[System]
Age: 21

Gender: Male

Race: Hundi

Appearance:

Ian stands at 5'3" with a deceptively lithe figure hiding a surprising amount of strength. Atop his head are two pointed canine ears standing up about five inches with fur matching his hair color, he also has a nearly two foot tail of the same fur color.
Personality: Ian is a rather free-spirited one, typically erratic and with a difficult to break happy-go-lucky demeanor. It's not very difficult to become friends with him and he is not too shy to display his interest in someone, bluntly or playfully, and he can on occasion be uncomfortably affectionate. He's very devoted to his companions, his dedication to their protection can be seen in his chosen fighting style and the tenacity with which he will defend them. His tail and ears are often expressive of his mood, the latter of which he enjoys having pet, messing with his tail, however, will usually earn a growl from him.

Brief Backstory: Ian was born to a pair of Hundi sellswords in service to a wealthy trader in Ithillin, nothing much happened in the early years of his life, he would train with his parents or wrestle with the Trader's children, he was even allowed to receive tutoring alongside them as well. As his sixteenth birthday began to draw near he started accompanying his parents on the trade caravans and once the day hit he accompanied his last caravan into Velt, and stayed when the caravan returned. At this point he set out into the world, traveling through Velt continuing to work as a mercenary to fund his wandering. He would eventually cross over into Thaln, where his first encounter with the Iron Rose Knights would occur.

He'd encountered a group of brigands on the road, brigands that had already been targeted by a small group of Iron Rose knights already. The initial brigands had been dealt with but Ian and the knights had confused eachother for enemies. Ian had come out of the fight on top, besting the knights one on three, it was then that the leader of the group offered him a place within the order.

Equipment: Light plate armor designed to allow for a wide range of movement, A pair of Towershields each about two feet wide and almost as tall as he is, A crossbow, And a waraxe.

Skills: Ian's unique fighting style has him using a towershield in each hand, utilizing the heavy shields not only for protection but to pummel his opponents. He is surprisingly agile when using them and can swing them rather easily. When not using his shields his fighting style switches to one reliant on agility, dodging strikes rather than blocking them. Alternatively, Ian is quite skilled with a crossbow.

[User]
"...Eh?"

Tiral didn't even have a moment to react before he was knocked to the ground, bread flying off to the side and all of his various versions of the anti-lightning ward circles scattered over the ground. Luckily enough, there was a lack of wind that day, else all of his work might as well have gone flying out of the training ground and into the sky, but there were more important things to worry about at the moment.

Like the giant wolf that looked like it was about to maul his face off.
Who even let this beast in here?! And a better question: how could he have failed to notice it in the first place?!

"Whoa! Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoa! What the heck is going on here?!" Tiral shouted, frantically squirming under the weight of the wolf as it bore down on him. Was this really how he was going to go down? There hadn't even been any evidence that he'd done anything to cause such an event! "Hello?! Anyone? Please?!"

What rotten luck he had, for sure.

[Assistant]
Marianne Delacroix

Rounding the large wolf and hearing the cries for help from a familiar voice, Marianne placed a hand over her lips as she gasped, seeing who it was under Ricard's giant paw.

"Sir Ricard! Get off of him! That is Sir Tiral, an Iron Rose and a comrade-in-arms! Allez, là! Tout suite!"

It was quite a sight, seeing Marianne nearly disappear into Ricard's thick fur as she futilely attempted to push the wolf away and off. Of course, she was nowhere near strong enough to do so. There was hardly a man alive that could grapple toe-to-toe with the wolf purely from a weight standpoint alone. Sir Ricard opened his maw to growl directly in the young man's face. A pungent and acrid stench would waft around Tiral's head. The scent of blood and rotted flesh ripped from their owners, consumed and digested long ago. The question was, was that the scent of human remains or something else? Doubtful anyone would care to ever find out. But, when Sir Ricard felt Marianne's laughably small body (*in comparison) pressed against his own, Sir Ricard shut his maw and looked at his beloved human. Realizing he had possibly made some mistake and committed offense, Sir Ricard turned to shoot the Iron Rose Knight a final glare and snarl before removing his paw from the young man's chest and stepping back a distance. Possibly, a rather uncomfortably short distance but at least the canine detached himself.

Marianne was not amused. Placing her hands on her hips, she didn't have the same fear that was instilled in the others. With a sharp and pointed finger she stood in front of the canine and actually reprimanded the creature in her native language. Whatever she said, it was rapid-fire and dizzying to listen to. Though, it was clear it was angry speech. Sir Ricard lowered his head and eyed the ground, taking the ass-chewing with a certain humility. What it took to have such command and power to humble such a beast spoke untold volumes as to Marianne's standing over him. After the short tongue-lashing, Marianne turned back to Sir Tiral and tucked a long lock of hair behind her ear as she helped him stand. Marianne's maids approached when they determined the line of fire to be safe and dusted off the poor boy, some of them beginning to gather his dropped belongings along with Marianne.

"Oh, my deepest and sincerest apologies, Sir Tiral! Sir Ricard is rather quick to hostilities against strangers."
What she meant to say, was everyone.
"Are you quite alright? He had not harmed you, had he? Here, let me help you with your items."
With the maids and Marianne's back turned, Sir Ricard continued to angrily glare at Sir Tiral.
He was not happy that the man was there, let alone Marianne being so physically close to him at the moment.
It was a good thing Ricard had already eaten and wasn't hungry.
Not only would he be extra ornery, but it was possible that Ricard was a man-eater.
And everyone not Marianne or a Delacroix was on that menu.

[User]
Sir Tyaethe Radistirin

Oddly, the Captain seemed perfectly happy to accept a member of the nobility as just another servant... though that didn't mean the princess would. This called for at least some clarification from Nero: "Did you even ask the princess before doing this? What if she doesn't want your sister to be another maid?"

It wouldn't surprise her if neither of them had given any thought to what should happen in the event one of them wasn't able to comply with the conditions attached to their defeat. It would be such an easy way to get out of any trouble, since there was nothing to fall back on.

[Assistant]
Nero smiled courteously as she looked to one side, her blue eyes meeting Gillian's for a second. "My, so eager to start, sir Gillian? I thought you were beyond chasing around maid skirts, but alas, you prove me wrong. Although the induction... well I suppose i should comply. You seem to know how to handle your...sword around." Nero giggled somewhat, before adressing Fanilly.

"It was an stupid conclusion to an stupid duel, yet both we chose to honor it. We thought that this outfit would be embarassing to someone of our...disposition. But given what my previous outfit was, I find this a welcome change." The eldest of the Sunfield siblings then spun around herself, flailing her skirt around as if to prove a point. "We never set a definite duration, but since you are my mistress now, you may choose to dismiss me anytime. In fact, if you don't want me as maid, it just means less work for me."

"I also did say I would join the roses, so if you want another knight... you know what to do, mistress." Nero added, a strange smirk forming in her face.

Clearing her throat, she looked at Tyaethe. "I understand your reticence, oh venerable lady. But rest assured that If I know the princess enough, she will be delighted." She chuckled so slightly. "See, us Sunfields have more than loyalty to the throne, in fact we both have a faint claim to the throne as it stands. We will never inherit that, but it grants us access to mingle with the royal family." Nero explained, her hand open.

"Sult happened to eat princess Eliabelle's 7th birthday cake in a bout of mischievousness... so there's been a grudge between these two as long as my grudge between her and I. Which I think it was due to me condemning the whole incident by denouncing my own sister." Nero finished, her eyes peeking.

"Besides, you probably should worry more about the mascot lady Delacroix brought yesterday. I never watched it leave."

[User]
Fanilly was silent for a few moments. Well, that explained why Princess Eliabelle would be glad to have a Sult she could exert control over... even if it seemed like a bit of an absurd explanation, it still was one. But this situation, well... Nero was a knight. Fellow nobility. And now she was dressed as a maid, under the loss conditions of a... very very strange duel. After a few moments of silent confusion, the blonde tried desperately to figure out some sort of response. It wouldn't be proper to completely discount the conditions of the duel, and yet... could she simply declare a fellow noble her maid? No, she could not, and she did not want to. Yet there had to be some sort of compromise, something that could be done...

The short girl took a deep breath. Now, perhaps, she had hit upon a reasonable idea that would neither entirely ignore the duel's conditions nor enter into the... strange... maidly circumstances that were being involved. Especially given she could not imagine Sult would not be returned to their order.

"You... will work as a maid for today, and after that we will discuss your joining of our order," Fanilly declared. Yes. This, at least, made some level of sense to the girl.

Of course, today would soon become somewhat more complicated.

[Assistant]
"A-ah... N-no, but I won't deny that he certainly scared me stiff. Doesn't help particularly much that he knocked me to the ground and all that," Tiral said, nervously laughing as he took Marianne's hand to right himself. "Still, thanks for the ai- oh, darn, my food's gone to waste."

With a glance to where the bread had fallen, Tiral sighed as he glanced around to find where all of his scattered papers had fallen, only to find that the beast that had leaped onto him earlier was still staring daggers at him.

"I swear, I didn't even DO anything..." he complained to himself internally as he broke off eye contact, instead kneeling down to help pick up the assortment of magic circles that had been scattered around.

"Actually, I ended up coming here by sheer coincidence; the original plan was to go to find that magician's projection that had showed up while we were out for some advice on the circles you see lying around now, but seeing how you were out here, I figured there might be another solution," he began, collecting the last few papers that hadn't been picked up by the other maids. "Would you mind helping me test these things out? They're anti-electricity wards that siphon the magic towards whatever object lies in the center of them, since last time I encountered electricity, well..."

A nervous laughter escaped him lips before he began to collect whatever the maids had picked up.

"They redirect electricity, so I think if you're tricky enough, you could set up some fairly devious traps with a few in hand. Are you free enough to try something out, or did you have some other outstanding plans today?"

[User]
Ian yawned as he slowly walked along a path to the Iron Rose headquarters, he was fully armored and was carrying his weapons only because he wasn't comfortable leaving them in the tavern he slept at and he still had no place of his own at the actual Iron Rose base. He hadn't bothered to hide his canine features either, his tail was casually swishing out from behind the cape of his armor and his ears were standing open proudly, if also tiredly. He had forgotten, or was maybe unable, to stop by Gillian room last night for that book and was actually on his way there now to see about it, passing through the courtyard not even noticing Marianne and Tiral in his tired state.

When he finally got to Gillian's room he had entirely forgotten about the knight's request that he knock and groggily stumbled through the door murmuring "Gillian?" only to find the room devoid of the man. Shrugging, he figured that if he didn't mind his taking it, he wouldn't mind him helping himself to it, and so he began scouring the room for the book knocking over many more things than he normally would were he fully awake. When he got to the bed, however, he stopped and sat on it, Spirits it was comfortable, he slowly flopped over to be laying on it. The reason for his weariness this morning happened last night, though he had been on the side that saw less action he had been ambushed by the girls he had met during the party as he tried to leave the castle. He had spent the night with them in activities that steadily increased in rigorousness as the night went on until he eventually did take his leave of them, stumbling into the tavern smelling heavily of the girls and getting only a few minutes of sleep before the bustle of the day beginning woke him back up. Which is why now he was currently fast asleep upon Gillian's bed.


[System]
Age: 29

Weapon:AMT AutoMag III 30.Carbine -
A pistol he bought after his military training ended.

Claw Hammer -
A claw hammer he found in his Garage.

Nationality : American
Relationships : Single

Family :
 Graham Speares (Brother)
 Mandy Speares (Sister)
 Philip Speares (Father, Deceased)
 Rachel Speares (Mother, Deceased)

Personality: Vincent is the kind of person who will be honest in any case, he is a born leader and a exceptional marksman. He seems as if he's a grumpy so and so but he looks out for people to the best of his abilitys. Vincent is easily befriended if you get to know him, he hates reaching out and speaking about his feelings as he had a rough childhood, when speaking about childhood he cries or gets frustrated. This makes him sound emotionally confused but really he is just a man with child issues.

He gets very protective over friends and family.

History: Vincent's home life was rough, his mother died giving birth to Vincent's younger brother Graham, his father had a drinking problem and his sister was paralyzed from the waist down. Vincent had to take care of his siblings as the oldest one without a disability. His father was away drinking his children's education and not coming home till dark. This made times for Vincent and his kin practically impossible, but they over came the odds.

At school Vincent wasn't quiet he was the class clown though he is different now only telling a joke time to time. Everyone seemed to like him, this made school life a breeze but home life was hell, since no one could take care of them Vincent did making his academics drop, he used all sorts of excuses but no luck. When he went to his final year of middle school his father died choking on his own vomit in his sleep. This was sad to Vincent even though he was never there he felt as if his mother would not be happy about what happened to her husband. This stopped Vincent's school life and he couldn't go through the last 3 months of school failing him.

With nothing left to do he join the military going through immense training day and night. He was unfortunately sent home for failing that too. It didn't stop Vincent though, no, he became a regular at a local gym and went to a shooting range once a week, so that one day he could try to be in the military after his horrible and unexpected failure.

Other

- Vincent is 5'9 and weighs 183 lbs he has a six pack but is not overly muscled. Due to his military training and gym work outs.

- He has dark brown hair and is well combed, he hates getting his hair wet as it makes him look "Scruffy"

- Vincent is religious he took up the belief in God when taking care of his siblings. And it has apparently refreshed him.

- Vincent is the middle child being 3 years younger than his sister and 4 years older then his brother. Though his brother is taller being 6'1

[User]
Vincent was happy to be in there with walls protecting him they heard groans outside and stayed quiet not to draw attention. And when it seemed as if they wouldn't be bothered.

Vincent heard gun shots and what he thought were fireworks, then a knock he put one finger to his lip and looked at Seamus. He held the gun to the door and opened it to see two people a boy and a girl. "Who the fuck are you?!" he said with a deranged look in his eyes staring through the boy as the gun was pointed to his forehead.

"NOW WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"

[Assistant]
Jason

Jason slides into an alley behind a church looking out onto its loading dock. 'ok, just a few blocks to the police', he thinks to himself. he had given three zombies the axe before getting over here, they lurch surprisingly fast. he hears some muffled screams from the church
"They are coming in!"

there is a barrage of gunfire and screams. he hears the people inside panicking and fighting they obviously don't know to go for the head. there is a small window that keeps turning white from the muzzle flash.

"Dont let them get the children!"

'oh no... i dont want to hear this.'

he hears more gun fire, but less screaming. the people in the church are losing the battle. a door opens and a little girl is pushed out some woman screams to her

"run Sarah. run. Run! RUN!"

the little girl runs crying, her face and dress covered in tiny blackish red droplets. like a zombie was shot and killed near her and the spray of gore hit her.

"Sarah!" Jason yells over the screams coming from the church, to try and get her attention. 'What are you doing?... She needs help... She will slow you down, get you killed... i have to... no you don't she's dead anyway... no, i can keep her safe... really?.. i have to try... why? we don't live in that world any more... part of me still has to.' the conflict in his own head raging even as she runs towards him. a tear comes to his eye, 'she is like.. six, maybe eight. she will die on her own... so? that didn't stop you with Her... i- i have to, to make up for Her'

Sarah reaches Jason crying her eyes out, Jason kneels down and tries to quiet her. "shh. you need to be quiet now. shh" she does start to quiet down but the tears keep streaming from her face "your name is Sarah right?" the girl nods, but says nothing. maybe keeping quiet like Jason said. "ok, i will keep you safe Sarah, my name is Jason. I will keep you safe." she reaches out and hugs him still crying, but quietly. "you need to follow me, stay right behind me, and stay quiet ok?" again she nods without making sound. Jason looks back and the loading dock of the church is empty. He hears the sound of gunfire close... no, not gun fire, fireworks. whatever, it doesn't matter. Jason takes Sarah's hand and he goes around the building next to the church, Sarah in tow.

from here he can see the Community Center and sees a pair outside and hears someone shouting at them.

"NOW WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"

[User]
Huck and Anastasia

Jonathan wasn't someone to stand up to a gun in normal circumstances. Although these weren't normal circumstances and he was trying to protect someone.

"Keep it down there sparky you will attract these things. I was a volunteer here for a while cooking and serving meals for the elders. My name is Jonathan Huckaby but if you like you can call me Huck. Now please move that gun out of my face and let us in." Jonathan tried to remain calm as he spoke which he did but his body was shaking in fear. He didn't want to die because of another human. It was one thing to be killed by the walking dead but by another living breathing person… That just didn't sit well with him.

"I'm going to put my arrow away ok?" He said as he slowly moved his arrow into the quiver.

"Also this is Ana, I kind of saved her so that she could save me… it's a strange story. One I would be willing to tell you once we got inside and shut the door." Jonathan informed them as he slowly moved into the building. He placed Ana in front of him because if Zombies were to attack being torn apart seemed like a cowardly thing to put her through. His eyes left Vincent and was watching the street.

[Assistant]
He grabbed Johnathan by the throughput and threw him inside he didn't touch Ana and let her pass by him he looked both ways and closed the door he pointed the gun at Jonathan as he lay on the ground "Tell the story now"  he whispered "Seamus check the girl for a gun, don't be to rough"

He stared at Jonathan as he listened to his words.

[User] @LokiLeo789^^

[Assistant]
Huck and Anastasia

Jonathan sat there in a room that seemed to amplify sound… or perhaps it was because they were all so close.

"She doesn't have a gun and I have seen her bare. It was to check for bites. Don't look at me that way!" He started to raise his voice then caught himself.

"As for the story I thought she was with a zombiefest group. People who dress up like the undead and walk around. It was something I always found interesting. Although given what's going on out there… I got in a scuffle with the person who was messing with her. Sadly I'm not in as good as shape as I should be. He knocked me back and my stick." He said pointing to Ana who held the stick.

"Went flying away from me. The man-"

"Mike." Ana interjected and Jonathan nodded to her.

"Mike was attacking me when she picked up the stick and splattered his brain matter all over. And here I was going to play some video games today." He said somewhat crestfallen.

"Guess there is a bright side. I did meet Ana and you crazy lot. Suppose it can't be all that bad." He said trying to brighten the mood a little.

"Also if you want a dick measuring contest we could just whip them out now. Otherwise put down the gun its making me feel small." Jonathan said as he scooted against the wall and pressed his ear against it. He could hear something moving outside… perhaps it was people.

"I told you what happened between Ana and I. What about you two? Just out to catch a flick?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow. Perhaps it was his borderline autism or the fact someone he didn't know was pointing a gun in his face. Whatever the reason he was telling as much of the truth as quickly as he could.

[User]
After several minutes of pointless driving Kei came upon the community center. The area around the community center was quiet lively considering he saw more people than he did in his own neighborhood. Kei shifted his car into neutral and observed the area around the community center a bit more before making a decision. He weighed the various pros and cons of approaching an area where there could be a possible threat, but he also weighed the possibility of finding help. It wasn't long before he made up his mind. Regardless of what could happen he wanted to figure out what was going on and on top of that he always thought that there was strength in numbers. With a short sigh Kei shifted back into drive and slowly made his way to the community center.

Once he came into a walking distance of the community center he immediately parked his car and turned it off. Once he had his keys from the ignition, he exited the car, closing the door gently. Once he was out he clicked the locker on his keys and then proceeded onto the front entrance of the community center. Since there were these infected things all around him, Kei had to be careful about where he moved because if he got overwhelmed Kei knew he would be screwed. Something that was part of instinct also told him to keep noise to a minimum, guess it came with the raw feeling of survival he was getting from the current situation.

As he quietly moved from car to car he drew the nodachi that hung loosely on his back, the blade itself did not have much reach so he had to make sure that if he were to engage one of these things, that he would be safe from any other things attacking him at the same time. It wasn't too hard to avoid the infected things, every now and again he would pickup a rock near him and throw it at something that would make some noise. He did his best to avoid hitting cars as a car alarm going off would mean a lot of trouble for him and anyone else in the area, but things never go as planned. Kei had picked up a rock near his foot, it was a pretty hefty rock but it didn't seem all that bad to throw, obviously he didn't take into account of accidentally releasing the rock too early. At mid throw Kei's hand opened up slightly causing the rock to fling out of his hand with the momentum he had built up, in turn the rock went flying straight into a nearby car's windshield, causing the car to begin blaring it's horrendous alarm for everyone and everything to hear within a few several hundreds of feet.

Kei was caught completely off guard and once he heard the alarm blaring he jumped a bit. At first he panicked but after realizing what he had done he jumped up and made a full on sprint towards the building entrance. One good thing that came out of the mistake was that every infected thing around him was attracted to the noise making it easy for him to get to the doors. He knocked on the door a few times while speaking up a bit.「Hello is anyone in there? If so can you please let me in?」He continued knocking while at the same time looking back at the situation he caused.

[Assistant]
Jason

Jason watched as one of the pair, the big one, was dragged inside the building. then the girl casually walked in after him. Must be full of live people. then a car alarm sounded, maybe a block or two away.

"Fuck"said Jason, "every damn zombie in a mile or two... shit."

he noticed some Korean or Japanese guy, he could never tell the difference. he was running like a maniac down towards the entrance to the community center. the Community center is the place to be apparently. Jason kneels down to Sarah, she has stopped crying and just looks like she is afraid. "ok, Sarah. we need to go over there. I'll carry you so we can go faster ok?" she nods and says "ok"
"Good"

Jason picks her up and tucks her under his arm. Carrying Sarah in one arm and the axe in the other. 「Hello is anyone in there? If so can you please let me in?」 says the asian kid, while Jason runs up behind him.

[User]
Tom

Tom jumped outside onto the center of the street, finally seeing the community center up ahead he said to himself "Almost there." He was doing well so far, not coming across too many infected he had high hopes. Suddenly he heard glass shatter then a car alarm went off. Tom said "Shit!" he started running again, heading towards the center. There was no doubt a horde would be coming from such a loud sound.

He could see survivors were also rushing to the same destination. There seemed to be a kid, two men one of them seemed asian descent. He catches up yelling "Open the goddamn door!" as he began rushing closer to them. Tom was getting very tensed up now, they'd die out here soon enough if they didn't get inside.

[Assistant]
He listened to the man and pulled him up.Alright, John can I call you Joh- he was interrupted by an alarm, then. "Hello is anyone in there?" he crept to the door slowly with his gun like this was a Fucking routine. "Open the Godamn door!" Vincent was so angry he opened the door and let the others in, he quickly closed them. "Which one of you Screamed! Which one of you set the alarm off, You fucking idiots" he said loudly whispering as if he was hissing holding the gun but not pointing it anymore.

He heard the groaning of the walkers getting closer and closer. "Tell me so that if these things kill any of us when we fight I'll know if he was a hero or a dick"


[System]
Known on the seas as: Vic, The Incubus
Age: Late 20s
Title: Captain of his ship, The Black Star
Appearance:
Brunette hair, often pulled up into a knot. Athletic build. He sports a simple overcoat normally only for battle or business, and other than that, he usually matches his crew: breeches to the knee with stockings to secure them, a loosely fitted white linen shirt. He doesn't believe in the way of his predecessors, how they had to distinguish themselves from the rest of the crew through fancy attire. He does, however, display a few rings he had stolen on his fingers. Dark tattoos can be found all over his body, aged by the sun. He has multiple scars to his torso, arms and legs, and has a single scar running down his face.

Personality: Life on the sea had hardened Vic. He had killed more than he can count, and he watched his men get impaled or bludgeoned with no second thought from their murderer. Although he had a definite sense of humor, Vic usually remained stone cold in his demeanor. To be a good captain, he thought, he needed to remain impartial and unemotional, often pushing his own feelings to better serve himself and his crew. He had an insatiable thirst for blood and wealth.

[User]
Alice did not sleep so easily that night. In fact, she barely slept at all. After the fright she'd had, she was awake at every bump in the night. And this wasn't exactly the quietest of households, either. Every time, she looked across to see the large figure of Victor spread across her floor. It was a very comforting sight. Somehow, his presence made her feel safer than that of any hired guard. He... really did seem to care for her wellbeing. When she came to her senses in the morning, he had already left her. She frowned a little, disappointment welling in her chest. Hold on- she hadn't actually been wanting to see him in the morning, had she? Oh, well. To be honest, she wondered what he would look like in the morning. Perhaps actually vulnerable, maybe even cute...

Letting her imagination run free for a bit, she rose from the bed and dragged on her clothing. The open wound on her neck was still sore, and she let out a soft gasp as the material of her shirt was pulled over it. "Shit," she hissed, then immediately thought better of it. What was getting into her? She was forgetting that she was a lady, in these rough areas with rough people. It wouldn't do to forget where she came from if she was going back. The incident from last night had made her jumpy, but she still recalled how Victor had hugged her. He'd felt so strong and yet so soft and warm, one hand gripping her arm tightly. It was the sort of thing that girls like her dreamed about - forbidden and attractive. She hesitantly pulled a brush through her hair, unused to having to do such things herself. The pendant on her neck was still there, warm against her skin. A bit of blood had leaked down onto it, and she had to scrape it off with a nail.

Alice could now remember the way down to the dining hall, and she wondered how many more days she'd be remembering it. If all went well with her father, one or two more. Then she'd be back. And she didn't know how she felt about that. Feeling a little troubled on the inside, she entered the rowdy dining room. Giving Tiny a small wave (he seemed to be staring at her bosom a little less), she made her way to Victor's side. The sight of the serving girls made her a little jealous, to be honest. To think of what they did with him, how they made him feel - she had no right to think of these things, but they pervaded her thoughts nonetheless. She took a plate and the same as yesterday; bread and a sausage. "Good morning," she greeted Vic evenly, glancing at him. "Did you sleep alright...?" It couldn't have been comfortable on the wooden floor.

[Assistant]
The sight of Alice approaching the table made Victor smile, and he scooted his seat over a bit to make some room for her. "Aye, yes, love, it was fine. I have slept in much stranger places," he chuckled as he picked at his plate. He would surely miss the meals and hospitality at the inn when they left Isla Imorda, but he knew soon enough he would itch to be on the water if he tried to stay. He looked over to her and eyed her neck. "Ah," he said, squinting his eyes as he examined it. It looked to be okay, nothing irritated or infected. She had looked like she had a rough night of sleep; Her appearance was fine, but something in her eyes told him she was tired. "If you would rather stay in today, Miss Rohan, I can task a crew member to sit outside your door to keep an eye on things while I'm out." He nodded to reassure her that he meant what he said, and moments later, he finished his breakfast. "Delicious as always, Blue!" he nearly shouted across the room to Madam Blue.

"Well," he began as he used a cloth to dab his mouth, "shouldn't be too much work today. We sold most of what we needed yesterday to get the supplies we need to sail again. We shall stay on the island until we hear back from your father, and then be off to the port once again." Victor began having second thoughts after he visited Esmeralda about returning her if her father had rejected their demands. It would make the whole operation pointless and Vic look weak, which he did not want either to happen. But, Victor took great pride in his word, so he decided that if they needs are not met, he would stall a little bit. Possibly negotiate. He would not quit until he got access to the port again.

Sarah ran over, as always, and grabbed the plate almost immediately after Victor put down his fork, and he said a quiet "thank you," as she began to leave the table. Normally on a trip to the inn, he would be flirting wildly and drinking already, but there was business to be handled. He stood up, groaning as he stretched his long body, and looked down to the small girl next to him. "We shall be heading out within the hour. Let me know what you decide." He pushed in his chair and headed down the long hallway to find his room.

He removed his shirt and plopped down on the bed, sighing in relief to feel the softness under him. He wanted to attempt to get some shut eye before the day, as he didn't get much the night before. Soon enough, his eyelids became heavy, and he drifted off to a heavy sleep.

[User]
Alice was not too sure of what she wanted to do this day. Of course, she was still shaken and feeling a little poorly. But was it any show of strength to hide away in her room? If she allowed such a thing to upset her to the extent of becoming a hermit, then it would be a poor show of any sort of nobility. She could not allow the world to downtrod her spirits so much. She continued eating after Victor left, even sinking her teeth into an apple. A couple of the men had glanced over to see her neck, and Tiny sat down next to her with a big smile. They talked idly for a little while, although he was occasionally distracted by the scantily-clad girls.

"Let Victor know, when he emerges, that I am to join him," she told Tiny. He nodded eagerly, eyes bright (and ever dipping down). She nodded back at him politely before walking back to her room. She winced slightly at the noises coming from behind some of the doors - most terribly vulgar. Would she be expected to make such noise one day, to her (probably ugly and elderly) husband? Dear lord, please no. She couldn't imagine doing that - surely nothing felt so good as to induce those sounds? Her cheeks dusted pink as she closed the door behind her, heading to the window. The girl peered out at the world before her, marvelling slightly at the sights and sounds of freedom.

[Assistant]
Victor awoke almost an hour after he had fallen asleep, and he abruptly popped out of the bed at the realization that they needed to head out soon. He grabbed the blue shirt quickly off the sheets, and dashed into the hallway with it in his hand. He wouldn't blame Alice if she didn't want to join him, but he had to admit, he truly did enjoy her company – especially now that she was beginning to open up to him. When he had first taken her, he figured she would be like all of the high-class women he had dealt with in the past, who were usually very snobby and ostentatious. But not her. Even if she tried to put on a show, he was beginning to see who she really was.

He rapped on the door lightly before entering, and as the door loudly creaked open, he saw her standing by the window, hair flowing freely down her back. "Miss Rohan, have you made your decision?" he questioned her as he entered the room slowly. The look on the girl's face made him realize his shirt was still off, but instead of rushing to try to cover himself, he stood there unabashed. Esmeralda told him to fight of the feelings of guilt or shame, and that was exactly what he was doing. Before Alice came into his life, he would have never cared about something so trivial. Why should he now? It was nothing she hadn't seen before.

As he awaited her answer, his eyes scanned her up and down. Each day he had been with her, he noticed different things about her that he found quite attractive. Today, it was how elegant and graceful she was in her movements. She was almost like a ghost, floating while she walked or turned. He subconsciously cocked his head to the side as he stared at her, but once he caught himself, he nonchalantly shot his eyes to the floor. "So," he cleared his throat, "what shall it be?"

[User]
Alice didn't have to wait for Tiny to come and fetch her. Instead, Victor came to her. Somehow, she knew it was him before he even opened the door - and that was when she realised. She knew the sound of his walk. It was the slight swagger that lead to his slow pace that covered large distance due to his stature, and the way his feet lingered on the ground. It was lazy and relaxed and confident. In other words, Vic. She turned away from the window as he started to speak to her, and her own mouth opened when... oh. That had been unexpected.

He was just standing there, bare chested and bold in the doorway. His tousled brown hair was messy, and he still seemed to exude sleepiness. The lines on his chest, both pale faded scars and black tattoos, made a mosaic across muscles she'd rarely gazed at before. What was this feeling, in the pit of her stomach and to the left of her chest? Why was her longing so strong? Clearing her throat, she glanced away. No wonder the girls here threw themselves at him. Perhaps she was starting to understand their mentality. "I-I'll be joining you," she finally managed, trying not to look too much at his torso. He seemed to be looking at her quite piercingly too; probably in her imagination. She walked toward him, passing by Vic to stand in the passageway. A hand subconsciously brushed against her pendant. It was bizarre, to think that he'd bought this for her.

[Assistant]
Vic smirked as she passed him, feeling amused again by how uncomfortable she became around him. It was almost like a game to him. He swiveled around to face Alice as she waited for him to continue, and he held her gaze as he slipped on his shirt. "I am glad you like it," he said as he nodded his head at the bird-shaped necklace sitting on her chest. "I think it fits you." He winked and walked past her down the hallway to the heart of the inn. The men were moving about getting everything prepared for the day ahead, and Victor slipped right in to join them until everything was set.

"Alright, boys. Everything that we did not sell to our bulk buyers will be sold to the street vendors. I have a quick stop to make with Alice, and then we shall join you shortly after, yeah?" A collective "Aye!" was shouted back at them as the men began to move out of the inn. He said his goodbyes to Blue, as always, and signaled for Alice to follow him. After they stepped outside into the sunlight, Victor took a moment for a deep breath before continuing - the sun on his skin, next to water or a woman, was his favorite feeling. "We are heading to a friend's. Esmeralda. She asked to meet you," he vaguely explained as they walked down the already crowded street. The woman told him to bring Alice in to see if she could read anything off of her. If her father was responsible for a curse put on him, Esmeralda was confident enough that she could sense it.

Victor brushed his hair back and worked his hands into it until it stayed put in a knot. "I must warn you, she is a strange character; very inquisitive," he chuckled. "But you needn't worry, she is a friend of mine." He looked a foot behind him, making sure Alice was keeping up with him. He slowed his pace slightly, noticing he was nearly making her jog to keep up with him, which caused him to snicker. "Must you be so slow, Alice?" he groaned, obviously joking. The smile he had been missing yesterday was back on his face today.

---------------------

As they walked into the dusty, dimly lit building, Esmeralda came to greet them in a thick Spanish accent. "Hello, Victor, welcome back. And this must be Alice," she inquired as she approached the girl. She paced in a circle around her, observing everything she could. "Well, Victor," she said, her voice gruff with age and tobacco, "you know how to pick your prisoners, aye?" Victor laughed at the remark. "Ah, yes. Always a talent of mine."

Once she was done eying the girl, she nodded to Victor and shook her head nonchalantly. This meant that Alice's dad was not responsible for the witchcraft that took place. This made his mind race; if it wasn't him, who could it be? He knew that he could have a boatload of enemies that he wasn't aware of - scorned love ones of someone he slaughtered, a surviving member a ship The Black Star had sunk. But with the possibilities endless, it would be quite difficult for him to find the answer.

"Esmeralda, always a pleasure," he said as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. He nudged Alice with an elbow gently to signal her that they were going to leave. "We have got a bit of business to attend to. We shall you soon, yeah?" He waved and guided Alice out of the shop with a soft touch on the back until they reached the street again. "Well, we should be heading back. I suppose you'll need a change of clothes for after we leave the island. Don't exactly have maids on the boat, now do we?"

The fact that the letter from her father should be in his hands by sunset almost made it hard to focus on anything else. Once he had he the answer from him, he would be able to devise a plan of action to gain back control of the port. He knew one thing - he wasn't ready to return Alice to her home. Not yet.


[System]
Class: White mage
Species: Human
Trope you fill: McGuffin Girl, Cute Witch
Equipment: Simple Broom, spell book with Antidote and Bandage spells in it

Works as a Bar Maid.

[User]
Cutscene:
Prince Philip: "Mwahaha. My father is now dead, and I'm the new ruler."
Baron Rothbard: "I assume he died of a broken heart from your sister being missing, presumed dead?"
Prince Philip: "No. It was his heart, but it wasn't broken, it had my knife in it. Mwahahahahahaha. Now my sister is the only one who could challenge my right to the throne, and she's dead, right?"
Baron Rothbard: *thought* Well, the bandits I hired said she hit her head hard against a tree before the hunters drove them away. *end thought* "Yes, she's dead."
Prince Philip: "Then I will be king, and rule this country with an iron fist. Mwahahahahahahahahaha."

---

You awaken in the local Inn. Inn? you think, as you remember that you went to bed in your house/apartment after playing the latest Indie Fantasy RPG. That's it, you must be dreaming of being in the game. Well, this could be fun. You realize that you are in the body of one of the game's NPCs. Interesting.
You make sure you have your beginning equipment and head down stairs, where you are greeted by a friendly Innkeeper. "Hi." he says. "Did you sleep well? My name is Chekov." You notice a musket hanging on his back. "I run this Inn and happen to be the only man in town that owns a musket, including the guards. How can I help you?"

[Assistant]
Meiko awoke with a start -- this wasn't where she had remembered falling asleep, but then again, it didn't really matter since she was a traveler anyway. Still, she found it a bit suspicious. . her suspicions were quelled slightly after finding her companion, Frey, curled up next to the bed that she had awoken in and her lance resting across the room.

So what had exactly happened?

Eh, she didn't have time to think about it. Instead, she stood up, giving Frey a little kick and grabbed her lance before heading downstairs and being greeted by the Innkeeper. Immediately, her eyes were drawn to the musket and his friendly "demeanor". . there was nothing more dangerous than a friendly stranger in her eyes. .

She had to lie and "cover up" the fact that she was lost. "Can you tell me where to find a blacksmith?" Her small dragon stumbled down the staircase, wrapping its tail around her feet. It was still small enough to fit inside most buildings and co-exist with humans, though it was still much larger than her. "I need to get work done on my lance, it's getting a bit dull."

[User] "Ah, yes" replied Chekov. "His shop is just across the street. If you don't find him there, he'll be out back in his forge, trying to craft his ULTIMATE SWORD."


[System]
Sabre09

Military Rank: Warrant officer
Age: 36

Gender: Female

Appearance:

Personality: Saffron is an adrenaline junkie with a quick temper, always living life to the fullest. She often charges into action before considering the overall tactical situation and sometimes leaves herself in difficult situations having failed to consider the consequences of her actions. She's smart and learns quickly in a scholastic environment, but only when carefully monitored and guided to ensure her attention doesn't wander off topic. Openly homosexual, Saffron has been married to her lesbian life partner for many happy years.

Biography: Seen early on as a rising star Saffron was warmly accepted into the advanced officer training program at the academy based solely on her academic results and early aptitude evaluations. She completed her training in short order, scoring highly in tactical assessments and battle simulations with her instructors making note of her unwavering bravery and dedication to her goals.

Things fell apart soon after that when during her first official mission she lost over half her squad when trying to perform a suicidal frontal attack against an entrenched enemy. Placed under psychological review pending court martial she was cleared of all charges, insisting that the tactic was sound given the circumstances and the intel provided to her at the time of operational planning. Her psychiatrist agreed that she was fit to return to duty, but noted a possible Messiah Complex or megalomaniac tendencies which should be monitored in future.

Returning to action Saffron found command difficult. Word of her previous failure, and rumours that she was undergoing psychological treatment, undermined her position with the troops to whom she was assigned, and despite several successful operations she soon found herself being reassigned between divisions as her superiors tried to have the black sheep placed under anyone's command but their own.

Things finally reached a head when Saffron received orders for her fifth transfer in two years. Facing off with her CO what started as a calm interview soon became violent, first with angry words thrown and then punches. Once again facing court martial, this time for striking a superior officer, Saffron found herself stripped of her commission and reenlisted as a Warrant Officer. Realise this could be a breaking point in her career Saffron's psychiatrist made arrangements for her to be transferred to a specialist program which would allow the Service to make best use of her skills rather than losing her altogether.

Specializations:
Skills:* Basic small arms training
* Advanced combat training in close quarters combat and swordsmanship
* Advanced tactical training, lapsed
* Experienced knowledge of military protocols and procedures
* Holds degrees in military history and humanities, but most of her knowledge is now outdated
* Expert chef

Suit Augmentation - Energy Shielding
Shield Armour: In combat Saffron can activate her suit's shield capacitor units encasing herself in dense optical armour which protects her from concussive and kinetic attacks. The armour reacts to impacts by diverting power to the point of pressure, making it more effective when dealing with fewer targets. When facing attacks from multiple angles the armour strains to adjust fast enough (requiring 0.3 seconds to recover from each incoming attack) but when facing sustained attacks from a single assailant the armour can shunt all available power to a single facing, making it perfect for dealing with rapid fire weaponry. Since the armour prevents material passing through it also grants limited effectiveness against area of effect attacks, such as flames, liquids and gases, however it cannot protect against high frequency energy attacks such as heat, radiation and electronic interference.

Suit Augmentation - Shield Emitters
Shield Projection: By focusing the shield emitters in her hands Saffron can create either walls or blades of light which can be used to either defend or attack. When using her Shield Wall ability Saffron can create upto two shields (one per hand) a meter in diameter upto a maximum of three meters away. Unlike her armour these shields are static and have a fixed protection rating but may be easily repositioned on the fly simply by moving her hands to face a new direction.
Energy Blades: When using her hand emitters to generate blades Saffron focuses the power of her shields into a single, almost indestructible monomolecular surface capable of easily slicing through practically any material. As the blades are composed of pure energy they are subject to disruption from other energy sources, such as other shields and similarly powered blades. Upto two blades can be created at a time (one per hand) and as they use the same emitters as her projected shields the two systems are mutually exclusive for each hand, although Saffron often chooses to equip a shield with one hand and a blade with the other, effortlessly switching between the two in the heat of combat.
Energy Wave: Saffron can choose to overload her hand shield emitters, causing them to send out a powerful burst of energy in the direction she is pointing her hand at the time of discharge. This ability requires her to shut down the shield or sword she's using for at least two seconds in order to charge the capacitor and also burns out the emitter when used, requiring a cold restart to be performed which takes several minutes.

Dual Service Pistols
In order to cover herself on those occasions when either she's unable to close with the enemy to use her blades or her suit is recovering from overexertion Saffron carries a pair of standard-issue service pistols as backup weapons. While she's proficient with these handguns she's in no way a marksman, often relying on sustained suppressive fire until heavier support can reach her, or her suit is back to full power and ready for some hands on action.

[[PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT]]
Warrant Officer Bridges shows signs of developing an inferiority complex based around the perceived persecution and ostracisation she has suffered from her fellow service personnel in recent years. In regards to any anger management issues she may have, it is my belief that the recent incident was a 'flashpoint' event caused by the ongoing treatment she had been receiving and not an indication of any deeper problems. No further action is advised at this time.

I highly recommend she be placed into a high-profile programme which will not only make best use of her obvious combat proficiencies but also grant her the positive exposure she requires to stabilise her condition at this time. A small, tight-knit team would be preferable as it would allow her to form meaningful bonds with her colleagues on a more intimate basis, improving her perception of her fellow soldiers.

Warrant Officer Bridges is hereby declared fit for duty and has been granted permission to resume her duties as soon as possible.

[User]
Fidgeting in her seat Saf began to really worry about this new assignment. A loose-knit group of specialists working for someone who refused to even properly identify themselves to their subordinates screamed black ops, and whenever they were involved the mission was sure to be something morally questionable. She hadn't even been given an explanation for the invasive surgeries she'd been forced to undergo before accepting this posting.

Quickly glancing at the doctor sitting next to her Saf reached down and tapped her wristcomp, activating its video record function. If these people were upto something questionable she wanted to make sure they didn't leave her out to dry once the work was done.

[Assistant]
Jax was un-phased by the man appearing on the screen as he finally looked up moving his head toward the screen. To him none of this was new, missions with very little prep time or briefing. Though something caught his eye. He looked over to 09 as she reached down and he rose an eye brow. Jax was very perceptive, it was one of the things that made him such a good sniper. Looking down he saw her wrist device turning on. That made his brow furrow as he looked at her, "you"  He looked at her pointing his knife at her "off" His knife moved to point down at her wrist. His tone was very serious as he wouldn't let anything compromise him, or his team.

 Very little of any of Jax's operations were recorded. Most of his record simply has operations he was a part of, what he did and his contributions were all classified at the highest levels. Anonymity was the name of the game. Once on mission, they no longer existed. The idea of being recorded bothered him as there would be a record of involvement. He wasn't about to change things now. It should be slightly obvious that he was black ops. His out of regs hair style for one, his slack wear of his uniform, and the fact that he wore no rank or insignia, only a name tape that said "Ghost Reaper"

[User]
Seth heard the voice least heard, from 06. Looking over, the sniper had caught 09 trying to record using her wrist device. Noting the keen eye sight of the Sabre unit with 'Ghost Reaper' taped on his uniform, he also took note of how demilitarized the sniper was. Must be federally employed or highly classified missions. I'll keep an eye out since he also talks short and precicely. Seth wasn't exactly in uniform, but he wasn't specified to, so he dressed commonly. Especially since previous branches, ranks, and titles were basically expunged.
 At this point, Seth just wanted to get on with this briefing and get the mission. Since he was stealth-recon, he figured he'd be going in, getting info that wasn't locked down before the rest of them come in and kill every being that stands in their way. It's almost an art sneaking past opposing soldiers, knocking one out to "borrow" a uniform and identification, and getting everything possible with those credentials. Or, in the higher security areas, sneaking past everyone, slipping into a room by following somebody, and plugging in a USB worm host into a server room. It was a mental challenge to get into places that Seth couldn't get from any video game, board game, or personal challenge. Mental challenges is the one reason Seth stuck with the reconnaissance squad he was placed in. He could almost make it a game.

[Assistant]
Looking over at the former sergeant Saf was unimpressed with his passive threat and placed her hand onto her sidearm. "No," She answered back levelly, mimicking the longarm's tone.

As it had already been made clear to her there was no rank here and he had no right to make demands of her, and unless he wanted to actually try and force her to do what he said she most certainly wasn't going to, especially not at knifepoint. She'd read Sgt Orion's file, and knew he was a skilled sniper and expert in stealth operations, but she was the close combat expert here and in the close confines of the briefing room she had the advantage.

[User] Jackson put a hand on both Jax's knife hand and Saffrons' sidearm holster, motioning for them to stop. "Calm down, both of you. I won't have the first injury here in the briefing room, m'kay? We're a team now, remember?" Jackson attempted to defuse the tense situation. Teamwork would be what would make or break them, and distrust between them would surely be the death of them. He was just glad he could heal minor wounds without any tools, using his nanites. If the two did attack each other, he could at least heal them, like he said he would. Let's just hope it doesn't get to that.

[Assistant]
Slowly relaxing Saf slipped his pistol back into the holster and lifted her hand away, holding it up to show she meant no harm. All the while her eyes remained fixed on the sniper, unwavering and ready should he make any hostile move.

Finally her eyes broke away from Sgt Orion and moved over to the screen. "I'm getting tired of all this bullshit," She said, her tone obviously riled, "I was told this was a military operation, but so far all I've seen is wasted time and pointless theatrics. If you have a mission for us then give us the intel and send us on our way. If not, let us get back to our duties."

[User]
Jax watched as Saf put her hand on her side arm. He waited for her to make a move, they were both experts in hand to hand combat, hell everyone in the room probably was, But she specialized in it. But she was brash and aggressive, tended to act before thinking. These were things he could take advantage of, these were also things you didn't want in a black operative. Though he felt the Docs hands on his own as he lowered his knife, but kept his eyes on saf. His own posture never changed, he was still sitting in a relaxed state as he flipped and spun his knife around once more. Looking at her, she had another outburst. In Jax's eyes she was quickly becoming the biggest liability.

 In the field this spat wouldn't effect Jax, he had team mates that he didn't get along with before. Once on the field though mission took priority. Jax had learned to separate himself, Jax became Ghost. Her he wasn't so sure about, she seemed to controlled by emotion. He turned his head over to the screen once more as he pushed everything down. Right not it didn't really matter, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be watching her closely in the field to see how she act.s

[Assistant]
With all of these volatile emotions flaring up, at least in 09 and 07, Seth thought that trying to reason these motions down would be the most effective way to move forward, since apparently this group isn't a one-time thing. "Oh-Nine. This isn't standard military op. It's closer to a black op, which is still military. That would mean discretion is key. If we don't succeed, we have nobody to turn to. It's just us, meaning team cohesion is also key. All of us are very different and we should be trusting of each other, and our mission director, as this won't be our last mission together, I presume." Seth read her dossier. He knew she had trust issues. Trying to reason trust from her seemed like the most efficient way to make her trust someone.
 "He'll give us the information we need, then we carry out the mission. Nothing else needs to be done. A recording isn't necessary unless you're just forgetful. Even then, seven others will have heard the same knowledge and can repeat it to you if you do forget." Using a disguised insult would help at least take her focus off of the recording itself and, if it worked, she'd be angry at him for insulting her memory. Once finished, Seth maintained eye contact with 09, awaiting her response.

[User]
Saf nodded her head towards Sgt Garron, acknowledging his words if not heeding them. The non-com obviously had little in the way of actual battle command and his blatant attempts at psychological manipulation were as clear to her as they had been during her numerous psychological evaluations. He was trying to smooth the waters though, even if a little hamfistedly, and she appreciated his attempt.

Now if everyone would just get to the point and explain why it was she'd been cut open and tortured for days she could get the show on the road and actually put her suffering to good use.


[System]
Bad blood and no holds barred
A warning shot, a sacrifice that we made
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Birthday: April 3rd

Species: Mutant
Power: Persuasion. The user can compel people by speaking, the victims are unable to disobey; the seemingly cogent commandment is far too compelling. At high level, user can even persuade people into hurting/killing themselves, but can never cause victims to achieve what they are not capable of

Coates or Townie: Coates (Bad)
Personality:

Brief History:
The Pearce family was known in San Perdido for one thing and one thing only - they were some of the wealthiest and most influential people in the town. James Pearce was San Perdido's acting mayor, and everyone looked at his family for perfection. There was Mrs. Yasmin Pearce, a masterful pianist. Their first born, James Pearce Jr, was the personification of perfect. Great grades, great looks, and a great attitude.

Ant, on the other hand, was nothing more than a black sheep - a mistake that her parents would rather stuff in the attic and forget. She was sent away to Coates Academy, and she knew well enough what that meant. She was fine with that. If her parents didn't want to acknowledge her existence, then that was just fine with her. She took her trust fund and left the academy. She found herself a new home in the downtown area of Perdido. She met people the Pearces would have never dared to even breathe the same air with. The wrong crowd, as some people might say. For Ant, they were the only crowd that accepted her without question.

They became her family. The band she formed with them gave her the inspiration to wake up every morning. She loved them almost as much as she loved herself.

When it happened, Ant felt ecstasy crawling up her veins. Oh, she was finally free of their clutches. She was finally free of her insipid mother, her perfect brother, and her cruel father. Her friends had began to loot around when they encountered a Townie that threatened to stop them from destroying the town. That was when Ant discovered that the words she spoke could actually manipulate people. An evil smirk took over her face then. The Coates knew she would be useful, and Ant was willing to do anything for her friends. Rather, she was willing to make people do anything for her friends.

---

[User]
Alex

"Alexander!"
The shrill voice jolted Alex out of his slumber, blue eyes wide and gazing around him rapidly. His gaze finally locked on the older woman in front of his desk, hands on her hips and a none-too-happy expression on her face. It took a few moments for Alex to register what exactly was occurring. He had barely slept last night. His room had been absolutely freezing and he had tossed and turned all night, trying to scavenge as much of the blanket as possible. After a moment of blank staring, he finally discovered he was in his second period history class and Ms. Woods was glaring down at him like he had stolen the Mona Lisa from its museum.

He ran a hair through his blonde hair, clearing his vision and finally gave the woman a cheeky smile. "Hello, Ms. Woods. Can I help you with something?" He politely, yet jokingly inquired. A couple girls giggled and began whispering excitedly. For some reason, this happened often and Alex never knew why. He glanced over at them questioningly and their eyes widened as they turned away hastily, holding back their smiles. He shrugged it off with a sigh.

"Yes, Mr. Remington. You can help me by STAYING. AWAKE. As charming as you are, I have no sympathy for you when you're not paying attention in my class."She emphasized and stalked back to the chalk board, returning to creating irritating sounds with a piece of chalk.

Though he stayed awake for the remainder of the class, he hadn't exactly paid attention. His mind recovered the memories of his day slowly and he finally realized he had rushed out the door this morning without walking Emma to school. Alex hoped she got to school alright this morning. She tended to be a troublemaker whenever she found an opening to be. It was a miracle she hadn't been sent to Coates Academy yet.

The bell rang and Alex hopped out of his seat with a sigh of relief. He rubbed his eyes as he made his way out the door and toward AP Chem, a class he personally dreaded more than the rest of them. With a yawn, he practically fell into his seat in the back of the room and buried his head in his arms. He didn't have to pick his head up to know a girl was picking a fight with Mr. Phillips again. The same brunette girl did it every day. A lecture from the teacher about behavior always followed. Sometimes he forgot this was supposed to be an AP class.

Then all of a sudden, it got silent. Alex picked his head up and stared forward. Mr. Phillips was gone. The girl that was sitting in front of him was gone too along with the boy two seats away from him. They couldn't have all just left in the few seconds he had his face buried in his sleeves. He watched as a girl, who he recalled was named Selene, got to the front of the room and declared, "I am going to have to say that.... school is most likely out now?"

Alex stood up as a surge of energy along with confusion filled him. "Wait... What just happened again?"He inquired. He made his way rapidly over to the door and yanked it open. He glanced up and down the hallways, hoping to see Mr. Phillips and the missing kids there. Instead, he saw a few dozen faces peeking out of doorways as well, matching his expressions of confusion.

"Our teacher just vanished!"One kid exclaimed to another. "Yeah mine too!" A young voice answered from elsewhere.
"A bunch of seniors just disappeared along with them! ... My phone isn't working!"

Alex moved back into the room, letting the door slam as he took out his phone. He began trying to send a text to Emma. "No signal. " He murmured and glanced at Selene. "Was there a senior prank I didn't know about planned? Usually they do these things toward the end of the year, no?"

Emma

Emma sharply inhaled when she felt sudden weight grip her shoulders. The weight wrapped around her and she finally registered this weight as a set of arms that felt surprisingly warm despite the cool water their bodies were submerged in. It suddenly wasn't very hard to keep her head over the surface. She didn't waste her breath on speaking as he swam them over toward the boat. As they neared the boat, he tossed her over the hull and she quickly grabbed on and began pulling herself back on board. Rolling over on her back against the wood, she settled her weight on her elbows and glanced up to find her savior. A boy with dark hair had his arms crossed over the side of the boat. She took an awkward pause to catch her breath, letting him be the first to speak.

"Were you going to look for mermaids, or did you just fall in?" the boy asked between low pants, "Decent-sized fish. Would make a good dinner." He swept his hair out of his eyes and squinted at her, "What's your name?"

Emma stared at him as she began peeling wet strands of hair off her neck and collecting it into a ponytail. She sat up a little and finally answered, "I jumped in. I thought my dad fell in or something but he wasn't in the water." She chose to ignore the fish comment and prioritize other topics, "I'm Emma. Thank you for saving me, I'm really grateful and all but I still don't know where my dad went. One moment he was here and the next..." She drew off, doing one more scope around the boat. "He was gone." Emma sighed stressfully and moved over to the side of the boat to offer him a hand in helping him up. "What's your name?"

[Assistant]
Jerrot was woken by his music player, saying it had lost its cloud connection. Funny he thought... he almost never lost connection unless he was underground. He tried to reconnect.. nothing. He tried to ping local hosts, finding he could connect to the antenna near his home but not to any others or to any satellites. His headset receiver must have broken or malfunctioned, that was bad news, the software should be untaintable and the hardware should never have errors: The only other explainable option would be some sort of interference.

He decided he would return home, walking west along the beach. He passed the various fishing boats that were stored there, some on trailers others on parallel planks of wood.. and some, just floating there. Many of the boats were in the water as was usual of this time, but none of them had anyone in them. Wherever the people gone to, they had left all their stuff behind. Jerrot figured that the only explanation was that there must have been an emergency so they had been called to help in some way. But what sort of emergency warranted the help of the entirety of the fishing crew?

He carried on walking past the boats, it was a strangely unsettling sight. Jerrot didn't like it when he could not explain something.

Further down the coast he saw what looked like two people splashing around in the water, fully clothed. Had they forgotten swimming gear? Things were just getting stranger and stranger. Jerrot doubted they could see him at this distance, he had yet to meet someone with his level of vision, he started into a light trot: He wanted to find out what the hell had happened to the fishermen.

As he got closer the two figures climbed into a boat near them, both looked shocked, had they fallen in? The male on the boats side he recognized as the nicknamed Noah, or Ming Hua, a student he had met around town a few times though didn't know very well, he looked a bit younger than him, he was probably in the year below. The female he did not know, though he has seen her face before, on two counts. She was looking round the edge of the boat looking rather flustered. He heard her words: "..was gone." She began to help Noah up "What's your name?"

Jerrot waited till Noah was atop the vessel before shouting in his augmented voice: "Hey!" Waving as he did. Most people in town had seen his mouthpiece already so he doubted they would be alarmed.

"You guys?! Noah? You alright? You don't know what's going on do you? Like, where everyone went?" Jerrot had a bad habit of asking too many questions at once.

[User]
Ved
 He woke with a start, his hand automatically moving to his nightstand to turn off the alarm that was screaming into his ear. With a low groan, he sat up and ran his hands over his face, forcing open his eyelids as he rolled their contents back towards his skull. Fuck Waking up this goddamn early he mused softly to himself as he sat forward, double-checking to making sure his alarm was off, and not simply on snooze. Staying still for a few moments, completing his waking up process, then sliding his lower-half to the left and pressing his feet against the cold hardwood floor. Throwing the blankets off of his legs, he stood, and walked half-haphazardly into his bathroom, turning on his shower, then stumbling back into his bedroom. Grabbing a pair of clean underwear, he walked back into the bathroom and undressed, then stepped into the now steaming shower. Going through the usual routine of lathering and rinsing, he took maybe five minutes, tops. Hopping out, he wrapped his towel around his lower body and lifted a bottle of pills from his medicine cabinet, twisting it open and tossing two down his throat, without water.

 Having kept the door open, the steam hadn't built up too much, and instead of a cloud of steam flowing out of the room upon his exit, it happened slowly, a steady stream continued to move out of the door as he stepped out. Walking to his room, he continued to dry himself off with his towel, before slipping into his underwear and putting on his glasses. Looking through his closet, he decided on a simple pair of tight and intentionally ripped up black-jeans, a tight black sweater, and a pair of 11 inch combat boots with the jeans tucked in.

 He walked into his kitchen/dinning room, after getting dressed, and turned on the television. He opened the fridge, searching for something to eat, and deciding upon eggs and coffee. Grabbing the carton of eggs and tossing them onto the counter, he placed a pan on the stove and turned on the heat. Then began the process of making coffee, afterwards, he began looking out the dark window as his eggs began to fry.

[Assistant]
Ant Pearce
Ant walked around the high school. There were some students who had walked out of their classroom and frantically looked around, panicking at what they had just witnessed. Ant knew that feeling. One moment she was talking to them, the next they were just gone. She assumed that the same thing had happened to these kids. They all had the same questions on their lips: Where did everybody go? What's happening?

Some of them held their phones up in the air searching for even the tiniest bit of a signal. Ant was almost tempted to shout at them. There's nothing! No matter how hard you try, the phones aren't working! She glanced back at her own phone, which still remained black, and ran a shaking hand through her hair. Her first plan had been to run all the way back to the apartments and find the twins, but a quick look at the roads told her that it wouldn't be wise. Cars without their drivers were hitting poles, climbing the sidewalks, and bouncing off of each other. They still had the momentum pushing them forward, and Ant knew that she'd probably get herself injured if she tried to traverse that.

That was how she found herself inside the high school, looking through the rooms in search of someone - anyone - that might have the answer. Unfortunately, she wasn't getting anything from these kids. She wondered briefly if the people at Coates were also suffering from this. If so, did they have the answers? Ant frowned to herself as she came to a stop in front one of the classrooms, where she'd seen some boy slam the door behind him as he reentered the room. Coates Academy was far from where she was. It would probably take her a little more than an hour - probably more - to walk and maneuver through the mess in the streets.

"Dammit!" she cursed, making some of the students in the hallway turn to look at her. Before they even had a chance to question who she was and what she was doing there, she entered the classroom nearest to her. She blinked back at the students that were still inside - she recognized some of them - and propped herself up on the teacher's table. She looked at them expectantly. "Any of the bright minds over here can tell me what the fuck just happened?" she asked, every word dripping with Coates brand sarcasm. But she knew she'd let a waver take on her voice as well. Fear. She hated it, but there it was. She was scared.

"Come on, people. Theories? Anyone's got them?" She ran her eyes around the room before pointing at someone holding up a phone and talking to a girl she didn't recognize. "You. What's your name again... Alex? Yeah, Alex. Talk." The last word felt off as it came out of her mouth. It felt as if it carried a different weight to it as the others, but she couldn't figure out what made the order different.


[System]
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 58 kg
Hair Color: Bluish-gray
Eye Color: Exactly the same as his hair
Age: 16

History: Nothing significant. He doesn't really have anything out of the ordinary in his back story, being rather normal comparatively speaking. Once, he used to wish for something to happen one night to take him away from the world and whisk him away into a fantasy land where he'd be able to slay the demon king and become the hero of the land. But he got realistic fast and started dreaming smaller. Even then, each of his 'dreams' he ended up getting bored with as he grew up. But throughout all of them, one thing didn't change. What he had always wanted was a cause to fight for, something to devote his whole body and mind to, to completely absorb him and drown out everything else.

Current events:

After a blank episode of four days, Kosuke feels something stirring in the darker recesses of his consciousness. His blank episodes are becoming a regular occurence now, and he has learned to live with them. He has other problems piling up now however, with the School festival looming on the horizon, and a real war with the White Guild looming behind that. His growth rate is no where near as fast as he'd like it to be and he worries greatly for the future.

Personality: Introverted to a fault, and clumsy in a situation he hasn't planned out yet. He needs to think about his words or else he'll trip over them. His mind is in three or more places at once and in no particular order, but he still has a pretty good memory. He has very little friends because he always says he doesn't like anybody, and it's easy for him to get overwhelmed by just about anything.

As his avatar, he is outwardly completely different. The tall gloomy grey guy suddenly gives way to a small blonde haired kid and usually people get surprised when they find out. He's still somewhat self-centered but he's actually sort of bright and cheery. A good way to describe it would be that he loses his inhibitions when interacting with people in his avatar, but that's both a good and bad thing. He has a dark, hidden personality deep inside him that hasn't surfaced since The Incident, but if it ever would resurface chances are it would be because of his avatar.

---

Appearance (Avatar):
Avatar Class: Warrior - Duelist
Avatar Title: Rocket Lancer
Avatar Level: 3 (initial)
Current Level: 5
Avatar Guild: Sweepers

Avatar Abilities:

Rocket Lancer - A passive skill, whatever lance Kosuke wields will have a functional rocket booster on the end of it. He can use this to fly but it's a little risky unless flying in a straight line.
Cooldown: N/A

Fatal Acceleration - Kosuke activates his rocket booster but he holds the lance back, building up pressure to distinct charge levels. A Level 1 charge will grant 25% bonus damage and boost velocity, a Level 2 charge will increase crit chance by 25%, increase damage by 50% and provide a considerable velocity boost, and a Level 3 charge will double his crit damage and base damage, and increase his crit chance by 50% as well as greatly boosting his velocity.
Cooldown: 1 action per charge rank, up to 1 and a half rounds.

Rocket Barrage: Kosuke rapidly activates and deactivates the rocket thruster in order to deliver a flurry of quick thrusts in a cone in front of him. Each hit only deals 20% of his damage but the combo can end up having upwards of 20 hits if you take all of them. Each hit has a chance to apply bleed.
Cooldown: Two rounds

Blast Burner - Passively, Kosuke gains a turbo-charge upgrade on his rocket booster to move at up to 5 times his original speed. The Turbo Charge can only be used for three rounds consecutively before overheating, and having to cool down for an equal amount of rounds before using it again. He can use his normal rocket booster while the Turbo mode is cooling down, but it will cool down at half the rate.

As an Active, Kosuke revs his turbo-charge and rocket booster to the max, and unleashes a massive blast of fire. It has a 10 foot range, and ignites everything within a cone. It deals 100% fire damage which bypasses purely physical damage reduction.
Cooldown - Using Blast Burner's active component will completely overheat Kosuke's Lance, and he cannot use his regular rocket booster or any abilities for 2 rounds. Blast Burner itself also has a cooldown of 2 rounds.

Avatar Feats: Furious Blows, Titan's Grip, Icarus Attack

Avatar Profession: Bounty Hunter - Novice
Perhaps one of the least likely professions to bear any relation to real life job, but one of the most practical in Deep Ground. The Bounty Hunter profession allows one to track targets as long as they know some of their mannerisms and to also craft a myriad of tools in order to help them catch their quarry. Currently Kosuke is at a Novice level in this skill but he is bound to find much use for it in the future.

Novice:
Bounty Crafting Basics: Craft basic bounty hunting tools such as Bolas and nets at a basic level. Items crafted won't have much durability and are easy to break out of.

Hunting Basics: Allows for tracking of dissolutions and players through their footprints. At this level it'll only allow for tracking of slightly less obvious footprints and gives a little insight to the mannerisms of the target from them.

Avatar Equipment: Nothing significant. Light armor and two mid-tier lances, one shorter than the other. Also keeps a stock of molotovs and rope. May have bear traps soon.

Other: Kosuke's actually got poor circulation because he's tall and he's such a lightweight so he gets cold really easily, he gets knocked down easily too and he probably goes out instantly.

Theme song: Normal - Let's Kill Tonight
Spaghetti mode - American Beauty/American Psycho

[User]
☀ The Colored Kings ☪

~Location: Miscellaneous~

Yoshino was so out of it that she hadn't realized someone else had entered their room until Aaron was pulling up a chair and sitting beside Eris. She didn't know what else to say aside from silence and that she did while Eris did most of the talking. She was confused why Aaron was concerned about the Student President of all people, but she supposed he was doing his duty as a citizen or something. Thinking on that, she blinked as Eris' words brought her back to the conversation.

"This isn't right," she muttered, eyes flicking at Aaron and then at Eris. "I don't think you realize just how worried people are Eris. My sister has done a number on their minds both in-game and IRL. As to why she's even doing this war, I don't know. A million things could be running in Chiyo's head right now…actually, that reminds me. You belong to the Red Guild, right Aaron? What is Crimson Streak doing about this?"

She only knew a few tidbits from what Yuuno had told her; the Red Guild had held their own but the Blue Guild had fallen, giving Chiyo control of three. Furthermore, Maribel was apparently discussing some plans with Michael but the Vice President had yet to show up herself. And in the middle of all this was Retsu's absence…frowning, Yoshino glanced at Eris. Was it really right to be saying all this when the White Guild's top enforcer was sitting right there?

---

, @Mega Birb

[Assistant]
Reothadh

As the words left Burning Blossom's mouth, Reothadh's grip tightened around his sword. Was this girl for real? Did she really think all men were just sex crazed pigs? At that moment all he wanted he was to wipe the floor with her. Wouldn't do much to change her mind, but it sure would feel good to shut her up.

Then she offered the bet. Winner gets to make the loser do anything eh? Perfect! Now he had a chance to prove he wasn't after sex. All he had to do was beat her and request something completely nonsexua despite her implicationsl. Before he could accept, however, Blossom went right ahead and kicked things off, sending a pair of lightning bolts straight at the Tundra knight.

Seeing both bolts coming at either side, Reothadh quickly rolled forward toward the bolts. Just as he hit the ground the bolts soared over his head completely missing him. Stopping on his feet Reothadh brought himself off the ground with an upward slice sending a frost wave straight at Blossom as he yelled, "Ya know what? DEAL!"

[User]
Cassandra

Cassandra hesitated, and then sighed softly. She glanced away from Eins, "There are times when I think I have, but sometimes...I don't think so. Sometimes I think she's had the most influence on me" She said, listening to Eins moving about. Cassandra bit her lip thoughtfully, not entirely sure what to do in this situation, but then, she didn't know what to do in most situations and seemed to have done mostly fine. Even if she did make a fool of herself from time to time.

She blinked at the offer for sugar, and shook her head, [color=llightpink]"No, that's okay, thank you"[/color] She said, her voice soft as she accepted the mug. She shook her head again, "No, I'm a healer, and while I do have ranged abilities, I mostly need to be in the thick of things in order to be entirely useful" She said, before sighing heavily, "Not that I'm often useful" She muttered, before looking over to Eins.

She bowed her head again, and sighed once more. "No, I kept on getting waylaid. And then the people that I caught a ride with played on my sympathies, and I ended up helping them out. I regretted not meeting up with Eris...sometimes I can't help but think I'm always scrambling to make things make sense" she admitted, before giving a shrug.

[Assistant]
Kosuke blearily opened his eyes. When had he fallen asleep? Last thing he'd remembered he was going into Deep Ground, now he was sitting in a chair, somewhere he didn't recognize. He didn't feel too good, and he smelled... Freshly washed surprisingly enough. Usually when this happened he was pretty sure he didn't take a shower, but the things he did in his moments seemed to be getting more normal as time went on. Well, he couldn't really tell whether or not it was though, he was unconscious for them. Hopefully he'd normalize before he figured out how to use his phone though.

Somewhere nearby there was someone talking. Maybe they'd been the one who had put him in the chair. He shakily got to his feet and walked over to where they were.

"Oi, who're you calling a flying spaghetti monster?" He said.

He only heard the last part of what the person had been saying, and maybe he'd heard a few things wrong, but whatever. It'd get the point across.

---

Star Child
"Go, Christopher!" Arkadian shouted.

The dissolution roared as Christopher darted out from under Arkadian's cloak, or as fast as charging Cosmosis would allow him to, anyway. This was a mid to low size dissolution that was on its last legs already, one more attack would finish it off. Christopher kept moving as as the dissolution reared back its fist. Christopher slowed, the dissolution swung, and Arkadian dashed out to take the blow. He threw his cloak out in front of him, the gaudy faux stars becoming a cosmos, and the creases and folds melded into the darkness of its void.

The dissolution's punch swung through the cloak as if there was nothing there. Cloak of Starlight was an amazing ability. It absorbed all kinds of ranged attacks, and he took half damage from most melee attacks. For both melee attacks and ranged attacks though, there was a limit that he could absorb. The biggest weakness for Arkadian's cloak was multiple quick melee attacks, since his cloak didn't parry them or cancel out a combo of theirs. The first time he'd tried it in melee range, he'd gotten sent to the respawn by a three-hit combo since he still had low health.

The dissolution unleashed a follow-up attack and Arkadian's health took another dip.

"Now!" Arkadian shouted.

There was a flash of light as Christopher blinked in front of him and unleashed Cosmosis. The dissolution was destroyed in a shockwave of cosmic energy, and when it cleared only EXP crystals remained.

Now that he had these abilities, he could finally make up for lost time. Even though Cloak of Starlight was a purely defensive ability, the ability to take more risks combined with Christopher's Astral Shift had given him a large boost in offensive power. Now he could finally make up for lost time.

The stars on his cloak reverted to normal, and it shrank to his shoulders. Christopher jumped up onto his shoulders and Arkadian set his sights to the horizon.

"Alright, Christopher!" He said, setting off. "Let's find some adventure!"


[System]
AGE: 18
SIZE: 5'

ABSTRACT: A tomboyish and adventurous orphan girl, who loves fighting and finding artifacts.

APPEARANCE:

DETAIL:
History: Sera's history is fairly short, since not a lot happened since her parents died when she was 8. So she had to fend for herself starting that age. Out of necessity Sera learned how to fight and to loot nearby ruins and other islands for valuables to sell.

Personality: For the most time, Sera is quite the tomboy, not seeming to be interested in "girly" things, whatever they actually are, and loves to challenge people, even if it is just verbally. She can get get quite vocal and cheeky at that, too. But in the end, if you get to know her well enough, she might warm up to you enough to be nice.

EQUIPMENT:
-Her glider
-Her "Combat Lance", aka, her trusty wooden stick
-Bag for looted goodies

[User]
Eli Wyn

Night before The Dive

That night was a hard one - too much energy, too much excitement to fall asleep. Too much unknowns. "It's going to be okay..." Words that Eli said to Rahna slightly prior to them parting ways echoed in his head. The question remained... was it really? It's not as if he was getting cold feet, but all of his stunts combined couldn't get close to the magnitude of this endeavor. This was the real deal. Full of elements and parameters he wasn't able to wrap his head around. Objectively, the worst that could've happened to Eli so far was to hurt himself in the process of being a jackass. But no one can tell what is the worst thing that could happen to him on the surface.

To make the matter worse, it wasn't just him. Something could happen to Rahna as well. In a way, he felt obligated to go, whether he liked it or not. The fact that he actually wanted to go was a minor detail in the train of thought that was currently on the tracks of his mind. Eli felt that a part of Rahna's eagerness to go, besides being a curious girl, was because of his influence. He did get that before, people telling him to steer clear of their children, as they knew one was more probably going to end up in trouble if one was hanging out around Eli. Whether that was truly the case with Rahna or just a figment of Eli's imagination, was up for debate, but he still felt responsible. Thus, it was as if fate decided that Eli would go by default.

"Huh," Eli proclaimed, as his gaze traced the night sky. He was sitting on the steps in front of his house, trying to clear his mind. Unsurprisingly, his sister was both the first one to find out about his intentions and the first one to object. She really did think that Eli was about to do it just for the kick. As did his parents, too. As did every single person that probably knew Eli. Knowing that, however, they also knew that there was no way to stop him from going. Not a sane way, anyways.

For the most part, people were right, yes - the adventure would be exciting as hell. But there was more to it. The promised reward.

His family may have been in an okay place for a while now, but that didn't mean that okay place would last. One day his sister will have a family of her own. If there was any luck, he would be an uncle. Eli's family would prosper from the reward, but that wasn't all. Should he really become royalty, he would be able to provide for a better life of his friends as well. What was the point of him reaching the sky if he wouldn't be able to pull other people along?

"... and the kick is going to be the best one yet," he grinned before closing his eyes. Only for a second. Or two.

Three.

Morning before The Dive

A light bump prompted Eli to open his eyes. The bright sky was shining above him, clouds cheerfully playing with the wind. ".. Wha?" he barely muttered out before someone pushed him off the steps and onto his feet. It took him a few more moments to realize what was happening, where he was and who he was, "Eli Wyn, check. My house, check." He turned around to face his house, meeting a dumbfounded expression on his sister's face. One would think that his family had gotten used to his antics by now.

One would be wrong.

The two stood there, neither one breaking the ice. He had said goodbye to his parents last night, but his sister refused to do it. She was definitely against it, but knew there was nothing to be done about it. After all, Eli was her little brother. She felt compelled to protect him. After a few moments, she sighed and pointed towards his glider, "You do realize you're going to be late?" Then it finally dawned on Eli, what he was supposed to do today. "Look, sis..." he begun, but she cut him off by approaching him and giving him a hug. Only did then Eli notice a backpack on her back. She took it off and handed it to him. "I packed you something to eat and drink. I knew you wouldn't pack yourself on time. Or at all." She rolled her eyes, before they settled on the backpack again. "There is one more thing in it, consider it an early birthday gift."

Eli felt her eyes tearing up a bit and, to be completely honest, he was not far from it either. Opening the backpack, Eli notice a pair of aviator goggles. They didn't look brand new, but they were polished and seemed sturdy. Now he definitely wasn't far from tearing up. "You shouldn't have," Eli said, but she just smiled at him. It lasted for a mere moment, but it was more than enough to convince Eli that she was going to be alright with the fact that her little brother was growing up. "Go, before I change my mind!"

The Meeting Point

The glide towards the meeting point was one of the swiftest ever. Mostly due to the new goggles he had on his head, they helped Eli so much when getting to those crazy speeds his glider was capable off. Although, as a black bird crossed his path, a thought popped into his mind. If this was the swiftest glide ever - was it a possibility that the glide to the surface was going to be the worst one?

He shook his head as he landed - prompting a group of people to move away and make room for him and his glider. He got there on time, but landed with the elegance of a rhino. "It's alright, I'm alright! No need to worry." he spoked as he folded his glider and looked around the crowd, hoping to spot Rahna.

Hoping not to spot Nikki.

He also didn't see Blin anywhere, which imediatelly stung him. Eli hoped that, since Blin didn't meet with them yesterday, he got around to seeing that event himself and decided to go too. That is, if he didn't sleep over the meteor shower. That would be vintage Blin, but would also majestically suck.

[Assistant]
It wasn't long after she joined Blank on the high bluff above the meeting point that Nikki spotted a distinctive glider. Eli, flubbing the landing as usual. "C'mon, we should get down there," she told Blank, but the young man outright refused. The cliff was a perfectly good launching place, and it didn't have all those people. She pouted but to no avail. "Well, fine, you stay up here if you really want to. I don't want to miss it if there's an announcement or something. But you better not go too far without me, got it?"

With that, the excitable woman pulled out her glider and opened it, plunging off the edge of the bluff and sweeping downwards toward where the crowd waited. She aimed for Eli -- the younger boy would doubtless gravitate toward Blin and Rahna, if she'd missed their arrival. A grin spread across her face as she noted where her shadow lay -- approaching her friend, it trailed behind. Perfect if she wanted to give him a scare -- and why not? Nikki chuckled to herself and changed her angle, dropping down a few yards earlier than her initial intention. The rest of the distance she covered in a quiet dash, until she was /right/ behind Eli. "Yaaah!" With a shout, she jumped him, completely disregarding the backpack in the way. It'd mean finding purchase for an impromptu piggyback ride would be difficult, but knocking him over would work just as well.

[User]
Sera got up and leaned on her self-made halberd and then stuck out her tongue and made retching noises and motions. "Byah! You're disgustingly obnoxious with your insufferably chipper morals..." Exasperated Sera huffed and turned her back on Gaius and walked away.
The short girl didn't get very far before greeting Rahna, who had just arrived as well. She knew that girl had the heart of an adventurer, but her knowledge of medicine, even if she was only a trainee, would certainly come in handy.
She was in the process of waving her over when she spotted something happening.

The girl that perpetually had annoyed her, to a degree, when she was scavenging for salvageable items in the ruins from time to time pounced on a boy she had seen around Rahna a lot. However, he didn't seem to be able to handle the impact and toppled over and both, boy and girl, fell into a heap of limbs.
For a second, Sera managed to control her self, her hand pressed onto her mouth, but she just couldn't stop it for long.

"Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha bwahahahhahah!" With a loud clang her halberd landed on the ground, because she just couldn't physically hold it anymore and Sera went down kneeling over in laughter.
"Gahahha! You two look so stupid! Bwhaha!"