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He smiled at the girl as she told her story, appreciative of her openness. It was a slightly sad story, but nothing that would have seemed too out of the ordinary. She was a victim of circumstance more than anything and he actually felt sorry for her now being trapped in this world of theirs. As she neared the end of her tale, the server came over with his own drinks. He smiled at the server-girl as she gave him his drinks, and slid the mocha over in front of his face and stirred the the iced mixture until the layers blended together in the cup. The girls question came as a little bit of a surprise, and his face probably showed it a bit. People didn't generally ask for his own story. He stopped stirring and starred into his cup, the mixture's swirling slowly coming to a stop. Memories came into his head of his life before. Of his mundane life and his use of these games as a sort of outlet and escape. As his gaze was lost in his cup he gave a light and almost tired smile. "My story isn't really important."

His attention turned to the hotter glass, pulling it over and proceeding to doctor it up, putting in a decent amount of cream and almost a handful of sugar cubes. He twirled them in his cup to melt them and gave a small blow on the cup to let it begin cooling before taking an extra sugar cube, tossing it into his mouth, and proceeding to munch on it a bit. Her interest in Heretics was certainly interesting. That being said, it wasn't the most well known or accepted of classes so he figured he would explain at least the basics of it to her.

"Heretics are sort of like...A dark sorcerer mixed with what I could only describe as an anti-priest," he began. "We have a lot of potential for power and output as well as versatility, but we do it at a cost. A lot of our abilities actually cause detrimental effects both physically and mentally on our own bodies. Sometimes we can temporarily go insane from them." He picked up his glass of iced mocha and took a sip. "Some people even look down on us for doing it as they think that all we care about is spreading our madness. A lot of us just see it as a cross to bear, taking up ideals of being a martyr for the sake of the power to beat our foes."

It was the short and simple. Probably painted himself in a bad light for the seemingly small and innocent girl. He had no intentions on drawing her into his whole playing-with-darkness-for-imense-power situation. If anything he would probably try and push her away from messing with heretics all together. Sure he and the members of his order were some of the nicer heretics, there were also plenty more bad apples in the heretic class. He took another long drink of his mocha.

Tags: @nyx

Coffee was one of the few luxuries that Kain was glad transitioned between the former world and the current one so well. His long nights of studying back in the old world, as well as his overnight researches in the current one almost dictated that he develop a taste for the magical brown liquid. That, and it was quite honestly one of the few things that probably kept him sane. Noctis had even started to develop a taste for it as well, or at least, Kain's tendency to doctor it up with too much cream and sugar appealed to the heretic spirit that dwelled within the same headspace, so it was only natural that the two spend a little bit of time most days at at least some establishment that served the modern magical beverage.

This particular day, he had been visiting Londonium to pay an old "friend" a visit, much at Noctis' request. The spirit's old convocation amased within the sewer system of old londonium, and had quite honestly been pretty decent for a group of heretics. To be honest, Kain was suprised at how Noctis' little group had actually been long ago swayed by their similar ideology of miasma as a cross to bear, and a neccessary evil to do more tremendous good. It was refreshing to see as opposed to some other heretics in other areas who seemed to be quite more hell-bent on a warpath against landers, but nonetheless, being a heretic lander was dangerous. They didn't have the same respawn abilities as he did, and lived in fear of running into wardens. He would need to figure out some sort of plan to boost their morale sooner or later, the group was little more than just a club for enthusiasts at this point and he would need them to get stronger as well. But  he couldn't think too much on that at the moment. Right now, he needed a well deserved cup of Joe to help clear out his mind.

He came upon one of his more favorite cafes. Its view near a window was good of the town itself, and quite honestly, it was generally just busy enough to have a good atmosphere, but it was never crowded. The heretic strode in, taking off his hat as he entered, his suit striking much dissonance with most of the more fantasy-styled patrons of the bar. He caught a few worried glances in his direction before being greeted generously by the barista. It seemed to ease the mood a bit. He wasn't very high of a level for an adventurer, but his appearance always seemed to give off the first impression of some sort of high-level mob or even possibly a low-level dungeon boss, what with his somewhat pale complexion, gold-and-purple eyes, black and purple messy hair, and stitched up skin. He had come to live with it honestly, and even began to find it kind of funny. Even some of the landers who had seen him before began to get a small chuckle as they saw their friends stare in a combination of horror and awe at his own visage.

He would greet the stares back with a kind smile as he walked up to the bar, his gait on the fairly tall side. His order was rather simple, a large cup of iced mocha and a smaller one of a blonde roast creme brule coffee. It was the amount of sugar and creme he would order in it to doctor it up that would be shocking. A large, rather almost frightening man proving to have an almost ridiculous sweet tooth. After ordering and thanking the barista, he made his way over to the seats. He had his usual spot in one of the booths but something was slightly amiss. As he approached, he saw a white fluffy tail sticking out of the side of the bench and, as he got closer, noticed a small foxtail adventurer sat in the seat.

Approaching rather calmly, as to not startle the girl, he walked his way around to the seat in the booth opposite of her. With a calm and kind smile he looked at her. "Mind if I join you?"

Tags:
@nyx

Word count: 704

They both glided along the ground to the music, its soft chords articulating their purposeful steps across the ballroom floor. He smiled. His partner didn't talk much, but he didn't mind really. She seemed almost lost in thought as they made their way about, seeming to be focused on his face as though contemplating his own strange appearance. Again, not that he mattered. He got strange looks all the time from players and people of the land alike, and after a while, he had just managed to get used to them. Her stare however, was unlike the others. She didn't judge him or seem to attribute all the worlds negativity and darkness to his frame. Rather, she seemed to just be almost admiring his appearance, noticing the slight humorous nature in his over-the-top darkness and the strange juxtaposition that the two of them held in their dance of light and dark. He lifted his hand for her to spin, the two twirling about like a proverbial Yin and Yang.

He enjoyed the dance, even after a while learning to anticipate and predict her movements. Like he had said before, he was a quick learner, and quickly retook the lead. Not in a possessive manner, no, but rather in a comforting exchange. He took lead, but as she would move he would go along with whatever improvisations she made. He would not restrict her movements, but rather guide her along the path she wanted to go. If she wanted a toss he would oblige, a spin he would present his hand for her to continue. Indeed, his manners were with the upmost dignity and polite manners. Hewould do nothing she wouldn't want, and didn't force a single move upon her. He could feel their motions syncing up, their heartbeats meeting the rhythm of the song.

As the song came to a close, he let her out with a small spin, a lift of her hand, and a deep bow. "I thank you for your time Ms. Mikoto. Perhaps we could meet up again someday."

Tags: Mikoto

The crippling shot hurt, like, ACTUALLY HURT. Noctis could feel it in their leg as soon as it connected, falling over clutching it. It felt like a bear trap had suddenly closed around his shin. Then came the sudden burst of light in front of him. It pissed him off for some reason, and he shielded his eyes as he began hissing at it. Meanwhile inside their head, Kain just sighed. He felt stupid for letting himself loose control and let Noctis take hold. Now he'd have a lot of explaining to do to the warden.

Note: consider Noctis incapacitated at the moment
tags Bailin

Kain smiled and rolled his eyes as Sayha moved her way to the front of the formation. Its not that he thought she was wrong, far from it; he just always found her rather action-oriented demeanor to be a bit humerous was all. he stopped and waited for a moment for the Shaman to catch up, a huge smile across his face, "Magnificent, isn't it? The whole place seems to almost ebb a strange and magnificent radience. Its like nothing we've yet discovered-"

Kain suddenly found himself cut short as the sound of the massive doors loudly and quickly slamming shut behind them echoed through the hall. Startled he quickly spun on his heels and held onto his hat as he bolted for the door. Reaching the monstrous slabs of petrified wood, he tried multiple times to open them, all in vain. "It looks like we may be here a while," he said to the group, trotting back over to them, and dusting off his hands as he did. On his way back however, he failed to notice the sudden and quick pulse of light originating from the center of the door, and quickly flowing over the walls, ceiling and floor of the dungeon, forming and disolving strange blue glyphs akin to those on the door.

what happened next was somewhere between instantaneous and a process. A massive but strange headache suddenly overcame him, his vision blurry and crosseyed, before suddenly spotty blackness as though he were about to pass out. And then. Nothing. He felt fine. Vision was normal, didnt feel any more sick. But something felt off. For starters, his hair seemed to be covering one of his eyes. He didnt reqlly know what to think of that, as his hair was already fIrly long and unkempt anyway, but this was strange. It was the strange icon now in the corner of his HUD that really bothered him. A small icon that simply read "touch of the trickster". He remembered something about it in his research, but....no.....it couldnt be. Panicking he quickly searched the room for a mirror and upon seeing it rushed over to its polished surface. Staring back at him was not the patchwork man he had come to recognize as himself. What stared him back was a rather attractive FEMALE.

This was wrong, all kinds of wrong. His once already somewhat shaggy hair was now incredibly long, going all the way down his back and in the front a long bang covered his right eye. The miasma streaks within it replaced with purple gradient highlights along the edges. His form was rather athletic and pretty shapely. His waist and arms were thin, the long grotesque stitches replaced with only a few minor and faint ones. His mouth stitching now reduced to only two lines of thread on each side. And his....breasts. He now had breasts and they were actually sizeable if not substantial. Worst of all, his custom vanity suit had apparently changed with him. His feather in his hat now replaced with a red rose, the fitted dress shirt now a little TOO fitted, slightly unbuttoned at the top to reveal a little, his tie now loose and in-between THEM, his dress pants form fitting and then dress boots. He didnt onow what to think. On anyone else he would have labled it as stunning or downright beautiful, but on HIM???? All that could cross his mind was how embarrasing it all was. He could feel his face heating up, a massive red blush covering it as he began to try and quickly but exasperatingly palm through menus to try and de-equip his vanity set. After several flustered attempts, he finally managed to do so, and promptly buried his face in its scarf.

tags: @shadowsaiph @serenityspace

What fills Bene up with ecstasy?

He was glad that his compatriots showed a decent amount of enthusiasm towards his findings, and after quickly regathering and storing away his items, Kain got up and ushered for them to follow. The path through Avon itself wasn't too bad. The snow didn't prove to be coming down too hard, and his map proved to guide them correctly. For the most part the journey at least to the edge of town was without event. About 10 minutes out however, things began to take a turn. The wind and snow began to pick up into a rather rapid flurry, blowing every which way, giving slight disorientation to the group. Casting out a line of rope, Kain made to lead the way, glad he had taken the journey already once before.



After a few minutes in the blizzard, they reached the edge of a forest, the trees providing cover from the blistering winds and furious snowfall. Fortunately the path that he had marked earlier with mythic script still glowed along the bark of the trees, marking the now less obvious trail he had set down before. Pushing his way through the thick snowfall, Kain trudged along the group, the shrubbery and the trees slowly seeming to get denser, blocking out much of the sun and only allowing the glowing runes to light their way. After a while in the dark brush, the cold of winter began to slowly give way to a more warm, comfortable and mildly humid heat. Cutting through the brush further revealed the source of the strange weather.



Here, in the middle of this winter wonderland sat a strange clearing that defied the world. Tropical plants, fruits and flowers lined the sides with ferns and bright colors around their feet. Insects and butterflies fluttered around, and cute docile mobs sat just poking around. The sun pierced defiantly into the area, not a cloud in the sky and a nice warm but not overbearing light shone in. in the middle of it all stood a small crystal clear lake, of perfect depth for lounging, a slight warm mist with steam emanating from its surface. At the far edge sat a mountain not before seen by the group on their approach, with a calm waterfall coming over its edges into the far end of the lake.



The far end also appeared adorned with ruins of some sort of temple. Some pillars sat toppled and crumbling on the ground, being slowly reclaimed by nature, others still stood adamant in preserving their place in this world. All seemed to lead to an etching on the innermost part of the cliff-face. A series of carvings in an intricate hieroglyphic language, all in the shape of some sort of doorway, but immobile upon the side of the cliff. Upon closer inspection, it would reveal that a portion of the intricate carvings was missing, much in the shape of the tablet from earlier.



Kain would once again remove the table from his bag, carefully bringing it up to the hole and placing it in, careful not to break the ancient slab any further than it had. Immediately, the edges of the hole and all of the glyphs would light up in a brilliant display of colors, outlining and creating a door, opening to reveal an ornate and beautiful corridor leading deeper into the mountain. From the outside it would seem extremely out of place for a dungeon, most being decrepit and ruinous, but this one looked ornate and new.



Shaking off his awe, Kain would turn to his comrades, “Looks like the key fits.” Beginning the groups foray, he carefully looked in and seeing nothing of a threatening nature, he took a step inside, his shoes making audible clacks upon the polished stone floor.


Tags: @serenityspace @shadowsaiph

As it turned out, Death was actually the correct answer to the riddle. With a deep, earthen groan the rock slab that stood in as the door moved slowly open to reveal a long stairway leading deep into the heart of Gaia. Dumah had decided to cast magic light, but Kain, seeing as how he was lacking in such areas, decided instead to opt for lighting and carrying one of the torches down into the abyss. It was a rather long walk with a whole lot of nothing. No one said any words, just trodding down the moss-covered stone steps. Even as a game though, this halway alone was impressive. It seemed almost carved out of the countryside, the stone steps being seamless minus the cracks that could only be considered obligatory with ages upon ages of thermal expansion, natural erosion, and general wear-and-tear. The deeper they got, the more stale the air became. It no longer felt like their own, but it felt like they were breathing the last breaths of a corpse that made its way down eons ago.

Kain only considered it luck that the torch also proved alive and well. Even though the air was stale, the torch still burned brightly, a long trail of smoke leading back out the way they came. It made him happy that at least the tunnel was sturdy and hadn't collapsed, and wasn't trapped in such a way as to seal them in after they made their way deep enough. Occasionally he would stop for a moment, make a few notes as to the length of the initial staircase on the map, and then catch back up to the rest of the group.

Their initial entrance into the open ward was intimidating to say the least. In the darkness that lay around them, the path they had currently found themselves upon wrapped upwards an unknown amount of times towards the darkest heavens, and down to the very depths of Tartarus. Not even the other side of this massive opening could be seen with what little light they managed to conjure up. Setting down his torch, Kain used Mythic Script to mark the doorway they had just come through as the exit back towards the surface, giving it a number of 0 both on the wall and on his map. He made a note that lower floors would be dubbed B1, B2 etc, growing as they grew farther from the base floor, and likewise in the opposite direction for the ascending floors.

It was as he was jotting this down he heard the call out of the slimes. Looking up, he noticed the small, black globules moving blindly around. Putting away his journal and map, and bringing out his Grimoire, he charged up a Miasma Bullet to launch at one of the slimes. Its damage should be high enough at its fully charged state to take out at least one, and since it would only cast every now and again, he didn't see too much problem in drawing agro. After blasting one of them, he began charging another bullet to launch into another slime, to at least severely damage it. He decided rather quickly he would blast any straglers that had decided to attack Kat or himself primarily, as while he could do some healing, Kat's didn't make you feel like you were making a deal with a daemon.

Tags: @dumah @bornfromvelvet @kurosan

The rather sudden interruption of the two men's discussion came as a rather impressive surprise to the heretic. He didn't know what to think of the enchanter who was spouting out dialogue from an old movie without a care in the world. His mind went blank as far as where he was going with his conversation with the warden, the sudden interference derailing his train of thought. It was a moment exactly like this however, that Noctis needed to arrest control over their shared body. He didn't trust the warden and wanted no further part in whatever conversation the man had. His eyes changing from their primarily gold color to one of a darker purple, Noctis threw his arms up, casting Shackles of the Sentenced upon the warden, and a barrier of Night Shade between them before making a quick break for it. 

"NOCTIS," Kain yelled from within the confines of their mind. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?!?"

"I'm not taking any chances with this guy! I know his type and I know for a fact he's more prone to knocking us out and imprisoning us than he is actually hearing us out!"

He rounded a corner within the cathedral, bolting up a round, vertical stairway, casting a few backwards glances to see if he was still being followed. Kain might have been willing to talk, but Noctis wanted out now.