Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Bloodied Shards IC (CLOSED!)

Lisa stands, and, before retreating to the door, nods a silent "thank you," to the frustrated nurse.

Also realizing Adriannu likely won't take her hand, she lets out a sigh of resignation and guides the child with a gentle gesture toward the door. From this point forward, they follow the faint blue line to the small circular room which, as Lisa has come to understand it, moves them up and down between levels through some bizarre mechanical mechanism, probably helped by enchantments advanced beyond her wildest dreams.

"Okay," Lisa holds out her arm to block the child from rushing into the elevator so she can explain: "This room is going to seal itself shut when we enter it and take us up to one of the higher levels." Again, she explains it out loud as much for herself as for Adriannu, affirming in her head that all the room will do is take them somewhere else.

((Don't worry about it; if I remember right, you've explained you haven't been feeling great lately so I understand if you need to take breaks now and then. ))

"He broke my house," she says calmly, before immediately switching gears to pestering Jules.

"So you're a demon?" Raven's eyes widen, not with horror but with absolute amazement. "I've never met a demon before! I've met demonic-looking things of course-" the two-headed dragon being one of them, "- but a legitimate demon is so much different."

Raven circles around her, practically buzzing with excitement. "That explains your looks...so what can you do as a demon? You kind of implied you can change your looks earlier; how much can you change them? And you healed me and Neo; can all demons do that? Is hell an actual place? Are you-" she catches herself and chuckles. "Sorry, I'm getting off-topic." She leaves it at that and retreats into the undergrowth for a few minutes. There, her shard lies partially buried in the soil. It's most-wickedly sharp edge pierces the air, coated in slowly crusting blood. She takes it gingerly in her teeth and pulls it from the ground.

Then she returns to the group with her relic in full view. She watches their faces carefully; their reactions will tell her a lot about what they know.

"I haven't experimented much with transforming... so mostly I can vary from full demon to full human. Currently I'm in mid shape of human and demon." She spreads her demonic wings that have black feathers and her horns only partially out. "And no healing is a rare trait in demons I'm one of the last few left actually. As for Hell being real?" She smirks. "Who knows... but perhaps maybe I do but that information is classified.. for now." She chuckles then sees the shard. "I see you have one of those too." She smiles. "What does yours do?" She tilts her head as her eyes fill with curiosity.

"One moment, please excuse the incoming high-speed self-guided vehicle. And no, once you see it you can't have it," Victi says, sending the bike a call signal, "In the meantime, while it tries to find me, magic."

She clears her throat, making a final checklist of her points in her head.

"There are a few ways I can demonstrate or describe my capabilities in terms of enchnating and magic use. The first would be simply having you strike me. My defenses will hold against the attack fine, though I admit that that one's a little simple. I could also have you try and damage the amulet around my neck, if you'd like. Gives you more things to try. Third, I could explain how I nullified your anti-magic cuffs, and prove the veracity of that claim by having my companion shapeshift and burst them. Fourth, I could simply craft an enchantment for you, and let you be the judge of that, which is even easier if you have magical sens-"

She's interrupted by a high-pitched whine and probably yelling as her hoverbike nyooms across the camp and up to the tent. It honks twice, and a message about an interfering barrier pops up on Victi's HUD, along with its dash-cam showing the tent's closed flap.

"Oh, before I just let it, do you mind if I have it come in here?" she asks, "It would probably make the showing the gold bit easier, and hopefully reduce the risks of it electrocuting your men or setting them on fire while it protects itself out there." Or strafing the hell out of them. she thinks to herself with a slight grimace. Maybe toggle the spitters off.... yeah, much safer. No need for suppression fire, even if it was currently modded non-lethal.

Weird. Seems like people're losin' their houses left and right. Maybe I shouldn't aim to get back home.... Ahh, I'm sure it'll be right.

Alastor couldn't help but speculate as Raven's chat revealed more. Interacting with demon-like beings? Alright then, lookin' at either a well-versed warlock or a very stupid wizard fer the master. I can definitely work with either! He also took the time to note what he'd just heard from Jules. Rare trait, eh? I'll keep that in mind.

Alastor's eyes lit up at the sight of yet another shard. "Hear, hear! Seems like these things are drawn together or summin', eh Julesy? But uhh.." Alastor looked slightly confused for a moment, "is it safe for you to use it Raven? Given yer size, I mean."

Raven snorts and silently flicks her tail to gesture toward the knarled, tilted tree she'd grown using the shard's magic. That's what I can do with it.

When Alastor fires a question, her eyes widen. Her jaw drops and the shard falls from her mouth as her gaze drops to her leg, which had been cut wide open minutes ago. I didn't think about that...

She may have actually died of blood loss had Jules not been around with her fancy healing hands. The realization marks the start of a crack in Raven's airy composure; she clears her a throat and takes a moment to answer. "Of course it's safe; I know how much blood I can lose."

"Besides," she quips, "I have nine lives."

Behind her slick smile and easy-going eyes, her hackles rise. The potential of an ulterior motive behind Alastor's concern does not escape her mind, and understanding how close she'd drawn to death disturbs her more than she'd care to admit.

"Doesnt it get exhausting to carry that around in your mouth? Wouldnt you prefer something like a necklace or anything you can think of?" She tilts her head slightly as she sits. She gazes at Raven observing her build to get her measurements down to potentially help with crafting up something.

Alastor gives a quick laugh at Raven's quip. "Yeah, I'll give yer that one. But I'm countin' yer at eight from here on out." And countin' myself lucky. I got to remember to ask Urug how much blood I can lose.

"Maybe a necklace will be a bit big. Can't imagine it'd be too comfortable." Alastor thought for a sec. "... We could always put it in something soft and make it into a kinda... backpack. Fer a cat. A catpack, if ya will!" Alastor smiled, obviously pleased with his own joke. "Alternatively, I guess one o' us could hold it for yer. Wouldn't be too much trouble, I imagine." Alastor's usual wolfish grin made its return.

"That is true... sorry I got carried away. But a catpack huh? I could make one of those." She smiles proudly. "I dont think I'd trust you with it Al... no offense just saying we are strangers to her. Besides, I have more pockets that are hidden. I could carry that no problem." She smirks as she crosses her arms which perk up her ladies.

Raven ponders the offer for the moment, then breaks in a wide grin. "Catpack? I love it!"

"Purr-lease," She hits Jules with a pair of comically pleading kitten eyes. "I've been carrying this stupid thing all day. I don't know how much longer I can go on!" For dramatic effect, she flops over on top of the demon's feet.

She squats down and gives her a little belly rub. "No problem! It should only take a little bit." She then takes the bag She had been carrying the whole time off her shoulders and digs through it. She finds some sturdy leather and tough string. She begins sowing it flawlessly. She got so entranced in doing it she began to hum a sweet and melodic melody.

Aurora flexes her claws with an eager smile. Of course, she'd like to hit Victi and see what happens.

As Victi off-handedly mentions she'd nullified the cuffs' effects, the dragon's face contorts into a caricature of shocked rage. She and Drake shout at the same time, "You did WHAT!?"

The chimera backs the hell up and out of the tent as the dragoness roars and swings her claws at the smug vixen's face, and he gets a glimpse of the absolute chaos ensues as her crew panics as the Shriker screams into camp. They attack with weapons ranging from rocks scooped up off the ground to bow-and-arrows to blasts of magic.

He figures he can watch this fiasco for a moment and wait for whatever's about to go down in the tent to run its course.

Victi raises her arms in front of her face, more on instinct than anything else, as the blow hits and she supresses the urge to dodge. She's knocked back into the wall of the tent, briefly wondering if "enclosed pavilion" might actually be the more correct way of describing it, before coming to a stop.

"Well, only on mine and only as a safety precaution in case you decided to get big with the killing, so at least I could defend myself," Victi clarifies as she skids, "I was gonna respect their intent as long as you respected us as clients. They're as much a symbol as an actual deterrent, right? right. The implication is that by me pointing out that particular loophole, you could.... you know, patch it. Especially since you'll notce that I took that hit just fine. I know my magic, both in theory and in practice. Heck, I could probably add a bunch of extra convolutions and anti-bypass patterns to let you know if someone else tries it!"

For Drake's part, what he sees is either horrifying or hilarious. The shriker has opened small ports in its side, spraying what looks like a dense mist of flaming oil in arcs like the wings of a demented mechanical phoenix, while arcs of electricity spark over its hull. It zips back and forth at the attacking bandits, ramming them and making them and their attacks bounce off of either its shield or hull, presumably dependent on the intensity of the impact.

Alastor let out a quick gasp. "Jules! You wound me!" He let the statement hang for a moment before continuing. "Do you really think I wouldn't have more pockets inside my coat?" He let out a quick laugh before continuing.

"Glad we all like the catpack idea though. Oughta make life a lot easier, and by the sounds of that message we all got, we might need every advantage we can get."

She stops her humming. "Maybe I just wanted to be helpful too." She mumbles softly. "Besides it's not like you're gonna search me for all my pockets just to prove you have more." She chuckles sweetly as she finishes up the catpack.

Neo stirs, and slowly wakes up. He yawns, before looking at the draconic skeleton. He then sees Raven Jules, and Alastor talking about something, though it was blurred out. He then has a slight head, which causes him to grab his head.Still weak...Your power is developing, yet you don't choose to fully use it. But don't worry. With your family dead, and the portal to the Realm of Angels taking it's time to repair the damage you cause, nothing is going to get in our way now.Neo then question that.Until he realized that he messed up big time. Now every demon is going to come after him, to finish what they started."God, shits in my dinner once again"He said out loud.

Raven watches excitedly as Jules stitches together a miniature backpack just for her. She looks away only once to cast Alastor a suspicious glance, then mirrors him by suggesting, "Why not put all the shards in my new pack instead?" She blinks innocently. She doesn't expect the guy to agree, but there's a point to be made in how suspect he sounds to her.

Granted, it might just be an inkling of paranoia. That comes with spending too much time with Lisa.

When Neo stirs, the first words to shoot from his mouth makes her gasp in mock shock. "Language!"

She continues to work on the pack when she hears Neo. "Something troubling you?" She asks without really removing her eyes from the pack. She was focused on finishing. "I think my piece is fines incased in the necklace. Its safer that way due to the spell on it." She smiles as she glances up at Raven. "I appreciate the offer though." She says oblivious to what Raven was actually implying.

Drake watches in stunned silence, having absolutely no idea what to make of the spectacle. The sight of goblins charging a flaming and sparking wonder of mechanics with little swords is absolutely hilarious. Their twisted, smoking bodies afterward is much less so. Most of the more intelligent bandits take to firing from far away, the smartest ones taking elevated positions in the camp's fortifications or trees, but this doesn't stop them from being injured by their own deflected attacks.

Aurora stalks forward, her lips curled into a snarl as Victi explains her intent; it doesn't look like she's impressed.

But the commotion outside draws her attention away from attacking her potential client. In a huff, the dragoness storms outside to see the Shriker and her crew engaged in ferocious combat. She stares, shocked as Drake, then she roars, "CEASE FIRE!"

Everyone goes still except for one courageous goblin, who Drake quietly blocks by lifting his leg in its path. The goblin turns to bite him, but he bares his just-as-sharp teeth and it backs scurries away.

The bike falls silent as soon as the assault on it stops, floating passively just above the ground, as usual.

In the stunned silence, Victi smugly sashays over to her craft, pops open the seat, and hauls out the bag of gold, as well as her own bag of looted coinage. "This should hopefully be adequate," she says, as if not standing in what amounts to a small war-zone, "Sorry about the damage, most of the defensive systems are self-governing. Anyway, do we still have a deal here?"