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Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 8:35 pm
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
Jane smiled at the triclops. "Yer welcome. Now..." They had acquired two of the three baubles lying around. She just had to find--
There. The sphere wore signs of the prior turmoil, but what she had mistaken at first glance as a uniform break around it's circumference appeared to be a seam in the glass. This struck her as strange, and she turned it over in her gloved hands to study the anomaly. Glass ought not to have such markings, or so she understood.

Her fruitless analysis persisted as she strode back to Eryl and No Name. "Whaddaya think, Mizz Maelgwyn?" she asked, holding it up for the other woman to inspect.

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:37 am
by Kokuten
Eryl had been in the process of recovering some of her dignity, pulling her hair back, straightening her clothing, and settling her staff into one of the stirrups. She had the appearance of a practiced rider, with a somewhat Victorian grace to her, with a similar Victorian desire not to seem too ragged next to empowered mages. Further, there was a somewhat hidden nature to her movements, once she could not occupy her hands, she began to tend to the horse gently, avoiding a look further in the direction of the others.

The orb drew three brilliant eyes in Jane's direction, bright and blue.

"My dear arquebusier," she said with a shift in tone that sounded quite lofty compared to prior lowness, instead of touching the orb, she settled it upon two waves of force and brought it up closer to her eyes, "You have come to the appropriate mage."

She stared for a moment, her pupils dilating at once. Then, her eyes closed, and she appeared to be concentrating. Tears began to form at the edges of her eyes within a couple of minutes, and she opened them again to flit them away.

Those brilliant sapphire eyes had changed into a color of succulent gold, all three of them. She gave the orb another once-over, her eyes building with more tears, as if she were staring into something very bright.

"It is a container, and there is a creature imprisoned within," said she nobly, bringing it into her hands, ", the prison seems symbiotic in nature, almost as an egg contains the embryo."

She tucked the orb under her arm, closing her eyes, "It just requires a turn, on the seam, I believe."

Those thin, foppish fingers tightened over the top, and she began an attempt to open it, quite like a jar.

"Just... A little."

Again her study-weary hands slapped over the container again, struggling visibly.

"Goodness it's on there tight."

A few more tears flitted out of her still-closed eyes, as she put her library-worked arms to full ignition, to no effect.

"I think... I've almost got... it!"

A color they hadn't seen on her face before began to show, a red color flushing under her skin, a brilliant, rosy red.

"It moved... I think... just... about..."

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 2:30 pm
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
Jane watched, first with curiosity, then concern, and finally mirth. "It might be easier t save face if ye jus leave the wrestlin t the brawny folk," she said quiet enough for only Eryl to hear. Then she gently reclaimed the orb and gave it a twist.

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 6:27 pm
by Kokuten
Eryl's eyes reopened in their brilliant blue way.

"My dear archebusier, hoisting a mage is one thing--..."

The orb gave a stony pop as Jane split the artifact open with her twist. "... Oh my."

Janes arms began to become filled with light as the object melted in her hand, and that light began to gain weight and shape. As it faded, what showed itself in the gunslingers' arms was another actor in this terrible play. She was a young girl, resembling the age of the students of Safeholme, but altogether unearthly and somewhat fae in her appearance. A pair of red horns rose out of her blonde hair, her body was wrapped in black, patchwork steel, and upon her back was mounted what appeared to be pipes to an organ.

Her eyes opened, revealing a smoldering charcoal color in them, staring blearily up at Jane.

"Mama?"

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 1:44 am
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
As one might have expected, Jane stoically endured the blinding light.

But the creature in her arms-- that she could not face with impassivity. Mizz Smith blinked, failing to immediately comprehend the absurdity before her. The steely executor of Jane's faculties, the part of her that resolved the many challenges flung her way, took this unfettered moment to handle the situation in the first way it knew how.

The small creature was dropped unceremoniously onto her rump. "Sorry, lil thang, but I aint yer mama."

At that moment her functions returned, like a slow processor finally catching up. She was appalled at what she'd done, but at the same time Jane-- for once-- didn't know what to do.

So, she just did her best. Jane took one of the thing's hands gently and helped her to her feet. "Where... where'd ya come from, darlin?"

The American didn't understand why she was having trouble with this. Surprises were nothing to her; magic's anomalies had become commonplace; demons and possessed children and all the other evil hordes couldn't make her bat an eye; so what had happened?

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:21 pm
by Kokuten
The girl fell, dirt crunching under the plates that formed around her body. On contact with the ground, molten orange lines webbed from the creases in her armor as she let out an angry snarl at being dropped. A plume of steam began to form at her head as she visibly cooled, the pipes affixed to her back hissing like exhausts. She seemed dazed, even as she was helped to her feet and looked up at the American, expectant.

"... Where did I come from? Where did you come from? This is my..."

When she saw the others, her surroundings, the sky, and the blister of earth of that rose in the distance that acted as their destination, her words failed her. "... my home..."

She seemed to recognize the others, "What happened here? Where is ..."

"Aulan..." mouthed the Triclops, horrified, and Aulan turned when she heard her name. Eryl was one more person that the awoken girl seemed to recognize, but it took a second for the realization sink in. When it did, her body shuddered with fiery power, that same orange, lavalike cracking distorting her form. A feral air tore at the girls jaw, as a glow grew in her stomach.

"YOU."

Their new friend rippled with hate as that glow rose into her throat, a passionate, killing look set on the Triclops on horseback.

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:48 pm
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
Ah. So she was another of the deities here, though a fledgling it seemed. Peacekeeping was something Jane was quite capable of, and she fell into the role easily.

She slashed an arm between Eryl and Auran, prepared to rebuff any advances or outbursts. "No! Ye listen t me, lil one. Whaterr yer problem was with Mizz Maelgwyn was in the past. She's here t fix what's gone wrong. So ye'll point that anger somewhere productive or I'mma stuff ye back in yer lil ball. Ye reckon me?"

She was herself again, demeanor as stolid as the iron at her hips.

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:58 pm
by Gwathdraug
Before the young godess had a chance to respond to Jane some of the heat building up under Aulan's control was ripped from out of her and, in thick blazing streamers, swirled around towards the deity's back. The roiling ball of flames existed for only a moment before shrinking - a crack sounding in the air from the violence of the sudden motion - and turning back outwards in an explosion that served more as a kinetic punch than a released inferno.

The attack was meant to do nothing more than stumble and as soon as its force was expended a pair of arms slipped and slithered their control around the awakened girl's limbs. Deep shadows around Aulan's attacker were stretching and twisting into the shape of delicately etched, black scales. The half of Riley's clone's face that was visible curved into a vicious smile as it locked its grip on the god it had just attacked. The two interlocked beings were both radiating heat and distorting the air around them. While Aulan's fury and fire was directed outward, looking for a target to be spent on, the doppelganger's was a hungry, greedy thing that was looking to lay dominion over what was before it.

The copy's breath hissed against the girl's ear as it leaned its chin over the godess's shoulder. "How amusing." The stage magician's shadow mocked, a dry laugh slipping from between its lips. "Awake a moment and the godling brays for blood." The inky substance armouring the copy sharpened to a point around one finger as it ran the claw idly down one of the girl's pipes. "But have you been awake long enough to know that you've become the villain in this opera?" A deep, thrumming hum sounded at the back of the clone's throat as it smiled even wider. "All of you are the ones killing him after all."

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 7:09 pm
by Kokuten
The tantrum sealed itself in the girl's cheeks, orange as apples with all the contained fire. Her hateful gaze waned as she was scolded, and the withdrawn heat was taken from her body in a way that made it seem as thought a bucket of water had been dropped over her head. Like before, a humid plume of steam rose as she cooled, and her vicious gaze was directed to the ground, where it began to melt into something more akin to obedient frustration. She was restrained, and unable to move, but she seemed to fidget all the same.

At that moment, her demeanor changed from that of angry font of power, to that of a young person who wasn't used to being a yelled at, or talking to adults.

Re: [Chapter 1.2] The Call of the Centrifuge

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:48 am
by Mr. Blackbird Lore
With the young deity's anger mostly subdued, Jane relaxed. She set her gaze on Riley's Shadow. "Mizz Alstad...s Shadow. If ye could please, release the chil'," she said, gesturing to Aulan. "She ain't gon learn a thing wit ye terrizin er." Then, to the child-god, "Lil Mizz, if ye'd be so kind, we need yer help. Things ain't right in the Elementalia no more, n we're here to set em straight." Hands rested on sandalwood grips by default, but conveniently emphasized the violent nature of their objective.