh?" The Author thought, outrunning a timer trap which would crush anything with blocks that were activated at random. She had disabled it though, corrupting the code until it couldn't function. All on the way towards the satellite system.
"Things have gotten just a little bit more interesting. Thankfully I am not Celestial and this isn't Guild Wars 2. I'm not going to tempt fate but I hope this will turn out better than that fiasco,"
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Post by Ikkin on Dec 13, 2009 17:23:01 GMT -5
The false Sev couldn't understand anything that Kiddo said, but it could understand that she had jumped out of the way and had not, in fact, caught on fire like it had intended.
She had gone quite some ways from where it was flying, so it flew downwards at an angle rather than diving at her this time, letting loose a second blast of flame towards the ninja (and, unintentionally, the others who were behind her) and continued on towards her, intending to catch her with its claws if she dodged out of the way of the flames again.
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Post by Rikku on Dec 13, 2009 17:34:12 GMT -5
Mage Manor
Rikku’s mind was wandering, so she only caught a few words. The important words, mind.
“ … out of here and get food,” someone said.
This seemed an excellent idea, and she dragged her errant mind back into focus in order to consider it. Food. Food was nice. Tasty food, good food, pizza and bread and cheese and milk, stew and salad and meat and carrots and peas, nuts and pies, pastries and –
Celestial interrupted what was dangerously close to becoming an exceedingly dull list by saying, “Rikku, if you want to come with me then I suggest you get yourself cleaned up now..”
She’d probably said something else in the mean time, but Rikku couldn’t seem to food concentrate and food and cleaning up was food probably a good idea and food. Also food.
She went up to her room, which smelled of dust and neglect. Fair enough. She didn’t come up here very much. It had … bad memories.
Thus, she went about cleaning herself up and changing into identical but somewhat cleaner clothes as quickly as she could. Then, still slightly damp, but, more importantly, no longer looking and smelling like a ten-day-old tomb, she went down into the kitchen. Her stomach had made a number of eloquently worded requests as she was cleaning herself up, and she considered it good manners to oblige it.
Once in the kitchen, she made short work of devouring half a loaf of bread and a crumbling chunk of cheese, not noticing the taste of either in her haste. Then, her stomach less cavernous, she took some more food from the magic cupboards and ate more slowly, savouring the flavours as she thought.
Earthquake. Yes, she needed to find out what had caused it. She needed to find the city of iron and steam figure out if anyone was hurt, and bring blood to the world again, blood and fire and screaming, pain and ashes and death … help them? Yeah. She was a Mage. They had a responsibility to help those in the NTWF who were less powerful than them, and she shared that responsibility now.
Yes. She needed to help. Find out the causes of things. Help people. That was what she was going to do.
Pain and ashes and death.
Her thoughts were so much sharper and clearer now she'd eaten. Or, at least, she thought they were, until The hopped up onto the table in front of her, gave her the kind of withering Look that only an undead vulture can manage and said, “Master, what in the name of the Darker Realms are you eating?”
Rikku looked down at the food she’d been absentminedly devouring. Her stomach convulsed, and she staggered over to the basin. Her hands were stained and gory with blood, and when she glanced at her reflection, there was blood around her mouth. She’d been eating raw meat. She hadn’t even noticed.
She washed herself off until there wasn’t any blood left, and threw away the remainder of the meat. A brief pang of worry made her frown, but it didn’t last. She’d forgotten whatever it was that was worrying her, so it couldn’t have been all that important.
A small voice inside her screamed Get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head, but she ignored it, enjoying the feel of a full stomach and clean clothes at last. And soon she could go and bring pain and ashes and death to the world. All was well.
“Master,” said The, and he actually sounded worried.
“I’m leaving now,” she said cheerfully, checking that she’d remembered to bring her wand and frying pan and flask. She had. Good. “Look after Fred, willya?" she added with a grin. “Don’t let him eat anyone.”
“You’re leaving?” said The. “Without one of us? But you always—”
Rikku pulled out her wand. She didn’t bother to do any complicated or subtle magic, just clubbed him with it, as hard as she could. The force of it knocked him away into a corner. He landed in an untidy bundle of feathers and bones, giving a hoarse squawk of pain.
“I give the orders,” she said casually, and went out to meet Celestial. They had work to do.
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