Tel'Dra, the city on the edge of the world, literally. There were only two entrances, one on either end of the city, each a colossal barrier of intangible magic, returning to the plane only to block intruders. Usually one would have to go through a registration period, but The Nameless parade simply walked through the ethereal barrier to the horror of the guards. Wolfmen, Harpies, Elves and all sorts appeared around the party, fading in as if from nowhere, each holding blade, magic or other deadly combinations at the critical points of all involved. Amongst them a woman in a burgundy combination of samurai armour and a kimono stepped forward, flicking her long black fringe out of her eyes with a grin "You're early this time. Come, Vinn is waiting" she purred to the nameless leader, a finger playfully flicking up his neck and chin as she strode off, hips swaying. The assumed guards dissipated without a trace once more, the parade allowed to continue unabated.
"Next time call ahead, I would have had ale ready instead of blades. I see you've already scrapped with a Lord's vassal...oh interesting...and the shadows. That particular Lord is already active in these parts. They seem to be staying in the background for now, but it's strange for them to be awake so early. Hence the greeting, I figure you've forgotten already so the names Hokyu. This cycle you're not getting any tail, so eyes up front fearless leader." She teased playfully, her golden globes looking directly into the leaders own eyes for a moment. With a chortle she continued to lead on.
If one were to look to the left they'd see an endless abyss of cloud and sky, a slanted earthen barrier leading down to an ethereal wall off the edge of the wide pathway. To the right were buildings of all sorts, and above them past a similar slanted barrier was another pathway much the same. The city seemed to stretch upwards like this into impossibility. "The wall teleports anyone who decides to try and bite it in the abyss to the front gates. It was here before the city, we just bent it to make the city limits too. Each layer of Tel'Dra is the same size as the one before it, they just look smaller or bigger from the other layers, neat huh? Vinn's the kinda guy you can find on any layer, so we'll be going to the first Oasis door, he's been here about as long as there's been a speck of dirt to build on." She answered before anyone could ask, apparently playing tour guide for the group.
She lead them on for another bit, past grand mansions, small shops, all types until she came to a nondescript somewhat battered old building with a neon sign. "Vinn's Oasis!" she chimed, hands on her hips as she waved everyone forward, blowing the leader a kiss before sauntering away. "Vinn's ready for Nero, the newbies and you oh fearless one so you go first. The rest wait 10 seconds and follow. The door will take you where you need to go." She chimed casually, continuing to walk away.
The Nameless Leader blushed and shrugged, heading in through the door which opened to the uproar of a bar, stylish and modern in it's design at first glance, until one crossed the threshold of the door. The reality of the simple everymans bar became obvious as the illusion faded away. Everything was made of wood, and yet oddly enough the waiters and bouncers you'd expect were replaced with small creatures with brown wizard hats and enveloped in over-sized blue robes, their faces nothing more than black-motes with yellow eyes who ran around serving tables, and strange cactus-people who stood stoicly nearby. At the bar itself was one of the small creatures waving enthusiastically. His hat was red instead and sported a stamp on it the shape of a beer mug. The patrons varied from everything one could think of, from all walks of life, making merry or discussing serious matters openly or in private. The bar was really much bigger on the inside, and the various doors around and stairs gave the feel that it could go on forever.
Amongst the waiters and bouncers which were all respectively identical stood out a set of individuals, a deep-red haired man smoking a cigarette behind the bar beside the waving creature, cat ears sticking out of his head and a red tail waving behind his leather-jacket that trailed first an ice-blue trail and then a purple-ish one. A stocky-built cat-eared girl of black hair served tables, her green eyes glowing as soon as she entered a shadowy corner booth. Her stance suggested an air of wildness. Standing opposite one of the Cacti bouncers was a man in all grey bandages aside from his black cargo pants, feet and upper-face. His long black hair reached the back of his knees in a spiky mess and maroon eyes peered out from under the mess to watch the whole room.
The leader sauntered up to the small creature and took a seat on a comfy looking stool, his sword resting on his back vertically, suspended in place by orange rings of energy as it had been the whole journey, the tip touching the floor. Before he could say a word the creature piped in "Welcome to Vinn's Oasis!, I am Vinn, that is also Vinn, and so is he, but not him...much too ugly for one as handsome as I." He introduced, pointing out his identical creatures and then a wolfman in the corner who raised his glass with a chuckle at the comment. "You're early, not that I didn't know you'd be early. I've got your temporary headquarters all set up down the hall. Now I realize that none of your new friends have been properly filled in, nor do you remember enough to be able to fill them in. The resurrection process tends to wipe your memories correct?" He chimed, hopping down off what was apparently a raised platform and pottering behind the counter for a while before popping back up. He laid out 24 coloured cards, each a single solid colour, all of them were stark bare except for a white border.
"Lazul cards, pick one up and they'll tell you everything about yourself that you know and everything you've got, from then on that cards yours. They're made of pure unadulterated mana so breaking one's not a good idea. Fun fact, your name i-" He was abruptly interrupted as he seemed to simply vanish from existence, imploded upon himself. With a shaking head, an identical Vinn came out, struggling to put on his red hat as he clambered up to the bar platform. "Stupid rules...sorry, no spoilers." He grumbled, folding his arms in a huff as he awaited the leader to pick up his card, which he did. Slowly and suspiciously, he lifted the card to his face until a name appeared at the top in orange sharp-edged font "Jecht...It's changing?...Blitz?...what kind of stupid name is Blitz?" The leader grunted, Vinn simply shrugged as if to say 'No spoilers' once more.
The rest of the cards lay on the counter top awaiting to be picked up. 11 disappeared to assuredly finding their way to the rest of The Nameless crew, leaving 12 left. Nero picked up one, his name not appearing for even a moment at the top. At that moment, those who stood out from the rest of the staff stepped forward. The man behind the bar's tail snaked forward to pick one up, skillfully spinning it into his palm and then holding it out for everyone to see. At the top came 'River' in a sandswept yellow, until the sand was overwhelmed by growing ice to turn the letters blue. The bandaged guardsmen appeared as if from nowhere, eyeing up Nero before picking up a card that began to drip blood and then melted away to form a steel-card. The letters of red at the top read 'Lazarus'.
Finally the cat-girl took her place with the rest of the crew. Warily her green eyes flashed over the new faces ,but with a scowl, she too reluctantly spread a black-clawed hand over a card. Jungle plants grew over it revealing the name, Rosa. That left 8 cards for the 7 people that remained, until Vinn ran round the back and shoved out a tall metal-man with his armour buckled in places and scarred: the chest piece had a small orange spot on it that seemed to be shorting out and his helm was cracked. He stepped forward ever so slowly and picked up a card which flashed through each of the four elements that had lead to his downfall: Metal, Water, Earth and an Orange-Energy, until it settled. The card's letters flared in binary and then settled back to a blocky white-steel "KH4.Z1X".
Vinn stepped between the group and the other new crew "I made them all practice that dramatic reveal for daaaays, so worth it...now I know what you're thinking 'Ah!, but random guy we just met, that one guys evil! He tried to eat babies or something. I dunno. I skimmed over the fight if I'm honest," He said casually thumbing towards the metal-man. "But I knew you were coming, so I gathered favours and recruits, and here we are. Forge-guy can do sensy stuff and tell you he's no longer bad news bears. Besides, once you see what I've been setting up for you, you'll owe me enough to take my word for it." He continued, pointing everyone towards the rest of the cards and crossing his arms.
"Come on now, I've got eternity, but you guys haven't quite got that long." He grumped. The one called River waved in a friendly way to Wayland, grinning wide as one would to a friend you'd known for years. Vinn shot him a glare and he looked down embarrassed, and refused to look at Wayland any further. Vinn's Oasis truly was a strange place...and he expected everything to be taken for his word without question.
One hand on the table and one hand in her hair, Elena scratched her head as she looked around and tried to soak in everything that was happening. The first thing she noticed was the abundance of cross-breeds and beast-folk, which caused her to almost instinctively shrink, considering their numbers. She eyed all of them suspiciously, lowering her gaze and hiding a scowl the best that she could. Her eyes swept over to the man who was droning on about something with cards, asking each of them to take one. She nabbed a teal card and flipped it over, revealing a blank face. Water enveloped the card but didn’t spill, covering it in an opaque, murky sea water until it receded back into the card and revealed the name ‘Elena.’ She flipped it back over with her fingers and pocketed the card, observing the various effects that that the others seemed to be having with their own with mild curiosity. She turned away from the table and briefly clasped her hands together. “This is a bar, right? I need a drink here,” Elena said aloud, pointing at the table, “and none of that soft shit.”
Finally they had reached Tel'dra, it made Ivan feel alive. The city buzzed with magic, he could feel it in the air, such a familiar feeling. This place certainly would have the materials he needed to create an artifact with enough potency to be worth carrying. Of course though they had a different destination before they could even think about scouring the marketplace and shops for supplies, to Ivan's annoyance their destination was a bar. The casual and tricksters nature of the owner somewhat made up for it. Much like those who had learned to create multiple existences of themselves at young age back in the college.
Vinn had shown them something called a 'lazul card' An interesting piece of magica if he were to believe his words. Ivan looked carefully as the others picked up these cards and the cards reacted to this. Of course he'd rather avoid contact with such an object and study it with his thaumaturgic tools, looking into what knowledge he could extract from the card, instead of letting the object look into his being. However this didn't seem like the time or the place to start an argument over such things, and so far Vinn had seemed trustworthy enough and so far no accidents had happened.
Ivan stepped forward, ignoring the mention of the girl before him about desiring to flood herself in liquid foolishness. He grabbed an azure card turning it with the blank face upwards in the same motion. Lightning struck the card etching a way over the surface leaving behind black runic characters. 'Ivan' it said, but for those who couldn't read runic it would merely be a set of nice looking characters. Just as he was about to put the card into his pocket the runic characters lit on fire forming a blaze on the card. Equally fast as the blaze had ignited it died down revealing his name 'Ivan', but no longer in runic and in a deep crimson color. He hesitated a second before putting it into his pocket anticipating another surprise, and walking back into the masses.
Wayland marched along like a machine until the group reached Vinn's his mind in a form of turmoil as thoughts spin around and around in his head. He doesn't react to the guards that surround them as they enter the city, doesn't react at all to the numerous warriors that quickly array themselves against them, not batting an eye as he blankly surveys the mass, each of their weapons being catalogued for later, their history stored in the depths of his soul for when he had need of it, it was enlightening. Though he didn't truly realize it, the process was like breathing to him at this point. He learned more about the city they were entering at a glance then most people would in a lifetime. The guards patrols, who's who of their government, who was sleeping with who in the guard, who could fight and who would run, on and on the information tucked itself away and another weapon embedded itself in his being.
A witty reply comes to mind as Hokyu comments to the Leader that he'll get no tail this cycle, -Does that apply to all of us?- the words not quite reaching his lips as he trudges along, a smirk playing briefly across his face before it dies. He'd kick himself later for letting the oppurtunity pass him by, ***** would be dissapointed in him if he found out, he thinks with a fond grin. Before he shakes his head, feeling faint for some reason - who would be dissapointed? The question is like poison, bleeding into his mind, as he can't. Quite. Remember. He gets a faint image of red hair, before static overtakes his thoughts and he has to force himself to remain calm, and that same feeling of loss and shame overtake him again. He ignores it, for now.
Wayland pays the city no mind as they moved along, no to others it might even seem odd that he walked as if he knew where they were going, as if he'd lived in the city his whole life. It was revealed to him through steel. How do you explain that to strangers though? He didn't know, never had figured it out in his home world, and most people just attributed it to natural confidence, and self-assurredness. Soon enough they reached Vinn's Oasis, as the sign proudly declared, the woman - Hokyu - leaving them with some parting words for the leader. The bar was cozy to put it lightly, it was the sort of place Wayland could easily see himself losing hours to, his already relaxed stance loosens further and he finally starts to come back to himself.
His eyes sweep across the occupants of the bar, lingering on the man smoking behind the counter a touch longer than the others. Something about him was familiar, similar in the same way Kira was but he couldn't pin down what that meant. He trusted him immediately, something that was unheard of for him. It bore investigation later on, but he turns away as the static starts up again making him feel sick. Now facing the leader he watches the proceeds as the cards are explained. He watches with a raised brow as one of the Vinn simply ceases to be, and grins as he sees the cards in action, as the leaders name(s) appear on his card they swell in Wayland's mind, he's not surprised he'd known it/them since the first moment he'd lain eyes on his blade, none of that is of note though, simply the way of things, something in him screams however as He looks at the one called River, the one that he trusted without knowing why, red hot vomit rises in his throat as static assaults his mind but he fights it down, forcing himself to move his eyes away, his only sign of discomfort a slight rise in his output of smoke, only those that know him well would know what that meant, and noone here, to his knowledge, knew him like that. Moments later all thoughts of that flee his mind anyway as a not so old enemy is revealed.
KH4.Z1X A name he'd thought them through with, but one glance revealed a curious lack of taint, and he snorts at Vinn's way of speaking, nodding at those that look to him to vet the machine man, it was true he was no longer their enemy, but their was a curious lack of information in him as to why that was. He stares at the red-head - River - As he waves, grinning like he knew him. Unsure, again, why the gesture seems so familiar, he isn't disturbed by the familiarity, in fact something inside him feels as if he has come home as he stands among these people, and yet another part can feel nothings but shame and loss, the odd feelings don't fade. Thankfully the static is lessened, though he doesn't know why. He let's the comforting noise of hammer on anvil soothe him, let's flame consume his mind as he observes the odd byplay between Vinn and River, unsure on how to react for now he resolves himself to get a card, then he'd see about getting some answers.
Swords, of course it was swords. Dozens of them, hundreds clashing together, their points locking together like teeth as he picks up the card, layers upon layers of them make up the card, the background like clashing blades and colored in the fire that forged them. His name flashes across the top of the card, again and again, more times than he can count it appears shatters then reforms, every time in a different script, a different style of writing or a different language entirely, sometimes languages he didn't know, but he knew it was his name. Knew it like he knew the sun would rise, or the moon would set. It was a certainty, and it was unsettling. finally after far too many different itterations and styles to count it settles. The final name burning itself into the swords, written in the glowing embers of molten steel, the style jagged and almost broken. WAYLAND. For some reason it's less than reassuring.
Shane had seen so many new, crazy and weird things in this new world that, to be honest, he felt like a young boy again, only just starting to see the world. It was actually quite exhausting, one surprise after another(It's not every day you see a water god he thought), and all he wanted was a break. Upon arriving at Vin's Oasis Shane started to worry that he may never get a break, but to his surprise, the place had a strange familiarity to him. It reminded him of home. In Utopia there were many bars and taverns, places where war-torn, scarred, and hopeless men could come together and drink their pains away. But even beyond that, Shane felt almost as if he'd been here before, or somewhere very similar. He couldn't tell why, maybe it was the cactus people, a creature very common to utopia, maybe it was something more, All he really knew was that it felt familiar.
Even the way Vin spoke seemed familiar to Shane, however with zero understanding as to why, he simply decided that it must be similar to the way bartenders at home spoke. Once Vin was done speaking, and after seeing the reactions these cards created, Shane was getting eager to grab his own. He casually approached the counter top and looked down at the cards. After looking at them for a short second, he decided on which card he wanted and picked it up. The second Shane touched the card, it's surface was quickly flooded by dry yellow sand. It stayed like that for a split second, and after Shane started to get bored with it, it suddenly changed, the sand transforming into black ash grain by grain, but at a very rapid pace.
As soon as all the sand was transmuted, a swarm of small embers appeared at the top of the card, and danced joyfully down, intricately burning away parts of the ash surface to leave a bright glowing orange, like molten metal. As they moved further down, the glowing orange formed "Shane", and below it what appeared to be the start of a crudely drawn screw, however, upon getting about halfway down the card, without finishing the screw, the embers suddenly and violently withered away into a tiny puff of smoke. "Awww, what a rip-off," He said jokingly, pocketing the card. That symbol really got to Shane, He could remember that it belonged to the army he once lead, and in that sense, it was very important to him, but he couldn't help but feel there was something else he wasn't remembering, something that seemed way more important. In actuality, as he thought about it, he realized that he hardly remembers any of his time spent in the revolutionary army. Scared by this thought Shane subconsciously clutched his scrap-metal necklace in his hand.
It had been akin to a roller coaster ride for her. In what seemed like such a short amount of time she had seen so much, experienced so many things it was staggering. From the fright of their reception to the strange curiosity regarding the enigmatic warrior Hokyu to the marvel of witnessing a city of grand dimensional magic she had little time to even register what she was supposed to be feeling. It all culminated in their arrival at the strange yet oddly humble inn simply known as 'Vinn's Oasis'. Much talking transpired, the various characters around this bar introducing themselves and speaking amongst each other on the matter of their arrival.
Lazul Cards, strange badges of sorts as explained by Vinn, the eccentric entity wearing a rather large hat like the rest of these entities that seemed to go by the same identity. While his mannerisms might of been somewhat unusual, though unusual carried little weight by this stage of her adventure, the fact that him and all the other like-minded him's that attended bar all looked and acted similar if not the same was not all too unusual for her. Slimes frequently resembled the bodies from which they split from and since most slimes were greatly limited in intelligence they all acted pretty close to the same as well.
As Vinn handed out these cards like the good little slime she was she did as she was told and took a card for herself. Now, given as she had no textile grip nor digits to hold the card with she wholly expected the card to slip from her noodly grasp but the magic of the card went into motion. The card went completely limp and it's loose form wrapped around her tentacle before slithering along the length of it up onto her body where it stuck itself right on the upper torso, much akin to a name tag. The ocean blue surface of the card began to shift as though something were disturbing it's shape, images of bubbles stirred from this motion and traveling up the card. She looked down and watched as what appeared to be a golden sun pendant floated up within the water, slowly coming to stop as it reached the top of the card. In a flash the sun expelled a golden light from the pendant which formed into letters written in the form of her creator's handwriting. The light spelled out Anima, Lumen.
Just as the card seemed finished undergoing it's graphical update as the other cards had done a brief shadow passed across the background of the card as though a shapeless form had moved across in the background. That briefest moment, that flash of shadow cast over her fluid card sent a shiver throughout her jelly as a foreboding omen now hung in her mind. It was so brief that one could of blinked and missed it but all it needed was just a moment, a glimpse at something more than she already knew, something unknown yet uncomfortably close or so it felt.
With that done she looked up to the rest of the nameless in the room, especially to those she had familiarized herself with during the trek to the city. She had little reason to fear right now so she cast the doubt from her thoughts, placing her mind back in the present. She looked about at how the other cards formed out, her own card still clinging to her chest like it was glued on. She had many questions on her mind, too many to be asked in one sitting to be sure. She made note to ask about how all these things she's seen so far functioned so that she at some point might be able to study and perform similar feats of magic as the ones she's seen along the way.
Kira held out her palm and the card flew into it, blooming into a vine card, surrounded by a royal gold border before with a glare from her shattering into pieces, reforming with a flick of her wrist from the floor into a card of pure steel. In scrawling red velvet began to snake a name "Ke-" before she shattered it again, her visage cold and expressionless as it reformed, this time bisecting the flowing velvet and forcefully scribed her own name into the metal by will "Kira". She grinned at the name, but the grin was hollow to anyone who saw her, and there was an emptiness in her eyes that had never been. She grimly looked to her left and saw a flitting shadow sprint towards the entrance, with a sigh she flicked her wrist and the card flew through the air, cutting through the air like a knife to stick into the familiar shadow soldiers spine, but it kept running.
She began to run after it only to have Vinn appear before her along with the one called Lazarus and KH4, the latter two were holding blades of steam and blood to her neck and the former was blocking her way with an open palm. "You know how this goes.." The bartender warned, but Kira wasn't listening and the sound of a button clicking signed her ticket. The girl called Rosa stood up, curling her upper lip in a snarl that exposed very sharp teeth including a pair of impressive fangs. After picking up that card, her black claws retracted, but now she extended them again, hunching her upper body, poised to spring on the blade-wielders holding the strange orange-haired girl.The three brought up their defences in response and leaped back, but as they moved they realized their mistake. The clicking did not signal her attack, but her escape. With nary a single piece of dust she was gone and the door of the bar was removed from it's hinges. When the other girl realized no one chased after Kira, she relaxed her shoulders, but remained standing with exposed claws.
She found herself in a forest far outside of Tel'dra in an instant, staring at the shadow soldier in front of her, she flicked her wrist once more and the card shattered, splintering the shadow into a mess of a corpse on the floor as it reformed between her fingers. Her eyes slowly diluted to a crimson red as the white tips of her hair grew like tendrils through her locks, her card flew from her hand and spun around the forest, eventually hitting someone, or rather something, with a clang. From behind a tree came out a human-sized thing in black and red armour, wisps of shadow trailing to him from the splintered corpse, he held the card between two fingers and tossed it back from where he stood, the other end of the forest.
The trees splintered and shattered under the force and Kira caught it on the other side as the woods erupted, and then they stood in a clearing where once stood a forest, the hundreds of mutilated corpses that had hung from their necks from each tree crushed under the debris to form a crimson meeting plane. The two stared at each other for a moment; and then without a word ,the creature threw a card of shadow at her which she then caught in turn. Smiling down at the piece, she nodded and read its contents, opening her palm and tweaking her wrist to face her as her "Broken" collar mended itself. The shadow card melted from her hands and the two departed, Kira to the bar, the creature, to the unknown. Without a word the girl returned and took her place by the assembly, and Vinn said nothing more about her disappearance, and under his roof, none of The Nameless questioned it either. Rosa wasn't so quiet. "What was that about? " she asked both Vinn and Kira.
Kira shrugged and spun her card on her fingertip absently "I found an enemy, I killed it, end of story." She answered nonchalantly, Vinn glowered at her but looked to Rosa with a sigh "It's just as she said...I wasn't sure she could handle it and I was wrong." He grunted out before turning to the rest of the group. "Alright everyone, head through that back door, except for you Kira, River, we have things to discuss, and Elena, free reign behind the bar." He said, a stern tone in his voice until the end as he hopped down from his stand and beckoned to the flimsy wooden door behind the bar. Rosa raised her eyebrows, but decided it best not to argue or comment any further and led the way toward the door.
