Things to Remember (Quest!)

[lysander]

Lysander felt his weakness pour from his body as strength filled him once more. Getting to his feet with new hope filling him, Lysander immediately met a scene of harsh reprisal. As the beast gathered its power, the cowboy raced forward, then in a flick of his moment, spun on heel as he grabbed Magus by the crook of his arm. "Come on."[/color] He commanded in an urgent mutter, with a gentle tug on the others arm, just as the surge of power was concentrating itself.

It wasn't that he was trying to tell Magus what to do, or that he didn't think Magus knew what was coming. It was because he had a plan. Digging his feet down, he made a mad dash back for... One of the empty shops! He wasn't looking around to make sure Magus was keeping up; he knew that the other should be able to make it, and if Magus wasn't keeping up, he could spare a little extra telekinesis to help him along. It was just as he was within reaching distance of the shop counter that the wave of sound hit him, jarring his senses, causing him to topple over the counter. He was partially caught by the invisible wall and thrust forward, though other than a bruise on his leg, no incredible damage had been sustained. He lay on the other side of the counter, on the inside of the shop, breathing heavily.[/size]

[nascent]

Magus had followed hot on the cowboy's heels, casting a quick barrier on himself as he sensed the enemy's buildup of power. This was not going as well as he'd hoped. He was still just behind Lysander when the cacophonous wave hit; the mage grit his teeth and bore the mental anguish from what was assailing his ears and drowning out his thoughts, spurred to quicken his pace. He was right alongside his ally when the wall struck against the building, shaking dust from every ceiling and wall and sending loose items crashing to the ground.

The two exchanged glances, keenly aware that the enemy had them pinned. For the moment they had a refuge... but against a foe who could reach through portals and grab them, it may as well have been a cardboard box. What they needed was a plan... and Magus had an idea.

There was no speech -- with the way their ears were ringing, the two probably couldn't have heard each other anyway. Magus made the shape of a gun with his hand and nodded in the thief's direction, then pointed to himself and then the roof. With that he crouched low, doing his best to remain unseen, and hastened for the shop's inner door. With the barrier still enshrouding him there was a possibility the creature wouldn't be able to sense his location... still, this was going to be tricky.

All he could do was try, and hope his partner could guess what he had in mind.

[prythian]

A wicked chuckle echoed through the air at the reaction. Flee in terror, ants! The voice called out. You face the power of Kalith the Ever-Reaching! ((XD I can't believe I typed that with a straight face. He completely made it up, so you know.)) The creature shot a hand into a portal and the portal appeared in the shop. The hand started feeling around, swiping randomly with its claws. Meanwhile, black wind gathered in Kalith's hands. It was doing something.

[lysander]

32 Shots Before Next Reload
Even Distribution

[/i]

Lysander grunted, and unlike normal circumstances, he was surprised to find that he couldn't hear himself. Moving up against the back of the counter beside Magus, he swallowed hard and looked over at the other man. The ringing in his ears was really doing something on him, making focusing difficult. Blinking a few times, he watched Magus make several hand signals, vaguely following. He nodded, opening to mouth to speak, but couldn't hear his own words and just shook his head as if to say 'Nevermind'.

Drawing a breath in deep, Lysander noted Magus's move towards the inner door and the part of the plan he'd missed made a little more sense. Of course, the thief couldn't help but butt in. While Magus was crossing the room, another hand shot out of a portal, whipping about the room to try and find one of the two. At this rate, Magus was going to be found out. Thinking on his toes, Lysander pointed to a mop. It rose into the air, and carefully he brought it around to play the cloth end along the side of the monster's hand, the opposite direction of Magus, for just long enough that the sorcerer could make it to the inner door. His gun appeared in his free hand, he made two shots at the hand (though with this incessant ringing whether or not he hit was open to dispute), and then decided to do what he was here for.

He shambled to his feet quickly, wrenching himself over the counter and stumbled several feet. Straightening himself out, his weapons appeared around him. His cleavers shot upwards into the air, while he palmed his other gun, and made a run straight for Kalith the Ever-Reaching. In those few seconds while he was getting reacquainted with his sense of balance on his mad dash toward the monster, he fired off another six shots at the main body.

Kicking his legs beneath him he slid underneath the mass of arms, firing off another four shots. Rolling back up to his feet, he sprinted for the cover of an adjacent building and emptied the revolvers over his shoulders. Whatever Magus was planning, he hoped his harassment tactics were working. He always kept the building in sight, and would look over every few seconds to see if anything was happening there yet.[/size]

[nascent]

Magus had to admit that it truly was convenient, having a teammate who could cover him in a pinch. While he didn't like the idea of growing reliant on others, he could hardly afford to turn down an alliance of necessity such as this. Lysander was proving himself competent both as a combatant and strategist, which was exactly what Magus needed at a time like this.

Now fully within the building and well out of sight, the shadowmage wasted no time in finding the stairs. In fact, it wasn't even an exaggeration to say that he seemed to fly up to the second floor -- literally, since his feet never touched the floor until he reached the top. It took him a minute to find what he was searching for; the pull-down staircase leading to the building's roof access was tucked away in a back corner. He drew the access open as quietly as he was able, knowing silence was key to making this plan work. He could only hope that the self-stylized "Ever-Reaching" thief was half so deafened by the sonic shockwave as he and the cowboy were.

Dream Reaper in hand, Magus vaulted up onto the roof. Finally in place for his attack, the shadowmage quickly began weaving a spell. With himself at the center a radiant circle formed upon the ground at his feet, sending tendrils of light in towards the center as a shape began to take form... the shape of a rune-scrawled clock with hands spinning ever-faster. Throwing his free hand back to dramatically push aside the edge of his cape, Magus grinned confidently; a faint bronze-hued aura radiated from the edges of his body.

Now... now he would put an end to this.

Gripping his weapon in both hands, his footsteps beat a rapid pace for the roof's edge and with a single jump off the edge he was suddenly airborne, moving with intense speed. Trailing after-images, Magus prepared to cut his foe down bit by bit -- with Haste putting speed on his side, he'd use a series of passing strikes to de-limb Kalith like an overgrown shrub, rebounding off of nearby buildings for the greatest efficiency of motion. The element of surprise would mean that by the time the thief could react it would have lost any hope of advantage (or so Magus presumed). This day, Dream Reaper would harvest another unworthy soul... but not before Kalith surrendered those things which he had taken.

[prythian]

The bullets shot forwards, hitting not an arm or hand but Kalith's core. However, the elasticity of Kalith's body made them bend the skin inwards... and then the skin repelled them, firing them back at Lysander. It wouldn't be accurate, because there was no aiming, but it would make him have to try and avoid them.

What Kalith didn't count on was a melee assault. The scythe moved through the air and Magus moved so quickly that Kalith had no chance to dodge. Again, the elasticity of the body preventing any loss of limbs, but Kalith now had a great deal of cuts all over his arms and core. White sparks shot out of the cuts on the core, and Kalith ceased hovering, collapsing to the ground. It's not fair... Kalith moaned. It's just not fair... all Nobodies are meant to have their own memories... where are mine? The voice had nothing in it... not even false emotions. Where are my memories... where is my heart? Where... Oh, magician, you are the same as me. We are more alike than you know... we WILL meet again...

The black winds swirled around Kalith, his body still leaking bursts of white sparks. In his place where many items... the amulet and the diary he had stolen from Lysander and Magus on top of the pile, but many other items there besides. Dolls, rings, even good luck charms. These, then, were the items that Kalith had stolen to read the memories of.

((Once you each post, I'll give you your Quest completion reward))

[nascent]

(OOC: Whoo hoo! My first completed quest! ;D Thanks for running this, Pyrth!)



"Hmph," Magus grunted, slowly hovering down to the ground as Haste's effects faded in luminous wisps. His feet met the ground nearby the pile of stolen articles, looking it over briefly as he silently mused over the creature's departing words. So, that thing was also a Nobody... like he himself? It seemed strange, different... though that did explain the lesser white husks it had summoned earlier. But the same as him?

"No... you and I are different, fool." The warlock muttered to himself, reaching down and taking up his amulet in one hand. "Absens haeres non erit. Next time we meet, Kalith, I shall prove it to you."

With that, Magus reached down and took the book in his other hand, guessing it to be what had been taken from his companion. Gazing briefly at its cover, he looked over to see Lysander's reaction to him holding it. For several long moments he regarded the outside of the tome with a curious gaze... then walked over to the battle-marred cowboy, offering the unopened journal.

"Spoilers." A faint upturning of the corner of his lips accompanied his surrendering of the book. "Are you alright?"

No matter how they parted ways, Magus would be certain to remember this brave, if peculiar, man to whom he owed a debt of gratitude. Hopefully they would have the good fortune of meeting again.

[lysander]

((Haha, yeah, I'm with Nascent on this one. Twas a good fun quest, and my first. Definitely a good way to start the conquest.

Lysander managed to avoid most of the bullets that were sent back at him, suffering only a few scratches, but he didn't provide as much cover fire as he would've liked to with all the spent time. In the other hand, Magus didn't seem to need it, burning through air. Bright white slashes bloomed from the blur of his scythe, leaving only the shriveled and dying husk of a tired creature upon the ground. It's death speech unnerved Lysander. He'd had run-ins with Nobodies. Plenty of them, and they were all that much harder to kill than Heartless. Heartless were monsters, bent on destruction, with no greater ambition than removal of the light. Nobodies were almost human. They were more than human.

All in the course of a day he'd come to some empty place to spread joy and freedom, been coerced into fighting multiple different parties, and in the end had to kill a creature that was only seeking itself. A lost child, desperately wanting a heart, desperately clinging to what little it had while it only wanted to regain a semblance of reality in it's otherwise so lost and disoriented life. He knew that this "Kalith" had been trying to kill him only seconds ago, and yet the pile of memories that lay where he had been only reminded Lysander of the loss in his own life. He did not feel sorry for Kalith. He felt sorry with him.

Then, suddenly, in his moment of introverted sadness, although he didn't know how, his journal was in his hands. He opened it to the first page, reading it with a murmur as if he were reading someone else's diary.

"Dear Diary, I'm still alive today. They say that if I do good work, they'll keep me around. I don't know for what, but anything will be better than Calico..."

The flutter of pages.

"Dear Diary, The Lieutenant announced that a spy was captured today. Some of the older guys gave me strange looks, but wouldn't tell me why. By the way! I'll turn fifteen next week. Some of the guys said they'll take me drinking. I'm kind of excited, but scared to be honest."

More pages.

"Dear Diary, It's been a week since I was ordered to kill the spy. The Lieutenant had confiscated my guns for showing off... I had to use my cleavers. Oh god, I still feel sick. I hope I never have to do that again. I had to burn my shirt, it was so covered with blood. I hope I never have to do that again. I'm so sorry... My birthday party wasn't that great either. I can't remember much, but they tell me I was all sorts of sobbing, and throwing up. But hey... Now I'm fifteen, right? I'm just like an adult now."
"They had me kill a family of rebels. Their mother plead for her childrens' lives. Two little girls, and an unborn son. I can't keep doing this."
"I razed a town to the ground today..."
"...My sixteenth birthday is coming up..."
"...I feel so sick."
"I'm sorry."

And after that last entry, each page for almost a quarter of the thick leatherbound book was covered from top to bottom in tally marks. What could they mean? "Thanks."[/color] He muttered, looking up to the valiant magician. He had one of those smiles that didn't quite reach all the way up. His eyes cradled a look of reminiscent sorrow. He couldn't escape fighting. He couldn't escape killing. "Hopefully next time, we can just sit around and have a little coffee."[/color][/size]

[prythian]

The air of menace was gone from Twilight Town, the thief vanquished. Something did feel amiss about how it had disappeared, and the speech it gave before hand was disturbing in its own way, but peace had been brought to the town.

Quest Rewards:
54 munny
Mythril Crystal


((Yes, you each get one Mythril Crystal. I've already added your munny. I'd suggest starting an inventory thread.))