Hallucinogen_NA

I figure that you already know you have permission to use my characters how you see fit (and I doubt you need me to explain their personalities; besides, my characters are probably the kind you're trying to cut back on!) Nevertheless, I felt I ought to officially post my permission here. XD

Nearby, the automaton could pick up Mooncipher panting. Three massive trees, having been uprooted and levitated into the air at the last minute to shield the Praetorian demigod, fell to the ground, scorched half away. Mooncipher himself was merely slightly burnt, as his fog had dampened the arcane fire further.

"Excellent. . . well done," Mooncipher said, catching his breath. "If you require time to recuperate, take it now."

* * * * * *

"Y, yikes!" Hal exclaimed, boggling at the monitor. "You SURE everything will be okay?"

Regardless, he made to follow the others. . .

"Be careful, Essex," he muttered, waving.

((Yay! Mommy, can we go to Uncle Patches Chicken Basket Barn? D: There's a free Asmodeus action figure in every box!))

"What?!" Mooncipher exclaimed, as the Magus flipped over him and drew his hellish blade. The Praetorian demigod veered to the side in a gust of wind just in time to avoid his eternal damnation from the Magus' strike.

"Very well, then." came his voice as fog engulfed his surroundings, obscuring his location. "I am glad to see you have decided to try."

Where he had been a moment before, the dimensions warped, and gravity collapsed into a single point, the circular field resulting so powerful that it might as well have been solid. The Singularity tore at the laws of physics, threatening to trap anything that came near in crushing fields or gravitational distortions or simply hurl them away, while Mooncipher typed frantically inside the fog, and storm clouds gathered in the sky. He had seen that blade for what it was, and did not intend to allow the infernal weapon anywhere near him if he could help it. . .

* * * * * *

"Gah!" Hal exclaimed as West teleported Essex to him and forbade her to leave. "Well. . . um. . . at least you'll be safe here, Essex," he said, watching her wistfully.

"Uh, I don't even know what's going on. . . anyone have a plan?"

"Ah, good day to you," came a cold voice. "Quite impressive, my friend. . . do you have anything that does not create a large explosion?"

Mooncipher had appeared behind the Magus, apparently untouched by any of his attacks, as his ally had taken much of the notice. . . just the way he liked it. Before the words had left his lips, both the Death Mages had been yanked up into the air and hurled at the Magus as makeshift projectiles, while Mooncipher fired a beam of bluish-white moonfire, much more chilling than burning and more like ice than anything else, at the Magus as well. . .

"Wait. . . Selene?" Hal exclaimed. "What's going on. . . the Praetorian version of Selene?" He glanced nervously at Essex. . .

* * * * * *

"Ah, I see. . . so I am to receive help," Mooncipher said, continuing to type as he glanced down at the robot. He had heard of this one, and knew he was good. . . but did Marauder always have to lend him assistance? He had never failed at any task he was set. . . he did not need any assistance. . .

Fuming internally at that for a moment, but not long enough to threaten to compromise his mission or his composure, Mooncipher called down to his new robot ally.

"Scan the area manually for any signs of the targets, or any other beings that seem to possess significant power to be threatening. . . though the targets have top priority, along with any form of weak point you may find that will aid our entry into the base I suspect to contain Hallucinogen and allies. I shall remain here, and monitor the base previously mentioned, ensuring none escape it. . . and ensuring that as soon as their defenses are down we may strike posthaste."

"If anyone opposes you, kill them, or destroy them if death is nonapplicable. Should you have difficulty, I shall come in response to any signal you deem appropriate. . . with the orders in question thusly concluded, good day to you. Oh, yes, and might I ask by what designation you are to be addressed?"

"Gah! Okay, sorry. . ." Hal exclaimed at Essex's outburst, muttering something about "some welcome" under his breath.

"Uh. . . hello, Dr. West," Hal muttered, once West had shown himself and realized who Gretchen really was. "I guess 'how's it going' would probably be the wrong thing to say here. . . um. . ."

* * * * * *

"The Circle. They have no idea how to do anything." Mooncipher smirked to himself; the wards the Circle had erected keeping the Praetorians out of Perez worked well enough for large groups, but he numbered only one, and had a rather considerable understanding of the nature of magic. Creating a temporary gateway through which to teleport had been easy enough for him, and now he was surveying the lands beneath him, his hands typing, scanning for any sign of West's base in this dimension.

"Curses. . . the entire thing is in lockdown. . . I shall not ever get in at this rate, not without time we do not have." Mooncipher glared at his calculations, though they were invisible to all but him, and continued to type. He could place sleeper functions on the outskirts of the base, beyond his protection, ready to redirect any incoming signals to him. Radio waves, electric signals. . . teleporting. . . if no one was going to get in, at the very least, he would ensure that no one got out, either. Not without dealing with him first. . .

"I am, I must say, fairly confident of my personal abilities. . . " he said to himself as he worked, his visual data currently erased from the world, so that he was completely invisible. . . ". . . in that respect."

((. . . Gah, I can't help myself. T_T Fine. XD I'm here. <_<;; Hope this thread's still going. . .))

((Hi! XD))

"Gah! What's going on!?" exclaimed a frantic voice as the Maltans ran through the Repliforce Paragon base. The voice seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was no surprise to any of them that a little figure covered in green smoke and wearing a gas mask, though it was all an illusion that many of them could see through to an extent, appeared next to Arc Jump out of thin air. It was Hallucinogen, having been invisible again. . . "Essex? Curtis? Wh, wha, ZEALSTORM WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH HER?!"

Hal raised now glowing hands at Praetorian Zealstorm. "Give me a reason not to blast you!"

* * * * * *

"Mooncipher. . . come in. Are you prepared to aid us on the invasion of Earth? FINALLY?!"

"Do not shout, please," the cold, handsome young man with a cruel smile returned into his comm. "Yes, my Lord, I am fully prepared. . . I am, then, to seek out and eradicate my pathetic half-wit of a clone, Moonscribe?"

"Don't use that tone with me, or Tyrant'll have your head!" Marauder's voice returned. "Yes, you're tasked with destroying your other self. . . but he has friends in great number, and much like yourself, is difficult to track. You may need to reduce their number somewhat so as to draw him out. . . and as it happens, there is a hero there without a replica on our world. . . well, there was. But he took his own life, long ago."

"Hallucinogen, that pathetic, emotionally absorbed freak of nature," Mooncipher returned. "Very well, then. He shall be culled in due time. I am heading for Perez as we speak. . . I believe this world may be harboring their version of West there. It is likely that Hallucinogen and Selene are near each other in this world. . . that pathetic moron never did let her out of his sight until he killed himself out of despair she would never notice him. Worthless."

His short black hair slicked back, his glasses gleaming with cold moonlight despite the moon's absence in the sky, and his long deep blue coat flowing in the wind, Mooncipher struck keys on the air as though typing on an unseen keyboard before vanishing without a trace, his coat swishing around him as he disappeared. Another, to fall by his hand. . . he almost regretting having killed his old friend, Brightblaze, and his old rival Silver Eclipse, who dared to challenge his supremacy as the greatest of the lineage of Ancient Egypt. It was sad that so many had to fall for peace to be established. . . an ultimate peace, under the watchful eye of Tyrant.

This is cool. XD

End comment.

((Eh. . . <_<;; I wouldn't take RAPHAEL as having anything to do with actual Christianity. He's from a fantasy world that's based on Christian beliefs and such. . . partly. This is hardly a Biblical character. So no, there is nothing to my knowledge about time being subtracted from eternity in the Bible or any other set of beliefs in Christianity. . . the contradictory nature was intentional and intended to be mildly amusing. XP Plzkthx.))

((EDIT: But I've calmed down now. <.< So let's drop the subject, kay? XD I don't really want to get into some sort of religious argument. Sorry if I scared anyone. XP))

((Gaaaaah! I haven't checked ANYTHING for ages! XD I guess I'm at least semi-back now, then. . . <.&lt)

((Uh, RAPHAEL and the Killa Kan are on top of a hilltop several miles away; I think Dross must be near the remnants of the Tower of Ubiquitous Respite, and near the Rok that landed. . . that's where the flowstone was. I think. . . the memories keep fading. . . D)

RAPHAEL glared over his shoulder at the Killa Kan as it impaled him on its buzzsaw, and had shot off it and into the air in a few seconds, blood dripping from the hole in his backside. . . but it was gradually closing, the flesh gradually pulling itself back together, and the flow was stopping.

"Please do not resist," RAPHAEL said, his wings sprouting again and a beam of light from his palms hitting the Killa Kan head on and dissolving the blade that had torn into him to nothing. "Time may be subtracted from your eternity in Purgatory."

Awesome. XD I've never gotten a chance to see much of either Kerat or Allen, too late in Final Fight. . . carry on!

((XD XD I think I read everything EXCEPT the part where I had him show up again. <.< It's been a while. XD Disregard. XP))

Percy Newman's perfectly polished little blue car pulled into the parking lot. He was just about on time today, and he would not need to walk unusually fast in order to reach his cubicle on time. He had calculated that a long time ago.

As the weather was getting colder, he was sporting a deep blue jacket over his usual attire as he walked into the building, unconcerned as usual with the people passing him by. After all, he would not want to get snow on his uniform. . . and he had always felt that making small talk was of little importance. It merely wasted the precious time that he, at the very least, rarely had enough of.

This, of course, had probably happened earlier this morning, as it did most mornings, since as it happened, Percy was already here, as previously stated. Perhaps this was an overdone flashback sequence Percy was going through as he sat in his cubicle, typing up a report of how his department had been affected, which was essentially not at all. Or perhaps it was that sometimes, the days really seemed to blur together.

((XD There, edited.))

((I'd love to get this started up again. XD Percy was going to become a character of mine whose backstory simply wasn't going to be fully explained otherwise, and. . . heh. XD; It'd be fun.))

(('Tis good so far. Do write further, Priestess.))

((. . . And as you haven't met Moonscribe to my knowledge I should mention that Priestess is merely an honorific term, and I do not really think you are a Priestess, Priestess. XP))

. . .That's really cool. XD

Do continue, Pharaoh. *folds hands*

Moonscribe stirred in his sleep, then frowned and yawned, and his eyes slowly opened.

Moonscribe shrugged and began pressing the ground as though he were using his little keyboard still, and before a moment had passed, the window in the girls' bedroom had burst open, the feathers had all been blown out of it by a sudden gust of wind, which oddly enough only seemed to affect the feathers, and the window had closed again.

And shortly after, Moonscribe was again asleep as though nothing had ever happened.

((EDIT: Yay, I do everything wrong! ))

Hehe. XD I like. And yeah, remember kids, your connection problems are all the fault of the Circle of Thorns! Go beat them up wherever souls are sold.

. . . What? XD;;

((Yay True. XD I assume. XP XP And thread rez get, I see.))

"The square of the hypotenuse is. . . equal to the squares of the sum of the other two sides. . ." Moonscribe muttered as he drifted off, sucking his thumb. The moon shone on him through the window as he slept.

"Essex. . . Mommy. . ." Hal muttered, tossing and turning in his sleep.

"All. . . descend madness. . . die futile. . ." Schizo muttered, shifting restlessly as he slept.

((EDIT: I fail at Moonscribe. D: T_T))

XD; I definitely thought about that after I had decided on the name.

And yay! I'm so glad I didn't screw it up. :3

((Firstly, I must warn you that this may contain spoilers and, due to how dang hard it is to find out anything about them, inaccuracies regarding the Shadow Shard and the Rularuu. Please, can we have REAL Shard missions? Not everyone has the time and patience to do the task forces, y'know! D)

((. . .Ah, but anyways. XD))

((Here's a little story I wrote about the origin of one of my characters. You probably haven't met him yet, and this isn't exactly going to tell you what the character is like now, so just read and don't bother wondering about that. :3 Hope you like it.))

Once upon a time. . .

Far off in the distant reaches of the Shadow Shard, the strange dimension where the terrible god Rularuu resided, shattered into the pieces that form the Army of Rularuu, there were little creatures called Natterlings. The Rularuu were many in number and took many shapes, though all were of Rularuu. There were the Brutes, huge and powerful and bound by honor; there were the Wisps, clever and deceitful and elusive; there were the Sentries, strange and unwavering and ever watchful.

And then there were the Natterlings, and they were the least of all of Rularuu. They would leap and bound and flutter all around, finding little pieces of things and taking them for Rularuu. They were silly little creatures, chattering in their own strange garble as they did the same things they had always done, day after day, never wondering if there was more to life than all of that. After all, that was not their job. Rularuu had others to wonder for him.

And yet, one day, a Natterling wondered.

“Why are we here?”

“What do you mean, why are we here?” another Natterling said, hopping up behind the one who had spoken. For of course the Natterlings were perfectly able to understand each other.

“I want to know,” the first said. “It makes me wonder a lot of things. What else is there? Does everyone go around and find things to take for Rularuu? Is that all anyone does? Surely it can’t be.”

The second regarded him in disbelief. “What are you talking about? You aren’t supposed to wonder. That’s not what we do.”

“But that’s what I want to do,” said the first.

* * * * * *

And so in time, the little Natterling who wondered began to be known as such. Now all his friends called him the Wonderer. And even that was strange, for the Natterlings did not usually call each other anything at all. They did not need to. They were all of Rularuu, after all, were they not?

“Wonderer!” called the Natterlings. “Where are you going?”

The Wonderer was flying off into the distance. “I’m going to see what else there is!” he called back, and the others protested behind him as he flew off into the distance.

“He’ll be back,” the others said. “No matter where he goes, he’ll still be here. We are all trapped here because Rularuu is. He cannot really leave.”

* * * * * *

“Master. . . someone is here to see you,” a Wisp hissed, guiding the little Wonderer along the sleek floor of the Chantry. He had come this far, and Faathim’s guards had seen him and brought him before the Kind One, a great aspect of Rularuu.

“You are here, little one,” Faathim said, staring down at the tiny creature before him. “Your place is not here. You are called to roam and play and find little things and take them for Rularuu. That is what you are for. Why are you here, wondering? You were not made to wonder.”

“Why not?” the Wonderer said, and the Wisps muttered to one another darkly.

“You are wondering about that, now,” Faathim said. “I realize you want to be someone besides yourself. You do not want to be merely of Rularuu. You want to be something else, find something more.”

The Wonderer nodded, wondering what the Kind One would say next.

“. . . But you cannot,” Faathim said at length. “I am afraid that you are of Rularuu. . .and will always be of Rularuu. There is nothing else.”

“There is! There is!” the Wonderer objected. “I know there is. . .”

“. . . Wonderer. . .” Faathim said, the Wisps glaring pointedly at the little creature, “I am sorry for you. But you must not try to change what cannot be changed. . . this, I fear. . . I know all too well, myself. Please. . . do not do what I once did.”

* * * * * *

“Why not?” the Wonderer muttered to himself, sitting in his little cave with the other Natterlings as always. “Why can’t I wonder? What would happen?”

“He’s just wondering more and more!” another Natterling said worriedly. “We have to stop him from wondering so much. We’ll guard the cave door. If he can’t get out of the cave, eventually he won’t have anything to wonder about, and he’ll be like the rest of us.”

And so they did, and the Wonderer grew sadder and sadder, trapped in his little cave, wanting to leave and see all the things he was wondering about.

* * * * * *

And then, a few days later, something finally happened.

“Everyone! There are strangers coming to our cave!” the Natterlings cried. “They have shiny gold armor, and long things that kill. . .”

“You creatures hold back the designs of Lord Nemesis!” came a cry from outside. “You must all be culled!”

And the Natterlings rushed out to fight against the strange soldiers that were trying to drive them out, and many died, though none mourned, for they were all the same. And Nemesis was the one driven back in the end. Yet no one remembered the Wonderer, anymore.

He had followed the others to a strange shiny place where Nemesis was coming from. And at the end. . .at the end was a door, a way to another place! There were other places after all, then! He had to go through!

And the little Wonderer shot at the door, right as the others descended on it and it closed. Now there were only little pieces, and with Nemesis beaten, the Natterlings took the pieces for Rularuu, like always.

Except for one.

“. . . Why do I have to take this for Rularuu?” the Wonderer wondered. “I don’t want to. I’m going to take it for me.”

* * * * * *

And so, the other Natterlings had soon forgotten all about the Wonderer’s wondering. But he was only keeping it a secret. For they were soon raiding Nemesis all the time, since the Prussian Prince of Automatons was trying to get a foothold nearby, and Rularuu did not want that.

But the Wonderer was not worrying about Rularuu. Now he was taking more and more things for himself, and he piled them all in a little cave no one else knew about. And he looked at the little pieces from the doors Nemesis had, and he tried to figure out how they worked. It was all very confusing. He didn’t understand any of it. . . but he didn’t give up.

If Nemesis could leave this place, then so could he.

* * * * * *

“Where is the Wonderer?” the Natterlings exclaimed. “We haven’t seen him for ages! We have to find him! What if he’s wondering again?”

And so all the other Natterlings searched far and wide for the Wonderer, but he was in his secret little cave, and it was a long time before they found it.

He was floating in front of a huge pile of all the things he should have taken for Rularuu. It was a mess, and none of it made any sense. But in the midst of the pieces was a replica of the doors Nemesis had, the portals to other places, cobbled together from junk. And the others were appalled.

“Wonderer, what are you doing? That will never work! Only the shiny soldiers we fight can use those, and you don’t know how it works!”

“I’m finding out how it works,” the Wonderer replied. “I’m going to find out how everything works. Because I’m tired of being the Wonderer, and never knowing the answer to anything I wonder about. Now, I want to be the Finder.”

“But. . .” the Natterlings said, and then they were shocked as the Wonderer threw one last piece into place, and the portal roared to life, the shimmering curtain that took you somewhere else dropping down from the top. It was sparking, and pieces were floating everywhere, but it was working. Somehow, he really had figured out how it worked.

“That’ll never stay together!” the Natterlings protested. “You can’t leave! Where are you even going?”

“I don’t know,” the Wonderer who was now going to be the Finder replied. “Anywhere that isn’t here. And it doesn’t need to stay together. I don’t want to come back. I’ll figure out how to be wherever I end up going.”

“. . . But you can’t go. . .” the Natterlings yelled, though he was. The Wonderer was stepping into the curtain even as they said it, and they were too afraid to come near, for they could not even wonder what would happen, let alone find out. “You’re not supposed to do this! You are of Rularuu!”

“No, I’m not,” the Wonderer said as he disappeared into it, going who knows where, not that the others could even wonder, only knowing he was gone forever. And the portal collapsed behind him, and the others scattered, but they just caught his last words hanging in the air.

“I’m not of Rularuu.”

“I’m of me.”

((Thanks to Devious for giving me a quick prompt. XD))

"Certainly," Moonscribe said, and as he struck the air with his fingers as though pressing invisible keys, the fog thickened gradually, so that they were almost impossible to see from a distance.

"And as for where we are going," he continued, as they began making their way toward Rosie's position, turning to regard Selene calmly from under his hood. . . somehow she was certain he was smiling at her. "We are about to meet a good friend of mine. I merely hope she is pulling together. These are grave times."

((And if Hal were there, he would SO say "No [censored]. D:"))

((I'm awake! I'm awake! Five more minutes Mom. . .D)

". . .Uh. . . okay. . ." Hal said nervously. "I guess that pretty much narrows down my options. Heh."

"Awwwwww," Schizo said inside his head as Hal nervously followed the strange figure. "You should've died! Giving up is always an option!"

((And I have no freakin' clue what Moonscribe was doing. XD;; I'd love a prompt, but otherwise I'll read through the thread awhile later. <.&lt)

((Bah. XP Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm her fan forever. XD I can't really help it.))