Rise from Ruin
Collector

Age: 91 | Height: 6' 1 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 1 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 7 - Int:
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#1
Under the cover night, where the stars bathed the sky, Archebold sat atop of mansion of ruin. Stained glass windows, shattered and rotted. A large bell hung still, having never cut through the air with it's blaring rings. His eyes sealed as he attempted to gather the sounds of life or lack there of around him.

This...this was true freedom. No tether, no law, no duty...just natural evolution. As it always should have been.

Slender fingers twirled the golden lions head knob of his ivory walking stick. Twirled and caught in several pensive intervals as his blackened eyes opened to scan over the ruin beneath.

Archebold lay claim over the mansion, to which he would rebuild. His blood will pierce this stone to make in his image. Elegant, strong, defiant of all that surround it. It will stand proud and tall among the rubble.

He stood and turned toward the bronze bell behind him, his steps careful among the crumpled shingles of the mansion's roofing. Approaching, his hand gently wiped the dust as the shimmer of the moonlight greeted him.

A grin, rather satisfied with his claim, appeared as he reached and tapped the bell with his stick, faint chimes echoed as he would leap down into the hole along the roof, landing onto his feet in what appeared like a study. He sat upon a dusted, lavishly cushioned chair that overlooked the remnants of a shattered window that nearly covered the wall entirely. Again the stick twirled and was caught, tapping when done so against the dull wooded floor.

Wessex
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
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#2

What’s the point of having a big-ass house is you have to spend half your time first restoring and then once it’s all pretty, cleaning it? Seems like a waste of time unless one is going to open it to the public, have an equally big-ass family, or lots of parties.

Wessex won’t pretend to understand the Outlander’s fascination with their own decaying ruins. There is a limit to this Natural’s benevolence, however, and it requires keeping a keen eye on the newcomers while they sleep.

And then there are some who don’t sleep when they’re supposed to. Like calls to like, whether it’s in the pheromones, the smell, or in the tickling at the back of one’s neck that says something similar is just around the corner. Someone like Wessex. A night-walker. It is only his alienness that makes her cautious; it took her a couple of days to even swallow the idea that anything beyond the bubble could be similar - but no, many of them are just like the natives. It spun theories in her head while she gazed up at the stars - theories she had no one to talk to about.

She prowls below him, unsure if he can sense her, if he does this to draw her out - or if he is oblivious. Are their gifts the same? Wessex hears a thud as the man lands on the floor, the gentle creak as he sits in a piece of old furniture, and then the tap-tap of something else. No point in waiting, she supposes. Pushing against a set of dusty double doors with ornate doorknobs that have long since been stripped of their gilded covering, Wessex enters the study confidently, as if she has every right to be here (and she does, this is her homeland), bold and barbaric all at once. A dark cloak covers most of her body, save for her rather pale face and long, blonde braid.

“You’re like me,” she says simply. There is an element of surprise to her statement, but it is ever so slight.

And really, it’s all they need to know.

WESSEX
she whispered back, I am the storm

{Archebold}
Collector

Age: 91 | Height: 6' 1 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 1 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 7 - Int:
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#3
Tap...Tap...Tap...Tap...

With each respective pause, the ivory walking stick twirled beneath his pale slender fingers. Pausing only to tap again, and again, and again as he wrapped his fingers around the gold lions head knob of the stick to do so.

His rhythm never broke, even as Wessex entered and spoke. He still continued.

Tap...Tap...Tap...Tap...

Black, hollow eyes peered through the shattered window, glancing to the side and upward toward the striking woman who exuded strength. He had only known one other woman who held such an aura...and for all he knew she was long turned to a pile of ash.

Tap...Tap...Tap...Tap...

You're like me...

Wessex claimed, and the tapping stopped. Instead Archebold kept his eyes on her for a length of time that would be uncomfortable for the uninitiated. A lingering silence fell over the room before he chose to speak.

"Bold assumption, considering we haven't even exchanged names."

Again Archebold tapped his stick, but this time it was a singular, thoughtful tap.

"What is it you believe me to be?"
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
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#4

If it’s a staredown Archebold wants, weighing and measuring her patience, her ability to stand firm under scrutiny - it’s a staredown he’ll give. Calm, focused eyes watch him, growing still in the way one might when hiding when lying in wait for prey. He’ll find no squirming here, despite a dark intensity that seems to want to bore inside her and see what her marrow’s made of.  

Nothing organic, that’s for sure.

What is it you believe me to be? he asks, as if he can’t smell it, hear it, feel the tension between them. Maybe his world is different, maybe they are a dime a dozen, the norm, or hatched from eggs. But here, in Caido, they are few and far between. For a woman who has no family, only acquaintances… and a certain reputation, she finds herself overly eager to make another, more fanged family. In reply to his question, Wessex brings a finger up to her fangs and presses against her sharp teeth, breaking the skin and drawing forth not-blood.

After looking at the drop for a moment, the warrior-woman extends her arm and holds her hand out, allowing the drop to roll of her finger and on to the floor.

“Ascended,” she finally says, calling him by their own name.

WESSEX
She whispered back, I am the storm
Collector

Age: 91 | Height: 6' 1 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 1 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 7 - Int:
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#5
Tap...Tap...

Archebold tilted his head aside as he looked over Wessex and her gesture to her fangs which earned her a rather amused "hm..."

A fanged grin of his own followed as he spun the ivory walking stick in his palm, examining her more fully head to toe.

"I...like that name. Sounds...regal, as if we're of some standing of great importance. A far cry from the standing inherited in my former home. Bloodfiends, they called us...rather lacking in originality, and crude of a description if you ask me. Ascended...I like that much better.

It foreshadows a higher level of evolution...dramatic, but I like it." He held his grin, still Archebold remained seated.

"You certainly look the role...dare I say you are perfection in every sense of the word. You exude strength without physicality. Command respect without uttering a single order...consider me at a disadvantage for not knowing how to address you."

The lionshead knob rolled quietly in his palm as he gestured toward Wessex with his hand.

"Please...tell me your name...are you native to this remnants of civilization I am to call home?"
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#6

She can imagine the dance the two of them might engage in, if they were the kind to be engulfed in lust, the kind that felt as keenly as mortals do. But their body language transcends emotions, allows them to be more than intelligent machines - if they want to be. Wessex smiles as she listens to Archebold digest Caido’s name for the nightwalkers, quirking her lips up at the term ‘Bloodfiend.’ She’ll go back to that later. It makes sense, though she’s never personally dined on anyone else - there are stories of their kind that keep children up at night.

“You weave words together well.” A small concession, but she witholds her answers for a moment. ”I have some questions first.” Rather than remain standing in front of him, she sits on a bare wooden ledge of the shattered window, feeling the night’s chilled air on her back. One leg dangles down, while the other curls up against her chest, elbow resting on her knee. “How did you come here? All of you - and how did you become an Ascendant?”

She makes no move to answer his questions - but neither does she make any move to leave. All in good time. And time is the one thing they have plenty of.

WESSEX
She whispered back, I am the storm
Collector

Age: 91 | Height: 6' 1 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 1 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 7 - Int:
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#7
Archebold grinned to the stoic woman as she stepped away and seated herself. She appeared to be someone of exemplary will, not easily swayed.

"I was created. The kingdom I served desired perfection in their soldiers. Used magic to shape us...perhaps a little too well.

They feared us, enslaved us. It was a rather...unremarkable existence if you ask me. The most troubling part of it all was the acceptance of my kind.

I was poised to turn the tide of that war when I suddenly arrived here. Unbound, free will and it's tantalizing lure there for the taking."


Archebold tapped along the lionshead knob of his walking stick, leaning forward slightly.

"And what of you? How did you come to be? And what is the state of our kind here?"
archebold
Death is not a defeat. It is a cure.
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#8

Created? by magic?

Her lips purse a little at the thought, quickly coming to the conclusion that yes, Caido’s Ascendants are also created by magic, though theirs is far more of a transformation than anything else. A taking and a giving. A trade, a curse, a promise of more with time and strength. For this, she is bound to the New Gods, though she hardly gives them a thought in her everyday life - not until it’s time to replenish herself, that is. It’s not the most holy or thankful or lives, but she imagines that the New Gods will take any convert they can get right now.

Her eyes rise from her thoughts of what a dreadful existence he must have had in the previous world - wherever that was - coming to meet his. A survivor. Like her.

“We choose to transform into this. The New Gods give it to whoever wants it, in exchange for a life-long reliance on them for energy and existence.” She shrugs. It really was an easy choice, once she had no one left. “But We are few and far between. Many think us monsters, evil, unnatural...” The corner of her mouth twitches. The poor, poor mortals… they haven’t a clue what they’re missing. And Wessex will never tell them.

She imagines Archebold won’t either. If he's anything like her, he's a got a selfish streak a mile wide.


WESSEX
She whispered back, I am the storm
Collector

Age: 91 | Height: 6' 1 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 1 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 7 - Int:
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#9
"Reliance on them? The gods?"

Archebold laughed more to himself than anything as he playfully tapped his walking stick. The thought of reliance on anything other than himself for his own survival was borderline offensive, if not amusing to say the least.

"I've always preferred the more organic approach of feeding off the cattle beneath us, it is the one thing that truly feels like home...though I found it curious I felt sluggish and unsatisfied by the act. Suppose that explains why...I'll have to discuss this with your gods. There should be more significance to the order of things. What good is being superior if we can not flex our muscles and command the food chain as evolution has determined."

He appeared rather disappointed by the whole idea of freedom at the cost of never truly enjoying feeding as it should have been...suppose everything came at a price.

"So other than sharing the same gifts, and reliance on entities beyond our means...am I to assume you have a name, or simply refer to you as You. Clearly, manners aren't forbidden in this world."
archebold
Death is not a defeat. It is a cure.
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#10

Wessex simply smiles a little to herself at his amusement. His Outlanderness is showing, and it’s bright enough to make her want to turn away. He muses and she follows his logic, but can’t say that she knows what he’s talking about other than tidbits of legend and horror stories. No, Wessex has never fed off of anyon, but she’s a newborn for all intents and purposes. A motherless newborn of an endangered species, and it’s either sink or swim.

“Well. Power is never given freely. Certainly not power like ours. Ours scares people… and the Gods… the New Gods weren’t stupid when they offered us this. She shrugs then, half because she hasn’t any insight to their thinking and because it seems fair to her. For a woman who’s had to fight for everything - for life, for freedom, for a living - it seems fair.

Archebold makes some quip about manners, but her face remains like stone, watching him, trying to suss out his true intentions. “Wessex.” she says finally, giving only her first name. Not that there are any others with her name out there… but he’s currently on a need-to-know basis. “Yours?”

She waits until he offers an answer before popping her next question. “What do you want here?”  


WESSEX
She whispered back, I am the storm
Collector

Age: 91 | Height: 6' 1 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 1 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 15 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 7 - Int:
Played by: Andy Offline
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#11
"They're right to fear us, more so now than ever before."

Archebold replied casually, almost boastfully as he grinned at Wessex and began to observe the room. Walking stick given a tic toc motion as an arm of a clock would.

"The price is grave, pending who you ask...but the end result leaves little debate. We're the top of the food chain, unchained and free to hunt and exist as nature would allow us. I can't imagine those who are from my world will be thrilled with this knowledge...pity."

The ivory stick continued to sway as he turned to acknowledge Wessex's next set of questions.

"Archebold..."

A sway of his arm and a bow of formality given under the presence of such grace and strength.

"As for what it is I want..."

His voice trailed off as he took easy strides toward a window, peeking through the broken opening.

"I want what is owed to me...what is owed to us."

Turning to Wessex he'd smile in complete absolution.

"I want everything."
archebold
Death is not a defeat. It is a cure.
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#12

Well he’s a greedy little arrogant fuck, isn’t he? Archebold and Wessex will either make a dangerous duo or clash head-on in a battle for dominance; two stubborn deviants the like of which Caido has never seen before, they’ll go down in history one way or another.

Wessex rises gracefully from her perch at the edge of the window and moves to its open edge. After a glance down to see if there’s anyone - or anything below - she turns back to Archebold. “I imagine your coming is the sign that something is about to happen. We’ve tried for years to get out of this bubble - Ascended and human alike - and nothing ever worked. Nor has anything ever gotten in. Until now. I don’t know what it means, but I’m happy to have found another Ascended.” She pauses and shrugs half-heartedly. “There’s also Sam, the bookmaker, but he’s soft.”

Another pause as she considers his movement around the room and declaration of what he wants. Rather than offer her opinion on his desires, she simply says. “Meet me in a month. I bet we’ll have a lot more to talk about.” Making a move as if to leap from the ledge, she stops only to throw another glance his way before casually saying, “The leatherworker, Rory, and baker, Amalia, are off limits.”

No feeding from her psuedo-friends. Once upon a time, that might have included family, but everyone who matters is gone. The rest of Caido (literally, everyone else) is fair game.

WESSEX
She whispered back, I am the storm


[Feel free to say she missed their set meeting! Cause ded x.x ]


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