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Post by Kai Rose on Dec 19, 2020 12:53:05 GMT -8
"Nice find," Kai muttered. "Very nice. I swear on the Wyrd I'll back you up in that Hollow as we pursue our foes if you do the same for me."
"You ready?"
Giving Oren enough time to activate any Contracts he might want to, Kai would then say, "I'll be right there with you. Three... two... one..."
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242
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Post by Oren on Dec 20, 2020 8:14:22 GMT -8
An oath was no laughing matter. Kings and Fools holding the sword over their heads. He had sung the lament of Damocles many, many times. They were one of the Thin White Duke's favorites. Sometimes it would spout from the clove vessels of his bleeding neck. Oren knew the tragedy well.
It felt comic now.
"By the Wyrd, I consign my sword to your aid."
Like a child would, he offered his pinky finger.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 20, 2020 12:22:04 GMT -8
Kai reached out with her connection to the Wyrd, the threads of a chaotic dream embroidered behind reality; the touch of madness gifting the Sight. A Hedge Gate is manifested with the honour of tithe, the Wizened's will ripping at the seams into the Land Between. As the Oath is agreed to, a connection is spun, the pair suddenly more aware as the weight of the promise lands on their souls. It levied a certain confidence the Lost were fond of. Oren breached, and realized immediately that the quarters were tight. The plants were overgrown, thick limbed trees arching across the narrow path that would struggle to accommodate two adults side by side. The smell of chemical and floral were thick in the misty atmosphere of a faerie greenhouse. The Elemental found himself facing a towering Ogre, the way forward hidden behind his massive form.
The Spring Bloodbrute's surprised frown quickly shifted to a nasty, pointed grin, as a flaming machete with glowing runes is drawn.
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Post by The Wyrd on Dec 20, 2020 12:27:01 GMT -8
Kai 11
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 20, 2020 13:00:39 GMT -8
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Post by Kai Rose on Dec 20, 2020 13:12:52 GMT -8
Weapon drawn. Hostile intentions were clear. The blistering light that ripped out of nowhere and caught the Ogre high in the chest was more than enough when it came to what Kai Rose intended in this situation.
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242
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Post by Oren on Dec 21, 2020 13:17:36 GMT -8
The volley is thrown, and the curtain rises. Oren strikes with his dagger.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 21, 2020 15:33:31 GMT -8
Marquel's attention briefly ticks to Kai, as the glittering weapon of cutting crystal and prism sails straight over Oren's charging shoulder, into the Ogre's chest. The force pushes the Spring courtier back, light blooming from the wound as the skin cracked and fractured, fountaining from the wound.
With the roar of the ringing storm outside, the agents of Zephyr synch their assault on the breach of the Pattern. The glass-marble statue ramping up his speed to pounce boot-first onto the falling prey's chest, sending both to the floor of the Hollow as his knife plunged into the Stain's throat. The Hedge briefly shifts, the garden a forest of shattered reality and fractal patterns, colour and life draining with the greying blood of the Freehold spilling across the floor.
Ambrosia's frightened expression at the sudden execution of her fallen comrade comes into view, already moving toward a small, tight chute. Seeing the Memory Surgeon's arrows, she makes the tactical decision to cover her back.
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Post by Kai Rose on Dec 21, 2020 17:14:23 GMT -8
The Mind Sculptor's first arrow burned through Marquel, blasting him back as her Elemental partner drove forward with his knife to drive the Ogre into the ground. Her cognition twitched a moment, Clarity wavering, but Kai's grip on reality held firm as she shifted to take her next shot. A power washed over her, but it did not take hold.
The second arrow flew, a headshot of light to stun and scramble the Wizened so that she would go no further.
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242
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Post by Oren on Dec 21, 2020 17:39:34 GMT -8
There's a moment of pure dissonance. Oren felt no connection to no one and no thing. He signified and symbolized nothing. His body, a husk of form and circumstance, strung out like an unbound loom in the dark sea. Glass eyes shimmer and the moment is snuffed underfoot...
Clarity founded on disparate strands of personhood drawn taut.
The bloodfest begins in earnest. Places, places!
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 21, 2020 18:47:25 GMT -8
The Hollow is restored, flickering between the Welkin Glade and the eked laboratory, as the influence of psyches and violence feeds the Thorns. The air ripples around Kai's face, as the Flowering's shadows fail to blast her senses. Ambrosia only has enough time to flinch as the arrow burns half her face and knocks her into the wall, blinking and feeling for the exit, but clearly dazed from the near death experience. Some tears escape her unfocused eyes as Oren's blade finds the tissue between her ribs, feeling the click of the bone as he drives it upwards. The maneuver came from a forgotten memory, perhaps a dance demanded Before. The glass Elemental's song gets closer to the Gate, and a rush of righteousness and calm snuffs the Wrath in the Iron Spears. The Hedge is a great hall of crystal stalagmites, light and dust sliding on the veins of a prism, and a mounting feeling of panic and disgust as the gore disturbs the opulent floor. The ringing is almost deafening, before the present snaps back. Fawkes leans in the doorway, armour clattering to the floor, and the grim red-drenched shard shifts back to a human arm. He rubs his eyes for a moment, looking blearily at the stain he had just spread across his face, the mask cracking with an animated grimace. "...Lucky's taken care of. Most of the cache is here."
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Post by Kai Rose on Dec 21, 2020 19:01:36 GMT -8
Kai stared at the fallen Spring Courtiers for a long moment. Her heart was pounding, the bow coming down as her lips pressed flat together. Eyes shifted to Oren as she ran fingers through her hair, taking a knee for a moment as her mind split between Here and Back There. The scars were real, the Mind Sculptor ever lurking past the haze of Arcadian memory.
A hand groped around in pockets, taking identity, taking notes, taking telephones. Any evidence, anything that could not leave, anything they could learn from this wholesale slaughter. It was almost robotic, efficient, but she was muttering a low 'no, no, no' there. They had license, but did that make it easier?
Never.
"Secure that weapon," she muttered to Oren, gesturing to the token the Ogre had dropped. "Fawkes will need to get rid of it." After all, nobody had any clue they were here except for the Sun Banisher. Fawkes's timely arrival was met with a nod and the flash of a gallows smile. "Got the other two. We need to look around and clean up..."
It was almost mechanical, the way she found a chemical container with a reflective outside that looked upon the room. A caress of a hand and a push of Glamour was all it took to get the Reflection started. "Show me the last time Ambrosia and Marquel talked about their employer by name."
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 22, 2020 14:03:39 GMT -8
The image as slightly warped, but clear enough for the audio to trickle through. Ambrosia meticulously checked her equipment with the sharp eye of an intelligent chemist, brushing off Marquel's attempts at small talk. He seemed to enjoy jabbing at the fact that she was working for criminals, sensing that she turned down her nose at the whole situation. He openly chattered that most of his family is In The Business; a cousin and brother numbering those guarding their work. He was getting his family out of a dangerous place and making sure his brother actually got something out of their shared trauma with the Hedge, than getting used by the Wizened.
Who pulled her strings, anyway? What was she getting out of this? Ambrosia sighed, putting down the pliers that snipped the rose that sprouted from her wrist, asking if the answer would get him to fuck off for an hour.
"Lyre."
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Post by Kai Rose on Dec 22, 2020 14:09:27 GMT -8
She looked to Fawkes and Oren as the reflection played. That wasn't the name of a Spring Courtier that she knew. "Any idea who that is, y'all?"
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Post by Fawkes on Dec 25, 2020 21:36:55 GMT -8
"Alias," Fawkes muttered quietly, taking out his phone before remembering he was in the Hedge.
"Information at hand: mid level criminal, name in reference to lyre snakes or the instrument. Charismatic, but unavailable. Starts up small operations like this, then drops once the bigger fish restore the status quo. Possibly a Coldscale or a Muse, working with the archetypes presented." He zoned out for a second, eyes more glazed than usual. "Um. Crown, probably."
He advanced to check the secondary exit, grunting with a straight drop down a black tunnel is presented — not worth the risk. "I need to move the equipment. Have less than an hour before trucks start arriving. Not enough time to clean up. Need to call in a block." The mannequin turned, eyebrows raised with the scissoring of cracks across his face, before walking back into the warehouse.
Something had clearly left the Winter courtier disquieted.
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