Fandom Soul Eater: R.I.P.

[Mineczka]

One-Star Weapon, partnered with Luka and Aiden.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Interactions: Lady Warlock (Luka) Sir Les Paul (Aiden + Cole) Nobody Special (Dai) The Regal Rper (Cei) Solarknight (Callah)

Watching the scene unfold, Rio could do little but anxiously watch, she wanted to do more, help more, and ensure at all costs to herself that Cei, Dai, Luka, Aiden, Cole, Callah, everyone, made it out of this, yet here she was, a simple sword watching those around her struggle. With Luka closed off, she felt alone, unable to communicate with Aiden, nor could she alert the other teams or even plan.

Feeling her weight move, Rio watched herself plunge towards the kishin egg, though making no contact with the strange resistance that caught Cei, instead, her blade caught the cloak, now understanding what Luka was doing, Rio kept her gaze at the thing, hoping to identify the creature's body to give information... Not like it would matter, as she had no communication. Watching the cloak pull back, entangled on her blade, Rio could see the creature was covered in... Honey?

Thinking back, Rio could recall a faint buzzing sound under the organ notes, suggesting this was... It was a bee hive being formed, that would explain the silky substance on the outside, though outside of magic, the fact that few noticed it was something unknown. Thinking further on this, Rio could come up with many theories and thoughts, but they were dragged away at Luka's words, followed by Cole taking shots at the thing.

"You shut Aiden and I out, but that's something for later." Rio remarked, in an almost uncharacteristically stern tone, she wasn't angry about the shut out, but focused on the situation that was ahead of them, especially with Aiden falling to the ground, "Right now, we need to get Aiden back, and cover Dai. If he's on the attack, we will be his shield" Glancing at the claws, Rio felt a mild bit of concern rise in her, even if Luka had Aiden, how effective would he be against those claws? It bothered her to think what could happen to Aiden, let alone Luka, in this fight.

"If you use me for attack, don't get my blade to the fuller in the honey, you should be fine slashing it, what could really help is Soul Menace is used in the process." Rio hated this, this primal fear that rest deep in her chest, combat was never something she wanted to see, a contest of life and death hinging greatly on the skill of her meister, and how well they can work with a simple sword with no special abilities in any situation. She wasn't even sure what she could do against such a foe, and any plan she had made, was simply her best guesses from what information she could gather, even with her senses slowly sharpening once more, Rio knew too little of the creature to give battle advice.... She needed more information, and furthermore, Rio wanted to see Aiden safe...

 

[Lady Warlock]

Adelle Stone

St. Louis, Missouri​

As the weapon-meister pairs from the DWMA finished up their preparations, the sun managed to slide its way out of the sky clearing the way for a black night filled with stars and constellations in abundance. It really was quite beautiful and the lighting made some of the flowers in the garden seem to glow in a way that was almost mesmerizing. However, the students had a job to do and that left them with only a brief opportunity to truly admire the gardens as they took to the night light with gusto.

Adelle waited outside the little cabin with her ears eagerly seeking any new sounds and her eyes closed. She wasn’t a meister, so she couldn’t see souls like they could - or, well, most of them could; however, that didn’t mean she didn’t have the ability to sense things that were out of place. Though it was hard to describe, Adelle in her mind referred to it almost as a sixth sense for things that were supernatural, unnatural or otherwise completely out of place in a manner that disrupted the natural order of the world. Given that she never really had a chance to talk with any demon weapons that weren’t from her own family, she wasn’t entirely sure if it was a normal thing or if it was something specific to her, but she imagined that she would have an opportunity to learn as she progressed in working with the DWMA.

They had stationed themselves in a position that granted them quick access to a couple of the circled black spots on the map and they were relying on their combined senses to determine where they would be running to if something happened. While it wasn’t a perfect plan, it was what made the most sense and gave them the widest range.

On the edge of what Adelle could sense and near one of the endangered plant species, a small portal opened up and out walked three cloaked kishin egg souls all with little empty sacks over their shoulders. Without much hesitation, they got to work plucking plants and adding them to their bags as though it was a completely normal thing to do. The scent of honey drew in the bees, buzzing around them and trying to claim the sweet nectar that the cloaked creatures radiated the scent of.

The multi-form weapon sensed it. It wasn’t just her, though. Chances were, at least one of her teammates did as well.

“We’ve got company!” Adelle shouted to her teammates before she started running in the direction she’d sensed them coming from. She didn’t outright sprint because she hoped Tavares would be right behind her and that there would be a good opportunity to transform along the way.

The Regal Rper RottenVale QuirkyAngel

 

[Lady Warlock]

Luka did hear Rio’s cry that they should get Aiden out of the way. However, she wasn’t sure how much of her current situation Rio understood. Did she realize that holding Aiden had burned her hand and her arm? The young meister’s gaze drifted down to the still sore marks that she knew would definitely need treatment later and she squeezed her hand together tightly despite the agony it caused. She bore no ill will towards Aiden for the burns themselves, but she knew that putting him back on her arm was too dangerous at that point so she couldn’t just grab him and pull him out of the way.

‘I can’t grab him,’ Luka explained in her mental link with Rio. ‘I can already barely feel my hand from the burns.’ Thinking through things a bit more, Luka thought that logically, as long as he remained in his weapon form, Aiden would be alright because he was a shield. What could possibly damage a shield? While she knew there had to be something, she doubted it was anything currently on their field of battle. Even demon weapons that weren’t shields somehow managed to stand up against quite a lot already; Luka had learned very early in her time at the DWMA that demon weapons were sturdier than any weapon she’d previously utilized.

Even if she had been able to formulate a plan to get Aiden out of the way, though, it probably would not have been quick enough to avoid the incoming barrage of well timed blows on the creature they were facing. First came the loud, booming shot from Cole and Callah that somehow managed to avoid hitting Dai and also seemed to contribute to his escape from the goop. Though Dai seemed immune to the thunderousness of it, Luka’s arms did rise over her ears to try and block out some of the sound of it. That still managed to be a better reaction to the situation than the reactions she had displayed in the past. Another shot followed promptly behind that one, though it lacked all the noise that came with the first one and was instead an example of pure force that knocked the creature backwards, its feet tripping over Aiden’s shield form as it tried to maintain its balance.

It did appear, briefly, as though that might be the end of it, but apparently Dai wasn’t quite willing to take the chance that it might still have even the smallest amount of juice left in it. Luka could do nothing but watch, as she wasn’t an expert in the use of soul force herself, as the warrior meister drove his weapon forward, driving it through what remained of the gremlin, before using soul force to pull the weapon right back out.

The creature toppled backwards before dissolving completely and leaving behind a puddle of honey while a red soul floated up within reach of any of the students. Luka remained where she was. She knew well enough that it wasn’t her soul to claim. Though she didn’t feel she had been useless, she knew one of her teammates had done more to earn it than she had.

Although that fight had been won, there was still an insistent banging on a door off to the side.

Mineczka Sir Les Paul Nobody Special The Regal Rper Solarknight

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Cole Baker​

"Crackshot"​

Species Human
Partner Callah
Rank One-Star Meister, R.I.P.

Location Sydney, Australia, in front of the Opera House
Mission Investigations in Australia
Status Focused

​

Mentions: Solarknight The Regal Rper Mineczka Nobody Special Lady Warlock

There it was. The floating red soul of the creature. It, however, was not Cole's top priority. He watched as both his teammates finished the creature--who dealt the actual deciding blow was both impossible to determine and fairly irrelevant. What it meant was that for now, there was a relative atmosphere of safety. Experience for Cole was that this was when things were most dangerous. Letting down their guard could be even more catastrophic.

So... Cole didn't. His first act following the dissolution of the creature was to scan the surrounding area with his now more focused Soul Perception. Just because it was dealt with didn't mean there weren't others or Soul Signatures worth noting. While Cole himself was scanning the area, he opted to use this triumph to keep the team on point. There were things that needed dealt with more immediately to keep things at least relatively stable, especially if they were to encounter any other threats.

Cole, not making eye contact with his team as he was clearly inspecting the room and creature, approached the two by the sticky, sweet mess with Callah still in his hands primed. "I would argue that Soul belongs to Callah, but if Cei wants to take claim to it, I'm not opposed. Dai, you and Cei decide who consumes that soul," Cole stated aloud, immediately providing instructions for the elephant in the room. It was true. He felt they deserved the soul more than the other two, but given the situation, he wasn't about to spark a fight with Dai over it. Giving Dai the choice both eliminated that argument and gave him a 50-50 at giving it. Given Cole wasn't the one that aimed his weapon at him, Dai might be feeling generous.

"I can tell you're hurt, Luka. How bad is it?" he asked. While he was still clearly focused, there did seem to be a hint of genuine concern. "If you can't wield Aiden--either due to the burn or whatever conflict you have--then don't. I've seen Aiden on the backs of many Meisters. I doubt Dai will care to have a chunk of metal on his back even if he can't properly use him. That's not an issue, but I don't want your arm to slow you down or worse risk getting infected. That was one of the worst soul rejections I've ever seen," Cole added, explaining his focus and more so attempting to streamline how they proceeded from here.

For the first time since stepping forward, his eyes fell directly to Aiden whom for whatever reason opted to stay in shield form. "And if whatever the Hell your issue is can't be resolved without another explosion, save it for Lord Death later," he instructed, back to his stern tone, although this time focused on Aiden. In part, to avoid triggering Luka. Also in part because he felt if either of them were to listen to him, it would be Aiden.

"While you sort that out, I'm going to call Lord Death. Just be weary and keep a perimeter. Try not to disturb anything, I anticipate we'll need to investigate for any clues as to this creature and what they were after if anything. If anyone is feeling up to the task, see if we can find a container for what I'm assuming is this.. honey. Sometimes the labs at the DWMA want to check into this stuff," he told them before pulling out the communication mirror Death had given them. He slung Callah to his back and activated the mirror, trying to phone in on the Shinigami to give him an update.

 

[Nobody Special]

DAI
Location: Sydney, Australia
Interacting: Cei ( The Regal Rper ), Luka ( Lady Warlock ), Rio ( Mineczka ), Cole, Aiden ( Sir Les Paul ), Callah ( Solarknight )
Weapon: Cei
________________________________________________________________________________

With a final, explosive push from Dai's palm, his soul wavelength violently pulsed into the body of the creature, forcing it back and freeing Cei from any possible honey before its form finally faded away, revealing the fruit of the team's labor. The crimson soul of their opponent was now idly floating ahead of them.

Now decently comfortable with his new partner, Dai quickly spun Cei around as if he'd been using her for much longer than a few minutes, forcefully swinging her downwards to flick any excess honey off of her blade and onto the ground. He quietly huffed and puffed, finally able to relax just a bit now that the only visible threat was gone. Although it was clear that the strange being was no longer alive, the smell of danger that Dai had caught a whiff of before they had even entered the Opera House was still there. There were still enemies around that needed to be taken out. He was immediately back on offense-mode, holding Cei with both hands once again, but listened calmly as Cole addressed him in regards to the Kishin Egg.

"On the first day, didn't I tell y'all that I'm makin' a Death Scythe, no matter what?" He said, reaching up and grabbing the soul for himself with no hesitation or shame. "I meant what I said. It's yours, Cei." It was a good thing that the others weren't going to put up a fight for it, because the boy would have surely thrown the mission aside for the sake of his personal goal.

Another issue had come to Dai's attention-- one that he wasn't even aware of until now. The burns on Luka's arm weren't pretty ones. What the hell had been going on during the fight? He knew rejection fairly well, but even his own conflicts with previous weapons (the few ones he'd had before Yuri and Cei) never ended with wounds that severe. Lilac eyes remained fixated on the small girl's arm as he thought to himself.

Was it... his fault?

Dai shook his head. Even if it was his fault, when had he ever given a shit about things like that? He had to stay strong for the team, even more so now that Luka was apparently out of a shield-- her primary means of protection.

"Yeah, I dunno what the hell happened, but if you guys can't fix whatever shit you've gotten yourself into soon, then I guess I'll be your turtle." Without a second thought, he grabbed the bottom of his thin, white shirt and tore a decently sized chunk off of it. It wasn't like the garment mattered much to him anyway-- he'd fight completely naked if he had to. Next, he knelt by the pool of honey that the Kishin Egg had left behind, and doused the fabric in it, making sure it was covered in the sticky liquid before hopping back up and offering it to Luka.

"Here," He avoided making eye contact with her, instead opting to look over to the side. "Honey's decent for burns. I've used it on myself plenty o' times. Plus, it's not like we've got other options, so." His gaze landed on Cole, who was preparing to call Lord Death on his mirror. "There's gotta be somethin' around here to put the honey in. Even if we don't find anythin' now, we can always come back to it... hopefully."

Finally, His focus shifted to Cei. He hoped everything was alright with her. She already wasn't too happy about being in the Opera House, and he was sure being shoved into the torso of some honey-spewing monster wasn't fun. His echoing, telepathic voice could be heard by his partner as he transmitted his thoughts to her. 'You doin' alright? Sorry for gettin' ya stuck earlier.'​

 

[The Regal Rper]

Tavares Castelo
~St.Louis, Missouri~

He had been silently observing the grounds outside the cabin not far from Adelle's own disposition. Times like these were always filled with anticipation. Impatience mostly. Waiting for something to happen, waiting for the moment to strike. Rest, was not something that would come to him in moments like these. The anticipation of battle or the possibility of a fight never allowed his body the time to relax. It had been hammered into him to never allow true rest for the body on a mission, because the slightest moment of hesitation or the second you let your guard down, would be your end.

Instead, Tavares had done what his aunts had taught him to do in times of restless anticipation. He talked to his spirit. Feeding it mantras of old from the Tribe of Gaea. Repeating only one of the many he had memorized to perfection.

A monster is a creature that wears the skin of the normal. It hides, beyond the eyes; strikes, beyond the norm, and acts without mercy. Become merciless. Embrace the darkness. The Will of Death demands it.​

The same mantra was repeated, over and over. When his mother had spoken it to him, it had been a wise saying from his great-grandfather. To never allow fear, hesitation, or doubt cloud the mind when on a mission. Since learning it, he'd done it hundreds of times before, and doing it now was no different. It mentally prepared him to get into the mindset for battle- not that he really needed it at this point anymore. At this point it was a habit done out of discipline than anything else. Most importantly, it allowed him something to focus on while he waited for the fated danza.

For a brief moment, he thought he felt something in the air. A shift or distortion, some kind of heavy layer that was there for the scant second he had felt the pressure dance along his skin. It wasn't the first time he'd felt something like this. It always happened when the danger had finally arrived. And it seemed it had just arrived now.

“We’ve got company!” Adelle shouted.​

Adelle confirmed that. "Endlich." He muttered, removing his glasses and stuffing them into a breast pocket before zipping that shut. "It is about time." Giving chase after her the pseudo Shaman said, "Adelle, if you would, slingshot form. It will help us hit multiple targets at a range. Once I close the gap, feel free to chose the next form you believe will be most fitting. I trust your capability." The moment she had transformed, Tavares reached out and caught her, then without hesitation- his soul drummed a heavy beat.

Filled with determination, his pace became a true sprint. Within a few seconds, he could see their targets at a distance and without hesitation, he aimed right for the ground, where it struck with a noticeable thud. Pulling the sling pocket back once the pocket had ammo, he fired one after the other. Whether they landed or not wasn't the goal, even if it was the aim. Lethal shots were not the purpose just yet. The purpose was to get attention.

And it may have just worked

Mentions: n/a

Interactions: Lady Warlock (Adelle), RottenVale QuirkyAngel

 

[Mineczka]

One-Star Weapon, partnered with Luka and Aiden.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Interactions: Lady Warlock (Luka) Sir Les Paul (Aiden/Cole) Nobody Special (Dai) The Regal Rper (Cei)

Watching the beast, Rio hadn't noticed in the mess of the fight, with being shut out by Luka of what had happened to her meister's shield arm, as things began to slow down for Rio, she began to take notice of the injury, especially so with Luka all but confirming it. Rio felt as if the iron that made her blade had hit her stomach, feeling it was her fault that this happened. Her first mission with a new partners, and already one was injured, while Rio was likely the least at fault for said burns, she still felt pretty sour because of it, especially with how she didn't protect Luka from Dai's remarks.

It wasn't long for the Kishin egg to be eliminated, leaving behind a familiar crimson glow, and a pool of honey. But little of that mattered, as Rio soon changed back to her human shape to tend to her team, the one time she wished to be a Tanuki, as some healing magic would be handy here. She quickly got her way over to Luka's arm, "I'm going to touch your arm, okay?" Rio asked, ensuring she doesn't overstep her boundaries with her meister, gently taking her left arm, Rio pulled up Luka's sleeve, first pouring water from the water bottle she had carried with her, just to cool the burns and provide at least some relief. In the meantime, she could hear Dai tear his shirt a bit, before dipping it in the honey the creature left behind, before handing it to Luka, mentioning Honey is a good treatment for a burn, "Thank you, Dai." Rio replied, with a gentle smile as she took the makeshift burn bandage, before wrapping it around Luka's burns, making sure it wasn't too tight. Soon enough her eyes drifted to Luka's for a moment, simply giving her meister a kind smile before turning to Cole, and speaking.

"I'm going to try to talk to Aiden, I'm sure he's upset over what's happened." Taking a deep breath, Rio slowly turned to her partner, kneeling down, Rio placed her hand over the face of the shield that was her partner, closing her eyes for a moment, she wanted to formulate the way she wanted to speak, he most likely was not happy from Dai's actions, Luka's reactions, and then Cole's words after the fact. Taking a deep breath, Rio's eyes opened as she set her gaze on Aiden, "Are you okay?" Those were her first words, a simple gesture of concern, as, Rio was concerned about how Aiden was dealing with the situation, "I can't use our wavelengths to talk without a meister holding the both of us, and able to synchronize with our wavelengths..." Another pause came from Rio, she could feel herself walking on eggshells, as normally a weapon burning a meister was a sign of rejection by the weapon, and as much as Rio wanted to help, she didn't want to make the situation worse than it already was, "I won't ask you to transform, and won't force you to talk, but, if you need someone to vent to, I'll be there for you. It's not good to bottle things up, and I want to make sure you're alright before we continue the exploration." Taking another breath, Rio took a moment to herself before rising to look at Cole and Dai, as there were some things she wanted to mention before continuing....

"I want to make sure what happened before the kishin egg showed up never happens again..." Her voice echoed a different tone now, almost as a disappointed mother's, she was not happy with what happened in the prelude of the fight, "We cannot keep needling each other while we're here. Please, be mindful of your words and actions, Dai, please do not provoke Luka anymore, as the situation we are in was sparked by those jabs you kept giving her." Rio's eyes had shifted to Dai's, while she had an issue with the reaction of Luka, Rio knew she could address it with Luka later, and mostly wanted to be sure the situation does not come to the way they were again...

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Aiden McCarthy​

TBD​

Species Human
Partner Luka, Rio; Dai, Cei (temp)
Rank One-Star Weapon, R.I.P.

Location Sydney, Australia, in front of the Opera House
Mission Investigations in Australia
Status Irate, frustrated, upset

​

Mentions: Solarknight The Regal Rper Mineczka Nobody Special Lady Warlock

"We cannot keep needling each other while we're here. Please, be mindful of your words and actions..."​

Aiden heard her drone, trying to mend the situation best she could. Normally, Aiden might have listened. Normally, Aiden might have even admired what Rio was trying to do. But, let's be honest. What was she really doing? Recycling the same bullshit that Cole did. What was honest difference between Cole saying to save it for Lord Death and Rio saying they needed to stop needling each other--whatever the hell that meant. What was the actual difference between the time Cole scolded Dai and Rio asking now so nicely? The tone? What did it matter how kindly the words were said? What did it matter if the words came from the mouth of their supposed de facto leader or the sweeter lips of miss Rio? They carried the same message.

And, that message wasn't enough. That message put the blame on Dai and in this situation against all odds, Dai was hardly the problem. These people were babying this girl. These people were pulling their punches against little miss Luka because of her tendencies to have these meltdowns. A sonic boom in their training caused her to freak out. A few mean words made her raise a sword to an ally. A little scolding and she completely shut down. Rio and Cole had a point, but it was nowhere near sharp enough and aimed at the wrong person.

In a radiant, swift light, Aiden took form standing in the room, dodging the honey as he stood before them, still steaming with rage. That fiery soul from earlier hardly doused.

"It shouldn't matter what was said," Aiden spouted with a clear amount of disdain in his voice. His normally bright eyes now ignited with a whole different flame. "I can call Dai a towering, tactless imbecile of a Meister whose only purpose could be replicated by a pack of attack dogs and Cole a coward of a man sitting back only willing to watch others fight until he can make a shot to take credit for himself. Sure, maybe Dai might throw a punch, but you know what he wouldn't fucking do? Swing Cei at me," Aiden added, his tone accelerating in pace and increase in intensity.

"All I have heard are people consistently blaming Dai, but no Meister worth a damn would attack their allies. Especially over a petty insult. I have went through enough Meisters and seen enough arguments to know that the ultimate taboo is attacking amongst the squad. I have seen fights nearly break out over a soul more times than I can count, but look at this? Cole even said he thought Callah deserved it but gave it to Dai anyway. I don't think Cole is about to shoot Dai. Just like they didn't go slicing at each other over a single lost soul," Aiden went on, his voice exploding through the halls as he was just plain yelling at this point.

"There is no Death-damned excuse for what Luka did," Aiden said, his mind blurring the lines between the silence he felt once she shut down her soul and the slice she sent towards Dai. "There is no worth in a Meister like that and the only way I see to keep it from happening again is to get rid of the one that crossed that line," Aiden said with no lost intensity. His would was afire the same way his words were scorching, each with the same intense heat that burned Luka just a moment ago.

...we are in was sparked by those jabs you kept giving her." ​

Aiden snapped out of his trance of a thought. The intense mental imagery he had, going through the scenario he so eagerly wished to make happen with the words he yearned to say. Aiden felt no remorse for the burn on Luka nor did the impact of what Rio said carry nearly enough weight to calm his rage. If it did anything, that wavelength of hers, it was just enough to keep Aiden from making that exact scenario in his head become a reality. Just enough to dull the edge. Just enough to remind him that his emotions were not priority. Just enough to remind him that he still had a job to do as a shield.

But nothing more. Aiden disagreed with Rio quite wholeheartedly on several points, but none more than her comment about bottling up emotions. On a mission, the ability to control oneself was paramount. There was no time to process these feelings or dilute this rage. There was no time to clear the air. Hell, there was still a banging door no one had answered yet. He wasn't sure if Cole was intentionally ignoring it or if he had already determined it was a non-threat, but in any case, there was still more to be done that was far more important than how Aiden felt at this time. This is why between many intense missions, Agents took time off to decompress. It's because they had to bottle these feelings up. Rio was living in a fantasy world if she thought you could just deal with these things on the fly.

Aiden did transform out of his weapon state, albeit temporarily. Just as in his mental vision, he dodged the honey, then looked down to Rio. His eyes were far from the flaming, fiery gems he imagined. No. They were dull and lifeless, half dead. In part, probably due to the poor lighting, but also in part because of how much he repressed himself.

"Maybe another time, miss Monet. Nothing I have to say now would do us any good, I assure you of that," he told her in a more whispered, almost strained voice that had his characteristic flair, but in a far more monotonous expression. He then walked completely passed the others and to Dai who had offered to be his 'turtle' which was as good a word as any. "For what it's worth, Dai, I don't think you were the problem," he said in that same tone, "And, I appreciate you carrying me. Your back will be covered, if nothing else, but I doubt you'll get much else out of me so long as you wield Cei."

With that, Aiden transformed again, retaking his form of red light. The straps that normally wrapped around ones forearm now wrapped around Dai's torso, crossing over into a large X pattern that attached Aiden quite firmly while the handles that were normally present shrank down to avoid digging into the back of his new carrier. As Dai had no inherent conflict with Aiden, at the least he was light. Just a few pounds, although likely still heavier than he initially was for Luka due to his state. Still, he had far less heft to him than a backpack full of books for class, so it was doubtful to be a problem. After his minimal interaction, Aiden returned to his dormancy.

 

[The Regal Rper]

Cei
~Sydney, Australia~

Their leader's efforts accompanied with his thunderous partner was all that was needed. The filth was blown back, and she was free. The moment Dai told her of the plan she simply gave him an approving hum of understanding. As he pulled back, ready to strike, she ensured his output was stabilized. That his hit would land with all the force the scum that tainted Mother's land deserved. All he had to do was fire. And--

Die​

--she couldn't help but grin at his exclamation.

There was something oddly satisfying at watching the tainted be expunged. She never quite understood it herself, but it always felt right when the harrowing voices of Mother could be partially soothed by the erasure of filth that tainted her so. Dai certainly had an animalistic savagery to him that she would be lying if she said she didn't find it somewhat admirable. It very much reminded her of home, the training for those that took the choice of joining the Master of Life's cause to purge the evil lingering in the world.

With the deed done and the soul exposed, Cei's brilliant blue eyes flashed into existence on the glint of her emerald blade. At the subject of ownership, she would have countered Cole's statement by saying it would only be fair to offer the reward to the one who deserved it. However before she could voice this, her partner had already claimed the prize for her. Despite her feelings on the matter of offering Cole the chance at claiming the prize, a part of her felt more honored by the unashamed way in which Dai simply took what he felt belonged to them.

It was flattering, honestly. And Cei rather enjoyed the feeling of being fawned over. So silence was all she gave over the matter.

"I would be careful with that honey, we don't know if it's anything like normal honey." Was the only piece of advice she gave Luka before turning her attention to the soul waiting for her.

While this part of the job wasn't something she particularly enjoyed, it brought her satisfaction in ridding the world of scum like this, and so with sincerity she said: "My humble thanks Cole, Callah, Dai", and then she shifted. The blade glowing as a single arm extended outwards as the blade split open in half. Grabbing the beating soul in her hand, the partial upper half of the Shamaness emerged. Though Cei appeared more like a ceramic statue in this state, the emerald appearance of her blade matching that of her semi-partial form as her mouth opened, she brought the soul up from above, like a vine of grapes hanging above her lips and with a SHLURP, she sucked the soul down with an audible gulp, a shiver of revolution travelling through her at the act of consuming a entity so foul even as she returned immediately to her Weapon form.

Hearing Dai's concerns however did make Cei shake out of her inner turmoil between prideful satisfaction and minor disgust. Even if Mother's songs continued in the sorrowful melody, the delicious tingle of satisfaction she felt at ridding the world of another tainted spirit outweighed her minor disgust at eating the soul at all. With a telepathic pulse, she replied kindly: "I am fine partner. Thank you." And she meant it. "Your concern is appreciated, you have nothing to apologize for though. You did nothing wrong." And with that statement made she said nothing more. Turning back into her human form was out of the question given the situation, but seeing that Rio had and only just now noticing her approaching Aiden, made the Weapon wonder just how bad Luka's relationship with her partner had turned out.

She got the answer from Aiden himself. Mother truly provided to the questions of her Children in the most fascinating ways.

And when she was done, before anyone could speak after he was done and had joined them, she spoke at least. And called: "Luka..."

"Now is not the time or place for me to share with you my thoughts on your actions today, but Rio, you make a mistake in suggesting my partner is to blame for her actions. Yes, Luka's actions were inflamed by the foolishness of my partner", and she said it with the same frankness she had said it when she had thanked Dai earlier. "Yet, Luka chose to feint a strike against my meister," a hint of anger travelling through their connection, through her voice, "and it was not a harmless strike with her own body, she used you Rio." She let that sink in for a few seconds, before continuing.

"If Dai-- or unlikely, Cole, had done the same thing she had done, there is not a doubt in my mind we would be grilling them both right now for what they had done. It was idiotic, plain and simple. As Aiden said, it does not matter of the feelings involved, common sense should have been used here. You do not playfully pretend to stab your friend with a kitchen knife when they are standing right in front of you. It is as simple as that. If Dai had reacted or I had reacted because of her movement, we may not have even been prepared for this creature at all. With one action, she would have put us all in danger if things had been different." And then she sighed, sounding like a tired older sister who was just done with arguing. "It has passed, let us focus on the now. I will hear no more of this from any of you, and will engage no longer on this topic." She stated with finality, "Unless the Master himself deigns it. In the end," her tone lowering to a stern level of scolding, "we will talk on the return home Luka. And by Mother herself, you will heed my words."

Silent after that. Cei said no more. With a flourish, spinning around Dai's wrist, she came to a stop by sliding into his arm, leaning over his shoulder and merely focused on the songs mother whispered only to her ears. In her rant any shift in the tunes could have changed to tell her of approaching danger, and now she needed to focus once more. So as to fully heed Mother's hidden warnings.

Mentions: Lady Warlock Mineczka Solarknight Sir Les Paul Nobody Special

Interacts: n/a

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Yuan (Meister)
Salt Lake City (Downtown)

Grace had a concerned expression on her face and she was struggling to come up with words. In the moment she had felt fairly good about how she had handled the situation, but all the questions were starting to make her doubt herself. However, before the negative thoughts could fester for too long, Erica put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Here, m-maybe I can help. Grace wasn’t the o-only one that was affected. I felt it too. It was like… one moment I was in control, then afore I knew it the madness wavelength had strengthened. Something had magnified it. Whatever it was that you guys clocked before, it hadn’t been there prior, otherwise Grace and I would have been able to naturally adjust to it. The increase in madness was just so sudden that we weren’t pure prepared is all. I know it sounds silly but, it must be some sort of teleportation. At least that’s my thought. For me the madness tends toward order, which is easier to work with. But Grace, hers tends toward destruction. In my opinion, the fact that she didn’t murder someone in that situation should give you confidence in her abilities, not make you question her. You’ve tasted her madness afore, and that was only a wee experience, and I was there the whole time as a counter to it. Maybe thinking about that will help you put it into perspective. When we’re not resonating, Grace has to deal with it all, there’s hee haw to counter it, and it’s not something we can just caw off. It’s always there.”

Yuan’s eyes flickered between the twins as she set her donut aside and listened intently to Erica speak for -- or perhaps up -- for her sister. “Order and Destruction, huh? Interesting...” Both their madnesses seemed to contradict each other, which then made sense in how they balanced each other out...but that was only a guess on her part. Not like Yuan knew all that much about madness. Bringing the girls to a bakery was intended to facilitate a relaxing atmosphere despite the seriousness of their--hopefully informative--conversation, but it seemed like Grace was still nervous. She didn’t know about how they appeared to others, but, in her opinion, Erica was obviously the braver of the two. “It’s not like I don’t believe in her,” If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have lied to the mayor on the girl’s behalf. They wouldn’t be having this discussion either. “I’m not accusing your sister of anything either. I just wondered if there’s anything I can do to help - as her meister I mean. Both of yours.”

Erica seemed to have felt something that stirred her wavelength as well...and expecting her to handle everything in regards to Grace’s madness, especially when she was inflicted with her own, was probably too much.

Yuan shrugged. “I didn’t actually feel anything back at the mayor’s place, you see, but I might just not be as sensitive as you girls to it...or Sion with his hearing...Whichever the case...” The redhead set her serious gray eyes on Grace, wanting an answer from the older(?) , more destructive inclined twin. “Do you think like your sister, Grace? Can you handle the sudden increase in madness now that you’ve experienced it? If we continue this mission, in all likelihood, we’ll have to face it--and whatever wavelength or teleporting power it exudes --again. It’s up to you girls. I don’t want to drop out either, but I care more about your well-being than my grade for the mission. Forcing the others to overcompensate for us doesn’t feel right either.” And it was harder to believe in someone who didn’t believe in themselves. “Therefore I want an honest assessment from y--”

The kishin egg, that she’d been half-paying attention to, started to move.

Yuan felt it even before her phone started to ring. The Chinese meister picked up. “A shame about the police. We’ll be there soon” They were closer to the downtown area in fact. Hanging up, Yuan glanced at the twins and reached out her hands. “Looks like our time is up. If you’re still up for finishing this, become the weapons in my hands.” Words were unneeded at this point. “Otherwise, 42-42-564 is the number to death’s door. I doubt Sion and Noelle could finish this mission on their own so backup may be needed.”

Whether or not Grace or Erica came with her, Yuan was on the move as well. Closing her eyes, she could feel Sion and Noelle’s soul as she exited the bakery. The meister wove between the alleyways of the downtown area until a zombie with blades for hands came into sight.

A former weapon? Some sort of freakish experiment? It was hard to say exactly. Situated behind one of the residential houses, Yuan pushed up her glasses and waited for the opportune moment to strike.

CelticHero37 Prizzy Kriyze Nobody Special Lady Warlock


Lucien Boulanger (Weapon)
Missouri Botanical Gardens

Night was the best time of day in Lucien’s mind. No pesky sun. His energy was up. Removing the pair of binoculars from his eyes from where he’d been watching the flower thieves appear through a portal and started to pluck some endangered flowers, Lucien glanced back at the tent hidden behind some shrubbery where Sheena resided. Normally he would’ve transformed into a weapon so they could intervene before the flower picking started, but, alas, Sheena had an urgent call to take. From the vague bits he could make out, it had something to do with her family...but Lucien wasn’t the sort to pry into private conversations.

“I suppose I’ll join the fight against them until you’re ready, Ma Cherie.”

Both hands shifting into blades, Lucien moved quickly, seeming to disappear into the night.

When he reappeared, he was behind the three kishin egg souls that were being shot at by Adelle and Tavares, deftly avoiding stray wavelength stones(?) as he slashed, ripping into the bags the three thieves carried and spilling out all the flowery contents inside. Leaping back to regain some distance after the surprise attack, the French-dhampir-weapon grinned lazily at the three Kishin Souls.

“Tsk, Tsk. Stealing flowers in the middle of night? How indécent of you.” Leveling a bladed hand at the three Kishin Egg souls, Lucien cocked his head. “As you can see, you are surrounded. If you tell me why you are going through all this trouble for some mere fleurs, we'll consider not taking your souls.”

A complete lie, as leaving Kishin Eggs alone spelled danger for the world, but it was worth a try. Lucien licked his lips. He could tell the locate where the other weapon meister pair were based on the trajectory of the bullets.

RottenVale Lady Warlock The Regal Rper

 

[Lady Warlock]

Luka Baines

Location: Sydney, Australia
Partner(s): Rio
Tags: Sir Les Paul Nobody Special Mineczka The Regal Rper ​

As the fight came to a conclusion, Luka fell into a daze of sensations because there were quite a few to process and she preferred to work with each sense one at a time. First and foremost, there was obviously the pain from the burns on her hand and arm. Now that there wasn’t an immediate threat in front of them, that feeling became more difficult to ignore. The young meister’s head turned when Cole asked her about it, quite surprised that he was remotely concerned about her well-being. She didn’t comment on that, though. Instead, she answered, “I don’t think my arm needs to be cut off or anything.” Luka was trying to make a joke, unaware that the timing probably wasn’t appropriate. “It wouldn’t prohibit me from fighting with Rio although even if I could wield Aiden again, it would likely be too painful on the wound itself to allow such a thing.”

She felt - or possibly sensed - that Rio was coming up behind her at that point and Luka took a deep breath before nodding to her weapon partner when she moved to start tending to the wound. Her teeth clenched together at the cold water being poured on it and a few restrained sounds of pain did follow shortly after, but she made it through the ordeal without incident. The honey cloth surprisingly felt very soothing after it was applied and although she did hear a warning from another student, Luka was not immediately concerned about it given how much it helped with the pain.

When Rio walked away, the young meister pulled her sleeve back down so that her shirt would hold the honey cloth in place and then her head turned to investigate yet another sensation that was weighing on her mind. There was the echoing sound of something banging on a door and much to Luka’s surprise, none of her other classmates seemed even mildly concerned about it at all. Given that combination of information, the young meister decided she would pursue that task and her full attention turned towards completing it.

Though she did hear some of her classmates yelling about all sorts of things behind her, she somehow managed to block most of it out as she made her way towards the door that was continuously being pounded on and that seemed to be becoming louder now that their fight had resolved itself. It wasn’t until Cei specifically called her name to get her attention that Luka actually turned to figure out what was going on. Her first thought was that someone didn’t want her to open the door which was locked from their side, but she wasn’t quite certain that was the situation.

However, what she wound up hearing was very different from that. Slowly, Luka’s blood boiled and her face turned red with rage at everyone roasting her for swinging at Dai. She had known even before she moved her arm that she wasn’t going to hit him. Additionally, Luka strongly felt that Dai had been bullying her since they’d all first joined R.I.P. Did no one else see that or care? No one ever stood up for her when Dai had continuously called her a ‘runt’ despite her asking him to stop, and she had tried multiple times. What else did they expect her to do when he clearly didn’t care about a single word she spoke? Logically, she knew that they wouldn’t listen to her even when she tried to explain all of that. She may not have screamed, but her soul did.

Tears touched the edges of her eyes because she knew she would never survive R.I.P. if no one stood up to bullies, and apparently everyone hated her when she tried to stand up to them. All she wanted to do was run. She couldn’t mid-mission, but opening the door behind her would help them resolve that so that’s what she turned around and did.

“OH MY GOSH! YOU’RE A LIFESAVER!!” A young woman leapt out from behind the door and immediately wrapped her arms around the meister who had freed her without even really taking much of a glimpse around elsewhere. The moment when she stole Luka into an embrace gave everyone else a chance to look her over just a bit. She was human - that much was obvious by the quickest glimpse at her soul. However, anyone using even the slightest soul perception would only be able to glean that much before her wavelength faded to absolute static. Such was her wavelength.

As the embrace came to an end, Luka asked the obvious question. “Who are you?”

Meanwhile, as Cole had dialed up Lord Death when others were in the midst of lecturing the youngest meister, the grim reaper appeared on the mirror he had dialed and he took a look around the scene that the students had created. His eyes lightened up when he saw the woman standing in front of Luka. “Ah! I see you found Briseis,” he remarked, seemingly pleased but otherwise neither perturbed nor surprised at the situation that was unfolding. “Is there anyone else here?”

The woman who Lord Death had referred to as Briseis shook her head, and she also seemed to be in awe of the sight of the grim reaper. “I don’t know who they were, but they took some and then they locked me in. Someone mentioned something about coming back for me, which was terrifying. No one ever came until these ones.” She gestured to the students.

“It is what I feared, then,” he sounded defeated. “Students, I am sending the plane to return you to the school. You should have some time to investigate the lower levels. Imprint what you see into your minds and we will discuss it when you return. It may have evidence as to what we can anticipate next from our strange enemies here. Briseis, I’m going to have you travel back to the DWMA with the students. With your father missing, I cannot protect you here.”

The woman nodded although she looked nervous about the whole situation. She opened her mouth to speak, but then stopped herself as though she thought better of what she had been about to say.

Lord Death’s attention shifted back to Cole real quickly and he asked, “Is there anything specific I can help you with?” Although the grim reaper had updated their agenda, he wasn’t sure if his conversations had specifically addressed what the meister had called for in the first place. It was wise to make sure.

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Cole Baker​

"Crackshot"​

Species Human
Partner Callah
Rank One-Star Meister, R.I.P.

Location Sydney, Australia, in front of the Opera House
Mission Investigations in Australia
Status Focused

​

Mentions: Solarknight The Regal Rper Mineczka Nobody Special Lady Warlock

"As a quick update, we did eliminate the only hostile we found. As you just noticed, we did recover one friendly. Aiden is now paired with Dai due to burns on the arm of Luka and some other type of issue between them. The burns on her arm appear to have resulted from some severe wavelength dissonance that happened between them; I effectively saw that occur in real time during our fight with the hostile. The summation of the events leading up to this internal conflict are the result of rude comments from Dai leading Luka to swing Rio at him. She states that she never intended to follow-through with said strike, but the action occurred nonetheless. The soul of the hostile was consumed by Cei without internal conflict. We also intended to find a container for some of this honey to bring back as a sample, in the event it was useful. This would be a fairly stripped down explanation for the sake of being succinct," Cole said, quickly and clearly explaining what had occurred in a fairly matter-of-fact tone. He had no intention on arguing with anyone and that odd change in his behavior that came from releasing his mental barrier was still present, resulting in his more firm assertiveness. Not quite to the same degree as Cei was--her tone carried a hint of almost ominous aggression. Cole was almost like a brick wall. Just the facts.

"I would normally save these facts for an end-of-mission report, but in the event anything changes your instructions, I felt it would be irresponsible not to provide you imperative facts. As it stands, I believe the tension amongst the group is not so grand we are entirely compromised as Dai has taken the encounter in relative stride, but I do believe our battle efficacy has been lowered--especially with me already in these more narrow indoor areas. I would wager a twenty percent loss in potential and believe that if we did find another hostile of the same strength, we could still eliminate it. Anything of a greater threat or in greater numbers might prove problematic. I presently cannot sense another target, if that is of any use. That also concludes my report, Lord Death," Cole added, explaining his reasoning for even going into such depth and his current assessment of the situation. Admittedly, he was not sure what weight his words carried, but he definitely felt restrained fighting inside this building in such close quarters--his most powerful techniques with Callah were entirely off-limits without incurring friendly fire.

"Unless your mission objectives have changed, my only inquiry is if you would like us to first escort miss Briseis out before assessing the lower levels or bring her with us as we do to minimize our time in the building," Cole said, providing the only question he really had at this point. His mind had already formulated several possibilities. He knew nothing about Briseis so if she had no ability to defend herself, removing her from the potentially dangerous area made sense. However, would she need someone to stay outside to protect her? If so, who would he leave behind? Logic would normally dictate Luka if only to separate Luka, Dai, Cei, and Aiden--Rio was a non-factor in the conflict. However, Luka was hurt and only had Rio alongside having the least battle experience. Not the best body guard. Had it not been for the friction between the two, Cole would have opted to stay, but leaving those two alone sounded like a mistake. That meant Dai would be the best option to leave, putting himself and Luka alone in the building together. If there were no more hostiles, fine. No problem. If there were, then the loss of Dai was a substantial hit to their battle prowess for more reasons than Cole cared to calculated. Additionally, Cole felt that leaving the grounds might create a social air of relief and in that moment one of the others might then find it appropriate to emotionally explode, whether it was Aiden, Cei, or Luka again. This to Cole alone made the idea of leaving a poor choice. The more Cole thought about it, the more he took preference to bringing Briseis with them. Hopefully in front of someone Death seemed fond of, the group would be more stable to keep face. Additionally, she would likely know the grounds better and anything that may be out of place. If they were to find something, she could easily help. It was a situation of risk analysis, and while Cole had Death on the line, he opted to defer to him if there was any insight he may have.

 

[CelticHero37]

Grace Jean Taghan

Erica Grace Taghan​

Mentioned: QuirkyAngel Lady Warlock​

Grace had been uncharacteristically silent during the little break they had taken. It wasn't that she was doubting herself. It was just that the ordeal had rattled her a bit. Neither Grace nor Erica needed to be told when it was time for action, though. Getting up, Grace didn't hesitate to grab hold of Yuan's hand with Erica soon beside them as well. Grace gave Yuan a smile, "The best thing you can do for me, Yuan, is to keep believing in me. Erica and I have been dealing with this long enough. It isn't easy all the time, but I promise we won't let you down."

Erica took note of the situation. It seemed like her detailed explanation of the situation, while beneficial, wasn't as effective as Grace's approach at bringing the confidence back up. There really wasn't anything for her to say. Except for one thing, "Let me gang foremost this time." With that, Erica transformed into her axe form and Grace quickly followed suit. This meant that when Grace's wavelength was brought into the mix, Erica's orderly wavelength was already present and ready to provide balance. Although the twins were able to keep things relatively in check and the break had given them time to recover from the incident, they were not at all prepared for what they saw next.

When they encountered their first opponent, there was something uncanny. Something familiar. Both Grace and Erica felt they recognized the villain, but for the moment they couldn't remember who it was. Neither of them thought they'd fought them before. Despite being very certain they recognized the person, neither of them were able to pinpoint exactly who they were. Something was just off. That in itself was very troubling.

 

[Prizzy Kriyze]

Sion Noguchi
Salt Lake City​

The conversation was an expedient process, and before long Sion found himself running down the streets towards Salt Lake City's downtown district. There was the distant beating of war drums, a sound he knew belonged to Yuan, but when the earlier distant cackling had subsided he came to realize that there wasn't another distinct sound in the city. He couldn't pick out any defined soul sound other than that of himself and his four allies. Still, this direction should lead him directly into the right territory. Were they using soul protect? Was he about to land himself in an ambush? He trusted his refined senses, but this was beyond his area of expertise. Still, there was no way he could be passive when there were potential lives at stake.

That's when he heard it.

It wasn't surprising he hadn't been able to pick it out sooner. The sound didn't manifest in his ears like they usually would. Instead his chest felt tight, as if being surrounded by stacks of subwoofers all hitting him with the same sub-base notes over and over. He couldn't hear it because it was lower frequencies than his ears would be capable of making out, yet his soul sense didn't fail him. It just made it far harder to ascertain the location.

"I think it's about to be go-time, Noelle. Are you ready?"

Sion halted at the corner of a building when the sound suddenly became tangible to his ears. It was a tainted, slow and dark melody. It was as if someone had completely filtered the mids and highs out of some jazz fusion black metal project and played it through a broken amplifier. There was an underlying hint of hunger, familiar to Sion's own sound, that made him cringe. If he wasn't already so used to having his senses assaulted it might've made him sick, but it only succeeded in giving him brief pause. Overlaid on top, he could hear Yuan's sound. She couldn't be far.

He swallowed nervously, then peeked beyond the edge of the building. The wind kicked snow from the rooftops, sending cold flakes like a soft mist across the street, but through the fog he could make out a figure. It approached with a slow, awkward sort of shuffling, as if nobody had told it how to use its limbs. It's skin seemed wrong, as if mangled and diseased, and protruding from it's mincemeat arms were sharp blades. "Is that a fucking weapon?" He whispered, exasperated, to Noelle.

Then he collected himself and brought a hand up to the police radio. The figure was still a good way off, so he spoke with a firm voice. "This is Sion Noguchi, DWMA representative and meister. Me and my colleagues have eyes on a target in the downtown area. Please assist us by evacuating the local area, this may very well get messy." The radio sparked into silence as he let it fall from his collar down into the snowy street.

Then he stepped out.

Across from the ghoulish opponent Sion placed himself center in the street with Noelle confidently leaned over his shoulder, and stared down towards it. He couldn't make heads or tails of what it exactly was that he was staring down, but he knew that this wasn't the time to mess around, and as such had placed himself a respectable distance away. "You look like you've had an unfortunate accident with the wrong end of a meat grinder." He called out, his voice uncharacteristically firm and loud. "I represent DWMA as a meister, with all the authority that brings. You'll have to stop your rampage here and submit, or I'll be forced to make you. What'll it be?"

He had no idea whether this was a target that could be spoken to; he only hoped that he could waste some time for Yuan to get into a good position. If she could get the drop on... it, then they'd raise their chances. His posture was fluid, ready to tense and shift at any moment, should an attack come his way.

Interaction: Nobody Special QuirkyAngel CelticHero37 Lady Warlock

 

[Lady Warlock]

Briseis

Location: Sydney Australia
Partner: None currently
Tags: Sir Les Paul The Regal Rper Mineczka Nobody Special ​

Once she became more aware of the other students, Briseis took a quick survey of each of them in turn. The one who had greeted her at the door was by far the youngest if she was going by appearances alone. The one who’d called the grim reaper seemed to be in charge. The others… well, they mostly seemed like they were waiting around for something, but Briseis wasn’t quite certain what that would be in the end. After giving them each a quick look-over, her attention returned - like most others - to observing the interactions between Cole and Lord Death.

“There is no one else in the building,” she interrupted. “I’ve been trapped in there for three days and had plenty of time to explore it. There’s no one here.”

Lord Death’s gaze did flicker to the young lady briefly before he returned his attention to Cole and answered, “Briseis can go down with the team. She can probably help you find some of the more interesting details and she knows what the branch is supposed to be like. She can also work with Luka and Rio should there be any surprise enemies lurking about.”

Adelle Stone

St. Louis, Missouri​

Nodding to express that she understood Tavares’s reasoning, Adelle leapt into the air, assuming the weapon form he had requested before she landed in his hands. He was immediately prepared to wield her, and Adelle felt their wavelengths combine into the soul shot that was loading. Her own soul instinctively wrapped around it to contain anything weird that might result. This was their first time actually combining their soul wavelengths into anything potentially dangerous so caution was a wise approach that only took a little extra energy from Adelle to achieve.

Several small bolts of energy were fired off in rapid succession, each aimed for a different hooded flower stealer. Adelle could tell that they weren’t meant to be lethal simply by the amount of energy Tavares poured into each one, so aim therefore, wasn’t extremely important either. With that in mind, she focused more on surveying the battle they were about to enter rather than trying to contribute much of her focus to assisting in aiming or increasing their power.

Two shots hit their marks while a third went slightly right of a thief though it still made a noticeable impact in the dirt it landed upon, which was also effective in drawing attention. More than that, though, Lucien’s words seemed to reach them as well. No words were uttered by any of the short hooded figures, though. All that they really did in acknowledgement was a few unintelligible sounds like a child would make.

‘I don’t think they’re human,’ Adelle remarked into the undefined soul space she shared with her meister .She wasn’t certain, but she wanted to think that a human would have made some sort of comment when fired upon and spoken to in such a way. Soul perception would reveal that they were - in fact - kishin egg souls rather than human souls, but Adelle’s statement went a little further than that. She meant it in a manner that implied her belief that they never had been human in the first place; they were something else.

That was the only real observation she had time to make, though, before the garden shifted into more of a battlefield. One creature’s attention shifted to Tavares and Adelle while another hobbled towards Lucien. They weren’t very fast. However, that was about the only thing they could observe easily.

Sensing that the fight was going to become more melee at this point, Adelle transformed into her spear form as the creature approaching them reached out to show long claw-like fingernails that were nearly black from something that could not easily be discerned. It swiped at them like an animal simply trying to get them out of its way.

Though the situation with the one approaching Lucien seemed similar, its arms opened wide as though to embrace the partially transformed weapon, and from its movement, Lucien would see that it’s whole body beneath its cloak was covered in something sticky, although it smelled rather sweet.

The Regal Rper QuirkyAngel

Salt Lake City, Utah
“Copy that.”

The response on the radio when Sion called in was almost immediate, although it was also fairly simplistic. That was all it needed to be in the moment, after all.

A response from the creature… former DWMA instructor… kishin egg soul… there were many titles he could have been given - was probably more warranted in the moment that Sion stepped out from behind a building to fully reveal the presence of himself along with his weapon partner. However, that response didn’t really come. He did look Sion up and down for a moment, as though determining whether or not his soul would be worth consuming in addition to all the other souls he’d claimed in his time as whatever demented creature he’d become.

It seemed to have made its decision before too much time had passed, though, and it moved a lot quicker than it appeared capable of when it actually set its mind to something.

The beast darted at Sion like a bullet had been fired. It’s right arm slashed out, aiming right above Sion’s knees while its other arm prepared to catch him up high if he tried to jump it. Two things became clear right away. First, this thing clearly knew how to fight on more than an animalistic level. Secondly, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight.

CelticHero37 QuirkyAngel Prizzy Kriyze Nobody Special

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Lucien Boulanger (Weapon)
Missouri Botanical Gardens

Honey.

Lucien recognized the sweet scent immediately for what it was since chefs like him often used it as a cooking ingredient. It would be a travesty for him not to recognize it. However, exactly why the creature seemed to be covered with the sweet, sticky substance was utterly lost to him. As Adelle stated, the childish whine is response to his offer made it apparent that their thief-in-the-night was no longer human…if it had ever been human. Not that Kishin Egg souls would be treated as a human.

Lucien could recognize the stench of Evil emanating from it. As a weapon of DWMA, he didn’t have a problem recognizing the wavelength of a Kishin Egg for what it was…but he wasn’t a meister. He couldn’t see the soul—wasn’t trained to do so—without the help of one…which sucked for a soul-cutting blade like himself. If he could, he would’ve aimed straight for the soul; Diced it into bite-sized ribbons. Alas, Lucien Boulanger wasn’t an autonomous weapon.

That meant, in order to retrieve the soul, he’d have to utterly destroy the body—without Sheena’s help.

Letting out a ‘tsk’ as the slow-moving creature bumbled towards him in an attempt at a…bear hug…Lucien easily side-stepped the swiping arms at the last second and stuck his foot out with the goal of tripping it. As the creature lost its balance, the demon-knife had perfect exposure to the back of its neck…but didn’t take it. Instead, Lucien bulleted to the exposed back of the one going after Adelle and Taveres, aiming straight for the neck.

His reason? Efficiency. There were three targets and he didn’t know if his wavelength alone was enough to utterly decimate the body of a non-human. “Sheena’s isn’t likely to be joining us, so I’ll be counting on you two to deal the finishing blows while I distract them!”

Asking Tavares to wield him along with Adelle in this scenario was probably a bit much…and wasn’t particularly useful in a numbers game. As his bladed hand made contact with the creature’s neck, Lucien pushed, trying concentrate his wavelength in the way he felt other meisters who wielded him did in the past…but ultimately just using his own non-human physical strength, his arm blurring as he swung, in order to go for a clean decapitation. A skilled blade-meister would know how to use their wavelength to sharpen the blade of the weapon they wielded, but Lucien couldn’t say he ever expected to fly solo…otherwise he would’ve practiced some more basic wavelength techniques.

Free blade morphing back into a hand, Lucien gripped the cloak of the unnamed-creature to hold it still while his eyes darted cautiously to the one he tripped…and the other one. Had to keep track of their positioning after all, as the first rule of group fights was to not let themselves get surrounded. Cutting holes in their bag should slow down their flowering-gathering, but they still had arms so it was hard to say by how much.

The Regal Rper Lady Warlock


Yuan (Meister)
Salt Lake City (Downtown)

Yuan concentrated her wavelength to her eyes as her gray orbs followed the bladed-zombie’s movements from behind the residential building. Her soul technique allowed her to see several steps into the future, foreshadowing her opponent’s would-be attacks, but whether she was able to respond quickly enough was on her. As soon as she felt Sion and Noelle's soul arrive, Yuan was already on the move, mentally calculating the best position to be at from her vague memory of the map. The best moment to strike. Still, it wasn’t hard to tell when the souls of her demon weapons seemed to waver a bit.

Do you recognize him…? Yuan shook her head. Never mind. We don’t have the luxury of getting distracted. That guy’s good…

A skilled martial artist recognized another skilled martial artist and Yuan could immediately tell the weapon-zombie (?) was a skilled martial artist. That meant the first strike had to count. Yuan took a deep breath. A bit of fear was to be expected when facing someone potentially stronger than oneself. Still…if Yuan let that get to her, she could never become a stronger meister. Never defeat Ranmao. Her eyes hardened.

Moving as silently as a crouching tiger and quickly as a snake's strike, Yuan climbed to the rooftop of a nearby building and crouched, knowing she had to keep her presence low. The weapon-zombie would go for just above the knees. Yuan saw it before the he even reached Sion, an arm prepped to catch Sion if he jumped.

We’re going for that other arm…closer…closer…now!

Both dual axes raised, Yuan leapt off the roof as the Weapon-zombie poised to strike Sion, smashing both girls down onto its other arm. Focus ladies! I’m going to need you both at your sharpest if we’re going to chop it off!”

Demon Weapons were built to be durable, and it wasn’t like she and the twins were resonating, so it might take might take multiple hacks to cut his arm off, but at least by keeping the arm occupied, it gave Sion the opportunity to jump if he so desired.

Prizzy Kriyze Lady Warlock CelticHero37

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Cole Baker​

"Crackshot"​

Species Human
Partner Callah
Rank One-Star Meister, R.I.P.

Location Sydney, Australia, in front of the Opera House
Mission Investigations in Australia
Status Focused

​

Mentions: Solarknight The Regal Rper Mineczka Nobody Special Lady Warlock

"Understood, Lord Death," Cole responded with a quick nod of his head then stashing the mirror.

He gripped Callah once more, her rifle form still firmly in his hands and now completely so without the mirror. He turned his body back to the group and nodded over to them in a fairly neutral act, his body language itself no longer aggressive but still obviously on edge. It appeared he was still battle ready even after being told the area was clear. "You heard it from his lips himself, team. Our mission now is investigation and assessment with guidance from Briseis. Luckily, if we have to carry too much, Aiden can always transform back and carry. Unless that happens, however, we are going to return to the original formation until we confirm everything is clear. Dai in the front, Breseis and Luka in the middle, and I'll tail from behind. Once everything is cleared, at the least try to stay within the same room as the rest of the team," he said, more so just reaffirming the plan and planning with caution.

His focus then turned squarely on Breseis. "Do you have anything to add, miss? Is there anything we should keep our eyes out for? Are you a specialist of some type--if we see something, should we immediately get you to look at it or pick it up for later examination?" he asked her. It was fairly obvious he was honestly deferring to her experience. He was quite earnest in his request for her experienced opinion. Cole was perhaps more of a 'try-hard' than most of his peers, but it did at the least avoid his tone coming across as more smart-aleck than sincere.

 

[Nobody Special]

NOELLE ACCESSOIRE
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Interacting: Sion ( Prizzy Kriyze ), Yuan ( QuirkyAngel ), Erica & Grace ( CelticHero37 ), Evil Creature ( Lady Warlock )
Meister: Sion
________________________________________________________________________________

Sion's response was relieving. Even though he said he was stressed, who wouldn't be in this kind of situation? They had no idea what they would be going up against as time relentlessly charged forward, and she was positive that being able to see/hear the soul of their impending opponent made things much worse. She was glad he didn't break down as soon as she had asked him how he was doing--something she wouldn't have even blamed on him if it were to happen-- and claim that he 'couldn't do it', or something along those lines. Then again, Sion definitely wasn't the type to do something like that. Not in the stern-faced girl's eyes, at least. To her, the colorless-haired boy was one of the strongest meisters in the class, if not the strongest.

Once she was finished debriefing the situation to Yuan on Sion's phone, Noelle took a moment to relay the redhead's words to her meister. "They'll be meeting up with us soon," She explained, sounding a bit more calm than she had been moments earlier, though she was still feeling a bit down about the twins. It wasn't the time to let her emotions weigh her down-- especially since her mental state would definitely affect Sion's performance if he were to find out that she was down in the dumps. While she idly stood within her pitch black soul-space, she raised her arms and swiftly clapped her cheeks with her hands as hard as she could, wincing from the stinging pain that knocked her out of her rut. It hurt, sure, but that lingering ache from the self-slap was enough to clear her mind a bit-- plus, it wasn't like anyone could see what she had just done.

With a quiet exhale, she pouted slightly at her partner's apparent pickpocketing of the female officer who had been nice enough to give them the map they needed. Instead of ridiculing him, however, she simply replied with a strict "Just make sure you return it once we're finished."

"I think it's about to be go-time, Noelle. Are you ready?"

Huh?

How many minutes had passed since they had last spoken? While her partner quietly traversed the streets of the city, Noelle was silently battling his wavelength. It was much easier to ignore the draining feeling when you were distracting yourself with something else, and though she could say she was getting used to Sion's unique

vacuum-soul, she had to admit that it was still strong as hell. But now, suddenly, an incalculable amount of time had passed and now it was time to get into combat mode. Thankfully, the Parisian was quick to respond, and immediately shifted all of her attention to supporting her meister.

With a gulp, slightly nervous about what was to come, she managed to utter a pseudo-confident "Ready!"

When their enemy finally revealed himself, Noelle couldn't help but gasp. The twisted, mangled body and bladed-arms were one thing, but as soon as the girl's red eyes locked onto his face, her heart skipped a beat. She had never been in a class with the man, but she had been a student at the DWMA long enough to recognize a Death Scythe when she saw one. As Sion radioed in to the surrounding officers in the area, Noelle struggled to catch her breath, realizing that she was hyperventilating at an alarming speed and that sweat was now slowly falling from her forehead.

"S-Sion!" she called out, not bothering to utilize their private, telepathic connection due to her panic. "Be careful, he's... it's a Death--"​

Before she could even finish her explanation, Ace (or, at least, what remained of him) was darting towards them at a near-blinding speed. As soon as it prepared to strike, Noelle instinctively popped her umbrella form open to defend Sion from as much damage as she could. She was nowhere near a Death Scythe's level, but she damn sure was durable. "En Garde!!" She frantically ordered, praying to Death that it wasn't too late.

Thankfully, a familiar flash of red was just in time to come to the pair's rescue. It gave her just enough time to scream out her warning.

"It's a Death Scythe, everyone!! Be very careful! We do not know what he is capable of!"

​

 

[Mineczka]

One-Star Weapon, partnered with Luka and Aiden.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Interactions: Lady Warlock (Luka, Briseis) The Regal Rper (Cei) Sir Les Paul (Cole, Aiden), Solarknight (Callah)

Rio's patience felt tested, as Aiden changed over to his human form, remarking how Luka crossed the line over the insults, which was a fair statement, as, yes, Luka was well across the line, and Rio knew that, she wasn't stupid enough to believe the action was justified, nor was she meaning to excuse it for that matter. Then, Cei jumped in, reminding Rio who was the weapon used, which tested her even further. She was frustrated at the actions taken, but also the inactions taken to lead up to the situation, and Rio wanted to share the other perspective in the matter and hopefully build the understanding, as, she knew Luka a little better than the others, while she was no master at figuring the young meister out, Rio had a little more knowledge than the rest, "Did I excuse her actions?" Rio asked, she knew how she sounded, but, the point had to be made, "As. I don't think I had. I wanted to ensure this doesn't happen again, and while Luka had escalated, had Dai simply stopped like he was asked some... Three, four times? Just because the reaction was over the line does not excuse someone from their own actions leading up to it. They still have to be held accountable." Following her words came a shake of her head, Rio was more annoyed at the situation than she showed.

Being honest with herself, Rio knew she was absolutely livid, Luka swung at Dai, but not with anything normal, with her, a bladed weapon, something meant to injure, and kill. Had Luka not stopped, Rio may have became a murder weapon, and she was reasonably furious of it. However, she still believed it didn't excuse Dai's remarks, he was out of line whilist everyone else kept allowing it to happen, though she wasn't too content with being swung at another human either, the whole damn situation could have been avoided with a simple condemnation of the actions, but no, and here they were. Taking a harsh breath, Rio tried to return her focus to the mission at hand.

What aided this, was the eventual call with Death and Luka finally opening the door, immediately, Luka was enveloped in a hug, prompting a response from her weapon, whose left arm became her blade for a moment, before noticing the person in question was a human, Briseis, whom had been banging on the doors and was trapped. A breath of relief came over Rio, who turned to the rest of her teammates for a second, before approaching her meister, a final show of her annoyance at the situation before becoming a sword once more.

While she didn't show it, Rio was still livid of what happened. The situation had gotten far out of hand, and while Luka was at fault for some of it, it was a compound issue, and had multiple faults with each person in some way, Dai was the agitator, as far as Rio knew, Cei enabled the behaviour, while the one whom assumed the leader position, Cole, turned a blind eye to the matter until it had come to blows, which prompted scolding from across the board from everyone, as Rio was at least trying to calm her meister down, it was many failures that led to this, not just Luka on a hairpin trigger, Rio wanted to make that known, but held it in, now was not the time for this nonsense.

Taking a moment to listen to Cole dish out orders once more, Rio would shake her head if she had one, here he goes, being a leader when it's easy, but taking no action when a leader is needed, but she left it be, hoping to internalize the anger, in an attempt to keep it from affecting Luka too, the last thing Rio wanted was to drag someone else into her issue...

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Aiden McCarthy​

TBD​

Species Human
Partner Luka, Rio; Dai, Cei (temp)
Rank One-Star Weapon, R.I.P.

Location Sydney, Australia, in front of the Opera House
Mission Investigations in Australia
Status Irate, frustrated, upset

​

Mentions: Solarknight The Regal Rper Mineczka Nobody Special Lady Warlock

Yes. Let us indulge, shall we?

Rio and her wavelength may have previously been enough to dull the edge of his rage just enough to prevent an outburst, but she pivoted in the wrong direction and became the new trigger for it. Like Pikachu from Ash's pokeball, Aiden could not be contained and shot out in a red beam of light off of the back of Dai. Aiden was back to fuming and this time a few calm words would not be enough to persuade him to cease.

"Rio, let's take some responsibility for a moment. Sure, Dai could have shut the hell up--that's one solution," Aiden said, but unlike Rio, the rage and frustration that seethed through the words he let out was not bridled by some notion of control. "But, that wasn't the solution. Think of this--if all it took was a few unkind words from a teammate to cause her to swing, she was a Death-damned ticking time bomb. My sister is a Three-Star Weapon and from what I've seen, being called a runt from Dai is the least of what her team deals with. The ranks of the DWMA are not always filled with calm-mannered agents and that's just a fact of fucking life. So, backtrack to responsibility. Dai said a few mean things, so let the punishment fit the crime. Minor harassment at best. But, Luka? Attempted assault. I don't know about you, but put into those terms, one sounds far worse than the other--go figure."

He wasn't done.

"And, who else, huh? Me? You? What did we do? Dai was asked to stop, he didn't, but what are going to do? Grab his jaw and literally hold it shut? If every single one of us asked him to stop it and he didn't, would that make us less guilty? Less responsible? What does it matter? Let me put this into another perspective for you. A wavelength rejection can have many causes and one of them is the fundamental incompatibility of two souls. I have a simple desire in being a weapon. To protect. In one fell swoop, Rio, you were about to be used to do the exact opposite. Why you aren't more angry about that is beyond me, but I know this: anyone who would attack their ally over such a petty comment said no matter how many times under any premise is not compatible with me. I am here to protect and quite frankly I don't give a damn what she says, she wanted to cause harm. She commit an act of aggression against her ally and no matter what way you try to defend her or twist that fact, she is the most wrong. I don't care if you find a way to find a fault with everyone in this room, Luka took it to a place it should never go." Aiden was, without a doubt, blowing up. Rio was for a moment the only salvation that prevented this, but her going off was the trigger to his volcano.

"I don't know if you just want to defend your friend or if you stand up for someone you think is being bullied, but you're--"

BOOM! A full blown sonic explosion cut off Aiden and stole the entire air of the room. It was Cole firing a lower-powered sonic shot through Callah into the floor of the room with no regards to secondary damage. "ENOUGH!! I HAVE DAMN WELL HAD ENOUGH!" Cole shouted, not quite as furious as Aiden but more so frustrated and ashamed.

"I tried to be considerate to each and every one of you. I tried to not step on any toes here. I tried to give Dai his role and avoid being overly commanding to avoid conflict. Call it a mistake, if you want, but I've also tried to avoid directly providing an opinion on how absurd I think it was to raise a weapon to a teammate. It seemed at first I was delegated to leadership and I tried to ease into it, especially since Lord Death didn't say a word about it. But screw it. I just want you ALL to shut the fuck up. I would take a thousand shots of Callah's thunder wavelength before listening to you all go on again about how upset you are." Cole continued on, his voice lowering but still projecting through the room. It was clear from his tone that Cole was two things: stressed and unhinged.

"More than one of you have reason to be upset, but guess what? None of you are better than the other. I'm not better than you. You don't get to be judge and jury and you sure as fuck don't get to be executioner. Lord Death will deal with that when the time comes, but that time is not right now. It's not in the yard when we get out of here. It's not even on the plane. Absolutely none of you will get anywhere with these petty ass remarks back and forth or sparking an argument right now. All you're doing is making us look like idiots in front of the individual we're intended to be escorting--by which, Cole himself continued, outlining the reality of the situation that was in front of them while also highlighting the futility of their remarks.

"I apologize for what you may have just experienced miss and the outbursts of both myself and my allies. Quite frankly, this is our first field mission together and if it's not obvious, we haven't really went through any teamwork training. I'm not even going to elevate myself above them, to be honest--somewhere along the line, I probably failed, too. There was probably something better I could have done, but I didn't, and here we are," Cole said, this time specifically addressing their new companion.

But, then he turned back to the group. "So, let's put the failures and fuck-ups of this mission behind us so we can complete it, get back home, and hole ourselves up in our room or go a gym to burn off steam or whatever it is that we each do when we're upset. Cry in a pillow, punch a bag, eat some icecream--I don't care. But, every moment we waste bickering is another moment away from doing the things that can make us feel better," he told all of them, this time in an admittedly condescending tone laced with that same unhinged frustration from earlier.

Aiden had his eyes trained on Cole during the last half. There was no physical shockwave from the blast, but it was certainly loud and caught him off guard. And, oh boy, Aiden was still plenty angry. On one hand, it felt like his feelings were being quite diminished, but on the other Cole made a fair point on how useless the fighting was and how not a single one of them was exactly a shining star on this mission. Still, that burning fury was inside of him. He was just cut off from his emotional explosion and now a stare-down between the two after Cole forced the attention onto himself, stealing his moment, was what left them.

"For the sake of getting home and away from everyone here, how about we just focus on finding whatever it is we need, then board that plane?" Cole said, and while it sounded like he was addressing everyone, it was pretty plain to see his focus was distinctively on Aiden. One thing Cole said stood out to Aiden before all others: 'for the sake of getting away from everyone here'. At his core, that's all Aiden really wanted at this point. He was furious with Luka, disappointed with Rio, and frustrated with just about everyone else. Alone is what he wanted. Maybe some time to talk to his brother if he was off his mission.

"Fine, Cole," Aiden said aloud followed by a sullen sigh. With that, he turned back to Dai with intentions on returning to his weapon form, depending on how the Meister reacted or how others might have.

 

[The Regal Rper]

Tavares Castelo
~St.Louis, Missouri~

With Lucien engaged with his target, Tavares spared only a moment's glance in his comrade's direction before he leaped back as the strange creature struck. He mentally swore in Italian, seeing Lucien partnerless, meant something was wrong or something between him and his Meister had left him to attend to the situation without her. What that could possibly be, Tavares had no idea.

He however did have every intention on chewing out Lucien's partner when he saw her again for acting so irresponsibly.

The air hissed with the sound of slashing claws, but they never found their mark as he kept moving. Not once did Tavares use Adelle against her. Something instinctive told him to wait. To hold off just a bit longer even though Adelle already shifting forms made things a greater game changer. Especially after her confirmation. These things weren't human. As such, Tavares had no more reason to use non-lethal means.

Yet the scent of honey, the way the creature wreaked of it. It's cloying odor wafting off the monstrosity's form, caked around it's body. If he struck with her, Tavares knew without a doubt, she would be stuck. Couldn't have that. So with a thought he changed his mind, sent the word back to Adelle through the link, a simple: I think your slingshot form may be better for this fight.

Just as he was preparing his own retaliation, he noticed Lucien approaching, having side-stepped his own enemy. With Lucien coming to back them, Tavares held off on his next move, simply leading his enemy along till Lucien got close. What he'd expected was Lucien to cleave the beast in half. Chop off its neck cleanly, but...he didn't.

What he ended up doing made Tavares shout, "What are you doing?!" in surprise. Could he not cut the thing down without a meister? Even with his own partial transformation?

The calm feeling of grim determination vanished in a huff from Tavares soul. What came forth, was a nervous wave of energy, mixed in with annoyance at the whole situation. The smallest mutterings of his mind could be linked back to Adelle, all of them bitterly wondering what in the blue sky, could Sheena be doing that would warrant her abandoning them like this?!

"You will no distract them." Came the quite sudden angry voice of the meister. A voice he calmed in his next few words. "Transform Lucien! I can wield both of you, I cannot guarantee your safety like this!" And it was clear he wasn't asking, he was more precisely, on some level, begging.

In truth he couldn't guarantee any of their safety if Lucien didn't have a partner to watch out for him. Now that he knew Lucien couldn't cut these things down without Sheena, he would worry more about keeping him safe, than focusing on the act of execution. There was no telling how fast these things were, how strong they could be if they saw a chance. And while Lucien wasn't a pure human, that didn't mean these things couldn't do harm. He'd never fought with a Weapon that couldn't actually fight back against the creatures they hunted back with the Troops. All Weapons had to hone their own proverbial or literal blades. It was a necessity in the Deck. The rules were strict, firm, and allowed no slacking. Just like Meisters had to hone their own skills, a prominent feat being capable of Menace. He'd assumed it was a necessity in DWMA, just like it was in the Deck, especially with his own experience with the Weapon he'd been with.

It'd never once occurred to him that there were Weapons who honestly couldn't cut down the sinful without a Meister at all. Even if they couldn't do it effectively, they could do something at least. It seemed so foolish to allow such a skill to slip. But it hardly mattered in the now. If he had to wield Weapons that weren't the same type, then he had a strict time limit to abide by before his body started to slow down from the effects. That meant the plan now was: We're going to kill them all Adelle. And then we'll gather what we can from their corpses and let the Lord know of our findings.

A lethal shot was aimed for the center of the chest, then fired. Tavares didn't hesitate after he sent the shot, he lunged for Lucien, and if his connoisseur did transform, the three would make a dash towards the others.

Mentions: N/A

Interactions: Lady Warlock (Adelle), QuirkyAngel

 

[Prizzy Kriyze]

Sion Noguchi
Salt Lake City​

The response he was hoping for never came. Instead the figure dashed for him as if fired from a gun; luckily, Sion had been dodging bullets all his life. In a swift motion he pivoted Noelle around the front of his throat, catching her upside down in his left hand. He could intercept an attack with her, but he'd have to be ready to dodge his other hand. The creature was fast, Sion thought to himself. If it could keep that up then he'd have to be careful not to be stuck in defensive-

"S-Sion!"

The distress in Noelle's voice nearly threw him off, but he redoubled his focus in anticipation of the creature's swing. Time felt like it slowed. There was going to be another strike from the right. Two bladed arms, fluid movements... this creature wasn't about to let up, was it? Still, with Noelle's concern in mind, there seemed to be more to it. A flash of red from a rooftop snapped him out of introspection, and he let go of the breath he'd been holding. Yuan was going to create an opening. Don't squander it.

Time resumed. Noelle expanded her canvas as a shield, Yuan came down on the creature's left arm with both of the twins. Just before the slash struck Noelle, Sion leaned forward and dashed into it. His left foot hovered off the ground as the powerful impact shook his arm, and sent his intentionally unbalanced body into a spin as he opened his right hand, now crackling with energy. "Collapse, quick!" He shouted internally to Noelle. In but a moment he dodged forward underneath the creature's raised left arm, and used the spin from blocking it's right arm to turn and drive his right-handed soul impact into the monster's lower back. He felt his hand connect with its cold body, and felt his impromptu technique draw power from its mangled wavelength to return it in an explosive force.

Then his heart skipped a beat. It was a momentary connection before the Soul Impact depleted their shared energies in a forceful blow that sent Sion backwards, further behind the monster, but that sensation...

Sion planted his left foot firmly on the ground and slid backwards until the accumulated snow under his shoes stopped him. Inside of this monster there was suffering. Thick, tangible suffering. His hand felt numbed and tingly from the brief contact, and he shook it as he let go off the breath he'd been holding since it first came for him. The squabble had sent a cascade of snow into the air, mildly obscuring the zombie. There was no way one little Soul Impact was going to settle this. Sion quickly shifted into a battle-ready stance. "He's a former fucking DEATH WEAPON?" He mentally shouted at Noelle. Quickly, as not to let Yuan completely fend for herself against this monster, he dashed towards it once more. "You need to tell me how to injure that, and fast."

Interaction: Nobody Special QuirkyAngel CelticHero37

 

[Lady Warlock]

Luka Baines

Location: Sydney, Australia
Partner(s): Rio
Tags: Sir Les Paul Nobody Special Mineczka The Regal Rper ​

Briseis did hear Cole’s question and answered accordingly. “I’m not a specialist in any significant manner. I have a unique wavelength, and I grew up here. My father’s one of the Death Scythes that kept this place up and running.” She didn’t feel the need to describe how unique her wavelength was at that moment because it seemed irrelevant to the question, but she felt it was at least worth mentioning. If they did get into a conflict of any kind, her wavelength would be something everyone noticed. As long as she stayed human, it wouldn’t interfere too much, though.

‘We have a mission to focus on,’ the statement echoed through Luka’s soul space as Rio transformed back into her weapon form and Luka caught it in her hand, twirling the weapon cautiously to make sure she wasn’t going to have any reactions similar to what had happened with Aiden. Fortunately, nothing of that sort seemed to occur. The young meister was grateful for that. Her statement wasn’t made because she was ungrateful for Rio’s support, even if Rio did still find Luka at fault as well. Rather, the statement was made because Luka wanted to be done with the conversation so they could complete the mission and then she intended to return to the DWMA and spend a significant amount of time whacking something. Not with Rio - she wouldn’t do that. But with something.

Luka’s own soul was highly unstable, but she quickly took to moving along, gesturing for Briseis to lead the way if she was willing. It seemed that their newest companion was as she started walking back through the door. Though she had heard Cole’s request that they move in the same formation, no one else seemed to be listening to her and instead chose to bicker among themselves about her. Last Luka could remember, the mission was supposed to be more important than arguing, but perhaps she had missed it somewhere. However, right as she stepped through the door, Luka caught herself and realized she didn’t want to get the team more on her case than they already were. “Briseis, we should actually wait,” she muttered in an irritated tone. Her soul wavelength seemed tremulous and Rio would feel it, but it never snapped and she didn’t put up walls around it.

“Dai! I think Cole said you’re supposed to lead the way!” she called out, hoping Dai could get them moving in a manner that was less hostile than current tensions felt.

As she waited, she grabbed about five toothpicks and shoved them into her mouth, biting down hard and feeling them all snap before she spit them into her hand, shoving them in her pocket and grabbing two new ones. Those, she nibbled slowly, seeking some sensory repetition that might help her through the last bits of the mission.

Once everyone was in place and the group finally started moving, they would find that the door led to a staircase going down and after those stairs, there was a mess that clearly signaled a struggle. Patches of blood dotted the carpet, a mirror was shattered - probably why Lord Death couldn’t check in personally - and there were a few bodies of gremlins similar to the one that the DWMA team had fought in the lobby of the opera house. There were also a few human bodies, presumably of people who had manned the Australian branch. Bees flew about, buzzing, but not really seeming to cause any harm, and there was a wall that looked like it was on the verge of collapsing. The lights flickered occasionally. There were bedrooms where the branch members slept and there was a training room as well. Weapons were broken into pieces and it also looked like quite a few things had been stolen.

“I don’t entirely know what Lord Death might want you to collect. There were a few humans among the strange honey gremlins, but they all escaped through a portal when they took my father,” Briseis explained. “I do wonder if the bees might make that strange honey, though.” A few tears fell from her eyes as they passed various bodies of people who had been her comrades for far longer than she cared to admit.

Salt Lake City, Utah
In the kishin egg’s focus on a singular target, it had not at all been prepared for an attack from above and so when Yuan came soaring down and slashed with two battleaxes, the attack struck it exactly as intended. It didn’t completely slice his arm off because he was certainly sturdier than that, but the knick that was achieved certainly had the creature howling. Even when infested with madness and chaos, it still felt pain. There was something more significant, though, if anyone had the attention to notice it. There was the slightest flash of recognition in its eyes as it heard Noelle’s voice before Sion’s soul wavelength attack had it squealing once more. Not only did the attack manage to siphon out some of its energy, but the attack also served to remind it that it only really had half a soul left within it, renewing the hunger to collect more, renewing the need to fill that void.

Its initial strike with its claw had managed to scrape the surface of Noelle’s umbrella fabric, but didn’t quite manage to. It was certainly a force Noelle would feel, though, and that was capable, with the right force, of tearing it completely. It wasn’t a pleasant fact to become aware of.

Though there had been moments of agony in the slightly coordinated attacks from the two meisters it now faced, the kishin egg’s movements didn’t slow and any split seconds of humanity seemed to vanish in an instant. It lifted its right arm and if the twins were still embedded in its flesh, they got dragged along with it as he swiped his arm in a wide swing at Yuan. Though the hit would strike with the flat of the blade, it wasn’t out of restraint; it just so happened to be the fastest way it could respond in the moment and the force of it would knock anyone back several feet if it landed.

That movement also seemed to propel the kishin egg forward straight at Sion as Sion leapt back into the fray of things. It’s left arm reached out and would come straight at the small of Sion’s back as the two of them closed in on each other.

QuirkyAngel CelticHero37 Nobody Special Prizzy Kriyze

Adelle Stone

St. Louis, Missouri​

As the situation around them unfolded into a much more chaotic scene than she would have hoped for, Adelle found herself growing more and more impatient as she waited for Tavares to actually use her to start organizing the situation more. She was a weapon and these things were enemies. It didn’t take much logic to realize it made the most sense for him to use her to destroy them. Her attention shifted to their teammate’s situation and she realized he didn’t seem to be faring much better. He also lacked a partner, which Adelle realized - just as her meister did - would be a problem when it came to resolving this mission with efficiency.

Surprisingly, Lucien was effective at getting the creatures to fall onto their faces, but it wasn’t enough to do any lasting damage. He’d also been making progress at shoving his blade into the back of one’s neck, although he released it before he could truly see that success, and the creature was squirming and scratching backwards with its claws the whole while. Once Lucien released it, the creature continued lunging at Tavares and Adelle as though it had completely forgotten a demon weapon was behind it. They clearly weren’t very smart beings.

As she was asked to, Adelle reassumed her slingshot weapon form. After having glimpsed the sticky substance that coated these strange beings, she found herself agreeing that a ranged attack would be more effective. However, when Lucien seemed to plan on dual wielding both herself and Lucien, she found a few problems with his plan. ‘A slingshot requires two hands, Tavares,’ she commented with some concern. While Adelle didn’t doubt that he knew that, she still felt that it was an important comment to make. Her comment came with a rather short tone, but that part of it wasn’t due to frustration or irritability. Rather, Adelle also shifted her focus to fire the shot he was preparing. The bullet was firm - nearly solid - soul energy, and when it hit the creature, it knocked it backwards onto its backside. It wasn’t quite as deadly as they would have hoped.

Adelle also found herself harboring some concern regarding how quickly Tavares had shifted towards such a harsh response. It was appropriate given their situation, so she wasn’t going to argue with it, but she sensed something deeper that she didn’t know about her partner that she would certainly have to learn if they were ever going to resonate at their most powerful capabilities. That was a thought she stored in the back of her mind for later use.

‘We need some distance between us and these things,’ Adelle remarked. ‘An atlatl dart would probably be more effective, but we need more distance to charge it appropriately. I can walk you through it if you don’t know how.’ Given that she was the weapon, she figured she could make the best estimate of what would be most to their advantage. Her remarks were audible to Lucien as well if he had joined them in Tavares’s other hand. Meanwhile, Adelle’s focus was constantly shifting between trying to maintain some amount of conversation with her meister and also focusing on charging their shots if Tavares continued to use her slingshot bullets.

All three creatures now had a single target and they hobbled forwards towards it with singular goals of destruction. Hands with long finger-like claws reached out for them whilst dripping with honey. The one they’d knocked backwards seemed to be moving in a funny manner. Their shot had done something, but it didn’t completely debilitate it yet. Another’s neck was wobbly once it started moving. Adelle narrowed in on that one in particular. ‘That one! Aim for its throat!’

QuirkyAngel The Regal Rper

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Lucien Boulanger (Weapon)
Missouri Botanical Gardens

“Gross…” Lucien couldn’t help muttering when his bladed hand didn’t quite dig into flesh, but sticky yellow stuff that he could only assume was honey…probably. Seemed sticker than any honey he’d ever used in cooking, but his goal had been to lop off its head, so whether he became covered with blood or honey mattered little to the demon weapon. A blade’s job was to cut through things…and Lucien wanted to see how far he could cut through something that wasn’t quite human flesh. More like jelly-flesh really. He had no intention of letting go…and wouldn’t have…if it hadn’t been flailing so much.

Grip tightening around the creature’s cloak, his other hand still deep in goey substance, Lucien blinked when the ‘gremlin’ suddenly ripped itself free of the cloth that had been covering it and—heedless of the dhampir that had managed to cut (at least partially) into its honey-covered neck—continued its charge towards Adelle and Tavares…only to get sent flying backwards by a bullet of soul energy.

“Rude!” Arms folded, Lucien huffed indignantly at the creature that dared to show its back to enemy, to him, and stomped aggressively on its ugly face when it landed on its back. “Are you dumb peons trying to say I’m not much of a threat? That I’m not even worth being a decoy by myself?!”

His eyebrow rose when Tavares lunged towards him, but Lucien got the message and instinctively took the offered hand, fully transforming into a Chef’s knife. As a weapon, he was taught that his job was to protect the meister…not the other way around. Therefore, hearing that Tavares wanted to guarantee his safety was oddly touching…though he wasn’t quite sure how his classmate intended to wield a knife in one hand and a sling shot in the other. Utility meisters were excellent…but the ones that specialized specifically in knives were better…and Lucien was fairly sure he wielded a Chef’s knife better than most that wielded him in the past. His EAT teachers used to tell him it was a shame he was a weapon as his heritage made him naturally faster and stronger than many that called themselves meisters, but, alas, it meant nothing when he couldn’t wield a demon weapon.

And demon weapons (that weren’t the automatic kind) couldn’t quite shine as well without a proper meister.

As the knife settled itself in Tavares’s hand, Lucien’s soul—in the weapon space—could feel the male meister’s wavelength…mirroring?...his own? Either way, it made matching wavelengths and building the link between the three of them all that much easier. He could see the red Kishin Egg souls clearly within the within the body of the enemies now as well.

I fail to see how your risking of your life on a mission is any different from me risking mine, Lucien replied dryly to Tavares comment about not being able to ‘guarantee’ his safety. Not that he thought he was in any special danger from the slow-moving honey gremlins. Every fight presented its own danger...and, worse come to worst, his weapon form was more durable than flesh. Wavelength manipulation might not be his forte, but transforming was - both partial and non-partial. Personally, I still think I’d make a great decoy if regaining distance and setting up for a big shot is your goal…but if you want to carve out their souls together I’m fine with that too ~ No idea what an atlatl dart is, but it sounds like a long-ranged weapon. I’m a closed-ranged one. Whatever you’re going to do, Cassanova, better do it quickly…

The three honey gremlins were finally getting back on their feet and hobbling towards them, honey-covered claws reaching out. Even if his weapon classes hadn’t trained him in Wavelength techniques—like menace, sutures, or whatever blade sharpening technique one of his previous meister’s used—Lucien was still an able fighter and a decently sharp weapon by his own right…and there were plenty of ways to take down three hunks of aggressive honey that were about as coordinated as their goo-filled brains.

Eyes darting to wear Adelle pointed out a weak spot, Lucien’s soul in the weapon space nodded. She's right. There’s your chance. Whatever weapon you use, strike true and don’t hesitate.

Hesitation dulled a blade. Meisters were the soul and wavelength specialists. His job, as a weapon, was to remain sharp. To match minds with the meister wielding him so that when they did strike they might strike as one. Pity, Lucien knew next to nothing about Tavares and couldn’t even fathom what the meister was thinking about in attempting to wield both of them at the same time. Then again, it had only been 2 days since he’d been partnered with Sheena and, despite the fact he was more familiar with Sheena’s wavelength and personality, Tavares wavelength matched his own so smoothly, Lucien hardly had to put any effort in at all. Compared to Sheena’s wavelength, which had been like an energizer bunny, marching to its own beat and empowering his, Tavares’s soul seemed to ‘mirror’ his own. A natural utility meister? Either way, the fact that Tavares could easily wield him at first try, while matching wavelengths with Adelle—when neither of them were twins or anything—was rather impressive.

Probably helped that Adelle didn't seem to mind too much.

Ah, and don't worry about Sheena. I can only assume that whatever is detracting her from this mission must be important, but she's always been the resilient type...

The Regal Rper Lady Warlock


Yuan (Meister)
Salt Lake City (Downtown)

Blade still attached to the flesh of the zombie demon weapon, Yuan used that (and her two weapons) as a leverage to acrobatically lift her body, avoiding the wide swing of its arm as the flat of her foot made contact with the flat of the enemy's blade. Helped that Yuan had seen the attack coming…though even her clairvoyant vision hadn’t quite seen its strength. The force of the zombie’s attack (and her kick) sent Yuan flying backwards and, since she refused to let go of either of the girls, the dual axes were un-wedged as well, causing a bit of blood(?) to drip out.

Flipping in midair, Yuan landed in a crouch on both feet as the zombie used a similar force to propel itself towards Sion and Noelle. On hindsight, leaving one of the girls imbedded in its flesh might’ve been a clever move if they could de-transform and switch to a choke-hold to slow it down. There were three reasons Yuan didn’t: 1) She had no idea whether either of them could perform a choke-hold 2) The zombie seemed strong enough to toss the girls off…if it even needed to breath in the first place...and 3) Losing one of them made it harder to balance the madness they were infected with.

“Deathsycthe you say…? You mean Death’s personal weapons? Those Deathscythes!?”

Even her clairvoyant wavelength hadn’t seen that one coming. The difficulty of the battle had just scaled up…but more importantly, she’d seen a brief flash of humanity in its eyes at Noelle’s voice. Would the Headmaster even want them to kill it? Take its soul knowing it was a former student? A former weapon of his? At least it now made sense that the Taghan Twins seemed to recognize it. Though how a personal Weapon of Death's ended up in such a state was still a mystery, it certainly explained Death's rush to produce new Deathscythes as well. The RIP class. The missing Deathsycthes. Pieces were coming together...albeit slowly.

“If any of you know it personally, maybe you can talk to it! Get it to tell us where Hannah is! I saw a flash of recognition in its eyes!”

Though, in all likelihood, Hannah was probably dead. Yuan had gotten close enough in that one moment to see the damage to the soul of the zombie and…in all honesty…she wasn’t sure it could be saved. Noelle had a comforting healing wavelength she remembered that might be able to help clear away some of the madness…get a bit of that spark back…but it had already become a Kishin Egg. Unless somehow repaired, it would continue to crave and consume souls until turning itself into DWMA’s worst enemy: a Kishin.

Yuan’s eyes followed the creature that reached for the small of Sion’s back from, nudging her glasses back into place with her wrist. Looks like we’ll need a stronger attack if we intend to damage him. Want to try resonating?

The other option, of course, was to go for after same spot again and again. Since they’d managed to nick it—without damaging the ax blades—physics said repeated attacks of the same caliber should do the trick. Sion and Noelle seemed to be able to handle themselves well enough with the umbrella working as both an offensive and defensive weapons. Working together required timing and, admittedly, she wanted to see how well the other pair could handle themselves before jumping in again.

Crouching low, Yuan prepped herself to charge in once more…as soon as an opening presented itself…or the twins said yes to resonating. It took two souls to try, after all. Well, three, in their case…but who really counted these things when the wavelength of the two ladies were so eerily similar, even for twins, Yuan could’ve sworn they were copies of one another…if not for their differing personalities.

Prizzy Kriyze Nobody Special Lady Warlock CelticHero37

 

[Nobody Special]

DAI
Location: Sydney, Australia
Interacting: Cei ( The Regal Rper ), Aiden, Cole ( Sir Les Paul ), Rio ( Mineczka ), Luka, Briseis ( Lady Warlock )
Weapon: Cei
________________________________________________________________________________

'Yeeeaaah...' Dai thought to himself, letting out a quiet, guilty sigh while the tensions in the corridor grew by the second. '...Deeeefinitely my fault.'

The young boy could do nothing but watch silently as his classmates continued to argue with each other, all because he couldn't keep his own mouth shut. It was rare for him to feel responsible for his actions, being the free-spirited animal he was, but this time, the nerve endings in his body ached at the damage he had done. Not only did he get the poor runt-- er, kid in trouble with various people in the team--including his own partner--, he had jeopardized everyone's safety during the mission by raising tension, and possibly even completely destroyed a special partnership between three people. This class wasn't like EAT, where everyone would have probably gotten away with an incident like this with a slap on the wrist-- this was serious. Though he was thinking humanely and maturely for one of the first times in his life, he wasn't able to place what he was feeling into words, or even thought.

He just... felt bad.

"Dai!" Called Luka, snapping the white-haired boy out of his thoughts and causing him to violently turn his head in her direction. "I think Cole said you’re supposed to lead the way!"

That's right, he was the frontline for the team. He quietly allowed Aiden to return to his back again, and turned to begin leading the group further into the opera house. Before he took his first step, however, he slowly raised his hand, clearing his throat to speak.

"Yo, I'm sorry to everyone, got it? I don't apologize often, so just shut up and accept it without sayin' anythin' back." He exhaled loudly. "No matter what any of you think, I just realized I'm the one mainly at fault here. So," his torso turned slightly so that he would be able to face the others. "Again, Luka, my bad. And that goes out to all of you, too." Though he was finally able to genuinely apologize, he felt no better than he did minutes earlier. He spun Cei to get a more comfortable grip, and turned his back to them again. "Let's all forget about everything that happened and get this over with, at least until that huge metal bird comes back to take us home." He closed his eyes, focusing directly on Cei to keep his words from somehow making their way towards Aiden's ears. 'My bad. Looks like I fucked things up. I'll make it up to you when we get back, got it?'

With that, he began walking forward, with everyone else following relatively close behind him. He made sure to keep his guard up, step over the corpses to avoid disrespecting the dead, and check every room that they passed to keep any chances of a surprise attack to a minimum. "We should get some of that honey on our way outta here. I'll use my damn pockets if we can't find anythin' to put it in. Just keep tellin' me where to go, and be on the lookout for important shit, or anythin' we might be able to take with us."​

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