Prey: A Character Driven RP [FINISHED]

[i don't know]

Is this still real? Am I still alive or am I dead and in some sort of fantasy world? Nothing makes sense anymore!

"By any chance, are we going to see any unicorns where we're going or...?"

Alec took Rin's hand not noticing that a small amount of tears had appeared in his eyes after he thought that he was dead.

Spoiler: Facial expression

 

[LunaSocks]

As Lily ran off, Blackrose made sure she had all of the usable equipment off of the officer, then shoved him towards the rest of the officers and ran to where Lily and Zetta had gone. As she was about to reach them, she began to speak.

"So guys, how can we be sure that they won't try and fol-HOLY CRAP!" She shouted as she saw the red dragon. She dived behind Zetta and Lily, crouching behind them until she realized the dragon wasn't attacking. As she peeked up from behind them she whimpered, "Why is that thing here and is it going to eat us?" She asked.

 

[JoJo]

""Don't worry Missy, I ain't gonna eat you." The dragon turned his head in direction of Blackrose "I'm here to thank Lily for all she has done for my folk and respectfully ask for all of your help again. So eh... are you Lily or are you someone-else?"

~​

Rin shook her head in reply to Alec's question.

"Not unicorns but there will be even better. Come along Strauss."

Dr. Strauss returned wearing a pair of medical gloves he had found in the back of the ambulance and took Rin's hand. In an instant the sights and sounds of the city around the four disappeared to be replaced by the tranquillity of a empty desert. Reddish-brown sand stretched as far as the eye could see and in the distance a tall mountain range that stretched across the entire horizon could be seen. Circling around the tallest peak were a number of tiny dots which were too far away to be identified by the naked eye.

"Welcome to the Flaming Mountains." Rin said triumphantly "Xinjiang region, western China. We could have gone straight to my base but I thought we might as well take the scenic route. Look over there, there's our ride."

The woman pointed at a dark shape in the sky which was rapidly approaching, as it got closer it was impossible to miss it's light brown scales, gleaming white teeth and wide bat-like wings. Maya clung closer to the adults and stared in wonder when she realised what she was seeing, a real living dragon!

"It's so... huge" she breathed, struggling to find words to describe the giant creature.

 

[i don't know]

Alec starred at the dragon with another well known facial expression (a mix between HERP-da-fucking-DERP, and WTF IS THIS SHIT)

"HOW!? That makes no sense at all! I thought I saw all the weirdest crap in Bangkok but this...this is just so... wow..."

 

[DktrAgonizer]

Zetta let out a loud gasp as the dragon revealed itself. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting to see, but a dragon certainly wasn't it. It wasn't as though she'd never believed in them; the existence of demons and time-traveling villains proved that anything was possible, really.

Then, Blackrose appeared. As she spoke and Goch replied, Zetta gathered her thoughts enough to form a coherent reply. "Yes, I am Zetta. Gabriel, Lily, and that there is... Blackrose, right? Yeah." She gestured to each of them in turn. "Lily here shot Merlin in the leg several hours ago. Apparently it killed him."

She paused. Something Goch had said earlier was bothering her. Zetta mentally went back through everything she'd heard the dragon say and raised her eyebrows. "Wait. You said you wanted to thank Lily for everything she's done for you? What, ah, what do you mean by that?" Although she directed this to the dragon, she turned to look at Lily. "And you need our help again?"

 

[JoJo]

"For killing Merlin of course, the guy who tricked and enslaved my folk for Rin!" The dragon flapped his wings violently and a little smoke blew out of his nostrils "That ***** is planning... terrible things for all of us. I'll tell you everything I know in just a mo', but first I have a couple of questions for y'all. Um... Gabriel, since you were fighting her not long ago, has Rin ever actually tried to directly kill any of you herself? If not it what I'll been guessing for a while may well be right. Oh and Zetta, I can release the kid's body too in the way of my people if you're only keeping it around so it don't scare the normal humans? "

~​

Meanwhile Rin smiled in response to Alec's surprise.

"Since when has anything in this world of ours made sense? All aboard and then I'll explain everything I can."

She picked up Maya and lifted her onto the dragon's back. The small girl flinched slightly when Rin put her hands around her waist but relaxed once the woman had let go and she was sitting on the creature's scaly back, she rocked back and forth showing the first signs of geninue happiness since the loss of Takeda a few hours before.

"Are we really going to fly on this?" she called down excitedly "Come on Jared and Alec, I want to go now!"

 

[TheDoctor455]

Dr. Strauss looked at the dragon. He closed his eyes, then opened them. It was still there. He closed his eyes and pinched himself. He opened his eyes again. The damn thing was still there.

Oh hell... if ever there were an indicator that I'm losing my mind...

Dr. Strauss moved to get on the dragon, but tripped and fell off of it. After some struggling, he managed to get back on the dragon.

 

[SamuelT]

"Uh. Yeah, I think." Gabriel said, fidgeting with his sleeves. "I think she tried to kill the ladies with the kids. When messin' with Excalibur she didn't try to kill us, though I think that's more attributing to the lightning rather than the need to kill."

He smirked.

"So yeah, I think she has."

 

[JoJo]

"With the kids..." Goch replied thoughtfully "That sounds about what I expected, a lot is banking on what I'm thinking is right being right so lets hope it is eh? First I might as well you though, are any of you familiar with the Chinese legend of Guanyin?"

~​

Maya giggled to herself as Dr. Strauss struggled to get on the dragon, Rin following him and then offering a hand to Alec.

"Will the dragon die if you touch it?" the girl asked the doctor curiously "Or will the scales mean it's okay?"

 

[TheDoctor455]

"I have my gloves on... so it should be fine," Strauss answered, looking at Maya. He tried to suppress going down memory lane again but he couldn't help it. Maya was a little younger than Emily and a little older than Amelia. He wasn't sure which one she reminded him of most.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to his phantoms.

 

[DktrAgonizer]

Merlin was enslaving dragons, huh? I guess that shouldn't really surprise me. This has been one altogether strange day, however... Zetta massaged her temples and looked from Goch to Gabriel and back again as the two spoke.

"No, can't say that I know much about any legends," she said in reply to Goch's last question. "I mean, I know a bit about Arthurian lore, but that's about it, really. As for your other question..." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at Takeda's body. Honestly, carrying his body around creeped her out a bit, and it was becoming a hindrance. She felt bad that they wouldn't be able to give him a proper burial, but they really had no other choice. With a soft sigh, she finally said, "Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you... took care of him. But um, Lily, are you going to want your coat back?"

 

[JoJo]

"Well that's good because they're a load of bullshit!" Goch grunted "Many years ago Rin was known as Guanyin and she used her powers to make up and exaggerate some tales about her being this wonderful kind saviour of people, so people would worship her. Truth is she ain't even human, not quite sure what she is but she smells similar to the fox kid you've got there. Good news is I think she's bound by some rules though as have you ever noticed she always get's others to do her dirty work, how easy would it be for her to teleport behind any of you and finish you just like that? Instead she uses followers, kids, my folk..."

The dragon moved forwards towards Takeda's covered body.

"Lily, if you don't want your coat to become toast you best move it now, though I wouldn't blame you if you don't want it back now."

~​

Rin helped Alec onto the dragon and then whispered something into the beast's ear, which promptly took off and began flying towards a tall mountain in the distance. She then turned around to address the three passengers.

"Now I think it's time to tell you the truth about myself. Many years ago I was known as Guanyin and I was able to help people using my magical powers in the most wonderful ways. They loved me and the stories are still well-known across eastern Asia today, Maya you've probably heard of them before. However over the last few centuries it's become more and more difficult and I've had to withdraw into helping in secret, hence why I now call myself Rin."

Maya was taken aback by this announcement, her mother had occasionally read her stories of Guanyin before but Rin didn't quite match how she had been depicted.

"But I thought she was meant to be really nice and would never hurt anyone" she asked in a confused voice "If you really are her why did you make me and Ta... um... try to kill Zetta and Lily?"

Rin gave her a smile and answered in a patronising voice.

"Well dear, that's because they were demons and demons are bad. You know that surely? They might have pretended to be nice to you but that's only because they were planning to eat you later!"

"They were going to eat me?" Maya whispered in a horrified voice, she turned wide-eyed to Alec and Dr. Strauss "Is that true?"

 

[TheDoctor455]

Dr. Strauss rolled his eyes at the concept that Rin was somehow a Chinese myth in the flesh.

"I truly don't know," Strauss whispered to Maya, "All things considered, I know you probably won't trust me... I'm sorry I took you away from someone you thought of as a friend... I just saw how horribly malnourished and hurt you looked. I snapped... I didn't really think about what I was doing. Right now... I don't know who you can trust. However, I don't think Rin is anything like she says she is. Right now though... it doesn't seem to matter... I need to..." he paused, trying to concentrate, "I need to get better soon or things might get very... ugly. I'll do what I can to make sure you're safe though. Again... I'm sorry."

Dr. Strauss turned to Rin.

"Yes, yes," he called out to her, "We're all terribly impressed to meet a legend. Get to the point. What are your grand designs this time? Oh... and care to explain to me how anything you've done up to this point has helped anyone other than yourself? Why haven't you helped me save my family yet? Oh sure, fine I'm guessing you'll blame it on you 'having to do everything yourself'; but I wonder though... is that really the reason? Or is it simply that you can't travel through time at all?" Dr. Strauss folded his arms and fixed his gaze on Rin; watching her every movement.

Pfft. Not like she can really do anything to me at this point. Strauss smiled bitterly.

 

[i don't know]

Alec decided to take a power nap but wasn't able to due to the dragon taking flight. He listened to Dr.Strauss's conversation with Maya.

"Look, we're on a dragon, how can Rin get her hands on one of those if she didn't have the ability to go back in time. In my research I've come across a fossil that resembles this dragon thing but it went extinct millions of years ago. Unfortunately I don't understand why Rin has it in the first place so keep your eyes peeled."

He turned to Rin.

"You hear that? You're not going to fool me today, I wont let you."

 

[Cap'n Ninja]

"No, let him keep it. It's the least we can do to give him some kind of burial shroud" Lily said, stepping back and watching as the dragon sent a breath of fire onto the kitsune's corpse, scorching the coat to ash, the body following moments later until all that was left was a smell of smoke and a small cloud of ash that was briskly whisked away by the wind.

Lily was silent for a long time, until she had counted out an appropriate number of seconds with her head bowed respectfully, and asked "So what would our next plan be? Where has it taken Maya and how do we kill it?" she said, her tone firm and strong, but she let her voice crack a little when talking about Maya to help gain Blackrose's trust if she didn't have it already. She decided not to refer to Rin with a gender any more to dehumanise her and make it easier for whoever needed to to do the deed.

 

[JoJo]

Goch murmured a few words in an alien-sounding language as Takeda's small body turned to ash and then was swept away by the light breeze that passed through the alleyway.

"Eh... is Maya one of the human's she took with her now? I would've done something but it wouldn't have helped as for the next few days I have to obey every order given by her, it's a long story why. In short she's taken them to the Flaming Mountains in China, where my folk have lived since we fled from the British Isles around the time when even Merlin was young. I wish I knew how to defeat Rin; I can take you near to where she'll be but if she finds me I'll be bound to serve her again. The rest of my folk are still in slavery there, which is why I must do this now."

The dragon bent it's knees and lowered it's head to the floor in front of the four companions.

"I humbly ask for your help, Lily the Merlin-Slayer, Gabriel, Zetta and Blackrose, to put aside the fighting between our people's and to finish what you started by freeing my folk from Rin. In return, I swear on my hatchling's lives that we'll all repay you in anyway we can. "

~​

Rin shook her headly sadly during Dr. Strauss' rant but regained her smug look when Alec spoke.

"I'm impressed by your knowledge of the dragon people Alec but you're just a little off the mark there. These creatures have in-fact survived into the modern day, however since the conflict between them and humans millennia ago there has been a huge selection pressure for them to avoid being noticed by humanity, so only those with magic allowing them to hide themselves in plain sight have survived. Evolution can work wonders can it not? Even that though hasn't been enough to protect them, the colony that lives here is one of the few left in the world. They actually originate from western Britain, but thanks to an ancient treaty that Merlin oversaw they agreed to live here under his command in exchange for protection, which for just under another week will remain mine before I have to take action."

Rin shifted herself into a more comfortable position on the dragon's back, then continued.

"So you want proof of my powers, of my foresight and travelling? I could go on for hours about any of you; the willow tree you always used to hide under as a child Strauss when playing hide and seek and how you smiled when your darling Amelia did the same, the classy ghost man who spoke to you about fortune-telling Alec, Maya, the story your mother told you about what the Japanese did to her grandfather and uncle in the Second World War many years before she was born, the one where she skipped over what they did to them before they were shot as so not to give you nightmares. Need anymore proof?"

 

[TheDoctor455]

"Yes," he said simply, "Prove you can change the past. Erase me from existence. End any harm I could do before it begins."

Dr. Strauss waited a few minutes, glaring at Rin the whole time.

"You can't, can you?" he sighed, "Should've known."

And once again, Dr. Strauss felt a deep, cutting pang of self-hatred.
I handed Maya over to this... this monster for nothing! I... I'm too stupid to live...

 

[LunaSocks]

As the dragon lowered its head to the body of Takeda, Blackrose wasn't expecting the flames to come out of its snout. She leaped back behind Lily in surprise, waiting for the intense heat to dissipate before moving back out. As the dragon continued on, something it said piqued her interest.

"Wait, you're going to be under Rin's orders? How do we know that you're not under them right now?" She asked, edging towards Lily, the dragon's preferred of the group, and whispered to her.

"Hey, what will you be doing in this situation? I can't say I've ever dealt with a dragon before, but it seems that you've dealt with stranger. So, lead the way." She whispered quitely to Lily.

 

[Cap'n Ninja]

"I'm going to be honest with you here" Lily lied. She wasn't going to be honest, she was just going to not lie. "I really haven't dealt with stranger, but I'm going to trust him, because he's our best bet, and because I really, really hate Rin." she flashed a quick smile before turning back to the dragon. "We'll help, you can count on us." she replied, leaving the matter of reward open for later debate. The idea of repayment from an entire species of what had to be at least quasi-immortal creatures was certainly enticing.

 

[JoJo]

Goch looked uneasy at Blackrose's suggestion, but nodded eagerly when Lily gave her opinion.

"I guess I can't prove to you that she isn't making me do this, but you gotta believe me that this is true. We've only got a few days until this chance passes, Rin can only control my folk because it was one of Merlin's dying orders and with every day that weakens. The treaty between my folk and the wizard says that if he died, a new human trustee could be chosen using Excalibur to control us, or to destroy the agreement forever if they wanted! It was my job to guard that position but Rin got Merlin to banish me from where that takes place so I can't stop her putting in anyone she wants. She has enough loyal followers that I'd bet my own tail that she isn't spoilt for choice."

~​

Meanwhile Rin glared angrily at Dr. Strauss.

"You really think that if it was as simple as that, I wouldn't have Merlin by my side now?" she snapped at the doctor "Time... is complicated, don't expect me to explain it to you. Maybe I exaggerated about being able to bring your family back, just be thankful that I'm offering to help you with what's coming next. Don't forget who has the power here, with one word from me this dragon would roll over, I would teleport myself to safety and you and your little friend and the archaeologist would all go tumbling down to your deaths. I would think carefully before trying anything if I was you. Got a reply to that?"

When Rin mentioned the three companions being tossed off by their ride Maya let out an involuntary squeak and tried to get a tighter grip on the smooth scales of the dragon, suddenly the flight seemed a lot less fun than before. Though she spread her arms as widely as she could around the beast, she could tell that if it changed its angle of its back it would be very easy to slide off.

"No! Please don't make it drop me, I don't want to fall down from up here!" she cried to the adults around her.