Vaude

You would be correct, Elrandir. Mystics meant that Shiva's reincarnation/lookalike would have a different life and personality in total, though Solstice's (I love that name) soul, and perhaps affinity for water, would be transpositioned to her.

Feeling slighted by Solomond and the others for their not responding to her detailed report, Adamina huffed and stormed off, concluding that, if nobody was going to listen, she had to work on it herself. Like many young Lofts, she was not shy to take action herself if the need, or the desire, arose, and arise the desire did. It would not prove her any harm, after all. A little snooping, a little secrecy, and only the slightest trace of risk, and she would return with concrete evidence of Greyhawk's whereabouts. That would be worth it all, and maybe an added bonus. With this thought process in both minds, she merged with the crowds of onlookers and traders again, slipping ever closer to the suite until she stopped just outside of the building. Now, how to infiltrate, she thought to herself, analysing the situation before her.

- Reclaimant Odin, stepping out back into the villa and heading back to the meeting area - Odin did not lose much time, expecting that others would be searching for Raiden within the hour, and made the exchange of clothes with the electrified dust on the ground, absorbing the last of the dust with the magic of absolute grounding as he did so. Feeling complete, he looked over to the fell djinni, the wide grin still spread upon its umbral lampshade. "Odin. Odin Odin Odin! What a lovely name. Do you have a last name to compliment it?" remarked the shadow. "I discarded it from use. Few remember it now. Nihil, was it? According to the ancient laws, I am privy to another wish, being not the same man as before, am I right?" Nihil's eyes lit up as he returned with a wild, oily "Yes!" "Hm," grunted Odin, glancing over to the site of his death and rebirth. "Teshub should have been more prepared. He knew you were a twister of words, but he did not know he would have needed your aid beyond a wish in remaking me. In the end, you did as the wish granted, though not in the quickest, easiest sense." He took several steps toward Nihil and stopped a short ways away, staring the creature fully in the face. Nihil recoiled slightly. "Let us be off, this time with a different manner of travel." Grabbing the neck of the lamp, he dematerialised the lamp so that it was no longer in this dimension, displacing it entirely into a non-physical plane of existence. Nihil hissed at the realisation before winking out of this world. "And now for the last thing," Odin continued, bending over his discarded robes from Teshub and tearing the white sash in half to the atom with electricity. With it, he tied it around his head, hiding his empty socket. A smile welled on his face. "Good as new." Leaving the room behind, he slipped back up to the surface, taking the same route as the halves did before, and started heading back to the room where everyone was gathered.

I kind of read this whole exchange about Umbra as the Elder Scrolls Umbra. Same gist, entirely different individual . . . unless Umbra took on his sword's name. All-in-all, this is pretty cool stuff. I love the idea of a reincarnated Shiva.

I'm more of an orange marmalade sort of person with my shrimp, actually. Do you have any?

- Rufus Contralto, with Athena, Rabiyu, and Aura - Rufus blinked a few times and smiled, glad to see that the princess had something to wish for, something that would have benefited not only herself but her father too. Crackling his knuckles, he did his little jig, zipping around like a lagging individual in a video game (whatever that was), and shook his hands up towards the heavens. "Zippy zoopy bippidy Grand Pooh-Bah, make the appearance exactly as she wants it to be so that the wish will be granted in full . . . dah!" A poof of nose-overloading candle scents later, Athena would find herself the way she was, or rather the way she would have been at her current age of someone in her early twenties. Feeling satisfied that the incantation worked better than he expected -- he still had the image of her being doglike stuck in his garbled head -- he crossed his arms and beamed with pride. "All set!" he piped. "Your other form has been cracked like an eggshell to expose the gooey egg innards that is the real you. You should go out and show it off to the world, starting with your father, methinks." - Lord Raiden, currently at Raiden's villa with the gathering of individuals - Raiden nodded towards Mariel and Sifrei, gladdened of their return to the room. There were still a number of individuals that had not yet reconvened, but given time they will all come back, he was certain of it. "Faint of heart" was not anything he would call anybody within this assortment of remarkable people. The doors opened anew, this time with a man masquerading as a grinning horned ogre slipping through it. The Infiltrator had returned from wherever he had disappeared to, likely withdrawing in solitude, and raised his head high, looking directly ahead of him with a hyperfocused aura about him. "Lord Raiden, we need to talk . . . in private. It regards something of the utmost urgency, and it cannot tarry for long," Teshub spoke smoothly without mincing words. The lord of Mystras took a glance about the room while he frowned in uncertainty, then nodded his head and started toward the door. The Infiltrator walked alongside him, though Raiden stopped at the door and commented to the entire assembly, "I will come back momentarily. Please be patient until I return." The two stepped out and closed the doors behind them as a small courtesy. "The secret room below the villa should suffice. The rooms are crowded with people due to your generosity, and prying eyes could be anywhere with the exception of a place no one knows besides ourselves." "Agreed," voiced Raiden, his eyes wandering over to his makeshift twin speculatively. Something really shook him, it seemed, to make him as careful and cautious as he was right now. "Let us take the fern's trap door to access the underground, then we will go from there." With a nod, the Infiltrator led the way through the number of people in the hallways, waited for an appropriate moment when nobody seemed to be looking in their direction, and triggered a hidden plate on the wall next to a nearby fern. With the button pressed, the two slipped into the trap door that led to the vacant tunnels beneath the manor. ~~ ~~ ~~ The cobwebbed appearance of the underground tunnel was entirely a ruse, the tunnels seeing far more use than that of emergency situations. In order to escape the prying eye of servants and spies, Raiden and Teshub each made frequent trips within these narrow cavities, and both triggered a small, gyrating ball of lightning to serve as their guides through this labyrinth of wooden boards and dirt walls. Finally they arrived at yet another hidden door, opening up sideways to reveal a deep hole that led deeper into the earth. Both dropped within seconds of each other, and the third and final door which lay before them cranked open automatically, sensing their approach. Electric lights buzzed overhead, revealing a white room that seemed more like an underground bunker than anything else. The bare-bones appearance, like always, was not really so, and was laden with nonperishable supplies and a small armory of weaponry gathered over the years. Magic-proof walls braced with lead and steel enclosed the entire room with the exception of the door. To say the two were prepared for calamity would have been an understatement. "So what is this about, Teshub?" Raiden queried, breaking the silence that reigned over them for two minutes or so. The Infiltrator removed his mask, his twinned face gazing dead into Raiden's. He looked pale, unnerving Raiden a little more than before. What was going on? he wondered internally. "This is about a lot of things, though you already know about many of them," returned the Infiltrator, sighing heavily as he broke the stare. "Let me begin with this: have you gotten over Shiva's death yet, or rather Shiva herself?" Raiden glowered at the man, disgusted by the question. "Of course not!" he spat. "What kind of opening is that for something urgent?" "It is perfectly understandable. The reason is that Odin is calling." Raiden swallowed hard, comprehending what Teshub meant. The many surges that encompassed him as of late, the crushing imposement of memories that were not his but that of someone who he was before -- it was Odin's rallying cry, a hearkening of the past that happened with every separation, and every fusion. "It is time for him to come back, and Shiva was the driving reason for his separation, as you probably well recall. Hah, unless you've forgotten!" commented further Teshub, his voice obscenely mocking. "I haven't forgotten," Raiden seethed venomously, staring daggers at The Infiltrator. "Odin was faced with a terrible choice, like all the other times, and like all the other times since he drank from the Well of Wisdom and divined the Bifurcation we were born. You were born through his rejection of Shiva, and I of his continued faith in her." "And now she is gone," The Infiltrator commented callously. "How can a woman, wife or not, hold any faith after death? What stops you from giving up this charade, this shrapnel of life you still cling to that is part of something much larger than yourself?" "Legacy," came Raiden, as spiteful as before, pointing a finger at Teshub as he walked around the room. "What she failed to achieve in life, I will help her achieve in death, only in my own way. I do not need Odin to guide me down this path, and neither do you. You are your own person like me. Why do you feel so compelled to return to the way things were?" Teshub sneered and folded his arms, following the circle in which Raiden paced with locked eyes. "I do not need to answer to you, being your equal, or maybe your better. To whom I would answer . . . is Odin. Nihil!" "Yes?" came the oily, noxious voice of the lamp's shadow. Raiden performed a swift glance at the lamp in the corner, having not noticed it sooner. His eyes narrowed tightly. "I shall make a wish. I wish for us to return to our previous state as Odin." "NO!" yelled Raiden, horror written all over his face. "A wish! A wish! Finally after all this time, a wish!" Nihil squealed in glee, the shadow freeing itself from the lampshade and enveloping the room, shattering the overhead lights as the tendrils of darkness encroached in every direction. "Wish granted!" Raiden felt the tugs of ancient magic and closed his eyes. His powers were not anything compared to a djinni's wish, and he silently prayed for the ability to resist its ability as best as he could. Seconds passed, and nothing felt different. He opened his eyes to find the surroundings just as dark as before, but Teshub's expression was red with rage. "Nihil!" he exploded, turning towards the dark djinni. "Sorry, master. I tried!" Realisation struck Raiden just as suddenly as Teshub, and the two locked themselves within each other's grasp, hand in hand, twin eyes glaring ahead into glaring twin eyes. Their strength matched each other perfectly, and both wrestled for superiority. "Teshub, you wretched cur! Other half or not, you'll pay for this!" Raiden spat out. "You're the one that will pay!" returned Teshub. "Return to oneness, and submit to the Everchange that is Odin, you false image!" A clash of raw power occurred, lightning against magnetism and electric fields, and both still seemed equally matched. Both breathed heavily from the exchange, and Nihil onlooked from the darkness with a wicked grin on his face. "There's a situation you don't see every day! However, in the end I will support my master!" Raiden witnessed his world unfold like layers of an onion, surroundings slowly expanding outward starting with the sparse furniture littering the room, then Teshub himself, then the very walls and lights surrounding him, leaving only the darkness that surrounded him. Quickly realising that this was illusion magic, Raiden prepared his search magic with a few hand signs, but by then it was too late. A hand plunged deep into his stomach, and he witnessed his own mirror image looking down at him with a victorious smile. "Finally, after all these years . . . I can feel the richness of his memories," Teshub voiced, a laugh erupting from his throat as he closed his eyes. "Goodbye, brother. You should have realised this sooner, that we two would return to the one." With a cry of one who was being torn piece by infinitesimal piece all at once, Raiden erupted into a cloud of electrostatic dust that trailed around Teshub. The change took seconds, but in the end Teshub stood there, motionless. Nihil watched in keen interest as he retreated back into his lamp. A minute later, the man moved. "Teshub, is that you?" "Indeed and indeed not, young one," came the man, opening his eyelids. Within one, there was nothing but darkness, and beneath both there was a wide grin. "It is I, Odin."

Knowing Sabre's love for the genre, I know exactly what it is. IT. IS.

Adamina slipped into an alleyway, bypassing the location where Eclaire sought out her information, oddly enough, and glanced behind to see if she was followed or not. Feeling satisfied that she was quite alone, she slipped a claw to her comlink and rang up Solomond, as well as anyone else who had their comlinks turned on (if they had them). "Solomond. Adamina here. It seems there are a few areas of interest within the space station regarding the captain. The bar is a hotspot of activity, but there is also a private suite where deals go down relating to wet smuggling. The source I got it from is very reliable." She paused, thinking over the situation with gravity, her eyelids fluttering as her two brains communicated with each other quite speedily. "If there's any bet of finding him, it is either at the Serpent's Envy or this suite when the next deal is set up, either by someone else or by us. There is a third option pertaining to a warehouse, but that's best left to us if we need immediate cash. Illegally harvested organs are assumed to be set up in there of various races for wet smuggling. This could be worth a pretty penny if sold to the black market, though hospitals would reward almost equally for them. "I feel the suite is our best bet, but with all said what're your thoughts?"

What is your favourite genre of movie or show? What is your favourite food? Least favourite music? If you had to choose one utensil to use throughout the rest of your life, which would it be: a spoon, a fork, a knife, or chopsticks? Do you like snails? These are getting kind of out there, but, hey, anything covers a lot of ground. =P

An index sounds good to me. There will probably be a number of alien races with this creative group. Also, yuan-ti and mindflayers? Nice. I wonder if the Gith are in space too. Adamina would like to get her hands on a Sword of Gith.

Because you are an inclined Detroiter android who is very much desirous to become a homo sapiens! That or it is a good game. Either/or.

Apologies for the delay; I will post tomorrow. I am working longer hours for the foreseeable future on the weekdays, which is why I have not done much here.

A thousand points to whoever gets the reference with Eddie the Mammoth.

((Boom.)) The avian chuckled at Tibarn's comment before gearing up herself, throwing a small bugged microphone inside her comlink and adding her weapon of choice, a telescoping quarterstaff with a few added modifications. Resetting one and pouching the other within a fold of her skirt, she headed out the entry doors of the ship alongside the others. The throngs were thick with humans and held traces of aliens, which Adamina appreciated a bit, and there was not a Loft in sight, which she appreciated better. The last run-in with her own race on this station did not end very well, though it was good to see diversity within the ranks of the common citizens, scoundrels, tradesmen, and quacks. Her first stop was a medical front she knew of from her days before a mercenary. She knew the manager of the store, a man known by two names, who belted out his wares over the shouts of other salespersons. Hired help of the usual sort, ones that openly carried stun wands and electric guns, surveyed the crowds alongside each other, taking bets on random whatevers and making ear-turning comments regarding the passers-by. "Hearken to the counter of Apothecary Sal to get your medical merch. Salves, bandages, vaccines, and everyday meds, I've got them all at rates that'll knock your socks off, if you've got the feet for them!" "Hello, Eddie," Adamina commented, her voice low as she came close. Apothecary Sal perked up upon seeing her and lifted a brow and a side of his smirking face. The skin graft was not enough to hide the damaged right side of his face from her eyes. However, that may be because she was the one that gave the skin graft to him. She was unpractised when it came to skin treatments, though it gave him back his business without need for plastic surgery from a shadier individual or the fat-cat hospitals. "Well, if it isn't a regular!" Sal piped, pleased to see her and waving her to the counter's swing door. "Come on into the back room, and be hasty about it. Don't want many people seeing you enter and think it's a walk-in." She assented and slipped within. One of the hired help tried to stop her, and the other held him back by the wrist before muttering something inaudible. Smiling, she entered the back room, with Sal, or Eddie, following closely from behind and barring the entrance with a thick bar of steel. "Now that we're alone, we can talk in private. To what can I owe the pleasure?" "The art of profiteering from someone of import. You know of Captain Greyhawk?" "I've heard of 'im, but haven't seen 'im," replied Eddie, flicking a lump of freed earwax from his pinky finger. "You haven't, have you? I thought he would have been into wet smuggling. That's your business." The back room was bone-chillingly cold, similar to a freezer, but cooled via the vacuum of deep space. If not for the dermal implants on Eddie and Adamina's feathers keeping the two warm, it would have been almost intolerable, but it was as perfect a home as it could get outside a body for the harvested organs lying about in coolers. "Indeed he is, but he ain't got my business. I've got competition, you see, and not the friendly ones that deal with drugs and vaccine needles. They're dangerous, Ads, as is Greyhawk. You'd best steer clear of them if you wanna work with them." "I'm more lining up with bringing him in for the bounty than working with him." Eddie's gaze glinted in understanding, and he winked a face-wrinkling wink with his right eye. "And I take I'll get a cut of this, ah . . . profiteering if I lend you info?" "A small cut, half a percent and not a lick more. I'm running with a crew, and they'll take notice if I take too much of a bite out of my earnings. They're a nosy bunch." "Aha, I see, though five thousand's five thousand. I'll take it, though I want it sooner than a week after I hear the news." "You will." A string of conversation going further, and Adamina ventured out of the apothecary store with her pocket emptied of an IOU but with a head full of information. If she had the possibility of smiling, she would have had quite the swelling grin on her face. This was quite the payout.

I had a question pertaining to the creativity you have granted us on the front page regarding scenes. Are you going to DM (dungeon master) the location and the situations, or are we allowed to make up the scene and some (or all) of the situations? This group has been very creative in past and present RPs and can definitely make good posts, though as your character is going to be within the ship I figure you will need something to do too. Also, I had another thought. As this is a fast-moving RP with a group used to going slower, some of us might fall behind and not have a say in some matters (e.g., Eclaire hasn't showed up yet in the roleplay and it seems most people are ready to move out). Before moving to the next scene, what say you to waiting a bit for the last characters to show up, and maybe private messaging them after an allotted time has passed, like a day or two before the scene shift?

"Aces," Adamina replied, sounding pleased as she scanned the crew. "I wouldn't be good in a bar if things go south unless people need saving. I'll leave that for someone else and be on comlink." She tapped the device hidden within the feathers of her neck with a talon before returning her arms to a folded position and leaning back onto the wall again. Her stance was an old habit, and old habits die hard. "We'd best split up to individuals and search for information that way, though it would be recommended to stay close to each other just in case. SOS for help if you need it, don't get shot, and we'll reconvene at the ship in three standard hours. That is, if that's all right with you, captain."

"This had better not be more dangerous than the space battle with Zod and the Primrose," came next the squawky voice of Adamina as she leaned against the inner hull, wings folded and sharp eyes analysing the picture. Trained killers were commonplace in the underworlds she once frequented, though when it came to spacers these thugs were worlds apart. The word "battle-honed" came to mind, and within space all kinds of fights could be seen, from the petty feuds and duels to private armadas pitted against each other. In space stations, one had to be especially cautious about heading into the lion's den. Security is minimal unless one can afford it, and criminals have fatter pockets than the owner of the space station, she would wager. "But," she sighed, unfolding herself and leaning in closer to the wanted poster, "the pay is good, and the locality is tempting. I'd rather get him here than on Gors-bash after picking leeches off you all, though like Jake I am worried about this rumour. We need to gather some info first, and a few folks here would be perfect for the job. Once we know a few of his haunts, we can rein him in."

@Heart of Ferria I have made some minor tweaks to my character sheet for Adamina, changing up her mechanical prowess to healing prowess. Thank you for waiting on me; I am good to go now!

After checking out the character sheets, there will be a lot of fixers on this failing ship, so I will change out my character's mechanical finesse with something more associated with "Head of Medbay." I will try to do this tonight.

At the beckoning of Mystics, I have come, and I'm game for this adventure! Let's see what I can do with my character sheet. ~~ ~~ ~~ Name: Adamina of the Loft. Age: 24. Appearance: While falcon-like in many ways -- brown and white feathering, clawed feet, and sharp eyesight -- Adamina has arms with clawed hands along with her wings and legs. Her wings have proven useful from time to time but inconvenient for other times, like fittings for spacesuits. Typically she is dressed in a long white skirt and a golden-beaded headdress, and very rarely does she wear anything else. Her slender, animalistic physique does not need anything else. She has fragile, light-weight bones like the typical bird, though she can match the typical human in terms of lifting things. Background: The Loft were a quiet race once, but the past century gave rise to a new lust for adventure within the stars. Technology advanced, travel became more and more possible, and the need for more than a humble life spurred young avians to try their luck beyond their home planet. Adamina was one such individual. She tried it all, from a bright career path as a junior officer to becoming a lowly scum-of-the-earth. She now chose the life of a mercenary. She could not be tethered down by a moral code. Instead, she lived by the simplest rule that "the strong survive" and acted on it. It takes more than strength to survive, however, in the depths of space, and she learned this quick. It takes guile, finesse, the understanding of multiple roles, and financial stability that allow her to be as seasoned as she believes herself to be. In the back of her mind, she still wonders about her place in this wide universe, but cash comes first. After that, she can think about what to spend it on. Position: Contractor for Hire, Medic Personal Ability: Thoughts in Unison. The Loft's unique biology of having two separate brains make them difficult to mind-read or fully understand. Adamina's focus on this natural strength made her resolve great, resulting in great difficulty breaking her down. Skills: Resistant to mental attacks, able to fly/hover short distances, multiracial first aid, and decent eyesight. Has some training in quarterstaves. Race: Loft (alien, humanoid avian) Augments: None. Equipment: Shrinking and enlarging quarterstaff (battery-sized at the start and up to 4 metres or 13 feet at the longest), with a positron attachment to eat through matter with antimatter of limited strength; multiracial trauma kit; the clothes on her back. Stats: Strength: 10 Dexterity: 14 Constitution: 8 Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 13 Charisma: 12 ~~ ~~ ~~ I hope this is acceptable. Edit 1: Changed out skill "able to repair mildly advanced equipment" to skill "multiracial first aid". Changed out equipment "mechanic's set of multitools" to equipment "multiracial trauma kit."

- Rufus Contralto, surrounded by women on a rooftop - Rufus glanced around, baffled by the situation of being outnumbered three to one by the opposite gender, but he quickly regained his competence and returned to Athena's question, only mildly distracted by the doglike features of the individual. "That is a difficult one, that's for sure. I simply cannot do such a restitution on a massive scale, not without extraneous effort on multiple accounts beyond only my own. Time magic is the only thing that can restore so much, and time is beyond my element. I can send one back in time, as one of my former masters had asked for, but great danger lies in playing with chronothreads, as he learned. One has to worry about paradoxes, paradigms, parakeets, PARACHUTES! Catastrophe can await by ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or changing events beyond the one you crave to rectify!" Rufus blinked rapidly, wondering exactly how he became so well-versed with the all-mighty rules of time and space, before entirely foregoing the thought and concentrating on a very large mole on a distant missus. It was not the fluffy blind creature, but it certainly could be mistaken as one judging by how far the supposed beauty mark jutted out of her face. "Uh-h-h, in short, I'd not recommend trying what I talked about, not yet, anyways. Keep the wish until you know a time traveller, and then, after going through time, make the wish, if Lady Aura here wills it."

- Lord Raiden, with the remainder of the congregation in his villa's study - Raiden glanced over towards Sifrei before smiling, entirely in agreement with the thought that Mariel should join. Having her by his side would boost his own morale, and maybe that of others as well, given her experience in both lands and with all manners of individuals. Unfortunately, it would be at the cost of some great trial, one which he hoped would not detriment her too much. "I would like that very much, Sifrei. If you please it, Mariel would be among my top picks. And then there was Jynn, brash and ready for action, though quickly catching on that it was better to spend some time preparing for the situation while there was a chance than to not. Raiden felt the same way as his son did, willing to rush into the situation, but they needed manpower filled with the will to benefit both worlds and understanding of the dangers they faced. "We will not tarry for too long, an hour at the most before we would be ready to march. Secret to many, I have a craft ready for any who are unable to fly, though I can take ten at the most. The others who cannot fly need to partner up with someone who can. This way we can reach the location within several hours rather than a day or two with the normal travel and ferrying across the Sea of Clouds. This is how my Infiltrator crossed over, though the guards of Isopolis may have sealed shut the hole in their security since that day. Luckily, we have some incentive for them to listen to us long enough to enter, with or against the tide." With that, Raiden motioned an outstretched hand toward Soren. The former Sentinel may be very useful in this situation. - Rufus Contralto, with Rabiyu and Aura on the rooftops of Raiden's villa - Rufus nodded understandably, looking over at Aura with a quick scan. He had to confess that he was surprised that he would fall into the hands of a human after this all was over, something he never thought would be the case after the many, many hands of fey that touched his lamp over the several hundred years or more. However, Aura seemed level-headed enough to use him wisely, and if she would do something similar to Rabiyu, whether it be making a wish for him or for someone else, he had full trust that she would make good decisions. "All right, let's get this over and done with. For better or worse, brace yourselves, you two," he voiced, crackling his knuckles as a wind smelling of dust and Yankee Candle candles surged around him. "Athena Niles of the human realm, I beckon thee, with the old arts and magicks, come forth to this spot before me!" ((Sorry for the hold-up, ladies and gents. I did not realise I was blocking continuation here.))

Don't slam the thought too hard. James McCloud, Fox's dad, is an F-Zero pilot. =P

Star Fox! This is a topic that matches my interests greatly, as over the years I have come to greatly appreciate the series. Out of all the choices, and even with the silly Saurian language, I loved Adventures and Assault the most, with Krystal being a slightly intriguing character to add to the roster. Adventures might never get a sequel in terms of gameplay, as it was originally going to be a standalone game that was eventually cancelled for the N64, but it offered an interesting perspective to the Star Fox franchise. Assault will likely get a sequel if any, with a bigger fanbase than most and fun gameplay, not to mention an entirely different final boss than Andross. With that said, Assault gets my vote.

- Rufus Contralto, Mystras with Rabiyu and Aura - Rufus listened in with more and more curiosity throughout the conversations that enveloped him, from the dialogue about the genie wish to that of this mysterious Source of All Life to further dialogue about a genie wish. It seemed as if much was going on within the course of a short time, and while he was blind within the all-encompassing lava lamp he felt as if he could see them purely through their voice, as if knowing some people had given him a better understanding of judging what they may have looked like. He did not like at all what he pictured a few people to be, Raiden having a wrinkled big nose and Alderon almost obcenely rotund in every feature imaginable, like a sentient bologna, but he had to remind himself that that is all in the mind's eye. Withdrawing from the lamp upon the summons of his mistress, he erupted forth from the cap and stretched out wide. Loads of molten wax came out with him and fell to the ground, but they disappeared within it. The globules of fake lava was just as ethereal as he was, it seemed, though he paid no nevermind towards it. "You beckoned, milady? Am I to understand you wanted a wish from moi, the illustrious sole resident of Lampland?" he voiced beautifully, puffing out his pathetically skinny chest in great pride. In all honesty, he was proud. Rabiyu's wish would mean someone else's happiness than just his own, if it were to be successful, and that would have brought a tear to his eye had he not been drifting in water originally. He waited patiently, a wide smile on his face. - Lord Raiden, within his residence in Mystras with lots of folks - Raiden listened carefully to everyone within earshot, obtaining a great number of yeas from within the audience, including the obscure acceptance of Alastor who listened in from the opposite side of the door and stepped inside the room. Much insight and cleverness was provided by the audience as well, by which Raiden had to be impressed. This group was well-traveled and well-versed, especially with Soren's provided knowledge, and he had to agree with a great many people. "If Yevgeni is indeed in full knowledge of this information, and the reason for the mess of the world below's destruction, we must head out at all speed, after a moment to collect everyone who may be willing to join us. The more people there are, the better our chances of entering Isopolis with a wider pool of experience, though . . . this trial situation leaves me worried. Once we make our way through, the trials may prove to best a great number of us, and I would rather not lose anyone to imprisonment or death. "Regardless," he continued with a heavy sigh and a small smile, "through our combined efforts we will prevail. Wrongs will be righted once we reestablish the world below to its prior glory, and this final battle, as the good king had mentioned, will be fought in recognition of the unity of two peoples." He rose to full height, feeling renewed vigor coursing through him. "Prepare for the trek. Whether by travel or by wishing thanks to Rabiyu's djinni, the road before us will prove tiring." - Jari Coriander, within Mystras and post-celebration - A fair amount of time spent with people he knew had passed, and Jari, after receiving many pats on the back and farewells from his extensive family, left the Burrow through a hidden passage leading to the sewers and out of a manhole. He could not fit through the normal entrance and opted for the next best fit. The stench was not as strong as it previously seemed to be, even if it was still overwhelming. Was this due to his newfound ascendance into being a kitsune, or was it that his nose grew duller since his youth when he last frequented this passage? He did not know, but he was relieved all the same. Entering the open air, he felt the need to leave the city, start fresh. Had he not had prior arrangements and people to protect, he would have tried hitting the road and doing more adventuring, exploring his newfound abilities and seeking out lively action. All that dwarfed in comparison to protection, however. Kouroo, Hesil, Elia, Shirou, Aqua, and many others -- he wanted to defend them all and ensure their happiness. If he could do that, he could die happy. The thought resonated deep within him, a tremendous difference from the mere heartpatters within his cowardly foxchild self. It was as if he were reborn. With that kind of attitude, Jari stepped forth from the Mystran gates, feeling ready to tackle any obstacle, even if it meant entering another war.