Prepare for the #LodanRespawn2024 Existing characters may choose to be displace from/have memories of different timelines, thereby allowing returning members the option to retcon their whole character. These changes are the result of the "Unnatural Fog" plot device that is running between now and the Respawn. The plot is simple: no matter where your character is, that place is shrouded in a thick fog that suspends time, but not thoughts or memories, so even if they're repeating the same day over and over again, they continue to remember, so each time feels like a new day. For those retconning OCs; this is where new versions of themselves have the opportunity to replace the old versions. Official lore and tree updates will be announced asap
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 27, 2015 2:58:17 GMT
Edelweiss blinked. She had no idea what was it that he's planning now, and is not managing to even guess. Well then... "There is, going back to the living room, follow the corridor and the bathroom is the second door to the left."
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
"Thanks, be right back!" Amon replied as he quickly made his way into the bathroom. After turning on the lights and shutting the door, he carefully placed the case on the sink. After ensuring it wasn't going to fall (or break anything), he opened it up and reviewed its contents. It had taken a lot longer than it should have, but after finding out where Viktor got his supplies, as well as consulting Keefe, Edgar, and a number of other Mingo's members, he finally finished what he considered a fairly decent prototype. With a nod, he took out some tools and began to work.
--- 10 minutes later ---
With a sigh, he carefully put away his tools, carefully closed the case with its new contents secured, and exited the bathroom to rejoin Edel. In the place of his usual eyepatch was a glass eye, the color matching that of his remaining orb. There was some scarring around his eyelids, and he wasn't sure if it was compromised from having worn his specialized eyepatch for so long, but it seemed that all was functioning normally. That however, was not as impressive as his arm.
In the place of his usual mechanics was a seemingly normal arm. In fact, it was simply a clockwork arm, covered in synthetic skin. For the most part, it looked like nothing was wrong; upon careful inspection however, one could tell something was off, and in fact, it didn't fold as naturally as normal skin should around the jointed areas. Furthermore, due to how Amon had set up his other arm, his ring and pinky fingers were rather stiff, as he only moved them to activate the weapon hidden in his other arm.
Nonetheless, it looked as though nothing happened; although he felt somewhat naked to not have his usual patch and arm (there was no place for a weapon in this arm), for this brief period of time, he was whole.
"Surprise~" he said with a small, somewhat sad smile.
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 27, 2015 3:45:33 GMT
"......" Alright. She didn't know what she had expected, but it sure wasn't that. So in the first couple seconds all reaction from the redhead that could be seen was her still holding the (now empty) coffee cups, mouth half-opened in stunned speechlessness until she managed to say a single word "Wow."
And then the question right after: "How did you do that?"
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
So it was Edel's turn to be speechless. Admittedly, it was nice for a change...added to her cuteness factor.
"All I did was switch out my original one for a different one," Amon replied with smile, placing the case down and showing her his original arm, placed securely inside, next to his special eye patch. "From there, I spoke with some of my more artistic colleagues and was able to create a synthetic skin. Obtaining the glass eye was leagues easier in comparison; I just didn't know if my eyelids were still fine from wearing this all the time," he continued, picking up his original patch and fiddling around with it, showing off how he could bring up a magnifying or telescopic lens for his remaining eye at any time.
"Truth be told, I myself don't like it as much; I guess I'm just so used to my other arm, and presently, I cannot fit a weapon in this one without making some compromises. Still, it was a fun experiment; possibly thinking of using this design for the unfortunate who require replacements for missing limbs, and who don't want people to know that they're actually missing a limb," he concluded, observing the movements of the arm.
"...Odd seeing a normal, right arm in so long..." he said softly.
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 27, 2015 6:37:17 GMT
Ah, so that was a glass eye, not a bionic one that could actually see... still looked quite impressive though. "You wear that all the time? As in, even to sleep and shower?" Edelweiss couldn't help but think that didn't sound very hygienic. At all. Though admitedly she indeed saw him wearing that monocle eyepatch all the times she had seen him except at that very moment. If that's true, he should seriously ponder about cleaning that with urgency.
"I guess I can understand though... Giving up an ace in the sleeve can be rather unnerving." She agreed to his comment about liking the other arm more out of habit and for not being able to stick weaponry in the current one, and her own hand unconsciously moved to fix the needles strap better on her wrist under the sleeve. It was just one rather than the full on hidden gear she usually wore on the street since she was at home, meaning relatively safe, but even so she found really hard to ditch it completely. Doing so always gave an uncomfortable feeling, like she was forgetting something important. But hearing what/whom he planned to use that project for made her smile a bit. "That's a really kind initiative of you."
That last comment of his caused some surprise from the redhead again, though it was minor this time. And she finally walked up till where he had been standing. "Amon, you are normal. Metal arm or not." Well, maybe not 100% normal, but then again no one else is either. And if there's such a person somewhere, then that someone must be really boring.
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
"Okay, so maybe not all the time," Amon replied with a chuckle. "I do take it off during shower and sleep (most of the time), and I use a special sterilization fluid to keep it clean," he noted, gesturing to some bottles in the case.
"To be honest, with talk of war just around the corner, it is best to be prepared," he responded to her comment about taking the initiative. As for being normal...he merely gave her a small smile.
"Well, with that out of the way, I still have yet to answer your original question," he said as he sat down on the couch, preparing his tools. "Sorry, but I think it'll be faster if I do this while I talk," he said as he began to unbutton his vest and shirt, giving her a small wink. Huh...he could wink again...it's just the small things sometimes.
"Plus, I think it would answer some of your questions anyways," he concluded as he took off his shirt. His left side was, for the most part, completely untouched; a little more muscular than initially let on, and a few burn scars here and there, but mostly untouched. His right side, and a good portion of his back, showed the most burn damage. A good part of his right side was encased in metal, and with his current arm, gave the impression that he was wearing some sort of odd armor piece, though that initial impression would wear away once one saw the skin conforming around the edges. Gathering up his tools, Amon began to work on the crevice around his shoulder joint, reaching seemingly inside of himself to access the nuts, bolts, and gears that held his arm in place, hidden inside.
"It took quite a bit of practice to do this by myself," Amon explained as he worked away. "I prefer to not have any help; although I let the Twins operate from time to time, I just don't want to be complacent...just in case. I mostly needed the mirror to get the eye right..."
"In the interim, what do you know about the old hunters guild?"
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 27, 2015 21:35:49 GMT
Ok, seeing Amon winking was probably one of the most surreal things that happened that day, and not because a person needs two eyes to wink. That along with him randomly deciding to strip in the middle of her living room. But he just kept talking and swayed the topic back to her previous question, so she just rolled her eyes slightly at that while giving a half smile and went to sit down on the arm of the couch since the otherwise free cushion was filled by Amon's suitcase. Her gaze wandered to his back while he was busy working on his arm. Burns. "Fire?" She muttered, more a thought spoken aloud than an actual question. The 'get the eye right' comment made her ponder what a disturbing amount of people there were in Lodan who sustained eye damage and had to wear patches... and then there was Stephen, who wore one without needing to. The exception that comfirmed the rule.
At last there was his question about the Hunters Guild, and Edelweiss had to take a moment to think. "Hunters... hm, perhaps not counting the Pirates, they were the most uneven Guild out of the 10. Occasionaly problematic. Their members had very diverse goals among themselves." The leader position put a series of extra ways and people she could make use of to obtain info, but during the reign of the late Queen Latetia the redhead had still been stuck in the role of an average guild member, and the only informant she had back then (if he could even be called an informant) was Jasper - who was still a rather small and inexperienced kid at the time. So she only had her own search skills and memory to rely on for the most part.
"They all hunted something, hence the name, and generally related to money. But it varied between hunting treasures and rarities, animals and beasts, stories and gossips, and in some cases even people. The first type wasn't hard to get along with; they were good people, perhaps a tad too ambitious or careless... and then there was the last type, those popped up in the Assassins' hitlists once in a while. Bloody bunch. Could make the current BoR look classy." She shook her head. "Ultimately they fused with the Military Guild at the end of the Civil War and formed the EIRAL. Your guild's main customers, right? And currently led by a tiny man with a tiny brain and probably an even tinier--- uh, sorry - that wasn't ladylike of me." So she sat straighter and stopped making that hand motion of 'sizing something small between her pointer finger and thumb'.
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
"No worries," Amon responded with a smile. "I don't care for them myself to be honest. But as for the hunters, the ones I remember the most were the ones that hunted magical beings: the shadow beasts...and Anders."
He paused for a bit to collect his thoughts before continuing on.
"Allow me to give you some background information: There once was a woman, a winged Ander, very pretty, long silvery hair, wings that flowed like mercury. She lived on her own, doing odd jobs around the Hovel here and there. It wasn't an easy one, but she managed. Unfortunately for her, she had the misfortune of running into said group of hunters. Usually, she would've been able to shake them off, but thugs have a way of being very persistent. In her efforts to escape, she spread her wings, revealing her Ander origins. They tackled her, brought her down, and broke her wings before she could get away. Like animals playing with their food, they then proceeded to toy with her, assault her, and beat her to death. Though in the resulting skirmish, she managed to give one of her attackers a nasty scratch on his face...though a painful memory, she noted it was one of her proudest moments," Amon smiled. "Needless to say, you were lucky to have evaded your potential attackers; we, on the other hand, were not."
"In any event, once they had their way with her, they tossed her aside and left her for dead. As luck would have it, an old man came across her body, and out of some sort of pity, brought her home. Old Man Clocks was never really honest," he said, shaking his head. "Anyways, it didn't help that it took her quite some time to recover, even with the help of magic, and it didn't help that she ended up becoming pregnant due to that incident. In the end, the old man offered to let her stay and ended up becoming a father-figure to the boy."
At this point, Amon's arm came off. He swayed a bit, recovered from the sudden shift in balance, then picked up and began working on reattaching his original arm, using the pause to take a breather.
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 27, 2015 23:04:14 GMT
Was there even any guild leader who didn't have some sort of dark past or secret to hide? No, probably not. Lodan was simply broken in that level already, and had been for a long, long while. Edelweiss just kept sitting there and listened to his story in silence until he took a break. He had let her speak freely before, it was fair he allowed him the same chance. And it sounded hard to tell to start with, he didn't need uncalled for interruptions - even if not, she wouldn't know what to say about it.
Seeing him tipping to the side when the prosthetic came off, she placed her hand on his left shoulder for support until he regains his balance. "Well," She offered a small smile. "you've got your mother's hair."
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
"And that bastard's eyes," Amon grunted, working on getting the gears placed correctly. "Funny you should mention that too: pretty much no one thinks of it being a sign of being part Ander...you gotta be told, or be looking for it."
"But for the most part, my life ended up being uneventful. I was verbally taunted for having 'weird, old man hair' by other kids (probably jealous, I don't know), but again, uneventful. The guy that rescued my mom, I just call him Old Man Clocks, ran a clockwork toy store at the edge where the Hovel met the less shady side of town...'Timeless Toys' it was called. Not the most successful business, but we got by. Loved looking at his work...ended up sweeping and cleaning around the place, though I did try my hand at trying to mimic what he did. Pretty much every project ended in failure; a combination of not knowing how tech actually worked, and being overly excited in showing my mom what I made," he said with a chuckle, reminiscing.
"Truth be told, that peace lasted a lot longer than it should have...19 years in fact...," he said, grunting a little after tightening the last bolt. "There we go..." he muttered to himself, testing out the fingers. He didn't have any feeling in that limb, but it just felt right to have his original arm again.
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 28, 2015 1:28:10 GMT
"Probably because it's a color that still exists for humans. Not like some people I know who've got blue, green or pink hair." Though it had been at least 3 years since Edelweiss last saw the only natural pink-haired lass she knew. "And if you got his eyes, nice to know at least one good thing about the guy. Even if the whole rest is trash."
And at least, she thought, from what he just told he had lived a decent amount of calm days. Got through childhood and teen years reasonably fine, which sounded lucky for a halfbreed... Though it also sounded like karma had charged for that initial luck with ten times over with disaster. "What happened after?"
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
Amon gave her a sad smile. "Remember how I told you coincidences seem to be a rule in my life?"
He paused, shaking his head. "It was my birthday; I had just turned 19. I was sent off to do some errands...probably an excuse to set up a surprise. In any event, on my way back, I just happened to run into a group of hunters...the same ones that assaulted my mother." He smiled. "Trust me when I say it was hard to miss, especially since my mother warned me so many times to beware of a dirty blonde man with scratches on his left cheek. Anyways, I did my best to sneak past them, and even though they noticed and stopped me, they did let me go...or were about to, were it not for the bastard realizing who I was."
"Needless to say, the beating I got was brutal...it was only when I was halfway to death's door did he decide to make my final moments more drawn out. Since I was his illegitimate child...a half-breed with his blood, he decided that he wanted to erase any traces of himself from me before presenting my corpse to my mother and finishing her off too. Naturally, he started off with the one immediate thing that we had in common: my eyes."
Absentmindedly, he brought his hand up to eye. "I really don't remember much...I was probably in shock, all I remember was pain, being blinded on one side, and then running. To this day, I don't remember how I got away. All I know was that I somehow made it back to the shop, beaten, bloodied, missing an eye, and on the verge of unconsciousness. Funny how thugs are persistent...they followed me back, and proceeded to throw explosives and molotov cocktails at the shop. Caught a couple of molotovs to the back and right side..." he said, motioning to his burn marks. "After that, I sorta went in and out of consciousness. My mom was in the middle of treating my eye, so that ended up being the most healed...albeit with a missing orb. However, in the rush to leave the burning shop, she couldn't do anything for my arm or finish working on my eye...and by the time we got to the safety of a friend's house, it was too late. Instead, Old Man Clocks, with the help of a friend, opted to amputate my arm, and he worked on one last project."
Amon paused, observing his metal arm. "Sad really...but despite the original, crude design, he christened it his master piece. The next couple of years were mostly spent recovering, mastering how to use and repair my arm, learing more about technology, and learning about the old guilds. Turned out Old Man Clocks was a retired member of the engineers guild," he continued, starting to get dressed again. "Made a lot of sense in retrospect. In any event, it was hard to go outside at first...you know, with the paranoia, fear, and physical weakness. The more I recovered, the more those feelings turned to anger and a thirst for revenge...which was a reason why I wanted to seek out the Assassins. Unfortunately, that dratted Civil War broke out...I mostly helped out who I thought were assassins by misleading anyone who was pursuing them...made a lot more sense as to why there were so many, what with CS Stars being just a couple of blocks away from where we were staying. But I just never got the chance to join...plus it would be hard to avoid being conspicuous with an easily identifiable metal arm. So I ended up following Old Man Clock's footsteps and joined Mingo's once the dust settled," he said as he finished buttoning up his vest.
"Between then and now, I managed my business and eventually the guild, got a few upgrades, made this eye patch, made the Twins, and...well, you know," he concluded with a sad smile.
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 28, 2015 18:38:45 GMT
And sounded like the redhead was right. There was karma charging for that fleeting luck wit ten... no, twenty times over interest. At points she wondered how Lodan could get so ugly, while in others if that whole world was just plainly rejecting their presence so hard. "Maybe Ander birthdays are cursed..." Or half-breed birthdays, at least. That was perhaps a silly thought, but also an unavoidable one.
As Amon kept talking though, Edelweiss fell silent again. Him sounding impressed by her own life seemed strange now, hearing how gruesome his own had been... and also how gentler than hers too. He had ended up helping her colleagues (and potentially herself too) rather than taking lives, despite any anger. So once he finished talking she just went ahead with it and pulled him into a tight hug. "You're a lot kinder than I am, did you know that... Please never change." She felt tempted to mention that the best place to hide something may be right under people's noses, and that there were some CAEsAL's workers in its shadier trades who wore prosthetics as well (like Eryn and one of their newest initiates), but thought again and decided not to. It might be better this way. She wasn't about to risk making him regret anything he's done.
Amon simply rested his head on her's, enjoying the tender moment for a bit.
"...Well...I don't know about that..." he said after a pause. "I mean...I still kinda want to kill the guy...just a number of things prevented me from doing so. For one: I have conflicting feelings. I mean, he helped to bring me into this world, and had a hand in making me one with the technology I enjoy, in a twisted sense...and well, I would've never met you," he continued, turning to look at Edel. "So in a way, I'm thankful...but I don't know whether to pay it back with mercy or with the same level of pain before personally ending his life." He shook his head. "I guess that was another reason I never joined you guys: with the exception of that man, I don't really have the desire to kill anyone..."
"The other reason is well...the current circumstances. It'd be kinda damaging for the leader of Mingo's to kill a member of EIRAL..."
"I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible! And when I leave, you will finally understand why storms are named after people!" - Taryn, Nerf This
Post by Edelweiss Fjäril on Sept 30, 2015 3:07:38 GMT
She let out a weak chuckle. "Oh yes, I do remember what happened last time a guild member killed a member from another guild..." And sometimes she wished she could forget it. Amnesia would be a bliss regarding that little fact.
"But I include that in what I said before still. You might have wanted and still occasionally want to kill him," And if he never did she'd think he's either a saint or an idiot, no in-betweens. "but it's the fact for any reason you -did not- harm him yet that makes you kind. We're around the same age, aren't we? It's been a long time, and you knew of my guild, if you had truly wished for his death and couldn't do it personally you could have hired us. For whatever reasons, you didn't - be it for yourself or for others, or both." She lifted a hand to cup his cheek after he shook his head. And truth to be told, just by Amon wishing anything that somehow didn't exceed the initial deed upon his biological father's fate she'd still think he's really gentle.
"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - John Dalberg-Acton
Stats Distribution and Imbued Weapon Effects
Shoutbox
Welcome to the Shoutbox - If You Have Discord, Ask to Join the Discord Server