[System]
Aliases: Salmu Pulhu (Sumerian), Shasheuss-Throth (De Vermis Mysteriis), The Sleeper of the Clandestine

Gender: Male

Species: Elder Horror, Primeval Vampire

Lifespan: As long as it can continue drinking blood. It doesn't age when it sleeps for years in-between large meals.

Age: 1,907

Appearance: A piebald monstrosity with slime slicked flesh and no hind legs. Its only limbs are two long, winged arms and a powerful tail. It has four claws on each forepaw, with the middle one being eight inches long and capable of slicing through muscle like tissue paper. The beast's head is mostly a jagged maw with oily, unseeing eyes on top. It has a sharp, hollow tongue which can extend three feet from its mouth and act as a siphon to suck in blood. From snout to tail base, it is over eight feet long. The tail is fourteen feet. It weighs in at about two-hundred and ninety-five kilos, as much as a siberian tiger.

Abilities

~Limited flight. Due to its wingspan and body weight, it can only fly for a maximum distance of ninety meters and remain aloft for little more than a half minute.

~Ectothermic: It's body temperature adjusts to match its surroundings. It can withstand the hottest or coldest environments.

~Tremendous strength and speed.

~Keen hearing and sonar. It's echolocation has a maximum distance of 6,700 meters and can detect objects moving at half the speed of sound. Anything faster than subsonic it can detect via air pressure gradient.

~Heat pits: Can detect the heat of organisms.

~Tongue: Can draw in blood through a wound like a vaccuum. It can also squirt or spray blood and bile. The bile is not highly acidic.

~Can squeeze into any opening that it can fit its head through.

~Capable of entering a state of metabolic stasis which can last for decades. It retains spatial awareness during this "hibernation" and can awaken at will.

~Sense of smell: It can track down others thousands of kilometers away just by smelling them on the clothing of its prey.

~Intelligence: Is far more clever that it looks. Can grasp (but not speak) all languages.

~Can quickly regenerate from wounds by consuming blood and flesh. The amount of mass healed is proportionate to how much is consumed, I.E one pound of food to replace one pound of damaged tissue.

~The membrane of its wings is tougher than Kevlar.

~Its body mucous and saliva contains anticoagulant, cytotoxic, and bufotoxic properties. Those whom it bites or claws will suffer gradual necrosis, unstoppable bleeding, and fast-acting, nightmarish hallucinations.
The speed at which the bufotoxins take effect depends on how close the wound is to the head, ranging from several minutes to several seconds. It is immune to its own toxins.
The viscosity of the mucous can be regulated, allowing the Magna Pater to be extremely slippery or adhesive.
The mucous functions also to mask its scent.
It can convert and excrete up to twenty percent of its body weight in mucous. It becomes significantly faster when empty, and can regain the weight by eating.

~The Alpha:
Though it would never allow its young to live unless driven to desperation by an immense threat to its existence, for it is a selfish thing that dislikes sharing its hunting grounds, it is able to impose its will upon its brood of lesser vampires via shared split-consciousness. By forcefully breeding with another organism, it can produce in one month a litter of four juveniles. The juveniles mature after a single month and become fully capable of killing and breeding, weighing at that time around 100 kilos each. The brood will never grow to more than 200 kilos. Each one can have a litter of four young, and can breed with as many victims as are available.
At such a rate the number of mature brood would grow exponentially as follows, assuming the lowest estimate of each one breeding a single time per month.

Month One- The Magna Pater breeds and the young emerge.

Month Two- Five mature brood counting the Magna Pater.

Month Four- Twenty brood.

Month Six- Eighty Brood.

Month Eight- 320 brood.

Month Ten- 1,280 brood.

Year One- 5,120 brood.

Year Two- 26,214,400 brood.

Year Three- Planetary Extinction.

~Malocchio:
It may use its "true eyes" by shutting down its other senses. Before it uses the Malocchio, the intended victim(s) will have a brief premonition of the danger to come. Those who see the true eyes will, each time they go to sleep, enter a trance and begin moving in the direction of the Magna Pater, wherever it may be. They will awaken at the time they normally would, such as a few minutes for a nap and several hours for deep sleep. It also allows the Magna Later to see through the eyes of its prey at any and all times, even at the same time if there are multiple victims. By using the Malocchio on one who is already cursed, the victim's sight will be replaced with that of the Magna Pater's until it deactivates its eyes.

It is a passive curse that has no immediate negative effects unless the victim is entirely under the influence of the Magna Pater's hallucinogens, in which case the victim will immediately lose their mind from fright. If the bufotoxins haven't taken full effect then the victim will feel an intense fear which escalates in accordance to the strength of the already terrifying hallucinations.

Looking into its "true eyes" for too long can result in the victim's body becoming riddled with cancer at a later period in time, I.E developing prostate and skin cancer two years after the encounter. It takes roughly seven seconds of eye-to-eye contact (does not have to be constant) before the dormant cancer cells begin taking root.
The Magna Pater can only keep the Malocchio active for at most sixteen seconds, and cannot use it again until the same amount of time has passed. As an example, if it only uses it for ten seconds and then deactivates, then it must rest its eyes for ten seconds.

~Those that are consumed by the Magna Pater whilst cursed by the Malocchio have their consciousness eternally bound to their physical state of matter. They gain a horrific form of immortality, doomed to live on forever in boundless agony as inert particles bequeathed unto the earth, lost to time and memory beneath the weight of the ages.

(A lesser, juvenile vampire)

Behavior: The Magna Pater is what one would first think of when the word "monster" comes to you in the dead of night.
It may be called if one completes a forbidden ritual detailed within the ancient tome of black magic known as De Vermis Mysteriis, but nary a being would consider doing such an obscene thing. It makes no noise, has no mercy, cannot be reasoned with, and lives only to drain the blood and devour the flesh of all living things it can bind within its greasy wings. It enjoys all manner of prey and is especially inclined to go out of its way to find children, but it is shy and despises the light. It prefers to remain in damp pitch-blackness, where no eyes can spy it and no light can fall upon it. When outside of its primary lair it lurks around graveyards, occasionally squirming through the wormy soil to feast upon the dead and decaying when no live meat is available.
It will frequently impregnate victims with its brood, keeping them alive until its malformed young are birthed. It will eat both the victim and the young, doing these things not for food but to purposefully inflict prolonged torment.

The few who come into contact with it and live may never be the same as they had been before, for above all else it is a creature of persistence. Even if one leaves the Magna Pater, it will never leave them. A variety of lifelong physical complications and psychological ailments can stem from a meeting with it and it never stops pursuing its prey, even if they move far away. It will also track down any living thing that leaves its scent on a victim. This leads to the it consuming the families of those it hunts, along with anyone those families had come into recent physical contact with. Though one may travel often and abroad, once the Magna Pater has chosen a victim their fate is inevitable. It could take days, weeks, months, even years, but eventually on some cold and moonless evening one will awaken to see a sticky face with dead eyes peering through their bedroom window.

History:

Once in a millennium is a creature born, a living horror known as the "Magna Pater". The progenitor of monsters, the true genesis, the harbinger of loss, ancient and terrible. Only one has ever lived at a time, for it is greedy and does not abide its own kind, but always has one lived. It is the alpha of its virtually nonexistant subspecies, devouring its own young at birth. Only when the lone alpha dies is a new alpha conceived. It travels far and with little preference, drawn to whatever realm has foolishly called it via black magic. It has seen and ended countless civilisations. In Sumeria it was worshipped as a cruel deity to which many sacrifices were made. In this lifetime does a special one exist, the most dreadful of its kind to have ever been. Even the most vile of devils would balk at associating with it. Like each Magna Pater before it, it wields the unique capacity to share the sight and manipulate the will of its subspecies, an apocalyptic power which it does not abuse only for the sake of preserving its food supply.

Though it lingers not permanently in this world, it is anchored here during times of inactivity. It haunts the secret places deep below ground, amidst a lichen hellscape of death and graverot. It slumbers upon a towering mountain of soggy bones, reigning over its decaying empire on a haphazard throne several thousand lives thick. Those who enter this wretched domain, where the blue sky transitions into a black void, do so at the risk of becoming yet another skeleton upon which the Magna Pater may sleep, with their loved ones soon joining them.

Theme Music:

[User] The Magna Later remained immobile as the fire obliterated the entranceway just four yards in front of it. It had picked the metal thing's right side, and had been damn clever in not having been any closer. It waited for its foe to fully enter and perhaps be distracted by the decoy, for even a second. A second would be all it needed to emerge in the metal thing's blind spot and slip quietly unnoticed up the machine's broad, unfeeling back.

[Assistant]
The dust and rock was taking some time to settle properly as the Mech ejected its spent HEAT round from underneath the tank-rifle on its shoulder. Higan ensured the A.S.P would load its anti-personnel round for the next shot, which would take about half a minute to prepare. There wasn't much to be done while he waited for the dust to settle properly and the round to load, so he swapped over to electric vision to see if anything was visible through the cloud. Earlier engagements had taught him thermal vision was unsuitable for chasing Slimy, unsurprisingly considering its cold blooded nature, so electric vision was all that was available for perceiving through the smoke and dust.

There didn't seem to be anything directly through the recently widened entry point that could be considered alive. At least, nothing that lit up the electric sensor. That left Higan with the question of whether the monster had passed through the great cavern he perceived ahead and moved on, or if it had found a way to avoid detection again. There was also a simpler solution, it may be that the solid rock that still stood on either side of the destroyed entry-way could be concealing the lurking form of the Magna Pater. In many ways that would be the worst case scenario, it would be difficult to react in time if it were waiting just beside the door.

The more Higan thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Slimy was waiting for him on the other side. However, would it be to the left of the doorway, the right, or directly above? With its injuries that had thus far seemed to render it grounded, striking from above seemed unlikely. Unless it could stick to the solid rock walls, though the shaking eruption of the HEAT round would probably have destabilised it if that were the case. That left the right or left. Fortunately for Higan, his A.S.P could perceive up to 180 degrees, so on entering the room he would have peripheral vision of both sides of his Mech until he moved properly inside and a blind spot formed. Not only that, but he was equipped with two weapons, secondary and tertiary armaments, one on each of the Mech's arms. In that way, he had the capacity to cover his corners while the cannon on the shoulder covered the front. So, he could cover three angles of attack on entering the room, should Slimy be awaiting him.

Tentatively, which would seem somewhat ridiculous from an outsider's perspective, the Mech strode forward. The heavy clunking sound of the anti-personnel round loading echoed through the chamber as the fearsome form of the A.S.P stepped through the dust and rock strewn doorway, just about entering the cavern as both its arms were flung wide, outstretched in each direction. Higan's senses went into overdrive as he prepared to unleash hell should anything pop up on his sensors.

"Come on then Slimy, let's dance!"


[System]
Character Sheet:
Age: (Self-explanatory)
Gender: (Male? Female? Other?)
Race: (Human? Faunus? Grimm-ish?)
Appearance: (Picture or description)
Personality: (What are you like?)
Background: (Why are you where you are?)
Affiliation: (Upriser, Loner, Rusty)
Weapon: (what does it look like?)
Fighting style: (how do you fight?)
Sembalance: (OPTIONAL; basically a semi-superpower)
Other: (Anything I missed or doesn't have a place)

Name: Magdeline Garron

Age: 30

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Appearance: She photoshopped this picture of her with one of her son's baby pics.

Personality: Magdeline is a supportive woman. She often projects her motherly feelings on the younger Uprisers, refering to any of them as "sweetie", "dear", "honey", etc. She means nothing by it other than she doesn't dislike you. Magdeline is usually upbeat, unless she starts thinking of Seth, her son who died to protect her from Grimm that were attacking her house. If she does, she'll have a neutral-toned, solomn look on her face that could last seconds or hours.

Background: Magdeline was the mother of a hunter-in-training that had gone to Beacon who lent his hand in keeping the Grimm at bay. He survived. Long enough for him to be a threat to Torchwick, whose men "accidentally" killed him, as he got "in the way" of them taking care of some Grimm. His body was buried in the mass graves the Hunters were given. No headstones. No names. Just one big pit they're thrown in. She was furious at Torchwick's ploys. She finally couldn't stand it and joined the Uprising, and soon became head of reconnissence and unconventional warfare. She's hired a few Loners to aid in the cause occasionally, but it's usually her and a small group of Uprisers chip away at Dictator Roman's defenses.

Affiliation: Upriser

Weapon: Dual daggers. Nothing special. Two daggers with four-inch, double edged blades.

Fighting style: Assassination-style. 90% of her targets never see her face before they're dead. The other 10% lose because of her sembalance (described below).

Sembalance: Shadow Chains - Magdeline can create chains that bind a person to a surface. Only works on living creatures, so she can't use this on mechs. She can use it on animatronics with Auras, so it might be more of an Aura thing than a person thing. No one knows for sure yet. We just know it won't work on mechs. But it does work on mech operators.

Other: (Anything I missed or doesn't have a place)

[User]
Magdeline
 The only remaining henchman in her sight, Magdeline tried something she'd never considered doing with her Sembalance before: killing. She focused her chains on the henchman, but specifically on his neck. With rage seething from her in both body language and facial expression, Magdeline squeezed a fist with the hand controlling her Sembalance chains, and it tightened until a *snap* was heard. The chains dissolved with the lifeless body slumping to the ground. By this point, Magdeline was in full view and in the club.

 With an eerie calm, Magdeline smiled at Graham, then at this mysterious woman who appeared a little bit ago when she mentions her. "You should probably head home now, sweetie. And you too, dear. You won't be able to do much of any real damage. I'll take care of him." Nearly spitting the last word out, though she kept a calm attitude. She turned to the Butcher. "I don't think we'll need to get animal control involved with taking out this animal, and it looks like pests are under control, so no exterminator needed. Eh, Grundal?" Calling the beast by his real name was far from Magdeline's only mental warfare, but she was just trying to attract the big bully's attention so he was less focused on carnage, and less caring about survivors. "That's right, big boy. I did some research on you before tonight. Turns out, we went to the same academy. Same graduating class. You probably wouldn't remember the group named MNLA ("Magnolia")? Your team rival all four years? We disbanded a while back. A few months short of a year, actually, due to... complicated circumstances, after the Grimm breached the town. Hard to work with three dead teammates. Oh, and a kid-on-the-way. Yeah, you remember him. I know you do. I hope I can allow you two to be... closer. Like in the same pit." Her last sentence was filled with undeniable anger, sadness, and pure, unadulterated hatred.

[Assistant] Everything went by in a flurry, Graham could barely react to what was going on. Before he knew it, people laid dead and the Butcher stood there, laughing like a maniac. "You sick bastard!" Graham yelled. And then suddenly Inari and Magdeline was in the room. Magdeline advised them both to go home but Graham merely shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere." He said, twirling his tonfas. As they twirled they transformed into their pistol form, and Graham aimed one at the Butcher and the other scanning between his men. "C'mon!" He yelled to them.

[User]
The Butcher turned to face the newcomer, turning to look as Magdeline killed one of his boys rather brutally, his monstrous smile never shrinking as he pondered his options. The boy obviously hadn't gotten his message, but that didn't matter now, what matter was that he was outnumbered, 3-1. Which means, he was actually in a fair fight for once.

Raising up his cleaver, it shifted into a cannon-like object which retracted over his forearm before squeezing down to form a snug fit. He then pointed it up towards the ceiling, a darkness raising from the barrel before he shot out a ball of dark Aura into the air, then quickly shifted the cannon from damage to precision, and fired several smaller spheres at each of his opponents, before the large ball exploded with great force, cracking the floor and cloaking everything in darkness temporarily. He switched his weapon back into cleaver form, then blasted himself at the Faunus girl, aiming at her with a swinging over head chop, being much faster with his weapon than any person had a right to be. he'd continue to slash at her in a fast moving barrage, changing it up suddenly in the middle by clicking a button that caused the cleaver to become a scythe, and thus making his attacks much more intense and harder to avoid as he upped the speed, before adding a 5 blast spheres into the misc, blowing them up in her face while they were engaged, then switching targets as the darkness dispersed, this time heading for Graham.

He switched back to his cleaver, but he swung it like a baseball bat at him, intending to smack the kid around a little. Whether it succeeded or not, he's the n launched a bunch, his arm completely blackened with his aura, and he'd unleash a devastating punch right at him, and into the few survivors behind him. If he dodged, they'd take the full brunt of the attack, but if he took the attack, it would do a heck of a lot more than just tickle. The Butcher would then use the force from that attack to launch him into a spinning attack at Magdeline, the darkness finally gone from the room at this point. He'd attempt to slice her in half, the attack being so strong that it would cut deeply into the dance floor, and he actually struggled a tiny bit to pull it out.

'Grundai. . . been awhile since I've been called that. Yeah, I was on team Grendel I believe, the leader and we were sent to the Ivory Grove to face some new kind of Grimm, one that was said to be. . .intelligent. we were the top of our class, and some of the best out there, so us being chosen was a given. Yet it only ended in failure, and when I came back into the world of Man from that hellhole, I was changed, stronger, faster, better than man or faunus!" Grundai held a hand to his head, the visor was growing really intensely now, and was beginning to pulse in time with his breath. And thhat smile of his was growing inhuman wide now, and the teeth were starting to become very, very sharp. A low, rumbling growl could be heard emanating from deep with in his throat, not in anger, but in pure, unadulterated excitement. The blood on the floor, the fear in the air, the hatred on the faces of those he faced, it did nothing to discourage or weaken him, on the contrary, it made him feel all the more alive. He could feel it, deep inside him, something truly craving this negative energy, the taste of it on his tongue better than fine wine. He wanted, he needed it, he must have.

He would have it. . . but that day was not today. The beast was at the gates, and this wasn't the time to release it from it's cage.

"I made a deal with the devil, Maggy, and it's made me a god amongst men. You were all doomed from the start, and while I'd really like to finish this came, I think it's time I took my leave." Grundai once again became cloaked in darkness, but it was a much deeper than before, and from it radiated such a sense of hatred, of fear, of pure unadulterated, that it would drive them back, the feeling like worms crawling in their skin. And in one bestial roar, The Butcher released all of the energy he held, the blast effecting the entire club. By the time it cleared, The Butcher and his remaining boys were gone, so was the girl and their truck. The Butcher had escaped. . . or maybe he had let them escape, either way, the end result remained the same. Their were many injured and more dead with in the club, which would probably never become operable ever again.

[Assistant]
When the monster had struck, Inari had barely avoided the first attack and quickly realised that, with the shrouding darkness in the club, she couldn't rely on just her eyes. Her vision was sharp, but her ears and nose were sharper. When he came at her, the sound of his blade moving through the air and the smell of his sweat were enough for her to keep track of him. Even then he was fast and she was only just able to stay ahead of his swings. She didn't even try to parry or block his attacks, but simply did her best to avoid them.

The last strike he swung her way was the fastest yet and should have been the end of her, but at the last second she leapt upwards with all her strength twisting in the air as her semblance took hold and she felt the pull of gravity shift towards the ceiling. She landed, her feet sticking to the roof and the attack passed harmlessly under her. She took a moment to recover and, from her high vantage point, reassess the situation. Then the whole thing was over, before she could continue to act. Another flash of darkness and the monster was gone, along with all of his goons. Inari relaxed her sword arm, releasing the blade from her grip and letting it collapse into dust, as she looked down (up?) at everyone from her position on the ceiling.

[User] Graham back stepped as the Butcher swung his cleaver towards him, unfortunately it didn't stop there as his opponent charged up whatever dark energy he was using in his fist. At the same time, Graham used his semblance and took the sound waves emitting from the speakers and launched it forward, making the sound waves slam into the butcher, hopefully slowing down the punch, Graham turned his pistols back into tonfas and double blocked with them, crossing the long sides together. Despite the attempt, the punch was incredible and sent Graham tumbling backwards into the crowd. He was very lucky, that could have been a lot worse. As Graham shakily stood up, the Butcher and his men was nowhere to be seen, neither was the girl either. Damn it! Why did he have to be so reckless, getting civilians in danger too. Graham collapsed on the ground, tears welling up. "I'm so... fucking stupid!" He exclaimed, talking to himself. He punched the ground in frustration. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He yelled at himself again, repeating his actions. He made a promise to himself, he'll train up, become stronger and get back at the Butcher. He stood up and slowly walked to the owner. "I'm going to get her back. That's a promise." He said solemnly to the owner. He then turned to Mags and Inari, still keeping his goggles own. "Thank you, for the help." He said, and then chuckled. "Sure kept my ass being destroyed." He added with a weak smile.

[Assistant]
Magdeline
 The carnage this beast was creating was devastating. To make matters worse, the beast wouldn't let up. It's an unfair fight no matter what. We need to get out of here. There's no way we can take him on like this. At that moment, the Butcher had just slugged Graham and knocked him back. It was her turn now. Seeing the large blade about to be slung at her, Magdeline prepares to dodge, but his speed. He's faster than any man of that size and with that size of weapon should move. She barely dodged, managing to esape with merely a cut along the side of her right abdomen. Clutching it with her left hand, she growls and curses under her breath. Then, with a *poof* and an explosion, the Butcher was gone.
 Graham was the first to react, and was beating himself up about not being able to stop the beast-man. Magdeline walked over to him, listening to his anger and thanks, and starts rubbing circles on his upper back. "Hey, it's gonnna be ok sweetie. You did your best. We did our best. That's all anyone can do. He's not a man any more. He wasn't kidding about the deal with the devil. Although, I think it was still metaphorical. Anyways, why don't we go get patched up and get some rest. If you don't feel comfortable staying alone, feel free to stay at my house." With a smile, she looked from Graham to the young lady on the ceiling. "Miss, if you need, we can take you to the doctor with us. And if you need a place to stay, you're free to stay with me at my house, dear." Smiling sincerely at the girl on the inside of the roof, she starts walking out towards her doctor, who would be able to do some work tonight. For a price, obviously.


[System]
Normal Appearance:
peaking just above twelve meters, she stands under Optimus Prime only barely.

Alternate form:
Mightly large and unwieldy, Prism's vehicle is perfect for taking a hit and ramming into others and walls. It's large size also allows her t carry additional cargo while in vehicle mode.

Former faction: Autobots

Role: Heavy Weapons/Demolition

Weapons and tools: -Shoulder mounted Gatling guns
-shoulder mounted rockets (Can be used briefly, but requires external power source)
-Demolition tools
-Dual shotguns hidden in legs
-multitude of grenades
-deployable struts to stand still.
-python-like biceps (Prism flexes haughtily while laughing)

Personality: While tough and gruff, Prism enjoys a good laugh. It's hard to find a good laugh in the wasteland that she lives in, but she tries her best to keep her chin up. She knows the struggles of war, having been an Autobot for decades, if not a century or two, she can't quite keep track of how long it's been since actual, full on peacetime. Was it just centuries? She couldn't remember if it was that or even longer.

She respected the Last of the Primes. She still does. Though, Prism couldn't help but think that the main reason she was left on Cybertron was because how much exploding she tended to do on a regular basis. Even with her hopes, the back of her mind does scorn Optimus to some level for abandoning their planet.

History: Prism has always seen war. There were very few moments in time in which she didn't remember one faction fighting against another. She didn't join the Autobots solely for the sake of fighting the good fight. She was good with heavy weapons and explosives since her creation, and she knew it. If anyone was going to be their demolition expert, it was going to be her. Unfortunately, Brawn was a couple steps ahead of her in the Demo department. He worked as a friend and ally to Prism, even showing her a few new things every once and a while. He deserved to be the resident Explosives man, but she still wished to take the spot from him.

She looked up to Prime and the others, eventually looking just to her side to see them as she worked with them against the Decepticons. When they eventually left the planet, Optimus refused to let her go with them aboard the Ark. He had told her that she would help keep together whatever fragments were left of the Autobots, and that she would be able to lead a sect of her own, but it didn't work out as they planned. The Autobots quickly fell apart under the appointed lead of Prism, and the Autobots were a thing of the past. Luckily, it seemed as if the rival faction had shared the same fate, so it wasn't all too bad.

Without anything to do, Prism spent her time taking care of herself, continuing to hone her bomb making and disarming skills, as well as keeping her aim straight. It wasn't until she hit a roadblock in her learning that she decided to try again to rebuild the planet, knowing that just the Autobots weren't going to be enough. She needed the help of her enemies as well. With that, she sent out a beacon to call any and all willing bodies to help her rebuild.

Extras and additional information: Prism has a deployable EOD mask, but uses it for combat as well.
Voice -Claudia Christain
Theme Song -Technologic VS Feel Good Inc - Daft Punk and Gorillaz

Relations with other characters: Nightscream - "Who is SHE calling a Sparkling!?"

Sklog - "Pretty quiet, but that's not a bad thing."

Turbulence - "He just... He fell out of the sky!"

[User]
Earlier...

The preparations were in full chaos mode. The Autobots succeeded in launching their glorified cargo ship despite their best efforts - yet again - and everyone was scrambling to get the Nemesis operational and chasing the Autobot ship. And for Primus' sake, out of Megatron's way. In his eternal string of ambition, gloating and failures, their glorious leader succeeded at nothing but bringing their homeworld itself to its knees. And now he was abandoning it altogether in a raging pursuit of war for the sake of war itself.

"Estimated time to launch: 10 minutes. Nightscream, report to the bridge." said the voice of Nightscream's mentor over the communications channel. The flyer wasn't hearing it though. She was sat down firmly at her usual station, buried deep within Kaon where she spent many days of the war, melting her circuits down to hel make that one improvement that one piece of technology that would finally win them the war. And then again and again, when it didn't work, with the occasional spice in the form of hacking the Autobot communications.

"I'm sorry, but I'll pass. If his lordship is in need of a good engineer, he can go grab Shockwave, the faithful dog. I am not leaving my home to rust for someone's ambition. Megatron has gone too far this time." she sent back, brandishing one of her blades. Technically, she was disobeying a direct order. But in the ruckus that was consuming the force, she would be lucky to get a post card let alone a firing squad. The silence was unnerving her though - and her mentor was very good at giving silent treatments. "You never were truly believing of the cause. Very well. Hold down the fort before we return with the Matrix. Nemesis out." Soundwave said, before standing in attention and saluting. Just before he moved to turn the channel off, she could hear his robotic voice whisper ever so silently. "Goodbye, my sister."

In a move that would have probably made her the laughing stock of the Vehicons for eons, she brushed her hand along the screen: "Goodbye. Kaon city, signing off."

Present time...

Nightscream's systems came back online after coming out of recharge prematurely. There was a bleeping alarm. "A ping?" she said for herself, sprint-stumbling over to her console. Following the departure of the Nemesis and Arc, she put her new found status of the highest ranking Decepticon on the planet to good use, taking over most communications networks. she left them operational, but put a subtle tracing program in that would alert her to anyone else stranded on Cybertron as well.

Her eyes widened when she looked at the origin of the signal. Iacon. "So, Optimus Prime. You didn't think little old me could be trusted with the future of our homewolrd? I am offended." the 'Con grinned, continuing with her new habit of talking to herself, or people that weren't there. Pressing play, she listened to the message. Just one 'Bot. Searching the databases for this Prism, the computer supplied several files aligned with the name, but only one listed as demolitions expert.

Displaying the file, Nightscream gave the Autobot on the picture a glance. "Well, Prime, I will have to employ the service of your cutie bruiser. New way to power all of this equipment won't invent and build itself, you know?" Nightscream sneered and turned on her heel, leaving her little base for the first time since who knew how many years ago. She would be surprised if the autobot even knew her by name.

Leaping into the air, she transformed and the are was filled with the high pitched scream of her engines. Nightscream almost forgot how liberating it was to fly. The trip to Iacon raised her mood considerably, and she sneaked in a few combat turns and even a suborbital jump, fuel consumption be damned. She could get away with it this one time.

The hangar near the Arc launch site came to view quickly, and the Decepticon entered in a typical Nightscream fashion: With a sonic boom and a cone of ionized atmosphere and burning dust surrounding her through her descent. Her feet sent out sparks and a terrible screeching sound as she slid along the metal surface. Her visor snapped shut as she walked the rest of the distance to the entrance, ready to defend herself if necessary - Old habits died hard, and the urge to blow this place up was high. Noooo! No! If anything, I should stab her right through the spark chamber. No sense wasting the energon and perfectly good spare parts. she thought for herself with a sadistic smirk before kicking on the heavy door a few times to gain attention: "Yuuhooo, little 'Bot! You have a visit and it's rude to keep it waiting!"

[Assistant]
Earlier...

Sklog shambled down the corridor with his brothers and sisters as they were lead onto the decepticon ship the Nemesis. The 'com and his brethren walked in silence only with a couple of grunts and the clanking sound of their large feet. With his usual neutral expression, Sklog prepared to get on the Nemesis to kill for his superiors but something unusual happened. The ship was already begging get to take off while the Dino-bots hustled to get on but one rouge con still on the ground drew their weapon and prepared to fire at the ship. Sklog seemed to be the only 'con to notice this rouge and made a mad dash to take out the bot that was threatening his faction.

While Sklog managed to get the bit to miss the ship, the weapon still went off in a close proximity to both Sklog and the rouge bot. The blast managed to kill the other bot and knock some circuits loose in Sklog, making him unresponsive. As the Nemesis took off, Sklog was left behind with no guidance.

Present...

Sklog booted back up thanks to the new signal being pumped to him from someone named Prism. Sklog got to his feet and got his bearings on what had happened. After recalling the previous events Sklog felt a new feeling that he hadn't felt before. It was a hollow sort of feeling, a bad feeling.

It was loneliness.

He looked at where the ship once was then looked to the sky imagining his brothers and sisters going on without him into the vast unknown. This thought made Sklog sad as he came to the realization that he would likely never see them again. After standing and begging sad for a while a loud booming sound brought Sklog back to reality. He didn't know what to do so he went with the newest orders that he had been given which were to report to the Arc Hanger and help rebuild cybertron. Sklog transformed and dashed off in the direction of the Arc Hanger. Sklog wasn't the fastest bit but he wasn't extremely slow either. He got there just as another bot had been waiting at the door. Sklog transformed once again and walked to the door, ignoring the other bot for the most part.


[System]
Age: 17

Gender:M

Race:Human

Weapon:
"Cia" and "Lana" are two gun-hatchets similar to the StormFlower in that it's a pair of melee weapons that turn into a pair of small automatic weapons. "H" is the hatchet's cutting edge, "S" is the stock, "C" is the cartridge, "M" is the muzzle, and "T" is the trigger. The weapons' gun design is based on the Mac10 SMG. The hatchet Cia is black, with crude red tribal designs on it, and a red spades symbol. The hatchet Lana is white, with elegant gold royal-like lines, and a golden heart emblazoned on it.

Specialty: He styles himself as a stereotypical "Barbarian" in terms of game speak. He rushes into fights guns ablaze or hatchets swinging, occasionally using barriers to trap the enemy for an easy kill. Mostly though, he just uses his barriers to further allow himself to wail on enemies without having to worry about dodging.

Semblance: He has the ability to create barriers, like thin sheets of transparent matter. This takes concentration though, which is why he relies on instinct, and rarely gives others protection with it.

Personality: Indie is kind of a weirdo. He is constantly being immature in any number of ways, and generally does't take things very seriously. He is also quite lazy, frequently procrastinating, and only really doing things he thinks are interesting. Surprisingly though, he's quite intelligent, and a great fighter, though he doesn't put his formal training to much good use, mostly relying on instinct and his barriers. He does generally treat people decently, but treats authority with the same regard as peers. Oddly enough, he may just be hiding something behind that jester-like persona...

Color: Indigo [#4B0082]
Emblem: A smiling mask, jaggedly split down the center. It's eye is a simple circle, as it's mouth is a simple crescent smile, tragically cut short due to the fracture breaking the other part of the mask off.

Appearance: Indie is a slightly tall, lanky and slim fellow. He never brushes his constantly ruffled grey brown hair. His deep blue eyes are almost never displayed, as he is always wearing a navy blue mask, one side in a perpetual grin, the other in never ending sorrow. He wears a nice black jacket, which almost always has its sleeves rolled up to the elbow. His pants are, once again, a dark blue similar in color to his eyes, mask, and the shirt he wears under his jacket. His shoes are simple grey sneakers. He is occasionally seen donning a blue bowtie, but this is only ever during days he deems "special."
As for pajamas, he wears a black and blue robe that goes to about two inches past his knee, and a pair of boxer-briefs.

[User]
Ivan was quite happy with both handshakes, and returned to his meal with renewed vigor as the conversation shifted to the fights mentioned earlier. To his credit, it appeared he was as thick-skinned as he was arrogant, and the sarcasm in Indigo's tone about the gunslinger's lack of effort flew directly over his head. But then the problem with Ineko's fight was brought up. Ivan had been preparing for his own combat when the drone-master was called into battle, and had automatically assumed a quick knockout had prevailed, not some cowardly refusal to fight. Ivan frowned and began to mull over the correct answer to this shocking development as an univolved girl managed to stick her head into the conversation at the worst possible time and begin to lecture with insults spread throughout.

Her points were valid, of course. Humans and faunus lost their way in the fight against the evil Grimm all the time, and it wasn't unheard of for the criminal scum of the underworld to get bright ideas about using their aura as a weapon against the authority of the government(And by proxy, the Hunters and Huntresses).

But Ineko was his partner, and that meant he already had more of a bond with the drone-slinging man than some random chick who thought she could talk trash. That meant it was time for a lecture of his own(He flat out at ignored the other woman's calm and correct answers, this was something that he'd deal with, not an unrelated party.).

Ivan reached over as Sapphire finished her degrading speech and tapped her on the shoulder, mimicking her actions from a few moments prior. "Oi, you. Yeah, the bland looking one with the shotguns. Lay off my partner." Ivan snapped his fingers in front of her face to make sure he had her full attention, almost as if he was talking to a dog. "I get that you are the resident authority on fighting people that aren't your primary enemy. I do, really. I mean, look at how your team treats you. One night and they already can't stand simply sitting near ya!" He smirked, quite pleased with his own wit.

As Shiro impacted and proclaimed that the meat was open to everyone, Ivan's obnoxiously confident grin only grew wider. "See, lookit that! Meat by Team Swansong! Already going behind your back."

[Assistant]
Sapphire Rode - Cafeteria
Sapphire felt slightly nauseated seeing what Aurellius did to his hand. While she didn't have a particular dislike of blood or guts, in fact they weren't really an unusual sight for her, the image of the boy digging into his own arm with a carefree nonchalant look on his face was enough to make her puke.

Thankfully she was able to fight down the gag reflect and soon enough Diamond had the wound covered with her handkerchief which Sapphire was glad off. Diamond quickly changed the subject, Sapphire guessed no one really wanted to dwell on what exactly Aurellius had just done to himself.

The view that Diamond took of a Huntress's job was an incredibly narrow one. Sure they were both trained and expect to fight the Grimm but that wasn't all they could or would do in there careers.

"If your sitting eating lunch with us is any indication the police aren't exactly effective. Tell me what would happen if someone as skilled as Goodwitch decided that the laws didn't apply to them anymore. Just took what they wanted, whenever they wanted. You think the police could deal with that? No of course not. They'd send another Hunter or Huntress to deal with the problem and that is precisely why we need to know how to fight humans cause the number of people who actually know how to use there auras and there semblance isn't exactly limited to those attending Beacon. And for the record a cops salary is a pittance compared to what Hunters make."

Sapphire had apparently run afoul of the partner to the boy she'd called simple. He was a bigger guy, she could take him down pretty easily given how slow he was and after watching his sparring match how uncompromising of tactics he'd been. No matter what had happened all he had done was shoot at his opponent even with the arena exploding around him. She thought his name was Ivan.

Sapphire could have drawn her gun on him easy, it wouldn't have been particularly difficult but she'd already resolved to give her rib at least a weeks rest and besides some loud mouth who thought that victory just naturally belonged to him wasn't really worth her time.

She shrugged nonchalantly at his accusation that her teammates wanted nothing to do with her. It was true enough, her first impression hadn't exactly been exemplary and it wasn't like she really cared in the first place. "So I'm not naturally gifted with social grace. At least I can do more than just fire my gun over and over and over again without considering that my opponent might actually adapt to that tactic. By the way I really enjoyed your fight watching you get smacked around by someone half your weight was the biggest laugh I've had in a good long while."

Sapphire could have said a lot more on the matter but she was interrupted when a large white object came flying through the air aimed directly at there table. Sapphire didn't have time to register exactly who or what it was, the moment it made contact with the Sapphire slapped her wrist bracelets together activating Morpheus and Phobator, which she'd retrieved after sparring class.

The second the object was down Sapphire realized it was a person and aimed for a weak spot closest to her. She grabbed the person's arm applying Morpheus directly to the wrist just over a major vein. It was then she looked up and realized who it was. Sapphire sat back down in her seat collapsing her daggers back into there leather bands. "Ah fuzzball, you looking to get yourself killed?" Sapphire rolled her eyes. What could she possibly have done in her life that she would be punished with this idiot for a teammate. "If you'd wanted to offer us food you could have, I-don't-know, walked over here and asked like a normal person. Then again your landing looks like it sent everyone's lunches to the floor so we might as well take your leftovers."

Sapphire herself had lost the remainder of her milk which was currently pooling in the cracks of the table as well as her sandwiches. Everyone else's lunches were in varying states of disarray. Tiger boy's semblance must have really fried his brain but good to have him thinking that launching himself halfway across the lunch room was in any way a good idea.

She turned to look at Ivan who seemed to think that Shiro and the others being generous was somehow a commentary on her being unable to control her team. "Aww, come on Ivy if they want to be generous who am I to stand in the way?"

[User]
Oswald merely watched on with disinterest as everybody around him went on with their business. Some people were arguing about the necessity of learning to fight other people. When Oswald recognized Sapphire's voice, he found himself agreeing with what she said: even questioning why it was necessary was...ridiculous. Idiotic, even. Maybe even as bad as a guy who didn't know what an acute angle was.

Frowning, he grunted in displeasure as Aurellius tore his wound open. "God dammit Aurellius, one day and you can't go with making an ass of yourself? Some of those people were trying to eat." Despite his exasperation, he couldn't help but laugh at the others' reactions to the blood and gore. "Though I will admit, that's a hell of a party trick."

After Aurellius's display, Diamond also questioned the need for Hunters and Huntresses doing what should have been the job of the police. Again, Sapphire made a retort, but this time things started to get too heated for Oswald's personal tastes. He didn't agree with Diamond, but if she was his team mate, he'd have to stick up for her. "Sapphire, lay off. We all got history, even if it's ugly. I'm sure we've all got blemishes on our souls the rest of the world wouldn't look too kindly on. And I don't understand why salary is even a question here. So long as it's livable, who the fuck cares?"

When Shiro landed on the table, scattering the remaining food, Oswald smirked and gave himself a mental pat on the back for finishing quickly. Despite the....absolutely fucking terrible way the offer was presented, Oswald got up and chuckled. "Great, free grub. If it gets me away from the hotheads, I'd gladly eat raw meat." Walking towards Gren and Abel, he hadn't even bothered to look if anybody else was going along with it. Free food was free food.

[Assistant]
"Hey kid," Ineko heard, and felt a tapping on his shoulder, he glanced up to the blue haired girl "Are you stupid or just plain simple? Of course we need to know how to fight humans. The Hunters aren't the only ones with semblance or the power of aura and not everyone uses that ability for good. What happens when we have to face off against a group like the White Fang or a criminal organization of aura users. If you don't know how to fight your fellow humans you won't last day."
Ineko thought for a second about what she said, and nodded slightly in agreement. Before he could reply, a number of things happened. Another girl interjected with her own opinion of the subject. Ivan stood up and gave the blue haired girl a piece of his own mind, defending Ineko, much to his worry. Concerned of escalation, Ineko got up too and placed his hand gently on Ivan's shoulder, "Ivan, no need to defend me, I am not offended." Ineko turned to Sapphire, the girl who had lectured him. Before be said anything, somehow pieces of food and milk had landed on Damascus. He sighed softly, looking down at the mess on him, he looked back up to Sapphire, who now would have a much better look at his cybernetic jaw and throat. "My apologies for my ignorance, my mind was on other things, and I hadn't thought that far in regards to the possible opponents I would have." He spoke, his mouth didn't move as the words came out, it was like a speaker had been installed and the voice was coming through that. "Now, I should get myself cleaned off." Gesturing to the mess on his armor. He turned back towards his table and put his helmet back on, after a quick check of the time, he determined that he would be able to get a quick shower in too. He left the cafeteria and headed towards the nearest shower.


[System]
Also known as: The the messenger, the neutral, the traveler.

Age: Oooooold.

God Status: She was once charged with traveling between the three worlds with various missives though this is no longer something she can do. Now she is the goddess of messages and messengers, travelers, and neutrality. She was always a minor goddess with a few small powers.

Personality: Iratze is carefree and mellow. She likes to watch and meddle at the opportune moment, or when asked to intervene. It is in her nature to let others resolve their conflicts, and to help resolve communication issues only when needed. She enjoys travel, colors, variety. She might be called indulgent by some or careless by others, however this is all a matter of perspective! The bright-haired goddess likes to tread in grey-areas of morality, where the answers are not so clear and the rules undefined. It is here she feels the most free.

Parents: She was not born, but was created. It is said she was constructed by the Sun and the Moon during a period of marital strife. Constructed by both and loyal to neither. She was given the ability to pass between the worlds and carry messages between them until they were able to resolve their differences. They found her useful to keep in touch with their various children, and so, kept her around to fulfill the role of their messenger.

Sexuality: Bisexual.

Form on Earth:

True Form:

Powers:

-Flight: To aid her in delivering her messages quickly and efficiently!
-Tongues: To aid her in delivering messages for anyone she has the gift of tongues, she can understand and speak many languages. The language of the sun and the moon, and any language created by their creations (mortals)
-Sense of Direction: She has an excellent internal map. She has an internal compass, and a knack for finding almost anyone she might need to carry a message to.

-LOST POWER: Once she had the power to travel between the three worlds. In addition to carrying herself across the borders, she could carry things across (letters, gifts, objects), and people across with her. This is not something everyone could do which is what made her so useful in her role as a messenger god. After the fall she lost these powers and was bound to earth with the rest.

Weapon: A pen! For the pen is mightier than the sword!--
To keep their messages discrete, the Sun and the Moon gifted her with a magic pen. When writing with the pen, the message can only be read by the intended recipient (One must hold the pen and speak their name aloud before they begin to write).

History (Pre-Earth bound): Constructed by the Sun and the Moon to carry messages between the deities, the first chapter of her life was all this. She traveled between the three worlds mostly at the request of any god or goddess, but some times for fun. Some liked her, others did not, but it did not matter much. She was a very minor deity who remained neutral in all things.

History (Post-Earth bound):

She had a small identity crisis. Not being able to travel between the worlds and being shut out by the god of the underworld was certainly a shock for her. However, she was very comfortable on earth having been there many times before. She has been spending her earth bound years keeping a low profile, mingling with mortals, playing tricks on them, befriending them, and reinventing her disguise from time to time.

Motive: She values her neutrality, and therefore, remains so even in her bound form. She wonders if she will ever be called back into true service, though she is now enjoying her freedom. A conflict between the gods would not serve her at this time.

[User]
「To your surprise faceless one, I am here for netiher. I am pretty sure you already know what I am here for considering Brontes alone attracts just about every god in a world's distance.」Tet laughed a bit, as it pretty much was the truth in the matter any god would be able to feel Brontes' presence especially since some gods resented him to the point of ingraining their bodies and souls with the meer feeling of Brontes' presence. Both Tet and Armarion followed at a safe distance, making sure not to give away their godly presence off to either of the two gods before them. It was a hard task but between the two of them it was a rather peerless task.

It was then Amarion had popped a question he would have never even imagined of asking way back in the day considering he found Tet his rival.

Tet was thrown off a bit, making him stumble over his own footsteps. He quickly regained his composure and looked at Armarion with his highly observant eyes to see if Armarion was only trying to trick Tet. It was long before Armarion actually thrusted out his hand, looking for Tet's hand to meet him half way for a handshake. It was then Tet brought up his own resolve and decdided that just for this moment in time he would team up with Armarion. After all even Tet knew that between the two of them, they could be very well unstoppable in that they are the two most intelligent gods, Tet being at the top of course.

「You know Faceless One, Armarion, I would've never thought I would see this day, not in the past thousands of years we have been stuck on this Earth.」Tet reached out his hand and took Armarion's hand into his, giving a firm handshake.「After we are done here, we are back to being rivals. If you betray me though I will not hesitate to make you a slave under the power of my Geis you can count on that.」

[Assistant]
Armarion understood clearly what Tet meant and they shook on it he said nothing more and continued to follow Tet which must have made even their mother and father gawk because they had never seen the two work together for all the years that had taken for this moment to happen.

But it had and suprisingly enough Armarion knew it wouldn't last because the God of Play would probably soon dupe him into some sort of scheme the would possibly trick him and he would be utterly lost.

So for now he followed along with the God of Play and fell silent not saying anything other than feeling a familiar presence as if someone was watching him it felt like someone familiar someone like Amos, Armarion completely expected this to happen one day but it made him a little more sure that he would find his brother one day, but he shook that thought aside because he focused on getting his youngest brother back.

Although he knew his next mission would probably be to find Amos which was possibly his second and most important priority besides Amare because he knew that Amos should not become none existent for Armarion would be lost without his brother.

[User]
Amare, fully aware that he is being followed, splits up from Brontes and attempts to catch the attention of the two Gods. It isn't too hard- just have Brontes teleport far away- after all, being The God of The Underworld means you can go straight to the side ofthose who are dying. Once Brontes was out of the way, the only trace the other two Gods have to follow is Amare. It's a risky maneuver considering the fact he is arguably the key to finding Brontes. Because if anyone had him, they could get The God of The Underworld to do as they pleased. Yet, right now, that was exactly what Amare was counting on.

So, after preparations, he goes to a nearby alley way and waits.

As the two Gods continue their chase, they eventually come across a little boy with a skipping rope in an alley way, giggling to himself.

Cautiously, the two Gods approach the boy, however he doesn't stop his skipping for a moment. No it is not until they are only a few feet away that the boy actually stops. He then looks up at the two Gods with a smile, despite how nervous he really feels. If this doesn't work then he really isn't sure what will. After all, the Army had to do him some good right?

Yet for all his nervousness, he still has a need to be cocky about it- to put on a show. After all, he does hate most of the people after Brontes anyways. So why not? However the two Gods take him back for a moment. Amarion and...Tetsuo? Working together- but how? Weren't the two- No, now is not the time to think of this. The two Gods before him might be far smarter, which is a bad thing as Amare relies on his wits. However, unlike them, he has had time to prepare. So he has to act, and has to act now.

So, as he continues to look at the Gods with a smile, he giggles childishly and says "Tag, you're it!"

No sooner does he say that do six humans appear out of no where and ambush the two Gods. Swiftly the boy heads up the building and away from sight. It is then he takes his chance to play his flute- his beautiful melody- loud and clear. Until the two Gods surrender into sleep. Amare smiles, he got a lucky break there. However next time he knows he won't be that lucky. Then again, he supposed, he doubted he'd be able to convince Brontes to let Amare try something so foolish again. A sense of relief feels Amare as he feels safe again. However it really shouldn't- he has to leave now.

So without a second thought, he jumps off the roof and files off into the misty sky- to reunite with his Lonely God once more.

[Assistant]
One moment she was spinning, laughing, whirling, dancing. Rainbow lights illuminated her face and her body as she danced, the same way it illuminated the human mortals who danced around her. They were packed together in the warehouse, all sweat and emotion. Someone with crowd anxiety might say they were 'packed like sardines', someone more comfortable sharing their personal space in the name of art would say they danced as one, the boundaries between their bodies becoming blurred by the electronic beat and the drugs that both blurred their senses.

Iratze pretended well enough, but she knew she was not like them. She took the drugs under her tongue, but, they did little for her. She was immortal.

In one moment she was whirling, reeling, laughing, and dancing…

In the next moment she was whirling, reeling, she laughed, then crying...

She broke step with the dance. She pushed her way out of the throng. She clutched her stomach, feeling like she would puke, but she did not. She stumbled, flabbergasted, trying to clear her head. After some time and distance she finally let herself stumble. Her knees and hands pressing into the rapidly cooling earth. She began to try and sort her through, the tried to make sense of the things she now knew.

Brontes

His presence on his plane was unmistakable. Overwhelming, or rather, the fact that his presence could be felt upon the earth was an overwhelming fact that she could not ignore.

It has been seven-thousand-years since that god had been felt upon this plane. It had been seven-thousand years since herself and most the other gods had been kicked out of heaven and hell and bound unto the Earth.

She could find the other gods easily, that was her purpose and her power after all. She thought of Brontes from time to time. She must have thought of him while dancing, then sensed his direction... She had searched for him in years past. Especially after they had first fallen, to no avail. She had given up. She had searched for the Sun and the Moon but had to be satisfied with their distant glowing visages in the sky above. She had seen the other gods, but, without their stations they had little use for her, so, she drifted apart from the others as the years past.

"Brontes…" She said it aloud now… She had to tell everyone… that is what they would have asked of her…

… yet, no one had asked. Did she have to tell anyone? Should she seek Brontes herself? Would his presence unite them, divide them further, or put them at war with one another? Would they revert back to their old habits and positions? Or would they become something much worse? Why had Brontes returned? Why now?

Before she could decide, she looked up and saw another god that she had not seen in ages.

"Thalia…?" She said it like a question, but knew it was she. Thalia walked on the path, her power was unmistakable, and quite familiar to Iratze even as she walked through the mortal world in her mortal disquise.

Iratze had seen very little of Thalia in the past seven-thousand years, but her aura and rainbow hair would be unmistakable to the daughter of the Sun and Moon. She identified herself anyhow.

"It is I, Iratze, the messenger..." It is how had greeted others in the past. She got to her feet, brushing the dirt and frost from her knees. She was still in her club-attire. Her neck and arms covered with beads and bracelets, and otherwise wearing very little.

The messenger goddess wondered how much Thalia knew. Could they all sense Brontes now that he had emerged?

"Do you... recognize me?" She asked, somewhat timidly. She wasn't sure if Thalia would be pleased to see her or not... Especially not now...


[System]
Age: 31

Gender: Male

Appearance:

Personality: Grek is a naturally nervous and careful, yet sneaky Kobold. Years of being seen as a bit of a runt and a weakling have taken their toll on his self-confidence and as such he's not much of a socialite. However he is not anti-social as such, and will join in a conversation if invited or feels welcome to. He has great admiration for Kobolds who are strong and brave, though he naturally prefers being with Kobolds such as himself, as he has more in common with them, and feels on their level.

In combat he will end to avoid meeting the opponent head-on, instead trying to outflank them and gain any advantage he can, fighting with his brain rather than his brawn

History: Grek was born a sickly child, constantly bullied through his childhood and berated by the adults of his tribe for being, in their words, "A waste of food and shelter" as there was seemingly nothing he wasn't bad at, and no task where he helped more than hindered. He spent many of his first 20 years working in a mine, though he lacked the physical stamina or endurance to last very long before getting too exhausted to work.

The Tribe's leader was under pressure to cast him out, but being fair and kind, decided to see how he would handle trapmaking. Grek immediately took a shine to it, and with very little teaching or training, quickly became the best trapmaker in the tribe, using brains he had always possessed but never had the chance to use.

[User]
Arjun wiped some of the rock from his face. It had been liquefied by the heat he had generated, and he was indeed stained by it.

"Wha-? Oh, Alexius" he extended a clawed hand as his friend helped him up. "Thanks for the hand. Glad to see you again. Tribe's still the same as before. You haven't missed much. Workers still working hard. Mines still full of metal. Most of us still live in caves. I got myself a hut though. So, I assume you've seen that they have privacy up here, in the surface. Never been to Absence or Constantsea myself."

[Assistant]
Kimi had been content on being ignored for the first few moments as it seemed that Arjun knew the other kobold that was ranting at them. She shrugged a bit as she watched them and then was distracted by another kobold slam into her back. She nearly fell over and turned to look at him. "Oye, don't you watch where you're going?" She said.

Her companion hissed at the other kobold but Kimi held out her hand. "Calm yourself Mariki... it was an accident. I'm sure if he was trying to kill me he would have done a better job than just ram into me." She stood up and dusted herself off and then stood up and looked at Arjun and Alexius. "So what is even going on here today?" She said, noticing that this one Kobold had apparently drawn so many people out that day.

[User]
Grek scrambled to his feet, grateful for being spared a beating or mauling, though still cautious about the...pet...?

"I'm really sorry. Couldn't see you over the top of the hill. Are you okay?" The weak-looking bag of bones of a kobold muttered nervously. He watched on as she calmed her companion down, waiting patiently, and glad the focus was partly off him, even temporarily. He wasn't comfortable being the centre of attention at the best of times, and that went double if he'd just made a mistake.

The kobold's attention had returned to the newcomer. He looked down at the scene as well. "Well, there was a rumour that an old member of the tribe was returning today. Still, I was expecting some kind of seasoned travelling warrior or mercenary, not....a door to door preacher."

[Assistant] Arjun turned to Grek and Kimi. "Is it just me, or did we all just happen to show up at the same place at the same time" he said, speaking loudly enough for all to hear. "For those who don't know, Alexius and I are friends. You might have heard of him by the name 'Kutur', but I'll let him explain more about that. And before I forget to mention it, nobody is going to beat anybody right now." He let out a small stream of flame rise out of the palm of his right hand for just a moment.

[User]
Suddenly, a loud crash, followed by muffled conversation, resonated through the area. Alexius mentally kicked himself. Stupid, stupid! Of course, with every newcomer there was probably three tribesmen stalking him!

"There, see?" he called towards the general direction of the noise. "You can come out now!" Secretly, he was feeling a little giddy. Four people listened to his preaching! That was a new personal record, if you don't count the time he fed a kennel of wargs while praying not to die.

[Assistant] "I'm here! Don't have to yell, Kutur. Gotta calm down a bit" Arjun replied, stepping up to Alexius, who had been known to Arjun as Kutur. "Just be careful with what you say. I'm not sure our shaman would appreciate all of your words."

[User]
Grek flinched a little from Arjun's little pyrotechnics display. He was not keen on getting threatened, but conversation resumed, again focused on the strange returning Kobold.

Grek crossed his arms. "I'm not sure half the tribe would appreciate it, honestly. Religion...Nothing but trouble if you ask me. Look at him, prattling on. I'm listening to what he's saying, but even if none of us were, I don't think he'd notice. He'd just carry on..."

[Assistant] "Did I startle you? Sorry." Arjun extinguished his flames. "Grek, is it? Well, I assure you, Kutur here is harmless. At least to his fellow kobolds. Not sure why he's dressed so heavily, but they do things differently on the surface. He seems to have picked up surfacer habits." He briefly stood on one foot, raising his other leg to gently scratch his right sole before setting it down on the soft ground again.

[User]
Alexius most certainly didn't want to see the chief. He was large and well spoken, and likely won't be defeated by healing his scars. His only option now was to try and stall everyone until they forget what they wanted to do. Which is good, because he was good at stalling.

"Umm, well if no one's going to convert today, then guess I'll try tomorrow. Whoo, traveling's no easy task. So is my cave still here?" He looked around for his cave, which he remembered he took because it was far away from the new mine complex.

[Assistant] "The caves are still here, although we've excavated more since you left and even built a few huts with sticks and dried grass taken down from the surface" Arjun explained. "The shrine is still there and our shaman's still tending it, as he was before. Oh, and before I forget to mention it, I doubt you'll win many converts. Most of us don't trust those who dress like humans, but I don't really care how you dress, as long as you don't put clothes on your feet. That's just too weird."

[User]
"There's nothing distrustful about bits of cloth. I'm more interested in what kind of habits he's picked up, and any strange things he's learned."

Grek studied the strange new Kobold for a little while.

"Don't you ever get hot wearing all that cloth? And surface dwellers don't even have caves, they have houses with windows and fireplaces! How are you supposed to stay cool out there dressed like that? It's just not sensible."

[Assistant]
"Cool enough," muttered Alexius, looking down at his armor and garments. The mail rattled a bit as he moved. "My Gods keep me comfortable." In reality, it was a little too warm under the heated mail. He unfortunately couldn't sweat like his human compatriots, and this made it very annoying to stay outside for very long. Usually he tried not thinking about it, but the headache was threatening to topple him.

It was then he realized he hasn't formally introduced himself to everyone. Likely most people have forgotten him. He stuck out his hand to shake, a human custom he rather liked and wanted to bring to his tribe. "I never caught your name. I'm Alexius Lionus Garracus of Absence."

[User] Arjun looked around. "That's nice and all, but we really should be getting back down into the cave. They're expecting us back at t he village, and the tribe will be happy to see you-" Arjun looked at Alexius for a moment. His armor, clothes, and human manners. "-I think. We can continue this conversation as we walk down the tunnel." It was a long, smooth tunnel lit by torches whose flames were maintained by the tribe's shaman.

[Assistant]
Grek cocked his head and shrugged. "Well, one thing you clearly haven't learned is how to lie convincingly."

He looked down at the outstretched hand, puzzled. "I don't...I don't get it. What is this?" he mumbled as he followed the two into the tunnel.

"Well, I'm looking forward to telling the chief I've had another productive day of not making any traps. At least not finished ones....Oh!" He exclaimed as he forgot about the fake trap that was still in the forest path somewhere. "...Nevermind, I'm sure it'll be fine where it is," he though to himself.

(Chekhov's Gun planted :3)

[User]
Alexius peered down into the old cave, contemplating whether or not to follow his compatriots. Sure, he had lived under these caves his whole childhood, but now looking at it as a grown (and educated) kobold he's starting to suspect a few structural fallacies in the caves. Is it his paranoid imagination? Is it real? He gave an experimental step inside, fully expecting the roof to crash down on him like the open mouth that it resembles. Nothing. Maybe it's just him.

The interior of the caves were noticeably cooler than the outside, something Alexius can appreciate. Every cave was connected to another room or opening, creating a complex and confusing system to non-tribesmen. Because of this, the distant sound of conversing was always present.

"So how has the tribe been?" he asked Grek, desperately trying to be friendly to his new acquaintance.

[Assistant]
Arjun overheard the conversation and decided to contribute to it.

"Our numbers have been growing quite a bit, Kut- er- Alexius." He made a mental note to use the newer name. "Our hatchery is still full, and I've been sure to, er, help contribute to that." He spared the others the details. "Apart from that, we've been opening up some new caves. We've discovered a new batch of hot springs. It's really helped now that the old ones were getting overcrowded."

As they walked, they could see kobolds from the tribe scurry about. Some carried ore in brown sacks slung over their shoulders. Others held baskets of food foraged from the nearby caves as well as meat brought in from hunting in some of the deeper caverns. A few even carried fish caught from subterranean rivers.

[User]
Grek was about to answer when Arjun took over and answered for him. Grek just nodded and thought 'Yep. Yep, that's about right. Not like I wanted to speak anyway.'

The talk of hatchery soured his mood a little further. Yes, some of us haven't contributed to the hatchery our entire lives. There was no need to rub it in. One day there might be a female Kobold who'd want a small, scrawny trapmaker to be the father of her children, but Grek really, really doubted it.

Grek was definitely gravitating more towards 'Alexius' than Arjun. Even if Grek found the newcomer eccentric to the point of weird, he was also something of an outlier of the tribe. He noticed that he was looking around him a little uncomfortable.

"Feeling claustrophobic? I'm sure you'll get used to it again quickly enough. Didn't take me long to stop feeling paranoid and exposed when I'm out there."

[Assistant]
Now that Grek mentioned it, Alexius did feel a little uncomfortable returning to the low roofed caves. He had gotten a little too accustomed to the wide, cavernous interior of the grand temple of Scen. He began to feel sure of the fact that the walls closed in on him when he wasn't looking, and he began to wonder about the other voices. If he could hear them, they could surely hear him. They could even be in his thoughts. Are they plotting against him now? Waiting for a sign of weakness? Okay, deep breaths. Think of blue water, clear skies, okay.

The cave hall lead to Arjun's quarters, which has changed very little since he last saw it. There was the table and the chairs, both blackened by accidental fire blasts, all very familiar. There was the bed, which Alexius distinctly remembers helping put out more than a few times. There was even the musky smell, hinting of Arjun and some lizardess' . . . nightly activities.

[User]
Arjun was one of a few kobolds in the tribe who had actually bothered to build a hut of his own. Most of the tribe slept on little mats, hammocks, or piles of hay. Most didn't even own property save for a few pieces of clothing and personal effects. As a sorcerer, Arjun was allowed this extra liberty, something he shared in common with the chief and the shaman. His furniture had been imported from the surface, hewn from cheap wood in a rather crude fashion, pieces made by humans which were originally intended for the low end market for halflings. For humans, it would be undersized and awful, but it was a luxury for kobolds.

Even with the burned furniture, there were still several mats and furs draped over the floor. Arjun lay on one of them, propping himself up against one of the many pillows as he stretched out his limbs.

"Make yourselves at home. I've got some food in that pot back there. Mostly just dried meat."

[Assistant]
Grek began to look around, nose through everything he could get his claws on, lift things up, flip through books. It was easy to tell he wasn't well versed in the ways of social etiquette. "This is a nice hut you've got, if I'm honest."

He looked over at Alexius. The poor guy was still suffering in these caves, and Grek did feel some degree of compassio though had absolutely not idea how to express it. He eventually went with "Hey, you should probably eat something. It might settle your nerves."


[System]
Would you enjoy another blind person?
Nickname: Nick

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Brief Personality: Nick is a cheerful, light hearted kind of person who is constantly trying to find ways to lighten the mood or make people happier in general. He can make jokes about bad things that happen to him, but is sensitive and tries not to tread on any toes. He likes people and dislikes loneliness.

Ability: Nick has an intrinsic 'awareness' of things in a certain radius around him. He knows the shape, location and details of any object within a certain range of him, like an area where he can sense everything. Kind of like a sixth sense. It's useful in fog because fog doesn't hinder it.

Limits to Ability: Currently, its range is quite short, sitting at about 10 meters. Also, his awareness doesn't give him an awareness of colour, or light in general. His ability is apparently limited to matter and solid objects, though he can perceive gaseous substances similarly to heat waves.

Age admitted into Riverwood: 16

Background: Nick was always a fairly cheerful kid since he was born. He liked hanging out with his friends but was kind of average otherwise. That changed when he got into a car accident. The car accident scarred his eyes and made him put a bandage around them for all of his life. Life got more difficult for him, in more ways than one.

The first reason was because he had to adapt to a life without sight. The second reason hurt him more, however. People didn't really talk about the incident. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it felt like people were avoiding him. And they kind of were. Beforehand, most of his class could talk to him, and he had a lot of friends and acquaintances. Now, only his closest friends were around him. It made Nick feel alone in class, because he couldn't see anyone and they wouldn't talk to him.

One day, however, his powers awakened. Everyone was shocked at how it was like he could see again. The atmosphere became close to like how it was before. But his parents wanted him to go to Riverwood. They had heard rumours of what the government did to kids with strange powers, and they didn't want it to happen to him. At first, he objected, but he realised the pain he would put people through if he died, rather than if he disappeared. So Nick left, and travelled to learn at Riverwood.

Appearance: Nick has short, brown hair and is around 160 cm. He's got a rather average build, and is rather average altogether, save for the bandages he has around his eyes.

Other: Nick likes soft things, because they are soft. Also, Nick isn't that great at combat. Because he's blind, he can't read or see colour. He almost can't write.

[User]
Rebound nodded and shook her hand gently for a moment before dropping it, his gaze locking onto her eyes for a moment, then he quickly looked away. "Yeah, uh, you're right. This happens to you about, umm, I think every two or three weeks." He began walking towards the lounge, assuming that she would follow him. "Today's Saturday, so we don't have any classes today. Plus, it's kind of a weird day cause we've got so many new students arriving today." He waved his hand towards the rooms they were passing and said, "These are the girls dormitories, and we're about to enter an area that has some classrooms in it." Sure enough, they began to pass a few classrooms soon after that, some set up like normal classrooms, while others seemed like places for training.

Then they went down a flight of stairs and he said, "Down here is the main floor, where the guys dormitories are, as well as most of the recreational rooms. There's a gym, a lounge, a library, a game room, a cafeteria and so on." He stopped and turned back to her, raising an eyebrow. "You know, most of this you can get from your map. If there's somewhere specific you want to go right now, I can take you. Otherwise, you might as well find your way with the map. How about it? Anything in particular you're feeling you want to do? This place is huge, it has..well, just about everything you could want." His eyebrows drew together in a scowl for a moment. "Well, except normal humans. Good riddance, I say."

[Assistant] "Nah I can't cook at all." Lucas yells in response to the question he has just heard. He walks his way past the two people in the main doorway making his way to the lobby. Upon reaching it he notices Levi up and about the almost empty room. "Hey whats up dude looking for something? Oh by the way a couple of new people are in the kitchen." He leaves the room and heads back outside running into Dolor and Chris (although he doesn't know that Chris is his name yet)."What more new people? Guess I should come to expect new people seeing as this place is for protecting people with our special needs."

[User] "Hm?" He wanted a name? Her hair began turning from water to a liquid iron, each strand a strip. "Chris Valentine, wasn't that the name of like, a character? Resident Evi-- Anyways, you...can call me Dolor Oublier. Everyone just calls me doll though. You'll get used to it, trust me. I mean, you're here now, you really don't have a choice." Some part of what she said was serious, while other parts held humor. "Trust me, it gets crazy..You should see the fights! They're hilarious."

[Assistant]
Pamela chickled "maths isn't so bad. But then, I have a good memory. Not like I could just look at paper as a kid and go "oh, two plus two is four!" No, I didn't even know what numbers looked like until I was 12, so I had to remember tha 12 times 36 is 432. If you want, I can help you with your Maths" she said.

She blushed as she realized how she was rambling and cleared her throat as Nick asked is anyone could cook. At the reply of no, she sighed and looked to Nick. "I can cook toast. If you are happy with toast" she said, with a shrug. Although she herself was sick of toast, she ate it still. She was also sick of fun food, but she didn't want to do any more fancy cooking, scsred of the risk of fire.

[User]
"Toast, huh?" Nick said. "Yeah, that sounds good. I'm down for pretty much anything at this point. But if I just..."
Nick strode over to one of the pantries and opened it. Once open, he quickly grabbed the thin, rectangular box and took it out.
"Here we go!" Nick said, revealing a box of cereal. Cornflakes, to be exact.
Thankfully, his power made it so that he didn't have to look very hard. He knew where everything he needed was as well.
"I'm really glad that this place has cornflakes." Nick said, rifling through another cupboard. He withdrew his hand to reveal his prize: Sugar. He moved to another cabinet to grab a bowl and spoon, and came up arms full with breakfast materials.

Nick Loved cornflakes, obviously. He liked their delightful crunch and the way they went down so easily. He could tell they were good quality cornflakes judging by the shape and the thinness, and he liked adding sugar to it. His friends used to say that he had some obsession with cornflakes. There was one time he justified it by saying that he might do worse in his studies due to lack of motivation coming from cornflake deprivation, but that hadn't really worked out. Regardless, cornflakes were justice. But he knew he'd need more than just cornflakes, so he went to another cupboard and reached for an item he knew was there.

"Jam for toast!" Nick declared, retracting his hand with strawberry jam in his clutches.
He added it to his pile and made his way to a table, carefully placing the items onto it, but Nick noticed there was something missing. Nick thought for a moment and remembered it. He went back to one of the cupboards and pulled out another bowl and spoon, as well as 2 plates for the toast and 2 cups. He then put them onto the table and went to the fridge again, grabbing a bottle of orange juice. By placing it on the table, the table was set.
"Tadah!" Nick said, stretching his arms wide, as if to show off the table. He turned back to Pam and grinned.
"Breakfast preparations are complete!" He announced, smiling widely. "Now we just need toast and we're good to go. Oh, actually, what about Lance? What does he eat?"

[Assistant] Ryuu looked over at Nick, who was preparing a meal of cornflakes and toast. She moved her bacon on a plate and sat down. Ryuu carefully grabbed a piece of bacon, trying not to stab it. She are it, thankfull that she knew how to cook most meats pretty well.

[User]
"I'm sorry for your loss."Terraline said quietly. She felt guilty for being a bit rude to the girl. This was not a joke and she knew that deep down. Truth was she wasn't quite over what had just happened. Her emotions were all over the place and she had never felt so confused in her life. It felt so dream-like. However, every time she pinched her arm, nothing happened. She had to try to face this with an open mind if they were going to get anywhere with this.

It seemed that the only reason she was still alive was because of the people who brought her here. The many questions she had would have to wait. Surely there was someone in charge who could explain everything. This girl had went through the same thing as Terry. Cammy was also kind enough to use her free time to help a stranger. Terry at least owed her some respect and understanding. In fact, she had felt a rush of pain relief in the brief moment that she had held hands with Cammy just the way she described it. "I... I will try to humor you but the thing is: I have no special or bizarre reason. I'm unaware of anyone in my family having-"She broke off as her mind went back to the memory of her brother appearing and disappearing before her eyes. What exactly had he been doing...?

With impeccable timing, Xander strolled into the room. Dressed in his usual all-black attire, he made his way over, taking a bite out of an big apple he clutched in his hand. He loomed over the girls with his startling height with slightly interested blue eyes. "Morning, sis. Heard you almost got your throat slit. That sucks."
Terry traced the shallow cut on her neck, the memory returning. She swallowed hard. "You okay?" He asked her, plopping down on the bedside. They had never been super close but they could be considered at the least friends. He seemed genuine enough with his inquiry.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Terraline replied, "You?" She couldn't help but wonder where he had been in the mess and what had happened to him. "So I'm guessing you know what happened, right?"

"Well yeah. I asked around so I can inform your clueless ass. Our parents got murdered by some secret government force and they were gonna kill us too when a bunch of guys showed up and saved us. They then took us to this school to live in. Neat, isn't it?" He took another bite of his apple as his eyes traveled to Cammy, "Hello there beautiful." He gave her a warm smile and a wink. "Thanks for keeping my sister company. It's very sweet of you."

"How are you so calm ...?"Terraline asked in surprise. He was acting like none of this was happening. It was just another day to him.

"Well no reason for me to freak out. Life happens and we move on." He shrugged and grinned suddenly, "Better get out of here. Josie's right in the next room. "

The color drained from Terry's face and she sat up fast, "What?"She whispered. "She's here."

"Yep... "He glanced back at Cammy, "Say, cutie, what's your name?"

[Assistant]
Pamela watched as Nick went through gathering breakfast stuff. Lance watched, clearly hoping for some food. She went over to a fridge, and managed to find some food for him, looking over as Nick asked about Lance.

"Whatever this meat and such is" She said "don't let him fool you if he give you puppy dog eyes for some of your food. It's enough for him" she said, putting it in a bowl, and filling another bowl up with water for Lsnce, putting it down so that Lance could eat and drink"

She went to the toaster, starting to cook the toast. It unnerved her and made her feel nervous to be responsible for someone else's food, but then, Nick seemed to enjoy cornflakes.

As the toast was ready, she dished it out, and went over to Nick. She smiled nervously "there we go"