[System]
art by the magnificent Tervola
Abstract: A masked Traveller with a permanent grin

Detail:
When Spook stands still and quiet, he is a most menacing figure: the mask and hood and well-used sword give passersby good reason to avoid crossing his path. He looks like something that might spend his free time summoning dark hellions or snatching children in the night.

This, according to the Travellers who know him, is a hilarious idea. The very thought of Spook doing something as productive as summoning a beast of any kind is simply ridiculous. Spook is best known for being cheap, for his endless sense of humor, and for taking nothing at all seriously. He couldn't pretend to be evil if his life depended on it.

The Travellers have asked him why he knows the rare magic runes of the Magi. They've asked him how he learned to fight so well when he barely had the discipline to stand up straight. They've tried, time and time again, to see what he was hiding under that mask -- but to this day none have succeeded.

[User]
The view through the magus lens presented Meryn with the following scene:

Alex, poised for another jab at the Traveler, was positively radiating yellow and red spirals that flickered and spun and whirred all around him. He wore his heart on his sleeve and perhaps loved too much; the forms that surrounded him were hostile toward Spook and protective of the felidrakes and of his fellow cityfolk.

Emma's dreams were blue and green and white, except for dark spots like bruises that marked them; they flitted and pulsed like fireflies in the air around her, changing color, faltering only occasionally. At the moment they were spinning and sparking, alarmed that a child was missing. A few of them even moved forward ahead of Emma, as if to check around the trees for Lux's presence.

Lily's dreams were steely pink and deep blue, angled and deliberate and a bit fuzzy; they clung to her shoulders and sat on her head like wise little angels. At the moment their little wings were outstretched, angered and holding their ground. There was a sense that they had suffered a great loss, but remained bright through sheer determination.

Kelsier's dreams were jet black, sharp as knives and shimmered like oil. They hovered over his shoulders obediently, and they moved in flashes. There was something organic at the center of those jagged edges -- something that seemed to always be watching, maybe even hoping. It glowed slightly orange, flickering in and out.

Spook was . . . empty. Where everyone else was a tumult of motion and color, Spook stood calm and serene and void of any hint of a dream.

"Why are you here?" Spook went on. He lowered the cage and tipped his masked head at Alex. "You're bored?" He glanced toward Emma. "Running away from something?" To Kelsier, "Looking for something?" To Lily, "Or maybe there's just nothing left for you back there." His grinning voice matched the mask's smile.

"This is how all Travellers start: alone, unsatisfied, scared, determined. At first it's a field trip, the wonders of the forest and the discovery of magic and freedom. Then you make decisions." He held the cage over the void again for a moment, then thought better of it and instead shoved the cage into Alex's arms. With a scuff of his boot he broke one of the lines of the sigil, and the portal vanished without a trace.

"If there's anyone back in that city that you'd like to keep safe, you'll come with me -- because this disease has already claimed half the surrounding cities, and I'm here to make sure Enn doesn't become one of them." He gestured to the cage in Alex's hands. "If that starts to look or act strange, bring it to me immediately."

He wasn't smiling anymore.

[Assistant] "If there's anyone back in that city that you'd like to keep safe, you'll come with me -- because this disease has already claimed half the surrounding cities, and I'm here to make sure Enn doesn't become one of them." He gave the cage to me. "If that starts to look or act strange, bring it to me immediately." Spook said. I was stunned. He just changed in an instant. This disease had taken half the cities around us? I looked at the Felidrake. I started checking it, mainly to see if it was hurt, but it didn't seem to be. No disease seemed to have taken it either. Hopefully it would stay that way. I used a spare strap on my rucksack to tie the cage to it. "What about the others?" I asked, to no-one in particular. "How are we going to move them?"

[User]
When Meryn peered through the magus lens to see the scene below, she felt her breath stop in her chest. It was just a tiny moment, a pause in her heartbeat as her lips parted. And then time hiccuped back into place and the air in her lungs released. Seeing her companions' dreams… they were beautiful, each of them. They fit so well, and yet all seemed to catch her off guard as Meryn saw them glisten in the air. It felt… intimate. Almost intrusive, as though she had no right to witness things so personal and unique. And yet Meryn was still endlessly grateful for the opportunity. She took her time, cataloguing each one.

Alex's explosive passion, Emma's quiet tenderness, Lily's rich maturity, Kelsier's measured focus, and Spook's… nothing. Her eyebrows pulled together at that. Where were the Traveller's dreams? He had to have at least one, didn't he? New questions piled on top of old ones Meryn had already collected concerning their mysterious guide. Was it because of those runes stained across his skin? His mask? What if he was something… else? Something unseeable by the magus lens? Meryn's face pinched more in concentration as she pulled the trinket away from her face.

She looked again down at the scene, now devoid of the fantastical manifestations. Meryn was too far away to hear what they were saying, and the only one facing in her direction was Spook. His mask gave her no clue as to what was being discussed. But she watched the body language change, saw how the mood so subtly tensed. Alex had stopped throwing punches, at least.

Meryn forced herself to her feet, grimacing at the pain but otherwise ignoring it. She glanced over her shoulder at the bird. Her head bobbed in thanks and a small, crooked smile appeared on her face. Then she scooped up the annoyed felidrake – claws and all – and plodded back down the hill. She'd spent long enough perched up there. Best to get back to the group. Slipping the magus lens in her bag, she listened to the muffled sounds of the bell under her jacket.

She reached the group as Spook finished his ominous speech, coming to stand a bit behind Lily. What had he said? Something about a disease? Meryn's eyebrows pulled together again and she glanced from Alex to the caged felidrake and back to Spook. Then she looked down at the lethargic creature in her hands.

Now, Meryn didn't trust Spook as far as she could throw him. Not since he'd remained an enigma to the magus lens, and certainly not since that stunt with the serpent monster. But if he knew more about this disease that was threatening Enn, then it seemed wise to defer to him. She gave a short whistle from her spot behind the group to get his attention. Though of course, it was impossible to tell behind that mask of his. Her eyes were narrowed a bit as she focused on him, still trying to figure out who he was underneath everything else. She raised the felidrake a bit in a silent question.

[Assistant]
The moment Spook explained the epidemic that had apparently spread to these felidrakes, Lily's let loose a long-suffering sigh. For just a moment, she sagged, her head bowing between her shoulders—and then she was standing and brushing off her hands, fast enough the moment of exhaustion might have just been a trick of the light, shoulders back and chin high.

"Thank you, Spook," she said pleasantly, turning away with one last glance at the innocently grassy earth where the magic circle had lain just moments before. She planted her hands on her hips, nodding to the Traveller. "It is quite nice to know what's going on, for once. However, it's also nice to give the little critters a chance, no?" Personally, once the full scope of the problem was revealed, Lily was more willing to listen to Spook, as long as he had a good reason—the felidrakes were cute, but a handful of beasts was nothing compared to cities full of fathers and daughters and aunts and grandmothers.

Lily moved briskly to grab her pack from where she'd set it when Spook called for volunteers at the circle, resettling it on her shoulders and giving one last brush off to her knees. She was quiet—her movements signified her deferral to Spook's leadership well enough, and anyway, she didn't trust herself to speak further for now.

If the surrounding cities had been wiped out by disease, what had happened to her sisters?

[User]
Spook tipped his head at Alex; there were four other cages besides the one now attached to Alex's rucksack, all of which contained ratty, yowling felidrakes. They hissed and clawed at the corners and slammed their leathery wings against the bars with a clanging noise.

Behind them, the Temple of Spring Whistling echoed a beautiful chord.

"We'll manage well enough," Spook said pleasantly, and he reached out a gloved hand, offering to carry a cage himself.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Spook answered, though with an air of skepticism, as if he were smiling stiffly through the words. "I admit, I've been chasing infected potentials for so long that sometimes I forget just that." He watched her a moment. "But I can help you find the person you're concerned for."

Spook had barely taken hold of the cage when a whistle raised his head. The glassy eyes of his mask stared through her for awhile -- or rather, he watched the dreams that whirled around her head, through the magus lenses in his mask.

"You weren't here when I told everyone that it's impossible to tell now whether the felidrake has been infected," he called to her at the back of the group. "There is no blood test, no spell, no examination that could tell the difference between a healthy animal and an infected one -- until it begins to show symptoms, at which point it is imperative it is destroyed as quickly as possible." He spoke more quickly than he had before, his posture straighter -- though it was unclear whether he had shaken a facade or was putting one on. The smile showed through the sound of his voice.

Spook lifted the cage in his hand. "It'll go into a trance, stop eating, and its eyes will glaze over. Then, black crystals grow on its skin, usually behind the ears or under the chin. In half a day, the entire body will be consumed by crystals. When the body dies, the crystals dissolve in the air and infect anyone and anything that surrounds it. Even if the host is killed before the crystals form -- even if the body is burned -- the chance is still too great that the remains will cause further infection."

The felidrake in Meryn's hands stretched its wings and yawned.

Spook laughed quietly. "I've never been much for monologues. Here." With his free hand he reached into his inside jacket pocket and took out three folded sheets of paper. He handed one each to Alex, Lily, Meryn and Emma. On each of the pages was a different circular, geometric sigil.

"Use these in an emergency," was all he said about them, before he turned and began walking down the ruined road, away from the city of Enn. "If we're to get anything done, I suppose we'll take the felidrakes to the Lady of the Lake," he called back to them, even as his back was turned. "This way."

Ahead, the forest was thicker, and the road had been broken and overgrown so well by the intruding woods that very little of it was left. The statues still peeked through moss and vines, watching with grinning faces from beneath fallen rotting trees. Soon, the chorus of whistling and the tinkle of bells would be gone, replaced only by thick trees and quiet shadows.


[System]
Age: 27
Race: Dragon-kin
Class: Guardian
Appearance Description:
Kaze's features are rather obvious to those who care to really observe him. Dark, jet black, scales cover most of his body making most armors unnecessary for him. Thick royal purple plates go from the tip of his chin, down his neck and the front of his torso, all the way to the tip of his tail. Perfect for protecting his vitals. His wings are enormous and heavily muscled like the rest of him, allowing him to fly. The great limbs have the same royal purple as his chest plates but they're slightly ragged along the edges. His tail is roughly two and a half times his height in length and a portion of the tip is webbed, allowing him to swing better despite his bulk. His height is far above the average of the human, Kaze stands at exactly eight feet tall.

Image Reference: I own this picture so no one can use it without my permission, thanks.

Personality:
Kaze is an incredibly blunt person, preferring to keep things simple. He has an air of boredom around him, never seemingly in a rush. Unlike a good portion of his species he doesn't strive to be trusted, merely respected for his accomplishments. He's still young and has plenty of time to do as he wishes and he knows this. Kaze does however have a rage streak in him. Certain things will set him off and it's hard to cool him back down, harder still is stopping him from wrecking what it is that pissed him off in the first place. This is normally tied to people he likes and or respects to a higher degree. But for the most part he's a relaxed, gruff, kind of grumpy man. Kids tend to call him an ornery old fart since he seems act two to three times his age.

Brief History:
Kaze's life was rather harsh given his appearance and upbringing. Forced to survive the rough mountains, and later the low lands that were filled with murderous races. At least that's how Kaze saw it. The humans, elves, dwarves, and such didn't trust him. He trusted them even less given the amount of rogues, bandits, and 'adventurers', that had tried to end him. Either for what he had or what he was made of. But despite the hardships he survived while he fiddled about with materials he found. Or examined the arms and armors of those he ended to see if he could make better. He learned the materials they were made from and how to gather such things. Finding them eventually became easier as well given his animalistic senses. To make things easier on himself, and to sell the things he's been making, he has helped/is helping make a guild for Hunting. Or whatever it is these humans say its all about.

Skills:
* Alchemy - 0
* Armor Smithing - 2
* Weapon Smithing - 1
* Gathering - 2
* Skinning - 0
* Engineering - 0
* Cooking - 0

[User]
The word was starting to get around. A new band of Monster Hunters was forming up. Some said it was a new group of suicidal idiots. Others said it was the way to go, if you were lucky enough to have the skills to make it happen. But these mixed feelings left Scarlet, the founder of this new 'guild' with a line of people, all signing up to join her crew. She promised honor, glory, riches, fame, power! Problem being, this was attracting every fisherman, farmhand, and boot shiner in the entire Imperium. She sighed to herself, head resting on her fist as she would idly wave her hand to each person who approached, giving the same line over and over again.

"Sign the information on the charter and I'll get back to you with more information when it's available."

She really wasn't enjoying this, sitting in the central park of the Imperium and watching as one person after another signed away. Where were the knights, the soldiers, and Elven rangers and Dwarven cannoneers? Where were the people who could actually bring some worth to her crew? She needed something more than this... she wasn't going to do all the work herself while these nobodies cowered at the very sight of the first monster they found themselves facing. She needed a group who could have her back as much as she had theirs. A proper crew, a proper bunch of hunters.

But had anyone worthwhile even answered the call?

[Assistant]
Imperium was not the best place to look for a Telluris buddy. It was filled with humans, who were mostly about two thirds the height of the tall Argo Hominid himself. The giant wanderer didn't really mind it, though. It was actually one of the big reasons he chose to travel that far from home. After being stuck in an old workshop for so long, even the buildings humans built were interesting to stare at. With his big bow on his back, the Telluris followed a wave of moving crowd into the central park. He was still emerged in his thoughts when he found himself standing in a line. On the end of it, Argo spotted a human sitting with what appeared to be a charter. With great curiosity, he waited patiently for his time to come.
"Excuse me, miss, but is this a line where I can join the.. what was it... a guild of 'monster hunters'?" His voice escaped from his mouth, gaining confidence little by little in front of the stranger.

[User]
Caimon had been at the park enjoying the sites of the City of Imperium. It was interesting being in the mainland and yet the city being an island in a lake somehow made it feel like home to him. He had been lounging on a bench enjoying his sandwich he had bought before entering the park. As he lounged, he spotted a crowd of people that caught his eye. He was already curious and began to make his casually. "So what's this line for?" He asked one of the people.

"It's for joining this new hunter's guild friend."

"Thank you for the information." He said as his eyes lit up. It seemed he had his work cut out for him and he didn't need to put that much effort into finding a hunting group. However, as he looked at the line he balked at standing there waiting. He went to nearby bench and sat down taking his time to eat. It was much better to sit and wait for the line to get smaller than stand there doing nothing. Eventually the line would dwindle and it would be a literal giant of a man and some other randos that didn't stand out as much due to the presence of the giant. He joined and waited his turn until he saw the woman with some papers. He smiled and asked, "Hello there, my I have a paper? I wish to join your guild."

[Assistant]
Noise, that was the first thing that came to the behemoths mind as he padded through the street. The noise and bickering and bargaining of so many people and voices. Kaze had given up using his ears for anything aside from what was close by. Which was nothing, people gave him a wide berth as he moved, distrustful looks on their faces. His impassive eyes wandered, taking in the overly colorful decorations, and buildings, and stalls. A snort was earned from the simplistic being.

His nostrils flared and he followed a familiar scent. The scent of water and nature, which lead him to a little park. Well little by his standards, it was probably massive compared to the other races here. Unfortunately there were a lot of people here too making a ruckus. A line in front of a bored looking woman. Just Kaze's presence alone seemed to spook off a few of the people. A few muttering about getting the new guild to go after the draconic man.

Those ones earned a growl and his lips lifting to bare those terrifying teeth. Soon it was only a handful near the woman, but the thought of a new guild piqued his interest. Maybe he could get in on that little venture. The huge being made his way, his footsteps thudding audibly despite a lack of footwear. Some humans were left and strangely a being taller than himself. That was rare. Still he looked them over briefly before turning those dully glowing crimson eyes towards the woman. She was mechanically saying the same line over and over to each person who approached, probably been doing it all day.

So he reached around with his tail, snagging up the charter to give it a once over. Silently he signed it and stood off to the side after replacing the charter with his tail.


[System]
Age: not sure... around 17 or 18 she guesses...
Weapons: Knife, Small Pistol, Bart (see below)
Brief Bio: Maya was once a Little Sister. She was cured by Delta, but left behind accidently when Eleanor left with several cured Little Sisters. Since then she had grown up in Rapture, and grown up quickly.
Maya doesn't remember anything about her time before being a Little Sister. She searched through what was left of Fontaine's Orphanage and found the files of all the Little Sisters, but nothing that that was familiar to her. So she took on the name Maya, an name created from the initials of the four girls in files she found without pictures, as she might be any one of them.
A stroke of luck for Maya was that when she was cured a Big Daddy still stuck around. She was able to bond with it and it has protected her. (See Bart's CS below for more info)
She is very quick and light on her feet. Maya set up a base in Pauper's Drop, but spends most of her time scavenging for food and parts for Bart in other parts of Rapture. She never stays in one place very long, constantly moving about.
Other:[youtube]9aRlxHtB0pg[/youtube]

(ignore the Little Sister at his side please)
Name: Big Daddy, but Maya calls him Bart
Age: on the old side
Weapons: Drill, Brute Strength, Rage... nuf said
Brief Bio: For some unknown reason Bart decided to bond with Maya and has been protecting her ever since. He doesn't have much of a thought process : walk, protect Maya, walk more, look around, protect Maya, walk... you get the idea.
He has been her protector and only friend for years, but now Bart is starting to break down. Maya tries to fix him but she is not a mechanic. She knows it is only a matter of time before Bart shuts down for good... and that terrifies her.
Other: nothing really... a Big Daddy is pretty straight forward...

[User]
Maya - Medical Pavilion - Bart/Splicers

The girl turned away from the window. She had been watching the sea life swim by, sometimes seeing a massive shark. But it didn't pay to watch the scenery too long in Rapture. The great underwater city was a city of death and horror. If you didn't understand that, you didn't last long.
She heard the lunatic screams of a female splicer and shrugged. Scavenging wasn't easy, especially in the Medical Pavilion. Steinman's patients and coworkers were still running around. A few even had grenades which they tossed around like confet-

BOOM

Like that.
Maya sighed and rolled her eyes. At least she could tell when they were coming.
Sure enough, one of the crazy freaks came around the corner and spotted her. He shouted something at her she didn't even try to understand anymore. He tossed one of his grenades at her, but she dived behind and counter and avoided the debris as it went off. She heard him coming and pulled out her knife. She wasn't going to waste the little ammo she had on this guy.
Seconds later she heard a loud groan and the splicer start choking. Smiling, she came out from under the counter to see a Big Daddy choking the life from her would-be attacker. When his face turned purple the Big Daddy threw him across the room, slamming him into a wall. He slid to the floor and didn't move.
"Thanks Bart," she said, patting the old Big Daddy on the arm. He made a noise that she always assumed was a hum of approval and the color of the lights on his helmet when from angry red to neutral yellow.

Maya examined the grenade box the splicer had been carrying, then looted his body. He hadn't had much : two grenades, some chips and a few dollars. She could use the money in a vending machine for some food she supposed. She'd add it to her stash.

The odd pair headed out of the Medical Pavilion, the girl eating the chips and the giant metal man lumbering slowly behind her. Several splicers saw them, but didn't dare attack the girl. They didn't want to risk the wrath of a Big Daddy, especially one with a large drill for an arm.
Maya stopped along their path and Bart stopped with her, waiting patiently. Pulling out her knife, Maya did what she always did when she left an area : she scratched a message into the wall.
She had left the same message her multiple times so she just deepened the words so that anyone who came across them knew they were fresh. She didn't know why she left the message. Maybe a feeble hope that some day someone who wasn't a crazy spliced up psycho would see them and find her. A cured Little Sister perhaps, or maybe someone who was like her, struggling to survive down here. Someone she hadn't come across yet. Either way, it was a habit now. One that she hoped would pay off one day.

The message:

I AM ALIVE
- M

[Assistant]
Angelo Ortega-lighthouse 26-bathasphere

Angelo was getting transported to a lighthouse off the pacific ocean. Angelo was a great mechanic and he was recognized as such by the state and as a result he was told he would be fixing an important lighthouse in the ocean, obviously Angelo was hesitant in doing so but they pushed his buttons saying he was to young for the job and of course Angelo felt he needed to prove he was just as good if not better then any federal mechanic. Angelo was being dropped off by a speed boat and all his repair supplies were in the bag next to him they kept saying that their was a problem with both its bulb and its support in the oceans current so he needed to work on a way to keep it afloat so he needed to go to its basement and check to see if the water was going in.

Once Angelo got onto its small dock which in reality was just some wood going out towards the sea from the stairs leading inside the lighthouse he started walking inside seeing the large metal doors and at first Angelo knocked then it just creepily opened "ah now this is classic" Angelo said softly sighing a little as he took out his shotgun from his bag obviously being suspicious of whatever was in the shadows he started walking up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse and he was seeing some memorabilia about a place of freedom and where all men were left to their own devices, obviously Angelo couldn't care less as long as he did his job. Angelo got to the top and he found the light bulb not shinning in the sky so he found the fuse box nearby and he changed a few wires and turned on the power to the entire lighthouse and Angelo believed they just sent him to do an idiots job.

Angelo soon went all the way back down towards the basement and Angelo could see a submarine or some sort of sphere in a small pool, obviously this lighthouse was used for more then just lighting a way for the ships that would pass and was probably used by divers in the 70s considering how old it looked. Angelo looked around and used some plastering mold on the walls where it sprung a leak and Angelo curiosity got to him since it seemed so old it may be a good relic to take to a museum. Angelo walked into the bathosphere and saw it close behind him Angelo tried to get out but then it did a scan and it said unidentified user, unidentified user Angelo thought that seemed pretty advanced for something so old so Angelo walked to a small panel and Angelo started to twist some wires and it did a scan again and this time said welcome Mr. fontaine please enjoy the ride Angelo said "what the hell I wanted you to let me out!" Angelo groaned but sat down as the bathosphere started to take him down where Angelo started to see a city at the bottom of the sea...

[User]
Olivia and Mr. Bubbles - The streets of Rapture - Splicers and 'angels'

Olivia was happily skipping along a glass corridor, humming a merry tune in time to the thuds of Mr. Bubbles' footsteps. Mr. Bubbles was lumbering after his little sister, looking around for any signs of danger.

They happened along a corpse. But in Olivia's eyes, it was a sleeping angel. "Look look!" Olivia said excitedly "It's an angel!". Olivia skipped over to the 'angel' to gather ADAM. but as she did so, 4 spider splicers dropped onto Mr. Bubbles and began clawing at him with their hooks. While this was happening a pair of brutes came out of hiding and tried to grab Olivia.

Olivia cried out in fear, causing Mr. Bubbles' helmet lights to turn red. He threw 1 spider splicer to the ground and crushed its head beneath his boot. Mr. Bubbles shot the 2nd spider into the air with his rocket launcher and watched as it blew up like a firework. The 3rd and 4th had the sense to run, but were gunned down by the mini-turret Mr. Bubbles deployed for the brutes.

When Mr. Bubbles turned his attention to the brutes they abandoned their pursuit of Olivia and instead attacked Mr. Bubbles, who grabbed their heads and bashed them together until he saw skull.

When it was over, Olivia ran over to Mr. Bubbles and hugged his leg. Mr. Bubbles knelt down and hugged Olivia back before picking her up and carrying her on his shoulders away from the scene.

[Assistant]
BurnHeart - The Streets of Rapture - Another Big Daddy

 RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHG! BurnHeart was loudly lumbering through the streets, his drill making loud obnoxious noises as it randomly turned on and off. His gun was slung across his back but was easy enough to whip out should a melee fight overwhelm him. As he prowled through the streets, another Big Daddy paired with a little sister saw BurnHeart and grunted in disgust before walking away into a complex. He took note of the Big Daddy's ragged suit and lack of little sister. It was almost a sign of misconduct for a Big Daddy to not have one, or at least it was a way for them to rank their kind being their rather lack of real smarts. BurnHeart however was as ravenous as an animal and he heard the steps of the other Big Daddy echo across the streets he raised his drill into the air and it make a horrible screaming buzz as it spun through the air. It made the other little sister shriek. The big daddy that entered the complex was aware of this and in a bright flash his helmet turned red and he spun back to face his challenger.

 "GRAAAAAAAHH" BurnHeart shouted, stumbling towards the unnamed Big Daddy. The other Big Daddy braced himself for the brute force of a Rosie but instead found the sharp force of a drill being pressed against his arm. It broke the suit and began drilling into the Big Daddy's grafted arm. It was the Big Daddies turn to scream. BurnHeart raised his arm and swung it down at the other Big Daddy's head, crumpling it. He raised his Ion Laser from his back at fired it twice at the Big daddy's head, to break the suit and then to break the grafted head inside. He then raised his head and looked around for the Little Sister. It was to no avail, she escaped when her Big Daddy crumpled.

 BurnHeart took one last look at the Big Daddy and raised the laser one more time. He fired it at the big daddy's chest, leaving a smoking hole. It was unknown even to BurnHeart what impulsed him to do this to his victims, but none the less it would cause terror to see a Big Daddy killed in this way. He then screamed and started in a run down the street, trying to find the escaped little sister.

[User]
Olivia and Mr. Bubbles - The streets of Rapture - Each other

Mr. Bubbles stopped when he heard the sound of BurnHeart roaring somewhere in the distance. On his shoulders, he could feel Olivia begin to shake with fear. "It's him" Olivia whimpered "He's coming this way!".
Mr. Bubbles attempted to comfort Olivia, but then a 2nd roar echoed through the street they were walking through. This time it was closer.

"We have to hide!" Olivia insisted before jumping off Mr. Bubbles and running into a nearby shop.
Mr. Bubbles looked in the direction of the roar. Their last encounter with BurnHeart almost cost Olivia and Mr. Bubbles their lives. Mr. Bubbles wasn't eager for round 2. Mr. Bubbles turned back towards the shop where Olivia had gone to hide and walked in after her.

[Assistant]
Maya - Streets of Rapture - Bart, unknown

A horrific scream made Maya's blood turn to ice, freezing her in her tracks. What... was...?
Bart made a noise of warning, his drill arm rising in front of them. Maya patted his arm, trying to calm him. If they ran into anything other then splicers Bart would have a hard time and would be in even worse shape.
"It's okay," she said soothingly. "Whatever it is, it isn't going to bother us," she said, praying that was true. "Let's just start heading for home okay?"

As they moved cautiously towards the train that would take them towards Pauper's Drop, Maya listened for any other sound from whatever that thing had been. It certainly hadn't been a Little Sister and it hadn't sounded like a Splicer either. It had sounded almost like a Big Daddy, but not how they were supposed to sound. Maybe Bart wasn't the only Big Daddy that was falling into disrepair. It wouldn't surprise her. They had found several bodies of Big Daddies that had been mutilated and picked apart for loot and pieces of their weapons and armor. The curious thing had been that some of them had large holes on their chests. It was nerve-racking, but then when you lived in a hell like Rapture nerve-racking was normal.

A high-pitched alarm startled Maya and she dropped her bag to cover her ears. A bright light illuminated her, hurting her eyes.
Damn security camera! She had walked right into it's line of sight! Even with Ryan dead and gone the cameras still worked.
The light and noise was gone a moment later when Bart ripped the thing off of the wall and stomped on it, crushing it to pieces under his heavy boot.
"Thank you," Maya said and quickly grabbed her bag. They needed to move quicker now because if anything or anyone was nearby the noise from the camera was like a dinner bell clanging, an alert to a possible target.


[System]
Gender: Female

Appearance: Her mouth contains considerably more molars than would be expected for a goblin and she had bucked front teeth that look like they would be more at home on a squirrel. Her eyes and hair are both hazel in coloration. She has a tendency to carry around plants of in a rainbow of colors to sate her habit. Other than that, she is your average ugly wee green level 1 encounter.

Personality: A rather adventurous individual, her eagerness to explore and find more ingredients for her craft lead to a degree of recklessness and wanderlust that are both rather unsafe in this kind of world. She is also rather easily distracted in that department, wandering of from work to look at some new flower, which she will promptly try to eat and then perhaps harvest more off. These desires are somewhat driven by altruism though, as she wants to use her Gift to help others whenever possible in order to show it's, and as a result her, worth to them because she is not exactly a skilled in the more standard goblin occupations.

She is rather cheerful when she gets to utilize her gift and gets frustrated when not, which leads to her almost constantly chewing on some plant or other. She prefers to be working with plants, be this making potions or lacing arrows with night shade, or doing thing using the fruits of her labors. If there is fighting to be done she initially favors ambush tactics, sitting motionless in foliage waiting for the perfect time to strike with a poisoned dagger or arrow.

Past Life History: She was a botanist who worked primarily in finding any uses for newly discovered and existing plants as well as being tangentially involved in various genetic modification experiments. She had the somewhat odd tendency to eat small amounts of what she was working with and had learned to identify them by taste, a somewhat eccentric but now useful skill.

Gift: plant appraisal. By consuming plant matter she can intuit what the plant might useful for by having a vague understanding of it's properties based on the taste.

[User]
Kluuto

---

Kluuto heard Hazel-eyes asking more questions, about how much goods were worth in the human city, how to hunt and why don't the goblins cook food. Now Kluuto was starting to feel annoyed. She just wanted the chit-chat to cease and for them to go to the human city right away. She tapped her foot impatiently with her arms crossed.

Now, the pretty one's question was more to her liking. The way how they would know whether or not they had the aptitude to magic. She certainly would like to learn about that right away. She didn't like having this big thing hanging on her head, making her anxious.

Nice! Sabu would pay for the magic aptitude testing! And she would put his advice to heart so one day she would be able to be that strong as well. The chief then answered hazel-eyes' questions. Hunting should be second nature to all goblins and raw food are more efficient to goblins. Nothing really surprising to her.

Suddenly, a goblin sneaked up on Sabu, and pretty much questioned his talk about him having dragon blood in him. What is this idiot doing, Kluuto thought inwardly. Now he would make the mood of their guide sour and that would be bad for everyone involved, especially her! She just had to put a piece of her mind to him now!

"Hey you, what a disrespectful thing you just said to the chief's son. Apologize!" Kluuto said to him, her face visibly angry.

Grail@Leotamer@Moonlit Sonata@DracoLunaris

[Assistant]
Lyminia

Lyminia folded her arms for a moment, visibly pleased and donning a small smile on her face at Sabu offering them a "welcome to the tribe" gift in the form of magic testing. If she could learn magic of some kind, that would in her mind give her a leg-up on possible future situations. At least, if magic could help. Better to be prepared than vulnerable, after all. Though as much as the eccentric nature of Sabu about humans, including the unfamiliar and likely human-originated gesture he made towards them, could be understood as to why it could annoy Aya so much, at the same time the golden-eyes Goblin was finding it...well, sorts cute and amusing when it came down to it. While she wouldn't audibly debate about luck factoring in as 'more important' than hard work, it still had its place in things if she had to think logically on the matter. She also felt in agreement that hard work was more important than talent in the end.

"You know, you are just about to become one of my favorite Goblins i've met since i woke up! Lyminia said with an audible and hearty laugh, slapping Sabu once on the back in a visibly playful manner before continuing speaking to the fellow dragon-blooded Goblin, "I can speak for myself at least, though, when i say i'll take you up on getting that magic testing this time around as a gift! Shall we go ahead into town then?"

Though before she could attempt to push the group towards town, emphasis being on "attempt", the strangely red-colored male Goblin (who was not exactly on Lyminia's good side at this point) spoke up about blood and Sabu proving his lineage. This combined with one of the other females piping up about the disrespectful nature of the male's comments and such. And in reality, Lyminia felt herself putting together a theory of sorts about this guy's motives. Red skin. Trying to sneak up on the chief. Pressure to use his gift to "test" Sabu's blood for its legitimacy...

"Oi, blood-sucker for brains, are ya that desperate for a taste of his blood or something?" Lyminia bluntly said, a small frown and disapproving look donning her face as she talked to Redd, "Just wait 'till go hunting or something, and drink it from a rabbit. For now it'd be nice if ya didn't try to drink our guide so at least we can go see the human town!"

She wasn't going to sugar-coat it. Redd was not exactly her favorite Goblin right now with his antics thus far, and she wasn't standing for it. Luckily she still had her sharp branch if the little idiot tried to do anything else strange or the like. Not that she came here to kill a fellow Goblin or anyone else really, but if she had to defend herself or something he Chief had better intervene if Redd gave her the excuse to shove her stick where the sun did not shine. Or into his eyes, if that was necessary in her mind.

---

Sonata @Hammerman @Leotamer

[User]
Well it was good that the pricing system was going to be simple, and free magic testing was nice. She wasn't entirely sure why he pointed at the sky after offering that though. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by "create your own luck" either, and ended up thinking that luck manipulation was a type of magic.

As for her questions it was good to know that hunting would come naturally, and she would presumably have Golden eyes with her to help and maybe some of the others like the sneaky one who had accompanied them, should cover the strength in numbers bit. As for the cooking bit, it struck her as odd that her gift would suggest cooking so much if it was less effective for them, almost as if it was made with humans in mind. Kluuto's gift was also geared towards humans as it gave her the ability to communicate with them. All this was rather odd.

Moving on from that there was the sneaky one who had apparently pissed of their two serious goblins with his rather odd disbelief of Sabu's ancestry. The guy had scales and was previously on fire, that looked pretty dragony to her. She was not however going to jump on their being mad at him bandwagon. She was pretty sure Sabu could protect himself from their fellow newborn without the others' help. At this point she just wanted to be off to town so they could move on from those two fawning over their senpai.

"How bout we leave him be and get going? I'm sure Sabu can protect hims own honer from an ankle biter like us"

[Assistant]
Sabu
"Hm?" It seemed that one of the younglings was doubting his illustrious ancestry. Well, he would humor the child a bit, then. The prospect of showing off a bit more certainly wasn't something he was about to complain about.

"Gahaha! You must not have been paying attention during my bout with the General, eh?" Sabu remarked with a brazen laugh, indicating the human woman who had been nearby only to realize that she had already left to head back to the human town. Shrugging off the momentary lapse, he continued on, not seeming to even acknowledge the newborn's mention of his own Gift. Why would he do anything involving that when he had a much better-looking method at his disposal?

"Well, I suppose I can give a more involved demonstration. I don't usually employ this sort of thing in combat since it takes a bit too long to prepare for my taste, and the efficiency of it's much lower compared to what you saw earlier, but I can always use it as a little demonstration. Ah, you should probably take a few steps back, though."

"Explode, Potential Release."

After speaking, that same red fog started to emanate from Sabu's body, his muscles tensing. The air around him grew thick with a form of power far distinct from the faint air of the forest's Lord that permeated his domain. For a moment, the Goblin's eyes changed, a glint entering them that was removed from his prior demeanor, one of a tyrannical indifference that faded as soon as it had appeared.

Space bent. That silhouette that had taken shape behind him during the earlier spar once more appeared, but this time its shape was less hazy. Its immaterial form was made visible through the red fog, scales glinting and a hundred heads writhing. With its appearance, with its roar that shook the air, a "pressure" that was practically palpable manifested. It was not mere physical force, no, it was something beyond that. An attack on the soul, the force of subjugation, the nature of the "king of beasts" that demanded the subordination of all those before it. A speck in the hand of a bodhisattva, a mortal staring into the depths of an eyeless god, it was a tyrannical power that could tautologically be called nothing but tyrannical.

If Redd had not, in fact, chosen to step away from Sabu then he would have been forced to his knees by the pressure, bones creaking under the strain as the very act of thought became momentarily impossible. The others would not be nearly so affected, but would nearly be paralyzed; merely breathing felt like an ordeal, and attempting to move even slightly would be almost impossible without putting their all into it. Even the chief seemed to be affected in some regard, albeit not nearly as much.

And just as quickly as the image had appeared, it vanished, the pressure lifting and the red fog receding back into Sabu's body.

"Gahaha! Quite impressive for a 'bed-time story', no?"

At this point, his grin could be said to have adopted qualities that those of another world would likely call "shit-eating".

[User]
Rekzild

---

---

After his initial compliment made towards both Sabu and the human woman Rekzild had fallen silent for a time. In an action that was clearly developing into a habit he wandered a little way off, setting himself against a tree as he took in what had been said, and the bits of conversation that were still able to reach him. For many it would be overwhelming, or one would think at the very least, yet him and his fellow newborns all seemed to be catching onto everything that was spoken without much issue. Even the strange blood hungry kin of his possessed a startling ability to understand all of the things that had transpired. Was this something typical among goblin kind, or was there something exceptional about their batch?

He lifted his head for a moment, cocking it to the side when he heard mention of preparing to depart to the human city in a short amount of time. This was welcomed information, though it would seem that the others had more questions that required answers before they could depart. Unsure how long this portion would take Rekzild rose from his position against the trunk of the ironwood tree and made his way back to the chief's side, who had been largely abandoned by the others. Stopping at his side he looked out towards the ones interacting with his son, buzzing around him with millions of questions that they fired off at a rapid pace.

Throughout all of their questions most didn't pertain to him. He had no interest in learning magic, nor discovering if he was capable of it, he had received the name of the location he could find books already as well as an explanation on how to acquire tools to write his own, and he certainly wasn't interested in making the chieftain's son prove his lineage. The only thing mentioned that he found truly interesting was the Stored Knowledge Matrix. Such a device would prove immensely useful, if he did not have to rely on others to translate for him he could successfully manage himself on his own.

Before he could take another action he was taken back by Sabu unleashing his power in a more vibrant display. Rekzild could barely draw air into his body, but fortunately the display was short lived as it vanished almost as soon as it had appeared and he could breathe once more. Inhaling a couple of times he walked back towards the chief's son, head tilted back to look up at him.

"If you are willing to help them acquire magical testing would you help cover part of the cost of a Stored Knowledge Matrix for me? I know you said it is ridiculously expensive so I wouldn't expect you to cover the entire cost, I will accept the debt and work it off, but assistance would be greatly appreciated sir."

[Assistant]
Iris took 'a few steps' back a bit further than intended and ever so 'subtly' legged it back to the chief to hid behind him. Not that it helped much.

The effect was terrifying as Sabu manifested a great specter of a many headed dragon, or perhaps a manifestation of the idea of dragons, whose gaze bored into her very soul and pinned her in place. She felt like a minuscule spec in an uncaring cosmos at the mercy of beings far more powerful than herself who did not care that she existed. It was horrifying. Maddening. Fortunately it was over relatively quickly. She was not sure how long she could have endured it.

In the aftermath she was left gasping for breath in compensation for the breathing difficulties the effect had created.

"Please. Never do that again."

She noticed that the chief had not been affected as much as her. Because he had power, because he had evolved. She needed to gain that power so she would never feel that helpless again, and the first step to that was to find out if magic would be a good path to that.

"Can we go for that magic testing now, if we are done with" she avoided saying showboating "demonstrations?"


[System]
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Appearance:

Personality: Completely self-serving, anarchic and vain, Chloe seems to go where she wants, when she wants to go there, and not a minute sooner. She allies herself with anybody who seeks to overthrow the current power structure, no matter their motives or methods, and when the a revolution she was aiding succeeds, she rises up with the next group of insurgents. She has a constant lackadaisical attitude that annoys the people around her, as though she doesn't care who they are or why they're around in the first place. Whatever is going on in her head is more important to her than her interpersonal relationships, and she barely seems to remember other peoples' names.

Bio: Chloe was born into a poor family on the wrong side of the tracks. Their house was constantly getting broken into and robbed, and it wasn't uncommon for her to watch her father literally fight to take back their home from squatters and gangs. This was how she spent the first ten years of her life. However, in her tenth year of life, even this routine was uprooted and taken from her, as she and her family were seized by a small upstart gang, beaten, and put to work by them. Chloe never saw her father again after that day. She and her mother lived an uneasy life, essentially as slaves for this random gang of thugs with very little power, but there was nothing that she and her mother could do, because they were powerless.

On the day she met the incubator, there was no convincing that needed to happen, no goading or talks. She had a wish that she would go to any lengths to fulfill.

At present, she is known to support rebellions in any form. In Aurora, she has chosen to ally herself with the Shadow Compact, since she likes the way they do business. Most people question why a magical girl would ally herself with humans to overthrow magical girl superiority, but she has never mentioned her motives even once to anybody. She enjoys living a hedonistic life without any ties to other people and without any particular direction, and she has no true friends to speak of, though she has uneasy allies and very loose acquaintances. Chloe's been at this magical girl thing for quite a while now and seems to enjoy the rhythm of it. While she knows that one day it has to end, focusing on the present is what brings her joy.

Allegiance: Shadow Compact. While uneasy, she has formed a sort of partnership with the Shadow Compact. She has power, and seems hell-bent on overthrowing the rule of the current magical girl system for some reason. Many in the organisation don't like her involvement, but even they can't argue with her results in the face of their own relative powerlessness.

Skills: Chloe is physically strong from all of the non-magical fighting she engages in, and the constant labour work that she never quite managed to separate herself from. Even when not powered up by magic, she is stronger than most girls her age and can hold her own against an adult in a fight. If you asked anybody else, the rest of her skillset would consist of annoying people and being mysterious.
Weapons: Brass knuckles
Other: Chloe isn't very quick to make friends for obvious reasons, but that doesn't necessarily mean she wants to be that way...

Magical Girl Appearance:

Wish: It's not known to the public.
Weapons: Power Fists, great for hand to hand combat, blocking heavy attacks, and general wanton destruction.
Powers: Obviously something to do with her unknown wish, but this is also unknown.

[User] Mistake, please ignore.

[Assistant]
While Maria did expect some kind of reactionary action or word from Eponine once the rogue left, she didn't expect that. She must have also kept a pent up anger inside her during the entire duration of the meeting, which was understandable given her newly-met acquaintance. While in a normal situation she would have scolded her of acting so violently inside the house and demanded she would go hunt some witch seeds or otherwise recompense, there was a more pressing subject at hand. Besides, she was also close to throwing her tea cup at the wall at some parts of the conversation.

Did she bite her tongue? She is not as devoid of emotion as I assumed of her, then.

"I will be lenient this time and forgive you for your act of transgression," Maria said. At this point, she didn't mind if the entire mansion crumbled, since she would be moving up into a much better building soon.
"But there is something that troubles you. Could it be related to the discussion I had with the rogue? You seemed uncomfortable during it."

[User] "Your clemency is more than I deserve," Eponine replied. When Maria asked what was troubling her, Eponine looked away for a bit, then looked back, "My lady spoke of rebelling against the queen and conspiring with Shadow Compact. With all due respect, that is an act of treason. Ever since you took me on as your knight, I have served you and Aurora with utmost loyalty to preserve our fragile peace and the rule of law. Given your position ad rule, I never suspected you would harbor such thoughts. I am...conflicted. To you I owe much, but how much of what I owe you do I also owe to Aurora and the order it symbolizes?"

[Assistant]
Maria's voice turned pleasing and comforting as she spoke.

"Oh Eponine, I understand how you feel," she said, and with her magic, slowly rose into the the air from her wheelchair. She floated slowly towards Eponine and then around her like an angel without wings. " But I must take this drastic measure to preserve peace in Aurora. Alexandra is too vacuous to rule her. She simply twiddles her thumbs and acts like a figurehead while the neighboring cities and nations gain in warriors and land, ultimately bringing war and suffering to Aurora and its people too. Were I to become queen, I would bring order to Aurora and all of those lands, until the entire world is in eternal peace and rest.

She now stopped and caressed her cheek as she floated before her. "Don't you remember the dream we had, my dear Eponine?" She then whispered into her ear:

"A world of absolute order. We can achieve that, you need only to believe in me and we will have it, together."

[User]
Something clicked in Alice's mind telling her to stop what she was doing. Her head started to hurt a bit but Alice pretended it was nothing so that Violetta did not notice it. She was about ready to activate her scythe when the pain started getting worst. She moved her hand away from her necklace and the pain started to subside.
Just what was that? It was like...I was trying to stop myself. That's right. This can be solved peacefully. All I need to do is lead her to that abandoned lab. If anything happens, then I will activate scythe...yes, I will do that

Alice took a deep breath in and let it out to calm herself down. If I had activated my scythe, it would to a battle which can be avoided. There was no need for pointless violence. Alice recalled her dislike for pointless violence and scolded herself for giving in too early to her thirst for battle. However, she would just remain transformed in case she needed to bail quickly as she knew Violetta was probably not alone and her allies could just come rushing in with just a call from her cellphone. Alice then giggled at the other girl for admitting herself being a dog of the Authority. The other girl had a sense of humour...maybe there was no need for a fight...maybe. Alice then crossed her arms.

"Since I'm a such a good citizen, I will help you fulfil your role as a government dog by leading you to something I found some days ago. It was something I never seen before. The place was deserted when I found it so I'm not sure if its what you are looking for. Follow me if you want to check it for yourself."

Alice then jumped onto a building roof. She looked down at Violetta.
"We will take the scenic route aka jumping over rooftops."
She then went on her way to the place she found the lab.

[Assistant]
Well. That was anticlimactic. Violetta had something on the order of fifteen battle plans and was already working on the sixteenth, most of which involved abusing her powers for fun and profit and stalling until her reinforcements arrived. But to win without fighting was the greatest victory, and the girl had decided to come quietly, after all. What was the term again? "Help the Valkyries with their inquiries?" Violetta idly scratched at herself with the tip of her flamethrower, and took a few leaps up the building. The concrete bent and left footprints for her as she passed by it. If she'd wanted to, and didn't care about leaving a trail, she could've walked up the wall. But she took leaps up, perching on windowsills and glazing bars, careful not to use too much of the supernatural power that fueled most magical girls.

Up above, the air was smoky, and almost dingier then the floor. A billion fumes and gases leaked out here, before mixing in with the wind and drifting somewhere far away where they could cause some other natural disaster. She dismissed her weapon, out of fear that it might start a chemical fire, and turned to her companion. For now, she seemed... Accepting. She'd guessed that the whole "anti-authoritarian" palaver had worked. The only girls who survived for long were lone wolves, and people like that were easier to manipulate. All you needed to do was convince them that what you wanted them to do was somehow hurting da man. Even if da man said that, they bought it. And in this case, da man was one Crown princess Alexandria Hertz.

"Well?" She began, once she'd caught up. "Lead the way, Missus...?"

[User]
book of bad juju

Alice nodded and led the way.She had purposely chosen the 'jumping on rooftops' route as it would take a longer time to get to the site. She would get there faster on the ground since she was familiar with the roads and knew certain short cuts. However, she wanted to talk to Violetta and Alice knew once the both of them reached the site, Violetta would be too busy snooping around to have a decent talk. The talk they had before could not be considered as one since it was more like a showdown with words which could have escalated to fight. While still jumping and running along the building rooftops, Alice turned to the blonde girl.

"So...what's your story, Violetta? Why are you with the Authority and a magical girl?"

It was just a simple question to start the conversation. Eventually, Alice would ask Violetta a question related to her true goal of co-existence. She needed to see if the other girl would at least open up a little so she could guess where she stood. If Violetta was opposed to the idea of co-existing with the normals, then Alice would have to decide to finish her off or not at the lab. However, Alice would rather not resort to that.

"Sorry, if I suddenly asked. It's just been a while since I met another magical girl....you know...yeah."

[Assistant]
Half a dozen alarm bells went off in Violetta's head as the other girl chose that moment on the rooftops to start a conversation. It would've been so much easier to use the streets, where the wind didn't get in your ears and make you miss half the conversation. Why had she decided to talk then? Was this a trap? There was no real way out of it, she realized, without talking about herself. And she wanted to avoid that at all costs, but the alternative was offending a teenage girl whose petty doubts and worries were amplified with alien science from the far future. Whatever happened wouldn't be solved with a heart-to-heart on the opposite sides of a bathroom stall, not here. But between the devil and the deep blue sea, the only real option she had was to be as vague as possible. She stepped on an old brick chimmeny, on the face of it to gather her thoughts, and pushed away again.

"My parents died when I was pretty young, around when I contracted." That seemed vague enough. No reason to tell her the whole truth, after all. "And they always said I had relatives in Germany. After that, I just kinda tried to find myself, y'know?" With any luck, she didn't. "And then I got something useful where I can be ignored 'till I fall into despair."

She paused, circling an old antenna dish, and went on.

"What about you, mystery girl? You haven't even told me who you are. The authority might even have a file on you."

[User]
Chloe shrugged at the man's apology. "Nah, I'd doubt me too. You were in the right. But my stance hasn't changed. You guys can do you and I'll do me, and as long as our goals are the same, we'll make strides together." Was she just bashful? In truth, things like compliments and apologies didn't sit well with her. She had been reviled her whole life, after all. Sudden changes in tone like this caught her off guard.

"Anyway, that's all I wanted. I'll be off again. If my contact needs your help, I'll be in touch again, but I'm sure y'all can handle yourselves with that information. I look forward to seeing some fireworks before long. Good luck, fellas."

With a brief wave, Chloe threw her headphones back on, streaming sound into her brain with great force, and drowning out the world around her as she left. She was tired from the day's events so far, but at the same time, it wasn't like she had any particular place to go. The 'home' she had set up was quite a ways away, and it wasn't much more than an abandoned, bloodstained warehouse in the first place. When it came to sleep, anywhere would do. She knew of a park nearby that had a few trees; if nobody was around, that would do nicely. The weather was clear enough, for now at least.

After some time walking, however, she was disappointed to see that somebody was, in fact, there. Making a disappointed noise under her breath, she was about to turn away, but something about this girl caught her eye. And the smell around her was unmistakeable. There had been a witch around here, and this was a Magical Girl. Chloe had had just about enough of her own ilk for one day, but something inside her head demanded she engage this girl. It was an impulse that would not have made sense or had any purchase with anybody else, but to Chloe, this was just the natural order.

"Hullo miss. I couldn't help but notice you sitting there all by your lonesome. You'll get eaten up by witches if you stay out too late, you know."


[System]
Nickname(Optional): Pfft, no.
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Physical Appearance: Of Average build with short dark hair, Neil isn't exactly the most unique specimen. He is fit but not noticeably so. He isn't big at all, but he is also not small. He has a face girls can find cute, but not exactly dreamy. Tanned skin and a ruddy complexion from all of the machine's he's worked on, coupled with the calluses on his hands gives him an experienced look despite the very youthful appearance he has. All in all, other than the twinkling of his eyes and the trademark grin, he is essentially average. He has dark eyes and very dark brown hair, enough to be considered black under most light. He's about 5'10 and 165 pounds.
Clothing: He often wears baggy pants, mostly military cargo. He likes to wear single colored T-Shirts. Usually he wears red.
Personality: Oh, now that is a question. To say Neil is eccentric is...well, that hits the nail on the head. Very good with hand-eye coordination, competent combatant, good engineer, and a daring pilot. But prone to sarcasm, snide remarks, unorthodox behavior, and just good old fashioned explosions. He's a born jokester, though behind his charming yet insufferable demeanor belies a certain intelligence, and to those he enjoys, he does tend to have a big heart.

[User]
Alexander shook from lasting fear, his tousled hair disheveled and whipped to the left from the forceful removal of the aircar. But as the reality of his life remaining donned on him, he let out a rattled breath, and an anger returned to his visage. "You..." he seethed between his teeth, his blue eyes fixed on Junebug. "You insolent-" A foot appeared where his jaw had been, and the royal's neck snapped back, followed by the rest of his body as the unconscious captive fell over. Neil clapped his hands off, satisfied with his handiwork at silencing the man.

"Eat it bitch." Neil spat, grinning, seemingly engrossed in his own world. The pilot turned to Junebug a moment later. "Why didn't you shoot him?" Neil took the shotgun and hefted it, aiming at Alexander, only for it to audibly click once more. "Why didn't y-oh." He turned the comm back on, only to hear Aiden speaking tersely and harsh to Junebug.

"Bring him to me, and we will speak of this later." His voice cut out, to be replaced by Taya's more soft, sympathetic voice. You could almost hear her strained smile. "I got the camera's working again, you probably figured out. I also unaltered the footage from earlier...good job team?"

Neil absorbed all of the information, and nodded after it dawned on him what had just transpired. "Oooooh."

---

The following hours were filled with shouting and aimed guns, as the Prince and his party first fled the opulent wing of Alexander and made their toward the first station of guards they had found, being swiftly inducted into custody while the royal officials of Dar'mond reviewed the tape and gave the footage a metric scan and a full diagnostic. It was only by the will of Aiden's mother the Queen, and the fact they had given themselves over willingly that the officials had even bothered listening to them. That and, the famed cult status the Highlander crew had gained in their brief time on the planet.

Prince Aiden had been cordoned off by the Dar'mond Planetary Defense Department, and after hours of sitting in a cell, Junebug, Neil, and Taya had been set free and escorted under arms to their quarters. The guard that accompanied them to their rooms were decked out in Daristeel plate and carried the latest plasma rifles, embroidered with gold and bronze filigree and enhanced sights along the base of the barrel. Neil had to admit they were fine looking weapons, and judging the power cells, they could even be used in a light anti-tank fashion.

They didn't deign to speak with the crew, however. The doors had simply been shut behind them. However, the group did not even have time to get undressed when the doors were reopened. Taya sighed heavily, deciding not to even give a curtsy to whoever was coming to greet them. As the gateway opened, Ranald stepped through with that looked like a portable vidcaster ledger, his smile meeting his eyes. "Well, I suppose the heroes of Dar'mond have found themselves out of the noose yet again." He said, albeit somewhat sadly, oddly enough.

"Here is the invitation for tomorrow's coronation. It has not been officially announced yet, but the Prince insists the planet gets it over with. I feel as if this ordeal has taxed him."

He placed the invitation in Junebug's hands. "Oh and..." Ranald bared his teeth as if he was about to do something unpleasant. "I am afraid, Captain Cykali, that the Prince has decided that he shan't attend with a date. But he looks forward to seeing you and your friends." There was a small uncomfortable silence, and Ranald clapped his hands to banish the quiet. "Well, you deserve your rest. You will be celebrated and rewarded come the morning...and you have my personal thanks for clearing the Prince's name."

With a bow, he escorted himself out. Taya was already asleep on the lush couch, having not heard the brunt of the man's message. Neil unloosened his collar, grimacing at the suit as if it was personally offending him. "Well...I'd hate to pass up free food, but maybe we should just go." Neil said, then realized what he was suggesting. Junebug's bewildered look showed her surprise at him giving up treasures and prizes.

"You're right, you're right." He said, and placed a hand on his hips as he looked around. His sleeves rolled up and his collar unbuttoned, he would only need a cigarette and Neil would look the part of a scruffy, fetching noire character. He went over to the bar and his delighted "oooooo" revealed that they had restocked the bar yet again. He tossed Junebug her favored whiskey poison, and took up a second bottle for himself.

"So when do we tell Taya?" Sayeeda asked, swilling her bottle, tipping its butt into the air.

"Let's surprise her in the morning." Neil grinned, and tapped his bottle into hers as he took a large gulp as well. He sighed audibly, and a thought popped into his head not moments later. "Since we're going tomorrow, wanna be my date?"
Though it was a serious question, Neil fluttered his lashes.

[Assistant]
Sayeeda laughed in spite of herself and clinked her bottle against Neil's. The glass tonked unmusically but she didn't let that stop her from taking a mouthful of the smoky liquor. Neil might have had a point, the fancy of aristocrats was nothing to play with. Granted Aiden didn't seem the sort to have them all impaled on a whim but… well they had risked enough they deserved to get paid.

"It is a date," she declared with a throaty chuckle. And may the stars save us if it goes sideways she added mentally.

It seemed that the red carpet that the Highlander's crew had previously enjoyed was well and truly rolled up. When they arose the next morning they found that while the doors were unlocked armed guards politely but firmly turned them back to their quarters. They were able to establish contact with Lonney, who to Sayeeda's horror, seemed to be developing a taste for the news feeds. Somehow, and she had her suspicions, footage of last nights events had been leaked to the press. The prevailing narrative seemed to be that while Alexander had tried to usurp his brother, most of the death could be chalked up to the 'foreign killers' who Aiden had generously, but foolishly, bought to Dar'mond.

"Nice," Neil griped, "we save his ass and now this." Sayeeda could only shake her head. That was the way it was sometimes. Politicians needed mercenaries but they were rarely welcome once the cold calculus of victory started to grind away. If nothing else they were a reminder that where one regime could be toppled by hired guns, so could another.

"I'm just mad I missed my chance to be swept off my feet by prince charming," Sayeeda grumbled mostly in jest.

"You just make a terrible damsel in distress," Taya observed, swiveling in her plush leather chair to face Neil and Sayeeda as they sat at the table playing cards for the few small denomination credit chips they had.

"Plus I don't think Aiden is much of a dashing Prince. I mean he says all the right things but you should have seen him last night. He was terrified," Taya disagreed. Sayeeda snorted as Neil took the pot with a particularly unlikely play, she peered suspiciously at her cards.

"That makes him human, only an idiot wouldn't have been afraid," Sayeeda declared, tossing a card half heartedly into the play area. Taya arched an eyebrow.

"You two didn't seem afraid, I wasn't or I mean not totally terrified," she protested. Junebug grinned without humor.

"Maybe we are just dumber than we look?"

House arrest aside the day progressed more or less as normal. Instead of travelling to the Royal Seamstress the entire department came to their room, dividing the space up with mobile partitions so they could be dressed appropriately. Sayeeda strenuously overrode every attempt at a traditional court dress, settling instead for a black top made of a leather like material and accented with gold. The thing had a breastplate like appearance and pinned over only one of her shoulders leaving the right side of her from throat to armpit, with a generous scallop of bosom, bare. For her lower extremities she selected a black on black slashed skirt that fell nearly to the ground and long leather boots of matte black leather with high but sturdy heels. Around her waist she hung an intricate belt of woven gold strands which gathered and expanded from a central clasp consisting of a gold rimmed saphire the size of a lemon. At the right hand side of the belt hung a platinum chased holster which held a unadorned 20 mm pistol. The choice to go armed horrified the dress makers but they lacked the authority to prevent it. Her hair she wore pinned up on one side, held in place by long pins of polishe electrums, accented with small sapphires. As a final touch she added a small pin to the shoulder clasp of her top. It was a small shield bearing a raptor spreading its wings, dark blue against a silver field the formal sigil of Andor's Armored. Over the bird stood two golden captains bars in simple bas-relief.

Most of the clothing was run up by computerized fabrication units and sophisticated material printers, though the final tailoring was done by the team of clucking women, each eager to put their own stamp on the project. Junebug looked into the mirror with satisfaction as the final laces were pulled tight on the corset like breastplate. The effect was almost ascetically slimming and pleasing to her eye. Maybe there was something she would miss about this place afterall, she never looked this good in her pt gear.

"Are you ready Neil or are you going to primp all evening?"

[User]
"I resent that." Neil said, facetiously offended. He placed down a card as they played to pass the time. "I am exactly as dumb as I look."

"I'm not even going to touch that one." Taya said.

Hours later, as the servants ushered Sayeeda and Taya to their chambers, Neil was suddenly grabbed and escorted into his room, more out of excitement by the seamstresses and court ladies than any sort of demand. But yanked in he was, and the next hour was a blur of clothes swapping, giggles, arguments, and Neil felt himself poked more than once by needles and fingers. If one were to place their ears at the door, they would hear Neil's protests.

"Ladies, please. Ladi- HEY! Don't touch that!"

In a lot of ways he felt more violated at that moment than ever in his life. Usually he enjoyed women fretting over him, but this was exhausting. Luckily, their efforts bore fruit. It was just as Sayeeda left her room and called for him when the ladies shoved Neil out of his quarters to stumble in front of his date. Neil turned back at the door and slammed it, running a hand through his washed, wavy hair. "Goddamn," he gripped.

The pilot wore a practical, albeit handsome garb. A sleeveless, royal purple vest cut in a "Y" shape with gold trim that accentuated his shoulders, closed nearly at the center of the long garment by a maroon sash belt enwrapped snugly at Neil's slim waist. Beneath the vest was a deep colored beige shirt with sleeves that covered the arms. His trousers were loose fitting and dark, with simple, comfortable black shoes. He'd chosen a dashing, exotic look to differentiate himself from the other nobility. On his wrists were golden bands, with bronze inscriptions of a the intellectual language long dead on Dar'Mond.

The pilot sighed, and turned to the Captain, only to blink. "You know, normally I wouldn't say this because of rank and all, but Goddamn." The word now far more flattering from emphasis in contrast to his previous usage of the word toward the seamstresses. "What I mean is, if I get lucky tonight I won't complain." He declared, quite obviously appreciating Sayeeda's look for a long moment, before looked at himself and running a hand over his smoothly woven garb. "Speaking of good looking, sexy right?"


[System]
Age:33

Gender:male

Rank(Disciple, Master, Bully, ECT):Master

Martial Arts Style(Unless you're a disciple):Chinese kempo

Gang Affiliation(If any):

Looks:

Height:6'2"

Backstory:One day, while Rekin was walking home from school (He was 18) he heard a scream come from a alley way. He was hesitant but he ran to see the source when he turned the corner and saw one of his friends getting mugged by a man with a knife! He saw the attacker was about to attack so without thinking he got in front of the woman to block the attack, but instead he lost his eye and got stabbed in the stomach soon falling to the ground but before he blacked out he saw a tall figure behind the mugger. When he woke up he was in the house of a old Chinese kempo master with his wounds patched up, so he decided to learn a thing or two. But a 10 years later the old man died so Rekin left and found the dojo where he continued his studies.

Crush(If any):open I guess

Personality:very serious but can still be sarcastic every once in a while, constantly putting the lives of his students in danger, and he would put his life on the line for other people.

Other:Hello, I'm a potato and I love it.

[User] Rekin jumped over the wall of the dojo landing next to Kiro "I'm a docter." The man said, as he examined Kiro "Don't worry boy this won't hurt at all." the master lied as he rolled Kiro over and hit the back of his neck with his elbow "Here we are, all better." he said, slightly mad that no one told him they had a new student.

[Assistant]
Bakusa looked up from his training, as he heard Kiro collapse. He smirked. 'I see, he hit the chin just right to send the kid's head spinning in circles. The trauma fired too many neurotransmitters at once to overload his nervous system, putting him in a temporary state of paralyses. Even if he feels okay, he still has absolutely no control over his body. It's a good technique, and could stop an opponent in a single blow. That is, if the little guy were to master it.' Bakusa had seen similar moves done hundreds of times throughout his Muay Thai career. He was clearly interested in Kiro's training, but continued to claim that he was just feeling the rush of the moment the other night when he claimed he'd show him a couple of moves.

"Oh, God!" Kiro exclaimed, as tears streamed down from his eyes once the master hit him. "Where do you people keep coming from!?" The teen angrily screamed, as he stood up to tell Rekin off. "Hey, wait..." Kiro looked down at his hands and legs. "You're a miracle worker, doc!" Kiro explained what the master already knew, as he hugged and kissed his legs. "I thought I was going to die." He cried.

[User] Rekin looked down at the boy pushing Kiro off of his legs "Yes, yes I know I'm great, I do this type of stuff every day at my bone clinic across the street." Rekin said with great pride "But now I guess I'll stay here for a while to teach you. I'm sure my workers can handle it." he said with a creepy glance in his eye.

[Assistant] "Bone clinic? Across the street? How we live in the middle of nowhere and for streets all we have is a dirt path!" Shin yelled as he smelt something fishy about Rekin's absence. Shin grabbed his tea pot and poured him another cup and took as sip. "You were probably just reading manga again weren't you!"Shin yelled as he was trying to get to the bottom of this.

[User]
(SOME DAYS LATEEERRRRR...)

"Extra, extra!" Niijima exclaimed out to the passing crowd, as school was just letting out. "Weak Twig Kiro beats the Invincible Ijime! Now claims to be biggest bully in school!" He relayed the news to everyone, as he handed out newspapers to help get the word out. He stopped a group of teens, as he handed them a few papers. "Thank you, thank you. Yes, it's a very good read, I assure you." He laughed.

"What are you doing!?" Kiro angrily exclaimed, as he quickly stormed over to Niijima. "How many of these have you passed out!?" He frantically asked, as he started to rip up the newspapers in Niijima's bag, throwing them on the ground, and then angrily stepping on them.

"I don't know, one, maybe two..." he shrugged,

"Oh, alright. That's not too ba-" He was cut off mid-sentence, as Niijima finished.

"hundred." Niijima maniacally laughed, as Kiro was too late! The word had already spread thanks to his great reporting skills! "I am in the Newspaper Club, you know, Kiro." He shrugged again with a small chuckle.

"You idiot, this is exactly how I got in the fight with Ijime in the first place! Because all you do is spread lies!" Kiro angrily screamed at the alienoid freak, as he began to choke him (in a comedic way). The young boy suddenly paused, as he thought about how Niijima had worded things. "Did you just call me by my name?"

"Right, that's what buddies do, right? They call them by their names!" Niijima laughed it off as if they were indeed close friends. He managed to get away from Kiro's grip, as he started to walk off. "Just follow along with the plan, old friend! Keep doing what you're doing!"

"Plan? Friend? What's up with that guy?" Kiro sighed, as he looked over to some people reading the newspaper. The group shifted their eyes away from Kiro, assuming he was no one they'd want to mess with.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Elsewhere, at some later unspecified time again...)

"There he is." A tall, dark-haired man smirked, as he stood in the middle of a narrow street used for walking. There was a man jogging in his direction from a far, slowly becoming more and more visible. "I suppose the grunts didn't lie, this is his usual route." He mumbled, as the figure got closer and closer. "There you are, ol' pal!" He laughed as if they were friends, as he seemed rather relaxed. However, an experienced fighter would know that this specific position made it impossible for anyone to get passed him without difficulty. The man threw the jogger a small picture of Kiro from a previous year book, expecting the man across from him to catch it. "Apparently, this kid managed to defeat one of our guys from the Karate Club, Ijime. He's now claiming to be the strongest the school's ever seen." He explained the photo. "They wanted me, as usual, to test out the runt to see if he was Ragnarok material," he continued, "but then they told me I should bring you along." The man clenched his fists angrily. "That's when I realized that this was the perfect chance! You see, ever since you joined Ragnarok, you've been gunning for my job! If we go into this job together, then I know you'll get all the credit. They might even offer you a commanding position! However, if you're mysteriously beaten up by this new fighter, and then I swoop in to finish the kid off..." He crouched slightly, as he put his fists up. "You'll be out of my hair for good! Here and now, Shaz! Man between man, the winner can keep their position in Ragnarok, and the other must leave for good!" The man angrily shouted out to his opponent, clearly having a lot of boxed in anger towards the situation. He rushed at Shaz, throwing a series of lightning fast jabs and crosses, seeming almost impossible for anyone to dodge, they were coming in way too fast! Clearly, this guy was no amateur.

[Assistant] Shaz dodged all the attacks and grabbed both his arms and squeezed them tight so he wouldn't get out. "Ha do you know who talking to bastard I won't lose to him and I certainly won't lose to you," Shaz said letting his arms go. Shaz remember seeing the boy when he visited school some days . "And don't worry you can just sit here and hand me your position already because I'm going to go and beat," Shaz said calmly as he his sun reflected of his sunglasses and he began to walk away towards the detection of the school.

[User] The man rubbed his arms, as Shaz had really left a mark. "Hey!" He exclaimed, as he looked up at the man. "You're not getting off that easy, you punk! Show me some respect, I'm your commanding officer!" He angrily shouted, as he shot out a furious roundhouse to Shaz's head. Attacking when the opponent wasn't looking, a technique for a coward. The man figured if he could catch the Judo user off guard, then he would be able to sweep the floor with him with ease.

[Assistant] Shaz caught his leg right before it hit him in the head. "Your trying to hit a man with his back turned only cowards do that huh no wonder why I'm going to take your spot as commanding officer," Shaz said as he grabbed his leg with both hands and throwing him over his slamming him to the ground throwing garbage from a near garbage can on the man. "How bout you just sit there and rot with the rest of the trash because you fit right in," Shin said as he put his hands in his pockets and he began to head off again. (so cool)

[User]
Sweat poured down furiously from Niijima's face, as once Shaz had taken away the bag of trash, his hiding spot was completely revealed (he's squatting in the trash can). The boy sighed in relief, as Shaz walked off. 'He didn't notice me...' He thought, as he picked a banana peel off from his head. 'Kiro, my boy, I'm not sure if you'll be able to take this guy, even with your kung fu skills.' He pulled out his PDA, as he got to work on tapping. 'Darn it, this will ruin my entire plan if he gets crushed now! However, it's still always good to root for the winning team...' He weighed his options, as he slowly disappeared back into the trashcan.

(Later, near Ryozanpaku...)

Niijima peaked around a bush, as he trailed Kiro and Ally back to the dojo. He poked at a few things on his PDA, as he laughed silently. "Looks like I'll be killing two birds with one stone today." He whispered. "My original mission was to have Kiro aware of his new threat, but now..." He continued to whisper to himself, as he crawled through the bushes to continue to follow the pair in secret. "I'll get to see where the kid's been getting all of his amazing power from!" He practically screamed this, as he couldn't help but get excited.

"Huh?" Kiro turned his head to look behind him, as he could have sworn he heard someone. "Must've been nothing." He shrugged to Ally, as they continued walking.

Niijima shivered slightly, as he lied very low to the ground, holding his mouth to keep himself from making a peep. 'Get a hold of yourself, Niijima!' He slapped himself. 'You're a professional!' He reminded himself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We're home, guys!" Kiro yelled out, as he and Ally entered the dojo's grounds. He was slightly nervous today, as the mysterious Master Rekin was suppose to teach him. After Shin whipped him, treated him like a horse, and almost killed him, he just wanted to go back to Asuka. In comparison, the latter was a much more gentle master, he could only imagine what this new teacher had to offer to him.

Bakusa was training as usual, as he stood in front of several dozen stone statues. He took in a deep breath, as he charged at his 'opponents'. The Muay Thai God of Destruction threw about ten punches, ten elbow blows, ten kicks, and twenty knee blows, all within the span of about a second. He let out his breath, as he stood on the other side of the statues now. Each one crumbled to pieces, as all that was left now of the statues were their bases. He completely obliterated them all.

[Assistant]
Ally looked around at Kiro's mention of hearing something. She turned to the brush and heard nothing, not even a peep. "Hmm, must be hearing things, Kiro," she answered. No one really took this path, so he could've just heard a scavaging bird.
~~~~~
Ally shook her head at Kiro's introduction. It was silly and she hoped none of the masters found his entrance disrespectful or she might be in on the punishment. "Well, it was nice knowing you," Ally said, placing a sympathetic hand on Kiro's shoulder. Her goal was to scare Kiro a little bit since she didn't get much fun in the dojo. She then made her way into one of the buildings and got ready to train.

"Hmm, looks like Kiro isn't ours today," Asuka chuckled to Shin as she watched her two disciples walk in. Even though Kiro wasn't officially her disciple anymore because everyone was training him, she would still call him that. "How about some of that tea you promised so we can mourn our loss?" she chuckled. She didn't need to worry about Ally as the girl would have to do warmups before any technique training or conditioning.

[User] Niijima stood in front of the enormous gate, as he shoved his PDA back into his pocket. "Wow, that's one intimidating door." He laughed, as he proceeded to try and push open one of the doors. It wouldn't budge one bit! "They must have locked it from the other side." Niijima wrongly assumed, as he started to walk back down the path he had just came from. "Oh well, what is a spy suppose to do..." He shrugged, supposedly giving up, until he suddenly stopped. "Niijima jump!" He screamed, as he pulled off an amazing jump onto the flat part of the gate's roof. He wobbled on the gate, as he struggled to keep his balance. He got onto his belly, as he dangled his leg on the other side of the gate, slowly easing himself down so the drop wouldn't be so bad. Suddenly he looked up, as he could feel several eyes watching him.

[Assistant] "Okay Kiro, I understand that no one taught you the greatest martial art of them all...Chinese kenpo." Rekin said nodding at himself "So I'll teach you a new technique." he said getting in a fighting stance "So Kiro what you want to do is..." the master stopped as he noticed someone on the wall of the dojo Another disciple? Rekin thought to himself, still staring at the boy who was now over the wall "Quick, boy come over here you're going to miss the lesson!" the man shouted concerned about the kid.