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 Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 5:50 pm
There was nothing significant about May 10th. It was a warm spring night, a little humid, and sundown had done very little by means of cooling the thick air down. It wasn't significant for any reason, it was simply average, a day in a week like any other before or after it. Only, it was the first day that she had surfaced to hunt in what not only felt like, but most certainly was, years. To be useful she needed to be connected with the world again, to learn how to stalk and follow quietly, to blend in and stand out at her own whims, and there was no better time than now to do familiarize herself with how to do so again. Tanzanite needed Alkaid at her best. It was non-negotiable. " Please, d-don't," the voice trembled as much as the woman did and Alkaid would have sneered if it didn't require effort on her part. The woman had seemed admirable, at first. Alkaid found her pick-pocketing a man with deft fingers and a proud smile but now that she had her here, pressed against a tree just off the beaten path, she was staring at a pair of blue eyes that were frantic and wild as a caged animal. It was disappointing. She had hoped that she was someone braver, someone malleable, but she was begging so easily that it wasn't even fun to torment her. Her fingers tightened where she gripped her throat and she heard the ragged, frantic gasp through a narrowed airway. Manicured nails rose and tried to find purchase on anything the woman could reach, digging into the cracks between her plates, clutching the thin fabric of her cloak - even as weak as Alkaid's physical form was, the woman was nothing. A scarce few yards away, Sadr stared in absolute horror. The night had begun like any other with Veritas - they powered up and took to the streets. He always hoped that he found something interesting at the same time that he hoped they didn't. Tonight it had simply seemed like a quiet, peaceful stroll in the park when a horrific, swelling energy exploded into their radars. It was nauseating and thick, like smoke that curled and choked his senses, and if it hadn't been for the fact that they were so damnably close to it, he would have begged Veritas to leave. But he couldn't, not once he saw her, not once he saw what she was doing. They were huddled behind a bench, squatted down to avoid the... the thing they could see. His hand clutched Veritas' sleeve but he couldn't drag his away from what he was seeing. "We.. we have to help her," he whispered and his tongue was dry and heavy in his mouth. "She's.. she's doing to die, Ver, she's.." The war he had avoided so far seemed suddenly very, very real. Guine We don't need you yet but hi, I did a thing biggrin
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 6:47 pm
The woman was terrifying.
She looked like nothing Veritas had ever seen before. The pale skin had thin, razor cracks spreading from her forehead all across her body, up and down slender arms and across her chest, from which a gaping, dark hole was visible. He couldn't see her eyes from here, but Veritas wasn't sure he even wanted to.
And her power signature.
Veritas was struggling to control himself, one hand resting on Sadr's back, eyes focused across at the woman. Woman? He wasn't even sure what she was, because whatever it was, wasn't human. She was clutching a gasping, crying woman against a tree as though it was nothing, and it was making the nausea churn in Veritas' stomach.
They couldn't just sit here. They couldn't just leave her and walk away, not after seeing this, not after knowing that they might be able to help. They were two basic sailors, but maybe numbers would be able to outstrip..?
Just thinking it made him feel weak. It was laughable.
Veritas set his jaw.
"Don't get too close to her," he said firmly to Sadr. "Come on."
He let go of Sadr's hand - because he didn't want to give any impression that the other could be used against him - and lunged forward, Veritas throwing out his palm towards the cracked creature and hoping the magic would hit her, and not her victim.
"Forest of Lies!" he shouted.Felyn Veritas points at his opponent with his right hand and makes an upward gesture with his left. The opponent will suddenly find themselves in a dark, shadowy forest with tangles of dead, thorny trees and thick gray fog, unable to find the way out. They will still be able to see Veritas; it is all an illusion and lasts 15 seconds. Three uses.
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 6:51 pm
If Alkaid hadn't been so focused or had been more accustomed to the open arena that the city presented her with, perhaps she would have realized the two fledgling senshi were there. At the same time, what was the point of worrying over such minuscule distractions anyway? Even as his magic blossomed around her she felt it prickling on her skin like a cool summer rain, sinking down into the cracks as her ravenous, inky being drank in the illusion he offered her. In her hands, the woman squirmed, and she smiled. "Fine." Broken fingers unwound and she let her go, turning before the gasping, frantic woman crumpled at her feet in tears. "Two senshi are a much better prize." The world around her was broken, the real world layered over top with a forest of trees, both so real that it was hard to stare at. Even for her, a creature of magic and energy, the undefinable reality was hard to cope with. Luckily, the one thing that stood out among the mingled layers was the senshi that had cast his magic and, more dimly behind him, one that hadn't yet. The smile she pulled over her lips for the woman widened and grew manic. One hand rose and her smile parted. " Misguiding Light, Magnified!" A ball of light erupted from her hand and flew forward, towards the two senshi. Don't get too close to her. Foolishly, Sadr had nodded and followed his boyfriend around the bench, uselessly balling his hands into fists and waiting as the man's magic erupted around the woman. He had a moment to scream internally over their success as she dropped the civilian - but then she turned to look at them and that smile was horror incarnate. His stomach flipped. "What is-" The whisper was broken as she shouted suddenly and then he forgot everything as his vision filled with light, baby blues wide and honed in upon an impossibly beautiful, warm ball of light. Everything else fell away - no more Veritas, no horrible woman, no civilian. There was just light and peace. He took a step forward towards it, then another, slow and steady. kuropeco Misguiding Light, Magnified! Alkaid can summon a ball of light to send out and lure in anyone within sight of it. All it takes is one direct look and they are caught under a hypnotic spell that Alkaid uses to slowly draw them back to her. She can't control their mind or make them do anything, it just entrances them to follow the light. The power does not distinguish between friend or foe - if anyone looks at it, they are snared. Her ability to entrance people is dependent on a number of factors. First and foremost, it depends on the opponent's power level in relation to her own. Those weaker than her are fair game, those on the same power level can only escape if they possess a strong will, and those stronger than her would have to possess an extremely weak will to fall completely prey (though she may confuse them with it for a brief moment). She can entrance more than one person at a time, though the more people she tries to draw, and the more powerful they are, the weaker the spell becomes. Her concentration must be spread between multiple people and thus weakens when she tries to take on a job that is too big. At the basic level, her power starts to become unstable at about three people (without power levels or will considered) and much more would see it fail. The spell is broken either when Alkaid loses concentration or when the individual is touched in a forceful manner (such as a shake or physical attack).
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:03 pm
The magic hadn't worked.
Some part of Veritas knew that it was silly to have thought that it might. The power signature was decades beyond his own, a blazing, toxic aura that curled unpleasantly and powerfully around them both, filling his lungs with a feeling of toxicity that he couldn't quite shake. It felt as though he was being suffocated by the sheer amount of Chaos that was weighing down on him.
For a fraction of a moment, he thought it might have worked. She had certainly disregarded the civilian that was now crumpled at the woman's cracked feet. But then her voice came wafting calmly towards them, the smile on her face something that set Veritas' nerves on edge, something that drew on the unease he already felt.
He turned his head, intending to drag Sadr away, but there was a burst of glowing light that was just out of the range of his vision and Veritas saw Sadr's eyes go blank. His own eyes went wide, fear rippling down his spine, and sheer instinct kept him from looking back.
Misguiding Light. That was what she had said.
Sadr had taken a step forward towards her. Veritas grabbed his arm, trying to drag him back, his heart hammering in his chest.
"Stop - " he yelled. "Stop - let him go - s**t - Forest of Lies!'
The second spell was ripped from his throat out of sheer desperation, because he had nothing else to offer except brute strength, and even then it wasn't that much. Veritas was still pulling at Sadr's arm, trying to pull him away.
"Come on - Sadr, look away, whatever she's doing, look away - "
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Posted: Tue May 14, 2019 3:40 pm
Nothing much happened at first. Noah's hands circled an arm that tugged dully as Sadr continued to walk forward and another layer of illusion erupted around the Ascendant General's vision. It made her waiver for a moment and her gaze flickered out to the transparent trunks nearest her before locking back on the boy she had snagged. It was a small loss of focus, quicker than the blink of an eye, but it was enough. "Veritas?" Sadr's eyes cleared like clouds passing by and he blinked, once, twice, to get readjusted to a world that suddenly seemed too real. He was dimly aware of Noah, no, Veritas' hands on him and a pulling pressure that nearly drug him off of his feet as he stopped tugging against it. It didn't though and he simply recoiled, drawn back closer to the other Senshi with his eyes turned warily towards the woman lingering behind her ball of light. "Tch," she sighed for their benefit, a display of disappointment, and raised her hand so that the ball of light drew backwards rapidly and began hovering over it. "I was hoping to toy with you a little longer before you died. What a pity." Sadr had a brief moment to seem confused before she raised both cracked, pale arms parallel to her ears and let her fingers cup the ball of light above her head. They drew out from one another and as her palms spread wide, the ball grew, until it was a supernova of light above her head. " Ascendant's Barrage" From the core, light began to peel away, circling it like electrons around a nucleus. Then she smirked and one peeled away, whistling through the air like missile, and crashing at their feet in an explosion of blinding light. The first one was a test to see how they would react and then three more were pulling away from the center and whizzing towards them. Sadr cried out as one struck him hard in the side of his chest and sagged, confused and blinded. "We- we have to run." This was a mistake. kuropeco Ascendant's BarrageAs with her first two attacks, Alkaid summons a ball of light. This ball of light is much larger than her basic attack and hovers above her outstretched palms instead of supporting itself in midair. At will, Alkaid can fire guided light 'missiles' from the glowing ball at any target within her sight. The missiles pack a power equivalent to a General's punch with up to two dozen missiles per attack. As long as Alkaid keeps her undivided attention upon her target, the missiles can't miss. However, if she breaks eye contact or the target hides behind something (ie: she can no longer see them) her attack is useless. Evasive and/or defensive Senshi attacks may also aid in avoiding the missiles. Bonus art for effect: here
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Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 7:38 pm
The panic was beginning to rise in Veritas' throat. Sadr was still moving slowly towards the woman, automaton like, and he was trying desperately to drag him away, to stop it, to force him to back off, Veritas throwing all of his weight into his attempt to move him.
Veritas?
Relief washed over him. "Sadr," he said hoarsely. "Thank ********. Come on, come back to me - "
The rest of his sentence was lost. There was a crackling sound and then an explosion of something blinding white crashed at their feet, sending Veritas skidding backwards with a yell. The sheer intensity of it made his eyes sting, Veritas staggering - he saw Sadr collapse as something hit him in the chest.
Fear was a tangible thing. It spread out from his heart towards his arms, so that nothing felt right, so that everything seemed to collapse in on itself and Veritas' eyes moved towards Sadr, unable to do anything but reach for him, to try and help, because like hell he would ever leave Sadr behind.
"I know, I know," he said, "I - "
Another missile of light whistled through the air and caught Veritas in the back. He went sprawling forward with a gasp of pain, crashing onto the ground, feeling the heat and the sting shivering up and down his spine like pinpricks.
This was not how it was supposed to have happened. This was not it. This was not right.
Veritas moved his hand, trying to grope across the ground towards Sadr, teeth clenched.
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Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 5:18 pm
" No-" Sadr was screaming before he could stop himself; it was a sound that ripped past his lips and poured every ounce of fear clutched within his chest out into the world. All of the hope he had left was centered on Veritas, on the man grabbing his hand and dragging them both to safety, and as a bursting missile crashed into the brunette's back and sent him flush to his belly, Sadr felt it vanishing. There was a chill settling in his bones that not even the broken senshi's searing light could overcome. Veritas crawled toward him and Sadr pushed himself to his knees, inching forward with an outstretched hand desperately. If he could just touch him, maybe they could rally, they could stand or get away or - Another round of battering lights crashed down around them and all Ellis knew was blinding flashes and searing pain. His ears rang until he could hear nothing, least of all his own scream of pain, but he felt it as the force crashed into his bones. He felt the snap and his arm recoiled, cradled against his chest. It was too hard to see, to think, to hear. It felt hopeless. Alkaid's smile was as true as it ever looked. It was wide, splitting her broken face with an eerie sense of pleasure beneath her intense, glowing eyes. The spiderwebs of cracks in her flesh were crawling with light, with her power, and each time her missiles earned a cry of pain from the useless pair, she took a step closer. Two for the price of one - Tanzanite would be pleased.
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Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 6:02 pm
A howling burst of wind shook the trees, scattering leaves and branches and hindering anything in its wake. The intention had been to blow the shattered woman back, distract her before she could teleport or attack again.
Sessrumnir had been drawn to the fight by the screams and cracking lights that lit up the park. Taking his younger brother’s tactic of staying unpowered until the last moment he could manage helped at least a little with the element of surprise. Not that he would ever admit to Peter that it was anything but dangerous. But it was true that their auras gave too much away to be anything but hindering.
“I’ll give you one chance to leave,” Sessrumnir growled almost as fiercely as the giant, ethereal wolf beside him, teeth bared and snapping, hackles raised. He didn’t turn to check on the two senshi. If he let himself get distracted, he might lose any temporary advantage they had.
Hang in there.
One chance, but he didn’t allow her to ponder her response.
Sessrumnir sent the wolf toward her again, this time launching into an attack to grab and rip and shred. If she managed to get her teeth on the corrupt. Quote: Summons Ability:
Howling as though to call upon the very forces of nature, the wolf lets out a gust of wind, capable of knocking an opponent back. Inspiration taken from a "Super Bark" and "Unrelenting Force", but not quite as powerful!
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Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 5:33 pm
Everything hurt and he couldn't get to Sadr.
There were shards of light raining down all around him, crackling against the pavement. Veritas' hand was snatched back away from the other senshi, still groping across the ground to find him again, except now he was gasping in pain, every movement a monumental effort.
He couldn't manage to get to his feet. Every time he tried, another bolt hit him and sent him crumpling down onto the ground again, pain ricocheting through him so that it was all he knew after the first few volleys. One collided with his shoulder, and then another his leg. A third narrowly missed his head and instead cracked into his hand, Veritas letting out small scream that was bitten off, because the last thing he wanted was to show any sort of weakness.
It was much too late for that, he knew. But he wanted - needed Sadr to be safe, needed desperately for this one thing to be taken care of because the thought of him being hurt was like a physical illness inside of his head even as Veritas heard the telltale snap of something breaking from somewhere close by.
"Sadr - "
He couldn't see anything, the light blinding, his vision hazy. Veritas had stopped trying to crawl across the ground and instead was just lying on his stomach, black spots flitting across his eyes, everything an explosion of heat and light and agony. The will and the ability to move had dissipated.
Please let Sadr be safe please let Sadr be safe please -
Something slammed into his back - another bolt of light, and Veritas let out a gasp that was almost a shriek, all the breath leaving him in an instant as, for a few seconds, he seemed to waver on the edge of consciousness. His cheek was pressed against the ground, chest heaving painfully without much room to breathe, and it hurt.
Sadr -
Veritas was dimly aware of something happening - a new sound, something that sent a rush of powerful wind searing over him, and then something that sounded like a feral growl, a snarl of something too big and too frightening to be anything except -
- except he was also aware, through the dull throb of pain and dizziness - that the power signature that had suddenly flared into existence around him wasn't Chaos aligned, but Order.
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Posted: Fri May 24, 2019 5:32 pm
Where Alkaid lacked real displays of pleasure and happiness, her loathing was a free thing, rippling across her face in a sneer of distaste as she was shoved suddenly and violently backward. There was no hiding it, there was no pretending that she was anything other than absolutely and completely disgusted with the idea of her toys being ripped from her grasp by something that was much, much stronger than a couple of fanciful illusions. All the battered senshi had managed to do was distract her from the arrival of someone much, much stronger. Not for the first time, her focus had been her undoing. The ball of light vanished in a second as she was sent tumbling backward, sprawling across the earth in a heap of dreads and sheer fabric. The wind whistled along the edges of her plates where she lay sprawled on the ground, shocked and uselessly trying to gather her whits about her. She heard him, though. She heard the threat in his voice. She heard the growl in his voice echoed in the beast at his side. With some effort, she pushed one hand beneath her and shoved her upper body off the ground like some messy Ariel that had traded ocean waves for asphalt and dirt. Her cape was a tangle around her shoulders and legs but her eyes were angry and fierce as they narrowed upon the charging beast; she was outnumbered. Outwitted. The glowing amber eyes slid beyond the monster to its keeper and for as long as she could wait, she concentrated on that face until she was certain she could recall every detail. Then, a hair of a second before angry teeth were launching at her, she was gone. It was a small pop of sound that frazzled at the edge and left behind only the waste of her energy. It clung to where she had been but was fading quickly, melding back into the world. At the feet of the Knight, Sadr was opening bleary, unfocused eyes. It was too hard to focus on anything other than the pain in his arm but dimly he was aware of the lack of that creature and the man that was standing over them. Them. Veritas. "Ver," his voice was shaky and his head was worse but he pushed himself up to sit despite it. His arm was throbbing with pain that stung him like knives. It didn't matter. The nausea threatening to overwhelm him didn't matter. Bright blues were frantic as they looked around him and they only widened with panic when they saw him, at last, crumpled nearby. "Veritas, wake up," he tried to crawl closer but stopped as a wave of dizziness swept over him. He felt helpless. Useless. Behind him, another bright spot of energy was closing in but the clink and clutter of armor announced the Knight well before he arrived. He had been coming for the woman the very moment he felt her but wasn't surprised at all when he arrived on a disaster scene with her nowhere in sight. It had been months, maybe years, since he had last felt her presence in the city and she was gone before he could find her again. It was mildly infuriating but he had been working on that. Instead of obsessing, he glanced from the summons to the Knight, then down at the men crumpled on the ground. By the looks of it, they were lucky the other Knight had been closer than he had. "Did she teleport away?" There was no use in introductions at a time like this. He stepped closer and stooped low next to the kid (he was definitely young, senshi or not) that had yet to stir and pressed oddly delicate fingers into the crook of his neck. There was a pulse, at least.
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