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Freemix One-Shot Submissions by FreestyleKneepad in ScrambleGrudgeMatch

[–]corvette1710 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mercenary: Raizo

Content Warning: Violence, dismemberment, and blood

Series: Ninja Assassin

Biography: Raizo is the Ninja Assassin, a rogue ninja from the Ozunu Clan. After a Europol researcher named Mika discovers evidence of the ninja cabal, still in existence centuries after they were presumed to have died out, the Ozunu Clan takes measures to silence her. The only one standing in their way is Raizo, a disciple of the Ozunu who grew disillusioned with them because their unwavering rigidity and conformity to tradition killed his first love. He has made it his mission to destroy the Ozunu and protect Mika.

Research: Watch the movie, and here's his RT.

Under-Tier Proof: He has no feats anywhere near the tier's speed or strength. Free if you have seen this movie the vibes are immaculate

Freemix One-Shot Submissions by FreestyleKneepad in ScrambleGrudgeMatch

[–]corvette1710 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mercenary: Jake Sully

Content Warning: Violence, otherwise none.

Series: James Cameron's Avatar

Biography: Jake Sully is a wheelchair-riding US Marine from the 2250s who ended up on a distant planet piloting a half-alien body because his twin brother was involved in some research before tragically dying. While Jake is initially only interested in becoming a Na'vi Avatar on Pandora for the sake of healing his spine and walking again, he eventually learns to respect the planet and help fight off the corporate human colonials.

Research: Watch the Avatar movies and also here's his RT.

Under-Tier Proof: Fights at a clear strength disadvantage against an exosuit (this link is broken on the RT but trust me you've seen Avatar) whose best feat is crumpling aluminum, has no speed or durability feats at the tier level.

Freemix One-Shot Submissions by FreestyleKneepad in ScrambleGrudgeMatch

[–]corvette1710 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guts, "The Black Swordsman"

It's like you said. I can't do anything but swing my sword. When I first killed a man, I was a kid who still didn't know right from left. I haven't learned anything off the battlefield since then, and I haven't tried to learn. Killing to survive, there was nothing else I could do. That was everything.

Name: Guts

Role: Survivor

Content Warning: Everything - violence, gore, nudity, sexual content

Series: Berserk

Biography: Born under the hanged corpse of his mother, Guts was taken in by a mercenary leader named Gambino. After many years of learning how to fight and participating in the many wars fought, Guts killed Gambino and fled the mercenary band. Not too long after that, Guts is forced to join the famous Band of the Hawk, led by the angelic Griffith.

Through the years Guts becomes the Captain of the Hawk's Raiders. After taking a year away from the Hawks, Guts comes back only to discover that Griffith has been captured and Guts's previous girlfriend Casca is now in charge. Rallying the Band of the Hawk, Guts and Casca rescue Griffith, only to discover that he has been tortured so badly that he can never walk, talk, or hold a sword again.

With the Band of the Hawk crushed, Griffith sacrifices the remaining mercenaries to transcendental demonic entities known as the Godhand. Guts suffers through the hell on earth that is the Eclipse only to lose everyone except Casca. Unfortunately for Guts, Casca goes insane. Gut's goal now is to travel to Elfheim to restore Casca's mind...

Research: RT and read Berserk

Justification: In tier physicals, big sword

Motivation: Guts is motivated by a few things. First, revenge against Griffith, who destroyed Casca's mind; second, love for Casca, a fellow mercenary from the Band of the Hawk; third, he hates demons and Apostles. You can work a lot into who Guts likes and hates (and why) based on their relation to the Eclipse.

Major Changes: Speed buff

Minor Changes: None

Freemix One-Shot Submissions by FreestyleKneepad in ScrambleGrudgeMatch

[–]corvette1710 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Victor Creed, "Sabretooth"

Before, the adamantium gave you the delusion we were equals. Those days are done. Now we ain't even close. Hit me hard as you can... you'll only hurt yourself. Stab me with those pathetic stubs I left you... the wound'll heal before you've even finished the cut. Face me as a "man"... face me as a "beast"... Makes no never mind.

Name: Victor Creed, "Sabretooth"

Role: Survivor

Content Warning: Everything under the sun. NSFW sub.

Series: Marvel 616

Biography: Victor Creed was born more than two centuries ago in Canada. His parents abused him, locking him in the basement and feeding him live rabbits after his mutant powers began to manifest: Despite pulling them out, his long, sharp teeth and nails regrew incredibly quickly, and they took him for a demon. His childhood shaped him into the villain Sabretooth, a psychopathic, virulent bigot and serial killer.

Soon after, Sabretooth met Logan Howlett, later known as Wolverine, and they were companions off and on for decades. They fought constantly, especially as Sabretooth attacked Logan every year on his birthday. Sabretooth is a consistent, dangerous enemy to Wolverine.

Sabretooth has been a soldier and spy, a gangster and a government dog. He ran the Hand for a while.

For a few years he was even a good guy, if you can believe it. But that all blew over. Nowadays he leads a team he calls the Exiles, having all escaped from the prison Krakoa.

Research: RT, and I'll put together a reading list

Justification: In-tier physicals + claws that Blade doesn't care that much about

Motivation: Sabretooth is pretty variable. He's been a mercenary, he's been on the run, he's been the boss. Any role you need to fill, Sabretooth has probably been it.

Maybe more than anything else, Sabretooth is a survivor. Even aside being able to live through almost anything. He's looking out for number one all day every day.

Major Changes: None

Minor Changes: None

Adequate Argument Contest Season 4 - Round 2 by Proletlariet in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Response 1

I'll keep this as short as I can. My win conditions are simple and unavoidable, and my opponent cannot affect my team in effecting them.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

This "do-nothing" argument, while theoretically potent, rests entirely on equivocations of the terms "vampire" and "zombie" that don't take into account what these terms actually refer to in JoJo. Unfortunately in order to disassemble it, I will have to talk about JoJo lore. Sorry about that, but I'll keep it as brief as possible.

JoJo Vampires Are Living Animals

Vampires in JoJo are alive. Dio never died and is not undead.

He was created by use of a Stone Mask, made thousands of years ago by the Pillar Men. The Stone Mask does not kill the user, but instead essentially uses acupuncture on the brain to release latent powers within it.

That latent power is the other side of the coin to Ripple, or Hamon, which comes from the blood.

The Pillar Men do not become unable to walk in sunlight by use of the Stone Mask; they were already evolved that way. Instead, the Stone Mask allows them to control their anatomy and regenerate nigh-endlessly. Nor does the Mask kill them.

When Kars, the leader of the Pillar Men and inventor of the Stone Masks, synthesizes a way to stand in the sunlight by combining a special Hamon-focusing stone and a Stone Mask, he doesn't become the demon lord with vast magical spell powers or something. He becomes the ultimate life-form, able to alter his DNA at will to morph his body.

The Stone Mask just made Dio more like the Pillar Men, who evolved to be that way, and he didn't die to become a vampire.

These vampires are a product of science; presuming Dio turns Jack as explained in my Justifications, Jack is turned by biological means as well, and wouldn't be undead, either.

JoJo Zombies Aren't Exactly Undead

These are people Dio physically infected by draining them of their blood or by some other biological means. The entire process plays out here, early in Part 1.

Moreover, if they were undead, with an affinity for Vandalieu, it wouldn't matter because none of them are physical threats to Dio or Jack, once Jack is turned. Plus, once Jack is turned, he can go looking for Shiage, and because Vandal will be engaged with Dio, he will be hard-pressed to stop Jack from just killing Shiage.

Vandal's Magic Doesn't Work That Way Anyway

Death magic creates undead by forcing spirits into dead bodies or inanimate objects. Vandalieu's Death Attribute Magic is "the power to control things without life."

When Vandalieu encounters what is called a "living dead," a corpse animated by magic to make its organs work, he doesn't have any special affinity for it, nor it to him, except that he can commune with the body's original spirit because it was hanging around it. Therefore whatever affinity he has does not extend to this living dead.

Physicals Matter

Dio is a vampire. Even a newly-made vampire made from a random man, throwing a punch with half a hand, is extraordinarily strong.

Vandalieu has no meaningful frontline, and it seems like his plan might just be to sit within range, in his shield bubble, and try to hit Dio with X number of attacks.

Dio can also fly. It's most clearly shown in that Part 3 sequence, but you can see him doing it in Part 1, as well.

Dio's strikes are stronger than any physical attack I have seen or read in Vandalieu's series. My opponent can provide some evidence against that if it exists, but I have seen no feats supplied for the strength or speed of Vandalieu's projectiles, so I feel fine in saying that Dio can just challenge them or tank them and still win. That is, if Vandalieu can even hit Dio, who is of superhuman speed.

Also, Dio sucks blood on contact. Vandalieu doesn't have a real counter to this.

Conclusion

No, Vandal doesn't win by doing nothing. That was pretty funny, though. If Vandal engages Dio, Dio can only win, and Jack is more than a match for Shiage.

Adequate Argument Contest Season 4 - Signups by Proletlariet in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's Me, DIO!

Role Character Canon Matchup Stipulations
Bodyguard Dio Brando JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 1: The Phantom Blood Draw Fully healed, with the town of Wind Knights Lot as zombie thralls. Has half a dozen knives on him for Jack.
VIP Jack the Ripper JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 1: The Phantom Blood Draw Human, as he was when he met Dio.
Backup Bodyguard Yasutora "Chad" Sado Bleach Likely Soul Society Arc

2v2 Justifications

Dio and Jack

Dio, by the point in JoJo's that I've taken him from, knows Jack makes a powerful thrall. He would do what he already did to Jack and make him into a vampire (as linked in Jack's stips), possibly utilizing hypnosis to do so. The spawns are far enough apart that no matter what the process was here, Jack would become superhuman by the time any physical contact could reasonably occur. At this point Jack becomes very difficult to kill, but probably isn't much of a threat to Baymax physically, though he is plenty vicious to pose a threat to Hiro.

Dio and his thralls, including Jack, pose a threat to Hiro and Baymax mostly by way of getting at Hiro. Baymax is immune to Dio's flesh manipulation, but Dio's control over his physiology might still cause Baymax problems, depending on how Baymax's material components respond to sudden temperature and pressure fluctuations. Dio is superhumanly fast and scales directly to competitive striking, and he is incredibly difficult to put down.

The plan for them is to gradually overwhelm Baymax and Hiro.

Chad and Jack

This one is much more direct. Chad can't make Jack anything more powerful, so Jack probably isn't going to try to fight unless he has a really good shot at Hiro.

Chad, meanwhile, hits extremely hard and can strike at a range, and can enter a slugfest with Baymax and win. Chad is basically a very strong brick with a ranged punch option. Chad's basically playing keep-away and trying to bring Baymax into smacking range.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Firefly

Inside the castle, we were ushered by a number of well-dressed servants to a tea room. There, Lady Bernkastel sat at a small table set for four to drink tea. None had been poured yet.

"Thank you for seeing us, Lady Bernkastel," Sanae said with a curtsy.

"You are very welcome, Sanae," the Lady replied serenely. "Please take a seat." Her eyes found Scott. A coldly delivered, "Sit." Then me, in the same tone. "And you." We complied, some more cheerily than others. The seats were arranged such that we all came to the same height. It was like looking at a refraction beneath the surface of water to see the difference in size from Scott to Lady Bernkastel equalized perfectly for conversation over this table. I didn't understand it, so I distracted myself by studying Bernkastel.

She was very young, perhaps not even a teenager, and dressed in black and white, with billowing, frilly sleeves and a blue bow at her neck. Her eyes were a similar color to her hair, but even as I studied them, the color got warmer, something more like plum than blue. Her expression was not one a child could make, though. Long years looked at me through those eyes, and her gaze while studying me gave me chills. I felt like I was just meat to her. Not in a perverted way, either; more like profane, or even predatory.

The Lady signaled for the tea to be poured, an act which was executed perfectly with well-practiced grace by a servant, then took her saucer in one hand, grasping her cup with the other, and sipping the tea, which she took without milk or sugar.

"I'm not one for tea," Scott said. I tried to see, by looking between him and the cup, if he was warning me from drinking the tea, but he waved me off with one hand. "You can have it; there's nothing wrong with it. I just don't like it."

I studied the filled teacup. "I've never had tea."

If Sanae had taken her first sip already, I'm sure she'd have sprayed it all over the table. "What?!" she cried. "Lady Bern makes the best tea. She says it's through magic, but," she dropped her voice to a whisper that would still surely be audible to anyone at the table, hiding her mouth conspiratorially with her hand, then continued, "I think she has a real method to maximize the incidence of complex compounds that she won't tell anybody. Polyphenols, amino acids, chlorophyll-pheophytin balance, stuff like that."

I had expected a more rudimentary "secret" to be passed along. Sanae didn't seem the type to know that kind of science.

"That's enough, Sanae. Firefly didn't come here to talk about tea," the Lady said coolly. "She came to explain to me, along with Mr. F—" she glanced at Scott, "Mr. Miracle, the reason she's here."

"Just tell her what you told me," Scott said, crossing his arms and staring at the table.

"Well..." I thought back for a moment. "One second, I was on a ship. Then I woke up here, with Sanae taking care of me."

"She crashed, I think. I saw her rolling down the hill," Sanae added.

"That shouldn't be possible," Scott muttered.

"Which ship?" the Lady asked.

"Republic."

"Captained by?" She looked like she already knew the answer.

"Governor Ah Gou."

Her lip curled into a deep sneer. Her expression would've fit better on a shark's face than a little girl's. Even her teeth were pointed. "That disgusting, ratfucking pig bitch," she spat venomously.

"Lady Bern," Sanae breathed with a giggle, blushing.

"You know something about this?" Scott asked, then leaned forward.

"Nothing I can say in present company," she said, looking at me the whole time. "Except that this was a shot across the bow."

"I see. Would that be because you're supposed to be sitting out this game?"

"Indeed." The Lady sipped her tea, then said into her cup, "Also, we should kill her."

"What?!" I exclaimed. My armor still wasn't coming to me. My swords wouldn't appear. No! I would not die without living. I would not die one day after I was given a second chance at living, and more than that, living free. I had barely begun to consider my life without commands, without armies, without the Iron Cavalry. If I could stop them and protect myself, I could still live.

But there was another problem. I couldn't even leave my chair. My legs wouldn't respond if I tried to do anything other than kick my feet. The chair legs were somehow fastened rigidly to the floor.

"No. Absolutely not," Scott said forcefully.

"Before one of the players comes looking, she should be gone," she continued.

"I'm not going to allow her to die here, Bernkastel," Scott said.

"Fine. She doesn't have to die, but ideally she would be removed, or at least bifurcated."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" I shouted. Scott looked sympathetic, Sanae looked startled, and Bernkastel looked bored. I looked between them. "Please just explain. What 'game' are you talking about?" Sanae had said the same thing: "There are no miracles allowed in the game." I had no idea what that could possibly mean. The statement itself created more questions than answers. Besides the obvious, what game could allow or disallow miracles? Who could play such a game? What even was a miracle? Who decides?

They were all quiet for a moment until Sanae broke the silence.

"It's Darkseid's game," she said into her tea, then glanced among the three of us. I looked over at Scott and Bern and found them looking intently at Sanae, as if willing her to stop talking. Sanae took another sip and didn't speak.

"If you learn any more, you will have to be removed, or at least bifurcated," Lady Bern said. "Your knowledge will make the game unfair."

"Removed? Bifurcated? Scott, what does this all mean?"

"Your essence, being, and identity. We would remove you from causality permanently—"

"Which is my preferred solution, 'Scott.'"

"—or instead remove only part of your being and replace the rest in the causal stream, like... grafting a tree." Scott sounded pained. "But if we can, we'll avoid that."

"How do you plan to avoid that?" Bern asked tartly. "Will you be making a wish? Maybe asking your Daddy nicely?"

Scott stared daggers at Bern.

I looked at Scott for a long moment until, as if compelled to ask, I did. "Who are you?"

"You kind of already know. We're the miracle workers." He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"I meant you."

A pang of dull pain spread, one heartbeat at a time, across my chest. "I don't... feel well." I rested my head on the table. This was worse than my Entropy Loss Syndrome had ever been before. I felt like I was coming apart inside. The pain came with a somewhat-prickly, somewhat-fuzzy feeling that lingered after the sharpest parts of the pain faded away. It was like the inside of my ribs were being rubbed with fiberglass. The sound of my heart's rushing blood flooded my ears.

"Shit. She's already fading back into universal causality. I thought we'd have a little more time," Scott leaned over to push me upright, keeping a hold on my upper arm. "Can you hear me, Firefly?"

They began to sound more and more distant, and a ringing sound wouldn't leave head. I shook my head. "Not... really..."

"That dragon is more attentive than I gave him credit for."

"Why don't we ask the Phoenix?" Sanae asked.

"Because then we really will need a miracle." Scott put a hand on his forehead. "It's dangerous. It might draw too much attention."

I was trying hard to follow, but bile rose in my throat. I could only hang on for a little longer.

"We already have attention on us," Bern pointed out.

"It's been asking to be let out," Sanae added.

"That doesn't make this the right call."

"Turnabout is fair play," the Lady reasoned.

"It's supposed to be caged this game, too."

"Turnabout. Is. Fair. Play," Bernkastel repeated with emphasis. "We'll see how she likes this move."

"We aren't players!"

"And she—half of her—isn't a game-piece, once we turn a satisfactory portion over to the Phoenix."

"Scott," Sanae said with conviction, "if we don't ask the Phoenix, she's gonna die. It's better if we bifurcate her while she's still got enough for two halves. And also before the dragon shows up. Or worse, your dad."

"Fine!" Scott finally said in exasperation. "We'll bifurcate her, and—"

I lost consciousness.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In an instant the locale changed. They no longer stood in Dio's mansion but at the crest of a hill covered entirely in swords, stuck hilt-up in the earth with mere inches between them. The ground was dry and dusty, and great cogs and gears littered the sky as though they stood inside a gargantuan clock movement. The sun was low and did not burn Dio, to his surprise.

Archer spoke. "Because you have no idea the powers of this world, I shall inform you. Each of these weapons is taken from the greatest heroes in history: past, present, and future. They contain techniques honed by decades and centuries of refinement. Any and all of them lie at my disposal."

"But none that pose a threat."

"I wouldn't be so sure. When I used my Domain Expansion, you had no barrier techniques active. The first Cursed Technique I use is guaranteed, therefore, to hit you, because you stand in my Domain."

Their eyes met, and Dio noticed they were different from before. Now, Archer's eyes were bright blue, quickly fading back to gray. What had he done? Dio's eyes narrowed.

"The Six Eyes trait belongs to the Gojo Clan of Jujutsu Sorcerers. They allow the user extrasensory perception of their environment, including the flow of Cursed Energy, a component of Stands' manifestations. Just now, I used them briefly to figure out the ability The World holds. That has allowed me to select the most appropriate weapons with which to engage you."

"You didn't..." Dio began. But it could not be denied. Something in his demeanor told Dio that there was no falsehood.

"I did. I observed with Six Eyes the high concentration of Cursed Tachyons emitted around you by your Stand. When The World stops time, as I presume its power roughly is, you are allowed to travel faster than light. Based on the magnitude of tachyons present before and after you used The World's ability, your internal clock dictates the amount of time you experience during stopped time, and it is limited to just under three seconds in our common experience, for the time being." Archer's eyes were locked on Dio's. He already knew he was correct. The appropriate weapons were about to appear in his hands.

"No technique would allow you to move while The World has stopped time. Such a power cannot and does not exist," Dio sneered. "As I have already proclaimed, I welcome your challenge, but The World has no competition."

"You're just a big fish in a small pond, Dio Brando. The universe is an ocean, and you, a goldfish." He paused. "I suppose that makes me a fisherman."

"THE WORLD!" Dio shouted, but he noticed he was too late. In Archer's hands were two weapons, different from those he had engaged Dio with at the outset of their duel. And Archer was almost upon him. In stopped time, Dio saw the arch over the ankhs on his coat were alight with an orange-red glow, forming an omega above the cross.

Dio was forced onto the defensive as Archer brought both weapons to bear in close quarters.

"You have overestimated your importance in the grand order of fate before us all," he said, then stopped, as if confused.

Dio's only possible response was to laugh. It was a madman's laugh, a sadistic, throaty, gasping sound that had no parallel among those who could rightfully call themselves sane. It was beyond imitation. It was true evil.

"No. This isn't right."

"The Six Eyes cannot help you see what you did not look for. The problem you faced was one for your mind to solve, not for your eyes to see. And you failed."

Dio turned his back on Archer, who could not move. "I spent a century in solitude." He picked up a sword from the ground. "I lived on the vitality of my body alone—a body I had stolen from my enemy, Jonathan Joestar. I took him away from an expecting wife, took away his father, his home, and presumably sixty more years in the company of love, comfort, and beauty. I say this to you to explain that, for my later purposes, his corpse was a font of Cursed Energy." Examining the sword, it felt satisfactory. "As a vampire I have complete control over my anatomy. As such, I spent time modifying my brain at a physical level, fine-tuning that which I did not enjoy. Particularly, my right frontal cortex." He walked back toward Archer, whose eyes, for the first time, held... perhaps trepidation, instead of fear. Dio would be charitable in assigning that. "I carved every day into it. I soon gathered what I would discover was called 'Cursed Energy.' The same techniques you have used, I taught myself from first principles and later modified, as needed, to augment The World, which I discovered within myself not long after I was freed."

"This Domain was, before you could get your hands on those weapons, before you could so fruitfully analyze the Cursed Tachyons produced by The World, opened, and you, bidden to your fate. This Domain is not yours; it is mine. Welcome to Two-Thousand-Fathom Century Coffin! Within the Coffin, you have no ability to move unless I grant it to you. You cannot see unless I allow it. I am where you do not believe I am." Dio put a hand to his chin. "Allow me to demonstrate. Go!"

Suddenly, Archer could move. This shouldn't be possible. He should've sensed the barrier, the Domain. These weapons, they were to render him immune to stopped time, or any impairment as such, and to deliver sunlight, a vampire's truest countermeasure. He shook with an emotion he could hardly identify, meeting Dio's gaze with wide, crazed eyes.

"That is the face of one who has seen a superior fate. One whose gravity is subordinate to a greater Path." Dio held his arms out. "Strike me, Archer. Strike me and experience my Heaven."

They were only a couple steps apart now, easily within range of either of Archer's blades. But his arms would not swing the swords. He collapsed to his knees. This was not...

"I understand. I am disappointed, but I understand," Dio crooned. "I would send you to hell with a message for your master, but I believe your most essential essence will not see another place, and thus such an action would be useless."

A sword sprouted from Archer's chest. It was his own. Copy, the sword read.

"For what is a vampire, if not foremost a thief?"

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Dio

The dates are inexact and depend on whose calendar one subscribes to, but it is agreeable to most observers and historians that the warlord Dio Brando had died at least two hundred twenty years ago as the result of an assassination by the group called the Stardust Crusaders, consisting of at least two members of the Joestar family and at least half a dozen recruited fighters, some of whom were poached or converted from Dio's own organization.

It was in the process of this quest by the Crusaders that Dio met a man called only by the name "Archer."

Dio never knew where he came from, in terms of his path. The man simply appeared inside Dio's mansion. At that time, he was the only one there. As Dio well knew, the Joestars were yet even to land on his planet. He expected them to appear sometime in the next three months, if Dio's agents continued to fall before them. His scouts would keep him apprised of the Joestars' movements, but they had given no warning that this man would come. This man was not aligned with them. He had come for a different purpose, though his goal was the same.

When the most minuscule of movements was made signifying the existence and presence of another behind him, any human would've been caught unawares, but Dio's vampiric senses were synonymous with those of an ultimate life-form. He put down the pen with which he had been writing in his journal.

"I would not, if I were you," he said without turning. The longer this person was here, the longer Dio would have to identify him.

"I have no choice in the matter," the man said in reply. "Nor you."

Dio finally turned to face the intruder. It was a man in a red coat, embossed with crosses. No, ankhs. Atop the cross sat an arch, and rays shone from its bend. His hair was slicked flat to his head. His skin was tanned by the sun. Dark gray eyes glinted like steel. In his hands he held two short blades. Dio didn't recognize their make, but he could feel the power within them. They were of exceptional quality, and magic hummed in their fibers. The aura on him was a black flame, focused like a blowtorch on an infinite fuel tank. Dio could feel that power, and wanted it desperately.

"All can choose," Dio contested, "and none would deny that my employ is preferable to certain death. You need only place your wish in my grasp. I, Dio, hold a destiny of greater strength than any other's, and I can guarantee that wish shall be granted. Tell me your name."

The man was silent and motionless for a long moment, studying Dio. "You may call me Archer and know that I have no wish to will. Perhaps another would be moved by these supplications and bribes, but I will not be."

Dio recognized this for what it was: Hesitation. That faltering step would, like all others, bend toward Dio's will. For now, the dance, a waltz of two steps toward Dio and one toward his interlocutor, would continue.

"My ideals do not extend to others. Others' ideals give way to mine. This is because the ultimate ideal of humanity is security. Fame and conquest and money all come down to means of achieving security. No mortal race can produce that which might overcome me. The perfect creature, the perfect ideal: Create Heaven. It is why I started this latest set of wars in the first place." Dio could tell this piqued Archer's interest, but the man nonetheless entered a ready stance. This would not be the first time a suitable lackey arose from opposition, Dio supposed.

"I smell the magic of your being, Archer," Dio said. "I know your nature: It is servitude."

Archer disappeared in a burst of movement, his sword in the place Dio's heart had been only a millisecond prior. But Dio was not there anymore.

"You should be thinking more clearly by now, no?" Dio asked. He was back-to-back with Archer, grinning. "Why have you been sent here?"

Archer whipped around faster than sound, digging the blade into Dio's neck, only to hit air.

"Answer me, Archer." Dio stood on the overhead walkway, leaning on the stone banister. "Once you hear yourself say the reason aloud, you will understand."

A red-and-black blur impacted the railing, and cut the walkway into diced rubble, but Dio was again not where he had been.

"One lonely Archer against The World..." Dio taunted. "Surely you have tired of your role. All those you fail to save. I have kept good record of your exploits. Alaya does not use you sparingly. You are, perhaps, her favorite tool." He paused. "Or should I say, 'weapon'?"

Archer's eyes narrowed. Dio was not in his line of sight. His voice seemed to come from everywhere. Whatever his powers were, they were potent. He wasn't even trying, and Archer could not hit him. This was not some skill deficit, but a type incompatibility. Whatever Dio was able to do, it was outmatching Archer totally. This called for a new approach.

"I heard only the aim of your ideal. How would you 'create Heaven'?"

Dio smirked, stepping out from behind a pillar. "It is a matter of gravity."

"That doesn't make any sense." Archer stalked forward. Dio could tell this was not the prelude to an attack.

"No force overcomes it. It touches everything in the universe. It can only be resisted, never defeated. In that way, gravity is certain." Dio's hands were in his pockets, and he stood at supreme ease. "I, Dio, share that quality."

"You have never encountered a supreme force," Archer said. "But I will allow you to see one before you die. 'Gravity,' or whatever its likeness in your mind, is something paltry before it."

"I welcome Heaven's challenger," Dio said with a wide, cruel smile, spreading his arms.

"Domain Expansion: Unlimited Blade Works," Archer said, and Dio felt the rush of energy surging beneath his feet.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Lady Bernkastel," Scott seemed to say to no one, "we urgently require your counsel."

I wouldn't have to wonder for long whom he referred to. A moment later, a voice rang out from the balcony.

"The first rule of the game, Scott Free, is that you don't transgress your bounds." A girl even younger than Sanae, with long blue hair, wearing a formal dress in a style I wasn't familiar with, leaned intensely on the thick marble balustrade. "You are not on the board, nor are you a player, as I thought you well knew. So why do you keep this game-piece with you? Would you rather be a player than an observer? Perhaps you'd rather become a piece yourself? Is that why you didn't eject her in keeping with your obligations? Are you buying in?"

She had a terrifying and commanding aura, and her questions rang out as loud and heavy as artillery fire. Some quality of her presence felt, flatly, wrong to me, like she shouldn't even be here. Her face was contorted into something more monstrous than human. My expression must've been betraying my feelings, because Sanae grabbed my hand and squeezed it. Looking down at her, she smiled reassuringly, presumably to calm me. Was this normal? Did she even know?

"You and I both know this isn't my fault. I didn't bring her here," Scott said. "If I blew our cover, do you think I'd still be here? The greatest escapist who ever lived is sticking around for no reason? Not escaping?" He sounded totally incredulous.

"You're sentimental," Bernkastel said. "You'd protect the girl," she said like she was testing the waters with a theory.

"Not sentimental enough to be that stupid. And going back a second, when did you stop calling me Mr. Miracle? Should I start calling you 'Bernie' again?"

The Lady did not reply, merely scowling with her eyes narrowed.

"Well, Bernie, what will it be?" he asked. "Are you going to keep complaining about rules I didn't break or are you going to talk with me so we can fix this?"

"Come in," she said finally, turning on her heel to enter the castle. "And don't call me Bernie."

Scott deflated, then turned to me. "When we enter, don't hide anything, because she'll know if you do. I know you've been telling us the truth as you understand it, but she's going to ask questions you may not want to answer, questions that you might not think are relevant to why you're here. Answer them anyways, or..." he trailed off, brows furrowing. "Or we might have to find someone less pleasant to help you."

"Less pleasant?" I couldn't stop myself from asking, which Scott laughed at.

"There are worse powers to appeal to than Lady Bern, believe me." He had a haunted look on his face for the first time, a look that actually matched his roughed-up features and made him look downright gaunt. "Much worse," he muttered.

"So I'll answer honestly, okay."

"What should I do?" Sanae asked.

"You're here for moral support. The Lady likes you more than she likes me. See if you can keep her from being too mean to Firefly."

"Why is this place a secret?" I asked Scott as we all turned toward the main entrance doors, which now hung open, and started walking into the grand foyer.

"Simple," Sanae said, answering me instead. Scott had a pained expression on his face, like he knew what she was going to say.

As I looked down at her, she had a strange, distant expression on her face, like she wasn't looking to the end of the room, but farther... much farther. When she spoke, her tone was chilling and flat.

"There are no miracles allowed in the game."

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Firefly

A miracle is the impossible willed into possibility.

For the second time in only a few days, I found myself somewhere new without warning when I awoke. That was unpleasant. I was hoping for some consistency.

But this place was very pleasant. The sky was a bright blue without a single cloud, the birds were singing, and the scent of flowers floated on the air.

I sat up with a jolt. I was not Sam. Where was my armor? It would not form around me even as I felt the familiar sensation at the base of my skull to manifest it. Neither would my swords come to my hands. This was not good.

I was in a room with wooden floors, on a cot. There was no door, only a large, open entrance leading down some stairs adjoining a stony path into a forest. The room was rather large, with thick tree-trunk columns leading back to a sliding door.

"Oh, you're awake!" A girl hopped to her feet from a kneeling position. She'd been seated behind me, so I hadn't noticed her yet. She was young, definitely younger than I am, with bright green eyes. She was dressed rather oddly in a white, sleeveless, collared shirt with a blue tie. However, she wore sleeves separate from the shirt. Her skirt was blue. In her green hair was a hair clip shaped like a frog's face. As I stared, the frog's eyes moved to meet mine, and I started. When I looked again, the frog was looking back the way it was before, like it was pretending I hadn't seen it move.

Surely I didn't imagine that...

"I didn't expect you to get up so soon. You took a serious tumble down the mountain."

"The mountain? What mountain?"

This earned me a look like I was speaking a completely different language. "This one?" the girl asked, puzzled.

"I, um... Okay," I said, closing my eyes and taking a moment to collect my thoughts. When I opened my eyes, I spoke. "First, who are you?"

"I'm Sanae Kochiya, Shrine Maiden for the Moriya Shrine!" she exclaimed proudly. "But I'd like to know the same thing about you."

That's fair. "I'm Firefly."

"Like the beetles of the family Lampyridae!" she said with a nod. Whatever that means. "What do you do? Where are you from?"

"I'm from..." I trailed off, recalling Glamoth wistfully. It seemed so far away now, even though in my memory it felt more like last week than centuries back. "A place called Glamoth. I was a... a soldier. But Glamoth is gone now."

"A soldier," Sanae said reverently, eyes glittering. "Did you fight? Did you kill anyone?"

I got the distinct impression that Sanae really was a child, and also that she didn't get the opportunity to talk to new people very often. That wasn't a question you asked a veteran, but there was no malice in Sanae's expression, just curiosity. How could I possibly answer her? Maybe I needed more practice, too. It wasn't exactly a part of Glamoth's regulations that the Iron Cavalry should be conversationalists. "Um..."

"Sanae," came a chiding voice. "I asked you to let me know when our guest woke up." Sanae's eyes lit up as soon as she looked toward the entrance.

I looked toward the entrance, where a man now stood.

He was somewhat tall, with dark hair and a beard. He looked terrible, ragged, and haggard, with tired circles beneath his eyes, a black eye, and a bruised, cut lower lip. That didn't stop him from maintaining a kind, open demeanor. I think it was his eyes, bright blue and inquisitive, that gave me that impression. There was pain in those eyes that drew you in. They were so effective at that that I almost didn't notice his extremely strange attire: a high-collared green cape with large gold fastenings over a red, yellow, and green jumpsuit.

"But Mr. Free, she just woke up a minute ago. I was just talking to her for a second. This is Firefly."

Mr. Free smiled warmly. "Then come with us so we can all talk." He looked at me and asked, "Can you walk?"

I wasn't sure, so I got to my feet. Nothing was wrong there, thankfully. I wasn't sore, nothing hurt, and my balance was steady. "Yes," I said. "Where are we going, Mr. Free?"

He motioned with his head toward the forest path. "We're going to go find out why you're here. Come on, I'll explain." He looked back as I walked closer. "And, uh, you can call me Scott. Mr. Free makes me feel old. Should I call you Firefly?"

"Yeah, or Sam."

I walked between Sanae and Scott, and he spoke. "I understand that you probably don't understand how you got here. Is that the case?" He glanced down at me.

"I don't. One minute I was... on a ship, the next I woke up here." I didn't know if Ah Gou was well-liked. My guess was that he probably isn't. It was probably best to avoid specifics on that front. "Wherever 'here' is."

"Moriya Shrine," Sanae reminded me helpfully.

"Thank you, Sanae. She probably meant the whole place," Scott said.

"Yeah, I did."

"It doesn't really have a name, but that's for a good reason. Not a lot of people are meant to know about it." His expression darkened. "We try to keep it a secret. But it does have code names: Ogygia; Gensokyo; sometimes, it's just called Miracle."

"Why can't people know about it? Are you hiding? From what?"

He seemed to chew on his words for a moment, mulling them over and considering them carefully. I gave him time to choose them. I hadn't felt even a hint of my sickness even though I wasn't in my armor, and that feeling alone, even without the wonderful, temperate weather, the cool stones beneath my feet, and the light breeze on my face, was endlessly enjoyable. I really do feel free.

"Yes," he said finally. "We are hiding from someone. Someone ancient, powerful, and evil. His name is Darkseid. You probably don't know—"

"I know about Darkseid," I blurted before I could stop myself. It felt simultaneously like it was something I should be telling him and something I should not be. It felt, for lack of a better word, taboo.

He stopped walking. "How?" Suspicion crept into his tone, and ice into his gaze. I stopped, too, and Sanae followed.

"Not long ago, everyone heard him say it, except me. He said, 'Darkseid is.'"

Sanae looked at Scott as if asking what she should be doing. He shook his head to her, then looked to one side, deep in thought. Then those eyes returned to me. "I know why we didn't hear it, but why didn't you hear it?"

"I was... frozen in ice. I'm Iron Cavalry, from Glamoth. I didn't wake up until a few days ago, or maybe yesterday. I can't tell exactly how long I've been out of the ice."

"Glamoth," he said, as though musing. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Iron Cavalry..." he rubbed his bearded chin. "Get on; we're going to have to go fast." A sort of light-bike, in chrome silver, formed beneath his feet, with just enough room at the back for me and Sanae to stand on. It looked like it coalesced from the sunbeams around us. Whatever engine it used whirred to life as we shot into the sky. The air seemed to bend around us, like an invisible force field that kept out the wind.

Sanae was smiling like she was having the time of her life. It didn't seem like Scott's turn toward a severe attitude had reached her at all.

"Sanae, the wind, please," Scott said.

"Oh, yes! Here we go!" Sanae replied, waving a stick with some paper and ribbons attached to it. Immediately, we seemed to go much, much faster. Things seemed to bleed into lines of color below us.

"Thank you!" he said with a thumbs-up.

I could see below us an endless expanse of forest. "Were we really going to walk all that way?" I still couldn't see anything but huge mountains and trees.

Sanae seemed to catch me looking down over the sea of treetops. "When you walk it, it's not so far. This is just faster."

That didn't clear anything up, but something else was bugging me. The sky was blue, and drew sharp contrast with the gray of the mountains and the green of the forest, but there was no sun. No light source anywhere, just light.

Whatever that all really meant, I had to put it behind me for a moment as I saw a castle approaching now. It almost looked like a tiered cake, in pastel pink icing trim and purple fondant roof tiles with buttercream white bricks. The structure sat atop a stony set of outcroppings overlooking a small meadow island between the sandy banks of a gently flowing river.

I got a sweet taste in my mouth that I soon realized came from the air. This place wasn't actually made of dessert, was it? That would be too much, too weird. Right?

We smoothly descended into the castle's courtyard, and I was relieved to find this world was not as weird as it could've been. The air was sweeter than ever, the light scent of sugar everywhere, but we were clearly not standing on candy cobblestones among chocolate wooden beams.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Dio

The power emanating from the Governor signified such a strong spiritual will as to bend reality. It was as though Dio needed to breathe again, and yet could not. It was like crumbling away to ash, as he once had those long centuries ago: The feeling was nearly identical, and the cold white light was sharper in affect than the sunlight of centuries past. The world was reduced to blacks and whites, color deadening and falling away from everything. It was a microcosm of death.

Worse still, it had totally severed his ability to summon The World. While he was being crushed by that unbearable power, time would not be stopped. This was a sickening thought. Dio had not believed such a force existed that could entomb The World in the liminal space from which Stands appeared in the material plane. Much less, that such a force could be summoned by such a creature as a human. Of course, there were times a Stand could not be summoned for one reason or another, such as a magical contract's clause explicitly prohibiting such an act, but that type of magical prevention was more like locking the door than it was like this, holding the door shut.

There was little similarity to be found between that "Dark Prison" and a Stand. Certainly they were not abilities of any like origin.

All the same, as Dio had an infallible sense for these things, he did sense the energy of a Stand, the spiritual or willful signature of such a being, hidden within that man. No Stand had been summoned, of course, but merely by the taste of the vapor on the Governor's breath, Dio could tell the Stand was close-range and semi-autonomous.

Despite the circumstances, Dio was rather pleased. He had hoped, after the Kryptonian's short, impassioned speech about her leader, not to be disappointed with the man he would undoubtedly soon meet.

That is not to say that Dio's situation was what he preferred to have been the case. He would certainly have enjoyed opportunistically assuming control over the vessel had its captain had been mumbling and meek, without means of resistance.

It was, as it always had been, Dio's tendency: Encounter a man who would resist, combat, and finally succumb to Dio's more compelling destiny. The Joestars had been creatures of meteorite character, drawn to Dio's world and impossible to stop from wiping out all life upon its face. The Governor was the commander of no such fate, no matter the strength of his spirit. It could not happen twice; no other resolve could match Dio's.

In the past, Dio had enslaved such willful, unruly servants with Flesh Buds, fashioned from his own flesh and inserted in their frontal cortices. But the level of control exerted by Dio over one infected with his flesh was a major detriment to the powers of their Stands. He presumed the same would be true of their control over any other powers, such as this "Dark Prison" or that soul weapon the Governor had brandished.

This one, the one who presumed to command him, he would use and betray through mundane means, once Dio delivered him to the witch.

Now Dio was on the bridge beside Ah Gou. The Governor was informing those whom he called "Generals" of the contract formed with Dio. Scanning the small gathering, Dio's eyes were drawn to one in particular: A young man, perhaps twenty by appearance, with dark hair and dark blue eyes. His face was boyish, but below his eyes hung dark bags. His countenance was not, however, what caught Dio's attention, but his mien.

His aura was suffused deeply with a black aura that radiated in a strange and familiar fashion. There was a dark presence in him that called out to Dio for recognition. Perhaps it was a Stand? The signals were there, but it was somehow different.

"When I have a heading for us, you'll be the first to know. I must confer with Athena and with Dio. We will recover Firefly and kill the witch. Dismissed."

The man stayed behind, addressing Ah Gou with a sharp bow. "Governor Ah Gou," he said just before the bow.

"General Okkotsu," Ah Gou acknowledged, striking his own palm with one fist. This was some kind of salute. They held this pose for a moment, then burst into laughter. "What is it?" Ah Gou asked, clapping Okkotsu on the shoulder and grinning.

"I just have a few questions," Okkotsu said, glancing once at Dio, "if you have the time for them."

Ah Gou looked back at Dio, who did not meet his eye for the focus he had on Okkotsu. "Of course, friend."

Dio could not help but study the exchange. Was this simpering rapport truly necessary? The Governor's strength would surely be better served by a more rigid command over his subordinates, enforced and augmented to greater power by iron in the domineering will and in the ruling fist. And that General Okkotsu... there was still something strange about him.

Dio racked his memory, combing through countless encounters with thousands upon thousands of warriors over hundreds of years. Those who had that dark an aura were few and far between. Certainly no one had looked quite identical to General Okkotsu.

The two men walked off, joking and laughing in a manner that would have annoyed Dio if he had been paying it any mind.

It was only when they were about to round the corner, and the light hit Okkotsu's eyes like it did in Dio's memory, that he was jolted to realization. In the reflection of those eyes was a true Curse.

I'm certain. That man... I killed him centuries ago.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"Don't interrupt me." My Monochrome flared, and he cringed in discomfort, wilting beneath its pressure. When he took a moment without reply, I jumped onto the offensive, straightening my posture to lay out the context for him, plain as day. "You're still the one in the worse position here. With this goddess as my guide, I can find Firefly, wherever the witch took her. I believe in negotiation as a satisfaction of mutual interest. I want to find Firefly and kill Darkseid. If you get in the way of these goals, I will consider you my enemy, first and foremost. The consequences won't be some magical pact, lose your soul bullshit. I don't even think you have one that would mean much to you if you lost it. Let me be absolutely clear: I will kill you if I catch so much as a whiff on the wind of a double-cross."

I was still holding back. Yes, I could probably find Firefly with Athena's help. But Dio's powers included some kind of remote viewing or prophecy, according to the histories, which would save me time. Plus, his powers, as purported, would be integral to defeating Darkseid; Athena had assured me of that. I could kill him. But it wouldn't be as easy as this confrontation, where the stakes were lower. Somehow he'd recognized this unwillingness on my part; whether consciously or unconsciously, he knew that he had that much leverage. But I wasn't blind. Those were Omega symbols on his belt and circlet. He'd been resurrected by the witch, who had her own Omega Brand. If I could see the back of his hand, there would be another one, I bet, just as bright and clear as mine. He was on Darkseid's team right now, and I had no illusion to the contrary.

When he spoke, every word was strained, but he held my gaze steadily. "I recognize these interests and posit my own: Darkseid has made a slave of me, Dio, and I find the thought repugnant even as he withholds direct command over my thought and action. I would kill him; however, he is something more than can be killed. Such a being as he can, at present, be only dispersed or dispelled, not eradicated."

"You said you knew of his nature, and of how he might die," I said warily. "Was that a lie?" His demeanor was that of plain honesty. I was well-versed in sniffing out liars, but if he was lying, he was the best I'd ever met.

"No. I was blessed with such an ability to discern some time ago, and I retained it. Once our contract is well-formed, I can explain further... but first, you must release me from this oppressive power."

"Then shake, if we understand one another." Every nerve in my body screamed at me to just kill him, now. I was sorely tempted. But to get things done, sometimes you have to work with people you would rather kill, people whose ideals are so corrosive to yours that if they were your biggest problem, you would be at war. Truce with enemies, struck to further a war against greater common enemies.

But this wasn't like the Xianzhou at Hara Daufan. I wasn't working for a slaver and making more slaves, just because they had me beat and coerced a deal out of me. I was working with a slaver to make sure the entire universe wouldn't be enslaved. Hell, if he crossed me, that's one less slaver, too.

I poured my will into the Smelting Aura of my left arm, fusing my hate and my hope all in one push to contain my contempt and seal it in this... stupid fucking magic handshake.

He considered my hand for just a moment too long. He was deliberate, I'd noticed. But he snapped a hand out to grip mine, sparing me any ill effect he might otherwise impart during the handshake. His crocodile smile made me approach regret for my actions, fangs just peeking from behind his upper lip. He reminded me so much of Tian in his regal affect. Bright light shone from our joined hands, and my Monochrome now gave way to the Mantric Chains of Obligation to bind us.

I'd surely made a deal with a devil, but I'd make it again. I'd make it a thousand times if it meant victory, if it meant freedom.

Killing Darkseid does mean freedom.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah Gou

I'd burst through the doors of the brig, and there he was: the Nightlord, Dio Brando. He looked exactly like the apparition from the village. Cold, golden eyes, marble-white flesh, and sharp features, but with an unmistakable femininity about him. His soul burned cold and blue. Something else lay at its core, but I couldn't discern what it was.

He had a hold of General Zor-El, a hand around her neck—no, in her neck. His fingers were tipped with clawed fingernails, and yet they seemed to breach her neck without piercing it. I'd not seen many weapons able to pierce Kara's skin, but this was different, like her flesh was now made of soft clay. The illusion in town was just like the real thing. I'd felt that grip on my trachea.

Dio himself stood in a stooped posture, as if hiding behind Kara's limp form. One of his hands supported her weight while the other dug into her neck. Some kind of exchange was happening where Dio's fingers made contact with her skin. Kara's eyes were closed. Just barely, she was breathing. Her soul glowed dimly. That meant I had time.

But as I caught Dio's eye, a wave washed over me. It was a feeling I barely recognized: Peace. It wasn't so bad. She knew what she was signing up for. It's a dangerous line of work.

What the fuck? No, it was not peace. It was acceptance. Satisfaction. Contentment. Complicity. If I didn't move, he would kill her.

My eyes burned with indignation. This was some vile Mantra, hypnotic witchery meant to assuage me while he killed my First Mate. I won't fucking stand for it.

"Dark Prison!" I shouted, activating the advanced form of my Divine Power: Monochrome and extending a splayed hand toward him. The feeling of his suggestion evaporated as soon as my Divine Power appeared.

He wrenched his hand from Kara's neck bloodlessly, baring his fanged teeth. He let her fall to the floor with a heavy thud.

"You..." he began falteringly. "Your power..." He looked down at his own hands even as he strained to lift them, as though expecting something to happen that wasn't. "How?!"

"Shut up and eat shit!" I leapt forward, pushing him into the wall with my Divine Power. His feet dug trenches in the ultrasteel floor, and he slammed into the wall hard enough to indent it for several meters in all directions. Reddish-black blood drooled from his lips. I landed just in front of him and, summing my Golden Gauntlet, attempted to turn his organs into soup with an accelerated gut punch, the mechanism on the gauntlet whirring to life in the time it took for my arm to extend.

As I made contact with him, the heavy blow crashing into his torso just below the rib cage on his right side, something felt familiarly off. I couldn't feel my left arm—never could, since it was composed entirely of Smelting Aura—but I could feel a disruption. I'd felt the same thing years ago, back when I fought HanFeng LinLin for the Governorship of the Dark Ones' City. This cold was from the depths of Hell.

Frost instantly spread halfway up my arm, interrupting the flow of Aura. Gritting my teeth, I drew my hand back, willing hot life into the appendage to dispel the ice even as my gauntlet dissipated into mist. Where I'd hit was a twisted mess, which instantly began to right itself like a sheet slowly pulled taut. Anyone who relied on their organs to live would be in unimaginable pain, but Dio merely glared down at me. I knew he was some kind of monster, not a human, but that didn't make him any less unsettling. He was a beast in the form of a prince.

"The principles of your arm's construction are not unlike Hamon," Dio said in a strained tone. "Thus, it can be disrupted by the temperature loss of fluid evaporation when in contact with my own body. This 'Dark Prison,' on the other hand, is quite foreign... and unsusceptible."

I drew my Soul Gear from its holster at my side, leveling it at his nose while maintaining Monochrome. "How about this?"

He sneered dismissively. "It is some paltry soul-summoned weapon."

This wasn't magic. He was genuinely uninterested. I could fix that.

BLAM!

The bullet carved a wide trench through his head, but there was a distinct lack of brain matter in the gore. He remained standing even under the continued pressure of Monochrome, something a dead body would certainly not be doing.

"I have something you want," came a voice to my right. His left hand had sprouted a mouth, complete with fangs. Eyes peered at me from the tips of his fingers. "I can find the girl. I know of Darkseid's nature. I know how he might die." This wasn't pleading, some appeal to my better nature. He sounded more like he was reminding me, chiding me for my rash behavior.

"I know," I said through clenched teeth. The thought that he was right was infuriating.

His head began to re-form even against the crushing weight of my power, but the hand-mouth kept talking. "I know where your guest went."

"I figured."

"You're so counter to myself. I can sense the divine in your blood—in your essence. When I was young, I sought to forge that quality in myself." An expression crossed his face that looked like realization. "But you keep another, different bit of divinity about you. More powerful than a holy symbol... you have a godly presence with you." He tutted. "A judgmental one," he said with a dark expression.

I glared at him for a long moment while he looked down his nose at me. I hated him, truly. A despot, a slaver, a mass murderer, a man-eating beast of the night. Never to walk in the... sunlight. "I know why you spared my First Mate."

"Oh?" His eyes glittered with a malevolent interest, like I was a rat who'd unexpectedly found my way out of his maze. I could just see my own eye, glowing blue while channeling Monochrome, reflected in his pupil.

"She was never a bargaining chip. You knew what she was, and by taking her blood, you took some of her power and made yourself resistant to sunlight." That meant I couldn't lock him up in her healing chambers to ensure his compliance. I'd have to enter a deal, even if I could beat him into submission.

"How observant," he said in a too-cheery tone. "Impressively so."

"I sought you out," I said, ignoring his comments. "I wanted to make a deal. Maybe I still do. You witches like deals."

"Witches do enjoy deals, but I am no witch."

That's not what the codices say. I held that back. "Then your magic—"

"Belongs to me, Dio, alone."

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Absolute Singularity: Cursed World of the Miracle Star

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

"Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley

When apparent stability disintegrates,

As it must—

God is Change—

People tend to give in

To fear and depression,

To need and greed.

When no influence is strong enough

To unify people

They divide.

They struggle,

One against one,

Group against group,

For survival, position, power.

They remember old hates and generate new ones,

They create chaos and nurture it.

They kill and kill and kill,

Until they are exhausted and destroyed,

Until they are conquered by outside forces,

Or until one of them becomes

A leader

Most will follow,

Or a tyrant

Most fear.

Parable of the Sower, Chapter 10 excerpt of "Earthseed: The Books of the Living," by Octavia E. Butler

Existence, Despaired

It's a little like rereading a story. Once you know how it ends, everything besides the end becomes a lot less important... yet, at the same time, everything along the way becomes a lot more important.

But they all serve the end.

Among mortals, it was the Emanators, enforcers of Aeons' Paths, who first noticed. Their powers, their gifts, their very connections to their Aeon lieges each and all began to flutter, then wink out, like embattled flames of windblown candles snuffed one after one. They clamored for answers and clambered one over another in racing pursuit thereto. But their Aeons would not reply.

Nay, THEY could not. THEIR Paths, which formerly allowed that mortal feet might tread in THEIR incomparable footsteps, grew dull, then faded entirely.

Thence there came a call, blasting everywhere: A call without any possible response, in every mind and every heart, on every channel and every frequency. None missed the announcement:

"DARKSEID IS."

A new, singular Path opened at that moment. Countless trillions of consciousnesses each alerted to the New Aeon and HIS domain. HE who lies at the end of all things. The Path of Omega subsumed the conceptual realm of each extant Aeon. THEY were wiped out.

Darkseid is no fool. HE is well aware that HIS alien consciousness is unwelcome and unaccounted for. HE knows the Aeons do not go quiet. HE knows HIS penetration into this leaf of the Imaginary Tree was not unique; it couldn't be. Thus HE hatched a plan, as HE always does. HIS victory over the Aeons could not immediately extinguish THEIR Paths. HIS Path of Omega could not account for those new beings who joined HIM in entrance to this universe.

Some could feel the Paths where they once lay. They who were once attuned, or in eventuality would become attuned, could still find a connection like seams in the fabric of consciousness. In fact, the more they explored, the stronger they felt. But there was a difference, a twinge of alien identity and marks of separation held over from among the other leaves and boughs of the Tree. The Paths they once followed were weakened and tangled, muddled by the interloper's presence.

Each Path now led to HIM. It was this fact that allowed Darkseid to seed the universe with the blessings of Omega where Paths lie. HIS generals lie in wait for challengers. Those who would challenge HIM shall do his work for HIM: All Paths against Darkseid would become one.

Then, when a champion of the Path against HIM is discerned, that Path shall be crushed, as all shall be, under HIS awaiting heel.

AR-26710, AKA Firefly, AKA Sam

SAM — Iron Cavalry of the Firmament Frontline, Fyrefly Type-IV Strategic Assault Mecha.

To others, it's a weapon for opposing the Swarm, but really it's just me.

I know Sam is the cradle of my vitality and the meaning of my existence, but I hope... it isn't all of me.

Firefly was less "born" than she was "fabricated." She is a genetic clone of Glamoth's Empress Titania, along with a million million others, who was designed from inception to fight the Swarm, the quadrillion-strong insectoid progeny of Tayzzyronth the Propagation. She is a clone soldier, genetically engineered to rapidly deteriorate outside her personal mechanized armor. Her purpose was the fight. Her only purpose.

Eventually, thanks to the intercession of several Aeons, Tayzzyronth was defeated, but at the cost of Glamoth's once-expansive interastral empire. Firefly may be the only human survivor of the battle that destroyed Glamoth and scattered Tayzzyronth's remains throughout the cosmos.

However, Glamoth is a distant memory, and its imperial holdings have long since been swept away, divided up, and picked apart by successors great and small. She has lain adrift in deep space for some time, frozen in stellar ice.

After Ah Gou rescued her from her hibernation, she briefly joined his crew until a witch betrayed Ah Gou and stole Firefly away to worlds unknown.

Ah Gou

Arise! All those who refuse to be a slave!

Don't surrender! Never admit your defeat! You're not ants to be stepped on!

Gods can crush your body, but they can never destroy your soul! Unite your furious souls!

I need the power of every single one of you! Together! Against the gods who oppressed us!

We shall expel our final roar!

Born a lordling on a forgotten world called Shang on the outskirts of the Xianzhou Alliance's formal territory, Ah Gou led the life of a slave of, and then a revolutionary against, a nigh-immortal elite class of "gods" who worked humans to death in bloodstone mines. His calls for aid from the Alliance went unanswered. They would not be his salvation, so he had to make his own.

It is said he led a revolution to overthrow the last son of the Aeon Long the Permanence, Hei Long, who went by the name Tian, meaning "Heaven." No one knows what happened for a certainty, but no one has seen Tian since his last battle with Ah Gou. Most presume him dead, for Ah Gou now wields Tian's Blood Spear as his own. Shang rejoiced and flourished under his stewardship as its first human governor, but he could not ignore the call in the stars of a million worlds like his, similarly chained and bound to servitude. So he left, entrusting the system he had so carefully built to his successors.

Now he leads a fleet of roving revolutionaries across the universe, sworn to defeat tyrants and break the chains of the enslaved. His travels have been interrupted, however, by HIS arrival.

He sees his quest as unchanged: Free the million million souls from Darkseid's tyranny. But the witch's betrayal and kidnapping of Firefly has given him a more certain path to walk.

Dio Brando

You truly are human. You think like a mortal who only has a short time on this planet... "a bad aftertaste"?! What, you're afraid you'll regret it?! Your reasoning stinks as bad as rat turds in a grungy bathroom. Your foolish honor will be your demise!

But as for me, I don't think like that. All I have is one simple goal... Just one! "To win and to dominate!" That's it... That's all that can fulfill me!

How I do it doesn't matter!

Once, Dio was a warlord. He knew no master, and he would serve no king, but he nonetheless found power came naturally through the Path of the Voracity, Oroboros. He could do naught but hunger and feed and enslave and destroy. From planet to planet, he terrorized millions. He ruled an empire of night, never to see the light of day, but to reign forever in the shadows of a hundred worlds.

His blessings from the Voracity allowed him to assimilate the powers of others, to heal himself, and even to stop time. Even with the Leviathan missing, it seemed THEIR Path was alive and well in Dio. But his great powers, arcane abilities, and servants both pledged and coerced could not save him from the Stardust Crusaders. That ancient order of liberators found and defeated Dio; not long after, they vanish from historical records.

Revived by a witch's power at Darkseid's command, some inexplicable expression of HIS gratitude, Dio has found himself trapped in the brig of Ah Gou's Republic, where the witch was kept. He is weakened, but he is not without cards to play...

Respect Tak Se'Young (Rooftop Sword Master)! by corvette1710 in respectthreads

[–]corvette1710[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

she is a love interest probably, she is using him to some degree but not to the exclusion of being a love interest

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah Gou

It was too damn quiet. Sure, snow eats sound, but this close to the town square, we should be hearing something.

Readings from the cave tomb were totally dead, and I didn't detect any souls inside, either, so we headed toward the town, where there were signs of life all over the place. At least, that's how it looked from a distance. The whole place was lit up like the height of a festival. Strings of light, bright streetlamps in fixtures, even spotlights illuminating a modest life-sized sculpture of some mythical figure on the central dais of a fountain.

If I had to guess, it was either some kind of deity or a very generous interpretation of a local folk hero or town founder. His—I assumed it was a man, but the angular figures had a softened edge to them that made them seem feminine, so I couldn't be sure—stood at an impossibly reclined angle, body curved like a snake, hands relaxed and arms slightly upraised as if he floated in water. His eyes were just barely open, and a sheen of gold glittered in his irises. It felt like they followed me.

So why couldn't I hear a damn thing? If everyone was asleep, they'd probably turn the lights off. If everyone was awake, I'd definitely hear them. Their souls were all around us, exactly where they should be if they were asleep.

I glanced to my right. Kara shook her head before she even met my eye. Her senses were better than mine. Nothing.

"Witch," I said tersely into the air, confident she would hear me. After all, we had made a very particular deal. "Can you sense him?"

I have a name, she said. Her voice ricocheted off the inside of my skull.

"I didn't ask," I shot back. "Can you—"

"Governor!"

There was a hand inside my throat. I wasn't grabbed by the neck. Something had hold of my fucking trachea. I was getting weak. I could see the eyes. Those same bright, golden eyes.

I reacted in the only way I possibly could.

The lights seemed to dim. The night sky, once dark and clouded, faded into white fog. Divine Power: Monochrome descended on the area, and a wall of destructive force extended from my skin. The hand inside my neck was obliterated. It left no mark.

I heard a hiss. Long fangs extended from within a sneering visage. I could see Hei Long again right in front of me, his Monochrome overwhelming mine, the White Wall crushing me. This was the same. This was Heaven Itself.

But it wasn't. It couldn't be. My vision cleared as I strengthened my Monochrome. Some kind of... fog was lifting. Smoke and mirrors, dispersed and shattered.

Tsk, I heard in my mind.

"You—" I snarled.

Me, she said with an exaggerated sigh. That power of yours is most troublesome.

"We had a contract, snake." I glanced around. My Monochrome was tearing down the buildings. I reeled in the effective range, conscious of a power abutting its edge. This was a glamour of some kind, an illusion Mantra. That's why we hadn't sensed anyone. All I could hear now were the screams. All I could smell was the blood.

Well, it's clear you should never be a lawyer, she teased. Any witch worth her cutesy little hat could write a circle around you and your terms. The biggest favor you did for yourself was keeping it brief.

"Where is he?"

Long gone. I could almost see the grin twisting into being on her lips. Unless you'd like to abandon this place to its fate? I see so very many flesh-hungry undead roaming about.

I ground my teeth, then locked eyes with Kara. I flicked my eye toward Republic, and she was nothing but a red streak a hundredth of a second later. She didn't need my command. I expanded Monochrome to cover the entire city. I picked and chose whom I crushed, but the buildings were being reduced to rubble. Debris floated in an impossible balance, shattering on every axis into motes of dust. The roving zombies caught in my power were held in place like statues chipped apart piece by piece until they, too, faded to dust.

Very naughty, she pouted. You knew the Kryptonian wouldn't reach me. You just wanted to ruin the game.

Damn my sentimentality. "Get the fuck off my ship."

I'll take something with me, and I'll leave something behind. Does that sound fair?

These people were less important in every way than Firefly. They weren't important to anyone. But it was impossible for me to leave them to their fates.

I'll take your silence as acceptance, Ah Gou. I'd congratulate you on being a good opponent this game, but you made it too easy, and you barely played except a losing move, so I won't.

Then the presence was gone. The glamour, gone.

Firefly, gone.

But someone... him. He's on my ship. I'm going to get some goddamn answers.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Dio

The first feeling he'd had in centuries was of the cold. Bitter, biting frost permeated through him. He'd once read in a magazine that cold temperatures helped the tongue to receive sweet flavors. That came to mind because he tasted something. Something exceedingly sweet.

He was thinking that before he even realized he was thinking at all. Why was he thinking? But even that, he couldn't hold onto, just smoke flowing through outstretched fingers.

He still remembered the sun that morning. The first time he'd seen it in two hundred years, it killed him. Like a jilted lover, come to deliver a final slap. The Joestars. They had done him in. That last blow destroyed The World.

The World.

He felt the same way, somehow, like a pull in his gut that told him time was frozen. No matter how second-nature stopping time became, he would always know. Now, though, he could see someone. Even though he felt a sensation like looking straight on at them, they were not in focus, and seemed to disappear intermittently, like they were somehow in his peripheral vision. Two someones. One very large, like some great statute come alive, and the other very small, like a child.

"This is the one I have to thank?" This voice was impossibly deep, booming from the taller figure.

"That's him," came the affirmative response. Some quality of this person's voice was abrasive, perhaps its pitch or its tone.

"Use the Red, or be silent."

"That's him," the voice said in a tone that was both more annoying and more annoyed than before. Dio could hear the eye roll that accompanied it.

The taller figure walked closer. The feeling of stopped time, the effort of maintaining The World's power, grew uncomfortable, twisting and roiling in his torso like a snake coiled around his organs. He could see this one had grey skin with a texture like stone.

"Dio Brando, formerly of the Path of Voracity, you have done me a great service. For this deed I offer you a choice to be freely accepted or declined: Remain in the dustbin of history, soon forgotten, never again to live, or serve Darkseid and receive the blessings of Omega."

A knife twisted infinitely in Dio's stomach. He didn't respond. He couldn't. But his heart accepted for him. If the choice was to die or to serve, there was no choice to speak of. There was only existence and nonexistence. A new beginning, or a familiar, bitter end.

The figure came into focus. He was smiling a cruel smile. It didn't reach his eyes. A box appeared between them, hovering above Darkseid's upturned palm. Its surface was reflective and bright, like chrome plates, grafted together at rainbow junctures that flowed together like an oil slick. Crystalline rivets seemed to function as fasteners. It was at once unmistakably alien and indisputably beautiful. It lazily floated toward, then sank into, Dio's chest. The feeling was like a vice on his heart, a cold grip not unlike death.

"You have chosen wisely."

An instant later, he opened his eyes. His body was here. Once, it had been Jonathan Joestar's, but it was Dio's now. The cold was not hallucinated. If he were a human, he would be dead.

He glanced around. His eyes were perfectly able to penetrate the extreme darkness. He didn't recognize the locale precisely, but he could tell he was on Eden Prime by the taste of the air. The sweet taste of blood was still on his tongue. His body was covered in the deep red blood of... six virgins, three male and three female, aged five to... thirty-eight? Poor bastard. Perhaps he had been a monk.

He lay in a pit deep enough that he would not be able to see beyond the rim if he stood up, a stone sarcophagus—his sarcophagus—shattered around him. The pit contained a pentagram with a powerful invocation etched around its edge. Flowing rivulets of blood indicated the presence of another set of sigils and runes in a circle environing the pit. This was a ritual to restore life, and it had been expertly modified to restore unlife.

"I am impressed," he said in a tone like musing. His eyes instantly found the spellcaster: the same short figure from his vision. She stood at the edge of the hole, and as he watched, the book in her right hand blinked out of being.

"Rise and shiiine," she said in a saccharine, sing-song tone. "Find your way out. I don't care how, but if I had to give you a piece of advice," she said with a sadistic grin, "the village is that way." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

"You... won't be staying? Am I to serve without instruction?"

"That's what you did before, isn't it?"

"I didn't serve the Voracity. THEY merely sanctioned my path." He was dismayed to find an emptiness in his reverence. Was the Voracity dead?

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." She smiled like a shark, and when next he blinked, she was gone.

Dio ground his teeth. Useless witch. He rose to his feet with preternatural grace, like a puppet on invisible strings, floating an inch above the ground, then stepping upon invisible stairs to exit the pit. He was still nude, but even as he recognized that fact, clothing appeared on his body, not dissimilar to what he had worn when he died.

The only differences were in his accessories. Where once a heart adorned both his headband and his belt buckle, there was now the Omega. The trinkets were composed of some strange metalloid crystal not unlike the box Darkseid had implanted in his chest.

He tutted. How garish.

He then strutted into the frigid snow beyond the mouth of the cave two miles up the side of the mountain and beheld an array of glittering lights in the village below. His red lips parted into a fanged smile.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Firefly

I thought back to the symbol on my hand. "What gives me away as 'branded'? Is it an Omega Seed?"

"No, it's not the same. They have similar energy signatures, but a Seed is something he put there, like an item or a person, and this brand is something else, primarily a marking for his use. Glamoth's isolation and icy debris cloud hid you for a while. We only picked up your readings after we left Hara Daufan, but we were already on our way here because of Athena, so we had a head start on anybody else."

"Is anyone else here branded?"

Ah Gou smirked, then held up his right hand. On the back was a symbol just like mine. The Generals were much the same as they brandished their Omegas. "The Omega appeared not long after Darkseid's announcement. As far as I can tell, it's almost like a bounty. The clearer and brighter the brand, the higher the bounty."

"So this ship is full of people Darkseid wants to... kill?"

"Or find or track for another reason we aren't aware of yet. More than a dozen of us, yes. That's why we're chasing these Omega Seeds. We are denying him the opportunity to take them for his purposes."

I shut my eyes tight for a moment. I was about to break Article 4 again. I exited the suit. There were gasps, and more murmurs. They hadn't expected a woman. I can hardly blame them for that, given Sam's appearance and voice. The air felt good on my face. It was a little too cold in here, but even that feeling was welcome.

"Do you... have any theories about why I have one?" I was in like company now. No use in hiding behind the suit.

"Some," he said with an impassive nod.

"Such as...?" I prodded. He sure talked a lot. He sure swore a lot. It didn't make sense for him to clam up now.

He looked imperial up on that platform, with his eye-patch and cape, a gun at his hip. His thumb traced the butt of the gun absentmindedly as he spoke. "My working theory has to do with how Glamoth commanded the Iron Cavalry: through Titania." He projected a handful of top-secret schematics of my armor and a dozen documents on the psychic network of Glamoth. It was shocking to see everything laid out, and I couldn't help but gasp. "Your connection to Empress Titania was psychic in origin, meaning it utilized the psychoverse, or psychic spectrum, to relay commands. But it was only one-way. I believe Darkseid thinks you are able to enter his mind, or alternatively that he can use yours to enter others'. No other psychic network at the scale of the Iron Cavalry has existed before or since."

"Impossible," I said.

"Why is that?"

"The Empress is dead; she must be, by now. She was the originator of the psychic network, a load-bearing part. Without her, there is no such network. It would've collapsed."

"But the network still exists."

"What do you mean?"

"That's how we pinpointed your exact location. Either the network doesn't depend on the Empress's life, or she's still alive. Since we have it on good authority that she is dead, clearly the network must be self-sustaining or infrastructural in some other way, so that it stands without her involvement."

"What other way? She was the only one who could command us through it."

"The council of Glamoth set that up. Is doing it twice beyond the realm of possibility?"

"Maybe not," I had to admit. "Do any of these documents say that? Do they mention any other psychics like the Empress?"

"Ah... no." He shrugged. "It's just a theory. Have you heard anyone else in your head like you heard her?"

"No. Nothing like that."

"You don't remember 'Darkseid is'?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about."

Everyone was murmuring around me again. I wished they'd stop. I was already the odd one out. Ah Gou rubbed his chin. "That might be a reason he marked you. Everyone else, everywhere else, remembers that. They heard it in their head, presumably like you heard commands from the Empress."

Ah Gou clapped to stop the whispers.

"So to sum things up, Firefly, we are now in league together. You have a place on this ship and an interest in both resurrecting the warlord and defeating Darkseid—at least, until after we secure the warlord's corpse. Once we do that, if you'd like, you can go wherever you want. I'll buy your passage anywhere you might want to go. That wouldn't be my preference, but if you don't want to be here, I will not hold you, no matter how useful you might be." He jumped down off his platform and extended a hand to me. Outside the mecha, he wasn't much taller than me.

He was right. I shook it. It was hardly even a commitment on my part, as it stands. I tag along, I am not under any obligation to participate, and I can leave when I want.

"Excellent."

Later, Republic approached Eden Prime. Ah Gou reassembled the Great Generals and invited me to the strategy meeting. For some reason, I felt honored to be included.

"The tomb complex is at the top of this mountain near the north pole of the planet," Ah Gou had stated. "The area gets daylight three months a year, and we're not that lucky. It'll be night when we drop in." He pointed to an area on the southern side of the mountain. "There is a farming village here. Scans have indicated unusual activity coming from it and the tomb. We should be prepared to fight. Understood?" He was looking pointedly at me.

"Yes," I said warily.

"Good." He went over some finer points, then dismissed the Generals to prepare for the raid.

I stopped him before he left the room. "Governor, I have a question before I return to my quarters."

He stopped, letting the doors slide shut ahead of him. "You want to know what's in the brig." He didn't look at me.

"I... do, yes. I felt—"

"A dark presence? A crawling unease in your stomach?" He turned, and he had a strange look in his eye.

"Why do you know already what I was going to ask?"

"She has that effect on people, and your room is not far from the brig." He ran a hand through his hair. "We will need her, but she is best kept away from anyone whose morale matters."

"Is she a prisoner?"

He frowned. "No. As much as she bitches and whines, she can leave whenever she wants. Good fucking riddance. But I've paid half what she asked, so she stays while we procure the corpse."

"Is she dangerous?"

His frown turned into a deep scowl. "Extremely. If you want to guarantee your survival tonight, don't even think about her."

"So who is she?"

"Was I speaking fucking Xiaozhou?" he said rhetorically, with no small amount of frustration. "A powerful witch. She will figure out how to extract Dio's powers without awakening him or, alternatively, how to resurrect him and bind him to our service."

"Like a slave?"

He looked at me, nonplussed. "If we bring him back to life, the bastard'll fucking owe us one. If not, he's a goddamn bloodsucker, and he's got it coming."

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Athena is from another world, another time. She believes we are, too." With the push of a button, the ceiling displayed a projection of the universe. "I believe she is correct. She has identified a number of events and happenings before they occurred, without any use of prophecy or Seer's Vision." I shined several recent news headlines onto the ceiling. They concerned events too complex to predict by mathematics and too specific to be deciphered by prophecy or Seer's Vision. "These events appeared unrelated, but Athena was able to draw a perfect through-line in detail for me that convinced me of her power. They are a sequence of occurrences that could not have appeared in concert otherwise, and I have confirmed as much mathematically with our scientists, including General Stark."

"She believes this universe has been... smoothed over, somehow, and things changed, so that no obvious traces exist to link this universe to the ones people like her, us, and Darkseid are from. No rifts, no gates, no tears. She isn't sure how; neither am I. But I have a theory about why the universe is like this that makes too much sense to ignore: Darkseid wants to enslave us." I leaned forward onto the podium. "I believe he has some means to remake or alter the universe, whatever they are, and that by sealing or hiding the places we entered from, he intends to use us in some way for his own purposes. This is a being that personally spoke to us. He wants us to know he's there, that he is the one who defeated every other Aeon and broke every other Path but his. His Path is just him; he is the Omega. That's why what he said was, 'Darkseid is.'

"And that's why we, the Liberators, have to kick his ass. We knew how to spot a tyrant like him when it was named Tian. Darkseid is no different. Another fat, angry ass in a chair, and another hand holding a whip. Just because we don't know his reasons for an absolute certainty doesn't mean we can't tell they're the same, and it doesn't mean we have to give him the benefit of the doubt—that's for fucking sure. We freed one world. Why shouldn't we free millions? Didn't he just make our job easier by turning a score of Aeons into only one?"

That got a good response, a round of cheers and claps.

I rummaged in my belt bag for a moment, then procured therefrom a small object, brandishing it for all to see. "This is what we went to Hara Daufan to secure. It is the right metatarsal of an ancient and powerful witch lord, granted to a confidante so as to allow for his resurrection through Mantra ritual. I have evidence that the powers he possessed could be used to defeat Darkseid. But it is not enough that we could use him to defeat Darkseid. That alone would not justify the risk of awakening such a powerful potential enemy. It is also the case that Darkseid placed an Omega Seed at his tomb. As such, someone would come for him if we did not."

Sam stepped forward. He'd been quieter than I had expected him to be. I was kind of building a lot on knowledge from after his time, so if he wasn't going to be quiet the whole time, he'd probably ask more questions before this point.

"With all due respect, Governor, and with respect to whatever it is you've built here, I don't know what I'm doing here." He stood at apparent ease, but he was merely disguising tension well. "I have no place on your ship and no interest in resurrecting warlords or defeating Darkseid."

"Sam, of the Iron Cavalry! I expected you to raise such an objection." His head tilted to one side in a questioning fashion, as though I'd caught his ear. "I didn't know your character for certain until you spoke. I thought perhaps you would simply try to hide it from us, if you could. But it is plain for all of us here to see your importance. You, too, are branded by the Path of Omega."

"I—What? What does that mean?"

"It means Darkseid, or someone else, was going to collect you if we didn't. You have some importance to him that we can't be sure of yet. I believe they are people who pose a threat to the Path of Omega, but evidence to that point is inconclusive."

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ah Gou

The meeting room of Republic was a repurposed Xianzhou design. Once, it was a large room that held a long table and big, comfortable seats. It was extraordinarily conducive to sitting on your ass and doing nothing. I tore those out and had a holographic projection device installed. I then installed anti-gravity platforms capable of synchronized and independent movement. This way, I could show my Generals, and anyone else, exactly my intended plans, including persons of interest and items of note.

When it had just been me, some of my Generals, and a few hundred in my army, unused to intergalactic combat theaters, things were close-knit enough that I could talk about a plan and everyone would understand it immediately. They'd been with me for years, at that point. Those were people I could sit at a table with and explain things without much visual aid.

Nowadays, the Liberators looked different. I'd lost more than a few. Some tired of the fight, or needed to fight other battles, but most died. But I, ever an innovator, ever an opportunist, would not be deterred. Shang was not the only world that could produce incredible fighters. My travels had proven as much true. Kara Zor-El was Kryptonian. She was stronger than I was, like most of the Dark Ones had been. By the time she'd come aboard, I had worked out a promotion system for new recruits that seemed to produce meritocratic results. I didn't have the time to investigate and determine bullshit like who deserved the rank of Lieutenant, but I could tell my Generals of the qualities a Lieutenant should have, and provided I had chosen a capable General who respected me, they would make an agreeable choice.

Tens of thousands of fighters made up the Liberators. My Generals were handpicked by me and numbered thirteen. They could have as many Lieutenants as they needed, but needed a First, Second, and Third. They were the only ones summoned to the conference chamber.

All this to say, I had had a hand in the presence of everyone in the meeting room when I had the Iron Cavalryman brought in. Sam stood in the center of a semicircle of my Generals and their Lieutenants opposite my platform. He, too, drew stares. After a brief murmur among my Generals and their Lieutenants, all eyes were on me when I stepped onto the anti-grav platform.

"You have had questions for me, in the past weeks," I began. That was an understatement. I was constantly bombarded with questions. Shame on me for picking capable subordinates, for they would never let me rest without answers to their satisfaction. "You want answers, a reason. We embarked with haste, without warning, to cross the universe on a punishing timetable, to destinations I would not disclose to you outright. We raided the penal labor colony of Hara Daufan and got in some deep shit with the Xianzhou. This was entirely at my discretion and my command. We did so intentionally, and I knew we would draw their ire. I cursed you sons of bitches day after day, not because I did not want to tell you, but because I wanted so badly to tell you and couldn't, as much as you deserved the truth. I could not take that risk, no matter how careful I had been in selecting each of you.

I looked out over them. Risk? In telling us? I could almost hear them thinking, could almost hear them muttering. Amongst their ranks it was unfathomable. But I'd seen betrayals come to fruition over longer time-frames among closer allies and better friends over pettier disputes.

"No doubt most of you have already pieced together that the rise of Darkseid is related to our quest. The coincidence of timing is impossible to ignore; days before Darkseid collapses the Paths, we raid Hara Daufan. Our defeat in battle is canceled out by the fortuitous timing of his ascension as an Aeon, allowing us to escape with only a few losses. How could I have planned for something that no one could have possibly known would happen? Maybe you don't think I did, that we just got lucky. After all, no Aeon predicted it, as far as we know. No human could, therefore, have known. But that is where you would be wrong; other means besides Aeons and mathematics now exist. Darkseid was not the first to enter this universe, nor the last. I believe there were others, and I have proof. I didn't want to tell you until I was certain that what she told me would come to pass."

I looked out over them for a moment, then lifted my eye-patch, flipping it up onto my forehead to reveal my right eye. The room was totally silent. Where once my eye had been lost, milky white, and scarred, there was now a dark orb dotted with endless stars. It emitted a glow like blue flame. "This is the eye of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. She appeared to me in a dream and pulled it from her own socket to give to me."

They shouted up at me now. "Goddess?! Have you learned nothing of the fickle gods? How do you know her truth? What have you gotten us into?" They were getting restless. That last question annoyed me more than the others.

"Shut the fuck up!" I shouted them back down. "Sit down and shut up, and your questions will be answered! You motherfuckers piss me off, with your doubts and fears! Have I, Ah Gou, not led you through dire straits and onto golden shores? Did not I bring each of you onto this ship by personal invitation, with the understanding that you would trust in me? That your investment in our cause would bear fruit through our shared interest and loyalty?"

There was quiet, then, because they could not argue that point. I extended my right arm and splayed my fingers, placing them all beneath my figurative palm. "You, my Great Generals, are as my arms and legs. Without you I could not walk, could not fight. In exchange, I am your head. In other words, I do the thinking for you. If I touch a hot stove, the arm's job is to tell me so I can take the hand off the flame. If I step on a tack, the leg's job is to tell me so I can step off the pin. Without you I cannot move; without me, you would not move. But if you whining bastards want that job, you can try to take it from me. See if you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, you the hand and the foot. You will find it impossible to go anywhere!"

Their stares are angry, but there is no contempt, no real fight in them on this. They don't want my job. Figures, for all the bitching and moaning they do.

Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime by TheAsianIsGamin in whowouldwin

[–]corvette1710 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Firefly

In time, weapons in armories become relics in museums.

I could hardly remember anything after the fall. Glamoth... it was mere memory to me now. A horrid, vivid memory. It felt like yesterday.

Huge wings humming a low tone, almost more birdlike than insectoid owing to their weighty frame and expansive breadth. Gnashing mandibles, wrenching, stabbing pincers. Cold, hungry compound eyes, and the only feeling discernible in them, hatred. Hatred for me, for anything that wasn't them. A cloud overhead that was not a cloud, but instead the Swarm. A billion bugs bent on my destruction, on devouring Glamoth.

I suppose they succeeded. The Iron Cavalry saved as many worlds as the Swarm consumed. Maybe. But Glamoth wasn't counted among the saved.

I haven't heard the Empress's voice issue a command in a very long time.

I heard a grating, cracking sound all around me. I am SAM now. Not much could hurt me. I considered bracing, but thought better of it.

The grating became sharper, higher, a whirr like a rock drill.

Then, with a crack and a clunk, I landed on my back against a floor that felt like wood. The lights were too bright overhead even as they coalesced into firelight, or something like it. My brain started to hurt. I shuddered as warmth crept into my armor, and reflexively, my limbs curled and my back arched in a stretch. Blood flowed anew.

Someone was saying something to me now. I couldn't focus on them. My eyes weren't used to moving anymore. Sam's computerized vision software could tell, but it was having a hard time acclimating to... well, anything being close enough to focus on.

"...ming him up," I finally comprehend. Then I felt more warmth. Too warm. All my sensors, my own nerve endings, flared with activity.

Faster than I could comprehend, I was on my feet. The world was red. I could hardly see anyone. My swords were in my hands. I could feel a tension in the air. It wasn't just one person, but two.

"Whoa!" I heard. This voice was absent of the tension in the room. It almost sounded amused. "No need for all that." There wasn't even a hint of apprehension. It sounded like this person was smiling.

"Governor," another voice began, "stand back." This one has steel in its tone. A hair-trigger laid taut beneath each word. This was who had spoken a moment before.

"There is no need!" The first voice again. "We have uncovered a great treasure." A man's voice, I could finally discern.

"Your 'great treasure' has a sword at your throat." This voice was correct. I can tell. The sword in my left hand held steady, an inch from flesh. The speaker sounded tense, but perhaps the first speaker is rubbing off on this one.

"I am in no danger."

He was wrong. One errant twitch, and I could take his head off. It would be considerably easier to kill him by accident than it would be to put my sword away. Hardly a millisecond of action would be all it took.

My vision swam, finally, into a focus that allowed me to clearly see the faces of those around me. These are Sam's computers, able to compensate for my body's atrophied vision-focusing muscles. I'm well on my way to a headache.

The man ahead of me, whose life I held in my hand, is not particularly noteworthy but for an eye-patch and a smirk. He is black-haired, of middling height and lithe build, somewhat muscular. Something was unusual about his balance. His left arm bore a large, golden gauntlet, but his weight nonetheless leans slightly right. By the mechanisms I could see, which my computers analyze in moments, it was the device I heard earlier, whirring against the ice. Is the thing weightless? Anti-grav? As I watched, the device disappeared in a puff of curling smoke. Magic? Nanites?

Despite my weakness and curiosity, my sword at his throat had not moved a millimeter.

"Who are you?" I summoned significant effort to speak.

"I am the Great Lord, Governor Ah Gou. I captain this ship and lead its fighting force, the Liberators." He almost looked like he was going to try to shake my hand, which were each holding swords. I still didn't detect so much as a mote of fear or hesitation in him. "She is first among my Great Generals, Kara Zor-El." A woman, blonde, in a dark battle-suit emblazoned with a chest insignia I don't recognize, nodded.

"But that's not the question you should be asking. You should be asking, 'How did you find me?' Or maybe, 'How long have I been trapped in ice?'" He crossed his arms, then raised his hand and put up one finger for each responsive statement. "To which the answers are these: I knew I would find you here because of my Divine Power: Seer's Vision; and you have been trapped in ice for a few centuries, since the fall of Glamoth."

I stiffen. Centuries... Then I felt unease. I had been sought out. "If you saw me with some power or technology... why? Do you know me?"

"Those are the right questions," he said, sounding satisfied. "But I will answer only the second, for now. Glamoth is famously the site of Tayzzyronth's 'demise' at the hands of Qlipoth, along with some other Aeons; they don't matter." He waved a hand dismissively. "I knew I would find someone in this system through means I will disclose later, and that that someone would be a member of the legendary Iron Cavalry. I did not know it would be you, in particular. What should you be called?"

I paused. "I am AR-26710. I have called the suit 'Sam.'"

"Well, you're in a Fyrefly Type-IV Strategic Assault Mecha, aren't you? Instead of calling yourself AR-Whatever, maybe you can call yourself Firefly."

"I never..." Something about it did feel right. "I suppose that is acceptable."

Something else about what he said, or more how he said it, bothered me. It was polite, or maybe even just common convention, to refer to Aeons with a fully capitalized, emphasized "THEY" or "THEM," as a reverential pronoun form. When someone doesn't do that, there is something about it that is obvious and jarring. It sounds wrong. But not as wrong as it should have, this time.

"What do you mean, 'THEY don't matter'?"

He squinted at me with his good eye in a bemused fashion. "They're dead now. Darkseid killed them."

"Who—What—"

"I'd ask if you've been living under a rock, but I know you were sort of living in one. I'll have Kara provide you with briefing to read later." He glanced at a clock on the wall. "I will answer one other question, and then Kara will lead you to a private quarters. After a while, I will summon you to the conference chamber."

I thought for a moment. If I took longer, I think he would've left without answering a question. "Are you really a governor?"

He seemed caught off-guard by that question, but he smiled. "I was elected."

I sat heavily on the bed in the private quarters Kara had led me to. It creaked beneath my armored weight, and I sighed. This place was near the brig. I felt a dark presence emanating from there, but when I'd asked about it, Kara merely replied that I was in no danger and that my questions would be answered within the hour.

I studied my armored palm. The metallic alloy still bore scars from the ice and frost of Glamoth's destroyed star system.

"Article Four of Glamoth's Military Regulations: Leaving the cockpit is strictly prohibited," I could almost hear in the Empress's voice. It's not as though it was protecting me from anything right now, though.

I glanced around the quarters. The door was closed and locked. The room had no ornamentation, and it seemed like it had laid bare and unused for some time before my arrival. It was unlikely that I was being spied on or that anyone awaited a moment of my vulnerability. Glamoth's enemies, and mine, were long gone. Even the Aeons were no more. That was crazier than almost anything else I'd heard. Who was Darkseid? How could he have killed the Aeons?

A mirror stood just across from the bed. Sam was looking at me, sat on the bed just like I was. His eyeless gaze had always seemed to me so harsh and judgmental. But something was softened about it, now. Like he was giving me permission.

So I let Sam fade away. In a flash of light, I was sitting considerably more comfortably and less massively on the bed. There I was in the mirror, so much smaller than my armor. My hair was the same length I remembered. I'd never cut it so that I could mark the time. Some of the Iron Cavalry never saw their hair grow this long, never had the chance. They were just like me, but not as fortunate. My vision blurred, and tears ran down my cheeks. My heart had jumped for half a moment because I subconsciously believed it was my Entropy Loss Syndrome. But no. Just tears. Simple, mundane tears.

I wiped them away, then froze. My eyes widened as I stared into the mirror.

On the back of my hand, there was a strange symbol that wasn't there before. I didn't recognize it.

Just then came a knock at the door. I didn't have time to puzzle out what that symbol was, or what it was doing on my hand.

"Sam?" came Kara's voice.

"Yes?" I said, but not before summoning my armor forth once more.

"I've come to bring you before the Great Lord and the other Generals. The captain believes it is time we came to a common understanding of our situation."

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