Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
10-19-2019, 02:46 PM (This post was last modified: 10-19-2019, 02:46 PM by Samuel.)
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
After his own questions, Rexanna's voice rang out and Sam looked over to see her. He was glad she had made it, but Bastien's absence was ominous. She didn't seem to be beside herself with grief though, so he assumed the man had to be still alive.
The eyes appearing in the darkness made him take in a sharp gasp, Sam beginning to wonder what he was actually doing here. They seemed so hard, so evil, no mercy or goodness held within; perhaps this really was his fate and the Ascended were doomed. But he couldn't believe that, so one more try.
"Okay. I don't have much on me, but I will -- but please, tell me who you are. What use do you even have for our things? Is there not any kind of understanding we could reach?" After asking this question he took a step back, his barrier still around him but Sam suddenly feeling less safe, preparing himself to immediately use the chip if he had to.
--
Sam asks a couple more questions and gets ready to use his monster-invisibility.
No Order
As the monster's turned silent and dark eyes towards the dark patch where he was pressed against the wall, instinctively the alchemist knew his cover had been blown...if indeed he'd ever been properly concealed to begin with. With nerves already shaken and fueled by adrenaline, Remi lifted his chin ever so slightly as he shifted. Whatever protection the wall he pressed himself again had afforded him was surely gone now as he doubled, tripled, quadrupled (and then some) in size. Bristling he moved forward, wings nervously parted from his flanks, to stand behind Sam at a safe enough distance that he wasn't near the crackling electrical barrier around his friend.
THE
ALCHEMIST
Table coding by Sky
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
dirty laundry, hangin' out with the white lies 'til they're clean sheets
testing loyalties,
It seems to ignore her for the time being, and she bites down quietly on the inside of her lip while the darkness seeps forward, watching from her own spot away from the shield’s barrier. The words the creature says are quite a bit less than comforting, and she glances to Sam with uncertainty. She’s not giving up what she has, but why must they die anyway?
“Where do you go when Longnight is over?” She asks abruptly, moving just enough to near Remi’s spot for a quick escape should they need it. That and his forms should definitely provide a helpful comfort for her mentally. She’s not prepared like Samuel is with his barrier. She’s not prepared, really, at all. But she hopes to get some information from this attempt if only to see where it goes from here.
"On you?" Their combined laughter is like metallic gears dropped onto the concrete. "You have much more than that." So saying both Rexanna and Sam will feel...a vibration as the upgrades inside of their bodies vibrate ever so slightly. Indeed, in looking at each other they will see a soft outline through their skin at various parts, where the upgrades have been added. Optical upgrades make the eyes shine, Sam's sensory upgrade in his arm, Rex's barrier blocker in her hands, and so on.
"So pathetically weak and stupid. This is not a conversation. This is your last chance. Give us what you have, or die." To prove their point, tendrils of shadow lash out. Leaving the alchemist for now, one strikes towards Sam. It hits the barrier around him, sizzling and crackling, though with enough impact to shove him roughly backwards likely making him lose his balance and fall. As for Rexanna, one strikes out at her feet as if wanting her to dance on the spot if only to show the amount of control they possess, whipping her ankles when she doesn't move fast enough.
10-19-2019, 09:31 PM (This post was last modified: 10-19-2019, 09:32 PM by Samuel.)
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
"I don't--" Sam began to say, then looked down at himself as parts of him began to glow and vibrate. He didn't really understand what was happening, but it certainly didn't feel good. Being knocked onto the ground didn't either, Sam scrabbling backwards on the ground away from the monster.
He looked back to Remi - in his desperation, there was only one thing he could think of, and in the moment he had he didn't have a chance to realise how stupid it was. "Remi--!! Can you make a...big...net? To...grab it? You could throw it to me and Rex and--" Sam gestured, his hand catching the other, in a way he hoped communicate him and Rex clothes-lining the monster and capturing it in a net. He hoped, in his barrier, he had a couple of seconds before a monster might react.
"Rexanna, will you, with me?" He asked, standing up, hoping that everyone understood what it was he was trying to do. "You could use your board and go quickly--"
--
Sam asks for Remi to create a giant net. He then holds out his hands to grab it and hopes Rexanna will grab the other side. Then run at it and catch it. This is what we're doing.
The manticore blinked down at Sam, lips falling open slightly. A net? Was it even possible? It'd have to be magical very likely, or surely it wouldn't do any good. A quick bit of mental arithmetic revealed that indeed he had enough magic left in reserve to make such a net. Shrinking back into his regular body, the alchemist gave the bookmaker a shaky nod. "No guarantees this will work. I can make a magical net yes, but these creatures..." Which was about all the time for warnings Remi thought they had.
Not knowing the actual size of what they were trying to capture, Remi hoped the magic would take care of things. "Here—" He mumbled to Sam, thrusting part of the net into his hands. Jumping into the air and shifting into a hawk, he grabbed the top portion, meaning to assist with draping the netting over the monster as Rex and Sam hopefully scooby doo'd the monster.
Remi creates: Magical Net | Will successfully trap uncommon and common creatures within.
THE
ALCHEMIST
Table coding by Sky
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
dirty laundry, hangin' out with the white lies 'til they're clean sheets
testing loyalties,
She can feel a vibration and it’s absolutely not something she wants to deal with. The nipping at her heels is only an addition to it that she doesn’t want to stick around long. And she’s one second away from hopping on the hoverboard and giving her best shot, before Samuel’s voice cuts out and Rexanna slides closer toward Remi. A net? Are they to capture it? She can’t just leave them there, and so she nods to him abruptly.
As she nears Samuel and Remi, she spots the net reaching toward Samuel, and she grabs the other end with her only free hand, hoping to capture the creature within the net as well – hoping and praying that they don’t all die.
Rex grabs the other part of the net and tries to capture it with the rest of em!
Though what the trio run at seems to pure be shadow, something is bound within the net. It screams and lashes out at what appears to be just rope and yet for all of its wickedness, it seems unable to break the basic bonds. Clever gang, but...y'know, what about all the other monsters.
Like a sworm of locusts they come. Rex receives the worst of their attack, blotting out her vision and nipping at her skin. Only...she can't feel it, so other than the annoyance of being saturated in black bugs, it isn't too bad. Sam and Remi likewise receive this treatment though in far fewer degrees.
He hardly had any time to think about what he was doing before he was catching the net, running forward with Rexanna...it was only when he felt the pull of something being caught that it actually came to him what he was doing. Sam's whole body was filled with terror but this was not the time to run and hide. He couldn't.
As what felt like millions of black bugs surrounded them, he tried to slam the net to the ground, holding it down with his feet and a hand. In the moment he was so concentrated he didn't think of it, but later he would wonder why it was the monsters surrounding them did not hurt them, merely seemed to try to blind them.
Through the fog of the dark and the bugs whipping around them, he peered down into the net, hoping to get an idea of what it was they had caught. Whatever it was, he had to keep going now that he'd gotten this far.
"Answer at least one of our questions. If you do that, we'll let you go. I-if not...If not..." Losing his confidence for a second he looked up to Rexanna and Remi then back down. "If not we will leave you here until the sun comes up." He did not really mean the threat (he thought not, anyway) but he couldn't think of another way to get his answers.
---
Holy fuck it worked.
Sam holds the net down and tries to see what the monster is, and ask it to answer his questions.
Flapping his wings against the onslaught of strange bugs? monsters? against him, the hawk cried out shrilly judging that their attempts at stealth were surely gone by now. And no warrior was he, screaming, even as a bird, did feel rather good, and helped focus his fraying thoughts so that he didn't release his grip of the net.
Once Sam wrapped the ends together, the alchemist flew to the ground, hastily shifting back if only so that he could speak. Standing behind his friend, eyeing both he and Rex nervously, Remi turned his gaze to the horrific amalgamation of shadow captured within the netting.
"Sam...The longer we stay out here the more will come." Remi whispered nervously. "If we bring it back to the guild, the luxere could guard it and we would have more time." And Ronin. And doors that close.
THE
ALCHEMIST
Table coding by Sky
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
dirty laundry, hangin' out with the white lies 'til they're clean sheets
testing loyalties,
Holy gods, it worked?
Sam seems content to try and remain, but Rexanna can feel the shadow, the dark bugs that saturate her, and she absolutely cannot see. So she hisses under her breath, helping Sam wrap up the creature by terrible deadened feel alone, before Remi’s suggestion hits. “Take it back.” She announces to the two of them, stepping back to try and wipe away at her eyes, though it’s unclear if it works.
“Sam, I can’t see, we need to go. Now.” Because she’ll be damned if she dies out here to these black bugs. They’ve caught a monster, best to bring it back toward the Luxere to ask it questions, where safety is close by, rather than out here in the open with jittering, vibrating upgrades and glowing eyes. She wipes at her face again, shivering against the feeling of the insects that crawl over her skin, before taking a step forward where she thinks Remi and Sam are, willing to help carry it back, if only she could see where she was going.
Rex agrees to take it back, tells them she can’t see, and offers her help to carry it back (so long as someone helps guide her LOL)
"Answer one question?" The creature sneers from within. "Very well. You asked if there was an understanding. The answer is yes. Your items for your lives." It snarled darkly. Oh, it was contained. For now, but not forever.
And importantly, it was not alone.
Darkness swarms around them in earnest now. They tear at Sam's eyelashes and burrow into his ears. Bells chime loudly within as they scream at his eardrums causing fluid to leak from his ears, destroying his sense of balance. As Remi shifts back the bugs on him invade his nose and mouth. They bite at his tongue and press themselves into the spaces between his teeth. Clogging his airways they force him to open his mouth to bring in air, and as he does so, they slice the top of his mouth. As for Rex? Her eyes, so very pretty, will make quite the treat. Blue becomes black as they gnaw into her iris and retina. She'll feel that they are there, but not the pain. So for now she is shielded from the extent of the damage they do, for although she will feel fluid-tears streaking down her cheeks, if she tries to open her eyes she'll only see the blackness of their small bodies. Not the real blackness that exists. Not the blindness that exists.
10-20-2019, 08:21 PM (This post was last modified: 10-20-2019, 08:47 PM by Samuel.)
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
As much as the situation very much did not call for it, Sam nearly wanted to roll his eyes at the answer. This monster was very immature.
But he was about to get a very swift reminder of the power it held. The loud ringing in his ears as his ears were ruptured had Sam blinking in pain, tears immediately flowing and it took everything in him to not lift his hands to his ears, to keep them down on the net.
Of course, this was nothing compared to what happened to Rexanna. As he looked up and saw her bleeding eyes, a horrified hole opened in his chest. There was only one thing to do. Follow their advice, and try to get out of here with the monster. "Let's go back to the Guild. Rexanna...h-hold my hand. Put on your chip." He was going to be unsteady, but at least he wasn't blind.
Before he got up he scrabbed away just a little then activated his barrier, hoping to both stun the monster in the net and any of the smaller ones lingering around them. Before he turned it off, he activated his invisibility chip.
Struggling to his feet, trying to keep a hold on the net, he held out an elbow for Rexanna to hold onto. "Remi...can you...fly ahead? Try to make sure the path ahead is clear? If you have any trouble, make a noise and I will run forward with my barrier...no matter what happens, you will get back home." With that said, he began to stumble forwards, wobbling with his lack of balance, praying the magic of the net would keep the monster contained long enough for them to get back within the proximity of the Luxere.
---
Sam attempts to shock the monster (and hopefully any others around them) with his barrier, then uses his chip to go invisible and begins to try and take the monster back towards the MHG!
No Order
dirty laundry, hangin' out with the white lies 'til they're clean sheets
testing loyalties,
They do not have time to chit chat, and she can feel the ever growing pressure in her eyes as the darkness seems to settle in further. And it’s at that moment that she realizes that perhaps they aren’t just blocking her vision… Perhaps they’ve taken it. A specific sort of panic settles in her chest, and her hands shake as she hears Sam’s words, not even trying anymore to brush the bugs away. She can feel the fluid seeping down her cheeks, she can see nothing, and if she’s being honest? She’s fucking terrified. "Okay."
It’s easier when you can see, to handle the unknown.
Grappling for Sam’s arm, she grits her teeth, an aimless kind of batting to find his elbow, and when she does, she tucks the hoverboard in her other arm alongside the parasol, finding a sword to be a rather useless weapon in the end after all if she has no vision to see her opponents. And she can tell that Sam’s balance is off, with the way that he wobbles, and her hand shakes as she tightens it around his elbow, letting him guide her, while she grounds him.
Teamwork, right?
She activates her chip as well, the special one the Voice has given her children, and she helps Sam try to take the monster back, guided by the bookkeeper.
Rex grabs onto Sam, activates her chip, and helps drag the monster back to the MHG <3
