Treading New Waters

Neo Arcturus' link to the open water of the Freshwater Sea. Despite it's usage as a modest port, it retains a full breadth of aquatic life beneath the waves thanks for the Conservatory's deliberate effort. That's here and head out on the waves and bring back a souvenir!
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Qarinah
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Qarinah »

"First impressions are everything."

She snickered with a coy smile."

"But it seems I've found the right man. You'd be dead otherwise of course."

She said waving her hair from her face as she floated idly next to Zero. She poshed at his comment of her make shift gown. A wave of her finger tailored and stitched up any unsightly shears of combat.

"I never imagined a human could be so.. formidable. But the King spoke highly of you. In fact, he boasted so much so that I gambled you wouldn't survive twenty minutes in the throes with me. "

She said crossing her arms and heaving a heavy sigh but it that didn't alter the charming curl of her lips. This was fun and Qarinah's pupils were still sharpened like thin razors. But using telekinetic powers was a sure fire way to drain most of her vitality. Her strength of mind was among her strongest abilities, but in thousands of years she couldn't properly gauge how to properly calibrate her output. Whenever she used them, she suffered a massive headache and her brain leaked all sorts of viscera.

But with their dance at its end, Qarinah's cells began to repair instantly. And her brrathy pants swiftly became an inglorious memory.

"And though I'm happily surprised, it seems like he beat me again. Ugh, don't bet against a Hellgate.. he sends his warmest, by the way."

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Zero Venkage
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Zero Venkage »

"I don't think I've ever taken twenty minutes to make an introduction."

Zero yawned, finally able to really catch his breath. What should have been a quiet evening turned out making him homeless, but at least he could relax now.

"Zeik? You're friends with Zeik? That explains why I didn't know who sent you. He doesn't seem like the assassination type."

Zero knew Zeik for about half of his life, more than long enough to get a feel for what the man values in life. He would never send an envoy when he could air his grievances perfectly fine himself. Hearing his name instantly put Zero at ease. Whoever, this woman was, if Zeik vouched for her, she had to be OK. Zero considered himself among the most problematic of the mage's close circle based on their personal history and Zero's particular perspective on some key life lessons. He attributed most of it to his age, knowing that he himself could come off as a bit immature, aloof, or even careless sometimes. That caused some static between the two in the past, but nothing a little scuffle in a different dimension can't work out.

"Here's a tip, if you're not betting on me... If you're... All bets on me..."

He wanted to give a punchy one-liner, but nothing came to mind as he relaxed and his mind slowed itself.

"Don't bet against me, I tend to set the curve." He said confidently and giving the cat eyed maiden a vigorous pair of finger guns.

"So what do you actually want?

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Qarinah
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Qarinah »

Qarinah extended her open palm, materializing a crystal tablet to her hand out a blister of crimson energy. The slab was about the size of a text book, upon it scribbles that by all accounts looked like random hash marks and scratches.

"Well, my name is Qarinah and from what I understand about you, Zero, is that you're a bit of a collector when it comes to occult antiquities and powerful objects. I found this in the possession of a now thoroughly digested cult of Delven Trolls. I wasn't able to make out what they were saying about it, but I know they drew some sort of power from it."

She trailed off, suddenly fixated on the patterns of cryptic glyphs and scribbles carefully carved unto crystals surface. She stared at it blankly and quietly, entranced by the eldritch whispers that only the wielder could hear, but couldnt truly comprehend. But she snapped out of it quickly, and gestured Zero inspect it himself.

"What can you make of it?"

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Zero Venkage
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Zero Venkage »

The recoil from his final finger shot aimed at the tabled which alighted itself on a tiny ring of flowing wind. The floating tablet responded to his beckoning finger and moved in Zero's direction, hanging in front of his eyes close enough for him to make something of the marks etched into it. Much of his life, Zero explored the open seas with the Leviathan Order. The group plundered pirates for their bounty and explored parts of Vescrutia most people only thought were legend. He became somewhat of a polyglot from coming across so many ledgers from so many corners of the world, or he would have if the Leviathan Order didn't employ the use of a Mistral Decoder for most of their work. Without one now, he searched the tablet for any familiar characters.

I bet she did digest them... Doesn't even look like she eats...

Qarinah's blank expression puzzled Zero, like the face of a ghost of someone you knew had descended upon her. It washed out of her as soon as she released the tablet, bringing Zero to reconsider one of his more recently adopted rules: Don't touch nothing.

"Hmmm... It looks a bit familiar, but I feel like--"

Zero touched the tablet with a single finger as lightly as he could. Some quiet whispers seeped into his mind, filled his ears with random words and gasps, nothing he could make out immediately.

"There's something... here...." he mumbled as his eyes closed.

Images of the deep blue sea washed over the darkness behind his eyelids. He swooshed deep through the depths, past the most grotesque forms of seafloor biology, the whispers invading his mind growing louder and louder as he traveled the deep. eeee... ooooo...
Zero's brow furrows, feeling the pull of something deep intensify. His heartbeat raced and his respiration increased in turn. He took a deep breath, trying to wrest himself free of this trip, unsure of its true destination.

Until the vision opened up into a cliff over an even deeper, darker, blacker abyss. And the whispers he heard resonated into a roar, drowning out his own thoughts.

OOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOoooooo

"Urrgh... Nevermind!" He yelled as a snap of electricity flashed, separating his finger from the tablet that launched into the air off his index. Zero shook off the surf and whispers, shivering and wiggling his fingers and toes to feel like himself again.

"Whoooo shit! Once I remembered we put that thing down there for a reason, haha! Where'd you find that thing? You said Delven Trolls?"

The tablet landed between Zero and Qarinah with a solid thud, looking like it emitted a light that faded quickly.

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Qarinah
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Qarinah »

"Yes, yes, Delven Trolls.. Ancient race of has beens who let their avarice crumble their once promising civilization. But enough of them, what did you see?"

Qarinah's eyes swelled as she begged, unable to withold her zeal and interest. Zero's unncanny reaction toward the tablet brought forth a load of questions, but the most poignant thing were his last words.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Zero Venkage »

Zero was immediately brought back to a pivotal point in his life, one he could never take back, one that changed his relationship with one of the most influential people he had the pleasure of working with. How the Dyre Elvs acquired the tablet, he still had no clue. Dyres were reclusive, forest brush faring people, sensitive to the light of Xelphis but eager to see the world beyond the Schwartzvald. Zero heard whispers of their feats gone down in legend across Vescrutia, myth in most places. After meeting them once on the battlefield, he confirmed most of the oral stories details. They hated sunlight, were about twice the size of the average man, and fought tooth and nail for the horde. What they lacked in ingenuity or creativity, they made up for with brute force and a single, concerted objective shared among the whole order. Not only did she bring an artifact he presumed would stay submerged beneath the waves forever to his doorstep, she alluded to obliterating a whole colony just to get it. A testament to her impressive strength, definitely a reason to stay on her good side, and a valid reason for Zero to question why Zeik held her in such high regard...

"One, I saw what you did to them... Two, they're... something. It's like the whole colony was chanting a single word, it just got louder and louder and I don't like a lot of noise."

Zero gave Qarinah a glancing once over, her steady frame, pale and foreboding, left little to the imagination when it came to the degrees of destruction doable by the damsel. Between flashes of carnage committed by the vampiress, Zero caught glimpses of another entity, or entities scratching together an ambition through the tablet. It startled him, expecting something far more nautical to come of the deep sea invading his mind. He and the Leviathan Order left the tablet at the bottom of the Tragu Sea for a reason.

"I never got anything but static from the tablet before. I don't know if being able to glean some reception from it is good or bad at this point, but it's looking for something. Maybe because I've been in contact with it before, I'm able to pick up on something else about it. But it feels weird and I don't like it. Like, I'm not sure if I should touch it again because I might get cursed or something."

And still, it came to him again, falling into his lap like the perfect new blade, even shinier than it was before. Zero learned how to leave good enough alone recently, finding peace in lost connections. Qarinah seemed to pick up on some he thought better left alone.

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Savaj Vanguard
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Savaj Vanguard »

Zero Venkage.

The sound of her voice roared through Zero's mind with the celestial fervor of an angry God. There was an otherworldly echo behind her tenor. A rumbling that literally shook him from this realm of flesh and earth. The passage of time stalled to a pause around him. Everything from the trembling waters of the Freshwater Sea to his vampiric contemporary standing beside him. All of it. All of them were frozen. Only Zero remained free of this plague. He and the crimson vestige at his feet. Savaj descended from above before his confusion devolved into fear.

Her expression was deadpan and cold. Still lips and furrowed brows. Green eyes puffy and swollen from exhaustion, still seared him like vindictive pyres.

"..do you know who I am?"

She never landed on the ground. Instead Savvy floated a few feet above them both. She was wearing the only remaining adornments forged from Akavjjr. Enchanted silks that casually bent moonlight around it. It caused her body to shimmer with the color of her surroundings. But it couldn't disguise her quaking fists. Savaj was drawn here immediately after she laid her brother to rest, a tragedy that was preceded and predicted by a million others. The Michio's betrayal chief among them


But despite them all, Savaj sensed this harbinger of power the second she regained all of her strength. When she localized the source to the Neo-Nightmare, she figured the duplicitous savages were beginning their warpath across the planet. Instead she found him. Zero Venkage. His ethical better. Physically, he was underwhelming. But to keep the company of someone known as the destroyer insinuated he harbored power of his own. They never met before today, not even a passing glance during political events throughout the territory. Savaj had no experiences with Zero yet the look in her eyes condemned him as an enemy.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Zero Venkage »

Zero Venkage.
"You found him."

Zero sighed, tired of surprises for the rest of the week. What he expected to be a quiet night ta home alone turned into a menagerie of terrifying women happening upon his doorstep. At least the first visitor arrived within the confines of the normal passage of time, regardless of her terrifying strength. Zero turned to meet the owner of the gaze piercing him with a voice over carrying the wrath of god imparted solely on his image. Looking up, the figure stared directly down her nose at him, judgmental, but concerned. The last woman to look at him like that happily tossed Zero straight into jail and onto death row. Did he deserve it? He left that up to the courts. Now, with his previous guest preoccupied with the suspended moment in time, Zero made happy with his new acquaintance.

"But I don't think we've met... But you have my attention for..."

He lazily motioned his hands to the scene stopped mid-conversation around him, Qarinah mid-sentence, waves mid-crash, and the site of his home leveled and frozen.

"Now. How can I help you?"

He shot her a toothy grin, playing coy while he positioned himself directly between his new acquaintance. While Qarinah probably needed no support in protecting herself in normal circumstances, time manipulation put their guest on a different level and might bring unforeseen danger to their budding camaraderie. Zero made a point to nurture his friendships in his recent time, and Zeik might be disappointed if he heard something ill befell her in his presence.

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Savaj Vanguard
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Savaj Vanguard »

Savvy's eyes sharpened into sickles watching Zero's lips flap and crease. His jaunty disposition preceeded him. This incredibly powerful man, born from the loins of an otherworldly being who utilized games to trivialize their arcane capabilities. It was no wonder he couldn't take this seriously, why would he? He was trickster. A cosmic leveled deviant. Savaj dissected everything should could gather from Zero's psyche in the time it took him to respond to her sentence. Her mind's touch was surgical. He wouldn't have suffered any pain or discomfort in the slightest, but considering how sensitive Zero is to the natural ebb and flow of Naten, she figured he may get the chills.

But that was neither here nor there.
"You found him."

Zero sighed.. He turned to meet the owner of the gaze piercing him with a voice over carrying the wrath of god imparted solely on his image. Looking up, the figure stared directly down her nose at him, judgmental, but concerned.

"I don't think we've met, but you have my attention for.."

He lazily motioned his hands to the scene stopped mid-conversation around him, Qarinah mid-sentence, waves mid-crash, and the site of his home leveled and frozen.

"Now. How can I help you?"

He shot her a toothy grin, playing coy while he positioned himself directly between his new acquaintance.
Savaj only asked him to see if he would lie. God she wanted him to lie, to be guilty. To be just as duplicitous as man he allied himself with. Just as evil, just as oppressive. How else could they have accomplished so much together? Surely the two of them accumulated a wealth of skeletons during their centuries as comrades, a bond such as that would have no ails. No secrets. Two faces of the same coin. How else would they managed to survivie so long? But again these were only stories. Legends and fables illustrating the fall of Kemet. And much to her chargin, they couldn't have been more incorrect.

Before today, Savaj imagined Zero to be more than ahundred times his age. The stories she heard assured her a wizard would be where this lean man was standing. Some spectral entity, unbound by man forged concept. Not this..

This was the fastest creature alive? The paradigm of the sky was a man, too young be her father? Slim. Human. Flesh and bone. She didn't believe it, but her telepathic analysis of his exploits assured her the truth. Zero's twenty odd years distanced himself from his counter part by light years. She saw him command the levitathan order as powerful leader whose actions, though rash and impulsive, ellicited love from those who chose to follow him, not fear. She went even further, from his escapades in Arturus, to his defiant stand against the Horsemen, till now, as he defended his sector of the realm as the Akumakage of the Neo-Nightmare. Savaj flipped through his memories until she was certain. He was nothing like the man she was ready to kill.

"..well.. you're nothing like I'd thought you'd be."

Bloodlust left a sour taste in her mouth as she folded her arms and pacified her emotions. She barely opened her mouth to speak. Her words despite how she may have conveyed them, was intended to be a compliment. Savaj was a bit transfixed, but more relieved than she was willing to admit. Naturally, Savaj came here with every intention of venting through some life altering information. But perhaps she stumbled on something more important than a punching bag. She took a second to gather her thoughts as her eyes were drawn back to the slab of malevolent power. And then her eyes fell on Qarinah before they returned to Zero.

"..why do you surround yourself with those who do not value life the way you do?"

She asked plainly. Her voice returned to normal, and the heat in her gaze softened to a simmer. Still, there a sentiment of condemnation about her. As if she still had Zero under a microscope, even though she telepathically cleared him of any historical crimes against her or her siblings.

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Zero Venkage
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Re: Treading New Waters

Post by Zero Venkage »

"Two questions in and I still have no idea who you are. Nice to meet you. What's it to you anyway?"

Zero looked the girl over once, twice, three times inspecting her from head to toe. Still, he drew a complete blank on the person standing in front of him. Her presence commanded the attention of every particle of time in the vicinity, imposing her will seemingly as easily as she drew breath. It was that east that worried Zero, enhanced with the razor's edge focus she trained on his lithe frame.

At the same time felt a shiver run through his spine, an invasive presence deeper than her oppressing his airspace crawl up the back of his neck.

Yikes, and she's a psychic?

Psionic energy ranked last in Zero's favorite class of abilities, he had horrible luck dealing with psychics without settling on overpowering them outright. He also already returned the Waves of Horus to Uran and now lacked any substantial affinity for time manipulation with them out of his possession leaving him at her whim for the moment, playing nice with the new girl hoping to leave unscathed.

Women just appeared out of nowhere and wanted to know what he was about, for better or worse. In most settings Zero relished in the attention, though the new participant entered fired up already. He appreciated Qarina's straight forward nature, leaving the questions until after mutual introductions.

"It's rude to read things not meant for you, you know."

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