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 Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:57 am
Death by Clay
Rank: One
Antagonist: Qin Shi Huang
NPC Accompaniment: Yes
Souls available: 
Mission: SUCCESS/FAILURE
Definitely not Ashie, who was positively enthralled by her current surroundings. The meeting place was in a part of town where the old and the new were mixed together, with one side of the street sporting large, recently built high rises, and the other side filled with small, flimsy one-story houses. The place was so fascinating! Arriving a day early had given her the chance to look at some of the cooler spots around the city, and now she was raring to go take a look at the so-called terracotta warriors. Even if these ones weren't the genuine article...
Sulking a little because she wouldn't get to see the real thing, Ashie slumped down slightly in her current leaning position against the wall as she waited for the pair she'd been assigned to arrive.
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Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:42 pm
Shen's whiteness was at odds with the grungy chaos of the city; the plume of black smoke that hung over everything was only matched by the crossbow's dark mood. Ivan had signed them up for this task without consultation or so much as a by-your-leave, and while Shen knew, accepted, and to some degree, anticipated where the power lay in their... relationship, the turbulent plane trip and infernal noise of traffic combined with this being his first time out of the country was grating at his usual unflappable calm. There was perhaps more to it, an offshoot to the ripple effect begun in a recent visitation – but Shen was determinedly not thinking about that.
He slid his eyes towards his TECHNICIAN, who looked far from ruffled. There was a distinct set to his face and shoulders that meant shop vendors and passersby were giving him (and Shen, who was walking in Ivan's shadow, by association) a wide berth, in what the Chinese boy understood was a miracle in a place like this. The irony was that Ivan fit in better than himself. In his t-shirt and cap, he looked like an ill-dressed tourist who'd left his jacket back at the hotel, while Shen looked... He couldn't be certain, but perhaps it wasn't just Ivan that people were trying to get away from.
Ivan skulked towards the meeting-place without sparing a backwards glance at his WEAPON. He wouldn't have looked back for anyone else either, but in this case it was because he could feel Shen, a sensation that had grown in the 11 hours or so they'd been on the plane, and which Ivan chalked up to more creepy soul crap. He hadn't picked the mission like those herbivores wavering in front of the damn board - snagged the first piece of paper and scrawled his name.
So he didn't know the details. Whatever. They had Ashie for that, and as if Ivan ever needed to be prepped before beating something up.
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Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:38 am
Ashie watched as the pair approached, lifting a hand in a cheerful wave when they were close enough to see. "Heeeeeeeeeya!" She had no trouble recognizing the pair - they stood out in Beijing, and she'd met them before during their introductory tour, but it seemed all new somehow considering they were in an entirely different country.
"Yay! You guys made it! Let's start! I want to see the terracotta warriors!" Nevermind that they weren't real.
Pushing up from where she'd been leaning against the wall, Ashie brushed the dust off her skirt and began to walk, heading towards the older part of the street. "SHIBUSEN managed to track the statues over to here, but from here on it's all up to us! I mean," Ashie paused, eyes going wide in an unspoken 'oopsies!', "I mean, you guys!" She giggled, shrugging off her slight slip as she grinned at the pair. "How've you guys been, anyway?"
Walking deeper into the houses that were no more than squats, Ashie seemed not to notice that she and her charges looked utterly out of place. The stares bounced off her cheerful bubble of oblivion as she stepped over and around piles of garbage and sewage left strewn about. Ducking under a particularly low string of laundry, she stopped and glanced over at the pair. "I think we're close, now" Over the din of children playing, and tinny television, the roar of a kiln could be heard somewhere nearby.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:27 am
"Yo."
When nothing more seemed to be forthcoming, Shen gave his TECHNICIAN a look that was half-troubled and half-resigned before taking it upon himself to greet their counselor properly. "Hello Ashie." He dipped a bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you again. We look forward to your guidance." Guidance that would prove invaluable, considering how under-prepared they were. If Ivan had any information, he wasn't sharing, but Shen was more inclined to think that Ivan simply had no care for specifics.
...Terracotta warriors? He filed the fragment away as he set about answering Ashie's question. "By the Jade Emperor's favour, I have been quite well -"
Ivan snorted and tuned out his WEAPON's string of pansy talk - he was like that girl in the fairy tale who spewed pearls and diamonds whenever she spoke. He only had one eye so he had to use it somewhere useful; instead of watching Ashie and Shen, he kept his head fixed ahead as they left the busier roads behind, trying not to breathe too deep. Beijing smelt like the underside of a car. Just like home. Except... He sniffed the air like a dog catching the scent of something on the wind, something burning...
Statues combined with distant sounds of fire - Shen's mind pieced the puzzle together and his eyes narrowed just a touch. He did not feel particularly fearful or anticipatory, only a mild layer of disgust as he sketched another bow at Ashie, slipping forward to join his TECHNICIAN, and then to overtake. Two steps in front; he meant no disrespect, but he was more equipped to deal with a sudden attack, in the most literal sense of the word.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:16 am
"That's awesome!" A cheery wave to Ivan indicated that Ashie hadn't forgotten the TECHNICIAN, though her attention was temporarily focused on Shen, apparently captivated by the other's flowery use of language. "What do you mean, the Jade Emperor--"
The words were cut off as Ashie hopped over a particularly large pile of nasty garbage, and found to her dismay that the puddle after it had been blood, not water, as she'd thought it was. It splattered over her white sneakers, and Ashie's mouth turned into a slight pout as she glanced down. "Now they're ruined... And it was a new pair, too!" Looking back up, blue eyes took in their surroundings - it appeared that they had found the place, for right across the dirty alleyway was an open door, and sounds of pottery being fired could be heard from within. From the entrance, a slow trickle of what could only be blood ran slowly out towards the street gutter.
"Well, you guys go on," Ashie gestured enthusiastically towards the little hut, apparently unmoved by the sight and what it could mean, "good luck!" And with a cheery wink, she stepped aside.
PLEASE ROLL A 10-SIDED DICE TO DETERMINE THE SUCCESS/FAILURE OF YOUR ATTACK. 2 THROUGH 10 IS SUCCESS. 1 IS FAIL. GOOD LUCK!
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Cosmoses rolled 1 10-sided dice:
8
Total: 8 (1-10)
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:03 am
Neither spared a glance at Ashie's shoes, the blood drawing a line like an arrow to the open door. The surrounding area was deserted; the children's games had long faded - to Shen's relief - no human noise, or noise at all, save for the crackling of flames, billowing steam and ominous, iron clanks. The crossbow breathed soundlessly, wondering if Ashie's enthusiasm had been heard within, but nothing came out of the makeshift factory except a rancid cloud of smoke, disappearing into Beijing's ubiquitous, overhanging pollution.
He stepped forward, drawing the atmosphere around him like a shield - a hand on his arm, and Shen stiffened mere centimetres from decking his TECHNICIAN flat. "Ivan." It was as close to a warning hiss as Shen ever came, and he stopped dead in his tracks, startled by the display of his own annoyance. Ivan only grinned, ran a possessive palm up his bicep.
"Transform." Ivan's voice was soft - in volume, not in hardness - he might be a streetrat, but even he knew he couldn't go shouting at the top of his lungs with a murderer ten feet away. They hadn't done this before. He didn't have a clue how it worked or if it would, but he stared Shen down because hell if he was gonna sit back and let him flounce in before Ivan like a bodyguard. They were gonna do it his way or no way.
For a moment, his little WEAPON looked at him like he was nirvana, and then the milk eyes closed - a flash - damnit, could've used some warning there - Ivan staggered. The wood under his hands was heavier than he'd thought, but father ******** time - Ivan hefted to get a better grip, adjusted his weight and then they were in.
The only source of light was from a hugeass oven; thinking wasn't Ivan's strong suit when he was this ******** pumped, but it didn't take a genius to stick two and two together. A bloodied spade was propped up against the wall, clothes and shoes of some poor b*****d lay in tatters, and said b*****d was packed in clay and being shoved into the kiln. So the one doing the shoving had to be the bad guy.
He saw this in a split instance, raised Shen to chest height, and he'd never fired anything bigger than a gun but at point blank there was no ******** way to miss.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:42 pm
For all that Ivan seemed inexperienced with the crossbow, the shot flew true, and a hole appeared almost instantaneously over Qin Shi Huang's heart. Unprepared for such a sudden attack, the murderer could only stare through glassy, shocked eyes as his body jerked, then crumpled onto the floor
Hearing the noise, Ashie stepped inside, taking a good look around before turning her attention towards the two that she'd been accompanying. "Woohoo! Good job, guys! And so quickly, too! You guys know what to do next, right?" She giggled, thinking of her own experiences with the souls she'd taken to become a Death Scythe, "just absorb the little red thing that comes out soon, somehow. Everyone does it differently, so figure out whatever way works for you!" Having said her bit, Ashie wandered around the rom, poking innocently at the tools that Qin Shi Huang had used for murder.
The body, now lifeless, began to deteriorate quickly into dust, hardening and then crumpling much in the way dry clay would, before finally disappearing entirely. From the midst of the cloud of dust left behind, rose a shining red soul.
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:50 am
Shen reverted to his human form with a cracking fizzle, feet skidding slightly before he was steady on the ground. His heart was thudding, more exhilaration than exertion as Ivan's monstrous wavelength washed out from under his skin. He stared at his TECHNICIAN - maybe there would be problems with distance and technique factored in but Ivan had handled him with more dexterity than he'd hoped for. A light touched his eyes as he looked on at the disintegrating body, not without remorse, but it was far outweighed by the worth of the lives and families that had been taken, and for what? Ego? Qin Shi Huang had unified China, but even he was not without his vices.
Ivan was not so reserved, grinning wide as another blast of air from the oven stirred his bangs, toeing the dusting remains of the body. Done deal. He looked like the cat that got the canary - maybe a hot cat - he could feel the sweat beading his forehead; place was like a bloody furnace. Of course his WEAPON didn't seem affected as he stepped to pluck the soul from the air.
Ivan watched with eyebrows raised, something like morbid curiosity, as Shen brought the red soul to his mouth with both hands and bit into it like a peach.
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Cosmoses generated a random number between
1 and 100 ...
44!
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:54 am
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