| Roar of the Yellow Dragon; Noburu Nakano's Awakening [Open] | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 10 2013, 08:12 PM (558 Views) | |
| Nonsequitur | Dec 18 2013, 12:41 AM Post #21 |
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Yellow Bubblegum
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Benkei waved somewhat limply as Jiro made a rather dramatic exit. Yeah, there was a reason he normally didn't like dealing with teenagers. But he'd have cooled off and been fine. "We should keep talking while we're moving, ideally we can finish this where it's relatively safe." As he lead him on, he talked. "Damn, she did that? Bad luck her talents in something most people associate with the worst- wait, did Jiro heal you before I got here? Looks like a cut." Off tangent, he had to get to the point. "We are in the ruins, at some point some assholes decided to study some weird shit in this city and build an underground complex and do some weird, and seriouslyly unethical experiments. Obviously things have gone tits-up since it's crawling with monsters and random people- mostly teenagers- have been dragged into the damn place by the butterfly ever since. That's where 'magic people' come from. Beyond that? Who the fuck nows? Lots of people have been trying to figure it out, though." That reminded him, he had to let him know about Bedlam. "Other people don't know because for whatever reason people who haven't been dragged there for the butterfly or already have a Persona-what this ability is called- can't even enter here unless they're taken there by a Persona user." …and if people hadn't been fucking assholes, this would have been a nice, mostly self-contained problem for the people who were stuck dealing with it. "For what it's worth, Sadako said she's not interested in going after you two- She's got one too, a Persona. That's exactly why all this bullshit started and it wasn't left to the police like normal." Yeah, he remembered the way, that was the way out. "The URL you see is for a site called Bedlam. It's an information and networking resource for people like us now. Be careful if you see the tag's been misspelled, though." Edited by Nonsequitur, Dec 18 2013, 12:50 AM.
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| The One True Nobody | Dec 18 2013, 01:00 AM Post #22 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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Noburu didn't start walking immediately; there was a moment of indecision, and then he let out a slow sigh, and put one foot in front of the other, ignoring the bloodied clothes on the floor. When Benkei asked if he'd been healed by Jiro, Noburu shook his head, and swung a thumb over his shoulder. "I was chased into a bathroom by those monsters Jiro killed. There was a different monster in there, a manta ray thing sticking to the wall. It... healed me." So casually talking about magical healing was weird... The red-haired boy listened, and gritted his teeth when the subject of experiments came up. So all of this, the rumored monsters behind the deaths at the park, the upsurge in vigilantism, the disappearances and everything. All of it came back to this laboratory and the people behind it. Some rich family playing God, probably... Noburu stopped walking the moment Benkei said only people with Personae could enter the ruins. He barely heard that Sadako had a Persona (Of course she does, he thought distractedly). The Persona-user website address was a useful thing--he looked at it, committing it to memory. He would need a new phone, though. And his foster parents would never get him a fucking computer, they hadn't even been willing to put out for high school expenses. "So I need those powers if I want to get back in here and get to the bottom of why one of the only two people who ever gave a damn about me had to die," Noburu stated matter-of-factly, once he was sure he had the website address in his head. "You said I needed a mask--how do I get it?" |
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| Nonsequitur | Dec 18 2013, 01:41 AM Post #23 |
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Yellow Bubblegum
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"Yeah, I know those." He said, as though he'd encountered them before. He did, of course. "Well, it's just there you want it to be and it just appears or goes away. To prove his point, he did the same thing with his new mask several times. "And that's how it works." Advanced stuff would of course have to wait for another time. "The monsters are called Shadows, the manta thing was one too. So not all of them are necessarily hostile, but don't bet on it. Some are just walking nightmares, some are just jokes or weird. Some are strong…" As if on cue, a Burning Beetle wandered up. "Some are pretty weak, actually. You know what? Since you're coming back, I might as well make sure you know what you're doing. You can take this one, I'll cove you if it gets a bit much." Oh, shit, it's one of those weak but…"Oh, you can beat it, with your Pesona, just don't try wailing on it, use magic instead." Edited by Nonsequitur, Dec 18 2013, 01:45 AM.
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| The One True Nobody | Dec 18 2013, 02:53 AM Post #24 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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You just had to... want it? It sounded absurd for a moment. Then it made perfect sense. Magic, of course. It was a part of him, something inside him. Like an arm or a leg, he controlled it by will alone. There was no point in trying to figure out how, why, or what the mechanics were. It simply was what it was. As if in affirmation of this, the creature in Noburu's head let out a long, low roar. That was when it wandered into their path, a large golden insect, like a giant beetle with an almost comically-stereotypical European crown on its back. Noburu watched it skitter out of the intersection ahead, one of the monsters that infested this place, and how fitting a representative than an insect for an infestation? He could hear the proud beast growling low in its throat. He looked left, and then right, and then up. This space, this corridor, suddenly it felt... Confined. "I need..." A pause. Then, intuitively, he knew what he needed. And so he said it. "I need more room." Sprinting toward the monster, Noburu snarled. He didn't divert away from it, but it was between him and the large chamber where the doorway to the outside was. The doorway wasn't what he needed, what he needed was that wide, high-ceilinged lobby area, because he couldn't possibly use his "Persona" in such a cramped place. The bug's attention had already been attracted. He ran at it straight-on. Without knowing how or why, as his heart rate spiked and he felt his brain scream at him to stop and to run in the other direction, scream at him that he was going to die-- --Noburu Nakano told himself that that was okay, that he would die if he had to. And the mask appeared, white metal with a red design, two pairs of narrow, horizontal slits for eyeholes. The bug was in the way, though. He needed room, he needed more room-- As he neared the creature, he pushed the metal mask to his face, and it stuck fast, covering his eyes and his nose, his entire upper face, but just the front, only the front. The Burning Beetle took up only about half the hallway. He had three choices: left... right... or... "I will kill you. All of you. Every last stinking one of you monsters, I'll wipe you all off the face of the Earth!" Whatever the monster tried, Noburu would swerve around the beetle's horn--his focus on that was akin to a laser. He would swerve, he would vault onto the Beetle's back, and slide over, and behind. And once his feet were on the ground, he would run, run all of the five paces he needed until he was in the lobby, in that wide open space. And then, when he was there... ...He stopped. Stopped, and through his head back, and let it all out in one long, loud roar of anger, which started human, but then became something--not. Something monstrous, something proud, something indignant--and something furious. Blue light flared around his legs and body but it didn't stop there like it normally would have: it blazed outward until it looked like it might fill the room, and then it began to take shape. That shape twisted and snaked through the air above Noburu, around him, solidifying into something massive. It was immediately apparent why Noburu had said I need more room. As Noburu turned to look sidelong at the Burning Beetle, his Persona--its name was Kohryu, he knew, or as June had named it, Huang Long--fully manifested, a long, large, white-gold Chinese dragon, its maw slowly opening, steam puffing out of its nose in thin jets. Its serpentine body curled, looped, and curved through the air behind him, easily taking up over twenty square yards of space. The proud dragon turned its eyes down on the Burning Beetle. And, with no visible movement from the dragon, the ground at the mouth of the corridor began to crack. A chunk of linoleum burst open, and from beneath it, small shards of rock shot up, stopped in midair, converged. Noburu could feel it like an extension of his will, and it was... potent. An effort of that same will shaped it into a narrow spike made of Earth. The red-haired boy held up a hand, pointing one finger toward the Beetle, and flicked it. And so he let the Magna spell fly. |
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| Nonsequitur | Dec 18 2013, 05:01 PM Post #25 |
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Yellow Bubblegum
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When he mentioned he needed more room, Benkei kept up, with an eye on the beetle and gave Noburu a wide berth. The reasons why he said that were self-evident. It also reminded him of some advice he'd have to give him: "Yeah, ah, you can use your Persona's skills without summoning it, just concentrate on beating this thing and I'll tell you more." Thus far, his intervention wasn't needed. So he watched impassively, ready to play the role of adviser as needed. The Crowned beetle was sent flying by the Magna. It skittered on it's legs before it charged Noboru, hoping to attack him with the horn which comically had a light purple jagged mask on it's end. |
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| The One True Nobody | Dec 18 2013, 05:28 PM Post #26 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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Noburu heard Benkei's advice but didn't make any sign of acknowledgement. His focus was on the monster. His vision was a bit strange through these metalic slits, but... ...Closing his eyes, Noburu realized he didn't need his own eyes; he could see whatever the dragon saw. The dragon, which was perfectly identical to the tattoo coiled around his body and heart. Noburu found himself smiling in spite of the situation, in spite of the rush of being faced with a monster that would gore him in an instant. When the Beetle charged him, he softly murmured, "Back off." And the dragon's serpentine body moved, obstructing the Beetle's path with a portion of its scaled hide. Noburu's whole body seized and clenched with the feeling--it felt as if he'd been physically gored, but the dragon itself held fast, halting the Shadow's movement. Kohryu lifted its head, and opened its mouth. Noburu heard a retaliatory roar sound in his mind, and then holes burst open in the ceiling. More shards of rock drifted out, converged above the Burning Beetle, and her shaped them into another spike of rock. And then, after a moment of motionlessness, the spike shot downward onto the Beetle like a guillotine blade. |
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| Nonsequitur | Dec 18 2013, 09:25 PM Post #27 |
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Yellow Bubblegum
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The second Magna spell was more than enough to finish off the burning beetle, it was reduced to a puddle of black goo. He grunted and nodded. "Alright, well, as I was saying before, you can use your Persona's abilities without your mask. It's a lot weaker than it would be but you don't have to summon it either and you'd probably need that in tight quarters." So, that was it, huh? "And we shouldn't linger too long. There's a Shadow called the Reaper that will come if you stay in the Ruins for too long, no one's ever been able to put a scratch on it and running doesn't guarantee you'll live if you're around when it shows up." That sounded good enough for survival basics. It was time to go. "Now let's get going." |
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| The One True Nobody | Dec 18 2013, 10:13 PM Post #28 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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The Burning Beetle's shell broke, its innards were impaled by a spike of stone, and it began to melt away. Did all of the monsters melt when they died, Noburu wondered? Letting out a breath to calm himself, in a strange sort of meditation ritual he'd picked up back when keeping himself calm and collected was sort of a new thing, he forced his feelings of hostility and revenge to leave his body with the air: reaching up, he removed the mask from his face, and Kohryu faded away into a dim blue light that went out after a few seconds like a bathroom light on a dimmer knob. The red-haired boy nodded to finally acknowledge Benkei's order, and then looked down at his own body. The tattoo. The dragon. And that dragon was his power. It was almost as though June were making up for her feelings of uselessness and inadequacy by protecting him in spirit. "You're very matter-of-fact about all of this," Noburu said in a somewhat sour voice, as he turned toward the door. ---
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| Nonsequitur | Dec 18 2013, 11:29 PM Post #29 |
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Yellow Bubblegum
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"I have been in this same position, getting people out of this exact shitty position that you find yourself in quite a few times. I guess I got it mostly down to a routine." Almost, as he forgot. "Oh, the thing about the Reaper is you'll hear him way before you see him. If you hear chains, get the hell out of the ruins, understand?" So they'd just walk out of there, and back to town where June was. To say they got off on the wrong foot was an understatement. While walking in uncomfortable silence was fine too, given Noburu was already in a stressful situation a conversation that wasn't antagonistic might be good. "You know, your Persona looks just like that tattoo." Benkei was just ready to dismiss it as another one of those stupid coincidences the city was known for. The woman called 'Village Bicycle' turned into a motorcycle, He'd never heard of the weather being anything but clear except when something dramatic was happening to someone in the city. It had approached a point where Benkei hadn't even felt the need to comment on it anymore. |
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| The One True Nobody | Dec 19 2013, 01:05 AM Post #30 |
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
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"Got it," Noburu said. Chains mean run. Run means know where the exit is... it was simple. The complicated stuff could be worked out later. After sleep. Noburu felt strangely tired and slow-witted. Drained, even. Those two Magna spells had really taken it out of him... Noburu glanced down at his tattoo, and nodded. "Yeah..." he said slowly. "It does. You know more about this power than I do. You tell me why that is. What exactly is this 'Persona' thing?" Out into the open. The cold night air. Cold--cold! Noburu cringed, and brought his arms around each other, shrinking into himself in an attempt to insulate himself as best he could against the chill of the air. Had it been that cold before...? |
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