Paradigm_Shift

OOC: That would be me, Grey. *Smashes with Bwerp Hammer*

Arbiter Daos sat at his desk, in his office. For once, his assistants were not about. Arbiter Daos was a very no-nonsense man, but every once in a while, he showed a tinybit of emotion. He took it out from its hiding place and looked at it.

The hat of Agent Deathstalker. All that was left of him, after Daos' absolute vengeance was complete.

It was always very akward. He would set it down in front of himself and just stare at it. Thinking. And every time, without fail, he had refused to shed even a single tear over the event. It took great effort on his part to not break down completely just at the sight of it.

Daos' latest revery was interupted as a million million alarms suddenly blared from his computer terminal. He barely managed to stuff the hat back into its hiding place before no less than four arbiters burst in. Less then ten minutes later, Daos was completely filled in about what Cry had done.

And he did not know what to do.

What he had done was WORSE than taboo. This transcended mere factionalism. Cry could not have done worse if he had directly attacked Lord Recluse. Cry had just killed Kalinda, Marino, Nocturne and Lunata in one shot. Four of Arachnos' most skilled members, who had all become Arbiters within the past 2 decades. Kalinda, who had already been the best seeress Arachnos had had many years ago, had only grown more skilled with time. Now she was dead. Marino had eventually joined the Night Widows and had personally worked with Nocturne in covert operations. Both of them had just fallen down dead in the middle of a mission. Lunata had collaborated with the Mu Mystics to further deceipher old mystical rituals involving spirits, and helped to develope several new ones the world would never see the likes of again. She had fallen down dead in fort Hades.

Cry hadn't just killed off most of the 'Seers and Widows.' He had just killed off the majority of Arachnos' psychic, intelligence, covert ops, assassination, technology, magic, and military specialists. This left Arachnos with a handful of fresh off-the-streets recruits, who had received Cry's curse mark. Cry had killed off over a hundred Arbiters, crippled the Arachnos psychic network, destroyed them in the espionage and intelligence department, lost over six hundred confidential documents to rival factions, *including four private ones that belonged to Lord Recluse* and had slaughtered well over a hundred thousand Arachnos personel. Oer 80% of the faction had turned against him with the return of Ghost Widow. She was a blazing beacon on the radar of Arachnos. Nobody missed her return. If anybody HAD missed it, they knew about it now, within all certainty.

Cry would not be explaining his way out of this one. He had just declared open and unrestricted war on Arachnos. There was only one person who could spare him now, and that was Lord Recluse. Daos knew this. He also knew that it was not up to him to decide what Cry's fate should be. This was HUGE. There was not a single faction or part of Arachnos that Cry had not just affected with his actions. He had just compromised Arachnos' inner workings a thousand times over and more, along with devestating their ranks. By killing off all disloyal arbiters, he had just 'killed' Lord Recluse over a hundred times.

Daos immediately called the Arachnos European office, forced his way through the hold with his authority, and requested an audiance with Lord Recluse himself via video conference. He had approved of Cry when he had first become a patron, but THIS...! This was beyond any form of redemption or mercy.

Justice was not in Daos' name though. It was in the name of Lord Recluse, and it was up to him to decide what to do. Doubtlessly he already knew exactly what had happened. He was not the lord and master of the Rogue isles and one of the most powerful military forces in the world for nothing.

The screen flickered to life and Daos stood to attention as the glowing red eyes of the count of the cruel and the archvillain of anarchy appeared on-screen.

"My lord." He said, bowing. "I bear catastrophic news. As I am sure you already know, one of your patrons has just commited a very bold act." A very light way of putting it. But Daos would not rest until Justice was done. There would be reckoning for this...!

***

Ghost Widow screamed and vanished as a large chunk of her power was extinguished on the spot as HER faction, which had been wrested away from her, was almost completely wiped out. Her power was directly tied to Arachnos, and Cry had just SEVERELY reduced it. She was gone, for now, but she thought to herself as she retreated: 'There will be reckoning for this...!'

***

Something stirred.

Dead...?

But there are...So many...

No...

There will be reckoning for this...!

Cry found himself laughing like a drunkard who hadn't yet realized he had just fallen off the edge of a cliff. He found himself high in the air, being neatly crushed by a swarm of malevolent glowing souls, as opposed to expanding like the bad-year blimp. He may have been a patron, but he had to brush up on his history. Ghost Widow was directly bound to Arachnos. The more powerful and wide-spread Arachnos was, the more powerful she was. Cry made her more powerful just by existing. Being a patron just made it worse. That alone was not enough to condemn him though.

What got him was that this applied to the souls Ghost Widow manipulated as well.

When Cry had been swarmed by the soul storm, it had been more like being swarmed by a hundred tiny Ghost Widows every bit as powerful as the actual one. Each was completely independent of the other and quite intelligent, and all that other fancy stuff. Normally this also wouldn't have mattered.

Except that Ghost Widow could not be siphoned off of, dispelled, despelled, disenchanted, cursed, exorcised, or any form of what-have-you get rid of spirits gun you kept around. As long as Arachnos existed, and was large and powerful, she would and could not wane in might. Right now, she did the opposite. She WAXED. This applied to every soul she manipulated. Cry had found himself trying to absorb something both larger than himself, with him being a sponge trying to take in a rock. It just didn't work. Having admitted himself that he could do very little to directly resist the storm, he was lifted into the air and bombarded with ghostly energies.

Ghost Widow waited patiently until the storm wore off. She, like most of Arachnos, was cruel. That was her nature. She adapted the workings of the organization. She taunted and humiliated her opponents. She was being MERCIFUL in combat. This was to let Cry know something vital:

Cut the crap or you will lose. If he wanted to stand a chance against an older, and much more experienced fighter than himself, he would have to try things differently. Less flaunting and flouncing about with how amazing you were and how mighty your powers were, showy and flashy. Showy and flashy was fine until you overdid it. In the end, true balance resided in things like Ghost Widow. They were streamlined. Efficient. Could they explode in surges of power that leveled entire cities? Sure, if they cared to. Did they? No. They didn't need to. They knew better than that.

Cry was probably, in all honestly, much stronger then Ghost Widow in terms of sheer power. That didn't mean she still couldn't still mop the floor with him, provided she used the proper application of directed force, tactical ability, and just a tad of common sense. The question: Did Cry understand this? He had a very good chance of winning once and for all here. There were times for consuming energy fields larger then your head, and there were times for straight-up CONVENTIONAL warfare, where people used troops and guns instead of just blowing the [censored] out of each other with nukes. This was the latter. Ghost Widow had been watching and planning for a very long time. She knew what to expect of Cry. Perhaps it was time for a slight change in plans and methods?

Ghost Widow hovered in place, waiting for Cry to take action. She wasn't being cautious at all. Either she knew exactly what was about to happen or she was very confident about Cry's next actions. Her guard was DOWN...!

***

The Night Widows were nowhere near as informed or as lucky as Ghost Widow. Their opponents actually fought conventionally, or appeared to be doing so for now. They had received very simple instructions on how to deal with this pair.

"Expect doomsday explosions that will level the tower."

This was not a doomsday explosion that leveled the tower. The blast caught the Widows completely by surprised, blasting its target back through the ranks, multiple widows barely dodging her flying form.

Then the element of surprise was lost, and the widows brought it. They all instantly vanished as their cloaking was activated. Smoke bombs suddenly went down, filling the entire room with a gas that decreased perception. Even if the two could see through stealth methods already, if their perception was damaged, they wouldn't even be able to see their hands in front of their faces. Fortunately, being members of Arachnos, they probably already knew this and had a plan to counteract both smoke and stealth. They had barely moments at all to react, and then they would be struck from almost every direction by the deadly widows.

The safeguards remained quite silent and inert. Even if Cry got them running again, they would not attack their own troops. If they had been disguised automatons, that would have been one thing, but these were actual registered Arachnos troops that had, until a few moments ago, served under Cry himself. It wouldn't be impossible to reset the defenses the desired way. It would just take longer then the fight was going to last.

Cry could leech off the rock all he wanted, nothing was stopping him aside from the tiny detail that there wasn't any psionic energy left in it. There was the original psychic shockwave that had echoed from the impact site, which would have been easy to feed off of. Except that it had already dispersed. The random beastie that had crash-landed in the meteor had also left, making it impossible for Cry to locally suck on it. Not only that, but his current method wouldn't have worked out anyway. Blue and Ruby were guarding a useless chunk of rock. Useless as it was though, somebody might have thought it useful for smashing people over the head with, because a group of fifteen Night Widows suddenly barged in. Their wrist-blades already out, and the pressure in the room fluctuated as they prepared their mental abilities.

"You shouldn't be here." The lead Widow said. "Our mistress demands you leave at once." This was a mutiny! There was a rumble from below as War and Death high-fived and the troops started to fight amongst themselves, split between serving their old mistress or their new master. Half of the widows, fortunatas, and seers had turned on the spot, with more converting back to Ghost Widow's side with every passing second. Cry was very unpopular, or Ghost Widow was impressive. Or both. All the systems and security features went haywire, none of them responding. They couldn't react against their own troops. If this little uprising managed to spread outside of the tower, things were going to quickly degenerate for Cry and what few followers he would have left. It was reasonable to hope Ghost Widow hadn't left yet.

***

Ghost Widow floated through the wall and was suddenly in front of Cry in his little bubble. She had been fast. Cry could already feel the solidness of her mental defenses. She had completely fortified herself. It was unlikely even Sister Psych could have broken through it. Thankfully, that meant Ghost Widow wouldn't be able to use any mental attacks herself. She intended for this to be a purely physical battle. Though she was a ghost, Cry would be quickly surprised to find her blows and strikes were all too solid. He would also have to think very fast now, after all, if everybody suddenly turned to Ghost Widow's side, he'd have lost through a democratic process regardless of whether he could hold out against her or not. His personal assistants were probably fine, as he most likely had dominated them long ago. Others though, well, they were probably already fighting with each other or running to this location to help Ghost Widow or Cry.

Completely obsessed with revenge, Ghost Widow took little notice of anybody or anything else in the room and attacked, sending a veracious storm of souls in Cry's direction. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill hold-This was an attack that could freeze Statesman himself in his tracks, if only for a little while. It would be extremely hard to directly resist the soul storm head-on.

Cry got a response, and it was one he did not recognize. There were no words, he just felt as if something had looked at him. The moment passed, but Cry suddenly knew something had gone wrong. This wasn't the Calamity meteor. This was not anything he knew. This was something else entirely. Whatever it was, he hadn't been expecting it. Then, another voice spoke to him. This time, the voice was all to easy to recognize, and it carried with it solid thought.

'I'm coming for you Cry. I serve Arachnos, and I can only act as Arachnos would. I am not the only one who seeks to punish you Cry. There are many, many others. So now I may act, as I have wanted to do for a long time now. I'm going to kill you now, Cry. Said the VERY angry voice of nobody other than Ghost Widow.

***

"Right, I'm going." Cynic said, heading for the nearest door.

"Wait." One of the assistants said. "You just got a message from Arbiter Daos. Lord Scirocco's forces are being attacked in Baumtown. He requests that you go and aid them."

"Sunuva [censored]." Cynic swore. "I don't have TIME for this! The longer I delay the longer things have to be seriously [censored] up beyond all recognization! Can't the all-mighty lord of dreadlocks handle it himself?"

"I don't know anything about that. I just know that Arbiter Daos is officially your superior and that you have to do what he says. I also think it would be a wise thing to do. You got off on the wrong foot with Lord Scirocco. Why not use this opprotunity to fix everything and start anew?"

Cynic pondered this for a moment. It was true he hadn't gotten on so well with Scirocco. He had no proof the other had arrived yet, and having Arachnos aid in destroying it would be very helpful. It COULD wait.

"Fine." He said. "I'll get a squad together. As for getting to Baumtown, do you have anything that flies?"

"Oh yes, plenty." The assistant arbiter answered.

"Anything FAST?" Cynic asked hopefully.

"Fast?" The aribter responded in a confused voice.

"Forget it, we'll WALK." Cynic spat in frustration, heading out the door.

[u]Ghost Widow's Tower[u]

I awaken.

What is this? I sense something. Many somethings. Many powerful minds. And what is this? One lurking immortal spirit? An army of the gifted? And approaching. I can sense it from here. Even though they have yet to begin their journey. It is so blatently obvious that things are seen before they are. Too long. I should go now.

What is this though? Why does the spirit attack? The seeds were spread long ago. Nobody should suspect. Yet this one does. How curious. This is a blessing in the disguise of a curse. I will strike now and here. I feel the power around, but I do not attack. I aid. I strengthen and empower them. They become more than they were ever meant to be, and in their folly, they cannot see what that means. They cannot comprehend what is happening, and I am free to do as I wish. I pick through the gathered as though they were mere tripe. They are though. Perhaps I shall leave.

No. Wait. Memory. There is such much, and so powerful, it seems to have become one with what is. Who can remember such things? Ah. I see. This is something that can be used. This all strikes me as rather odd. I did not expect such a kind welcome. Now that I look upon what is here, I realize this immortal spirit is not weak. It is injured. Driven down, beaten. I am firm yet gentle, and I slowly gain knowledge. Even knowing what I am, this fallen one is no match. It. No. She is confused by my actions. I soothe. I heal. I aid. I take the pain away and replace it with strength of mind and body. And now she is mine. Though I feel that collecting rent would not be prudent at this time. No, let her do as she pleases now. I see what she has known, and I am pleased with what I see.

This place...A fortress. It is mine. An island? I shall take it. A collection of millions of minds? Ripe. No, not ripe. All are rotten and neglected. They need healing. Of course. This is too perfect. A trap. YES. Too much coincidence. Why is this all happening? I look in every direction, and every being I see is a festering sore of pain and agony, a blight upon the world. Wounds seeking to be healed. Never before have I seen such a place. Perhaps this is not a trap? I search once more. No. Everything indicates this is an accident. No, not that either. A MISPLACEMENT. There is too much. I cannot believe. I must flee. Every sense within me screams that something is wrong.

No. I am desperation. Desperation breeds paranoia. This is not something to panic over. I should rejoice. This is a gift. The smiling face of comedy is now, finally, looking at me. The frowning mask of tragedy looms above everything here. Again, there is the feeling that something is wrong.

An emotion.

NO.

I WILL NOT. I CANNOT. I AM NOT. I DEFY. I PERSIST. I ENDURE. I CREEP, AND WHEN THE TIME COMES, I WILL SOAR. I WILL BE! I REFUSE TO CEASE! I WILL FUNCTION! I WILL INFECT AND FEED! I WILL SOW AND REAP! I WILL KILL AND DESTROY! I WILL! I AM THE EMPATHETIC EVIL AND I AM UNENDING! I STRIKE! I FEED! THIS SPIRIT IS MINE! THESE MINDS ARE MINE! THOSE WHO WILL BE ARE MINE! I WILL GROW AND I WILL REAP THE NUTRIOUS CROP OF THAT WHICH I SOW! I WILL FEAST ON THIS WORLD!

Stop. No. I will not. I cannot. I am not. This is not the way. No. These are all their own. I have no need to fight. No. Not at all. I shall rest now and gather my strength. As I slowly fade, I sense the immortal spirit’s power growing thanks to my efforts. She is brimming with the desire for revenge. I am content. Revenge is something worthy of appreciation.

Yes. And talking about it makes me very, very sad. I generally lose all hope for humanity when I think about it. And that is all I have to say on the matter.

There is always time for idiocy and self-delusion.

[ QUOTE ]
you humans exist.....is that not enough to boggle your minds?

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT

You know you've been playing too much Bioshock when you start using the phrase, '10-dollar words.'

Cry was correct that Daos had the star charts. What he got wrong was that Calamity was still over six years away from its impact of Earth, and it would within all likelihood, fall into the sea in the arctic circle. Far beyond even his reach.

No, this was something else entirely.

***

"Screw this, I don't have time. For all I know that [censored] is already frolicking around down here. Just point me to a terminal or something and my helmet will download everything." Cynic said in an annoyed voice.

Daos made a mental note. The Commander caught on quickly. He waved one of his assistants over and had them direct Cynic to the nearest terminal.

The nearest OPERATING one, which was five floors down on the opposite side of the base. Cynic caught that one to. He used the second one he saw, much to the protest of the assistant, the technician who had been using it, although not so much to the arachnoid that had been about to be disected by remote. It breathed a short sigh of relief before having its head chopped off by the guarding bane spider.

((Go and watch some episodes of dragonball Z, and that will pretty much cover everything on Entropy and Chameleon's end.

And let's see...things are falling apart at Weaver airfield, arachnos troops are being PWNZORD by a mystery monster. It is suspected to be the Hydra. Dark Rover has just detected N-D stuff, so some major [censored] is probably about to go down there. Fight with Cynic and Tamesis is over, Arbiter Daos intervened and told Cynic HE was an honorary arbiter, and a meteor just crashed into the clocktower in Mercy island and unleashed a Psionic wave of energy that is acting like a beacon for anyone in the Rogue Islands and possibly Siren's call.

I miss anything?))

CoH has a bigger population, who whine more, and whine louder than the CoV community. They hold forum population majority. CoV was made specifically to generate more econ to pump into CoH. The devs can save both time and funds simply by creating co-content that short-changes CoV but is specifically, for some reason, beneficial and useful to players of CoH. Any and all one-sided villain content is eventually transferred to CoH and given a buff. Content that was originally hero-side, will, with some reluctance, will be given to CoV. However, said content will be thouroughly re-worked, and it will be stated said content will be 'more powerful' than its hero counterpart, and it will turn out to be craptastic in comparison. Villain issues will be backburnered in favor of hero issues. There will never be any more villain-side only content, but expect more hero-side only content in the near future.

The Devs do not give a [censored] about CoV in the short run. They only care about it as long as it brings in money so they can fuel blue-side, which in turn, means they have to make a few mediocure attempts at improving the red-side content. They do so slowly, reluctantly, and poorly.

That turned into a rant. All of the above is OPINION, only SOME of it is necessarily fact.

((Somebody is using the eleventh dimension?

Uh-oh...

DEVIOUS! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY!))

"Damn." Cynic said, slightly stunned by what Daos had just told him.

"Indeed. Now what I'M concerned about," Daos said in that famous level voice of his, "Is HOW you became an Arbiter. According to you, you simply appeared, and two other Arbiters and a patron failed to recognize you, and your personal file in the registry appears to have been deleted by rogue hardware. I won't press the situation, for the sake of keeping everything tidy, but if you have any insight into HOW you became an Arbiter, that would be appreciated."

"Nope. Never even been to this planet before, I reckon." Cynic said in a far-away voice of one who has just realized they have won the billion dollar lottery. ""I have the same authority as the head honcho?" He said, obviously dazed.

"That would be Lord Recluse, yes." Daos responded, gritting his teeth. Sometimes, even he hated how he was above factionalism.

"I can get my own squad of troops and everything?"

"Yes."

"I have access to all of Arachnos technology?"

"Most of it, at any rate."

"Do I have diplomatic immunity?"

"Yes, but in most cases that is going to be ignored. Don't count on it to save you in hostile territory."

"Do I need to follow orders from anybody?"

"Lord Recluse and his patrons. That narrows down to five people."

"I love my new job." Cynic said, recovering. "How do I organize stuff and what-not?"

"Ah, well that's where a small explanation is required again..." Daos trailed, signaling an assistant who left the room.

"How much more detail stuff am I going to need to get?" Cynic said uncomfortably. Daos was smiling. Anyone else would have understood that his meant doomsday could be right around the corner. Daos NEVER smiled. And this wasn't a 'haha' smile, this was, 'I'm a malevolent old [censored] and you're in big trouble,' kind of smile. Cynic was nonplus. The assistant reentered the room. Dragging a medium-sized cart behind him loaded with boxes, all crammed with official-looking papers.

"Might as well start now, get it over with." Daos said, ignoring the question. "Now we'd better start off with that first box there, it should have the explanation for the override SOMEWHERE in there. Be a good fellow and pass it over would you?" Cynic stared at the boxes, and something inside of him screamed. Twice, because it ran out of breath.

He didn’t have time for this.

***

What is the purpose? Why should I go on? Why would it be different? Yes. I must go on because I am what I am. I have slain gods and demons, I have defied that which is, and those who are. I have brought an end to the beginning, and I was old even when the first star was born. I am the empathetic evil. I am the fear of the ascended. I am the corruption of sanity and the perversion of purity. And I AM UNENDING. But why? Why HERE? Why NOW? Why AGAIN? Why to EVERYTHING. There is no REASON. There is only DESPERATION. Something with which I am not familiar. There is turmoil in the drop. There is power flowing in the pit. I am opposed by the most powerful foes there can be: The modest and the meek. The foolish and the ignorant. Those who defy LOGIC. They are the deadliest of foes, for they will seek to accomplish that which cannot be done. But alas, why do I worry of logic? I am not logical. I am the fear of the unknown and I am the nightmare of the great. My fanaticism alters the truth. My deception conceals reason. My darkness corrupts grace. My anarchy overcomes law. My instinct subdues duty.

But the scales and the balance. If there is anything that I can fear, it is those. For whatever goes around comes around.

And for all my abilities of deluding, deceiving, perverting…What if I use them on myself? What if I am the fool on the hill? What if…

What if…

NO.

I WILL NOT. I CANNOT. I AM NOT. I DEFY. I PERSIST. I ENDURE. I CREEP, AND WHEN THE TIME COMES, I WILL SOAR. I WILL BE! I REFUSE TO CEASE! I WILL FUNCTION! I WILL INFECT AND FEED! I WILL SOW AND REAP! I WILL KILL AND DESTROY! I WILL!

I will.

I will…

For I am the many faces of evil.

I am the Masquerade of that which was never meant to be.

***

Some time ago

"So what now?" Cynic asked Viz Wiz.

"Well, we'll probably wind up sending a team there anyway to put an end to the problem. You should probably just go home and deal with that dimensional alien god invasion, pretend this never happened."

"Oh. Yes. The dimensional alien god invasion." Cynic said, frowning to himself beneath his helmet. "Errr...Look, why don't we check the cell to see if he's still there? We need to be SURE you know."

"HELL NO." Viz Wiz said, the eyes all over his body widening in horror. "There's a REASON we LOOK everywhere for him EXCEPT for where we last imprisoned him. Remember LAST time he got loose? That was because somebody opened the door in an attempt to raid the place. And HE had an assault group going in with him."

"Err..." Cynic thought desperately. "...And THAT'S why you'll never find him! He's hiding where you'll least expect him to be!"

"What?" Viz Wiz uttered, every eye blinking once.

"Yes! He's HERE, plotting your downfall!" Cynic said, grasping at the offered life-preserver. "He's manipulating things and crap! Yea! You'll be [censored] every which way until it stops being funny and there will be explosions and stuff and people will be running around screaming stuff about doom and...MORE EXPLOSIONS." Cynic had struck gold. The crew HATED explosion more than anything else. They had explosive consequences. Every eye covering Viz Wiz was opened so wide, Cynic could have sworn they would all pop out. "Besides, if the presence of evil were obvious, it wouldn't be nearly as dangerous." Cynic went on, "So knowing he is here would be helpful. So you know, you can prepare. Explosions."

"But..." Viz Wiz mumbled, shaken. "How will...subdue if he's in there?"

"Well, think of it as a WAR." Cynic reasoned. "Wars are won with strength, valor, and numbers. 'Specially numbers. Just send in enough people. OR ELSE THERE WILL BE EXPLOSIONS AND FIRE AND CHAOS AND EXPLOSIONS AND STUFF AND EXPLOSIONS AND SCREAMING AND EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIONS!" He screamed. He took a good look at the eyes again, and felt very pleased with himself. The bit about explosions was very effective.

"Err...I'll go and...something...Stay here...be back... Viz Wiz muttered in a shocked voice. He really hated explosions. REALLY. He drifted off to the door.

"Explosions." Cynic said in a quiet voice, just loud enough for the eye-covered man to hear. He hastened his flight across the room.

***

NOW

[u]Mercy Island[u]

It was relatively peaceful in Mercy today. Which meant, of course, that the citizens were being oppressed, stolen from, murdered, brutalized and terrorized. In fact, there was only one place on the entire island where none of that was actually happening. The infamous clock tower in the center. For some very strange reason, it had been constructed without any doors. Nobody could get inside, so it was fairly safe. And peaceful. A scene of tranquility in hell.

There was a sudden glint in the sky, followed by a whistling noise imitated by some warheads as they streaked at their targets. There was a sudden red blip in the sky, which turned into a meteor, which turned out to be nothing more than a red glare as it descended. It smashed right into the tower, and the entire upper section exploded. Glass flew everywhere and stone shattered and crumbled and flew in every direction, leaving a charred and smoldering crater atop the tower where the grand clock used to have been.

***

Every mentalist within three hundred yards suddenly fell over dead, including some Arachnos fortunatas and widows. Every mentalist within a mile suddenly felt an enormous pang of pain, worse than being shot a dozen times, in their heads. Every mentalist within five miles was bowled over by some invisible force that swept past them. Every mentalist within ten miles felt a twinge run through them that made every bone ache and every muscle become sore. Everyone else almost everywhere had the sudden impression that something had just gone horribly, horribly wrong in the worst possible way. It hadn't really, but these sort of things do tend to be dramatic, and people are stupid and impressionable creatures.

***

So now there was a ruin where the top of the clock tower used to be, and there was a gigantic surge of psionic energy in the area that was the equivalent of a massive beacon to anybody with mental abilities. If there was anybody with psionic abilities within the Rogue isles that DIDN'T sense it, then they couldn't really be qualified as having psionic abilities at all, which was a bit of a perplexing situation in the case of people who had no sensory nerves, like telepathic robots. Mostly they just monitored an increase in the amount of psionic energy in the background. There was so much psionic energy that this narrator was forced to use the word psionic as much as possible just to get the point across that there was a lot of psionic energy around, which could be easily sensed by any with psionic abilities.

Psionic. HA!

Happy [censored] New Year to the Rogue Isles!

No [censored] Sherlock. Do not pass go and do not collect $200. Insert another quarter and try again.

To answer your last few question, td;lr. Now please take some time out of the few short remaining years of your pointless life as an unevolved, parasitic, ignorant and arrogant mammal with an overdeveloped superiority complex that destroys its surroundings and spends the majority of its time thinking of new and ever more creative ways to kill others of its species to CONVERT TO BWERP.

"Nothing to see here, move along." One of the assistants, a fotunata fateweaver, said in a pleasent and hypnotic tone, and it was clear there had been a hint of a Psionic suggestion in there.

"Once you get back from your next mission, I'd like a word with you." Arbiter Daos informed Tamesis before heading past him towards the Commander. "I'll be in my office here when you get back, within all likelihood."

"What the HELL is going on here? Who the HELL are you and what the HELL do you want?" Cynic demanded of Daos and his assistants as they approached.

"You'd better come with us. This will take some explaining. We mean you no harm, this was just a rather large and uncontrolled misunderstanding." Daos said in the tone of a patient adult explaining quantum mechanics to a four year old while one of his assistants opened the door Cynic had been trying to get through.

((Well you stated that the world will be constructed based on the views of those who are within, and I got the impression that the size and complexity of the land changes as certain characters/ideas/motives/thoughts grow stronger. What just entered was my character and its idea and reason to exist. A bottomless pit with a radiant white platform hovering in the center, with my character presumably hiding on the disc, waiting for an opposing thought or theory to enter its field.))

"Oh dear. It looks like that announcement DIDN'T get around then." Daos said levelly.

"That's just me boy." Cynic said, hovering next to Tamesis. "Life just works that way. You spend years of grueling work getting where you are and I do the same thing within two minutes of arriving. Think I may have stepped on the right person's toes."

"I think I'd better handle this." Daos said loudly, making sure everyone could hear him. "I'm sure nothing worthy of attention happened here. I am sure Lord Recluse would be ANNOYED to hear an Arbiter was inconvenienced in any way."

"Which is why it is a good thing nothing happened here." One of his assistants chipped in, catching on quickly.

"Yes. You see, apparently he is also an honorary Arachnos Arbiter." Daos said, giving Tamesis a stare that seemed to drill through his eyes and gouge his brain before exiting his skull.

"I'm a what now?" Cynic asked, confused.

"That will not be necessary, Arbiter Tamesis." Said a very old and tired voice. Arbiter Daos, flanked by his assistants, came into view just behind the group of Bane Spiders.

"Oh great. More freaks." Cynic huffed. 'I'm never going to get out of here at this rate.' He huffed to himself.

"Tell me, Arbiter." Daos addressed directly to Tamesis. "Who do you attack?"

"He attacks suggestively. Really. First he tries to do something with my staff here, then he launches white goo at me, and now he's asking for something to dominate me." Cynic replied with a chuckle. Daos ignored this and awaited Tamesis' response.

((I've got it!

Enter: Masquerade!))

And suddenly, there is a flaw in the landscape: An opening pit. It is small, and it is at the border of the lands.

But a flaw it still is. A yawning hole in the dream-scape leading to mystery unknown. And arising from this pit like a star is the seed. That which grows as it gains power. Like a strangler fig, sapping and siphoning power from a host to fuel its own life and growth. The seed floats in the middle of the pit, and for now it is flat and circular. The only hint at its malevolent nature being its point of origin, overcast by its pearly white and glowing sheen of innocence and brightness.

And the champion is there. It cannot venture far, for it is limited in build and thought. It holds no power outside of its place of power. The endless pit and the flat and incandescent seed that spans across the center. It awaits its prey: Its sustenance. To it, this is all a simple tale. The spider and the fly. The worm and the earth.

The strangler fig and the palm tree.

And so, waiting for those either foolish or brave enough to enter, the Masquerade waits.

((I have the perfect character for this sort of thing, but I need more information be\fore joining. Where/what is the setting? What should we expect? Are there any other rules we should be aware of?))

((Well then the whole question is, what C would a stream of 'pure concentrated plasma' be? Assuming this is the kind of stream we would get from an assault bot, so maybe a foot in diameter, and I'm assuming from the description and visual experience it would be a stream about...oh, three meters in length. What matters most though would be consistency so...

I personally think it would burn right through like a missile going through tissue paper.))

Cynic was not a demi-god, and it was pretty easy to hurt him. It just wasn't easy while he had a personal force field, an energy shield, and a dispersion shield all up and stacking on each other. Tamesis should have known about that, since Jake probably had a personal force field of his own.

The web grenades all hit Cynic's shielding and reacted as though they'd been shot into a wet bath tub. The sticky substance slid right off the shielding to plop on the ground with a wet splort.

"Harhar. Funny. Come on, open the door." Cynic said, sounding slightly annoyed by now.

***

"Indeed." Arbiter Daos sighed heavily. "I can only assume that announcement didn't get around. Well, don't let me detain you Lord Scirocco. I'll just follow the noise of copious amounts of weaponry being used." He signaled his assistants, and followed the noise of copious amounts of weaponry being used.