'Children of The Shroud' - A Dark Fantasy RP (Interest/Recruitment - CLOSED AND STARTED)

[Rufio's Ghost]

As Tammy wrapped her small, soft fingers around Langston's hand he turned away, shifting his gaze back to his watch. He wasn't accustomed to how touchy-feely Tammy could get and found it uncomfortable- not to say that was bad in anyway, it was just strange...but a good strange? An odd feeling he couldn't quite place.

"Let's start small for now... I'll throw this up in the air, and we'll see how long you can make it take to hit the ground."

Langston nodded his head, starting small was fine by him and it seemed a simple enough task... Although, it was not the complexity of the task that had deterred him. It was simply getting started.

"You know what the best thing about your ability is...There's nothing you can do that can't be undone just as easily."

Nodding his head once more, the young man squared his shoulders and waited for a count down, or any indication that they were starting... but nothing happened. He looked up in time to see the rock arching towards it's zenith.

"We-we're starting?" he asked, his voice cracking with surprise.

"Wait- Stop!" he exclaimed as the rock reached it's peak height. The rock remained suspended above him, on the verge of beginning its descent. He blinked stupidly as the rock remain fixed in the air. "I-I did it?" he asked in disbelief. Having little time to think gave the young man little time to over-think, however, the task was not yet complete. The small pebble spun around before beginning it's sluggish descent.

'How do I measure it?'

His mind began to race as he realized that he did not know exactly what Tammy wanted him to do.

'We should have discussed the task in greater detail- established some kind of baseline or determined an average fall rate. Surely Tammy is keeping track of the rock's rate of descent- wait no, she doesn't have a watch, or at least does not seem to. Is she counting down in her head- Well, that hardly seems accurate. Should I be doing that?'

The the tiny stone drifted slowly toward the ground.

'Langston, you idiot- stop thinking. Count!'


He focused in on the small pebble, trying to keep a steady pace. It wouldn't be perfect, but they could always do it again.

'seven, eight, nine'

By the time the rock hit the ground Langston had counted up to 52. Langston rested his forehead against his knees as he let out a long heavy sigh. He didn't notice that he was holding his breath that whole time, or that he had been squeezing Tammy's delicate little hand like a vice. He quickly loosened his grip and pulled away from her. Between breaths he mumbled, "52."

'Give or take.'

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

"Not exactly what I was expecting, but impressive. It's nowhere near the same as baiting another human, but you might soon be ready to start on cats."

A hierarchy of beasts, the logic seemed sensible enough to Ezrah's ears, after all one could hardly expect a rat to operate on the same mental level as a man, just as a man's mind could not fathom a Gods. Though even as the thought crossed the threshold of Ezrah's mind, it filled him with doubts and misgivings. It was comforting to think that man was greater than the rat, and perhaps in some respects he was. However, when Ezrah had baited the little, furry squirming beasts, it had not been that superiority that served as guide. The twitching thing at the rat's core, the hunger, the needing, the wanting... it had been familiar, and that familiarity allowed the boy to sink in his hooks, the psychic barbs that had driven the poor things to madness. The thought of that familiarity gave the lad a moments pause a moment to wonder if man and rat were really so different after all.... What did that say for the distinction between man and god? Interesting tidbits to chew on, but not the point of today's endeavors, ponderings best reserved for later.

Ezrah turned his focus to his peers for a time, watching the boys and girls in they're myriad odd exertions. Some abilities seemed quite overt: the small boy (who was in fact a girl, Finch, or Raven or something to do with birds) became a small army, locked in frantic combat with a mentor who moved as though dancing on wind; the drunken shyster seemed bound up in some odd duel with his own teacher, bodies mimicking one another; and queer images swam about the burnt girl. Other abilities were perhaps of a more subtle design, and often involved a great deal of concentrated staring: Selena staring at a cup; the pale boy staring at a rock (though, considering the fact the rock was not perceptibly moving... perhaps that particular talent was less subtle than expected); one smaller girl bombarded with knives, another with apparently defective flash bombs.... From what little information Ezrah had gleaned from them over the pass few days, any definite pattern or direct correlation, proved difficult to detect (save for the bird girl, that one an almost blatant pun). So much for similarities between the mind of a man and the mind of a God... though, again, Ezrah found the thought insufficient, the sarcasm not entirely warranted. There were similarities, patterns, even if they were tangled.

The boy offered Brutus a sidelong glance and slight smile, "I suppose I aught not expect you to produce a sack of cats, eh? Though, a question if you'll pardon it. Mylaviss doesn't seem a wasteful sort, these recruits and their mentors... complement each other, like he planned it, one to sharpen the other. What're your sins, that you went and drew the runt of the litter?"

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Sigmund staggered, throwing up his arm as the intensity of all the flashes that he had sent Skylar's way came back to him at once. The blinding light was enough to drive him to his knees, where he rubbed his eyes and shook his head rapidly from side to side, trying to get his vision to clear.

"Well. That was... impressive." he groaned.

"Are you alright?" Skylar asked. There was hardly any celebration, just concern, despite doing what her mentor had told her to do. Of course, she was being foolish, hurting - no killing - was part of her life now and she'd better accept it.

"Of course. In fact, I'm thrilled!" Sigmund added, only a little sarcastically. However, when Skylar took a few, tentative steps forward, he suddenly lashed out. All he did was raise a single finger, and tap the empty air like a drum, and yet a sound wave, so thick an powerful emanated from his fingertip, that she found herself flat on her back the wind taken out of her.

"I think it's time we increased the volume..." he said, getting to his feet and wiping water from his eyes one more time. From his robes he drew out three more bombs. This time, instead of throwing them one at a time, even in quick succession, he lit all three fuses at once and hurled them at Skylar.

Well this was hardly fair! As soon as Skylar got back up there were not one, not two, but three of the damn things coming at her! This was getting tiresome. She was getting the hang of absorbing the light, sure, but there still was trepidation. Her body was still hellbent on shutting those eyes of hers rather than leaving them open and absorbing the flash of light. It was a battle to overcome that urge.

Thankfully, Skylar didn't need to stand there like an idiot with her fingers stretching her eyelids open. She stood there and took the light out of the flash bombs. In Skylar's frustrated state, it was easy enough to let loose another barrage of the light she had absorbed. It would be far more effective than just yelling at Sigmund anyway.

"Is that all for today?" Skylar asked afterwards, panting.

This time, Sigmund was ready. Just as the surge of light was about to be thrown back at him, he evaporated, and reappeared at Skylar's side, his suffering minimal through avoiding the area of peak intensity.

"You think the outside world will go easy on you?" He challenged her "I thought you'd have learned better by now. We keep going until you embrace your potential!"

With that, he threw another bomb, before vanishing and reappearing on the opposite side, to throw a second, forcing her to deal with two different trajectories at once.

With that, Skylar was caught off-caught. Her head spun around, eyeing the first flash bomb then the second. Unfortunately, she was caught up in keeping track of the two bombs and the different directions they were in. They both exploded, leaving in their wake a very dazed Skylar.

"Will you stand a helpless child before the City Watch?" Sigmund goaded her sternly. "Before the Order of Victory, or the Chantry's Paladins?!"

He was standing in front of her again now, rolling another bomb across the floor to her feet. Before it reached her, Sigmund vanished, appearing for the split second in the air above her, dropping a second down towards her head, before transporting himself again.

Skylar shook her head, clearing it, "No."

She was giving into his taunts and she knew it. There was no point in repeating the same mistake as before - she didn't need to stay still! A sigh of frustration left her mouth, she'd been standing there like a lemon this whole time! Skylar moved over to the side with a quick side step. While not as fancy as Sigmund's teleportation, it did the job.

With both flash bombs in sight, Skylar absorbed the light and with a twist of the neck directed it back at Sigmund.

Caught once more by Skylar's attack, Sigmund stumbled, though he recovered far more quickly than last time.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed "You're beginning to understand. Power is nothing if you're willing to give the enemy the advantage."

With that, Sigmund extended his arm an clicked his fingers. A high pitched, whining sound filled Skylar's ears, so intense her skull rattled and her vision blurred. At the same time, he tossed yet another flash bomb before teleporting again.

The noise inside her head was infuriating and almost drowned the hissing of the flash bomb. She rubbed her eyes, trying to get her vision back to normal. However, as long as that as damn noise was stuck in Skylar's head, her vision would remain blurry. She tried to power through the racket, gritting her teeth as she searched for the blurred shape of the flash bomb. However, Skylar made the same mistake: taking too long with spotting the bombs. Again, she was dazed by the bomb's flash.

"Think, Skylar. Think!" Sigmund willed her on, as he bounced around the room, showing no sign of running out of bombs anytime soon.

"I have the advantage. How might you take it from me?"

Things were getting a little crazy. There was the obvious solution but Skylar couldn't get a bead on where Sigmund was, with him bouncing all over the place, and thinking was quite hard with the goddamn noise. Not to mention the bombs been dropped. It was all too easy to give up, despite Sigmund's encouragement.

"I... I don't know." She sighed.

"Not good enough!" he snapped. "Become the hunter, Skylar!"

One last try, she could surely manage that right? All she needed was one good shot anyway. As more of the flash bombs rained down, Skylar absorbed what she could of the light, as her eyes become more accustomed to seeing the world as a series of blurs. Of course, the harsh, screeching, noise hadn't lost any of its bite. Skylar waited for the black blur of Sigmund to appear nearby and unleash a beam of light. She didn't even cared if it hit or not, she just wanted to stop.

"That was lazy!" Sigmund scolded, dancing away and vanishing almost effortlessly "If you so not learn to mind your surroundings, they will only be turned against you!"

What good were her surroundings if she couldn't perceive that properly?! Skylar begrudgingly scanned them anyway, spotting streaks of light from the torches on the walls. In a flash, the image of the hunters with torches from her vision came back as well as an idea. Skylar almost kicked herself as she saw wisdom in Sigmund's words. One by one, the torches on the walls went out, snuffed out by Skylar's power.

As Skylar finally began to expand her imagination to match her potential, the room was plunged into a darkness so think that it almost seemed viscous. Sigmund's energetic display was suddenly halted. Unable to see, he could not longer plot a path throughout the space by which to outmanoeuvre his opponent; and, unable to focus in on her, his manipulation of her hearing stopped. Standing completely still, he listened, to the scuffing of footsteps and to expectant whisperings of their spectators. There were too many. Sigmund could guess as to which footsteps might belong to Skylar. For a moment, he was vulnerable.

It was gone, the noise was finally gone! It was good to be rid of it. Skylar blinked, finding that she could see in spite of the lack of light. She spotted Sigmund, he was just standing still. It was strange to see where one would normally be blind, however, it wasn't the time to dwell on such things.
Skylar approached Sigmund cautiously, then let loose.

Waiting just a few moments longer than he might otherwise have done. Sigmund closed his eyes and clicked his tongue. The short burst of sound radiated outwards across the space, echoing back at intervals and painting a picture inside his mind...

A picture that told him he was beaten.

Too late, Sigmund tried to dance away from Skylar's attack, but she had already set upon him, The light burned through his closed eyelids, and he reeled, unsure for several seconds what was up and what was down. Staggering back, Sigmund sunk against a pillar, as the torches around the walls and hanging from the ceiling began to flicker back into life on their own.

"Well done!" He conceded to her, smiling, though he did not try to open his eyes just yet. "You can relax now."

 

[Dogmatic99]

"I'm ready..."

"So you say..." answered Cecilia, as she advanced on her again, her dagger held in an underhand grip out in front of her. She got a few feet from Maggie when she noticed the girl bracing to take the hit. Just before she might have struck, Cecilia danced away from the head on attack, effortlessly graceful, before the dagger arced in a streak of silver across Maggie's back. It was a very shallow cut, but it stretched almost all the way from her shoulder to her waist.

"Your enemies will not give you the luxury of warning. Nor will they be content to just scratch you."

She practically yowled like an alley cat who'd met the business end of a drunkards shoe. An experience Maggy had plenty of experience with as it was. Her arm twisted round as she instinctively reached for the scar running down her back, lurching away as the impact sent her stumbling. How could anyone move like that? Her flesh, quickly folding over, burned and stung but this felt a like it didn't run as deep as the one before. Maggy turned to face her attacker, her eyes watching cautiously, her tattered blue robes rippled back together.

So was this a fight? How was she supposed to defend herself? That didn't seem to matter to the shroud. She'd have to try... wasn't like they could kill her anyway... right?

"Your thinking is disconnected." Cecilia complained. "How do you expect your flesh to behave like water, when you stand there stiff as a rock?"

She came at her again, jinking right, then spinning left as she nicked Maggie's ear with her blade.

"Thoughts of resistance, overcoming, will get you nowhere." She told her pupil "You must flow, as untouched by the pain and fury as an ocean is by a pebble, until the time comes for your squall to crush him into sand."

"What does that even mean?!" Maggy screeched through gritted teeth as her ear hung ragged and bloodless. She'd been trying from the start to understand all the riddles Cecilia had been throwing at her and none of them made sense. If this was a fight then shouldn't she be trying to win?

"It's not like I make it happen, it jus- it just does it!" The frustration was getting to her now. They promised to make her strong, that they wouldn't be like the others, that she wouldn't have to take this kind of pain any more! Still her torn bands of skin found their way back together at their own pace. "What am I supposed to do except just take it!" She spat.

"You can take it!" Cecilia goaded. "Of all the maimed and suffering souls in this world, your the one whom all harm can trickle away from like raindrops."

She launched another attack. This time, Maggie tried to Dodge. The first slash missed, but Cecilia followed up with a sharp jab to the back of her knee. Maggie's leg was taken from under her, but in no less than two seconds, the wound healed.

She was beginning to understand.

"Look at her!" Cecilia commanded, pointing over to wear Andra was being carried away. "Just how many lives do you think she'd take for those burns to melt away? Your soul is above pain, beyond it, a world apart from it, as indifferent to it as the tides are to mud; but in your heart you still cower like a stray pet!"

Maggy rubbed at the back of her head, half out of pain, half out of shame as she was made to feel like a scolded child. How had she even been floored this time?

"So I just keep surviving?" Maggy looked to her teacher, her breathing less ragged now. "Wh- what's the point?" There was the beginning of a bitter little laugh there. "All I've been doing is scraping by, one day to another, my whole life, they been cutting at me like that!" She flailed her arm at Cecilia and her dagger. "Every way they can! You lot, you promised that wouldn't be any more." She was letting her guard slip now as she got more emotional. "I don't want to just take the cuts no more, I want to be like them, the one holdin' the swords and guns and standing all proud an' tall."

It felt like she was crying now and part of Maggy didn't even care any more. She didn't see that the moisture was coming from her skin instead of her eyes as her old scars and cuts faded away. Not that she was thinking on them anyway.

"Why would you want to stand like the soldiers?" Cecilia asked "They are ridged, slow and brittle. It is not in the nature of our kind to stand, Maggie..." it was the first time Cecilia had used her name "Instead, we dance!"

The fight continued, and Maggie was finally starting to loosen up, turning and twisting, using her smaller stature to her advantage as she came in close. Though Cecilia still landed cut after cut, Maggie grunting and wincing with them, her wounds were barely being given time to bleed now.

"We make a mockery of their guns. Their proud blades will wilt against us. They... can only... cut you... if you... let... them!"

This time, the dagger was sunk hilt deep into Maggie's gut. Time seemed to stand still for a moment (without any help from Langston, as the two of them looked down. There was no blood, and no pain, only a rippling distortion of Maggie's abdomen, spreading out from the point where she had, supposedly, been pierced. When Cecilia withdrew, Maggie's flesh settled, and it was as if nothing at all had happened.

"Now, that's more like it." Cecilia said smiling.

Maggy's whole body seemed to heave with each breath as her mind became a pure blank. She patted at her stomach, rubbing her hand over it, trying to find any trace of a scratch or loss of blood. Nothing. She cautiously reached for her face stroked at her cheek. Had she been cut there? If she had there was no trace of it. She'd done that. She'd faced someone, not caring at all what they might do to her, like she was really brave and she was fine! She was better than fine! She felt strong.

And Cecilia, the way she'd moved, it was far better than any kind of fighting she'd seen in the streets. More powerful than any solider of Northos had ever seemed. Her words rang through Maggy's ears as if they were poetry. She really did dance and... and for a moment it felt as if she'd allowed Maggy to join her. She was like a force of nature. She was beautiful.

Maggy looked up at Cecilia in awe as everything boiled over. Eyes welling up in joy and hungry for more.

"I'm sorry I was hard on you." Cecilia said, taking a knew to bring herself down to Maggie's level. She looked much friendlier now than at any time since they had met. "Such a change is not an easy thing to comprehend. Sometimes, we need to be pushed to extremes before we truly find out what we're capable of."

Sheathing her dagger, Cecilia placed a comforting hand on the young girl's shoulder.

"You did well. You've earned a moment of rest."

Maggy's head fell as her chin thumped against her meager chest. Despite how easily she'd healed it still felt as if her whole body was sore and aching from all this. It didn't feel bad though, more like the way it had felt after a long day of work. She'd done something here. For the first time in a long time Maggy had accomplished something. It took her a moment to catch her breath. Once she had, Maggy looked back up to face Cecilia, risking herself a thin lipped smile as she'd suddenly become very aware that there were others all around them again.

 

[Fappy]

"Not yet."

Selena pouted at that.

"You're equating what you do to slipping a vial of nightshade in when nobody is looking, but your power is so much more than that. Chemicals are just a precursor, a means to death. You are imbuing substance with death itself. Move beyond the physical process into the abstract. Envision the will of Mylaviss, and the result will be as pure as it is deadly."

Tapping her chin thoughtfully with her pointer finger, Selena nodded. It made sense. Sort of. "You know, you could have just said, 'think abstract'," she pointed out with a small chuckle. "Let me try again." After taking the goblet from Olegg, the novice poisoner dumped out its contents and proceeded to spit into it. Nothing too dense, but it did the job.

Considering her former career, she'd gotten good at, well... that sort of thing.


Selena ignored her instructor's amused expression as she closed her eyes and set about a second attempt. Perhaps her familiarity with the substance's origin would make it easier to manipulate. If that was the case, there could be no better substitute. That was of course pure conjecture, but maybe it didn't matter. It could be that simply thinking it would be made easier would in fact make it easier.

Okay, stop that! Thinking too much! Just do it! Think ummm.... depressing thoughts? Think deeeeeeaaaaath.

Then she remembered that some of the children were telepaths. They'd never let her hear the end of this.

Focus!

She heard the click in head once more.

Wait, what? Shit, I didn't even get to picture it... death... whatever.

Opening her eyes, Selena shrieked and reflexively dropped the goblet when she saw what was inside. "Shit, sorry!" she blurted as she regained her composure and stepped forward to inspect the now-spilled contents of the goblet. Her spit had changed into a black, steaming, viscous goo of some kind.

It's smelled like death, alright.

Selena sighed. "I suck," she moaned.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"You know, you could have just said, 'think abstract',"

"And make it obvious?" Olegg grinned "Where's the fun in that?"

"Let me try again."

Olegg nodded, standing back as Selena recreated her own 'unique' interpretation of the process.

"I suck,"

"You're trying to alter matter and you've only had a few days practice." Olegg reassured her "No-one expects excellence from a novice, and it will be a long time before you'll have nothing but your own abilities to rely on."

======================================================================================================================================

"What're your sins, that you went and drew the runt of the litter?"

"And what do you think would 'compliment' you eh?" Brutus huffed. "A man who can summon rats out of thin air? Count yourself lucky we don't have to bend over backwards to do this safely around everyone. As it stands, I have other... responsibilities, at the moment, so you might be getting passed around a bit. Give you some variety..."

====================================================================================================================================

"Brutus reports that his infiltration has gone smoothly. He estimates that he'll be ready to strike within the fortnight. Though, I personally would give it a month."

"I'll remind him to be careful." The Old Man replied, not turning around "What of the Temple of Northos."

"The Arsenal is impenetrable at the best of times. They seem to be anticipating us after what happened to the High Mason of Juiniss, it's a reasonable assumption for them to make that they're next. They're gearing up for war."

"And not just in the face of us, I assume."

"Then, we'd best get ready..."

The Old Man clapped his hands from the balcony, causing the hall to fall silent.

"You're all making impressive progress." He told them "Now gather round."

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

"'Responsibilities?' A dramatic pause? That's not ominous or euphemistic in the slightest. No worries, I'm sure a death cult isn't in the habit of asking its parishioners to do anything untoward...," Ezrah offered the man a gentle nod full of mock sympathy," Well, I won't bemoan variety, so long as 'passed around a bit' isn't another euphemism."

The single sharp sound that rang through the training hall stirred the hairs on the nape of Ezrah's neck, the following silence a charged, electric thing. The youth's eyes turned to the heirophant on his balcony, the emissary of their shared dark god. The rising tide of fanatic zeal tasted sour in the back of Ezrah's throat, the waiting, the yearning for further instruction, further command, twisting up in his chest, a sweet burning. He hated himself for it. He was better than this, he'd been taught all of the tricks, all of the mental traps, all the tastes of honey used to lure in flies, how to spot the shadow behind the prestige of every magician's trick, he should not feel bound to these people. Mylaviss was one thing, a force of nature, and Ezrah could no more deny him than he could shout down the sun. But the rest of it, these Children of the Shroud, their forms had similar enough forms, even if their patron lent them substantially more weight. This sensation of devotion to any physical organization, it rode bitter in Ezrah's belly, made his hackles rise. A god might not fail, but men always did, and devotion was too easy to manipulate. Still, Ezrah hung on the Old Man's words, ready, waiting, even as he wondered just how high he might jump if the man barked the order.

 

[Rufio's Ghost]

"Now gather round."

'We can stop?!'

Jumping at the opportunity to do anything other than train, Langston stumbled hastily to his feet. He stood unsteadily, still lightheaded from using his abilities, as he waited for his mentor to follow suite. When Tammy joined him he flashed a small relieved smile.

'Yes!'

He'd been been looking for distractions all day, it was nice to finally have a legitimate one.

 

[lacktheknack]

Images swirled in Andra's sights as she lay still, not moving. No part of her could move, even if she wanted it. Each image looked false, like a badly-made model, but if she focused on it, the image would suddenly become realistic. She played with the images for a while, constructing a desert terrain, then a building on fire, then an awe-inspiring temple face.

Then she woke up.

She bolted upright, muscles howling in fatigue, and nearly hit Arnold with her head as she rose.

"Did - did you see...!"

Andra turned and stare Arnold in the eye. "The... the focus... I FOCUSED. Everything clicked and I didn't have to concentrate on mere details. Everything became exactly as I imagined it, like that! How do I do that again, Arnold? How do I do it?!"

She barely heard the old man call everyone to gather around.

 

[Dogmatic99]

"Now gather round."

Maggy was snapped out of her little rest by the call of their... lead teacher? Master? What exactly was the old man? The leader of the shroud, she supposed. Like the head of the gang, but then even he still had to answer to Mylaviss she supposed. So that made him the head priest maybe. The workings of temples and priests had always been far from Maggy's mind, even while her pa had still been alive and they'd leave their offerings at the shrine for Denissa. It had mostly seen to itself she thought and after that she had the daily struggle of food, shelter and some meager excuse for safety.

Just more things she'd have to learn, on top of all the magic. At least today she felt like she was getting a step closer to actually controlling it. Compared to what she and Cecilia had just done the rest would be easy. Especially now she was getting to eat regular meals and sleep somewhere comfortable. Oh, just thinking about that food seemed to summon the smell and taste of it back to her.

Soon. Soon she'd get to feast again. But for now she did as she was told and gathered near the back of the group that was forming before the blind old man and waited for whatever would come next.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

"Now gather round."

Sparrow smiled at Darius before she half skipped to where the others were gathering. They all looked the sight in their many different coloured robes, it was much more pleasing to the eye than the brown and varying shades of brown that they all wore before. Glancing up at the old man, the girl held her hands behind her back, twirling her coin in her fingers.

All this practice was fun, but she couldn't wait to use it for something more practical.

 

[Ruedyn]

"You're all making impressive progress."

"Pffft." Giles was at least glad he was getting a break from kicking his own ass. The, apparently immortal, homeless girl was powerful, Giles had to admit that. Nice to have friends in high places. Especially magic ones.

"Now gather round."

Giles gladly walked to the ever growing crowd, massaging his wrist. A lot of weird bullshit had happened in the past couple of minutes. Much of it scared the simple magician, who preferred card tricks to making people punch themselves. They all still wore the same clothes, too. Did they wash them? Did they need to? Giles sniffed his armpit, still good enough for him, but he had woken up to chamberpots being emptied near his house every odd day. He shrugged it off, didn't matter, more mysteries of the death cult that he didn't need to worry about... someone would tell him, right?

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Did - did you see...!"

"It would have been difficult to miss." Arnold replied, smirking.

"How do I do that again, Arnold? How do I do it?!"

"I think you have a finer grasp of it than I do. It's not my power." He told her. Despite everything, he was pleased at her unprecedented progress. "For now, you need to eat something and relax. You need to walk before you can run. As vivid as the illusions are, they'll do you no good if you are not in control of them."

=======================================================================================================================================

"You are all beginning to grasp the unique gifts that have been bestowed upon you." The Old Man announced "Before you all get too triumphant, know that this is just the beginning. It will surely be a long while yet for you to discover the full scope of your powers, let alone master them."

Despite his warning, there was something of pride behind even his dead eyes as he spoke.

"In the mean time, there are other abilities at the disposal of you all. While you're specialised powers will be you signature, these will be your spine, and so it is just as important, if not more so, to hone these talents just a diligently. Fortunately, we need not separate you for this next session. You can spar with each-other."

 

[Rufio's Ghost]

'Fortunately? Not necessarily the word I would use to describe it.'

His shoulders tensed as he sensed a nervous, excited energy course through the group. Of course they'd jump at the chance to compete- they all had this unfounded sense of confidence, or competence that Langston just did not share. Where others saw an opportunity to show their off their talents, to triumph, Langtson just saw another chance to fuck up and humiliate himself.

The idea of sitting down and training with his mentor had suddenly become very appealing... Certainly preferable to 'sparring' with the others and whatever else that would entail. Timidly, he tugged at the edge of Tammy's sleeve, a feeble attempt to draw her attention. Maybe he could convince her to sit aside with him and work on what they had been working on before- he'd promise to try harder this time and he'd do his best to focus on the task at hand. She had to know that he just wasn't quite ready for this.

 

[lacktheknack]

Sparring. Yes. They were going to be killers.

Andra's gall rose slightly. Maybe she could turn into an animal and just run circles around her opponent. She never thought of herself as fighting material.

...and yet... was there a way that she could focus while in movement? Just enough to give her opponent a nasty and tricky little surprise?

If all else failed, surely they were going to fight with mere sticks. It couldn't be that difficult or painful if she failed.

Hopefully they'd let her at least eat first.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Responding to the tugging at her sleeve, Tammy smiled and took Langston's hand.

"The first time he said that to me, my knees shook so hard I kept tripping over myself." She admitted "He always makes it sound scarier than it is though."

When her charge did not look overly convinced, she took a knee and turned to face him.

"I'm not going to lie to you..." she said, more seriously "Our lives are not easy, and so we would hardly be preparing you for them if we did not challenge you. I promise you though, nobody here is ever going to punish you, mock you, or in any way reject you when you struggle. This training has nothing to do with proving your worth to anyone. Mylaviss chose you. You accepted his gifts and emerged stronger. Your worth has already been determined. Now, the responsibility is on us to help you realise your full potential. For that, what we need from you is to dare to push your boundaries, to see how far they will go. We can't help you if you won't try, but no matter what happens, we will always be right beside you. That's what families are supposed to do."

 

[The Funslinger]

Sparring. Ah, yes. Will remembered that phase of his military training quite well. He'd acquitted himself, winning more than he lost. Sparring had continued to be a regular discipline even in the active ranks, too, and while what was coming was likely to be drastically different from a duel of swordsmanship, Will still felt his competitive spirit welling up. He wondered idly if his opponent would be allowed to use their unique ability, or if this was strictly a test of their shared powers. He couldn't see any way he himself could use his personal gift. Sparring was not to the death, after all.

Grinning at Minerva, he said, "I feel like I'm back at boot camp."

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

Ezrah's nose wrinkled a bit at the old man's words. Sparring? Ezrah didn't quite know what to make of sparring? Oh he an academic enough understanding of the concept, a sort of 'mock battle' that soldiers participated in to hone their skills. It had always seemed rather absurd. One person did violence to another person as a means to an end, not as a matter of sport. The entire point of the violence was to deliver it as quickly an effectively as possible, typically until the person on the end of said violence was dead. Yet from the little Ezrah knew, sparring was not to the death, the participants holding back, looking to incapacitate rather than injure. This... was not sensible. One didn't look to 'incapacitate without maiming' in a real, proper fight, one just looked to end the fight, to render the opponent no longer a threat. Granted, harmless could translate into unconscious, but it could just as easily translate into head rendered down to a bloody pulp. Ezrah could stove a bloke's head in with a cudgel, or stick him with a knife coated in something likely to turn him into a corpse sooner or later, but sparring? Play fighting? Ezrah wondered how one went about stopping a fight prematurely....

Oh well, the lad suspected he'd find out soon enough.

 

[Dogmatic99]

"-Fortunately, we need not separate you for this next session. You can spar with each-other."

What spar with the others? As in practice fight? Maggy's training so far hadn't really included much in the way of working out how to actually fight people, just to take it. Though thanks to her last bout with Cecilia she now felt a lot more confident about that. But Cecilia knew what she was doing, all her cuts and slashes had been done perfectly. And Maggy was far from sure if she could trust these others to hold back for practice and not, say, try and beat her down to prove themselves to the group or to try and get her under their thumb. She looked around the crowd, wondering which one would be her opponent. Maybe she could take one or two of them. Only one way to find out.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Fortunately, we need not separate you for this next session. You can spar with each-other."

Sparrow bounced on her feet in excitement, ever since her initiation into the Shroud, she had become a lot more comfortable around the others, now she knew they could all be trusted. "I've been doin' a lot of readin' and practicin'" The girl smiled as she glanced at the others. Sure they all had their own unique abilities, but the shared ones were where they would truly mark out the strongest among them.

Was the little Sparrow becoming a tad bit competitive?

It seemed so.

Rubbing her hands together, the girl wondered if she could get a chance to spar with everyone? With her power, she could get at least get one round in with the others, all at the same time even. Sparrow was figuring out new uses for her ability everyday.