Fantasy Conatus - The Great War

[Fred Colon]

"I think he just climbed into the rafters." Rena said, still lying on the floor. She didn't think she was going to finish loosening all her muscles in her Shavasana pose, she sighed through her nose and opened her eyes again.
"Howdy. You're Alias, yea? Awesome. We can get moving then. I'm super excited for this long fucking trip with everybody. We're all one big happy family here, going on a road trip... A sky trip? Anyway. That's Avaline," she said, pointing to where Avaline sat. "She's the smart one. I'm Rena, the charming, beautiful, tough gal. Rosaria is the stuck up one. We've got an opening for a loveable goofball, or a maybe a strong stoic type. Gotta have all our archetypal bases covered."
enterelysium Enolx KingofAesir

 

[enterelysium]

"Do you have space for an overly confident strong stoic type?" She begins tying her hair back into a ponytail. "or is that already taken too?" Her soft accent and lilting voice in contrast to her muscled body. "Also, yes, I am Alias, It's nice to meet you both." Her grin falters for a second, coming back halfway before disappearing again. "I should probably get started on my exercises, if you have any questions or want to talk just ask" She flashes a smile again, this time turning away before it goes, and begins doing a complex looking kata.

 

[Fred Colon]

"Everybody is taking my idea, Avaline. I was working out first." Rena said, finally sitting up from her position on the floor.
"I guess there can be a little overlap. I've already got overconfident down, but we can share and you can have stoic while I take charming."
enterelysium KingofAesir

 

[enterelysium]

She breaks in the middle of her kata and stares Rena down, her face contorted into a look of contempt. "cant I be both?" Her lips twist from a frown into a smile and she laughs, "don't worry, I'm just messing with you, I'm not actually mad"
KingofAesir Fred Colon

 

[Fred Colon]

Rena grunts a laugh.
"Sorry. Nope. Mutually exclusive. Should we tell the driver to get going now that we are all here?"

 

[KingofAesir]

Aveline was pleasantly taken by surprise when Alias finally graced them with her presence. It was good that she didn't seem too cocky. Aveline didn't think she could stand any more of that when they already had Rena and Rosaria. Alias seemed alright. Aveline was glad for it. Aveline didn't quite recognize her accent and she assumed that it was because she was from somewhere else. When you're a gutter rat you don't typically get too much time to travel. She liked it though, it was a nice change.

"Awe, you think I'm smart?" Aveline batted her eyelashes jokingly at Rena, "I'm flattered, Spitfire." A nickname. Aveline didn't know where it had come from but she decided she'd run with it. She turned to Alias, doing whatever she was doing and chuckled. What was it with these people and weird exercises?

"Good to meet you. You guys have weird exercising techniques, I'm just your run of the mill push ups and sit ups type of gal." She thought for a moment and then added on to her statement, "I like to run too. I'm pretty good at it, Rena will tell you. I was slippery as hell when it came to the authority back home. You can't arrest what you can't catch."

Fred Colon enterelysium

 

[enterelysium]

Alias grinned to herself when Avaline mentioned running from authority. Cocking her head slightly, she turned towards Avaline smiling cheekily. "You had to run from the authority too huh? I think we'll get along well. Although, I bet you've never done anything as bad as what I did." She drew her saber. "And I don't do these exercises for the fun of it, swordsmanship takes a lot of practice."

KingofAesir Fred Colon

 

[KingofAesir]

Oh, so were they having a competition of atrocities now? While Aveline had never done anything too remarkably bad, she was now curious as to what Alias had done that made her so cocksure that she was worse than Avaline. Alias had just thrown out bait and Aveline was willing to take a nibble. She'd bite, just to see where it took them.

"I like to just call myself a street urchin, but I guess I was technically a gang member." Aveline wasn't sure Rena would want her to mention her involvement, so she'd let her speak about that herself if she wanted too, "But now I'm curious. What have you done, my fellow criminal friend?"

enterelysium

 

[enterelysium]

She grinned, ava had taken the bait. "If I told you I would have to kill you!"

 

[KingofAesir]

Damn. Well. Aveline supposed she was wrong to assume anything other than a joke would come of her curiosity. It was alright though. Aveline chuckled and finally placed the plant she had decomposed in front of her, finally giving up on trying to reverse her Ern. It was no use anyway, she doubted she'd ever be able to do it. Maybe she'd try again later.

"I'm prepared to die." Aveline smiled, "Knowledge is power, but I suppose if I'm dead that won't matter too much."

enterelysium

 

[enterelysium]

"ah, well in that case I will tell you! I tortured and murdered the man who raped and killed my mother, and all of his kin!" She lets out an obviously forced laugh, far heavier than it should have been for a frankly unfunny joke, if it even was a joke at all.

 

[KingofAesir]

Aveline was taken aback. This girl had just confessed to torturing someone and their family, Aveline glanced at Rena warily but tried not to let the sudden apprehension she felt show on her face. Maybe she was just joking around, though it wasn't a joke Aveline would have chosen herself. She supposed people had different senses of humor. Now how to continue the conversation without making this awkward?

"Well, in that case, I would prefer not to be tortured if you would be so kind." Aveline smiled, if a little forcibly, "Bad for the skin, you know?" A torturer. Wonderful. Aveline wondered how this might pan out in the future, but for now the girl seemed okay. Okay in the sense that she didn't look too torture-y at the moment.

enterelysium

 

[enterelysium]

Seeing the discomfort on the other girls' faces, she quickly apologized. "ah, I was just kidding, sorry."

 

[Fred Colon]

"Heh." Rena grunted. "That doesn't sound so bad. Seems like they had it coming."
She sat down and rubbed her eyes.
"Guessing you didn't get caught? If you didn't, it's not a great idea to be bandying about that stuff to people you don't even know. Prison sucks."

 

[Fred Colon]

The conversation died after that. Not surprising. The tone had gone from playful to serious in a split second.

Suddenly there was a rumbling and Rena moved to steady herself.

"I guess they know we're all here." The ship began to rise, and Rena hesitated. She'd never been on a ship before, but Rosaria was still here. It might look a little... childish. But then she remembered she was Rena Goddamn Tollman. Who gave a shit about what anybody else thought? She'd never been on an airship before!

She watched as the ship rose, the industrial landing pad hissing and steaming as various winches and whatever other mechanical nonsense released the flying metal monstrosity. The ground began to pull away, higher and higher and higher. Rena had always loved heights. It helped that she could more or less fly. But soon the airship reached a height that even she had never dared, and then went even higher than that! The metallic, glittery bits of Onyxport glared reflected sun at her seeming, from this distance, almost angry, or jealous that she was leaving.
"Fuck you." Rena muttered to it. "I'll be back." She realized, with a jolt, she'd also never left Onyxport before.

Rena got bored looking out the window quickly when they rose above the clouds. They were pretty, at first, but white was white was white. She was never the type to pick out shapes in clouds.

During the flight she did basically what she had been doing. Talking with Avaline, talking with the new chick, flicking crackers at people, and doing push ups when neither of those things amused her anymore.

When she got really bored she used her Ern to make Rosaria's weights weightless, just to see how he would react.

But eventually the ship began to descend. She rushed to the window again, to see what looked like endless verdant green rolling out in every direction, all around them. It was quite like the endless white above the clouds. Interesting at first, but green was green.

More interesting was the little break in the forest, the little camp that they were descending towards. When they got close enough she could see people moving about, buildings that seem cobbled together. It was different than the cobbled together buildings in Onyxport, though. There the buildings had seemed almost... leisurely cobbled together. Bits and pieces thrown together slowly over time, parts that were once seperate but had since fused into one another creating a solid, immovable, ugly whole. The buildings here hadn't had that sort of time, hadn't had that sort of leisure. They'd all been thrown together quickly and haphazardly, and Rena was sure she could have knocked one of them down with not much of a problem if she put her mind to it. Not all of them had that look, of course, but enough of them did.

Rena was waiting by the exit when the ship finally touched down, anxious to get out of the ship and to explore her new surroundings. Her first time outside of Onyxport was going to be great. She'd make sure of that, even if she had to kill someone.
enterelysium KingofAesir Enolx Edric Yuma

 

[Fred Colon]

As soon as they stepped outside they were accosted by a man who introduced himself as Dr. Shuren. He ushered them into the Titan outpost, and Rena followed along, but wasn't really listening. She was too busy scanning her surroundings.

She wasn't in Onyxport. That was weird. None of these people were in Onyxport!

She breathed a sigh of relief as the coolness of the tent washed over her. She snapped back to attention when the man mentioned 'dinner' and then when he left she made a mental note to make it to dinner early, and then began rummaging around in the Titan Outpost, looking for anything interesting.

"Looks like this is our building! The Titan Outpost! We're the bosses here, heh! And it's all official! We aren't even squatting! I've never had a building that the guards wouldn't run me out of if they found me in."

 

[enterelysium]

Alias lazily glanced around the tent, amused at Rena's antics. "It'll be nice to have a proper home for a while, we are staying here right?" She finds a place to sit down on the floor and flops down onto it, happy to be off of the airship.

 

[Enolx]

Rosaria, let his body move and set his mind to his task. Since he would be alone for his foreseeable future he needed to make sure that he gained a greater mastery of himself. Since his abilities were to control what cells could do, he had to first learn what cells were capable of. To this end, he had been studying medicine since he had discovered his powers as a child. For this purpose, he preformed his own independent research and made sure to keep on top of the latest medical journals and books, like the one he had now.

As his body began to weaken, he would use his Ern to repair himself so he wouldn’t have to stop working out. By doing this he could work his body and Ern at the same time. As he cycled through different exercises he listened in on the conversations below him and planed his next moves.

Distracted by his thoughts, he had barely registered that his weights were being lightened. The first and second time it happened, he just adjusted his workout accordingly to account for the ease. The third time he figured out what was happening and layered his cells around the weights to protect them from outside Ern influences. It was about that time that the last member of the group entered. The woman had the air of lesser nobility and was quickly grouped in with the rest. He had read the dossier on Alias Fenwick. She entered the school with a fake name but was accepted due to her capability. There was close attention placed on her due to this, but nothing that warranted removal. "Probably a bastard or excommunicated from her family. Well I will find out sooner or later," Rosaria said to himself "Not like father wouldn't already be finding out everything about her."

The conversation changed to pleasantries and Rosaria watched as the girl went through her sword forms. "Ah greater and lesser shifting winds into crashing earth," Rosaria thought with a smile "Promising, I will wish you the best." When the conversation shifted to crimes Rosaria mentally shook his head. "They put their heads in the mouth of lions." He listened with a smile during his crunches, as he learned that Avaline was also in a gang. "That explains why those two were so familiar." When Alias brought up the killing of a man and his family Rosaria's mind went wild. He searched his mind for possible matches. "Oh, if she is a Lenin or Traut that would be hilarious. With that my father inches ever closer to his goal."

Soon the group was in the air and just as isolated as they were before Alias walked in. As they flew Rosaria wondered how long the others would last before his father started having them...removed. "I can carry them myself up to B, but around A they would have to start pulling their weight. Reina will most likely be gone first due to her own foolishness. Alias after when she over estimates her abilities. Aveline most likely will be last when she can't keep up with the escalating requirements on the missions. Who knows, maybe they will prove me wrong." Rosaria sighed and then chuckled "They never do."

Upon landing Rosaria climbed down, put his pack and gear on and left the ship after the others. Dagonpoint was just like the jungle back home in the north western portion of Green Spire. He found himself smiling as the damp smell of the jungle wafted into his nose. He loved the jungle. Its wetness, smells, beauty, and diverse creatures were everything he loved about the world. It's lack of people was also a bonus. Here things were as the should be and the evils of man were replaced with the necessities of nature. After being greeted by Dr. Shuren they were led to the outpost. After a quick explanation of everything, he left them to their own devices until dinner. Rosaria looked over all the information in the room and memorized or recorded everything he needed for his expedition. After that, he left the outpost and asked around to find the medical tent. Once there, he got various accounts from the wounded as he healed them and added them to his notes. Finished, he made his way to his personal room and prepared to leave. He felt no need to waste time with the others, so he was going to leave tonight while they were at dinner. After gathering all his equipment and supplies he preformed the last bit of his routine. Rosaria sat crossed legged as he focused on himself. The last part of routine was changing into Whisper. Whisper was not just another way of thinking, he was a different person from Rosaria entirely. Whisper was as physical a change as mental. Rosaria's control of cells allowed him to change his body as well, and it is through this change that the being known as Whisper came to be. By learning from animals and medicine, Rosaria had learned to put the best of all biological functions harmoniously inside of his body to make an elevated being. The transformation was one of the more difficult abilities he learned, but the advantage it gave was worth the trouble. He would have stayed as Whisper, but the need for Rosaria and Whisper to be separate was needed for his father's plan and protecting both identities autonomy.

Whisper rose with a smile on his face and and a gleam in his bright yellow eyes. He playfully blew a strand of his blood red hair to the side of his face as he ran his tongue across one of his fangs and fixed his wavy hair into his side parted style. He threw off most of Rosaria's clothes and just stripped down to the important items. He ran a hand over his red top, and it became black and ridged at points. He did the same with his pants and and rolled up his sleeves to show muscular forearms and darker skin. After changing into new ankle height flat shoes, he took Rosaria's weapons and changed them into his own. He snapped part of the dagger and rapier and put them together to make one double bladed weapon. He put the rest of his weapons on and then changed the color of those as well. By the end, his weapons were a dark blue and the blades were black. Like him, his gear was packed full of cells that he could use to change the materials properties, like their color.

Now fully himself, Whisper coated himself with cells, and exited his room. As soon as he left the safety of his room, he began to blend in with his surroundings and become nearly invisible in the fading light of the day. "Let's see what trouble I can run into tonight," Whisper said with a toothy smile and he left Dagonport to complete his mission.

 

[Edric Yuma]

Dinner was a different experience. Dr. Shuren, alongside two other people of importance, seated themselves at the front of the rows of dining tables, inviting the cohort to dine with them. As the cohort walked in, one person short, they received many curious glances. Most of the people there were soldiers, and the brown lab coats dotted in between the soldier uniforms were the workers and researchers at the base. Upon seeing the trio arrive, Dr. Shuren exchanged pleasantries, and the other two people there introduced themselves. There was Taskmaster Telorin, the man in charge of keeping the base up and running and ensuring all basic needs were met. He smiled at the three individually as he introduced himself. Like Shuren, he expressed his relief at the arrival of the Titans, then questioned the absence of Rosaria. Unlike Dr. Shuren, he had a much gruffer, gravelly voice that was simultaneously soft in volume but loud in force. Sergeant Alkaia was the woman in charge of all the non-Titan soldiers. She was much more curt and formal, acknowledging each of the cohort members with a nod. Dinner was a simple stew of vegetables and venison. It wasn't particularly tasty, but there was a lot of it and it provided all the nutrients an individual needed. After the two introduced themselves, there was a brief moment where nothing was said as everyone finished their meals, listening to the conversations of the surrounding tables, the clinking of silverware, the occasional bark of laughter, and the movement of individuals as they got up to get more helpings of the stew. Taskmaster Telorin was a vigorous eater, and he finished his stew much faster than the other two. When he was done, he wiped his face with a napkin, bits of the stew hanging onto his long, brown beard before he wiped it off.

"So, as you all were prob'ly informed, you're here to help us finish mapping the base. Shuren said he was gonna talk to you youngins later, but I figured we could just get it over with now so you all can rest up after a day's worth of traveling. Taebin!"

The taskmaster shouted across the dining hall, catching the attention of a younger man in a brown coat from two rows down the dining hall. He stood up quickly and walked over, accidentally knocking over his chair as he did. "Y-yes, sir?"

Telorin gestured to the man he had called Taebin, who upon closer inspection had furrowed the brows of his flatter face and was nervously rubbing his hands together in a ball. "This is Taebin, a new researcher here. He's still learning the ropes, so we've given him the easy job of mapping out sector 4. He may not know much, but he's young and can run fast if needed."

Taebin bowed low to the cohort. "P-pleasure working with you all! I'll s-see you all t-tomorrow." With that, he quickly walked away and returned to his own table.

Dr. Shuren watched him leave before speaking up. "He has a bit of a speech impediment, but he has a brilliant mind. I'm sure he will accomplish the task with ease, provided he is safe."

At this point Alkaia leaned forward. "Diamond-plated Rhino hordes. We have a lot of the sector mapped already, but the hordes of Rhinos have gotten very territorial in some areas, blocking off the two passageways to a wide forested area that is otherwise encircled by mountains. We have considered dropping in researchers by air, but we are also unsure of what further animals and creatures lie within the forested area itself. We would have left the interior forested area untouched, but Dr. Shuren's researchers have confirmed the existence of a lake within the mountain, meaning it is potentially the next best place for us to start populating Phynxfire."

"Our hope is that you can find a way past the Diamond-plated Rhino hordes. Stealth would be advisable, but I'm not against combat as we will have to find a way past them eventually if we are to populate the interior valley of that ring of mountains." Having finished his stew, Dr. Shuren spoke up again. "Once on the inside, have Taebin map as much of the place as possible while being on the lookout for potential new creatures or signs of life."

Telorin scanned the cohort as Shuren and Alkaia spoke, and when Shuren finished he asked, "Any questions? Thank you so much for your help, I know we three here appreciate it immensely. If not, feel free to go ahead and head back to your individual rooms when you're done with dinner and get some sleep! You'll need it for a long day tomorrow."

Fred Colon KingofAesir enterelysium Enolx

 

[Fred Colon]

"Sure, Sure." Rena said, picking at her food. When she assembled the bits of it that she wanted, she began eating slowly, conscientiously. She used to eat like Telorin, but one of the things she'd learned from Terrik was mindful eating. Slow and steady, don't eat too little or too much, and the way to do that was to listen to what your stomach was feeling by giving it time to process what you'd eaten.
"Of course I've got questions. As the De Facto leader of the group I should probably ask some." She winked at Alias.

"What's the situation with these Rhinos? What can they do? Do they have a weakness? Fire? The Color red? Traumatic childhood experiences? Persistent work related back pain from lifting with their back instead of their knees?"

All of this sounded damn exciting. Rena was going to get to punch some rhinos, and Rosaria had decided to go off and, she wasn't sure, take a dump in the woods or whatever, which means she could act like the leader in front of all these folks. And as everybody knew, if you acted like the leader for long enough, everybody eventually just went with it. It was usually too much work for people to gainsay her.

"Also, Tabien is a good runner? Is he afraid of heights? If we could stow him somewhere in, like, a tree or something that might be safer than letting him run into the woods. I have ways of getting people up fast, with a minimum of climbing required."

Edric Yuma Enolx enterelysium KingofAesir

 

[Edric Yuma]

Telorin chuckled a bit at Rena's jokes, but Alkaia frowned. "They have none of the weaknesses you mentioned," She said. "They can pack a punch, and they travel together for safety. Their skin is very hard, hence their names. If you can lure one out and get close, however, the softest part of their exterior is the skin under their head. It is soft so they can still chew and digest things. Careful, though - the Diamond-back Rhinos point their spiky tops of their heads at you when they charge, so piercing under their head is no easy task."

Dr. Shuren responded to her second question. "Ah, I wouldn't say he is a fantastic runner, but he is younger and has more energy than most of us researchers here. I can't say I know much about his fears, you'll probably have to ask him that yourself tomorrow. Although, stowing him in a tree is not a bad idea provided the Diamond-back Rhinos don't charge into that tree and knock it over."

Fred Colon

 

[Fred Colon]

"Alright, good to know." Rena said, settling into her chair, tapping her fingers against the table and thinking more deeply. "Are there any areas we can get to where they graze near water? Preferably a deep lake or fast flowing river. I imagine a beast that heavy isn't a spectacular swimmer."

 

[Edric Yuma]

“As far as we know,” Dr. Shuren replied, “The only body of water deep enough to drown a diamond-back rhino would be the one within the circle of mountains, and from our monitoring I don’t think they ever go that way. Most other bodies are shallow enough for them to stand in.”

“Those things may not be able swim - we haven’t seen one in the water - but they also would be tough to push into an area of the water that is deep enough to drown them in. Those animals are heavy.” Alkaia gestured to a mounted machine gun along the top of the wall. “Even those things barely move the beasts, much less hurt them.”

 

[Fred Colon]

"I wasn't thinking about pushing them. They're beasts, right? That means they're dumber than us. Well. Dumber than me. They might give Rosaria a run for his money."

Rena hoped Rosaria was skulking somewhere around here to have heard that. She didn't like making fun of people behind their back, she preferred making fun of them to their faces, but the joke popped into her head so it had to get out.

"As much as I would love to punch a rhino, and that's not sarcasm, I really want to punch a rhino, I'm pretty mobile, and my pal Avaline has some powers that might be useful in setting traps. Thin the herd, if you know what I'm saying. Unless these things can jump really high or are a lot more agile than they appear, they can't catch me, so I'm thinking we use their territorial nature to our advantage."

 

[Edric Yuma]

“Ah. Apologies, I misunderstood.” The Sergeant glanced at the other two cohort members present. “I am sure you have a capable team.”

At this point, the soldiers began finishing their meals. Quite a few of them were casting glances at the table seating the Titans. Telorin chuckled at the soldiers’ stares. “It seems our soldiers have taken great interest in your presence here. I suggest you return to a more private area unless you wish to be bombarded with requests to show them your Ern abilities. I dare say most people here haven’t seen a Titan in action, and they are quite curious.”

enterelysium Fred Colon KingofAesir