kenod

@Sorana, @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

Because boats are fun?

Aylitha simply stared at the man's back as he left the tavern. "Did he just call me a kid?" she muttered, sounding angry, and small tentacles started lashing out from her hands. Nearly she walked out of the tavern to follow him, teaching him about how to address his elders. Oh, shut it... Karin sleepily replied. If you don't want to be seen as a kid then stop dressing like you're an escapee from wonderland, or a Japanese girl band. Just let it go, and let me go back to sleep. Goodbye... she said as she dozed off, her presence fading away. Aylitha sighed and walked out of the tavern as well, jumping over the busted door. *** In the back of the tavern Nimari stood up as well, walking to the door. She though about the king-figure, smiling. Finally a Radiant who understood how the world worked! At least, that was how it seemed right now. According to what they had been talking about they were supposed to be going to some kind of duel. Quietly she giggled. It would be interesting to find this king, see what he was like. And if he wasn't strong enough, or not who she expected him to be... Well, one of the quickest ways to become a ruler is to kill the old one.

KanMien and Kumiko walked through the alleys, a number of denizens and a larger number of abominations walking behind them. Strangers, Koloss, even a small number of Strikeshots and Hazeslayers. "You're charged up?" KanMien asked Kumiko. "You remember what we're going to be dealing with, right?" "Yeah, yeah," Kumiko answered in an annoyed tone. "You've already explained it twice. Besides, I'm stronger than you anyway." She smirked. "Maybe you should worry about yourself instead?" "I'm a lot harder to kill than you, remember?" KanMien answered softly. "Also, I've got these," she said, indicating the grenade launcher in her hand and the heavy sniper on her back. "But well, if you're that certain..." Kumiko sighed. "Alright, that's it!" She snapped, stepping in front of KanMien. "What's going on here?" She asked. "You've been acting weird ever since that report came in." KanMien stopped and looked at her for a few seconds. "It doesn't matter that much," she said. "It can wait until we're done with this." She paused, seeing Kumiko glare at her. "Alright, alright," she muttered. "Putting it simply, chaos marines killed KoTiel." She looked at Kumiko. "They were much stronger than I am, or than you are without overusing your powers. They were a full zinc compounder, and they had access to a Dakhor skeleton. If they could kill them, then they could just as easily do it to us, and of the two of us you're the one going in for a melee fight." While I'm the one sitting safely in the distance, too far away to actually help, she silently added. Kumiko looked at her. "I see," she finally said, not sure what else to say. "Don't worry," she added, "I'm not going to die here. Besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeve if necessary, remember?" She smiled, trying to make KanMien feel better. "True," KanMien answered, forcing a smile. Then the alleys opened up, and the rest stepped out close to the Woodwyrd, heading towards the fight, while she stepped out at a much greater distance, grabbing her sniper of her back. "But that was what they said too," she softly added as she watched the others advance towards the enemy. Falling silent she laid down on the ground, grenade launcher beside her, and loaded her first magazine. She took a deep breath, and started firing, aiming for the armored marine at the front, trying to see what her armor-piercing bullets would do against them. Kumiko stepped out further away from the marines as well, looking behind her to where KanMien must be. She knew she should be focusing on the upcoming fight, but she kept coming back to trying to figure out how to cheer her up, make her act normal again, and at the same time trying to figure out why that would be so important to her. Finally she sighed, turning around, and switching to Bull. Slowly she started walking towards the enemy, then breaking into a slow run, then starting to speed up even more. The force-field of her Charge slowly started taking form in front of her, while at the same time her speed rose ever higher. She started smiling again. At least this was something she knew how to do! She picked her first targets, a small number of cultists a bit further back, and kept running, solid force-field now in front of her. And even with that, she was still speeding up.

Karin looked suspiciously at the newcomer, wondering who he was. He was obviously a friend of Althea, but she didn't know anything besides that. He started talking about giving it the city, and she wanted to sigh. They had already discussed that, didn't they? Still, she had to admit it was the logical step to take in this case. The issue was just that the government was way to weak to ever properly deal with this place. But just as she wanted to say something in response a terrible screaming came from the walls, nearly deafening her, and then actually deafening her as she instinctively shifted away her eardrums. Panicked she started spinning around, trying to pinpoint the source of the screams, her skin turned to a tar-like black as the panic caused her to ready her body to start sprouting tentacles, a few small tendrils already extending from her skin at places.

KanMien looked at the being Voidus had created, curiosity momentarily taking over. Seeing this Kumiko sighed and gave her a light elbow in the side. She looked to Kumiko, startled for a second, then quickly realized what happened and stiffened to attention. "I'll go then," she quickly said to Voidus, swiftly moving out of the office, quickly sending messages to other people trying to get enough people together to deal with this. And well, if she couldn't, there were always the abominations. After all, the Woodwyrd wasn't close to anything important, and it seemed the chaos marines were already causing enough collateral damage that a few monsters wouldn't matter much. She shook her head as she kept walking, alleys twisting in front of her. She just hoped they would get there in time.

KanMien looked Temeria. "You might want to think twice about that," she said. "They already managed to take out our guards after all. I don't know if you have access to any Investure or special skills, but even if you did it would likely be rather dangerous for you." She shrugged. "Still, if you still want to go, and you think you can contribute something I don't mind taking you along, as long as Voidus agrees." She looked at Voidus, waiting for a response from him.

Kumiko looked at KanMien and nodded to her, and KanMien in turn nodded to Voidus, and both stood up to leave, Voidus and Temeria continuing their talk. But just as they reached the door KanMien's pen started twitching in her pocket as a message came through. She paused as she listened to it, while Kumiko curiously studied the pen, trying to read the message. Slowly a frown appeared on her face as the person on the other side kept talking, when abruptly the message was cut short and the pen was suddenly wrenched downwards. She looked at Voidus. "My apologies sir," she said in a cold tone, "but it will be a bit before I can take care of your request. Apparently a group of people have decided to attack the Woodwyrd. Not only that, but it seems they're overwhelming the guards currently there. With your permission I'd take some people over there to take care of it." She didn't mention the final part of the message, of who had dared to attack the place. Chaos marines. Subconsciously she rested a hand on the grip of her gun, her other hand clenching into a fist, as she remembered what had happened the last time chaos marines had been around in force. Kumiko looked at KanMien, concerned. It wasn't often that she acted like this, especially nowadays. Not sure what to do she softly touch her arm, hoping she would calm down. KanMien looked down in surprise, and then slowly relaxed her hand, nodding to Kumiko in thanks. Quickly she focused back on Voidus, hoping he wouldn't notice what had happened. *** Aylitha walked through the alleys and knocked on the door to Matthieu's office, then softly opening it and stepping in and sitting down on one of the chairs. "Hazel is ready," was all she said.

Wait, we have a DA discord?

I nod back to Sorana, not sure what to say. "Thanks," I softly say, "I won't forget about this." I start running the other way, hesitantly looking over my shoulder once I get further away, needing to see how this ends. I blink away tears at Sorana's sacrifice, and softly I turn around to keep running.

I am the Law, Karin echoed in a thick accent. Who does he think he is, Judge Dredd? Aylitha simply sent back a sense of confusion, having no clue what Karin was referencing this time. Very helpful, thanks for that information, she sent in an annoyed tone. Now, do you have any tips for what to do about him? Karin paused for a bit. I don't know, she answered in a sleepy tone. Don't get anyone killed? "Alright, that's good to know?" Alyitha hesitantly replied out loud.

Kumiko and KanMien sat down as Temeria started explaining, both of them paying close attention. They looked at each other when she fell silent for a moment, but neither said anything. Kumiko just watched her, while KanMien turned towards Voidus, looking to see how he would respond to all of this. *** Vita sat in her chair, listening as her glasses read the reports in front of her to her. She sighed as she reached for the next document, wondering why she had to read all of this paperwork. And adding to that was the fact that the whole department was pure chaos right now with discovery of Atium of all things. She sighed again, wondering what kind of mess this would create. Suddenly she stood up as she felt something appeared close by as it alleytraveled to somewhere close to her location. She didn't like visitors normally, but based on their signature's taste she was quite sure she wouldn't mind this visitor. After all, there was only one person who had a signature as peculiar as this, and Vita always had time for her. Quickly she scanned the room, going over what she needed to get ready for her visitor. *** Aylitha slowly walked through the alleys, having deliberately traveled some distance away from her destination. After all, it would be rather rude for her not to announce she was coming. The door opened as she walked up to it, Vita already standing in the doorway to welcome her, and soft music flowed out of the room. She paused for a second, the music faintly familiar to her, though she wasn't able to place it, only that it sounded rather classical. In the end she just kept walking, and Vita closed the door behind her. "Welcome mother," she said with a smile, and gestured towards two sets of pillows laid down on the carpet, a small tray with drinks laid out between them. Aylitha watched as Vita sat down in one of the sets of pillows herself, and then walked over to the second set and laid down as well. "I thought I told you not to call me that," she said in a mock-serious tone as Vita poured the two of them drinks, and listened a bit more to the music. It really did seem familiar, but she still couldn't place it, and she wondered where she had heard it before. "By the way," she said, "Could you tell me what this piece of music is? I can't seem to place it." Vita smiled. "It's Dvorak's New World Symphony, Fox-Mom," she said. "I came across it recently, and using Vivaldi as my conversation music was getting rather old, so I decided to change it. Do you like it?" She watched as Aylitha simply stared at her in response to the new nickname, and let out a short giggle. That was one of the downsides of being a fox it seemed, a certain... disability when it came to displaying facial expressions, such as a good glare, for instance. "But what brings you here?" She asked in a more serious tone. "I'm quite happy to see you, of course, but I somehow doubt this is just a courtesy visit, especially so soon after that Atium discovery." Aylitha fell silent for a bit, extending a small tendril to her teacup, using it to take a small sip. "You're right," she finally said, "this isn't just a courtesy visit. I did want to personally check up on you, and I did have something of somewhat more personal nature to discuss with you, but I am also here for a different reason." Again, a short pause followed. "You see," she said, "I asked Matthieu to add you to the list of people to go down into the caverns and deal with the Atium situation." Vita just sat there for a few seconds, trying to work through what Aylitha had just told her. "Hold on," she said, "let me get this straight. You asked Matthieu, the department head, to add me to the list of people for the expedition?" She shook her head, and out of habit took a small metal bar out her jacket's sleeve and started toying with it, flipping it around to reveal the knife-blade hidden inside. "And why exactly did you do this?" She asked. "Don't play with your knives when you're talking to people dear," Aylitha said in annoyance. "Really, you should try to get rid of that habit of yours. Even if you don't like talking to people, intimidating them with knives can cause you trouble, especially if you accidentally do it with a superior." She sighed as Vita quickly hid the knife away. "As for why I asked Matthieu to add you to the list," she continued, "I needed someone to keep an eye on some of my own interests down in the caverns. I don't care about the Atium, except for that it can possibly get me some extra funding, but the caverns contain a huge amount of extremely interesting lifeforms, and I needed someone who both has the expertise to deal with the operational aspects of this as well as being familiar enough with Bioscience's interests to ensure we don't have a bunch of researchers destroy the whole ecosystem trying to get some shiny metals." "Erm, I can see that," Vita said as she remembered the mess she had to deal with the last time a researcher decided that their method was faster than Acquisitions' method. "And I don't really mind doing this, at least it will get me out from under all of this paperwork." She thought for a bit. "Can you tell me something about what's down there? It seems you have at least some knowledge of it after all. Also, do you mind telling me how you got this information? I know there's an Acquisitions agent down there, but given that you've come to me for this I doubt they'd have the knowledge to keep you properly informed on this." "Of course I can," Aylitha said, secretly hiding a sigh of relief that Vita wasn't upset about her volunteering her for the expedition. "You'd probably like it down there," she said in a lighter tone. "Lots of growths of fungal material around. A lot of the surfaces are covered in bioluminescent fungi, and even the surfaces that aren't covered should have a decent amount of light on them, so getting around should be easy for you. Only a few lifeforms have been discovered as of now, but multiple have displayed some form of innate investure, which is part of the reason we're interested in them. It also seems the caverns themselves might be invested, but that's not my area of expertise." She paused for a bit, thinking. "You'll probably want to be careful though," she continued. "Some of the lifeforms encountered are predatory, and their investure makes them even more dangerous. One of the first lifeforms encountered was a giant worm, big enough to swallow people whole, that was capable of using Soothing to subdue victims." Vita nodded, a smile on her face. "That sounds quite... interesting," she said, and she meant it. The amount of life down there should make getting around much easier, though she'd probably want to keep an eye out just in case. After all, she didn't want to trip and break her neck because she ended up missing a spot. At the same time, it seemed there were a lot of things down there still left to discover, enough to keep her occupied for quite a while. And even if she had left Bioscience part of her was still immensely interested in figuring out what was going on the lifeforms down there. "Alright," she finally said. "By the way, are you going to tell me about how you know all this?" Aylitha paused for a bit, wondering what she could tell Vita, and which things she should tell her. "My source is a bioscience researcher who has joined the expedition," she finally said. "You've never met her, she joined only shortly before you left, and the both of you worked in different labs." For good reason, she silently added. "In fact, however, she is an... experiment of mine. She isn't aware of this, and neither are most of the other researchers. You'd recognize her rather quickly if you came near her, but I'd prefer if you didn't tell her. It could cause trouble. Her particular, erm, nature, so to say, allows me to gather information through her without anyone knowing, though my influence over her is rather... limited. Adding to that, while she is a good researcher, she doesn't have the necessary knowledge or experience as a DA member to properly deal with this situation. Which," she said as she pointed her tail to Vita, "is also the reason I came to you." Vita simply nodded, trying to work through what Aylitha had just said, and she caught herself wondering what this person would be like. She forced herself away from that thought though. She was still just some random stranger, even if she was one of Mother's experiments. No reason to spend any time thinking about that. Aylitha simply noted Vita's expression, and decided to move on. "Well," she said, "Now that we've gotten that all out of the way, I'll give you some more background information, and after that we can move away from shop talk and catch up on what happened since the last time we've met." She paused for a bit, a small gloom seemingly passing over room. "And after that," she finally continued, "We can discuss a certain proposal I have." *** A few hours later, when Aylitha had finally left, Vita simply sat amidst the cushions, and tried to wrap her head around her mother's proposal. She could understand the reasoning behind it, but still, the offer had come completely out of the blue, and to just make a decision like that... Eventually they had decided that she would give her answer after this expedition was over, but she still had no idea what to answer, and she could only hope that this expedition would help her get her mind in order.

Two-handed. One of the more oversized variants, since the character had strength enhancement. To be fair, I like polearms meant for open-style fighting the most, so cutting types like glaives, naginata and war scythes.

Hmm, I'm personally more of a polearm type, though I did once have a character who used a claymore.

Wasn't that place completely destroyed during the final part of Era 3?

Ah, alright, I hadn't heard of those before.

I don't think that sword will last very long in an actual fight, or be effective in general. Also, with sidesword, do you mean an arming sword?

"My apologies, my king," Aylitha said in a joking tone as she dropped into a rather horrible curtsy, "but I happened to be from a constitutional monarchy." No you're not, Karin sleepily murmured in her mind. I am. I'm not sure if your birthplace even has a type of government humans can understand. I still remember how much difficulty you had trying to understand our government systems back in the beginning. Back awake huh? Aylitha sent back, deciding not to argue that particular point. I don't suppose you can give me some advice on dealing with this idiot? You shouldn't call someone an idiot, came the reply back. She paused for a short bit, thinking. Even if it's true. Growing more active she took a closer look at the delusional royalty in front of them. Hmm, she said, Surgebinder, Skybreaker or Windrunner, based on the flying. Don't let the blade cut your main body, ...Or maybe do, I'm curious as to what exactly will happen. Other areas should be fine, but you'll probably need to drop the part that was cut afterwards, it won't fall off on its own. He'll be a high-speed flyer, and he won't have slow down when hitting you, so speedster tactics are out. Go with flying brick tactics instead. Also, don't let him touch you for any significant amount of time. As soon as he can focus enough he can use magic on you in that case. Huh, Aylitha replied. Wanna switch? She asked in a half-joking tone. Not interested, came the reply. If he attacks, leave the room. There are too many people here that would get killed just because you picked a fight with a narcissist. Also, she continued when she sensed Aylitha's hesitation, that blade makes close-quarters fights too dangerous, and based on what we've heard and how he's holding it the thing should be a lot lighter than it looks. You won't have enough space or speed to dodge around properly. Aylitha nodded, seemingly listening to some inaudible voice. "Alright, So don't get close, keep dodging, and stay away from the blade, got it." she murmured to herself, intentionally leaving out the part about actually leaving the tavern. She looked around at the room. "Huh," she noted, "I wonder if bar fights destroy a lot of places around here, what with all the magic and stuff?"

Karin shrugged. "Sounds good to me," she said. "At least we'd be doing something." For a second she thought about saying that she didn't need the Atium, since the DA paid her enough, but then she reconsidered. After all, it was a lot of money, and there was a fair amount of lab equipment she could buy with that. She thought about that for a second. No longer needing to wait for others to be finished first, or having to wait for months before Finance finally processes her requests for a personal piece of equipment, often even getting back messages that the labs already have enough of those. She just caught herself as she almost started smiling, dreaming about what she could buy first. One of those specialized microscopes maybe, or one of those sequencers the senior researchers used for examining genetic material that didn't consist of DNA. All the possibilities...