Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
"Indeed. I had to do some research, but I finally found something that the Chromaki consider battle armor. Or did, at least, some years ago."
He passes her a capsule.
"Inside is a training outfit of Chromaki design, with a little CC flair. It's a bit like Saiyan armor, but less resilient and more mobile than theirs. They tend to take hits while you flit around them. It's also weighted a bit to give you a workout."
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
"I... Uhhh...."
Chuan looked to Sarada, then to Jack and Erosa in turn.
What just happened there? Did that just lead to an accidental friendzoning?
Okay, so it did. Chuan was about to speak up again when it just got weirder.
"Really? Is this really how it's going to-"
Chuan just looked done at this point, though he made a mental note there.
Openness? Check. Staying on topic? No checks there.
The raunchy talk didn't faze him, but he felt he was taking crazy pills with how the conversation kept on drifting. Maybe it was better to just keep quiet for now.
Chuan looked away to avoid tearing up. No, this was getting his heart all aflutter. People bonding and working through their problems would make him cry in joy, damn it.
What had brought everything to this point?
This, was the question the Nevadian had as he walked from his room, ravaged by battle, into the training halls.
The Nevadian had been skeptical of the idea of these 'dragonballs'. Mystical orbs that had the power to turn desire into reality, provided you had them all, and....rubbed them the right way?
His skepticism did little to discourage Simon, who proudly bet his in view of the world. It did nothing to discourage Willia, who pursued Jinzi. It did nothing to discourage Jinzi, who aided Kami.
It did nothing to discourage Kami, who gathered them all together, so that they might all fight Old Kami and his underlings in unison.
It did not discourage his underlings from attempting to unleash some manner of feral beast from the heart of his comrade, as another tried to raid the group of their bounty.
And it did not discourage the Nevadian from helping to slay the man who attempted it. He did not cut him down personally, but the wound dealt by his spear was so grievous, anything else was essentially a mercy killing...Or at least, it would have been.
No matter how the Nevadian felt, beings were willing to fight, and die, and kill, for these items. His feelings on the matter did not have relevance, so long as so many warriors did.
While he had joined this quest out of concern for the earth, out of a requirement to solicit Jinzi's aid, out of a debt to Kami that needed to be repaid, he had never envisioned the depths to which those enraptured by desire would sink.
For a moment, Held had no reaction, the absurdity of it all barely managing to reach into his contemplations. Slowly, his focus drifted back towards reality, as he spotted the familiar horns of his friend.
As he looked at her, laid so low, barely having the strength to stand, Held was nothing, if not confused.
His confusion grew as his eyes did, into shock, and then disbelief.
Finally, he understood. The concern from earlier, when so many had surrounded her during the height of the battles chaos. Was this the Oni's doing? Was it that abomination that sprang forth from Chou?For anyone watching, the Oni's attempt at putting the shirt on was as awkward as it looked. With one arm, she was relegated to sliding her left arm through the sleeve before attempting to wiggle the other sleeve and collar over her head. It didn't go as well as Ishtar hoped, however, and the collar snagged on her horns.
Eventually she managed to fit it on, but the effort had obviously had taken its tool, on what composure she had left. And so the pants that had been offered were forgotten as Ishtar slowly bent over and recovered the tea.
"You owed nothing to begin with," Ishtar replied softly. The girl turned away before she could say anything however and busied herself with enjoying 'Pizza' for the first time.
For Ishtar there was some small comfort in that.
"Water will suffice." Came the Oni's reply. There was no need to ask anything of the man, considering she had long ago moved past needing food. And for now, at least, the idea of asking anything of someone simply for the sake of a fleeting enjoyment seemed a hollow thing indeed.
The stump where a fully functional arm had once been, now nothing, a void where an appendage had been, the unseemly, exhausting struggle with a mere cotton shirt driving home how far she had fallen with each exhausted, frustrated adjustment.
It was a far cry from the warrior who had stood before him, shielding him with her back against an onslaught of emerald power when they had first met, unharmed in all but the most superficial of ways.
He released his grip on his spear, the sheer weight from the weapon allowing itself to land onto the earth beneath it. But, without it's masters power, it slumped, and then fell, colliding with the floor with a hollow thud.
He stood before her, silently, scanning her features. His gaze lingered on her limb--what would have been her limb---before returning his gaze to meet hers.
"I-I Don't understand how this could---"
He fumbled for the correct words. It was a situation he would have expected from her, least of all.
There was no consoling. She had not struck him as one to enjoy such words, and Held would not know what words to speak, even if she had.
He surrendered. The only thing he could think to ask was an obvious question. It was practically rhetorical, almost insulting in it's simplicity, but it could not be avoided as things were.
"Ishtar...." He said finally, "Are you alright?"
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence.
- C.S. Lewis
Jinzi, almost distractedly, closes his eyes and mumbles a few things before he nods and reopens them. A robot comes down the elevator and flies over to Jinzi, depositing a package before him. He nods his thanks and then moves over to Ishtar.
“It is not as pretty as the original one, but for the moment, it should suffice. I swear I shall build a better one for you, but until such a time, please, allow me to attach this to you. It is the most state of the art cybernetic arm I have on me. It functions exactly like a normal one, controlled by thought, but can also channel ki through it.”
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Karine gave a brief nod to the first part. "I've heard of that style thanks to my father during his travels but I believe you're the first person I met that trained in it I met. It may be hard, but if you keep at I'm sure you'll find your own path and way, it just may take time. My father used to say its not so much where you start but where you end up, just before he passed he had roughly a power level of five thousand where when he first started it was only in the high double digits. I'm a believer in that saying myself."
"My style is called Youkai Fist..but what I have is a incomplete one." She admitted. "It was passed from my father you see, but unfortunately never took it fully to heart until recently so many of the techniques I don't know."
That..was a interesting question. She never really thought too much about it before but it was fairly plausible.
"I'm not sure." Karine finally said. "I think its possible, with Nosferartu being a off branch of humanity so more then likely I'd say yes. I just wouldn't count on it too soon since Sayains don't really breed with other races as much and Nosferartu aren't as common anymore."
The urge to help Ishstar was strong as she struggled to get the simple task getting a shirt on before she pushed that feeling back. This was her own personal battle with her own desire to see it through, so helping would cause more harm then good besides respecting her wishes. She did seem to give up after the shirt was put on, looking more tired and weary then before. It broke Karine's heart seeing them in this state and being completely inept of doing anything to help.
She adverted her gaze, unable to look at them much longer in their current state. The bickering and banter of the others were mostly background music to her at the given moment.
Held came to ask if she was all right, the question seemed more rthetoical then anything. Karine mentally sighed, deciding to let Held talk.
Maybe he could help in some way she couldn't at the moment.
Sasheem snarled in anger, cursing this new present Sarada had gotten from Jinzi. Speaking of which...
Was Pants just handing thInga out to everyone now? Sasheem hoped so. Maybe the inventor had something acrually useful like a mystical mace...or a bomb. Anything to break this stupid toilet.
"Yardoo!" Sasheem shouted to Jinzi. "Gift!"
“Heh, majin are tougher. Still, I did find something........”
He fishes inside a pocket and brings out an old, red, stone.
“Magical in nature, created by a majin sorcerer ages ago. Majin normally havethe power to regenerate and stretch to great lengths, but you no longer have that capability. In simple terms, Sasheem, hold this stone and it will make your magic stronger.”
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
"The land of the dead." Koorimaru finished for her, "I'm afraid in all my travels, your blue-skinned friend was the first of your kind I'd met. Unfortunately, I did not have much of an opportunity to question her of the nature of your homeland, although I suppose it must have been a sickening place if you sought... freedom from it, was it? My question is, if you'd somehow managed to free yourself from that prison once, why ally yourself with someone like the Old Kami? Surely you know he betrayed those under his protection so many centuries ago. What makes you think you would fare any different under him?"
: He does not approach Honzi for a present, given how he endangered the team he felt unworthy, even so he does not want a damned thing aside paying the car debit off.:
. he found it hiralous that a race that values surviving near death battle wounds invest in armor though, as defense value lessens said injury.: