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Alexander Krizak
The Ultimate Lifeform
Posts: 149
(6/12/02 1:02:23 am)
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Rurouni Taikai Tactics - Final Round
Act Seven, Scene One: The Sidelines
The room was completely dark, save for the glow of Cinder's fiery form. The contestants were all sitting down in plush, yet somewhat uncomfortable seats, and though they couldn't see, they could hear the other contestants nearby, coughing and shuffling in their seats. They had only sat there for a few moments in the dark when a pair of spotlights high above them powered up, training their powerful glow to a point below the contestants. They came to rest on the host, who smiled up at them.
"Hello, everybody, and welcome to my construct. I created this structure before the tournament, and within it's heart lies the reason I held this battle in the first place. You have all been eliminated, but not for a lack of trying, and I will not have you leave here without a reward. That comes later, though, for today is the final battle." As he spoke, six crystal screens began to light up behind him, one by one. As each one lit up, the room was revealed to be a small movie theatre, only with crystalline walls, floors and ceilings. On each screen was one of the remaining contestants, looking about at their own personal challenge. "Each of the six sponsors you see on the screens will have to go through three challenges, and in the end, only three shall remain standing. The first challenge? To face their past."
He gestured over towards the side of the room, where a concession stand was being run by the nurse construct they had all met the day before. "I suggest you all get a snack, for today is going to be a long battle. I must go now and make preparations for the third challenge. Later!" He disappeared in a blink of an eye, leaving the Fallen to their own devices.
---
FINAL BATTLE!!!
VS. 
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KKM-PLT-896: The Construct
Start Time: 1:00 AM MDT Wednesday Morning
End Time: 1:00 AM MDT Thursday Morning
Special Rules: The Gauntlet
Mini-Games: None
You each find yourselves within the room designated in the map above. You are standing down at the pointed end upon a glowing platform, and above you lies a virtual maze of crystalline platforms. Some of the platforms are hovering, some are moving, some are connected with ladders or bridges. At the top of this chamber, you can see a circular opening, and that is your goal, the thing you should be climbing towards.
It's not quite that simple, though. Soon after you begin climbing, you will come across your 'past;' the setting will change appearance to resemble a location from your past, and a person from your character's past will appear to torment you. An old rival, a lost love, the one person who will the most emotional impact on your character. This figure is not an illusion, but they will appear wherever your character is, and they will attempt to detain you in the most efficient manner possible, whether that be physical onslaughts or emotional attacks. You can attack them if you wish, and they will take damage, but you cannot actually kill them; the only way to get away from them is to get to the top of the room.
Special Rule
In this round, I am putting the contestants through The Gauntlet, which involves three parts. Each of these parts is eight hours long, and will involve a different challenge for the contestants. Characters have none of their regular votes this round; instead, each Fallen gets three Victory Votes, which should be used on the Sponsors that you believe should win. In this part, you may use your Victory Votes on any three Sponsors, but you may not use more than one Victory Vote on any one Sponsor in this part. Victory Votes for future parts may not be cast before that part starts, but you can cast votes for previous parts in a later part. Please be sure to use your votes on the character with the best performance; don't use just friendships and grudges to determine your vote. At the end of the round, the team with the most Victory Votes will be the winner of Rurouni Taikai Tactics.
This part ends at 9:00 AM MDT Wednesday Morning. In this part, you are restricted to the red or blue sections on the map.
 ~ I am you, and you are me ~ This defies reality ~ Whether this is false or true ~ You are me, and I am you Edited by: Alexander Krizak at: 6/12/02 1:21:40 am
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Dry31
RTT: Garai
Posts: 113
(6/12/02 1:16:44 am)
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Re: Rurouni Taikai Tactics - Final Round
(How utterly ironic that in the end, those who have Fallen are the ones who determine the winners of the tournament. It's fair though...you couldn't have just two teams battling, otherwise the differences in classes would provide too much of an advantage.)
Garai: I wonder what kind of refreshments they have? And, more importantly, what kind of reward he has in mind? But, first thing first...refreshments now, reward later.
*Garai gets up and heads to the concession stand...*
~dry31~
(Pay no attention to any of the above.)
Luna: The PLACE
http://pub88.ezboard.com/bluna83999
---
 Other teams may have snazzy quotes...but actions speak louder than words. *Falls down.* |
Alexander Krizak
The Ultimate Lifeform
Posts: 150
(6/12/02 1:23:28 am)
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Re: Rurouni Taikai Tactics - Final Round
Dry31: There's a reason why this tournament was once called the Survivor Tournament.
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Dareon
Mister Mage Mon
Posts: 68
(6/12/02 1:44:58 am)
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Re: Rurouni Taikai Tactics - Final Round
"Hey, they've got Jello." Amethyst stood at the snack bar, glancing at the selection. "Hmm... Jellybeans... jujubes... Ooh! Chocolate-Frosted Sugar-Coated Hyper-Caffeinated Humdingers! I don't know what they are, but I'll take some."
Amethyst snagged a good variety of foods and non-foods and headed back to his seat. He flipped a piece of popcorn in the air, attempting to catch it in his mouth. Instead, Yoshi snagged it out of midair with his tongue. Amethyst chuckled and hefted a jujube experimentally, eyeing the nearest screen.
Edited by: Dareon at: 6/12/02 1:49:22 am
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Slipstream
RTT: Gilder
Posts: 79
(6/12/02 1:50:43 am)
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How You Remind Me - Part 1
Light.
In the furthest distance, stretching out across the room, Gilder could see a single light illuminating the ceiling or the skies or whatever the roof to this place was. That, he somehow knew, was his final destination. It was funny how the light in the distance was always what you were supposed to go, wasn't it, what you were supposed to reach in your struggle to survive? Reach the light, escape whatever you leave behind, and somehow things would make themselves better.
In front of him the crystalline platforms and structures hung in the air and interconnected like a great gleaming puzzle, light from the exit refracting through the structures and bathing the area in an eerie glow. Like morning mist, just enough to dull the edges of reality and make the whole thing seems surreal.
Wasn't it? From a man who had never wished to fight for his own survival again, preferring to live the good life instead, he'd been dragged into this competition by some strange entity, all for the sake of some 'tournament'. That was surreal. He knew reality, had choked under its dire pall for so long, and this wasn't it.
So where's the catch, dragon? We just scale the platforms to reach the 'goal'? Gilder shook his head slowly. Things are never that simple.
As he moved slowly forward and planted one boot onto the first rung of the ladder near him, one gloved hand further up, his head swam and visions blurred before him, sounds and smells around him. Before he could even see again he felt the changed surface of the ladder beneath his hand, no longer smooth and clear but metal and rust-laden, the faist miasma of decay as flakes of metal drifted off in his hand.
No...
Gradually, sounds of other things replaced the quiet melody of the crystalline arena, screams of pain and hate and rage. The endless clanging of metal on metal, of dogs barking with their own brainless self-importance, of fizzling lights which only illuminated enough to pick out the dankness of the place in detail. The sound of glass breaking and being crushed heedlessly underfoot, the sickening rip of a blade cutting through flesh, the hawking voice of a pimp trying to promote his wares.
The ladder in front of him had been surrounded by a wall of brick, possibly a disused well from the time when the lower city was a prominent part of the capital instead of being a place for its castoffs to rot, but Gilder didn't need to see the city to know what would lie before him. Accompanying the sounds were the smells of burning chemicals, the faint stomach-churning odour of rotting and unheeded flesh, the oxidisation of metals that filled the air with rankness.
No, Gilder thought wearily as he hauled himself upwards out of the well, I know what's up there all too well. Lower City Valua.
My past...
Not as much greeting his eyes as spitting in them were the sights of the slum city he had known for half his life, the richness in its display of lowlessness never ceasing to amaze him. Things like this couldn't happen naturally - only a city like this could be created which was being deliberately dumped on and kept under the heel of its rulers, never able to escape the squallor it was cursed with. The crystalline surfaces he had known from only moments before had been replaced by houses and streets and rubble, the floating ones with materials hung from swinging construction cranes as they vainly tried to stop the city from tearing itself apart.
Then Gilder saw her.
She was watching him with a smile, but something he had never seen before in her eyes. Something he'd never let her see, who he'd kept himself apart from so that she would never have to accept the past that trailed his steps. Her pink dress stood apart from the background of the slums, contrasting so sharply with the greys and blacks and greens that she seemed almost unreal. Or maybe the city was unreal and she the only true thing within it. He couldn't know, but what he did know was that in one way or another, his fate here lay with her.
"Clara..."

~~~~~ dance ~~~~~ for ~~~~~ me ~~~~~
Edited by: Slipstream at: 6/12/02 1:52:13 am
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Mithrigil
RTT--Scarlett Welles
Posts: 86
(6/12/02 1:58:49 am)
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You knew he'd be back...
[]iOOC--before I start, I want to thank you all for making my first tournament incredible up until now. And I hope to work with you in the future.][/i]
------------
Hello again.
The vocomorphic personification returns.
Oh, of course.
What is it this time? That I was too harsh on the poor guy? That it was worth being fucked over for the sake of being fucked? Or that you were just being the perverse bitch I am and playing a trick on me for your OWN mile-wide sadistic streak?
No.
Then what?
You've nearly won.
...
I love doing that.
So what do I face before the end? Dragons again? Mirror images of ourselves? Or will it be the people we've previously roasted coming back to teach us a so-called lesson?
Whatever it is, I'll bet it's worse.
Thanks.
Anytime.
--------------
It was the first floor.
She thought, for a moment, that she'd simply been eliminated. That she had just been consoling herself up until now. That she'd just been shipped back to Shinra, having all but wasted her time. On her gadgets. Her ideas. On Laguna.
She'd wasted more than time on him.
Or maybe it had all been a mako-induced nightmare. She remembered the feeling of having flamethrowers in her breasts, and fire running through her throat so harshly that she couldn't open her mouth to speak. She remembered being shot in the head, and collapsing into armor-clad arms. The sounds of a creaking mattress reginstered in her mind, but those could have come from anywhere.
Or specifically from a courtyard in Zanerth.
She didn't care.
But it was the first floor of sixty-nine and somehow, she knew, that something would be at the top for her. Whether it was victory or another adversary, it would be there. And she had to get to it to get beyond it.
Basic fucking logic.
So she started for the elevator, calmly, her stilettos clicking against tile and ruslting on perfectly cleaned carpet. It was a familiar walk, an old one, and a simple one above all.
It shouldn't be this easy. It shouldn't be this easy at all.
She reached out to press the UP button, and let the doors part with her arms crossed and mouth in a tentative smirk. But maybe it is.
"Or maybe it's not," came the reply.
She should have known he'd have been there. She probably did, actually. But the things you know tend to not reveal themselves unless they really feel like it.
"How are you, Scarlett," he continued, more a statement than a question.
She stared him down, narrowing her eyes just slightly enough to conceal any surprise that might have shown. She calmly altered her stance to a more agressive one, head/chest centered and subtle. "Surprisingly well, given the circumstances. And you?"
A cat mewed slightly, regarding her with eyes as cold as its owners. "So well it's unbearable," came his regally purring reply, raked with just enough innuendo to piss her off and slap the wrinkles of her memory around. He stroked the cat, to contrast the clawing that was happening in Scarlett's mind. "By your standards, anyway."
She tried her best to force his eyes out of her head, but had to maintain her glare into his for the sake of her dignity...it was impossible... "And what on earth is that supposed to mean, Uncle?"
The cat hissed at her, an extension of its master's wrath, but Reeve's eyes eted smirking and cold. "That, by the way you live, I'm living well. I've made it to thirty without incurring the wrath of certain somewhat powerful individuals, I've got control, I've built a beautifully dichotomous city, and I've got an incredibly obliging mistress who happens to have returned from an unexplained engagement looking wonderful as ever." The cat ceased its hiss and reverted to a sultry purr. "And Uncle? What a choice of nickname...it reeks of SM but I'm willing to try it..."
Scarlett paused in her thoughts a moment. Thirty. This isn't Cassius now...this is Cassius when I first...oh fuck...
He set down the cat, and it gaited across the glass elevator, coming to Scarlett and circling her ankle, wrapping itself around her in a sleek wave of black and white. This was Tux, his old cat...he'd been dead for years... And now the master was approaching as well.
She took him in as he had been then; slick black hair, perfect but for a single lock, perpetually brushing along his right cheekbone. Dark, unassailable eyes, in reality as slick as the hair. Shoulders that suits made wider, but arms that made up for it as they pinned her, or folded behind his head when she was in control. Hands with long fingers.
One of which was tracing a path down her chest as she remembered.
---------------------------
Guess who Ms. Sexual Repression USA is playing in RTT?

Isn't the irony lovely?
Some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mithrigil.
(this links to LT)
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Slipstream
RTT: Gilder
Posts: 80
(6/12/02 2:45:44 am)
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How You Remind Me - Part 2
"Clara..."
The woman smiled at him, clasping gloved hands in front in front of her chest. "Gilder!" she cried out, rushing towards him and ignoring the city around her as if he was the only thing in it that mattered. She threw herself into his unprotesting arms, as he stood stunned to see her, but reflexively closed his own around her for comfort as they stood wrapped together under the harsh city light.
"I thought I'd lost you again..." Clara whispered into his ear, still holding on tight and burying his face tightly into his hair as they stood there shamelessly. As Gilder had with other so many times, before, with Clara even, before he'd begun to push her away in order to protect both her and himself. He could smell the faint odour of nasrad spice that always accented her movements, drifting slowly away as if to touch everything around her with her own sweetness.
"Clara," Gilder whispered back. "I... how... how can you be here?"
"Because I have to be, Gilder," she replied softly, twirling her fingers idly in the thick strands of his wavy hair. "But that doesn't matter - it doesn't matter how I can be here, all you need to know is that I'm here for you. I've always been there for you, even when you tried to push me away."
Gilder shook his head, touching her bare hand with his gloved one as it parted the strands. "I know, Clara, and I'm sorry. But you wouldn't understand why I had to do that, why I couldn't let you get too close and know the real me..."
Clara stepped backwards, releasing herself from her embrace and waving around at the city, teeming with life like an anthill did. "I'm beginning to understand, Gilder, but I can't do this alone. What is this place, love, and what does it mean to you?"
Gilder almost froze at the word love - he'd been close to many, many people, but he still wasn't sure if he'd been close enough to anyone to mean that. Clara had managed to break down some of the barriers which built to protect himself and others, but not enough to prevent them from being parted again.
"T-this," he stammered, trying to force words past his dry throat, "is something I tried to keep from you. This is what lies beneath the surface, and I didn't want you ever to have to see it. Please try to understand..."
She shook her head, hair tossing. They both stood at the end of a crowded street, passersby walking around and near to them but never touching. Either the two just didn't exist for anyone but each other in this memory of his sins incarnate, or like in the city of reality it was based on people simply didn't care. Maybe they looked on him with expression of hate or amusement or envy, but Gilder couldn't tell. He wasn't looking.
"C'mon..." Gilder choked. "This is no place for a lady to be, let me get you out of here." He began to walk along the street, eyes instinctively looking for trouble and loosening his gun in -
"No."
Gilder turned to see Clara standing there, tears almost glistening in her eyes, not moving. "Please, Gilder, you can't do this any more. You can't keep running from your past."
Her cry echoed across the street, so powerful in its simplicity. "You can't keep running from me!"
She slowly folded down to her knees, skirts splashing and crumpling beneath as her legs gave way and she held her face in her hand. He didn't know if it was a pose - many had women had tried such things on him before to try and prevent him leaving their lives - but one thing he did know was that he couldn't leave her alone here. Not buried in the decay of his past, which he'd spend too long trying to keep her from discovering.
Clara...
He slowly started to walk back to her.
Edited by: Slipstream at: 6/12/02 2:47:53 am
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TenshiKain
RTT :: Ramirez
Posts: 49
(6/12/02 3:01:24 am)
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Silver Binds
As his feet touched the ground, Ramirez felt light shimmer beneath him. He stiffened then, gasping as a jolt seemed to rend through his body. It was light enough on his form to have come from mere feathers, yet was painful in some way- just as the shock one gets while in freefall. It passed soon, however, leaving Ramirez alone in a wide expanse of crystal room. He frowned, suddenly, finding himself standing alone with only the Muramasa and the Ginken sheathed at his side, and the room surprisingly very small. He'd have used "intimate" to describe it, which gave him a somewhat ominous idea of what was happening.
"Tested," he murmured, craning his head around. "Dragon youth? Are you here?"
There was no answer, his words ringing off the walls- which were, to his astonishment, now undergoing a slow change. They glittered like prisms for a moment, and then slowly sank into a different color- silver. Ramirez frowned sharply as the walls took a very familiar tint and formation. Glistening lights of data being transmitted across what was obviously a greater structure outlined the entire frame of the walls, and as the prism blanket shrunk from them, Ramirez saw desks pop up, tables that were all too nostalgic. The air felt circulated as he gasped from the sight of a plain, hard bed laid out in front of him, its blankets compact and tight and the pillow undisturbed. There was no door, but one great window that looked out to a fathomless sea of stars, and a glistening planet at the bottom of it. Upon the tables were pens, notes, models of airships and maps, and upon the bed itself was a doll-
-held in the trembling, tear-stricken hands of Fina.
Ramirez's sharp eyes blinked as he looked to her, silently awestruck by the sight of his friend. In his dreams, his flashbacks...she had looked like herself, but he had always been informed that it was a dream. Always aware that he was going to wake up, and she would not be with him. Yet the woman standing before him was no mirage, no dream. With silver-blonde hair under what could have been mistaken for a wedding veil, and in a flowing white dress that did nothing to dissuade that concept, Fina cried quietly over that doll. Green eyes glistened with tears, her lower lip bitten until a single fleck of blood adorned that snow-white cheek. She was unaware of his presence.
He almost forgot she wasn't real. Instinctively, Ramirez reached for his Ginken. The blade was meant for whomever had been the cause of those tears, he had sworn long ago. Part of him wanted to reopen the wound that was still healing on his chest. If split again, he had no doubts he would die. Perhaps he deserved as much, to have brought her those tears.
He let his hand fall open as he reached it. No. He was past feeling anything for her. Wasn't he? He had shunned it under an ensanguined curtain, covered green eyes and silver-white hair with a sheet of red and a veil of darkness. Ramirez had had to. In no other way could he have served Galcian, if those eyes had not been forgotten from his memory.
There was just no way. To have the arm that would create a new world...I had to kill. And in having to kill, I had to forget you, Fina. I had to. Or else the face of every corpse that fell under my heel would have become yours. Then I would have been a corpse, too.
He turned his head away as hers came up, the tear-stained orbs widening.
"Ra...Ramirez..." she choked out, bringing a pea-sized lump to his own throat. "You...you're back..."
Ramirez sighed. What had that dragon child done? Recreating a life-size marionette of his childhood friend...sinful. Sadistic. Yet Ramirez did feel it necessary, in that perhaps now he would be able to put those fears to rest, in front of this tournament's host. He would play this little game, and win. "...yes, Fina. I've returned. And I'll not disappear again," he told her, as he would when the new world had come.
He caught the flicker of motion as "she" rose from the bed. "Rami...Ramirez," she wheezed again, rushing to him. Half of him expected her to rush at him, relieved and overjoyed at the return of her friend. The dragon child was predictable, in that sense. She did not.
"Ramirez," she said with a slow smile, her arms slowly encircling her waist in a hug. "I waited so long...I've shed so many tears during that wait. I missed you. It hurt me when you left..."
Despite himself, Ramirez lowered his head, feeling that cold settle into him. "I know," he whispered, his normally deep voice falling to a hushed murmur. It had hurt even himself, somewhere, when he had taken that step onto the Silvite transport. Leaving her behind had been hard for him...and he knew better than to be modest, in that it had been hard for her as well. She had not feigned those tears when he left. Suddenly, the vision wasn't just a vision anymore.
He heard her step closer, and then heard another, odder sound. Ramirez looked to her, and his eyes widened in surprise as she slipped the veil from her forehead. She was walking to him, sliding it free with a...strange smile. That smile was one he hadn't seen before, and damned if it didn't disturb him. There was the most curious glint in her eye that he had only seen coming from Scarlett, and for a moment he thought it was Scarlett. That red-suited beauty had come alive in the clothing of his friend. The clothing that, surprisingly, seemed all too tight...
"I missed you," Fina said, her voice softer, her eyelids a little heavier. Her delicate footsteps stopped as she reached Ramirez. Before he could step away, though, her stare met his, the tears dying over a bright hot blush. They were gentle, inviting, in sharp contrast to the words she spoke. "Even though you left me with my heart shattered, I never stopped thinking of you. Always, Ramirez, have I thought of you, even when you had thought I was too much a burden to bring along...I missed you sorely. I wanted your strength to carry my weakness. It kept me awake so many a night...so many an unrequited, lonely night."
She's not Fina, she's not Fina. Fina would never say that. Ramirez pounded the words into his skull, but could not help a lip dropping. "I...Fina, you know better than that. I didn't take you because I-"
"You were afraid to love me."
Ramirez shut his mouth and felt his eyes widen, while hers remained creaked open to sly slits. "You were scared, Ramirez...it took all of your courage to kiss me, and even then, you had to do it on my cheek. Those words about kissing me again...they were a lie. There was so much fear inside you, that I'd get close to you...that you might enjoy it." Her hands were coming down from her head now, resting against her chest. "That you might fall in love with me."
"Lies." Ramirez gnashed his teeth, his hands clenching into fists. "You're not the Fina I knew- and I'm no longer the Ramirez she knew. The one I see before me is a vision, a thing. I do not know it. Get away from m..."
He stood frozen in shock, then, as her hands found the triangle embroidered around her chest. When her diminute palms found it, there was a glow there, sending a course of terror through Ramirez's body. He knew fear, then, as her siren eyes fell in a mime of her dress. A pale body, shaped by exercise and the sparing bites with which she had eaten her meals, was revealed to the naked eye, covered only by white undergarments. The slopes of her breasts ran to the curve of her belly and hips, her long legs kicking aside the crumpled white dress. Her hands again found the small of her back as she stepped to him, her hair kept up by an unseen breeze as sylvan eyes glittered with enough challenge, enough ferocity to face him as an equal in battle.
So much did he want to draw the Ginken, then, and hold her at bay, but his hand fell silent in a sway at his side. Ramirez stared with a vesture between cold terror and heated fixation, unable to turn away in either circumstance. He had never seen his friend uncovered in such a way. Even in his wildest dreams, he had never imagined her this close to him. Close enough to where the undergarments were almost...unimportant. To where her hands were able to trace over his chest, as they did now. To where she had to press into him to shield herself from the cold of the recirculated air of the Silver shrine. To where her lips could find their way to his neck as her palms flattened gently against the badges of Valuan honor.
To where his arms could slowly close around her bare waist, and take her in.
Oh, Zelos...
-------------
To be continued, obviously. ^_^
---------------

Sponsoring Ramirez, Skies of Arcadia, Team Two-On-One. |
Sylphid
RTT - Vivi
Posts: 60
(6/12/02 3:50:12 am)
Reply
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7-1.1
Was this... the end...? Everything awash in a lazuli glow...?
Vivi... you did it! a voice echoed in the crystalline tower.
"What...?" the mage shouted, attempting to answer the mysterious voice. "Who... Sylf... I-Is that you...?"
The mage's blade and the pendant he bore on his chest shone with luminescence, responding to his call. It is. I'm quite proud of you, young one, for making it this far. My confidence in you was not unwarranted, I see.
"Th-thanks..." the mage stuttered... a bit embarrassed at the elemental's kind words.
This is the final stretch! I have faith in you that you'll succeed! Take the Zephyr Staff once more, and I wish you the best of luck, my friend!
The fabrics of time and space bent at his command, giving way once again to the weapon that started it all. An aura of light formed in front of the mage, becoming a solidified, tangible object, into the staff he once bore on this quest. Slowly, the light faded away to reveal the lazuli gemmed rod levitating before him. Gravity took hold, and the weapon came crashing to the ground, giving off a loud ring as it struck the crystalline floor.
Putting his boot upon the first rung of the ladder before him, the mage gazed up to its end... and gasped. Ladders and walkways stretched above him, leading in seemingly random directions and paths. Some seemed to dead-end, where as others simply ended in thin air. The infinite number of paths seemed to stretch into the darkened heavens... all focusing on a single point of a blue, faint radiance.
And up he went.
As he climbed, the world changed around him, without the mage even noticing. Cold walls became buildings... the darkness above became a cerulean sky dotted with clouds... the faint sapphire gleam became a bell above him...
Vivi set foot on the roof of the bell tower... in Alexandria.
"Hey! Hurry it up, would ya?" the rat shouted, well ahead of the mage already.
...He was back where it had all started. That fateful day... where his life had changed forever.
"S-sorry!" Vivi shouted after him, trotting across the rooftops after his friend, but screeching to a halt as he came to a gap.
"Don't tell me you're afraid of heights!" he shouted.
I was afraid of a lot of things... back then.
Placing a quivering foot upon the trembling board, the mage slowly inched across, spreading his arms wide to maintain balance. Making it about halfway across, the mage felt the boards beneath begin to give, and he leapt for safety, his heart pulsing with fear and anxiety. The mage made the roof's edge by mere inches. The board, however, plummeted down a few stories into an abandoned alleyway.
Puck ran ahead of the mage, and Vivi followed, taking extra caution to cross over the planks that connected the two rooves. Onward he trotted...
...as the scene shifted around him once more. The open rooftops of Alexandria became a dark, eerie tower. A thick branch extended upwards, out of view. Below, a sickeningly green aura radiated from a pool of liquid churning below. Garnet and Eiko gazed over the edge. Zidane trotted after them, but not after stopping to open a hidden treasure chest to the side!
But Vivi stood alone, away from the others as he stared into the core of the great Tree of Iifa.
He stared... in fear...
I... I was borne of Iifa... and the dark Mist... that which clouds and corrupts man's thoughts. In fact, the same almost happened to me...
Kill... Kill... KILL!!!
Vivi clutched his head, reeling in pain as the darkened essence of Iifa tried to destroy him like the plague it was.
You will NOT stand in my way... I shall destroy EVERYTHING!
"No...! I won't let you!" he screamed as the world faded from view once more... revealing a darkened corridor lined with torches.
The dungeon... Vivi remembered... it seemed ages ago, the first time the mage had been abducted from his home to fight for his life...
And he recognized the red glow of the Masamune growing stronger in the distance.
"Karsh...?" his voice echoed down the narrow passageways. But the glow didn't respond - it only grew larger as the warrior stepped forth, casting its evil glow upon the two of them.
The two crimson eyes of the sword-wielding warrior gazed upon him with hatred... destruction... and death... The man - no, the ENTITY had only one goal to accomplish: to destroy the mage that had turned against it.
If I cannot DESTROY you... then I shall possess the mind of one who can!! Evil resides in everyone, Vivi... you shall NEVER defeat me!! Everything shall PERISH!!
Suddenly, an image flashed in his mind... it was surreal... yet so clear... and... radiant... the beams of pure light... the energy of the soul... and the voice...
I bestow this power unto you. Use it well... for only YOU can purge this land of the shadow...
And then it was clear... the mage knew what he must to.
He stood back, holding his staff in his right hand as he raised his hands over his head. A glorious white light appeared over his body as he began to rise into the air once again...
"Spirits of light... I summon thee..." Vivi chanted as the power began to grow... "Purge this man of thy hatred and sins...!"
"I summon thee, the power within....!!"
"Holy!!"
The energies glowed with a radiant light as Karsh attemped to shield himself with the Masamune. But the attempt was in futility. Beams of pure light struck the dragoon from all directions. The energy continued to build, striking the man, purging the evils that plagued Karsh... as the rainbow rays of blessed power gathered up for a final blow, the man with the sword yelled a heart-wrenching scream...
"You'll NEVER DEFEAT ME!!!
The pure light penetrated into the man's soul. A great burst of energy erupted forth... a dark, hellish power, being released all at once... the sound was deafening...
...and then there was silence.
Karsh collapsed to the ground as Vivi floated back down to the ground. The spell had not drained him in the slightest, but Karsh had not been so lucky.
The mage bent over to check the man's pulse... he was still alive. That was a good sign.
The Masamune began to slowly glow red again... Vivi grew nervous... was Iifa strong enough to endure that!?
What choice did the mage have? He ran...
Evil... Iifa could never be destroyed. It lurks within everyone, hiding away, devouring one's soul, corrupting them to the bone. But... not me...
...I may have been borne of the essence of darkness and hatred... but I will never allow them to corrupt me... with this power comes a great burden of responsibility...
... I... I must use it to help those who don't have what I have... I must protect them.
The fallen Karsh faded away in the distance, as the crystalline structure materialized around the mage once more.
The blue aura above him had grown stronger. There was still a bit more to go, though...
The mage proceeded onward once more.
 Vivi has returned once again for Rurouni Taikai Tactics. Member of Team ~Disciples of Wind~ Sponsored by Sylphid
Lord Sylphid - Master of Wind Madness takes its toll... please carry exact change.
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daigohji
RTT: Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 44
(6/12/02 4:26:54 am)
Reply
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just to say...
I just want thank Soujiro for the other half of that mammoth duel last round. I would have said so sooner, but I was almost dead by the time I finished writing that last post. I wonder if anyone bothered to read the whole thing ^^;;
Good luck in the finals, you lot!!
- - - - - -
Ryo grabbed a bag of toffee popcorn and a can of grape soda from the snack stand then walked back and sat between Shadow and Lise, munching loudly.
"That guy said something about a prize?" Ryo managed between mouthfulls of popcorn. "Maybe it's a rare capsule toy! I'm missing one of the Super Sonic ones."
"Huh?" had Shadow really heard that right?
Shadow :: Lise :: Ryo
We are Thrill Seekers
"Have you seen a black car?"
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Slipstream
RTT: Gilder
Posts: 81
(6/12/02 4:31:11 am)
Reply
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How You Remind Me - Part 3
"Hey, hey, c'mon," Gilder murmured, crouching down to support Clara with his arms as she knelt, crumpled in her skirts and emotions. It had occured to him that this might be a pose, that her tears might not be real and meant only to draw him back, but he didn't care. He couldn't take the risk. He would never try to hurt a woman or allow harm to come to one, if there was anything he could do about it while they weren't a threat to himself. Clara wasn't - at least not physically.
They held each other once more in the illusionary street, Gilder head resting softly on hers as Clara's face was pressed gently into his chest, his eyes staring into the distance. In matters of the body, he had no problems with being close to a woman as he'd proven so many times before. Then, before they could grow too close in other ways, close enough for that woman to begin to scratch the surface, they'd parted ways once more. Sometimes with acceptance, sometimes with tirades or weeping or anger, but they'd all accepted eventually that they could never truly love him because a part of his heart was walled off.
It never occured to me before... that by leaving them I was hurting them, too. I may not have let anyone close enough to gain a lasting place in my heart, but there are enough women who I left a piece of myself inside, something that twisted inside them when we parted ways. The pleasures of the flesh are fleeting, easily regained, but I guess once you lose a part inside of you it isn't as easy to recover.
"Enough with that, okay, Clara?" Gilder asked after some time, trying to keep a touch of encouragement in his voice which he wasn't really feeling.
"N-no, not really," she replied, "but I'm glad you came back for me." She looked up at him and smiled wanly, some of the usual light gone from her eyes but still shining. "I wouldn't want to be left here, left behind you in your past like with all the other women in your life."
"Clara... I..."
She pressed a finger to his lips, silencing his words and helping him to stand this time. "It's okay... I understand. I know there's been a lot of women before me, and that you haven't wanted me to know because you thought it would hurt me. It was kind of refreshing to not hear that from a man," she commented idly, as she apparently thought of past boasts and propositions she must have recieved.
"I didn't... that's true, I didn't want to hurt you," the gunman sighed, looking skywards again and at the shining light that still marked the exit to this illusion.
"But you still are!" Clara cried out, clutching at his arm in desperation. "You won't... you won't accept your past, you keep trying to put it behind you! But until you accept the man you are, and allow others to see that man and not the pose you play, you'll still be hurting people!"
Gilder laughed somewhat hollowly, mentally kicking himself and stopping as he saw the hurt in her eyes. "So what could you suggest? If I even try to accept what Valua did to me, then that part of me would begin to come to the surface, and it's not a part of me that others want to see. It reminds them of the darkness in their own lives, and I don't want to drag others down with me."
Clara's eyes focused on his, looking into them again and trying to see the part of him that was buried. "We're not all angels, Gilder, because sometimes we have to play the devil too. I've... done things too that I'm not proud of, before and during my life as a fellow Blue Rogue. This is your story, I'll not go into them here, but I accepted my past and it made me a better woman. Can't you do the same, for yourself? For me?"
I... can I? I have to reach that opening to continue... to escape my past... but I don't know if that's possible any longer. Maybe, just maybe, I can try to accept it here and continue with my life. Live it the way I want to, no longer a pose to protect others.
"Alright, Clara," he said slowly, "I'll try."
Edited by: Slipstream at: 6/12/02 4:37:07 am
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Baka
Wind Seer
Posts: 156
(6/12/02 4:33:36 am)
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Act 7, Scene 1 - "Master"
The crystalline construct glowed faintly in the dim light. In front of him, one straight path lead up, one winding path, and one path with obstacles...
Ivan stroked his chin.
So, dragonboy, what do you want me to do now? You want me to climb? I can climb.
And he picked the obstacle path.
The path was almost sheer to start with. Ivan clambered over the crystals, cutting his hands as he moved. Pulling himself up over the lip, he bumped into a pair of boots. Ivan swallowed nervously, then raised his head to look at the figure...
"M-master Hammett?"
He was an older man, sporting a wispy grey beard and scruffy hair over a care-worn face. Ivan pulled himself up and sat down on the crystal - and Hammett sat next to him.
"Been a long time, hasn't it, kid?" The voice.. it was Hammett's voice. Loud and clear. Right here. It was somehow... comforting.
"Yeah, it has. Oh, Master! You should hear some of the things I've seen! The places I've been! The tale would make you lose your hair!"
Somehow, it seemed right, sitting here talking to his old friend. He wished this time would never stop...

Baka // Wind Seer // Salva Nos
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TenshiKain
RTT :: Ramirez
Posts: 50
(6/12/02 4:47:19 am)
Reply
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Silver Nightmare
She never really kissed him. Or he never really let her. Her lips brushed up against his; he did not take her in. But he could not stop her hands from moving around him, dipping into his shirt to caress the scarred flesh beneath. With each lace of her fingertips over the large wound Gilgamesh had given him, he found his will less and less powerful. He could not stop it, and he knew where she wanted to go. Her cold seduction was not merely content to flirt with him. She wanted him. He almost found it laughable. His own vision wanted to bed him, in a place that should have not been real to begin with.
Ramirez gave a slow shudder as her lips finally encircled his. The pucker was quick, almost perfunctory- and painful to the touch.
This is my past. I am now reflecting on half my life.
His stare was kept even as her hand dipped further across the scars on his chest. She cooed into his ear.
This is my past. I have brought my innermost dream to fruition.
Her form bunched up against his, and he felt the cloth upon her upper body slip away.
This is my past. I desire to explore this part of myself that has been left untouched.
Her knees buckled. She leaned into him, and breathed in his lips as her fingers worked away the buttons of his shirt.
This is my past. I must bury it.
Ramirez tore himself away from her, a hand roughly shoving against her now-bare chest to transfix her with reddened eyes. "You demon of Deep Sky," he growled, wiping his lips furiously. "You dare take Fina's visage? You would pour into my very soul to strike another scar on my heart!?" He gritted his teeth as she fell to her knees, and without knowing it, he had drawn the Ginken from its sheath. The sharp ring of the blade split the silence of his room, drowned out the lustful panting of her form- of its form- and he stepped forward over her to point the blade at her heart. He saw no nudity- only the harlot of Deep Sky, come to life and come to tempt him.
"I will reciprocate," Ramirez told her.
She smiled in that disarming way she had, and let her arms drift to her sides, straightening on her knees. "Do it...split a heart that you have already broken. Let my love bleed..." she purred, puffing out her chest to let the blade's tip pierce just the outermost layer of flesh. A red dot imprinted around it in a sea of white skin, her lips curling into another smile as though she enjoyed that. "Do it. Take your weapon...run me through. Let my scream of death lure you. Let my dying breath fall on your lips...let my body crumple into beautiful splendor before you, as a trophy for ghosts to lust over."
"..." Ramirez held himself still like that for some time. It would have only taken a little pressure, a little extra push of his elbow. He could kill her and barely have to move. He could see everything she had described. Her scream, her dying breath, her final fall. Only one push...
Her eyes flared in alluring green, then, and she giggled. "Or are you scared...?"
No sooner had she spoken then there was the shattering of ground beneath him. Ramirez felt his arms ripped back from her, something coiling around his wrists and ankles. He struggled instantly, but the sound was like the collision of a Valuan warship on the Hydra, drowning out all sound. His tongue fluttered in vain as he attempted to shout- the snakelike material was so cold that it burned through his skin, sending lances of chilled fire through his veins. He looked down in pain to find a silver strand coiled around each arm, and both legs, to spread him out as though in crucifix. He groaned with pain as they tightened around him, trying to see where they had come from- the spot he hovered over was cracked. The coils were strong, enough to pierce the floor and capture him.
The Ginken dangled helplessly from his right hand, and he had to drop it as the searing pain numbed his fingers. Ramirez gave a sharp cry of anger as he was held in bondage, the binds stressing his shoulderblades and knee joints painfully. And "Fina" remained on her knees before him, a finger pressed to the area where he had cut her.
"I like you better like that," she said to him playfully, rising up from her kneel slowly. "Helpless, anguished...there's so much I could do to you, while you're there. Cut you...or kiss you...or torture you...boil your blood, make you scream for me." She pressed the slightly bloody finger to her lower lip, tasting it in an innocent manner. "Make you drink more of your own blood..."
Ramirez grunted and kicked in the coils' grip as she advanced to him, trying to bring out a kick. It would not allow him to. She moved up towards him, and then he saw the ground split again as the sound of a thunderclap hit his ears. He winced, his brain ringing as another coil wrapped around her bare legs, and she embraced herself with a giggle as the coil carried her up. It was wide and long enough for her to sit back on, even lay upon, but she kept herself upright until she was at his height. He kicked even more as she approached, not wanting to feel that venomous kiss again. She didn't. Instead, he felt her fingers work against his shirt again, and he felt even more horror run through him.
She opened it, and swooned at the sight of what lay there. "What kind of wound is that?" she purred, reaching over a finger to trace its length. Ramirez bit his teeth as his eyes went wide with a spark of pain, and killed a groan in his throat as the wound squirted a rivulet of dark blood. It was an ungodly scar, travelling from left shoulder all the way across his chest to end just at the right side of his sternum. It had been healed repeatedly, stitched up and disinfected on numerous occasions since the tower, and still nothing had faded about the wound. It was still dark, pulsing, and nowhere near healed yet. The pain had stopped bothering him, but the touch of her finger on it was enough to drive a sword through it all over again. Ramirez groaned again as she leaned forward to kiss the Zantetzuken Mark, her fingers kneading the scar tissue.
"I shall tell you of your weakness, Ramirez," she whispered to him as she pulled away. As she wrapped her arms around his neck, the coils brought her up further, and then expanded to snake around her waist. Ramirez winced as it slid around his as well, binding him together with this living sin. She brushed her lips over his again, grazing his mouth with each turn of her head as she began to murmur again. "It's that your most tender side has the briefest of openings..."
Ramirez winced at each word, the coils on his wrists sharp and tight. He could do nought but listen. She smiled, obviously enjoying herself- as a demon will do. "You've felt it all through the time you were away...when Galcian offered you partnership, you took it. Friendship with the ideal human man was tantalizing to you. When Belleza offered you her body, to 'make her forget', you were tempted...because it would have made you forget, as well. When the chance came to kill those Air Pirates, you took each death quickly...made it as painless as possible, while still being brutal. And..."
She puckered her lips against his for a long, painful moment. "When Scarlett kissed you, you let yourself succumb because she was different. Because she reminded you so much of me, because she was something I could have been, that it felt guilty to kiss 'me' once more. You loved it. And that is why you cannot let it go...that is why it is your weakness. You are eager to discover what love is, Ramirez...so much that even if you would wield a thousand blades, your life would be ended by your desire for love."
She coiled closer against him. "Now...let me show you your weakest point. A little closer, Ramirez..."
"...masa."
Her cheek lolled against his as she purred into his ear. "Mmm...?"
Ramirez slid his eyelids open once more. "I said Muramasa."
There was the wet sound of a body being stabbed, and Fina's hands went limp around his neck. She parted from him, her face calm as her eyes traced down her nude trunk to the bloody sword that had materialized in her chest- for such was the power of the Bloody Sword of Gilgamesh, that it could be called forward to even the slightest mark of blood. She smiled weakly, looking to him with gently fluttering eyelids. The coils seeped from their limbs, now, lowering to the ground as she spoke with ease. "'Kill' me, if you will...I am eternal. I am your past, after all," she gurgled, blood seeping from the corner of her smiling lips. "And after all...there must be a future...for you...I will be...within it..."
Her visage changed for a moment, then. In her beautiful dying face, Ramirez saw something open up and flash- the demonic face of a silver monster. A Gigas, grinning at him soullessly with eyes of red. Wings of Silver threatened to encompass him for all of a moment, a sinister claw hand gesturing him forward. Ramirez had never known true horror until he saw that image flash in front of his face, for all of a moment. Then it was gone, replaced with the dying image of "Fina". Her bare body crumpled to the floor, and as the coils released him to slump by his Ginken, her body turned to molten ash. The Muramasa sizzled as it decomposed into chaff, and the unseen breeze that had held her lovely locks out of her face washed away that ash along with what had been the material of the coils. As it died, there was a quiet whisper that Ramirez had heard before- only once before.
"We leave the soul down here."
Ramirez slumped there quietly on his knees as his past drained away. His eyes were open to half slits, but contrasted to the look in the eyes of "Fina" in such a way that they glinted murderously. His hands unconscously grabbed both swords in his hands, the bloody Muramasa and the silver Ginken. There was anger in him. Bile choked his throat, and tears of red stung his eyes. His shirt once again was in tatters, baring the lightly seeping scar over his beseiged, aching chest as he rose from the floor, and he looked in blurred vision around his room.
This...was my past.
Then he gave the loudest scream he could, and set to slashing it apart.
---------------

Sponsoring Ramirez, Skies of Arcadia, Team Two-On-One. |
Dareon
Mister Mage Mon
Posts: 69
(6/12/02 5:06:00 am)
Reply
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Re: Silver Nightmare
Amethyst tossed a jujube at Ramirez' screen. "Yo, angstboy, lighten up!"
---
Sorry, whenever I'm in a movie-ish situation, I feel the urge to go Mystery Science Theater on it. Hmm. Amethyst as Tom Servo, Conker as Crow... Who'd be Joel?
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Baka
Wind Seer
Posts: 158
(6/12/02 5:38:05 am)
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Act 7, Scene 2 - "Waste"
"Do you remember the time when the packhorse got loose?"
"Yeah, and it broke through the fence and trampled that guy's crops?!" Ivan collapsed laughing at the memory. "Good ol' Freddy!"
Hammett raised his mug of ale and guffawed. "Those were the days, eh kid? We had some fun back then!"
Ivan stopped laughing and sat up. "Yeah... yeah, we did. Why did I leave, master?"
"Now now, Ivan. You know you left cause you found your friends."
"Yeah.. but you were my friend. You and all the others. We had some great times, and I threw it all away." A tear ran down his cheek. "Threw it all away for some lousy prophecy that's done me no good at all!"
Hammett frowned. "That prophecy... I hate to tell you this, sonny, but it was a lie."
Ivan glanced up at him, a puzzled look on his face. "A lie? B-but... the lighthouses? Saturos and Menardi? Isaac, Garet and Mia?"
"It was all a lie, Ivan. A waste of time. Like you."
Hammett seemed more imposing suddenly. Taller, darker. Ivan took a step back. "W-what?"
"You heard, Ivan. You're a waste of space. A loser. A nothing. A crying weakling with no skill or use. Of course I made up some stupid prophecy, I wanted to get rid of you!"
The tears were flowing freely now, and Ivan choked on his words as he formed soundless vowels in shock. "B-b- wh- Master? I thought... "
"Oh you THOUGHT, did you? That's no surprise! You're always thinking, never doing! Useless!" Hammett raised his hand, which somehow held a cruel barbed whip now, and brought it down across Ivan's leg. He fell to the ground, agony shooting through his leg, putting his hands up to ward off the next blow - which never came.
The whip bounced off a shield of psynergy.
Ivan opened his eyes, and narrowed them in hatred.
"You're not Hammett. Hammett would never hurt me. I don't care if he thought things like that or not, he was still my friend. You aren't."
Drawing in his will, he shot a blast of wind, knocking Hammett off his feet. "Growth!" he shouted, as the crystalline construct sprouted green shoots, growing to envelop Hammett completely.
Lowering his hands, he wiped a tear away.
He wasn't Hammett.. but I still couldn't hurt him.
Balancing on his staff, he limped upwards...

Baka // Wind Seer // Salva Nos
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Slipstream
RTT: Gilder
Posts: 82
(6/12/02 6:16:11 am)
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How You Remind Me - Part 4
"Hoy, mate, how much for that nice bit of flesh then? Could make tidy profit, know what I'm saying?"
"What's a high-up couple like you doin' down 'ere, then?"
"Apple for the lady? Not too rotten, help out the man in the streets?"
"Come on, come on, keep on moving, you buggers! Get out of the road!"
As Gilder and Clara walked the streets of Lower City Valua together, the city had slowly come alive again together with all its noise, chaos and raucousness. It wasn't an illusion any more - it was as if the two were truly walking its dank streets and alleys and having to experience the overripe rottenness of Valua's dumping ground. It would be unfair to paint the place as one of total misery, since there were many people who tried to live their lives as best as they were able, but their lives were still tarnished by the cloud hanging over them all.
Gilder's face was one of resigned memory, having to relive his bitterest memories in a place, or at least the illusion of a place, which he had hoped never to visit again. Clara's was one of amazed horror, no place like this existing in the outside skies that made up the rest of Arcadia. Only in Valua, Gilder thought gloomily, could they built a city which so ignored the value of a human life and entraps its souls within constructs of technology.
"Gilder, "she said while clutching at his arm, "was it really like this? It's terrible."
"It always has been," the gunman replied, the words coming surprisingly easily now that the secret was no longer hidden, that he had someone he could share it with. "All of us - the people in the city - live like this because they can never have anything better. There's no legal way to escape, either, no way to leave the city unless you break out or stow away. The former's almost impossible, and I was one of the few who tried the latter without being caught and executed."
"Executed?"
Gilder nodded. "Valua's always tried to keep us in our place - until I escaped on a cargo ship, I didn't know a thing about the outside. All we knew was our world and," he finished bitterly, thrusting his chin at the lights of Upper City in the distance, "the fact that we could never be part of theirs." Even that familiar horizon had been recreated by the dragon-man, as if to taunt Gilder with something else he could never have reached.
"So you had to live in a place like this," Clara said thoughtfully, "while the better families lived lives of luxury off the back of others, not working themselves but taking what they didn't deserve. I... I suppose we aren't that much better, attacking warships and stealing their goods."
"Now you stop that," Gilder growled. "That's probably how Valua sees it, but we use those goods to help people in need. Those nobles have never helped anyone but themselves, and it's our - our responsibility to see that those in need receive that aid. The kind of thing that we - the slum people - never had in our lives. I had to do some pretty rough things to survive."
"I... understand, I've known a lot of people who live their entire lives like that, and don't try to make up for it. And the rich lifestyle you lead - was that to make up for what you felt you'd always been denied?"
Gilder sighed. "Pretty much. Maybe that doesn't make me much better than those damned nobles, if I take the goods from those ships and use them to enjoy my life. Not every bit of darkness that haunts me comes from my past, you know. By living in the moment, enjoying life's luxuries like they had, it was easier to put all of this behind me."
Clara put a hand on his shoulder again, looking inwards. Everyone had their own demons to deal with - it appeared Clara already had, but it was still something she didn't like to look at. Nobody did.
"Gilder," she continued, "I'm not asking you to be perfect - that's what you're doing, and that's the face you try to show people. It doesn't matter what you did before, you're like me - you've given your life to helping people in need, and that's nothing you should ever be ashamed of. Just stay here with me, until you can accept that."
"Clara..."
She's right. Just because of who I was before, it means it doesn't have to rule who I am not if I let it come to the surface. And if someone can truly accept me for the way I am, then there's a chance for us all to redeem ourselves for sins of the past. I'm sorry, but I can't stay here forever - I have my life to lead, maybe with the real Clara back on my world, if she'll still accept me for who I am.
Looking up to the light high above, the exit from this scenario, Gilder slowly began to move towards the light in the distance and the end to the illusion that had made him face and accept his past.
"Aaaaaaaaah! Gilder!"
Whirling in anger, Gilder turned to see a group of mean hauling at Clara, grabbing her arms and ignoring her screams. An iron fan - Clara's personal weapon - whistled through the air and cut a deep gash in one of the men's faces, but then it was knocked from her grip and clattered to the ground as she was hauled away.
"Claaaaaaaara!!
I don't care if she's not the real thing, she still helped me out here, even if she tried to get me to stay forever! I can't just leave her!
Yanking his guns from their holsters, Gilder cried out in fury and aimed low. "Come on, dance for me, you bastards!" he shouted as the hammers fell again and again and again. Three bullets went through three separate ankles, the men they belonged to collapsing brokenly to the floor. Two more hit knees, two more in the chest and the final shot went to the man who's attacked her first, his head bursting against the wall in a spray of gore.
As their bodies fell, though, Clara's fell with them. Gilder cried out in pain and raced over, unheeding of the stares of the few who still paid attention to the scuffles and fights and killings of the back alleys. Hauling a man's body off her, his eyes widened in shock as he took in the knife wound, the spreading blood tainting the pink dress forever. Her eyes half-focused on his, speaking to his heart and not his senses.
"I'm... sorry...," she choked, "... for trying to keep you here. Guess... it wasn't... meant to... be..."
The eyes fell silent.
Gilder knelt for the longest of moment over the body, damning himself for leaving her while attempting to reach the exit. No matter that he knew she wasn't the real Clara, it still hurt too much to bear. Would others suffer and die, even other Claras, if he tried again? He wasn't sure if he could bear that, to see other suffer for his own selfish choice. Maybe it was the best thing to stay here, protecting and helping people in need, even though it was all illusion.
A sudden ringing noise echoed from behind the gunman, and whirling again Gilder took in the men facing him in the street. Weapons raised, faces grim as their bodies blocked out the exit light he knew still to be there and moved to stop him permanently from leaving. Slowly, Gilder stroked Clara's cooling face and closed her eyes with his fingertips, then rose and faced his attackers with weapons ready. No mercy.
No... I can't stay here, this isn't my world and the people in aren't real. Back home... that's where I can make a difference, where you're still alive and searching for me. And if I can come to terms with myself, understand myself and live the way I should be, there's a chance for us all.
I will survive once more. Not just for the sake of others, but for myself.
---
Okay, I know that was way too quick a turnaround / resolution for his character, not to mention that Clara didn't do as much to keep him in the illusion as I'd have liked, but I'm rushing for work. I won't be back until halfway through the second part of the round. I believe I'm duelling Kaze, Tenken, so if you'd be kind enough to start the fight off I'll pick up when I return.
Edited by: Slipstream at: 6/12/02 5:38:06 pm
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Bugenhagen
RTT: Billy Lee Black
Posts: 949
(6/12/02 6:29:01 am)
Reply
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Re: How You Remind Me - Part 4
Billy was back in the darkness. This time, though, he saw something. A bright figure floating, flying through the sky.
It was Emilia.
She was chasing something, an incredibly bright light. As fast as she flew, the light seemed to elude her, to dodge her every attempt at capturing it. Billy watched her struggle with the light.
What is that? asked Billy. What are you chasing?
The answer, she replied.
To what?
Everything.
Billy watched as she seemed to have caught it, but the bright light broke free from her grasp. She took off again, and this time she flew farther away from Billy.
Don't go! he cried.
She must not have heard him. She flew off, disappearing into the blackness.
--
The lights flashed on, and Billy's eyes focused on the man standing in the center. It was the dragon man. He talked a bit about the structure and the round today. They didn't have to participate. Good.
"I suggest you all get a snack, for today is going to be a long battle. I must go now and make preparations for the third challenge. Later!" The man disappeared.
I wonder if he thought to include a Coke machine here? thought Billy to himself. He then got up from his seat to get a drink.
--
Sponsoring Billy Lee Black
Did you notice that the two great angels only have one wing each...?
According to a legend handed down in Nisan...
God could have created humans perfectly...
But then, humans would not have helped each other...
So that is what these great single-winged angels symbolizes...
In order to fly, they are dependent on one another.
~Margie, Xenogears |
Baka
Wind Seer
Posts: 159
(6/12/02 6:52:28 am)
Reply
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Act 7, Scene 3 - "Wish"
Ivan limped over the next rise in the crystal maze and stopped. His leg was giving him a lot of trouble now. He'd tried long enough to ignore it, to grin and bear it, but this was too much. He looked down and grimaced. The leg was definitely at the wrong angle.
"Wish!" he called, focusing the energy of the Djinni into a healing pulse, that would rid his body of aches and pains, refreshing him.
And nothing happened.
"Wish!" he called again, more desperately.
The Djinni didn't respond.
They weren't there.
They were infront of him. Outside.
They left me...
Gust spoke first, in a voice that wasn't spoken, as such, more... appeared in his mind.
"Failure"
Failurefailurefailurefailurefailurefailure... sang a chorus of Wind Djinni.
"Useless" - that was Breeze.
Uselessuselessuselessuselessuselessuseless...
"Weak" - Zephyr, in a voice like the brushing of air over a cornfield.
Weakweakweakweakweakweak...
"Pathetic" - Smog, the air darkening as he spoke.
Patheticpatheticpatheticpatheticpatheticpathetic...
"Unworthy" - Kite now, swooping through the air.
Unworthyunworthyunworthyunworthyunworthyunworthy...
"Unfit" - Squall, a mist forming around it as it hung motionless in mid-air.
Unfitunfitunfitunfitunfitunfit...
"Worthless" - Luff, fading in and out of existence to a regular beat.
Worthlessworthlessworthlessworthlessworthlessworthless...
Failureuselessweakpatheticunworthyunfitworthless...
Ivan's spirits sank. If the Djinn deserted him... truly, what had he left?
And then.. two figures appeared, hazily at first, but slowly brighter.
A tall youth, with a shock of red hair, holding a huge sword knowledgably.
A young girl, blue-green hair falling down the back of her white robe, a staff in her hands.
Garet. Mia.
God.. what next...

Baka // Wind Seer // Salva Nos
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Mithrigil
RTT--Scarlett Welles
Posts: 87
(6/12/02 7:19:42 am)
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...and what's more, you knew what he'd do...
Tux curled aroung Scarlett's ankle yet again, flicking the flaps of her dress expertly with the white tip of his black tail. His fur slipped through the synthetics of her stocking and very nearly tickled, and the purr, though soft in truth, resonated up to her ears. The cat was laughing.
And the master? "It's good to have you back," he himself purred, sloping his index finger from her neck lower, sliding the path down her chest to where the flaps of the dress came together. "From wherever you've been," he added, slightly more breathless, letting that finger lead his hand around to the small of her back.
Wherever I've been, wherever I've been, she tried to remember. If he's thirty...I'm eighteen...an unexplained absence...where had I-- "What does it matter to you were I've been?" she managed to reply, stilling for time, as close to helpless as she could let herself get with him. --gone, where had I gone...keep playing his game, keep playing--
"Only insomuch as what you learned there." The half-statement lapsed into the permanent purr of his younger voice as he leaned in to press his lips to the space between her collarbones. "You're not one to go long without learning something," he whispered before his lips touched down.
--Nibelheim. Grandmother. Coming-of-age.
Tux gave an affirimg mewl to that as he wedged his tail-tip under the strap of her shoe.
When I got back. He was waiting. Just as he is now. His exact words.
He trailed his lower lip up the curve of her chin, and she couldn't help but tilt her head back to accomodate him. She was slipping into her old role, even as her mind fought it--she was a teenager again, the twenty years that barely showed themselves before suddenly apparent. A teenager in the arms of a man nearly twice her age (though he hardly looked it) and still with some control--
The cat raked his tail up once, then slipped it out of her shoe and reached it up to brush the back of her knee. The fur on its lithe body pinpricked against her as it stretched, the front of a paw trailing up her shin like its master's lips on her neck.
The words came to her right on time. "Your cat seems to enjoy this." They didn't come out how she wanted them too--she was breathless. Her hands, acting against her current will, had been on the backs of his shoulders for quite some time...
She caught the flicker of a smirk in his eyes before they closed. "As much as I do," he whispered against her lips before capturing the lower one.
Her memory stopped. She know longer knew the reply. Tux's tail whipped across the back of her knees and it set her balance off completely. His arms were the only things holding her up at all, and even then, she found herself bending backward, gripping his shoulders almost for dear life as her back arched. The fact alone that he was holding her up pressed her into him and she had no idea where to go from here.
The cat's leathery paw began to bat around her anklet playfully. Reeve's kiss became just as playful. "Have you any idea..how glad I am..of your..return?" he purred between kisses, smiling and forcing her body closer. Though he still stood, they were nearly horizontal, and she knew if he led her go, she'd face humiliation.
"I'll admit it's good to be back," she found herself saying, bringing her teeth ino the kiss the way he'd taught her. She was grinning with his contagious rougishness, and her voice dripped with the same purr, though the flecks of sarcasm sill came through. "Every time I saw a cat in the streets I ran for cover..."
She knew that Tux's mewl sounded too much like a laugh, and heard the same tone in Reeve's. "You play on that metaphor too much."
"Oh, you invite it," she verbally clawed back. She felt that they were moving...that wasn't good, there was something she was supposed to be doing, and it didn't involve him...
She felt his nails scraping against her back, and Tux's claws through her stockings. A memory flashed back to her of explaining the runs, and with it, something else...yes, they were moving...the question was where. "Well, unlike most cats, this one doesn't mind being caught up a tree."
Up a tree--
The Elevator. He stopped the elevator.
She tore herself away and managed, somehow, to stay on her feet, barely. The cat jumped back into Reeve's arms, the longer fur on its white stomach flaring with its hiss. The anger in the cats eyes mirrored the narrow confusion in it's master's.
The elevator door was starting to close.
She shoved both cat and catboy in and ran.
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Guess who Ms. Sexual Repression USA is playing in RTT?

Isn't the irony lovely?
Some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mithrigil.
(this links to LT)
...Edited by: Mithrigil at: 6/12/02 7:20:19 am
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Dareon
Mister Mage Mon
Posts: 70
(6/12/02 7:33:18 am)
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OMAKE-SAMA!
((Too much seriousness here. Time to throw a little randomness in. Sorry.))
Amethyst chuckled slightly. The massive amounts of sugar were starting to get to him. Grinning fiendishly, he gestured...
And Ward's pants disappeared.
".....!!"
The pants reappeared overhead, and draped themselves across three seats. Citan, Onion Kid Dath, and Billy struggled to remove the mass of denim from their heads.
---
Pant-votes for all!
Yes, I am on a sugar high myself, and I found that extremely funny.
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Baka
Wind Seer
Posts: 160
(6/12/02 8:54:01 am)
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Act 7, Scene 3 - "Try"
And that was it.
Garet launched himself towards Ivan, sword slicing down towards him. Simultaneously, Mia stretched out her hand, firing a blast of ice-cold water at the young Jupiter Adept.
Falling backwards was his only recourse, so he did. Both attacks flew over his head, but Garet swung the sword round, smashing into the Shaman's rod, carving a second notch, right next to the one from Ramirez' blade. Ivan pushed out with his mind, but his powers weren't half as strong without his Djinni.
And then he found something, hidden away. Something he'd only used once before in this entire hellish tournament. Something he swore he wouldn't use again unless he was in dire need. It felt... wrong somehow to call upon this, but he had no other choice.
Power of water, my only hope now! HAIL!
A shower of water burst from his outstretched hand, coalescing into ice shards to connect with Garet, pushing him back and away - and he disappeared.
Ivan stood up slowly and shakily, leaning on the rod. Mia stood looking at him, mace held ready to strike, her face contorted in a sneer.
"Nice try, Ivan."
Ivanivanivanivanivanivanivan...
"But that won't work on me."
Hail materialised a short distance from Ivan, and let out a bubbling squeak. The Mercury Adept, Mia, held out her hand, and the Water Djinn flew to her, vanishing into her palm.
"Now, Ivan.. now. Can you defeat me with no power? Can you do it on your own?"
Ivan's eyebrows knotted for a second, then he stood up straight, despite the pain from his leg.
"Yes.. yes I can. If there's one thing I've learned from all this, it's that I can. While it's nice to have your friends around, if I need to, I can survive. And if you were the real Mia, you'd know that - but your mind tells the truth. You're not her, any more than that was Garet. The Djinn, they're real - but they're not thinking straight. And Isaac.. Isaac is gone. Back to our world, probably, although I can't say for certain. But we left each other as friends. We knew one of us might not make it, and we accepted that.
Why can't you?"
Mia - no, the figure pretending to be Mia - threw back her head, laughing.
"One last test, Ivan. One last test. If you can survive this, you might make it. You might just."
Justjustjustjustjustjustjust...
Ivan's eyes widened. He could feel the Pysnergy being sucked from the air around him into Mia. Her eyes began to glow, as she slowly held out her mace, end pointed towards him.
"This spells your doom."
The Psynergy flowed into the mace, ready to be released.
Oh god.. not this...
"Freeze Prism!"
And the energy was released - blast upon blast of frozen water and air shot from the mace - from Mia - towards him.
Ivan closed his eyes. He wasn't going to survive this.
Isaac... Garet... Mia... you are all my friends. I know this fully now. I am ready to die.
There was a flash.
And there was nothing.
And there was wind.
And there was heat.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. He was still alive.. and infront of him span a widening circle of fire, floating in the air, holding back the Ice blast. He blinked, as two Djinni appeared infront of him.
"Gust... and Ember?" The Jupiter and Mars Djinni blinked slightly, then squeaked and chirrupped at him happily.
You're... both accepting me?
Thankyou.
Ivan smiled and raised the staff, as the powers of the Jupiter and Mars Djinni flowed into him.
Now.. I can win.
Lowering his hands, he grinned. "Bye, Mia. I'll see you soon, ok?"
The Mia-thing looked worried, now. Ivan closed his eyes and reached into the back of his mind.
Luff... Scorch... help me.
From his left hand, a stream of air flew out, wrapping round Mia, sealing her powers. From his right hand, a heat wave emanated, surrounding her, choking her air. Slowly, she collapsed to the ground.
Garet... thanks. I'll be back soon. I just have a few more things to do, ok?
And somewhere, he could feel Garet's big, dumb smile back.

Baka // Wind Seer // Salva Nos
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