ORBIS: World of the Forgotten

[FreddyCast]

Fate or Random Chance....

As the day nears to an end Avira, Nova, Levi, and Simon almost reach the Benefactor city, Everbonum. Still a distance from the city, the group sees a strange fellow skipping aimlessly as he laughs wildly. Then the stranger unexpectedly approaches them and greets them.

“Well, greetings, lost ones!” he salutes, “A pleasure to meet you on such a fine day!”

Nova signals everyone to halt. Seeing the black apparel and glimmers of dark euphoria in his countenance, he gestures to everyone to be cautious and stealthily hands a combat knife from behind to Avira.

“Take this, and stay attentive!” Nova whispers to Avira as she subtly grabs the knife.

“Do you have anything bigger?” Avira asks quietly, to which Nova smiles slightly. Levi and Simon ready their trigger fingers in case they need to quickly pull out their rifles. Nova then speaks with a hint of sarcasm.

“Yes, a pleasure to meet you on a fine dark and stormy day as well. Though from the looks of it, we’re not the ones lost. Is there something we can help you with, my friend?” He asks the stranger.

......

[Wolfsong]

He laughed. "Oh, I'm never lost. Except perhaps when I'm elsewhere, but I'm never lost in here." He tapped his forehead with an odd smile.

He studied the foursome curiously. The two had rifles, and the lady had a knife. He wondered why they seemed so tense. Cocking his head, first to one side than the other, he slowly paced left a few steps than right a few steps, as if considering a deep problem.

"Hmm.....hmm.....hmm.....ah!" He turned to face them again suddenly, smiling. "Have you any water, dear friends? While I feel the sky may obligeme soon, I'm uncertain of its previous location, so really. Suppose where it might have been before.'' He giggled. "But water would be fine, really do me fine...may I?"

Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the lady. "My, you've a long face. What, did someone finally kill the last person you loved out there, or do you have a stone in your shoe?" He moved then, pushing at her emotions just a bit, pushing it towards fear. Nothing big, perhaps just a trace of unease, curious how she would react.

[FreddyCast]

Her face half-covered by her hood, Avira swelled with anger and tensed her hand, gripping the knife more tightly. Nova gestured to not react rashly.

“Sure, if it’s water that you seek. Then we have some. (He motions to Levi) Give him your bottle of water.” Nova commands. Levi opens his backpack and digs out his water bottle. As he’s about to hand the stranger the bottle of water, Nova motions him to stop.

“But before we hand you the water, state your name stranger....and then your faction.” Nova requests.

Everyone listens intently for a response, Avira more so than the others.

[Wolfsong]

Lucian smiled, noting her reaction. Interesting...

“But before we hand you the water, state your name stranger....and then your faction.”

He stared at him a moment, then smiled faintly. "Ah....suspicious, so suspicious. What, are you one who has no care for the suffering of others? A hardened heart towards the needy? Despicable, young sir. I shall not accept your water, after all."

Jerking back as if insulted, he twirled a complete 360 degrees, his face a shining mask of innocence and peace when he faced them again. "My name is Luce! I'm...a Malefactor!" He smiled at them, completing another twirl. This time, when he faced them, his face was deadly serious. The madness in his eyes was crystal clear, his personal aura taking on a darker tinge. "Do you have a problem with that?" he asked, head cocked, in a deceptively sweet voice.

[FreddyCast]

Levi comments, “Is this guy a girl or what? I can’t tell with a voice and name like that.”

“He looks like a kid to me, with his little gymnastic spins.” Simon says as they both share a laugh.

With a serious countenance, Nova felt unimpressed and a bit disgusted to find a Malefactor in Benefactor lands. Straightening himself and taking command, he calls his comrades to take their positions.

“I’ve had many encounters with innocent talking buffoons like yourself. Call me what you want but I know a snake when I see one. (He gestures to Avira) Stay behind and don’t interfere, Avira.” Nova orders.

“What, you can’t order me. He needs to pay for what he said.” Avira shouts.

“I get it, Avira. I’ve been there, trust me. But your mind is clouded right now, and I don’t want you getting hur...Just stay back, ok.” Nova says.

Levi and Simon surround Lucian with their rifles ready to fire. Nova takes a few steps forward and points his finger at Lucian.

“You are a long way from home, Malefactor. Whatever your purpose was for infiltrating this city ends here. Surrender now or this could get very troublesome for you, Luce”.

[Wolfsong]

OOC - hmm...crap just went down. Good.



“Is this guy a girl or what? I can’t tell with a voice and name like that.”

He giggled again, enjoying himself immensely.

“I’ve had many encounters with innocent talking buffoons like yourself. Call me what you want but I know a snake when I see one. "

"Aww, you're so nice. Is calling me a snake seriously the best you can come up with? Honestly, that's just sad."

He watched, turning his head left and right without moving his body, as the riflemen surrounded him. The speaker pointed his finger at Lucian, and he stared at it with an unreadable expression.

“You are a long way from home, Malefactor. Whatever your purpose was for infiltrating this city ends here. Surrender now or this could get very troublesome for you, Luce”.

"What, three men, two with guns? This is trouble?" He shrugged, putting his arms behind his head. "Let me think about it. I'll get back to you in a minute." and he lay down, staring at the sky.

It begins to rain...

[FreddyCast]

OOC- FIGHT!!!

"This guy is either really dumb or really insane." Levi says.

"What did you expect from Malefactors. Crazy imbeciles the lot of them." Simon adds.

"You should take us seriously, Luce. No matter how good you think you are, combat is never a game." Nova warns.

Avira looks on as Nova gestures to his comrades, and shots are fired at Lucian.

[Wolfsong]

"Are you kidding?" he said softly. He turned just slightly so that the shots flew right past him. Eyelids lowered, he smiled sweetly at his opponents. "Life is a game, friends. A game that goes on and on and on until you die."

Suddenly, one of his side-steps brought him close to the left (Levi). In a flurry of motion he not only disarmed him but had him writhing in pain on the ground. He smiled at Nova, sending out strong waves of fear.

"Next?"

[FreddyCast]

OOC- I'm going to assume that you manipulated Nova into feeling fear.

In a series of movements Lucian disarms Levi and take him down to the ground where he toss and turns in pain. Then Lucian, with a grimace of amusement, messes with Nova’s mind as he filled with the sensation of fear, inexplicably trembling and gaping his mouth.

“What’s wrong Nova?” Avira asks worryingly.

“I...I don’t know.” Nova quivers.

“He’s...manipulating your emotions. Listen, Nova, just breathe. In and out. Breathe.” Avira counsels as she puts her hand on his shoulder. Nova breathes calmly and the fear he feels begins to dissipate.

While Lucian looks at Nova, surprised that he overcame his manipulation, Levi wriggles towards Lucian’s leg and touches his foot. Suddenly, Lucian starts to feel pain in his body and falls to his knees.

“Thanks for the pain, twerp. Feel what I feel.” Levi laughs. Simon quickly charges at Lucian, to which Lucian attempts to defend himself in hand-to-hand combat, but is overpowered and struck on the face with Simon’s elbow and falls to the ground. Simon then attends to Levi.

“Here put this bandana over your face, I’ll do the same.” Simon says as he creates dozens of clones of himself to surround the fallen Lucian with rifles pointed and ready. Simon then takes Levi to the background hiding behind the rest of the clones. Using the darkening day and the heavy rain, they hope to have the advantage.

“Please, Luce. Surrender! I don’t want to kill someone so young.” Nova pleads.

“Or it could be that he just looks young, drinking the blood of virgins to keep himself that way”. A clone of Simon says. “You might be right with that pale white skin of his”. Another clone says.

OOC- Your move

[Wolfsong]

OOC - Why, thank you, you're such a gentleman.


My, that smarts, Lucian thought as the pain floored him. Smiling vaguely at the clones around him, he sat there quite calmly.

"Blood of virgins? What the heck have you been reading? You..." His eyes flickered a moment, and then reason replaced insanity.

Lucian blinked, then stared when he realized he was surrounded, and by men with guns. What...what happened? He couldn't remember! What had happened between meeting Richard and coming here? Fear stirred in his heart.

His instincts, however, were working just fine. Quickly, he leapt to his feet and, as the first shots were fired, slid past and dove around the clones, escaping the circle without touching a hair on their heads. He turned quickly to face them, hands out in front of him.

"Hey, um, is there any way we can resolve this peacefully?" he attempted, using his gift to try and push their feelings in a more peaceable direction. He didn't particularly want to use his other skill.

How, how, how did he even get into this position in the first place?

OOC - twists, yet

[FreddyCast]

Simon's clones begin to feel sensations of non-aggression conflicting with their instincts of danger.

"Hey Nova, why don't we just...stop fighting." Simon suggests confusingly.

"What? What are you saying? Don't let your guard down." Nova looks on puzzled at Simon's odd behavior.

"I mean...we could just...let him go, right? No...wait." Simon wavers.

"Simon, he's playing with your emotions. Don't let him fool you, it's his psychic power manipulating you." Nova warns.

SImon shakes his head, not sure of what to do, until Levi punches Simon in the face, restoring his senses back to normal and shaking off the manipulation on the other clones.

"You all right, man?" Levi asks.

"You didn't need to hit me that hard, did you?" Simon asks.

"It felt better that way." Levi grins.

"Yeah, for you." retorts angrily.

"It sure did!" Levi pats Simon on the back.

"Enough of your games, Luce. The only peaceful way of ending this is if you surrender to us without any more hostility. You need to answer for whatever business you had here. And seeing as you were coming out of the city, I assume you have someone inside the city working with you. He'll have to answer as well." Nova says in a serious tone.

[Wolfsong]

Any more? Well, he did feel pain, and some of them were clearly injured. He did that? Why could he not remember? What the heck happened to him?

Nothing for it. Whatever had happened, there was no calming things down. Sighing, he raised his hands peaceably. "Very well, gentlemen, as you will. "

However, as Simon came toward him, he feinted a strike which Simon clearly expectes. And yet, as Simon moved to respond, he ducked around him and struck him In the back, knocking him down. The clone instantly opened fire, and he ducked and weaved between them expertly. Levi was waiting for him, his gun aimed straight for his head. At the last moment, Lucian shoved a clone I front of him, taking the shot in the forehead. He punched Levi in the gut, leaving only Nova and Avira before him. He didn't like the look of either, Avira had the air of a fighter, the sort of aura she carried around. Nova, he wasn't sure about, but with her potentially backing him up, he didn't want to find out. He feinted, whichNova expected and tried to counteract. However, the feint was a feint, and he punched him in the face. Ducking under hsi arm and akirting wide of Avira, he started for the horizon, listening for pursuit that would certainly be behind him.

"Not after any trouble, sorryofor whatever it was I did!" He felt strangely compelled to say.

[FreddyCast]

Lucian put some distance from him and Nova's group, though not yet out of reach. Avira thought it best to finish it herself with her teleportation power and assassin skills, but Nova, recovering from the punch earlier, held her arm gesturing not to follow.

"But he's getting away." Avira protested.

"The kid has some skill, and I have no doubt you can stop him, but we have other urgent business than arresting a youngster, even if he's a Malefactor." Nova reasons.

Levi and Simon approach Nova feeling a bit embarrassed that someone younger than them got the best of them. "Are you sure you want to let him go? This could end up biting you in the...." Simon is interrupted by Nova, "I understand your concern gentlemen, but right now I'm a bit underdressed (tugging his tattered clothes) and flooded by the rain. Just, please, let us continue. We already know the criminals' name and that there's a mole in the city. We'll alert our Commander and the authorities about this. Let them deal with the unwanted spy in the city." Nova says as he moves forward towards the city with the others following from behind. Avira, remembering again of Kantor, looks back one more time, hoping not to see the Malefactor's face ever again.

OOC- I enjoyed our little skirmish

[Wolfsong]

OOC - I look forward to the next one.

Lucian listened, but no one followed. He smiled faintly, and kept right on going.

Though, he knew he had reason to worry. They knew his name, or at least his nickname, and suspected he had help in the city. Well, despite what Richard would say about his age, if it came down to it, he could defend himself. It didn't really matter if the Benefactoe plan fell through, they weren't a large enough faction to be a nuisance once all qas said and sifted.

No, Lucian ahd bigger problems. For instance, the growing holes in his memory. What wqs happening to him?

"Ascendants next," he decided. "That's gonna be a long walk..." Pulling his hood up to keep his face as dry as possible, he kept on running.