[ QUOTE ]
Solid: >_> I'unno. Maybe the ghost wanted us to go to Conneticut or where ever.
[/ QUOTE ]
Emry: "Don't be stupid. Ghost's hate Connecticut."
((Quiet you.))
((My bad.))
((No, no, not saying it like that - I was just surprised that he posted. O_O *L* You're fine, Laz. XD))
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Solid: >_> I'unno. Maybe the ghost wanted us to go to Conneticut or where ever.
[/ QUOTE ]
Emry: "Don't be stupid. Ghost's hate Connecticut."
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh lawd it's Emry. We're all doomed. He and Essex shall slay us all to increase their power.
HEAD FOR THE HILLS, LADS!
aka Welcome to the boards, yo!
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Hills aren't nice to me. Constantly throwing me down.
Nice to meet you, Emry. As long as doomsday does not suddenly come quicker with you on the forums, everything is alright.
...Doomsday? Quicker than I'm already bringing it?
Don't kid yourself, Experiment :P
And welcome to da tree spirit. I'm the complimentary insane guy/Orcish-speaker.
Meh...I thought Devious was the doomsday master...
Awww, who am I kidding. You're the doomsday master Soviet.
BOOM! HEADSHOT! XD
Normally you'd tie with me, but you've been around longer. 
Hehe. Hi, Emry! You should--
*TERRIBLE MIND CONTROL VOICE* JOIIIIN A THRRRREAD.
*normal voice* Y'know, if you have the time. <_<
"How long are we going to wait here?" Rosalind complained. "I want to investigate! There's already paranormal residue on the recharge pod, and there's ALL sorts of crazy crap in the air around here, and I can't sense any plants besides Emry, and I'm hungry!"
"Patience..." Emry intoned, leaning against a wall of the laboratory with his eyes closed.
"Stroke of good luck if you ask me." Pherelith said, watching her disembodied hands boredly as they did a cat's cradle with a length of yellow cord. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to call in a favor with that Matroyshka doll spirit again. Duplicitous [censored]."
"What the hell kind of spirit are you talking about?" Solid asked curiously, leaning against an opposite wall from Emry. Essex was frantically working at a communications monitor, her fingers flying across the keyboard at a ridiculous speed and Hal standing behind her supportively.
"Well..." Rosie cut in, "You know what a Matroyshka doll is? Or whatever? It's one of those little wooden dolls that has like, another one inside it, which has another one inside it, and another one inside it, and another one inside THAT one, and -"
"Yeah, yeah, I get the point." Solid said, waving a hand dismissively. "But there's a spirit for that?"
"Everything that has been given any sort of significance beyond basic monetary value has a spirit." Emry cut in quietly. "This is one reason why humans are so important to this world. Humans have an ability that very few others have - the ability to, without anything but the sheer force of will, give inanimate and previously insignificant objects a spirit of their own. Humans do not realize that they do this, and indeed it is one of the greatest secrets that we keep from mankind."
Hallucinogen was quiet, his eyes flickering to the floor.
"Consider, if you will..." Emry continued, opening his eyes and regarding the group, "...a child's doll."
With that, he reached forward, gently lifting the stuffed bunny that Essex had been carrying around.
"If a child loves a toy with all her heart - gives it a name, confides in it, shows it affection - the force of her own spirit will form a spirit in the toy in turn. But also consider the one who gifted the toy upon the child. If the toy is given with the mere intention of a simple gift, the giver's spirit will not affect it at all. But if it's given with a heartfelt reason, if it was carefully chosen specifically for the child as a companion, then it will be affected by the giver as well."
"That..." Solid said, musing thoughtfully, "Is about the fruitiest thing I've heard, ever."
"...You mean that Glenn has a spirit, sir?" Essex said, glancing over her shoulder at Emry in surprise as she typed.
"Yes." the magnolia spirit answered, ignoring Solid. "Though it has not matured yet. Most items given spirits do not mature unless exposed to strong circumstances that seem to 'shake' them out of dormancy. Let us use the doll as an example again. Its spirit may become active if the child's parents die and the child increases its dependance on the toy, clinging to it desperately as a remnant with all her heart. Or, it may become active if the child is needlessly cruel and irresponsible to the toy."
"Yeah." Pherelith cut in. "Remember that [censored]' teddy bear spirit? Little boy soaked it in gasoline and lit it on fire just for [censored] and giggles. Then it came back and burned down his house. It was brutal."
"...The point I'm trying to make here..." Emry said, "...is that humans create spirits with their words and deeds, and spirits exist in order to protect, watch over, inform, or even take revenge upon humanity. It is a delicate balance, the two worlds..."
"Yeah, but plant, animal, and sentient being spirits are different." Rosalind piped up. "See, living things are BORN with spirits. Sentient beings are born with their spirits awakened, but plants and animals have to be affected the same way inanimate object spirits are in order to mature."
"What does this have to do with anything?" Hallucinogen muttered, still looking at his feet. "I mean, it's interesting, but. . ."
"Oh yeah, the Matroyshka doll spirit." Pherelith said. "Anyway. She speaks Russian 'cause she came from there. That's all."
"That was a huge, pointless discussion." Solid said. "Remind me never to ask you guys anything about spirits again."
Emry placed the bunny doll back down near Essex just as the little android sighed. "Okay..." she said. "The Commander's had it translated, and should be -"
"-right here." came Reikoff's voice from the nearby teleport bay.
He froze in the doorway, eyeing the crowd. His eyes rested on Rosalind, primarily, who grinned cheerfully and waved.
"Don't...push things, Rosie." Emry said quietly with a warning tone. "Go lay down."
"Aww." the were-human grumped, shifting into her border collie form and curling up in a far corner of the communications bay to sulk.
"...Anyway." Reikoff said, his voice gruff and his gaze suspicious as it rested first on Solid, then Emry, and then Hallucinogen. It remained on Hal for the time being, and the Malta commander's eyes narrowed just slightly.
"...The Soviet translated the writing on the board. It seemed to be a poem of some kind." he finally said coldly, directing his words more at Essex than anyone else. "It says...
Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines--
Essex's eyes widened. Her small voice interrupted Reikoff's, lifted in timid, clear song.
"Tell me why the sky's so blue,
And then I'll tell you just why I love you..."
The Commander's face paled slightly. "...Yes." he said, clearing his throat. "...Exactly."
"The song in my dream...." Essex murmured.
"Creepy." Solid said, polishing his gun. "So ....what now?"
Solid's inquiry was answered by a sharp intake of breath from Rosalind. All at once, the border collie leapt to its feet, orange eyes fixed in the direction of the hallway and ears straight up. A feral growl ripped from her throat the moment before she tore off, quickly dashing out of sight.
"She's got a bead on something." Pherelith said, even as Emry spun his pistol into a readied position. "Follow her!"
With that, the group headed deeper into the cold silence of Dr. West's laboratory...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
I think Experiment would have had to agree exactly with what Solid said... If he weren't still trying to write both st... I mean, a story.
>.>
<.<
Who ya gonna call?
Ghost Busters!
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"What the hell is this place?" Solid muttered as he took in the small, secret room. Rosalind was nosing interestedly through a stack of papers, and Emry and Phe were glancing around with stony expressions.
Even Hallucinogen looked bewildered as he took in the room. A desk stacked with papers. Wildly futuristic looking weapons, large containment tubes full of eerie experiments, a large mecha strapped up against the back wall with reinforced cables.
"We're not supposed to be in here!" Essex cried, trying to shoo everyone back out the door. "Even I'm not allowed in here! Dr. West made me leave when the Commander and I found this room!!"
"She's right." Reikoff said quietly, shining up his gun casually, making sure it was still fully loaded. "And I'm afraid there's some highly classified material in this room. You're all going to have to leave."
"W-what?" Hal said, his face pale. "What's he talking about, Essex? What's this. . . all these papers in Russian? These blueprints, these diagrams. . ."
"I told you..." Reikoff said calmly, his gun lifting to lazily target Hallucinogen's head. "...that it's time to leave."
A stunned silence hung in the room for a moment as they all realized that the paramilitary commander was not kidding. Reikoff's finger rested quite confidently on the trigger and none of them doubted he would fire.
"...I am afraid..." Emry's calm voice said as it cut through the silence, and a flash of silver revealed the pistol aimed at Reikoff's head. "...that that is impossible. This area is now under investigation by the Soul Police Chapter, as it has been revealed as an area of illegal soulbinding and unauthorized paranormal activity.
Solid's gun raised a split second later, though he seemed undecided on a target - first pointing at Emry, and then at Reikoff, who was still aiming at Hal. "I don't know what the hell you all are talking about." he said. "But nobody points a gun at Hal but me. Or I shoot 'em."
Pherelith's eyes turned malevolently to Solid and she grinned unnervingly. "'Zat so?" she said. "I see what you did there." Her wrists rolled at unnatural angles and a pair of EMP grenades rolled into her hands. "Nothing personal. But there's enough information here for us to take a vested interest in what's going on."
"Papa didn't do anything wrong!" Essex cried out, her hands balled into little pink fists. "I don't know why you're all so angry with him...He's only doing his best for science!!"
"There is much you yet need to learn about the ways of the world, kid." Emry said flatly, his eyes still resting on Reikoff.
Rosalind had frozen, the border collie's nose still in the air. She kept perfectly still, breathing evenly and allowing the scents in the room to drift past her.
The scent of anger.
The scent of fear.
The scent of despair, lingering from who knows when.
And pervading everything, the smell of something supernatural beckoning them onward and of the touch of souls. It wasn't strong, but it definitely circulated throughout this area.
Hallucinogen remained still, looking at Reikoff distrustfully as the Malta TacCom's gun remained flawlessly targeted on him.
"Every single one of you. . ." the boy enunciated, his form tense beneath the green smoke, ". . . is a complete psychopath!"
The next moment, a blinding flash rendered all those in the room sightless as gunfire erupted from every direction.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Solid: But at least I'm a friendly psychopath!
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Hal: Shut up and be blinded already! Stupid PBAoE, always missing. *grumbles*
Reikoff: HEADSH--Wait, no, damnit.
---
Miles away, on Peregrine Island...
"What the [censored]?!" "Corporal Alpha, what's wrong!" "...Somethin' ain't right, yo."
((The one time I don't copypaste my post is the huge fight scene.
This form is no longer valid.
*HEADDESK HEADDESK HEADDESK*))
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Shen Yu: "Foolish man often walk into sharp thing." <.< >.> *stabs random guy with Malaysian dagger*
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Hallucinogen's flash of light dissapated among the sharp chatter of dozens of bullets simultaneously streaking through the air. Reikoff had dived behind the work desk, kicking the heavy steel piece of furniture up like a barricade and throwing papers everywhere, only to be shredded to ribbons in the abusive dance of the gunfire.
"Sorry that it had to come to this!" Reikoff called over the desk with a gruff smirk. "Eh..." he continued, ripping the pin out of a grenade with his teeth. "Who the [censored] am I kidding? I'm always happy to take you [censored] metas down a couple notches."
Flinging the grenade over, it exploded in a burst of fire and smoke that quickly caught onto one or two of the experimental weapons. These also detonated along the line with frightening flashes of colored fire, and through this, Emry soared forward, eyes determined as he fired at Reikoff with the Spirit Disruptor.
"Resisting an officer is not a crime to be taken lightly..." he murmured, even as Rosalind snarled and dodged around the gunfire to come at Reikoff from the side.
Pherelith flung her EMP grenades at Solid, who promptly fired them out of the air in drastic bursts of electricity. "C'mon, you can do better than that!" he said with a bemused tone of voice, beginning to pepper the slim undead with gunfire.
Essex cowered in the middle of the gunfire and explosions, fists clenched in frustration and eyes wide in fear. "Everyone settle down!!" she cried out in vain, her small voice easily drowned out by the boom of detonating weaponry.
Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind by invisible hands and yanked backwards roughly, perhaps a little more roughly than was intended as shrapnel flew past her small form. Out of reflex, the android shrieked in surprise and alarm, her sonic generators propelling her voice to cut through the audio carnage.
This attracted both Reikoff and Solid's attention, and the paramilitary commander turned his gun towards the area Essex had been pulled. "Essex!"
Bullets tore through the air, and a cry of pain filled the room seemingly in all directions as Hallucinogen was struck, blood splashing from the new wounds.
"Dangit!" he yelled in frustration, his voice reverberating around the room. "Watch where you're shooting!!" With that, the wounds closed and he was fully invisible once more, a brief vision of purple flame all that had been seen before his cloak of illusions descended once again.
Solid took the opportunity to fire on Emry from behind and to the side, who pivoted seemingly flawlessly and propelled himself forward into the bot. Magnolia petals flew through the air, assaulting Solid's steel body with a soft clinking and scraping as the sharp projectiles scratched off him relatively harmlessly.
Reikoff raised his gun to fire at Emry, but soon found his left arm yanked to the side, his aim disrupted, by a very angry border collie. He could feel the strength in Rosalind's jaws as she bit down on his body armor, snarling aggressively even as he fired wildly, holding his gun in the opposite hand and cursing.
Essex picked herself up, beginning back towards the conflict as her hands began to glow green with nanites. "Aah!" she suddenly cried as a tentacle of blood lashed around her like a whip and swung her into the air.
"This ain't no place for kids!" Pherelith cackled, dangling Essex helplessly over the battle (though out of the range of the explosions, thankfully). Hallucinogen saw this and gasped invisibly, his eyes burning protectively as he lashed his hand out to the side, silently summoning his Phantasm.
The glowing figure came into existance and smirked, flying up to confront Pherelith. I don't think Essex is into dead chicks. the Phantasm quipped as it released twin light beams at the undead girl. Phe cursed as she dodged one but was blasted by the other, recoiling as the blood tentacle whipped to the side. Essex was flung out of it and sent crashing into a pile of wreckage in the corner, more or less unharmed.
Reikoff and Rosalind continued to wrestle on the floor, the Maltan TacCom forcing his injured arm farther into the border collie's mouth, pressing against the joints of her strong jaws as he straddled the dog and its legs kicked in fury with several strangled barks. Reikoff grit his teeth as he tossed his gun aside and drew a long, durable-looking combat knife, stabbing it into Rosalind and slashing at the dog in close range. This elicited a muffled yelp of pain from the were-human as her blood began to seep onto the floor, and her eyes began to glaze red as she writhed violently, trying desperately to bite him harder as he forced her to stay down.
Reikoff found deep green vines wrapping around him and yanking him off the dog, flinging him aside and at a far wall that had not yet been touched by fire. Solid hit the wall a moment later, and the two of them looked at each other.
Between them was a large, vicious looking energy rifle of some sort.
The two of them lunged for the weapon simultaneously, Reikoff gaining control of the back end as Solid's steel finger intersected the trigger. Energy blasts fired everywhere as the two of them wildly fought over the gun, Reikoff trying to aim it at Emry and Rosalind as Solid tried to pull the shots towards where Hal was fighting Phe.
Suddenly a loud creaking interrpted all of them - a loud ominous sound that drew their attention to the far corner where Essex had been flung earlier. The corner with the mecha.
On one side, Reikoff's combat knife had been flung and embedded itself in the wall, neatly slicing through the restraint cable. On the other, an energy blast had weakened a cable just enough to make it splinter.
Before their eyes, it snapped...and the cables whipped around like infuriated serpents as the multi-ton mechanical beast ominously lurched forward.
On the ground, trapped under Dr. West's steel work desk, was Essex.
"ESSEX!!" Hallucinogen cried out, reaching out a hand just as Pherelith's blood tentacle knocked him back.
"[censored]!!" Reikoff yelled, mashing his hand on his teleporter frantically as it sparked, deep toothmarks embedded in it from Rosalind's assault.
Solid cursed as well, barely able to get to his feet before the mecha lurched forward.
Essex let out a terrified shriek as she desperately struggled to get out from under the desk. As the supports gave completely and the huge mechanical beast crashed forward to crush her, the group could only helplessly look on...
...And a flash of light disrupted each of their vision for a split second as a glowing figure stood over the shivering childlike construct. The figure was of a woman, dressed in flowing white with waves of blonde hair trickling down her back. Her hands uplifted to hold the gigantic mecha with seeming effortlessness, her eyes shone an opaque white. With some surprise, they found they could see completely through the figure.
"...The ghost...." Emry said quietly, his gun lowering.
As she held it up, the mecha began to shake and shiver....and a loud crash sounded as it began to crumble to the ground, piece by piece. Essex, shielded from it and whimpering in wide-eyed fright, watched as the gigantic steel figure degenerated into large heaps of scrap on the ground, as if it had been completely and carefully disassembled.
Once this was done, the figure lowered her arms and turned to face those gathered, bowing her head only slightly before vanishing into thin air.
"...Oh, shi-..." Solid barely was able to mutter.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
[ QUOTE ]
((The one time I don't copypaste my post is the huge fight scene.
This form is no longer valid.
*HEADDESK HEADDESK HEADDESK*))
[/ QUOTE ]
KHAAAN!
Hopefully you were able to remember it all for the rewrite.
I take none of these guys really like each other...
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Dunno if I'd say THAT. But they're a mixture of villains and heroes, and Essex is the only thing that's holding some of them together.
S'tough love. 
Oh, I got some characters like that on Triumph... Mkay, I think I get it now.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
I can see why Reikoff was taken out, hahah.
*Emry begins to lower gun*
*.05 seconds pass*
*Full auto spray into Emry's back*