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+--- Thread: Pacing Themselves (/showthread.php?tid=7122)
Pacing Themselves - Little Rose - 12-25-2017
Cassandra walked with steady steps, Renko she’d met in the forest at her back, Dane at her side, and Clownpiece and Afrátos ahead of her.
The giant creature was hanging on every word that the blond was saying now, obediently following along at a respectful distance before begging his master for the limited freedom to go hunting. They had to clarify that ‘people’ weren’t food, and that made Cassandra a bit nervous. Myst sucking on her lower lip until it was red and hurt before the other’s broke the silence.
It was Dane that snapped her out of it. “Is he bothering you?” He continued his polite facade when he noticed she was staring at the beast.
“N-Non. I am not bothered by such things. I am no… How you say… Stranger to these things.” Myst attempted to remain understandable.
“You have giant starving ceramic beasts lurking around everywhere back from wherever it is you come from?” Dane asked, a slip in his persona, but nothing noticeable.
“What? Non. I mean, I am very familiar with the unimaginable. Creatures of myth and such.”
“Oh. You mean the supernatural. Angels, Devils, Vampires.”
Myst choked on the saliva she’d been in the middle of swallowing. “Quelle? Pourquoi dirais-tu ça!?”
Despite her full French sentence, Omni’s magic kicked in and Dane understood. “What? Devils?” Maybe she was religious?
Sandy’s heart was pounding against her chest, and she fought the urge to wipe her brow. “N-Nothing. Oui. Supernatural things.” She glanced back at the girl with the hat who was studying the group through fiercely curious eyes. In her attempts to not look suspicious.. She looked very suspicious.
“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” Dane noted her frantic behavior. It would be wise for him to figure out what’s wrong if only for the trust he was attempting to bridge between the two to make convincing her to do things easier. Although, he gathered she wasn’t a very demanding person at all. “If it’s him I can put him in his place again, Miss Myst.” He’s been wanting to say that for some time, it amused him mildly.
“Non!” Myst was quick to throw her hands out to stop him, her hands were small and held no power over him, but Dane could feel her urgency. “That is not necessary.” She promises him, leaning closer but also pulling her face to look away. “Non. I was just lost in thought. Je promets.”
“If he does not frighten you, dear. Why are you so interested in him?” Dane tries another question.
“Je ne sais pas. He is not like anything I’ve encountered..” Myst quietly mentions, thinking about how he seemed so willing to hug her but so skittish now.
"I've had the misfortune of encountering a few things like him, although they tended to lack the extra arms, and weren't made of ceramics. Anyway maybe once he’s been trained you can pet him." He said, adding ‘or something’ mentally while looking away in a half eye roll. Girls.
He’d feel his arm being grabbed, and when he looked back at her he saw simple pleasure twisting her otherwise sad face into someone with a smile and cheer. “You think I could?” She cutely asked, an affliction that startled him because it was so pure.
“Uh… Yeah. Sure.” He promised.
He watched her eyes light up with pure happiness, the greens even looked as if they glowed for a moment.
Behind them a voice gasped. “D-Did something just happened? I am noticing an anomaly.” She pushed through the two, tearing Myst away from Dane and then looking first at their hands. Nothing. Then them, quickly she began inspecting Sandra carefully, as if she was suspicious.
This made Myst terribly uncomfortable as she whimpered and hid her blushing face by wrapping her hands around her cheeks and pushing her fingers behind her glasses to hide her eyes. Thankfully the only thing she could run into at this moment was her party members.
Renko ignored the girl’s mumbling to inspect Dane roughly the same way. Surely these Primes had done something, and on purpose. “What did you say to her? What were you talking about?” She quickly rambled off questions.
RE: Pacing Themselves - PepsiYuuka - 12-27-2017
Maybe it was the stress of hanging around so many primes that was doing her mental faculties in. Suddenly picking up on the rather annoyed atmosphere surrounding the primes caused by her questioning, Renko slowed abruptly to a halt. She seemed pretty sheepish at an outburst like that. Not that she wasn’t prone to them- but she usually waited until she trusted the people around her just a bit more before shoving her passions in their face. She’d scared off many a potential friend and coworker with that sort of thing before. With an embarrassed laugh, She relaxed her posture a bit.
”Oh- uh, sorry. I guess I came on a little strong, huh?” She ran a hand through the untied side of her hair as she spoke.
”You… Guess…” Dane’s tone was understandably grumpy, given that he had just been verbally overloaded. ”Mind slowing down and trying that all one more time? Maybe with us in the loop?
By now the three of them were beginning to cross into the Nexus through the gate, Clownpiece and her porcelain pet still a dozen or so meters ahead of the three more normal humans. Or, at least those more normal in form. So, either way, Renko would be prevented from looking for any more anomalies. ”R-right… Well, anyway, I can tell what time it is at any given point. It’s not a very useful or flashy power, but it cues me into some things other people might miss.” Habitually she glanced at the plain white sky for just a moment before looking back at Dane and Sandy. Both of the primes seemed more confused after she said this than anything, though.
”Time here isn’t consistent between places; that’s pretty well known in concept. That being said, the exact reasons why aren’t what you’d call well documented, but- it really seems like nothing here is, not to the public eye. But within itself that time distortion is usually consistent among certain places or groups. Again, why that is, I don’t really know either. Not that it matters. So, back there, what I noticed was-“
”It was different for a second.” Dane cutting her off gave Renko a moment to breathe, which she seemed thankful for. Dane, for his part, was at least doing a bang up job at sounding genuinely interested in Renko’s tangent. She was confident enough he had simply surmised it from what she had been talking about she didn’t feel any need to question how he knew what she was about to say. ”And you wanted to know if it was one of us.”
”Precisely. …So, uh, was it?” Her still slightly-winded question came out significantly less eloquently than she had hoped.
Renko didn’t seem to pay too close of attention to Sandy as she managed, ”Eeeh… Non. I know not of what could have caused it.” This was probably to her benefit, as the secondary was reasonably trusting of her for someone she had just met. Dane, on the other hand, simply shook his head. These reactions elicited only a pout, sigh, and an all-consuming shrug from her. Perhaps it was one of the other two, then- they certainly LOOKED more supernatural in their leanings. Speaking of which-
She shook her head and focused again on the lampad and her pet, who were still blazing on ahead of them, seemingly in the general direction of Camelot’s door, though Renko wasn’t too certain on that either. Noticing this, she immediately picked up the pace, half-jogging in their direction now. ”Hey- wait for the rest of us, will you!” At least, for Sandy’s sake, she seemed to have dropped the subject for now, more attentive to the concept of keeping the group together.
RE: Pacing Themselves - Dane Regan - 12-27-2017
"Speaking of which," Dane interjected, "I'm thinking we take a little detour from our Camelot escapades." He reached out to the side, patting Myst's head and ruffling her hair as a means to get her to stop following Clownpiece. He didn't remove his hand afterwards, but used his other to wave Clownpiece back over.
'Come back,' he spoke into the fairy's mind, figuring it was the easiest way to get her attention.
'Why?' her mind thought back, 'aren't we going to Camelot? I wanted to show you my new shrine.'
'We can do that later,' Dane mentally shrugged, 'I want to go exploring. Let's head to the next gate instead - I think that one's the Moors.'
After a moment, Clownpiece and China rejoined the group, with the hellfairy initially having to drag the ceramic beast to get it to turn around. It was only after the duo returned, with Renko looking a tad out of the loop, that Dane removed his palm from Myst's head and clapped his hands. "Slight change of plans, we're going on an adventure," he gestured to the Pale Moors gate.
The reason being that it was the closest besides Camelot and the Greens. And he figured there'd be something to kill there. He needed to get into better fighting shape and hone his skills more regularly. He'd also be lying if he said he didn't want to see China in action. Myst could continue to do as she wished. He wouldn't force her into combat, but all primes he'd met had at least some strength. She likely had something of her own, and he wanted to know what. He just didn't think pushing her into anything would be a good way to goad that information out of her.
"Regarding your 'anomaly', Renko, If I had to guess, I could've been me. I know Tearen - the dude who got third in DA or something - played around with some time manipulation stuff, slowing and speeding it up mostly. And considering he dumped half of his brain into my head, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say I picked that up. But I don't know what triggered it. I'm having a poke around inside my head, but I haven't found anything yet." Dane furrowed his brow, sifting through some of the unsorted knowledge he was burdened with. "I don't think it'd be a usual Prime thing. Time only tends to 'ping' like that when you leave a bunch of people. We can leave you behind and let you catch up on the other side of the gate if you really wanna toy about with that."
RE: Pacing Themselves - China - 12-29-2017
He wasn't sure why she had wanted to turn. It was unexpected, to say the least.
His old master had never changed his mind, that was for sure. The Archmage had been stubborn as a mountain... he wasn't the sort to simply change direction. If he found he was heading the wrong way, he would probably have preferred to send his golem army marching out to painstakingly disassemble, move and rebuild whatever he sought to reach at his destination, rather than to simply backtrack and follow another path.
“Oh. Looks like Dane has his own idea in mind.” Clownpiece had said suddenly, as she spun around and headed back the way they had come. “Come on.”
He was so confused by her sudden change of direction that for a moment China simply kept walking the way he had been going. By the time his mind had caught up with what was actually happening, she had already grabbed him and hauled him round to face the other three once more. It might have looked impressive to a casual observer, for a little girl to so easily swing around a figure more than twice her height... however as well as the Hell Fairy being much stronger than she appeared, China's weight was also rather low for his height, as a result of his hollow body... she barely even had to try in order to tug him back.
Once they had rejoined the group, Dane indicated another little thing in the distance... a building like the one that China had previously seen turn into trees when he had come close. The others didn't seem as fond of trees as he was, though, so maybe this one would lead into more buildings instead? He had no idea how this strange place worked, but where master led, he would follow, no matter how many foods or scary things tried to get in his way.
They started moving off towards their new destination, then, as Clownpiece's friend looked across at and began speaking to the Renko-food... no... Renko-person.
“Must-must remember master say new foods are people-persons, yes-yes. Bad China. No eating two-leg yum-yums.” the Ceramic Beast 'thought' to himself… not noticing that he had actually muttered the words aloud and earned himself a couple of odd looks from Myst and his master.
Dane was saying something about how he only had half a brain and how he got triggered after poking himself in the head... it was all gibberish as far as China was concerned... these foods non-hungry people sure did say a whole bunch of stupid things some times. Still, he wasn't about to be the one to point that out to the fast person. He didn't want to risk getting hit again. It was bad enough having only one eye; he could certainly do without being blinded completely.
Renko shook her head in response to a suggestion by Dane that she might like stay behind a little while for... some reason. The Ceramic Beast wasn't even going to try and understand what it was they were discussing. It sounded dumb, “No, it's alright, I'll just stick with all of you for now... if you really do have some a fragment of power from this 'Tearen' person within you then I might be able to learn something useful by remaining nearby. I'd really hate to miss out if anything interesting happened whilst I was away, if there did turn out to be a large gap in time between us.”
Dane nodded his assent... still petting the other f- person, for some strange reason, “Sure, that makes sense.”
China stuck close by his master's side as they made their way across the vast, empty, white plain, eyeing up all the tasty foods that walked around aimlessly all over this place. He didn't need Dane to bully him into behaving himself this time, though; he wasn't stupid enough to attack a whole herd of foods at once, even without being threatened. He knew that if he started eating two-legs around here then the others would all converge and attack. Two-legs yum-yums were like that. They didn't seem to realise that prey animals were supposed to simply flee from predators, rather than trying to defend one another.
Or perhaps they simply didn't recognise China as being scary enough to be considered a predator... which actually did kinda make sense, he had to admit.
Luckily, these types didn't seem to mind the eating of other foods, so no one was stopping him from munching on his little snack... though all that remained of it by this point was its tail, which currently dangled from one corner of his mouth like a long, furry tongue.
The little thing tasted alright, he supposed... but looking around at all these yummy foods really made him wish his master and her friend were proper hungry people; he'd bet that those two were powerful enough that they could manage to hunt down this entire herd by themselves if their hunger were ever to overcome that inexplicable reluctance to eat other two-legs.
As they continued on their way, he contented himself with daydreaming about all-you-could-eat massacres...
RE: Pacing Themselves - Clownpiece - 01-01-2018
Dane’s voice faded out of Clownpiece’s mind, leaving only her usual thoughts in its wake. His silly little trick had proven useful once again, allowing him to beckon her without a word spoken, informing her that they were taking a different path this time. It was a welcome detour, to be sure. While she did want to show off the shrine to Dane, and introduce the others to her new pet, the thought of adventure intrigued her as always.
The little hellfairy spun on her heel, ready to confidently stroll back over to her friend and follow him to wherever he wanted to lead. The figures of their makeshift group blurred through her vision, and when she’d finished moving and her site straightened back out, her eyes settled upon Dane, hand outstretched and laid upon the head of the newcomer, Myst. A frown crossed her face and a small pang resounded through her chest. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped forward, almost-bare feet padding along the featureless ground, most of her concentration focused on the swordsman. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a small white blur. Afrátos, still heading off merrily towards the gate.
With a quick turn on her heel, she changed directions and marched back over to the hellbeast, an obviously annoyed spring to her step. With one hand, she grabbed hold of the back of the ceramic beast’s neck and wordlessly hauled him back over to the group, eyes angrily fixed on Dane. Seeing the fairy’s gaze, the swordsman cocked an eyebrow, but other than dropping his hand off the woman’s head, an act he no doubt would have done anyway, he did nothing.
“Regarding your anomaly, Renko....” he turned towards the fedora’d girl and started off on a ramble, still paying no heed to the blonde child’s glare. Her eyes remained fixed to him during his entire conversation with Renko, as there was no need to pay attention to where they were walking in the Nexus.
Still, there was no response.
The fairy pursed her lips, making an obviously disgruntled face as she cast surreptitious glances towards the swordsman. He continued to converse idly with Myst and Renko, either deliberately ignoring her, or just plain naive. The gate he had in mind loomed closer and closer, and yet he still didn’t comment on the fairy’s angry glances. Nor did he comment on the annoyed sighs she let loose. No matter how obviously passive-aggressive she was, he still made no comment. With every obvious motion and sound she made, Renko, Myst, and even China sent a cautious glance her way, eyes flicking over to her for a brief moment before they returned to whatever was holding their interest at the moment, but still, the swordsman remained stoic.
“So....” as soon as silence fell over the group, she sprung, pure irritation barely masked within her voice. “I guess we’ve both got new pets, then....”
Dane simply shrugged in response to that, letting loose a sigh that shifted his bangs slightly. In his usual, eternal defiance, he stepped closer to the frenchwoman, lifting his hand up and ruffling her hair again. “What do you mean by that?”
If such a thing was even possible, Clownpiece pursed her lips even more, lifting into the air and zipping around to the other side of Dane in a moment.
“You know what I mean!” Two child-sized hands pressed down on the man’s outstretched arm, and his hand was forced back to his side with little resistance, the headpat ended prematurely.
“No. What do you mean?” The hand not currently being restrained by the fairy rose up and began to ruffle Myst’s hair. The vampire looked pleasantly surprised at this, and surprisingly oblivious, failing to notice Clownpiece’s ire.
“Are you....” A sudden strain entered the blonde’s voice as she planted her feet against the ground and wrapped her arms around Dane’s torso. “Replacing.” Every muscle in her body strained as she hauled her friend up off the ground. “Me?” With the swordsman haphazardly lifted into the air, she took two shaky steps forward, pulling him out of reach of Myst, and planted him back on the ground. Her head tilted up, and she glared at him with bright purple eyes, arms still wrapped around him, daring him to answer this question wrong.
“You think I’d replace my portable flamethrower?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow. He had hardly finished that sentence before he lifted up his unrestrained hand, holding it just above Clownpiece’s turned-up face. A grin spread across the hell fairy’s face, and her eyes closed in preparation....
Snap
Dane’s fingers clicked together and a small bit of red flashed through the fairy’s closed eyes. In an instant her eyes sprung back open and she glared at the swordsman with an unhappy frown. That had been an unsuccessful attempt to get her to let go. She knew she should have expected as much, but that didn’t ease this blow at all.
“Pat me.” She stated, voice as clear as a bright summer day, her annoyed gaze locked to Dane’s own usual, unconcerned look. He remained silent for a moment, and once again he lifted his free hand up.
“Sure...” he mumbled, and again, the fairy smiled. A small weight patted her back once, twice, thrice, and that smile she had fell in an instant.
“On the head!” she exclaimed, holding him even tighter as she pressed her head against his chest. Her mouth fell into a pout, and as if he had finally figured out the situation, Afrátos let out an annoyed hiss.
“....Fine....” Dane finally acquiesced, and the weight she’d been looking forward too finally fell upon Clownpiece’s head. Though her hat was in the way, she could still feel the intent behind the pat anyway, as it ruffled where her hair would have been had she not been wearing it. She giggled, leaning into his hand, and happily ignored as he messed up her hat. Sure it had taken way too much effort, but she’d finally gotten what she was looking for.
“Okay.” And just like that, it was over. The swordsman lifted his hand from her head and pried himself from her surprisingly strong grip. Clownpiece’s face fell, and she stepped closer to Dane. “Getting back on track...” He started forward once again, leading the group towards the gate not too far away. The fairy stuck close to his side, casting a suspicious glance back at Myst every now and again. She wasn’t going to get close to him as long as she had anything to say about it....
RE: Pacing Themselves - Little Rose - 01-05-2018
Cassandra didn't know how to react to head patting, especially so many at once. One moment she was embarrassed and hiding behind her hands in an effort to avoid confusing conversations, the next she felt a bit of weight on her head. When she looked up from her hiding place it was up into Dane's face who was idly running his hand across her dark colored hair. He appeared to be in mid-thought as he didn't speak nearly the whole time he ruffled her feather-soft hair.
From the distance of time, the past crept close again to overlap over Dane once more. A man that looked nothing like him phantom stood in his place, smiling down at her and petting her just like it... Myst whimpered to herself and hid her face once more, the inherited time manipulation she was not aware of trembled under her emotions once more as the memory of Ivory faded away like the sands of time in an hourglass. About that time was when his hand slipped away and went back to his side as he began to explain that he'd rather go in a different direction from the original idea. Of course Sandy wasn't paying much attention to this at all.
Luckily the conversation turned away from her long enough that she could steel herself once again for human contact, the warmth of her cheeks calming until it wasn't very noticeable. So she could move her hands so that they crossed over her heart, one cuffing her other's wrist while she took a few deep breaths. No one was heeding her any attention now, Dane has taken up to talking about someone of importance - at least they had to have been to name drop like that.
When she did look up finally, she found out how wrong she was. As someone had been looking her way. The little blond girl with the torch. It surprised Sandra, but after a small glare she received from Clownpiece, the fairy's attention seemed grossly on Dane. Very aware of other people's attention, as it was a safety issue most time to keep aware of the company in her immediate area for hunters, Sandy along with the other's noticed how upset the girl was. In fact, the only person who didn't seem to notice was the one person she was seemingly mad at. Dane.
When silence settled into the conversation, and before anyone could think of something to fill it with, Clownpiece spoke in Dane's direction. Something about them both having pets? Myst was trying to come to terms what that could mean when Dane's hand came up. Before it could come down on her head, the hell fairy was already grabbing it and pinning it down. Whining like the child she appeared to be. Cassandra felt the need to assist, consumed by her compassionate nature to help, but was stopped in her place when Dane's hand successfully came down to her head and ruffled her hair once more.
What pleasure could be derived from such a simple and innocent action was wisped away as the small child comically picked Dane up carried him away from Myst. This confused her completely and concerned the ceramic beast enough to come closer and hiss at Dane. Myst felt as though she missed entire pieces of conversation and looked to Renko for answers, even Afrátos seemed clueless about what exactly was going on. Sandy was torn between listening in to better help and not wanting to intrude in a private conversation. The end results left her completely distracted from hearing exactly what the two of them were talking about but she gathered that Clownpiece wanted headpats. This made Cassandra lift her slender and small hand up to look at it as if it had some magical calming power that she'd never known about before...
To test out this theory she looked to her side, the white and blue creature that seemed to towered over her and at the ready to defend his master. He was raised just a bit higher than before, his front paws not touching the ground, just raised so that he was halfway between futile intimidation methods and standing down out of fear of his master’s displeasure.
Myst's hand lifted as high as it would go, and she also lifted her weight to her tippy toes to get that last extra inch to reach for China's head, the side that was still there. Very carefully and very gently, while still attempting a firm stance, she put her hand on the smooth cold surface of the creature beside her. Her hand was shaking as she lacked the proper height, but she managed a kind hand just the same.
Her actions more startled the creature than comforted. China remained statue still if only to keep himself from attacking the girl outright. His single eye locked on the fast one as he tried to resist biting the yum-yum beside him. If the creature was capable of sweating, bullet size beads would drip from every inch of him. It was like putting as biscuit on a dog’s nose and watching at it twitched uncomfortably as the treat became too heavy to bear.
Cassandra eventually pulled her hand away and tried to observe if her hand did the same thing as Dane’s. Afrátos looked [i]calmer[i] but if it had the desired effect at all, Myst was uncertain. Especially since she was pretty sure she was doing it incorrectly. She meant to ask Dane if there was a trick to it, but they were interrupted when Renko called out to her.
“Cassandra!” The dark-haired woman called back to them, Dane and Clownpiece already leading the way to their next destination. “Let’s go, or you will be left behind.” She added, and then turned her back to Myst and followed along.
Sandra tensed up, “W-Wait for moi!” She said, taking a step forward before turning around and grabbing China by the paw. “Je veux dire nous!” She corrected herself, pulling him to follow as long as he will allow her to pull him along as they reached the next gate.
Quote:”Us, I mean!”