4955/Fade-ing Memories

Fade-ing Memories
Date of Scene:	31 December 2016
Location:	The Soft Expanse
Synopsis:	The Soft Expanse is a bit of a weird place. This time some of Thedas's weirdness intrudes, for a brief period of time. Adventurers are, thankfully, there when the fecal matter impacts the ventilation system, and so can clean it up.
Cast of Characters:	774, Inga, 1078, 1008, Seifer Almasy, Staren

---

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    This isn't good. Not at all. The Soft Expanse is a highly mutable place, and anything is capable of appearing and then disappearing. But this time what's appeared is... well, it's hard to tell what it is, actually. It's green, that's about all that's immediately apparent. On the edges of the Soft Expanse, near the Great Ocean, is a green, sharp-edged... THING, hanging in the air. It looks like a glowng crystal, with spires jutting out from a central point. But the spires change configuration rapidly, so the shape is hard to tell.

    And all around it? Misshapen, hunchbacked things with spindly arms. And ghostly, neon green wisps vaguely in the shape of people. And it seems that every time the crystal changes configuration, more misshappen things and green ghosts appear, in hisses and flashes of green light.

    The area it's appeared in is commonly known as the 'last port' before the weirdness that is the Soft Expanse proper. A small port town with a resident to transient population so heavily weighted towards the latter that it's hard to say how the place doesn't dry up and blow away, figuratively speaking. Being so close to the Soft Expanse, this sort of thing isn't an unusual thing, strange things appearing and then disappearing.

    Unfortunately this time, the 'strange thing' has spat out creatures into the town, and they're wrecking the place. And trying to wreck the people! But fear not! There is someone standing against the tide! One man in light leather armor and a white cloak. Unfortunately he's only one man, and that crystal in the air just keeps spitting out demons.

    And soon enough, he's going to find that there's only so much one man can do against this many demons...

Inga has posed:
"Ah, so that is what the demons of your world look like," Inga comments, next to Dorian. Where did she come from? How did she get there? Questions no one will likely have the time to ask. But there she is, seax is one hand, staff in the other. No armor, only a dress and cloak, her belt hung with talismans.

She's already cutting into her arm, flicking a bit of blood toward Dorian. It turns to a fine red mist, shimmering with gold as it surrounds him, healing him while also providing a bit of warding against incoming attacks. "Anything I should know about them in particular? Weaknesses? Immunities?" she asks, flicking a similar ward around herself while preparing to get down to business.

"I'm feeling lightning today, I think," she adds thoughtfully. "Tell me they're weak to lightning."

Xiang Qi (1078) has posed:
    Let's face it. There's just not a lot for a guardian spirit to do when the country that's summoned them up is almost never in any real danger. Sure, it makes for a really boring life for said guardian spirit -- but it also makes them ultimately available to go out and answer calls from help from hapless individuals somewhere else! And since the likelihood of her ward actually being in any real danger was really quite low, it wouldn't interfere with her duties at all.

    That was, at least, Qi's excuse for getting up and heading out when she heard the call for assistance. She literally comes running into Last Port only a few minutes after Dorian's call for help, sliding to a halt shortly after spotting the green... thing, her black hair fluttering around her face. She, like most of the others, wasn't really wearing anything that could easily be considered armor. It was more like formal chinese clothing, cut for easy movement. "What on earth...?" Her brow furrows, as her eyes flicker from the strange monsters, to the ghostie things, to the green glowy shapeshifting rock thing. Yeah, she wasn't good at naming things, it's probably not going to be an issue though.

    It only takes her a moment to figure out what's going on, as one of the hunchbacked things starts charging toward her -- while chasing someone else, but it was still coming her direction.

    Her lips tugged upwards slightly, a grin breaking her otherwise serious face, "So it's a fight then... Great~" Her body suddenly bursts into a brilliant white aura, flowing around her and rippling outward along the ground, creating a bright outline around her body. "I like fighting."

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    HEaring a call from a familiar voice, the sorceror lord Argast Wyrdseeker opted to once more come to the aid of the Tevinter mage. Riding in on a nightmare steed, complete with flaming mane, hooves, and the occasional snort of fire from it's nose, he expected something bad. But this...almost reminded him of home. But, he was not here to help. "It seems you find yourself in trouble again, Sir Pavus. It would be a pleasure to assist." He calls forth, hurling a fireball at the nearest hunchbacked horror.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Seifer Almasy winds up in the weirdest places nowadays.

     Before - in the Garden times - the worst he had to deal with was enemy soldiers and Guardian Forces, maybe the occasionally Really Freaky Fishmonster on the beach or a mutant hockey player eyeballing a team member from Balamb. And that was really it; the things he was shooting, 99% of the time, looked like *people*. Usually they *were* people, or something close enough to people that it didn't unsettle him, because people shooting people makes perfect sense.

     Over the last month or so, he's shot giant rat-men, swordfought a foxgirl, hit on a demi/ur/something-godddess?-thing, and fought a blonde woman who could cast spells like a sorceress but acted like a knight. And these, too, these things were people. Mostly. The rat-men were kind of weird but they were people-/like/.

     This, though? This is just *bizarre*. It's unsettling, even for a hot-blooded, think-second-jump-in-first-on-hero-instinct guy like Seifer. He's not fearless, and these weird, misshapen things and bizarre ghosts, the strange nature of the Soft Expanse, and the pulsating, changing spire...that weirds him right the hell out. It's like walking into a horror movie.

     Seifer Almasy does not intend to be the first to die.

     The blonde unholsters and shoulders his gunblade as he moves towards the sound of fighting. He's running, as much out of a desire to keep moving as a desire to get to the fight faster. Fighting is something he can grasp, even if it's fighting something weird and disturbing that doesn't quite fit in the natural laws as he understands them in a town full of people who don't quite fit in the natural laws as he understands them. Fighting is something he can *do*.

     Seifer rounds the corner and immediately spots Inga, and quietly curses his own nature, because Seifer is about to complicate everything over a woman.

     With a stride a lot braver than he actually feels, Seifer walks up to Inga and plants himself between her and the oncoming horde. He looks over his shoulder at her and Dorian.

     "Hey. Hope you don't mind if I cut in; you don't look like you wanna dance with freaks like these anyway."

     He takes his usual stance, gunblade held out in front of him, standing sideways from the enemy to minimize his target. His target abruptly changes as he sees the monster going for Xiang.

     "I really want you to be weak to bullets," Seifer mutters before he opens fire on Xiang's opponent. Hyperion is a semi-automatic; each shot is fast and methodical, a perfect complement to Seifer's own personality, with a /bang bang bang bang bang/ ringing through the streets.

Staren has posed:
    High above, a ship with the appearance of a small castle drops out of FTL. Inside, Staren hurriedly pulls on his armor. <Concerned: Sir, there is tremendous spatial distortion nearby. If it expands, the ship will be in danger> The orange hologram* of what appears to be a robot wearing robe, wizard hat, and false beard appears in front of Staren. "Yeah, that's why I want you to fly the ship a safe distance away. I'll call if I need you." The hologram inclines its head just slightly, and disappears. It's replaced by a hologram* of a woman with long, bright violet hair and a matching dress. <Monsters are swarming into a town on the edge of the 'Soft Expanse'.> She gestures to one side and a live view of part of the town below is displayed on a virtual screen. The unspoken message is clear: You can't just blow them all up. Staren nods, "Got it." and pulls on his helmet, before grabbing his laser rifle and walking across the hub to the manufacturing area, standing with his back to a robot. <<Give me the high explosive load, just in case I can catch some out.>> It swaps out his shoulder missile racks for another set, and then he strides to the telepad.

    An observer might expect an exchange like 'good luck.' or 'don't die' or something, but it seems a silly thing for Staren to program an AI to do. He turns into a beam of red light without further words.

    A beam of red and white energy streaks out of the sky, hitting the ground next to Dorian, where it takes a humanoid shape that fades into Staren. He immediately starts firing his energy weapons at the demons, misting two and sending another to the dirt with a hole blown through it. "Inga! Good to see you. And you again." He nods to her and Seifer. "Yes, weaknesses would be good to know. You recognize these creatures?"


*Actually they're AR illusions, but 'hologram' gives an appropriate visual.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    For his part, Dorian seems to have been more or less backed in a corner. So the arriving people will likely be coming in from the other side of the demon horde. There's a lot of these demons! And Dorian looks like he's had a bit of trouble. His hair's all messed up, and there's spots of blood on his cloak. Well, it's probably blood, it's nasty, black and oily. But he's also bleeding himself, a trail dripping from the corner of his lip -- thankfully that's from a cut on his face, not from inside his mouth. Because internal injuries suck.

    Inga's the first he notices, so he notes, "None of either, so far as I know. None have shown any immunity to fire, lightning, ice, or blunt trauma. If there weren't so many..." He trails off there. Xiang Qi gets a look when she appears. Her question gets a pained smirk. "It's not from earth, it's from Thedas. Figured I'd better try and clean up my world's mess. I'll explain further later." Unspoken is, of course, 'if he survives'.

    Argast's appearance gets a sigh. "We've GOT to stop meeting like this," he quips. "But I'm grateful for your assistance nonetheless." The fireball from Argast lights one of the hunchbacked things on fire, and it starts shrieking loudly and flailing around, trying in vain to put itself out. And then Seifer makes his lone wanderer appearance! Dorian gives that pained smirk again. "Not at all," he answers to the question. Though he's probably talking to Inga rather than him. "Not even the decency to buy me dinner before trying to eat me. Really, can you imagine?" More seriously, he says, "But yes. Help is appreciated, thank you."

    Staren's appearance gets a lull in the action -- this is something the demons didn't expect, and they peer at him. Unfortunately that also means they get their attention! Dorian calls over to the appearing armored Staren, "None that I know of." He looks at one of the green peopleghosts. "They'll stay at range. The others will try to close in and strike. The spindly-armed ones are stronger than they look."

    The green ghost-things are indeed trying to stay at range, flinging shots of green energy at the heroes (and at anything else in range). And the hunchbacked things are trying to close in and claw things with their long, spindly, clawed hands on their long, spindly arms.

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast smirks slightly under his helmet. "Indeed we do." He says. Another hunchback horror would be unlucky enough to see another fireball flying towards it from the Sorceror as he moved to close the distance between himself and the rest. "Don't mind the aura...I'm not here to consume anyone." he says. Apparently, he's picking up some snark from Dorian.

Xiang Qi (1078) has posed:
    "HEY!" Xiang Qi stands a little straighter, looking indignant as her chosen demon gets shot and -- of course -- goes down easily, "I wanted to punch him!... it! Whatever." She huffs and turns her attention to a group of demons, her aura brightening around the edges as she lowers her body into a fighting position, "I'll just have to find some more..." And then she punches!

    One might have noticed that Xiang Qi was... not exactly close enough to effectively punch anything. But that doesn't seem to be a problem, as the air in front of her fist twists and distorts, and then explodes outward in both a visible -- and particularly loud -- shockwave, that leads to said group of demons suddenly ceasing to exist. She frowns as the cloud of demon dust fades, "...Aww... They're WEAK!" She seems to be complaining about that. "These things are puny!" A ghost's shot of green energy seems to dissipate as it comes too close to her aura, and a couple approaching hunchbacks are quickly avoided and countered as their claws get too close, sending both flying in different directions.

    Qi doesn't stand in one place though, she backs off from the approaching demons and rushes through the ones separating her from the other heroes -- she wasn't doing much protecting from way over here. "How do we make them stop appearing? I mean... they're weak and all, but they just keep coming. Is there a limit to their numbers?"

Inga has posed:
A pale brow rises as Seifer appears, moving to stand between her an the oncoming demons. She notes his pose, shakes her head very slightly, and flashes him a smile. Inga knows men. She knows people. She knows that posture and the look in his eyes. She's not interested in damaging his ego, and having someone between her and a melee fight is always welcome. "I do all my dancing from afar--by all means," she says to him. "You might not want to stay /directly/ in front of me however," she says, the runes carved into her staff beginning to glow with a blue-white light. She's actually grown accustomed to how /flashy/ magic is in the multiverse.

But first things first. Another spell is cast, an identical ward cast with blood magic for Seifer. To keep his knightly limbs attached and all his insides where they should be.

Inga eyes turn toward a surge in energy, a bright light. Xiang Qi, preparing for the fight.

Then another draws her gaze and she briefly looks to Argast, nodding to him. A friend of Dorian's then? Her eyebrows furrow slightly, lips pursing. After a moment, she shrugs, then looks back toward the demons. More pressing things.

THEN SUDDENLY STAREN! Inga blinks with momentary surprise, a smile not far behind. "Ah, good to see you as well Staren."

Inga looks back to Dorian. "Don't worry, I'll be sure you stay in one piece," she assures him.

Then, finally, she turns and lifts her staff, sight locking onto one of the ghostlike demons that stay at a distance. She'll see how those handle lightning. Careful to aim around Seifer, a bolt of lightning cracks into existence, slamming into the floaty green form--if it is corporeal enough to take it. It is, like all of her magic, infused with anima. That usually makes the difference when it comes to ghosts.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Seifer grins over his shoulder at Inga. "Yeah, I know how this works. I'll stay right in front of you." He's as good as his word, too - he knows exactly how to stand so as not to get hit by flying bolts of lightning, though he does let out a low whistle as he watches her evaporate a demon.

     "The hell do I keep runnin' into you?" Seifer demands as Staren arrives in a flashy teleportation, "You stalkin' me or something?!"

     He doesn't really have time to get an answer. Something comes at him - something with tentacles and no face and oozing bits, something that manages to distract him from both his annoyance at Staren (and Staren's flashy entrance) and the weird-ass skeleton horse guy dripping 'I am the worst person' out of every pore he could find. The horrible tendril-thing gets right up in Seifer's face before it dies on his gunblade, shaken apart with a vibration.

     "Real inconsiderate," Seifer replies to Dorian as he flicks the gunblade clean with a smooth motion and loads a new (and unusual) dual-clip.

     Then all the demons turn to look at their group.

     That is not good. That is very not good.

     "I'm runnin' pretty dry here," Seifer mutters to the air, "Who do you like?"

     Seifer casts a glance at Xiang as she just kinda punches a tornado out of thin air and smashes her way through the hordes. "Yeah, me too," he says to nothingness, "She's cute and she's strong."

     Xiang arrives. Seifer puts two fingers to his forehead and makes a salute. "Sorry about that, gorgeous. And I'm sorry about this, too - but I'm running dry and I'm not the kinda guy to leave a battle like this to chance!"

     Some spectral *thing* emerges from behind Seifer, hovering over his shoulder. *Thing* is the best word to describe it - it's vaguely humanoid, but spectral and indistinct, with glowing white eyes and weird grey skin. Or, at least, the skin parts that can be seen are grey - the rest is clad in a red cloak, and...yellow-and-purple polka dots? On one side, it has three arms...on the other...three...cardboard arms?

     The *thing* reaches towards Xiang with its three grey hands. Blue orbs of light emerge from the woman and leap into the thing's outreached palms. The thing vanishes, and Seifer-

     "Are you *JOKING?*" Seifer shouts loudly, "FIRST THE STUPID OPERA THING, NOW THIS?! DO YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CLUE WHAT YOU'RE AIMING FOR?!"

     "FINE! YOU KNOW WHAT, SCREW IT! I MADE THE OPERA THING WORK - I'LL MAKE THIS WORK TOO!"

     Seifer takes up his stance again. He's too annoyed to be freaked out, now. "Next time we're pickin' the stalker, you hear me? Guy can teleport, maybe you'll get *that*. That'd be *useful*."

     Silence.

Staren has posed:
    Staren shrugs to Seifer, and looks to Dorian. "Are demons on your world usually this weak?" Staren asks, conversationally but also like he's considering the possibility they're fakes of some sort. "It's strange for me to be oneshotting them... Last time I had to fight a horde of demons, it... it was a slog." Seifer summons a six-armed specter and says something about getting his teleporter. "Wait, what?"

    Further questioning is cut off now that he's got the demons' attention! As they converge on him, Staren blows up another three, but a problem soon becomes apparent: His weapons are more than powerful enough to oneshot these creatures, but the firing rate isn't fast enough for him to take them all out before they get to him!

    Fortunately, after ten years in the Multiverse, Staren's acquired some contingency plans. As the demons close in he takes to the sky, firing a grenade down to deal with the hunchbacked things, only to find himself under a barrage of fire by the green ghost-things! He can only hope they don't dish out too much more than they can take!

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Argasts's fire is having a definite effect. The hunchbacked things that he sets alight are breaking off the attack to go flail around. And some are catching other demons on fire! Including a Wraith or two! They're apparently vulnerable to that. Dorian smirks at Argasts's statement. "If you're going to eat something, try the demons. I'm sure they taste wonderful." Given the tone, he's probably kidding.

    "There's not exactly any dearth of them at the moment," Dorian points out, as Xiang Qi pouts about not being able to punch a demon. But there's a real question, one he answers. "Theoretically it will keep spitting out demons until it's closed. And I don't have any way to close it. But the rift won't stay here long. This region's unstable. It should disappear momentarily."

    Inga's lightning bolt seems to affect the Wraith just fine, not to worry, despite being wispy and incorporeal. Dorian nods to her words, too. "Thank you. It would be a waste of a perfectly handsome mage othewise."

    Seifer's apparent talking to himself gets a raise of his eyebrow. But the appearance of the multi-armed things is unusual. And it also means Seifer's attracting more attention to himself! Which can be bad. But these things die to gunblades pretty easily anyway.

    Staren's words get a raise of Dorian's brow. "Would you rather leave the town its own devices?" he asks. Not much time for more, since Staren flies up. The individual shots of the Wraiths might hurt, but they're not too damaging. These are-after all, bottom-tier things. And their numbers are finally starting to thin.

    Maybe Inga's warding gives Dorian an idea of what he can do, as he starts casting Barriers across the battlefield to those fighting. He's trying to get as many of them as possible in one casting, so where allies are grouped together they'll gett Barrier'd first. But eventually Dorian will get everyone with a Barrier. It won't last too terribly long, mind, but it should be long enough to allow the group to wade through the tide with less trouble.

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    "Thanks for the offer, but I prefer to avoid indigestion." Argast fires back. But above a group of shades and horrors, the skies open up and down fall a rain of fireballs. "Feel the power of the Dark Pantheon!" He shouts out, watching his foes burn.

Xiang Qi (1078) has posed:
    Qi bounces on her heels as she turns back toward the threatening demon things, punching one of the hunchbacks as it gets too close, sending the thing's whole body sailing through the air, and bowling into several wispy ghost things. She glances over her shoulder as she does so, at Seifer and his flirting, smirking slightly, "Gorgeous? Well now~" She blinks once, her smirk fading as he apologizes... what was he apologizing for?

    And then the Guardian Force appears and she raises a brow, "Woah, hold it! What're you..." Too late! She looks like she's about ready to punch it -- because everything can be solved by punching -- but stops when it appears that nothing bad was really happening.

    Seifer does not appear very happy with the result though, and she's momentarily taken aback, "Oooookaaaay~" She turns back to the demons -- focus on the baddies for now. Not the angry guy with the weird friend.

    She looks at Dorian for a moment, -- "Wait, so all we gotta do is make the green thingy close?" She eyes the 'green thingy' in question... it looked solid enough... and so she put her -- probably ill conceived -- plan into action, stepping toward the demon hoardes, waiting until one of the hunchbacks got close enough... and uppercutting it's ugly face, sending it up into the air, where it was caught by her heel as she spun in a roundhouse kick, to send it flying at high speed directly AT the rift. Maybe if she hit it hard enough, those green rocks would just break. That seemed like a good plan.

    The fire raining down on everything -- including the town, makes Qi frown, "Hey uh... Are we trying to burn down this place? Is that necessary?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren flies around, now in a bullet hell minigame. The wraith shots are chipping away at his shield, an amber sphere of force that becomes briefly visible with each hit, white and cracking at the area of impact. The chip damage doesn't seem to be serious, but every time Staren's hit, he's knocked off course which can get him hit by several more before he can regain control. "Rrrgh!" he growls in frustration. It's keeping him from aiming his shots!

    And then he sees swaths of demons being set on fire. So that works well, apparently! He slings the laser rifle over his shoulder and reaches into his messenger bag, pulling out...

    A magic wand.

    Seriously, it's laughably stereotypical -- a slender rod with a star shape on the end, and some kind of clear jewel in the center of the star. He raises it over his head...

    And Argast beats him to it. Fireballs, fireballs everywhere!

    Well... that doesn't mean Staren can't add to it! He starts swinging the wand around, and with each swing there's an explosion of fire in the direction he aimed.

    At least he's only aiming for open, demon-filled areas, and not the buildings...

Inga has posed:
Inga is pleased to see Seifer has done this before, and isn't just being a heroic boob. He knows how to position himself, when to take attacks and when to get out of her way. She nods to him, a acknowledgement of respect.

Of course, then he goes talking to himself again. Though she's quite aware he isn't, and if anyone around here knows what it is like to hear and see things others may not, it's Inga. She's not judging. She is interested, however, in the glimpse she gets of Seifer's guardian force and whatever it just did to the dark haired woman. "That was...interesting," she comments to Seifer in a tone that says she has many questions and at some point plans to annoy him with them, with a look in her eye that communicates he should be disinclined to refuse.

Inga's eyes widen with suprise as she feels a warding magic surround her. How nice! Doubly warded and protected by Seifer, Inga is set. She's free to sling magic and heal whoever needs it.

Though currently the only person who seems to need it is still Dorian. So, she heals Dorian.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Oh, good. They don't have anything to close it with but it *should* close momentarily. That's great.

     One of the Fade monstrosities gets a little too close. Its tendril hooks around Seifer's arm, burning through his coat and into his skin. He shouts, a wordless cry of pain, jerking his superhuman arm backwards to drag the burning creature into his gunblade. It scatters as it's carved in half with one elegant stroke. Whatever else Seifer is, he's *skilled*, and he's *strong*.

     "Hey, cool it!" Seifer shouts at Argast and Staren, "We ain't tryin' t' kill these people! Just the damn- rrrgh!"

     Qi goes running into the middle of combat. "Alright, then - HEY, GORGEOUS! I'LL SUPPORT YOU - GO TO TOWN ON THAT THING, HUH!? DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE SMALL FRY!"

     Blue light coalesces into Seifer's off hand, forming into an orb just like the ones his Guardian Force snatched earlier. With some pain, Seifer jams the orb into his gunblade. It pulses and thrums, glowing with an odd light that is most assuredly not blue.

     "Stay behind me," Seifer warns the rest of the party as he takes three steps forward - just enough to put him firmly in the fore (much to his misgivings, he's also including Argast in the group behind him) of the main party. As he unslings his burned arm from his jacket and holsters it in his shirt, yojimbo style, he lowers his gunblade.

     "Let's see if I'm as good as I think I am, Greg! Here we go!"

                      JUNCTION: SHIELDING AURA ---> ATTACK                    
                         LIMIT BREAK CRISIS LEVEL ONE                        
                               PACHINKO RAMPAGE                                

     Seifer simply *flings* the weapon, underhand-style. The gunblade, still glowing, starts whirling like a buzzsaw as it picks up speed. It carves into the first demon, cleaving into it...and then it *bounces* into the demon next to that one. The whirling gunblade ping-pongs, pinballs, and pachinkos as it deflects *itself*, bounding from demon to demon and cutting a sharp line in the air. It picks up more speed as it bounces, harder and harder, pinging off the demons closest to Qi to support her rampaging fist attack on the weird green thing. The gunblade keeps spinning until it's cleared as many of the demons as it can; then, like it has a mind of its own, it goes shooting back towards Seifer, springing off a last demon in its path. It shoots like a buzzsaw towards the party.

     Seifer snatches the blade out of thin air and turns around, shouldering it.

     The last demon it ping-ponged off of explodes in a violent burst of fire.

     "THAT'S how you clear an area!" Seifer shouts at Argast.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian does frown a bit at Argast. Though Xiang Qi pre-empts his complaint with her warning. "Yes please, do try to leave the town intact. The whole point was to SAVE the town, after all, not to destroy it ourselves."

    Xiang Qi's attack however... does something odd. The crystalline thing in the air is changing and morphing. Her kick doesn't destroy it, no... and it feels like kicking adamantium! But the attack makes the crystalline thing seem to freeze. And every single one of the demons just... freeze in place, standing as if they were suddenly distracted by something that no one else can hear. Fortunately this means the Wraiths stop shooting at Staren. Also they stand quite still for him to start killing them with fire!

    Inga's blood magic is always a little uncomfortable for Dorian to see. But he knows better than to judge her for it. It's not Thedan blood magic, so it shouldn't carry the instant 'aughnobad!' feeling with it. So he offers a smile to Inga as she heals him. The visible cut on his lip begins to close up with the treatment. "Thank you," he offers.

    Dorian just kind of... stares at Seifer's attack. The stunned demons are quite literally like mannequins, standing still for the blade to bounce off of them. "...Well, that's something," he observes. "...I'm not sure what, but it's definitely something."

    Fortunately, with everyone's aggressive demon-killing tactics, the last of them are taken out. And the rift changes. Instead of being a crystalline thing, it now properly looks like a rift -- i.e., a neon-green hole in the air. It's not very big, maybe a broad torso-width in size. Maybe that's why the demons that came out were so weak?

    There are no more demons for the time being. But the rift is clearly still open. "Right then," Dorian notes. "Now that we have a moment..." Addressing the group at large, he notes, "This is a rift, and those things were demons from the Fade. They're appearing all over my world. I suppose with the mutable environment in this area, one was bound to show up here sooner or later. I've closed portals to other worlds in the Multiverse proper before, but I don't have any way to close this. Let's hope the wind changes again before it spits out more demons."

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast looks over and nods. "My apologies. The Red Wind seeks destruction, you see." He says, hoping that explains enough. Then, to hear about the rifts, the sorceror tilts his head. "If it does, I shall bathe them in more flames. Such is the will of Tzeench."

Xiang Qi (1078) has posed:
    Qi stares toward the rift for a moment -- it had stopped. The demons had stopped. Everything had stopped! Clearly, this was the result of her kicking a demon at it. She was the hero, and nobody was going to tell her otherwise. She follows the path of Seifer's sword with her eyes, before looking back at him, "That was a neat trick~ Never seen anyone THROW a sword before." She pauses, "Though I guess I don't see a ton of swords where I'm from, so maybe it's a normal thing?" She looks curious for a moment, then shrugs, listeningt to Dorian, "Sooo... We're counting on this rift thing just sort of disappearing on it's own then? How did you close the other ones? How come you can't do the same thing to THIS one?"

Inga has posed:
Now, Inga has been in the multiverse for a couple of years now. Things don't shock her the way they used to. She is fairly sure, however, that there will always be surprises. Gods, she certainly hopes so, because she is likely to live a very long time.

Seifer's work with that crazy blade of his is certainly surprising. She's never seen a sword (gun? sword-gun?) do that before. She has no idea how it is even possible, but there it is.

The wiseoman just sighs, shakes her head, and brings her knife against her skin again, drawing fresh blood. The cut she'd opened earlier seems to have disappeared. With fresh blood on the iron of her blade she flicks it toward Seifer, a healing aura surrounding him. It smells like blood (because it is) and honey, because ???

With fireballs, and punching, and whatever Staren is doing, she's pretty sure they've got all this covered.

Soon enough there is a lull, if not an end to the fighting. Apparently, kicking the rift does well enough. "I see," she says to Dorian, leaning on her staff. "Well, if there nothing to do but wait to see if it shifts away...I think I will go into town and see who there might need healing," she says. "Well fought, everyone," she says, nodding to them all. Argast gets a lift of her brow. Is he always so strange?

"You," she begins, looking to Seifer. "I have questions. But they can wait," she finishes with a shrug.

Then Inga begins to limp off toward the town to see who else she can bleed on beneficially.

Staren has posed:
    Staren picks his target areas carefully now that the demons have stopped. And then Seifer does... something. That was a neat trick!

    Dorian explains about the rift. It's frustrating, but Staren's no rift-closing specialist. Where's a Shifter or Leyline Walker when you need one?

    He puts the wand away and lands on the ground, nodding in agreement with Inga before walking after her.

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     "Oh yeah, I totally believe you," Seifer replies to Argast, "Just a good Samaritan out for a stroll, that's you."

     Whatever else he was going to say is cut off as Inga throws healing blood on him. Seifer is visibly disturbed by this, staring at the vanishing burn on his hand and the blood splatter on his coat.

     He taps the gunblade against his shoulder and looks at Qi. "It's a gunblade," Seifer corrects her, "No, that ain't a normal thing. First time for me, too. Didn't give me much to work with. Nice kick, though."

     He looks off at Dorian again. "OK, so, can we keep throwing stuff in? Guy walking away probably has some grenades, and I'm sure Mr. Not-At-Fault'd be happy to just keep chucking explosions in all the live-long day. Eventually the stupid thing'll just shut, right?"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian sends a look at Argast. "Not that I don't appreciate your assistance. Just, please try to keep the town intact." He makes a 'shoo' motion with his free hand, the one he's not holding the dragon-headed staff with. "Send them to another dimension or something." Pause. "No, on second thought, don't do that. I have no idea what putting a portal over a portal would do, and I'm not eager to find out."

    Though then, he smirks in Xiang Qi's direction. "Ironic, isn't it? I can close portals in others but not in my own. This one, I'm not sure how it's made. I'd need to know that first. And as you can see, there isn't usually a lot of time to study them, thanks to the masses of demons they spit out. It may need a specific application of magic to close, or I may just not have the raw power to do it alone. I'm not quite sure."

    Inga's words get a nod. "Be careful, this one may spit out more before it disappears. If it does." Hopefully this isn't a permanent fixture; that would suck so much. "Thank you for your help," he offers to Inga as she turns for the town proper. And also Staren, who gets a nod. "You too. Thank you."

    Seifer's suggestion gets laugh. "That might have the opposite effect. The idea is to not attract attention from the demons of the Fade. They're always there." He points at the torn-looking 'bedsheet' appearance of the rift. "That is currently a window into the Fade. It's my world's... I believe you'd call it the 'spirit realm'. Those things that it spat out, are always there. They're fine there. It's when they come here that there are problems."

    Perhaps luck is on their side this time. The rift is beginning to get active again. strands of green light begin to emanate from the rift. But before they touch the ground, wisps of silver begin to blow through the area. And soon there is a 'wave' of silvery light that seems to 'wash' the rift away, along with whatever horrible monsters it was about to put down.

Argast Wyrdseeker (1008) has posed:
    Argast simply looks over towards Seifer and Dorian, and then the rift. "What a wierd place..." He says softly. He looks over Dorian's staff, and in turn places his own in front. "A dragon? A bit...ironic, don't you think? At least considering our last meeting."

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     Seifer scowls. He stops just short of suggesting they send Argast in before it closes and letting him attract all the demons he wants. Just short. JUST short. Like, it's on the tip of his tongue, and the only reason he's NOT making the suggestion is that at any minute more demons could come spilling out of the rift according to Dorian, so starting a fight *now* is just a stupid risk. Seifer is a lot of things, but he's not a guy who takes intentionally stupid risks with no real payoff other than self-satisfaction.

     But it's right there, in his eyes and on his face. Seifer is a lot of things, and subtle is not one of them.

     He taps his gunblade on his shoulder. It's either a nervous habit or a 'keep your wits about you'-type thing he does just to stay aware of his surroundings. His arm slides back into his coat now that Inga's weird blood healing has fixed the burn around it.

     Then the problem solves itself.

     Seifer's sort of making that 'OK' face right now. He holsters the gunblade, meets Argast's eyes, scowls, and then looks over at Qi.

     "Speaking of neat tricks you don't see every day, I've only seen one other person punch like that, and he's..." Seifer bites off the insult, before the lady takes the wrong impression, and finishes with, "...not as impressive. Seifer Almasy." He offers a hand to her, and also to Dorian. He pointedly doesn't offer it to Argast.

     He doesn't like Argast.

Xiang Qi (1078) has posed:
    Qi frowns for a second, "Sooo... if you can't close it... Couldn't you, like. Go in? If you destroy all of them then they can't come through anymore!" She looks at the rift, clearly ready to jump in and take on the entire world of fade demons single-handedly. -- This is probably not a good idea, but Qi was never known for her abundance of great ideas.

    Thankfully, Seifer's compliment takes her attention off of the rift before she jumps through. "Oh?" She smirks, "I might like to fight him myself~ It's always fun to fight martial artists... especially the kind that have any real fame and experience." She looks at the offered hand, then takes it, "Xiang Qi. You can just call me Qi. All my friends do."

    She looks back at Argast, then between him and Dorian... "You two already know each other, I take it?" She tilts her head to the side, "Not gonna start hitting each other, are you? This hardly seems like the time to be fighting when there's that big green thing in the sky."

Seifer Almasy has posed:
     "I wouldn't say he has either of those," Seifer mutters, but he's grinning anyway. "Always happy to count more pretty girls among my friends, though."

     He's nineteen.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian blinks at Argast, then looks at the three-headed staff he's carrying himself. "It's the same one I always carry," he notes. "Well, almost always." There have been a few times where he's used a different staff. But he doesn't seem to be giving it much thought.

    Seifer's introducing himself then, and Dorian bows, with a flourish. "Dorian Pavus, Altus mage of Tevinter," he offers by way of introduction. Handshake? Dorian returns that; it's a confident one, a firm handshake without being too firm. Also Seifer might notice that Dorian, despite his accent and upper-class air, has calluses on his fingers. They're not super-thick, but they're present. Those are the hands of someone who's done manual labor.

    Xiang Qi's question gets... a look. A look that says 'are you completely out of your mind?'. And he offers, "The last time someone physically went into the Fade, it started the Blight. That was thousands of years ago. and still we have massive, corrupted demons the size of dragons appear and start destroying things every so often. I think I'd rather not make a second foray in." A bit of wryness enters his tone here, "I think having archdemons appear every so often to destroy the world is bad enough."

Staren has posed:
    Staren stops when he hears Dorian explaining about the rift, and nods to Seifer, retracting his faceplate so he can be heard more clearly. "Closing rifts is tricky business. Trying to blow it up could close it, or make it get even bigger, or do nothing at all." And then it closes! "Well, I guess that solves that..."

    Staren pulls some tiny quadrotor drones, insect-sized, from his bag, and sets them to go explore the town and search for anyone who needs help.

    "Still, it seems like there must be something better than to just wait for demons to appear and fight them until rifts close... Some more permanent solution. I'm Staren by the way, researcher for the League. Of Progress." He holds out a hand to Dorian to shake. "Nice to meet you."