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Monster
draugr
65 years old
socialite
played by redox
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She had a name, she had a spirit, she had a line in the play if you wanted to hear it.
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Post by SOPHIA ROSENBURG on Dec 22, 2014 4:55:30 GMT
 she hadn't arrived at the gates of shara. to say that would be doing a disservice to the sheer size of the imperial capital. she doesn't know it, but she's managed to crawl from the edges of kur to the doorstep of old town. no place is much different from the next: she's equally unwelcome. (what she has to fear are the moments when she is welcomed with open arms and ravenous hearts) there's a faint ringing in sophia's ears, and she's no longer sure if it's a sound that is grounded in reality or her own dreams crossing into her waking. when her vision adjusts, it's not the broken sword in her hand that she notices first. what she notices first is the sheen of fear thinning from the man's eyes. and then she notices the broken blade in her hands. her enemy thinks that she's less dangerous now. less dangerous without half her blade. as if a sword is a tool of surgical precision instead of an object to be rammed into whatever will admit purchase. that's the man's mistake to make. not hers. she's barely lucid enough to remember who was the first aggressor. it doesn't matter. they're all doomed to fall into the same patterns, the same routine. people walk into her path. only one walks out alive. sophia wishes that she could shut the world out as easily as she could shut her eyes. a sharp screech of metal tells sophia that her opponent's blocked the hit. that too, is his mistake. sophia looks directly up into his eyes and tightens her psychic grip like fingers around a neck. except a neck is supported by a vertebrae. human minds are supported by less than that. the city howls, but she's listening to something else entirely. THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Dec 23, 2014 3:17:08 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? |  Old Town is not home, and it doesn't feel like home. Still, Thalia lingers, drifting over the badly tended streets with a slowness that would drive her drillmaster in a frothing rage. The message she bears is stuffed into one of her uniform's many pockets, crumpled under the weight of gold tassels and gleaming silver buttons. The imperial army spares no expense. Her garments could feed an Old Town family for months, but even the hungriest vagabonds turn their eyes aside in search of easier prey. Smog rolls over the sky, but the gleaming white towers of the High City rise sharply through the black cloud, reaching into the sky farther than she can see. They call them the topless towers here, but Thalia thinks they are not higher than the mountains that encircled Belet. It's true that she's never been to the peak of either, though. Thalia yanks her gaze away and keeps moving forward. She watches the crowd ripple before her like a fleeing wave, and then disperse and break against some further obstacle she cannot see, people ducking into alleys to avoid a commotion. Others linger, watching. She quickens her step, and then breaks into a run. There's a fight. A man and a woman. It looks all but over, in truth, and she takes in the scene with the blurred double vision of her competing worlds; the soldier the empire has made her and the weapon she's always been. She crosses the remaining distance in three quick strides and raises her sword between the two of them. "As an imperial soldier I order the two of you to stand down," she says, and manages not to laugh at her own fine joke. SOPHIA ROSENBURG |
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Monster
draugr
65 years old
socialite
played by redox
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She had a name, she had a spirit, she had a line in the play if you wanted to hear it.
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Post by SOPHIA ROSENBURG on Dec 23, 2014 16:05:51 GMT
She crushes the man's mind without moving a single muscle. She would decribe the sensation like crushing glass, except her hands don't bleed afterwards. Maybe they should, but the world isn't nearly so just. She's not one of those monsters who needs to give herself poetry to help her sleep at night. The human collapses into the dirt, the same way that his ancestors came. Sophia doesn't know if he's dead or merely concussed. That's not what's important. What's important is the clatter of his fallen knife, the undoing of one more complication in the weave. Sophia does not recognize the authority in the voice of a girl-child. There's a space in her head that swells when her eyes are drawn to the familiar tassels. Sophia looks at the woman's gloves, free of fresh blood. Those aren't the hands that took her mother. Sophia knows they aren't. That's why she finds the situation unnecessarily cruel. The soldier is just another woman. She doesn't understand the soldier's hesitation to cut her down, but Sophia isn't in a pondering mood. Even when her sword is broken, her line of sight is broken, and her clarity is broken, Sophia doesn't give up on any of those things. Especially not when she has broken the imagined armistice. When she attempts to break into Thalia's mind, it's not with the finesse of a practiced thief. Her willpower forces its way like a charging horse, unknowing and uncaring of what she crushes underfoot. THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Dec 23, 2014 21:42:43 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? | The man crumples and folds down into himself without a word. He doesn't seem to crash to the dirt as much as sink. Boneless. Her sword still hovers in between the two of them and Thalia swallows a street curse. She kneels to check the man's pulse and rolls him over onto his back, cupping her free hand against his mouth to feel for the warm breath. Her sword doesn't waver as she holds it one-handed to point now at the woman. Thank god for small blessings. Thalia turns aside from the man, satisfied he's not going anywhere, and focuses on her other captive. She looks at her closely for the first time. She's smooth faced and blonde. Delicate-featured in a way that Thalia doesn't expect someone rolling around the gutters of Old Town in a fight to look. Maybe she was in the wrong place. She doesn't look like she belongs here. "You'll both have to come with me--" she starts to say and breaks off mid-sentence, gritting her teeth. There's a squeezing pain in her head, her skull gripped in a vise and ready to burst like an overripe fruit. For a moment she can't see anything but white light, and then she shakes her head and the pain dulls to a manageable roar. The world swims back into focus. Her sword is still held high. Thank the Goddess for the iron focus imperial training beats into you. "You'll both have to come with me," she says. "I'll take you in for collection to my superior and have him settle this. A matter of public disturbance shouldn't be overlooked, and if you were assaulted, we'll need to bring the man to justice. I would summon some witnesses--" And here she broke off to view the empty street. Everyone had apparently decided to disperse once an imperial soldier arrived on the scene. "But I suspect I'll find none."SOPHIA ROSENBURG |
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Monster
draugr
65 years old
socialite
played by redox
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She had a name, she had a spirit, she had a line in the play if you wanted to hear it.
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Post by SOPHIA ROSENBURG on Dec 23, 2014 22:52:20 GMT
this isn't the soldier who had killed her mother, but this could very well be the soldier who will kill her. or worse. this isn't the first time that someone has broken through her assault, but it still shakes sophia to know that her broken sword is all that stands between her freedom and becoming a flightless captive. sophia doesn't have the soldier's proper form, but she's been imitating swordsmen of all kinds. the sword is still heavy in her hands and sophia doesn't think that she understands exhaustion the way that she ought to because she is always tired of the fights that she has to win and the armistices that she has to break. (it's a necessity. of course it's a necessity. loose ends don't mean the same thing to people with too many years on their life.) her blade shakes, but it doesn't matter. human bodies break so easily, especially under her unnatural strength. it seems like the only solution that there is to her problem. the soldier's words don't mean what she probably wants them to mean. she seems to enjoy talking in the face of a hostile enemy - when will sophia ever get this chance again? sophia moves faster than her current physical condition would suggest. she doesn't have to cut past the woman's blade; she just has to push it back. THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Dec 24, 2014 6:57:53 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? | There are many times in Thalia's life when she has been surprised, but never has violence taken her unaware. She always lived on the teetering edge of the knife. Yet even in this moment, despite the blade in her own hand, the ruined weapon the other woman is grasping--she does not expect the bright and sudden movement. She lowers her blade to parry and meets her second surprise of the day; the woman is as strong as her. Stronger, in this moment, because Thalia is taken aback by her unexpected strength. It has been a long time since even the full grown warriors of the Legion could match her blow for blow, and the shattered steel pushes aside Thalia's own sword and through the stiff fabric of her uniform, through the soft pale flesh of her stomach. She has a moment of dizzying horror and sick relief. A moment to feel the blood pooling in her lungs, a moment to hear the clatter as her sword slips from her nerveless fingers to the ground. She falls to one knee and tries to force herself to stand back up but her eyes flutter shut and she knows she's dying but she doesn't really believe-- SOPHIA ROSENBURG |
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Monster
draugr
65 years old
socialite
played by redox
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She had a name, she had a spirit, she had a line in the play if you wanted to hear it.
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Post by SOPHIA ROSENBURG on Dec 24, 2014 17:20:05 GMT
the smell of blood hits her hard like something that she didn't know that she wanted. or rather, it helps her finally put a name to the haze that is layered over her mind: hunger. sophia can't help but taste a bit of blood from her blade. in that moment, a different kind of certainty takes over. she's not thinking about how to escape from here after. she's thinking that she has to eat more before her own innards stop feeling like they're about to collapse, like they did hours ago. it's almost too easy. sophia knees her prey in the face, and one blow is enough for her to fall backwards. of course it is. she's no longer stumbling around in foggy confusion. she has a goal, as short-term it is. sophia sets her sword down as she lowers herself to the woman's level and presses her lips against the warm pool of blood. the gashing wound isn't enough. it never is. the soldier's stomach is hard muscle, but that doesn't stop sophia. she carries a sword because people make the mistake of thinking that is her scapel. it isn't. her teeth are. the woman's skin gives away like rubber and her muscle tissue only offers slightly more resistance. the only mercy to the victim is that sophia only takes a single mouthful at a time instead of slitting her throat first like she would under more mental clarity. if there weren't many people on the streets before, then there certainly isn't anyone on the streets now. THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Dec 28, 2014 6:35:37 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? | Pain flutters and then bites with teeth sharp as steel at her gut. Thalia drifts towards waking and then shies back again. She wants to reach back for the darkness, but the same searing purple jags of pain that she wants to flee drag her inexorably towards awareness. She wakes to the sound of noisy eating, and it takes a moment to process that she herself is being devoured. Thalia kicks out in desperate fear at the sight of another body bent over her own and scrambles backwards. Her hand scrabbles over the stones for her sword, but it has fallen out of reach. Blood seeps through her uniform, through the two hands she presses to her stomach to stem the flesh-warm tide of blood. She vomits. She ruins her boots. Beneath her palm, the skin closes and heals. SOPHIA ROSENBURG |
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Champion
HUMAN
25 years old
IMPERIAL AGENT
played by redox
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Post by STEFAN FINLEY on Dec 30, 2014 20:01:27 GMT
 he had been eager to return from his scouting trip out west. stefan walks through the streets of old town and feels affirmed. there is grace in the silence that shara offers. it was not always so. he remembers a time when what little brick in the streets were being torn out by the men who laid them in themselves. absolutely contemptible. stefan sulks in the shadows only because he's not used to walking out in the open. he only intends to come out in order to meet with his contact. even in the dead of night, the pink hair is unmistakable. the girl kicks a woman with blood all over her face and stefan watches her leg phase through the monster completely. that wouldn't do. he doesn't think. he only moves. stefan closes in and draws one of the knives at his belt at the same time. the iron blade pierces her back, but stefan doesn't let up. he stabs her again and again with professional precision until the amount of her blood that runs through the street makes the messenger's loss seem tame. he stops when her knees give out beneath her. he can't really do anything about how sanguine the street is, but stefan doesn't expect it to make much of a difference in the old town. "...even if they aren't standard issue, you should carry iron at night. for the fairies." stefan crouches and takes a cursory look at her and determines that she would probably live, with how her own blood flow is starting to slow. "can you stand?" THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Jan 4, 2015 5:53:51 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? | "Nice to see you as well, Stefan," Thalia says and there's a desperately sincere tone to her voice. She pushes herself to her feet and steps back from the woman's body. When she pulls her hands away from her torso the cloth of her uniform falls away in bloody pieces, but her stomach is unmarred. "I've never seen a faerie," she says. "Well, before now." Perhaps that bit is unnecessary. "What are you doing here?"STEFAN FINLEY |
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Champion
HUMAN
25 years old
IMPERIAL AGENT
played by redox
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Post by STEFAN FINLEY on Jan 4, 2015 6:36:26 GMT
"i've never seen a faerie" he repeats her words with no hint of mockery. there didn't need to be, not if thalia's priorities were in the right place. he doesn't know her nearly well enough to doubt. "you can't offer that excuse if you die from one." he smiles for the first time that evening, like he's enjoying his little private joke. "and you can't give me your letter if she killed you." the faerie's hand twitches slightly. stefan doesn't hesitate to take out another knife and impale her hand into the dirt ground. she's still conscious. her misfortune, not his. "we will also have to take this one to the cells to be processed." some academics called what they do 'anthropology'. stefan is honest enough to call it 'zoology'. THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Jan 8, 2015 21:33:38 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? | "It's not an excuse even if I die," she says. "It's just a fact. Another fact is this: faeries don't tend to roam the city, even in Old Town. Something must have brought her here."
But she hands him the letter anyway. Maybe as a concession for what she intends to do next. "I'm not taking her to the cells. She and this man--" she nudges his limp body with the toe of her vomit-covered boot, and then feels bad about it, "--were fighting in the street. Causing a disturbance. I'm arresting both of them and finding out who started the matter."STEFAN FINLEY |
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Champion
HUMAN
25 years old
IMPERIAL AGENT
played by redox
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Post by STEFAN FINLEY on Jan 8, 2015 22:16:55 GMT
he admits that he had been expecting her to be on the verge of turning in her uniform after what had just happened to her. stefan wasn't necessarily impressed, but he was satisfied. that might have been as difficult to come by as his approval. he considers it as he takes the letter, and no more. stefan wasn't known for indecisiveness. he stoops down to pull the knife out of the now-unconscious monster's hand. stefan hands her the bloody knife. it's about as close to a gesture of approval as he can get. what a freak. "this is an order." he isn't her superior, but he outranks her enough to be. "do not hesitate to put her down if need be. process her as soon as she wears out her usefulness, dead or alive."he doesn't think that he needs to tell her what would happen if she hesitates. the girl's torn uniform should remain a staunch reminder. THALIA DE LUCAwhat if the storm ends? made by redox of gs |
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Champion
human
20 years old
imperial champion
played by tsundere
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my love would not know what to do with a flower garden.
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Post by THALIA DE LUCA on Jan 11, 2015 21:13:45 GMT
is there in truth no beauty? | She takes the knife with no hesitation and slides it into her belt. "I will," she tells him, and it's very possible that in that moment, she even means it. Thalia stoops down to pick up both her prisoners, one over each shoulder and then rises smoothly to her feet with no apparent burden. The ripped edges of her uniform move slightly in the wind that rushes down the narrow corridor of Old Town's clustered buildings. Champions fight monsters for the sake of humanity, but Thalia will always stand apart from what she wants to protect. She smiles wryly at Stefan. "At least the station will have iron handcuffs," she says, and makes her way down the street. STEFAN FINLEY |
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