Mei-Chan
Forum Replies Created
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-.Smoke billowed from the side of a volcano, originating not from the summit so much as the site of a crash. A crater was blown through the rock surface near the peak, revealing a slowly rising pool of lava just beneath. Metal was strewn haphazardly about, bits and pieces of a ship engine still sizzling and spinning before slipping over the side and disappearing into the molten rock below. The dark grey metallic hull of a ship was quickly being painted orange by the glow, creaking from the heat exposure as it teetered precariously over the edge. Sparks flew from a hole in the side from where, while passing too close to Earth, the vessel had been blindsided by space debris orbiting at least at bullet speed. Over the course of twenty minutes, the ship was enveloped in lava as the volcano fully erupted; it and its contents dissolved into the debris of the volcano.
Smoke again rocketed skyward, the mountainous earth formation shook violently, and sparks flew from the summit. Then came the magma, pouring out over the top, punching holes in the sides of walls, or finding old veins that led down to the foot of the volcano. Trees, grass, and plants burned while the animals scattered. The lava slid until it lost most of its momentum, having reached a mostly flat landscape. Then it started moving again; this time, a corner seemed to lurch straight upwards, forming a five-foot-tall column. The top rounded out in the shape of a head, below which it narrowed considerably before again expanding out, forming a neck and shoulders. Arms split off from the remaining yet-to-be-sculpted base, defining the contours of the upper and lower arms as well as elbows, then moving on to form hands. The chest came next but was left mostly flat; then the forming body simply smoothed down the rest until reaching the hips and then dividing to form legs. The creature lurched forward, feet yanking free of the pool of standing lava as it raised its arms, let its head fall back, and fell to its knees.
Flames shot up from the head as a nose formed, the hollows of the eyes, and the contours of the lips. Then the mouth actually formed, parting to free a long, shrill wail. Arishav’s eyes snapped open then; a pool of black flecked with embers, with molten golden orbs for irises. Slowly she turned her head left, then right, then let her arms drop to her side. Smoke began to shroud her form from view. She lowered her head and chuckled. “Unexpected detour…? Well, that was…foolish.” Arishav was referring to the ones who’d been on board the ship. Now, they, along with everything else the lava she formed from had ingested, were nothing more than nourishment for her. “Foolish of them, and fortunate for me…” She’d been on the ship too; on her way to exile for practicing with powers everyone knew she had, but the governing council of her home world had very clearly told her to ignore. They didn’t particularly like the ones who were born as flame elementals, even though they knew they needed them as lower working class and construction. These…second-class citizens were known to be volatile and difficult to suppress. It hadn’t been so bad previously whenever she took her abilities too far and went from being productive to “anti-social” and “dangerous”; Arishav would just get yelled at or receive a “slap on the wrist.” This last time, though, she had accidentally-on-purpose burned over half her district, and then killed Director of Conditionings, destroyed thirty labs, toppled the Counsel’s tower, and reduced the next generation’s population by at least half by wrecking thirty hatchery units. Oops.
They had her frozen and placed on a ship, on the way to burying her in Pluto’s core when Arishav’s ‘escort’ apparently fell asleep behind the wheel and deposited her on Earth instead. “They were even thoughtful enough to thaw me out…how sweet.” Arishav chuckled again and stood up, walking a short ways from where the lava had been as she looked around. So…where does that leave her, exactly? Aside from somewhere she would have plenty to burn, anyway. How long would she have before someone back home realized Mission “Ari-sickle” had been a miserable failure? Arishav shrugged and raised her temperature, body going from an orange glow to a bright yellow as she lifted slowly and steadily off of the ground, beginning to float in mid-air.
She looked down at her hands, clenching and un-clenching them before zipping off, flying until the landmass ended and a wide pool of water stretched out beneath her. A few more moments, and the landmass suddenly returned, and then she smashed into something tall, hard, and cold. Something that bent and shrieked, with bits that shattered and scattered through the air as she kept going. Screams rent the air as she flew through a hollow part inside of whatever she just hit and the interior began to blaze. Flying out the other side, she looked around before smashing through another similar structure and realized what she was going through was a city, filled with towers not too unlike the ones on her own planet. Though, they were a lot weaker. And the screaming? People, a lot more than were ever allowed in the towers where she came from. Funny. Flying out the other side of the tower, she slowed to a stop and floated straight upwards, looking down. The city was huge, and filled with towers. Weird ones, most of which were kinda square-shaped and hundreds of lights ran up all four sides of every last one.
Shaking her head confusedly, Arishav sped off until she noticed everything below had gone black. She slowed to a stop and lowered herself a good several hundred feet until she felt hard ground beneath her. The place was full of sound and the occasional distant spinning red and blue lights, but…she couldn’t see further than the edge of the light she herself gave off. She wandered around, seeing signs she couldn’t read and hearing horrified screams within buildings. Not being able to read the signs didn’t bother her, since her caste’s literacy ability back home was deemed irrelevant; the not-being-able-to-see was what was quickly starting to tick her off. “How is this place as inhabited as the others, yet unlit? Have they lost…power?” She started walking, and felt something tugging at her feet. Looking down, she scowled; the rock-like substance the ground was made of had melted and was sticking to her soles.-
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Name: Arishav
Age: 79
Appears 23Appearance: Arishav is made almost completely of magma, which hardens to take the form of a humanoid body. The eyes are blackened except for the irises, which are the color of molten gold, and Ari’s hair is a mass of flames atop its head. From time to time, Arishov may wear a cloak of smoke to cover an (undetailed) body. The creature itself is genderless, but prefers the female form.
If taking on the identity of a human, Arishav can often be identified as bald, with bronze skin, golden eyes and a feverish temperature.
Abilities: Pyrokinesis, morphing, levitation
Hero/Villain/Neutral: Villain
where are you located: Gotham -
•.Andalique noticed things seemed to have calmed down and sighed, kicking the blankets off of her and slipping down off of the shelf with a sigh before she walked out of the closet. She looked around the still dark and empty room, then walked to the window and slinging her leg over the sill. She glanced up at the weird moon, then down to the ground below, seeing the guy who fell from the roof laying with his arms and legs splayed across the blood-spattered cement. A stray dog had arrived on the scene and was tugging him away by the pants leg. “Sucks to be that guy…” She muttered to herself, swinging her other leg over and slowly lowering herself until her toes touched the outer framing of the window below. She spent a few minutes working to climb down, and when she reached the floor, she turned and realized…the dead guy was gone. Huh? Had the dog managed to pull him away already?
She stepped out of the alley and sighed; it seemed things really had calmed down. Andalique pulled her hoodie off and looked over her body, having felt some uncomfortable tugging in her skin, as well as a few lances of pain. When she looked at her arms, she sighed; some of her stitches were ripped out, and a few of the needles that were supposed to be on the safety pin with the black and white beads that she had put through the skin on the back of her left hand had cut into her skin, leaving what appeared to be tally marks. ‘Must have been counting how many times I pissed myself back there…’ Anda thought to herself with a chuckle, remembering how she’d run around like a chicken with her head cut off.
A black tube top with a fishnet undershirt was what she’d been wearing under the hoodie; from the fishnet hung several needles, most of which were now embedded in her. She pulled a few of them out with a grimace, watching the blood begin to drip down over her tattoos. How had she not felt that? A moment to feel the strange sparks that ignited her veins with every beat of her heart, and she had her answer; adrenaline. So, she’d accidentally poked herself full of holes thanks to her own janky fashion sense. Wonderful.
She sighed and twirled her umbrella, clicking the button again and watching as it went flying away from her, even though she was still holding the handle. She gripped the rod left from the umbrella and pulled the handle off, revealing a few feet of line that was tied to a hole in what she still held in her hands; an over-sized needle that was approximately the two feet in length and clearly sharp. She grinned and turned to look around, untying the line and shoving it in her hoodie pockets as she pulled it back on, deciding she’d deal with sewing herself back up later. She walked up the steps to a building that she knew to be another apartment complex and slipped in the door quietly, wandering down the hall as she looked around.•
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•.She froze in the middle of the street when the lights inside the buildings turned on and people started screaming. She watched inside apartments as tenants attacked first their landlord, then each other. Her eyes widened as she looked around and saw that the world had suddenly woken up, and it was pissed; blood splattered windows in every direction, things (or people) were thrown through them. The silhouette of someone being strangled could be seen through a set of sheer blue drapes. People were beginning to spill out onto the street, and, gripped with fear, Andalique clutched at her umbrella as she turned and ran. Sirens were blaring, but when the police came into view, they ran people over instead of stopping them. She ran into an alley and clicked a button on her umbrella, hoping not to run into anyone crazy as she dashed off into the night.
A few streets over, she reached her apartment, where Andalique saw the other tenants had more or less decorated it to fit her surname. “Oh my fuck, the hell’s going on?” She muttered, backing off into the shadows again. She looked up when she noticed a bum was pointing that direction – before he got stabbed by someone – and saw some strange symbol carved into the moon. “And what the shit is that!” She turned to rush back into the alley as she heard footsteps, and someone complaining about a girl’s voice making their migraine worse. Just as she turned a corner, she saw a man covered in blood running in after her. Aw, hell. She took quick, tight turns at every opportunity, hoping to loose the guy as she rushed off— only, where could she go? It seemed like everyone had suddenly lost their minds.
She switched off her music, earbud having fallen out during all the running, and pushed the wires into her hoodie pocket. Shut Me Up by Mindless Self Indulgence had started playing, she knew that from the beat she’d been hearing. But…amazingly, she wasn’t in the mood to hear it in the midst of all the craziness that was already going on. Andalique started climbing up the side of a building, just to see if she could escape that way. Someone went screaming past her as she reached the second floor, and then she heard a thud below her. She climbed up to the fourth floor, stared up at the roof, and wondered if this was such a idea. Seemed like one of those crazies was up there throwing people… She jumped to a windowsill of the adjacent building and started climbing again, looking in windows. Eventually she found an empty room and climbed in, then went to hide in the upper shelf of the closet before twisting the light bulb just enough that if the power was switched on, it would stay out. She found a few blankets and piled them on top of herself, meaning to wait this craziness out.•
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So, searching the internet and this is what I found.
Hmmm…
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•.A black cat sat on a trash can in an alley, yowling up at the second-story window of an apartment where a fluffy white cat sat in the sill, yowling back. They were both puffed up with their fur standing on end. As a chilly breeze brushed down through the alley, trash swirled and tumbled from bags that had been dumped on the ground beside rear building emergency exits that were either not fully tied or had holes ripped in them by scavenging stray animals. The walls were grimy, and the stink of both garbage from the streets and urine from a partially-open manhole filled the air.
Leaning against one such filthy wall and watching the cats yowl at each other was a girl of about eighteen, ice blue eyes trailing between cat and window as she tapped her black umbrella against the floor. She had on a hoodie that had at one time been solid black with cat ears but now had one cut off and was covered in embroidered-on stitches, free hand embedded in its pocket. Black hair streaked with chrome blonde fringed the left side of her face, but nothing came from the right, and music blasted from ear buds (one was in, the other hanging out, so she could hear). Her eyes were thickly lined with purple, and she had black lipstick on; she had snake bites in, along with a set of three piercings that ran the length of her nose. She had a short black skirt on and striped black and red leggings with tears in random places, giving peeks at skin that had been marred with ink, knife, and needle. Black boots with one-inch heels covered her feet, spiked and steel-toed.
She happened to look outside of the alley and turned to see a strange guy, and since he was dressed weird she wandered to the edge of the alley in order to look out and watch him. After a few minutes, she heard a car engine. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have peaked her interest much at all; this one she was very interested in, because it didn’t sound like anything she’d ever heard before and it sounded like it was working hard. Like a speeding car. And then she saw the car, and it was as strange-looking as the man she’d been watching. Even stranger? Though surely the driver could see the guy in the middle of the street, he or she was not slowing down. Hell, the girl (named Andalique Blood) was almost convinced that it was speeding up instead. Her eyes, outfitted with extra-long fake silver eyelashes, widened, and her eyebrows raised. Was she watching an intentional hit-and-run in the making? Damn!
She was new to this city, having only moved here a week ago, and she’d been warned that some wild things tended to happen, but…she never expected to be able to see it! She momentarily wondered if she should call the cops. At least, until the guy turned around and instead of, oh, say, panicking or trying to run, he just stood there. When the car reached him, he punched it – ‘Dear god, what a looney’ she thought – and instead of being sent flying like a normal person, the car went flying! The top was sliced off and the driver, a woman, came out punching him on top of the head as she exited the now-flipping vehicle. A moment later, she was down for the count, and Anda’s jaw dropped. “Oh, joy…” ‘Superfreaks.’ She finished mentally, trying to decide whether she should run towards the lady and try to help her up, or run away. She didn’t even know what was going on.
Andalique turned and looked to where the alley cat was, only he wasn’t there anymore; apparently he had more sense, and had taken off running when the insanity started. Andalique sighed and decided to do the opposite of what her possibly-much-smarter ten-minute companion had chosen to do and ran out into the street, heading for the now-disoriented looking woman and moving to try and help her up, then drag her off to Anda’s apartment a few streets over. Her mom was at work, and she figured that as long as the woman wasn’t still there when Mother Dearest got home, things would be fine.•
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Eren Yaeger
“Rogue Titan”
Eren Yeager is the first Titan Shifter to be revealed in the series, his Titan being a 15m class. Its most prominent characteristics are its elongated ears, fleshless jaws and highly muscular build.
Unofficially named as the “Rogue Titan” due to its rampaging behavior, this form has so far been shown to have fairly substantial physical strength, knowledge of martial arts techniques, and incredible endurance. Prolonged and repeated use of this Titan form has allowed Eren to gradually increase control over its initially unstable mental state. Its eyes are a piercing grey in the manga, and teal-green in the anime; wherein they are often seen to be glowing bright green or blue. He also has a rage mode when he is seen fighting the Female Titan for the second time; this power grants him major strength, agility, and speed increase allowing him to do even more massive damage. In this rage mode there are distinctive characteristics, such as his eyes turning blue, his teeth becoming sharper and most notably being engulfed in fire.Ymir
“Dancing Titan”
Ymir’s Titan is a small Titan of unknown height with long, black hair, very large irises and a chimpanzee-like body. This form grants Ymir rather long arms and sharp claws. It provides her with such a great agility that her form appears to be “dancing”.
The smallest Titan Shifter yet known, this Titan form has a mouth full of pointed teeth, as well as sharp claws that can either be used to hang on walls or for combat. Its long arms and small muscular body enable it to maneuver itself around with great speed and agility in the same environments as those with 3D Maneuvering Gear, making it a formidable force in battle.Ymir is currently the only confirmed case of a mindless Titan regaining their humanity.
Annie Leonhardt
“Female Titan”
Annie Leonhart can transform into a 14 m class Titan with a distinctively feminine build and short, blonde hair. Her transformation endows her with immense strength and speed.
A Titan Shifter of athletic appearance with lean muscle and no skin, the Female Titan is a Titan of unusual power and intellect. It has the stamina and focus to maintain a running pace capable of keeping up with horses over a long distance; as well as the intelligence to defend itself from multiple 3D Maneuvering Gear attacks by prediction of the device’s movements. This Titan form also has the unique ability to harden its skin by generating a crystalline substance across chosen areas of its body; allowing it to simultaneously protect its nape and fight. Combined with refined martial art techniques, it can perform incredibly deadly and destructive attacks. When cornered, the Female Titan’s call has the ability to draw other Titans to it and drive them into a feeding frenzy.Reiner Braun
“Armored Titan”
Reiner Braun is capable of transforming himself into a 15-meter class Titan with a slight resemblance to his human form. Unlike the other Titan Shifters, his Titan form has very thick, hardened plates of skin all over his body which serves as his armor.
This type of Titan is well-built and has a hunched profile. Its only visible weaknesses are the small areas on the backs of its joints where there is no armor. Though not particularly fast, this form is strong and agile, capable of destroying a fortified wall after a sufficient running start. While he is able to communicate through roars, it is unknown whether he shares Annie’s ability to summon other Titans.Bertholdt Hoover
“Colossal Titan”
The first Titan Shifter to appear chronologically within the series, Bertolt Hoover’s Titan is of 60 m class. This grants him incredible strength like no other, capable of causing monumental destruction with little effort or damage sustained on his body. Due to this size its body temperature is extremely high, to the point that it is constantly emitting steam. However, because this Titan is so large, Bertolt can only move slowly while in its form.
It is the largest Titan seen so far in the series, four times the height of any other known Titan. This form has shown to be able to retain a degree of intelligence and tactical planning to go with its sheer size and strength, despite its slow movements. It is strong enough to break down the defensive walls surrounding humankind with a single and very hard-focused kick to allow other Titans to move inside the walls. It has the unique ability to “superheat” its body to produce incredibly hot steam as a defense. The heat of this steam is so intense that it is able to keep dozens of experienced soldiers at bay, lest they be cooked alive. -
•.Raven sat in the field for a while, hugging Shadow-Walker’s neck as they stared up at Wall Maria. She couldn’t help but wonder how humans managed to construct these walls, nearly a hundred years ago. Surely the Titans did not just stand around and wait to let them finish construction, and like Victor said, no one was equipped to deal with Titans back then. So…how? She knew that tomorrow they were actually going up on the wall, to go over and try out the basic job description of the Garrison, or Standing Guard; mending the wall and cannons, keeping things clean. Somewhere in the distance she could hear some guy shouting praises to Wall Maria, as though it was some divine, godlike being. She giggled. “Those people from the Wall Church are so strange.” Raven muttered to herself, closing her eyes.
After a moment or two, she heard someone say something in the dark about how he doesn’t believe pets are allowed on the premises. Her eyes snapped open in surprise, but that was the most response she gave. She simply assumed that if Shady had not bothered to alert her to the speaker’s presence, then it probably was not a threat. “Shadow-Walker is not a pet.” She said softly, sounding appalled as she buried her face in his fur while thinking she recognized the man’s voice but not being certain. “Who are you?” She nudged the wolf, who had his forelegs stretched across her lap, and he licked her leg twice with a whimper. So, if she was going to get up on time tomorrow, she was going to have to say goodbye within the next twenty minutes…That seemed like too soon after only just meeting back up with her new friend. Her attention turned to Shadow-Walker. “Me and three of my…uhm…three other warriors-in-training did not get to eat dinner today.” She said to the wolf, once again speaking in her grandmother’s ancient tongue. The wolf nipped her and shook its head.•
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•.She glanced over the rules, giggled at a few, and then glared at the last one, whipped out her gigantic needle, and stabbed the rules repeatedly to spell out her name while screaming at no one in particular.• HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO? YOU DON’T KNOW MY STORY. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’VE BEEN THROUGH. YOU. JUST. DON’T. GET IT. •.Is grabbed by her visibly-embarrassed parents and dragged off, huffing and puffing and still screaming in angst at ‘God’ and everyone.•
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•.Raven sighed as she finally dragged herself into the bunker and went to the showers immediately, rinsing off before putting her new store-bought pajamas on (a normal, pale salmon-colored piece with doggy prints on them) going to her bed and slumping down with a groan. Every last one of her fellow trainees had left her to deal with Victor by herself. First Remel wanting to avoid further punishment, and then Vlad. Surely they realized that they would be punished as the misfit team all at the same time, whether they participated or not, simply because he’d already decided he didn’t like the four. Levi, of course, abandoned her with the big ugly jerk as well, saying something about how it was bad enough he’d been lumped in with the troublesome bunch. Only, he didn’t finish his laps. He just plain left.
So, Raven half-dragged, half-carried him off down side streets to a pub that was popular with off-duty officers, leaning him against the outer back wall before she stole a few bottles from people who had already had more than they needed anyway and pouring some alcohol down his throat before dumping the rest out a few doors down. She dropped one on the ground and shattered it; the rest she left surrounding Victor. An open bottle that was still half-full was in his left hand; she’d noticed earlier during his time on the soapbox that he just so happened to be left-handed. Then she wandered off before anyone could see her, sneaking back to the bunker house.
She laid there with her eyes shut for a good ten minutes, then snapped straight up in bed and hit her head on the support beam for the upper bunk that was directly above her. Spinning to throw her legs back over the side of the bed, she got up and started digging around through her storage chest for a moment, pulling out a big coat and putting it on before she went walking out the door, grinning and barefoot. A couple of the trainees stared after her. She was very careful not to even look at Remel, Vlad, or Levi on her way out. She was kinda disappointed in their lack of…well…guts, no irony or pun intended.
Her grin widened as she looked up to see the moon was almost completely absent, and she took off running into the dark. She only stopped for a second to marvel at how long it took for her to move Victor herself; it had been afternoon when she’d knocked him out and now it was pitch dark. She wandered down the street, passing soldiers and the occasional civilian who was late getting home. A drunkard bumped into her once, and when Raven smelled the alcohol she actually almost thought it was Victor, stumbling back to the bunkers ready to take his revenge for the whole pinched jugular deal.
Something nuzzled her hand, and she jumped. Then it nipped her wrist and tugged on her coat, and she grinned again. A moment later, she passed under a street lamp, able to see the bottom of her coat held tightly in a wolf’s mouth as it tugged her off down the street towards where she knew a nice, open field was. As darkness surrounded them again, she reached down and touched the old canine on the shoulders; his name was Shadow-Walker, and she’d known him for as long as she could remember. “I can’t stay out all night, friend, but we can visit a while.” She whispered softly in the language her grandmother had taught her, and the wolf responded with a whimper.•
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Name: Andalique Blood
Age: 18 (Missing)
Appearance: The right side of her head is shaved, and the left side has layered black hair streaked with chrome blonde. An assortment of stitches run the length of her body, and her eyes are ice blue and thickly lined in purple. She has snake bites, and peircings run the length of her nose. Her outfit changes frequently, but often consists of something black or striped. She has an umbrella she carries with her everywhere; the handle pulls out to show a sort of needle-like blade.
Abilities: parkour, hand-to-hand, basic medical knowledge through research (and experimentation)
Neutral
where are you located: Gotham -
•.Raven kept up a jog, watching as Remel, Vlad, and Levi stayed ahead of her and/or even lapped her. Victor glowered at them all from his spot on the other side of the fence, having picked up his knife and slid it back into his holster. Raven noticed that Vlad was the focus of Victor’s attention; she was well aware that both he and Remel were hurt. She slowed her pace a bit, timing how Vlad passed each person, and came up behind Victor as he was turned to watch Vlad. She reached up quickly, grabbing his sleeve and yanking him down to her level before jamming her fingers into his jugular, cutting off the blood flow to his brain and bringing him down quickly. Before he passed out, he craned his head around and looked at her. She smiled sweetly at him, staring him straight in the eyes. “With all due respect, sir…goodnight.”
She then waved at the others. Levi stopped, looking stunned. “A-are you out of your mind? We’re about to be in even more trouble now!” He ran over to her, shockingly fast for a little guy. He jumped, raising his foot as though he meant to kick her either in the chest or face, but she stepped backwards and grabbed onto his leg, holding it as he landed so that he had to flail his arms like a bird trying to keep his balance. She then twisted her hand, flinging him onto his hands and knees before she let go. “No, moron…We’re gonna make him think he got drunk. Help me.” She pulled at his arm and started dragging him towards the cabins. “We’ll drop him somewhere outside and bust a bottle or two around him, pour out a couple of others and leave them with him as well.”•
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•.Raven ran in the direction of where all the shit hit the fan, glancing to see if Remel was okay before darting past her and spotting the group that had lost a comrade. The girl who’d been trying to do CPR now had her head buried in the blonde’s chest, sobbing incoherently about her sister. The redheaded man walked over and put his hand on the other brunette’s shoulder, and they glanced at each other for a moment before she walked over and started trying to pull the girl away from the dead blond, out of the blood. Raven paused for a moment to see if she could help, but the lady clearly wasn’t getting any better; she was wailing and kicking her legs back, grasping at the dead one’s vest so that the limp partial body got dragged with her. More blood spilled on both of the brunettes, and the redhead closed his eyes, reaching over to pry the girl’s fingers loose. The Titan’s body had mostly disintegrated by this point; all that remained was bones, and they were steaming.
Raven heard something behind her that caused quite a commotion, but she didn’t turn to look. Instead, she went to the pile of rubble. Looking through the bars of a part of the cage that didn’t completely fall apart, she saw Vlad laying on the ground struggling with the debris, under which he was pinned. She also spotted blood, which chilled her and had her glancing back at the blonde. That was when she noticed two things; Levi, helping make the brunette let go of her dead sister while muttering something lowly to her, and Victor way over by the carts pulling himself off the ground while rubbing his head. Levi caught her gaze and leveled a glare at her, and she rolled her eyes as she turned her head back to Vlad. As she started picking her way around the broken cart and cage pieces, something hit her on the back of the head. She looked down and saw it was the busted handle of a knife, minus the blade. She glanced around, but she couldn’t see where it came from.
Reaching Vlad, she moved to his side and started lifting off the heavier parts that were pinning him down. A wheel fell near her and she kicked it away. The horses were inadvertently helping as well; as they struggled to right themselves, it was shaking the cart and very nearly lifted it a few times. Suddenly, it did move, jolting upright and then being dragged away, lopsided, by the snorting and still-spooked horses. She looked next to her and saw Levi brushing his hands off and walking away without a word, kicking some splintered wood pieces off of Vlad as he did so. Raven turned and started looking at Vlad’s cuts, tearing the fabric of her pants off at the knee on both legs to wrap his arm with. “That was quite a ride you just went on.”
Rubbing at a swelling cheek and popping his jaw back into place, Commander Victor started calling the trainees to order. “I hope our clumsy comrade has learned her lesson. How does it feel, having blood on your hands before you’re even a soldier?” He was staring over at Remel, and indicated the group over by the rubble with a jerk of his chin. “That was your doing. Hope you’re happy with it. Now, then. Remel, Vlad, Raven, and Levi, you are to run two hundred laps around the field and skip dinner. The rest of you are dismissed. Consider classes canceled today, since I seriously doubt anyone will be paying attention after this episode.” He glared at the owners of each name he said. “Well? Move your asses, I’m not standing here all day and night.” The other trainees started filing away. Raven stood staring in disbelief at Victor before sighing and starting to jog, and Levi took off running while he scowled up at the sky.•
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•.Raven was watching from a distance when she saw Remel climb into the cage with the Titan and sit on its foot while figuring her gear out. She’d turned around and begun to walk away because she saw that the girl was doing a fairly good job of figuring it out on her own, when suddenly she heard a puff-and-zip behind her, and then people started screaming and staring into the cage. She spun around and saw Remel, dangling from the five-meter Titan’s nose by her grapple. She gasped and froze up, watching as it lurched its head forward and snapped at the now panicky and struggling girl. She saw someone running and realized it was Vlad, leaving the trainer’s side with a knife and heading for the cage.
“That idiot…” Some girl next to her muttered, and she snapped her head over to look at Aarie, shaking her head and glaring into the cage. “Deserves what she gets.” Raven was about ready to reach over and knock her head off, but something she saw froze her in place. A few feet beyond Aarie was Levi, looking on at the cage as well. For the first time, he didn’t look dispassionate or spiteful. Instead, his eyes were wide, his face pale, and he looked absolutely mortified. He’d already pulled out one of his plug-in blades, and was also running towards the cage, even though it was clear Vlad would get there first. When he realized that, he stopped and schooled his features, gripping his chest and gasping before putting his blade away and wiping sweat from his forehead. Raven was surprised; was he actually concerned about Remel? He threw what was clearly a glare over at the trainer, who’d stood by and done nothing.
Commander Victor watched Vlad run to go save Remel, shaking his head and turning away. It was just about time to dismiss them to their first day of actual class. He caught Levi looking his way and motioned him over, and the boy started walking. A vein of irritation popped up on his forehead, and he closed his eyes with an annoyed sigh. Irreverent brats, every last one of them, it seemed like. Questioning his teaching methods… “Yessir…” His thoughts were interrupted by that small fry, Levi. If he remembered correctly, the boy was from the Capital undercity; he was some sort of a street thug that for quite some time was giving everybody hell. He may have looked like a puny little nothing, but he knew how to beat the living shit out of someone if he needed to.
A few shouts of warning again disturbed everyone, this time coming from the direction of the caged Titan. His nose had fallen off and sent Remel dropping to the foot of the cage. She would only have a few moments to get out, or for Vlad to pull her himself. The horses that were connected to the cart were beyond spooked, and started into a sudden dead run. Scouting Legion members were using their 3DMGs to try and catch up and stop them, but it was already clearly too late. The cart was rocking horribly, and the horses were realizing, too late, that they needed to turn or stop because they were running into a brick wall. They didn’t manage to do either; the momentum kept the cart going straight into the wall even though they had actually begun to turn, and it threw everything so off-balance that the cart fell on its side.
The cage fell and smashed against said wall, and several of the rods in the Titan’s body came loose. It began to move, pulling the others from its body as it struggled free of the cage-and-cart, pulling free of the thick cloth that was wrapped around it. A blonde shot her grapple at the brick wall to try and go past the Titan, but it put its hand out and grabbed her as she got close. As she screamed, it gripped her tightly around the midsection. Too tightly, it seemed, because a moment later she was coughing up blood. It opened its mouth and tilted its head back, raising its hand above its head to drop her into its mouth. When it let go, she grabbed onto its thumb, and its teeth closed on her knees, snapping everything below that point clean off. As blood gushed, she shrieked in pain.
“JAYNE!” A redhead, followed by two brunettes, came next. One used the grapple to propel himself over the Titan’s head, using his blade to cleanly cleave the Titan’s arm from its body. It dropped Jane, but its mouth was open by then, and so the next thing the tag team knew the Titan’s teeth had closed around their friend’s body again, this time cutting off everything below the ribcage. The rest of her slumped uselessly to the ground, still sputtering and wide-eyed. The two brunettes shot by the Titan on either side at knee-level and cut halfway through its legs. The creature fell backwards. One of the brunettes, in hysterics, went over to Jayne and rolled her over, trying to do CPR. The Titan started to sit up and reach for the two, but the redhead ran up behind it while its head was raised and swung his sword, slicing through the nape of its neck. The Titan slumped to the ground and suddenly began to disintegrate, steam rising around it. The group of three stood around the girl’s now-dead body, silent. Commander Victor still stood watching calmly from his spot by the second cart, with Levi at his side once again looking absolutely horrified.•
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{{Commander Victor is technically an NPC, so I’ll let you handle that whole conversation on your own, Saba. If you have any questions, just PM me.}}
•.Raven stopped for a moment, tossing a wary glance at the trainer before noticing that people were gathering in small social groups instead of going back into formation. A few of them were tinkering with their new gear. She wandered towards the fence as she watched Vlad check out his equipment and then start heading towards that psycho Victor. With a shudder, she slumped to the ground and spread all the parts that comprise the 3-Dimensional Movement Gear unit out in front of her. She noticed two large holsters with six slots in the front of each one; it took her a moment to realize that these contained the plug-in blades Commander Victor mentioned. She pulled one out and looked at it; it was some kind of steel, and…did it just wobble? She waved it in the air and watched it bend. Huh. So they were flexible…must have something to do with how they were meant to cut Titan flesh. She put it back in its slot and then started looking at it carefully, trying to figure out on her own how the whole setup was supposed to go together.
She glanced up and noticed a guy who looked a little flustered. There were…food crumbs on his face? Odd. Raven was almost certain that there was absolutely no way Commander Victor would have overlooked that. Hell, he’d even picked a hair off of her sleeve when he passed behind her during earlier’s…’Orientation,’ and flicked it away. And he was absolutely appalled by what Remel had done with her uniform… She was pretty sure his name was Peter.
“Don’t hurt yourself trying to figure that out. It’s not like building mud huts in the forest.” She jumped a little but remained seated with her legs crossed and then turned at the hip to see Levi reclining against the fence behind her. When did he even get there? The look he gave her was cold and belittling. Ha…little… She giggled a little, and his eyes narrowed a little as he crossed his arms over his chest and nudged his already completely put-together unit with his left knee. She stared at it for a moment, and then he shrugged away from the fence and walked off.
‘Ha…that jerk just pretty much told me how this is supposed to go together.’ She glanced over at Remel, remembering that she’d also had some serious issues with her harness earlier and that Raven had kinda-sorta…ahem, left her hanging, per say. Raven put her head down and started hooking her gear together, then put it on and trotted over to where the girl was to show her how it was supposed to work. It seemed they were being left alone to figure the whole setup out by themselves.•