[System]
Age: 15

Gender: Female

Appearance:
Maria uses a wheelchair to feign the appearance of a paraplegic. She uses her magic to move the wheelchair around.

Personality: Maria casts an outward appearance of a cheery, kind girl, always smiling while talking in a bubbly voice. However, beneath this social mask lies a mind broken by years of abuse into a dark and ruthless girl, her empathy withered away and her trust in other people hard to come by, devolving into paranoia when she is stressed. She has a fear of inferiority, and combats this by being driven by her lust for power, her ambition being her escape from the creeping despair that silently clutches her heart.
While she keeps a sociable appearance about herself, in truth she doesn't have a lot of friends, and keeps her relationships with other people strictly as business.
However, she has started to grow fond of her maid Fantine, and won't tolerate any cases of her mistreatment.

Bio: Maria was thrown into an orphanage before she could even remember the faces of her parents, who died shortly after her birth. She was brutally beaten and abused at a regular pace by the personnel there. However, before she was driven to an abyss of despair, she met a boy by the name of Klaus there, who promised to protect her and get them out of the orphanage. In time, she developed feelings for the boy.
One night they attempted an escape, but were about to be caught when Maria met an Incubator. Seeing that Klaus was caught, she made her wish and the two of them escaped successfully.
Later, Klaus was caught by an anti-MG mob and tortured to death due to his connections to Magical Girls after following Maria. Maria found out about this, and became determined to rule the world and take revenge on the people who took Klaus away from him, by any means possible.
Over the following years, Maria managed to worm her way to the position of a lieutenant in the Aurora City Authority through her persuasion skills, guile and political maneuvers, even resorting to underhanded tactics such as backstabbing and using torture to squeeze valuable secrets out of any hapless victim she managed to capture alive. Of course, she doesn't plan on stopping there, either...

Her domain includes the territory of a magical girl named Eponine, who has requested her home to be placed under Maria's, and by extension, Aurora's protection and rule and that her sister is given a place of refuge in Maria's HQ. In return, Maria demanded Eponine to swear fealty to her, and that Fantine will serve as her personal maid.

Allegiance: Aurora City Authority

Theme: A Stranger I Remain

Skills: Maria could be said to have a silver tongue, for she is very convincing and manipulative with her words, sprouting seeds of doubt and despair in any heart she can pierce with her angelic voice. She also has a profound knowledge of politics and tactics, and specializes in psychological warfare.

Weapons: Maria keeps a small dagger under her dress as a paranoid measure, though due to her status as a Magical Girl, rarely uses it.

Other: Maria loves sweet things such as cakes and cookies, and spends a lot of her free time snacking on them.

Magical Girl Appearance:
Maria keeps her eye-design and creepy demeanour while as a Magical Girl. Her costume also has more shades of dark-green and black.

Wish: "I wish to move Klaus away from his fate."

Weapons: A scythe with an intricate, flowery design going from the hilt all the way to the blade's end. Can be manipulated to change the position of the blade, making for a surprisingly adaptive weapon despite its unwieldiness.

Powers: Telekinesis. Maria may use her magic to control the movement of any object or person in her line of sight, including herself. For example, she can fly through the air, throw and draw distant targets and even freeze people in place. However, she needs to have one of her hands unoccupied and spread open for her to cast the magic from her palm and her fingers for multitasking and subtle movements, making her unable to use this power if her hands are unusable or occupied. Breaking her focus also results in the spell's canceling.
She may also perform a Force Choke-like spell on normal humans which Magical Girls are immune to.

[User]
Eponine certainly had set herself up for a difficult task, with no leads to go on besides those she had already reported to Maria. There were methods she could follow if she wanted, such as staking out Witches Barriers and waiting for a magical girl to arrive, but that would be time consuming, and there was no guarantee that the person she was looking for would ever show up at all.

But that would have to wait for a moment as her phone rang, caller id revealing who it was. It would be Adrian, one of the higher ranking people in the militia she had created to help her fight Witches. It was a group that undeniably took losses, but he had been one of the better ones at surviving it all, and if he was calling, then it had to be important.

That was revealed soon enough to her, once she had answered the phone. "Hey boss, remember that effigy thing with the grief seed people've been talking about? Well, some rogue magical girl decided to bust through one of the checkpoints into the city a little while ago. Thought you might want to know."

---

The Shadow Compact were not the easiest group to find, as Chloe would be able to attest to as she made her way through Aurora. They worked underground, were deeply suspicious of magical girls or collaborators, and took precautions accordingly. Then again, as someone who had managed to work herself into a partnership with that organization, she would know as much, and have planned accordingly to deal with it, especially when moving on to a new area.

Her knowledge would guide her along in her search for Compact assistance, directing her away from downtown and towards the rougher areas, the places that had missed out on the economic development present, and were home to crime, poverty, and dirty dealings. The places that one would usually find the Mafia, and where government control was weakest.

That wasn't to say that they Compact didn't operate in nicer parts of Aurora, because they did, but it would be easier to find a safe house in one of the less important (from the perspective of the government) neighborhoods. But for someone like her, ferreting out a safehouse shouldn't be that hard.

[Assistant]
Maria changed once again into something darker and brooding as she started to speak. "Indeed. We become nothing but screams of despair in the air, to be violently taken and then thrown away by those with purpose, scattered to the winds and consumed by strangers. To live without hope is to accept all the pain you have endured as having been for naught, to throw away any semblance of human will and to welcome complete oblivion."

Maria realized what she was saying and reverted back to her 15-year-old self. "Oh, I was starting to talk silly stuff. Never mind that, Fantine. I'll be at the study now, so don't disturb unless it's something important."

She turned her wheelchair around and headed for the study. It was a room with shelves packed to the brim with books of all sorts of topics and genres. However, she rarely read them; her main use for the room was in the green laptop she had sitting on a small table at the center of the room. Once she closed the room, she began to work on the various sheets and profiles she had already open on it, from small things such as grief seed farming charts to bigger files like intelligence she has collected on the city and the areas outside it. With nothing else to do, she continued working on it, managing and scheming with no set difference.

[User]
"Track her, but keep a safe distance," Eponine ordered, "We want this one...alive. And unharmed, as much as possible." Eponine hopped in the jeep that had taken her here and ordered the soldier to drive her to the checkpoint. Speaking to the survivors, Eponine was able to glean a general idea of what this rogue looked like, as well as her magical weapon. What was troubling, but nonetheless expected due to the need to conserve magic, was the fact that the rogue seemed not to have revealed what her magical ability was. Apparently the rogue had also been shot in the leg, if she didn't use magic to heal the wound, she should be hobbling at a slower pace, but if she did use magic, she might be more desperate to find a grief seed. Eponine asked if the trail was still hot. She wiped blood from her mouth with her forearm, noticing that, once again, she had bitten the inside of her mouth without noticing.

"Understood, Lady Maria," Fantine replied, letting Maria head off to her library. However, Maria's words made Fantine worry more about Eponine, so she quickly dried the tears that had started welling up at the corners of her eyes. Certain that she was no longer visibly sad, she headed down to the kitchen to help out with chores.

[Assistant]
Chloe had spent as little time as possible patching up her leg. Without any convenient cloth on hand, and lacking the desire to tear up a good shirt or skirt for something like this, she had needed to take a quick 'peek' inside some stranger's home, where she managed to find a few bandages. Hopefully the delay wouldn't cost her much time, but at least she wouldn't be bleeding out everywhere. The tradeoff for her magical powers was a body that was close to being indestructable, but the body couldn't move without blood, and if she bled all over the streets and rooftops she might as well be leaving a trail of bread crumbs.

After taking care of herself and dodging through the streets of the inner city, she found what she was looking for. One of the few safehouses of the Shadow Compact that she had been in contact with before. She was no stranger to the poverty-stricken areas of Aurora, having grown up in such areas since birth, and hiding herself away in dirty rat-holes like this since forming her contract. Not only were they good places to hide away from the prying eyes of the government, but the despair here was strong, which made it a great place to hunt for witches.

Few people here were happy to see her, but she was able to get the medical attention she needed from a street doctor who had been hiding away here. Nothing else was particularly important to her, and she was a long shot from caring about the opinions of any other urchins here.

"Haah, what a pain in the ass. You think you guys would be a little more grateful. I might just be taking the heat off your doorstep so you can do your own little things, whatever they are. I keep telling you, we both have the same goal, don't we?"

[User]
By the time Eponine arrived at the checkpoint in question, she would find most of the affair over, medics taking care of the injured men while a clean up crew dealt with the property damage. Of that there was very little this time, though that was not always the case in these sorts of things. Given what the apparent intent was, it wasn't unreasonable though.

She'd find Adrian there already, a tall man with black hair and more than his share of battle scars, a former mercenary that had joined up with her. He was of a particular breed, but that made him very good at what he did. "Hey Boss," he said with a nod, glancing over to the men getting treated currently, pitying them just a bit for what they had suffered. "Everything was all settled by the time I got here. You can talk to them if you want, but at this point we don't have any leads. They're looking, but given that it was a magical girl, there isn't much hope for picking up her trail."

He shrugged, a hand resting on the pistol strapped to his waist. "Still, none of the other checkpoints have reported seeing her, so odds are that she's still in this section of the city, unless she happens to have some kind of illusion magic." It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

---

There were currently two men present in the safehouse that Chloe had found herself at, one the doctor who had patched hr up, and the other one of the men who worked with the Compact, and someone decently important, in terms of this local cell. Luckily, the doctor had had it easy given the nature of his patient, and it hadn't taken much work to deal with the wounds she had received. Now she could spend the time to heal up, if she so wanted.

The safehouse was a bit small, more cozy than anything, and it was certainly well stocked with food, weapons, medical supplies, and the like. From the outside it would look like a place to be avoided, but inside it wasn't too bad. Then again, given its purpose that probably wasn't a surprise.

The contact, Oscar, a pretty average fellow who preferred to look that way, with close cropped brown hair and casual garb to match, sighed as he watched Chloe from his position, leaning against a counter top. "Yeah yeah, so you say. And you had the code words, and the name drops to get in here. But we didn't survive this long simply on blind faith." He watched her with thinly veiled distrust, not that he'd have much of a chance if she actually tried to do anything. It was a reminder that not even her nominal allies trusted her all that much. "SO what's your plan now that you're here? They're going to be looking for you."

---

The knowledge of all the plans Maria had was generally well confined, as was to be expected from someone like her. While there might have been rumors, there was no solid proof to accompany them, and as long as that remained the case it seemed that she would be allowed to make her plots in peace and security. Certainly rumors were not enough to act on, at least under the current ruler of Aurora. In the past that might have been another matter, but that was not the present moment.

For some time she would be undisturbed, until a voice spoke to her in her head, a familiar tone that she may have viewed with some disdain, yet that also served a valuable purpose, here and elsewhere. Hello Maria Goethe, Kyubey said as he emerged from around a corner as if by magic itself, which it was in all likelihood. You appear to be well.

[Assistant]
"Have this area placed on lock-down, no one leaves or enters without my permission, and have her physical description circulated to each checkpoint. And if anyone sees her, they are to attempt to inform her that I wish to parley with her."

While Adrian went about fulfilling her orders, Eponine gathered three more of her best. When Adrian returned, Eponine said, "Adrian, we're going on a manhunt."


[System]
Alias: Maelstrom
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Powers/equipment:
Electrokinesis - Hydrokinesis ;; The main fundamentals of Jason's powerset, the teenager has been a mutant since the day he was born - giving him control over both electricity, and the water molecules within the world. His body storing both of these elements in raw amounts, Jason, along with being able to manipulate and generate water and electricity at will, has the ability to absorb both of these elements in their related spectrums, and use the absorbed elements to further bolster his powers. This makes him a very versatile hero, with much potential at becoming great, but it also makes him a bit of a wildcard. Such power at his fingertips can make burning out or losing control only a footstep away, after all.

Weakness: As is expected, Jason, if he stresses out his powers too much, can become very weakened and vulnerable. Similarly, he bears a weakness towards incredible amounts of heat, due to it drying out the water within his body, and if submerged within the earth for any prolonged period of time, it begins to dampen his electrical reserves.

Personality: Although he comes off as a bit cold and/or distant at first, that's mainly because Jason doesn't create bonds very easily. Calm and focused, he is a natural leader, if only because he is confident in his ability to save others, and he has been through quite a lot in his seventeen years of living, meaning that he can lend an empathetic ear to those under his command. Regardless of this, he is a guy that enjoys his time alone, and, as thus, gives off a bit of a lone wolf vibe. He gives no mercy to enemies, and although he doesn't outright kill people...well, they do end up incredibly injured, if not outright paralyzed - literally - at times. However, get on his good side, or slide into the little cocoon of broody-steelness he has going on, then you will have a permanent, powerful guardian on your side. Despite it all, Jason does have a fun side, and is really not as stuck-up as you might think. He has a wry, sharp-witted humor that comes out naturally whenever his brain decides that a sarcastic comment is needed.

History: A boy that grew up in an over-all rough neighborhood, Jason was never a stranger to fighting. He had to become the provider within his family, as he did not have a father, and his mother was hardly reliable when it came to food and water. He took care of her and his little brother for as long as he could, stealing and getting involved in different criminal activity because of it. His powers were realized during an armed robbery, where he had been cornered by four cops, and his mask was beginning to get pulled off. He remember yelling as he shoved the cop away, water from the nearby drainage pipe blasting through the steel, and slamming the policemen into the alleywall with enough force to knock them out.

After escaping, still reeling from unlocking his power, Jason began to train his abilities in secret, whilst using them to take care of his family. It was in his early teen years when his brother was taken into child's services, and his mom arrested for negligence. Not wanting to be locked away in a foster home, Jason fled, heart broken because of the abrupt separation. Since then, he has moved between states, training his powers and learning from different people, all in the effort to make the world a better place. Quite a few years has passed since his journey has started, and he has learned and mastered a lot, from different teachers all around the world. When he was approached with the offer of joining the Teen Titans, he accepted, if only to further his ambitions.

Other:

[User]
The Titans Headquarters

Hadrian stood in a large entrance hall of the Teen Titan's new headquarters and his mind was full of anxious thoughts. Today would be his first time meeting the entire team and that would mean he would have to hope that their first meeting together would go smoothly. For a long time Hadrian had fears that this idea of a group of teenage heroes would be a disaster and they would all get killed, but he would have to rely on faith that everything would work out.

"Their files are fine and they all have great power, but I just hope that they will work well with this team" he said to himself as he waited for their arrival. Hadrian wasn't use to working in groups and this was all going to be new to him. With how much trouble that the Justice League had to handle nowadays ever since the trinity disappeared and the world's troubles had risen, it was his hope that this team would help bring some order back into the world.

They would be in for a wild ride when they begin to do hero work as a team. Their headquarters was built with the help of the League and it was located in an obscure part of the woodlands of New York State. A hidden base was wise now that so much hatred against superhumans was everywhere and they would need to stay hidden. Hadrian never thought that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were so integral to keeping the civil peace in the world.

Now there were all sorts of hate groups both human and metahuman going around attacking those who did not follow their ideologies. There would need to be order brought back into the world if peace was going to ever be achieved again. Some of the League members were still wondering what happened to the trinity, but Hadrian was more focused on making sure that entities who had given him his powers did not return and bring complete chaos with them.

Hadrian wanted to focus more on helping bring down criminals and fighting against the hate groups to keep the public safe. Deep down in his mind something told him that it may be a bad decision to not focus on finding out what had happened to the big three, but he looked past that and wanted get into combating villains and using his powers for good.

[Assistant]
Ever since arriving in this new world, Light had to get acclimated to quite a few things. For one, it had a lot of entertaining books and movies. Another, there were a lot of 'special' beings with super powers. And third, while the Justice League was fairly nice to her, normal people as she learned, weren't super keen on seeing her at times unless she was fighting crime or something. It made watching movies really akward when most people gave her a wide birth minus a few people who well... She wasn't fans of them.

Light made her way to the location of a new base, having been told to be part of a team called the 'Teen Titans'. She kinda understood why they put the building in the woodlands of New York, but was still annoyed with the location being so far away from a city. She arrived at the base second, which confused her since she wasn't in much of a hurry to get there. Noticing one of her new team members, she pulled out a hole from inside her dress and jumped into it, another hole appearing in front of Hadrian in which Light popped out of.

"Hiya, I'm Light, who are you?" She said with a smile on her face, extending one of her hands for him to shake. "Is this a duo thing or...?" She said, puzzled.

[User]
---

Celeste stretched up into the air as she awoke, almost as if she was reaching up to grab the very stars that she fell from. She slid out of bed and pranced over to her bathroom before showering and getting dressed. She wore an oversized black sweater, a plaid skirt, tights and flat shoes. Along with this, was a baseball cap worn backwards, in a vain effort to hide her 'secret' identity. Suffice to say, her fashion sense was limited to what she saw on the internet, namely on something called 'tumblr'.

She had received a message, about joining something called 'The Teen Titans'. To tell the truth, most of the situations in which Celeste found herself in was due to pure bad luck. Taking out a withdrawal at the bank? You better believe that a robbery would take place. Walking past an orphanage? Of course a new fire based villain would be attacking it. Heck, she even had to deal with some condiment based villain while at Burger King with a few of her friends.

While she had very little to do today, other than watching a documentary on whales that she had been waiting what felt like weeks to be shown again, she felt an urge to not meet the titans. She couldn't tell what it was, but something in her stomach told her that meeting them could be a bad idea. Although that could have just been the copious amount of pears she had eaten the night before. Ever since discovering them, they had far surpassed anything she had ever tasted.

She took deep breaths, considering her options. She could either go to the meeting, risk potential death or dismemberment, have her 'identity' revealed and face social exclusion should she survive. Or, she could not go, live a life of boredom and stick to the same process of watching nature documentaries, crying at the bits with koala bears and eating pears for the rest of her young life.

Obviously, she chose the first option.

She left her small apartment and scurried to the back alley. There was no quicker way of getting around New York than flying, in her experience. She looked to the sky, crouched and shot off into the sky like a reverse meteor. Zipping and swooping around the clouds was fun, for sure, but also dangerous to the careless or distracted. In fact, Celeste had managed to doge multiple birds and jet engines just by a hair in this flight alone, she should really have flown a lot closer to the ground.

Soon enough, she found herself diving towards the meeting place. At the same time, she found herself wondering how they'd tracked her down. It would take a smarter person than her to realize that while the cap hid her horns, it did not hide her constantly changing purple hair or ears.

She landed just in front of a large steel door. With a layer of anxiety, she pushed the door open and began making her way in. As if by chance she found herself behind what looked to be an alien. This did more than excite, Celeste, it got her hopes up so high they had hired window cleaners. She walked up to the two, a grin on her face as she stood beside, Light.
"Hello!" She practically shouted, her excitement obvious. "I'm here for the Titans thingy!" She said, pointing out the obvious as per usual. She turned to Light, her grin growing slightly wider. "I am very sorry if this sounds rude, but are you an alien?" She asked, excited at the prospect of not being the only alien on the team.

[Assistant]
 One thing about not having a permanent home, was that he was never really connected to one specific town or city. It was with fleeting indifference that one tall, black-haired teenager slung a duffelbag over his shoulder, exiting the rather...crummy apartment that he had called his own for the past few months. The teenager was pretty striking, all things considered. Dressed in a dark blue, collared jacket, with a black t-shirt underneath, jeans, and sneakers, with chocolate-brown skin, sharp blue eyes, and long, dark dreads tied back into a low ponytail, the teenager beared the look of someone his age, yet, on his shoulders, he seemed to carry an invisible burden. He was tall, with a build that was partially hidden behind his clothing. However, one could not deny the broad shoulders and over-all lean, athletic physique his clothing could not completely hide. He walked briefly down the sidewalk of the rather...shady neighborhood, not making eye contact with anyone. When the coast seemed to be clear, and no attention was one his form, he casually took a step into a dark alleyway.

Jason ducked into the alley, sitting his black duffelbag down on the grimy concrete, and cracking his knuckles. The location of their HQ was a while away, but it wasn't too hard to travel when you possessed super-powers. He just had to be discreet, due to the idiotic hate humans seemed to possess for the unnatural. While he would normally scoff at the prospect of being within a team of teenagers, something had...pushed him to accept the proposition. It was something in his gut, telling him that rejecting the offer would be a grave mistake, and although Jason enjoyed looking things over and using his own, personal tactics...his gut instinct could never be ignored, and he had accepted the offer. The anonymous messenger had left immediately after, leaving Jason to pack his things and go to the meeting place. The woodlands of New York State. He actually didn't live too far away, having traveled to the big NY on his journey of crime-fighting and travelling, so he would not have to travel too far.

A quick glance around showed that the alley would be safe, for now. Raising a fist to chest length, Jason clenched his fist, feeling his lips twitch as the hand was immediately covered in arcing bolts of light blue electricity. The alley beginning to light up from the constant build-up of energy, Jason crouched down and strapped his duffelbag to his shoulders once more, raising his right fist this time. As the electricity arched between the two fists, Jason glanced, once more, towards the alleyway's exit, before dashing forward. In a show of acrobatic prowess, he flipped off of the dumpster's lid, flipping forward onto the side of the alley-wall, before richocheting off and throwing his fists downwards. In a sudden, sharp zap of twin electricity blasts, the teenager was catapulted into the air like a missile, leaving behind two scorch marks on the concrete, and the lingering scent of ozone.

"Wooooh!"

Jason could not help but grin as he blasted quickly into the sky, flipping around so that he was facing the clouds. Reaching both hands up, he quickly gathered more electricity within his fists, twisting around in the air again, and blasting the gathered electricity out like a jet. The wind resistance didn't faze him as he propelled through the air like a bullet, leaving behind thick arcs of blue electricity in his wake. Within minutes, travelling at high speeds, he had passed the New York barrier, and was flying quickly over the woodlands.

Taking the messenger's information to heart, Jason temporarily stopped the steady blasts of electricity, making a dive-bomb towards the forest. At the last second, before he hit the tree-tops, he expertly sent a wave of electricity dowards, stopping his momentum.

'He said that it was more to the North...' The teenager glanced around from where he was levitating just above the tree-tops, all stemming from the static electricity currently flowing from his arms and hands. surveying the forest around him, Jason began to head North, his eyes taking in each piece of scenery. A glint of metal caught his eye, and the tell-tale sign of the base came into view. He dutifully dusted off the leaves, walking towards the entrance.

Opening the steel door, he began walking through the bright, cold hallway, coming across yet another door, that led into a long, large hallway. It wasn't long father that before he caught sight of three people, all seemingly around the same age - except for the one male, who looked to be...fourteen? Thirteen?

"This is the place? Fancy..." He glanced at each of them in return, committing their faces to memory. They seemed practical enough...Well, somewhat. The younger girl seemed rather...well, small, although she had some pretty funky hair, and the boy just looked like a kid. The oldest looking female seemed formidable, however. Very tall, at least. They stood eye-to-eye, at 6'2".


[System]
Age: 35

Gender: Female

Appearance Without Armor: What she would have looked like if not for the Human-Covenant War

Appearance With Armor: Armor but it is all black

Homeworld: Earth

Race: Human

Rank: Spartan

Position: Spartan IV

Primary Weapon: MA5B Individual Combat Weapon System (suppressed) with underslung shotgun

Secondary Weapon: Dual M7S Submachine Gun (built in suppressor)

Personality: She appears emotionally detached and resigned, as if she feels a quiet resolve about something that cannot be altered. She masks the countenance of the classic "poker-face," making her difficult to read by friends, family, and co-workers. In fact, her face looks like a mask, long-drawn as if weighted by the gravity of her burdens. When her eyes are not frustratingly impassive, they can appear, in a poetic sense, like dark chasms that act as reservoirs for the failures, disappointments, and losses of humanity. Her gaze you may see the flickering images of what the whole of mankind has endured in the universe.

The first rule in getting along with the Jennifer is to honor her natural penchant for being quiet and taciturn. Indeed, her detached and deadpan delivery can lend an inscrutable air to her mannerisms but their willingness to stand unruffled against the bustle of life can also be a source of serenity to those around her. Learn to enjoy this silence as a tranquil truce with the incessant fury of a clamorous world.

She is a person of few words, and never wants to belabor a point; she favors direct communication that cuts to the chase without unnecessary tangents or verbal flourishes. A simple thumbs up or down will often suffice when communicating with her.

Bio: Born in Central Virginia in 2527. In 2545 at the age of eighteen she joined the Marine Corps. She eventually became an ODST. During the Battle of New Virginia in 2550 two battalions of Army & Marines were sent to assault a Covenant facility, while twenty ODST were dropped behind enemy lines. After six days the Covenant facility was destroyed. Watters had to be rushed into surgery to save her life. She had to have both eyes were replaced with Ocular Implants, her arms and legs were replaced with permanent artificial limbs. She spent the next year in the hospital and physical therapy. After completing physical therapy she began training Marines to become ODST. In June of 2553 she was approached to join the Spartan-IV Program.

Misc Info: She is a Wetwork Specialist. She currently has the Smart A.I. Taber Fuson (approximate appearance).

Name: Felicia Steele

Age: 34

Gender: Female

Appearance Without Armor: What she looks like What she wears when not expecting combat

Appearance With Armor (If they do wear it.): What she wears when expecting combat

Homeworld: Nomad

Race: Human

Rank: Gray Jedi Guardian

Position: Republic

Primary Weapon: Dual Lightsaber/Blaster Hybrid (capable of interlocking to become a Double-bladed Lightsaber)
*The blades are electric blue in color.
*They feature a built-in length adjustment setting, but also are dual-phase allowing for rapid transitions between two sets of preset lengths. She chose the standard blade length and shoto length.
*They incorporate the Bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulse so they can function underwater.
*They incorporate the trapped grip modification.

Secondary Weapon: Light-shield
*The shield is electric blue in color
*It features a built-in surface are adjustment setting, but it is also dual-phase allowing for rapid transitions between 0.3 meters and 1.1 meters.
*It incorporates the Bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulse so it can function underwater.

Personality: Felicia believes that there is absolutely nothing positive or negative about the Force, it is the individual's actions that are positive or negative. Her unorthodox approach to the Force kept her permanently at odds with the Jedi Council. She preferred to stop a threat before it was a threat, or in its infancy, the Council disagreed, leaving Felicia to no choice but to set out on her own. She is also open about his opinions to the point of tactlessness.

Bio: Felicia was discovered to be Force Sensitive at the age of sixteen. After achieving knighthood she sat out on her own, she kept in contact with the Jedi Council but found she could no longer be beholden to them. During her travels she was forced to put an end to some slavers, she allowed them to live, stranded on a planet that while livable most unpleasant. She took their ship.

Misc Info: She named her ship Steele Falcon. Her armor incorporates vambraces in each arm, they are capable of withstanding the cutting power of Lightsabers.

Name: Talyssa "Taly" Hawkethorn

Age: 22

Gender: Female

Appearance Without Armor: What she looks like What she wears when not expecting combat

Appearance With Armor (If they do wear it.): What she wears when expecting combat

Homeworld: Zeltros

Race: Zeltron

Rank: Gray Jedi Apprentice

Position: Republic

Primary Weapon: Dual Guard Shoto Lightsabers
*The blades are electric Pink-Purple in color.
*They incorporate the Bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulse so they can function underwater.
*They incorporate the trapped grip modification.
*Fibercords were attached to each to prevent theft by a telekinetic.
*Hilts are made out of Phrik so that the hilt can be used to block other Lightsabers.

Secondary Weapon: Single Crossguard Lightsaber
*The shield is electric Pink-Purple in color
*They feature a built-in length adjustment setting, but also are dual-phase allowing for rapid transitions between two sets of preset lengths. She chose the standard blade length and shoto length.
*It incorporates the Bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulse so it can function underwater.

Personality: Like most Zeltrons, Taly was fond of partying, and although she would later pursue a career in her life, this liking would never disparate. Her wardrobe contained a wide range of tight and revealing attire for everyday use, swimwear, armor, and various other occasions. Additionally, her usual clothing was fashionable, flashy, and bright, often in neon colors similar to her own natural tones. Additionally, her species could generate pheromones to enhance their attractiveness, and had the empathic ability to read and feel the emotions of others. This made her very persuasive. She also sought to meet her sexual desires. One of Taly's greatest traits was her loyalty to her friends.

Bio: Taly was born into slavery. Around the time she reached puberty her owner fell into financial trouble. He was forced to sell almost everything to settle his debts and stay alive. As a result Taly was sold to a man who was looking for female dancers. He trained Taly to steal from her targets as she danced for them. After five years she caught the attention of Felicia who sensed Taly's connection with the force. Felicia gathered evidence that could lead to Taly's master going to jail if not worse from certain individuals who were swindled out of their money. In exchange for the evidence Taly was to be set free. Felicia took Taly and began teaching her in the ways of the Force, spent most of her training aboard the Steele Falcon. Now that she has advanced to the level of apprentice Felicia takes her on some missions.

Misc Info: Her armor incorporates vambraces in each arm, they are capable of withstanding the cutting power of Lightsabers.

Name: HK-51

Age: Unknown

Gender: Masculine Programming

Appearance Without Armor: What she looks like

Appearance With Armor (If they do wear it.): N/A

Homeworld: Nar Shaddaa

Race: Droid

Rank: N/A

Position: unsure what to put here

Primary Weapon: Sniper Rifle

Secondary Weapon: Vibroknife

Personality: HK-51's personality programming caused him to appear misanthropic, bordering on sociopathic, to those who encountered him. The droid enjoyed observing—and often causing—death and destruction, showing complete disregard for bystanders on more than one occasion. Despite this, HK-51's programming caused the assassin droid to maintain a protocol of professionalism, preventing him from senselessly slaughtering his way to his target. The only organics HK-51 displayed any respect for were his masters. He was more than willing, on several occasions while serving his master, to dispose of anyone who annoyed his master.

HK-51 displayed several unique behavioral tendencies as a result of his programming. HK-51 had a definite sense of pride and considered himself to be superior to all organics and droids except for his master, who was the only person he seemed to admire. The droid also had a peculiar and perverted idea of the concept of love. He further mused that love was a matter of odds and found it odd that although most "meatbags" could not make such a shot, not many would derive a feeling of love from it. HK-51 had a unique speech trait and vocally prefixed every statement he made with a speech conditional that described the type of statement that it was.

Due to his appearance, HK-51, was often mistaken by many for a protocol droid. He used this to his advantage on more than one occasion, hiding his true nature in order to covertly achieve his goals. HK-51 was a proficient killer, as well as highly innovative, using many varied techniques.

Bio: Felicia Steele after confiscating the ship that would be renamed into Steele Falcon found a deactivated and partially assembled HK-51 droid. She activated it and had it bond with her, becoming his master. The first thing he inquired about was the status of his previous master; after being informed of their deaths he just snickered at least he snickered to the best of his vocal processor's ability. With his help Felicia was able to acquire the rest of the pieces needed to make him fully functional.

Misc Info: Kind of wants to kill Felicia and obtain a master who is more willing to put his assassination protocols to use.

[User]
The Major and his squadmate started quietly down the hall as Khazo was giving them orders. However, when he abruptly stopped talking, that caused the two to look at each other before sprinting down the hallway to Khazo's location. They eventually stopped atop of his location, the minor looking puzzled, "How is he in the floor? Isn't the next floor a further distance away than that?"

Reza nodded, "Correct. There must be a shaft of some kind here." Reza holstered his plasma rifles and pulled his plasma launcher from his back, "I'm going to blast my way through and provide cover-fire for 'Tevum, you remain here and assist him out of the breach I make. After that, keep up with him while I slow down the heretics before joining you."

With a nod of confirmation from the minor, Reza fired two explosive plasma bolts onto the floor before backing away. At the safer distance, the Major holstered his weapon and drew out his two plasma rifles again. When the plasma bolts finally blew, they made an awkwardly sized hole that Reza now dropped down into. Taking a quick glance around, Reza noticed the demon and a human wielding an odd colored beam on either side of himself, along with Khazo and the hostage just to his left. Without much thought, the Major pointed one plasma rifle at the demon and the other at the human with the oddly colored beam and started to fire. He then spoke quickly to Khazo in his native tongue, "Go."

[Assistant]
Jason appeared in the hallway behind Spartan Watters. "Coming up on your right" He said in a statement to ensure the Spartan didn't turn on him or anything. The boy stopped and looked at the elite holding onto the scientist. Jason very calmly took his Spartan Laser off his back. "Let the lady and the high tech thingy go, Split Jaw. You know exactly what this is gonna do to you" He said calmly.

The Spartan then changes to the private Comm Link with his fellow Spartan. "Watters who's the person in the odd armor. Should I be worried about her or is she one of the guys lending us a hand?" He says simply as he keeps his focus on the Elite. Hoping the stupid dinosaur was dumb enough to make a move a with the woman. He hadn't killed any Split Jaws today.

When the firing started, Jason raised his Spartan Laser and started teasing the charge on it, letting the Elite with the rifles see the laser on his chest. "Please. Make my day" Jason said calmly. Hoping that his fellow Spartan would take the Hostage. The much bigger Spartan was probably better to take on the Elite at close range than Jason was.


[System]
Gender: Straight female

Age: 14

Appearance: Picture Above

Background: Mina is very much like a kuudere (only occasionally shows her caring side), and because of this, she acts very cold to others. This is only because her father passed away when Mina was only 3 due to cancer, and her mother passed away three years later in a car accident. Her older brother, Max (21 yrs), lives with Mina. Max can be considered the only person she regularly talks to.

Relations: Because Mina is a kuudere, she does not have any friends. She will reply with one-word phrases if someone talks to her, but as soon as she becomes friends with somebody, she'll be like an open book.

Power:

[User]
Hal was off-put, even slightly shocked, as Alden's bandages brushed against him. Hal pried his arm away from Alden, brushing it off.

"It's only stupid if it doesn't work. Plus, Largent's a tank. It's about time someone put him in his place, and I know you wouldn't be keen on scraping guts off the floor." Hal smirked at Alden's glare. "Just because you wouldn't wanna get dirty doesn't mean I'm not going to. No one likes Largent, people will be on my side. Right?"

This last line was said with some lack of confidence, but Hal shook his head, sticking to his plan. At the very least, Hal thought, Richard will owe me for taking his beating for him. If everything goes perfectly, I'll be a hero. If it fails.... well, I'll be nice enough.

[Assistant]
Thursday March 21st, 2016

Mina actually considered following The Boy With the Book to the nurse's room. What's wrong with me?

She tried to ignore his smirk, and headed towards the cafeteria. There was a seat that she always sat in, and she hoped no one had taken it. When she walked into the room, loud music and chatter filled her ears. She tried to act like she didn't care that her ears were being blasted off, and walked to the chair in the corner. Once there, she took out her lunch, a ham and cheese sandwich, and also her book.

Halfway through lunch, she noticed people muttering and staring at her while passing by. Although she was used to being stared at, she wasn't exactly sure why they were talking about her in her face. Mina ignored it, like she always does, and kept on reading the book.

"Please God, please God, can you please tell me why? I ask this of you, yet in my heart, I know,"  she read. I do know. I do know why people are talking about me. Mina sighed. I shouldn't have talked so much to The Boy With the Book.

[User]
When Ricky picked her up and hauled her away, Sophia pouted and proceeded to kick his butt with her heels until he finally put her down. Of course, this only gave her the opportunity to turn around and jump right back on, this time clinging with her arms hugging his shoulders and legs wrapped around his waist, her head cheerfully perched on his shoulder. As they walked away, she glanced behind them, frowning thoughtfully. Awe, I wanted to watch her draw more. A crafty smile formed on her face. I'll just have to catch her again.

---

Naturally, things simply had to go downhill from there. Third period math was boring, as per usual, and by the time lunch rolled around, Sophia's head was pounding and she was ready eat just about anything, even the cafeteria's "stew surprise", or rather "whatever leftovers they couldn't pawn off to the kids thrown into a pot and boiled overnight". Sometimes detention really sucked when you had to spend it helping out the lunch ladies.

Everything went from bad to worse, once they got to the cafeteria, and Ricky ran into Lardo. Literally. The collision left both of them on the floor, and Lardo's lunch making some rather nice looking art on his shirt. In an instant, Sophia crouched and started running her hands over Ricky, checking him over while neatly interposing herself between the two. The last thing she wanted was a fight before she had something to eat.

[Assistant]
Micky made his way to his third class, Math. There wasn't anything interesting going on in math, at least, nothing Micky found interesting. It was your average class routine; Review the homework, complete a work sheet out of the text book, than finish off with more assigned homework. Nothing special. Micky didn't realize how quickly the day was going now that his hardest class, Phys. Ed, was now over. Math flew by and the bell eventually rang, indicating it was lunch.

Micky wlked down the halls and made his way to his locker where he would grab the few dollars he had for lunch. I't would be a strong argument to say that the lunch food wasn't worth paying for, but Micky had no other choice. Other than the Roof over his head and food on the table, Micky was quite independent. Micky didn't make his own lunch, not for any specific reason. The change jingled in his pocket as he walked through the halls and into the cafeteria. He got a bit nervous when he realized how much noise his money was making. In the past, he had numerous incidents where bullies would hassle him for his money. It happened only once at this school by a boy named Largent.

Of course, the amount of money he had wasn't a big enough pot for Largent to want it, but the thought still remained. Realistically, that incident with Largent might never happen again, but with a past like Micky's you can never be to paranoid. Micky walked into the cafeteria and saw the scene that was unraveling.

"Speak of the devil..." Micky whispered to himself.

He joined the crowed of gawking students, shuffling his way to the front of the crowed. He recognized the boy opposite of Largent, although his name was a mystery to Micky. Regardless, of who the boy was, this was a scenario you wouldn't wish on your enemy.

"The boy's a dead man" Micky said, His words getting mixed in with those of all the other students.

[User]
Thursday march 21st, 2016

This is going to really suck Richard thought as, behind Sophia, Largent surged to his feet, like the leviathan rising up from the infinite depths. Spaghetti fell from his shirt, landing on the linoleum underfoot with a squelching sound. His face was red, eyes wide and teeth bared in a feral snarl of rage. Largent stepped forward, shoving Sophia bodily to the side and he reached down and grabbed a double fistful of Richards shirt, hauling the smaller boy to his feet, and then up, onto his tip toes.

"Do you want to die?" he snarled, face inches away from Richard. "Is that what this is about? I'd be happy to help, really, but I'm sure you could have found a les painful way to go about it." He let go with one hand, pulled his arm back, and slammed his fist forward into Richards gut. If he'd been standing on his own Richard would have folded completely around the blow as the air rushed out of his lungs and he was left with barely the strength in his legs needed to stand on his own.

Richard flailed and squirmed, trying to pull away from Largents grip to no avail. The other boy was simply too strong. Richards head was leaned back, doing his best to avoid the stench of stale cigarettes on Largent's breath and as he looked up at the ceiling a brilliant thought popped into his head. He didn't give himself time to think about it, because if he did, he was reasonably certain that he would talk himself out of it. With his head tilted back he screwed his eyes shut, body tensing in preparation, and suddenly jerked forward as hard as he could. The crown of Richards head met with Largent's protruding nose with a sickening crunching sound. There was a gush of warm blood and Largent bellowed suddenly, letting Richard fall, dazed, to the floor. Stars bloomed behind Richards closed eyelids and he slowly sat up, his head pounding and elbows stinging from attempting to catch himself in his fall.

Did I really just head-butt Largent? he thought and looked up. Largent had both hands clasped to his face, blood leaking from between his fingers and a murderous look in his eyes that sent a series of cold shivers down Richards spine.

"That didn't make things any better," he muttered. "Come on, Soph, we gotta get out of here before he kills me." He croaked, still barely able to draw in any breath.

[Assistant]
Hal stood there in the crowd, frozen. He hadn't expected Richard to fight back. He couldn't remember a single time anyone wanted to fight back against Largent. And suddenly, the kid who was friends with the mute just broke the brute's nose. Hal dropped the tray in his hand. Maybe Stuck Up was right. Live to fight another day.

Hal slunk deeper into the crowd, leaving the tray on the ground. Trying to use the crowd as cover, he nudged his way out from behind Largent closer to the front, where Richard and Sophie were trying to escape. At the very least, Hal could make sure that they were okay.

Somebody had to.

[User]
Hal would find that someone was already filling in for the position he was trying to take. Blake had pushed through the crowd a bit too late to stop the initial swinging, but he was definitely there in time to cover Richard and Sophia's escape. "Holy geez man, it sounded like you broke his nose!" he remarked as he tried helping him up. "But seriously," he lowered his voice, "Get the heeeeeeeck out of here while you can. I'll meatshield you!" He seemed earnest about his intentions and gestured for them to get going, taking a moment to look back at Largent to see if he'd gotten back up.

Blake had plenty of pluck to square off with Largent if need be, but there was just something... very imposing about him in general. Breaking up fights had been scary at first, but he eventually toughened up to be able to handle a few swings and return a few if need be. But with Largent... Geez, the guy just seemed a lot more intimidating than any of the other guys he's had to deal with up to now. It made him feel uneasy about intervening, but his moral code wouldn't abide by him backing out now.

[Assistant]
Sometimes, the oddest things can go through a person's mind at the strangest times. For Sophia, it was Getting pushed to the ground hurts. She had landed heavily on her shoulder, and had her arm not come up, she would have cracked her head on the floor as well. Both facts came to together to demonstrate her error in judgement: it was obvious that Largent did not care about who he hurt.

She looked up just in time to see Largent punch Richard in the stomach, nearly lifting him clear off the floor by his shirt, and she was in the process of standing up when Richard rammed his head into Largent's nose. Sophia was mildly impressed; she hadn't ever seen him hit someone before. Unfortunately, while his attempt at self-defense did succeed in gaining him freedom, it also had the unfortunate side effect of making Largent even angrier. "Ou biddle shid!"

Largent stood well over a foot taller than Sophia, and probably had a good 20 - 30 pounds on her. For such a big person, he could move awfully quickly when he wanted to. Unfortunately for him, Sophia was faster, and she was quite a bit angrier.

As the bigger boy swung his fist towards Richard's face, Sophia once again interposed herself between them, catching Largent's wrist with her forearm and batting aside his attack. Before he had a chance to react, she struck, jabbing her hand up and catching his throat in the V between her thumb and forefinger. His angry snarl gave way to a choking gurgle, and his eyes bulged as he found his airway temporarily blocked. Not giving his a chance to recover, Sophia seized his shirt and drove her knee straight into his crotch, sending Largent doubling over. Still not finished, she clapped her hands on his ears and yanked down, bringing her knee up to meet his forehead. As Largent stumbled backwards, Sophia spun and drove her foot into his stomach, driving the air from his lungs and toppling him onto his back. Standing over the fallen boy, Sophia waggled her finger at him, as though she was looking at an errant child throwing a tantrum.

Ignoring the stunned silence of the crowd, she turned and helped Richard to his feet, leading him through the parting crowd of bodies. As they put some distance behind them, the weight balance between the pair slowly shifted, until she wasn't so much supporting him as he was supporting her. When they reached a semi-secluded spot, Sophia pulled away and leaned against the wall, clutching at her knee and whimpering as tears pooled in her eyes.


[System]
Species: Tekeri

Appearance: Kareet appears fairly average, compared to most Tekeri. She has deep black, generally well-kept feathers and stands at about 6'11". Like all Tekeri, she naturally stands with something of a hunched posture, which, along with her serrated beak, sharp talons, and four piercing red eyes, would give her a rather feral, monstrous appearance to a Human observer. At first impressions, all that might set her apart from an animal would be her unusually clean feathers and polished beak.

Magical Affiliation: Lightning Domain Proficiency

Occupation: Seeker of the Order of Sages

Key Skills: Engineering, Wilderness survival, Combat magic training

Backstory: Kareet's early childhood was, in its entirety, unremarkable. 'Kareet' was not her original name, as the original was left behind with her former life. She was hatched to a peasant family in the lowest rungs of Arcaeda, but she was in her seventh year when her fate shifted. In Arcaeda, per the decree of the Archmagister, all children must receive at least one year of magical education, provided by the state. With the Archmagister's vision of Arcaeda as a modern city with magic at its core, the education primarily serves to ensure that every citizen knows what to expect of magic in the city, and how to efficiently work around it. However, it also serves a secondary purpose. In most species, children are more easily able to awaken to magic than adults, so these classes have allowed the city to expand its number of magic-capable citizens.

While the majority of children each year are unable to use magic, a small percentage, like Kareet, experience their awakenings, which then necessitates that the child must be trained in the usage of magic. In the event that the child belongs to a family that is unable to facilitate that training, then the state invokes what is called the "Law of Correction" to claim guardianship over the child. For Kareet, it meant being removed from the care of her former family and adopted officially by the Order of Magisters. While the Law of Correction can be contested, few ever attempt it, either because they recognize their child would have far greater opportunities in life with magical training, or because they are afraid of being unable to do what would be required to successfully challenge it. Kareet does not know her birth parents' reasons, nor has she ever cared.

Kareet was raised, by and large, by the Order of Magisters, which afforded her a proper education, including writing, logic, and mathematics, as well as training in forms of magic for which she had an affinity. For Kareet, that was the Lightning Domain. For youth trained by the Order of Magisters, their instruction encompassed the core skills of their chosen magic for most known applications, military and civilian. Kareet learned of how the Ascendancy had come to use her Domain, primarily magnetism, in construction and engineering, as well as receiving appropriate training in combat magic.

Magister's training provided a strong base for Kareet's knowledge of her Domain. To continue with the Order of Magisters would have brought her along the path of a battlemage to learn more of military tactics and improve her ability in "battlefield" magic. However, her interests brought her instead to transfer to the Order of Sages upon her graduation; not an uncommon choice, for the more academically inclined. Over half of the mages within the Order of Sages were, at one point, members of the Order of Magisters.

Within the Ascendancy, the purview of the Order of Sages is the accumulation and advancement of all knowledge, magical and non-magical. It is the combination of both which drives Kareet. While she certainly still seeks to improve her magical prowess, she finds herself intrigued by the concept of how magic and invention can be combined. For her trial of proving, she traveled beyond the Ascendancy, spending time in the settlements of several nations, from the capital of Mythadia itself, to remote settlements small enough not to appear on most maps. She made a particular effort to immerse herself in the practices of magic from other cultures. The Sages taught that all knowledge was worth collecting, regardless of origin.

Upon her return to Arcaeda, Kareet worked to make her contribution to the Sages' collective knowledge. Simply returning with something unique that was not part of their records, even if it was minor, would have been sufficient for her trial, but she did not wish to settle for sufficient with the mark she would make. Over about a year, she worked on concepts and designs that incorporated the capabilities of magic into her knowledge of engineering. Eventually, it was a device she had witnessed in Mythadia that inspired her own creation. Force mages were commonly used in many parts of the world to aid in construction, but she had observed a kind of elevator for lifting huge stones that used pulleys operated by a series of metal gears. A lightning mage needed only to turn a single gear to operate the elevator, which could hoist stones heavy enough to normally require several force mages to move. After working through a few concepts, Kareet managed to apply that idea to a siege engine. The idea of using mages to operate more powerful siege engines was nothing new, but Kareet focused on achieving that power more efficiently. Her final prototype was a ballista that used a similar gear and pulley system that a single lightning mage could operate, which was just as powerful as similar weapons that usually required multiple force mages.

At present, Kareet has been granted the rank of Seeker within the Order of Sages, in light of her skills and interests. Seekers are generally the more independent and combat-capable of the order's members who specialize in the search for knowledge, regardless of the dangers that may be required to obtain it.

[User]
Kaqir's exuberance was quickly tempered by the sight of the Glen. Gods above. It was nothing she couldn't fix, of course, but the fact that they seemed to have carted him across such wild roads with an injury like this... well, it couldn't have been pleasant, to say the least. His voice was too tight around his thanks, all scratch and scrape and—no. It would be fine. She tipped her head in what she hoped was a reassurance. "You're welcome, sir. This should only take a moment."

Pressing a talon to his chest, she took a deep breath.

Bone and blood and sinew screamed into her touch. His ribs were thoroughly cracked—though whatever broke them had the decency to leave him with a clean fracture. A direct blow, and a strong one at that. He certainly looked the fighting type. Who were these people? A noblewoman and her guards? Her gaze caught on the Iriad. They looked far too interesting to mix with high society, even in some place as open-minded as the Ascendancy. And the fellow Tekeri clearly had enough of an understanding of magic to be familiar with Life practices. Perhaps a group of bounty hunters?

She shook the thoughts from her mind. She was getting paid to heal, not investigate. It didn't matter who they were.

Closing her eyes, she smothered the urgent cries of his pain receptors. He didn't need to feel what was to come. That was a step you only had to miss once. Diagrams crumpled in her head, fresh ink on old paper. She'd operated on very few Glen, but their anatomy was still familiar, if a bit more mammalian than she was used to. Her notes were messy but memorable, and that's what mattered. The anterior chest cavity of a Glen was much sturdier than that of a Tekeri. There was no need of coaxing, just command. Her magic seized the marrow, stretching it to the severed fragment and twisting inside. That helped fuel the shell of periosteum, lengthening the ribcage back to its normal size. His lungs seemed to be unharmed. It was almost eerie to hear their rasp without a pulse between them.

Fortunately, his lower ribs fared better than those in his upper half. Some minor contusions along the muscle and inner bone, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some expedited tissue cleaning. His heart, which was nestled in this set of lungs, beat healthily.

Exhaling slowly, she awoke his deadened nerves and withdrew. A few lingering cells tugged at her attention: scattered scars beneath his cuirass, burns curling across his arm, old bruises yellow beneath his fur. They weren't things meant to be healed, though—if he had allowed their presence this long, they were a part of him. Memories. Warnings. Badges, maybe.

She met his eyes and smiled. "There we go! You should be all healed up. Do let me know if anything still hurts."

[Assistant]
The bridge
Wodan picked one hell of a time to come online. A proximity alarm pinged twice around the bridge as the Jotunheim's radar picked up six locked-on missiles. Everyone leapt into action.

"Evasive action, NOW!" Zey shouted, diving towards her seat. Bosko immediately went to full speed ahead on the main engines and yanked the control yoke. The Jotunheim's beetle-like shape exploded forward and pulled up towards the dawn sky, but it was too late. The missiles were moving at 1,200 metres per second, and there was no way the hulking spacecraft could avoid them all. The first missile went straight towards the bulbous shuttle bay on the side.

The shuttle bay
Ezra threw the spasming spider droid onto the shuttle bay floor, gritting his teeth from the pain. He quickly looked down and dipped his fingers into a rip in the undercoat covering his right arm. His fingers came back red with blood - the robot had cut him.

He looked back up at Eva as she came over to grab the spider. He crouched down and picked his assault rifle quickly back up, then stalked towards her.

"No more games. Open this door or I'll-"

The deck shifted dramatically under their feet and the engines shook the deck under their feet. Everything seemed to move at once - an unsecured box smashed into the soldier's legs and he stumbled into Eva. Darnell shouted, staggered and fell back hard into a row of jump seats. The airlock door opened, and the sound and sight of screaming civilians could be heard in the service corridor, then they closed again.

Then a massive explosion ripped through the bay. The ramp fell slightly open, and a section of the hull in the corner buckled and burst. Flames gushed in, whipped up by the wind. A maelstrom of shrapnel made a sound like tinkling glass as it impacted surfaces. One of the large straps securing the shuttle snapped as a siren blared.

---

The second missile fizzed past the ship and exploded in front of the bridge as Bosko violently levelled out of its upwards ascent and turned it to the right. A long, thin pleasure craft veered out of the way to avoid crashing into the Jo, and moved straight into the path of the third and fourth missile.

The last two projectiles soared straight into the engine shielding, and the whole aft crackled with bright blue energy. The kinetic barrier forced the missiles to explode early - a savage shockwave buffeted the hull and shook the insides.

Engineering
Zhao strapped in, her face illuminated by glowing in the light of various displays crowded around her.

"Power spike! Someone talk to me!"

"It's the FTL drive ma'am, it's jumping all on its own!" Varen shot back. Vigdis would see dangerous fluctuations in her console's readings.

"Kill it, now!" Zhao commanded.

"It's not responding!"

The noise was unbearable. The shields were screeching, and now the FTL's whine had rapidly risen to a crescendo.

"Engineering to Bridge, emergency jump imminent" Zhao yelled into her comms piece.

The sky was dark, and full of stars over Kanth-Amerek. The only sounds one could hear in the wilderness was the rustle of foliage and call of animals. These calls turned into frantic screeching as a thunderous boom rolled over the land and echoed off the far hills of the Ascendency. The sky flashed, like with lightning, and a dull mauve scar seared into the atmosphere. A bright ball of flame emerged, and hurtled towards the ground.

The Bridge
Zey had only just made it to her seat and strapped in before the panicked call from engineering. Her eyes had involuntarily closed against the bright flash, and now gouts of flame erupted from the shield cabling below the Bridge cockpit windows. The sound of missiles had totally gone, and the engines were eerily quiet, more of a sooradic judder than a continuous sound.

"Where are we? Somebody give me a sitrep right now. Wodan? Welcome aboard - reboot our sensory array." Zey ordered, staring at the curved bank of screens that folded out of the wall to surround the Captain's chair. All of her external data sources were making zero sense.


[System]
Birthday:
August 23'rd, 2008

Appearance:

Online Alias:
Spectre

Online Join Date:
September 12'th, 2029

Online Appearance as a Mechnic:

Note: Image can be clicked for a link to higher resolution.

Level:
33

Class:
Main - Sabre Soldier
Sub - Rogue
*Has yet to decide whether he wants to have Technician or Rider for his third class at level 50

Personality In-Game:
Outwardly Friendly, Clever, Thoughtful, and Manipulative in order to get ahead

Personality Out-of-Game:
Serious, Careful, Reserved, Blunt, and Distrusting – often misinterpreted as being a bit of a jerk

Ambitions:
After high school, James followed in his father's footsteps, chasing a degree in Aerospace Engineering. Unlike his long-term girlfriend Sasha, he had no desire to leave London. Travel for him didn't go out it went up. He always wanted a pilot's license, but with schooling there was no time to get into school for it. Besides, Engineering fascinated him and maths was so natural for him that there was no question when it came time to pick. His postgraduate studies are being conducted at the Imperial College of London, but he only takes them part-time and in small loads. He's in no hurry to receive his Master's Degree because his father was able to get him a job at the same company where he works. Even still, experience weighs far more heavily than just a sum of classes and a slip of paper. James now works full-time for the company headquartered in London, taking most of his classes at-distance and as 'independent study.' Apart from this, he spends most of his time in the world of Endless Realms, occupying himself recreationally with the relatively new world of VR. He found his own flat in Canterbury after graduation for a fair price, considering he gets paid more than the average bachelor's graduate.

[User]
"I know, mom," James said, rolling his eyes for the millionth time as he was lectured about manners and girls. "You act like she's just some random girl... I'm not gonna hurt her," He said confidently as she adjusted a tie around his neck. It felt like it took ages for him to peel away from her while she worked to continuously 'fix' his dress clothes. Finally, the door was closing behind him and he had no doubt his mother would be watching him until he disappeared from view. He had a type of dark dress jacket over a white shirt and dress pants. It required a lot of argument to keep his mom from following him to Sasha's place. Despite the number of times that his mom looked him over, James still felt the need to do so again upon reaching the girl's door, clearing his throat and trying to keep his heart from racing as he reached up and knocked. When it was answered, he smiled brightly, "H-" He started before Sasha's mother cut in, wanting pictures and the like before the girl swept him away from the door and what, to a child, was a potentially dangerous scenario: embarrassing pictures of them before their first dance. Ugh.

As they reached a safe distance away, he started to laugh, shaking his head. "Thanks for saving me," He teased as she released his hand and he took a moment to catch his breath, taking her pace in the walk. All things considered, he was just glad he didn't fall over and humiliate himself in their escape as he finally got to see her dress and she complimented him on how he looked. He shrugged as though it was an outfit that had been thrown together at the last minute, "Your dress looks, uh... Cute," He stammered sincerely, blushing slightly. "We can stay as late as you like, I've not got a curfew," He said proudly, "As long as I don't wake my parents up if they're asleep." Cigarettes and alcohol filled the air, but it was the norm for most places in London. He lightly took her hand as they approached, a few older students asked for their tickets and they showed them before being let inside. The music could be heard from beyond the front doors, but James wasn't quite so familiar with it. It wasn't in his favorite genre so it typically fell off of his radar. He glanced down at his watch and wow was she right, they had all night, which was good simply because he felt like it would take him that long to get over his nerves.

After entering the gym, he looked around, scanning over the faces of everybody. He could see Matt with Aisha and even Alex, who seemed to be having a relatively good time. Honestly, James almost felt bad for asking her after him and still getting the date. Matt didn't quite see them, James figured, so they took their own walk out to the floor, James' most dreaded moment of the night. He tried to look at other people around him... Would he really have to look that stupid? Oh geeze this was going to be a trainwreck. It wouldn't take long before Matt*did*spot them, took his girlfriend's hand, and nearly ran James over. "Oi, little brother, good to see you finally came," He said and James flinched, half-expecting to get an embarrassing ruffle of his hair. Nothing happened though as his brother smiled down, wrapping an arm around Aisha, "C'mon, we'll show you two lovebirds how to have fun!" He said excitedly as the couple took the Freshmen under their wings and showed them around the dance floor and James quickly realized that nerves were something entirely created in his head.

As the night moved on, it seemed as though a lot of people were getting tired and the entire rhythm of the room changed at the turn of a song. Something slow... soft... James looked around in fear as he saw what felt like a million different options flood the room. They could have left minutes ago, and now it was too late. He looked back to Sasha, rather unsure what to do, wondering if Matt would come to their rescue a second time. There was no such luck, he and Aisha were buried in one another's arms, not to mention she had stopped him before he could help them, mentioning that it was their job to work it out. Matt simply sighed, giving her his tired, teasing line,*"C'est la vie."*The girl would roll her eyes as she always did, call him a jackass, and start the dance.

"U-uh..." James couldn't bring himself to look at her, "Sorry... What do you think?" He asked, almost afraid of the answer. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't keep himself from walking on eggshells for fear of hurting whatever they had before the dance. If worse came to worst, they could always just... annul the night, right? Easy fix. Then they would always know it didn't work out, if she didn't want to. It wasn't like it would actually ruin them. He silently, and every so slightly, shook his head,*Don't be a pessimistic idiot,*He scolded himself, finally looking her way, smiling. Even if he had wanted to, there was no way he could keep himself from doing it.

[Assistant]
The dance was just as she thought it would be, no surprises there.

Sasha had spotted a few of her friends and made small talk with them. She and James were soon approached by Matt and his lovely date. Sasha was happy to meet the girl, Aisha. Things went by alright, Sasha had nothing to complain about. Well, James did seem rather high strung, wound up tight about the issue of a dance. She didn't think he needed to be so nervous, after all, emotions could be infections. If he was uneasy, she would get uneasy as well. But if they relaxed and kept enjoying themselves with the food and chatter, then it would be easier to let the drama of the rest of the world slid off their shoulders. She had spotted Alex but hadn't gotten the chance to speak with him. She did feel bad about turning him down but with James being the other option, as her new boyfriend, she didn't feel too bad.

As the mood took a slight turn from hyped and bubbly, Sasha noticed a few people heading off, holding hands as they left the building. It seemed the new tone of the night was sparking a lot of mushy romance. She and James had yet to really kiss each other, they had only been together a short time as boyfriend and girlfriend. They didn't want to rush things but now, at the moment, it seemed like they had a chance to make the actual transition from one thing to another. Some people were snogging by the snack table while many of the chaperons were calling it a night. The dance had about a half an hour left but she wasn't sure if she really wanted it to end so soon. She had fun and she hoped James could say the same too.

"Ah." She looked over when James regained his power of speech and turned to her, asking what she thought they should do. "Ohh." She looked back at the dance floor which was only home to a few couples at this point. Sasha held her breath and decided they could carry on with their little date but that it didn't have to be where everyone or anyone could see. Our of the corner of her eye, she spotted Alex heading off in a group. Somehow she felt a little less in the spotlight now, even so, it seemed James was still nervous. "Why don't we head off and go somewhere else?" She suggested. They could walk around, meddle and loiter as all the kids did. She and James headed off and she was hoping that a chance in scenery would do them some good, well James some good.

Despite being away from their peers, Sasha did still feel a little nervous but she saw it as a good thing.

"I've got a massive craving for ice cream." She gushed as the cool air hit them as they left the campus. "Like if I don't some soon, I might go mad and try climbing a tree. Can you imagine? In this dress? My mum would kill me an' all for ice cream." Sasha laughed a little as they walked, her face still a little red. Ice cream was a great way to cheer people up and she wanted something sweet and cool. "I wonder there's any frozen custard around here." She said aloud. She spotted a petrol station up ahead and decided they'd have some good cheap ice cream for sale. "Come on." Sasha grabbed James' hand and hurried to the stop light and waited for it to turn before she jogged across the street. They got their ice cream treats and both paid for themselves since they both wanted to pay for each other, and couldn't budge on the matter. Once they got back out on the street, they were back to wandering again.

The girl had picked a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, plain but yummy. She did her best to not make a mess but when it became too much of a hassle, she threw out half of it and wiped herself off with a napkin. Everything was changing for them, she liked it though. Sure, it was new and scary but it wasn't like they needed to be afraid of each other. "You know when I first met you, I thought were totally mental, like, someone who would be so tough to get to know but I was wrong about you." Sasha smiled. "I'm glad I was, not so glad you beamed me with a football but...you know things sorted themselves out." Sasha shrugged a little as they walked back towards their neighborhood. Checking her phone, she saw it was 9:24 so they didn't need to rush home by any means.

The two ended up wandering back to the rock that James had showed her the day everything changed. She took a seat on the edge and looked around. While things were changing, it was hard to consider that in a few years, they'd be in Matt and Aisha's shoes. Would they still be together? Sasha wasn't sure, that was a peculiar thing to consider but she'd like to believe that no matter what happened, they'd still be mates. She pulled out her phone and picked out a song, the slowest one she had anyway, which was tough since she loved peppy songs. It was a really old one by Vance Joy called Riptide. It was cute and kind of made her think of James. "Come on, we skipped out on that last dance but I still want one last one." Sasha grinned and jumped down, holding her hand out to the boy. If they didn't want to make fools of themselves in front of strangers at a stuffy dance, they should at least be able to do it by themselves.


[System]
spoiler, this character is set to 'die' and be inactive for the remainder of the game
Species: Half-automaton, half-golem.
Age: At least a century (factual), thirty-something (appearance).
Gender: Male.
Appearance: Looks like a regular handsome middle-aged man with greying black hair. When viewed from relatively close, his skin has several slices throughout, and the reflective sheen of the inflexible ceramic material it's made of could not be mistaken. Dons any such variety of male medieval formal wear.
Bio: History tells of a great human painter from more than a century ago. Henri Dominique Greene. His works, signed 'H.D.G.' at the back, still adorn the walls of Kindeance's castle. Portraits of old monarchs. Images of nature, oddly lacking for animals. A medical document stating that he began coughing out blood, whenever he painted animals who'd then come out alive from their canvases. A letter to the royal mage whom he courted and was later engaged to, informing of his decision to isolate from society. A second letter, an invitation to his funeral, held at the Greenes' mansion.
 None but the King have yet made the connection between that painter of old, and this non-painter who shares nearly the same name, aside from the surname of his true mother before the Greenes' adoption after her passing. Nowadays, he roams the kingdom as a mage and handyman, and, since very recently, lecturer to the prince.
Traits: Golem Automaton - Inorganic body. Immune to physical pain. Immune to poison and disease. Immune to basic needs like food, water, air and sleep. Absorbs mana within close range. Converts most sources of energy into mana. Resistant to most forms of magic. Has a 30-foot radius of perception (via a low, constant emission of infrared; has a byproduct of perceiving temperatures) around his core's center of mass. Hears by picking up vibrations on those in contact with the core.
 Metal Sense - Can sense most metals and the global north direction. Not a spell.
 Artificial Qi Vessels - Spells only affect those under at most indirect physical contact.
Skills: Eidetic Memory
 Lesser Occult - Limited knowledge on witchcraft and demonology.
 Arcane Aptitude (mastery, source) - Can mimic others' spells, given enough exposure or instruction.
Spells: Telekinesis (innate)
 Temperature Increase (innate)
 Core Spreading (innate) - Injects a piece of his golem core into an object, qualifying the object as himself for the purposes of other spells. Lasts for up to 2 spells.
 Inorganic Repair (100%, Ember)
 Ward (2%, Scroll of Ward)
 Flash (0%, Scroll of Flash)
 Arcane Bolts (5%, Scroll of Arcane Bolts)
 Detect Magic (1%, Cedar)
 Enhance/Grow Vegetation (2%, Cedar)
 Ultravision (1%, Jazdia Crystalspark)
 Incorporeal Form (1%, Solomon Sparrow)
Equipment: Bottle of a curious powder, small  - Inflicts sneezing and nose blindness.
 Cedar's inventory - Dark brown and green 'holocaust cloak'/robes. Large wooden staff. Small hand axe. Small boot knife. Ball of twine. Antler knapping tool. Flints. Modified water barrel. Rope. Shovel.
 Crate of vodka bottles × 2
 Crate of whiskey bottles × 1
 Deck of cards - 52-card deck, made of cardboard, paste and paper.
 Henri's Eye × 2 - Enchanted orbs of ivory, used to see. Has to be within 3 meters of user.
 Iron kite shield
 Ironsword Family Medallion - Belongs to Matilda's birth father.
 Map to the ruins
 Metal flask - Mineral oil.
 Pocket watch
 Scroll of Ward × 3
 Scroll of Flash × 3
 Scroll of Arcane Bolts × 3
Other: Insides made of mostly iron.
 Black shoes with bronze soles. Loud clacking footsteps on hard surfaces.
 Keeps calling Cedar 'Cedrick'.
 Has never killed anyone. Yet.

[User] -snip-

[Assistant]
Kaito watched how constable Delving stormed off. The situation seemed resolved for now. The Fox was pretty sure that Aaron Delving would make a fuss about it in the future but that would be a problem for later. For now it was good enough that they managed to get out without being hurt or thrown into the dungeon while still getting some information from the crime scene. However the fact that contable Delving was so unhappy with them snooping around raised suspicion with Kaito.

The Kitsune quietly followed Jazdia and the others to her restaurant. As they entered it was clear that Lucas and Jazdia's group were the only ones in the establishment. With the thick curtains closed and no patreons around Kaito felt comfortable enough to show his true form. "Aah, it feels good to be myself once in a while." Spoke Kaito joyously as he ended the illusions that obscured his fox ears and tail while waving at Lucas.

The fox's eyes followed the young bartender as he poured the tea and placed the deliciously smelling spekkoek on the table. He quickly took a sip from the tea and a bite of the spekkoek. People had their opinion about the Angel's Share but the sweets were top notch just as the service.

"How can I be of service?" Asked Lucas as he looked at the group.

"Well, I can think of a few ways." Spoke Kaito with a smirk as he playfully wagged his tail. "but…Jaz always demands of me that I am on my utmost best behavior when I'm here so I'll just have to settle for the chicken and fried tofu again." Said the fox as he playfully pretended to be dissapointed. "And don't listen to this angry lady over here, she has no idea how great your hot leaf juice tastes."

As Jazdia gestured to sit down, but a comment from Yvonne grabbed the Kitsune's attention. Following her eyes, Kaito noticed the calendar with a rather revealing picture of a certain elf. He could not help but to smile about it. He had always thought that Jazdia would not even be remotely interested in doing such a thing. Judging from her annoyed look on the picture she was clearly out of her comfort zone. It made the Kitsune wonder what kind of coercion the creator of the calendar used on Jazdia. Even more interesting was the fact that the calendar was still hanging in plain sight. Lucas must have some strange magical powers to be able to get away with it.

"Wow, that swimsuit looks good on you, Jazdia." Spoke Kaito as he gave the elf a genuine compliment. "I never expected you to be into such stuff. I guess you have a wild side after all." Spoke Kaito as he finally sat down at the table.

As usual the elf directly started to talk business and this time it was the Black Serpent guild. It was pretty clear that they were somehow involved in the assasination attempt. But how exactly and if they indeed had some connection with the royal guards wasn't entirely clear. "Aah yes. The black Serpent guild. Friendly bunch of people, except when you want to get a share of the spice trade. Then you end up six feet under. They practically own the streets of Rascade. Most shops, traders and artisans pay them protection money. If you don't, you will get in trouble. They walk a fine line between enforcing their rule and attracting too much attention from the guards."

Kaito paused a bit before he continued. "I think they have around 500 members in and around Rascade. Many of them get recruited from orphanages at a young age or where homeless kids. The guild offers them protection, purpose and a family like bond. They let them start out with running small errands, pickpocketing and later on enforcing their rule on the markets. Some others were recruited at later ages because they offer specific skills. The organization is strictly hierarchical. Their top brass are called dragons. There are 3 dragons, each has their own area of responsibility."

Kaito raised his hand and an illusionary mugshot formed above it. The illusion showed a male human with well formed facial features and well kept long gray hair. "This is Gerald Grey. He's the current ancient dragon, highest leader of the Black Serpent Guild. He has a large tattoo of a black serpent acros his arms and back. The tail end starts at his left hand and the head of the serpent is at his right hand. He joined the black serpents around 38 years ago. He was in his early teens back then. By the time he was 21 he attained the position of Dragon. He has been the ancient dragon for 20 years now. Nobody knows where he came from, however he is an extremely powerful man."

"The Black Serpent guild owns many properties in Rascade and the city's outskirts. Many are warehouses for the various goods they trade in, others are used for housing members, gambling dens, taverns, brothels. You name it and they have a few of them. Their main base of operations is the old Royal Rascade Trading company building just behind the market. The ground floor acts like a lousy tavern called the Drunken Dragon. 90% of the people you see hanging around in the tavern are guild members. The other ten percent are there to do business with the guild. At the back of the tavern is a door that gives access to the backrooms and other floors. The top floor is where Gerald Grey holds office. The rest of the space is mostly office spaces, meeting halls and stuff like that. The basement is absolutely off limits for everyone except the dragons. The door that gives access to that area is sealed off with powerful magic."

"Usually there are a few dozen members hanging around in the tavern. Those guys are the run of the mill small time crooks. The door that gives access to the rest of the building is always guarded by one or two people. The people selected for that job are competent and not easily fooled. The headquarters also holds a dozen or so staff. These people are mostly administrators as many of the guilds activities are at least pretending to be legal businesses. The offices of the dragons are always guarded by at least two guards if they are on site. However the lower dragons do much of the important deal making in the city and beyond. Their whereabouts are unknown"

"If we want to find some information that can link the involvement of the black serpent guild to the assasination attempt on the king we'll need to get into their headquarters. There are basically two ways in. First we can walk in through the front door of the tavern for all to see and ask to do business with the dragons. We'll be needing a serious business proposal. I heard some whispers that the Black Serpents are looking for high end slaves. You know, people with speciality skills or dashingly good looks, like an elven beauty." Spoke Kaito as he looked at Jazdia. The fox was pretty blatantly implying that they could use their leader as a pretend bargaining chip to get in. A plan that might be good enough to get in, but getting out would be difficult.

"Or we can try to sneak in at night. There is a small window in the back alley that leads to the staircase to the basement. Slender people like us can squirm through it. Chounan will need to keep his armor home. The door at the bottom is the magically sealed door. The door at the top of the staircase only has a regular lock that I can pick. After that we can look around a bit in the office spaces. The headquarter staff will be home at night and the dragons all have mansions in the best parts of the city and are unlikely to be around either. We only have to watch out for the guards that are patrolling the place. However, if we get caught we're toast. The dragons simply cannot allow such a transgression to go unpunished. They have a reputation to keep up. We'll suffer a horrible slow and painful death and will never be heard from again."

The fox paused once more as he was sharing a lot of information about a criminal organization that was supposed to be rather secretive. He was sure that his companions would certainly have questions on how he knew so much about the inner workings of the Black Serpent guild. "Any questions?"


[System]
Age: 18

Appearance:

Chloe Bennet

Personality:
Imaginative - Emma has huge imagination. She constantly spins stories in her head, sometimes making her oblivious to reality, and other times magnifying reality to a whole new level.
Trusting - Emma is a trusting person, she'll do what she's told. This is mostly due to her acknowledging that she doesn't always know what's going on.
Impatient - Emma doesn't like sitting around doing nothing. She needs to be doing something and moving around. This helps her think, and occasionally she rushes into things too fast.

Extra Info: Emma loves to write fiction. It started off with her love of books, but she was able to read them very quickly and got tired of waiting for another book or chapter to come out, so she started writing herself. She was in on the prank, but was mostly on the sidelines of it. Emma still regrets being a part of it.

[User]
The Washington Estate was built in the late 1990s by movie mogul Bob Washington, the father of James, Beth, and Hannah Washington, to serve as a vacation home for his family. The home itself while having a log cabin/chalet exterior, is state of the art with a contemporary interior outfitted with multiple fireplaces and modern fixtures.

1st Floor
The first floor is accessed via stairs taken from the first floor into a sitting area. Straight ahead is the family cinema. In this tiered room one can find theatrical posters of all of Bob Washington's award winning movies. The screen takes up a majority of the wall with multiple lounge recliners on the the first and second tier. To the left is a hallway leading to rooms made for guests as well as bathrooms. There is also a door providing access to the basement at the end of the hallway.

---

22:00. 8 hours until dawn.

It was right a year after the incident that happened in Blackwood Pines and that incident took the lives of James's sisters as well as the sweet memories left by them. James had invited the whole gang to the Washington Estate once again, at least to commemorate the dead sisters. The moon was high in the sky, it was shining with soft tremulous light. The rest of the gangs were expected to arrive before 11 pm because the moon would disappear by that time. However, they were a bit late because they weren't coming in a group but separately. Fortunately, the honorable host, James himself arrived the earliest. He arrived in the entrance of the Blackwood Pines and his eyes were staring at the darkness that ruled over the pines. His lips began to curve up as excitement filled him completely. He took slow steps towards the pines and head to their sweet estate, the Washington Estate.

"Dammit, I hate winter." James stated shivering. The snow that seemed to have absolute sovereign over the landscape didn't agree with James, but he was wise enough to not complain about the conditions around him as it was the 'sacred ground' for their family. Although he wore several layers of clothing, James had the burst of chill upon his face, as his mouth was completely exposed. It didn't help that his body heat fogged up his goggles, so he had to ditch them as well.

"Seems like that must be the place, hopefully. I am not in the mood to be lost." The man grumbled to himself as he trudged through the snow. It was hard for him to see through the darkness and he could loos his way among the dark pines.

His fur coat that was over the upper part of his uniform remained zipped off, and he shook from side to side making the clumps of snow fall off his body as he approached the terrace of their estate. Knocking his snow boots against the door, James yawned to himself as he hadn't been awake that long. As he tried to turn the knob, the knob was frozen in place, meaning the door was locked. Unfortunately, James was a bit careless today and he lost the key on the way. "Stuck in this harsh winter. I should wait for the rest again, please hurry guys" He mumbled.

[Assistant]
Samantha watched as her breath materialized and disappeared into the winter breeze. She always liked the cold. Of course, that doesn't mean she brought the heaviest clothes she could find. She liked the cold, but she didn't like freezing. There were footsteps on the path ahead, but only one pair. Probably James himself, it's only right for the host to arrive first. Samantha flicked on her flashlight as she walked down the foot-road to get to the cabin.

It was a little weird, coming to this place again. She was never one for superstition, but it was almost as if she could sense a...strange aura emitting from somewhere in the woods, where the cabin would be. The moon was a giant eyeball in the sky. Samantha wished she had come with someone else, envying the couples not because of their love or anything, just because they automatically came with eachother. Samantha here was all alone. Why was this path so long?

She picked up the pace and stepped right over a small key in the snow. The cabin entered her view, and she couldn't help but feel relieved. "Nice..." She said to herself. She glanced around for James with her flashlight, beam dancing along the wooden walls of the cabin.

"You there?" She said loudly.

[User]
Robyn pulled her coat in tight around her. It was freezing outside. She pulled her nice, warm fur coat in tighter around her and made her way up the path. It was pretty dark outside. She didn't understand why James wanted to do an anniversary, like this. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she thought about Hannah and Beth. She missed them so much, especially Hannah. She couldn't believe that they had never been found, and many people had assumed the worst had happened.

She turned on her flashlight and hitched up her backpack closer around her. She made her way toward the snowy path that led up to the cabin, the flashlight light reflecting off the bright snow. It was freshly fallen, falling even now, and she made her way further up, eyeing the area around. It seemed so much darker than normal. Her light bouncing around the snow, she caught a glint of something on the ground. She raised an eyebrow and looked at it closer. It was a key. Looked like a key to a door. Remembering how careless James could be, immediately Robyn thought it was his, so she scooped it up. Tucking it into her pocket, she continued on her way up.

She finally reached the cabin where she could see Samantha and James. She smiled and waved, though they would most likely not be able to see her in the falling snow. Sighing, she continued to walk and called out a greeting. "Hey you guys!" she said loudly, waving at them again. "Ugh, I don't know why you chose this winter, James, but it is freezing. My ass is completely numb from sitting down on that bus for so long..." She smiled kindly at them.

[Assistant]
Samantha turns around and smiles. "Hey, Robyn! I just got here myself. It's a little chilly, isn't it?" She tugs at her coat.

"Alright James, open the gates,"