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 Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:40 pm
Tension filled the air when Kokuza spoke the word Ahrim, and Valda's lips pursed.
"My knowledge is...limited," she said, her voice lowered, "I have heard the name passed around in silence among the travelers that pass through our town. Wizards, warriors, merchants... I have even heard mothers warn their sons of Ahrim...'Be good or Ahrim will take you away' they would hiss. I do not know what he - let us assume it is a he - might be. An ancient, deposed god, a sorcerer driven mad with power, or even..." she continued, biting her thumb and pacing, "or even if he's still alive,"
"Ahrim's alive," said Ryutsume, thumbing to Kokuza, "He's proof of that. Don't expect much out of him, though. Bit of an amnesiac,"
Valda tensed again. "I see...I don't suppose we can do anything to jog the man's memory,"
RYUTSUME [blank]: You got any yogurt?
VALDA [sweatdrop]: Why yogurt?
RYUTSUME: It's a remedy my aunt Hilda taught me! "Got problems with yer head? Just spread some yogurt on it and you'll be fine!" she'd say!
[pause]
VALDA: -.- Please stop talking, Ryutsume.
RYUTSUME: Yes'm.
After another deep sigh, Valda's head raised to Kokuza, "Can you tell me...anything about Ahrim? Whether Ahrim is his first name or last name? If he belongs to a long line of sorcerers I can remember? Perhaps, even..." she stared at him warily, "you carry something he seeks?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:42 pm
After a few sips of hard liquor, Kurio closed the lid of his canteen, then placed it back in his pocket. Heaving out a sigh, he then stood up and streched as he went back down the streets of Barton.
Seeing as he was in an alternate dimension, or something!, he wasn't even sure if Kokuza and the crew were still alive. He sure hoped they were, not knowing that he had been gone... probably a few days or weeks in their time.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:43 pm
((That last post took FOREVER for me to do...aiya~))
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:45 pm
(( We need to add a very sucky, illiterate RPer to this roleplay. That way I wouldn't feel so inferior to your guy's posts. crying ))
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:47 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:50 pm
((Geck, don't be hard on yourself. You got a damn good character, and you don't godmod. That alone makes you boss in my book.))
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:57 pm
Kokuza crouched and exhaled every breath in his lungs. He gnawed his lip a moment before speaking.
"My memory... Has been jogged more than I think I would have liked of late. I have regressed far back and recalled things that only too late do I realize ought to have laid dorman until the end of my days. But Pandora's box is now wide open, and we must now deal with what evils have spewn forth."
Hokuten drew in another breath.
"You are correct, Valda. I do posess something that Ahrim wants... Needs even. Something old and powerful, something evil and hungry. It resides now within my very body, safe for the moment from Ahrim's clutches, but I fear that I have sold all I have for a meagre portion of time."
Rising unsteadily to his feet, Hokuten crossed his arms and pulled up his shirt, revealing the horrific wound in his sternum.
"I have used dark magics that I had until recently forgot. Used them in desperation." Hokuten sighed and replaced his clothing. "I have merged with the dark sword Machinai, the one thing in this world Ahrim desires. I have delayed him from taking what he wants for now, but my life is inconsequential."
Hokuten approached Valda closely, with a look of cold-cast iron.
"To summarize, this weapon must be kept from Ahrim at all costs, lest unimaginable horror be unleashed."
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:13 pm
themightyjello "If you feel so uncomfortable with the arrangement, maybe I should explain it in a different way?" Joshua quirked his head to the side slightly, looking down at the man sitting in his chair. "There are a great many people in this world that are in the business of killing. There are very few who are truly gifted in the art. To put it simply, as long as people have the delusion that they can be at the top, they will struggle for that." Reaching his left hand down across his body to his right hip, Joshua pulled a knife from a small sheath on the side of the belt there, and held it sideways out in front of him for just a moment, looking at it, before he turned it and thrust the point into his right forearm. "They think they are strong, and they think they have the power to change the world through murder..." he said, his tone only wavering slightly as he drew the blade down the length of his arm; drawing a line down it which dripped a few drops of black blood, but left no cut behind, "...as long as they have a chance, they will fight, they will suffer, and they will die." Pulling the knife free finally, he shook it a bit free a few drops of blood that clung to it, before wiping both sides of the blade on the leg of his pants and returning the knife to its sheath. "Talented killers live in another world entirely from everyone else. They are not threatened, they can take what they want or what they need. And when they run across another one of them usually dies." He stuck his left thumb in his mouth for just a moment and then ran the saliva-wettened finger down the length of the blood streak on his arm to wipe some of it away, looking down at it rather than looking to Ahrim as he spoke. "For a man to train hard to be a murderer, and then only be killed by someone who is better than him, makes that man's life a waste. As long as there are those who think that being a murderer will make them anything more than a murderer, there will be foolish children who throw their lives away." Lifting his head to look at the sorcerer, Joshua raised his hand again and licked the blood off of the end of his thumb, before smiling that same mischevious smile again. "Consider this a public service. More power to the strong, so that the weak won't throw their lives away..." "...of course," he added, as he took a step to turn towards the door, only to stop and look back and cast an accusing glance towards the mage, "there is no reason at all to waste power on people who are powerless. Let the strong fight with the strong, or karma might get you in the end."
Meanwhile...
Ahrim mused over Josh's words and smirked.
"So you kill for mercy and balance?" A thin chuckle filled the room. " Everyone has their own reason, it seems. The mysteries of life are infinite. In any event, it makes little difference for me. If you can save me some work as part of something you feel... Compelled to do, so be it."
Ahrim turned his back to Joshua and vanished behind the massive chair.
"You know the way out, should you need anything else, ask it of Farrah."
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:15 pm
Like a woman who had seen death, Valda's face turned pale and she backed up a bit.
"You...possess The Fang of Dehlmair?! Helfast's Bane?! Baphomet's Third Horn!?"
Ryutsume recognized the name of the third and final beast - a goat demon from his world. He opened his mouth, wishing to say 'Baphomet has only two horns', but then realized he didn't like getting hit in the face with lightning and stayed silent.
Valda, meanwhile, had stopped moving. For the first time, Ryutsume saw she was truly scared...but then, slowly, composure began to return to her. Her eyes still shivered with fear as she spoke:
"Then...something must be done. I don't want any business with the Machinai, and I'd like it even less should the forces of some...boogeyman come to my door because of something you own! At least...now, own." There was a silent moment, then she slammed her hand on the book she was reading. Her attendant jumped up, "Damn me to Surt's Prison, I'll take the job! Give me a minute to read through my books, and I'll have a solution!"
A hard finger pointed towards Ryutsume, who now stood at attention like a soldier, "You! Stand by that door and make sure nobody comes up here! If whoever comes up those stairs isn't Heidern or someone you know, hospitalize them!" she placed her other hand on the creature's head, "Spiegel, go with him. I don't trust that man alone,"
"HEY!" protested Ryutsume, but the creature Spiegel already picked up a tiny flail and sheild from behind a shelf and scurried over to Ryutsume. After a few seconds, Spiegel stationed himself beside the annoyed swordsman, who sighed and then turned to face the stairs.
Valda then turned to Hokuten with a stern voice, "And as for you...don't move until I tell you to. Talk all you want, but Machinai is rippling with strong magics. If they react with my artifacts and tomes, you'll be paying for the damages," a chill ran down her back. She didn't feel right talking authoritatively to a warrior with the Machinai wedged in his body, but she did regardless, "I hope I am clear, warrior,"
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:18 pm
"I suppose you could say that..." Joshua chuckled in responce to Ahrim's musings, "...balance. Though I like to think of it more like Karma..."
He turned again, and continued walking towards the door, without looking back. His left hand raised over his shoulder as he twirled a finger in the air, speaking a few last words before he pulled at the door handle to let himself out.
"What goes around comes around... make sure that you know where your life will lead you."
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:23 pm
Ever-Infamous Kojiro-san Valda then turned to Hokuten with a stern voice, "And as for you...don't move until I tell you to. Talk all you want, but Machinai is rippling with strong magics. If they react with my artifacts and tomes, you'll be paying for the damages," a chill ran down her back. She didn't feel right talking authoritatively to a warrior with the Machinai wedged in his body, but she did regardless, "I hope I am clear, warrior,"
"Crystal... I will assist you as much as my strength will allow."
Kokuza gazed deeply at the sorceress one final time before closing his eyes in meditation. " You have my deepest thanks. "
Meanwhile...
Joshua recieved no parting quip from Ahrim. Once again, he was left in the quiet expanse of the Marble palace. The faint wisp of a female form unmelded from a dark corner and drifted into the centre of the hall.
"Is your business completed, sir?" Farrah said.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:27 pm
"And you, warrior, are more than welcome," she said, calming down and finishing her sentence with a wink. Valda was pleased to see Hokuten wasn't completely mad, and went to work, pulling books from the shelves and reading them in a fervor. There was an answer in there, and she'd be married to Loki himself if there wasn't.
And meanwhile, Ryutsume was feeling very, very lonely.
RYUTSUME: So...been a goblin long?
SPIEGEL: Narf!
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:28 pm
Kokuza Hokuten "Is your business completed, sir?" Farrah said. "For now..." Joshua said to the doll in responce, not bothering to turn his head to look at her, as he had given up, by this point, all delusions of keeping up a sense of class when within this place. Now it was business, and that business was named Hokuten. "Girl," he said, snapping the fingers of his right hand as he continued down the hallway towards the large foyer that they had been in before, "pack whatever belongings you wish for... we're leaving."
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:34 pm
((Okay guys, this will be an interesting post. Pay attention))
Somewhere in Barton...
The creaking of poorly-kept cart wheels disturbed the otherwise peaceful twilight in Barton town. Down a cobbled sidestreet trundled an ox-drawn wagon piled high with burlap mounds. Not an unusal sight but for the fact that it was past midnight.
The driver sat hunched in his seat, clothed heavily in rough-hewn canvas clothes and a massive straw hat. Were anyone around to see, they might have noticed the tiny strip of paper protruding from below the wide brim of the hat.
There were, however, some Gaians awake, though at the bottom of a bottle. Geck was on his way to joining them when he heard the cart rumble past.
Spiegel, despite his diminutive stature was able to see the approaching cart through a window as well. He stared for a moment, and squeaked quizzically at Ryu.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:36 pm
((Looks like Geck's up. *thumbs-up*))
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