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Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Nighthand » Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:28 pm

One by one, each of them would wake up. Slowly, groggily, they would rub their eyes and regain their balance, their awareness of the world around them. Their vision would clear, though what headaches they would have.

A little looking around reveals a dire situation. Each of them is alone in a cell. The floor, walls, and ceiling are made of one continuous piece of rock, with nothing to grip, nothing to gain purchase on, nothing to pry. Only one wall of the perfectly cubical 8 foot room has any feature at all; a rectangle of lighter stone. This stone is set smoothly against the rest of the walls and is perfectly smooth save for one hole, roughly the size of a basketball, with a single bar in the middle of it.

As for themselves, each of them is in new clothing. For the males it consists of little more than underwear and a hanging loin cloth, made from a tattered pale-green fabric. For the females it’s the same, with the addition of a top one size too small, tattered, and uncomfortable. The outfits are designed to be uncomfortable to wear, uncomfortably revealing, and impossible to hide anything in.

None of them are able to access menus, draw out items or weapons, or use their spells. If they have hacked abilities, they work, but at a lower power and sluggishly. If they have wings, the wings are bound, keeping them from flying. Should they attempt to send a flashmail it returns bounced, its contents deleted. If they have contacts, other voices or ways of communicating, those voices are silenced. The only ones exempt are the body-dwelling AIs, the resident split personalities, and similar entities. Pets are missing. They can communicate, but the only thing the pet knows is that it cannot leave its “hiding” form, and is trapped somewhere dark.

Looking out the window reveals a long and well-lit hallway stretching out to either side. At regular intervals there are more windows identical to their own. The lighting comes from bars of luminescent metal embedded in the ceiling.

Each of them, the old Freedom Fighters and the newly trapped, is alone in their cell. Captured, finally, by the Elites. Is this the end? Is this the finale to their quest? Turned into slaves, captured and hidden away for the rest of their days? Only their resolve will show them different.

(OOC: The new players are officially comatose and are in the same cell block as the rest of the Freedom Fighters. You’re all within speaking distance of each other, and some of you can see each other through the windows. Other questions, lemme know.)

Rayo
Exalted Player
Posts: 485
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2003 7:21 pm

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Rayo » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:12 am

They were in trouble. The Freedom Fighters finally were getting the upper hand, and then the Elites stopped toying with them. Nighthand, Nall, and Sheena were taken out in fast succession. Auth was also pretty sure he noticed some ghosting happen concurrent with the firing of some sort of firearm. Then, a flash of light and here he was. Obviously they hadn’t won the battle. If it had occurred a minute or two earlier Rayo might have been of a different opinion, but the fact the pair of “bosses” even dealt with him meant the good guys were gone.

First things first, was there any method available for escaping? The archer was obviously unarmed, no weapons or equipment were equipped. Nothing was within reach to make it so, even the menu was down. Same with items; it should not be feasible to cast spells. Perfect, that simplified his first real experiment.


“La Repth!”

Nothing. Normally it wouldn’t be possible to cast a spell without a piece of equipment or an item to act as a catalyst, but his ability was crafted in such a way that it didn’t matter. If he was still in the same field as before, La Repth still should have functioned. It was possible his blue magic was being blocked, but the field change seemed more likely. After all, the player moving seemed more logical than a jail cell surrounding him. Wherever he was, he couldn’t use location to his advantage. However, since he couldn’t cast magic upon himself, he had no method for determining whether or not blue magic was still working as it should. At least if he knew, antagonizing a guard might give him access to some sort of magic. That of course was leading to experiment number two.

“The Elites are stupid weakling! Hackers suck! Klive is level one! Royce likes rap!”

Rayo waited a moment. Nothing. This led to a few possibilities. One, there are guards who chose not to respond. Two, there are guards who would respond but were observing from a distance and would punish him later during his generic torture sequence. Three, there are no guards. There were others, but nothing worth listing off. The archer looked through the small opening, but no one could be seen from his vantage point. All that could be seen were cells that looked like his own. The only question left was whether or not they were filled. It’d be hard to figure out if they were spies planted there or not though, especially if strangers were stuck in. Caution was warranted. A careless escape could result in nothing but a double agent watching their every move so that the players could be tricked into doing jobs for the Elites.

Raine was free, but she would be hard pressed to save them alone. Auth was not going to wait around for her to save him. For now he would simply wait, and see what was to come. Inside the game the player didn’t really need food or sleep, waiting was something he could afford to do for now.
Rayo
Lv.47 Archer 745HP/311SP
Bell, the Silver Grunty of Thunder
Skills/Spells-Shocking Arrow of Voltage(30), Arrow of the Burning Stars(10), MeRai Rom(40), Rai Kruz(10), La Repth(20), Rip Maen(40), MeRai Kruz(20), GiVak Kruz(20), MeRai Don(20), Rig Saem(15)
Weapon/Armor/Book-Golden Royal Bow/Thunder Torque, Thunder Cloak, Able Ring, Ivory Greaves/Thunder Magic
Wishlist: YL Fukuoka, Stormlore, Winter Stone, Silver Grunty

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Phoenix512 » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:04 am

Phoenix slowly began to get up from the floor of his “lovely” cell. He was still reeling from a nasty headache which you would expect from being caught in an explosion of that magnitude. After rubbing his eyes to regain clear vision, he saw that his clothes were replaced with just pale green underwear and a tattered loincloth of the same color. Why I’m in these clothes and in this room? Wait a second…

The nearly nude blademaster was frantic as he did not have Suzaku with him. WHERE ARE YOU, SUZAKU? He tried to access his weapons, spells, and items but with no avail. He was about to make contact with the wall with his fist when he felt that his wind power was activated. It was like the Wind Blade but smaller and less effective than normally. He was about to try again when he heard the voice of his familiar.

Kazuma, I’m nearby somewhere but it’s dark and can’t revert from my disguise form. For now, don’t hurt yourself in trying to break out. Converse your energy for now.

I’m sorry, Suzaku. I didn’t want to lose you. I feel it was my fault getting us into this mess. I don’t know why I didn’t act when Klive and Royce were ready to kill us. We have this new power now and fail to use it when it matter the most.

Phoenix sat down on the floor and lean on one of the walls. The wall was very cold to his scarred back. I should have done more as well. I don’t think even with our power would changed the outcome just only make us feel better that we try in the end. Even though this isn’t the best time to talk about this but how you feel about me, Kazuma?

The blademaster gave a sigh before answering her. I still don’t know. Being in a prison cell in a loincloth isn’t exactly the right frame of mind for this discussion. Before you awoke from your coma, I had a flash of memory. It looked like I was in high school and there was this girl who was yelling at me. I felt I knew her but I couldn’t remember. She was very abusive verbally but I think she cared about me. I was about to say her name before the memory faded away. I think it was you, Suzaku.

Probably, I was abusive towards you but I care about you. I noticed you still haven’t called me by real name. I guess you’re still uncomfortable with calling me “Yui”.

You’re right about that. I feel more comfortable calling you Suzaku than Yui right now. I still don’t know if that girl was you or not maybe once we get out of this hellhole, you can look into that memory for me to confirm it. Anyway I think I heard someone’s voice.

Phoenix hears Rayo’s taunt towards the Elites as he was still in contact with Suzaku. Check it out. I’ll wait for you to escape and find me. Besides, I want to see you in that loincloth.

The blademaster gives a blush before yelling at Suzaku. I’m sorry, Kazuma but still that was quite funny and needed a laugh especially in this darkness. Figure out that voice and escape.

Fine. I’ll go but no more jokes like that. Phoenix stopped talking to Suzaku and thought, She has changed for sure. She wouldn’t make a joke like that. He got up from the cold floor and wall and walk up to the opening in the cell. He looked into the small opening and appears there are other cells like his in the room. He decided to speak out to the voice from before. “Who’s there? Was that you, Rayo?”
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Raquar » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:22 am

The last thing he remembered where waves of fire and light. When color returned to his world it was accompanied by a raging headache. He sat up slowly and stiffly, gripping his head trying to subdue as much of the pain was possible. He sat there for a few moments waiting for the spinning to recede before he started fully absorbing his surroundings. Surrounding him on five of the possible six walls was a perfectly set smooth stone. He didn’t know why he expected anything else; this was the prison of the Elites after all. They were probably, no definitely, going to have taken the precautions to make sure nothing would escape. The only break in the monotony was the wall facing directly opposite him. It was built with a different material, something lighter. And in the center of this lighter wall was a hole, a little bigger and a little rounder than his head. It had a single vertical bar protruding from the exact center of the hole but was otherwise unobstructed.

The Long Arm staggered to his feet supporting himself against the opposite wall. It took a few moments but his legs eventually stopped feeling like Jello and it was then that he was able to hobble over to that hole to peer out. The hallway was relatively plain; a few feet along either wall were matching holes to the one he was poking his eyes out of right now. He assumed that those indicated other cells where his teammates were being held, but that at the moment was not what he was worried about. Another quick scoping of the hallway yielded glowing blocks of something on the ceiling which was theoretically shedding the luminance on the hall but other than that it was nothing. He paced back across the room on his slowly getting stronger legs. He had blasted the hell out of Klive with the gun but that hadn’t prevented the man from coming back out and killing two of their strongest members in one stroke. That spoke volumes about the sheer amount of power that the must be contained inside the man’s body. Still there was no way that the Blademaster could still be at full strength after taking a full power blast from that thing. Granted Royce had destroyed the device but still, maybe with what he knew of it Raine could provide a little help.

Unfortunately he should have realized what exactly it meant about the Elites being prepared. The flashmail he sent pinged back off some invisible firewall completely cleared out. There really was going to be no outside help. It was all on the inside. Most likely Nall and Sheena were in whatever the Elites considered to be High Security. That meant that his best bet was most likely Nighthand.

“Nights, you conscious?”

"Huh? Yeah. I think."

"Couple things. First, you were the only one who got a look at Klive after I hit him. How did he look?"

"Pissed. Really pissed. I don't have the same senses Nall and Sheena do though, I couldn't tell if you messed him up or anything."

He groaned as a spike of pain shot through his head.

"Not exactly what I was hoping for but still, I highly doubt he's perfect. And even if he's handicapped in the slightest he might be a little weaker. If we can get out of here I'll send a flashmail to Raine and see what she thinks. And that leads me to my second point. I think you have the best chance of getting us out of here to be honest. Assuming these cells don't completely limit our powers you might be able to transfer enough of your energy to strength to bust out. Maybe through the bar, that is probably the weakest joint."

"I've been trying. The damn thing won't budge."

He sighed.

"Alright well I'll muddle around to see if I can find anything else in a bit. But when we get out of here what do you think about going after Klive? If he really is weaker, I doubt the Elites are the type to help each other out which means that possibly he's sitting in some sort of base trying to lick his wounds. That might be the perfect time to go after him, especially if we have Nall or Sheena."

"I dunno. Nall is pretty messed up. Plus we don't know where he'll be."

"I'd imagine both of them will be in what the Elites consider High Security. We'll bust them out when we get the chance. Maybe its because I'm new to this whole Elite business, maybe I'm a little green here, but I get the idea that if we can gimp an Elite at all it'll be a good thing. And if we can get our hands on another Twilight Item that can't be a bad thing."

"Nall's here." Sheena says from a cell down a short distance. "He's just really beat up."

"Klive I'm worried about. If he's anything like the other elites he could be on a customized field somewhere and we'd never find him. Unless Raine managed to track him, but I can't contact her."

"When we get out we'll contact Raine and go from there. If I figure something out about the cell I'll let you know."

"Yeah."

The boy turned around and leaned on the lighter wall. For now it was time to think.
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

User avatar
Locke
Ikkitousen
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 10:21 pm
Class: Twin Blade

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Locke » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:07 am

…on! Baron, wake up! Damn it, kid, up and at it, now!

Baron groaned, starting at Libra’s voice practically shouting in his head. Rubbing at his temples almost automatically, wincing at the sudden throbbing in his head, he sat up from his position against the cold stone floor, trying to get his bearings back, wondering why he had such a headache and where he was. Memories came flooding back in a rush, causing him to bolt upright, standing somewhat shakily as he his head spun in a dizzied rush, the sudden blood flow making him hazy-minded for a moment before he regained himself, swallowing hard as he remembered what happened. There had been that woman, Xenobia, who had controlled their bodies, followed by the duel pitting the hacker against Kira, where Baron had stepped in with Libra’s aid. Then Xenobia had gotten annoyed with them, tired of the game, and had summoned those vines… then all had gone black.

Well, first things first. Baron took a moment to get a feel for his situation, trying to figure out where he was and what was going on. He noticed almost immediately that he was at very least Immersed, as had happened a few times in the Juk Prison with the Eventide Crescendo. Rather than panic like he had the last time, the Twin Blade took rational stock of his surroundings, sure that whatever was going on, there was a way to break free of the Immersion just as there had been before. The last time it hadn’t been permanent, and had in fact been removed after destroying the Parvumeus that had occupied the Swath-ridden floors that had Immersed them. So clearly, that would be dealt with in its own time- panic would get him nowhere for the time being.

The first thing to do was to try and make contact with any of the others, see if they were alright or not. Writing out a quick Flashmail simply to ask where the others were, Baron wasn’t the least bit surprised to have it bounced back at him with the contents deleted. It was a prison in a virtual world- naturally there would be guards against the natural game effects. As he thought of that, the Twin Blade immediately went to his menu to see if he could access any of his spells or equipment. However, even the menu seemed to be blocked off, just out of reach. Sighing in frustration, Baron went back to exploring his surroundings.

Another question immediately arose in his mind as he surveyed his room, realizing that he was in a cell of some sort. But where was he, exactly? A square chamber greeted his vision, with no lighting, no furniture (a cot for sitting on would have been nice) and the only opening was the small window on the cell door, a tiny circle with a bar through its middle. Baron peered out from the small window that opened out from his cell, one that appeared to reveal the main corridor, noting that there were several other cells lining the area in his immediate view. Hoping one of the others was nearby, he called out softly. "Takua, Talal, Sekai, any of you there?"

There was a groan from another cell, likely due to a headache similar to Baron’s own. Takua’s voice emerged from the holding area immediately to the Twin Blade’s right, causing him to try and see through the bars to check if Takua was as badly off as he was. Apparently so, judging by the Wavemaster’s words. "Unfortunately, although my head would prefer that I not be. What's up?"

If Baron could have seen the Wavemaster, he would have glared at him for the somewhat casual tone. Instead, he fell back on heavy sarcasm. "Oh, just the usual. We're in some jail somewhere, our clothes missing, our weapons, items, and spells all out of use, no way to contact anyone, and we're likely to be here a while. Thought I'd just pay you a friendly hello."

Takua laughed wryly, a strained sound that echoed awkwardly in the cells before the Wavemaster fell into the same tone of voice again. "Thanks I guess, but I'm here and I can guess that Sekai and Talal are as well. I heard Raquar and a few other people down the hall as well, so I'm guessing there's a hell of a lot more people than just us in this place. Don't worry, Raq's a friend, and I doubt the rest of the people here are happy with the Elites."

Baron absently rubbed at his eye, remembering the vine that had spiked through it during their encounter with Xenobia. "Raquar... that was the Long Arm, right? We saw him in the alley in Mac Anu. What would he be doing here, in a jail cell? Far as I know, only the four of us were captured."

Even though Baron couldn't see him, he could hear the agreement in Takua’s voice.. "Yeah well, we're not the only group that the Elites don't like. Maybe they all got captured as well."

“Maybe.”

Baron fell silent at that point, going back into contemplation, as he realized the situation the group was in. Not only were the members of the Eventide Crescendo captured, but even the stronger members of The World’s resistance had been captured. The Twin Blade briefly remembered hearing about the Elites, and how they were more powerful than the Highers that the Eventides struggled against constantly with little success. So if the people fighting both the Elites and the Highers had been captured… Did that mean they had lost?

Libra, do you know what’s going on? Like, what happened after Xenobia hit us with those vines?

I’m afraid I don’t. I blacked out as well, oddly enough, though that was probably since I was in control of the body at the time. All I know is that I woke up about five minutes before you did, and I’ve been screaming at you mentally, hoping you’d wake up.

Lovely. So we’re clueless as to our current situation, other than the fact that we’re prisoners, we have no access to any sort of in-game ability, and we’re Immersed.

Libra actually hesitated for a moment. …Yeah. That’s all we know about the situation now. Let’s just wait and see what develops, I suppose, and we’ll go from there?

Baron was actually concerned for a moment, since Libra was rarely put off by anything and often had to be the one calming his host down, rather than the other way around. Something was up, and the Twin Blade was starting to worry that there was more to the situation that he didn’t know. Biting at his lip nervously, he began to pace the cell out of habit, every slight strain on his legs reminding him of his situation. There just had to be a way out…
Character Information
Baron | Level 47 Twin Blade [100/1000 EXP] | 891 HP / 265 SP
Weapon: Fishskin
Armor: Emperor's Crown/Bone Armor/Thunder Gloves/Ninja Anklet
Accessories/Books: Ethereal Angel Wings, Silver Grunty
Skills: Thunder Coil, Gale of Swords
Spells: Merrows, GiRai Don, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot, Rai Don, Ani Don, Duk Lei
GP: 750 (As of 8/2/15)
Wishlist: Nny Scales, Lucky Shoes, Saint Cross, Greave Sticker, Pet EX-Levels/Spheres(!)

User avatar
Takua
Ikkitousen
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:19 am
Class: Wavemaster
Location: Walking the line of madness

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Takua » Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:26 am

It was the horrendous pounding of his skull that woke him from his sleep. The throbbing was a constant agony made no better by the chattering of the voices in his head, a presence that he knew he couldn’t get rid of. The knowledge of what they came from and why they were there was far more terrible than the almost irrefutable fact that he was comatose. Actually, it was made worse because he was comatose. Now he couldn’t get out of this place and get some drugs that would make him sane. He had to keep going as a coma victim for who knew how long, without any medication, and somehow keep himself from going insane and from letting the paranoia overtake him.

“That’s impossible though, you’ll never be able to do it. You should just commit suicide right now…get rid of the agony. Give up. You won’t survive, so it’d be so much easier to just end it all right now.”

The whisper in his ears, a constant slithering that somehow reminded him of the Ani element, belonged to one of those voices. He resisted that thought, that voice that was right next to him, even as another one spoke up. It’s voice, unlike the other female, was much kinder…although also a woman.

“Sheila, you don’t even know his strength. Colin, don’t listen to her. You’ll pull through just fine.”

There was another noise that was probably from Sheila before a sharp crack sounded from nowhere at all. Takua’s eyes jumped open…to a sight that was definitely not on his favorites list. There was no way to describe it other than as a cell. It was a perfectly smooth section of rock carved in the dimensions of a room that looked as if it had been cut using a laser or something like that. Something that didn’t leave a grain out of place. The only thing that didn’t fit that pattern was the window…with a single bar in the middle of it. He staggered upright as another one of the hallucinatory voices sounded.

“Don’t do it. They’re waiting just outside. Just waiting for you to come to in order to laugh in your face. After all, you’re comatose now. There’s no possible way for you to get out for medicine…you’re stuck. And they knew. All of them. How could they not with how paranoid you are?”

He didn’t know the name of that one, but he did know the next one that became more audible. Gunner…the one that he had spoken to briefly back in the Juk prison field.

“Well the counter to that is easy. All you need to do is to cast a OrRue Rom or another suitable spell on them…maybe a Merrows Ch. After that they won’t be laughing. You can kill them and get out of here. You know you want to. After all, they were the ones who got you here. Baron with his attempt at killing Xenobia killed her mood and got you slaughtered…maybe a bit of revenge would be justified. Showing him his place.”

A short, barking laugh before a mocking voice rang out right next to him. The Wavemaster jumped despite himself as the deep, masculine and commanding tone rumbled through his body. It was a hallucination, he reminded himself, it was all fake.

“Oh yeah sure, that makes sense. How would they know exactly? Paranoia is natural in that environment, and we all only came out shortly before Xenobia made her appearance, so that’s bullshit. Colin, if you attempt to teamkill any of them or commit suicide, I will personally kick your ass for being a stupid bitch.”

The conversation continued back and forth, but Takua was moving, attempting to distract himself. Cool air over his entire body made him look down…and see that he was wearing nothing but something that would have more accurately been worn by a whore or a slave. Hmm…maybe that was it. Not a good thought at all. He didn’t particularly want to be a slave for the rest of his life, which meant that he needed to make a break for it if he could. A quick check revealed that he couldn’t cast anything, let alone equip a weapon or armor piece in the first place.

His hand grabbed a hold of the metal bar and shook it repeatedly as his headache intensified, aided by the constant bickering and yelling that sounded from all around him. This was the answer, he knew with a sinking heart, behind all of the problems that had plagued him. Everything for over a year had followed a single disease that showed up in one percent of the population…and he just happened to be one of those unlucky souls. Paranoid Schizophrenia…dear sweet god, at least he knew that it was. That didn’t stop the thoughts from bubbling up though, the subversive mentality that he knew he would have to fight every step of the way.

Takua’s thoughts flickered back to his psychology classes and summoned up as much information that he could remember about it. There were a few things one could do in order to attempt to preserve one’s sanity…and the first was to admit that one had it. Okay, step one was done. The second would be to recognize its hold on his life, something that he imagined would be more difficult than it sounded. It was everywhere. He would always suspect everyone, always thinking that they were after him. Friends were going to be potential enemies, and those thoughts would always be after him. He even wondered if he could resist that mentality, he could feel it settling in already.

He was alone and everyone was the enemy. They were and always would be looking for a chance to betray him. The voices outside of the cell were full of menace and evil, something that swirled around him and attempted to choke him. Raquar’s voice rang out an-

Wait a moment…Raquar?

Shunting aside his previous thoughts, Takua listened as closely as he could past the talking voices that wouldn’t shut up. So…apparently they weren’t the only ones here. He wondered who the kid was talking to before he decided that he would probably be talking to them before long. Panic suddenly seized him. What would they do? Were they an enemy? Would they simply kill him and be done with it? Perhaps that was their plan, lure him in here an Elite, pretend to be his friend…and then backstab him simply to watch his pain and agony. After all, they were so superior, and the Elites just wanted to play…perhaps they wanted to watch him squirm. Perhaps Raquar had turned on them all or someone else had so that they could live a bit longer. Get on the winning side. So now they had him and were going to watch the psychological torture get the best of him so that he screamed for the end to come.

Play with the ants before killing them.

Baron’s voice startled him, and for several seconds he considered not responding. Why confirm that he was here? But then, if they knew he was already here, not responding might be taken as a sign of weakness, since only the weak wouldn’t have woken up yet. His splitting headache made things hard, but he refused to show himself as weak. He’d show them that he was-

Smack.

“The fucking hell are you doing?! You go from talking about how you have to prepare against it to being more paranoid than the Highers!”

The cold fury in her voice helped and he realized that he had just fallen into the trap. That and the stinging pain against his cheek. He whimpered quietly, shaking his head as he tried to clear his muddled thoughts. What a nightmare. How could he do this?

There was one more tip though, one that he could remember. He needed to tell someone that he could trust about what he had and get support. He wouldn’t be able to break out of his thoughts without help from other people. But someone that he could trust right now. Someone that he would entrust with a secret that he didn’t dare just hand out. Most people wouldn’t appreciate that he was insane, paranoid as all hell, hallucinated, potentially dangerous.

And suddenly, he knew who they would be.

But not now. He couldn’t do it now. Not while people could hear it, which meant that he had to take them somewhere and explain it all to them. And beg. Beg for them to help him with his sanity. For now though, he needed to get out of here, which meant that it was time to start talking to people, no matter what his paranoia said. Raquar was here, which meant that there might be others. He called out down the hall to a certain Ani affiliated Long Arm.

"Hey Raquar? Is that you? It's Takua."

"Aye."

Relief, and no small amount of suspicion, flooded into him. So there was someone else here besides the Eventides that he knew. That was a good thing…or was it? No, no, he shook his head, he couldn’t think like that. Not now, not ever.

"We ran into Xenobia...wasn't much we could do about it once she took control of our bodies and made it impossible to get the FMD off. How'd you end up here?"

"Flashing . . . Lights. Seriously though. Royce and Klive showed up, and well, the rest is as you see it."

Royce and Klive? That sounded like they were powerful as all hell if they had captured everyone with so little effort. Which made them sound like Elites. Fuck, they had to fight two of the damn bastards? Oh, that must have been fun.

"I'm guessing the two of them are Elites then?"

"Aye."

There were various mutterings that could have been curses. "I see...any ideas on how to break out of here? Can you use that awesome special ability that you demonstrated last time to get us out of here?"

His voice sounded wary. Oh yeah…Sekai was here. That’d be a bad move to use Ani with her around now wouldn’t it? "I could try. It'd be easier if we could find a way to bust a light or two. The darker the area is the easier it is on me and the stronger I can make it."

"Hmmm...I can't cast anything and Wavemaster's aren't renowned for physical power, so I can't break a light at the moment. Maybe it'd be better to just wait for a moment?"

His voice shrugged as well as his shoulders. "I haven't come up with anything yet so that's all I'd planned on doing."

Alright…so that had failed. Perhaps he could try introducing himself to one of the leaders, assuming that they were awake. He called out as quietly as he could but still intended for his voice to carry. It wouldn’t be good if guards heard them talking now would it?

"Umm...who else is out there besides the people who got raped by Xenobia?"

"Shit, Xenobia got people too?" A pause. So there was someone else out there besides Raquar…good and bad. And they knew who Xenobia was. That was even better…or so he desperately hoped. "There's a bunch of us. We've been fighting the Elites for a while, but they caught us. But hey, help us out of here if you can and we'll help you."

There was something that was definitely a sigh mixed with a grunt of a headache that refused to die. It was hard to hear whoever this person was because of all of the voices crowding his head, refusing to let up their constant chatter. My god, he couldn’t stand so much talking normally, this alone might drive him nuts. Might as well introduce the Eventide Crescendo, or what little of it was still accounted for at the moment. If he was right, then this was the group that Sekai had come from as well as Zan.

"What remains of the Eventide Crescendo at the moment. Four people...although if I'm right, you already know Sekai. There's Talal, Baron, and then myself, Takua. If I can figure a way out of this cell, I'd happily bust you out, but Wavemasters aren't big on physical strength and I can't cast spells at the moment."

"Yeah, we know Sekai. I suppose we'll have to let you out when we get out anyways then. My guess is you're stuck the same way we are now."

There was a moment where Takua looked down at himself with more than small amusement. He had to laugh, somehow, if only to keep himself from crying. Might as well make a joke about how they were dressed.

"If you mean in a cell with clothing meant more for a slave or a jiggalo, yes. I don't suppose you know where we are?"

"No idea. And yeah, we're stuck with the questionable definition of clothing, but that's not what I meant. If you're here, and Xenobia brought you here, you're almost undoubtedly comatose." Another pause. "Sorry to tell you."

A verbal equivalent of a shrug. "It was going to happen someday with the risks I was taking, I was prepared for it more or less. Last person that you got from us was Raven...if that helps. We don't know where Zan, Nemera, or Sidhe are either, we got separated and kicked out of the field. Sorry."

"Damnit, Zan's lost? Things just get better and better."

Takua winced. He didn’t like being the bearer of bad news, and that probably just made a bad impression. Oh well…it was news that he had to give. Or did he? Perhaps it would have been better to barter that information for more…but really, was that a good idea? They could just get it from any of the other three. A good idea for him to tell them now then.

"Yeah...we could probably have used him right about now. From what he told me, you're the Freedom Fighters?"

"The very same. Not an impressive meeting I'm afraid."

It was at that moment that another voice spoke up. One of the ones that he had…only it was inside of his head. His thoughts felt like they had been suddenly violated, defiled…raped. Maybe, he thought bitterly as it resounded inside of his mind, this was what women felt like when a man raped them. Their control, their rights, stripped away as if they didn’t even matter, and what he had considered his was taken from him.

‘He’s right, it’s not impressive. Downright unimpressive. Perhaps they’re not really the Freedom Fighters. Maybe they’re just spies and they want you convert you to fighting with the Elites. You’ve assumed a lot of things…all they need to do is prod you along and suddenly you’re on the wrong side. And then you can’t change. Maybe you shouldn’t go along with them…they’re only going to betray you in the end. After all, he already said that he’d help you if you freed him...’

He ignored the voice though, knowing it was caused by a hallucination. It wasn’t real at all, it was just a side effect of his schizophrenia.

"If we break out of here, it'll be the most impressive meeting that I could have thought of. I don't suppose that any of your awesome superpowers, assuming that you have anything like Zan could do, can try and get us out of here or have you already tried that?"

"We're working on it. I'm not even sure if anyone's awake yet. Brute force isn't working though."

"Alright...well, I'll try from my end and hopefully one of us will get free somehow. Either that or we'll just have to spring something when someone comes along, assuming it isn't an Elite. I don't think we could manage that without weapons."

Those of us who are unarmed can't, anyways. Some of us could be considered armed like this though." Yet another pause. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about ambushing guards within their earshot though."

Fuck, he had forgotten about that. Whoops. Muttering to himself, he replied with a final ‘True’ before he shut up. A quick attempt to send a flashmail to Centrus telling him that he was comatose bounced back, all of its contents deleted. Takua sighed, knowing that he’d have to let his friend know later. For now…he would have to wait, and hope that someone would be able to break out, or perhaps something would happen and they could seize the moment. Maybe…just maybe, it could work.
Takua - Lvl 57 Wavemaster
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Wishlist: Levels, Stun Rod, Hag's Wand, Wand of Truth, Ex-Level, Ex-Spheres, and Myth: Demiurge, FL Fukuoka

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Senna
Awakened Player
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Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Senna » Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:11 am

The Elites are stupid weakling! Hackers suck! Klive is level one! Royce likes rap!

Well, that was a hell of a way to wake up. The voice, dimmed somewhat by distance or obstruction, was no less recognizable. The absurdity of the words struck her oddly. Draping one arm over her still-closed eyes, she started to laugh.

What, no monkey whore this time?” she called to the hall, still chuckling to herself. That had stuck out, from before. From the room where the elites had… had… well, obliterated them. Was that how it went? God, her head hurt. Too bad her usual hangover cure wasn’t available here. Where WAS here anyway? The fighting was pretty much gone. Cold, hard floor. Great. “I thought that was-

As she started that latter part, she slid her arm away from in front of her face and opened her eyes. But it wasn’t what she saw that led her to stop abruptly in mid-thought. It was what she felt. Or, more accurately, what she DIDN’T feel.

Liss liked sleeves. Even in warm weather, she tended to keep a layer of cloth between her arms and the rest of the world, and she’d designed Senna with the same idea in mind. The gauzy sleeves were loose, always moving, and their whispery feel against her skin was a sort of comfort. But now… there was no whisper, oh no, and there was no comfort, just the cold and impersonal air. “Wha…” she simultaneously sat up and looked down.

What followed to anyone who could hear out in the hall was a scuffling sound as she got to her feet, followed by a girlish shriek out outrage. Her items were gone, her weapons were gone, The Lookout was gone, but most importantly, what was she WEARING?

Intellectually, she understood why. She knew the tactic was both a practical and psychological way to lessen the threat of attack from a captive (and funny how easily her mind accepted THAT word). She knew it was a tactic they needed to ignore as much as possible in order to minimize its impact. She knew all of this. And yet, what came out of her mouth, indignantly, was:

What did they do to my clothes!

Oh, this would NOT stand. If she found out whose idea it was to dress ANYONE in these… these rags, she would get her spear and ram it so far up their-

Huh?” She thought she’d heard someone else say something, and realized in retrospect she had no idea what this room was but it looked like the sort of place one should avoid random screaming in. It looked to be a cell of some sort. She touched the nearest wall, knocked on it a couple times, then headed for the door and leaned over to peer out.

Whatever sort of place she was in, it seemed there were other such rooms, and other Freedom Fighters in them. She could hear a couple conversations going on. Her head was pulsing with sharp pain as she contemplated this situation.

The Lookout had been a skull which had come rolling over to land at her feet during the skeleton fight. When it came to a stop at her feet, she wasn’t quite sure what reaction would be appropriate, which was perhaps a sign of how long they’d been in this place, or maybe just a side-effect of being in the game for too long (though by far less than most). Laugh? Scream? Run?

In the end she settled for picking it up and balancing it atop the point of her spear as the last of the fighting died down. She wasn’t quite sure where it had come from, but felt the gristly ornament was somehow fitting. The point wasn’t exactly a secure location so it rolled and rattled above her head, like a bell of death and comedy macabre.

There was a great sense of urgency among the members of the group, palpable in the speed with which they left the room, in the way they were speaking. Senna found herself at the back of the group, her main reason for urgency apparently not as driving as theirs. They were worried for Nall, or at least some of them were. Deeply worried. He was a comrade and a friend and, it seemed, even more to some among the group. Fear for him lent wings to his feet.

Not being particularly concerned with Nall’s well-being beside that it would be better if he were okay, her thoughts were more on what would happen based on how long they’d taken. Getting out of here whole? Maybe not possible anymore, and THAT was what worried her. Still, too late to turn back now. So… forward, ho.

Being at the back of the group, she’d seen very little of the scuffle – only the lights, and then the waking up here in a cell wearing hideous clothing.

"So that fire guy... he really a monkey whore? Just curious...” The comments were directed at Rayo, though she spared a momentary thought for what anyone else hearing it who missed his earlier comment might make of it.

"Oh, I meant the other one, but sure.” came the answer. “As Elites I am pretty sure whoring themselves out to monkeys is the best they can do. I recall Kuja certainly smelled of old carpeting, and with that sort of smell not much else would have an interest in them."

She placed her right palm against the surface of what she assumed to be a door (unless they’d just been beamed in here, in which case it was a wall with a hole). No one was watching. She ‘d never tried this, but was it possible…

"The other one? Sorry, my bad. You’d think for as all-powerful as they're supposed to be, hygiene and a fresh, clean smell would be important. Other things take precedence for 'em?"

"Probably being elitist jerks. That and trying to enslave people to make up for a poor self image, and for lacking in certain mental and physical categories in reality."

Concentrating on the spot, on her hand, she willed it to become transparent. While it didn’t actually look that way – there was no visible change – after a moment, her hand pushed through the stone and went partway into the door. Surprised, she pulled back and stared at her hand in wonder. She felt intense pins and needles, but there was not a scratch…

She laughed. "If this and what they were wearing in the other room are an indication of their fashion sense, I sort of feel bad for them. Have you guys had the... pleasure... of meeting them often?" Continuing the conversation kept her conscious thought at least somewhat off what she was doing.

"Often enough. A few encounters with just one of them...but Royce likes to pair up with others to fight us it seems. The only times there was a full crowd would have been their play at a tournament and the complete obliteration of Mac Anu. We were only going there to rescue a comrade, and fortunately it was mostly their underlings fighting. The second time they were all involved."

She put both hands on the stone, feeling the cool surface under her fingers, concentrated, and pushed. Her hands disappeared, then her wrists, then her forearms. Through the window, she could see her hand on the other side. It was working. It was working.

"And they can all do that fancy elemental-focused fighting stuff?"

Her hands felt heavy, numb. She was losing her ability to feel them. It was now or never. Closing her eyes, she charged through the door in three quick steps.

"Yeah. Each seems to have an elemental affinity, and a Twilight item to boot."

The change hit her like a bolt of lightning, sudden and so brilliant she could almost see it. Everything was numb, weak, prickling with the pins and needles of a limb that’s fallen asleep. Even her eyes were having trouble focusing. Bet this wouldn’t be a problem if you’d just tried using it more often before she thought savagely to herself as she sagged against the door of the cell she’d just exited.

"So really, the best way to deal with them is avoiding confrontation?" She found even forming words was a bit difficult for the moment. Hopefully this wasn’t permanent.

"In terms of survival, the best way seems to be avoid this game entirely. If we want to win, they all need to die."

Die? That was almost on the same level of incredulity as the rest of this all

"I don't think winning's on the table today,” she said, trying to shake the tingling. “Ugh. I'll see what I can do about the doors." She pushed away from the wall and took a couple steps, aware she probably looked drunk. Walking was hard when your limbs felt like weights

"Oh, this isn't completely bad. We might be able to find some help here."
She tapped on the bar in the handle of what she thought was the right door. "In there? Because we can stay here and wait if you think it's better." A weak joke, to be sure, but she was quite abruptly not feeling quite so jovial. Maybe it was the numbness. Maybe it was that now they all knew. Whatever.

I don't mean in our own cells. The administrators were most likely brought somewhere similar to this after the attack on Mac Anu. If we could take them with us when we leave, it'd be a considerable boon."

"Okay Than. I'll see what I can do."

"If you have anything that would work, feel free. I wouldn't mind getting back some decent clothes."

She nodded – a gesture likely unseen – and glanced down the hallway. Now, if she were an open/close switch, where would she be? Possibly down at the end, somewhere near that figure. That figure that seemed to be coming toward this set of cells. Just perfect. He was BOUND to notice the abnormality in prisoner lodging.

Actually,” she murmured in an abruptly lower voice, “Anyone still got claws? Or a good hiding spot?

((OOC: Edited for borked code))
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
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Talal
Ikkitousen
Posts: 123
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:50 am
Class: Twinblade

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Talal » Thu Jan 15, 2009 6:37 am

It was cold. Where was the blanket? A hand patted around trying to locate the comfy piece of cloth that could wrap around her like a cocoon allowing her to go back to sleep, but the smooth cold touch of the floor that should have been the futon she had been sitting on brought the Twin Blade out of her half awake half asleep fog. Her head was pounding something horrible, so much that she was certain a whole bottle of aspirin wasn’t going to help it. Slowly she propped herself up into a sitting position that immediately sent both hands upward to hold her pounding head.

The haze around her slowly cleared as her eyes regained their focus only to find herself alone in a cell like room of stone. The walls, floor and ceiling flowed into one another without flaw or even a groove. One wall, lighter in color from the rest, had a hole with a bar across the center. Remembering now where she had been prior, she was fairly certain the fight obviously hadn’t gone in their favor. This was a holding cell of some sort and the hole could serve many purposes; observation, light source, a way to poke a big stick through and smack the detainees, food or possibly even air.

The young girl knew from feeling cold that they were once again immersed into The World, but she hadn’t seen any code before and the walls weren’t glowing so what was causing the immersion was beyond her comprehension at the moment. Why was she so cold? Feeling a slight draft where there shouldn’t be one, Talal looked down to find her normal clothes gone. They had been replaced by tattered, extremely small and very uncomfortable rags. Slaves at least had tattered baggy rags. Her captures apparently didn’t want to pay for the extra yardage. A huge amount of modesty quickly washed through her at the thought of someone physically changing her clothing around even though it was probably just a data switch instead; her arms criss-crossing in front of her and wrapping as far around her body as they would go for a minute before pulling her braid out from behind her. Undoing the tie that held her braid together, she let the braid fall apart and gently shook her head a little leaving sections of her long black hair draped down over each shoulder in front of her. Not great, but a little more hidden at least.

She moved over near the small opening and looked out. Several other rooms just like hers lined the lit hallway. She heard voices, two of which she thought she recognized as Takua and Baron, but not the others. It could be a trick. It could be a recording or something to get her to talk. After all, Xenobia had admitted to not being able to locate Gyl. Not that she knew where he was but that certainly wouldn’t keep whoever from trying to find out. She tried to send the Eventides a message only to have it bounce back to her empty. A frown and a sigh came from the slight female at that. Also finding that her menu to get to her items and weapons was conveniently unavailable which increased the frown.

She listened to the conversations occurring up and down the corridor. They were all at least on the same wave length…how to escape. That at least was a good thing until she heard someone say something she refused to believe. Comatose? All of us? Talal turned her back to the wall and slid down to the floor shaking her head. No! It’s not possible. There was no Dread Code in the field and there’s none here. We’ll get out of here and it’ll all go back to normal just like before. They’ll see.

The sound of an unfamiliar female voice yelling about her clothes snapped the girl from her momentary trance. After that the conversations seemed to turn towards comical relief. Everyone had their own way of dealing she supposed; if they were even real voices she was hearing. Only one way to really know for sure was to try and find the one voice of their group she hadn’t heard yet, Sekai. If she was there and answered, then that would at least prove she wasn’t hearing a bunch of recordings.

In a low almost hushed whisper, something just loud enough to reach a cell or two over, Talal called out a little uncertain if she should or not. ”Sekai? Kira? Are you here?

The response came but not by whom she was expecting it from, even if she had included her in the question. Judging by the more mature sounding voice, it was Kira.

"How's the headache?" A very brief but notable pause was given. "We're both here, no need to worry. The others and then some are here too."

Headache? So that must mean they had one too! Well, who could blame Kira for having one the way things would have had to turn out for someone like her to get captured. She just wasn’t the giving up type of person. She couldn’t remember seeing the ending. It was all a dark shadowy hole in her mind at the moment. The rest of it was being taken up by so many questions once again. If she was comatose, how long would she stay alive if no one found her body? No one knew and she had barricaded the door halfway through the quest so getting in was going to be an issue even if they tried. There was no way to even contact anyone. She could try her cousin Zane if he was online, but doing so would open a can of worms about the Eventides and why she was online but unconscious in the real world. Not to mention that flashmail's were not working at the moment. She now understood what Takua was trying to do by keeping her in the dark at first. Why did she always insist on knowing what was going on? Why couldn’t she just accept things at face value and let them go? She was hesitant to respond and unsure of what to say but knew she had to say something.

"The headache feels like it won't be leaving anytime soon. Do you know who the other voices are? Are - are they friends of yours?"

"Thought I heard Raquar's voice, maybe Nighthand's too. Takua's in here, as is Sekai and... if I'm not mistaken, Dien too." She replied easily, sounding as if it were an every day thing that she got thrown into a cell. "I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that the Freedom Fighters got fucked over like the rest of us did."


Raquar, she remembered that name. That was the dark looking fellow in the alley that looked completely wiped out. Okay so, one ally out of the mix of strange voices and since Kira’s tone was so every day typical routine-ish, the other two were as well. The fact that all of them were in here though, didn’t help her calm down when it came to wondering if they would be getting out any time soon. She certainly had no way to get out of the cell, unless the Freedom Fighters had special attributes like Zan and Nemera had shown. Of course, without weapons or armor, assuming that’s where they come from, how would they access them here to help? The girl sighed. It seemed hopeless…again. But she refused to just sit there. Looking at the hole again, she stuck her hand through and felt around the outside part of the wall as far as her arm would reach and in every direction and of course found nothing at all. When she looked through the opening again, she wanted to smack her head against the wall; all she had to do was look at the other cells across the hall. She was such an idiot.

"Sounds like you're right then, no need to worry other than the fact that the ones that could have possibly come to our rescue...need rescuing themselves.”

Talal gave a short laugh, but knew she wasn't kidding anyone. Still the effort was made to appear she was okay but inside worry was the one thing that was taking over. It wasn’t even really the fact of being comatose. That was like being in a long sleep that technically one could still awake from and thanks to modern medicine and life support machines, she was technically still alive. It was the dying part she wasn’t quite ready for, not yet. If her real world self wasn’t found soon…

"Welcome to the Freedom Fighters, I guess." The AI replied, half-joking. "Be careful, you, Takua and Baron are in a whole new ball game now that you're comatose."

She knew what Kira was trying to say but couldn’t help turning it into something much graver, if that was even possible considering the situation.

"Yes, a new ball game. I'll do what I can," she said softly, becoming distant and disconnected from the conversation, lost in thought.

"That's all you can do."
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Walk beside me that we may be as one.
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Talal
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Level 39 (0/1000 EXP) Twin Blade

Weapons/Armor: Mukuro (Swirling Dark, Dark Dance), Ice Hunter Cap (Repth), Wristbands (Juk Rom), Fishing Gloves (Rue Kruz), Wyrm Hide (Gan Don), Snow Panther (Ap Vorv)

Wish List: Scrolls, Tarot Cards, and Armor higher than level 30.

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Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Part 1

Post by Dien » Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:01 am

Wake up, Dien.

He groaned, shifting his weight slightly on the cold, hard floor. However, moving from his side to his back reminded him of just how uncomfortably he’d been sleeping. From the base of his skull down to his shoulder, the tendon was sore, the arm he’d been lying on was numb, and his entire head wreaked of pain. It felt like he imagined a hangover would feel like, only the circumstances of this headache were quite a bit different from a heavy night of drinking. A groan escaped his lips as he slowly opened his eyes, finding the dark of his stone prison cube rather inviting after having his eyes closed for however long he’d been out.

“The hell am I?” he asked quietly to no one in particular, still only half awake as he scanned his surroundings. As he’d determined, it was a cube-shaped room of stone, with one wall to his right having a bar-covered window right smack dab in the middle. Oh great, he thought, I’m in jail again.

Yeah, and this time it’s because you didn’t hack.” Wait. He knew that voice…

“Danielle?” he said, turning his face away from the light. There, leaning against the wall with arms crossed was the AI. She seemed more mature than before, no longer appearing in a schoolgirl outfit with pigtails on either side of her face. Instead, dark blue hair fell in a single braided ponytail from the back of her skull to her waist, her eyes still bearing the same brilliant hue they’d held before, while an ashen shade of black covered her form in a comfortably form-fitting jump suit. A gold sash was tied around her waist, and from the knot fell in two cords that ended in tassels to her knees. Still, there was no denying that this was the same girl he’d known before.

You need to get up and stop being silly,” she said with a smile, kneeling down next to him and placing her hand on his chest. Her fingers traced the scarring to where a hole ran straight through, and he could see her expression fill with remorse. “God, Dien, what happened to you?” His left hand took hold of hers, and he lifted his other one to caress the soft skin of her face.

“I’m okay,” he said softly, his thumb brushing away a tear that had escaped the threshold of her eye, “I’m just glad to have you back.” Her eyes closed and she smiled.

Me too,” and he sat up as best he could to embrace her. God, it was good to have this girl back in his arms again, away from Leek and away from Hakouin and anyone else who would try to use her against him. She was safe, and even in the midst of the prison he was in, that brought a whirlwind of comfort inside him. Still, how the hell had she gotten away from Leek?

Leek was pretty beat up before he ran away from the Corrupted Hidden Expanse,” the girl said on cue, “first he went to a dungeon in Delta Server, but when he couldn’t repair the damage to his data, he retreated here. By exploiting the fortress of firewalls around the server during his gating process, I was able to expel myself from his character data. But because of how tight the security net is, I got caught in it, trapped with no way out. I was about to give up hope, but when I saw you and your friends passing through the firewalls, I latched on for dear life.

“You really have gotten good at all that stuff,” he replied, letting his embrace go and putting his weight on the arm behind him, “a lot better than when we first met.”

I tried to think what you would do,” Danielle smiled, “after all, you are the best hacker I’ve ever come across—far better than the one who constructed me and placed me in Futune.” The smile on his lips was bittersweet; the compliment was welcomed, but at the same time, what he wouldn’t give for just a few lines of code to mess with!

I’m sorry.” Her gaze was directed at the floor, shame taking its place in her features for the grief she’d just brought about.

“It’s not your fault, Danielle,” he said with a smile, one finger under her chin pulling her gently to face him, “I’m not a hacker anymore—I can’t be while I’m here.”

Well that’s the biggest piece of good news I’ve heard in quite a while; one less hacker to worry about.” Mildly sarcastic, somewhat amused and definitely female located across the hall.

“Huh?” he said, sitting up and peering through the window to see…nothing. She sounded familiar somehow. Danielle, you wanna go over there and see who’s been listening in? A nod, and she had vanished.

(OOC Note: Conversation with Canti goes here.)
__________

Crossing a hallway and walking through walls is a relatively simple task when you don’t have an actual body. Still, when she entered the room, she was slightly surprised by what she saw.

Two?” she asked. There were two people there in front of her, a young girl in the same style garments as Dien: awkwardly little. Next to her was another, with long, white flowing hair and an elegant blue evening gown. Amber, pupil-lacking eyes peered at her, and she could only wonder at the connection between them. “So, um, who are you?

Kira raised an eyebrow, not bothering to get up to introduce herself but more or less amused at the color scheme not unlike her own. “I’ve a contract with her, simply put.” The woman said dryly, inclining her head at the small white haired girl who had her eyes closed at the moment, likely trying to get rid of the headache. “Her name is Sekai, I’m Kira.” One corner of her mouth curved ever so slightly. “Introducing yourself first is usually proper and polite etiquette.

True enough,” she said, leaning back against the wall, “I’m Danielle. Long story short, I’m an AI stuck with the not-a-hacker across the hall.

By choice or…?” the expression on Kira’s face turned shuttered, pupil lacking amber eyes almost taking on a glow of their own.

Originally,” she replied, smiling slightly, “I’d been installed on another player by the name of Futune. Honestly, he bored me, and I found Dien with his particularly peculiar connection to the game. I wound up migrating to him, but when we were infected…well, it was rough on both us. He lost his tools for hacking, and I was severely inhibited as well.” She paused then, sighing and taking a seat. “’sides which, I rather like the guy.

Ahh, that’s Dien over there then.” A rather smug and satisfied smile slipped on to Kira’s face, giving her a rather similar expression as the cat who’d eaten the canary and was damn proud of it. Sekai stirred slightly, frowning and a warning in her soft voice as she spoke.

Don’t even think about going over to choke him again. Behave yourself.” A soft gold-brown eye opened and a weak smile directed toward the newcomer. “Nice to meet you, Danielle-san.” There was a slight accent, as if the girl wasn’t quite used to saying anything with an ‘l’ in it.

The pleasure is mine, Sekai,” Danielle replied, giving a prolonged nod in her direction, “So wait, lemme get this straight, you choked Dien?” Her eyes had widened slightly in disbelief, the smile on her lips more amused with each passing moment. Kira merely shrugged, as if Sekai’s scolding was something she was used to and the smirk grew wider, amber eyes dancing in amusement.

I happen to hate hackers. He revealed himself as a hacker so one thing led to another and…” She mimed wrapping her hands around someone’s throat. “I tried to kill him, at the time, I didn’t have my own form back so, I used Sekai’s body to do it. It was pretty entertaining, she had long hair back then but was still barely five feet tall.” A disgruntled mumble came from Sekai.

It wasn’t nice at all and he was an acquaintance of Nii-san’s.” Kira gave the small girl a funny look.

Well, yeah. Just one more reason for me to strangle him.”

Wish I’d been there,” she stated, quietly laughing to herself through the whole thing, “but…I don’t remember him having any acquaintances by the name of Nissan…
Nii-san, not Nissan.” Sekai corrected softly, opening both eyes and smiling softly as she brushed her short white hair out of her face. “Um, Ko_Inuyasha is his actual name within The World but,” Kira stretched, not at all fazed when a limb went partially out of the small window.

’Nii-san’ means ‘older brother’ in her native Japanese. Ko’s like an older brother to her, thus why she calls him that.” Kira’s tone hinted that she thought of Ko as more of a pain in the ass than anything else.

Ah,” she replied, “that makes a lot of sense. Don’t think he remembers Ko all that much, but I’ll ask him.” A brief pause was followed by a warm smile. “I thought you might’ve been talking about Zan or something…” Sekai’s smile faded, eyes drawn to the floor as she shook her head.

Zan is… similar but different. Nii-san came first.” She explained quietly. “When… when was the last time Dien-san met with Zan?”

What, he’s not here?” The somber looks on Sekai’s face spoke otherwise, and much, much more. “Tell me what happened,” she said softly, “I…he’s really important to Dien.

He’s with the Eventide Crescendo. Still in the Juk Prison dungeon going for the Incarnation crystal.” Sekai replied softly, hesitant to continue on. “He… he didn’t contact Dien recently, has he? When was the last time they spoke?” She was quick to add on to that. “It… it may not be a good idea to tell him right now if… if he hasn’t spoken to Zan recently.

I honestly can’t say,” she said, the worry subsiding somewhat, “I was taken captive by a vagrant bastard child of the dual infection that Zan transferred to Dien, pretty much right after he became trapped in the game. I get the feeling I’ve missed a lot…

Ask him, maybe?” Sekai asked, looking like she was about fourteen years old at the moment as she bit her lip. “I just… I don’t want to bear anymore bad news at the wrong moment than I have so far.

I won’t press the issue very much.” she replied, “even though Zan’s my friend, too, I think I’ll wait until we’re out of mortal danger to deal with bad news.” Relief visibly showed itself on the small girl’s face, a small smile given in response.

Thank you,

Don’t mention it,” she said with a smile, “can’t say I understand, but there’s a lot about humanity I’m still learning.

Good luck with that, I’ve been with this one since she joined at thirteen years old and I’m still trying to figure out the basics.” Kira replied with the kind of smile one would expect from a college student about thirty seconds from taking their textbook and throwing it into the fire place. An expectant look on the AI’s face and, if one noticed her fingers on the ground, would see that she was counting down silently for some reason-

…Danielle-san is an AI?” Unbridled surprise in her voice accompanied the wide eyes from the small girl who sat up straight, cringing at the pain throbbing in her skull but kept her eyes on the blue haired woman. Danielle could only smile.

Yes,” she said, “though I think I already said that much. I’ve gotta get back to Dien, though. Knowing him, he’s already got a plan for getting us all out of here…” Sekai had the decency to blush, clearly embarrassed as she fidgeted.

S-Sorry. I’m not very good at telling the difference between, um, players and AI. It was nice meeting you.” Kira just shook her head, obviously amused by the young girl and raised a hand in farewell.

Tell ‘im I don’t have much of a reason—other than he being Vak affiliated—to strangle him now that he’s not a hacker. Good luck with the plan and let us know if there’s something we can do.”

Sure thing,” she replied, raising her hand in a wave before fading from view in a distorted wave of scan lines.
__________

So Canti could still fight. It would be interesting to see just how well they could do against whatever guard there was relying solely on their Twilight abilities. Hell, Dien barely understood his at all. There had been one battle where he just knew how to fight with it, but since then he had never experienced that kind of encounter again. Still, he knew he could blow up and pack quite a punch with it. Nighthand also had some kind of spell enhancing ability. If the two could be used in conjunction with one another, they just might be able to overpower the guard, especially with whatever the dark-lord-of-hell-and-death-twinblade was cooking up.

Interesting people, those two,” Danielle said, her body fading into existence right in front of Dien, who was still trying to think through the headache. He looked up at the girl quizzically, to which she responded, “Sekai and Kira are across the hallway.” He nodded, his forehead wrinkling as he tried to remember the specifics of Nighthand’s ability. I could just ask him, you know, she replied, having disappeared into the blademaster’s mind, it’d be a lot easier than trying to remember-

“Good idea,” he replied aloud, “ask what he thinks he could do with a heaping helping of Vak power.”

Sure thing,” she said, reappearing next to him, “but where is he?” It was perhaps this question that reminded him just how much he liked having an AI around to bounce ideas off of, and he positioned himself against the window.

“Hey Nighthand, I’ve got an idea,” Dien finally said, squeezing his face into the hole and looking up and down the hall as best he could, “what cell are you in?”

I dunno, this one down here?” The voice came from his right, where the block opened into a hallway just a few windows farther away.

“Which one?” he asked again, turning that way as best he could, “stick your hand out the window or something if you can.”

He did, a pale arm extending slightly into the hallway. “This one.

“‘kay, hold on a sec,” he said, counting how far down it is before pulling away from the window.
__________

Moments later, she was in the cell with the man, his pale skin actually making the green-tinted loincloth look dark by comparison. Giant bat-wings spread out from his back, but were bound by cords of the same hue in a manner that looked most uncomfortable. A scar had been painted across one of his eyes—which were the other interesting feature about him. They were both black as pitch.

Really? You’re the one he wants me to talk to?

Apparently,” he commented.

This should be interesting,” she replied, stepping forward a bit timidly, “I’m Danielle, but I don’t have much time for formalities. Dien’s got a plan, and he says you have some kind of magic-enhancing ability?

Basically. When it’s cooperating anyways.

Well, he wants me to see what you think of his idea. He says he can make a strong dose of raw fiery power, and wants to know what you could do with it, should the opportunity arise.

No idea. If it’s not technically a spell I dunno if I can alter it. If I could, it’d only be about a 50/50 chance it gets stronger.

Hmm,” she said, leaning against the wall and thinking for a moment before making her response, “worst-case scenario, what would happen?

Could drive the power to 0. Might get too powerful and backfire. Might turn it back on him.” She winced.

I don’t like those odds,” she said, “hold on a sec.” Danielle faded then from the stripped bladesmage’s view. Moments later, after she’d finished explaining it to Dien, he called out down the hallway.

“Nighthand, care to test whether you can manipulate my power or not on a smaller scale?”

I could, but what if we’re being watched?

“If we’re being watched, we’re already kinda screwed by Senna’s escape…”

Wait she escaped? Shows how much attention I’ve been paying.

“Yeah, she slipped through the wall, at least if I’m seeing this right,” he glanced over in her direction again—she’d frozen in place and was staring down the hallway. She’d just said something, and he missed it, “looks like it’s now or never. Nights, if I’m right we’ve got a guard coming. I’ll try and hit him right when he’s midway between us.”

Alright, I guess you can give it a shot.

“I’ll let you know,” the blademaster said, turning to Senna. For a moment he paused, not sure what to make of her relative lack of clothing. Well, relative to what she usually wore. The moment passed quickly, though, the urgency of the situation forcing him to get past it faster.

“Senna?” Dien asks, his face pressed to the hole in an attempt to get her attention.

“Yeah?” She crouched to be more at eye-to-eye height.

“Someone’s coming, right?”

“Looks that way. Unless they’re blind.”

“This might sound strange,” he replied, trying to get a glimpse of the character who was still out of his line of vision, “but I need you to draw them closer—get their attention and get them to come after you, think you can do that?”

“Heh. Yeah. I guess… just no laughing, got it?”

At this he quirked an eyebrow. “What, were you thinking of dancing or something?” A smirk crossed his lips, at least until a sharp tap jerked his head slightly forward against the bar, making the pain resonate that much more loudly through his already hung-over head.

Her eyebrow raised as well, but the only comment she could give was, “Nah. If I danced, I’d deserve the laughs. But I’ve got a tough act to follow after Rayo’s shouting.”

“Not really,” he replies, “just think and act like the rebellious kid: noisy and arrogant and taunting-like…you follow?”

“I do,” she replied, grinning. “That’s why I said don’t laugh.”

“It would only help,” he said, smirking as best he could with his face so aptly squished in the window, “I would suggest throwing something, but the only thing we have to throw is clothing and, well, it’s your call, but I don’t think I’d go that far…”

She laughed briefly. “Yeah, not quite. Though you’ve reminded me… I think I know what to shout about.”

Now to wait. And pray. They were gonna need all the luck they could get.

(OOC: really long and dialogue-filled, but there it is)
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Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Lord Canti » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:28 am

(He was thoroughly unaware of whatever transpired after the fight. After Royce incinerated him, The World went white with total blindness and disorientation. In fact, he wasn't even aware of lying on the ground as a ghost or if Raquar had fired. He assumed so, since the Elite Twin Blade had had her fun with him. Do you have any idea what it's like the burn like the sun? Even the God of Black Flames could never have felt such a thing, not unless he flew from the Earth long ago and went there to Sol itself. But that was a legend. This black flame god was the reality. A Twin Blade, sans blades at the moment, waking up on the floor of a concrete room. Slowly...bit by bit...consciousness was returning. Say what you like about pain. He'd been through it just a BIT more than some of these guys. He wore his wounds with pride, though. It was the trophy of the road less traveled. Thus, the player Canti stirred, hearing voices that were still indistinct to him. Rayo shouting...something, Nighthand talking to...someone, a bunch of different voices he couldn't make out right, and so on. He was not yet fully-aware of the gravity of his situation, that he was in a concrete box with a single hole that had a bar across it, or that he was lacking his stylishly-evil attire, weapons, items, or anything else...and instead looked like an unadorned Soul Calibur custom character. For those of you playing the game, set your skin color to a Caucasian-Tan, give him slicked back raven-black hair, a young-but-determined face, and deep black pits for eyes. Because right now, he was a guy in a loincloth and nothing else. Well, I say nothing else, but there's also the wings on his back, capable of granting him flight at high speeds...but only when they aren't tightly bound. The only other identifying marker on his body was a sort of scar on his right wrist. It was the shape of a vein or something, but it was actually a crack, a corruption in his character. Twilight's work had left its mark on him, a faightly-glowing fiery crack in his code. Canti groaned, and began to stand up. Blurry vision subsided, he saw his surroundings and what he looked like, and reacted appropriately.)

Canti: Son of a bitch!

"Glad to hear you're with us, Canti. How'd you sleep?"

(Hey wait. That was Dien.)

Canti: Urgh...like the dead, in the bad way. Don't need to know what happened. Just...what the fuck, mate? I'm naked in more ways than one, or close enough.

"If I'm right, we all are. Three guesses as to where we are, though, and the first two don't count."

(The Twin Blade stretched and felt his bones realigning themselves. Three guesses, huh? He barely needed to think about it. Where else would the Elites take their special prize?)

Canti: Fated Yamiyo. I betcha' ten bucks that lightning boy is in here somewhere.

(Suraisu, natch. It seemed like forever ago when they were taken up into the tower at the hacked Screaming Betrayed Deadlands, forced to fight a servant of the bastards that held them now. The difference between that time and this one? A mondo infection. Canti looked forward to the day where he could settle up with that guy. Whether it meant to kill him or help him, the dark Twin Blade did not know. He'd act on whatever instinct he chose first. It's what they were there for.)

"I just thought Nall had killed him. The bastard really had me going for a bit, though."

Canti: Myself too, but Nall didn't finish 'im. He said so. I'm looking 'till I find some proof.

(At about this time, Canti began to mentally call out. Not because he had telepathy, but because he had a link, a listener in the real world who was investigating the coma problems and knew about his plight. She was monitering him and such. But while he shouted the name of his 'guardian' in his mind, there was no response. Great... He felt an itch in his wings, then. Funny, he hadn't stretched them yet. Canti began to do so, reaching for the itch as he spoke on, though...)

Canti: So, we're totally cut off, then. I can feel the Darkness, but- HEY! They bound my fucking wings!

(Tied down so tight that he couldn't move 'em at all. The Twin Blade was pissed now.)

"Makes sense. After all, you could use them to distract or even overpower the guard, if you were clever about it."

Canti: And I am. Damn, but they're thorough. Hey...why does my power feel...drunk?

"I dunno. I'm not glowing as much as I usually do, either, though it's still there. Maybe Twilight went out for a night of heavy drinking? Sure would explain the headache I've got..."

Canti: I'm use to it. Ya know, it's probably because we got munched by the dirty pair.

(He meant the drunken nights. In real life, Canti was a little underage, but he wouldn't let that stop him if people were willing enough. The nights he frequented at Barry's Bar, never getting a drink until finally, one night, he beat the hell out of a man that was causing the owner trouble. Call it a way to channel his frustrations in life. Anyway, he managed to be able to get some alcohol into his system for his troubles, and Barry had a himself a part-time bouncer.)

"Wouldn't really surprise me. So Canti, what exactly are your powers?"

(Canti snerked at this.)

Canti: What? You didn't know? Mine are pretty straightforward, like me. An edited form to be the flying god of black flames, a flame that is made of darkness, and battle instinct/focus. I can do amazing things. Oh, and I'm aligned heavily on fire and darkness.

"Well I knew about the black fireballs, I just hadn't pieced it all together. Think you could cook up and throw a couple of those if we were to mount a jailbreak?"

Canti: My charge-up is what's mainly affected. I can still do a little or the whole lot, once it's prepared.

"Alright, I'd start charging soon if I were you. Chances are we're going to be getting a visit by the warden pretty soon, and I think we have a shot at overpowering him, if we all strike at once."

Canti: Nevermind the 'all at once' stuff. Just hit when you can. HP is HP, regardless of who's flinging.

"All at once is best, tactically speaking. Who knows what kind of powers he might have--best to catch him off guard."

Canti: We work with what we got. If it's possible, then fine. If not... Let's just say a Plan B wouldn't hurt.

"Sure. Just...try and attack with me, yeah? I've got something that just might be worth a shot."

Canti: No problemo.

(Oh yeah, no pressure! Hah. Here they were, in the middle of an unknown location within a hacker server that they'd only heard about, and he was talking tactics. Well, Dien had the tactics. Canti had the survival instinct, a real and active part of his abilities that assessed a moment-to-moment situation to allow for the greatest possible outcome as per his abilities. That he'd lost and wound up here didn't mean they were a failure. He HAD planned to be a distraction and probably get ghosted by the Twin Blade Elite. He was good for that. Royce and Klive... They just had the better hands. Damn those Elites... If there was a way, any way, for him to take them out...he would do it in a hellish heartbeat. Canti checked all of his systems, and found he had none. Not even Rey's music selector. Damn it all... Beginning to charge his Darkness Flame power NOW, Canti looked out his viewing port, and he saw...a hand. Wait, was that...?)

Canti: Senna?

(After listening for a bit, against the wall of his own cell by that window, he confirmed that it was her. Dammit, they had everybody in the party, not even an escapee. He heard Dien talking to Nighthand now, which was a real problem.)

"Actually, anyone still got claws? Or a good hiding spot?"

(Canti spoke up, a thought suddenly hitting him.)

Canti: Claws? Uhh, maybe. Actually, you give me an idea.

"Hmm? Eh...glad to help. What's it?"

Canti: Old movie routine. Prisoner's out of immediate sight, so the guard takes a closer look. I surprise him with a blast in the face, point-blank. Your phasing out might make him think something's wrong with our cells, just enough to take a quick peek...

"Heh. I think I might pay money to see the face he'd make encountering that."

Canti: Oh, it gets better. I'm charging up now, 'cause things are slow. But once I do, that darker side of me is gonna show. You ever seen Thirteen Ghosts? He's gonna get a helluva scare...

"Was that the one with that Shil... Sha.. Shaloub guy? Then... yeah. Heh. Well, I promise not to give you away. Like I said, it'd be interesting to see..."

Canti: Yeah, that's him. A big fat boo. Heh. If he KO's, you'll get us out, right? Or better yet, even if he doesn't.

"Let's hope he has a... whatever you unlock these things with on him so we can get you guys out immediately. 's a little uncomfortable out here by myself..."

Canti: I think Dien's got a plan himself. Don't worry. We'll put all our noses to the grindstone on this one. We won't leave you to fend alone.

"With you guys and a plan from Dien? How could I be worried?"

(She laughed. Man, that was a small mercy in here. If there was one person that Canti wanted to see out of this place safely, no matter what, it was Senna. Amongst other things, she didn't deserve this. Well, none of them did, but the Twin Blade had already come to terms with the fact that he was lured and tricked. Senna helped them voluntarily, before she'd been comatose. That was one of the reasons Canti liked her; Her willingness to come through.)

Canti: Yeah, Dien's the plan man, and I'm the one of action. It's a good setup. Be careful, though. We aren't partied and we've got no Resurrects.

"It's not so bad as all that. I get a grace period. The real finger-crosser is that they have a key."

(There was a pause from Canti in that. He hadn't considered that. The Elites might've had a redundant security that prevented them from ever escaping, even with what they had at their disposal. That put a chilling notion in the Twin Blade's mind. What if Senna was the only one who could get out?)

Canti: ...if they don't, and we can't break out, do me a favor?

"Now, don't make me be serious, or I'll lose it out here. What favor, hm?"

Canti: Nothing special, really. Just...if we can't make it, get out. You're untouchable, so you might be able to. Not the most noble of ideas, I know, but ya gotta go with what works sometimes.

(There was a pause on her end this time. Heaven only knows what she was thinking.)

"I'd actually like to agree, but I think I've done all the untouchable I can do for a bit. I think this is one of those one for all situations any way you slice it."

Canti: Heh, fair enough. In that case, it's been a pleasure teaming up, but let's go for the win anyway, right?

"Hey! Told you, no serious. I'm still waiting to see you make a guard wet his pants, after all..."

Canti: And there's no one I'd rather show that to... Relax, I know we'll clinch it. Just remember: Duck.

(He began to laugh. She joined him, quietly. This was gonna be a blast, live or die. Canti just pinned his hopes on living.)

"Ahh yes. Advice to live by."

(That guard was in for the shock of a lifetime.)

OOC: Note, please. Because Canti is charging now, as I'm sure a number of us are, he will be able to use his Darkness Flame from little to alot, able to control it. Once focus, we can still kick some ass.
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

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Sekai
Ikkitousen
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Location: Liminality

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Sekai » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:30 pm

((OOC: One of these days, I'll return to actually posting something worth reading. -.- *grumblebitch*))

Opening her eyes proved to be a really bad idea, Kira thought cringing from the sheer headache and muttered something obscene beneath her breath. Closing her eyes again, there was a slight shimmering of the air around Sekai's small frame and a ghostly form slipped from her body, standing in the cell with a frown and sighed. Another cell in another prison in another person's kingdom; this one a hacker's paradise and where the Elites held everything with an iron fist and their ungodly and annoyingly strong abilities. Yep. This was definitely a familiar concept... minus the hacker situation of course.

Another glance to Sekai showed that the girl was still down and out, probably for the best considering her head was going to feel like she'd just gotten clubbed and then some. She winced at the thought, the death hadn't been pleasant. Walking into a goddamn weapon was never her idea of a good time and the former Ruem High Priestess was more than looking forward to beating the ever living shit out of Baron and that bastard little parasite of his for daring to interfere in her duel. Arrogance and cockiness was going to get the little idiot killed- and anyone with him- if he wasn't checked back into place.

Kira'd be willing to bet a pretty amount of GP that the kid didn't even realize just how much shit he was in. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced out the makeshift window and raised an eyebrow. Cells with small windows and a bar dividing said window. She'd be willing to bet more GP that there'd been some pretty small individuals who'd managed to crawl through, thus the divider. Or they were being assholes and taunting their prisoners with the “if you can get this bar out, you can leave... as soon as you squeeze through this hole” bit.

“Insert tab 'A' into slot 'B' and the rest will come naturally.”

She muttered to herself, her sense of humor kicking into gear as she plopped down beside the rather uncomfortably looking clothed girl with a raise of her eyebrow. Sekai was going to positively freak the fuck out when she saw what she- and if Kira was the type of woman who'd bet on things- and everyone else were wearing. Top was ragged as hell, managed to cover the important parts and looked a little too small. Then again, this was Sekai so, saying something was too small was kind of impressive.

"Sekai and Kira, you there?"

Ahh, speaking of everyone else. Her ears strained for the location of the voice, tilting her head ever so slightly as she replied easily, a cool, confident manner to the Wavemaster inquiring.

"Yeah, we're both here, how's your head?"

What sounded like wry amusement filled his voice as he responded, part of her wanted to believe he was, well, relieved that at least someone he knew was there, awake and alive after all that.

"Like you spent the last hour beating it around with a hammer. You?"

What the hell was a hammer again? Sounded interesting, she'd have to look into it and its uses, maybe she'd be able to put them to good use sometime if she ever managed to get a hold of one. And the headache wasn't that bad, really, there were worse things to wake up to than a nasty headache. Didn't he realize that?

"Sekai has the worst of it, I can't seem to drain it from her."

Which, in some ways, was the truth. Damn girl wouldn't wake up and thus, well, she couldn't exactly try to be the bitch with the headache. She cracked a joke, knowing he'd get the humor... or hoping so.

"I wouldn't use a hammer."

"Probably has more to do with everything else than getting knocked out."

Definitely softer, more apologetic tone of voice- goddammit, now what? Kira felt the distinctive desire to start groaning and settled herself down for the long haul this conversation was definitely going to take. A sigh followed a moment later form the boy- cell right next to hers.

"Sorry I couldn't come up with anything."

"The hell do you have to be sorry for?"

She asked, ignoring his previous statement and diving right to the heart of the matte. He responded as if the answer were obvious- which it wasn't.

"Not being able to get anyone out."

"It wasn't your responsibility, Takua-san. There isn't anything to apologize for."

Oh great, nice time for her little one to wake up, Kira thought with a groan. She looked at the small girl beside her, the closed eyes and the furrowed brow on the girl's pale face stating she was in a good deal of pain. Damn inability to do anything in this condition, the AI thought irritably.

"I suppose. I don't suppose they put you in something better than a stripper's outfit?"

The blush on Sekai's face was most telling and managed to pique Kira's curiosity in the way that generally meant Very Bad Things(TM) for the people involved in the conversation.

"What the hell is a stripper?"

She paused, figuring she'd describe the outfit a little in broad terms.

"It ain't much, don't leave much to the imagination either but, it's intentionally made this way; we've used this tactic before."

"A...stripper is someone who takes off their clothing in order to entertain other people, typically men."

A pause.

"It's kind of like being a whore, but you don't actually have sex. You're selling your body for money essentially."

"...I see."

She didn't, not really and her mind was trying to fill in the blanks on its own without consulting Sekai. Judging by the girl's expression during the explanation, she knew exactly what a stripper was and, if Kira's suspicions were right, would be able to explain it better. However, now wasn't the time- being as Sekai spoke up again and asked the question that anyone who even looked twice at the girl would probably figure she'd ask in such situations.

"Are you okay?"

He'd waited too long to answer, both of the women knowing immediately something was definitely not alright with the Wavemaster.

"Yes and no. I'll tell you once we get out of here."

Sekai remained silent for a good deal of time before replying in her usual soft voice.

"I'm sorry."

"If I can't be sorry, you don't have any room to apologize either. And you can't do anything about...the other thing. It's no one's fault."

"You're wrong."

She said softly, leaning her head against the cell wall.

"My purpose for being there, the entire reason I returned to the Eventide Crescendo..."

A long period of silence, even Kira remained quiet, as unusual as it was for the AI.

"I failed."

The young girl admitted quietly.

"Yeah, and who was it that got you to return? Me. You were up against an Elite that controlled our bodies and even kept us from doing things in the real world. If you were able to get us out of that...it's impossible. I don't see how you could have when Xenobia had complete control."

Kira interjected, her own voice low and oddly quiet for the usually vocal AI.

"Before we spoke to you, Sekai had started considering returning to help out before. Talking to you just gave her a purpose to go."

Sekai's head bowed, her voice still as quiet as before.

"I should have told you all to wait while I checked things out."

The Wavemaster's own voice was equally low as he responded, it was kinda sweet of him to try and console her, a useless effort but...

"You couldn't have gotten a Flashmail through and you couldn't have gotten out...and how were we to know?  It supposedly came from Gyl after all.  Even if you had warped in alone, with no word from you after a few minutes I know that I would have come looking."

There was a pause before he spoke again, and this time it was filled with pain.

"Hindsight is always 20/20."

Frustration rose within her quiet voice, her fists squeezing tightly as she stared down at the dank cell floor.

"I not only failed as one of the Freedom Fighters, not only as someone in the Eventide Crescendo, but I failed as the Commander of the Army of Darkness and as a friend."

The news had hit her at the wrong time, of her Commander's departure and subsequent handing over of the clan to her. Responsibility she didn't know how to handle, people she needed to take care of and lead as their Commander... when she didn't even know how to take care of herself properly.

Takua's voice turned a bit sharper suddenly, Kira's eyes narrowing and Sekai's body tensing up at the sound.

"If you couldn't have done anything then you can't blame yourself.  I don't see anything that anyone could have done.  That goes for me as well, in the future." 

A small pause. 

"You're...Commander now?  How?  Why?"

Her own voice sharpened in turn, a tinge of anger blossoming in her usually gentle voice.

"There was something I could have done; and if you're so allowed to blame yourself for no good reason, then someone who has a responsibility to keep people from being comatose and fighting the Elites as I had begun to most certainly deserves to be blamed for the way things turned out!"

Sounds of shifting cloth and skin against stone echoed softly.

"I got the news right before the trap in the dungeon went off. C..Sasuke-san is no longer able to carry out his duties in both worlds... thus leaving the chain of command to myself."

His voice returned to soft, as if knowing that a gentle voice was the best way to soothe the girl's agitated state. Hell, maybe he did know, Kira thought to herself.

"Then, tell me, what could you have done?"

"Anything,"

She said quietly, tears slipping down her cheeks to spot the floor beneath her.

"I would have said or done anything, promised anything if it would have meant you all would be safe and not... here."

There was a long, uncomfortable period of silence for several seconds before the quiet words floated to her ears.

"Not would have. What could have done? The steps that would have kept us in the real world. If you can't come up with a solid plan, something we could have done and would have worked, then it's not your fault."

Another pause.

"As for us...we'll fight. We'll get everyone who wants out of this world back. I couldn't do that before. Maybe now I can."

Frustration returned to Sekai's voice, as if his words only agitated her further.

"Anything! I could have done anything besides just... sit there and let it happen."

There were tears in her voice this time.

"All of you were my responsibility, your safety was supposed to be my top priority."

A quiet, broken sob.

"Raquar, Baron-san, Talal-san and even Takua-san; four of my clan, four of the people I should have been able to protect- all comatose now."

"Anything...against a woman who could prevent us from shutting down our computers. From disconnecting our headsets. Who could reach across the boundary from this world to that one, let alone just take our bodies over here."

There was a sigh.

"We all knew the risks. We all continued on even though we knew those. It was our choice."

"I could have told you all to disperse for now, to go get a moment of rest and that I would have contacted you later or just flat out told you to go to another field and level up."

Sekai argued stubbornly.

"I never should have let you all put yourselves into danger to begin with; that flashmail was odd and I should have sent one to tell you all to hold up. My inaction caused you all to go into comas, shouldn't you be angry about that?"

It took him a while to respond.

"So it's okay for you to face all of the danger, to possibly have died, and we couldn't face any of it? That's...selfish. Aren't we fighters as well? Didn't we go through the Juk field? Honor that. We went in because we thought we could save people from the dungeon. Do you really think that, if you had told us not to go and had gone alone, we wouldn't have followed? Give me a break. I'd have followed within twenty seconds. Sooner. We're friends, right? What friend would let the other go into danger alone?"

The words had come out in a rush that he hadn't intended, and his next words came slowly.

"Don't demean what we tried to do. We're all alive, right? Then we can fight. Once we get out of here, I can get in contact with Centrus and he can take care of my body. If he hasn't gone through with my instructions already and gone looking when I didn't talk to him. I was ready for it to happen, and it did. I couldn't be angry."

There was no answer, save for a soft sigh from Kira as the AI spoke up, sounding a bit more... solid somehow than she had earlier, fucking headaches were a bitch and she had the added weight of trying to console two parties at the same time now. When the hell had she gone from the ass kicker to the negotiator?

"I've taken over again,"

She said heavily, as if it were a great burden to have to keep bouncing between her spirit self and taking over Sekai's form when the need came.

"She's not meaning to demean your intentions, far from it, but she's also too young to understand certain things."

Kira paused a moment, her voice softer than normal, almost disturbing really. It was time to expose the girl's past by a little bit. Maybe that'd make it easier for people to figure out what the hell went through that damn fool head of hers; because she sure as hell couldn't figure it out.

"Takua. You have people outside of 'The World', correct? Centrus and surely a couple more people at least, right?"

That sad tone in his voice didn't make her happy. At all.

"No. Centrus is it by now. I was...in an apartment now while I was going to school. My parents kicked me out on the day of the Ganz prison field. There are...a few other people that I know, but none that I can call really good friends. Only Centrus, really."

"But you still have someone outside of it, correct?"

Kira repeated, her voice unnaturally patient for the typically 'I have no time for this bullshit' opinionated woman.

"Yes. I talked to him already though and let him know what might happen...he knew and was ready."

"You all have someone to return to- be they family or friend; by failing to protect you, in her mind, she's put you at risk of never seeing those people again."

A pause.

"Sekai is able to accept her comatose state and embrace it because it was an improvement from her situation. She's barely fifteen years old, Takua, and she has no place, no one who will be there when she wakes up from a coma."

Kira's voice had sharpened in anger at the end, frustration in her voice as she snapped the last part between clenched teeth.

"She would prefer to meet her end here in this world where she at least had a semblance, a fleeting grasp of what love and family actually was, than to return to that world of hers."

Awkward silence. Great, just what she'd always wanted.

"Oh. I...understand where she was coming from now. Thank you. I...I'm sorry."

Her voice was weary sounding. Always the apologies with those two. Takua and Sekai sure as hell had that annoying habit in common.

"She's not very good at understanding why people would put themselves in danger when they have someone to go back home to."

Quieter this time, this was definitely an uncomfortable subject. Hell, Kira was angry and saddened by it in her own way... more for Sekai's sake because she could feel the physical pain it caused the girl and the breaking of that fragile little heart of hers had the AI feeling helpless beyond belief; something that never set well with her.

"She's also grieving because she's lost the only two men she's able to be comfortable around. Ko's account is currently inactive and... it's the Highers. The prison is going to eat those four- three if we remove Nemera- alive. An Archer, a Heavy Blade and a preoccupied Long Arm aren't going to be able to make it through. Not with what's in there."

The boy's voice was anguished, he felt some sort of similar pain at the news as well or had come to the conclusion on his own.

"I know...that's...why I moved to warp in so quickly. That's why I want to go back."
He paused for several seconds before continuing.

"I have a feeling that it'd be best if I asked why she's only comfortable around those two once we're out of here."

"Even she couldn't tell you why. I'm going to guess it's something about Heavyblades being seen as protectors in her eyes, though that doesn't explain Trent."

The last name was spat out in a clear manner that suggested the individual could go straight to hell.

"I don't get it either. Then again, I don't understand a lot of what she does and why she feels things how she does."


A noise that was half whimper, half squeal and all agony slipped out from what sounded like the cell beside her.

"Not what I meant. I meant, why can't she be comfortable around men?"

"...did you just get bit in the ass by a rat or something?"

Kira asked, sounding half bewildered, half amused at the sound before her voice turned serious. It wasn't the place to divulge that bit of history, she'd just make it light and gloss it over almost completely. Enough so that he might figure it out on his own but wouldn't know for certain unless he was just that fucking dead on with people.

"There's been some... bad experiences in the last few years, as a result, she's no longer comfortable around men and even women sometimes. Nemera terrifies the hell out of her at the same time she irritates her, it's kind of amusing."

The AI stretched herself out, feeling Sekai begin to respond hesitantly to her own efforts at comforting her and spoke once more. She needed some rest and some time to talk with Sekai.

“We'll talk more when it's less risky to do so.”

Now, all they needed was a couple of explosions, one really nasty scream from a tortured guard and a kick ass jail break that would cripple the Elites in some profound way. As if that last part would happen- the crippling of the Elites, not the kick ass jailbreak- Kira thought with a smirk. But hey, an AI could... well, think of it. Did she dream? Taking advantage of an inability to do anything without a plan, the former Ruem High Priestess settled in to contemplate and turn that question over in her mind; Did AI have the ability to dream like humans?

This was going to take a while.
Image

Name: Sekai
Level: 54
EXP: 0000/1000
Class: Archer
Clan: Army of Darkness
HP: 835
SP: 347

Currently Equipped:

Einherjar: Kira, December, Zorya

Head: Bat Earrings (Ola Repth 40, Rip Maen 40)
Body: Saint Cross (Rue Zot 10, RaJuk Zot 30)
Arm: Protect Ring (Ap Vorma 15, MeJuk Kruz 20)
Leg: Ninja Anklet (BiVak Rom 20, GiGan Zot 30)
Add-Ons: Forestlore, Wood Magic (permanently raised Wood Offense/Defense by +3 total)

Wishlist: Levels, Summon: Wood, Archer Weapons, Light Armor

User avatar
Locke
Ikkitousen
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 10:21 pm
Class: Twin Blade

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Locke » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:39 pm

Please tell me you’re listening to them…

Baron’s head snapped up, his foot stopped in mid-stride as Libra spoke quietly to him with something of a sigh. What’s going on, Libra?

You’re not, are you? Go figure. You really should pay attention when a jailbreak’s being planned.

A jailbreak? That was news. Baron had been focusing on figuring a way out of the cells, with no weapons, spells, or even any decent clothing. He was already missing his jacket, shivering in the dungeon chill as he listened to the talk outside the cells, getting an idea of what was happening. It seemed that two of the other prisoners were planning something, and that, by the conversation, most of the people knew each other. Baron only caught a few names, among them “Senna” and “Nighthand,” both foreign and unknown to him. The former seemed to belong to a woman within sight… one who had escaped from her cell?

Running over to his cell door, Baron pressed his face against the space between one side of the “window” and the bar that ran through it, trying to get a better view of what was going on, now that he was aware that some sort of plan was going on. Standing not far from the cells, seemingly frozen and watching for a moment, was a young woman… who was dressed in rather immodest clothing. Of course, Baron couldn’t say much about the outfit, as his own was rather questionable as well, but still, that wasn’t the point. The clothing indicated that the woman was a prisoner as well, and with her out of the cell, that meant there was a hope for escape. The Twin Blade was going to ask how “Senna” (he assumed that it was Senna, Libra told him that someone mentioned that name with an escaped female) had gotten out, hopefully to exploit it himself, but before he could do it, Libra quieted him.

Just wait. Two of the others are planning something, and we can’t afford to cause a distraction that could mess them up. For now, go back to pacing and try to think of a backup plan in case this fails.

Yes, because I can do so much without any equipment, spells, or items.

Another sigh. Point.

Baron leaned back against the wall, staring at the ceiling as he tried to think of another way out anyway. Though he doubted there was anything he could do, maybe one of the others had something they could use. Of the people he knew with unusual talents, only one had been captured for sure- Sekai. As for Gyl, Nemera, Sidhe, or Zan, Baron hadn’t seen any of them since the Juk Prison, and though he was worried, his first priority was to get out so he could perhaps find out what was going on. For now he had to work with what he had, and all he had happened to be Sekai and Kira.

The question was, was Sekai’s ability to manifest the icy-gazed Long Arm any use in this situation? Kira would likely be without weapons and spells as well, and that wouldn’t do any good. Perhaps she could be manifested outside the cell and go from there? Baron wasn’t sure how exactly the whole process worked, so he figured he’d have to actually ask the two. With all the other jailbreak plans jumping around from cell to cell, there was no point in trying to conceal his question. Likely it’d be muffled amidst all of the other chatter that was going on. The Twin Blade just hoped that the two weren’t in a cell too far away, so he could be heard over the other conversation.

He spoke in a moderate tone first, in case she was closer, but loud enough to be heard over any generalized conversation. “Sekai, you there?”

"Yes," Sekai’s voice could be heard, tired and weary, but clear enough for her to be understood. "Are you okay?"

Baron sighed in relief, glad for another familiar voice. He had sort of known they were there, but the confirmation definitely set a few fears to rest. His heart picked up its beat again, the moment of immediate worry past. "Thank whatever gods The World has that you're safe. You and Kira were right up there with Xenobia, I was really worried about you. I'm fine, thank you, but what about you? You took some pretty serious wounds."

Things were quiet for a minute, leaving Baron wondering what was going on before a short, shaky response was given. "I... didn't feel anything, Kira... um, well... Kira handled it, like she used to." The conversation seemed to kind of drop off at that point, as if she wasn’t saying everything. Well, she had her own secrets, and it wouldn’t be right to intrude upon them.

Baron frowned. "Yes, I noticed that, but... well. As much as I'd like to ask if she's alright for her own sake, I'm afraid this situation warrants a bit of selfishness at the moment. Look... your ability to manifest Kira... can it work at a distance, like... could you perhaps move up to the wall and see if you can't manifest Kira outside the cell? I'm sure she'd find something she could do if she was free."

There wasn’t any response again for a moment. "I'm... not sure, to be honest. I haven't tried to manifest her physically. She's able to come out in spirit form, of this I'm sure."

A weary, almost defeated tone entered Baron's voice again, though he tried to restrain it. "I guess... I guess it's worth a try but... if not I won't be terribly surprised... I suppose..." The last part was mumbled, and unless one was in a cell adjacent to him, he wouldn't be heard.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Snapping out of it, realizing how bad he had sounded, Baron raised his gaze from the floor. Though his tone put lies to his words, he replied as calmly as possible. "Of course, remember that, physically, it's just a game for me. I'm more worried about you and Zan, as well as Nemera and Sidhe. You guys have it a lot harder than I do, so please, worry about yourself."

It was quiet again, a lot longer than before. What was with all of the pauses? It was as if Sekai was carefully choosing her words like there was something wrong. Then the reason became apparent. "Baron-san, The World... it isn't a game for anyone here; it's the world we're living in now." There was a pause again, shorter than before, and then she replied, sorrow welling up in every word. "I'm so sorry."

There it was, the thing he had hoped he wouldn’t hear, from the one person he knew wouldn’t tell him unless it was true. And yet he still denied it, refusing to accept it in his mind. It couldn't happen to him, it was impossible. Sure, there were a few cases, but they were statistics, something that would never apply to him. It couldn't be real, someone was lying, or mistaken... Yet a quavering note entered the boy's voice.

"N-no... you're wrong, Sekai, you'll see. It's just like an Immersion, like when we were in the Juk Prison. You said it yourself, I think... such a state isn't particularly common, right? I doubt we're comatose, just... it's temporary. It's... it's not..."

The Archer was clearly crying at this point, sobs audible even from whatever cell she was in. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. O-One hit, all it takes is one hit from an Elite. I'm so sorry."

Baron fell silent for a moment, hearing Sekai crying, a tear coursing down his own cheek, followed shortly by another, the bitter bile of defeat filling his mouth, and he simply quit. Physically, mentally, emotionally. He slumped to the floor, laying against the cold stone, the frigid touch on his cheek intensifying his thoughts until he too was sobbing out his disbelief, very audibly, not caring about shame or appearances, only knowing that it was over, he had lost. Still, he tried one last time in vain to protest it. "N-no..."

It was barely a whisper, yet it seemed to echo loudly through his cell.

"Baron," This time Kira spoke, her frigid, calm voice similar to when she had spoken with Baron before they had encountered the Swath within the Juk Prison. While it was still stern as ever, there was a touch of sympathy in it, unusual but apparent. "You're allowed to be scared and you're allowed to grieve over these changes... I'm sorry as well." She finished, sounding truly regretful, but Baron didn’t even notice it at all. Not in his condition.

He had retreated, and all was silent for a moment.

Then there was a cough from the Twin Blade’s cell as he slowly straightened up, an unreadable expression etched in the sorrow lining his face, Libra's more calm mind taking control, evident from the change in voice and tone. "I'm sorry, Kira, Baron's going to be out of commission for a bit. I'll communicate your sympathies when he's doing a bit better, but for now... well. He needs some time to accept this. I'm sure you understand." A wry smile crossed his face, unseen but evident in the AI's voice. "Besides that... I would like to apologize for my actions in the field. I was unusually rash, likely due to Baron's state of stress, but nonetheless, I take full blame for our actions. I am deeply sorry."

"Why am I not surprised," Her tone wasn't sarcastic or anything, merely stating a fact as she closed her eyes a moment, feeling Sekai's inquiry through their link. "What happened back against Xenobia isn't something we're going to discuss right now. Take care of your charge first and foremost."

Just let me die... please let it end… let me wake up from this… or just end it all… please…

“Oh, will you shut up?” Libra snapped irritably, directing it at Baron before realizing that no one else could hear their mental conversations. Realizing how it sounded, he stammered out an apology, hoping the subject of his reprimand wasn’t misunderstood. “M-my apologies, Kira, that comment was not directed at you, but at him… I-I mean Baron, he’s being… eh…”

Rather than making himself look stupider than he had already, he simply shut his mouth.

Kira chuckled on the other end, leaving Libra to wonder what was so amusing. "Something tells me watching you two figure out a system between one another is going to give me déjà vu in the worst way." Then she was serious again. "He's getting it out of his system in whatever way he can instead of bottling it up; make sure he continues until he's drained and has no other option left but to start building himself back up and ready to face the new beginning."

The Long Arm was quiet again, considering, as far as Libra could guess. "In some ways, he's safer now than he would have been. In others, he's got a better chance of getting himself killed permanently. There're rules to learn and certain laws and boundries that don't exist anymore." The softness was back. "But that can wait until later. As irritating as traveling with people who're hackers or allied with them are, this isn't a bad group to be stuck with. Damn luckiest humans I've met in my existence, that's for sure."

Another wry look on Libra’s part as he tried to relax a bit. "Yes, because stammering out thoughts of suicide and depression are definitely the best way to cope with such a situation. You and I know that, while it's a lot more dangerous, it's not a bad situation, compared to some. But he doesn't. He's thinking it's over, that there's no chance, no hope. He's ready to just quit, literally. And I'm not sure I know what to do..." Another deep sigh, as he tried to calm down, Baron’s headache pounding in his head while he had control of the body. "To be honest... I don't know what to do. I've never been around a human before, and I don't know how they act, what they think... it's frustrating. How do you deal with it, Kira?"

"You have two options at this point; you leave and don't look back, let him deal with this on his own regardless of the consequences. Or you take responsibility for him and are in this for the long haul and won't stop until he's out of this world and back into his own." Suddenly the voice was stern yet familiar, as if they were in the same situation. In a sense, Libra could appreciate the comparison, and expected that Sekai had been in a similar state before. "You can't go about something this important and serious half-cocked; you make your decision and you're stuck with it no matter how bad it gets."

And then her humor was back, the natural mechanism for dispersing stress. Libra felt proud that he had mastered that bit of the human reactions, though Kira made use of it too, spoiling it. "It's frustrating as hell, it'll piss you off on more than one occasion and you're never going to completely understand why they do the things they do or why they think the way they do. If that's what you're aiming for, give it up and save yourself the stress." Another pause, followed by an oddly comforting tone. "As for how I deal with it, well-" It was almost as if she was smiling at a fond memory now- "I compare life as it is now to how it was before I met her; it hasn't failed me yet. I made my decision those two years ago and I've only regretted it once, and that wasn't for very long."

Libra fell silent, considering her words, thoughts running through his head as he realized that Kira was right. Though he knew he wouldn’t always be around… or even for too much longer, if Baron’s mission was completed quickly. Nonetheless, it was his fault as the boy’s guide that the Twin Blade was like this, by not steering him away from what was obviously a setup. At very least, he would stick around until Baron was free of The World’s grip… since the Zodiac could not be afford destroyed while the Twin Blade’s mind was attached to his character data anyway, Libra would be able to do at least that much.

Stop trying… it’s hopeless, just… leave me be…

The AI sighed. It was going to be a long imprisonment.
Character Information
Baron | Level 47 Twin Blade [100/1000 EXP] | 891 HP / 265 SP
Weapon: Fishskin
Armor: Emperor's Crown/Bone Armor/Thunder Gloves/Ninja Anklet
Accessories/Books: Ethereal Angel Wings, Silver Grunty
Skills: Thunder Coil, Gale of Swords
Spells: Merrows, GiRai Don, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot, Rai Don, Ani Don, Duk Lei
GP: 750 (As of 8/2/15)
Wishlist: Nny Scales, Lucky Shoes, Saint Cross, Greave Sticker, Pet EX-Levels/Spheres(!)

User avatar
Lighteria
Well-Oiled Machine
Posts: 176
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:59 am
Location: :noitacoL

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Lighteria » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:35 pm

...

With the frequency that this body gets knocked out, perhaps being here is a mistake.
I miss waking up in my bed.
Well it's not like there's any other choice but to follow them.
I'm glad Kit's not with me.
Dear god, it suddenly feels like a thousand hammers started pounding my mind.
I don't want anyone to get hurt anymore...



Lighteria's teal eyes flutter open as he lifts himself from the floor, having been laying prone and on his stomach. He doesn't get halfway into a full sit before he takes a belly flop back onto his stomach, his hands quickly occupied with holding his temples from the splitting headache. He teeth grit tight and the twin blade twitches on the floor, his body curling up before his voice allows him to let out a long, painful groan. With his hands clamped on his temples like a vice, the twin blade shuts his eyes tightly trying to will the pain away.

"RRRRRGG!! Bloody- Painful-... GRAH!" Not one to usually suffer in silence, the twin blade takes advantage of his blessed isolation and lets himself curse the pain under his breath for a few minutes until his head stops throbbing. As he lies on the cold stone caressing his head with his palms like he's trying to rub in the world’s most stubborn dollop of Noxzema, Lighteria listens to the voices outside his cell. Most of them are almost instantly recognizable. Rayo's voice is always a creepy sort of comfort as well as Pheonix's. Knowing they're ok lets his pain in his skull dull down a bit and lets his eyes refocus. ...Not that there's much to focus on.

This is... gray and dull. Clearly I've warped into the head of George Lucas or something. Ha ha ha... ....Ow. Ok, no more bad jokes for now.
I'm definitely in a cell right now... and yet for some reason I feel so very free...


It's at this point Lighteria sits bolt upright, forgetting the dulling pain in his head and looking down at himself. His face flushes red as he pats his own chest frantically, secretly hoping that his clothes have just turned invisible rather than being removed. With his eyes ever widening as the reality of his outfit sinks in, the twin blade retreats into a hunched over self hug position, rocking back and forth in shock. Clearly it's not the near death experience nor the monumentally troubling fact that he and most of his friends are locked up in cells that's put him into shock; nope, this little spaz attack is brought on solely from being self conscious about his outfit.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod... OH - MAI - GAWD. What in the five servers am I WEARING!?!? Who the hell changed my clothes anyway!? Where ARE my normal clothes?! Where- why- who... GAH!! This is got to be a dream. ... NO!! It's a hallucination! YES! I was knocked so loopy by that last light-.. whatever it was that I'm seeing things! Yes! That's it! I'm totally seeing things. I'm just going to rub my eyes, and everything's going to be back to normal.

*Rub Rub*

...SONOFA$#@&%!!!!! Those... SICK... TWISTED... FREAKS!!! Sure maybe this isn't my REAL body but GEEEEEZ, I've been in this one for so long it practically is... I mean who'd wanna see this?! I-...
...Huh, actually this is the first time I've seen myself without a shirt on come to think of it. My GOD I'm skinny, are those ribs? I wanted to look sleek and agile, not anorexic. Then again, my outfit's loose fitting, it's not like it's obvious when I'm dressed. ...Which... I'm always supposed to be.
...Which just goes to show how SCREWED UP these people are! Thank god I'm alone here, I don't think I could take someone else seeing me like this...
...


You can almost see the gears turning in Lighteria's head when the phrase "someone else" zips through his head and he realizes he should probably be concerning himself with the group rather than his appearance. He blinks a few times and turns his head to the lone window of the cell, straining his ear to hear what's going on. Thanks to his tantrum, he's clearly missed a great deal of an escape plan and there are... voices he doesn't recognize. That fact alone is troubling enough but it sounds like they're prisoners too. The prospect of THAT is just flat out depressing if more strangers are in this predicament... On the lighter side of things though, Senna and Canti's voices are pretty clear as there seems to be an escape plan in the works. Lighteria takes this moment to retreat into his own thoughts.

Oh yeah... escaping. Hey! There's a better way to spend my time.

Lightly smacking himself on the head for not focusing on that sooner, the twin blade walks up to the single bar window and lightly nods to himself.

If my powers are still in tact I can do this.

With a deep breath, Lighteria puts his hands to the wall and shuts his eyes to concentrate. This little number is going to be a bit of a trick to pull off for sure. Though the twin blade has split into his aura a dozen times before, controlling the lights has always been just a little tricky. Usually it's sufficient to just let himself float around randomly and spread the element aura as far as he can, but there's been times where a little manipulation is required. ...Still, navigating 142 separate light points through a hole no bigger than a basketball? That is going to take some prep work. But hey, he managed to guide at least a dozen into the body of a fallen ally, how much harder can this be?

A LOT harder apparently. Though focusing surprisingly hard on transforming, the twin blade just can't seem to muster the focus to split. His body sparks with red energy momentarily, as though he's about to burst into the Vak aura but for some reason he just can't quite get over the mental hump that prevents him from splitting when he doesn't mean it. ...As though some outside force is trying to hold him together.

UGH! ...What's going on here? Splitting suddenly got like twenty times harder! ...Ok, sure it's usually tied to my being emotional but GEEZ, it's like trying to get a dime from beneath a car seat.. it's in reach, it's THERE I can SEE it I just... can't.. grab... hold!

With his teeth gritting and his muscled tensed up to the point where it looks like he'll strain something, the twin blade mutters "Vak" under his breath, over and over, trying to get his emotions high enough to split himself. He shuts his eyes tightly, trying to envision Nighthand being tortured, Senna being caught outside alone, Phoenix being beaten by a warden. Cycling through enough traumatic images though finally brings him over the edge. He lets out a gasp as his body disperses into well over a hundred points of bright red light, each pulsing softly with the element of fire. Of course, dispersing into the light points is really only half the battle. His focus on the cell window allows for pretty much all of the orbs to spill up and through window but after that his focus is clearly lacking. Like a swarm of angry Christmas lights, the orbs just keep right on trucking forward until they hit the ceiling, dispersing like a giant bag of marbles upon impact. Red lights scatter across the stone as though they're trying to mimic a planetarium... ...only redder. With what little of his mind he can force to focus, the twin blade forces the orbs to stop running and try to come together again. ...Of course, even at his best the twin blade takes at least a minute to reform, probably too long to be much immediate help. Then again, it all depends on just how slowly the guard is walking. As usual, he hasn't totally thought through his plan. Maybe he just won't be noticed up there...
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

User avatar
Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Nighthand » Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:20 am

Nighthand was shifted as far to strength as he could go, becoming little more than a solid pillar of immobile flesh with the power of a crane, and yet no matter how hard he shook the bar or punched the door, nothing budged a fraction. Only once he had been contacted by Danielle and the others did he stop his futile efforts and concentrate on talking to the others, finding out what he could.

The bad news was, there were new players here. Players Nall had inadvertently drawn in, players that shouldn’t have been there and yet were. The heavyblade couldn’t say he was too unhappy about it; after all, more players meant more fighters, and more fighters meant more chances to deal that critical blow that killed another elite for them.

The good news, or comparatively, was that they were all alive, and all here. Or so he hoped. Sheena was, at least, so he decided to ask her.

”Hey Sheena. You’ve got Nall-like eyes, what do you see?”

”Haze. This place is packed with Twilight. Something in this Dungeon too is suppressing our powers, even mine. I can make out people, but not who each of you are.”

”You said Nall’s here?”

”Yeah, he’s in the cell next to mine. He’s in bad shape though, I can see that much. He’ll be pretty much useless in a fight and he might kill himself if he tries to use his Twilight abilities.”

”Damn. Anyone else who might be of use?”

”Hard to say. I’m counting… three players in here that are unaccounted for and have large amounts of Twilight in them. One of them is that woman Nall saved before we were all captured. She’s in bad shape too, but not as bad as Nall. The other two… I can’t tell. They’re a little ways down, and if they can talk, they’re choosing not to.”

Well that was interesting. Some players here who weren’t one of their group. Maybe they’d join, if they were released.

”Hmm. What about any guards?”

”Nothing much. Someone’s coming, but I can’t tell anything more than that.”

Glancing out the cell window, Nighthand failed to catch a glimpse of the oncoming guard, but he did spot Senna and the unmistakable orbs of light that were Lighteria in the hallway. Senna would likely be noticed. Lights, on the other hand, was scattered enough around the lights in the ceiling that he might go unnoticed.

Meanwhile the time was drawing closer for them to lay their surprise attack. A certain tenseness was growing over the group, as Senna made what mental preparations she needed to stare down the guard who was calmly advancing her way. He was close now, close enough to make out a uniform that looked a lot like that of the Knights of War. In fact, it was identical, save for a scrawled symbol on the shoulder, a clear sign this was meant to mock the admins by using their design. He wasn’t tall, standing about five feet, but he was built like a truck and moved with a confidence that betrayed his ease of working here. Whether that was due to complacency and ego or true strength was yet to be seen.

Closer still, and a gauntlet on his arm drew into focus. It was scaled metal, coated in spikes, and looked quite mean. It was also the only thing on him that looked like a weapon.

Finally, he was within the range of the group’s various prepared attacks, mere yards away from Senna, when he stopped. He smiled, one hand on his hip, the gauntleted arm hanging unconcerned to his side.

“Trying to escape, are you? I’ll admit these cells keep in the strong, not the sneaky, but I can do something about that.” He was addressing Senna. If he noticed Lighteria above, he didn’t show it. “Time to put you back in your room.”

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Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century

Post by Dien » Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:37 pm

This was it. Their guard was approaching, and seemed intent on getting Senna back into her cell. He was still a bit of a ways off, but being at the other end of the cell block, Dien guessed that, as long as he could see the man, so could everyone else. Still, getting him closer would be better. He’d have to come and get their jailbird longarm anyway, so it was just a matter of waiting to see how close he’d be willing to get.

You could taunt him, Danielle suggested, and the blademaster considered it. Chances are they were on Yamiyo, and that the Elites had taken ample caution in selecting their guard. He’d probably gotten very used to taunts over the years, and as he eyed the man, he couldn’t think of anything that would excite him to anger. I mean, nothing really shone when compared to the half-dollar hooker line he’d stabbed through Royce.

Stop reveling in your dim wit, and just give it a shot, he heard in an aggravated tone. She was right: what was the worst that could happen? His arm was out the window, and he waved.

“Hey fatty!” Dien shouted. The man turned to face his direction. “That’s right,” he says again, “I called you fat! What are you gonna do about it?! Huh?!” For added effect, his hand slapped the wall a couple times. ’Fatty?’ he thought, that really the best I could come up with?

“Hah. You think I haven’t heard far worse before?” He was right.

“It was worth a shot,” Dien said, holding his arm in a shrug pose through the window, “but in all honesty, what can I actually do to you from in here?” Well no, there was actually quite a bit.

“I’m sure there’s plenty. Usually the powerless are crying or catatonic by now.” This man was very astute, and very good at observing people. While the glow from his arm probably wasn’t noticeable in the light of the hallway, he’d been doing this long enough to know patterns among inmates. This meant that there was a good chance he’d encountered plenty of escape plans, and plenty of people who could attack through the bars, and that he’d survived all of them. But wait, what had he said about the usual prisoners…

“Wait, powerless?” Dien asked, pulling his arm back in and pushing his face to the window instead, “tell me stranger, if you’re allowed, where are we?”

“Ah, now we have the crux of the issue. You’re not sure. Well, you should feel special; when Royce brought you in here, she gave me specific orders to keep you all alive. Not the typical fate for people who end up on Yamiyo’s death row.”

“Oh fun,” Dien replied, making light of the situation through ignorance. He’d deal with the shock of that later. “So I’m guessing you’re our warden, then?”

“You could say that.”

“Got a name?” he asked, “or should I just call you Warden?”

“Warden works.”

“Keeping it impersonal, eh?” He paused, taking a moment to think. “So how are prisoners typically executed?”

“However they want you to be. Sometimes they do it themselves. Sometimes they just specify painfully. Sometimes you rot in a cell until you die.”

“That last one could take a while, I imagine,” Dien replied, “especially considering the fact that we don’t need food, water, or even technically air to survive.” He knew that one all too well, his throat still sore from the experience on the fire field. Enough small talk. Danielle, he thought, go talk to Nighthand again, and let him know that I’m about to attack. Her affirmation echoed in his mind, and he smirked, letting his eyes close. Forcing the rage to burn within him was proving to be more difficult than he had thought. Something wasn’t right. The power was there, but as Canti had pointed out, was sluggish – like there was a dampener there. He could feel his hair standing on end as the fury of Vulcan’s Mantle overcame him. The audacity of this man to think he could hold one of the Emissaries of Vulcan!

He screamed, and all at once his body was consumed in flames. But wait, he could feel it. “OH GOD!” he shouted, the pain and horror of seeing and feeling his body burning and melting itself to pieces overwhelming his senses as he fell back from the window. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen! God, why could he feel the burn?! The reminder of Canti’s drunk powers hit him like a ton of bricks, and at once he wished to be free of it. Death would relieve the pain, but he couldn’t die yet. One task yet remained.

Danielle, NOW! the through pushed through his mind, and he could hear the girl tell Nighthand. He shrieked, his voice grating and reverberating as the energy within him was poured out. In one moment, every ounce of the power he’d built up at rest in the cell was exhausted on the warden. Its effect was up to Nighthand.
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