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Gimme Storage

Gimme Storage

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This is where I will be storing all my characters and plot ideas

5,566 readers have visited Gimme Storage since ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ created it.

bethelit are listed as curators, giving them final say over any conflict & the ability to clean up mistakes.

Introduction


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Gimme Storage is where I test out codes, layouts, and characters. Ask permission before using anything because stealing makes you look petty, immoral, and above all unoriginal. So to all the thieves out there, git gud.

▌cs: bethelitxx▌artist: tsukada yuuto (shokugeki no soma)

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The GM of this roleplay hasn't created any rules! You can do whatever you like!

The Story So Far... Write a Post » as written by 2 authors

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“Mouse get back!” Claire yells, dragging his partner back.

Revenant, class A, he recites to himself, beings raised from the dead either to fight or kill.

He frowns.

“Someone’s got beef with you what a surprise,” he mutters as he draws his gun, “what did you do to raise Drusilla from the dead?”

He prepares to fire, but curses once he realizes how close they are to the other passengers. Instead, he pulls Miyoshi closer as Drusilla thrusts her knife forward.

“I will cut you from this world!”

Using the gun’s barrel, he barely blocks her before she forces him to clumsily jab his gun at her again.

“I’m tired of your interference Claire,” she hisses.

“I’m not going to hear that from a trigger ghost doll,” he taunts, dodging her next strike.

With each of her slices, Claire slides farther and farther back, pushing and pulling Miyoshi to follow his movement. Deliberate steps lead him closer and closer to the back of the cart, but Drusilla’s bloodlust only drives her to run faster.

Red eyes and thin lips only form into a grin as she nears the dimly lit corner. She needs only wait for the overhead lamps to flicker before she closes the distance.

Crash.

Vials of holy water shatter on the ground, spraying the revenant. Steam emanates Rigid and petrified, Drusilla falls to the ground mere feet from Claire and Miyoshi.

After setting down Miyoshi, he reaches for his last device: a pocket mirror. The object is plastic and metal with a bejeweled daisy carved in the center. It flicks open effortlessly before a pair of arms thrust forward, embracing her apparent keeper.

“Big brother you’re back!” she exclaims as she nuzzles into his chest.

Claire smiles wryly before returning her hug.

“Mary I’m going to need you to do a special job for me,” he sighs as he nervously runs his hand through blood-stained, ethereal hair.

“But you always make me do jobs!” she whines before Claire releases her, “we never do anything fun!”

“I...I know Mary, but I really, really need this. We’re in danger right now and Uncle Miyoshi’s not feeling well,” he replies, gesturing over.

She crosses her arms and throws an accusatory glare toward Miyoshi.

“Are you doing drugs again?” she gestures for Claire to turn the compact over so she can glare at her uncle properly.

“I’m afraid so, poppet,”[/b][/color] Miyoshi says with a handsome, gentlemanly smile.

“I’m not a poppet! I can come out any time I want!” she huffs before giving a few futile tugs to exit the mirror.

Unfortunately, she is no poppet and merely bounces back to her compact.

“Er Mary,” Claire lifts open the compact once more, “we need your help because there is someone very, very dangerous.”

Mary turns and nearly shrieks, but Claire quickly clasps his hand over her mouth. He turns her over before smoothing out her nightgown with his free hand.

“Sh-shh! People Mary. There are people sleeping,” he whispers sharply, “we need to get rid of her without wakin’ everyone up.”

She pushes away his hand before puffing up. “Alright let me at ‘er!”

“No no, Mary, I just need ya’ to make a veil while I deal with this ghost outside.”

Claire sets down a pouting Mary, but not before giving her a reassuring look.

“When you get a little older I promise,” he says, facing the compact toward the hallway.

Spiritual energy emanates from the mirror, cloaking the area in a thick white fog before evaporating into a clear, seamless reflection of the sleeping cart. Anyone who passes by will see nothing more than a locked exit to the baggage.

“Thanks Mary, just keep the veil up ‘til I’m back okay?” Claire asks before shooting Miyoshi a knowing look..

“But it’s dangerous! You might-”

“Mary,” Claire cuts in before his face steels, “stay where you are.”

He seizes Drumont as she begins thrashing and dashes toward the back door, forcing the both of them out before he feels the door shut behind him.

“The darkness is closing in, I can see now,” she rasps as she escapes from his arms.

“Careful Drusilla, you know how good I am at bumping off you ghosts,” he taunts as he shoots forward.

Not to be outdone, she glides to the roof of the next cart, clutching her elbow.

Piker, [/i]he curses mentally as he climbs the ladder attached to the door behind him. The train shakes slightly as it rumbles along the tracks. He stumbles onto the roof, barely dodging the first of many strikes to his chest and stomach. For every bulb that lit the train’s journey, he had ten seconds of darkness to block or shoot her, but not let her escape. With the rest of the cart still lit, he knows the door is the only entrance left.

Drusilla might be a revenant, but the doll’s still smarter than me dead or alive, he thinks as he kicks away her knife.

[b]“Come out Dru, you’re gonna have to go through me to ice Mouse,”
Claire announces as he reaches his hand into the darkness.

Nothing.

“Clearly you don’t know me very well at all.”

She kicks him down and stabs downward, giving Claire a window to grab her bad arm and pull her down. Though she nearly falls, Drusilla catches herself on her knees and pins him by the legs. His grip remains firm, diverting her knife into the train’s roof before she reappears on top of him, knife at his throat.

“You’re right doll, two hordes of slaughs in Dublin and the only thing I know is that you’re a crazy, Catholic-hating bitch,” he chuckles before bashing her in the head with his pistol.

Instinctively, she raises her knife to block, giving Claire time to throw her body off the train.

“No, not Catholics, just you,” she replies, “leaving me to for dead to save the pastor!”

It takes only a brief moment for her to reappear behind Claire, but he detects her from sound alone.

“You wanted to throw him to the sluaghs!” he yells, firing two rounds into her heart, “do you think ‘cause he was sick he deserved to kick the bucket?”

[color=#837E7C][b]“He was poisoning the House--still is,”
she yells as she barely misses a swipe at Claire’s chest.

For each quip and retort they exchange Drumont blinks in and out of the shadows, taking advantage of the pattern Claire must run in to keep up with the railroad lights.

“You can’t have a dead man running a palace. You’ll only attract--”

“--attract vultures,” Claire finishes, watching for the revenant to apparate. “He wasn’t dead Dru! He had Ireland’s best healers helping him!”[/b][/color]

“You couldn’t heal that kind of sickness with priests and holy water.”

Drusilla lunges forward with her knife, allowing Claire to take advantage of her momentum. Grabbing her arm, he tosses her forward before shooting her. She vanishes again, managing to graze Claire’s chest before landing on her feet.

“You didn’t even try Dru! The point of these missions is to help people--help the House,” he quiets his voice for a few moments, “I wanted to help you too.”

“Don’t you dare act righteous now when you’re protecting him of all people,” she hisses, “you know his true nature better than anyone.”

Claire winces, first in bewilderment and then in anger. More than the pain from the knife, turmoil wells in his body. He cannot refute her argument, but he cannot agree with her statements either. Miyoshi has his fair share of problems that could not be explained by physical or spiritual corruption which he is sure spurned his drug addiction. Everything beneath the Japanese male’s manicured exterior screams unsustainable and he hates Drusilla for being so frank with her words.

It would be easy, he often thinks, to drop him as a friend or a partner for issues of incompatibility or dangerousness but nothing is truly that black and white. If the House put every madman to rest, half of his superiors would be gone and Miyoshi isn’t nearly on the same level as those who became possessed by their inner demons. They called it something else, but even when the man they were protecting threatened to kill his Artifact Claire never had it in him to blame the guy.

“Yeah and he might be a pill popper, he might be a lot ‘a things but he’s still my friend,” Claire finally says as he moves forward, “I stick by them through thick and thin.”

Instead of waiting to dodge her next strike he fires a shot in the darkness, anticipating her evaporation before firing behind him and hearing a satisfying fall. Unfortunately for Drusilla, she hadn’t forgotten about the railroad’s pattern of overhead lights and left herself open to a second shot. She blinks back into the darkness, but each dash only agitates the shrapnel in her chest. Claire on the other hand, only continues to dodge and use her faltering stamina to his advantage. His empty-handed hits still make no impact, but the time between each apparition increases. Her slices turn from decisive strikes to slow motion swings until he finally grabs her by the arm and shoulder and slams her into the roof.

In one motion, he forces her knife into her chest, carving out a hole until he rips her heart out. Though bloodless, the color (what little is left) drains from Drusilla’s face as she uses her last efforts to wriggle from Claire’s grasp.

“Either you give up now or your next death won’t be as pretty as your first,” Claire pants, fully aware that this was only half the victory.

Swiveling his head, he sees her beelining for the window. Too exhausted to fully deform, she slithers toward the nearest window in a half-shadow and half-human form but Claire’s rough hands drag her across the roof. Then down the ladder, and within the entrance where they first started.

“I see we were never friends to begin with,” she surmises, her knife slipping through the rails.

“You lost me when you betrayed the House,” Claire states bluntly.

Expressionless and exhausted, he shoots the rest of his bullets into her neck until her head snaps right off from sheer force. Granted, he could use the knife, but the catharsis is too good to pass up.

“The House will fall...your friend a weak pillar,” she whispers.

Her body begins dissolving, but rather than run back the Irishman stays for the duration of her death. He whispers a few lines to put her to rest but her words weigh on his soul. During the fight he assured himself that she spoke only nonsense, but nothing keeps him from visualizing Miyoshi’s gaunt expressions.

The setting changes from ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to Testing Palace

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“Mouse get back!” Claire yells, dragging his partner back.

Revenant, class A, he recites to himself, beings raised from the dead either to fight or kill.

“Someone’s got beef with you what a surprise,” he frowns as he draws his gun, “what did you do to raise Drusilla from the dead?”

He prepares to fire, but curses once he realizes how close they are to the other passengers. Instead, he pulls Miyoshi closer as Drusilla thrusts her knife forward.

“I will cut you from this world!”

Using the gun’s barrel, he barely blocks her before she forces him to clumsily jab his gun at her again.

“I’m tired of your interference Claire,” she hisses.

“I’m not going to hear that from a trigger ghost doll,” he taunts, dodging her next strike.

With each of her slices, Claire slides farther and farther back, pushing and pulling Miyoshi to follow his movement. Deliberate steps lead him closer and closer to the back of the cart, but Drusilla’s bloodlust only drives her to run faster.

Red eyes and thin lips form into a grin as she nears the dimly lit corner. She needs only wait for the overhead lamps to flicker before she closes the distance.

Crash.

Vials of holy water shatter on the ground, spraying the revenant. Steam emanates as the holy water burns through her defenses. Rigid and petrified, Drusilla falls to the ground mere feet from Claire and Miyoshi.

After setting down Miyoshi, he reaches for his last device: a pocket mirror. The object is plastic and metal with a bejeweled daisy carved in the center. It flicks open effortlessly before a pair of arms thrust forward, embracing her apparent keeper.

“Big brother you’re back!” she exclaims as she nuzzles into his chest.

Claire smiles wryly before returning her hug.

“Mary I’m going to need you to do a special job for me,” he sighs as he nervously runs his hand through blood-stained, ethereal hair.

“But you always make me do jobs!” she whines before Claire releases her, “we never do anything fun!”

For a second, Claire considers grunting toward the revenant, but reminds himself that Mary is only a child.

“I...I know Mary, but I really, really need this. We’re in danger right now and Uncle Miyoshi’s not feeling well,” he replies, gesturing over.

She crosses her arms and throws an accusatory glare toward Miyoshi.

“Are you doing drugs again?” she gestures for Claire to turn the compact over so she can glare at her uncle properly.

“I’m afraid so, poppet,” Miyoshi says with a handsome, gentlemanly smile.

“I’m not a poppet! I can come out any time I want!” she huffs before giving a few hard tugs to exit the mirror.

Unfortunately, she is no poppet and merely bounces back to her compact.

“Er Mary,” Claire lifts open the compact once more, “we need your help because there is someone very, very dangerous.”

Peeking from the mirror, Mary nearly shrieks, but Claire quickly clasps his hand over her mouth. He turns her over before smoothing out her nightgown with his free hand.

“Sh-shh! People Mary. There are people sleeping,” he whispers sharply, “we need to get rid of her without wakin’ everyone up.”

She pushes away his hand before puffing up. It isn't like anyone could hear her.

“Alright let me at ‘er!” she announces, balling her hands into fists.

“No no, Mary, I just need ya’ to make a veil while I deal with this ghost outside.”

Claire sets down a pouting Mary, but not before giving her a reassuring look.

“When you get a little older I promise,” he says, facing the compact toward the hallway.

Despite her muttering about never getting older, spiritual energy emanates from the mirror, cloaking the area in a thick white fog before evaporating into a clear, seamless reflection of the sleeping cart. Anyone who passes by will see nothing more than a locked exit to the baggage.

“Thanks Mary, just keep the veil up ‘til I’m back okay?” Claire asks before shooting Miyoshi a knowing look.

“But it’s dangerous! You might-”

“Mary,” Claire cuts in before his face steels, “stay where you are.”

He seizes Drumont as she begins thrashing and dashes toward the back door, forcing the both of them out before he feels the door shut behind him.

“The darkness is closing in, I can see now,” she rasps as she escapes from his arms.

“Careful Drusilla, you know how good I am at bumping off you ghosts,” he taunts as he shoots forward.

Not to be outdone, she glides to the roof of the next cart, clutching her elbow.

Piker, he curses mentally as he climbs the ladder attached to the door behind him. The train shakes slightly as it rumbles along the tracks. He stumbles onto the roof, barely dodging the first of many strikes to his chest and stomach. For every bulb that lit the train’s journey, he had ten seconds of darkness to block or shoot her, but not let her escape. With the rest of the cart still lit, he knows the door is the only entrance left.

Drusilla might be a revenant, but the doll’s still smarter than me dead or alive, he thinks as he kicks away her knife.

“Come out Dru, you’re gonna have to go through me to ice Mouse,” Claire announces as he reaches his hand into the darkness.

Nothing.

“Clearly you don’t know me very well at all.”

She kicks him down and stabs downward, giving Claire a window to grab her bad arm and pull her down. Though she nearly falls, Drusilla catches herself on her knees and pins him by the legs. His grip remains firm, diverting her knife into the train’s roof before she reappears on top of him, knife at his throat.

“You’re right doll, two hordes of slaughs in Dublin and the only thing I know is that you’re a crazy, Catholic-hating bitch,” he chuckles before bashing her in the head with his pistol.

Instinctively, she raises her knife to block, giving Claire time to throw her body off the train.

“No, not Catholics, just you,” she replies, “leaving me to for dead to save the pastor!”

It takes only a brief moment for her to reappear behind Claire, but he detects her from sound alone.

“You wanted to throw him to the sluaghs!” he yells, firing two rounds into her heart, “do you think ‘cause he was sick he deserved to kick the bucket?”

“He was poisoning the House--still is,” she yells as she barely misses a swipe at Claire’s chest.

For each quip and retort they exchange Drumont blinks in and out of the shadows, taking advantage of the pattern Claire must run in to keep up with the railroad lights.

“You can’t have a dead man running a palace. You’ll only attract--”

“--attract vultures,” Claire finishes, watching for the revenant to apparate. “He wasn’t dead Dru! He had Ireland’s best healers helping him!”

“You couldn’t heal that kind of sickness with priests and holy water.”

Drusilla lunges forward with her knife, allowing Claire to take advantage of her momentum. Grabbing her arm, he tosses her forward before shooting her. She vanishes again, managing to graze Claire’s chest before landing on her feet.

“You didn’t even try Dru! The point of these missions is to help people--help the House,” he quiets his voice for a few moments, “I wanted to help you too.”

“Don’t you dare act righteous now when you’re protecting him of all people,” she hisses, “you know his true nature better than anyone.”

Claire winces, first in bewilderment and then in anger. More than the pain from the knife, turmoil wells in his body. He cannot refute her argument, but he cannot agree with her statements either. Miyoshi has his fair share of problems that could not be explained by physical or spiritual corruption which he is sure spurned his drug addiction. Everything beneath the Japanese male’s manicured exterior screams unsustainable and he hates Drusilla for being so frank with her words.

It would be easy, he often thinks, to drop him as a friend or a partner for issues of incompatibility or dangerousness but nothing is truly that black and white. If the House put every madman to rest, half of his superiors would be gone and Miyoshi isn’t nearly on the same level as those who became possessed by their inner demons. They called it something else, but even when the man they were protecting threatened to kill his Artifact Claire never had it in him to blame the guy.

“Yeah and he might be a pill popper, he might be a lot ‘a things but he’s still my friend,” Claire finally says as he moves forward, “I stick by them through thick and thin.”

Instead of waiting to dodge her next strike he fires a shot in the darkness, anticipating her evaporation before firing behind him and hearing a satisfying fall. Unfortunately for Drusilla, she hadn’t forgotten about the railroad’s pattern of overhead lights and left herself open to a second shot. She blinks back into the darkness, but each dash only agitates the shrapnel in her chest. Claire on the other hand, only continues to dodge and use her faltering stamina to his advantage. His empty-handed hits still make no impact, but the time between each apparition increases. Her slices turn from decisive strikes to slow motion swings until he finally grabs her by the arm and shoulder and slams her into the roof.

In one motion, he forces her knife into her chest, carving out a hole until he rips her heart out. Though bloodless, the color (what little is left) drains from Drusilla’s face as she uses her last efforts to wriggle from Claire’s grasp.

“Either you give up now or your next death won’t be as pretty as your first,” Claire pants, fully aware that this was only half the victory.

Swiveling his head, he sees her beelining for the window. Too exhausted to fully deform, she slithers toward the nearest window in a half-shadow and half-human form but Claire’s rough hands drag her across the roof. Then down the ladder, and within the entrance where they first started.

“I see we were never friends to begin with,” she surmises, her knife slipping through the rails.

“You lost me when you betrayed the House,” Claire states bluntly.

Expressionless and exhausted, he shoots the rest of his bullets into her neck until her head snaps right off from sheer force. Granted, he could use the knife, but the catharsis is too good to pass up.

“The House will fall...your friend a weak pillar,” she whispers.

Her body begins dissolving, but rather than run back the Irishman stays for the duration of her death. He whispers a few lines to put her to rest but her words weigh on his soul. During the fight he assured himself that she spoke only nonsense, but nothing keeps him from visualizing Miyoshi’s gaunt expressions.


who da fuck is raven summers

The setting changes from Testing Palace to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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I hope your wound festers.

The thought slips into his mind seamlessly as he lies, back to his roommate and legs curled to fit the slightly-too-short mattress. He traces the faint line Drusilla cut into him, briefly aware of the help his “partner” gave him to turn the corruption into a mere scar. With his ward being a powerful Spiritualist he sees no harm in wishing the man ill and feeling Miyoshi’s eyes on him (however briefly) only cements the thought into his mind. What gave the Japanese man the right to be so shady? If he had nothing to hide then why did he deflect everything and turn it onto him?

He turns his neck to glare at the man in question before the rest of his body follows.
There are times when he hates the good luck he’s had and this one of them. Working under Gandor, head of the West Wind, his loyalty to the House is especially important since the head himself has no favored allegiances. He is faithful to everyone and his actions show it, but right now Claire can’t even look at Miyoshi’s face and that would reflect poorly on his boss.

Lifting his blanket, Claire decides that he ought to investigate the original attack site for any other signs of activity.

For Gandor, the thinks. [color=#9F000F][i]Not Mouse.

He keeps the oil nestled in his box of cigarettes and the key in his pants pocket while his gun rests in its holster, fully loaded in case anyone follows him. He doubts that anyone will be tailing him at this time of night, but the shiver in his spine tells him not to relax. A few patrolling officers throw him a look that is quickly met with a challenging one of his own. His wild, red locks and equally crimson eyes tag him as Gandor’s bodyguard and the company’s main gateway to American armaments. They could choose to overlook him, but to offend him would be a grave mistake indeed. It’s a new feeling, he thinks, to flounce about without another, higher-ranking party by his side but reminds himself that he has as much authority as any other Saniwa on the train.

[color=#9F000F]Mouse included,
Claire scoffs.

Miyoshi’s patronization angered him and fueled further accusations, but Claire could normally take that. He hates it, because the condescension is something new, almost exclusive to Miyoshi. Nobody else pulls the “be a dear” or “take Sterling around the block” card on him when his opinion isn’t necessary so the method and the timing felt like a slap in the face. Did their time in Shanghai mean nothing? Is every grievance just going to be met with lip service and avoidance tactics? Perhaps it is easier to avoid things because then he does not have to deal with them, but if that is the case why make such directed jabs?

Instead of smoke and mirrors, the Kazetanis are a collective mist, concealing via controlled information and even tighter appearances. Compared to Yuuki’s opaque fog, Claire can see vague shadows in Miyoshi’s miasma in the form of Kimura Asagi, drugs, and the camellia. He is sure that even amongst other Kazetani, they all remain nebulous to each other. Still, it does not stop the redhead from digging up post-argument retorts.

Everyone is an agent of your father. You’re only here because he asked you to be.

Claire exits the sleeping cart and tightens his hood, but it is futile against the brisk winds that punish him for investigation. Climbing onto the roof only exacerbates the chill whipping against his face. Instead of standing, he lowers his stance into a crawl to check for evidence along the sides of the roof. Drusilla’s knife, to his detriment, slipped between the cracks of the train and he is sure that she hadn’t carried a sheath with her.

We might have a better chance of finding it if she buried her knife in Mouse instea-, Claire cringes before he can finish the thought. No, he may ask for great pain but death is another matter.

Perhaps he has jumped the gun too quickly. He wants to think that he has the moral high ground on that end. Compared to Miyoshi’s normally grim comments, he reserves his death wishes for those who do tangible harm; Miyoshi’s worst crime was putting him in a position of danger.

Corruption, Claire affirms, let him be corrupt and nothing more.

Leaping from the restaurant to the passenger and baggage, he grabs his compact from his other pocket and lets his little companion emerge once more…

...only for her to freak out.

“Eek! We’re on top of a train!, a train!”

“Mrrph Mary you need to let me see or I’m going to drop it!”

“I’m going to fall?”

For all of the trauma reflected on her body she still carries the quirks of being a child. Wrapping her arms around his head, she gives him little in the way of vision or a chance to loosen her grip. Despite not having any earthly perception of temperature she shivers at the sounds of the billowing trees and the sense of something dangerous.

“Mary, please,” Claire backs up until he can fall harmlessly onto his bottom. From a less tall perspective, she purses her lip before peeling herself from Claire’s face.

“So what’s our next mission?” She asks, settling for “sitting” in her brother’s lap.

“I’m going to need your help again,” the redhead announces, pointing behind her.

“You seem tired Big Brother, shouldn’t you do this in the morning?” she tilts her head, more calm now that she didn’t have the fear of Claire dropping her.

If I wanted to do this in the morning then Uncle Miyoshi would probably, guilt trip me, was what he wanted to say, but he settles instead for something more child-friendly.

“It’s a secret mission,” he lowers his voice into a whisper, but clears his throat when Mary shoots him an odd look.

[color=#9F000F][b]“I need you to help me find that bad lady’s remains. You know, like all Revenants have?”
he narrows his eyes a slight and turns the compact around so that she can see the scope of the train, “she’s here somewhere but I just can’t find her.”

“Oh well I can help! I just need to-” she looks down at the compact before pressing her lips together.

“Relax, Mary,” he ruffles her hair, “I just need you by my side.”

She nods as Claire affixes the compact to his front pocket, returning to his previous state of crawling. Unlike fights he felt comfortable having her tail by his side since the worst trouble she could possibly get into is attempting to wake the other passengers and she knew that he would close the compact as soon as she tries to misbehave. She provides a softer, more stable type of partnership that doesn’t result in his resentment or someone coming back from the dead and attempting to kill him.

There’s a thought, having a partner you can trust, Claire grumbles a slight but continues toward the next cart.

“Big Brother I’m scared,” Mary whispers.

“We’ll only be here a little bit longer,” he assures.

Claire narrows his eyes as he scampers much more slowly toward the end of the sleeping cart. Feeling for the ladder he descends and runs his hands across the exterior of the doorway until something silky appears under his fingertips.

What is this? He pulls the piece of fabric from a door that closed too quickly and stares at it for a few moments. Red, soft, rotting. It may not have had any thumbprints, but he bet dollars to donuts that it belonged to Drusilla. And if a piece of her dress is here, the rest of her body could be far behind.

He turns toward the cargo, but a yelp from Mary is enough for him to refrain from walking over.

“Can we go please?! Now?” she urges, “I don’t feel safe here.”

Claire grabs the compact to keep her from shaking, but the terror in her face compels him to reach toward his gun.

“Don’t worry. We don’t have to go if there’s something bad in there,” he says, glancing at her pale expression.

“There’s...monsters in there. Strong ghosts,” she manages, reaching for Claire’s hand, “they feel like her.”

There is no arguing there and Claire sets course back to the VIP sleeping cabins.

He doesn’t complain at Mary’s questions about Drusilla nor at her insistence to clutch his torso during the entire excursion. Instead he gives her a reassuring smile and the occasional platitude. His mind, unfortunately, is on other things.

For such a strong, spiritual presence, why did Miyoshi not catch wind of any of this? If the aura of the ghosts on the train are so overbearing that they made Mary, who keeps gunning to fight, then there should not have been a reason for Miyoshi not to catch that upon boarding. Half of him wants to chalk it up to personal selfishness (he has been voluntarily taking soul tablets), but would it really be fair to pin everything on him if Mary herself had not detected anything until right before they entered?

“Are you and Uncle Miyoshi going to take care of all the bad ghosts?” Mary asks, gently tugging at one of Claire’s strings.

[color=#9F000F][b]“I…”
Claire hesitates before sighing, “I’ll take care of them. Mou-Miyoshi is...”

[color=#F75D59][b]“Are you two fighting?”


The question cuts through the wind and air, hanging in Claire’s ears like dead weights. Had she always been this perceptive? She only barely caught the presence of Drusilla a few hours ago.

“I thought I told you not to eavesdrop,” he replies flatly, “how much did you hear?”

“I just don’t think you two should fight,” she murmurs, “people keeps secrets sometimes. You did it too, to protect me.”

Though he has only known Mary for about a year, he’s come to know everything about her from birth to afterlife. Her abilities to obscure visibility and detect ghosts or ghouls combined with her transparency have made her invaluable as an asset to his missions; however, there is no doubt that they are not on equal footing. He could put her away at any time and her C Ranking status meant that most Saniwa (as well as more dangerous ghosts) could kill her without issue. The only reason she is still alive is due to Gandor and...Miyoshi.

Two of the more important people in his life and he did not truly know either of them to the extent that he knew her. One of them, he incidentally, had no issue wishing death upon.

“It’s just...different though. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Claire stops only a few feet from the door to lean against the door, [color=#9F000F][b]“he’s just being selfish.”

“What’s the difference?” she asks, tilting her head.

“You’ll...you’ll understand when you’re older,” he says, before glancing at the door.

“If you say so,” she shrugs, resigning herself to the compact.

Claire slams the device shut before switching it out for a lit cigarette. When he enters the sleeping cart, he feels safe enough to blow smoke without regarding anyone else who might be patrolling. What is more important is the reprimanding he is sure that he would receive from Graham.

He’d probably say something like ‘kind of a double standard isn’t it? Well he did it first. He should know. But then he’d say ‘that’s childish’ and we wouldn’t get anywhere. He’s here acting like it’s so bad that his old man’s head of the House and kind of hates him when he’s never been beat.

“He doesn’t know what it’s like to hop on a train and run the fuck away!”

“Stille!” an officer whispers harshly.

“My bad,” Claire says, pulling his hood over his hair.

Though the patrolling duo walks off, the redhead remains rigid. He blows out another cigarette before eying the wall in front of him. Miyoshi never really could walk around without being recognized. It isn’t as though Claire never thought of the scenario himself, Miyoshi severing ties and trying to be someone else but nothing he did would ever detach him from being a Kazetani. Even with Kimura Asagi’s power he could never be invisible the same way Claire was during his earlier years. Even now, if the redhead wants to, he could dye his hair and live life as Joe Schmoe, combat extraordinaire but a Kazetani death would ripple across waters.

The Kazetanis aren’t veiled by mist, they’re trapped in it. It only makes sense that Miyoshi might not want to get others too involved in his family because he still wants to protect them.

“I’m a fucking asshole,” Claire sighs, slapping his forehead, “fuck man.”

Whether or not Mouse is truly being shady the Irishman should not have jumped to conclusions for doing essentially what he would have done. Lord why did he need to be so insensitive? So impulsive? He is sure that Graham would be chiding by now if not smacking him over the head. He should only be so lucky that his Artifact is busy with Helene’s.

Unfortunately, he isn’t privy to waking Miyoshi up for the sake of groveling so he reaches into his pocket to feel Drusilla’s fabric scrap for some reassurance. If not an apology he knows Mouse would be happy to find a clue or two regarding the state of the train. He needs only wait until the morning to pull his friend aside.

He stamps his cigarette out before noticing a hunched over male fiddling with a lighter.

“Need a light?” he asks.

From across the room, red eyes glance up toward a equally red-haired male before walking off entirely.

A single match drops from Claire’s fingertips before he does the same, both uncertain and uncomfortable with the sight before him.


lmao kill me

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I hope your wound festers.

The thought slips into his mind seamlessly as he lies, back to his roommate and legs curled to fit the slightly-too-short mattress. He traces the faint line Drusilla cut into him, briefly aware of the help his “partner” gave him to turn the corruption into a mere scar. With his ward being a powerful Spiritualist he sees no harm in wishing the man ill and feeling Miyoshi’s eyes on him (however briefly) only cements the thought into his mind. What gave the Japanese man the right to be so shady? If he had nothing to hide then why did he deflect everything and turn it onto him?

He turns his neck to glare at the man in question before the rest of his body follows.
There are times when he hates the good luck he’s had and this one of them. Working under Gandor, head of the West Wind, his loyalty to the House is especially important since the head himself has no favored allegiances. He is faithful to everyone and his actions show it, but right now Claire can’t even look at Miyoshi’s face and that would reflect poorly on his boss.

Lifting his blanket, Claire decides that he ought to investigate the original attack site for any other signs of activity.

For Gandor, the thinks. Not Mouse.

He keeps the oil nestled in his box of cigarettes and the key in his pants pocket while his gun rests in its holster, fully loaded in case anyone follows him. He doubts that anyone will be tailing him at this time of night, but the shiver in his spine tells him not to relax. A few patrolling officers throw him a look that is quickly met with a challenging one of his own. His wild, red locks and equally crimson eyes tag him as Gandor’s bodyguard and the company’s main gateway to American armaments. They could choose to overlook him, but to offend him would be a grave mistake indeed. It’s a new feeling, he thinks, to flounce about without another, higher-ranking party by his side but reminds himself that he has as much authority as any other Saniwa on the train.

Mouse included, Claire scoffs.

Miyoshi’s patronization angered him and fueled further accusations, but Claire could normally take that. He hates it, because the condescension is something new, almost exclusive to Miyoshi. Nobody else pulls the “be a dear” or “take Sterling around the block” card on him when his opinion isn’t necessary so the method and the timing felt like a slap in the face. Did their time in Shanghai mean nothing? Is every grievance just going to be met with lip service and avoidance tactics? Perhaps it is easier to avoid things because then he does not have to deal with them, but if that is the case why make such directed jabs?

Instead of smoke and mirrors, the Kazetanis are a collective mist, concealing via controlled information and even tighter appearances. Compared to Yuuki’s opaque fog, Claire can see vague shadows in Miyoshi’s miasma in the form of Kimura Asagi, drugs, and the camellia. He is sure that even amongst other Kazetani, they all remain nebulous to each other. Still, it does not stop the redhead from digging up post-argument retorts.

Everyone is an agent of your father. You’re only here because he asked you to be.

Claire exits the sleeping cart and tightens his hood, but it is futile against the brisk winds that punish him for investigation. Climbing onto the roof only exacerbates the chill whipping against his face. Instead of standing, he lowers his stance into a crawl to check for evidence along the sides of the roof. Drusilla’s knife, to his detriment, slipped between the cracks of the train and he is sure that she hadn’t carried a sheath with her.

We might have a better chance of finding it if she buried her knife in Mouse instea-, Claire cringes before he can finish the thought. No, he may ask for great pain but death is another matter.

Perhaps he has jumped the gun too quickly. He wants to think that he has the moral high ground on that end. Compared to Miyoshi’s normally grim comments, he reserves his death wishes for those who do tangible harm; Miyoshi’s worst crime was putting him in a position of danger.

Corruption, Claire affirms, let him be corrupt and nothing more.

Leaping from the restaurant to the passenger and baggage, he grabs his compact from his other pocket and lets his little companion emerge once more…

...only for her to freak out.

“Eek! We’re on top of a train!, a train!”

“Mrrph Mary you need to let me see or I’m going to drop it!”

“I’m going to fall?”

For all of the trauma reflected on her body she still carries the quirks of being a child. Wrapping her arms around his head, she gives him little in the way of vision or a chance to loosen her grip. Despite not having any earthly perception of temperature she shivers at the sounds of the billowing trees and the sense of something dangerous.

“Mary, please,” Claire backs up until he can fall harmlessly onto his bottom. From a less tall perspective, she purses her lip before peeling herself from Claire’s face.

“So what’s our next mission?” She asks, settling for “sitting” in her brother’s lap.

“I’m going to need your help again,” the redhead announces, pointing behind her.

“You seem tired Big Brother, shouldn’t you do this in the morning?” she tilts her head, more calm now that she didn’t have the fear of Claire dropping her.

If I wanted to do this in the morning then Uncle Miyoshi would probably, guilt trip me, was what he wanted to say, but he settles instead for something more child-friendly.

“It’s a secret mission,” he lowers his voice into a whisper, but clears his throat when Mary shoots him an odd look.

“I need you to help me find that bad lady’s remains. You know, like all Revenants have?” he narrows his eyes a slight and turns the compact around so that she can see the scope of the train, “she’s here somewhere but I just can’t find her.”

“Oh well I can help! I just need to-” she looks down at the compact before pressing her lips together.

“Relax, Mary,” he ruffles her hair, “I just need you by my side.”

She nods as Claire affixes the compact to his front pocket, returning to his previous state of crawling. Unlike fights he felt comfortable having her tail by his side since the worst trouble she could possibly get into is attempting to wake the other passengers and she knew that he would close the compact as soon as she tries to misbehave. She provides a softer, more stable type of partnership that doesn’t result in his resentment or someone coming back from the dead and attempting to kill him.

There’s a thought, having a partner you can trust, Claire grumbles a slight but continues toward the next cart.

“Big Brother I’m scared,” Mary whispers.

“We’ll only be here a little bit longer,” he assures.

Claire narrows his eyes as he scampers much more slowly toward the end of the sleeping cart. Feeling for the ladder he descends and runs his hands across the exterior of the doorway until something silky appears under his fingertips.

What is this? He pulls the piece of fabric from a door that closed too quickly and stares at it for a few moments. Red, soft, rotting. It may not have had any thumbprints, but he bet dollars to donuts that it belonged to Drusilla. And if a piece of her dress is here, the rest of her body could be far behind.

He turns toward the cargo, but a yelp from Mary is enough for him to refrain from walking over.

“Can we go please?! Now?” she urges, “I don’t feel safe here.”

Claire grabs the compact to keep her from shaking, but the terror in her face compels him to reach toward his gun.

“Don’t worry. We don’t have to go if there’s something bad in there,” he says, glancing at her pale expression.

“There’s...monsters in there. Strong ghosts,” she manages, reaching for Claire’s hand, “they feel like her.”

There is no arguing there and Claire sets course back to the VIP sleeping cabins.

He doesn’t complain at Mary’s questions about Drusilla nor at her insistence to clutch his torso during the entire excursion. Instead he gives her a reassuring smile and the occasional platitude. His mind, unfortunately, is on other things.

For such a strong, spiritual presence, why did Miyoshi not catch wind of any of this? If the aura of the ghosts on the train are so overbearing that they made Mary, who keeps gunning to fight, then there should not have been a reason for Miyoshi not to catch that upon boarding. Half of him wants to chalk it up to personal selfishness (he has been voluntarily taking soul tablets), but would it really be fair to pin everything on him if Mary herself had not detected anything until right before they entered?

“Are you and Uncle Miyoshi going to take care of all the bad ghosts?” Mary asks, gently tugging at one of Claire’s strings.

“I…” Claire hesitates before sighing, “I’ll take care of them. Mou-Miyoshi is...”

“Are you two fighting?”

The question cuts through the wind and air, hanging in Claire’s ears like dead weights. Had she always been this perceptive? She only barely caught the presence of Drusilla a few hours ago.

“I thought I told you not to eavesdrop,” he replies flatly, “how much did you hear?”

“I just don’t think you two should fight,” she murmurs, “people keeps secrets sometimes. You did it too, to protect me.”

Though he has only known Mary for about a year, he’s come to know everything about her from birth to afterlife. Her abilities to obscure visibility and detect ghosts or ghouls combined with her transparency have made her invaluable as an asset to his missions; however, there is no doubt that they are not on equal footing. He could put her away at any time and her C Ranking status meant that most Saniwa (as well as more dangerous ghosts) could kill her without issue. The only reason she is still alive is due to Gandor and...Miyoshi.

Two of the more important people in his life and he did not truly know either of them to the extent that he knew her. One of them, he incidentally, had no issue wishing death upon.

“It’s just...different though. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Claire stops only a few feet from the door to lean against the door, “he’s just being selfish.”

“What’s the difference?” she asks, tilting her head.

“You’ll...you’ll understand when you’re older,” he says, before glancing at the door.

“If you say so,” she shrugs, resigning herself to the compact.

Claire slams the device shut before switching it out for a lit cigarette. When he enters the sleeping cart, he feels safe enough to blow smoke without regarding anyone else who might be patrolling. What is more important is the reprimanding he is sure that he would receive from Graham.

He’d probably say something like ‘kind of a double standard isn’t it? Well he did it first. He should know. But then he’d say ‘that’s childish’ and we wouldn’t get anywhere. He’s here acting like it’s so bad that his old man’s head of the House and kind of hates him when he’s never been beat.

“He doesn’t know what it’s like to hop on a train and run the fuck away!”

“Stille!” an officer whispers harshly.

“My bad,” Claire says, pulling his hood over his hair.

Though the patrolling duo walks off, the redhead remains rigid. He blows out another cigarette before eying the wall in front of him. Miyoshi never really could walk around without being recognized. It isn’t as though Claire never thought of the scenario himself, Miyoshi severing ties and trying to be someone else but nothing he did would ever detach him from being a Kazetani. Even with Kimura Asagi’s power he could never be invisible the same way Claire was during his earlier years. Even now, if the redhead wants to, he could dye his hair and live life as Joe Schmoe, combat extraordinaire but a Kazetani death would ripple across waters.

The Kazetanis aren’t veiled by mist, they’re trapped in it. It only makes sense that Miyoshi might not want to get others too involved in his family because he still wants to protect them.

“I’m a fucking asshole,” Claire sighs, slapping his forehead, “fuck man.”

Whether or not Mouse is truly being shady the Irishman should not have jumped to conclusions for doing essentially what he would have done. Lord why did he need to be so insensitive? So impulsive? He is sure that Graham would be chiding by now if not smacking him over the head. He should only be so lucky that his Artifact is busy with Helene’s.

Unfortunately, he isn’t privy to waking Miyoshi up for the sake of groveling so he reaches into his pocket to feel Drusilla’s fabric scrap for some reassurance. If not an apology he knows Mouse would be happy to find a clue or two regarding the state of the train. He needs only wait until the morning to pull his friend aside.

He stamps his cigarette out before noticing a hunched over male fiddling with a lighter.

“Need a light?” he asks.

From across the room, red eyes glance up toward a equally red-haired male before walking off entirely.

A single match drops from Claire’s fingertips before he does the same, both uncertain and uncomfortable with the sight before him.


lmao kill me

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The rain had subsided. The sun shines bleakly through the thin curtains, beaming slits of sunlight when Claire swings the door to their room open. It surrenders easily, the knob colliding softly with the wall. The bland decor and clashing fabrics are a welcomed sight for once, giving the Irishman ample time to decompress from his earlier engagements.

What ought to have been an easy trip proved to be more of a petting zoo as Claire navigated the dining halls of the upper class car. Matches were in short supply and a source of community for smokers of any nationality and even he had to concede that they (the “they” referring to every European) were treating him better than the first night. Maybe they finally know who they’re dealing with a small part of him thought, or perhaps they merely wanted to practice their English.

Every “hallo, American man!” was met with a gruff “hey”, but the few women were met a more cheeky “what’s buzzin’, cousin?” Well, the brunette ones anyway. His own car consists mostly of men and it seems that the few women who are there are either maids, rich debutantes, or the blonde duo. Not too many interest him, but a breakfast of awkwardly conversing with the Germans (the few that weren't patrolling the cart) has helped him acclimate to showing off his humorous side.

Nonetheless it did not prepare him for what lay directly under his eyeline--a body by the name Neumann.

“Mouse what the fff-” he silences himself before turning over and closing the door.

He scurries toward Miyoshi, his hand cupping around his own mouth.

“Mouse what the fuck happened?” Claire whispers harshly as he points an open hand at the unconscious body, “don’t you think there was another way to handle...this.”

“No,” Miyoshi says, without looking up. He licks his teeth.

Claire squats down to observe the body, grabbing Neumann’s right hand.

“We’re going to have to get rid of this,” he asks, raising it to inspect the damage, “they can’t know he was here.”

“Very good. Ave Maria, I suppose.” comes Miyoshi’s lackadaisical reply. He tosses the Madonna in a single dispassionate movement.

I leave you alone for ten minutes and you knock this Nazi out cold, Claire thinks, though he can’t deny a twinkle of pride when he sees the statue tossed away in his peripheral vision.

If Miyoshi was telling the truth then they would need to act quickly to prevent themselves from being discovered or worse, having the Germans turn on them. He brushes his fingers over the broken knuckles with some curiosity as he tries to formulate what plausible explanation he might have to drum up should anyone be on the other side of the door, but finds himself at a loss. Maybe they dropped a piece of furniture on his hand while they were rearranging the room? No, the better course of action is preventing any further slip ups.

Claire chews on his lip before standing up and reaching into his pocket to pull out the compact from the previous night.

“Big Brother, you’re awfully early toda-!”

This time Claire has the foresight to preemptively clamp his hand around Mary’s mouth before whispering slowly in her ear.

“Mary I’m going to need you not to scream because there is a bad man passed out and we’re going to need you to shield this room. Now are you not going to scream when I let you go?”

A vigorous nod allows the redhead to let go before Mary darts around the room, flailing in a mixture of frustration and shock as she sees the unconscious soldier.

“That’s the bad person!” Mary hisses before covering her mouth again, “what did he do?!”

“That is what we are trying to find out,” Claire sighs, rubbing his temple, “I need you to cover this room and make sure that nobody can see or hear us. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt okay? It will be just like all those other times.”

Mary pauses for a moment, turning back at her redheaded companion. “You aren’t going to kill him are you? He’s just a human after all.”

“Don’t worry,” Claire smiles reassuringly, gesturing for the ethereal girl to float down to his level, “he will be fine. We just need to scare him a little.”

“Oh well I can do that!” Mary grins before holding her hands up like claws, “boo!”

Claire can’t hold back a chuckle. “I know you can and you are real scary but we don’t know how much he knows about us so we can’t risk him runnin’ around screaming about a ghost on the train. Next time okay?”

“Fine.” Mary folds her arms and turns away, “But just because he’s knocked out already.”

As opaque fog covers the walls of the room Claire shoves Neumann onto the nearest chair and binds the German’s hands together with his belt. Like all supplies, they were, unfortunately, in short supply of either rope or Artifact.

Don’t worry he’s a Nazi just like all the rest of ‘em. He’s more dangerous to us if he escapes,, Claire thinks to himself as he pushes the Nazi to the center of the room. He does not want to break the man’s foot, Nazi or otherwise.

He knows nothing about enacting interrogation nor does he want to. Hearing one of his former mentors talk about the mythical “third degree” of interrogation was enough to turn him off from such missions, along with the subsequent resistance training that followed his Rank A promotion.

Though his experiences with water curing, sleep deprivation, suspension and ice showers never left any scars they validated his decision to never enter the world of espionage.

The West Wind is clever like that, showing easily you can break a guy without even leaving trace, he thinks before frowning at Neumann’s broken hand.

They are far past that point now.

“Hey wake up,” Claire grunts as he lightly slaps Neumann awake.

“Herr Kazetani!” the German jolts awake only to be met with a grab.

“Hey you aren’t talkin’ to him. You’re talking to me!” Claire warns, jerking the German’s head to him, “what do you know about the contents of this train?”

From the corner of his eye, the Irishman sees Miyoshi approaching and crouching beside him, eyes glinting with a wicked curiosity.

“They are German supplies and armaments,” Neumann replies evenly, “was this not what we discussed at dinner?”

“Then...” Claire pauses for a second before standing to his full height, “let me rephrase that. What sort of people are on the train, besides the civvies, the us, the staff? Is there anyone or anything important that you Germans are holding onto?”

“There are at least fifty people on this train Herr Stanfield. I cannot be expected to know everyone’s name,” Neumann responds, “was this not what we discussed at dinner?”

“Answer the question!” Claire punches the Nazi’s stomach, “where were you after dinner ended? Did you see anyone?”

“I-“ Neumann lets out a large series of coughs before doubling over. Heavy breaths leave his mouth as he gasps for air, unable to contain himself before Claire delivers another to his jaw.

He hears a subdued shriek from the corner and internally winces but keeps his face steeled.

“I was reading Volk ohne Raum in my room. I can show you if you doubt me,” the German wheezes.

Claire narrows his eyes before pulling out a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it, taking a long drag. Clearly, a direct line of questioning is not going to work.

He isn’t creative either, not like Miyoshi.

Glancing back, the Japanese Saniwa gives Claire an expectant nod towards the chair before stepping back towards the door.

If he’s going to let me be, I’ll need to let him be, the American shivers, closing his eyes for a second. He hates that look, but he is sure he hates Neumann more.

“So you were in your room the entire time? No bathroom breaks? No late night cigars?” Claire asks, smoke billowing from the corners of his mouth.

“What-” Neumann huffs before taking another breath, “-do you want me to say? I am a lark,”

“That’s fair, I used to be an earlier riser too,” Claire admits, “how early would you say you slept? Nine? Ten?”

Neumann glances up for a second, licking the blood from his lips. He mimics his interrogator’s grim expression.

“It’s hard to remember. I only read a few pages before sleeping,”

“It must not be a good book then. Do you remember anything else about last night?” Claire inquires, leaning closer to him.

“You seem irritated, Herr Stanfield,” Neumann raises a brow, “Are you looking for something?”

In an instant, Claire pulls the cigarette from his mouth and drives it into the Nazi’s neck before it drops to the ground.

“Don’t get smart with me,” he hisses through gritted teeth, “what did you hear last night? What did you see?”

“I told you I was reading, I could hardly hear anything besides the rumbling!” Neumann exclaims, wincing from the red ring forming on his neck.

“So you heard rumbling?” Claire calms, “can you describe the rumbling?”

Neumann knits his brow, his lips in a thin line.

“There was a fair amount of thudding but I assumed they were nothing more than raucous passengers.”

“Did you hear any names?” Claire inquires, “I’m more of a faces guy so you will have to forgive me.”

“Where are you leading me Herr Stanfield?” Neumann deflects, “as I told you before I have no inkling of when I fell asleep. It could have been at any time.”

“Well do your best to remember because your next answer is going to be mighty important if you don’t want that burn on your neck to have a friend.” Claire replies as he grabs Neumann by the hair.

“I give you my word,” Neumann sighs, rolling his wrists against his bindings.

“Try feeding him a tab,” Miyoshi smirks. “Just my guess.”

Claire raises a brow before his face lights up in realization. He lets go and reaches a hand into his overcoat pocket. Pulling out a tin box, he pops the cover to reveal several white tablets.

“Have you seen these before Neumann?” Claire asks, holding up one of Miyoshi’s pills to Neumann’s line of sight.

“This is your big question? I thought you had something more important in mind Stanfield,” Neumann responds before narrowing his eyes, “I am not one for foreign med-. ”

“If you want to keep breathing you’ll do your best to swallow,” Claire snaps, shoving the pill into the soldier’s mouth and clamping his jaw shut.

With his other hand pinching Neumann’s nostrils Claire’s hands remain taut as his eyes move toward the tied man’s throat. Miyoshi watches his partner with a bizarre sense of adoration, keeping his eyes fastened on Claire’s moving fingers.

As a lump slides down his throat, the Irishman forces the German’s mouth open.

“Tongue up,” Claire orders, inspecting Neumann’s mouth for any traces of white.

Were it not for Claire’s fingers in the German’s mouth he likely would have heard Neumann saying “I told you I would keep my word”, but instead both of them settle for waiting until the redhead slinks his away out of Neumann.

For once he keeps silent, crossing his arms as he watches Neumann for any movement.

I hope he is right about this, Claire thinks as he glances at his partner, he can’t keep doing this.

As much as he despises Miyoshi’s usage of the soul tablets he knows that now is not the time to be glad he is one step closer to depletion, especially when they are still in danger.

Turning back to Neumann, low breathing turns to deep gasps of air as he beings shaking against his bindings. As his shoulders popped and legs trembled as small movements turned into large, jerking convulsions.

A cry of pain erupts as the Nazi topples over, curling and unfurling at the stomach.

“What did you-”

“Karl Neumann!” Claire exclaims, as if to drown out the sobbing in the background, “Nazi soldier, German, and judging by your reaction a Saniwa.”

A fit of coughs only seems to confirm his, truly Miyoshi’s theory as Claire walks over to the prone soldier and gives him two kicks to the abdomen.

“How many corpses are in the cargo hold Neumann?” he yells as pulls the chair upright, “we know that there are revenants on this train!”

Neumann suppresses another cough, drool pooling down his uniform. “That has nothing to do with me. I am here strictly on military act-!”

Before he can finish, a cry of pain escapes his lips as another punch hits his stomach.

“Don’t lie to me,” Claire commands as he takes hold of the Nazi soldier’s collar, “Miyoshi may have broken one hand but you still a whole body.”

Neumann hitches his breath.

“If you were just here on orders you wouldn’t have popped into our room and my partner wouldn’t have had to defend himself now would he?” Claire asks, hitting Neumann square in the jaw.

“I…” the German grits his teeth, head swaying from a mixture of the drug and the swirling in his stomach.

“Who is reanimating those corpses Neumann?”

“I-” He holds his breath but is unable to stop the flood that exits his mouth. The smell of blood and acid fills the air as Neumann retches across his lap. As the color drains from his face, his body slumps over, intoxicated by the strain and the bruises blooming across his body.

“Son of a bitch!” Claire curses, recoiling to avoid the mess. He kicks the chair down, knocking Neumann to the floor before delivering a swift kick to the top of the German’s bowed head.

First he deflects, then he lies, and now he has the audacity to vomit all over him?

“Get. Back Here. And. Answer. The. Question!” Claire huffs, kicking the Nazi harder with each word.

You have to be kidding me, we were so close! Claire groans, his hands balling and unfurling.

He turns around for a brief second but finds no reprieve in the calm Miyoshi whose smarmy grin only widened.

If there were a way for him to punch Neumann back to consciousness he would be all for it. Unfortunately, those unaccustomed to soul tablets are not so lucky and most certainly (Claire bites his lip) he had gone too far in driving the answer out of Neumann.

Perhaps today is just another day for the Spiritualist and IJA member but his throbbing knuckles and acrid arm are no more glorious than Drusilla or even the Nazi he beat senseless only moments before. To what end did he need to keep kicking him when a single soul tablet ultimately gave them their answer?

He glances back to find Mary’s fog still present yet her figure is nowhere to be seen nor her voice despite the earlier attempts to block it out.

“Mary are you still here?” Claire whispers, only to be met with silence.

“Mary we’ve got everything we need. You don’t need to keep shielding the room,” he tries once more.

“Why, Big Brother?” the young ghost squeaks out, “you never told me what he did.”

“I told you he’s a bad man.” Claire as he reaches for the ghost’s compact. “He isn’t one of us. I was trying to-”

“You were being a bully!” Mary yells, finally reappearing, “you said he was a Saniwa too like you and Uncle Miyoshi!”

“That doesn’t mean he’s on our side!” Claire presses his lips together before producing a weak smile, “Please, everything is over now so you can rest easy.”

He opens the small, pink compact only for Mary to float into the leftmost corner of the room.

“No! I don’t want to go back with you! You killed the revenant and now you killed him too!” Mary sobs.

“Neumann isn’t dead Mary, he’s...” Claire trails off, opting to to open the mirror and setting it away from him, “you don’t need to come with me but I do need you to go back inside. We still don’t know who else is on this train and I don’t want you to get hurt. I swear it’s for your own good..”

“How can I trust you?” she shrieks, “how do I know that you won’t just smash it like you did to him?”

“You’re right,” Claire sighs, “I’m not trustworthy, but I would never do something like that. You are a sister to me. Everything I’ve done I’ve done to protect you...because I care about you. I promise I won’t ask for anything else I won’t even touch you. You’ll stay in here until the mission is over and I will hand you over to someone...who isn’t a bully. Someone better.”

Not waiting for an answer, he walks to the opposite edge of the room before turning around and holding his hands up. For what feels like an eternity he hears nothing until a chills whip past his neck and the temperature undulates through the room.

Perhaps he ought to have let Mary take the reins on this mission.

After Claire hears the compact snap shut, he moves to pick it up and drops it on his bed before approaching Neumann’s drenched form.

Despite the shallow breaths indicating signs of life, Claire hardly feels any less remorse or disgust while digging through the unconscious, odious man’s pockets. Cigarettes, wet matches, a gun, a deck of cards, all standard fare for a soldier.

Laying the items out on the desk, he frowns and spreads the deck apart, fingers moving from card to card before finally pushing out a King of Hearts that appeared a bit thicker than the rest.

At first glance it appears to be a defect yet the rip in the corner tells him otherwise. Peeling away at the back of the card, Claire finally lets out a gasp as he pulls out a small red card with a black border.

“Hey Mouse, what does this mean to you?” the redhead asks, holding the card up to full view.

Two chrysanthemums and a purple ribbon across the center.

At first, the Japanese man does not speak. Claire sees Miyoshi’s fist curl and unfurl.

“Hanafuda group,” Miyoshi says, voice thick with something other than blood and bile. “They are here. We are not the only Saniwa organization aboard this train.”

At this, Miyoshi falls into his usual muffled, breathy laughter. He’s shaking, and for all their years of friendship, Claire cannot fathom if the laughter stems from insanity or mirth.

“See,” the Spiritualist finishes, wiping a palm across his mouth. “We’ve captured one.”

The setting changes from ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to Testing Palace

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Joji leaned back in his chair, eying the shadows moving behind the art director's office.

Must be nice.

He hated open offices and shared tables even moreso. There was no room for personal knick-knacks and the half-wall barriers dividing the left and right sides of the table were laughable. It was easy to tell who was surfing Amazon and who was playing Diablo III, the office worker's game of choice. He couldn't deny that he'd been guilty of shirking his duties in the past but, well there was no "but." The Japanese man still needed to pore through the feedback his team received from the beta testers of their last update.

"Trying too hard to be like Apple" seemed to be the prevailing sentiment, although everyone was happy to finally have night mode (God knows how long Joji had been fighting for that feature to be implemented). Everything trickled down from market research to analytics to the art director to them and finally, to the coders. Those poor, poor coders. There was an art to predicting what users wanted and more importantly, delivering what they didn't know they wanted. He found too often that there could be all outcry in the world against a certain change, only for it to be well-received. The opposite, incidentally, rarely happened.

A ping from his desktop brought his attention back to his screen where his work chat was buzzing.


xxxChris V: yo
xxxanyone down for boba tonight? @everyone
xxxAlex H: I can't. I have to turn in early tonight.
xxxJun H: Depends. Can I get a ride back to BART?
xxxChris V: i gotchu bro
xxxDenise N: I'll go if Andy goes
xxxAndy L: Boi I'm broke


Joji pursed his lips for a moment. He had planned on cleaning his fridge tonight but...

xxxJoji K: Only if we can get Boba Guys.
xxxChris V: oh heck yea dude


He turned to his other screen, tabbing out of

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Outfit

She hated it here.

The mess of cars, the booming music, the smell of weed and alcohol wafting out of the doorway. The Myers' mansion was hardly impressive either. Its large windows were marred with rainbow lights. The would-be immaculate lawn had bits of vomit. The five hundred bulb chandelier screamed excess and opulence.

The funniest part was that it wasn't even the largest mansion she'd ever seen. The Lo Po Bia family had the largest house among the wealthy Asian elites of southern California as well as the smartest offspring, a fact that her mom would never let Sherry forget. Lo Po Bia Elaine in particular had a reputation among the first generation as the golden child aspire to and she just so happened to be attending the party. That wasn't why Sherry was here however.

The ghost of (one) Werewolf's past yanked her from a pleasant shower after tennis practice and the subsequent screech did nothing to deter him from barking orders at her to protect his granddaughter. The Asian girl slammed the door in his face but that did nothing to prevent him from sticking his head through the door and rambling on about the "chill in his bones." It wasn't enough that she had to dress herself up to party standard (per her self-imposed wishes), she had to throw around Elaine's name in order to convince her parents that she wouldn't end up drinking, smoking, having sex, or getting kidnapped. Because kidnapping was something that definitely happened at parties.

An icy "I'm already headed inside. Leave." left her lips before she walked up the steps and into the cesspool of hedonism.

Lucky for her, everyone was too self-absorbed to notice her crashing the party or perhaps, her "touch me and die" vibe kept most of the partygoers. Their minds contained nothing more than drugs and horniness, both of which Kenneth had in spades. Though his thoughts were muddled, Sherry could practically trace the trail of his groping, stumbling from girl to the next under the guise of a friendly greeting. She was no exception given that as soon as Kenneth finished greeting one of his friends, he swerved towards her.

"Sherry! Sher-ry! You should've told me you were coming. I would have bought a bottle o' sake for youuuuuuuu," he slurred.

"Where's AJ?" she asked.

"Her? I dunno but I'm sure she'll show up soon. In the meantime why don't you jus' loosen up" he grinned, his hand freezing short of her waist.

Despite his previous sleaziness, her scowl seemed to slap the alcohol right out of him

"You're useless," she hissed, pushing him aside

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testing testing

The setting changes from Testing Palace to name

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the out. You can see something appear in that direction.

The setting changes from name to Testing Palace

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the in. You can see something appear in that direction.
Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the out. You can see something appear in that direction.

The setting changes from Testing Palace to bitch what the fuck

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the in. You can see something appear in that direction.

The setting changes from bitch what the fuck to Testing Palace

Doppio has left the area, heading out towards bitch what the fuck.

The setting changes from Testing Palace to bitch what the fuck

Doppio has arrived, coming from Testing Palace.

The setting changes from bitch what the fuck to Testing Palace

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WIP!!!!

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Ariza Jackson | Arcane | #3090C7 | Outfit

Unlike some people, Ariza actually enjoyed being home for the holidays. Seeing old friends, showing his family that he had asserted some control over his powers, and eating food with flavor. While Cascadia's students had that in spades, he couldn't say the same for the cafeteria which was woefully bland. He felt more comfortable among the Santeros given that their focus wasn't solely on a western style of magic. That wasn't to say that Cascadia's methods were exclusionary, but they were certainly biased towards certainly philosophies. It was a radical change from the religion-focused pedagogy of his community, but an effective one for containing his power.

When asked about his first semester, he recounted the lukewarm reception, his friendship with Beau (which of course, earned teasing from the rest of his family), and his trying hard not to be angry Cursed magic mentor who chewed him out more than once for not paying attention in class. The santero-in-training abstained from mentioning the murder that happened not too long before Christmas in fear of his parents chiding him for picking such a dangerous school. They were already skeptical of Cascadia and he didn't need more evidence that transferring home to community college was a better option.

Despite that, coming back to school felt like a hassle. Prior to the first day, his humanities professor assigned him reading and along with that, an essay that he would surely get a C on, B+ if he could differentiate a rough draft from a final. Lectures and theoretical knowledge never clicked with him the same way that lab classes did. Practical application suited his tastes more and anything that wasn't directly relevant to his arcane studies tended to fall by the wayside.

Were he actually an upstanding student he wouldn't even be at this party! He usually didn't attend house parties for hosts he didn't know (he preferred the play movies in the background while you drink and play games type of kickbacks). The only reason he was here was because of an invite from Beau and the promise of free drinks (pending what everybody else brought). He expected the rest of the party-goers to be upper classmen so it came as no surprise when the presumed hosts and a laundry list of other people he hadn't met were already there when he walked through the doors.

Beau, his one of maybe three or four friends was busy talking to Harmony who he vaguely knew, but didn't particularly hit it off with. Their personalities clashed (albeit not antagonistically) so he tended to keep his distance unless Beau or Monet were there to break the ice. In rare cases, he would sink into the background and stay on his phone while his great-grandfather marveled at the strange ways that modern young adults wasted their time. Today it seemed like the man was content to leave him alone.

"Hey...Beau!" He mustered as much volume as he could to call her and wave, which didn't amount to much over the din of students pounding drinks and the latest pop hits.

Ah, he would definitely need something to loosen up. Approaching the kitchen counter, he mixed himself a gin and juice (heavy on the juice) and downed it with vigor before heading over.

"Hey Beau, Hatch,"(did he even have the right to call her that?) "Everyone have a good winter break?"



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Lisa Chu | Human| #E10600 | Outfit


Lisa arrived relatively early to the party with a bottle of Moscato in one hand and plenty of hugs in the other. She'd already gotten tipsy off a round of shots with her housemates who split off the moment that they entered Hatch's abode. Everyone had their own cliques so she didn't take it to personally when it was up to her to find her own group to meld into.

The setting changes from Testing Palace to bitch what the fuck

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ann akimiya // legacy academy // #36A753 // vibe check
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Asher, Asher, Asher. How she loved to loathe that smug grin of his. They were two siblings sharing the same mischievous, corrupted soul.

"Oh you know me so well," Ann grinned, "it wouldn't be a party without some fun and games right?"

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Charisma and confidence were a perfect duo for D4NGER, but Yusuke Kujikawa...not so much. Nerves and nausea suited him far more due to the simple fact that he couldn't currently stomach anything more flavorful than a bowl of porridge. Renewing his passport had been arduous process requiring him to take the metro, interact with the woman at the kiosk, and force a smile for the camera. It took far more social energy than he was ready for, but he knew that it would be the least amount of social activity he'd have for the next week. Cheers were already pouring in from all over Japan (and Utaite twitter) due to being one of the first acts to come from YouTube. There were a few Twitch streamers here and there, but most were one city acts or openers rather than headline acts. He felt like a minnow swimming with sharks...

...And that was enough to make him puke all over again.

D4NGER's last tweet had been a picture of the sun barely rising as they ascended into the sky, his stomach rumbling all the while. He made sure to pack two weeks' worth of clothes, his equipment, and extra cash; however, he neglected to bring any type of sedative or anti-nausea medication so the twelve hour flight consisted mostly of the flight attendant reassuring him that was in fact, fine that he needed another paper bag. Granted, that was after the person next to him complained about the odor wafting from his first bag. When asked why he didn't simply go to the restroom however the answer was simple: he was stuck in the middle. He didn't want to be that guy who constantly went back and forth from his seat to the aisle.

So he waited, always a minute or two after the person in the aisle seat left before he went to the bathroom and eventually settled on falling asleep to a movie and listening to old mp3s on his Zune, a gag gift from his sister on his tenth birthday. Despite being seemingly obsolete, it held power far longer than his cellphone and didn't require signal.

The setting changes from bitch what the fuck to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Treatise of the Royal Empire and Envoys vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.

The setting changes from ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to bitch what the fuck

Treatise of the Royal Empire and Envoys materializes from the void.

The setting changes from bitch what the fuck to Testing Palace

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cayde "quickshot" mori // father ship // #990012 // img credit: alex flores
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"What's the purpose of currency on these ships?" a synthetic voice asked, "everything on the Prime sustains itself from the food to the government to the labor that keeps the ships afloat. So why bother with taxes? Everyone would live more efficiently."

“Without money how do you expect anyone to ascend from ship to ship? It isn’t as simple as throwing wheat at the government,” a white-haired individual mused, “having your wealth tied to your labor would create a caste system.”

“If all the money is being funneled to Mother and she hoards it like a dragon then the Prime is already one, just with extra steps.”

"Is this what you do when you get old? Blabber on about socioeconomic theory?" A blonde woman cut in.

"Hey, I'm only thirty-eight!" Cayde snapped, "now pass me the WD-40."

"So they say." Halo smirked as they tossed the aerosol bottle.

Small spurts of silicone filled the air as the cybernetic man lubricated his joints. It wasn’t easy being Cayde Mori, or Quickshot, as he would be known by the masses. Halo and Renee (their stylist), decided that he needed a stage name that reflected well on him and of the options they came up with, Quickshot was the most popular.

“Mmmm Halo, what do you think of this?” she asked, holding up a rhinestone blazer, “too flashy?”

“I’d prefer not to look like a disco ball,” Cayde deadpanned.

“You don’t have a lot of options looking like…” the woman gestured towards the mutant, “...that.”

“You just pointed at all of me.”

Halo pursed their lips for a second, stroking their chin in deep thought.

“A lone ranger, super soldier, a family man?” they suggested, cyan eyes moving towards his competitor’s mask.

“Definitely not a family man.” Renee shook her head vigorously as she pulled out a fluffy overcoat, “he doesn’t have the face for it or really...any face. How is anyone going to connect with him if they can’t even see him?”

“You don’t need a pretty face to earn patrons. Modeling is about more than that.”

“That's rich coming from the face of everything from designer clothing to toilet paper,” Quickshot scoffed, as he set down the spray, “I bet you landed every job you came across."

As if anyone below the ships could afford their products.

“I’m keenly aware. That’s why I stepped out of the limelight,” Halo frowned, “I always changed myself to fit the product, but here...we can build around you.”

They left the couch, approaching their stylist’s closet. It was a curious piece. The sliding door was only a few feet in length and inside appeared shallow in depth, yet the list of clothing was endless. Pulling up the navigation menu, they scrolled through a variety of themes ranging from western to cottagecore to an amalgamation of east Asian aesthetics. Each piece projected onto Cayde’s form via hologram, flickering as it went through each suggestion. After a long string of “no”s (from all sides), the human finally retracted their finger from the touch screen.

“Renegade,” Halo announced finally, “a man who lost everything and seeks to redeem himself by saving others, even at the cost of his humanity.”

“Isn’t the anti-hero trope played out?” the cyborg asked, “everyone is going to spin themselves into a hero.”

“Not to mention, nothing about him is even human," the stylist yawned.

“I don’t think you need to be human to have humanity,” Halo smiled, “you just need them to identify with you.”

The manager walked over to their competitor, draping a mesh cape over Quickshot’s shoulders. Upon closer inspection red, hexagonal outlines shimmered in the light, seemingly to dim and brighten with his breathing. The fabric was not unfamiliar to him as he’d used it in the past to dress people’s wounds. It was waterproof, breathable, and reacted with heat in order to regulate the wearer’s body temperature, making it ideal for protecting delicate skin. It wasn’t uncommon for mutants to dig through the trash of humans and repurpose what they found in ways both fashionable and otherwise. Long, continuous pieces of fabric were rare. It was far more common to see patchwork linens, threadbare garments, and if your species was hardy enough, nothing at all.

He was sure he saw a few people on Father wearing the same styles, but for them it was just that: an aesthetic. Fake eyepatches, prosthetic tattoos, and the gas masks that didn’t filter anything.

Perhaps he was getting old.

After snapping the magnetic strip down, Halo sat back down on the couch and motioned for Cayde to approach the closet

“Mirror mode, please.”

Pulling up the fur-trimmed hood, the mutant mutt gazed at himself, tugging on various parts of the half-cape half-cloak until it finally found rested around his shoulders. Despite his prosthetics, he could still feel the smooth, cool fabric between his fingers. The black matched him well and the fur was surprisingly unobtrusive. Pieces of himself still showed through the garment with the crimson parts of his armor shining the brightest.

“Renegade huh, I like the sound of that” Cayde murmured to himself, “Why didn’t you go with that as my nickname?"

”It didn’t do well with test audiences,” the white-haired model chuckled.

Cayde rolled his eyes beneath his mask. Who could they have tested in such a short amount of time?

“Well! If it’s all good with you two, I’m going to arrange for a fresh coat of paint, a tune up and a new mas-” she paused after seeing something resembling a glare-“okay no mask. How about just a cleaning then?"

Halo glanced at Cayde expectantly until the mechanical mutant took off his helmet and handed it over to Renee.

"In the meantime you should unwind, relax, and grab a drink while the pit crew gets to work,” she said before glancing over at Halo, "are you coming along?"

”Good luck out there, Cayde,” Halo smiled, standing up once more to leave the room.

Renee closed the door behind the two of them, a locking noise following soon after. Walking over to the minifridge, he cracked open a beer and sat back on the couch.

I don’t need luck. I always get the job done.

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With food, water, and medical care, the Vacuum ought to have been a mutant’s paradise and yet, it had way of appearing both vast and claustrophobic with its narrow hallways, metallic walls, and ever present sense that no matter how unsightly, their confinement was still better than the world below.

Though even “better” was a relative term.

In the wake of a living nightmare, Ljilja sought sleep. But her bed brought her no respite, and even a visit to the pool left her anxious and homesick. She craved a taste of the sea—after all, she might never return to it. And so, when she discovered that there was a large aquarium built for the competitors' enjoyment, she decided to indulge in it. But she was not content to observe behind glass.

In the late evening, Ljilja, in a one-piece swimsuit, snuck behind railings and signs and slipped almost soundlessly into the waters of the aquarium.

Surrounded by familiar sights, she found peace in the company of sea creatures that bore no fear of her. The predators recognized she would be too much of a fight and treated her instead with playful curiosity. Even the littler fish, sensing no aggressive movements, gradually flocked to her as a protection.

Her chest rose and fell as she breathed in the sea, at last feeling home enough to sleep.

But to the casual and uninitiated observer, she became just a small, faintly blue-skinned girl floating disconcertingly still beneath the water.

From the opposite side of the hallway, the door slid open as Cayde tapped his keycard against the sensor. The mutant had taken to late night strolls to ease his mind so the sight of a floating figure was more than enough to turn his walk into a sprint.

"Hey, kid! Kid!" He banged against the glass, sending tremors through the waters before climbing over the railing.

The fish scattered as Cayde extended his metal arm, grabbing onto her shoulder.

When she didn't respond to his calls, the situation only seemed more dire. It took his direct intervention in order to stir her from slumber; the hand at her shoulder caused her eyes to slowly open, and she peered half-lidded up toward its owner. She was still alive!

"What the fuck were you doing in there?" Cayde not-so-much asked as went into Dad Mode ™️

He continued dragging her towards the edge of the aquarium, grateful that she was breathing. Upon closer inspection, he noticed the fins on her ears, the way the blue tint on her skin looked natural rather than sickly, and the blue hair. These were all things that pointed to aquatic mutations, but that wouldn't stop him from lecturing her, at least not until his parental instincts finally switched off.

She seemed to weigh almost nothing even after being immersed in water for who-knew-how-long. How was it that this was one of his fellow competitors, someone who he would be facing on the field of battle in less than a week?

She made a sound like clearing her throat as she forced the water from her lungs, turning to reject it back into the aquarium. The motion was fluent enough to tell that it was one she had done many times before. If he had any doubts before, he knew now; she was an aquatic.

She sat up and took a deep breath of air, coughing a little as her lungs adjusted to the sudden dryness. Blue hair, blue eyes, pale skin, small as a mouse...Cayde had seen her before—at the opening ceremony. His voice had terrified her enough then to send her running, though not intentionally. When she now had enough clarity of mind to recognize her situation, she shifted backwards away from him, her eyes going wide. From her point of view, she had just been dragged from bed, and was now being interrogated by a fearsome mutant. She could not muster a proper response, simply stammering, "I...I-I..." as she shrunk back.

"You..." The mechanical mutant pulled his arm back, letting her out of his grasp. He let out a long sigh, realizing the amount of terror in her voice. Cayde massaged his temple for a good minute, muttering about the lack of regulations within the facility. He bit his tongue beneath his mask, swallowing all the scolding he'd meant to give his children years ago (and all the times that they were inadvertently in the right).

Instead he rested his arms on the corner of the aquarium and stared at the tiny girl floating in the water. Did she not have something like that in her own room? Or was it different when there weren't other creatures around?

"The important part is that you are alright." he said finally, "whatever reasons you have for being out here, you shouldn't be falling asleep in the open. It's too dangerous here."

When he released her, she slowly moved away until she was far enough outside of his reach to feel more comfortable. Floating there, she drifted to and fro with the rhythm of the water as though she and it were a single creature, inhaling and exhaling. For her lack of desire to leave, it seemed like it was where she belonged, and yet one got the impression that competitors' rooms were more or less standardized. As far as they knew, this was the only place she could feel like she was at home.

She looked around, then at her would-be rescuer, and then she frowned. "I-I don't...really have anywhere else to go," she offered in reply. "I can't sleep..."

As fearful as she had been of Cayde at first, she seemed helpless and lost, and he was the only one around for her to turn to. Where was her manager? Why wasn't he handling this?

"I guess we're both in the same boat, Kid." The older man softened at her words. As a former nomad, Quickshot had no issue acclimating to different environments, but that didn't stop the insomnia or lack of enthusiasm for his new living space. "Everything here is too sterile, lifeless."

He moved his gaze to the fish that settled near the bottom of the aquarium by the young mutant's feet.

"Do you think they like being stuck in a tank, forbidden from ever seeing the ocean?"" he mused, "or do you think they're happy to have clean food and water?"

She followed his gaze, looking at the fish, observing their behavior, their temperament. After a pause, she looked back up to him and answered. "It's home. Maybe compared to the ocean it's small, but it's all they've ever known." Though not exactly a fish whisperer, it seemed as though she spoke with knowledge and not mere supposition.

Being called 'kid' might have offended any of the other small mutants, but she seemed to take it in stride. "What's your home like, Mister...?"

Cayde paused. There was the ship, the Dead Cities, the Wastelands, and now the Vacuum. None of them were particularly great places. Resources were scarce and any sense of optimism a person had was quickly stamped out. As self-congratulatory as it sounded, his family's business was one of the only ones to provide care for the community without the threat of extortion. Most other places were beholden to the human in charge.

"Dark, grimy, diseased,"" he pressed his lips together, "can't say there was anything good about where I came from."

"...except the people."

Whether it was his family, his fellow workers, or the locals in the community, everyone had a mutual understanding of how the world worked and tried to help each other as much as possible. It was proof that mutants were far more kind and civilized than humans could ever hope to be.

"Are the waters any cleaner?"

For all the harshness in the world, Ljilja seemed relatively untouched by it. She shrugged. "It tastes like metal and hurts humans, but it smells like home to me."

With the distraction of company, her guard slowly lowered. She swam closer. "What's your name?" Suddenly her eyes seemed wide, not out of fear, but curiosity.

He stared briefly at his reflection in the water before meeting her gaze. She couldn't have been older than Sherry and if she was, she didn't have nearly as much sense. Normal people (mutant or human) would be wary of his disposition and the girl didn't appear to be the type to be putting up a facade. Was she naive then or lonely?

"Quickshot." He held out a hand to shake but made to move to close the distance.

When he reached out his hand, she lit up and eagerly swam up to shake it. "Ljilja," she added. While she didn't give the immediate impression of stupidity, naive was written all over her, and loneliness could not be discounted, especially considering how quickly her guard dropped at the slightest show of amicability. Where did her fear go?

"Sorry I worried you," she murmured, concerned more about having disturbed him rather than her sleep being interrupted.

"Nah, it's my fault for jumping to conclusions.." Cayde replied, shaking his head, "we don't get many of your type in the Dead Cities."

More gravely, he'd let his protectiveness get the better of him. He knew signing up that the majority of the contestants would be younger than him, but his instincts were becoming his weakness. First for Ten and now for this Ljilja girl. He needed to stop projecting his daughter onto every teenager that he came across lest one be the death of him.

"I should head back," he announced abruptly, "you should talk to your manager about getting something installed in your room. It's better than having someone else pull you out of here in the morning."

As he made efforts to leave, disappointment flashed over her face. She nodded guiltily, like a child being corrected, and pulled herself out of the water, climbing up onto the adjacent catwalk to dry off. "My room's too small for that unless we flooded it. But I don't think they would let me do that..."

From the main walkway, a snowy-haired human wearing a t-shirt and baggy pajama pants stepped into view. He slowly crossed his arms, watching Ljilja from below. Beside him was a small frog-like mutant who hid behind him for shelter. Was she afraid of Quickshot? But it was Ljilja who her eyes were stealing glances at.

"It's okay...I have to go, too," Ljilja said. "See you later, Quickshot," she added, dismissing herself with a wave and scurrying down the catwalk to be escorted away.

He watched her leave, a warbled sigh escaping his throat.

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Owne moment, evewything was fine, awnd then next ethan’s eaws wewe winging awnd hiws head was fuww of mowe pwessuwe than he’d evew expewienced dwiving thwough the mountains. Awnd then he bwacked out.

he woke up no wowse fow weaw, though, mostwy juwst confused. The fiwst thing he noticed was thawt he was indeed waying down in the sand, awnd the entiwe thing hadn’t bewn sowme bizawwe dweam. The second thing he noticed was thawt yousof was awso thewe, gweeting him in a stwangewy casuaw mannew. “haaaaiiiii,” he swaid, testing out the wowd awmost wike he’d nevew heawd hiws own voice befowe, “you feewing okay?” iwt didn’t take wong fow ethan tuwu find hiws backpack and- thank god- hiws fwashwight stiww had sowme battewies, “might wanna consewve youw battewy, we cawn caww fow hewp once we get a ss-”/b] he stopped aftew hiws s was dwawn out fow juwst a moment too wong, [b]“once we cawn.”

he swowwy wowked himsewf tuwu hiws feet, wooking awound the woom, “whewe awe we?” he asked, mostwy tuwu himsewf.

“weww, we...awe...in a twomb,”/b] yousof nodded, [b]“we awe in a twomb...pwobabwy.”

dweams, dwugs, kidnappings...being whisked away tuwu anothew wowwd. Most of those wewe possibiwities, but onwy thwee of thewm made sense awnd owne of thewm wequiwed a wathew wawge imagination. He stood up awnd wawked towawds the waww thawt the fwashwight pointed at, feewing fow abnowmawities among the bwicks. Ancient as the woom seemed, evewy stone was stiww pewfectwy set. They wewe fwee of cwacks, chips, awnd even mowd. Aside fwom the vines awnd dust, owne wouwd think thawt the chambew was entiwewy new.

yousof continued awong the pewimetew of the woom, tapping fow a secwet button, a fake waww, ow even a howwow bwick. They entewed (ow at weast whoevew put thewm hewe did), so thawt had tuwu mean thewe was an exit. Fwom the outside he might have wooked wike a madman, knocking own wandom spots hoping thawt something wouwd happen, but he had a system (ow at weast sowme sembwance of owne).

thwee bwicks wight, then down, then thwee tuwu the weft, two own the wow above tuwu the wight of centew.

whawt came aftew?

“hey ethan, uwu evew watch hawwy pwottew?”

ethan had nevew bewn so gwad tuwu have yousof’s astute powews of obsewvation as whewn iwt was confiwmed thawt they wewe, indeed, in a tomb. “wondewfwuw...” he stawted wooking awound the woom. Iwt was uttewwy pwistine, awnd iwt made ethan wondew if thiws wasn’t sowme kind of touwist attwaction meant tuwu wook wike an ancient tomb. Had they wandewed intwo sowme sowt of twap ow something?

but fow the wife of him, he couwdn’t figuwe out whawt anyone wouwd wawnt fwom the two of thewm. They wewen’t pawticuwawwy speciaw, nowt in a way thawt wouwd dwaw attention.

wooking awound, top tuwu bottom, feewing awong the wawws, peewing bawck vines, kicking at the fwoowing. Maybe the sand awnd diwt had accumuwated thewe, hidden sowme sowt of panew, maybe the vines wewe covewing sowme sowt of… switch? he wasn’t suwe whawt he was wooking fow. He heawd hiws nawme, “owo?” he didn’t spawe a gwance in yousof’s diwection untiw the othew man bwought up hawwy pottew.

ethan tuwned awnd wooked at yousof, eyebwow waised, “didn’t evewyone watch hawwy pottew?” he didn’t know whawt thiws had tuwu duwu with anything, “why?”

“do uwu wemembew thawt scene whewn hagwid tapped the bwicks?” yousof asked, westing hiws chin own hiws fist. He paused onwy fow a second befowe snapping hiws fingew. “ow-ow whawt abouwt whatevew hawwy said tuwu get intwo the chambew of secwets.”

he began pacing awound the woom, gwancing at ethan fow sowme type of confiwmation ow deniaw.

"i don’t know. Whawt does thawt have tuwu duwu with-"

the ancient egyptians wouwdn’t have used pawsewtongue awnd none of the bastawdized egyptian-god media he’d consumed dawed tuwu twead thawt tewwitowy. He doubted they wouwd have bewn abwe tuwu instaww something so ewabowate. Unwess…

"do uwu think we'we own a pwank show?"

a pwank show? thawt was cewtainwy possibwe, though thiws was a pawticuwawwy ewabowate pwank if thawt was the case. “couwd be, i guess. ╮( ˘ 、 ˘ )╭” iwt cewtainwy made mowe sense than most of the awtewnative ideas.

ethan wawked a tight ciwcwe in the middwe of the woom, twying tuwu gwasp hiws thoughts awnd puww iwt aww togethew. “if thiws iws a pwank,” he was speaking swowwy, dewibewatewy, “d’you suppose evewyone ewse iws watching awnd waughing at us?”

“i mean i uwud.” yousof shwugged.

ethan shined hiws fwashwight awound the woom, twying tuwu see if thewe wewe any camewas ow micwophones he couwd identify. He wasn’t suwe how he fewt abouwt the ‘ewabowate pwank’ theowy, but iwt was at weast something tuwu keep thewm fwom panicking whiwe they twied tuwu find a sowution tuwu thiws pwobwem. He knewt down, bwushing at the wayew of sand own the fwoow, twying tuwu see if thewe wewe any inscwiptions ow anything own the stone beneath tuwu teww him how authentic thiws might be. Of couwse he was no expewt, so thawt didn’t get him vewy faw. He fewt wike they wewe abouwt as twapped as they couwd be.

aftew pacing the woom fow a minute mowe, ethan weawized thawt iwt wouwd pwobabwy be easiew tuwu think if he couwd deaw with the headache cweeping between hiws eyes. He stawted wifwing thwough hiws backpack, he was pwetty suwe he stiww had a coupwe watew bottwes weft in thewe. “want sowme wawa?” he offewed up owne of two bottwes he had weft tuwu yousof, then sat down own the fwoow, bawck against the waww. [color=#FF9200][b]“we need tuwu twy tuwu make thewm wast, in case we’we hewe a whiwe, but dehydwation won’t hewp us.”

yousof nodded befowe gwabbing the watew fwom him. He took two wong, gwatefuw guwps befowe pausing at ethans wowds. Yet again, the man was making points. He ciwcwed bawck awound awnd sat acwoss fwom ethan, making indents in the bottwe. Nowmawwy thiws wouwd have bewn the point whewe the woom stawted making noises ow pwojecting shadows own the wawws. Maybe sowme bugs wouwd be weweased, but thewe was simpwy...nothing.

“this pwank suuuuucks, ” he gwoaned aftew five minutes of siwence, “no jwump scawes, no secwet passage, no ghosts…”

“just whawt awe they waiting fow? (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻” he asked, swamming hiws bottwe down own the fwoow.

nowmawwy, ethan wouwd have twied tuwu think of something snappy tuwu say, wike they wewe waiting fow the two of thewm tuwu get despewate awnd stawt deciding which of thewm tuwu eat fiwst ow something. But then yousof swammed hiws watew own the gwound awnd ethan couwd have swown he heawd a faint cwick fwom somewhewe in the woom.

“did uwu heaw th…that?” he asked, hiws voice hawdwy above a whispew, as if speaking too woud wouwd cause the woom tuwu cave in own top of thewm.

iwt couwd have easiwy bewn pawanoia, ow juwst the idea of being own a hidden camewa show getting tuwu him. He wooked awound fow a moment, but nothing seemed tuwu happen. Pwobabwy juwst in hiws head, then. He sighed, “s-sowwy, i guess i’m juwst wowked up.” ethan had juwst wet hiws shouwdews wewax awnd wested hiws head bawck against the waww whewn anothew noise couwd be heawd. Subtwe, at fiwst, but iwt quickwy gwew. Iwt sounded a bit wike whewn uwu pouw a bunch of wocks intwo the bottom of a fish tawnk.

wait. Thawt wasn’t good.

ethan scwambwed tuwu hiws feet whewn he saw the middwe of the woom swowwy opening up. “fuck,” he ewoquentwy said, wondewing if thiws was the sowt of excitement yousof was hoping fow. He quickwy stawted tuwu scan the woom tuwu see if thewe was any way of getting out of thiws, but the fwoow was quickwy cowwapsing fwom the centew inwawd, awnd thewe was onwy a mattew of time befowe thewe wasn’t a fwoow at aww.

“oh god, oh fuck. Oh god, oh fuck! Σ(°ロ°)” yousof yewwed as the bwicks feww beneath him, “awe uwu seeing thiws?”

ethan’s mind went wandewing tuwu how faw the dwop might be, but he didn’t have much time tuwu think own things wike thawt.

“hey,” he shouted, tuwu make suwe he couwd be heawd ovew the gwowing noise, [color=#FF9200][b]“come hewe!” he offewed yousof hiws hand- twaditionaw notions of mascuwinity be damned- they needed tuwu stay togethew. They pwobabwy had a bettew chance of suwviving thawt way. Weww, ow they’d die mowe quickwy. Who knew.

making a finaw jump, yousof weached out, hiws fingews bwushing against ethan’s befowe swipping away.

iwt seemed wike the two of thewm wouwd find out.

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Yousof Farooq (#CD7F32)
Soundtrack//Outfit


"Oof."

Yousof didn't land so much with a slam as a thud, bruising just about every part of his body (or at least it felt that way). He rubbed the back of his neck as he sat up, cracking and twisting his joints with the vigor of someone twice his age. Nothing felt broken, but he would definitely need to see a chiropractor after this ordeal was over. Craning his neck he saw that the ceiling was...nonexistent. The walls extended far past the light of the torches, blending into the darkness until all you could see was a black skyline, punctuated with a handful of stars.

Before he could take time to admire the scenery however, a screech reverberated through the room.

“Who’s there?”

“I am the god of kingship, ruler of everything under the sky. All who have domain over the land answer to me. So mortal, what will you offer me in exchange for my patronage?”

“What? What do you mean, patronage? I just want to get out of here!” Yousof exclaimed, throwing up his arms. “One minute I’m trapped and the next I fall straight through the floor.”

What even was that? There was no possible way he could both fall through the floor yet land in a room with an open view of the sky. It just didn’t make any sense. He stared above him, unsure where to focus his eyes

“If you wish to leave here, you must prove that you are worthy of my approval.”

“What? That’s…” Yousof paused. It was a ridiculous request. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t influential, and he certainly wasn’t some demigod in training. He wasn’t even the funniest person he knew.

The shadow circled around him, cawing in protest of the silence. Staring at his feet, the young man sighed.

“Okay, I don’t have anything,” Yousof whispered, gathering his breath.

“So I uh, challenge you!” He announced, pointing towards the sky.

“I have no time for your petty games,” the god scoffed, “I decline.”

“Why? You’re a god aren’t you?” Yousof taunted, his voice growing more confident, “so you shouldn’t have a problem winning."

"Unless you’re afraid.”

“You dare overstep your mortal authority!?” Horus slammed his fist against his throne, shaking the walls of the aperture.

Sand fell from the fragmented floors, scattering across Yousof’s body. Still, it didn’t keep the madman from speaking.

“That’s right.” His voice remained unwavering, even as he brushed himself off. “You're washed up. A myth from the past. Nobody’s worshipped you for centuries.”

“Very well,” Horus roared, “I will show you the gulf between a man and a god.”

He descended from the skies, cracking the floor as he landed. His wings snapped back, spraying sand across his challenger's face.

“Choose your challenge wisely,” the bird-faced king sneered. His eyes narrowed at the human before him, growing angrier with each second that the man dared to meet his gaze.

“Let’s play poker.” Pulling out a deck of cards, he waved them at Horus who crossed his arms.

Contrary to expectation, Horus let out a chuckle. “If you thought you would throw me off with something modern you are sorely mistaken.”

A square table emerged between them, adorned with hieroglyphs and a seat on each side. Coins fell from the sky, stacking into neat piles on either side of Horus and Yousof.

Taking a seat, he found himself dwarfed by the deity. He was far taller than any creature Yousof had ever seen. It didn’t matter whether this was a hallucination or reality, if he lost then he would surely die.

But he couldn't show him that.

"The rules are simple. Each of us draws five cards. And then after seeing our hand we take turns betting in the middle. You can either raise, call, or fold. Calling being matching and folding being giving up. Once that’s done, everyone who hasn’t folded will reveal their hand and whoever has the highest value gets the pot.” Yousof paused for a second. Ah man there were a lot of rules, but the onus was on him to explain it. It wouldn’t be a fair fight otherwise.

”Ranking hands from strongest to weakest, Five of a suit is strongest, then four consecutive cards, four of a kind-”

“-Then three of a kind, two, and a single high card.”

“Wait how do you-”

“I may not have competed in over a millenia, but I’ve watched you mortals from afar.”

“Well since we’re both on the same page, all we need is a dealer,” Yousof replied, “now there isn’t anyone else here, but I’m sure we can-”

“There will be no need.” Waving his hand, a falcon-headed woman rose out from the ground, carrying a wooden tray with a deck of cards.

He certainly wasn’t expecting that.

“If there is nothing else then I will play your game, with a few adjustments.”

“Adjustments?”

“I do not like the idea of shying away from battle nor having win conditions be so binary so there will be no calling or folding, only raising. The highest bidder then determines which hand wins, the strongest or the weakest."

"But that just gives the advantage to whoever has the most money!" Yousof protested.

"These are my conditions."

After a long pause Yousof sighed. "Can I add some new rules too?"

Horus stroked his chin before gesturing for the mortal to continue.

"I want us to be able to exchange cards at the beginning. That way the winner isn't just determined right out of the gate. And-" Yousof turned over to the woman standing by the table before pulling a joker from his deck-”I’d like to add this into the game. Whoever pulls this automatically wins the round regardless of whether the rule is high or low.”

“Even in gambling it’s foolish to rely solely on luck,” Horus chuckled, shaking his head. "Nonetheless, I accept."

As the dealer began passing cards to Horus and Yousof, he took stock of his coins.

He had a handful of gold rings, two stacks of silver coins, and a fair number of bronze pieces. Compared to Horus, they seemed to be equal until he saw two more followers appear behind him.

“What the hell is that?" Yousof asked, gesturing to the coin-filled buckets they were holding. “how do you already have so much money?”

“I had our dealer give us currency based on our valuation and as a god, I am priceless while you are…”

Yeah, he couldn’t disagree there.

“Now then, let the game begin!”

Torches flared around the five participants, revealing an audience of sand-formed people shouting their god’s name. Even the moon and stars showed themselves as spectators to the match, scattering light across Yousof’s body. It seemed that the heavens favored an underdog.

Or perhaps they were looking for entertainment.

“Commencing round one. Please pay your participation fee and announce the cards you will be exchanging,” the dealer announced monotonously, passing each of them five cards.

I see…

Rather than the traditional hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds Horus’ deck consisted of...sticks, coins, cups, and swords. God help him if his old housemate didn’t go through a witchy phase.

Sticks were clubs, coins were diamonds, cups were hearts, and swords were spades. Easy. Easy stuff.

...Except for his dead hand.

Seriously? A high card in the first round. That’s it? Pressing his lips together he gazed at Horus.

“A pair of threes,” Horus said, handing the cards over to the dealer.

The god’s face was unreadable and his hands unmoving. Was he going for a weak hand? Shooting for something better? Maybe he was trying to feel for Yousof’s playstyle. Horus had the means to toy with him for as long as he wanted. He needed to gouge the god’s funds; otherwise, Horus would bleed him dry.

“All, five cards.” Dropping his hand, Yousof displayed his cards in full, earning a round of boos from the audience.

“What are you trying to pull here?”

“I told you, I didn’t want someone to win right out the gate.”

“Very well, now commencing the betting round. We will start with you, my liege,” the dealer announced.

“Two gold rings,” Horus replied, sliding the currency to the center of the board.

Yousof bit his lip, eying his hand. It was no quadruple King, but it could work under the right circumstances.

“Five gold rings,” he replied, dropping them on the table.

“Response?” the dealer turned toward Horus.

“I raise another three gold.”

“Do you raise, mortal?” Though the dealer’s mouth didn’t move, her voice was as grand (if not a bit robotic) as Horus’ own. She barely turned her head, but her blank eyes bore into his soul.

“Ten silver chips,” he said, pushing the stack towards the center.

“For someone so confident you’re being awfully stingy,” Horus laughed, “I thought you challenged me because you thought you could win.”

“Oh I’m sure. I am one hundred percent sure!” Yousof announced, “I’m just trying to keep this game interesting.”

Or upon further consideration, ninety-nine percent.

“Hah, very well then. I will concede,” the god chuckled.

The dealer nodded before turning towards Yousof.

“Horus has chosen not to raise. It is now time to make your choice, mortal. Stronger or weaker?”

Yousof glanced at his opponent before averting his eyes back to his own hand. He couldn’t think of a good reason for Horus to throw away a pair, even if it was low. And Yousof doubted that Horus would lay down obvious bait.

He had two high pairs, a ten and a jack. While that was on the lower end of winning hands the odds of getting a single pair or nothing were much higher than the other options. If Horus also had two pairs then they would need to be higher face cards.

But what if he has a joker. His face paled for a moment.

In reality the odds of pulling a joker were fairly high, one in fifty-three to start with but slightly higher with each draw. For a whole hand, it was ten percent which was larger than nearly every other winning combination.

“I choose stronger!”

“Very well. Commencing showdown!” the dealer declared, “please reveal your cards.”

Fuck.

If Horus’s falcon head could show any emotion he was sure the god would wear a shit-eating grin.

“A two pair versus three of a kind. Horus wins.”

Cheers erupted in the background with some even whistling in applause.

What had he gotten himself into? While the god pushed his winnings to his side of the table, the once-confident college student hunched over as the next set of cards was dealt. Horus read him like a book.

“Commencing round two.”

An ace of spades and four random cards. Cool. Coolcoolcool.

It was actually not very cool.

”Three cards please,” Yousof sighed.

If he was lucky he could go for a straight and if not, maybe cut his losses early.

No cards.”

Seriously fuck that guy.

“Given that you lost the last round, you will be placing your bet first,” the dealer announced, turning over to Yousof.

“Five bronze pieces,” he nodded.

[color=#566D7E][b]“Hm.”
Horus stroked his chin. “Twenty silver.”

“Fifteen silver.”

“Twenty-five.”

“One gold ring.”

“Ten gold rings.”

“I can’t beat that,” Yousof not so much said as muttered.

“Can you please repeat that?” the dealer asked.

“I...cannot beat that,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Then the betting round is over. My liege, what do you choose?”

“I choose weaker,” Horus announced, his expression imperceptible.

“Please reveal your cards.”

Yousof laughed. It’s like he knew. The god just knew he exchanged into a good hand and punished him for it. He hadn’t known Horus to also be the god of telepathy, but maybe he just skipped that Egyptology lecture.

As each subsequent round began, Yousof stared at his dwindling stack of coins and subpar hands. Though he scavenged a few wins, he wouldn’t last many more rounds. Whether he won or lost was entirely up to the god’s whims; he could have easily ended the match if he wanted to, yet he kept his opponent on the precipice of defeat. Yousof wanted so badly to yell at the deity to stop toying with him. There was no other reason to keep torturing him except to assert his dominance.

I just don’t think it’ll work out. I need someone who’s more...ambitious.

Yousof grasped his head, crying out in pain. He could feel his heart pounding through his eardrums and his eyes welled up with each voice that entered his mind.

My son is so stupid. Why can’t he be like your son?

How many times do I have to tell you, you aren’t my son anymore?

What the fuck? Why are you here? Why are you yelling at me?

We took out all these loans and this is how you pay us back? Just what were you doing in school all these years?

Please, I didn’t mean to. I can do better, you know I can do better.

If you’re going to be a disgrace then leave.

I don’t want to go.

“Human, please pay the participation fee if you wish to participate in the next round.”

Just as quickly as they came, the voices faded, leaving Yousof a red-eyed mess. He reached to the floor to grab his cards, steadying his arm lest the shaking cause him to drop his hand again.

“You are free to concede anytime, mortal,” Horus shrugged, “there is no shame in a graceful defeat.”

Wiping his eyes, he gazed at his hand before throwing in a bronze piece.

Fuck that. If he was going to be a disgrace he’d go down fighting.

“How many cards will each of you exchange?” the dealer asked.

“Three...please.” Steeling himself, he handed a stack over to the woman before evaluating his new cards.

“One card,” Horus nodded.

“Proceeding to the betting round. Mortal, what is your bet?”

Poker was a game of bluffing, this variant even moreso. He couldn’t show hesitation.

“Five silver pieces and ten bronze pieces,” Yousof announced.

“Unfortunately, the fun ends here,” he sighed (though not particularly remorsefully), “I raise you thirty five gold rings.”

“Wait…”

“You’re out of funds, mortal.”

It was now or never.

“I bet my life!” Yousof yelled, standing up.

“Bahaha!” Horus’ laughter echoed through the room before the rest of the audience joined in, “what sort of offer is that? Our agreement was to gamble with currency.”

“You said you gave us our funds based on how much each person was worth so how is this different?”

Horus put down his cards before shaking his head.

“My valuation was a method of quantifying our starting value, not a loophole to keep gambling.”

Yousof glanced at the dealer pleadingly.

“My liege…”

“Tell me, what could your life possibly offer?”

“I might not be rich or famous or a god, but I’m not going to run away either,” he continued before slamming his hand down and leaning over the table. “I don’t care if you kill me, possess me, or turn me into one of them because I know I’m going to win.”

Silence fell over the stage as Yousof continued staring down his opponent. Whether he was a king, a god, or a hallucination with an overinflated ego, Horus’ divinity no longer had bearing on Yousof’s resolve. All he could hear was his heart beating in his ears and all he could feel was the fire coursing through his system.

“So are you going to raise or back down?”

For the first time Horus paused, his eyes no longer looking at Yousof, but rather at the prize pool before them. Leaning back in his chair he gestured for one of his followers to drop a pot on top of the table.

”Do you still believe you can beat me, Yousof?”

Yousof’s eyes widened for a second before balling his free hand into a fist.

“I’m not backing down.”

”As you have nothing else to raise with, Horus shall determine this round,” the dealer announced before turning to her ruler, ”Stronger or weaker?”

“This round shall be stronger.”


“Commencing showdown!”

Yousof hitched a breath as each player’s hand was revealed. Two royal flushes.

“Due to the tie, the two of you will split the pool equally,” the dealer announced.

Was this really happening? He knew he should have asked that question earlier, but even more so than a fever dream, the odds of both players getting a royal flush were nearly zero. The crowd’s jeers and Horus’ silence was enough for him.

Yousof more than doubled his pot and more importantly, this outcome wasn’t one of Horus’ doing. There was no acting in those bemused eyes or clenched fist. No amount of prediction could account for such low odds and on the zero percent chance that Horus cheated to assure victory then he did a terrible job of it.

And yet instead of prepping for another round, his astonishment turned into mirth.

”So you have finally stood up for yourself,” he smirked, ”I was afraid I’d have to hold your hand like the others.”

Hold my hand? What is he talking about?

Dropping back into his seat, Yousof moved to collect his earnings Horus held up a hand.

”There will be no need for that,” he said, ”this challenge is over.”

”No I’m not going to calm down. Tell me what’s going on!”

“Relax, lest you forget your purpose.”

With a wave of his hand, the audience, the table, and even Horus dissolved into sand, leaving Yousof and his joker basking in the moonlight.

Come back here, you coward! It took all his restraint to keep from yelling those words out loud and even more not to bang on the ground again. Instead, he laid on the ground, fidgeting with his card between his fingers.

He was so close to gaining a lead and for Horus to disappear like that was just unfair. He would have liked to say that Horus owed him an explanation of what was happening, where his friends were and how to leave, but truthfully, he just wanted to continue the game.

Closing his eyes, he wondered whether he would see that man again or if this room would be his final resting place. To die separated from his friends, family, and the computer he wished to be buried was a true tragedy, but at least he could say he say he trie-

Don’t you dare stop here!

Okay, okay calm down. Yousof flinched.


I thought you left.

Standing up, Yousof slipped his card back into his pocket and looked around. Across from him was the faint outline of a door that, as far as he knew, hadn’t existed when he was still playing.

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"Oof."

Yousof didn't land so much with a slam as a thud, bruising just about every part of his body (or at least it felt that way). He rubbed the back of his neck as he sat up, cracking and twisting his joints with the vigor of someone twice his age. Nothing felt broken, but he would definitely need to see a chiropractor after this ordeal was over. Craning his neck he saw that the ceiling was...nonexistent. The walls extended far past the light of the torches, blending into the darkness until all you could see was a black skyline, punctuated with a handful of stars.

Before he could take time to admire the scenery however, a screech reverberated through the room.

“Who’s there?”

“I am the god of kingship, ruler of everything under the sky. All who have domain over the land answer to me. So mortal, what will you offer me in exchange for my patronage?”

“What? What do you mean, patronage? I just want to get out of here!” Yousof exclaimed, throwing up his arms. “One minute I’m trapped and the next I fall straight through the floor.”

What even was that? There was no possible way he could both fall through the floor yet land in a room with an open view of the sky. It just didn’t make any sense. He stared above him, unsure where to focus his eyes

“If you wish to leave here, you must prove that you are worthy of my approval.”

“What? That’s…” Yousof paused. It was a ridiculous request. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t influential, and he certainly wasn’t some demigod in training.

The shadow circled around him, cawing in protest of the silence. Staring at his feet, the young man sighed.

“Okay, I don’t have anything,” Yousof whispered, gathering his breath.

“So I challenge you!” He announced, pointing towards the sky.

“I have no time for your petty games,” the god scoffed, “I decline.”

“Why? You’re a god aren’t you?” Yousof taunted, his voice growing more confident, “so you shouldn’t have a problem winning."

"Unless you’re afraid.”

“You dare overstep your mortal authority!?” Horus slammed his fist against his throne, shaking the walls of the aperture.

Sand fell from the fragmented floors, scattering across Yousof’s body. Still, it didn’t keep the madman from speaking.

“That’s right.” His voice remained unwavering, even as he brushed himself off. “You're washed up. A myth from the past. Nobody’s worshipped you for centuries.”

“Very well,” Horus roared, “I will show you the gulf between a man and a god.”

He descended from the skies, cracking the floor as he landed. His wings snapped back, spraying sand across his challenger's face.

“Choose your challenge wisely,” the bird-faced king sneered. His eyes narrowed at the human before him, growing angrier with each second that the man dared to meet his gaze.

“Let’s play poker.” Pulling out a deck of cards, he waved them at Horus who crossed his arms.

Contrary to expectation, Horus let out a chuckle. “If you thought you would throw me off with something modern you are sorely mistaken.”

A square table emerged between them, adorned with hieroglyphs and a seat on each side. Coins fell from the sky, stacking into neat piles on either side of Horus and Yousof.

Taking a seat, he found himself dwarfed by the deity. He was far taller than any creature Yousof had ever seen. It didn’t matter whether this was a hallucination or reality, if he lost then he would surely die.

But he couldn't show him that.

"The rules are simple. Each of us draws five cards. And then after seeing our hand we take turns betting in the middle. You can either raise, call, or fold. Calling being matching and folding being giving up. Once that’s done, everyone who hasn’t folded will reveal their hand and whoever has the highest value gets the pot.” Yousof paused for a second. Ah man there were a lot of rules, but the onus was on him to explain it. It wouldn’t be a fair fight otherwise.

”Ranking hands from strongest to weakest, Five of a suit is strongest, then four consecutive cards, four of a kind-”

“-Then three of a kind, two, and a single high card.”

“Wait how do you-”

“I may not have competed in over a millenia, but I’ve watched you mortals from afar.”

“Well since we’re both on the same page, all we need is a dealer,” Yousof replied, “now there isn’t anyone else here, but I’m sure we can-”

“There will be no need.” Waving his hand, a falcon-headed woman rose out from the ground, carrying a wooden tray with a deck of cards.

He certainly wasn’t expecting that.

“If there is nothing else then I will play your game, with a few adjustments.”

“Adjustments?”

“I do not like the idea of shying away from battle nor having win conditions be so binary so there will be no calling or folding, only raising. The highest bidder then determines which hand wins, the strongest or the weakest."

"But that just gives the advantage to whoever has the most money!" Yousof protested.

"These are my conditions."

After a long pause Yousof sighed. "Can I add some new rules too?"

Horus stroked his chin before gesturing for the mortal to continue.

"We can exchange any number of cards, face up. That way the winner isn't just determined right out of the gate. And-" Yousof turned over to the woman standing by the table before pulling a joker from his deck-”I’d like to add this into the game. Whoever pulls this automatically wins the round regardless of whether the rule is high or low.”

“Even in gambling it’s foolish to rely solely on luck,” Horus chuckled, shaking his head. "Very well, I accept."

As the dealer began passing cards to Horus and Yousof, he took stock of his coins.

Gold rings, silver chips, and finally fifty bronze pieces. Compared to Horus, they seemed to be equal until he saw two more followers appear behind him.

“What the hell is that?" Yousof asked, gesturing to the coin-filled buckets they were holding. “how do you already have so much money?”

“I had our dealer give us currency based on our valuation and as a god, I am priceless while you are…”

Yeah, he couldn’t disagree there.

“Now then, let the game begin!”

Torches flared around the five participants, revealing an audience of sand-formed people shouting their god’s name. Even the moon and stars showed themselves as spectators to the match, scattering light across Yousof’s body. It seemed that the heavens favored an underdog.

Or perhaps they were looking for entertainment.

“Commencing round one. Please pay your participation fee and announce the cards you will be exchanging,” the dealer announced monotonously, passing each of them five cards.

I see…

Rather than the traditional hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds Horus’ deck consisted of...sticks, coins, cups, and swords. God help him if his old housemate didn’t go through a witchy phase.

Sticks were clubs, coins were diamonds, cups were hearts, and swords were spades. Easy. Easy stuff.

...Except for his dead hand.

Seriously? A high card in the first round. That’s it? Pressing his lips together he gazed at Horus.

“A pair of threes,” Horus said, handing the cards over to the dealer.

The god’s face was unreadable and his hands unmoving. Was he going for a weak hand? Shooting for something better? Maybe he was trying to feel for Yousof’s playstyle. Horus had the means to toy with him for as long as he wanted. He needed to gouge the god’s funds; otherwise, Horus would bleed him dry.

“All, five cards.” Dropping his hand, Yousof displayed his cards in full, earning a round of boos from the audience.

“What are you trying to pull here?”

“I told you, I didn’t want someone to win right out the gate.”

“Very well, now commencing the betting round. We will start with you, my liege,” the dealer announced.

“Two gold rings,” Horus replied, sliding the currency to the center of the board.

Yousof bit his lip, eying his hand. It was no quadruple King, but it could work under the right circumstances.

“Five gold rings,” he replied, dropping them on the table.

“Response?” the dealer turned toward Horus.

“I raise another three gold.”

“Do you raise, mortal?” Though the dealer’s mouth didn’t move, her voice was as grand (if not a bit robotic) as Horus’ own. She barely turned her head, but her blank eyes bore into his soul.

“Ten silver chips,” he said, pushing the stack towards the center.

“For someone so confident you’re being awfully stingy,” Horus laughed, “I thought you challenged me because you thought you could win.”

“Oh I’m sure. I am one hundred percent sure!” Yousof announced, “I’m just trying to keep this game interesting.”

Or upon further consideration, ninety-nine percent.

“Hah, very well then. I will concede,” the god chuckled.

The dealer nodded before turning towards Yousof.

“Horus has chosen not to raise. It is now time to make your choice, mortal. Stronger or weaker?”

Yousof glanced at his opponent before averting his eyes back to his own hand. He couldn’t think of a good reason for Horus to throw away a pair, even if it was low. And Yousof doubted that Horus would lay down obvious bait.

He had two high pairs, a ten and a jack. While that was on the lower end of winning hands the odds of getting a single pair or nothing were much higher than the other options. If Horus also had two pairs then they would need to be higher face cards.

But what if he has a joker. His face paled for a moment.

In reality the odds of pulling a joker were fairly high, one in fifty-three to start with but slightly higher with each draw. For a whole hand, it was ten percent which was larger than nearly every other winning combination.

“I choose stronger!”

“Very well. Commencing showdown!” the dealer declared, “please reveal your cards.”

Fuck.

If Horus’s falcon head could show any emotion he was sure the god would wear a shit-eating grin.

“A two pair versus three of a kind. Horus wins.”

Cheers erupted in the background with some even whistling in applause.

What had he gotten himself into? While the god pushed his winnings to his side of the table, the once-confident college student hunched over as the next set of cards was dealt. Horus read him like a book.

“Commencing round two.”

An ace of spades and four random cards. Cool. Coolcoolcool.

It was actually not very cool.

”Three cards please,” Yousof sighed.

If he was lucky he could go for a straight and if not, maybe cut his losses early.

No cards.”

Seriously fuck that guy.

“Given that you lost the last round, you will be placing your bet first,” the dealer announced, turning over to Yousof.

“Five bronze pieces,” he nodded.

[color=#566D7E][b]“Hm.”
Horus stroked his chin. “Twenty silver.”

“Fifteen silver.”

“Twenty-five.”

“One gold ring.”

“Ten gold rings.”

“I can’t beat that,” Yousof not so much said as muttered.

“Can you please repeat that?” the dealer asked.

“I...cannot beat that,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Then the betting round is over. My liege, what do you choose?”

“I choose weaker,” Horus announced, his expression imperceptible.

“Please reveal your cards.”

Yousof laughed. It’s like he knew. The god just knew he exchanged into a good hand and punished him for it. He hadn’t known Horus to also be the god of telepathy, but maybe he just skipped that Egyptology lecture.

As each subsequent round began, Yousof stared at his dwindling stack of coins and subpar hands. Though he scavenged a few wins, he wouldn’t last many more rounds. Whether he won or lost was entirely up to the god’s whims; he could have easily ended the match if he wanted to, yet he kept his opponent on the precipice of defeat. Yousof wanted so badly to yell at the deity to stop toying with him. There was no other reason to keep torturing him except to assert his dominance.

I just don’t think it’ll work out. I need someone who’s more...ambitious.

Yousof grasped his head, crying out in pain. He could feel his heart pounding through his eardrums and his eyes welled up with each voice that entered his mind.

My son is so stupid. Why can’t he be like your son?

How many times do I have to tell you, you aren’t my son anymore?

What the fuck? Why are you here? Why are you yelling at me?

We took out all these loans and this is how you pay us back? Just what were you doing in school all these years?

Please, I didn’t mean to. I can do better, you know I can do better.

If you’re going to be a disgrace then leave.

I don’t want to go.

“Human, please pay the participation fee if you wish to participate in the next round.”

Just as quickly as they came, the voices faded, leaving Yousof a red-eyed mess. He reached to the floor to grab his cards, steadying his arm lest the shaking cause him to drop his hand again.

“You are free to concede anytime, mortal,” Horus shrugged, “there is no shame in a graceful defeat.”

Wiping his eyes, he gazed at his hand before throwing in a bronze piece.

Fuck that. If he was going to be a disgrace he’d go down fighting.

“How many cards will each of you exchange?” the dealer asked.

“Three...please.” Steeling himself, he handed a stack over to the woman before evaluating his new cards.

“One card,” Horus nodded.

“Proceeding to the betting round. Mortal, what is your bet?”

Poker was a game of bluffing, this variant even moreso. He couldn’t show hesitation.

“Five silver pieces and ten bronze pieces,” Yousof announced.

“Unfortunately, the fun ends here,” he sighed (though not particularly remorsefully), “I raise you thirty five gold rings.”

“Wait…”

“You’re out of funds, mortal.”

It was now or never.

“I bet my life!” Yousof yelled, standing up.

“Bahaha!” Horus’ laughter echoed through the room before the rest of the audience joined in, “what sort of raise is that? Our agreement was to gamble with currency.”

“You said you gave us our funds based on how much each person was worth so how is this different?”

Horus put down his cards before shaking his head.

“My valuation was a method of quantifying our starting value, not a loophole to keep gambling.”

Yousof glanced at the dealer pleadingly.

“My liege…”

“Tell me, what could your life possibly offer?”

“I might not be rich or famous or a god, but I’m not going to run away either,” he continued before slamming his hands down and leaning over the table, “I don’t care if you kill me, possess me, or turn me into one of them because I know I’m going to win.”

Silence fell over the stage as Yousof continued staring down his opponent. Whether he was a king, a god, or a hallucination with an overinflated ego, Horus’ divinity no longer had bearing on Yousof’s resolve.

“This round shall be stronger.”

“Commencing showdown!”

Yousof hitched a breath as each player’s hand was revealed. Two royal flushes.

“Due to the tie, the two of you will split the pool equally. Please get ready for the next round,” the dealer announced.

Was this really happening? He knew he should have asked that question earlier, but even more so than a hunger induced hallucination, the odds of both players getting a royal flush were nearly zero. The crowd’s jeers and Horus’ silence was enough for him.

Yousof more than doubled his pot and more importantly, this outcome wasn’t one of Horus’ doing. There was no acting in those bemused eyes or clenched fist. No amount of prediction could account for such low odds and on the zero percent chance that Horus cheated to assure victory then he did a terrible job of it.

Tossing in a bronze piece, the two of them grabbed their cards, neither saying a word.

“One card please,” Yousof asked, handing over a king of hearts.

“Two cards for me,” Horus said before leaning over the table, “you may have been spared last round, but it won’t happen again.”

Duly noted.

By now Yousof knew better than to show emotion. And yet, as he received his new card he felt his heart drop.

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cayde "quickshot" mori // father ship // #990012 // img credit: alex flores
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The night before the games ended with Halo making a peace offering in the form of expensive whiskey and Cayde’s begrudging apology. Some (not so) llight drinking led to the former divulging their continued obsession with social media and the latter laughing at the idea of how fragile their ego was behind the scenes.

"You know, if I had more money than I could spend in a lifetime then I would build my own ship and move away from everything," Cayde shrugged before blowing out a puff of smoke, ”who cares about what other humans think?”

”That’s simply not practical,” Halo replied, shaking their head, ”the import taxes would be ridiculous.”

"Can’t you grow your own food?” Cayde asked, raising a brow.

Grow my own food? By myself?”

The words didn’t seem to register in Halo’s head or if they did, they must have had trouble stringing them together into a coherent thought.

"Or I guess you could hire someone,” Cayde suggested, much to the relief of his manager.

The rest of the night passed without much excitement aside from Cayde having to call one of Renee to escort Halo home. Outdrinking humans was not a hard task and Halo made the mistake of not tracking the number of shots they’d taken. Still, it would be a shame to let half the bottle go to waste…


Neither the line or the ship ride to the proving grounds provided Cayde any interest. Were it not for Fiero’s posturing, he would have likely fallen asleep. The mutant was too arrogant for his own good and though he had no ill will towards the red-haired man, he wouldn’t be too sad if Fiero was the first to die (and with how quickly he left the ship, it was a likely possibility).

Giving his guns a quick spin before slipping them into their holster, Quickshot walked past the disorganized mob. It was easy to discern the battle-hardened competitors from the greenhorns, those who grew up in the trenches and those in gilded cages. Among the contestants padding their body count were opportunists crouched in the corner, waiting to loot the bodies.

He shot them first.

”Hey! That was my kill!”

Quickshot continued skirting around the edges of the crowd, ignoring the voice behind him. As tempting as it was to knock another opponent out of the way, he needed to conserve his ammo for stronger contestants. Pushing an injured mutant out of the way, he finally requisitioned one of the hover bikes. Though not the same model, it wasn’t all that different from the discarded bikes found in the landfills of the Dead Cities. He’d refurbished a few in the past and this was no different from last year’s model save for a new coat of paint.

Booting up the bike, he drove past the knives, bullets, and hovercrafts spinning out of control.

Amateurs, he sighed before accelerating past the fallen vehicles.

”Where do you think you’re going?” a familiar voice roared.

Turning around, Quickshot found himself being tailed by a manic, red-haired man standing on top of a hovercraft and a girl with antlers in the driver’s seat.





Halo took a long drag from their opium pipe, an amused look on their face as they watched their contestant blow a hole through his opponent’s shoulder. They’d opted to watch the first round from the comfort of their own home as they could have the competition on the big screen while scrolling through their feed. The forums were nothing if not interesting and the cattiness of the livebloggers only served to feed their drama-loving heart.

Anonymous470866: Fuck who's gonna die first, who do you WANT to die first
Anonymous3681: lilyja
Anonymous3681: ljiijilja
Anonymous7622: You mean Ljilja?
Anonymous3681: fish girl idc
Anonymous1482401: No! Not my precious baby (╥Д╥)
Anonymous:3681: lol shes too soft
Anonymous1482401: But she's sooo cute.
Anonymous3681: ew are you a scalie or something?
Anonymous1482401: WTF NO!
Anonymous1387228: Kill Fiero. Dude’s annoying.
Anonymous7622: You can’t tell me Fiero’s worse than whatever Levi is supposed to be.
Anonymous:10265: yea that thing belongs in a zoo
Anonymous:10265: actually throw king up there too. i hate tentacles.

Anonymous470866 has stated a poll: Who should die in the first round of the games?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxLjiljax■■■■■■
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxFieroxx■■■■■■■■
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxLevixxx■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxKingxxx■■■■■■■■■■■■■
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxQuickshotx

Anonymous470866: Ok which of you fuckers put Quickshot up there?


Taking a long sip of their tea, they locked in their vote and turned back to the television. Time would only tell if their hopes would come true.

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Fullscreen Chat » Create Topic » Gimme Storage: Out of Character

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Most recent OOC posts in Gimme Storage

Re: Gimme Storage

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Cherise Nijima | 26 | Eyes Yumei Nakajima | Living | Kagune | ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDoA7BoU0AA ... name=large

Species Notes:
Kagune (赫子, red child) were originally discovered in Japan and named after the blood that covered their bodies after feasting upon a human. For years they were thought to be unintelligent, ravenous monsters; however, as time passed and more Kagune were hunted it became clear that they were no mere beasts. Aside from their carnivorous nature, they were indistinguishable from normal humans. The only way to confirm that a person is a Kagune is through their Kakuhou (赫包, red wrap), an organ that generates K-Cells. These cells harden after leaving the body to form a bodily weapon. Aside from being lightweight, Kakuhou formations are five times harder than steel and sharper than obsidian, often cutting through anything it touches. Though these formations vary, they always manifest and are attached to their Kakuhou which is located along their back.

Kagune are carnivorous by nature and immune most toxic substances, though they can still be harmed by conventional weapons and radiation. Their health largely depends on the species they eat due to the fact that they take on subdued traits associated with their food (e.g. scales from dragon meat, a keener sense of smell from shapeshifters), though none have shown magical proficiency. Eating lesser animals will degrade their physical and mental capabilities while more sapient beings such as humans, naiads, shapeshifters, vampires will keep them healthy. A long as the flesh isn't spoiled (e.g. necrotic or cursed) it is edible, even if it's from a corpse. The ultimate delicacy for Kagune are demigods and Emerged beings, rare as their flesh may be. In the past, Kagune who ate Emerged beings temporarily gained weak versions of the power that their prey held. Without meat or blood, Kagune will starve to death as they cannot digest other substances

Re: Gimme Storage

[img]character%20name[/img]
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Image A L A N S A N D E R S

"He doesn't make much of an impression on me. Major gods usually don't."

"Words"









Image I S L A A D A N

"She's a flippant drunk, but good company otherwise."

"Words"









Image O S W A L D S T O N E

"A tragedy and truly a victim of Emergence."

"Words"









Image J O S E P H I N E J O N S D O T T E R

"Minerva just wait and I will free you."

"Words"









Image J O A N N A K U R T Z

"Quote"

"Words"









Image A H Y A E D O L A

"Quote"

"Words"









Image G R E G O R Y H E N D E R S O N

"This is me."

"Words"









Image C A T A R I N A D E L A C R U Z

"The mongoose versus the cobra."

"Words"









Image P R A N A V B A N D A R A

"Navi is far too meek of a soul for Ra, but he's nice nonetheless."

"Words"









Image D E S T I N Y R I B I E R O

"I don't know too much about her."

"Words"









Image T H E O S V E R R E

"A bystander and friend of Nem. He's far too neutral for my liking, but a tolerable person nonetheless. "

"Words"









Image S E O D A E Y O U N G

"Oh to Emerge in the body of someone with such high influence."

"Words"









Image A R S E N S T J A M E S

"Quote"

"Words"

Re: Gimme Storage

B U N G O UxxxS T R A YxxxD O G Sxxx/xxxD A Y SxxxO FxxxT H ExxxC A T S

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S.E. Hinton
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Twenty-One
Female
United States of America
Maverick (Gangsta)
Stay Gold
#fdd017



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Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.


Leather jackets and chipped nails reveal Hinton’s ulterior motives, or lack thereof. Given her plain language and lack of Ability User pedigree most suspect her of a criminal background, but she considers it a bigger reflection of her peers than herself. She acts according to her own tastes and does little to dissuade people’s opinions of her in favor of walking her own path. If someone asks for the truth she will give it, but never tries to glamorize or demonize her past.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she found her family not in her parents, but in her ragtag group of friends. Monday nights they’d smoke by the window, Wednesdays they would drink on the porch, and if they’d saved enough money, they would hit the theaters once a month (and if they didn’t, well there was always the back door). Compared to her peers, she never saw herself as “hood” but supposes that she was who she hung out with. That’s where she drew her inspiration after all.

For that reason, she values her independence and the self-sufficiency that her ability affords her (even in the context of her squad). When she discovered her ability, she was training to become a student. She found that she could delay any pain or physical troubles she had during stressful moments and work at an unparalleled capacity, but it did little to assuage her personal anxiety. As much as she wanted to lead a new generation of writers, she had an itch for personal writing and a constant worry for her students after leaving the classroom. It seemed that despite her penchant for toughening her exterior, she still had a soft spot for the younger generation.

Making the decision to drop out of her program, she became a full-time writer and lived off the money she received from selling an old manuscript she’d written in high school. Her continued interest in writing and traction as a young adult novelist focusing on the disenfranchisement of Ability Users caught the eye of American IQ84 recruiters who suspected tracked her down from her pseudonym, S.E. Hinton. With the promise of money and travel, she headed to Yokohama and was assigned to Malory’s squad where she felt herself immersed in a new world.

At first she did not understand her squadmates and idly wondered whether it was simply due to hair color that she was stuck with Sylvia Plath. Where she was this bourgeois, edumacated girl, Hinton lacked the social grace necessary for formal meetings. Compared to Plath, Hinton felt like less of a knight and more of a bandit. Her answer only came, not in battle, but during the aftermath.

With bloodied hands and quaking legs, Hinton gave Plath a long, tired earful of how reckless and selfish she’d been endangering their mark for the sake of feeding off of his pain.

It was one of Hinton’s more protective moments to say the least.

As her time on the squad unfolded, Hinton realized that Malory had chosen her specifically because of her capacity for pain. Whether it was delayed or immediate, Hinton could take a beating while retaining her composure. She embodies the beauty of tolerance, of roughness, and a scratched-up old Mustang. Like the sun her ability was named for, one can always trust Hinton to rise up.
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- STAY GOLD -
(ステイ・ゴールド, sutei gorudo)


Stay Gold temporarily suppresses all pain signals and wounds (including those that are fatal) for ten minutes, giving its target a "golden" sheen. Unfortunately, once the ability wears off, the user will be overwhelmed with all of the wounds and pain inflicted during the time span regardless of other healing or shielding effects used on them during the interim. Hinton may imbue this effect on any person or object of her choosing within a sight or herself.

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Re: Gimme Storage

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▀▀▀▀ROMAJI NAME名前



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▬▬▬▬ character voice cv name
▬▬▬▬ character fc Anne Takamaki (Persona 5)



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The life of an athlete is never easy, but it's what keeps [name] sane. Healthy streams of activity keep her mind on track because without them she'd be well, a couch potato. When she isn't practicing, hanging out with friends, or doing homework, one can find her decompressing in front of her computer. Despite enjoying validation, big events tax her mental reservoir and cause her to retreat once she finishes playing "[Name] the High Jump Queen." Acting isn't her strong suit so she often comes off more reluctant than she actually is, but makes up for it by asking as many questions as she can to better get to know those she interacts with.

She gravitates toward strong personalities who can match her thirst for excitement and entertain her whether it's in positive or negative ways. Outwardly, nobody could call her a "drama queen", but inwardly she enjoys watching train wrecks. People often ask how she manages to maintain relationships with such volatile people, but she assures everyone of her emotional stability (which really means emotional lethargy). Mental stimulation is key for her to function and idleness leads her to rather questionable decisions. She doesn't enjoy thinking about the darker implications of her personality so when faced with conflict she retreats in to herself. She's only ever comfortable playing the mediator, never the one of the conflicting parties as it requires more introspection than she's equipped with.
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Friday's Good Morning - -
OR
Ghost Rule - -



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CHARACTER ARC: YELLOW THE CATALYST

[name] already gets plenty of limelight in the form of athletic competitions so she would start as Pink's accessory. She will, at first, find more enjoyment out of Pink's antics than participating in song or dance. [Name] fears that she can't measure up in personality since she lacks any creative endeavors (or motivations) outside of her athletics and schoolwork. When she sees everyone else, she sees these very "niche" characters whereas she would most definitely describe herself as the "straight man" in every situation. It's easy to be the "down to Earth" girl when your friends are enraptured in drama after all.

Contrasting Pink's honest, almost brazen self, Yellow is only a physical body. She can't separate her identity outside of the things that things that Pink does or the things that she prevents Pink from doing. She questions whether she truly brings anything to the table and begins distancing herself from Pink an attempt to forge her own identity...even if she doesn't quite know where to start. In doing so, she starts doubting her own abilities in singing, dancing, and even athletics. The only positive thing seems to be her budding interest in other fields such as poetry and rapping.

Perhaps she might find something for herself in those fields?


Spoiler: show
Either you be strong or be gone.
We ain't here to settle for less.
The journey is long,
but you have to surpass the princess.
Raised in a land, arable her tale such a parable.
They call her Cinder because she burned her bridges
Ella for the name so plain, she sung on chorus fringes.
Until surely her mother fled the dirt for gold
New for old--and Ella didn't mean scenery
Concrete instead of scenery
Click--Mom's camera goes into panaroma
Jump--her back nearly misses the train tracks
Trophies remind her of an empty reality
The teachers always say "She's lucky she's fit"
or "she's got no calamity"
--Gravity, Pink has to be the center of attention
--Sanity, Yellow's doomed to grit

To stop Pink, she's the competition
For Yellow makes her own stress
Because she ain't here to settle for less.
Either she be strong or be gone.

Re: Gimme Storage

NOTE: THIS WAS POSTED AS A JOKE WITH PERMISSION. IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS AS AN ACTUAL PROFILE/APP/WHATEVER PLEASE PM VERIX FOR PERMISSION. STEALING IS BAD AND IF YOU DO IT, YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD.

    ImagexxxTHE EDGEMANCER
    EDGEMASTER.




    dat booty [ur mom] : #420
    Take it slow, wait for them to ask you what you smoke.

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    © Verix ur mom


    personality.

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    history.

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Re: Gimme Storage

花ロマ
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Edelweiss

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Oshiro Arashi (大城 嵐司)
Fire.fly SN: sunny_thunder
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Kitano Seiya
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He admires Seiya as both a mentor and a fellow band member. His bright personality and reliability. He always seems willing to help be it provide everyone with a meeting place or some catering. Arashi tends to go to him first for advice due to the confidence that he displays.



Hibana Azusa
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He and Azusa are (what he considers) close friends and friendly rivals in Monster Hunter as well as Pokemon. He enjoys watching movies with him because they're both action aficionados. Typically, they enjoy activities that don't require too much talking (as he can chuckle in the background whenever Azusa comments), but that they can still enjoy together.



Ozawa Hayato
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Koizumi Kazuki
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Narusa Tomoe
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Arashi legitimately feels bad for Tomoe since he essentially has to deal with five other divas as well as the group's cohesion. While he's wary of RoseChandelier members by nature he's able to talk to Tomoe more easily than the others (sans Hayate).



Hoshizuki Hotaru
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Hotaru feels overly rehearsed and sophisticated to the point where it feels hard to talk to him. Arashi knows that his fears are likely irrational, but he keeps to himself, only responding in short sentences and awkward smiles. Despite this, he doesn't let those feelings get to him and tries not to hate him because of it. He isn't nearly as hostile as his friend after all.



Yoshida Haruma
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He finds Haruma repulsive. Though a fairly voracious Incubus, he couldn't imagine himself feeding off of Haruma's scorn or self-inflated ego. It always feels as though the purple-haired man has something against the world and chooses to show it in the meanest way possible: insults. Whenever Haruma is around, Arashi wants to recede into his games. Unfortunately, the man is essentially a super villain.



Yukimura Masaru
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Kobayashi Hayate
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Hayate has proved the nicest member and integral to helping him come off more smoothly in social situations and ease his anxiety whenever there is a show he's unprepared for. Arashi appears blissfully unaware of Hayate's true nature so he regards him a close friend and confidant. Granted, he doesn't enjoy Hayate's "nickname" but he admits that it isn't too off the mark.


Akamine Eishi
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Arashi doesn't have much of an impression of Eishi since he always seems bored and despondent. He certainly has his own air of glamour, but the fact that he doesn't step in when Haruma (or anyone else) makes fun of him puts him on the "typical RoseChandelier" list in Arashi's mind.

Re: Gimme Storage

ImageRANI KAPOOR [NPC]
AGE 14 FACTION SPIRITUAL WIND SOUTH COUNTRY INDIA
ARTIFACT 1 [C] KADAR (GHANTA) ARTIFACT 2 [X] N/A

[FC] i. Rani VIII (Fate Extra) ii. Soma Asman Kadar (Black Butler) iii. N/A

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❝Write a quote that is meaningful to your Saniwa here.❞
- speaker of quote


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis est lorem, egestas vitae justo sed, venenatis posuere enim. Integer sed facilisis nisi. Aliquam fringilla cursus diam, id fringilla orci tempor a. Integer commodo sed tellus vitae lobortis. Fusce dignissim, magna in lacinia faucibus, eros sapien fringilla tortor, vel tempor sem arcu commodo sapien. Suspendisse facilisis, massa id aliquam vehicula, sapien nibh suscipit tellus, eu vestibulum tortor dolor vel lacus. Maecenas aliquam id lectus vitae ullamcorper. Nam ornare nisi vel dolor mollis, sit amet sodales nisl viverra. Duis hendrerit nulla nibh, eu ultricies nunc semper sit amet. Phasellus fringilla eget metus nec facilisis.

Nulla rhoncus vestibulum metus, id facilisis orci dictum ac. Pellentesque turpis est, pharetra nec auctor ac, pretium quis tellus. Pellentesque eget hendrerit quam. Donec et egestas nulla. Cras at erat id felis tristique efficitur sed vitae tellus. Cras at gravida est. Nunc nunc ligula, viverra eu tempor et, posuere sodales ante. Aliquam erat volutpat. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Maecenas tincidunt ex nunc, a auctor enim ullamcorper sed. Ut tincidunt mattis lacus, at vestibulum nisl. Suspendisse tincidunt in eros ac laoreet. Integer ac nibh nisi. Mauris sed ex in dolor congue tempor. Integer eget tellus interdum, laoreet mauris eu, pharetra nunc.

Aenean feugiat varius nulla, quis feugiat diam imperdiet eget. Nullam porttitor mollis ultricies. Suspendisse aliquet leo elit, eu cursus justo posuere eu. Nunc ac lorem velit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Sed nisi sem, vehicula nec eros sit amet, maximus imperdiet augue. Aenean ut commodo leo, in tempor neque.

Etiam sit amet arcu suscipit, vestibulum metus eget, pulvinar est. Donec ac justo pulvinar, pretium nisl sed, sagittis metus. Nunc sagittis lacus in posuere blandit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Mauris egestas ultricies massa quis gravida. Vestibulum condimentum augue non ex scelerisque imperdiet. Praesent viverra turpis sed fringilla fermentum. Nullam ac augue eu mauris imperdiet tincidunt. In cursus ornare tincidunt. Donec sed massa lobortis mi porttitor blandit. Nullam bibendum porttitor mauris non pretium. Vivamus mi sem, elementum ac libero quis, mattis pellentesque augue. Pellentesque metus eros, finibus ut eleifend dictum, ornare eu diam.

Praesent vel dui diam. Suspendisse odio risus, auctor sit amet interdum eget, pulvinar sed risus. Fusce auctor volutpat sollicitudin. Curabitur ac nisl eget erat egestas cursus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Duis porttitor finibus vehicula. Nullam ex erat, fringilla eget eros quis, interdum rhoncus metus. Sed dui felis, viverra a tincidunt in, finibus eget nisi. Ut vel eleifend ex. Morbi id felis nisi. Donec a ultricies neque, ut scelerisque odio. Aenean sed augue lorem. Morbi lacinia felis vel nunc maximus, non aliquet metus maximus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. .


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F a c t i o nxxxw o r k s
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For Spirituality: Please describe the incarnation ceremony for your one of your Artifacts. You must include the religious paradigm and you may consider explaining significant actions, relics, and any other important symbolism involved in your Saniwa's incarnation ceremony.

As the first daughter of an esteemed Saniwa priest, Rani ended her training as Brahmacharya much earlier than her peers. She spent her days nose deep in the teachings of Vedic tradition for the sake of succeeding her father so it came as no surprise when she underwent her Samavartanam at the age of twelve. Though still considered somewhat of a child by normal standards she


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis est lorem, egestas vitae justo sed, venenatis posuere enim. Integer sed facilisis nisi. Aliquam fringilla cursus diam, id fringilla orci tempor a. Integer commodo sed tellus vitae lobortis. Fusce dignissim, magna in lacinia faucibus, eros sapien fringilla tortor, vel tempor sem arcu commodo sapien. Suspendisse facilisis, massa id aliquam vehicula, sapien nibh suscipit tellus, eu vestibulum tortor dolor vel lacus. Maecenas aliquam id lectus vitae ullamcorper. Nam ornare nisi vel dolor mollis, sit amet sodales nisl viverra. Duis hendrerit nulla nibh, eu ultricies nunc semper sit amet. Phasellus fringilla eget metus nec facilisis.

Nulla rhoncus vestibulum metus, id facilisis orci dictum ac. Pellentesque turpis est, pharetra nec auctor ac, pretium quis tellus. Pellentesque eget hendrerit quam. Donec et egestas nulla. Cras at erat id felis tristique efficitur sed vitae tellus. Cras at gravida est. Nunc nunc ligula, viverra eu tempor et, posuere sodales ante. Aliquam erat volutpat. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Maecenas tincidunt ex nunc, a auctor enim ullamcorper sed. Ut tincidunt mattis lacus, at vestibulum nisl. Suspendisse tincidunt in eros ac laoreet. Integer ac nibh nisi. Mauris sed ex in dolor congue tempor. Integer eget tellus interdum, laoreet mauris eu, pharetra nunc.

Aenean feugiat varius nulla, quis feugiat diam imperdiet eget. Nullam porttitor mollis ultricies. Suspendisse aliquet leo elit, eu cursus justo posuere eu. Nunc ac lorem velit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Sed nisi sem, vehicula nec eros sit amet, maximus imperdiet augue. Aenean ut commodo leo, in tempor neque.

Etiam sit amet arcu suscipit, vestibulum metus eget, pulvinar est. Donec ac justo pulvinar, pretium nisl sed, sagittis metus. Nunc sagittis lacus in posuere blandit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Mauris egestas ultricies massa quis gravida. Vestibulum condimentum augue non ex scelerisque imperdiet. Praesent viverra turpis sed fringilla fermentum. Nullam ac augue eu mauris imperdiet tincidunt. In cursus ornare tincidunt. Donec sed massa lobortis mi porttitor blandit. Nullam bibendum porttitor mauris non pretium. Vivamus mi sem, elementum ac libero quis, mattis pellentesque augue. Pellentesque metus eros, finibus ut eleifend dictum, ornare eu diam.

Praesent vel dui diam. Suspendisse odio risus, auctor sit amet interdum eget, pulvinar sed risus. Fusce auctor volutpat sollicitudin. Curabitur ac nisl eget erat egestas cursus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Duis porttitor finibus vehicula. Nullam ex erat, fringilla eget eros quis, interdum rhoncus metus. Sed dui felis, viverra a tincidunt in, finibus eget nisi. Ut vel eleifend ex. Morbi id felis nisi. Donec a ultricies neque, ut scelerisque odio. Aenean sed augue lorem. Morbi lacinia felis vel nunc maximus, non aliquet metus maximus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst.


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S t a t s
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Rani Kapoor
KNOWLEDGE x★★★★★x| x UNDERSTANDING x★★★★★ x|x CHARM x★★★★★ xx|x COMBAT x★★★★

Kadar
SURVIVAL x★★★★★ x| x LEADERSHIP xx★★★ ★★ x|x IMPULSE x★★★★ x|x MOBILITY x★★★★ x SPIRITx★★★★★




ImageCLAIRE STANFIELD
AGE 24 FACTION COMBAT WIND WEST COUNTRY UNITED STATES
ARTIFACT 1 [C] GRAHAM SPECTOR (WRENCH) ARTIFACT 2 [X] N/A

[FC] i. Claire Stanfield (Baccano!) ii. Graham Spector (Baccano!) iii. N/A

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❝A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.❞
- Oscar Wilde


This is where you describe your Saniwa character! Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc volutpat nibh vitae orci euismod tincidunt. Vestibulum semper pellentesque blandit. Proin lobortis enim a nisl sollicitudin, luctus porta nunc aliquet. Integer nec quam sapien. Aenean sit amet mollis magna. Vestibulum dignissim egestas elementum. Ut vehicula metus neque, eu rutrum nisi convallis consectetur. Nam lectus lorem, imperdiet vel scelerisque dictum, scelerisque vel nunc. Vivamus hendrerit leo lacinia ligula ullamcorper, ac dictum ante pretium. Integer elit elit, dictum vitae orci quis, volutpat efficitur nibh. Etiam auctor leo vel odio placerat scelerisque.

Write about your Artifact(s) here. Ut nisi nisi, tincidunt vel dolor in, posuere consectetur urna. Mauris ipsum nisl, scelerisque ac elit sit amet, dictum volutpat augue. Cras molestie, dui sed sodales mattis, odio neque volutpat arcu, sit amet rhoncus metus elit non sapien. In et sollicitudin leo. Curabitur facilisis, nisl a sodales porta, dui mi interdum eros, consectetur feugiat ipsum risus et nunc. Donec congue orci ac iaculis porta. Aenean at nisi placerat, varius nisi sed, suscipit justo.


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F a c t i o nxxxW o r k s

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For Combat: Propose a combat trial and how your Saniwa completed said trial. You must also explain what fighting style/weapons your Saniwa specializes in.

Mission: Team up for a raid
Fighting Style: Bathe yourself in blood and beat people
Weapon: Blunt objects
Not weapons: Guns


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S t a t i s t i c s

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Claire Stanfield
KNOWLEDGE x★★★★★x| x UNDERSTANDING x★★★★★ x|x CHARM x★★★★ x|x COMBAT x★★★★★

Graham Specter
SURVIVAL x★★★★★ x| x LEADERSHIP xx★★★ ★ x|x IMPULSE x★★★★★ x|x MOBILITY x★★★★★ x SPIRITx★★★★★

Re: Gimme Storage

ImageSANIWA FULL NAME
FACTION Please pick one of the following: ESPIONAGE, SPIRITUAL, RESEARCH, COMBAT WIND Please pick one of the following: NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST COUNTRY Your Saniwa's country of origin
ARTIFACT 1 [S] ARTIFACT 1's NAME (ITEM) ARTIFACT 2 [C] ARTIFACT 2'S NAME (ITEM)

[FC] i. FC 1 ii. FC 2 iii. FC 3

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This is where you describe your Saniwa character! Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc volutpat nibh vitae orci euismod tincidunt. Vestibulum semper pellentesque blandit. Proin lobortis enim a nisl sollicitudin, luctus porta nunc aliquet. Integer nec quam sapien. Aenean sit amet mollis magna. Vestibulum dignissim egestas elementum. Ut vehicula metus neque, eu rutrum nisi convallis consectetur. Nam lectus lorem, imperdiet vel scelerisque dictum, scelerisque vel nunc. Vivamus hendrerit leo lacinia ligula ullamcorper, ac dictum ante pretium. Integer elit elit, dictum vitae orci quis, volutpat efficitur nibh. Etiam auctor leo vel odio placerat scelerisque.

Write about your Artifact(s) here. Ut nisi nisi, tincidunt vel dolor in, posuere consectetur urna. Mauris ipsum nisl, scelerisque ac elit sit amet, dictum volutpat augue. Cras molestie, dui sed sodales mattis, odio neque volutpat arcu, sit amet rhoncus metus elit non sapien. In et sollicitudin leo. Curabitur facilisis, nisl a sodales porta, dui mi interdum eros, consectetur feugiat ipsum risus et nunc. Donec congue orci ac iaculis porta. Aenean at nisi placerat, varius nisi sed, suscipit justo.

Gimme Storage

This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Gimme Storage"

You may edit this first post as you see fit.