Order And Chaos: A Superpower RP (Started, Closed)

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"Good to meet you both. Please, call me Victoria, or Veil." She tilted her head as she looked at Talsper - she had never encountered aspirit that seemed to have any permanence before - birdlike flutters of ghosts from hospitals and pther places of death, but never one with any real presence.

"It's a long story to say the least, but I guess I focus on the darker side of magic. I had a ritual go awry and...well, ended up wrecking my own funeral. Since then I gained sort of a knack for necromancy," She reached into her coat and withdrew her Grimoire, the Book of Endor. "I was hoping you might be able to help me with expanding it. My magical resources all come from this book, and I can barely understand most of it."

 

[CounterAttack]

"Necromancy... well, it's not in my repertoire, nor Talsper's as far as I know," Mark answered, casting a curious eye over the tome. "Talsper, thoughts? Can you pick anything up off of it?"

"I do not sense a connection to the Aura, and nor do I recognise the design nor the symbols upon it. Death magic is not widely practised on Eniadan. The dead should rest at peace, is the common consensus. I meaneth no ill of that comment, of course, miss Veil," Talsper quickly added, so as not to offend the new Seraphim operative.

"I think it unlikely that such an item originated from my home plane... fascinating that magical resources can be found that are not of my own kind. Mayhap this came from some other plane of reality."

"Think Intet might have something to do with this?"

"I know not. And even with this new development, I doubt my abilities would be of assistance in the matter of expanding thine own skills."

"Quite the conundrum." Mark was hesitant to touch the book Veil carried, primarily for fear of the magical power it presumably contained conflicting with the Aura magic he knew considerably better.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"Looking back I agree. I found a few spells in the book that interact directly with spirits, but they're fairly awful. I mostly stick to the abilities I gained when I rose from the dead - grim stuff, but aside from possible disrespect to bodies no harm done." She tilted her head back. "Manny donated his body to science, hung in my old high school's biology class until the school closed down."

She noted their hesitance to touch it. Understandable, the book fairly pulsed with malevolent power. "If you don't mind me asking, how do you wield your magics? The spells here require complicated rituals - circles, incantations, sacrifices." She shivered, the sound of a cat screaming and a bowl filling with blood filling her mind for a moment.

 

[Lambi]

"

Sure, it can be done later. Right now, we're discussing how to take down Seraphim. Coyote here suggests we do small crimes which escalate in how big they are until Seraphim's HQ is weak enough to strike.

" Virus responded to Hellhound before turning back to Intet. Some of the other villains in the room were agreeing with getting more artifacts. "

That would be most excellent. Making our Legion stronger would most certainly help us. We would appreciate what help you can give us.

" He didn't trust Intet, but anything he could do for them was good for Virus.
[hr]
Christopher returned to his office, his secretary reminded him about one Victoria Velour, alias Veil, and his meeting with her. "I'll see her when she returns. If she's mingling with some of the other heroes, that's alright. She knows where to find me." With that, his secretary went back to her desk, and Christopher sat down at his own. He had business to take care of for tracking down the dragon and Virus.

 

[CounterAttack]

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you wield your magics? The spells here require complicated rituals - circles, incantations, sacrifices."

"Our spells come from channeling a power source known as the Aura," Talsper began to explain. "Mages require training to mentally refine the source before they can channel it into the form of a spell and cast it. Since there is no defined source of Aura on this plane - "

"Eniadan is, to Talsper's knowledge, the only source of Aura and by extension magic as he and I know it," Mark chipped in.

" - we doth make do with what we have, hence my limitations. If I had full access to an unrestricted source of Aura, I could bypass the need for my Ring of Containment and conjure myself a proper body."

"Wait, you can do that?"

"I would need to wear the Ring until I found a spell to transfer my mind from it to my new form. But yes. It is a rare discipline, closely connected to Eniadan death magic. I never cared for the study of it myself. I preferred more innovative and adaptable schools of magic."

And look where you are now, eh? Mark kept that one to himself. Thankfully, it seemed that Talsper wasn't able to hear him while he was in spirit form. "So yeah, that's the basics of it, I think."

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

That was disappointing. They probably wouldn't be of much help in broadening her magical horizons. Necromancy was powerful but rarely practical and always grotesque if not outright evil. Still, if it were true what Crowley had claimed, that Solomon and Morgan Le Fay had held the book then logically there were other grimoires out there, holding spells of hopefully less vile magic. If Morgan then Merlin, she thought.

They may not be able to aid her now, but perhaps someday. "This Aura, you're able to tap it in a limited capacity here? Is that some kind of bleedthrough from Eniadan, or are yoi drawing from Aura energy already on this plane, artifacts and such that came through as you did?" She stroked her chin. He might not be able to help her, but perhaps she could help him.

 

[CounterAttack]

"Our primary source of Aura is from Talsper's Ring," Mark answered, removing his glove to show Veil the gold band and its inscription. "The enchantments on the ring, designed to bind Talsper's mind to it, can be drawn from. But only in small doses. Although we recently came into possession of another artifact from Eniadan, from a mage by the name of Intet Yxi. It was a battery of Aura, opened by Talsper and... What did you do, exactly? Remind me."

"After an Aurasphere's seal is broken, the untamed Aura seeks a place to settle. It commonly finds its rest in the mage that breaks the seal, enhancing the apprentice's magical capabilities. In our case, it hath found the next best thing, the ring." Talsper walked straight through Mark and out into the hall as he explained the principles behind the sapphire battery. It was... odd, was the best way to describe it. A sense of presence, with a hint of a chill to it, and then it was gone.

"Is it possible that Intet is trying to help you out by boosting our Aura reserves? Come to think of it, how did he even get here? You were cast out by a cadre of lawmages. What's Intet doing here?"

"That is entirely possible... but I have no idea what his motivations for travelling to Earth might be. If I had to guess how he got here, I would suppose he possesses a Planar Key. A simple tool, for the purpose of traversing the planes," the mage added upon seeing the look of confusion on Mark's face.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"Two mages from the same place emerging around the same time?" Coincidences happen, but that seemed a little improbable. "If you are an outcast why would he want to help you? If he were an ally he would have stayed, explained himself." A chill ran through her guts. "Could that energy be fouled in some way? A trap set on it or something like that? Logically speaking - well, from what I understand, which is mostly the garbled translations of notes claiming to be from a three thousand year dead Priest-King - there are innumerable planes. What are the odds he would come from the same place as you to here by chance?"

 

[socialtangent]

Kurt's next destination was his shower. He'd spent a few hours helping the cleanup effort in the lower floors of Seraphim and he was ready to wash off all that ash and dust. With a tired sigh, he removed his mask.

'Of all things, he thought, 'it had to be a fucking dragon?'

This gig at Seraphim continued to get stranger and stranger, that much was certain. And once the phone lines unclogged, he'd be expecting a panicked phone call from his mother. Somehow, that thought was much scarier than the prospect of fighting a fire-breathing monster.

Walking down a hallway, he noticed a familiar face. Mark. He was accompanied by a spirit. The presence felt like Talsper, the spirit...person...whatever that inhabited Mark's ring. The two of them were conversing with an unfamiliar woman. She was strikingly pretty, but there was something off about her. Kurt couldn't quite explain it, but there was a bizarre disconnect between the woman's spirit and her body. It unsettled him somewhat.

But now that he was within conversation distance of her, Mark, and Talsper, he had to at least be polite. "Fellas," he said to Mark and Talsper in recognition. "I see we have a newcomer?"

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

She turned and gave him a smile, a surprisingly friemdly and not creepy one - at least to a normal person's eyes. "Victoria Velour, codename Veil." She held out her hand to shake. "Just joined. I'm guessing you three are already acquainted?" She tilted her head slightly. His gaze was a little off when he looked at her, like there was something over her shoulder or something. She glanced back at Manny, still holding her luggage and standing stock still like, well, a corpse.

 

[socialtangent]

Kurt reached out and shook her hand. "Kurt Isherwood, codename Spectre."

"I'm guessing you three are already acquainted?"

"We've met before, yes..." his words began to trail off as he looked past Victoria's shoulder. "...and I'm sorry, is that a skeleton?" Stupid question, of course. It was definitely a skeleton dressed in a nice suit carrying luggage. Kurt briefly wondered if his life was beginning to descend into some sort of surreal joke.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"Yes, he's with me. Sorry, most people don't expect to run into the animate dead - putting him in a suit does seem to work to keep people from freaking out." She smiled ruefully. "Besides, when you're stuck with my brand of magic you have to have a sense of humor about it or you go nuts."

 

[socialtangent]

Kurt spared another glance at the skeleton. On second thought, the nicely dressed skeleton was rather amusing. The contrast between its ghastly appearance and floral print luggage carrier made him suppress a smirk.

"You said 'animate dead,'" Kurt said with a hint of curiosity. "You dip into necromancy then, yes?"

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"I'm a Necromancer, yes. By nature more than by choice. Ever since my...call it an accident, I've had a natural affinity for dark magic." She shrugged. "It's effective enough. Not having much luck finding spellbooks that're a little less evil than this one." She lifted the Grimoire of the Witch of Endor as a way of indicating it.

 

[Pm0n3y]

Justin decided to separate from Faraday, to leave him to deal with his problems, or find himself, or whatever it is that Faraday does. Whatever it was, Justin felt he'd reconnect with him whenever he felt the need to. In the mean time, he was back in his apartment, gathering the several schematic sheets needed to construct the Awe. Or, at least the most recent addition to his series of plasma-powered gauntlets. One for the glove itself, one for the power supply, and another for the on-board CPU.

"Gotta look into bigger transformers and inductors...some filters and rectifiers too...ooh, what about a PC power supply instead of a car battery? With the extra variability and higher wattage, I could take some of that potential power and ramp it all the way up..." He mumbled out suggestion as he stuffed his papers into his bookbag. He lastly collected a flash drive, the programming software for the phone snuggled within its memory. "If I could somehow keep a steady charge with that much of an voltage output...while also not having the whole thing blow up in my face...fuses, gotta look into bigger fuses too..."

He had began out of his apartment, the sound of lively camaraderie breaking him from his incessant rambling. Seemed there were individuals conversing in the hallway. Two of them were just downstairs with him minutes prior, but there seemed to be some new faces among the crowd. Seeing as these people were taking up all the hallway space (clearly blocking the way to the elevators), Justin figured he'd might acquaint himself as well. He coolly strode up to the company, his smooth swagger doing much to contrast his singed hair, splotchy, burned lab coat, and missing eyebrows.

"What up, fagboys?" He addressed Kurt and Mark, going the extra emasculating mile by playfully tussling the traceur's hair, like a pseudo-supportive father congratulating his son on winning a second place trophy. "Who's the corpse bride?" He thumbed towards the girl, the pale one easily towering over the three males. From behind her, he could spot the surreal sight of a lively, sharply dressed, skeleton, clattering about its business as it held luggage. Just the sight of it sent a cold shiver down Justin's spine. "Ugh, too spooky for me." He thought in disgust (and fear).

 

[Captainguy42]

"Sure, it can be done later. Right now, we're discussing how to take down Seraphim. Coyote here suggests we do small crimes which escalate in how big they are until Seraphim's HQ is weak enough to strike."

"This will also have the benefit of getting more people involved in our fight without having to expand our inner circle. It's a lot like this coup I helped run a few years ago. We couldn't just go after the Dictator, we didn't have the manpower for it. We couldn't keep recruiting because the secret police would find us before we were strong enough and scatter us. So what we did was little things, riots, sabotages, and assassinations, we stirred the pot and fermented anger towards the regime. Our actions also gave them courage, so soon other militias began popping up faster than the regime could squash them, and we didn't have to worry about their safety because they couldn't be traced back to us. So when we made our move against the regime we were still unknown and we simply manipulated those militias to attack at the same time. No mess, no fuss, the regime didn't even know what hit 'em. I anticipate the same thing will happen here. More crime will increase the confident of all the other criminals and villains we don't think are worthy for our club but can still prove useful with the right manipulation," Coyote added, " Is there anything more to discuss I'm running late for a date."

 

[CounterAttack]

"Two mages from the same place emerging around the same time? If you are an outcast why would he want to help you? If he were an ally he would have stayed, explained himself... Could that energy be fouled in some way? A trap set on it or something like that? Logically speaking - well, from what I understand, which is mostly the garbled translations of notes claiming to be from a three thousand year dead Priest-King - there are innumerable planes. What are the odds he would come from the same place as you to here by chance?"

"Talsper was convicted of crimes he didn't commit. It was over quickly; the Chaliset - Empress - was rather static in her decision, if I remember what Talsper explained correctly," Mark answered. "As for the idea of infinite planes of reality... Talsper?"

"It is entirely possible that Intet is here by chance, but he could also have his own designs upon this plane. As for whether the verrsara are infinite, Eniadan's scientists have only travelled to seventeen defined planes... wait, was it seventeen or eighteen? One moment. Eniadan, Earth, Jas'w'ra, Staarios..." Talsper began to list names of the planes of reality, counting them off on his fingers. Their names were fascinating, though Mark theorised they needed a Planar Key, like the one Intet had, to travel to them.

Mark's attentiveness and thoughts were both interrupted by a rough hand in his hair. "What up, fagboys? Who's the corpse bride?"

A snarl of annoyance escaped Mark as he rounded on Justin. Did he have no respect for personal space? "HEY! Do that again and I'll set your hair on fire. Or have you forgotten what happened to your eyebrows in that fight against the dragon just now?" Or maybe I'll trap his head in a block of ice... that seems a bit more fitting.

[hr]

"That would be most excellent. Making our Legion stronger would most certainly help us. We would appreciate what help you can give us."

"Then fare thee well for now. I shall withdraw a few items from my pool of resources and send them thy way posthaste." Intet bowed to Virus with a flourish, spun on a heel and sauntered out of the secret lair. Well, it wasn't all that secret now, was it? It was entirely possible for him to fly straight to Seraphim and give them the location of Virus' base of operations. And doing so would give the heroes a perfect opportunity to study more of Eniadan's artifacts, perhaps gain a better understanding of the Aura.

Although... such a double-cross would mean that any survivors - for there would almost definitely be survivors - would brand Intet a traitor, destroy anything he had given them, and cast him in with the Seraphim lot. He needed to keep his options open, he reasoned as he took to the air once more. The conundrum occupied his mind as he landed on the tower where he kept his hoard, much like a dracona of Jas'w'ra, and began to rifle through the piles of gold, silver and steel.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"What makes Earth so special? This universe is billions of light years across," She recalled the famed photograph, the Pale Blue Dot. "I assume that your people's scientists don't buy into Humanocentricism.or our religions." She tilted her head. "Actually, Talsper, are you a Human? You look exactly like us, but parallel evolution on another plane of existing with differing physics seems wildly improbable." She hrrmed to herself.

Then he showed up. The words heralded him, and she expected some douchey jock or some emo-punk hipster with a fringe. Instead some scrawny nerd kid in an oversized labcoat with his eyebrows toasted off. And he was an asshole.

"Oh. My. God." She took him by the shoulders and lifted him off the ground, dangling him in the air. "He's adorable! When did Seraphim start recruiting for sidekicks?"

 

[socialtangent]

'Interesting...'

Kurt eyed the book suspiciously. Much like its owner, something felt off about it. But unlike its owner, the book had a quality he could only describe as evil. Maliciousness radiated from the ancient tome. Kurt could only guess as to what horrors the book had been witness to, or perhaps an accessory to.

Oh, right. He was in a conversation.

Kurt cleared his throat. "I don't doubt that the book's pure evil. I can feel it. I'm something of a..." He paused to find a word "...medium, I guess. For lack of a better term. I'm attuned to the realm of the spirits. I can see spirits, commune with them, all that stuff. And because I'm how I am, I can practically smell the evil from that thing-"

"What up, fagboys?"

Justin's brash greeting interrupted him.

"Yes, it's nice to see you too, Justin," Kurt replied with a hint of irritation.

 

[Pm0n3y]

Justin couldn't help but let off a bit of a scoff at Mark's threat, and said scoff turned into a chuckle as he pushed away from Justin. "Oh calm your tits Marky Markwhoawhoa-" The girl (that no one even tried introducing to Justin, the nerve of these people, right?) decided to greet the boy by lifting him clear off the ground. With their combined heights, Justin's head was easily brushing against the ceiling.

In her arms, Justin also managed to get a better look at the girl's voluptuous figure...as well as lack of body temperature. "Lord have mercy! You can see allll the way down her corset..." "But you miss...mmmph...you can keep your tits juuuuust the way they are." He replied, raising a (missing) eyebrow as he continued checking her out. "So, name? Foot tag number? What cemetery you hail from?" He asked. "If you haven't figured it out by now, the name's Justin Case, and you bet your ass i'm adorable as fuck." He introduced himself, deciding to take the incentive on the introduction game. Then, he tried to lean in as close as he could from his position.

"Between you and me, I wouldn't trust miss Danny Phantom over there. If you put him on the spot, he'll freeze up like a deer in headlights." He cupped his mouth away from Kurt, even though his whispers were loud and obviously mocking.