Guild Wars III Roleplay (Rated T)

[Shadaras]

Tabloid Town wasn’t being very obliging about giving Shade something useless to stab. Therefore, by the time she reached the well-lit inner part of the town, she wasn’t in any better a mood than she’d started out in. She also wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to the road itself as she should have been, for, when Amneiger came to greet her, she had Savucu half-drawn and her teeth bared in a snarl by the time he said her name. The ‘fleet scientist’s voice trailed off, and Shade hesitated, thinking that she should probably apologize for her nerves.

Then she registered that Amneiger was holding up a box. And it was wrapped. The sheer oddity of this was enough to keep her silent as Amneiger tried once more to speak. This time, he got as far as telling her that he wanted to give her something. This time, he started looking over her shoulder, as if there was something lurking there. Without thinking overly much, Shade drew Savucu. Its hilt fit neatly into one hand, and she glanced down at it. The blade wasn’t its normal katana form; no, it was a short sword. Perfect for the relatively cramped alleyways of Tabloid Town, but not the weapon Shade was most used to.

"Um...Shade? Behind you."

Shade spun without thinking. The first thing she saw was a pale-furred cat-thing rushing towards her. Unfortunately, Shade didn’t recognize who it was until after he’d gotten stabbed. Fortunately, the stab wound was only in Vyt’s left shoulder. Shade swore, pulling her sword out of the catboy. “Nice to see you too, idiot,” she snarled, grabbing his shoulder with her left hand and dragging him close enough to make sure she probably hadn’t cut anything too important. “How about more warning before you just about attack me, next time?”

If either of the men was stupid enough not to realize Shade was in a bad mood now, she wasn’t going to give them nearly as much credit as they probably deserved.

At about that point, Shade noticed the hissing. And the luminous white eyes white eyes coming after her from something that looked very much like a snake-dragon-demon thing. Except a whole lot freakier. Shade looked at it for a moment, and then stepped around Vyt. She didn’t really want to fight something while she was wearing only clothing-grade leather and had a backpack on, but relative to letting a wounded person and someone who was absolutely useless at combat try to fight, this was much preferable.

Shade tried to watch the monster, but its form kept shifting, sliding away from anything recognizable just as she thought she had it pinned down. It was quite unnerving. And then the thing found claws and long, spindly, slimy arms and reached out for her, sharp teeth glinting in the light. Shade batted at the thing’s arm with Savucu, but the sword barely cut into it. At least it deflected the pointy bits from her. That was something. Except that then another set of pointy bits came at her and she had to tug Savucu free and deflect that, too. Shade drew one of her daggers, hoping that the ordinary steel might work better than demon-bronze.

The thing paused. Shade growled and leapt at it, instinctively trying to open her wings for more lift. It didn’t work, and she fell ever so slightly short of where she wanted to have landed. A curse and a step later, she found that the thing had her essentially corralled with its insect-like arms. Shade spun, hitting back more claws. Just how many arms did this thing have? The steel did seem to work better, but that wasn’t saying much, since Savucu may as well have been a sword-shaped stick for what notice the thing took of it. And now that she was so near it, Shade didn’t have the energy or concentration to spare to shout at Amneiger or Vyt to run.

Not that she particularly wanted them to; even wounded, the ninja would help. And even if he was useless, Shade was pretty sure that Ameniger would have some interesting Spacefleet toy to help with. She just hoped that they’d figure out how to kill the thing before it killed her.

[Amneiger]

((Tabloid Town))


When Shade had stabbed Vyt, Amneiger realized that maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to try to talk to her now. And something in the way that she just pulled him over made his heart sink a bit. If he got hurt, she would show the same sort of concern to him, right? He hoped?

At this point, the monster attacked.

Amneiger's first instinct was to get everyone away from here and to someplace hidden. There were only three of them, only one of whom was in a good condition to fight. He hadn't brought any comm links with him, so they'd have to wait for some sort of emergency response before being rescued.

That would mean getting Shade out of the corner the monster thing had boxed her into. And he didn't want to leave Shade behind.

Amneiger ribbed open the box, took out the vibroblade, and switched it on. He held the vibroblade in one hand, dropped the box, and pulled out his dazzler with the other.

First of all: would the monster be vulnerable to light-based blinding weapons?

Well, even if it wasn't he might still be able to distract it. He ran around until he was somewhere to the side of and behind Shade so that she wouldn't be facing the dazzler, with the creature's eyes facing him. Then he lifted the dazzler and fired into its eyes.

It seemed to rock back a bit, and the hissing noise rose in pitch. He fired again, and it rocked back some more. Its coordination didn't falter so it probably wasn't be too badly affected, but it was noticing something. And that meant that there was a definite chance of distracting it. Amneiger kept pulling the trigger on the dazzler, moving about to keep the monster's eyes in his line of sight.

[Celestial]

Mage Manor

Mages were gathering from all over the Manor now, obviously feeling the quake. They were all following something and Celestial's eye was drawn to it too. Nova was walking down the corridor, concentrating on something. The Mage grabbed the nearest equivalent he had of a shoulder and shook him, using her own fire magic to neutralise his great heat.

"Nova, what's wrong?" she asked him gently but she did not hear his reply. The feeling of evil stirred again, much stronger this time. Celestial sank to the ground, barely hearing Overlord's concerned weewooing. She hyperventilated but no horrific images flashed through her head and the classical music was always stuck in her head so it wasn't a problem. For now.

She got up, dusting herself off and shaking just a bit. That basement was really getting out of hand. At least, she hoped it was the basement. Normally it just lurked like the hairy cheese in your fridge that nobody wants to eat. Then again, that same hairy cheese always gets out of hand and it is up to somebody to clean it out.

"Rikku, do you mind coming along with me? Anybody else who wants can too," she said, setting off towards the basement and hoping that they catch up with her. While she didn't think that the basement would present too much of a challange to a Dragon Mage but still, she was always unnerved by that place. It was always trying to do something but nobody was sure what. And somehow, it knew exactly how to induce your own personal despair.

The door was buried beneath the rocks. She concentrated on the air trapped between them, stirring it up and guiding it to place the rocks away for the cleaner golems to take and replace. She was curious about the smashedTaking a deep breath, she put her hand on the door handle. It came away easily and without a creek like spooky doors should. The basement door should seem just like any normal door so that nobody would be tempted to go inside for adventures. Their adventure would often be very short and not sweet at all.

Celestial pulled the door away. Immediately the powerful smell assaulted her; a mixture of blood, burnt flesh, acid and everything rotten that could rot. It was the smell of evil and it was not faint or even an undertone. It was powerful and close.

She sent a fireball into the darkness, not really aiming for anything. The stink seemed to attack every single one of her senses, ones sharpened by the presense of a dragon. It was unbearable to remain here.

The fire flew in a small bit and was swallowed by the darkness. It didn't go out, it was swallowed.

Overlord, can you see anything? Celestial asked, putting her hand over her mouth to prevent herself vomiting. She didn't mind some evil every now and then as long as it was affable. This was what she thought was the ULTIMATE EVIL.

I do but I don't think you'll like it. he said to her, shaking himself every now and then. As if bitten by Zylaa's weasel from the last post on the previous page, he began weewooing the tune that Celestial recognised: Dies Irae.

There's a dark void that's filled almost the whole basement. This is what is causing that stink. I believe this is the so-called Underdeep.

[Jina]

The White Weewoo

"Wake up, lazy! It's time for shore leave! And we don't have any demonic mission obligations this time!"

"Sure. Whatever," said Jina. She stared at the ceiling for a bit, then rolled out of bed.

"Ow. Remind me not to drop off the top bunk."

She picked herself up, and grabbed her daggers and her cloak. Then, rubbing her head, she went after Zylaa. The weasels were playing some weird tune. Zylaa's head rose up from out of the hold.

"Guys, do you have any idea why the weasels would be playing Requiem for a Dream?"

"Don't ask me, they're your psychic weasels. I'm not even sure I know what requiem means. Anyway, maybe they just like the tune."

[Draco]

<<Ninja Dojo>>

Draco stands outside the Ninja Superior's room about to enter when he hears a loud voice down the hall, in the room behind the Superior's. "The meeting must be in there." He quickly walks down to the door opening it. He looks around the room to see who has shown up and smirks. "Kovaran 'Loudest Ninja Ever' Mokra." Kovaran was a new guy, but Draco liked him. He stood out, was way different from the other ninjas, and just made things more lively.

Draco walks past Kovaran and talks sarcastically, "Relax a little. You might give the old man a heart attack being so loud near him." He sits down on the ground waiting to hear what the news was about.

---

<<Brassport>>

Gil buttons up his coat and is about to take off when a loud knocking is heard on the door. A voice could be heard from a speaker on the roof.

"Mr. Maxwell!"

He tries to ignore it wanting to explore as soon as possible, but the knocking and calling continue. "Why did I install that intercom? And why did I have to make Fantome so quite?" He sighs and hops off of Fantome. He walks over to a small pipe, flips off it's lid, and speaks into it. "What is it?"

"I have a message from Mr. Blackstone! He requests for all guild members and contract workers to assemble."

Scratching the back of his head he thinks for a moment. "Tell him I've gone to survey the surrounding area, and that I'll report in later." He closes the lid to the pipe and gets back into his waiting aircraft. The front door of the room opens with a man running to the Fantome as it begins to roll away.

"Mr. Maxwell! I insist that you come to the meeting! This is urgent!"

He places his goggles over his eyes and smiles to the man. "Give my regards to the others."

With that the aircraft shoots of forward, propelled by compacted steam source (thanks to the alchemists help). Within moments he crosses the Brassport limits and begins flying over the land he never seen before.

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

Vyt felt something sharp by his left shoulder, making him glance at it. It was bleeding. Shade's blade went into it, though it only created a small wound.

"Nice to see you too, idiot. How about more warning before you just about attack me, next time?"

Shade quickly tended to his wound, or at least Vyt knew she was. By the way she was aggressively pulling him back towards her, anyone from the sidelines would imagine a fight going on between them or a lovers' violent quarrel. Vyt blushed a little after thinking of the latter, though he eventually realized that something was making the knight contemplate in deep thinking. Her quick stabbing was an obvious sign of her bad mood.

Vyt did not grimace at the wound and tried to retain his smile. "Come on, Shade! You shouldn't be such a-"

The catboy felt the knight sensing something from behind him. She quickly moved around him and went after whatever it was, prompting him to look behind his back. By the time he was able to see Shade once more, he noticed a formless creature slithering away from the knight. Why was she chasing after it? Was it the one turning her bright day into a dull one? Whatever it was, it surely got her attention.

Pulling out a single kunai, Vyt swiftly threw his projectile at the creature with his good arm. As fast as the catboy could fling his kunai, the distance was enough for his target to notice. It easily deflected the kunai off with its newly-appeared arms.

Vyt hissed. He was not expecting a real fight to occur in Tabloid Town, and thus did not bring most of his equipments in.

A moment later, his teeth that once gritted in hissing anger subtly changed into a smile.

"A shape-shifting monster," the catboy giggled. "Interesting."

Shape-shifting, yes. But what about the other characteristics? For Vyt, he knew that the only way to find them out is through battle.

"Stay away from it!" Vyt shouted. It was meant for Shade, but he was also warning anyone too near from the darn thing... or more importantly, from him.

Assuming his stance, Vyt began to flex his arms, the elbows cocked in towards his body.

[The Ninja Superior]

((Ninja Dojo))

Through the paper wall that separated the attending ninjas from the other side of the room, a silhouette of an old man emerged. Promptly, the ninjas bowed down in respect to the presence of this, as he raised his hand in return. Two pairs of hands then pulled the wall aside, revealing the source of the shadow.

The Ninja Superior.

His tired eyes looked around, scanning the whole room and its occupants. He noted the ones who were absent; they would be informed by the fastest of his messengers about the news. Two of them were standing right beside and behind him, lending their ears.

The Ninja Superior wasted no time. His speech was prepared to be as short as possible, and he requested no special preparations for the assembly. Everyone inside would realize that it was an emergency meeting; hence, their attention was requested strictly.

"The time has come again... NTWF's unity is at risk once more."

"Twice has this happened before. The precarious thread that bundled all of the different groups of NTWF is being ripped apart once more. Varying trials and hardships that will test one's skills, determination and spirit appear upon our paths, as if fate had decided to challenge us, and-"

*COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH*

*COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH*

One of the messengers immediately aided the Ninja Superior, who was down the ground gasping for air. "Master, we shouldn't continue this. It might endanger your life!"

The Ninja Superior simply lifted his hand, though the other was clenched into a fist and placed on his chest. "I'll... I'll be fine."

It took a moment for him to stand up once more. He could see the concerned look on the faces of his students. He would not want to worry them more.

"Twice have we acted as a guild, but I speak much more from you. Remember your pride as a ninja, but also remind yourselves that we co-exist with each other as part of NTWF. Thus, I command you to dispatch yourselves into teams and search around the NTWF for anything suspicious and malevolent. If you have to, group yourselves with those from the other guilds."

"I am sorry that I cannot be more detailed about this, but follow your sense of justice and righteousness. It will definitely help you in your search for the thing I am most troubled upon."

The Ninja Superior paused. He knew he would be bombarded with questions, and so he waited.

[Rikku]

Mage Manor

“What was that?” asked Celestial. “More importantly, is there any damage where you came from?”

Rikku’s first temptation was to say something along the lines of ‘How in the seven cities should I know?’ Sure, ‘wizard’ meant ‘wise’, but Rikku had never claimed to be anything but a mage. She knew how to pull corpses into a ghastly semblance of life, but her knowledge of geology was a little … sketchy.

It had to have something to do with the Underdeep. No one quite seemed to know what it was. She’d asked Damien once, when her curiosity had overcome her dislike.

He’d said, simply, “It is a place of nightmares.”

Of course, she’d automatically assumed he was being overdramatic (as per usual) and dismissed him, but … maybe there was more in his statement than she’d first assumed. Maybe poking around in the dark places of the world had caused this, or something else, or someone else. Maybe something was going on that she didn’t know about.

And she had to find out. Rikku did not want to see her nightmares.

She broke herself away from that somewhat terrifying train of thought and said, “Well, a few candles—” before she realised that, in fact, Celestial had already turned and left.

To the basement. Oh, dear.

“Um,” said Rikku, blankly. This was what she got for not paying attention. Finally, realisation hit her, and she half-ran to catch up to the Dragon Mage. “Celestial,” she said, struggling to keep her voice calm and not set anything on fire, “that … may not be the best of …” She searched for words. It didn’t help that she had no idea whether or not the other Mages had any inkling that she had been working in the basement for the past few months. It was forbidden, after all. Just because Ikkin hardly seemed to be there half the time didn’t mean that the Archmage wasn’t capable of handing out punishments, and Rikku had no wish to fight her phoenix. “Ideas. Basements are like hairy cheese!” she added, frantically. “And Mages are like, um, lactose intolerant people … okay, no idea where that metaphor’s going, but seriously, you don’t want to go down there! For the last little while things have gotten really strange, and I really don’t—”

Too late. They’d reached the door to the basement. To her workshop, more specifically. Rikku wondered, uneasily, if Celestial knew of her work there after all. But surely she knew better than to meddle with the work of a necromancer? It wasn’t like Rikku couldn’t handle –

Celestial finished moving the rocks and opened the door, and a smell hit Rikku. Literally hit her; the sensation was like being whacked in the face by an extremely hostile corpse. It was a strong, pungent smell, the smell of blood, the smell of burnt flesh, the smell of acid, of everything rotten that could rot and a few other things besides. It was the smell of evil. It was the smell of death.

Rikku breathed in deep, because it was a smell she was well acquainted with. She smiled, without being aware that she did it.

It was not a nice smile.

Celestial’s weewoo was crooning something mournfully, a slow, haunting tune that set Rikku’s nerves on edge.

“Would you quit that?” she snapped at it, curling her hand around her frying pan. “This is bad enough without musical accompaniment! What do you think this is, a bad horror movie? Next you’ll be telling us to split up, or something!”

She turned, because she didn’t particularly want to take out all her sudden anger on a (relatively) innocent bird. In front of her was a thick darkness that could only be described as ‘oozing’. When Celestial sent a bit of fire into it, it was absorbed, no trace remaining. Normal darkness was described as the absence of light, but this wasn’t an absence. This dark was definitely and unquestionably there, a sinister, slimy presence at the corner of her eye and the corner of her mind. It seemed almost … alive, somehow …

But that was silly. This wasn’t a bad horror movie, after all. Rikku kept on staring into the darkness, fighting the impulse to laugh in mad delight. The stinking evil seemed to so perfectly personify the kind of magic she’d been working with lately, as she reached into the dark places of the world and called. And something had answered her call, apparently, and maybe something else, if that earthquake was anything to go by. Something else entirely new, called by her, or something else, maybe someone else, someone innocent, that innocence warped by the darkness of this place, taking hold of something, pulling … And now the impulse to laugh wasn’t that hard to fight. She bit her lip instead.

Somehow, she couldn’t help avoid getting the impression that if this was a horror movie, it was a very good one. The kind that left you quivering and scared, afraid of the darkness that lurked in every unlit corner. The kind that gave you nightmares.

Yes, it was a slimy, insidious presence, this Underdeep, if this was the Underdeep. And it seemed to have swallowed up her lab. All her work … She realised, with a start, that she was shivering. It shouldn’t have this effect on her. Not that severely, not that quickly. She was a necromancer, she was used to dealing with the darkness. It was her job. Her life. It shouldn’t be doing this to her, shouldn’t be –

Shouldn’t be getting inside her head.

A place of nightmares, Damien had called it. And what was her nightmare but that?

“No you don’t,” she said quietly, and she smiled, a preoccupied, absentminded, somewhat terrifying smile. “I won’t let you.”

She lifted up her wand. Rikku only seldom used magic for offense – why bother when you have zombies to defend you? – but she’d been doing a lot of research, these past months, this past year. She knew how to fight when it counted. It always left her shivering and broken inside, and weaker, somehow; but she knew how to fight, and if this wasn’t when it counted she didn’t know when was.

“Get out of my head!” she roared, and gathered up every bit of darkness she could find. It was her own darkness, just the absence of light, the darkness that drove her inexorably on, to what end she did not know; the darkness she felt whenever her uncle told her of how many necromancers started off like her, cheerful, innocent, trying to do the right thing, and ended up like him, cold and ruthless, willing to do anything to get more power, scarred by the darkness they invited in.

Rikku gathered all that darkness. It crackled around her wand, leaped in static electricity from her hair. She raised her wand and gathered the darkness and released it, straight into the slimy, sentient darkness that was the Underdeep and her worst nightmares.

The stinking darkness almost seemed to recoil …

And then it got mad. The darkness began to … coalesce, to take shape, to form into nightmares, nightmares with claws and fangs and glowing eyes, the nightmares of the Mages there, moving forward with unmistakeable hostility. The nightmares were alive, and they wanted blood.

And Rikku, drained, fell to the ground, and could do nothing.

[Superhero Live]

(Ninja Dojo)

Cital had happened to walk into the dojo, sandwich in hand when he heard the Ninja Superior speak. He sat down, listening closely to the man's words and frowned. Again? What did he mean by again? He was about to ask when the ninja began to hack like mad. He held his tongue, but couldn't help but remark, "Got a furball stuck in your throat?"

Idiot. But he was still troubled on the inside. The Ninja Superior seemed very, very near death. What would that mean for all the ninjas? Cital scratched his head and looked around him. When the Ninja Superior gave out his orders, he slowly raised his hand.

"Erm... yeah... sensei, you mentioned that we'll have to search for the thing that's troubling you. That's all nice and specific and all, but... how exactly do you define 'suspicious and malevolent?' I'd say a lot of those pirates fit those categories, but they're... you know, pirates... they smuggles stuff and everything..."

You're a real idiot. The words pounded in his head. The Ninja Superior wasn't going to obviously elaborate. Ninjas were expected to figure it out on their own. Too many questions showed stupidity.

The katana on Cital's back hummed in annoyance and suddenly felt heavier. Shut up and go out there. If something's weird, just slice it down. That always works.

Cital rolled his eyes. I nearly got killed when you told me that.

He could feel Kitchen Knife's angry aura seep into him and shivered. You weren't trying your best that time.

Oh, stick a sock in it.

I'm a sword . I have no mouth to stick a sock in.

[Deleted]

Spacefleet

His eyes narrowed as he was contemplating her request.

Leoness finally remembered who the officer was.

"Come with me," he said.

She obeyed silently and walked behind the tall officer she used to know as Scorch. He had always been so secretive. No one really knew what was going on behind those hard, blue eyes.

"So!" He broke through her thoughts with his firm voice. "How is it that you go disappearing for a year, and then reappear inside a storage room, of all places?" He didn't turn around to look at her. Instead he continued to walk infront of her with his arms folded on the back.

She was about to answer his question with ignorance, but he continued as if his question had been purely hypothetical:

"Am I understanding correctly that you wish to be reinstated as Chief Medic of Spacefleet." This time he stopped and turned to face her. "Just like that?"

Leoness felt cornered. She didn't know how to handle his provocative confrontation.
"Yes." She looked straight back at him. "Yes I do."

Scorch perked an eyebrow. Clearly he was not prepared for this response. If Leoness had been standing closer to him, she could've noticed a small curl in the corner of his mouth - the closest thing to a smile he'd made in a while.

He turned around again and made a gesture for her to follow him.
"I will escort you to Sickbay. From there, you must figure out your place here on your own." He paused.
"Our Commander is busy at the moment. So do not expect any welcome commitee. I will be on the bridge if any disputes should arise."

She nodded, even though he couldn't see it.
Scorch had always been a tough guy, but he seemed different somehow. Scarred.

They arrived at the huge double sliding doors of Sickbay. They were made of reinforced glass and the trademark V-shape was 'cutting' the door in half with shiny chrome.
Behind the glass she saw the lab, the beds and the equipmenet she knew so well, yet it seemed like someone had given the whole place a good facelift.

Scorch stood motionless as if he had forgotten why he was here and trying to memorize it. She stepped forward and the motion sensor on the doorway made the doors slide apart with a WSHHH.

"It's good to have you back, Rilah."

She had never heard Scorch use her real name before, but she wasn't fast enough to turn around and thank him; he was already halfway down the next hallway, looking as if he was engulfed in deep thought.

Slightly confused and still affected by her headache, she stepped into Sickbay. A painkiller would be nice right about now, she thought.
Quite a few people were in there. Two of them were arguing over something. All new faces. All but one.

"Ethan?" Leoness could hardly recognize him again. "Is that really you?"

[Jason]

~Mage Manor~

Jasor had just settled down to write his letter to Javerson when he felt the quaking of the earth. The table shuddered, a bottle of ink spilling out over the surface. Eyes darting around the library to make sure nobody had sen, he used some of the ink to carve out a basic cleaning ruin. Satisfied, he headed out into the hall. This put him just in time to hear Celestial address Rikku.

"Rikku, do you mind coming along with me? Anybody else who wants can too," the feminine mage spoke, before heading in the direction of the basement. Jasor looked on, a plan forming in his head as he made his way toward his room.

Once there, he pulled out a loose floorboard. Coughing on the dust that floated up, the teen began to move his hands over the surface of the place. Feeling his fingers brush around a piece f parchment. Withdrawing the grayed paper, he rolled it out. The ink written of the Scroll of Healing he had been given when he joined up seemed faded. Shoving it into the pocket of his pants, he made his way over to his desk.

Pulling off a piece of paper, he scrawled a note out to the guild. Reading it over to make sure he got his point across, he muttered a spell under his breath. The paper liquefied then, some parts breaking off as the letter delivered itself to ever guild member who was already awake. It read:

Heading over to the Ninja's Dojo to see if they have any idea of what caused the earthquake. If anyone wants to come with, I'll be leaving in a half-hour, to an hour tops. Meet me at the front entrance.

-Jasor

With that, he headed to the front to wait.

[Sq]

Mercenary Base


Sytra watched with dismay as Clint directed Jernath to the lone jar of peanut butter in the pantry. Was that really all there was left?

Her stomach grumbled as if on cue, a reminder to the fact that she hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

“Hmph...I hate peanut butter.” Sytra folded her arms across her chest, sighing indignantly. She supposed she’d just have to go out and get some food on her own, since these lazy oafs were broke.

Well, so was she, but that was beside the point – she stole food all the time. It was just so easy. All she had to do was slip it into her pocket and teleport away when no one was looking. And who ever suspected a cute girl with colorful hair and big innocent eyes of being a thief?

No one.

Of course, she liked being somewhat of a good person, so unless she was on the job she tried to only steal things she absolutely needed but couldn’t afford. Like food. Unfortunately, she was almost always broke so she never did much buying at all.

Oh well.

This was why she needed work. Stat.

Her ears perked up when the boys started talking about benefactors and such.

“Going out trying to get a job? Hn, I guess that could work.” She smirked sarcastically.

That’s when she felt it. The earth below her trembled, and she stumbled toward the counter to steady herself. The quake didn’t last long, and when it ended she looked over at Jernath and Clint, eyes wide.

“...Was that an earthquake?" Jernath asked.

“What else would it be?” Sytra looked up at the ceiling to watch the dangling light sway back and forth. She shrugged after a few moments. Earthquake, big freaking deal.

“Well,” she announced importantly, “since I don’t enjoy feasting on condiments, I am going out to get a real meal that doesn’t suck. And some work. If anyone follows me, I won’t stop them.” Without waiting for a reply to her indirect invitation to accompany her, she swept out of the kitchen and into the main corridor, throwing on her cloak before stepping out into the dark night.

[Celestial]

Mage Manor- Basement of DOOM

“Would you quit that?” Rikku snapped at him and waved the frying pan around “This is bad enough without musical accompaniment! What do you think this is, a bad horror movie? Next you’ll be telling us to split up, or something!”

Overlord stopped, puffing himself up into a ball on Celestial's shoulder. He wanted to argue but it was not exactly the wisest thing to do when somebody really angry at you was threating you with an object almost as big as yourself. Overlord weewooed once and shut up.

Celestial watched Rikku, hoping that the necromancer would somehow be able to recognise something in the darkness and work out how to deal with it. Necromancers were darkness mages right, in essense? She could work out how to handle and deal with this. She flapped her wings nervously, trying to fan the air a little. It was growing soupier with every passing minute and the smell was getting stronger. Celestial strained against her gag reflex.

Rikku said something quietly. The Dragon Mage looked over and to her surprise, found that the necromancer was shivering. This wasn't a good sign, not at all.

"Rikku-" she began.

“Get out of my head!” Rikku suddenly screamed. Darkness enveloped them both but it was not the suffocating darkness of the Underdeep. This was much purer and refined but at the same time, it held none of the malevolence and quiet smiling of a Chessmaster who had their prey right where they wanted it. This darkness was a beast lashing out at an invisible enemy.

Then once again the stench of the Underdeep filled Celestial's world. It seemed to snarl and then grin even more. In the barest range of her hearing, Celestial heard noises that could only be described as something out of a horror movie. Screams, the desperate calling of names, explosions, the sound flesh makes as it is torn, static and all the while, accompanied by a soft piano music. It was one of the most spine-chilling and beautiful melodies that Celestial had ever heard.

Flames leapt from her hands and spread all along her body, burning away the foul stench. These flames glowed bright white, stabbing at the darkness and trying desperately to carve it away. It recoiled like a snake but slowly seeped back behind the doors. But Celestial suspected that it wasn't because of the flames; it did it because it was biding it's time. It knew what it was doing.

The sound faded. Rikku lay on the ground, breathing erratically. The flames went out Celestial knelt down beside her, feeding some air into Rikku's liungs to help her breathe.

"Rikku, wake up!" she shouted at the necromancer, giving her a few slaps on the cheek and splashing cold air onto her face in an effort to simulate a bucket of water. She fed fire into the necromancer, in theory giving her an energy boost. Sometimes fire was better than coffee at these things.

She needed the help of the mage if they were to at least seal that hole. Clearly destroying it was too much to ask for but if they could stop it temporarility and warn the other guilds...

First, Rikku needed to wake up.

[Nova]

Dec 7, 2009 1:44:08 GMT -5 Omni said:

((Hey, Nova, you are a star-person in this RP, right? I couldn't find your guild persona post [and you're supposed to have one].))

((Sorry! D= I made one after I saw your post last night. And yeah, Nova is a star. :3)

Mage Manor

Nova walked down the long corridor briefly, and at the end saw Jasor open the door to the Library and look at him. Nova instinctly turned around, and heard the door soon shut. He sighed happily. Jasor seemed nice; Nova had hardly any previous contact with him, but he had to be careful. Someone wanted him in his room, and whoever it did would be keeping an eye out.

He also concluded that whoever (or whatever) locked him up had no idea about his teleportation skill, and it might be best to keep that a secret. One never knows if something like that could come in handy.

As he walked, he noticed a small table and a white vase of purple and pink flowers against the wall. He stopped and thought for a moment, then he inspected the flowers as he loved their sweet scent. But the vase wouldn't budge. He budged it to the left, and immediately the bookcase next to the table opened, and revealed a secret passage. "I guess every manor has at least one secret passage..." he said to himself and entered.

It was dark, so Nova used his magic to glow, and ignite his hand with a large ball of fire. The dust was thick, being undisturbed for centuries. Thank goodness Nova didn't have to walk; he could if he wanted to, but he preferred hovering.

The hall ended, but instead of a dead end it was another room. His light was barely strong enough to distinguish the walls of the room. But it was very big, and also very empty. He heard a noise; the bookshelf closing again. Normally for any ordinary human this would be a time for mass-freaking-out and dishing out sobs, but Nova knew that he could teleport back.

He noticed a fireplace at the end of the empty room. He pointed at it, and said, "Ignite"

The fireplace became the home of large blue flames and provided enough light to see the room clearly. There was nothing else to see, unfortunately.

"Ah, thank you very much."

Nova jumped, err, rather flew up a few feet and hovered back down. "Who said that?!" he screamed, his eyes were like large dinner plates.

A small blue ball of fire emerged from the fireplace, and slid on the floor until he was just a foot away from the bright blue star. "I was stuck in that pit of ashes for... well, I'm not sure how long, but this room sure has changed over the years. It used to be full of life by the mages. And then.. well.. I'm not sure what happened. I remember a golden ball swaying back and forth, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I couldn't move or anything. And now... you rescued me!"

Nova was still wide-eyed. "Umm... well... congratulations..."

"Thank you. Now, as to pay my respects, I'm ready to lay my life down to my master. I will die for you, as you risked your life to save me."

"Actually, I didn-" Nova stopped. Best not ruin the poor guys moment. "Um, wanna travel with me? I could use a companion."

"Sure thing boss. But.. I don't know my name. Got one?"

"Fyren?" (Fai-ren)

"Suits me!"

So Nova got a new companion. Much like Celestial and Overlord. Though, Overlord is a Weewoo, Fyren is... fire. Nova couldn't make out how he got yellow eyes and mouth, but there are sure to be stranger things out in the world. Besides, Fyren may help him find out what's going on.

They discussed a bit of what happened to Nova... but that was just it; he didn't know. All Nova can remember was that he woke up in Mage Manor in a bed, and he has a sinking feeling in his gut. Then they teleported into the main hall.

A hand on what was most of his shoulder sent shivers down to his spine, nearly paralyzing him for some reason. It was Celestial! "Nova, what's wrong?" He tried to answer, but he couldn't. He felt her touch go away, and she left.

Unsure what to do, he heard things of Rikku and Jasor and mutters of a basement. After he regained every muscle in his body, he left to go find where everyone went. He had no idea how much time had passed.

Seeing the basement door open, he called out in it. "Celestial? Rikku? Jasor? ....Anybody?"

[Bacon]

Mercenary Base
“...Was that an earthquake?"

“What else would it be?”

Clint nodded. He hadn't felt an earthquake in eight years, ever since the raid in San Francisco. The seismic activity was almost nostalgic of Clint's former life.

Sytra's voice shook Clint back to the present. “Well, since I don’t enjoy feasting on condiments, I am going out to get a real meal that doesn’t suck. And some work. If anyone follows me, I won’t stop them.”

Clint frowned at her for a moment. He then looked at Jernath. "Well, if anyone comes by, tell them where we've gone." Clint then tipped his hat at his old friend and rose to follow Sytra.