JayTee
Eight Thousand Club
OOC
After long deliberation, I decided who to cast my vote for. As there decent amount of redundancy between both of them and one has, shall we say, more exclusive content attached, I ultimately went with them. Plus I can solve a problem that has come up more easily with one death than the other.
/OOC
When he had first arrived in this world, Jason had been confused, upset and (while he would never admit it) scared. He had been forced in to a world where nothing made sense and all the securities and reassurances that he had grown up with no longer existed. Since then, he was slowly growing angry and bitter about being stuck in this stupid world, although perhaps not as much as he would have expected.
The biggest reason for his relative emotional stability was the fact that he had, sort of, made a friend. In many ways Matilda was as isolated from the world as Jason was, the immense social status that came with being an Incarnate made it all but impossible to have any real peers, much like how Jason's own foreign status made it impossible for him to relate to anyone in this stupid world.
The same could also be said of Gregori, the man who offered Jason power. That power came at the price of being used by the old Wizard to achieve a kind of immortality, but it was a price Jason had become willing to pay, despite the dubious moral aspects attached to Gregori. That power would allow Jason the chance to finally exert influence over the mad events that surrounded him, and perhaps finally regain some control over his life.
These things would only be realized by Jason in retrospect, possibly as a way to justify or rationalize this choices. What it came down to, however, was the choice between emotional stability with the only person who could offer him a semblance of normalcy, or the availability of power and command over his own destiny with the only person who could offer it to him in such volumes with such low price attached.
Maybe there were other reason involved that he didn't want to consciously think about, but those were thoughts for another time, when the two people who could offer him something he desperately needed were not in danger. Fate and chance had conspired to force him in to an impossible choice, and in that moment of frozen time, when all possible paths were laid bare before him, he made the only choice that he could make in that most unkind of circumstances.
Sword draw, power flowing through him, Jason launched himself forward in an exposition of blue fire, screaming out a wordless battlecry that served more to reassure himself that he wasn't about to die, rather than intimidate his target.
His blade blade shimmered with a blue light, sharpening to unnatural degrees as his inner energy flowed through it. He had no idea how much power he needed, so he put everything he had in to this one blow. Closing his eyes at the last moment as he braced for the impact, Jason brought the sword froward in a large, overhead chop.
And brought it down on the arm holding up Matilda, cutting it clean off.
The Black King howled in rage and pain as the limb went flying, the first sounds of true discomfort he had made that whole evening. The Sky above, darkened with the storm clouds Matilda had conjured, seemed to respond in kind, booming out with a roiling peal of thunder that deafened Jason as his moment let out and he fell to the ground.
"No you don't!" Shouted the Black King, all composure lost. He lashed out with his bare foot, kicking Jason square in the chest as he struggled to stand. The bottom of the Black King's foot impacted with Jason with so much force that he was throw backwards, and a loud cracking and popping sound could be heard as his ribs broke. Only the magical protection and potions he had ingested prevented the blow from crushing his heart and killing him instantly.
"I've waited too long for this to let some nobody stop me now!" The Black King snarled.
"Yeah, well, you're ugly. "Jason said weakly he tried to do something, anything to protect himself from his wrath.
"Get up." Ordered the Black King, pointing at Jason with his unmanned hand. A phantasmal copy of his hand came forth, as large as Jason himself. It crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat and seized him in a crushing grip.
With a gesture, the phantom hand brought Jason back over to the Black King, who eyed him with contempt when he came in to full view. "So. Not a nobody, then. Just a pathetic attempt to swap out one problem with another. What a joke." He spat.
"You're just mad because you can't clap anymore." Jason said, the adrenaline flooding his system and his anger at his helplessness was affecting his head, and he had resorted to lashing out in the only way he could.
"You're not nearly as funny as you think you are." The Black King said, tightening his remaining hand in to a fist. In turn, the phantasmal hand began to crush Jason, and he began to black out from pain and the air being pushed from his lungs.
"He is a little funny." Matilda said, having recovered at last. She placed her hand on the back of the Black King's head, her eyes narrowed in deadly concentration.
"I am the Sun."
Fire, heat and wrath from above came down from the sky, punching through the storm clouds above and engulfing both Matilda and the Black King in a column of searing heat.
Despite being mere feet away, Jason remained untouched by the fire's blaze, even as the grasslands around them were turned instantly in to a scorched hellscape as all moisture was plantlife was burned away in seconds. Indeed, the only person who seemed to be affected by it all was the Black King himself, who once more let out a howl of pain as the flames engulfed him.
Lashing out in a blind range, the Black King threw Jason at Matilda to try and stop the onslaught of sunfire. Jason blacked out momentarily from the pain of having his body thrown like a rag doll with his broken ribs, and when he came to he found himself on the ground, watching Matilda get pushed back by the Black King's dragon, which had come to defend it's master.
"This isn't over." Snarled the Black King, climbing aboard the dragon. "My forces have landed and there is nothing you can do to stop them from ripping your country apart. I'll see you soon, Incarnate, and when I do you can be sure it will be our last encounter."
"Yeah, you better run." Jason called after him weakly, his voice barely raising above a whisper.
"We'll call this a draw, for now." The Black King said, makingno indication that he heard Jason. With a gust of wind the dragon took flight, arching through the sky and passing over the Imperial forces, where it let out a massive gout of flame from it's mouth. Hundreds of Imperial soldiers died to the dragon fire, as well as dozens of the Black King's own forces who were caught in the blast.
In a moment, the Black King had given his own forces a victory over Martin's own men, and they began to scatter and flee the dragon's wrath even as the Black King's own minions began to rally and follow their leader deeper inland.
Fist clenched, Matilda could only watch in fury as The Black King made his withdrawal, before a pained, blood spattered caught from Jason reminded her that she was not alone up on the cliffside.
Matilda let out a sound of surprise, and moved over to Jason, placing her hand on his head. "O Earth, give this hero your strength and succor, grant him the endurance and vitality needed to persevere though these hard times."
"What?" Jason said dumbly, not fully cognizant as the pain dulled his senses. Thankfully the pain was short lived, as a dull, almost invisible green-brown light flowed from Matilda's hand into Jason. There was the smell of pollen and moss, and suddenly Jason felt much much better, almost as though he wasn't injured at all.
"What?" Jason repeated, now confused more than addled. "Did you just heal me?" He asked, examining his chest where the Black King had kicked him.
Matilda shook her head, still focusing on Jason. "The Earth did, I simply channeled it's power in to you." She said.
Jason had a lot of things he wanted to say about that. Stuff about cell growth, bone structures and conservation of mass. All things covering how nonsensical and stupid healing magic was.
But...
He decided to let it go. This time.
Stupid magic.
"Thanks." He said, shakily getting to his feet once more. Matilda offered to help him up, but Jason wanted to make sure he was as fit as he felt, and did so on his own, healing a small bit of his manly pride in the process.
"You are welcome." Matilda said. "And I thank you. I would have died had you not intervened as you did." She said.
"I think we're even on that." Jason said, looking around him at the burnt fields. "I just wish I had been able to save..." He stopped, realizing what he was about to say.
"Gregori!" He cried, running over to where the old wizard had been battling the Dragon. The area around their battleground was pitted and scored from spell craft and dragon claws, not to mention even more burnt ground from the dragon fire.
"Gregori!" He called again. There was a large crater in the ground where Jason had seen him last. The rock was still hot and the air was full of smoke, but Jason ignored that and moved past the ledge, downward.
At the bottom lay Gregori, his left arm and right leg gone, burnt to a crisp under the dragon's assault. His whole body was a mass of burnt flesh, and not a single hair or scrap of cloth remained.
"Oh no." Matilda whispered as she joined Jason, kneeling beside the old Wizard and placing her hand on his head, uttering her prayer once more.
The brown-green light flowed from Matilda in to Gregori, but only the most superficial of recuperations could be seen.
A ragged, wheezing cough and a feeble attempt to waive Matilda away came from the broken body before them, as Gregori's eyes fluttered to motion, clinging to the vital energies pouring in to him in a last bid to stay alive.
"Stupid girl. You know better than to wake your elders." Came a raspy voice, barely above a whisper. "Shoulda let me die in my sleep. Idiot." He said.
"I am sorry, Gregori. I cannot heal you." Matilda said, crestfallen.
"Bah, obviously." Gregori rasped, coughing up smoke and ash from partially disintegrated lungs. "Get out of the way, let me see the boy."
Jason moved to Gregori's side as Matilda made way for him. Jason felt like gagging at the sight of Gregori's condition, he had never seen someone so horribly burned before. It was only his concern for his belligerent teacher that allowed him to keep himself together.
"Stupid boy. You almost got yourself killed, didn't you?" Gregori said, making a move with his unburnt hand like he wanted to swat Jason. "Still, you're alive. Smart call, there, going for the Incarnate. Best odds of winning."
A racking, wheezing cough overtook the old man, and he closed his eyes temporarily to regain his focus.
"I'm sorry." Jason said, and he meant it. On a personal level, Gregori was amoral and potentially dangerous to everyone around him, but he had been willing to teach Jason what he knew, and Jason couldn't help but feel guilty that he had let him die. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
Gregori let out a snort. "Don't make me repeat myself. I don't have time for that." He said. "I have a gift for you. My insurance should the worst happen. Better you get it from me, rather than have it come to you." He said.
"What are you talking about?" Jason asked, looking at Matilda briefly in confusion. Unfortunately, she seemed just as lost as him.
"Come here, idiot boy, open your mouth and come here." Gregori said.
Jason, more confused than ever, did so. Leaning over Gregori and opening his mouth wide.
Before either Jason or Matilda could react, Gregori's unburnt hand shot up and sized Jason by the face with surprising strength, forcing his mouth to remain open.
"I give you all that I know, boy." Gregori said, his voice becoming clear and unblemished by the fires that had ravaged him. Glowing white mist began to emanate from his mouth, making it's way towards Jason's own, working it's way down his throat.
"I give you all that I was, all that I am. I name you my heir to all I have." Jason's face began to burn, but it was not painful at all, rather it felt like an itch he could not scratch. At the point where Gregori's fingertips touched his temple, a symbol appeared. Two circles next to each other, touching, with a vertical line between them and a long and short horizontal line crossing the vertical one.
Jason was thrown back by an invisible force, and a hot-cold sensation filled him. It was power, more power than he could handle in it's raw form. He needed to do something, channel it somewhere, in order to use it.
"What did you do?" Asked Jason, after he had managed to arrest the power in him and bring it under his control.
"My boy." Gregori said, his voice raspy once more, and even weaker than before. "I gave to you my Legacy." He said. "You will be great, I made sure of it. You will secede me and do all that I could not." He sounded how he looked, now. A dying old man, content at having passed along what he could to his student.
"Go my boy, and carve your name in to the world on my stead."
And with that, the last breath of Gregori, Master Battlecaster of the Aderan Empire, passed from his lips.
Silence fell upon the three, now two. The only sound was the low rumble of thunder above, which quietly faded away in to the distance.
Stillness soon followed silence as the wind died and the heat began to fade, and Jason looked over the body of Gregori with bitter regret. The old man had been the closest thing Jason had to a guide in this world, and had things been allowed to continue between them, perhaps things could have turned out better.
But that wasn't how the world worked. It was unfair, or at least didn't care about what you wanted. Jason's presence in this world was proof of that much, at least.
A hand found itself on his shoulder, and Jason's attention settled on Matilda. "Come." She said, helping him to his feet. "We will send someone to give him a proper burial. Will you be alright?" She asked.
Jason said nothing, shaking his head in a non-answer as he let her help him to his feet. Casting one last glance at Gregori, he turned and started to walk with Matilda. Together, the two of them walked towards the beaches, where the the broken and scattered Imperial forces were trying to regroup.
Where did you channel Gregori's Legacy?
>My Heart
>My Hand
>My Head
After long deliberation, I decided who to cast my vote for. As there decent amount of redundancy between both of them and one has, shall we say, more exclusive content attached, I ultimately went with them. Plus I can solve a problem that has come up more easily with one death than the other.
/OOC
When he had first arrived in this world, Jason had been confused, upset and (while he would never admit it) scared. He had been forced in to a world where nothing made sense and all the securities and reassurances that he had grown up with no longer existed. Since then, he was slowly growing angry and bitter about being stuck in this stupid world, although perhaps not as much as he would have expected.
The biggest reason for his relative emotional stability was the fact that he had, sort of, made a friend. In many ways Matilda was as isolated from the world as Jason was, the immense social status that came with being an Incarnate made it all but impossible to have any real peers, much like how Jason's own foreign status made it impossible for him to relate to anyone in this stupid world.
The same could also be said of Gregori, the man who offered Jason power. That power came at the price of being used by the old Wizard to achieve a kind of immortality, but it was a price Jason had become willing to pay, despite the dubious moral aspects attached to Gregori. That power would allow Jason the chance to finally exert influence over the mad events that surrounded him, and perhaps finally regain some control over his life.
These things would only be realized by Jason in retrospect, possibly as a way to justify or rationalize this choices. What it came down to, however, was the choice between emotional stability with the only person who could offer him a semblance of normalcy, or the availability of power and command over his own destiny with the only person who could offer it to him in such volumes with such low price attached.
Maybe there were other reason involved that he didn't want to consciously think about, but those were thoughts for another time, when the two people who could offer him something he desperately needed were not in danger. Fate and chance had conspired to force him in to an impossible choice, and in that moment of frozen time, when all possible paths were laid bare before him, he made the only choice that he could make in that most unkind of circumstances.
Sword draw, power flowing through him, Jason launched himself forward in an exposition of blue fire, screaming out a wordless battlecry that served more to reassure himself that he wasn't about to die, rather than intimidate his target.
His blade blade shimmered with a blue light, sharpening to unnatural degrees as his inner energy flowed through it. He had no idea how much power he needed, so he put everything he had in to this one blow. Closing his eyes at the last moment as he braced for the impact, Jason brought the sword froward in a large, overhead chop.
And brought it down on the arm holding up Matilda, cutting it clean off.
The Black King howled in rage and pain as the limb went flying, the first sounds of true discomfort he had made that whole evening. The Sky above, darkened with the storm clouds Matilda had conjured, seemed to respond in kind, booming out with a roiling peal of thunder that deafened Jason as his moment let out and he fell to the ground.
"No you don't!" Shouted the Black King, all composure lost. He lashed out with his bare foot, kicking Jason square in the chest as he struggled to stand. The bottom of the Black King's foot impacted with Jason with so much force that he was throw backwards, and a loud cracking and popping sound could be heard as his ribs broke. Only the magical protection and potions he had ingested prevented the blow from crushing his heart and killing him instantly.
"I've waited too long for this to let some nobody stop me now!" The Black King snarled.
"Yeah, well, you're ugly. "Jason said weakly he tried to do something, anything to protect himself from his wrath.
"Get up." Ordered the Black King, pointing at Jason with his unmanned hand. A phantasmal copy of his hand came forth, as large as Jason himself. It crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat and seized him in a crushing grip.
With a gesture, the phantom hand brought Jason back over to the Black King, who eyed him with contempt when he came in to full view. "So. Not a nobody, then. Just a pathetic attempt to swap out one problem with another. What a joke." He spat.
"You're just mad because you can't clap anymore." Jason said, the adrenaline flooding his system and his anger at his helplessness was affecting his head, and he had resorted to lashing out in the only way he could.
"You're not nearly as funny as you think you are." The Black King said, tightening his remaining hand in to a fist. In turn, the phantasmal hand began to crush Jason, and he began to black out from pain and the air being pushed from his lungs.
"He is a little funny." Matilda said, having recovered at last. She placed her hand on the back of the Black King's head, her eyes narrowed in deadly concentration.
"I am the Sun."
Fire, heat and wrath from above came down from the sky, punching through the storm clouds above and engulfing both Matilda and the Black King in a column of searing heat.
Despite being mere feet away, Jason remained untouched by the fire's blaze, even as the grasslands around them were turned instantly in to a scorched hellscape as all moisture was plantlife was burned away in seconds. Indeed, the only person who seemed to be affected by it all was the Black King himself, who once more let out a howl of pain as the flames engulfed him.
Lashing out in a blind range, the Black King threw Jason at Matilda to try and stop the onslaught of sunfire. Jason blacked out momentarily from the pain of having his body thrown like a rag doll with his broken ribs, and when he came to he found himself on the ground, watching Matilda get pushed back by the Black King's dragon, which had come to defend it's master.
"This isn't over." Snarled the Black King, climbing aboard the dragon. "My forces have landed and there is nothing you can do to stop them from ripping your country apart. I'll see you soon, Incarnate, and when I do you can be sure it will be our last encounter."
"Yeah, you better run." Jason called after him weakly, his voice barely raising above a whisper.
"We'll call this a draw, for now." The Black King said, makingno indication that he heard Jason. With a gust of wind the dragon took flight, arching through the sky and passing over the Imperial forces, where it let out a massive gout of flame from it's mouth. Hundreds of Imperial soldiers died to the dragon fire, as well as dozens of the Black King's own forces who were caught in the blast.
In a moment, the Black King had given his own forces a victory over Martin's own men, and they began to scatter and flee the dragon's wrath even as the Black King's own minions began to rally and follow their leader deeper inland.
Fist clenched, Matilda could only watch in fury as The Black King made his withdrawal, before a pained, blood spattered caught from Jason reminded her that she was not alone up on the cliffside.
Matilda let out a sound of surprise, and moved over to Jason, placing her hand on his head. "O Earth, give this hero your strength and succor, grant him the endurance and vitality needed to persevere though these hard times."
"What?" Jason said dumbly, not fully cognizant as the pain dulled his senses. Thankfully the pain was short lived, as a dull, almost invisible green-brown light flowed from Matilda's hand into Jason. There was the smell of pollen and moss, and suddenly Jason felt much much better, almost as though he wasn't injured at all.
"What?" Jason repeated, now confused more than addled. "Did you just heal me?" He asked, examining his chest where the Black King had kicked him.
Matilda shook her head, still focusing on Jason. "The Earth did, I simply channeled it's power in to you." She said.
Jason had a lot of things he wanted to say about that. Stuff about cell growth, bone structures and conservation of mass. All things covering how nonsensical and stupid healing magic was.
But...
He decided to let it go. This time.
Stupid magic.
"Thanks." He said, shakily getting to his feet once more. Matilda offered to help him up, but Jason wanted to make sure he was as fit as he felt, and did so on his own, healing a small bit of his manly pride in the process.
"You are welcome." Matilda said. "And I thank you. I would have died had you not intervened as you did." She said.
"I think we're even on that." Jason said, looking around him at the burnt fields. "I just wish I had been able to save..." He stopped, realizing what he was about to say.
"Gregori!" He cried, running over to where the old wizard had been battling the Dragon. The area around their battleground was pitted and scored from spell craft and dragon claws, not to mention even more burnt ground from the dragon fire.
"Gregori!" He called again. There was a large crater in the ground where Jason had seen him last. The rock was still hot and the air was full of smoke, but Jason ignored that and moved past the ledge, downward.
At the bottom lay Gregori, his left arm and right leg gone, burnt to a crisp under the dragon's assault. His whole body was a mass of burnt flesh, and not a single hair or scrap of cloth remained.
"Oh no." Matilda whispered as she joined Jason, kneeling beside the old Wizard and placing her hand on his head, uttering her prayer once more.
The brown-green light flowed from Matilda in to Gregori, but only the most superficial of recuperations could be seen.
A ragged, wheezing cough and a feeble attempt to waive Matilda away came from the broken body before them, as Gregori's eyes fluttered to motion, clinging to the vital energies pouring in to him in a last bid to stay alive.
"Stupid girl. You know better than to wake your elders." Came a raspy voice, barely above a whisper. "Shoulda let me die in my sleep. Idiot." He said.
"I am sorry, Gregori. I cannot heal you." Matilda said, crestfallen.
"Bah, obviously." Gregori rasped, coughing up smoke and ash from partially disintegrated lungs. "Get out of the way, let me see the boy."
Jason moved to Gregori's side as Matilda made way for him. Jason felt like gagging at the sight of Gregori's condition, he had never seen someone so horribly burned before. It was only his concern for his belligerent teacher that allowed him to keep himself together.
"Stupid boy. You almost got yourself killed, didn't you?" Gregori said, making a move with his unburnt hand like he wanted to swat Jason. "Still, you're alive. Smart call, there, going for the Incarnate. Best odds of winning."
A racking, wheezing cough overtook the old man, and he closed his eyes temporarily to regain his focus.
"I'm sorry." Jason said, and he meant it. On a personal level, Gregori was amoral and potentially dangerous to everyone around him, but he had been willing to teach Jason what he knew, and Jason couldn't help but feel guilty that he had let him die. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
Gregori let out a snort. "Don't make me repeat myself. I don't have time for that." He said. "I have a gift for you. My insurance should the worst happen. Better you get it from me, rather than have it come to you." He said.
"What are you talking about?" Jason asked, looking at Matilda briefly in confusion. Unfortunately, she seemed just as lost as him.
"Come here, idiot boy, open your mouth and come here." Gregori said.
Jason, more confused than ever, did so. Leaning over Gregori and opening his mouth wide.
Before either Jason or Matilda could react, Gregori's unburnt hand shot up and sized Jason by the face with surprising strength, forcing his mouth to remain open.
"I give you all that I know, boy." Gregori said, his voice becoming clear and unblemished by the fires that had ravaged him. Glowing white mist began to emanate from his mouth, making it's way towards Jason's own, working it's way down his throat.
"I give you all that I was, all that I am. I name you my heir to all I have." Jason's face began to burn, but it was not painful at all, rather it felt like an itch he could not scratch. At the point where Gregori's fingertips touched his temple, a symbol appeared. Two circles next to each other, touching, with a vertical line between them and a long and short horizontal line crossing the vertical one.
Jason was thrown back by an invisible force, and a hot-cold sensation filled him. It was power, more power than he could handle in it's raw form. He needed to do something, channel it somewhere, in order to use it.
"What did you do?" Asked Jason, after he had managed to arrest the power in him and bring it under his control.
"My boy." Gregori said, his voice raspy once more, and even weaker than before. "I gave to you my Legacy." He said. "You will be great, I made sure of it. You will secede me and do all that I could not." He sounded how he looked, now. A dying old man, content at having passed along what he could to his student.
"Go my boy, and carve your name in to the world on my stead."
And with that, the last breath of Gregori, Master Battlecaster of the Aderan Empire, passed from his lips.
Silence fell upon the three, now two. The only sound was the low rumble of thunder above, which quietly faded away in to the distance.
Stillness soon followed silence as the wind died and the heat began to fade, and Jason looked over the body of Gregori with bitter regret. The old man had been the closest thing Jason had to a guide in this world, and had things been allowed to continue between them, perhaps things could have turned out better.
But that wasn't how the world worked. It was unfair, or at least didn't care about what you wanted. Jason's presence in this world was proof of that much, at least.
A hand found itself on his shoulder, and Jason's attention settled on Matilda. "Come." She said, helping him to his feet. "We will send someone to give him a proper burial. Will you be alright?" She asked.
Jason said nothing, shaking his head in a non-answer as he let her help him to his feet. Casting one last glance at Gregori, he turned and started to walk with Matilda. Together, the two of them walked towards the beaches, where the the broken and scattered Imperial forces were trying to regroup.
Where did you channel Gregori's Legacy?
>My Heart
>My Hand
>My Head
Last edited:
