Episode V: Akala Strikes Back

[Julius Sedaire]

Location: Field of Blades
Allies: [member="Arla Balor"] | [member="Verz Horak"]
Unknown: [member="Nickolas Imura"] | [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] | [member="Laguz Vald"]


Nodding a mute assent to Imura, Ijaat stood. There was a hiss at his feet as he stomped them down, clanking as he dug his feet into the blades and earth beneath him. He even dug the spear into the ground as a brace, oddly enough. The A-10 at his shoulder began to whir faster as he turned and aimed at a rather large armored figure charging in the midst of a small group.

"Right, they still seem to have some sense of tactics... Find leaders, take them out, then turn on the left overs... Targeting the big one in black and gold at 12 o'clock... This will hurt, cover your ears...."

The A-10 seemed to go almost sub sonic in whine, and the air in front of it rippled, but no visible spark, flame, or smoke came from the gun, just earsplitting, ear-drum shattering roars from the cannon as five shells (the max he could safely fire without an exoskeleton to preserve his body's health) ripped from the mini-gun. Each shell impacted the lead in the same place, triangulation and target assist making such a feat possible. At first he was waving a finely crafted, gleaming saber about, and then suddenly he was almost gone from the waist up, and a few followers behind him were as well, the mass drive launched tungsten rods punching through their crude armor like paper for the lesser ones, two of the shells even winging off to the side as they impacted first and deflected from the leaders armor without penetrating, but did dint.

Some luckless soul of hell began to hoot and picked up the saber from the fallen leader. Ijaat stood and, without waiting for the others to follow, charged.... Halfway there, about twenty feet away, he chucked the bronzium spear and watched it sink into the mans abdomen and out the diagonally opposite side, dropping him like a feed-sack. Ijaat pulled his shotgun in one hand, firing loud sonic bursts well ahead of the others, the remaining hand snapping necks and limbs with ease with the aid of it's crushgauntlet enhanced strength.. In his mind, he kept count, as always..

Five... Six...

Suddenly he noticed he had pushed through the large group, who were charging his newly made friends. All but one. A rather lean looking soul swathed in robes which held the oddly gleaming sword from the fallen leader in bony, claw like hands. Ijaat turned, drawing his blade from earlier and clipped the shotgun to his back, it's charge indicator showing it needed a moment to cool it's sonic generator anyway. Assuming a dutiful guard, Ijaat began to fight the soul who dared challenge him...

Again, his focus in combat often narrowed to exclude the bigger picture, his anger rising and rising. And on the first stroke, Ijaat saw chips of his crude weapon fly, and he pressed down a grim panic, prepared to sell his life dearly so that at least his two vode might live and escape this place. He quietly apologized to Nyr in the back of his mind as he gave himself over to the clash of steel on steel, and the dance of blades.

 

[DG45]

On your left

Snapping to the river his suits systems picked up on two tags, friendlies. Finally. But the fething river was in the way. But there was hope in the form of [member="The Ferrymen of the River"]. Coming over the hill he'd been hiding behind the massive soldier approached the stranger in utter silence, simply pointing across the river to indicate he wished to cross. Ver-no, 45 had never been one for words that he could remember, and not even the pits of hell were going to turn the sniper into a talker.

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

She was surprised to see what seemed to be her own reflection staring back at her as one of those that did not belong attempted to confuse her. It was hardly the strangest thing she’d witnessed in this place of the damned – a shifter, it seemed. “Are you afraid of me?” she asked ‘herself’. If the shifter was showing her as she appeared not much had changed. This was a place of FOREVER, this was a place of JUDGMENT. Here she would never change. She would just exist.

If it was meant to teach her something she was not sure what it might be.

Those fighting around her, minions of the Netherworld and spirits trapped there alike, turned their heads when they heard her voice, the sound of their whispers of interest slicing through the desert wind sharp like the blades stuck in the ground. She pulled one of the blades from the ground – light but strong – to hold lightly in her right hand as she placed the other on the shoulder of a skeletonized dead-thing fighting against the living.

[SIZE=14pt]“They do not belong here. Bring me their souls.”[/SIZE]
​

The Rotting and Dead did as she asked without hesitation, circling the shifter and another man who’d come in to view and seemed to have a plan to break free of this place they would never leave. Where before those trapped within the Netherworld had simply to cut their way through chaotic fighting all around, now the fighting was centered on them and only them – men and women with skin sloughing off bright-white bones intent on harvesting the only thing these prisoners had left.

[member="Laguz Vald"] | [member="Nickolas Imura"]​

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

Location: The Garden of Thorns
[member="Thurion Heavenshield"] | [member="Shane Williams"] | [member="Mrrew"] | [member="Gareth Yalthik"]

Silence, there was actually silence for the first time. As Coci pulled back from Thurion, her arm remain around his waist, she looked about, over them all and the landscape. Mrrew wanted answers but no one could give them. At least none of the people catch in this Game of Thorns.

"I don't know", she said with hardly a whisper to her breath. "And I don't plan to die either, but if I must, then I will put up a fight". Coci looked up, her eyes still able to penetrate with the skill she uses much, that was something at least. Looking up into the darkening canopy of the forest of thorns, they needed something to give them direction, there is no point to simply hacking their way out, they would just end up going in circles.

She is the smallest of them all here and light of weight and so upward she would go. "I am going to climb and see what is out there, maybe I will find a direction at least, and maybe you lot can try and get some sense of that creature". Coci's resolve has returned. And with she moved to the nearest thick vine and began her climb. It would slow and painful, but better then nothing.

 

[Trenchcoat Man]

The Chasm of Passing and on.

He had been gazing down into the pit for…It didn’t matter. This was eternity. This was the point. It swallowed his interest, stilled a wandering mind.

Focused his self-pity into a lightsaber blade; sharp and blinding.

I’m looking at a void for the second time today, and it’s that same awkward song and dance like any funeral I’ve ever been to.

Benedict glanced up, hearing the faint steps of [member="Saevis Zambrano"] as she happened by. He smiled weakly at her, continuing on, moving past and beyond from where she had come.

Why can’t I be bovvered in the face of what is obviously a tragedy, like? What is it that’s missing from me that came wiff the rest of you lot?

And as he walked on, the chasm appeared to move, bending at weird angles, but always keeping him from crossing; not a path never offered, but a path, instead, missing. Beckoning.

And I know what it is, really. It’s the inherent democracy of a place like this. The well-liked, the proper balanced – They enjoy their neighbors, having friends. They want to believe in a Connectedness in the Universe, even when they’re trying to destroy it. Hell, that’s part of the point of even trying, innit?.To feel each other. The romance of the Light and the Dark -- "please, just let me have somefing beautiful for a moment" -- Red Rover, Red Rover send Kiskla bloody Grayson right over.

So, all this isolation in misery – it’s terror for them.

He traveled for what felt like days…months…years…seconds…the words all falling away uselessly, scattered in the empty wind like his trenchcoat tails.

But as far back as I can remember, it’s always been the car alarms and broken teeth, the blood, piss, and tears. Hell is Other People, living all over each other…taking little piranha bites ‘till there’s sod-all left but a husk tossed in the galactic sodding gutter.

In its rare gusts, it shattered the silence like glass, but they never felt like much of anything. Their only purpose, Benedict reflected, was to remind of the Nothing that was the natural state of this place.

Of this Universe.

Or maybe that’s just somefing I say so I can keep on karking over one poor bastard after another, yeah.

This should be hard, but it’s easy. I reckon that’s just what Hell is, then. How normal this all feels.

Like there was never anyfing else.

There was even a point he had humored the idea that the chasm had wrapped around him, a giant circle surrounding an empty plateau. It begged him to jump, but this was not the justice he sought.

Burning…

He glanced to the head and its ruminations.

I belong here. I’ve always known it, really --Just couldn’t look it in the eye.


But, now, I can -- and I don’t bloody deserve it. I don’t deserve the peace, the quiet. Me name. Me family.

I’m sorry, Avalore – You took me spot in the abyss just so I could make some property values in the arse-end of the 13-bloody-13 somehow karking cheaper. But, I promise, sweetheart, I’ll pay for it. I karking promise you.

Then suddenly, the head changed its tune, the world had darkened.

O Lord, Thou pluckest me out…O Lord thou pluckest…

The Guttermage cast his gaze from his boots to his decapitated sidekick, then to the structure that cast the monumental shadow upon them.

Me footsteps come back hollow like I’m treading over a casket, and I finally figure out what Mnggal-Mnggal was on about.

“’To Carthage then I came.’”

There, reaching to the sky like an exclamation point punctuating the end of one’s Life…A labyrinth.

The Labyrinth.

This is where we kill the Trenchcoat Man.

The shatterpoint in his chest splintered and cracked, diamond-shape shards flaking off. Benedict dropped to a knee, clutching his heart, desperately trying to contain the radiation of...Purples? Blues?

Burning…

Previous | Next​

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Where: The Oasis
Who: A much calmer [member="Fable Merrill"]
What: Taking a few ranks in "Introspection" (Wis)

Minutes. Hours. Days. Fabula didn't have a clue how long she simply wanted to lay on the sand, feeling the warm wind whip across her face. Unfortunately she only got to lay on it for a few seconds before Fable had lifted her up to limp towards the water. 'Good girl, Fable. Thank you.' Whether or not this place was safe was honestly not terribly certain, but absolutely anywhere would have been preferable when they were coming from a blood-soaked wasteland.

Well. That simply wasn't true, was it? Eventually, Fabula managed to force herself to break the silence and say more than three or four words at once. "I...remember you, but I don't." Her voice was cracked with pain, but every few words she seemed to smooth her tone over, as if the inherent nature of where she was was soothing her wounds. "My memories are...obscured. So many things in my head don't make sense. Can't have happened at the same time, and yet they did."

She was confusing herself, and she was the one speaking. She needed to explain more clearly. "I have spent...ages here. I lived for ages more before. And now..." The only part of Fabula's body that had the strength to move was her mouth. Make good use of it. "...Now I'm feeling like I've lived yet another life. How much more will I have to endure?"

 

[Miles Varden]

Location: Ruined City of Hr'Tal
[member="Ciara Jevnaker"] [member="Corrin Tal'verda"] [member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]

Walking in a dead city filled with plant based zombies and this woman wanted to chat? Whatever you can do to keep your mind off the horrors around you.

"Well, by trade, I was a soldier and pilot among the Omega Protectorate. Though I usually sought out and hunted Sith. It matters not anymore. As I do feel as though I'm not the only eyes on you."


Miles jested to lighten the mood, hoping it would aid their movement to the tower. The creatures about them seemed to notice the movement of the pair. They'd need to move quickly.

"We will need to move quickly. They have noticed us. You are Jedi of sorts are you not. The cylinder on your hip and the way you carry yourself, I will need your talents to get through them." He pointed to a horde in the distance. Miles took aim on the first creatures and fired. His rifle spitting deadly fire, shredding the first zombies. Then, they all noticed the two.

"If you trust me, you'll take my hand."

Miles fired up his jet pack. If the woman grabbed his hand, he'd fly them away from the horde.

 

[Fable Merrill]

Where: The Oasis
Who: [member="Fabula Cavataio"]

Fable flipped her coat out to get rid of some of the caked-on nastiness that was weighing her down, giving her mother a mildly confused look. "We had dinner just before I got here." She replied blankly, brushing off bits of dried mudblood. "It doesn't make much sense, but... this place is weird, and I don't know how I got here, either." A more clever or imaginative woman might have reasoned that perhaps their perception of time had been altered between their respective arrivals, or that one of them was an apparition of this horrible place designed to torment the other. She might have even arrived upon the somewhat more accurate conclusion that the Fabula in front of her wasn't exactly the one Fable knew and loved. But Fable wasn't particularly imaginative, nor exceptionally clever. Despite her sithy makeover, this woman talked, acted, and felt like her mother more or less completely, so that must be what she was. Maybe the horribleness of this place was making her crack?

The clone crouched down beside her mother, putting an arm around her shoulders. Ordinarily, Fable would have been somewhere between panic and fury in this strange environment, but Fabula's disconcerted state made her feel oddly controlled - she would be the port in the storm that her mother needed right now, for as long as she had to. Even if all Fable could do was provide a calming influence and act as a beast of burden, she would - it was what she was made to do. To fight the fights another could not, and protect people inherently better than her own constructed self. If she was called upon to give her half-life so that a real person could live, she would - if that person was somebody she loved, then she would do so gladly. "Don't worry about the details now, mom. We'll get out of this place somehow, and then there'll be plenty of time to think about the memories and figure out the details." Fable promised quietly. "You always made me feel like nothing in the Galaxy could harm me, so let me try and return that favor."

Idiotic girl. Don't make promises you can't keep, even if they're well-intentioned. The road here was paved with those, remember?

Movement caught the corner of Fable's vision, and she twisted around reflexively, drawing her saber. A hand rose out of the sand, twitching and grasping, pushing away the fine grains of silica. Then another, and another. Tens, dozens, a hundred grasping hands! This was no place of respite - it was a trap! And they'd walked right into it. Stupid clone, you should have known there'd be no paradise hidden away in this hell! And now your foolishness had literally carried a person most precious directly into harm. "We have to move!" Fable declared, crouching. "Put your arms around my shoulders!"

Fabula Cavataio - a woman so powerful as to be a force of nature - was being invited to be carried to freedom via piggyback.

 

[Verz Horak]

Field of Blades (AKA The land of NOPE)
Allies: [member="Arla Balor"] [member="Ijaat Akun"]
Unknown: [member="Nickolas Imura"] [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] [member="Laguz Vald"]
Enemy: [member="Viktoria Zambrano"]

The Mandalorian continued to fire his scavenged blaster until it ran dry. With a grunt of rage and effort, he threw it, managing to take the head of one corpse clean off, dropping it where it stood. The Mandalorian drew his beskad, a beautiful weapon, wrought from Mandalorian Iron. He had dueled Sith Lords with it. This blade had killed Sith and trained Mandalorian youth. Now it would guard his life.

Verz swung his blade, letting battle rage and adrenaline fuel his swings, cutting through the dessicated corpses with ease. It was almost too easy.

Why did he have to think that?


He heard a loud voice, a powerful one at that, call to the dead, urging them to attack his group. And another one, it seemed. The dead seemed to be pushing the two living groups toward each other, forcing them into a bastion of life in this Force-forsaken place. But he couldn't focus on that for long.

He had corpses to kill.

 

[Besk]

Location Serenity's Redoubt
Besk could feel the wrongness of this place, the serenity masked something sinister. No one should feel this good without having the force ti focus them.

He looked back at the others, who seemed to want to debate what should happen next. He needed to move, it was just too good of a place, and all he could think about was how much he wanted to just take a break and enjoy this serene place. He started off towards the pyre and the cliff, his fate had to be his own.







[member="Falcon Gyndar"] [member="Token Waters"] [member="Seamus Valik"] [member="Marrik Aloxum"]

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Where: The surprisingly dangerous Oasis
Who: [member="Fable Merrill"]
What: No rest for the wicked

As Fabula looked to her daughter, actively craning her head meet the woman's gaze as she spoke. Dinner. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten...or slept, for that matter. All she could remember was violence. Constant battle, death and rebirth. Whatever this new life she had found a daughter in, she felt it was much happier than the only existence she had come to recall. Quiet meals with her family in their starship sounded like paradise compared to this.

And now she was here, with a young woman anyone would be proud to call their own. She hadn't even begun to grasp how strong she was...

Fable's sudden panic caught her attention. Attempting to orient herself to figure out what was going on, Fabula looked towards the calm, clear water and the bright blue sky...just as it started to darken, and an uncountable number of hands reached through. Her pupils dilated, her own panic rising just a bit. This world was hellish, but not even all she'd been through had prepared her for a refuge like this to be tainted. There was no peace to be had. More importantly, Fable was in danger.

No matter her drive, Fabula couldn't walk. No amount of purpose, no quantity of hatred would allow her to magically start moving again. By the same token, Fable would be overtaxed by trying to carry her. She probably weighed more than the poor girl. Whatever her body refused to do, it would give her the power to keep this beautiful, perfect girl from danger. So help her she would cut the damned thing off if it continued to conspire against her.

With a deep breath of strain, teeth gritted in resurgent agony, Fabula pushed herself off of the sand. "There will be no safety in this place, Fable. We can't keep running forever. Eventually, we will need to stand and fight." Regardless, she was on her feet. Well...on her foot. "Come help me move. Carrying me would only hurt our chances."

 

[Daella Feanor]

Daella blinked, and was stopped by the pole. "Wait... what? your not mommy?" She looked at [member="Vulpesen"] then, and gave him a look. She looked rather scared and frightened now. She dropped Ace and then started to run in another direction. Clearly something had happened, and she believes they aren't real now. Kindof thinking about it. Waking up in a strange area, alone, with just Ace and a random stranger (@Glyph) only to be saved by 'Daddy' and a woman who looks like Alex, but does not, is not that great for her mental health. So she ran away.

[member="The Ferrymen of the River"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

Where: Alleged Oasis
Who: [member="Fabula Cavataio"]

Plan B was Plan A, but harder. Fable's Plan A had been to keep moving until they could figure out a way out of this mess, but Fabula was more in tune with the true thread that ran through the hearts of both women - Plan A was to beat the tar out of anything that stood before them. In a moment, all thought of trying to escape fled from Fable's mind. She would say, and they would fight, and earn their safety with the currency of skill and tenacity. Her acknowledgement came in the form of a quick nod, before the clone found her way to her mother's side once more - arm over her shoulder, arm around her waist, ready to help her move at a moment's notice like a three-legged racer from hell.

Her other hand would help more direction. It was that hand that held her saber. It blazed to life, throwing countless shadows in every direction, the silhouettes of the foul hands trying to claim their very souls. Vibrant purple, the weapon entrusted to her by Rave Merrill. It'd never let her down, and it wouldn't start today.

"Ready when you are."

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Where: The Oasis
Who: [member="Fable Merrill"]
What: Making your mother proud, kiddo

As Fable came to help her stand up straight, Fabula was about to suggest where they should go next. She was quite surprised when Fable drew her lightsaber. The good kind of surprised. Was it too early to be proud of a girl she'd just met? Who cared. It was impossible for Fabula not to smile when she saw her daughter - and now she knew she was truly her daughter - pull a weapon on an enemy she barely understood. Pure defiance. It was incredible...like looking into a mirror.

Even so, her aggression was misdirected. "Patience, little warrior. Take a moment and look." The arm that she wasn't using to brace herself against Fable's body lifted to indicate a couple of the hands moving through a treeline, phasing through perfectly. "While I doubt this place is fair enough for it to work both ways, it's clear that physical boundaries don't affect them. A lightsaber is no more effective than a stone against a ghost." It didn't matter how shattered her mind was, Fabula would always know how to size up an enemy.

"You had the correct idea to retreat from this fight. I appreciate you heeding my wishes, but don't let that blind you to the wisdom of your own words." She smiled a little weakly, reaching up with a finger to boop the girl on the nose. "Fear is just as powerful and correct as anger. Your passions know the way. Don't second-guess them on someone else's words."

Rolling her shoulder a little, she motioned with her head towards the edge of the damnable oasis. "Back to the blood with us. We'll find someplace quiet eventually."

 

[Garza]

Location: Field of Blades
Objective: Fight the Necromancer
Allies: [member="Laguz Vald"], [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"],
Enemies: [member="Viktoria Zambrano"],
Unknown: [member="Verz Horak"], [member="Arla Balor"], [member="Ijaat Akun"],

Taking up my sword, I could see more of the dead rise up around us. The Mandalorians fought hard. As they were known to be, while the shifter was standing in front of the Necromancer. Raising the dead faster than we could kill them. We would be overrun soon. Walking closer towards the woman barely covered in clothes, I could see her hips and how they were very... wide. Built for giving birth to children and monsters alike.

"Vald, either you can help me, or you can protect my back. I recommend to stay out of this."

The sword I had was curved. A katana by any name. The dark golden blade forged out of alchemized electrum, resistant to all kinds of attacks. I felt good as I stepped up to the woman. Her lips echoing words to bring our souls to her. Smiling, I walked forward in my scaled armor.

"Let us see who has a soul, and who is dead."

I brought my sword up. Gripping it with both hands. Standing firm in front of her.

"Cometh at thee, mine fair queen!"

 

[Vulpesen]

"Daella, get back here." He turned adn chased after her, his tail lashing out behind him. Thankful for his zorren physiiology, and the fact that she had yet to develop her second joints, he found it fairly easy to catch up to the child. Scooping her up into his arms, he stood back up and held her. "Daella, we're going to see mommy right now. This is your gandma and she'll be walking with us."

[member="Daella Feanor"]
[member="The Ferrymen of the River"]

 

[Daella Feanor]

She screamed as her father caught up with her, and she went to figit, clearly afriad out of her mind to do anything. She breathes really fast, and just looks around. "W-W-Whats going on... N-Nothing makes any sense... I-I wanna go home.." She softly stated. She could not tell if the man who picked her up was her Father or not.

[member="Vulpesen"]
[member="The Ferrymen of the River"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen held her close to him, his tail joining his arms as he comforted her. "Its ok Daella. I'm real. This is all real, but I promise I'll keep you safe. Just stay with me and I promise you'll get back home. We just need to find your mother first. Trust me, your daddy knows what he's doing." So often he played the part of the rogue, the one who rushed in without a plan. It kept him underestimated and kept him alive. But he couldn't do that now. Not this time. [member="Daella Feanor"] depended on him, and he could not disappoint her.


[member="The Ferrymen of the River"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

Location: The Blood Wastes
Allies: @Ailyn Cyar'ika | [member="Darth Metus"] | [member="Elizie Adasca"] | [member="Shuduc Macar"] | @Silas Mantis | [member="Apoc"] | @Aeizori-Mei Kaeirosae | [member="The Onyx"] | [member="Vassara Raxis"]

Solan continued to walk beside these people before looking at Aeizori and looking at her for a few long seconds before speaking to her with a very curious stare as he spoke. "Aeizori, what do you remember before you were brought here and found master?" He was curious in if she had experienced the same suddent teleportation that he had, of course though she likely would not have felt the crushing rush of minds that collided on his but he had in fact thought to himself perhaps there was something else she had experienced that he had missed on his transportation to this place.

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra remained still siting on the rock and looking at the sky with her hands curled and caught the air in them as she looked up at the skies with a release of air from her lungs. Once more she focused her mind uselessly, calling out to the woman that she knew was here, the woman she knew had to be behind this. Or maybe it was the Celestrial again, he seemed to understand things better than before.... ugh this place was such a headache that Alex wasn't quite sure if [member="Akala"] was behind this anymore. She had seen the woman grow up, and had sent them through time to understand why she did what she did... atleast that's what alex had thought. And now Alex paced on the stone in the edge of the blood wastes, staring up at the Sky. "You know, if you are behind this Akala, i saw you grow up and i saw what you could do with time and space, just come out."