Sutoratosu

"Honestly, you are the one who probably has it the worst considering it looks like you've been going through a fair amount of physical labor." "Eh, well," He brushed it off, "when you spend most of your days tinkering with artifacts or reading charts and maps and crap behind some desk, you tend to get a bit winded dragging people out of the ocean and draining their lungs of salt water. No biggie though, might not be in the best of shape, but... I think I'll live."anyone could've seen it a lie. What little was exposed of his body behind that labcoat and semi formal attire revealed ridges of well tone muscles, even his very frame and the way he carried himself spoke more justice of the man's fitness than his tongue did. It'd be easier to sooner believe he were a walking magikarp than some mere office slouch stuck in a dead end job, staring out of the highrise window when they come to work each day and wondering to themselves, if, just if, they would finally do it today, just get it over with and break this cycle of mediocrity, this monotonous drone work for too little pay and too long of hours that steadily crushed their soul more and more each day. "Nothing that would stop me from moving, although I believe I may have bruised a rib. Do you have any idea what on earth attacked us? Or where this is, for that matter?" "Ah, the young lady..." He adjusted his lenses, squinting at Yuuki for just a moment. "or rather, young man here, has just asked the million dollar question! Well, to put it simply, you've been to church right? at least once in your life, probably way back when you were a little kid maybe; attendance to a house of arceus hasn't actually been mandatory in a good 150 years or so, but still... most parents have their kids baptised in his light around five or six or so, even if they aren't regular faces... anyway, the gods, they're all pretty lax, right? They got things to do, cycles of nature to control, all that jazz, far too busy to go guiding mortals towards a better world- which is what the church is for in the first place -but that raises the question... what happens when a God does stop and take notice of humans? What happens when they get pissed off, for whatever reason?" He held up both palms and clapped without warning, the resulting shockwave of noise and force blowing across the entire beach in a fierce wind of telekinetic force as his coat billowed around him as if alive. Trees around the woodline bent and broke, sand was torn from the earth and scattered to the winds in droves, turbulence erupting skyward and striking down those few Wingulls overhead who were either to slow or too distracted to dodge the wave of certain abysmal death coming their way, as the flocks weaved and broke formation, every flying type for themselves. Even the very waves themselves were pushed back by the sheer exertion of energy, crawling away and leaving more beach bare than even low tide could've managed. It was nigh too fast to even spot, but one might've even glimpsed a bit of familiar orange light... too damn familiar for comfort. Despite the chaos only just beginning to die down all around them though, it seemed none of the seven travelers themselves were actually effected by whatever strange sorcery had been pulled. "That, my friends, is what a Clap of Wrath looks like." He said, lowering his palms as steam curled from them, the skin redder than ruby. "What I just did, is nothing compared to a god at their strongest. Barely compares to even an angel at their weakest. I tossed this entire beach into discord, one of them could toss this entire island and the world itself with just as simple a motion as what I did... That boat, I helped build that damn thing. There was tech brimming inside that hull like you've never seen before, tech that makes military battlecruisers look like rubber life rafts after the sinking of the SS Anne a few years ago. Nothing aside from a full blown, Spectra-infused Nuclear Arm could've penetrated that armoring and torn it apart like it did." He waved a still red hand idly at the rubble and wreckage lining the shore, their scorched remains backing in the sun. Several wingulls had began to make homes within their innards, only for the nests of gathered long grasses and leaves to be torn asunder and scattered. "So... either we got fucking nuked, or somehow, somewhere, there's a mad bloke in upper management who wants us dead." The amiable smile he wore died on that verbal sword. "regardless which it is... both theories have incredibly... nasty implications behind them. But I'm honestly hoping it's the nuke... the Brotherhood would try that type of Pre-Lumiose Convention bullshit, but a bunch of crazy people now apparently armed with the ability to destroy the world at the push of a button, we can deal with. A god who has gone off their rockers for whatever reason, on the other hand... well, Kyogre and Groudon were put into eternal sleep for a reason. Just remember that fact."

I see no reason why either of those would be handled any differently than they normally are. The only real alteration perhaps being a minimum level cap before such evolutions can occur to prevent it being exploited early on.

(Mirror Edge, Argentum) Somewhere in the Waterways, Near the Lake of Miracles "Blood spirit? Oh gods no!" She balked at the mere mention of the name, cringing as that wretched experience returned to her mind. Just another of them among the sea of memories she had built over what to others would've equated countless lifetimes. " Heavens, no, no... I've met such an abomination before, long ago. The fool was absolutely obsessed with blood and gore, death and destruction, some demented Sorceress had toyed with and utterly warped the poor youth to create a personal enforcer of sorts for herself... one that would sic on command without question or qualm... shame I couldn't help him after she was dead, too far gone, that one. It was better to just put him out of his misery... but no, I am no blood spirit, sir; Light and Ice are my cornerstones, naught else." He was obviously hooked, good, good... now, maybe.. if he proved to have some sense of honor as well... "My housing is not fitting, yes, yes, I know, but it was the best we had on hand at the time... and well, one's home to tends to grow on them after a while. Regardless, my current ward is a child, you see. I fought side by side with her mother, and when she finally fell, I vowed to her that I'd keep an eye out for the girl... her ignorant father just thinks all the times I've acted have been the work of none other than his god though, arrogant cat... and the brat honestly causes more trouble than she's worth sometimes. But, nevertheless, an oath is an oath..."

Arya "If she were still my enemy, I would've answered with something a whole lot nastier than that..." Again though, she suppressed the urge to fire back, knowing full well the comment was directed more at her than anyone else. Rather than a quip she muttered beneath her breath "Just let it go, Arya... another time, another place..." Anna started singing. It seemed her and Esyllt shared a talent then. The girl had a point though. "She's right," Arya began as the singing carried on, brows raised curiously at Essy. "Can't you feel it too, like Anna and I? That foul tension hanging in the air right now, leaking in more and more, bit by bit? We shouldn't rush into such a course of action with as few details as we have right now, at least not while there's a potentially bigger threat lurking somewhere; because anything that can generate this type of feeling... can't be pleasant." She leaned back against the bed post, arms crossed while her lips pursed. "Besides, if it's already started or is about to start, who's to say we can prevent it anyway? This isn't like just exercising some common poltergeist, this is potentially the soul of a Goddess we may be trying to hold back here. What, is she going to fight it back into slumber with sheer force of will?" Yeah, right... force of will that Arya doubted the girl even had considering her previous state. But of course, she left that part unsaid "How can we be so certain that fighting it is actually the best course? Hell, for all we know, we might actually need that second soul to be awake in order to survive whatever this 'Eden's Curse' thing she mentioned earlier is..." Of course, it occurred to her that asking Esylt these questions was absolutely pointless. The girl was just about as ignorant to this whole thing as her and Anna were. She turned her sights on Lillith instead "What did you even mean by that anyway, when you were mumbling about it earlier? Who the hell is this Eden?"

*Smells the dankness of old memes in the air, closes his magazine with a heavy sigh of frustration* God damnit... see what you've started, man? Look, I'll go do my reading in the IC thread for now. Call me up when it's time for the scene to start. damn dank-ass memes stinking up the joint...

Change that kid's name to Arya W. Freeman also though... Those sudden changes in pronoun usage that last till the end of the Sharp Portion of the update. Are those intentional on your part or just repeated typos? I thought they were just mistakes until I saw the bit about the disdain towards femininity... so... not really whether you just messed up there, or if Sharp is supposed to be outright transgender (Which would actually be very interesting in a setting of this sort, given that being a man in a woman's world is an absolutely miserable fate, at least going off of what you've told me)

Arya ((Giving Morgan Freeman a run for his money...)) Arya passed a single glance to Anna before answering "Uh... well, this would probably sound crazy if not for all the crap that's already gone down in the last few minutes, but... You seem to have control over electricity. And Thunder, along with the very obvious Darkness, are the elements attributed to none other than the Goddess Layla. Not only that, but earlier on when you were rambling you mentioned something that as far as I know, none of the three of you should have any way of even knowing. After that point, I thought maybe you were a... prophetess or something, strange as it sounds now. But after seeing... this-" She waved a hand in Esllyt's general direction "And hearing that chant you were singing... I'm pretty sure that whatever you are, it goes beyond the scope of that. Even further, your proclaimed Line is Laylite... a Line is like a legally binding contract, of sorts, when one takes that oath, they are expected to behave either as social and cultural norm, or the formally laid out doctrine of said chosen Line dictacts. For Laylites, that means using others, abusing others, not caring who gets destroyed so long as it furthers them along in the path to acheiving some archaic and vague idea of "Power"... the very reason why I hate each and every last one of them- they are like a disease upon society wherever they exists... people fear and ostracize them for good reason. Ergo, logic would dictate that my initial suspicions of you would be more than well founded, and I'd have more than enough reason to regard you as yet another one of my mortal enemies... and yet, Logic has been further defied, because for some reason, you act like nothing like any Laylite I've met before, and trust me, I've met alot of those manipulative, selfish bitches. You're just plain timid, where they are heartless and ruthless. You apologize with a sense of genuinity where they would go to no such length to appease a wrong. And you haven't told a single lie this entire time as far as I can tell. My suspicion might have blinded me earlier, made me quick on the trigger, but I never once had an actual gut feeling about it, now that I think back." She paused for a moment, beginning to pace before the three of them as she sorted through it all, trying to find the best way to break the results that had formed. "All that added up, your confirmed control... or lack of control, over the element of Thunder, your ability to know things that to my knowledge you should not," Her voice seemed to harden into an edge at this particular point, however she went on, passing over it as if naught more than a bump on the scientific road. "your behaviour which runs in staunch defiance towards the modern Laylite Status Quote... well, the only remaining explanation I personally can even consider at this point, one that comes anywhere even remotely close to hypothesizing what the everloving hell is going on in this room right now... is that somehow, someway, you are the Goddess Layla herself... That, or at least you somehow have been endowed her powers. I mean, I really can't think of any other way that the laws of reality, and physics for that matter, can apparently be thrown out of the window so easily, or that you could somehow be such a relatively poor example compared to what an ideal 'Paragon' of a Laylite 'should be'... except by Divine Influence." With that said, she stopped altogether, letting all the little implications of that one statement sink in for a bit. She was wrong though, what she had said in the beginning. This shit still sounded crazy even to her, even after everything that had happened. But... like she had said, it wasn't like she could come up with any other explanation at this point. Which begged the question... if this girl was really Layla... how had it happened? Were the Goddesses not immortal? Had whatever occurred also affected the others as well? So many things, so many details missing... it almost drove her crazy. She hated missing details... they made things blurry, sloppy, implied laziness on the hands of the creator.

Arya "I... yeah, I did." She nodded, still taken aback herself by the sudden spectacle of light and transformation. What the hell was even going on in this school anymore? It was literally only day 1 for Goddess sake... "She shoots lightning, knows strange things without explanation, and now can apparently do... whatever the hell just happened to Esyllt... lend her power, I guess, if that song was to be taken literally. I don't know about you, but unless we've suddenly fallen right into the plot of a terribly bad fantasy novella... there's only one real type of entity that comes to my mind who could do this type of stuff... question is though, if you're thinking what I'm thinking and we're both right, which at this point... we probably are, why and how?"

Seth and Dexter His mind shifted fully into War-mode as the beasts dodged, gaze burning into one serpent as it slithered down the black appendage. "Did I say... you could have a ride? I think not." "Time to feed, children!" In that same moment, the tendril seemed to lose all tangible mass as it shimmered, the sky suddenly becoming visible behind it's translucent form as the snake was denied any solid surface to continue it's approach. The rest of the Black Vectors wasted no time, acting on their own initiative as their ends swelling into miniature spheres of darkness before finally bursting, jagged fangs of pitch black erupting from each of them and gnashing hungrily as they screeched and squealed like animals. They surged for the flying snake with fierce vigor, black ichor dripping off jaws their as countless maws opened wide like Piranhas in the middle of a blood bath. By the time he even glanced at the other serpent, the Vines too had long since moved of their own accord, instinctively regrouping to defend their lord and master and coiling before him in the air, forming a thick semi-sphere of enchanted plant matter and jagged, stiletto-like thorns as they took on a sickly green hue, their surface glossing over like metal. No sooner than it had, the thorns launched off the shield and flew towards the serpent as it prepared whatever attack it intended to launch, streaking green trails behind them like sickly tracer-rounds all the while...

Ya know, it just occured to me, but whenever I read about Azegeor using that Heartstopper Grasp ability, I can't help but think... Or perhaps even more aptly...

Seth and Dexter "You all truly are a disgusting lot, you know that, right?" Seth snarled as the chimeras turned heel and headed his way. Even now, after all this time, he still felt the flames of hate broil within his soul, their dark influence like fuel to a reactor as the markings covering his entire body began to writhe uncontrollably. They screeched, hissed as if they were alive, fighting to break free of the surface until at long last, there they were, erupting off his skin like living ink, pitch black tendrils thrashing about him as he rose himself higher into the air. "Abominations upon the land, ruiners of souls... I'd kill you all if I could, but we already know how that type of philosophy plays out, now don't we?" He laughed, bitterly. His eyes burned like verdant green coals plucked straight out of the bowels of hell. "No, no... killing you all will never work. It's like a fuckin' hydra, cut of one head, and before you even now it, there's two more...if only the others could see it. How they're busy wasting their lives with this endless war, when they'd be better spent trying to find a way..." The ground around him shook. Green vines erupted from the pavement, one by one, thick and jaggedly spiked. At Seth's gesture, they lashed out in the air, hungering for the blood of the flying Beasts, two pursuing each of them as they soared like starved and rabid dogs finally unleashed from their cage, determined to destroy all that dared stand in their way "to stop the miserable process by which you keep spawning!" "You there!" He ordered, gaze shifting to the other mage for only a moment as the blunt of his focus remained on the serpents. "Where the hell is the mediator you were with? While you're standing here gawking at me, he's probably being gobbled up by another group of monsters! Get your ass in gear, soldier; this is absolutely unacceptable! were you apart of my squad, I'd have your balls served on a silver platter before the chief! Hurry up, find your charge and defend him like you're supposed to!" The harshness of his voice was only amplified by the rage in his eyes, though that was far more directed at the monstrosities than the fool on the roof top. He gnashed his fanged mouth impatiently nevertheless though "I SAID MOVE, BOY!" The black tendrils sprouting from his being were moving into defensive arrangements all the while he shouted, automatically anticipating the evasive actions of his foes.

been abit busy, but I'll have a post up sometime tomorrow. Don't know when though... still got a few bits of unfinished business to see to.

Arya "Really?" She shot a silent glare at Anna as Esylt moved to comfort the layl-... to comfort perditia. "The girl shoots lightning from her body like it's some fantasy tale or something, I ask her how many times it's happened before and you really think I'm to blame for her sudden meltdown, after all the stuff she spouted? Bull Shit, complete and utter bull shit." She voiced none of it though, even despite the urge to fire back at the fool welling within her. This wasn't the time or place, she could deal with it later. She could not be sure, but... she was fairly concrete in her reconstruction of the gibberish. There a... there were definitely certain parts that warranted further investigation, parts about... things being inserted in areas and certain touches especially... the girl calling her (at least, she was very sure it was directed at her) a Mack- however the hell she might know anything about her, she didn't know -and then there was the part about the world being torn apart. But as she heard Esyllt start singing, cradling the trembling girl like the broken child she truly was... Arya decided that the crusade for answers may do better being placed on a halt for now. She had no idea what this kid went through or the things she saw... but one way or another, at this point she was obviously by no means the same as her Laylite foes of the past. So it was time she stop treating her like an enemy. As much as the idea of it left a bitter taste in her mouth. She'd get it over though. Eventually. Maybe. Either way, what she had seen so far...wasn't an act, couldn't be an act, no matter how great a liar a person might be- there was no faking a mental breakdown like that one... and there was the strange feeling from earlier when the girl had mentioned 'trusting' her. Speaking of strange feelings. There was one, right now, as she bent down to retrieve her materials and stow them in her jacket. Now that she wasn't so focused killing a fire, she could feel it beginning to creep in like a wave as she stood there, watching everything. It made her shiver, made her tremble until she got ahold of herself and shook the feeling away before it could set in any further. Absolutely repulsive, hideous even... whatever the hell was causing this, it couldn't have been good, couldn't have been good at all. Only question was, what the hell was causing it... just what was this 'Eden's Curse'? "Do you feel that?" She moved over to Anna, voice no more than a hoarse whisper from the smoke, whilst Esyllt continued singing. "That sensation just now, that's coming in waves? This must be whatever she's talking about... something's coming. Something dark and terrible."

((Well yeah... I mean' it's kinda her thing...)) Arya It was a blur, as everything happened and she sat there, utterly speechless at the girl's response. The demented ranting, the screaming, the disturbing implications laced all throughout... the bolt of lightning scorching the floor and burning the carpet.... The bolt of lightning... The carpet... Oh shit.... Her attention immediately went to the small flames beginning to lick at the material. She didn't think, she just acted, was up and off the top bunk and acting on instinct as she swung her legs to the side and landed beside the rug. Her booted right foot was in a blurred furry of frantic force as it stomped the blazing square of yellow before it could spread to the rest of the small space and kill them all, coughing and choking on the smoke that had risen in the short span between the flames birth to their quick death, but letting nothing deter her course as she pressed on. Her body seemed to almost move on it's own, didn't stop until she was absolutely certain it was out, even grinding the smoldering remnant of fabric with her toe for good measure. Her eyes drifted up to Lillith, then to the other two girls, wide as ever. She stood there with her jaw slack, still panting lightly, gaze passing back and forth between the three of them. She tried to go back, to piece through everything that had just come out of the Laylite's mouth at such breakneck speed. There were so many things she wanted to ask, so many things in just the span of those last few moments that demanded serious explanation. So many she didn't even know where to begin.

(Mirror Edge, Argentum) Somewhere in the Waterways, Near the Lake of Miracles "Why is it I keep finding myself in these situations ever more over the ages?" Mirror sighed inwardly, the jewel pulsing brighter with her thoughts. "first wizards, now a dragon... truly, what god have I angered to possibly warrant this? What divine enemies must I have made in my years of wandering..." Even as she mentally gripped on against her fate though, she had already begun weighing the situation. Dragons typically loved treasure like nothing else in the world, twas common knowledge, even the dumbest and most human of adventuring parties were well aware...on that point, she was beginning to regret her choice of glorified imprisonment... had she have been possessed of the foresight in that moment of all those years ago as she had listened to the woman's dying ballade to think it would land her here... she would've advised a humbler housing. Not that it would have mattered at all back then; they had used what they had on hand... and time had not exactly been of the essence. Which in and of itself was only another reminder of her failure. Of how the Cursed Affliction had proven stronger than her in the end despite every effort she had made, every method she had tried... such was the damnable nature of sentient spells, adaptive spells that act more like beasts than works of arcane force, learning, growing, changing and devouring all until they finally fulfill their most primary programming. but she pushed that bitter taste of futility away for now. Regret was of no aid in this moment. Perhaps... she could reason with him, he was obviously a being of Water, afterall. Not quite the same symbol of cold and heartless logic as Ice was, but still one of some type of logic and reasoning nonetheless....maybe even appease to this more emotional side he was showing if that failed. Not like trying could really harm her standing as it was... Or perhaps it would. And perhaps she was just digging herself an even bigger hole she'd have to vault out of. There was but one way to find out. "I am a guardian." She said simply. the voice rang out from the jewel as clear and steady as the winter wind, resonating off the tunnel walls with an echo. She felt it best not to reveal too much too soon... better start small, test the reaction first.

Arya Arya eyed Perditia with weary caution, the sudden snap of static still fresh in her ears as the younger girl flustered herself in apology. She had only managed to catch a glimpse of the small arc, but she was certain what she'd just seen as she played it back in her mind, slowed it down and let it come to crawl, just the same as she would with anything else too fast to process in the moment. That... had definitely been a rather large spark from the Laylite's fingers... more than an ordinary bit of static discharge from a carpet or something should've yielded; the vast majority of the time those were barely even visible, if even at all. Infact, if she didn't know any better... the source could only have been... "What do you mean by 'I can't control it'?" She asked, voice clear and incredulous, "Just how many times have you zapped someone like that before?"