Legend of Ransera

Posted: **Wed Nov 02, 2022 2:56 pm**

TIMESTAMP: -
NOTES: -

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“…It is a straining initiation.”
The words hit the vampyre’s elven ears and he immediately had the very violent compulsion to out himself for the monster he truly was. His eyes shifted down, away from the girl, fluttering a bit in the moment as he thought about the viability of saying anything to her. She was a complete stranger, not entirely trustworthy, and Vergil would certainly be upset if he knew that Hector was running around sharing such information so…trivially. But at the same time, from the remarks she’d made through this conversation, she did not seem to be a very law abiding citizen. That, and there was some kinship to be had among those of Zaichaer’s covens– though such a thing did not mean any of them truly allied themselves with vampyres to any official degree.

He bit his lip, then spoke, “...so I’ve heard. But if you’re a Sembler, that means you aren’t blind to the fact that I’ve two marks of my own. Do you recognize them? One of them, I’ll tell you only if you guess, has…debatably the worst initiation of them all. The other is Summoning and I survived that one quite young.” The elf had chosen to be vague yet hopefully, he’d given just enough information to perhaps tempt the girl into reconsidering. “I am nothing if not resilient,” he said with a small bit of impish laughter.

This was painfully true. The boy had been ripped to pieces numerous times and Vitalis’ initiation was not a kind one to anyone. Hell, he’d even been nearly destroyed once more on his way over here– familiar with taking risks, he was not one to balk at them. Either he was in possession of extraordinarily grand fortune or he was something far greater than met the eye, perhaps even both. Unfortunately, Hector himself was unaware of the potential he possessed, though one could argue that awareness of such a thing would only invite chaos onto the realm.

“Semblance works on…structures? Excuse my ignorance, but…my education has only been exceptionally thorough regarding specific subjects. Beyond that, my expertise on anything else tends to be vague. I’m unaware of how far it extends beyond the effects on people, truth be told.” And this was true– his training was very specialized, despite how learned he might sound when he speaks, there are massive gaps to be found in his knowledge regarding a large variety of things.

Carina’s next words fascinated him. Very shortly after their arrival, Vergil had given him a pendant made out of a dragonshard– sanguinyte, meant to slake the sanguine hunger that plagued them both. It helped, certainly, though it did not alleviate such a need in its entirety. Being somewhat short sighted, he pulled at the silver chain ‘round his neck and showed it to her regardless of how wise such a choice was.

“Like this? I…have no idea where my mentor, um…his name is Vergil, got it for me, but if what’s up there has comparable value I’ve a mind to join you.” This would be a fascinating decision on his part considering he’s now intended to be working with the Inquisition, but being who he is, it is quite common for Hector to make truly mystifying decisions.

He did intend to keep his promise– should she actually guess what rune he held, he’d tell her. Granted, he was not sure she had the capacity to answer that riddle given the fact that some people had a tendency to regard vampyres as naught more than fairy tales rather than very real beings. Some had never even heard the tales at all.

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Aidolon Speech

'Thoughts'

"Kathalan Tongue/Speech"

"Vallenor Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2022 2:52 pm**

.

"Ah, you're quite the trooper, then." Was all Carina offered. She had not the slightest clue in what his other rune would technically be called, but it tasted and smelled like blood and must have had something to do with that. Unfortunately, her instruction in all of the runes was lacking in terms of ancient, forgotten, lost, or otherwise forbidden runes — likely to prevent the desire of the acquisition of such. She didn't try to guess.

"It does, and quite well. I've managed a technique to memorize buildings...it comes with some downsides. I can see major weak points in a structure, and it doesn't bode well for worry..." She shrugged. "But if the building stands, it stands. Everything has an aura if you look close enough. It is an incredible magic to pursue."

Her mischevious smile grew as he offered to join her. "It just might. A department store would hopefully only sell weaker objects, but we can take a look." She held out her elbow for Hector to loop his arm through, as if they were dear friends just going for a stroll, and she meanedered towards a staircase down. When they reached the stairs, Carina unhooked her arm and rapidly descended, waiting for Hector at the bottom.

"They had nothing like this in Zaichaer. Isn't the Imperium grand?" She proclaimed, in a manner that seemed like genuine excitement, but with a touch of attempt-to-defer-suspicion, as if she were a tourist. "Come, follow me." She said as he reached the bottom, and instead of elbow-hooking, she took his hand. "Perhaps you should get Vergil a gift in return." She had seen Sanguinyte before, in the Market, but and she knew it as a Bloodstone, but she'd never looked too much into its capabilities. It had never really seemed to be what she needed.

They were soon approaching their destination, and Carina slowed to a stop, glancing around for anyone nearby. A customer was perusing a shelf of display jewelry, but Carina tugged Hector into the hallway, walking with a supreme confidence. "If you act like you should be there, no one will bother you," she whispered to her new co-conspirator, and halfway down the hallway she stopped. She heard no other footsteps, and felt the auras of no other people nearby, so she focused her attention on the negation ward. It was not directed towards people, but towards Traversion —meaning those that should walk in were able to walk in.

It was much weaker in the corners — because who would walk through the corner of a room? And the scrivening meant to alert someone to an intrustion was only at the door. It made enough sense, but Carina never felt the need to pick the lock to a door. "Wait here," she whispered, and then — it was as if she had never been there at all. While everything she had been doing thus far had only been a mild strain on her aether, this was far more, and she knew that even spending the day mildly using her aether she would have little left. She phased through the wall as a phantasm, her own body turned into a portal that she was forced to maintain. It was already tiring, but she reappeared on the other side, into the small room of jewelry stock, and flipped the light switch on the wall. She tread quietly towards the door and unlocked it, quickly waving Hector in to see the rows of shelves with jewelry in boxes, and then closed and re-locked the door as surreptitiously as she could.

"Well, take your pick — they really should have better security on these things, but I guess they're only worth a few hundred gold —" She stopped her sentence suddenly, and started to open the bag slung around her shoulder. The sound of voices coming down the hallway.

"Someone's coming," She stepped to Hector's side and tugged him along into the corner, pulling her cloak of concealment around them both and kneeling down. "Be quiet," she whispered, only then noticing that she had left the light on.

It didn't seem to be much of an issue, however. Two employees spoke in Kathalan as they stocked a cart with more jewelry, and Carina didn't dare move a muscle, and hoped that Hector would follow suit. But the cloak of concealment did its job, and they left, the room of boxed jewelry slightly more empty than when they had entered. The light had been switched off when they left, and the room was pitch black. She pulled the cloak off of Hector, and adjusted it to lay across her shoulders.

"Now you may take your pick, I hope." She said, almost running into a shelf after a few minutes, before she flipped the electrical light back on. "I think I'd like some earrings..." Carina murmured, opening boxes at random before placing them back where she found them.

.

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:09 pm**

TIMESTAMP: -
NOTES: -

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It was honestly quite odd, to him, that his new companion did not even question what he had said. Usually people regarded him with great suspicion even if they had no context as to what vampirism was. If they knew he had a rune they did not recognize, that is. Most mages capable of detecting such things were a paranoid bunch, assuming that if it was beyond their purview, it was most certainly dangerous. But this one, apparently, was different. She just went along with what he said without missing a beat. Hector quite liked that! But was also somewhat annoyed because he wanted her rune.

Would she even know if he outright said the word Vitalis, then? Because if she didn't even regard him with the slightest paranoia, the word might have absolutely no meaning to her. In that case he would, ultimately, have to show her– and even then, would she understand the gravitas that was the initiation thereof? Frankly, he really wanted to tell her. A woman this aloof would very much…not care, he thought. Well. Not care in the sense that she likely wouldn't throw a fit and try to get him caught or killed, but she might care in that she'd find it interesting, at least.

Regardless, he just might bring it up again at…perhaps a better time, one wherein they are in a place not quite so public. Really, the only risk he saw for the moment was the fact that somebody else could overhear. Hector was convinced Carina was harmless at least insofar as hostility due to his vampirism.

He blinked for a second, as if deciding exactly what he wanted to say. “That so? That’s actually far more useful than I had initially even thought it was…and my regard for the rune was already rather high.” In truth, giving this rune to Hector would be quite dangerous, not for either him nor Carina, but for anyone or anything that earns his ire. His destructive abilities were projected to rise in potency rapidly and, should he then gain the ability to pinpoint weaknesses and demure himself even more? The things he could get away with…

Carina’s friendly nature towards one with whom she had just met was actually rather disarming and endeared her to him– people were ever so guarded under normal circumstances, much to his immense vexation, curious and nosy as he tended to be. He readily looped his arm with hers and followed, the two looking like a pair who’d known each other much longer than this singular encounter. At the staircase, she descended separately and quite a bit quicker than he did, remarking at the bottom that the Imperium held quite a bit more grandiosity than Zaichaer. To a degree, this was certainly true.

“It is, isn’t it? I find myself quite enamored with the way magic is so…ingrained into everything. Makes me feel like Zaichaer was content to wallow in ignorance for a faux sense of morality,” he replied– his feelings on the subject were quite strong, irritating as it was to live amongst so many who bent a knee to their fears.

Hector allowed her to take his hand and followed behind, having little trouble keeping pace in large part due to the ability to walk with longer strides. To her suggestion, “...I just might if I find something he might consider pretty…but he’s,” he paused, thinking for a moment, “...a bit of a picky fellow. Refined tastes and all that.” For as much as the other man appeared to be more minimalist in nature, he shared Hector’s appreciation for art and beauty and such tastes extended to jewelry and the like as well.

Carina walked headstrong and confident as they continued forth into an area that was markedly off limits. She had a point, however– wearing a convincing mask, even if it was only in your body language, was easily all one needed to fool bystanders. Most of them were minding their own business, anyways, and if you didn’t look like you didn’t belong, they’d prefer to keep to themselves in the first place.

Hector, unfortunately, did not have the required skills to detect what magic warded the area…yet another shortfall of not possessing Semblance, though of this he was ignorant. He didn’t know why she stopped, but when she asked him to wait, he obliged her request and just watched her with a silent curiosity. His eyes fluttered, blinking a bit in surprise, when she disappeared– but he did realize what that was. Traversion– he had little experience with the rune, in truth, but from what he knew of the Railrunners, they made great use of it. As such, it was not much of a surprise that Carina had it, all things considered.

When the door opened, Hector followed in and shifted his head to look around the room. Well stocked and most of the dragonshards were housed in rather nice jewelry, but he could tell that the shards themselves did not contain quite the same potency as the ones Vergil had managed to acquire for them. Bit of a shame, that, but there was no sense in complaining when, well, they did not have to pay for anything stolen here. Why knock what is free?

However, he was pulled from this thought process when his new friend pulled at him and draped them both in a cloak. Hector, in situations of surprise or danger, was often prone to a ‘freeze’ type response and then his mind would race to find a solution and as such, he remained still and silent long enough to realize that the ideal response to this scenario was, in fact, exactly what he was already doing. This was a boon, really, as the man was not careful or cautious, but the fact that his reactions were oft delayed due to his initial freeze had saved him many a time. It also caused him to take a few hits he shouldn’t have in the past, but he was ever a durable lad.

When the employees came and went, the two of them reemerged from whence they hid and she, again, advised him to take his pick. Most of the stones within boxes marked ‘dragonshards’ had a bit of a glow to them of one sort of another, though the vast majority were markedly weak. He was not quite looking for anything specific, spur of the moment as this was, so he supposed he’d just take the prettiest thing he could find– or the strongest, if such a thing existed.

As he picked through boxes, he realized that they were actually quite organized with groups of the same shard properly labeled and sat together. Well, it certainly would’ve wasted a few minutes less should he have bothered to read the notation upon the boxes, but to be fair, his Kathalon was not entirely advanced, so the words beyond the names of the stones were a bit difficult for him. He also did not know the properties of every single dragonshard, but there was a name that stuck out to him– pesticyte.

He recalled Vergil speaking about it several times and how he’d actually had access to several of the things back Zaichaer. Did he have any here? If there were any at his work, he imagined, they likely weren’t for the man’s personal use. Perhaps this would actually make a decent gift. The elven vampyr opened a few of the boxes with the appropriate labels all at once, looking them over. One of the boxes had notably larger stones than the others, but they still weren’t quite the quality he’d come to recognize on the pendant that rested against his sternum. Nonetheless, he noticed a nicely crafted bracelet, the band being forged and shaped to resemble the figure of a silver serpent with the pesticyte socketed into the jaws of the creature. It was a pretty thing, it looked big enough for the man’s wrist, large as he was, and it could be concealed with sleeves should he so choose.

Hector pocketed the piece and turned back towards Carina, “...did you come here looking for anything in particular, or is this your idea of, erm…fun? I carry no judgment either way,” he said with a bit of an impish giggle. “And have you found anything that strikes your fancy?”

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Aidolon Speech

'Thoughts'

"Kathalan Tongue/Speech"

"Vallenor Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"

Posted: **Mon Feb 20, 2023 10:58 am**

Review

Carina

Lore: 11 Mirror-like lores
Points: 10
Injuries/Ailments:
Loot:
-ping me to update this when you make your choice of item

Name

Lore: 12 Crystalline lores
Points: 10
Injuries/Ailments:
Loot:
-lesser poison dragonshard bracelet

Notes: Carina and Hector will meet again in the future uwu

Legend of Ransera

Dissonance [Carina]

Re: Dissonance [Carina]

Re: Dissonance [Carina]

Re: Dissonance [Carina]

Re: Dissonance [Carina]