Fantasy [Open] Derika: Land of the Gifted

[IceSolstice]

Since the beginning of time, differences have set people apart. You're too smart, you’re too weak, you’re stupid. Sometimes that’s all you ever hear. People insulting people over differences. Deep in the middle of the Pacific however, is an island nation made up of people who decided to move away from the rest of the world, free from its judging eyes or inhibitions. You see, the people in this city are not exactly normal. For instance, some people here have the ability to fly. Others can teleport, and others still may control flames themselves, making them dance in spectacles no ordinary human could accomplish. People like these are called the Gifted. They’ve been around for ages, but most just don’t notice them. They are human beings with special Gifts, and once, a government was not happy with them having those abilities. Wielding powers vast and varied, the government was afraid of their potential.


In 2006, a government organization came into the world by the name of the ETG. It was discreet, its facilities hidden in an isolated woods and never publically announced. It was by all means hidden from society, and it was from this position that they began abducting people. Headlines in newspapers would go from "Boy rescues man from burning building" or "Girl saves man from being crushed" to "Hero goes missing." The people who did these miraculous things were of course, Gifted. They were brought to these facilities and experimented on in whatever manner was deemed fit. Some escaped however, and not long after an uprising began.


Soon, their facilities were shut down, but the Gifted were still hated by many. People would avoid them and sometimes they would even be forced out of public places. The Gifted knew that there would be no way for them to stay, so they left the cities, and formed their own. It was a magnificent utopia and the first “home of the Gifted”.


While most believed that the ETG has really shut down, there had been rumors it has been running in secret. These rumors proved true and the city was attacked. Countless Gifted had been killed and now there is not much of a city left. Many Gifted were captured, but the survivors rallied and mounted a counterattack on the ETG facility. The survivors, along with the freed prisoners, escaped on a ship and sailed to Derika. They found sanctuary in Brinkhaven, a major city on Derika; ironically learning of its existence from the ETG themselves. This is where your story begins. (Or continues, if you were in the old RPs)

 

[IceSolstice]

((Credit to Ryik for helping me write this and Mattie for helping with plot.))


[Alice]


A gentle breeze ruffles Alice’s hair and her delicate butterfly wings. The bright sunshine only enhances the iridescence on the fragile blue and black swallowtail wings. The atmosphere practically reeks of spring. It’s a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these, people like you…


Should be attending a faction recruitment assembly, of course!


Alice stands on the stage, feeling the gazes of hundreds of excited potential members rest on her. And why wouldn’t they be thrilled? The factions only accepted Gifted that were exceptional or useful. There were too many Gifts out there that were practically useless or unusable. Being a part of the factions meant you were the elite among Gifted. Factions also treated their members well, no one had to worry about lodging or food.


Alice raises her arms to the sky, “Welcome to the Faction Recruitment Assembly! My name is Alice and I oversee the new recruits! Today I’ll discuss the benefits of joining a faction and what the Factions stand for.”


Alice proceeds to explain how the Factions work, the point system, and the benefits of joining one.


“The Factions stand for what is righteous and good! You see, the ETG want to be heroes too- but we’re better at it!”


Almost immediately as that sentence leaves Alice’s mouth, a stern man in a suit walks over and smacks her in the back of her head.


Taking her microphone away, he announces, “What she means to say is that the ETG are despicable human beings who exploit innocent Gifted.”


Rubbing her head, Alice sniffs, “You didn’t have to hit me that hard.”


Ignoring her complaint, the man continues, “We will now show you live footage of some of the devastation caused by the ETG.”


The monitor buzzes to life, showing a live feed of the action. Whoever manned the camera is taking an establishing shot of the scene, avoiding the single woman with a white hair standing ahead of him.


The town is in shambles. Mostly rural, its dirt roads are haphazardly littered with dead bodies. Flames lick the sides of now unrecognizable wooden structures, sending enough dark smoke to obfuscate large swaths of the sky. The buildings not on fire have sustained heavy damage, with large gaping holes in their sides seeming to stare at the viewer from every angle. The view lingers on one house long enough to see it fold in on itself, clattering in a heap and sending up a small maelstrom of dust. House after house, it seemed as if not a single one of them remained fully intact.


“...I’m over here.”


The feed refocuses on the woman, who stands there with with a peeved look on her face and painted fingernails on her hips. The cameraman apologizes, and the woman clears her throat and brings her mic up to her mouth while casually gesturing to the carnage around her.


“I’m here in Botswanana, a rural town in Canada, North-East of Victoria. As a Gifted settlement, people have lived here in peace for decades when they weren’t accepted elsewhere. She pauses, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. When she opens her eyes she begins speaking with a passion that can’t be faked. “The factions fight against these villains. The ETG are the ruthless killers who destroyed this town and all the the innocent Gifted and non-Gifted living here. To counter this, the factions have assembled a regiment of talented Gifted to enact justice on these filthy murderers.”


The woman partially turns and starts walking down the road with the cameraman following behind her. A few seconds later and the smoking wreckages evolve into the roaring hellfire of Gifted fighting.


The cameraman whispers loudly, as if trying to hide it from the camera. “Vivi, what are you doing? That’s supposed to be it, right? We weren’t even supposed to go this far!”


The woman, Vivi apparently, turns back to the camera and smiles. “Pardon my cameraman, I just thought it best if we show the heroism of those fighting against these monsters, don’t you agree, Ven?”


The cameraman, Ven, mutters out “But you’re not…” before rushing to catch up with her. The duo remain silent the rest of the walk down the street and around the corner, coming to a battlefield of sorts already in action.


The multicolored garments of the faction Gifted clash with the pristine white of the ETG force. Gradually, the factions seem to be pushing them back. Not without a cost, however. Bodies drop from both sides, and the fighters hardly mourned their dead comrades, stepping over them to get into the fray. The scene is surreal; various elements are being thrown around, others seem to have lost their minds, and inhuman beings wrestle with one another. A cry rings out amidst the chaos, “Their teleporter is dead! They can’t bring in reinforcements or escape!”


Cheers ring out from the faction side and they fight with renewed vigor. In comparison, the ETG seems demoralized, some turning tail and fleeing the battle.


“Chase after them! They’re on their last legs!”


“As you can see…” The camera returns its focus to Vivi, a friendly smile adorning her face. The factions...” She cuts herself off when the sound of a gunshot rings out and a bullet flies through her side, leaving a small patch of red rapidly spreading across her white button-up.


The feed starts getting a lot shakier as the camera, apparently attached to a hat atop the cameraman; Ven’s head, does a dip, giving everyone a view of Vivi’s collapsed, blood-soaked body. “Vivi!?” Another gunshot rings out, and suddenly the feed becomes shaky and blurred, remaining on but close to the ground. Perhaps Ven is running on all fours?


A few more gunshots ring out in succession and the sounds of bullets burying into the dirt resound from all directions. When the gunshots suddenly stop, accompanied by a loud pounding sound, the feed turns around to find a woman with strange gradient purple to auburn hair alongside a floating colorful scroll unfurled behind her. She’s wearing mostly black, a sign she isn’t a part of the ETG. As Ven walks closer, the feed hovers over a man lying on the road, his legs visibly broken.


He turns back to the colorful woman, muttering a tired thanks. The woman opens her mouth to say something, but nothing came out before she pushed him out of the way to fight off more ETG, who are already surprisingly close around him. The camera follows the woman as she goes around punching the ETG far away, her scroll slowly lengthening as she did so. Over the course of approximately a minute, she fights off many ETG, a single punch enough to knock them out of the fight usually. The problem is, more and more keep coming. Eventually a particularly large group of ETG reinforcements arrived, this time clearly possessing several Gifted. At that point, the woman’s colorful scroll starts to glow and in a few moments of a blinding flash, most of the large group of ETG were on the ground, already incapacitated. Only one direction unfortunately, and soon another large group from the other end of the road surrounds them, the remaining scattered ETG joining the formation. The woman’s scroll had shut itself closed and she grips it tightly, her hand shaking.


“I don’t suppose you can do that a second time?”


She locks her gaze with Ven, death in her eyes. “No.”


Eventually someone with an irregular ETG uniform arrives, the encircled ETG parting for him. “Whaddya know! We got something good after all. I was starting to think our trap sprung on a bunch of rats, but then you showed up!” Byakuren stiffens in front of Ven, her facial expression out of view. “A simple extermination ain’t worth our time, but you? Well, you might even be better than our prize.” He pulls out a cigarette and lights it, taking a drag. “What, did you think we wouldn’t recognize you? How could we not? Your engagement was on the front covers of the newspapers back on hellmurder island.” He takes another drag as the camera turns to the colorful woman.


“Wait, you’re…”


He’s cut off as the white-haired man steps forth with a dandy smile. “Yep! This little lady is set to get hitched with none other than Mr. Fiore himself! Though I’m afraid their wedding is going to be delayed a bit.”


“Mr. Fiore?” Ven seems as if he’s going to go on, but everyone stops to look to the source of some woman’s screams. As Ven does so, the feed settles again on Vivi, her prim hair messy with dirt and her white button-up dark with blood. She’s also not wearing her black formal jacket, revealing what appears to be an explosive vest.


In the course of a few seconds after her scream, she jumps forward at the white-haired ETG man. With a loud distorted sound and flash of red fiery light, the feed suddenly cuts out.


Alice stands in front of a speechless crowd. The man that was with her earlier ditched the stage, leaving her alone. She tilts her head to the side at the monitor and comments nonchalantly.


“Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen. It seems we’re experiencing some technical difficulties. But join the Factions today- you get cool badges!”

 

[Senor Koquonfaes]

Lucy tries to keep quiet about it. Really, she does, but it's just not in the cards. Showing them that and then expecting them to be chomping at the bit, ready to go die for their country in a war of attrition that doesn't seem to be swinging either way?


"Aw, bullshit!" The slightly hoarse-sounding cry rings out over the stunned silence. "You're lookin' for cannon fodder, huh? Well, go search for dumber fuckin' fodder, girlie, because I'm not gonna bite it for someone else's agenda!" An angry shake of her head as she starts pushing through the crowd, on her way out. "Fuckin' factions, swear to god..."

 

[Pixilated]

[ Asta ]


Asta stuffed her hands deep into her pocket as she watched the footage play on the screen cocking her head to the side before gives a quiet sigh, the people around her seeming to chill and shuffle away from her forming a slightly distinct circle around her and then part around her giving her uneasy stares at she passes by-inky black smoke faintly sizzling off of her body as she slowly walks towards the Physical faction building. She had to check on what she would classify under as her powers would be a little unique compared to others, soon she would be inside the lobby of the large building curiously looking around as she remained quiet before finally her gaze would slowly settle on the secretary before she cocked her head to the side walking over to the desk looking on the desk seeming to be looking for something the lights seeming to not doing so well at containing the black inky smoke coming from her small body as it would sink slowly to the floor which she seems to be containing around her feet, After a brief awkward look the secretary would soon tell her if she wishes to join the faction she would need to head out to the recruitment building. Asta weakly nods before turning around heading back outside following the directions of the secretary towards the secluded recruitment building and enters it looking around for where ever she needs to go.


~(After a question or two Ill add on the recruitment outcomes)~


After another few minutes Asta would be lead into a room filled with recruitment items, things like training dummies and anything to test the abilities of a physical gifted. Asta grumbles a bit as she over looks the room filled with testing items and looks up to the recruiter slowly her inky black smoke steadily filling the room as she doesn't control it any longer "You may want to leave unless you want...to suffer bodily harm" She simply puts it "Most likely fatal injury.." She adds on playing with her hair before the recruiter blinks and leaves the room, the door closing with a click. Once she jiggles the handle making sure it is locked, a little small precaution she steps back looking over the room and breathes in heavily before the room snaps into pitch blackness and a shiver runs up her spine her eyes glowing softly in the darkness before a wide grin grows on her lips as her clothes seem to melt off of her and she zips forwards around the room a creepy girly giggle escaping from her lips and some times a faint laugh as the lights would crack and break plunging the room further into darkness before the room lays demolished, the training dummies ripped to shreds laying on the floor or bent over, most of the things around the room would be over turned or broken fairly well depending on what they're made of. Slowly Asta would return to normal after a long calming period after trying to escape the room a couple of times she would slowly regain her clothes and adjust them before unlocking and letting the recruiter back in to view the carnage, a couple deep claw marks marking the walls, gashing lining the dummies even the ones wearing body armor who's armor seems to be ripped up and throw around. After viewing what the results the recruiter gives a slow nod to her before she slowly walks out of the room back to the faction building with a officially signed registration paper which she hands to the secretary lady who reads over it quickly and hands Asta her room card(Yes card) before she heads to the elevator her room at the top of the large building and heads to her room to get settled. (Very straight forwards but this is a 'starting' post)

 

[Computing Magus]

Marcus became a bit bewildered to what was shown to them. So this was how dangerous trying to fight against the ETG, Marcus thought. As he stays uncomfortably in his seat, a woman suddenly cries out in the silence and left after she said something Marcus would rather not ponder about, let alone think. After that, a few people seemed to leave the room too and he followed. He saw the Physical faction building and walked towards it. After confirming what his gift was categorized as, he enters the building and a girl came out the same time he entered, not minding her at all. Marcus then approaches the desk with a secretary as he forms the words he needs to ask but the secretary already seemed to know what he wanted to do, and told him that he should head to the recruitment building, if he wishes to join the faction. Thanking the secretary, Marcus leaves the building, forgetting to ask where the recruitment building could be.

 

[Ronin Ezekiel]

[Nathan]


I... didn't want to look. I didn't want to see all those gifted getting slaughtered. But like a train wreck, I couldn't help but watch the chaos unfold, a feeling of disgust forming in my stomach. I didn't understand how that girl on stage could have been so chipper. The footage shown had clearly sickened the entire audience, leaving them speechless. One girl even stormed out of the gathering, liberally throwing out expletives like a sailor. While I love the idea of teaming up with like-minded individuals for the purpose of taking down the ETG, factions just aren't my cup of tea. Still, it's only fair that I gave it some thought. I slowly dissolved into a black vapor and subtly slinked my way out of the crowd, materializing on the other side of the wall of people. From there, I began making my way to the recruitment offices.

 

[WitchOfTape]

~Lesley Lucas~

Spoiler

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He was stunned by what he saw on the screens, and felt his stomach turn at it. Swallowing down the bile as it rose in his throat, he turned his gaze away before the video feed cut out, only looking back up when a rough voice rang out, condemning the woman on the stage. Lucas watched silently as the rough one left, pressing back away from the passage subconsciously.


But what was he to do? A body has to eat, you know, and the scant amount of money Lesley had left with wasn't going to last long, especially if they're going to have to keep paying for a hotel room. As soon as he was able, he slipped away from the crowd, looking for where to go to recruit, seeing no other options and merely hoping that Lesley's Gift wouldn't be seen as useful enough to be put on the front lines like that.


Once the press and crush of the crowd had subsided behind Lucas, he looked around- soon seeing a small woman with black smoke around her disappear into a building. Another moment or two watching saw someone else enter, whom he almost thought only had a skull for a head. Thinking that even if it wasn't the right place, those might be interesting people to meet, Lucas turned his steps in the direction of that building.


~Gwen~


She watched it all.


Fists clenched by her sides, only able to see her old home in the desolation, her stomach doing backflips and her eyes threatening to spill tears, she watched.


As the ETG members died, she had to spend a half second grateful the cameraman wasn't in the thick of the fighting, because as bodies fell she thought she might have been able to recognize them if she'd had a closer look. She was glad she didn't.


But still, once the video feed had cut out, and with some deliberation she went to find where she should be to sign up for a faction. After all, the money she had wouldn't last forever, and perhaps in a faction she'd have a better time finding people willing to let her copy their gifts.

 

[beeb]

[sven]


Subtle unrest grew in his stomach as he watched the large screen. "All of those people being slaughtered, on both the ETG and Gifted side, yet nobody seems to bat an eye at the casualties?" Sven gulped and ignored the idea of being left alone on the battlefield, wounded, but not incapable of recuperation. He finished up his soda before tossing it away and scanning the area. Crowds disperse as the individuals seek out their accompanying faction. "I should probably do that too, shouldn't I," Sven thought to himself as he made his way to a recruitment office.

 

[Swag]

As Frank watched the footage he did not know how to feel. It felt like a movie to him. He still was not used to this. He heard stories, but he had always kept his gift hidden. He did, at the end, feel some sort of duty to fight and some connection to those Gifted. It was plain and simple. ETG bad. When one girl had a vulgar outburst, Frank could not help but chuckle a little. 'Someone else's agenda. What the hell's that supposed to mean?,' he thought. "Fuck off!," Frank shouted.

 

[Aerose]

((Literally spaghetti. What am I doing I am very tire I'll fix any broken lore in this later))


[Edonis]


Someone left the freezer door open again. A thick frost covers the slightly warmer than freezing contents inside. This is highly disturbing. The freezer closes easily with a gentle push. The freezer is sealed. Safe. Secure. COLD. The freezer will be okay. *click* The freezer is now on Instagram. With the toaster filter. True beauty. True elegance. This is the epitome of freezers at this point. Nothing could compare to this pure, unblemished freezer.

Spoiler

Within less than 5 seconds... the likes already begin rolling in. Slowly increasing as seconds pass. Rapidly increasing by the minute. Nice.


Nobody is staring. Five minutes pass since closing the freezer door. Everyone is silent. Where to now? The freezer is shut and the photo is posted. Clearly the solution now, is to begin CRIME.


But not actually CRIME.


Smuggle.


Smuggle illegal stuff.


Technically CRIME.


Or is it.


Who knows what is really in the package. What if it's a bomb. Or perhaps drugs. Probably a bomb. But the job is real and the payment is real. Best to get that package where it needs to be on time.


The package is a small briefcase. Doesn't weigh too much. Maybe about 20 pounds at most. It'll fit perfectly within the totally not suspicious suit of armor idle next to the freezer. No one is really in the suit anyways. Brilliant plan. Zero connections leading back. The suit of armor is clearly the one carrying the illegal case. Wave of the hand opens up the suit. Easy. Looked cool too. No one in the room even saw though. But the case fits inside like a sock. Time to go to work.

Spoiler

Edonis dons his majestic metal wings and opens the door to the street. He exits the HIGHLY SECRETIVE SMUGGLING BASE FAR AWAY FROM THE MENTAL FACTION with armor in tow and whips out his phone to check the Brinkhaven map application. The delivery address specified was more than several blocks away, according to the map. Meanwhile likes on the most recent photo continue to roll in. His aesthetic is obviously very successful.


Sources (obvious advertisements throughout the city) also indicate that a faction recruitment event is currently in progress. Good news to hear. The more of them over there would mean less of them ready to crime stop throughout the rest of the city. Not that the police would just shoot Antinite bullets and absolutely destroy any criminal anyways. Fellow criminals would often share stories. Assuming the police officer with the gun pointed at them was the only threat was a fatal mistake, as casual civilian then casts fireball on criminal.


Edonis dispels the thoughts from his mind and continues toward the address, just casually walking. Acting natural. But on a quarter of the way, something matching his aesthetic catches his eye, and his camera is back out. This time his subject is a pristine pigeon, calmly resting by a bench. He thought nothing wrong with taking a short photo break. *click* He'll upload this later after some heavy editing.

Spoiler

The possible filters he could apply were endless he thought maybe the Ea-- *CLANG*


While distracted by the pigeon, Edonis' armor continued onward across the intersection into oncoming traffic. The armor has hit a car. People are screaming. Children are crying. This is not the aesthetic. This is not the aesthetic at all.

 

[Mattie]

[Liam and Jake]


Although somewhat obligated to attend the recruitment assembly as Faction members, that didn't mean either brother had to actually pay attention to what was being said and later shown. Liam watches the feed of the carnage with disinterested before pulling out his phone and idly browsing through social media. He pauses on a picture and chuckles to himself as he taps Like on a photo of a refrigerator.


It was a very nice refrigerator. Sharp, clean lines, with a smooth polished surface. The refrigerator was alone, as anything else would have detracted from the aesthetic. Liam quite liked the aesthetic. He could appreciate the photographer's aesthetic tastes. A quick tap ensures Liam will see all future pictures from that photographer--hopefully there would be more.


Jake sighs and Liam glances over quizzically, turning his phone off. In response, Jake just nods upward at the monitor. On screen, the trap had been sprung and the Factions were now taking heavy losses. Jake wished he could have been there--maybe he'd have been able to assassinate that ETG Officer that briefly appeared.


"We'll join the next raid, Jake. As much as I'd like to do this just us, we have no idea where to find them." Liam points out.


Jake nods. "Let's go?"


"Yeah, this is pretty much over." Liam answers, putting a hand on Jake's shoulder. A moment later, the two were dozens of meters away.

 

[Mercuryrose]

~Melody~





Melody stood and stared at the screen for minutes after the assembly was over. She faintly heard people yelling curses within the crowd, but she tuned them out in favor of her own thoughts. She looked around, gazing with a mixture of exhiliaration and amazement at the people using their gifts. She saw two boys disappear, among an amalgamation of other amazingly beautiful Gifts.


In all her time in England, she had never once spotted a Gifted besides her and her father. Everyone who had Gifts was in hiding like herself. But here...Everyone was free to really show who they were. It was beautiful, and it certainly wasn't Cornwall anymore.


The faction video had left her uncertain about whether she wanted to join a faction or not. Melody was no chicken, and it certainly seemed like an adventure that was like no other that Melody had ever seen. Already, the greatest adventure of her life had been nonstop ever since she stowed away on that ship to Derika. It was the best decision of her life, and she never wanted to leave.


Though the adventure of fighting the ETG seemed particularly dangerous, Melody couldn't help herself. Not only that, but she really needed the faction housing and food supply. The money she has brought from home would sustain her for a couple of days, but not nearly long enough. Perhaps she's resigning herself to being cannon fodder, but the pull was just too strong.


With that, after considering some other things such as the agenda of the factions, clothes and self still grimy from the ship's storage, Melody set off towards the Physical faction building. She had been one of the last ones left in the crowd and she had began to grow uncomfortable.

 

[DynastyFlormai]

[ Jayce ]


It was only by pure chance that Jayce had found himself stumbling into some kind of assembly after wandering the streets for a few hours. He had no idea what this was supposed to be about, but he figured there wouldn't be any harm in just sticking around to see what was going on. With a wide grin on his face, he stared intently at the speakers as they seemed to be doing some kind of recruitment rally for these factions they had. Initially, he seemed pretty pumped up as he thought he could meet some cool friends here with loaded wallets to buy some food for him. Daily life for him hadn't changed much since New York, the young man not really having any money still and having to scavenge day to day in order to feed him. Though he only hoped that most people wouldn't mind one or two apples missing from their grocery bags when they got home, but he figured it wasn't too much trouble. He'd heard about these factions, but all he really knew was they were groups of people who had similar powers. Joining them couldn't really had been that big of a deal.


That was what Jayce thought before he saw the clip that had come on screen. Staring at the screen, he felt a knot tightening in his stomach as he wished he was there so he could've helped those people before what occurred before the video had ended. The video had almost been the most shocking thing his eyes had ever been forced to watch, but he tried his best to keep himself calm. He wasn't exactly the most noble of heart, but even he knew to stand against something that was obviously so wrong. After hearing the final words of the speech, he growled a bit before going to let out a sigh. "Dammit. . . Guess we know what we gotta do, right Ralph?" he said to nobody in particular before digging his hands into his pockets and heading towards a recruitment building. In reality, he had no idea where he was going. With that said, there seemed to be others with some similar looks of determination as him and he figured if he followed them long enough, he'd wind up somewhere around the right area.

 

[beeb]

[sven]


Reaching the recruitment office for the Dimensional Faction, the doors slide open and Sven walks inside, a wave of fresh, cool air blowing over him. Wiping a bead of sweat from his brow, Sven stands at the entrance and scans his surroundings. A person waves him over from behind a desk and gestures towards a stack of papers on the table. Sven walks over and grabs a form, filling out the required information.


After he turns it in, a volunteer leads him into a small waiting room with a solid door at the end of the hallway and a door on the left. Minutes pass and the handle of the left door jiggles slightly before giving way to a young man holding a clipboard.


"Nice to meet you, uh, Sven was it?" the man asked.


"That's me," Sven replied.


The man gives Sven a brief and vague explanation of the upcoming trial.


"We'll put you in a room where you can display your Gifted abilties on training dummies and various other things."


Fair enough.


Instructed to walk through the door straight down the hallway, Sven shakes with a nervous excitement.


---


Behind the door revealed... well it didn't exactly reveal much. A spotlight shined in the presumed center of the wide room that seemed like an underground bomb shelter. Dim lights speckled the ceiling, barely penetrating the dusty air. The door slammed shut behind Sven, causing him to flinch. On the wall behind him to his left, Sven saw a glass panel that reflected the trial room. He assumed that behind the glass sat his judge, watching his every move with a keen eye.


A speaker blared,


"The first test will commence shortly."


The ground separated in the middle of the spotlight to reveal a straw dummy that seemingly resurrected from the dust.


"Destroy this target."


Sven complied, snapping his right arm out, palm facing the straw dummy. Within a second, a marine bolt of energy shot straight into the dummy, essentially causing the straw guts of the dummy to spray everywhere. Faint cinders glowed at the tips of what remained of the dummy, wisps of smoke rising towards the ceiling. Almost immediately after, training dummies rose up around him in a circle. They started moving towards Sven, with their wooden appendages stretched out. Sven stretched out his fingers before his palm glowed a brilliant blue once again. Energy raced from the symbol on his palm to the tips of his fingers before shooting out like darts. With every swipe of his hand, a bolt came out and struck a dummy. The dummies were quickly disposed of.


The speaker came on once again,


"We will now test your agility."


A loud booming sound, followed by a faint rumbling led Sven to look to his right. A wall had opened up, a crack of light permeating through the dim room. Six platforms rose up from the floor. Well abyss, because as Sven made his way over, the platforms seemed to float over a void of nothing. At the highest platform was a button on a podium. Sven got his blood racing before taking a running leap towards the first platform.


As soon as he made contact with the platform, it disappeared beneath his feet. He felt his left hand tense up in instinct as he disappeared in a bright yellow flash. Sven landed on the second platform, crouched and ready to proceed to the next platform. Previously immobile, the third, fourth, and fifth platforms slowly began to sway from side to side. Timing his jumps accordingly, Sven made it to the fifth platform in a single, fluent motion. Preparing himself for the sixth platform, he felt arrow whiz straight past his head. Turning, he saw a man standing some ways away with a bow in hand. Before he could even notch another arrow, Sven aimed and fired in the exact location of the archer, striking the bow and causing it to disintegrate. The sixth platform, in the meanwhile, had risen during the sudden confrontation. Sven was able to teleport to the sixth platform, blinking a couple of times as he pressed the button. As soon as the button was pressed, a large circular arena materialized right in front of him.


In the center was a dummy that seemed a bit more flushed out. It wielded a broadsword in one hand and a shield in the other. As soon as Sven stepped into the ring, it charged straight towards him. Caught by surprise, Sven was able to blink behind the dummy right as the sword came down where he was a split second ago. Sven held out his right hand for a couple of seconds before letting loose a blast of energy. Running around to flank the dummy while taking uneven steps, Sven threw out another pulse of energy, this time hitting the shield. The dummy charged towards Sven again, and Sven teleported behind the dummy once again. Shooting another blast, Sven missed the target and grazed the dummy's head. With relentless fervor, the dummy charged straight at Sven once again. Noticing the distance between the dummy and Sven, he held out his slightly wavering arm in the general direction of the dummy. Right as the dummy was in range to slice, Sven let loose, completely destroying the sword and causing notable damage to the shield. Sven kicked the dummy off of him before holding his hand right up to the dummy's head and shooting off a barrage of blasts until the dummy finally went limp. Sven stood up, wincing as he distributed his weight onto his left leg. With his right arm visibly tense, Sven walked towards the center of the circle.


"How'd I do?"

 

[Pixilated]

[ Asta ]


The moment Asta got into her room and got everything put away in their appropriate spot she immediately got hit with a wave of EXTREME boredom looking around the apartment room slowly as she groans weakly fixing her little scarf before she slowly stumbles over to the TV and flicks through it slowly, none of the channels seeming to catch her attention at the current moment before she sighs softly slowly standing up. Looking around she slowly began to explore her room fiddling with the hems of her coat as she pulls the curtains so the sun couldnt get in and she finally seems to relax as she sighs curiously beginning to explore her new room fully and happily-even feeding herself some of her chocolate bars she's been saving for special occasion's as she sits on the couch surrounded by the blankets she gathered around from her apartment and put on the couch. After an hour or so Asta slowly got up stretching as she licks her lips clean before she grabs her phone and stuffs it in one of her pockets and heads to her door blinking before she quickly goes to grab her key card and stuff that in a white wallet which is thus stuffed inside her pants pocket. After she made sure everything was in order she soon left her room and locked it with the key card before heading down to the lobby, the inky black smoke swirling behind her while fizzling faintly off of her as she slowly heads outside shielding her eyes to the blinding sun for a second as she curiously looks around at the large amount of people heading towards the recruitment building or blindly wandering around.

 

[beeb]

[sven]


Sven burst through the doors with a victorious grin on his face.


"I did it! I got into the faction!"


Sven fist-pumped several times.


"Oh man, I feel kinda hungry after all of that... I should go find some food to eat..."


Sven purveyed the area while walking, but was unable to find anything that caught his eye. His intense concentration on this task, however, made him liable to bumping into someone. Which he did.


"Oof- I'm sorry, uh, miss?"


The person he bumped into seemed a bit strange- then again, everyone here wasn't exactly normal. She seemed... well, short for starters. She wore a bulky white coat with a white scarf wrapped around her neck. Her hair was also pure white.

 

[IceSolstice]

((Collab with negativenull))


[Alice]


She probably said something wrong, didn’t she? Oh well, not that anyone was there to keep tabs on her ever since Clyde ran off to ask headquarters what in the world was going on. Alice figures she might as well get on with the recruiting process.


She yells over the restless, disturbed crowd, “If anyone is interested in joining the Factions, follow me!”


Alice leaps off the stage, taking flight with her nearly paper thin wings. She glances back at the crowd, smiling, and slowly hovers towards the recruitment building.


When Alice arrives at the building, she notices a sizable crowd following her. Significantly less than last year, but still a good amount. She lands on the ground and turns to look at them.


“So there is a three step process for getting recruited. You have to fill out this silly paperwork that tells us who you are. Next, is the fun part. You get to show off your Gift to the judges! Everything should already be there for you to use. If your Gift is cool enough, a mental Gifted will go through your mind to make sure you’re not a spy. Once that’s done with, you’ll be assigned a faction and get your very own Z-Watch and one of these badges!” Alice proudly shows off her physical faction badge.


“Isn’t it exciting? Although you probably won’t get your badge immediately, you’ll also get a key card for your room,” Alice continues on, almost nonstop.


“Aren’t you guys pumped for this?” Alice says excitedly while walking through the doors, not waiting for the crowd to react.


[Vix and Alice]


Vix waits for the crowd to start their various tests and thin down a bit before heading over to berate Alice for that gong show of a ceremony.


“Well if you meant to scare most of them off, mission accomplished! And you could have at least attempted some damage control, now we're probably just going to get the crazies.” she quips, questioning Alice's handling of events.


“Oh, hello, Vix!” Alice replies cheerfully, “The assembly could have gone better, but Clyde went to deal with things and told me to stay put. So I just did the usual and left it on a happy note.”


Vix fluffs up some of her slime to make eyebrows just to raise one at Alice, “Left it on a happy note... riiiight. 'You get cool badges' that totally makes up for the slaughter, my mistake.”


“Uh huh,” Alice nods sagely, “And you get to fight for justice and good!”


Alice gazes at the recruiting process thoughtfully and a smile breaks out on her face, “Hey Vix, watch this!”


Alice rushes over to submit the recruiting paperwork and cuts in line for the testing portion. When the previous person was done, she bounds in and proclaims, “My name is Alice and I can create wings!”


A pair of plastic-like wings sprout from a training dummy and slams it against a wall. Alice looks eagerly at the judges for a response.


The judges stare at her blankly. One of them tilts back their head to gaze at the ceiling, as if going ‘Why?’


After a few brief moments of awkward silence, one judge speaks up wearily, “Alice.. Please limit your whims and don’t cause any more trouble. I imagine the higher-ups would like a word with you after the recruitment assembly fiasco.”


Vix walks over and collects Alice walking her back out to the lobby, “God dammit Alice, this is supposed to be at least mildly serious. We fuck with the recruits after this part remember?”


“But I wanted to have funnnnn,” Alice complains as she’s led away by Vix, “I want to fly over the city for a bit; it’s a beautiful day outside. Want to tag along?”


“Is it going to be a repeat of last time?” Vix questions distrustingly.


“You mean the time where I flew the wooden platform you were on, spun you in circles, and tried to manually override a wall?” Alice queries.


“No I meant the other time you tried to kill me with a building.”


“Did I?” Alice tilts her head and thinks, “Maybe I did. Oh well. But I won’t do it this time, I promise!”


Vix sighs, “Fine, what will I be riding on this time?”


“A bucket!” Alice points to a large, unused custodial bucket next to a mop lying in the corner of the lobby.


“A bucket?... Well I guess it's better than something with no sides. Just no centrifuging me,” She says as she walks over and climbs in the bucket.


Alice dissolves her own butterfly wings to switch to a pair of white feathery ones and another set of wings appear on the bucket shortly after.


“Let’s goooo!” Alice exclaims, zipping out of the automatic doors and dragging the bucket with Vix alongside her.


As Alice and Vix gain altitude, a faint shout could be heard from below,


“Get back here with that bucket!”

 

[Pixilated]

[ Asta ]


Asta blinks stumbling forwards as some stranger bumped into her and she lets out a faint growl as the black smoke increases around her for a few seconds before being whisked away into the air, she tugs on the collar of her coat then adjusts her scarf looking up at the person who bumped into her, piercing red eyes staring up at him as she glares a bit before slowly seeming to relax grumbling a bit speaking in a quiet yet soft voice "Watch where you're going.....please" She adds the please on she shifts around in her shoes before tucking her hands into her pockets "I know im short but dont step on me...ill bite you if you do it again" She grumbles making a face as she looked back up at him then away before she goes to head out towards what appeared to be a map of the city on a big board(Assuming there is one near by T-T also sorry for this late response I went to a movie).

 

[Computing Magus]

After blindly walking around the place for a bit of a long while, Marcus finds the crowd of new recruits and gets a bit embarrassed to find that they were led to the recruitment buildings unlike some of the few who went to some of those already. Marcus enters the Physical recruitment building as the doors open. As he looks around, a person behind a desk points to a stack of blank forms, indicating that he should get one and fill it up. He did so and after giving it, a person comes by to lead him to another room in the recruitment building.


"Marcus, correct? I'll lead you to a room where you show us your abilities" the man briefly explains to what is going to happen.


Without another word, Marcus is now near to where he is taken. Nervous or excited or both, he doesn't care.

~~~~~~~

​

Now in a large room with training dummies, simple lighting, and other paraphernalia for what needs to do, Marcus saw someone behind a glass. This might be the person he was going to show his abilities to.


"An assortment of tests will now begin." a voice from a speaker says to him.


A training dummy in a straw like material suddenly wheels about from the side of the room. It keeps slowly moving towards him in a rather slow top speed.


"Defeat the moving dummy" the voice commands.


Looking at the dummy, he knows the right attack to initiate it with; he fumbles his left elbow using his right hand whilst walking towards the dummy, dislodging the ulna and radius from his forearm and holding this now removed weapon (therefore now holding his elbow all the way to his hand). After aiming for a second and making the left hand into a fist, Marcus throws the bone and increases its speed with his Gift, making the arm very fast. It connects with the dummy in the chest, going through and making a hole due to the powerful force from the bone. Marcus controls it and again the bone returns, flying straight back at the dummy from directly above it. It hits again, piercing the dummy all the way to the bottom of the dummy's wheels, stopping its motion. As he controls the bone to return to him, three more dummies on wheels suddenly goes straight towards him from behind, rather noisily. Luckily the bone returned first and with his right arm he swings his bone weapon at two of the dummies in a sweeping strike, destroying a lot of their straw which then removed their whole structure. He throws his bone on the last one, this time not piercing but toppling it over. He controls his bone to smash the remaining dummy. He returns the bone, attaching it back to him.





"Next, see if you can navigate around"





Suddenly, the floor adjusted into a kind of stairs like in Q*bert, squares appearing into some kind of pyramid; some going downwards like the one Marcus is standing on in accordance to the cieling. He started at the bottom and easily jumped over the first row, then almost tripping on the second. The third was impossible to jump over to, so he climbed it easily, then the fourth row took a bit of a while to climb over. The fifth had a rather immense height now but he removed his left arm, this time, the one all the way onward from the shoulder blades. Holding the left arm with his right, he reached for the top of the fifth row with some difficulty trying to climb up over it. After that, the last and only square of the sixth row looked impossibly high. He tried the method on climbing over the fifth row but only the tips of his phalanges reached it. Marcus, now trying differently, holds his left arm with his right whilst the left arm was holding his right leg. The leg acted like a hook so that he can reach farther, but he must climb fast before the foot loses grip because of his weight. After some retries with this method, he climbs the last cube successfully. Marcus then reattaches all of his bones to the right places.


The whole room's floor is now leveling to the height it used to be. Marcus felt like he was in an elevator as he stood on the highest cube going downwards. He goes to the center of the room to wait for the same voice to tell him something.

 

[beeb]

-snip-

[sven]


"Wait up!" Sven calls out, doing and awkward jog-walk towards the small girl.


"Sorry if I'm bothering you, but I was just wondering if you wanted to grab something to eat. I'm new around here and you're the first person I've talked to so far."

 

[Pixilated]

[ Asta ]


Asta made a face shifting around as she kept walking before stopping in front of the big map of the city glancing to Sven as she shifts around crossing her arms before searching the map staying quiet for a bit before she finds a diner and points towards it on the map "We'll go there" She says glancing up to him for confirmation before setting off down the road stuff her hands in her pockets again as she glances slightly back at him before looking forwards, adjusting her hair idly with her gloved hands, each time she passes under a shadow of a building the black smokey trails coming from her body would grow stronger and more apparent as it leaks and trails off her body swirling below her feet. (Last post for tonight, sorry for not replying sooner before but now I have the dreaded skool to battle.)

 

[WitchOfTape]

~Lesley Lucas~

Spoiler

<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_03/b6b7b47662b9f62b429ffa03889b3621.jpg.6c1e0d960e7b8b5f8aae682f36988aea.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="115160" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_03/b6b7b47662b9f62b429ffa03889b3621.jpg.6c1e0d960e7b8b5f8aae682f36988aea.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>

Once inside, Lucas found himself at the beginning of the line quickly forming as more Gifted flooded into the building. Sweating a bit and trying to hide nervousness, he quickly stepped over to the desk, and was indicated to the pile of paperworks. He took one to start on it, and paused, sighing before filling it out with not Lucas, not Christopher, not Amelia, but Lesley's information. Quietly, he waved over an administrator to explain what could otherwise be rather confusing. When waved to the training room to show off his Gift, he went with a noted lack of self confidence. What good was this small form of shapeshifting in combat?


Nonetheless, he entered.


Taking a moment to draw in a deep breath and make the switch to xir natural body

Spoiler

<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_03/a6bebb9cb6014225b1a2a25f6b7f8f44.jpg.085240322e614450ff99e48659e1fde1.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="115164" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_03/a6bebb9cb6014225b1a2a25f6b7f8f44.jpg.085240322e614450ff99e48659e1fde1.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>

Lesley, once done, quickly opened xir eyes and looked around. Pulling off the fake glasses and stashing them in xir backpack, fidgeting with xir clothes that no longer fit properly, xe again closed eyes to focus. Soon, muscles inflated, and when once again xir eyes opened, xe saw a dummy on wheels fast approaching. Having not heard the announcement of the beginning of the test, xe stumbled back instinctually and flailed out a leg, solidly connecting with the dummy and sending it over backwards. The wheels whirred as it tried to regain its upright position, but Lesley stumblingly ran right over it and jumped up and down on the dummy, beating it into the ground and into submission.


A voice over loudspeakers announced that the next test would be of obstacles.


Now that was a bit closer to Lesley's speed.


Soon the room had rearranged itself into a strange amalgation of shapes haphazardly tilted and smushed and collapsed all over one another, creating places to climb, gaps to squeeze through, and as xe could see through a gap, a door, which as Lesley could only assume and the loudspeakers then blared, was xir goal.


So toward it, Lesley went. Uninflating those large muscles and then shrinking to a child's body to wriggle through small spaces, lengthening arms and legs to reach high shelves on which to climb, though it took time Lesley got there with relative ease. With a slight sigh of relief and a change back to xir normal size and shape, Lesley opened the door and exited into another, where xe was tested by a mind reader. Given the go ahead, a z-watch, and a card to enter an apartment, xe left with a glad step. Before leaving the building however, it was back to Lucas. Out came the fake glasses.

Spoiler

<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_03/b6b7b47662b9f62b429ffa03889b3621.jpg.6c1e0d960e7b8b5f8aae682f36988aea.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="115160" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2016_03/b6b7b47662b9f62b429ffa03889b3621.jpg.6c1e0d960e7b8b5f8aae682f36988aea.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>

Then, while putting the watch on, Lucas exited the building.


((I'll add Gwen's part in the morning, or make a new post, depending on how many people post betwixt now and then))

 

[beeb]

[sven]


"Oookay," Sven replies, taking note of the girls adamant assertion. Sven follows her as she makes her way to the diner.


[sylvia]


Sylvia stretched in her bed, her fingertips grazing the top of the bed-frame as she let out a guttural groan. Staying still in her bed, she opened up one eye lazily and saw sunlight streaming through the open window. Turning around in bed, she closed her eyes again, and slowly dazed off to sleep...


"Oh god, FACTION RECRUITING IS TODAY!"


She sat up in bed, wiping away the drowsiness from her eyes.


---


Sylvia made her way down to the plaza, taking note of how crowded it was. She scowled at the sheer amount of people that stood around like trees. Just there to look pretty. She located the mental faction recruitment office right away and walked in, silently thanking the building for the air conditioning. Taking a form from the front desk, she sat down and completed it. Once she turned it in, she was led to a waiting room with a couple of chairs strewn about.


---


"Hello Ms. Onaire," greeted a man who entered the room. "Let me clarify once again, your gift has to do with hallucinations, correct?"


"Yes."


"Excellent. Right this way please."


The man lead Sylvia through a door into a chilly room with walls that looked as if they were bleached. The room smelled of fresh laundry, and Sylvia took in a deep breath before she looked towards the man.


"Alright. We brought in a volunteer today for you to display your gift."


A tall man with a muscular build smiled at Sylvia.


"Oh man, I'm kinda nervous as to what you have in store for me!" joked the man, who visibly seemed to be anticipating the worst. Sylvia wouldn't mess with him too much.


The judge stood in the corner of the room with two bodyguards right beside him. She needed to allow the officer to see her hallucinations as well, which explained why he was in the room with her and the test subject. The man stood in the center of the room, with Sylvia a couple of feet in front of him. They maintained eye contact for a solid 10 seconds before Sylvia blinked. In an instant, the man flinched and turned around. Indents in the wall behind them made it clear that something was breaking into the room. A sizable chunk of the wall came flying towards the man, who attempted to duck. A beady eye peered from through the hole into the room. Slowly, it crawled into the room until the entire horror stood face-to-face with the test subject. It was a pure black monster that towered 9 feet tall. Black ooze was being excreted from the surface of the large lump, and two grotesque arms on either side lay limp against the floor. Sylvia slowly stalked up to the man as the creature followed in suit. A tense minute was spent in sheer silence. Then another. Then another. Sylvia noted to herself that the man should drink a lot of water after this due to the amount of sweat that was rolling down his neck. The creature reached out an appendage and grasped on to the wrist of the man. He recoiled and yanked his back to no avail, the creature already had its grasp on him. The creature slowly trudged its way until it was nearly touching face to face with the man. Sylvia leaned forward and pushed the man with one finger, who collapsed in utter fear. In reality, the test subject had turned around to nothing, eyes filled with surprise at the blank wall. Several minutes passed before he suddenly jerked his arm backwards and stopped halfway through the motion. His eyes gazed into an unseen creature in front of him, and as soon as Sylvia made contact with the man, his knees buckled and he let out a breath that he had been holding in for quite a while.

 

[Computing Magus]

Marcus is then put in antinite cuffs, dampening his Gift to stop him from dislodging or controlling a bone but still made him move comfortably. After a mental Gifted went through his mind, he is released of the antinite cuffs then he is assigned the Physical faction which after that he was given a Z-Watch. In a breath of relief and triumph, Marcus leaves the recruitment building. He then starts heading to the Physical faction building. He couldn't quite believe he went through all those trials and managed to succeed.

 

[DynastyFlormai]

Walking quite a bit with his hands still resting in his pockets, Jayce had to really think about all the responsibilities he might get if he did end up getting accepted into the faction. It wasn't as if he was exactly opposed to having some quota or whatever in order to earn his keep but he had to say that he wasn't sure if he could get himself to take down ETG members, even if they were some of the worst people he'd ever seen. They were humans after all and the only time Jayce had found himself in that position. . . His thoughts were interrupted as he watched some lady fly overhead, herding himself and some of the other members looking to join into some nice looking building. At least nicer than most of the ones he had seen growing up in the slums. Strolling in, he was excited to hurry up and get his test over. He was excited until he saw the line that stood in front of him, making his eye visibly twitch a bit in annoyance.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It took a while, but he'd finally made it to the front of the line. Grinning widely as he moved forward with his hands proudly holding his hips, he couldn't wait before he would be given his test and accepted. Though as soon as he saw that he had to fill out a form, he couldn't help but groan loudly as he quickly rushed the details. Name? Jayce. Duh! Gender? Dude. Age? Uh. . . Maybe 19? He didn't really know that question, he just assumed that was his age. Grumbling a bit, he quickly went through the rest of the sections before he went to hand it in at the desk. Simple enough. Now bring on the action!


Soon enough, he finally got to enter the room where he was told he would get to use his abilities. That was the whole point of this thing, why did they have to make him wait so long? Rolling his shoulders quickly, he gave a wide grin as he was excited to finally get to the fun part. It wasn't often he actually got to use his powers for something fun and this would be one of the few he would savor. Taking a moment, he brought his right hand up to press against the top pad of his left glove, pushing into it a bit before a noticeable cut would appear at the center of his palm. Watching blood drip down the his arm a bit, he went to place his left fingers against the injury a bit before focusing, narrowing his eyes a bit. It was taking a few moments, but it could easily be seen that he was pulling something from the wound, a dark crimson red in color and seeming metal in appearance. Soon enough, the weapon would noticeably take form before getting hoisted up over Jayce's right shoulder. It was plain for any to see it was a scythe. Glancing back at the instructor curiously, he seemed to give a cheerful smile before going to rush at the dummy and give a hard swing diagonally, cleaving through the straw with his blood blade with relative ease before turning to run the blade through the dummy beside it next before yanking back to rip through it sideways. Stopping just short of decapitating a third one, Jayce glances back at his observer and goes to pull back on the handle of his scythe so that it leans back against his shoulder once more. Hearing that he managed to pass his test, he gives a grin before giving a thumbs up with his left hand. With his other hand, he went to slam down the scythe before letting it explode into a puddle of blood, heading out of he room soon after.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Exiting the main building with a fancy new watch on his wrist, a badge clipped to collar of his shirt, and a sweet keycard in his right pocket, Jayce knew that he certainly had it made now. Good housing, free food, and he would have others to help him probably. This was something that the blood warrior could get behind. Though now that he was officially a Faction member, he looked around in search for what he could do, feeling fairly lost in this new place.