Lately It's So Quiet [Closed]

[seraaches]

It wasn’t that he was oblivious to the show of support, but Rai couldn’t make himself acknowledge the others. Fear was trying to encase his heart, but he had to force it away, especially as Bernard began the fight.

The pain hit him instantly, but the stallion didn’t even wince. It hurt like a mother and was exceedingly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t something he needed to block; he knew he was going to have to save that for later, especially since he still could only block moderate pain for ten minutes. So he called upon his training as a child and rode up above the pain. At least this pain was mental and wouldn’t cause permanent damage. He retaliated in kind to his son, sending a mental apology for it.

He summoned his whip, a whispered thought to the throaty, distant voice that had invaded his mind. She came to his good hand, snaking out with a crack like thunder to snag his son’s wrist. He whispered another apology as she bit into the man’s flesh, inserting her poison.

He watched as Se moved closer and instinctively moved back to keep the distance between them.

Strong Magical Ability: When activated, he can inflict mental pain on another card of any suit, once per day. The degree of pain is like that of a branding iron being pressed into the hind quarters of the victim.

Whip Ability: Once a day, when the whip hits an opponent, it will secrete a small amount of venom that will silence the opposing SD entirely. They will not be able to speak for a full three days as their vocal cords are paralyzed. Any spells they have that might need spoken word of a verbal summon are now beyond their ability to activate.

[seraaches]

He’d told the bloody servants to tell him before the challenge began but evidently that was too much for their feeble brains. He knew that the infidel had shaped the Court into his Lowlander-hating image, but that was all right. The pack would help him whip this Court of decadence-pursuing, stupid, wusses into a clean-running Court that would pursue the right justice. The Lowlanders would rise! One eye was swollen shut from his last run-in here, and his right arm was wrapped up, but the Hellhound was determined to watch.

Zeus slipped into the courtyard and stepped to one side to watch silently; it would be fun to distract his soon-to-be opponent, but he needed to gather as much information as possible. The pispard had killed his father; there was no way the stallion would hesitate to kill his crazy son. And then, Zeus would challenge him and kill the infidel.

Shin followed Zeus uneasily; the servants were all talking and it was easy for a ghost to eavesdrop. He didn’t like what he heard. He hesitated when the Lowlander slipped away from him, eyes widening as he saw his brother backing away from the younger man. That was his nephew! Why was his nephew staring at his father with such hate? The ghost couldn’t understand.

[seraaches]

Se hissed as the branding pain seemed to burn into his flesh, but he swiftly threw up his pain blocking ability; being able to block for an hour would be very useful. The whip wrapped around his wrist, but he didn’t feel the bite or the sting of the poison. Unfortunately for Rai, none of his abilities required him to say a word, and he had no desire to waste them on his father. He did smirk at the older man, though, grabbing the whip just past where she was wrapped around his wrist.

His intention was to jerk the length of sentient leather and yank the Queen right to him so he could get near to his father. He wasn’t close enough to enact the next part of his plan, the part that would spell out the end of his father. He couldn’t wait for that moment. His smile grew.

Basic Magical Ability: He can ignore moderate amounts of pain for up to an hour.

[seraaches]

When Se jerked on the weapon, Rai sent the whip away again, catching his forward movement after just a few steps. He was concerned about why his son would want to get closer to him, but he needed to figure out what the younger man had planned.

The stallion went invisible, making the illusion of himself backpedal swiftly. It would be better if he could get near to his son, just not in such a way that Se realized he was there. Maybe he could make this go quickly. He would have to take the chance; the longer they danced, the higher possibility either himself or Se would get seriously injured. He didn’t want to flirt with disaster. He called up the three aspects of himself, needing them to help confuse his son even as the emotion poured out of him into the three forms. Normally he could decide it, but today his control was off. Guilt stepped out as three more Rais, all of which quickly moved back to the illusion Rai to hopefully confuse his son; preferably into inaction.

Jack's Ability: He can become invisible for about twenty minutes, once per week. When he does so, he creates an illusion of himself that he can control mentally...so he could technically create an image of himself in a fight, and send it running in the opposite direction XD

Queen's Ability: He can call forth three different aspects of himself. All will look like him and can take on any of his (soon to be) three forms. They will each represent one emotion at a time that he assigns to them; be it hatred, sorrow, or delight, they will all have to feel it at the same time. They can be called forth for one hour and he will have full control over all of them. This would be very useful in a fight or in a chase as all would be able to take off in different directions with his intent in mind.
He can do this one per month and after they vanish he is exhausted and must rest or risk passing out.

[seraaches]

Se’s mouth gaped in a scream of outrage. It was his nightmares! It was just like his worst nightmares come true! He didn’t realize he made no sound and it wouldn’t have mattered either way. He snarled again, flinging his eye ability at the group of Rais. It would only hit one, but all he really wanted was for it to distract. He shuddered suddenly, glancing around in a moment of paranoia as his wings shuddered and twitched again. Something was here! He would have screamed again, but he narrowed his eyes at the group that still milling at the edge of the courtyard. He picked one at random, hoping it was his father and wrenched its mind with the ability he’d gotten through his piercings.

He would find which one was his father, no matter what it took. He spat out at the Rais still grouped together, one of his fireballs hurtling with surprisingly good aim right into them.

Eyes: His eyes now, on top of making people think he is reading their mind, will actually make the persona feel as though thin, cold fingers are digging through information in their brain. Se is still not capable of reading minds, but he can pull up one bit of information and blow it out of proportion in the opponents' mind. This will force them to relive this for a full ten seconds, giving him time to attack. He can only do this once per week.

Piercing: Once a week, he is capable of using the rings to focus on one other person. Once he has located the opponent, he can force the other person to ram their heads into the nearest solid object once. After this they will find, often to their astonishment, that they are no longer able to see their opponent...only their eyes and a floating mouth. This looks exceptionally eerie and often causes the opponent to feel as though there are more than one of the caster. Over the course of two minutes the sensation of fear and paranoia increases to a screaming point. After the two minutes, the opponent will feel their minds falling apart at the seams as everything around them simply adds tantamount to the fear. The fear and paranoia will only stop when the caster allows it to or after a full hour.

Jack's Ability: He is able to spit fire balls (5 of them) from his mouth once a week.

King's Ability: The fire balls he spits now fly out with enough force to physically strike an opponent, as well as set them alight. The force is equivalent to being hit with a few bricks and extremely hard to dodge.
The last fire ball he spits will be extremely special. It will seem strangely wet and will coat a part of the person's body, burning into them unless they have a magical water/liquid spell or manage to put it out themselves by rolling frantically on the ground. Normal liquid will do nothing to stop the fire, nor will someone else trying to put out the flames.

[seraaches]

An aspect of Rai lurched suddenly away from the others, slamming his head into a nearby statue. The loud crack that accompanied it was nothing compared to the dazed look as it turned to try and face Perseus again. He blinked and shook his head, seeing eyes and a mouth and nothing else. It was frightening and creepy.

The actual Shinrai continued to creep closer, ducking suddenly when Se whirled and nearly catching a wingtip to his head. He cursed in his mind even as Se spat at the aspects and illusion still trying to keep his attention. He began to rise carefully when cold, spindly fingers dug into his brain. Oh, Light, the Lowlanders! The Lowlanders were attacking and they were going to get Shin! He couldn’t even scream as terror locked his throat closed. It was made all the more vivid by the fact that he had just seen the ghost of his dead brother not three days earlier.

The fireball passed right through the illusion and slammed into one of the aspects. It lit on fire and had the good sense to immediately drop to the ground and roll.

[seraaches]

Se didn’t immediately realize that the fireball had passed through an illusion; there was too much of his nightmares here, too much. . . He threw his wings back, screaming again, though no sound emerged. All those images of his father were in disarray, except one, one that seemed just as calm and cool as ever. He let another fireball go flying at it, but there was nothing there. The fireball flew through the illusion again, heading towards part of the audience rather than any of its intended marks.

Something brushed his wing and he pounced with a growl of rage, talon-esque fingers digging in swiftly as something gave way beneath them. He could smell the blood; it threw him further into a rage, further into the paranoia that tried to control him. No, he had to keep himself here. Despite what his mind and brother might think, he knew that sometimes he drifted off, and sometimes he saw things that weren’t really there. But this—his hands clenched into flesh—this was real and here and now.

[seraaches]

Pain broke the terribly memory’s hold as his own mind could not. Rai was running out of time; Se was ripping into his shoulder, and there was no way the younger man could have missed the truth about the illusion— not after a second fireball flew right through it. He had never bothered to actually try to keep his abilities a secret, but he was fairly certain the only one to who he’d actually revealed that particularly ability was the late Serafino. Still, he tried to get close enough to touch his son’s chest and only succeeded in briefly touching one of the hideous wings.

His son was on him in a trice. Rai tried to roll away, but he only managed to get part of the way away. Se’s nails ripped deeper into his right shoulder. Rai hissed in pain, swiftly blocking this particular injury from his mind as he battled off the vestiges of his brother’s death. He had to focus!

He pushed off the ground with his left hand, instinctively careful of it despite the situation. He reached upwards with his right hand; he had to reach the Queen symbol. He called the illusion and aspects back towards himself in desperation.

Basic Magical Ability: He can ignore moderate amounts of pain for up to ten minutes.

[seraaches]

Se leaned down over his father with a snarl; he could smell the man now, the scent of blood heavy in his nostrils. It was an encouraging smell, a lovely smell and he would love to just revel in it, but he caught movement in his peripheral vision. He gave a sickening grin as he saw the ‘cavalry’ attempting to ride in. Oh, no, this was exactly what he had been waiting for.

Se called his Queen’s Ability swiftly, and a perfect circle ruptured around them, cutting off the would-be reinforcements. He turned his head, spitting a fireball one way and then another off on almost the exact opposite side. The rock and earth spikes that surrounded them burst into flames, cutting off the aspects and probably most of the audience’s view.

He showed his teeth in a twisted smile, even though he couldn’t see the Queen, he knew he had the fight won now. “You may as well show yourself,” he tried to say, his mouth forming the words, though no sound could come out. “I have you now.”

Queen's Ability: Once a week he is now able to cause the ground around him to rupture in a perfect circle. He will be surrounded on all sides by five to six foot crags of jutting rock and earth which will form into spikes that he can squeeze through, but opponents cannot. If he uses two of his own fireballs, he can cause all of the spikes to be set alight with a flame that cannot burn him, protecting him form most outside attacks. If an opponent vaults over the spikes and tries to fight him from within, he will have them trapped in a small space surrounded by fire that cannot burn him XD The flames will last fro a full half hour and the earth will remain jutted up in that strange format even after he has left them.

[seraaches]

Rai’s head jerked around as the ground erupted around them, the crags varying in height by no more than a foot. In bipedal he likely could see over them quite well, but he might have to try a bit more in human. The flames flared up from Se’s fireballs and he started again in surprise at the control the other man was showing.

Se was wildly unpredictable. How had he managed to get this good? The aspects were trying to find a way through the flames and spikes, but it wasn’t working. Rai turned back to see Se’s mouth moving. He narrowed his eyes to read his son’s lips. He dropped his illusion, keeping the aspects at their attempts to get in; he definitely needed the back-up.

He quickly re-summoned his whip, this time to his left hand, hoping to distract Se further as he suddenly shoved his right hand to his son’s chest.

Amazing Ability: Once a week he is able to use the power of another Card against them. This does not stop them from having that power and they will know how to use it better, but he can use it to the fullest extent that they can and against them. In order to get this power to work however, he must first manage to touch their rank and/or suit symbol (meaning this won't work on Jokers). The other Card will then feel an odd and slightly painful tearing sensation as the hand is ripped away. He will then know of and have one of their powers of his choice at his disposal <3