Cross Effects > Areas

The Great Northern Forest

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Umbra of Chaos:
Fu Hua

The fruit rots before it hits the ground. Its withered husk almost dry as it burst, maggots writhing in the decaying flesh and spoiled juice. Fu Hua sighs then, a disappointed look on all three faces that could make anyone's heart clench. "So callous of you. I offer you so much of myself, and you're already looking for other people." And with a wave of her hand the two copies crumble into dirt and splintered wood. It is with a gracious shrug that the upset look and sadness simply fell off of her.

"So, you want to know about this place then?" And her arm wraps again Kore again but... differently. There's a casual, careless air to it as she pulls the girl forward. No, even that sounds a bit wrong. Buddy? Chum? Pal? "Friend," Fu Hua decides, "you don't understand what you're asking."

Stairs come up from under their feet as they walk, a rising spiral of wood and stone so beautiful it almost hurt. Her will carves every inch as if by hand, flowers blooming in the heavens as they ascend. Beautiful, so long as one ignores the clearing below that only grows more putrid with every moment. But perhaps that only makes this rising tower more beautiful. It is only when the city, bustling and alive, can be seen that the tower finally stops growing. "After all, it's not like we're that far away from them. No, you're thinking of a very different kind of question' arent you? Let me guess... 'Do I deserve to be among them?' It's something like that, isn't it? You might understand me a little, but that means I understand you too. You're never going to enjoy yourself like that."

She swings out her arm in a grandiose gesture, the wind screaming furiously at the force of her arm moving through the air. "None of that matters here! No one apart from me even knows your name. Pick something you can see and we'll go there." Hm, was that enough? That would never be able to convince that girl but her new friend didn't seem that dumb. "It's not any different from gardening. You were already enjoying yourself, so now that you're here you should take full advantage of it."

Who?:
Kore

Her hand slips from the belt to hang limply at her side.

She does not even blush at Fu Hua's closeness, staring at the city with an open mouth. There is a look of pure longing on her face, as she stares, completely unguarded.

She wants to go there. She does. So much. It has been a very long time since she has wanted something so badly.

But Kore takes all the desperate need, the wants, and breathes it out.

She breathes out the desire to stand in crowded streets. To eat street food. To sit and watch people go by.

Somewhere amidst everything was a world of dust and sand and salt, water empty of living things and slowly drying. It was lit only by a shuddering star that pulsed in time with Kore’s heart. 

She steps forward.  The ground craters when she lands, rotten vegetation flying into the air away from the woman, who daintily brushes dust off of her skirt.

"Thank you." She says, and means it. "But enjoyment doesn't come into it." 

YOLF:
Longirsu

He snatched the precious vial out of the air to rest on his palm, and his widened eyes swirled at the contents. The words slid around the workings of the instruments of knowledge in his skull, which set an addictive tingle rushing through his nerves like a conflagration.

"No, no," he said, rolling the object over his fingers. Inflection rose in his voice at William, but he didn't raise his head to address him. "That's buffonish. You can store all the potential energy, but you lose all the identifying traits that way, letting the idiosyncratic qualities of a soul and the attributes that reflect their identity go to waste."

This one was, as far as Longirsu could tell, of lower density, overall unremarkable. But it was still a contained soul, independent of a body, and much could be extracted from it, or perhaps repurposed.

Umbra of Chaos:
Fu Hua

"Haaah?" If Kore had spit in her face, it is not possible that Fu Hua could sound more offended. Before the other girl's skirt had stopped fluttering Fu Hua was already before her. Already, the martial artist can hear the rebuttals of a stupid girl before they're even said. Because it is her duty. Because it is her responsibility. Because it is right. It makes her stomach turn. A strained smile coats her face, as sweet as poison. "I don't get it. Are you just going to run back whatever shack you live in, pretending like what you want isn't right there?"

The air is heavy. As tense as the weight of a sword hanging from the ceiling, dangling from a single thread. Displeasure all but radiates from gleaming red eyes. "Friend," and the word is as barbed as a thorn bush, "let me give you advice. Whatever place you came from might as well be gone. What you do now has no impact on the dead. If you punish yourself for their sake, you're just gratifying yourself. Oh, look at how awful I am!"

She waves a hand through the air as if for dramatics, but the violent force of it sends spiderweb cracks through the earth below them. "We should go to the city. It will be the best chance you ever have. You will not regret it."

SINIB:

--- Quote from: Bern on February 12, 2021, 03:59:21 PM ---William

"Ripping out souls like that is so crude princess...Why not just convert their whole being to raw mana and store that, so much more efficient..." The man had stopped giggling madly just long enough to drop a comment that was somehow even more absurd. The art of drawing out souls was considered a very rare ability here, yet he had dismissed it as a simple and crude strategy. "Lacrima is so much better."

To prove his point, he pulled out the now empty translucent orb that used to contain one of his companions. His aura flickered and the orb grew slightly darker with an unnerving blackened light shining out of it. "It can be charged nigh endlessly with raw power for later use, or you may even shape a prepared spell and store it inside for late use. Oh and no matter how long you charge it, all of it can be unleashed at the same time." And as he spoke, the glow of the orb was slowly intensifying with each passing second as he pumped more and more power into it.

--- End quote ---

Eruraviel

Eruraviel hopped up, standing right on the table to gain that one extra foot that she needed to look at him eye to eye. Well, she also had to stand on the tips of her feet too. Her ears trembled, and she pursed her lips with what seemed to be indignation at his implicit mockery of her own magical receptacles. Sure, his Lacrima were as high quality as her own soul gems, but she was confident in their ability to store near-unlimited amounts of mana too! The only difference was that his was larger!

Wasn't it?

"Ohhhh? Are you a salesman now, Will? First all of your hats, now this. You seem to have many interests, umu." Eruraviel spoke with a false bravado to mask her annoyance and worries. "Do you have the ability to make more of them, or is it just another symptom of your weird magic system?"

She leaned forwards while elevating herself higher to maintain their relative heights. Then, the elven vixen tipped the hat she was wearing at him-his hat. With a cheeky grin, she licked her lips, showing him the gem in the back of her hand. "What does it do that these can't, though?"

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