Fandom Planar Binding (CLOSED)

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Planeswalkers..."

Corrin frowned as she rolled the word over across her tongue, trying to get a feel. someone who traversed planes? Is that what they were now? It sure would be nice if she felt anything different, apart from the....

...

Now that she concentrated on it, there... there was something different. a power running through the ground beneath her feet, coming from underneath... no from the streets themselves, from the buildings, the burnt remnants of the trees that lined the city streets they were walking. she concentrated, trying to grasp at it. For a moment, there was a glow in her hands. but it fell through her fingertips like sand and sprinkled across the road before dissipating. and she huffed. That was new. It felt... good, like channeling dragon veins. But there was something missing in its use that she couldn't figure out. Better to focus on what she could do in the now.

"Stopping the monsters sounds good, sure, but we should try and get a real sense of whats going on first, if thats even feasible; I have people important to me back home, and I need to figure out how to get back to them"

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Planeswalkers..."

Corrin frowned as she rolled the word over across her tongue, trying to get a feel. someone who traversed planes? Is that what they were now? It sure would be nice if she felt anything different, apart from the....

...

Now that she concentrated on it, there... there was something different. a power running through the ground beneath her feet, coming from underneath... no from the streets themselves, from the buildings, the burnt remnants of the trees that lined the city streets they were walking. she concentrated, trying to grasp at it. For a moment, there was a glow in her hands. but it fell through her fingertips like sand and sprinkled across the road before dissipating. and she huffed. That was new. It felt... good, like channeling dragon veins. But there was something missing in its use that she couldn't figure out. Better to focus on what she could do in the now.

"Stopping the monsters sounds good, sure, but we should try and get a real sense of whats going on first, if thats even feasible; I have people important to me back home, and I need to figure out how to get back to them"

The sight of that glow was enough to give even her pause. She stopped mid-stride, staring at Corrin's hands even after the glow had fallen and faded away. Tera briefly considered asking how she did that...but, no. That could wait. "Yes." She agreed instead with a nod. "Likewise. That is my intention." The force user resumed her walk for the conclave and the storm surrounding it, even picking up the pace significantly. Find out what is going on here, solve the crisis and get home. It sounded easy saying it like that in her mind, but it never truly played out like that in reality. Nothing in her life had ever been simple. Outthinking her former scheming master had not been. Neither was waging war against the Republic, not to mention allying with them later to ferret out conspiratorial traitors hidden among both sides. Or the whole mess with Zakuul...nothing was ever simple, cut and dry.

Maybe this could be a first time, but she doubted it.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The sight of that glow was enough to give even her pause. She stopped mid-stride, staring at Corrin's hands even after the glow had fallen and faded away. Tera briefly considered asking how she did that...but, no. That could wait. "Yes." She agreed instead with a nod. "Likewise. That is my intention." The force user resumed her walk for the conclave and the storm surrounding it, even picking up the pace significantly. Find out what is going on here, solve the crisis and get home. It sounded easy saying it like that in her mind, but it never truly played out like that in reality. Nothing in her life had ever been simple. Outthinking her former scheming master had not been. Neither was waging war against the Republic, not to mention allying with them later to ferret out conspiratorial traitors hidden among both sides. Or the whole mess with Zakuul...nothing was ever simple, cut and dry.

Maybe this could be a first time, but she doubted it.​

"Glad we're on the same page then." Corrin said with a nod as she continued walking.

There was a brief interlude of peace, as it were. The sounds of war could still be heard in most every direction, but none on the street they were walking. It gave Corrin time to think. About her strange, terrifying journey to this place, and of how worried her family on both sides must have been for her.

Her and...

...

No. That was a lie. She wasn't sure what happened to Azura, but it was of their world; it felt like magic as she knew it, not whatever this was. She hadn't just left their world, she'd been torn to-

Corrin blinked a few times, unaware that she'd been so lost in her thoughts til her eyes started to water. She shook her head swiftly. Gods, how long had she been out of it? A few seconds, minutes? They were in the middle of the sacking of a city, she couldn't lose focus like that. Those thoughts and tears needed to stay buried still. Home and who wouldn't be there when she returned didn't matter if she never did return.

One disaster at a time.

Shaking herself out of her downward reverie, she swung her eyes across their perimeter with extra attention, before glancing upwards after remembering the winged foes from earlier.

Her red eyes narrowed, senses thrumming as she barely picked them out against the cloud cover. Sure enough, there they were; a trio of them, far, far up in the sky, circling them like crows over battle lines.

"Hey, careful everyone. We're being watched, up there. You said something spoke to you through the mind of the one you got into, right? Does that mean they can see through their eyes too?"

 

[MyrtenRose]

Shaking herself out of her downward reverie, she swung her eyes across their perimeter with extra attention, before glancing upwards after remembering the winged foes from earlier.

Her red eyes narrowed, senses thrumming as she barely picked them out against the cloud cover. Sure enough, there they were; a trio of them, far, far up in the sky, circling them like crows over battle lines.

"Hey, careful everyone. We're being watched, up there. You said something spoke to you through the mind of the one you got into, right? Does that mean they can see through their eyes too?"

She stopped at the warning, briefly shooting a glance over at the barefoot warrior before following her line of sight and staring up towards the creatures. "......I would like to be able to say I sure hope they can not-" She admitted. "-but if I had to place a wager, I would say there's a good chance they can. If that is the case, well any element of surprise we may have had might be gone. Though, of course, just because they are expecting us does not necessarily mean they'll be ready for us. We took care of the last batch handily." Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the circling trio way above them.

"I don't suppose you could get us up there, could you?" She questioned Corrin. "I don't much like pests hovering about. Three of them, three of us, each of us takes one down. Unless you want to take them all out, that is. You're the flying one." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Corrin coughed and glanced to the side as she rubbed the back of her head with the hand not holding her blade.

"Oh, uh... I... I can't actually... fly. I can jump really high and kinda control my descent but I never really... learned...."

She trailed off, feeling weirdly embarassed about it.

"I'm the only dragon I know, okay? And its not like pegasusi can talk, or teach me..."

 

[MyrtenRose]

Corrin coughed and glanced to the side as she rubbed the back of her head with the hand not holding her blade.

"Oh, uh... I... I can't actually... fly. I can jump really high and kinda control my descent but I never really... learned...."

She trailed off, feeling weirdly embarassed about it.

"I'm the only dragon I know, okay? And its not like pegasusi can talk, or teach me..."

".......But.....you have wings...."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

".......But.....you have wings...."​

She crossed her arms and turned her head upwards to glower at the winged dreadhorders above, annoyed both at the force wielder and the ones above making it look so easy despite being literally covered in rocks.

"Were you born knowing how to walk? No? I've only known I was part dragon for a few months, cut me some slack please..."

 

[MidwayLives]

"Thats strange. Mine tried to kill me right before I was taken too. My sister tried to stop him, and..."

Ink's eyes dimmed ever so slightly.

Strange as it was that they'd both had a sibling willing to kill them, Ink was glad the kid at least had someone in her corner.

It'd felt as though to Ink that after a certain point, his brothers pushed for a degree of separation from him. Buried deep down there was still some love if the fact that Zeke seemed reluctant to actually make the kill to begin with, but Ink just couldn't understand his siblings. They agreed that the situation, present as it'd been for centuries, was untenable and cruel to those with Gifts. But they didn't have to deal with the stares that he got. Zeke, the closest amongst his siblings could at least create a glamour that'd allowed him to nearly flawlessly pass for a normal.

All of Ink's attempts at glamours came out wrong. Missing skin, bones exposed, eyes wouldn't shift over. Just a flaw of his biology-being a Surprise had it's advantages as well as it's disadvantages. Add in the fact that he absolutely despised having to even try to wear a glamour in the first place and you didn't have a winning combination. That's all a glamour was at the end of the day: a mask over the real him. The reality that no normals would ever want to accept. No amount of progress or backroom deals would make them stomach having to look at someone like Ink day in and day out. They'd rather walk away entirely.

Zeke would have killed Ink, likely felt miserable about it, but life would have moved on. Multi would have remained the group's 'baby brother who could do no wrong' and Ink would just be remembered as 'the brother we loved...but it was too bad he just couldn't BE like us....'

It made him sad, sadder than he would have liked to admit.

"...In any case, I get it. But don't treat them so harshly. neither of us are exactly normal." she said with a wan frown, one of her hands twisting in on itself to become a pair of talons instead before they shifted back.

"Yeah..."

'At least you can turn back' Ink thought but didn't say.

Better to let it be unspoken.

"no matter our intentions, if these other creatures also weren't from here, we can't really blame them for being suspicious of outsiders. But thank you. Genuinely. Until we get our footing here, we're going to be the only friends we've got" she said to his agreement to sticking together.

Ink blinked, genuinely taken aback by Corrin's words.

'Friends...?'

That got a less morose sound out of Corrin finally as she snorted. "You're fine. I spent the last 9 months in a war camp. Not many words I haven't heard, or been called myself." Not that she'd ever use them herself, she wasn't raised that way, and Takumi had teased her once trying to get her to drop the f-rock and snickering at the failure.

Assuming they were all speaking continental, anyways. That was still confusing, that they all understood each other so clearly.

She kept the pace at a jog once she saw Ink was letting her set the pace, until they reached Tera. "So where are we going? What did you find out?"

"War camp, huh? Went from living in a trashy hovel with military agents as a kid, brought to a 'camp' for Gifted teenagers, and lived on a military base as an adult. Glad we have something else in common besides our looks, huh?" Ink said with a soft laugh.

Been a hot minute since he'd been able to do that and feel it was warranted.

The last time he'd laughed, it'd nearly been the last thing he did as an explosion went off in his face.

"That woman back there gave me the full name. Jace Belaran. Apparently, he's a famous man. Or infamous. Everyone knows him around here, at any rate. A former guildmaster of something called Azorius."

"Azorius, Jace, Ravinia...What's up with all these weird names..."

As for the fool quip, Black Ink shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm fool enough to apply."

"I don't suppose you could get us up there, could you?" She questioned Corrin. "I don't much like pests hovering about. Three of them, three of us, each of us takes one down. Unless you want to take them all out, that is. You're the flying one."

She trailed off, feeling weirdly embarassed about it.

"I'm the only dragon I know, okay? And its not like pegasusi can talk, or teach me..."

While Tera and Corrin bickered, off in the background Black Ink looked up, squinted his eyes, hopped from foot to foot.

He held out his left arm, curled his fingers up like he was going to grab something.

His elf-like ears twitched, and he raced towards the nearest building and hopped up with a 'umph!', his feet cracking the roof tiles. He shot both arms out towards the closest thing to a chimney or roof topping that these buildings may have had. He dug his claws in hard enough to crack the brick or stone and started running back right to the edge of the building, still looking over his shoulder to try and keep an eye on the general 'area' these things were floating around in. As his claws scraped and screeched, he grinned.

"Perfect."

He uncoiled his limbs and launched himself through the sky. Anyone nearby would have seen the strange sight of a dreadhorde sailing through the air, stretchy limbs flailing around like limp noodles, the strong scent of oil wafting through the air. Ink had loved the idea in practice but he'd misaimed how much 'power' he was going to have to put into the initial launch. He DID clear the cloudline...but went above it, sailing past the dreadhorde. Which hadn't exactly been the goal now had it? Running a clawed finger across the chin of his new helmet, Ink took note of the fact that he was now falling through the sky at a very rapid pace and reacted accordingly.

"improviseimproviseIMPROVISEEEEEEE!!!"

Much like Corrin and Tera, Black Ink couldn't fly. But he could definitely improvise, and this was about as much improv as he could think of. Grab onto one of these things, let it pull him into the sky, and go from there. What was the worst that could happen if he fell? That he'd go splat? Been there done that. As he continued to descend, he lashed out with both claws to try and grab onto the nearest Dreadhorde and pull himself over to it's back. In theory he'd be able to hang onto this one to stay aloft and take care of the other two accordingly. In practice though, he was also very likely to smash his head against this one's stony body and and drag it down with him.

He was optimistic though! : )

 

[MyrtenRose]

She crossed her arms and turned her head upwards to glower at the winged dreadhorders above, annoyed both at the force wielder and the ones above making it look so easy despite being literally covered in rocks.

"Were you born knowing how to walk? No? I've only known I was part dragon for a few months, cut me some slack please..."

"Okay, okay. It is fine, we can still make this work. How far up do you think you can jump, I should be able to give you a telekinetic push to carry you the rest of the way--"​

While Tera and Corrin bickered, off in the background Black Ink looked up, squinted his eyes, hopped from foot to foot.

He held out his left arm, curled his fingers up like he was going to grab something.

His elf-like ears twitched, and he shot his arm upwards like a harpoon gun.

The stretchy limb pierced through the cloudline, hooking his claws in, and off he went.

"Ooph!"

Much like Corrin and Tera, Black Ink couldn't fly. But he could definitely improvise, and this was about as much improv as he could think of. Grab onto one of these things, let it pull him into the sky, and go from there. What was the worst that could happen if he fell? That he'd go splat? Been there done that.

"......." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"I... I'm not sure. I've never measured. but pretty high, past the roofs here, but I'd still be well short of- oh"

Corrin watched Ink launch into the air like a rocket. The aven dreadhorders likewise watched, either uncaring or simply not aware of just how far he was going to be able to go, and more importantly, reach

"...SHOOT PAST THE FIRST ONE" Corrin yelled, before her body began to glow and twist in on itself.

Ink's hand latched onto the front breastplate of one of them, and momentum worked from there; pulling Ink rapidly upwards and his victim straight down. assuming he listened to Corrin, letting go at the right time sent him rocketing up towards the other two, who in somewhat disoriented fashion merely pointed their spears downwards to try and meet his airborne charge, while the third started to right itself in the air only to get hit by the tackle of a dragon; Corrin had leaped into the air and off the side of one of the taller buildings, after wrapping Tera in her tail. She caught the aven in a crushing grip and spun herself like a top in mid-air, releasing Tera from her tail's grip to send her flying up towards where Ink and the other two Avens were about to collide.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"...SHOOT PAST THE FIRST ONE" Corrin yelled, before her body began to glow and twist in on itself.

Ink's hand latched onto the front breastplate of one of them, and momentum worked from there; pulling Ink rapidly upwards and his victim straight down. assuming he listened to Corrin, letting go at the right time sent him rocketing up towards the other two, who in somewhat disoriented fashion merely pointed their spears downwards to try and meet his airborne charge, while the third started to right itself in the air only to get hit by the tackle of a dragon; Corrin had leaped into the air and off the side of one of the taller buildings, after wrapping Tera in her tail. She caught the aven in a crushing grip and spun herself like a top in mid-air, releasing Tera from her tail's grip to send her flying up towards where Ink and the other two Avens were about to collide.

She was so focused on observing Ink's rapid ascent that took him...right past his targets, that she entirely missed what Corrin was currently doing. Their brief argument was no longer even on her mind, and she would have facepalmed at Ink somehow missing the targets if it was not for the sudden tail wrapping around her. "H-hey what are--" She briefly stammered, now completely missing Ink's more successful descent. Tera caught on to the plan before she could utter one more syllable, instead using that time to take a deep breath to ready herself.

The moment she was released from the tail, she pushed off to give herself even more momentum, taking her just close enough to the two remaining Avens for her to reach out and pull them with the force. She only did so with one, however, choosing to trust that Ink would have the last one handled. The former sith rose through the air, hand stretched out...and then sharply pulled back. The aven got yanked closer accordingly, and as soon as it was in range, Tera lashed out in swift fashion with a lightsaber slice, severing the thing into halves with one stroke.

She took hold of the closer half, crouching atop it for a few seconds as it plummeted towards the ground. Almost...almost........there! She jumped off her impromptu perch with a confident grin, enjoying the rush of the wind through her hair as she descended, her second lightsaber igniting mid-fall to join the first...

...and once comfortably back on the ground, straightened up and lifted her gaze skyward again to make sure her faith in Ink wasn't misplaced.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Corrin, letting go at the right time sent him rocketing up towards the other two, who in somewhat disoriented fashion merely pointed their spears downwards to try and meet his airborne charge,

Thanks to the armor he'd procured, Ink had expected it to do a better job. Not that he really needed whatever protection it could have possibly afforded him.

He failed to understand at first that due to the fact that he was falling so quickly + the momentum, the spear tip pierced through his armor. But that was just fine by him. He'd only grabbed the armor just to try and put anyone who may have seen him at ease. Less people giving him and by extension their little group was for the better.

As far as 'getting back home' though? Ink wasn't so sure on that.

He could still remember Zeke's cold blue eyes staring him down...

Loathe as he was to admit it, he couldn't stand up to his brother. In fact, he was downright terrified at the idea. Getting frozen and suffocating/dying of exposure sounded like an absolutely horrifying way to go. Which is why he'd been glad that for most of their time together, the two had been on the same side. Only to have it all for naught after Multi had coldly betrayed Ink for his own personal gain.

Reaching out to grab the wings of the Horde that'd skewered him, Ink's eyes shined bright enough to possibly blind. He couldn't fight back against his big brother but he could kill THIS thing. He roared and moved to rip the wings off. Which meant that the two of them were heading straight down. In contrast to Tera's far more graceful landing-

*CRASH*

Ink's was a touch less so.

He held a hand up to signify that he was, indeed, okay though!

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

There wasn't anything fancy to Corrin's own kill; She kept the Dreadhorde pointed towards the ground and flapped her wings once for extra downward momentum, and the was a satisfying cacophony of cracks as the street and the lazurite shielding and powering the creature shattered in tandem. She looked up to see Tera land with some grace, then gasped as she saw Ink and his own victim crash to the ground like a pair of dropped rocks.

'INK!' her mind shouted as she galloped in his direction, transforming mid lope into her human form and stumbling slightly before skidding to a halt by his side. the lazurite he'd commandeered for himself had also shattered in places, the torso and left arm losing all structure and falling to crumbs around his crumpled form "are you-!"

He held a hand up to signify that he was, indeed, okay though!

Her hands rested on her knees and she let out a sigh of relief, and started to reach over to help him up, but before her hand could reach his own, she fell over herself with a sharp intake of breath.

She was laughing.

It hurt miserably with her side still wounded, every sharp breath like a dagger in her gut, but she couldn't help it, her breaths coming out in short, huffy giggles as she curled in on herself partially from the pain and partially from being unable to keep her footing.

"hee, hee- ow, ow, t-that, that was not conventional warfare, haha, ow, h-"

"It certainly wasn't. Not even for planeswalkers."

Her laughs cut short in an instant as the new voice suddenly emerged. She rolled to her feet in an instant, her sword in hand and its edge beginning to glow a slight blue as she looked towards the source with a wariness born not out of hostility, but of just how easily this newcomer had just.... appeared.

He stood in the shadows of one of the larger buildings, an alleyway empty save for his presence. He looked ancient, leathery, sun darkened skin mostly hidden beneath a heavy, simple brown robe. a messy but voluminous white beared dominated much of his face, but what drew the attention there were his eyes; They were stars. Not just a star in each; they were constellations, twinkling and ever so slightly moving. Corrin's own widened, unable to keep herself from staring, as the stranger took a single step forward with the assistance of a strange, metallic staff topped with a spiral of the metal that gripped a misshapen blue cyrstal.

"Not so much in what happened-" he continued, his voice strong and deep despite his frail appearance and movements. "-But in the execution. You did not use a single drop of mana to do any of that."

"A... a drop of what?" Corrin asked, slowly rising from her almost feral crouch, though she did not sheathe her blade

"Mana, child. The lifeblood of all creation. Or, in your cases... most creation"

 

[MyrtenRose]

"On the crash-landing scale, top marks." Tera commented dryly as she jogged on over herself, in complete contrast to Corrin's initial concern over Ink's more than a little rough landing. He had gotten himself up there on his own, after all and she doubted he would have done such a maneuver if he was not able to endure the subsequent descent back down to the ground. She offered her own hand up when Corrin's fell short because of her sudden fit of laughing. A somewhat infectious laugh that got an earnest smile and a chuckle or two. Yes, that sure hadn't been conventional by any...

She blinked, staring down at her hand. Her now very sticky hand. She supposed she should have expected that much but in the heat of the moment, she had failed to. Tera pulled her hand back after Ink was up, raising it up to just under her nose and taking a sniff...oh yes. That smell would linger for some time. She had some mild regret for offering that hand now. But only mildly, and that feeling didn't last very long. Not after a new voice announced his presence. Like Corrin, she too assumed a wary combat stance, but she didn't move from where she stood. She simply studied the individual with narrowed eyes.

It was not the signs of his age, or his plain outfit, or his impressively sized beard that drew the most attention from her. It was his own eyes. They were unlike any she'd seen before, not even the exotic eyes of the Voss or Vitiate's own all black eyes could compare. They shined like stars. Many stars. It was an admittedly ethereally beautiful sight. She made no comment on it, though, her gaze briefly shifting to look over the staff he carried. It was adorned with a crystal, which reminded her a bit more of home.

Her stare returned back to those eyes soon enough, still remaining locked in her combat stance. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at his words. That sounded familiar. Very much so. "Mana...is that your word here for the force?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

That got an amused hum from the old man before he shook his head.

"No. Nothing of the sort. It bears similarities, of course. But mana is not the force, nor dragon veins, nor gifted. All powers of singular planes, be the oddities or evertyhing. Mana coalesces in every plane. You've just never been privy to it til now."

There was something off about the man's tone, Corrin realized. Despite answering the question, and as hard as it was to tell, he wasn't looking at any of them, nor was he talking to them. It sounded more like he was talking to himself.

"You're special, you know. The first planeswalkers of the outer planes. I'm quite proud of that. Outdid even old Sorin's games, only to get caught up in that blasted dragon's." he said, brow lowering into a glare by the end

"..The what? who? do you mean me???" Corrin asked, feeling lost.

The ground beneath their feet rumbled slightly, and Tera likewise realized something strange; there was no mind to accompany this figure's form, nothing that she could reach out to.

"I'm here to warn you, of a sort." the man continued, ignoring Corrin's question. "The dragon hasn't realized his general isn't as leashed as he'd like, and you lot are a grand waste of time in the making; lost as you are, as little chance of making any difference here as you have, you're oddities, variables, and enough of an excuse for that witch-"

-The ground shook more violently, and to the east the sound of something crashing through stone on a massive scale could be heard-

"To send after you what would get in the way of those who are in the know, splitting resources that didn't need to be split. Clever plan, nice little ruse that might be the straw that breaks old Bolas' back. But I don't need her breaking mine in the process. So;"

He finally met their eyes; or so it felt. All three of them seemed to see him staring at them directly at the same time as his irrititaed tone turned ever so warm and polite.

"Make sure at least one of you doesn't die, please. God-eternal or not, He burns like all the others. And don't breath the mist"

Then as swiftly as he was there, the man was gone. Corrin wheeled wildly, scarlet eyes wide and pointed ears straining, but there wasn't a trace of him left.

The rumbling grew much louder.

 

[MyrtenRose]

A hidden source of power that existed everywhere, that she had never even known about? The first impulse she had was to label it utter nonsense. There's no way such a thing would have escaped her notice, would have escaped everyone back home's notice. Mana, lifeblood of creation this stranger called it. Vitiate had lived for well over a millennium. The Jedi grandmaster had seen more of the galaxy in 20 years than most have in their whole lifetimes. Dozens if not hundreds of people who knew well the mysteries of the force, the secrets of the galaxy...surely somebody would have picked up on this if it were true. And yet, what she experienced getting here defied any power of the force she knew about, there was just no explaining it. Not to mention that creepy amused voice, and the way those things had turned on them immediately when their presence became known, and that word...planeswalkers...

He repeated it. He'd called them the first of the outer planes. Tera glanced to Corrin and then Ink in turn. Were these two just from...other galaxies out there? It wouldn't be a complete shock, who could say what kind of mysteries existed in the furthest reaches, out in wild space and beyond? That much she could at least comprehend. The rest? That was cryptic as anything could be.

More names and titles, Sorin, the dragon, his general, Bolas, references to schemes and plans that just flew right over her head...it didn't feel like they were even being addressed directly with this. She reached out with her senses, could feel Corrin and the pain running through her, and then there was Ink, and herself, but with this being, there was nothing. "......" By the force, this place was going to give her such a headache. This impossible conundrum.

In the end, it was just a demand that at least one of them stay alive no matter what comes, a note that some eternal god burns just like the rest, and a recommendation to not breath the mist.

...WHAT THE KRIFF DOES THAT MEAN???

Then the man was just gone. Disappeared in an instant without even so much as giving a name...though she suspected one. Not that she had time to give voice to her suspicions. The ground was moving beneath their feet like the groundquakes of Makeb, and it was getting louder with every second. She glanced back and forth between the other two. "I am very lost right now as well, but I do not have to use the force to sense that there's something bad coming and I'm not so sure we want to be here to find out what it is."​

 

[MidwayLives]

'INK!' her mind shouted as she galloped in his direction, transforming mid lope into her human form and stumbling slightly before skidding to a halt by his side. the lazurite he'd commandeered for himself had also shattered in places, the torso and left arm losing all structure and falling to crumbs around his crumpled form "are you-!"

Such concern..

It befuddled him.

Had she really meant it when she'd said they were friends?

...

He'd have to keep going to find out.

No doubt about it.

She offered her own hand up when Corrin's fell short because of her sudden fit of laughing. A somewhat infectious laugh that got an earnest smile and a chuckle or two. Yes, that sure hadn't been conventional by any...

Ink accepted the hand as it was offered to him. His claws closed around the hand and he shot out of the remains of his armor like a pogo stick. His hand snapped free from Tera's own and retracted back to it's normal length at Ink's side with a somewhat unsettling sloshing noise. As he landed and dug his feet into the ground to slow his momentum and come to a halt, he slowly looked up at the two women..

...With a smile at the ready that was all teeth.

"Unconventional, smehventional! I've never felt so...So...me! Shooting myself into the sky like an artillery round, dropping back down like a stone! Where are the rest of the assholes we're gonna have to fight while we're stuck here, huh??" Ink stomped his foot and flexed his arms. "I'M READY FOR EM!!!"

But then another voice entered in, disrupting the cute little trio dynamic they'd had going for a hot minute there.

"Who the hell are-"

He stood in the shadows of one of the larger buildings, an alleyway empty save for his presence. He looked ancient, leathery, sun darkened skin mostly hidden beneath a heavy, simple brown robe. a messy but voluminous white beared dominated much of his face, but what drew the attention there were his eyes; They were stars. Not just a star in each; they were constellations, twinkling and ever so slightly moving. Corrin's own widened, unable to keep herself from staring, as the stranger took a single step forward with the assistance of a strange, metallic staff topped with a spiral of the metal that gripped a misshapen blue cyrstal.

Though he was loathe to admit it, those eyes frightened him.

In a way he'd doubted would make much sense to his erstwhile companions. At least without a chance to sit down and explain it.

But whether it was the dismally dark depths of the ocean, or a landscape ravaged by blue flames, the general 'unknown' scared Ink. Possibly visiting another planet someday was one thing, humanity had gone to the moon after all! But the cold void of space. No sound, nothing but your own thoughts. It all came together and left him fiercely unsettled about the geezer's eyes.

...Which he got across by not-so-subtly stepping behind Corrin, his posture lowered with his head slumped down and his shoulders slacking. Looking less like an oil/tar laden beastman and more like a youth hiding behind his older sister. "...don't like the geezer's eyes..."

"No. Nothing of the sort. It bears similarities, of course. But mana is not the force, nor dragon veins, nor gifted. All powers of singular planes, be the oddities or evertyhing. Mana coalesces in every plane. You've just never been privy to it til now."

Ink had heard of 'The Force' but he'd be damned if he could remember where. Somewhere....

Corrin was an oddity now that he'd learned that she could just shift between dragon and person as she wished. Something a majority of Gifted, both of the Mutation and Surprise variety would have killed for.

But other planes, other worlds?

It made his head hurt. This was a pain in the ass to wrap his oily self around. Where was the next thing to kill? He understood how to do that perfectly well.

He finally met their eyes; or so it felt. All three of them seemed to see him staring at them directly at the same time as his irrititaed tone turned ever so warm and polite.

"Make sure at least one of you doesn't die, please. God-eternal or not, He burns like all the others. And don't breath the mist"

Then as swiftly as he was there, the man was gone. Corrin wheeled wildly, scarlet eyes wide and pointed ears straining, but there wasn't a trace of him left.

The rumbling grew much louder.

Ink clasped a hand on Corrin's shoulder and pointed defiantly at the old man.

His cheek pressed against Corrin's as he shouted.

"YEAH??? WELL, WE'RE ALL GONNA SURVIVE AND JOKE'S ON YOU. I DON'T NEED TO BREATHE!"

Ink waited until the man was gone to step back and mutter, a touch more softly.

"well actually that's a lie i do need to breathe. but hey, we sure showed him didn't we?"

Then the man was just gone. Disappeared in an instant without even so much as giving a name...though she suspected one. Not that she had time to give voice to her suspicions. The ground was moving beneath their feet like the groundquakes of Makeb, and it was getting louder with every second. She glanced back and forth between the other two. "I am very lost right now as well, but I do not have to use the force to sense that there's something bad coming and I'm not so sure we want to be here to find out what it is."

"So...what?? Do we just keep running then?? Hope that this Jace guy can help us out??"

Unless they ended up having to kill HIM too.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Such concern..

It befuddled him.

Had she really meant it when she'd said they were friends?

...

He'd have to keep going to find out.

No doubt about it.



Ink accepted the hand as it was offered to him. His claws closed around the hand and he shot out of the remains of his armor like a pogo stick. His hand snapped free from Tera's own and retracted back to it's normal length at Ink's side with a somewhat unsettling sloshing noise. As he landed and dug his feet into the ground to slow his momentum and come to a halt, he slowly looked up at the two women..

...With a smile at the ready that was all teeth.

"Unconventional, smehventional! I've never felt so...So...me! Shooting myself into the sky like an artillery round, dropping back down like a stone! Where are the rest of the assholes we're gonna have to fight while we're stuck here, huh??" Ink stomped his foot and flexed his arms. "I'M READY FOR EM!!!"

But then another voice entered in, disrupting the cute little trio dynamic they'd had going for a hot minute there.

"Who the hell are-"



Though he was loathe to admit it, those eyes frightened him.

In a way he'd doubted would make much sense to his erstwhile companions. At least without a chance to sit down and explain it.

But whether it was the dismally dark depths of the ocean, or a landscape ravaged by blue flames, the general 'unknown' scared Ink. Possibly visiting another planet someday was one thing, humanity had gone to the moon after all! But the cold void of space. No sound, nothing but your own thoughts. It all came together and left him fiercely unsettled about the geezer's eyes.

...Which he got across by not-so-subtly stepping behind Corrin, his posture lowered with his head slumped down and his shoulders slacking. Looking less like an oil/tar laden beastman and more like a youth hiding behind his older sister. "...don't like the geezer's eyes..."



Ink had heard of 'The Force' but he'd be damned if he could remember where. Somewhere....

Corrin was an oddity now that he'd learned that she could just shift between dragon and person as she wished. Something a majority of Gifted, both of the Mutation and Surprise variety would have killed for.

But other planes, other worlds?

It made his head hurt. This was a pain in the ass to wrap his oily self around. Where was the next thing to kill? He understood how to do that perfectly well.



Ink clasped a hand on Corrin's shoulder and pointed defiantly at the old man.

His cheek pressed against Corrin's as he shouted.

"YEAH??? WELL, WE'RE ALL GONNA SURVIVE AND JOKE'S ON YOU. I DON'T NEED TO BREATHE!"

Ink waited until the man was gone to step back and mutter, a touch more softly.

"well actually that's a lie i do need to breathe. but hey, we sure showed him didn't we?"


"So...what?? Do we just keep running then?? Hope that this Jace guy can help us out??"

Unless they ended up having to kill HIM too.

Corrin was disconcerted by the sudden closeness and edged away slightly out of reflex, but that final comment got a nervous laugh out of her as she glanced towards the sound of the crashing.

"I don't think we showed much, and I'm... totally lost as well. but we're gonna have to show something here if that thing's as big as it sounds. and I don't think hiding's going to be an option-"

There was a final, thunderous crash as something demolished a building farther down the street as it bulldozed through it.

It was covered in the same blue stone as the rest of the dreadhorde, but it was much larger; as tall as some of the buildings on the street. A snake's body and skeletal head, it bore arms on either side like that of a humans, which held a bright golden scythe in its hand that was bladed on both ends. A halo of gold surrounded its head, and more gold plating floated around it to form a viper's hood. empty sockets like the other eternals nonetheless turned towards them, clearly perceiving was was meant to be its prey.

It had not arrived alone; a quartet of soldiers riding on what corrin recognized as pegasus' had moved in hot pursuit, either chasing as its own prey or keeping tabs on it after it left another battle, but they were not long for this world; one rider, a human dressed in red and golds, urged his steed into a downward diving charge, a battlecry upon his lips.

The creature turned and hissed, the first time any of them had seen a member of the dreadhorde breathe. It billowed out a cloud of brackish green moisture that enveloped the rider and its comrades up in the air. immeidately, the battle cry was replaced by a chorus of screams.

a few moments later, eight skeletal figures dropped out of the sky, their now bones shattering on across the tops of buildings and the streets below.

"NO!" corrin shouted; she couldn't help herself. There was nothing they could've done for them, but too much the last year had been spent as the desperate defender against horrific invaders that she couldn't help but feel a terrible sympathy for the soldiers she otherwise knew nothing about, and as the God-Eternal Rhonas slowly turned its attention back towards the trio, the dragon princess snarled, her eyes flaring a brighter red as she stood up straight despite her wounds and raised her sword, the edges glowing bright blue, towards the creature in a challenging salute.



"Neither of you have to stay. I can hold it here. But if thats what these people have to face this monster, then I can't leave them to it."

The image of that... thing breathing down a crowded street, down the street where they'd arrived consuming the father and daughter, the couple who'd directed them, wasbe too much to bear. It'd be a fine death, if this was it, an escape from this confusion and turmoil. A faster reunion with her.

"I'm staying."

 

[MyrtenRose]

"......" There was a definite time in her life when she would have taken off immediately after hearing those words. She would have done it gladly too, with a smile on her face and everything. A view far too often expressed amongst the Sith: every person for themselves. Too many apprentices and aspiring lords took that attitude to heart, and she had once been counted among that number, shameful as it was now to admit. Putting yourself above everything else was a flaw that weakened the Empire as a whole. Malgus, Baras, Thanaton, on and on. Infighting, scheming and endless power plays among the Sith did just as much if not more damage than the Jedi and the Republic did. It was a foolish way to live.

That much, she now recognized. The younger her would have cut and run and laughed maliciously about the idiots who were giving their lives to fight that thing, all to save people they'd never even met. But she wasn't that person any longer. She had not been that person for years now. After the Eternal Empire invaded, after the Republic and her Empire were defeated, after she awoke from those 5 years frozen in carbonite and saw the galaxy had changed without her, she realized that she too needed to change. To evolve.

She was thrust into the position of Commander of the alliance, the rebellion that formed and grew to take down Arcann and the Eternal Empire. She no longer commanded only lower-ranking Sith and Imperial soldiers, now there were Jedi and Republic soldiers and smugglers and bounty hunters and scientists and Mandalorians and other force sensitive groups that all looked to her to lead them. The experience taught her much. They all taught her much.

Enough so that at some point, she was called out by her birthname of Tera far more often than by her former Darth title or even Wrath, as many had nicknamed her. And she grew more used to that, even preferred it quite frankly. Just another sign that she had changed significantly.

So when Corrin made her intentions clear and declared that she would stand her ground to fight that thing...well. There was only one real choice as far as she was concerned. Tera stepped up next to the barefoot warrior, though after witnessing that awkwardness just a few seconds earlier, did not intrude into the dragon's personal space. "Sorry..." The former Sith said even though she wasn't really sorry. "...but if you're staying? Then I am too. I will not abandon allies to face this fight alone." Her sabers ignited by her sides as she glanced towards Ink. "If you are going to, however, now is the time to go."​

 

[MidwayLives]

Ink watched the destruction that the beast and it's forces wrought.

He closed his eyes and exhaled through his nasal slits.

It reminded him too much of himself. Massacring people who had no chance of stopping him, fighting back, or even realizing just what they'd done wrong. The only crime they'd committed having been merely seeing Black Ink or any of his adoptive siblings. To preserve the secret was important above all else. Decency, kindness, the act of mercy itself. For years Ink had gladly accepted his role as his unit's cleaner. Disposing of any stragglers in areas where they operated. Families that refused to leave when the government published false stories like a gas leak in the area or a dangerous indivudal was on the loose.

No, the only dangerous ones were the ones that the government had kidnapped/raised to act as their living weapons under their own penalty of death. Ink was just willing to play ball and accept his lot in life when his brothers had been far more reluctant/resistant to the government's reach as they got older and were able to form their own thoughts and opinions rather than blindly following orders because it'd been expected of them.

Maybe it was just by chance that he'd ended up here. That he'd bumped into these two women. Lord knows his luck with any ladies that wasn't paid for by Uncle Sam's funding was absymal at best, non-existent at worse. Above all else, they'd showed some degree of care for him. Something that'd actually surprised him and still couldn't really be believed. It blew his mind frankly speaking. As much as he would have been fine leaving this town to it's fate, horrifying as it may have been, being that he'd done terrible things to communities in his own world in accordance with the unspoken law. He just couldn't do it. Not this time, not when both of them had decided to stick to their guns and do whatever it took to bring this beast down.

"Alright. I'm convinced."

Ink opened his mouth as wide as he could manage and inhaled as much air as he could. Closing his mouth, he clenched his hands up and suddenly he'd looked less like a lanky creature and more like a built bodybuilder with his upper torso growing in musculature. It'd taken YEARS of practice and hard work (plenty of sleepless nights when you didn't HAVE to sleep or have any friends to bother sleeping to hang out with the next day) but Ink had fine-tuned control of his body to the point that he wasn't JUST limited to simply stretching his limbs. Literally puffing himself up to increase and better define the output of his strength into individual parts of his body was one of the many fruits of all that labor. As he'd told one of the Crusaders during their bout: 'I don't know why you even bother. I can outrun AND outmuscle you!'

Placing both hands on the ground, Ink glanced back at Corrin, then over to Tera.

"See how big that thing is? Buy me a bit of time and I'll get just as big. If not even bigger. Get this fog breathing ****** someone his own size to play with." Both of his companions could have seen tar seeping out from under Ink's palms and absorbing the ground it covered, Ink growing taller little by little as his body took in additional mass to size himself up. It wasn't something he typically enjoyed doing unless his back was against the wall. Trying to keep control of his more primal instincts while the size of a building or two wasn't the easiest thing in the world and it may have very well played a part in the Crusaders getting one over on him by exploiting his condition before he'd realized what'd happened.

"let's kill this fucker."

 

[Indolent]

There wasn't anything to try remembering in the moments before the fall through the infinite expanses of space and time.

Yet again, conflict with another god arose and wove itself into the tapestry of his own life, an all too familiar and inexorable happenstance that he made every concerted effort to avoid. Only to have the illusion of the choice dashed, the real thing utterly robbed from the Spartan as he was forced to face the circumstances. That only ultimately started with what was a ritual of grieving and a prepared farewell for his departed wife, with their only son at his side for it all.

The last thing Kratos remembered was the tapered spire of stone in his abdomen provoking the dull ache of pain so familiar to him, the maniacal laugh of a god ringing in sharp disharmony against the thrumming of his head as he was crushed against a pillar of stone. He managed a solitary word under it all that brimmed with fear as much as it did love before the black took him and was replaced by the ethereal qualities of an unyielding expansive plane that made Yggdrasil's depths seem infinitesimal.

"Atreus...!"

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

To call it a blur would be only physically accurate yet all that happened since his arrival reflected clear as crystal in his mind's eye.

His arrival to this... place... was met by the undead clad in blue, somewhat not apart from the draugr that seemed to herald Ragnarok within his own realm. The difference was, the dead back home raged against the living in a macabre mix of envy, sadism, and a vengeful madness as they denied the Valkyries their purview and thereby doomed themselves to wander hence. These here were orchestrated in their movements, their condition being by design made abundantly clear to him.

Particularly with how they coldly slaughtered the denizens of this realm like livestock before they took notice and funneled their attention entirely upon him, an eerie sense of coordination and communication guiding their movements almost all in unison. They attempted to mob the Spartan amid his moment of disorientation, only to find themselves thrown off with the Ghost of Sparta's displeasure made known. He elected to make his irritation manifest through his hands, hooks and haymakers thrown left and right with the Guardian shield deployed in tandem with his blows, a veritable earthquake that moved until the Spartan found himself the epicenter of a blue maelstrom that moved no more.

Kratos noted one thing. He found himself panting after moving to act, the knuckles of his hands raw from his feral assault.

"Hrmm, has my vitality diminished once more?" A baritone rumble that was his voice rung out with wary frustration, as Kratos remembered a couple of instances before in his life where he dealt with that exactly.

He paid it no mind, electing to move forward...

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

Moving forward culminated in an explosion of rock and wood from a smaller structure adjacent to the street the others were, closer to they than the God-Eternal and his retinue. An azure figure distinguishable in the debris careened for their position, crash-landing violently to a dragging halt before them. A brief look would convey the Dreadhorde soldier had been mangled, limbs savaged and gone with the torso caved in. Taking no heed of its predicament, it struggled to regain its footing-- however it would-- before a glint of steel flashed mid-air and the Eternal found its skull cleft in twain by the axe of ornate make embedded within.

Its owner strolled out, ambivalent as to his erstwhile opponent before pausing for a fleeting moment and taking stock of Corrin, Tera, and Black Ink, Kratos's stony gaze unmoving.

A specimen of a man, standing at an easy height of six foot five inches, clad in leather with a pauldron adorning his right shoulder, a body wrap, a set of reinforced bracers-- all embedded with metalwork signifying their Nordic origins-- and a makeshift skirt with rudimentary leggings underneath. The most striking feature was certainly the ashen skin with crimson tattoos tracing the left side of his body and head, their design at odds with the Nordic symbology.

Kratos maintained the gaze for another second before he exhaled, understanding in an instant it was these three the medicine woman tending to the wounded in the streets of before had referenced and directed him towards. Aside her delivering a much briefer summary of what the others'd learnt of Ravinica, in a tone thrice as frustrated as she took with them earlier.

The spartan looked down the way, sighted the large eternal and his cadre, and gave a small frown before stepping away from the others, from where he emerged, without saying a word to them so he could observe the scene before them laden with foes blocking their way to their destination. Or rather, they and he. That aside...

He extended his right and his axe violently ripped itself from the Eternal's corpse so as to return to his hand, a trail of frost shimmering in its wake as the Ghost of Sparta abruptly pivoted in place with a shout as he grabbed his deceased wife's beloved weapon from the air amid his spin-- taking full advantage of the momentum it carried along with his own-- and launched the fabled Leviathan for the God-Eternal's skull, the frosty shimmering becoming a near solid hue of ice blue as it shrieked through the air.

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Corrin allowed a small smile to flicker across her lips as the other two decided to stand their ground with her; It felt a bit like home, a fight worth fighting. One she’d make sure ended better-

She on one foot and swung her sword into a defensive stance between her and the others as something suddenly impacted next to them, only to see the eternal was already a mangled corpse. She blinked once, twice in surprise, and met Kratos’ gaze with a wary one of her own.

“...Are you with-”

Then Leviathan flew from Kratos’ hands towards Rhonas, the ancient blade smashing into one of his head plates with enough force that the god eternal’s head rolled back slightly. His gaze tilted back down towards the now quartet, and a hiss that rumbled from its desiccated throat with enough force that the sound could be felt in their own bones echoed before it raised its massive glaive over it head and swung it down like a crashing meteor. For all his size, the god Eternal was shocking fast, and Corrin barely had time to dive out of the way herself before the shockwave of the blow carried her into the air, rubble from the road cutting her across one cheek before she tumbled in the air and landed on all fours with an almost feral snarl herself. She bounded forward with nimble steps as Rhonas began to pull his glaive back, and she leaped forward to snag onto one of his massive, golden bracelets to hitch a ride closer to the beast as she glanced backwards to see how everyone else fared

 

[MyrtenRose]

"...seems like Belsavis all over again." She muttered to herself, as Kratos's entrance reminded of a few occasions when others made very similar entrances. That prison planet had been a mess. Legions rioting, explosions aplenty, corpses dotting the landscape in droves, and nightmarish aliens emerging from the depths of the prison, creatures that had been locked away for millennia...and plotting to release something that had been imprisoned there for even longer than that. Something the legends said had devoured stars and worlds alike, some unseen monstrous entity...okay, the giant thing before them right now didn't seem like it could feast on stars, but it was big nevertheless.

She held her gaze on the newest arrival, trying to gauge if he was friend or foe. It was not easy to get an immediate read on him, face might as well have been made of stone for all it gave away...but the corpse that came with him, and more importantly the intent to attack she sensed just before it happened said enough. An attack on the massive foe, that was sufficient to slot this one into the tentative ally category. Shame that said attack hardly seemed to budge the thing. A shame, but not a surprise. This thing would not be going down easy, that much she was sure of. She felt it in her bones, just as the mere sound emanating from it did likewise resonate within. A sense of danger spiked for her, and she was already moving--

But not fast enough.

She cleared out of the way of the descending glaive, but the sheer shockwave that followed from the impact likewise sent her flying, slamming into and bouncing off the stony road...but only once before she recovered, a single backflip bringing her back to standing as her armored boots scraped across the ground and slowed her momentum into a sharp stop. Her expression shifted into a fierce, battle ready scowl, no sign on her face that she had even been hurt by that. A minor bruise at most, nothing to worry about as far as she was concerned. It could have been much worse.

Yet despite the fierce look on her face, she did not rush in. Her lightsabers even unignited as she slid them back onto her belt. Steel grey eyes focused, intensely scrutinizing Rhonas...or more specifically, the weapon in his hands as he began to pull it back up...in that moment she reached out with both hands, every bit of her will going into telekinetically pulling against the God-Eternal's own in an attempt to keep his weapon immobilized and give the others more free opportunity to strike.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Ink's ears twitched and his head snapped over in the direction of Kratos.

That guy...

...Looked pretty damn cool.

"...!"

Ink's ears twitched again and by the time he'd finished jumping back, his claws had dug gouges so deep in the ground he'd be flaking dirt out from under them for months on end at this point. Chunks of debris of varied size could have been seen floating around near Ink's chest and head before either being subsumed completely or dropping to the ground with audible thuds and crashes. For being a giant, this thing was quick. Something that Ink couldn't help but be the slightest bit envious about. Getting big and matching it size for size, blow for blow sounded great on paper but even though Ink had managed to puff himself up a bit with his upper torso somewhat comically oversized, his arms and chest pressing against the fabric of his t-shirt and jacket's sleeves respectively. The city would be destroyed and his allies dead by the time he'd finished absorbing enough material and given himself enough mass to exponentially grow. Of course, that didn't address at all the issue that in doing that, Ink would have been destroying the place just as much as if he'd let Rhonas's army march along and wreck as it so pleased.

'Eh, well at least they'd be alive to foot me the bill. Lucky, I don't eat THEM.'

Which meant that a different approach was going to need to be taken. Exhaling through the slits on his face, Ink accumulated the mass he'd been able to coalesce and shifted it around his body, so he looked more 'fairly proportioned' and not something out of a 90s comic book. If he wasn't going to be able to fight size with size, he'd have to get creative. Corrin had the right idea and saliva oozed down from Ink's exposed fangs as he thought back to one of the few positive childhood memories he'd still had stored away in his oily noggin. See, the apartment that Ink and all his 'family' had been slotted into was alive! In a sense anyway. The building was decades old and so many people had come and go, some going as far to practically spend their whole lives there with their descendants proceeding to do the same with their own families! It'd left something of a spiritual consciousness that took the whole building under it's control. When push came to shove and the entity was confronted, it called itself Mac and it's Gift, more or less, was known as [TUSK]. It could see everything, hear everything in the building and had free reign over from something as simple as being able to open/shut all the doors to shaking the grounds of the building itself fiercely enough to potentially cause vehicle damage in the parking lot. All Mac asked for in return was a daily helping of gore splattered across one of it's walls which it'd then 'absorb.' As a kid Ink always wondered what was on the 'other side' of the wall but as an adult? Ink wanted zero clues of whatever it was.

Ink and Mac got on relatively well. Or as much as a literally blood-thirsty building and a impish looking child could be anyhow. Usually when it was dark out enough that nobody could see him, Ink would go out with his adoptive dad and use his natural biology to scale the sides of the building. It didn't tend to go over well when he'd look down, get panicked, and scratch up the paint/bricks with his claws when he'd briefly skid down. Mac could take the occasional scratch up though; all it'd need is time and it'd be as good as new. Such was a perk of [TUSK].

Of course, that was a measly apartment building that wasn't actively trying to kill him. As far as Ink knew anyway. Maybe he'd just been lucky to live as long as he had. Still, if you climbed one big thing, you practically climbed them all, killer breathe or not!! Squinting his eyes, Ink rolled his shoulders and hopped from foot to foot. "Shake, shake, senora..." He muttered as he tried to get himself in the same headspace as he had all those years ago. There was one annoying song that Mac would play over the apartment's intercom system every time Ink climbed him.



"Shake it all the time..."

He got on all fours and tore a path forward, the back of his jacket billowing in the kicked-up wind behind him. Skidding to a stop once he'd gotten sufficently close enough in his mind, he took a page from Corrin's newly authored book and fired out a claw towards the opposite arm that Corrin may have been aiming for. Seemed like an apt strategy in his mind. Two mosquitos buzzing around both of your arms, how did you swat them both?

You didn't. You had to make a choice and focus. Which left the other mosquito ready to capitalize on your mistake and although it was never particularly pleasant being squished or thrown around, he'd wagered it'd go over a lot better if it'd been him than Corrin. Either way, they were taking the fight to this big guy. Didn't matter how H U G E you were. You fucked around?

YOU WERE GONNA FIND OUT!!!

 

[Indolent]

The God-Eternal showed better composure following its first, if impromptu, meeting with the weighty Leviathan than the trolls of home could ever demonstrate. Or rather, it was less the composure of what used to be a God and more the mechanical endurance of its husk reanimated by the azure laminate lining its carcass. Either way...

His countenance still the same stony masque Tera observed, Kratos anticipated the retaliatory strike from the titan with the gauntlet on his left forearm extending, two halves unfurling to complete a shield. The Guardian Shield, a gift bequeathed to him by his wife on their anniversary night of their first meeting, a familiar tool in his hands that reminded him equally of his wife and his first home. It was used to buffer the detritus composed of the streets and more flung by the smashing strike, covering the majority of his upper profile with only his legs left exposed to any wayward projectile striking home. The shockwave did buffet him backwards, the soles of his boots dragging roughly, Kratos's strong legs bolstering his position adequately enough that he didn't topple from the impact.

The shield retracted into the gauntlet as Kratos broke into a sprint for Rhonas, his footfalls as heavy as his intent to retaliate against the God in the same fashion, culminating in a powerful jump in an arc that at its apex saw the Leviathan return to his hands, swirling energies of ice blue coalescing around its head as he swung downwards in double-hammer grip. Maybe'd he sunder its crown and freeze its head solid, he preferred a swifter conclusion to his fights now more than ever.

Especially if it meant he returned home all the sooner.​