Sutoratosu

I've also been re examining a good amount of the current strategies in use by him... like Vacuum Shield for example, Well... a good while ago it occurred to me what the base of the technique, Vacuum Wave, actually is, and how it can be used to block a few more thing than just fire...namely wind/maybe spore based attacks or moves. What I'm talking about: At 1:20, the Riolu launches vacuum wave. You see what I mean? the set up part of it, before Riolu leaps? with some training in it... like Erce has been getting from Mareek for a good while now, well... yeah.

Shhhhh.... I gots me more than a few ideas on how to use him, don't you worry...

Java? Should've named him NSA instead...let the surveillance begin! Oh yeah, and one other thing: Leviathan has lost his slot on the team unfortunately, and will be replaced instead by Feraligatr, the reason why being that F-gatr is a bit more balanced in terms of being able to handle it's weaknesses and has access to certain moves which will be easier to string together and use creatively in combat than Gyrados's hit em fast and hit em hard tactic that it's typical moves promote (For example, F-Gatr has access to Mud-Sport, while G-dos, while having coverage in EQ, still has a notable x4 weakness to electric with no real counter other than that). Basically I think it'll just fit better into the overall fighting style, so yeah, the Sea Serpent's going bye bye ((And Azery can probably rejoice about this...))

Mareek got up from his chair as Danielle's fight wrapped up on the screen, her opponent having had his ass soundly handed to him on a silver platter. He didn't whether it was simply because the guy had been cocky when in actuality he was outclassed, the fact that Danielle had pretty much vexed everyone with that little singing performance, the fact that the Nico guy had adapted rather poor to the situation throughout the fight, or simply a bumbling combination of all three of those factors culminating into the perfect storm against him. He knew one thing though, something he'd already figured out long ago; some of the coordinators around here ironically could be even more of a threat in battle than some who were in the Trainer's program... though that in and of itself was mostly because of the distraction factor they tended to bring to the table for their opponents, and trainers with poor attention spans, or who had trouble switching things up rapidly in a fight and going with the flow of the battle, tended to do poorly against them as a direct result. "Come on, let's go walk around," He said to Java, stretching from sitting so long. "It's boring sitting around doing nothing but review a database, and it's starting to get stuffy in here to me." "But we haven't even started on the others-" "We don't have to right now," Mareek interjected the message being typed out on the screen. "Each and everyone of them is going to be fighting in their own matches. We can watch them in action first, save the actual research after we've got an actual impression." A moment of hesitance, then Java seemed to finally relent, exiting the device and appearing before his trainer, eyes glancing over to the screen as Danielle and Nico both headed off the field. He honestly wanted to keep delving into the site, keep compiling everything he came across for easy reference later, and a break at this point seemed not only pointless to him, given that he never tired from his work, but even a bit unjustifiable when so much of it remained to be done... on the other hand though, a part of him actually wouldn't mind taking off for at least a few minutes, setting everything aside and just coming back to it later. It was strange, this change he'd begun to notice in himself ever since yesterday night when they'd gone to the lab... He was usually so goal oriented, so focused, like a machine, fast, efficient, he didn't take breaks, and yet out of the blue, here comes this sudden impulse that perhaps it would be okay to postpone things, to slack off for a time... and then there was the matter of why he was even thinking about any of this at all, he never used to take time to analyze and ponder how he felt. He'd had a few emotions before, sure, but they were shallow reaching at best, simple things like pride or anger, never anything more complex such as the contemplation of self... "Are you coming, or what?" Mareek asked, only then did his Co-Strategist notice the boy had moved out of the waiting room entirely and was now holding the door open with his foot, looking at him expectantly. Another change... he found himself to be capable of becoming lost in his own thoughts... "Java? Are you alright?" Java nodded, though he wasn't quite sure whether he was lying about that. Mareek gave one last glance over his shoulder as the Porygon2 hovered over silently and joined him out in the hall way, then removed his foot from the doorway and headed off idly, hands stuffed in his pockets as usual for the loner. Before long the two heard a rather familiar voice talking, pausing and tracing their way back to the turn off. The sight of Evan and an older looking teen in a wheel chair confirmed what he'd already thought. He took a moment to analyze the Crippled boy's face, the similarities it held to Evan's own becoming apparent to him easily; chances are they were brothers, if not at least blood related in some other way. After a few moments though the two ended their talk and the brother left off down the hall, and Mareek couldn't help but curse under his breath as the thought of the possible opportunity that he and Java had just missed; Whatever Evan and his presumably Brother were discussing, they'd come a bit too late to get anything of use out of it. For all he knew, Evan could've been sharing something about what happened on the trip weeks ago; whatever had, he obviously wasn't going to open up about it with another student, but with a family member...maybe it would be a different story. Either way, it looked to be too little, too late. "Or maybe not... what's this?" he said as he noticed another boy walking up to Evan in the distance, seeming to be trying to start up a conversation. What next came to his mind was something that might or might not have been unethical depending on one's viewpoint; He may have missed the chance to listen in on the other Trainer's earlier discussion, but right here was the chance to see how a bit of how he handled himself around others, one on one... and if he could get more of a feel for what he was like, who's to say that wouldn't help his little operation of befriending Evan and figuring out whether or not his possible suspicions about him were sound. That left the question however, of just how exactly to go about getting this Surveillance without getting noticed... when he saw the Screen on the wall beside the two. "Hey Java," he said, glancing over at the creature. "See that Monitor right there displaying the battle field and the stadiums?" The porygon2 nodded simply, wondering where his trainer was going with such an out of the blue question. "You think you could hear what they're saying if you were to... sneak inside?" Ah... Java saw now. He didn't quite know about the prospect of ease droping, but... oh wait, technically speaking that entire site he'd found and shown Mareek could count as ease dropping. Oh well, might as well not stop now, they'd already gone down the rabbit hole. He gave another nod, thinking his trainer's motivation to be nothing more than gathering more intel on the competition. "Alright, would you be able to hear... on second thought, forget that question, I already know the answer." He instead reached into his jacket and produced his MP3 player, sticking the earbud jack into the slot and powering the device on, looking up at his Co-conspirator. "Would you be able to siphon everything you hear to my MP3? I'm talking about the actual audio between those two, not just you ripping words from songs and stringing them together into sentences." That... was actually a good question. Java gave it a bit of thought... what he did with ripping song lyrics really wasn't too much different from what Mareek was asking, it would just be a matter of taking the raw conversation he heard itself and directly converting the data into a usable audio format for him to hear. But that presented another problem, how to get the audio to Mareek in real time; He'd be in the television screen for this, and since his trainer's music player didn't have any type of web connection, he couldn't affect anything about the MP3 unless he went inside it's own software... Mareek's pokedex however, did have a connection to the net, and that was Java's solution; convert to audio and stream the file to the Dex. Shouldn't be too hard in practice... "Put the jack into the Dex and keep an ear out," Appeared in a message of his Dex's screen. "It can be done, but need to stream to audio directly to this using the connection to the web. Don't open any tabs or anything in the meanwhile, might interfere with the data stream." "Alright," Mareek said, doing as Java instructed and sticking the Earbuds in a moment later. The Porygon2 turned snooper gave one final nod, then stared at the screen down the hall for a moment, disappearing into thin air. The only sign that he was in was a very faint and brief rippling of the picture, though it quickly corrected itself. Mareek walked back around the corner he'd come from, leaning against the wall non nonchalantly and tucking his Dex along with his hands into his pockets... if anyone happened to pass by, they'd only think he was listening to music... Java meanwhile prepared the connection in his mind, focusing himself as he peered out unseen at Evan and Kenny, silent and undetectable within the monitor's computer system...

Tempest "Then it's set," Draidon set, looking at the others as he absently reached over to Roy and cut the string shot gag off his mouth with a flick of one of his fingers, sending the entire bail of white unraveling down onto the ground around the fighting type's feet. "Now figure out who's gonna pair up with who, I've got some climbing to get to." With that said he grabbed hold of the nearest rock wall of the corridor and used his upper body strength to launch himself upwards, planting feet, (Which as sparky looked on, he could also notice were just as sharp as Draidon's hand claws... talk about preparation.) and tail here and there as he relentlessly hauled his entire weight up the vertical face, gone into the darkness a few moments later. "Quick Note to self..." Ace muttered as he watched the tip of the Dragon's tail disappear with the rest of him. "He's a deceptively skilled climber...first the tree and now a cliff face, and he's gotten all the way up in just a couple of seconds..." "So whose going with who?" Vincent asked, oblivious to the pondering of the Taillow. "I'm fine partnering up with anyone, so it's up to you guys to choose really." "Roy here is bound to do something....unwise if no one's around to watch him." Ace evaluated, winging his way over and landing atop the fighting types head. "So I guess my decision is made. Have fun, you two..." "Then I guess it's you and me then," Vincent said, turning to Sparks. "You guys ready? He's probably waiting on us to start by now..." "Hell yeah we're ready!!" Roy shouted a little overly enthusiastic, fist pumping the air and letting out a whoop before charging off down the corridor, Ace having to take off from the fool's head and fly behind him in order to keep up. "Let's go get that bitch and get my donuts back!" "Damn it, Roy!!" Was all they could hear Ace say as they disappeared... Vincent just shook his head as the cloud of dust worked up by the Timburr's charge finally cleared. "Well... can't say I'm surprised. at least he's eager though." He then widened his own stance and began glowing in a hazy red light for a brief moment, charging down the hallway himself as it faded and quickly returned just seconds later as he concentrated harder on the move, giving him a double charge as he called back to Sparks "Come on, you know the plan!" ((He learned Workup from leveling up from the monster house. currently at +2 Attack and Special Attack))

Hmph? oh yeah, this could come in handy in the future. Good thinking, Kenny, hang onto it and fill it out for us while we go.

Well, we've dallied long enough, back to work. Here's the rough draft of what I've come up with for Dragon's match up against types: When Attacking Dragon: Always Super Effective: -Dragon ((This can go in either ASE or GSE. Dinosuars had a tendency to rip each other apart if they trespassed on each other's turf, and so do dragons...)) -Ice ((They're giant freaking lizards, when things get too cold, they go bye-bye real quick just like any other reptile, either heading for warmer places or dying from the chill in their environment)) Generally Super Effective: -None Generally Not Effective: -Fire ((Lizards have to sun themselves in order to raise their body heat... Dragons are just lizards on illegal steroids, so it's not to far fetched to think their natural tolerance to heat would be quite heightened, thus limiting the overall effectiveness of fire types)) Always Not Effective: -None Immunities: -None When Dragon Attacks: Always Super Effective: -Dragon ((See above)) Generally Super Effective: -None Generally Not Effective: -None Always Not Effective: -None So uh... yeah.... here's the thing, I made this list from a purely biology standpoint, going on the core facts that: Dragons are reptiles Certain ones, like Dragonite for example, are capable of breathing fire and such through the side effects of their "Bird" Digestion ((Go find it, I've already posted the excerpt from the article I found.)) They're basically just dinosaurs, to be honest, with wings attached to some of their backs... So yeah. As you can see, I've cropped every single "Fantasy" aspect they had, what with all the mystical elemental shit and whatnot... yeah, that all got incinerated by Salem. So as you can deduce from all this above, when you take away their mystical traits... Dragons become kinda mundane, almost like blank slates, only having two weaknesses and one resistance which can even remotely be biologically justified. Sure, I could've thrown in Steel as being resistant to it, but all that crap about how knights killed dragons with just a few swings of their swords and that kind of BS? yeah, that's fantasy buddy, not allowed for our analysis, gotta go. And chances are a dragon would realistically be strong enough to get through steel anyway...\ Anyways, tell me what you think. If you wanna add anything though, you better come prepared with some sound evidence and argument to support your claim for the alteration to the move set, cause I really don't see anywhere else where it would make sense to put anything for this Type.

Mayanna stepped foot onto the vessel after the initial talks were finished, leaving her party mates behind on the docks. The sight of hundreds upon hundreds of miles of ocean lying ahead of them is what greeted her as she gazed out over the prow, sighing as she smothered a small, dim white flame in her palm. Her abilities were already weakened enough as it is; being surrounded by a vastly ope expanse of water only served to be a constant reminder of the eclipse's effects... like it was mocking her almost, as the Leviathan and the water's under it's control grow strong the fires of the Lord Ryder and his servants wane under this perpetual moonlight.... "Could be worse though," She thought to herself. "we could've been the group who decided to take on the task of killing that beast... not like we'll be any safer fending off weres constantly in Segieto or anything, but still, I honestly prefer this over that lot's job." She cast a glance at Asgall's larger and better equip ship across the way, letting it linger for a moment before staring back out at the sea. "At least on dry land I won't have to be constantly reminded everywhere I look of the fact that I can barely get a decent blaze going without constantly holding my damn cudgel...oh, wait...that's right, there's still him...the man with Hydromancy..."

Seacrest "That's a story," Depth said, turning and moving away from the now locked chest. "for another time. Now, I've work to do, slackers don't live long around here... I trust the three of you can see yourselves out without too much guidance?" Tempest Several more floors, they passed, this trio of a Tailow, a Timburr, and a Jolteon. Level after level Team Tempest ascended the mountain, pursuing their leader and young vincent at his side, coming across more and more defeated foes bearing various injuries, some with burn marks shaped like fangs, as they'd seen earlier, some with claw marks racking across their body, the list could go on and on. Eventually... they all came to find what they were looking for; on the Twelth floor was Draidon... and Vincent, both of them standing just outside a natural corridor when the team found them, various claw marks surrounding the walls and floor of the rock cavern all around them. Draidon's claws gleamed with an unnatural light, looking so sharp and finely grained they could cut the very air itself. "Tch, took you all long enough," he said, nodding his head down the corridor... they could see a faint red glow. "She's just down there, guarding what she stole. Me and Vincent have been sitting here getting stronger though, figured she's probably stronger than any of us, but if we go in, someone distracts her while I haul off with a sh*t ton of Dragon Claws strengthened by my Hone Claw..." "Where were you two back there?" Ace asked, interupting the plan. "You just upped and ditched the three of us like you wanted to solo her, which doesn't bode well given your history..." "We were keeping the trail warm," Draidon retorted curtly. "now shut it and listen; Here's the plan, You all will pair up into twos, and I'll stay solitary. Two of you heads into the chamber first, launch a few attacks to distract her, another two enter and distract and attack her from the other flank, and you alternate between that, one side attacks and relieves pressure from the other, then the other picks up the slack and gives the coverers respite for a while." "And what precisely," Ace again demanded, trying to see whatever angle the lizard had in this plan... "are you going to be doing while we're all in there having our asses methodically handed to us two at a time?" "Like I already said, I'ma haul off with Dragon claw as fast I can as long as I can, and she's gonna down like a log... but before I can do that, I have to get on her back, get a perch that she can't shake me off from and that I can use to destroy her. While the rest of you are distracting her, I'll be using these babies," He held up his razor sharp claws, raking them across a stone wall nearby and leaving deep gout with little effort. "To crawl across the ceiling in the shadows and drop down on her when you've got her in a good spot." "I know it sounds like a messy and pretty painful plan for us," Vincent spoke up, eyes still on the red glow down the hall way. "But you have to admit, it's probably going to work if we just follow it like he says. And I've honestly got nothing, guys..." "So are you in or out?" Draidon demanded... reluctantly, Ace nodded, unable to honestly think of a better plan at the moment, time was of the essence here, after all. Roy nodded without a single thought. The dragon turned to Sparks next, scowling just a little bit "What about you, Magneeto?" ((Sparky, just to clarify, Draidon is at +6 Attack and Accuracy from sitting there all this time stacking up Hone Claws. Also, you can go ahead and go up by 3 levels from 5 to 8 since we've been in this dang dungeon for a good while and beaten down a lot of folks...))

Not much of a fan of fire emblem, never really played it a whole lot. I've run Tactics Ogre though, does that count? You had me at the mention of the eternal warfare between the Divine and the Fallen. that right there is my jam, the concepts of religion and it's effects on history and culture and society, both beneficial and harmful. It's even a concept I tend to focus on in alot of what I write alongside Grey Morality and the question of what is right and what is wrong, how people perceive one another's actions regarding such, and who is responsible for deciding the difference between the two at the end of the day. Of course I'll stick around,didn't intend on leaving anyway. might even help get the hype train up and running when the time finally comes.

Dis, dis right here. And I've got numerous projects outside this forum going on as well. It'll be soon though... maybe even today

alright, trial #2, this time using the converter... sutoratosu Hell, I'll take it. and yeah... that thing you found on facebook probably is highly inaccurate given the outputs were nowhere even close...

Arichishikachimoari (Stratos) Yeah... no, think I'll stick to using english for it. though maybe if I put a hyphen or something in somewhere it'll make it flow better... though If you've found a better name conversion tool, let's see what it is.

It's up. I decided not to edit in the part about how Ester guided Kenshin through overclocking his drone since it's really not important, and it basically does the same things it did before, is just a lot faster; There weren't very many resources available to use so they had to settle for a speed up option instead of added weaponry or the like.

The early dawn hours of the next day... outside of Eden "I will give this damn lecture one last time before we enter beyond the gates!" Jace shouted over the din of questions and conversation that had arrisen from the last bout of briefing a moment ago, helmet in the crux of his arm as he paced back and forth before the assembled them as they all waited infront of the massive stone entry way to Eden's garden, and by extension the giant gates within them. The entire membership of Chimera 17 stopped their gossiping at the sight of his growing rage, all of them shutting their mouths and standing at attention, save for the Blast Trooper, Arietta, whom was reported as missing late last night and presumed dead... not like any resources could be spared to go hunt down a woman who obviously should've never been on this mission anyway though. "Try to pay attention this time! This," He gestured to a young woman who stood beside Commander Stone nearby, her helmet off and an Exo Pack on her back. "Is Gen Stone, yes, I know what you're thinking, she is Commander Stone's younger sister, get over it. Her survival will be imperative to this mission's success; she's the brightest mind in the fields of Disease control, Genetics, and overall Biological Science that Esperanza has, her IQ is so high, she'd be able to run circles around any of you intellectually. We have no idea what form the Cure may come in, it may be an actual manufactured product waiting for us to just swoop in, recover, and mass produce, or it may be a plant which needs to have certain components of it's biology extracted..." He looked at her as went on, his gaze rather cold, harsh even... "It may be nothing more than a blue print, a vague set of instructions or clues... or at the very worst..." he paused, seeming to ponder how to phrase the next part without giving away too much of anything... "It won't exist at all." Quiet finished bluntly for him, not giving a damn whether or not any of the others were intelligent enough to glean any truth out of that nugget. "And we'll have all wasted our lives and the mission will be an absolute failure; everyone in Esperanza dies..." He put extra emphasis on the Everyone and Dies part especially, glaring at Jace from behind his shades and shawl. "Of course, that's just worse case scenario... why wouldn't the individuals who built all this just have a spare cure to their weaponized virus lying around? Seems logical to me..." "The sarcasm is duelly noted, Mr. Quiet..." Jace snarled. "Now kindly shut that hole in your face, or I'll do you a favor and sew it up." "Whatever you say...sir." Even thicker sarcasm in that answer, though Jace ignored it. "Now, Dr. Stone herself will brief you on what we're looking for beyond the gates, and how we will go about...finding it." He took a step back to stand beside Commander Stone and the young woman took a step up, giving an acknowledging glance to each soldier assembled before her. "Thank you for the introduction, Major Bane," she began, glancing at him over her shoulder. "But technically I'm not a Doctor. Moving on," she returned her sights on the group. "To sit here and tell all of you that we know exactly what we're looking for would be a bull faced lie. The virus has adapted and side stepped every single thing we've thought to throw at it; the adaptability factor is beyond anything the human race has ever seen... something suggesting that it's the product of explicit and intelligent design. Not too hard to imagine, given the structure behind us all. What we've managed to determine from failed trial after trial though, is that it has to have some type of shut off device, an kill code, if you will, a certain sequence of genetic keys which when introduced will nullify and or kill the Virus and stop it in it's tracks-" "That's all great and everything," Quiet interjected. "but why don't you actually tell them how they're supposed to find this "cure" you think exists?" "I've got the needle and thread ready to go, Quiet." Bane said, getting very, very tired of this shit... "My offer earlier still stands." There was no further discussion. Gen carried on where she'd been cut off. "To answer your question, it's actually a very good one, the key lies in the computer systems. How many Hackers are here with us?" even as she asked she was looking right at Sarah though...

"Well that was quick..." Mareek muttered to himself as the fight ended on screen and the competitors headed off the field. "Henry seems a bit interesting though. Java, you know what to do." Instead of bringing up the Page on Baldwin's data the cyber pokemon brought up that of some chick called Liza. "Look at the immediate competition first before going off on tangent hunts." Appeared on the screen. "The priority lies in knowing them over any other competitors." Heh... so the thing was reprimanding him now? Well, He did have a point, now that Mareek thought about it.... "Fine," he sighed, "Show me..." He paused, skimming over the stats for Liza and her team, nothing very impressive or note worthy. He could go on to Lana's page, but why bother when he already knew about her? That left only one other student... "James Neferion." Up the page went like a bullet, loading so fast on the screen that the only explanation was that Java had already opened it before Mareek had ever asked. "Duskull, Dratini, a Ferroseed, and a Gligar..." He thought to himself, "Java should be able to handle the Duskull, and the Dratini too, though we're definitely taking it out first; I hate those God awful D-rages... either Erce or Nemo can just run support for him, take a few blows here and there to keep em at bay..." His attention was only attracted away when he noticed the next match starting on the screen. "Well, this oughta be good..."

Same. Might as well just go with your original plan and have the thread be for both groups until we separate.

I know it really doesn't matter where the entrance is in comparison to well... pretty much everything that's going on inside. just thought it was kinda cool...

Hey, uh... Notus never actually told us where exactly in the world the hill was located, but I foung something I thought was rather... interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania Kinda like... it's sitting ontop of the gates to hell. Just something to think about.

Alright, well I guess it's gonna be a while til snap gets back from her predicament, so I've sent her a PM telling her that I'll be controlling her PC until she returns. Chapter 2 will be starting soon, I guess...

dat fight music though... 10/10, think it fits perfectly there.

"It is not the fact of him being in pain that makes me enjoy this so," Deric said. "It is the fact that he has no power anymore... no power to do anything or harm anyone. It's not him suffering that I get a kick out of, it's not the fact that he's about to die, I got joy from the latter the first time when I thought I had ended him. No... it is the fact that here he is at last at the mercy of the hands of justice, and he can't do anything anymore to get away from what he deserves for his actions." He glanced back at Gideon. "What brings me joy in this moment... is knowing that the man who killed everyone I've ever cared about and called a true friend, the man whose betrayal cut us all so deeply that it proved a fatal wound... is about to never be able to do it again to anyone else." "Then prove it." A young woman's voice demanded from nowhere. The Phantasm from before was standing by Deric's side, startling him as noticed her sudden appearance. "You're conflicted, Deric," she went on. "Moments ago you said this was about vengeance and nothing else, that you wanted him to suffer for his actions, yet now here you stand, spouting that you're doing it for the sake of justice. so prove which it is. Either you become the very type of monster we all sought to destroy, wasted everything, made all of our deaths for nothing and torture him senselessly when he's already defeated and broken... or you stay true to what we believed in, what we fought and killed and died for." "She's right, Deric," a man's voice called, not far from where Deric held Marca pinned was the phantom of Jezicalo. "He's done god awful things, and while it might be justifiable to make him suffer, that is not what justice is about. it is about the setting of right to wrongs, to restoring balance and good, not making transgressors suffer to an extreme like you're heading down the path to doing." "I hate the bastard... for everything." Decate's phantom admitted, appearing behind Deric and Lucretia's apparition. "But just end this, Deric. you're heading towards a darkness you can't escape if you continue to drag out his execution." "Murder does not justify murder." Royce's ghost said, appearing on a nearby roof top looking down on all of them. "And that's what this whole scene is slowly becoming. Cut off the snake's head and cast his body aside and be down with it. Torturing him won't bring any of us back, it just makes you no better than he ever was." "Do the right thing. Be humane and swift now." was all Marshall's ghost said as it appeared beside Jez's. "I...I...all of you..." He looked down at Marca as the man looked around at the ghosts, still crippled. Then he looked down at the glowing sword in his hands, beginning to shake a little, shaking his head in uncertainty. "You once told me that greif and hate were two powerful things in the hearts of people," Jez recalled as he walked over, leaving no footfalls to behead. He placed a reassuring hand on Deric's shoulder. "You told me that in cases such as this, both of them flare brighter than ever... but you also told me that the ability to tame their fires was what separated people from animals. You told me... that hate would only furthers hate. You told me to grieve and hate this man for the time being, but to eventually let it go... to forgive him. You told me all these things, even as you yourself burned just as bright with those basic emotions." he took his hand away. "well, now I'm telling you to let go, Deric. It's over, it's been five long years, and we're a bit less alive then what we'd like... but it's over. You can stop grieving for us, stop hating Marca. Cast aside the anger. don't let it effect your actions now, only let lady justice guide your course, for she is always true despite being blind." "I... want to know something." Deric began. "Have you forgiven him for everything, Jez?" A moment of hesitance. then "Yes... though it was hard beyond belief... I forgave him for his actions I forgave, but I never forgot... never forgot that he does genuinely need to be punished." Deric's gaze drifted from his would be brother in law and to his dead fiancee, his eye's softening with saddness and reminiscent as he gazed upon her wonderful face, as it had been oh so long ago... "Have you...?" An even longer moment of hesitance than her brother. She looked at Marca. "I have." she said. "He was lost, thinking it was over, that everything was done for... and those thoughts drove him to do what he did, and everything afterwards as well." She looked back at Deric. "It's no excuse for his actions, but yes, I... I do forgive him. But I can never forget." Marca was... was actually weeping at hearing those words. "What you don't realize... what none of us realized..." Jez said, looking at the thief king. "Was that Marca hated himself for doing everything even more than we hated him." his weeping intensified as if to give credence to this." From the party's perspective, all they could see was Deric seemingly having a back and forth conversation with the thin air, while Marca wept like a babe on the ground. It was rathe strange, so much so that even Boho inquired as to whether or not the man had gone nuts, though Leonidas instinctively denied it, saying that Deric, and probably Marca too, was merely seeing something their own eyes were not meant to, were not able to. "Deric, do you truly love me?" Lucretia asked, pressing her body up against his, though the armor they both wore prevent much feeling of anything... still, it brought a smile to his face, just the memory of the affection in her gesture. "More than anything in the world, my dear." he said. "more than the stars and the moon and sun themselves." "Then grant me one final wish," she said, resting her head on his shoulders as he embraced her... one last time. "Forgive him. deal out justice here, not vengeance. Let go of the hate; remember who you really are. Remember what we fought for, what we took up the white cloak in order to protect." .... ... ... "I will." he said, tears of his own beginning to form in his eyes, voice faltering a bit. "I swear it, Lucretia, I will." "Thank you." and then just like that, one by one all the friends he had ever had in the world began to fade away. first Decate, then Marshall, then Royce... then even Jez began to fade. "you two would've been wonderful together," he said with sadness as he disappeared... And then Lucretia began to fade as well. she looked her once fiancee in the eyes, a tinge of happiness there. "I'll be waiting for you, Deric. someday..." and then she too was gone with the wind. Deric dropped his arms from the embracing position he'd been holding them, looking as if he'd been given a precious gift from the past... and then told he couldn't keep it. Tears flowed freely from his eyes, though he hid his face from them all to prevent them seeing it. And so it was that he stared down at Marca, sword in hand, ready to carry out the sentence, both men crying... one loudly, lamenting everything and everyone he'd harmed. The other silent, wanting just for a minute more... just even a second more... to be with his one and only. ((Ah shit, I'm crying now... I'm not kidding...))