Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Out of Place (Invite/request)

"Try going above the skyline!" shouted Hiro over the whipping winds around them. "They should have a harder time following you from up there. Then you wanna head for the bay! There's rocks and outcroppings and stuff there for you to hide in!" Hiro looked down at the city bellow. "But could we swing by my friend Mark's place first? He would flip his lid so bad if he could see me right now!" He looked over the edge again, a grin plastered to his face. "This is so freaking cool!"

It was tricky, but the less she managed to think about the motions of her wings and body, the easier it was to move to where she wanted. That isn't to say that she didn't look like so was going to drop out of the sky at any moment, of course, but she was pulling it off.

And that let her focus on other issues.

'You realize people will assume I kidnapped you as a snack, right? I'm sure they'll be looking that much harder for me now.' Somehow the inaudible voice carried not only a grumble, but also the sense of a glare. 'And can I assume it's still rude to jump onto the backs of strangers and ride them around? Not to mention dangerous! Maybe I should snack on you.'

"Worry about that later!" called Hrio. "You need to hide first. Over the Skyline and near the rocks by the bay!" After a brief moment, he asked a question. "You're kidding about eating me, right?"

"Hello shadow, old acquaintance. Come to taunt me once again?"

Dropping his coat to the side, Magnus got back on his feet and looked towards where he'd heard the voice. Of course, without light, he could see absolutely nothing inside the enclosure. Given that the sigils were still in place, even his usual glow was being suppressed, casting him in complete darkness. This was actually a relief for the knight, as he knew that Taryn was nothing but a consciousness in full darkness, unable to affect anything physically.

"How exactly did you find me? Even I don't know where I am or how I got here, and I don't mean this cell. I'm even more curious as to how you're avoiding the magic-savvy security they have here"

The voice giggled. "That's my little secret~"

While it was true enough that she couldn't really touch him in the standard sense, Taryn still had a knack for giving people chills down their spines - even though Magnus had never expressed any particular fear of the Shadeling. And there was also the matter of that little piece she'd left in his chest, that dark little disturbance that, presently, she could reach without obstruction. And reach it she did, just to pluck at it. She never really had understood how it had become a part of him, but that was just one of the things that made the man fascinating.

"I remember when I touched your heart," she whispered into his ear. "Do you? It was so long ago... I thought you'd gone and died. I misssssed you."

'You should have considered that before jumping on to the back of a giant, winged reptile who happens to have very sharp teeth.' It was really just her foul mood talking, though. The idea of eating the kid was actually a bit sickening.

Nashyll didn't know what "skyline" he kept babbling about; sure, there appeared to be long, cloud-like lines up in the sky, but that was a plural lines and they looked really high up there. Hiding in a bay, on the other hand... well, at the moment, her only other option was to wander aimlessly. She needed to find it first, and to do that, she needed to get high enough up to see beyond the towers that stood all around. And to go up... this was going to be tricky.

By the time she got high enough to see the water, her muscles ached. She hoped she could make it there in a glide, because she wasn't sure she could push her wings to do any more than that by then. So much for the fantastic flight capabilities of dragons...

'Kid, I can't really look back at the moment. What's that da-da-da noise? It sounds like it's getting louder.' Not that she'd had been able to recognize helicopters anyway.

Hiro looked back and made a sharp grimace. "Crap!" he cried. "We got choppers! We gotta shake 'em. I hear they got heat-sensing stuff on 'em, and that their spotlight is just a decoy. We gotta dodge around the buildings to get past out of their line of sight." Hiro considered a moment. "Remember, dodge around the buildings, then to the bay. I'll try to lighten your load."

With that, Hiro jumped off of the dragon's back toward a nearby rooftop. He rolled along the top, where he thrashed his clothing and several patches of his skin. Sure enough, one of the three helicopters stopped pursuit of the dragon and pointed its spotlight at the boy.

"Remain calm," garbled the projected voice from the helicopter's PA system. "We're dropping someone off to pick you up."

"Whatever. How high am I--?" At least thirty stories it looked like. "Oh, well, yeah, that's a tough jump." He opted instead to wait for the helicopter to pick him up. What a drag, and just when he was starting to have fun.

So maybe it was silly to think that an adult dragon would have any trouble with flight. It was still a bit of a nuisance how everyone seemed to think that, because she had wings, she must automatically have expert aerial skills. Well she didn't, and she still wasn't even sure how she was pulling this much off.

That's not to say that she didn't make an honest attempt at losing the "choppers." The boy's weight didn't really make that big of a difference though, and the dragon was still inexperienced and exhausted.

It was a half failed turn that did her in. She managed to avoid crashing into a tower - just barely - but it put her off balance. Before she could right herself, a giant net wrapped around her. Nashyll roared and fought against the bindings, unable to really tell if she was falling our just swinging, but it did her no good. The net was clearly designed to hold some pretty mighty creatures, though it did feel uncomfortably small; or maybe that was just the nature of nets.

Surely a permanently solid form had never been more frustrating.

There he was, strapped down in the helicopter as it lowered him to boring old safety. Meanwhile, that dragon was still somewhere out there in the sky. Somewhere in his own city, the greatest adventure of his life was passing him by, and there was nothing he could do about it. In a fit of frustration, he slammed his fist into the side of the aircraft.

Suddenly, the helicopter jerked to one side and clipped the edge of a skyscraper with its propellers.

"Holy!" Hiro looked at his fist. "Crap! I was hoping this thing was a little sturdier than that!" He quickly put his hand on his lap and started whistling.

"Mayday! Mayday!" shouted the pilot. "We're hit with something! We're going down! Preparing an emergency landing! Repeat! We are preparing an emergency landing!"

"Something wrong?" asked Hiro, innocently. Hiro managed to peak out the front window. "Hey, is that a police truck? Why is-- how low are we!?" The helicopter bumped against the ground, nearly landing directly on top of the armored vehicle. The vehicle slammed its breaks and veered through a lamp post and into a music shop storefront.

Hiro managed to stumble out of the Helicopter in one piece. "Ouch," he muttered.

"You missed me? Oh, I'm sure you've had no shortage of playthings to have fun with. The thought will probably keep me up a few nights"

Magnus very clearly felt her pluck, as a gripping sadness washed over him for a split second, subsiding almost as fast as it came. The fact that the dark bit was still there, and that Taryn could manipulate it so easily, bothered him greatly. Making a mental note to find a way to purge it later, the knight shook off the lingering emotions and walked forward until he reached a wall.

"So, Taryn... I have something to propose to you..."

The man spoke slowly, carefully, with hesitation in his voice. He knew that what he was about to do was incredibly dangerous, putting himself in a potentially disastrous situation, one from which it would be very hard to recover. But, she was his best chance to escape from this place, and he would have to find a way to deal with the consequences later.

"You found your way in here, in this prison, clearly without any official access. That means that you very likely can get me out of here, something that I'm very interested in, as after my scuffle with the police I'll probably be left to rot in this room.

My proposition is simple: assist me in escaping whatever kind of facility this is, without bloodshed or anyone getting seriously injured. Under the cover of darkness, I can sneak by most of the guards, while you can whisper to me about any defenses I might miss. Once we're out and clear, and I know that I won't be tracked..."

The man went silent. Every fiber of his being screamed against this, against the words he was about to say. He knew the shadeling would work for no less than this, but to give her such freedom, it was downright irresponsible. He knew it was wrong, it was a mistake, but the dangers Nashyll might be facing out alone strengthened his resolve to escape.

"...I will grant you one, and only one, wish. Whatever you want, as long as I'm able to escape this place"

Nashyll continued to fight at the net, but had little impact. The most damage she managed to do was to her own wings, which she only then realized were quite fragile. Most notable, she was sure she must have snapped one of the thin bones, and oh, how it hurt!

There were things - no, people - climbing around on her. She tried telling them that she only wanted to leave, asking and then demanding to be released. So far as she could tell, there was no reaction.

She felt a stab followed by a burning sting. Frustrated by the treatment she was receiving, Nashyll thrashed about, but it wasn't long until the world faded away.

((May be awhile before I post as Nashyll again.))

There was an obviously fake gasp. "You're proposing to me after just being arrested? Why, Maggy-dear, you're such a romantic!"

She had trouble suppressing her laughter, but she managed to keep it quiet enough that only Magnus would hear it over the chaos outside. She was already risking a lot of hard work to talk to him.

His assumption that she had made it in without "official" access earned another snigger. The man certainly had Taryn's attention, though.

"Oh, sweetheart, a girl must have a job in this age! And I'd hate to lose mine before I can have any more fun with it. Besides, why free you for just a little fun, when I could keep you here to play whenever... I... like?" The Shadeling toyed at the little darkness in his chest some more as she whispered to him. "What other chance might I get to do this without your pesky glow? I wonder how much I can do with it..."

Taryn squeezed and observed his reaction carefully - she didn't want to go and kill him by accident, after all. People were so much more fun alive, or at least animate.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star -
Perhaps a glow stick's all you are
Desperate for your dimming light
And slowly swallowed by the night
Fading, fading little star
I wonder how desperate you are~"

She let go, and a moment later, lights flickered back to life around the building.

Hiro ran with all of his strength to flee the scene, but it wasn't long before another vehicles arrived. Hiro's fight-or-flight reflex was active now. "You'll never take me alive!" He cried, his fists raised in a battle stance.

A few minutes later, he was being lead into the police station, his energy spent and one of his eyes black. "Tazers hurt," he moaned. He was guided into a holding cell in the back of the station.

"Guys, seriously, I didn't mean to break the door off the cop car. I was scared, okay! That's hardly the worst thing that's happened to you guys tonight." He suddenly tripped over himself, and the two cops on either side of him held him up before he hit the ground.

"Stay up, kid!" barked one of the officers.

Hiro scowled. "Hey! It's kinda hard to stand up after someone pins you to a wall with an armored car! It's not my fault!"

The shadeling's squeeze felt as if all the sorrow in the world fell on his shoulders at once. He felt his inner self, his emotions, being hollowed out and left with only a void. The man was filled with an unnatural cold, his skin turning sickly pale and his eyes becoming blank and lifeless. Even so, the man fought against the influence of the shadeling, breaking the contact with a forceful tug back just as she started letting go.

"Your loss... one time offer... and you... just blew it."

The words were forced out between breaths, as his body recovered from Taryn's actions, warming up and coming back to normal. The horrible feelings of dread and sorrow slowly receded, being replaced by serenity. Magnus knew he couldn't let her have her fun, he couldn't let her get inside his head. But at the very least, the man could smile, as Taryn had given him useful information. She DID have official access, being somehow employed by his captors. Manipulating her had clearly failed, and she seemed much too smart for him to be able to swipe an access card from her. She would definitely be the key for his escape from the facility, but for now, he had no options to play.

"Do that again, and I assure you little one, you won't use that arm again. Now leave me, I care not for your poems and games. If you won't accept my offer, then you are of no use to me."

Once the lights flickered back on, Magnus walked past her and towards one of the walls, deciding to dedicate his time to studying the sigils further.

Taryn was not there. She had already abandoned the cell before the lights came on.

Elsewhere in the building, the intern-girl stumbled out from the bathroom, wide-eyed and with her hand on her chest. She was promptly shouted at to help make sure nothing but the lights had been lost while others tried to figure out why the lights had gone out to begin with, and rushed off with a nod - and an unnoticed little smirk.

With everything going on, the staff was even more thinly spread than usual when the kid was brought in. Normally, as a minor, his parents would have been contacted immediately. Instead, he was left in the cell for awhile, handcuffed to a table, before an officer finally showed up, the mousy-haired young woman at his side with a clipboard. The officer sat across from the boy, and the girl sat off to the side, poised to take notes.

"Alright, kid," the officer said. "First thing's first. We need your name, and the names and numbers of any parents or guardians taking care of you."

Hiro turned his head. "The name's Skywalker, call me Luke. My mom's dead, and my dad is an intergalactic Sith lord who serves under a wrinkly troll in a bathrobe." He looked down at the cuffs at his hand ad winced. "This thing is annoying. Can I take this off?" Hiro rolled his eyes at the officer's unamused look.

"Hiro Toriyama, son of Naoto and Yuki Toriyama. I'm staying with Grand Master Fogi for the season for training, oh yeah, and something about school or something." He leered at the officer, twisting the chain on his cuffs absentmindedly. "Look up Gai Fogi, okay?" The chain on the cuff suddenly snapped.

Hiro's face blanched, and he hid his hand under the table. "Uh, er, I--I didn't mean to--I'm sorry!"

The young woman took care to hide her smirk at the kid's comment and the officer's reaction behind the clipboard. When the boy gave actual names, she started to ask how to spell any of them, but was interrupted by the snap of metal. The officer stared dumbfounded, then turned to the young woman to snap, "Trivia! Go get a proper pair of strong cuffs."

The girl's eyes widened. "But sir, no one's told me which are which yet and-"

"Still? Just... just ask someone!"

"...and everyone in that department is still checking everything. And I don't have the parent's names yet."

The officer cursed and rubbed his forehead. He sighed, and after a moment said, "Fine. Get the names. I'll get the cuffs." As he stood, he pointed at Hiro and said sternly, "Cooperate or you'll be getting tased again."

Once the officer had left, "Trivia" looked over to Hiro with a smile. "So, Hiro... are you a hero?"

The boy winced at the pun. "Are you a stupid, pointless question, 'Trivia?' Fogi is just spelled 'F-O-G-I, like it sounds. Haven't you ever spelled a Japanese word before?" Hiro looked down at the cuff on his wrist. "Don't tell him, but I think this one is one of the stronger ones." He folded both of his hands behind his head and kicked his feet on top of the table.

"I sometimes don't know my own strength. Fogi is always telling me the same thing. you have bery good a-technique, but a-you have no restraint." Hiro shot the intern a sharp glance. "Anything else?"

She frowned and her eyes narrowed. And it seemed the room itself darkened just a shade - but perhaps the lights were just acting up again. The corner of her mouth twitched a little, trying to curl into a smirk, but she held it back and chased it away.

"So rude, and four an honest question! So rude, so dumb - your brain must be numb." She lowered her eyes to scribble something on the clipboard. "Questions are not trivia - answers are. And some trivia on Trivia..."

She had to fight off another little smirk.

"Trivia was the Roman equivalent of Hecate, goddess of the night, of magic, and of crossroads. And since I bet you're too dumb to get it on your own, crossroads are a metaphor for choices, and you're in the place of a lot of people who have made some very... bad ones."

The young woman lifted her eyes again to look at him. Surely they had been a polite brown just a moment ago, but now they were a dark, cunning blue. "You're the boy they rescued from the dragon, right? What sort of choices got you there?"

Athena laid back in her cell, letting out a long sigh. She looked around the room, nothing but a chair. Not even a wooden one. A cold hard metal folding chair. She pushed her red hair out of her eyes, fixing her jacket slightly. It wasn't that good of a jacket, but it still worked. She held her hand up in front of her face, trying to ice-form it. Nothing. Normally she could element-tize half of her body, but sigils kept her magic at a minimum. She slid her hands into her pant pockets. All elemental immunities, all elemental powers she had, gone. Just because of the sigils. "...Crap."