Barrel roll!

caekdaemon - Al-Aris [-]:
Li Rala: "China. I'm Chinese, and my fiance is from...the Ottoman Empire."
Al-Aris: "Namastē. Thank you for bringing my pyāra to me! Li, this is Johnny, and...I don't know the name of the little one yet, but he seems alright."
Li Rala: "He was quite the little gentleman when he asked me to come here."
Johnny: "Bellhop. His name's Bellhop, ma'am. Pleasure to meet ya, from both of us. And uh... might wanna work on the cover story a bit. Not too many Chinese girls who look like they're straight outa a Swiss fashion rag. And I don't even think the Automan Empire's a thing."
Bellhop: "Ah, boss?"
Johnny: "Oh yeah. Having fulfilled your service, you are dismissed, Bellhop."
Bellhop: "Alright! See ya tomorrow, Boss! Have a good time, Ms. Rala, Al!"
And with another poof of black smoke, the imp is gone.
You make to leave the alley and follow the others toward the burial ground, when Johnny speaks up.
Johnny: "Hey wait up a sec, where did they all go? You guys got a mission you know."

Appearance: A big and bulky man that appears to be middle aged, with a full head of black hair and surprisingly dark eyes. He claims to be Middle Eastern in origin, but to an observer he would seem to be a little...pale.


Seraphimo - Dunrim [-]:
For now, you just hang out at the cemetery, waiting for the others to arrive. You notice that Mike... Heph... Hephmike... whatever his name is. He's already here. Probably took a cab, from the looks of things. He walks over to you, and you both head into the cemetery to look around. It's a nice place, very proper looking. Nice neat slabs of polished granite, with sharp edges and shining faces, aligned in dozens of tidy rows. You wonder if this is a special cemetery, the graves are all very uniform for a regular open cemetery.

Appearance: His face is full of soot and he looks a bit pale but otherwise he looks like a normal human. He is a little shorter than the average human and he likes to wear fully protective clothing. His origin is claimed to be somewhere inside Europe though he's not telling where.


TheKebbit - Wassily Nuñez [7]:
Matt: "Alright, captain, I'm ready to sail the "concrete sea" whenever you are."
You nod, ready to Navigate your ally down the road. Focusing your power to affect the both of you, you zoom down the street before looking back and realizing that it didn't work at all. Oh dammit. Ok, new idea. Screw Embodiments, you've got a firm grip. You zoom back over to Matt and grab him by the wrist.
Matt: "Wait uh, what's going- WAAGH!"
You take off down the street again, Matt hanging on for dear life. He's flailing around a lot, but it looks like your Seafare is at least spreading over to him enough to prevent his feet from hitting the ground and get torn up. He also manages to avoid smashing his free arm or legs against any of the cars you shoot past, which is good on multiple levels. After a few minutes of navigating the streets, you arrive back at the cemetery, and it looks like two of the others already went in to look around. You leave Matt to catch his breath, while you head in too.

Appearance: A square man in a heavily starched uniform - white, blue, and yellow, battered radio and a flare gun hanging from his belt in a plastic crate. His face is creased with lines of worry. He bears papers and codes of many navies, corporate and scientific contracts, stamped, sealed, filed as paid.


CaveCricket48 - Linna [4]:
You try again to make your shields into wheels, and...
Get similar results. This really isn't working. You're an Embodiment of the Paladin, not of Armor, or Wheels, or Chariots, or anything like that. Paladins aren't typically known for being wheeled speed demons. Maybe you could pull it off later, when you've got more experience? And also can actually form armor. Well, on the bright side, you do feel like you've gotten a bit better with your powers with all this messing around with the shields. So hey, maybe it's not too far off!

Appearance: A young woman that seems a bit thin but stands on a sturdy pair of legs. Her short dark hair is still long enough to nearly cover her eyes that are already concealed behind thick glasses, making it difficult to read her expression.


maart3n - Mikey/Heph [9]:
You see that the energy guy, Dunrim you think, has arrived. You both head into the cemetery, and find...
A cemetery. Looks pretty normal to be honest. Hmm.
You look around a bit, reading some of the graves. There's a lot of similar dates in this area, all a few years ago and within about a month of each other. Wonder if something happened. Certainly quite a few flowers laid out for the graves. Feeling a bit mournful, you decide to bring the somewhat wilted flowers up a bit, and you restore all the grave flowers you can find to a more pristine condition. They look like they were cut just minutes ago, now.
...
Maybe... you can do one better. You take one of the flowers and plant the sliced stem in the ground next to its grave, and will the plant.
Live.
Live it does. Slowly, it grows downward, extending tendrils into the soil, and then roots. A leaf sprouts off the steam, then a few more, and finally a small shoot extends from the base of the plant.
Huh. You just replanted a cut flower. And jeez, it took the wind out of you. You do the same for a few more flowers, giving more graves a permanent tribute, but you're out of energy after three. Jeez, that's tough. But, you did something nice, so... it's okay.

Appearance: Remarkably lean but still muscular machinist. Wears aviators, a white t-shirt and a pair of dirty jeans over leather shoes that look way too expensive for his line of work. Has been suffering from multiple personality disorder ever since his brother died.


Paedichorrhea - Matt [-]:
Matt: "Alright, captain, I'm ready to sail the "concrete sea" whenever you are."
Wassily nods in agreement, then zooms off a few feet. He realizes he left you behind, comes back, ponders a second, then grabs your wrist.
Matt: "Wait uh, what's going- WAAGH!"
He zooms off again, riding down the street with impressive, and somewhat scary, speed. More importantly, he's dragging you along with him, and you find yourself flopping through the air like a big kite. Understandably, you're somewhat distressed as you weave around traffic and narrowly avoid your limbs smashing into cars more than once. After what feels like an hour of riding later, the two of you arrive at the cemetery, and while Wassily happily heads into the graveyard to greet the others, you decide you need to sit down a second and catch your breath.
And possibly clean out your pants.

Appearance: Caucasian, but with a slightly darker complexion. He looks a lot like your dad. Or brother. Or maybe that one guy you used to know. He just has one of those faces. He has medium-length brown hair, but sometimes things get away from him and it gets kind of long. He wears a lot of t-shirts and jeans, but occasionally wears a collared shirt and dress pants for fancier occasions. A few pounds overweight, but still has an alright physique. Thirty-something in age.

"I think they went to a cemetery...why?"

Alaris laughs.

"Did they go to the wrong one?"

Practice my powers on something.

He looks out of the alleyway for passersby before looking back at Johnny and speaking at a whisper.

"...and what do you mean the Ottoman Empire doesn't exist?"
"Wasn't there a "world war" between then and now, love?"
"I think so, but I'm not too familiar with the history of this world...Old Ones be damned, they must have lost the war. "
"That means we need a backup plan...Hmmm, think of a country that would make sense for the both of us."
"I've got just the one."

"We're from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...uh, comrade."

PAINFUL ROLL

caekdaemon - Al-Aris [-]:
Al-Aris: "I think they went to a cemetery...why?"
You realize what Johnny's implying, and let out a chuckle.
Al-Aris: "Did they go to the wrong one?"
Johnny: "Ah... that's one way to put it. I think Stone Hill's that way? I mean, there's a bunch of kids buried that way from a school fire some jackass Embodied started right near the start of the game. That god didn't last long, thank Christ. But anyway, no, the burial ground I was talking about's like... The other direction entirely. And kinda a bit of a few hours outside town. Got a car to take you guys over. Dunno where they got the idea to run off towards Stone Hill."

You nod, then give a furtive look out the alley to make sure no-one is in earshot.
Al-Aris: "...and what do you mean the Ottoman Empire doesn't exist?"
Li-Rala: "Wasn't there a "world war" between then and now, love?"
Al-Aris: "I think so, but I'm not too familiar with the history of this world...Old Ones be damned, they must have lost the war. "
Johnny: "Is'sis a joke."
Li-Rala: "That means we need a backup plan...Hmmm, think of a country that would make sense for the both of us."
Al-Aris: "I've got just the one."
Johnny: "Has to be."
Al-Aris: "We're from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...uh, comrade."
Johnny waits a moment, looking expectant. When he realizes no punchline is coming, he palms his face and sighs heavily.
Johnny: "It isn't. Lucy, grant me patience. Alright you two, just... You're from America. Anyone asks, you're from the good ol' US of A. They'll buy that, easy."

Appearance: A big and bulky man that appears to be middle aged, with a full head of black hair and surprisingly dark eyes. He claims to be Middle Eastern in origin, but to an observer he would seem to be a little...pale.


Seraphimo - Dunrim [2]:
Dunrim: "Have you guys seen anything that's not normal with this cemetery?"
Mikey: "A lot of graves died around the same time a couple years ago. Aside from that, no."
Hm. You look around a bit, observing the graves. Mikey's right, there are a lot of graves with a similar death date. All within a month or so of each other, a couple years ago. You wonder what killed all these people. Probably a big accident of some kind.
...
You give a small shiver as a cold breeze passes over the hill. You feel a bit bad that you can't actually remember what happened to them. You'd probably know it, if you could actually remember anything. Something like that would be big news, you're sure you'd have seen something about it. Ahh, damn it. This mind game stuff sucks.

Appearance: His face is full of soot and he looks a bit pale but otherwise he looks like a normal human. He is a little shorter than the average human and he likes to wear fully protective clothing. His origin is claimed to be somewhere inside Europe though he's not telling where.


TheKebbit - Wassily Nuñez [3]:
You head into the cemetery and walk around a bit, looking over the graves. Mostly older ones, though the section near the front is a bunch of newer shiny markers, probably all from the same source. Damn, there's a good 50 or 60 graves in that chunk, something real nasty must've happened. You steer clear of that area for the time, instead walking among the older graves. There are some flowers here and there, and couple knickknacks left by, you assume, family members paying their respects. The graves in this chunk are pretty old, so it's probably not mourning any more.

Appearance: A square man in a heavily starched uniform - white, blue, and yellow, battered radio and a flare gun hanging from his belt in a plastic crate. His face is creased with lines of worry. He bears papers and codes of many navies, corporate and scientific contracts, stamped, sealed, filed as paid.


CaveCricket48 - Linna [-]:
You turn around and start walking back to the alley you woke up in, not even bothering with the Chariot idea anymore. It's... not gonna work right now. You need more experience, and a better grasp on your powers first. Once you've grasped a Paladin's armor, then you can probably shape that more freely. Until then, you just can't get it to work, really. Maybe if you found a Wheel and an Armor Embodiment and had them help you form your own wheel armor... No idea where to find those though. Arriving at the alley, you see Al-aris and Johnny, along with a very pretty woman standing with Al. Girlfriend maybe?

Appearance: A young woman that seems a bit thin but stands on a sturdy pair of legs. Her short dark hair is still long enough to nearly cover her eyes that are already concealed behind thick glasses, making it difficult to read her expression.


maart3n - Mikey/Heph [9]:
You rest a bit more, letting yourself catch your breath after that show with the flowers.
It was definitely good experience, and you did a good deed, but jeez that Life Shock takes a lot out of you. And just for a small flower, too! Well, it will probably get less taxing as you get stronger.


Paedichorrhea - Matt [-]:
You... You think you need a minute. To calm down after your near death experience with several cars and a zooming nautical madman.

Appearance: Caucasian, but with a slightly darker complexion. He looks a lot like your dad. Or brother. Or maybe that one guy you used to know. He just has one of those faces. He has medium-length brown hair, but sometimes things get away from him and it gets kind of long. He wears a lot of t-shirts and jeans, but occasionally wears a collared shirt and dress pants for fancier occasions. A few pounds overweight, but still has an alright physique. Thirty-something in age.

I DO WHAT I WANT GODDAMNIT

> Work at forming a full suit of armor. And no "this ain't gonna work" bull♥♥♥♥ again, I'm gonna try no matter what. I ain't a ♥♥♥♥' paladin if I stop at "not gonna work." STUBBORNNESS OF A FORTRESS

"I AM A FORTRESS-er, nice to meet you."

> Begin to go back towards the alley we came from

Feeling a little sad and uncomfortable about all the graves Dunrim think we should go back.

"Maybe this wasn't the right place, I think we should head back."

Rolly

caekdaemon - Al-Aris [2]:
You consider Johnny's suggestion as to your place of origin, and decide that he probably knows more about the modern world than either you or Lirala. So, the two of you are Ahmeri-can now.
Suddenly, the shield girl stomps back into the alley, teeth bared and arms waving.
Linna: "I AM A FORTRESS-Oh. You guys are uh. S-still here."
Alaris: "Hello again."
Lirala: "Hi!"
Linna: "Er, nice to meet you. Did you, ah, see that?"
Lirala: "See what?"
Johnny: "Every second, darlin'."

You leave the girl to her mortification, and see a container on the ground bearing a tall yellow M on it. Deciding this is a suitable target, you focus your Decay on it, willing it to break down and die. The container withers quickly, revealing some sort of sandwich within. A somewhat crumpled bun, topped with many small seeds, along with a grilled meat slab and... cheese? Yes, cheese. It also seems to have some leafy greens, a red sliced vegetable, and some sort of red sauce. Blood maybe.
You will your Decay upon the sandwich as well, and...
Hm? Nothing? What do you mean, nothing, it's a sandwich! Organic material falls to decay more than any other! You blast the sandwich with decay, harder this time. The rest of the container quickly withers, showing it is in fact HALF of a sandwich! And it is STILL UN-DECAYED!
You have found a worthy opponent.

Appearance: A big and bulky man that appears to be middle aged, with a full head of black hair and surprisingly dark eyes. He claims to be Middle Eastern in origin, but to an observer he would seem to be a little...pale.


Seraphimo - Dunrim [-]:
Dunrim: "Maybe this wasn't the right place, I think we should head back."
Mikey: "Well, at least I brought some life back to that place."
The three of you leave the cemetery, grab Matt by the entrance, and head back to the alley where the others are, seeing nothing immediately exciting at the cemetery. When you get back to the alley, you see that Linna is already back, and Al seems to have found a lady friend.

Appearance: His face is full of soot and he looks a bit pale but otherwise he looks like a normal human. He is a little shorter than the average human and he likes to wear fully protective clothing. His origin is claimed to be somewhere inside Europe though he's not telling where.


TheKebbit - Wassily Nuñez [-]:
You look around the cemetery a bit further, but don't find anything else of interest. Instead, you just decide to follow the others as they leave, and grab Matt on your way out, still a bit dazed from the ride over. The trip back to the alley is a bit more stressful for him, but you feel like you're getting used to this zooming around over the land thing. On the trip over, you realize that you can travel easily over water, but not land, based on your Chart. But, it's your chart, and your power, so why does that have to be locked in?

Appearance: A square man in a heavily starched uniform - white, blue, and yellow, battered radio and a flare gun hanging from his belt in a plastic crate. His face is creased with lines of worry. He bears papers and codes of many navies, corporate and scientific contracts, stamped, sealed, filed as paid.


CaveCricket48 - Linna [-]:
Or you can keep trying, despite the lack of success.
Armor.
Armor armor armor.
Armor!
ARMOR!
"ARMOR, DAMMIT!"
A blinding flash of light envelops your hands, shining bright and proud for several seconds and forcing you to avert your eyes. When you feel the light fading, you turn back, excited to see, and find on your hands two gauntlets, forged of gleaming gold, and shaped into sturdy curves and edges, being simultaneously elegant and ornate, and practical and dangerous. These are... nice gauntlets. You could catch an attacker's blade and follow up with breaking their hand. Happy, you walk into the alley enjoying the strange, familiar heaviness of the gauntlets.

Linna: "I AM A FORTRESS-Oh. You guys are uh. S-still here."
Alaris: "Hello again."
Lirala: "Hi!"
Linna: "Er, nice to meet you. Did you, ah, see that?"
Lirala: "See what?"
Johnny: "Every second, darlin'."

You realize you were enjoying your gauntlets by waving them around. Um.
Oops.
Johnny: "Hm. You trying for a breakthrough, Linna? I know a few tricks, want some help?"

Appearance: A young woman that seems a bit thin but stands on a sturdy pair of legs. Her short dark hair is still long enough to nearly cover her eyes that are already concealed behind thick glasses, making it difficult to read her expression.


maart3n - Mikey/Heph [-]:
Dunrim: "Maybe this wasn't the right place, I think we should head back."
Mikey: "Well, at least I brought some life back to that place."
The three of you leave the cemetery, grab Matt by the entrance, and head back to the alley where the others are, seeing nothing immediately exciting at the cemetery. When you get back to the alley, you see that Linna is already back, and Al seems to have found a lady friend.


Paedichorrhea - Matt [-]:
You sit there, still recovering from the initial trip, when Wassily comes back out, grabs you again, and before you can object takes off down the street again, with you panicking again in equal amounts. It doesn't take long to get back to the alley, and once you've arrived, you decide to sit down and take another breather. You're going to need a lot of these breaks at this rate. These guys are crazy.

Huh.

I am a thousand percent sure I had a post in this thread before.

No matter :p

"Stupid sandwich being so tough and this damned power being so bloody weak..."

"It was only last week that I could erase an entire galaxy with a snap of my fingers, and a supercluster after a minute's prepara-"

Lirala coughs suddenly, and Al-Aris falls quiet.

"Oh, love, you shouldn't mention business while on holiday! It's a time to relax and have fun!"

Try harder.

"Got any tips on how to use my power well?"