Guardian Quest...

[Cruentus]

This is a story about a mage. Who loved and lost and never truly recovered. You battled incredible odds and won, more or less, but the cost was too great and you, and others, paid the price for doing the right thing. Still all stories start somewhere and a new one is beginning. But first where are you?

[] A small tropical world where you laze away in early retirement. A bit boring but the works decent.

[] A fairly comfortable prison cell where you've been for years. The memories are still painful.

[] An inscrutable fortress tower on a world of mages. You don't sleep much.

Bit short, but I couldn't make up my mind where the starting point should be. Also the three choices are easy , medium, and hard. Since it's fairly obvious which is which I leave it to y'all.

Already have one vote for hard mode.

 

[Xicree]

[X] An inscrutable fortress tower on a world of mages. You don't sleep much.

 

[Murderhobo of Lasombra]

[X] A fairly comfortable prison cell where you've been for years. The memories are still painful.

 

[kinglugia]

[X] A small tropical world where you laze away in early retirement. A bit boring but the works decent.

 

[MHLord]

[X] A fairly comfortable prison cell where you've been for years. The memories are still painful.

 

[redaeth]

[X] A fairly comfortable prison cell where you've been for years. The memories are still painful.

 

[Darik29]

[X] A fairly comfortable prison cell where you've been for years. The memories are still painful.

 

[shiki11]

[X] A fairly comfortable prison cell where you've been for years. The memories are still painful.

 

[Cruentus]

And voting is now locked. Sadly you won't be fighting against great old ones and the like, though don't get too comfy.

Now I shall write.

 

[Cruentus]

[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kUTxAIYgBQ[/embed]​

"Where's everybody else?" The woman asks without turning from watching the depths of madness that lay just beyond the open gate in front of her.

"All dead." You say somberly as you watch her outlined in the light. "The creatures are starting to gate in all over the place, and magic hardly has any effect on them."

"I see." she says quietly, almost to herself, "and the mass weapon in orbit?"

You shuffle a bit. Discomforted by the thought of using such a device. History had shown the results of such things. It went against everything the Bureau stood for and everything you had been taught. "Are you certain about this captain?" You say trying to keep the begging from your voice. "Surely there has to be a better way. Maybe if we call in reinforcements?"

"Is the weapon ready Lieutenant Aren." She says again, her voice far more forceful than you expected it to be. For a few minutes there is a stillness between the two of you. The glimmering light of the chaos in front of her makes her look even more beautiful than she normally does.

"Yes Ma'am it is." You say in bitter defeat refusing to look away in shame for not trying to stop this stupidity.

"Good, In that case I want you to head there now and wait. Once I've closed the gate my device will send you the signal to fire." She still hadn't looked at you yet.

"What about you?" you almost shout. The deathly silence that has fallen over the temple since the breach alert was cut seems to stifle even the loudest of sounds.

She doesn't answer for a moment., as if contemplating her answer before she finally turns to face you.

Whatever she said next was drowned out by the horror of seeing her once gorgeous face completely torn away leaving nothing but muscle, bone, and scraps of rotten flesh. You scream in horror as you raise your device to attack the abomination. Only to be engulfed in a black flame that consumes you into nothing, and leaves you in darkness.




You groan in misery as you wake up in your bead on Orbital Prison one situated over some nameless uninhabited world. The nightmare is still fresh in your memory as you get up and stumble over to the sink built into your cell. Normally cells in orbital prisons weren't meant to come with a shower and a sink. But you are a special guest here and so have special privileges, mainly so that you do not come into any physical contact with any of the other prisoners or prison personnel.


It suits you just fine. After all the years you've been in your little box you find yourself less than giving a shit about the outside world. The door to your cell was closed a long time ago, there really isn't a calendar anywhere in the cell, and has never been opened since. Food and clean clothes are delivered via teleport spell. You haven't seen another human face in years. Which is why it comes as a shock to you when the door suddenly grinds open with a sharp squealing sound just as you were reaching for a towel to dry your face off.

Dropping the towel to the floor you stand in nothing but your underwear and with a dripping wet face at whoever is standing in the light of the doorway.


Who's there?

[] A man and a woman. The former with purple hair the latter with blond.

[] It's just some blond woman from the Enforcers, they've never changed their uniform it seems.

 

[Silversun17]

[X] A man and a woman. The former with purple hair the latter with blond.

 

[Robotninja]

[] It's just some blond woman from the Enforcers, they've never changed their uniform it seems.

 

[MHLord]

[X] It's just some blond woman from the Enforcers, they've never changed their uniform it seems.

 

[Bloodshifter]

[X] It's just some blond woman from the Enforcers, they've never changed their uniform it seems.

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] It's just some blond woman from the Enforcers, they've never changed their uniform it seems.

 

[kinglugia]

[X] It's just some blond woman from the Enforcers, they've never changed their uniform it seems.

 

[Cruentus]

Vote lock...

writing...

 

[Cruentus]

[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aizCMO-mI1Q[/embed]​

As your eyes adjust to the bright light from the hallway you're finally able to make out the person standing in the doorway. She's young, and rather pretty you can't help but notice. The long blond hair and red eyes really go with the black and silver of her uniform. It's also not hard to guess why she's staring at you with slightly widened eyes and just the faintest, almost not there blush on her cheeks. Clearly she hadn't been expecting this, hell neither were you. "Uh, Hi?" You ask more than greet. The weirdness of seeing an actual human face after so long leaving you flat footed.

She seems to shake herself a bit at the sound of your voice before clearing her throat. "Are you Aren Sornisan ex Enforcer of the TSAB?" She asks in a soft voice. It's a bit distracting honestly. She radiates a soft feminine grace that you haven't been around for a while.

You glance around your mostly bare room as if making sure you're the only one in it. Really all it consists of is a sink, a bead, a small shower stall, and a small shelf full of books that gets swapped out at the end of the month, mostly fantasy books, before turning back to face her. "I think so." Was your reply.

She raises an eyebrow. "You think so?" You can hear her trying to keep the incredulity in her voice to a minimum.

You give a careless shrug. "I was when they put me in here, but I might not be now." There is a small awkward pause as you both stare at each other. "I mean I might have gone crazy or something at some point." You finished lamely. Suddenly you don't feel all that smart.

The woman continues to give you a blank look for a moment before blinking it away. "Mr. Sornisan My name is Fate Harlaown an Enforcer with the Time Space Administration Bureau."

"That's nice." You say absently as you scratch the stubble on you face, you need to shave. "And what brings you to my little hole? Last I checked the sentence was no human contact period." You were still kind of sore about that point. Ya the radiation from the gate breach had apparently put a stop to your ageing, but it wasn't like you were dangerous to be around. You still wonder who you pissed off that got that part of your sentence slapped on you.

"I read your file." She says, which gets your attention fast. She had to BE or KNOW someone if she had gotten her hands on that. Or she could have just stole them. But she didn't look the type to do something like that. "Most of it was blacked out." She continued. "However it did say you were part of the Infinity Gate crises is that correct?"

A cold shiver runs up your spine as a brief image of that flickering chamber returns to your mind. You shove it ruthlessly to the back of your mind and glare at the woman. "what has that got to do with anything?" You almost growl. "The gate is gone. So there shouldn't be any reason to bring something like that up." You finish a bit too shortly to hide your anger.

Her eyes widen a bit, she has very expressive eyes, before she replies. "Um perhaps it would be best if we sit down some where more comfortable and discuss this there?" She sounds a bit off put by your tone. You find you don't really care too much.

"I can't leave this cell." You deadpan. Sure she was cute, or maybe that was the no human contact thing again, but now she was getting kind of annoying.

She smiles, it's a calm, peaceful smile that makes you want to start punching rabbits in the face. "Not anymore." She says.

"What…" Your mind blanks for a minute as you replay that in your head.

Seemingly ignoring your shock she continues. "As of today you've been given a conditional release, with possible parole. Provided you follow directions of course."

"And those conditions are…" You ask leadingly after you recover from your disbelief.

She glances around the room briefly, a small wrinkling of her nose revealing her thoughts on your cell, suddenly you're self conscious of the fact you are still only in your boxers. "Like I said we should discuss this in a better setting. If you'll follow me?" She asks, even as she turns to go back down the hallway.

"Wait!" You call. She stops and half turns to look back at you. "What's the date?" You ask.

"It's 0073 of the new calendar." She replies back, before continuing down the hallway. Leaving you frozen in shock once again.

0073? But that means you had been in your cell for nearly seventy years! Had they really kept you here that long? "Those bastards you mutter under your breath…

[] Catch up with Fate.

[] Get dressed, THAN catch up with Fate.

 

[Odysseus2099]

[X] Catch up with Fate.

For Nudity!

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Catch up with Fate.

 

[MHLord]

[X] Get dressed, THAN catch up with Fate.

 

[shiki11]

[X] Catch up with Fate.

 

[Silversun17]

[X] Catch up with Fate.
we have been in that cell for 70 fucking years! WE DO NOT GIVE A SHIT!

 

[Xicree]

[X] Catch up with Fate.

 

[Grimmair]

[X] Catch up with Fate.

 

[Cruentus]

Vote locked.

Writing....

 

[Cruentus]

[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqV9j6jrvlE[/embed]​

You have just had the unpleasant truth of your long stay in prison dropped on you like a ton of rocks. The last thing you want to do is wear the reminder of that fact. So fuck the clothes, little Miss. Thing will just have to deal with your sexy bod. "Huh," you say out loud in mild consternation. It seems not even a minute outside and your smart assery is already coming back.

Not a good sign.

You head out of the room, not even pausing for the dramatic first step thing, because fuck that noise, and make a cursory glance of the hallway as you catch up to Fate. It's only the second time you've seen it, the first being when you were thrown in, and time hasn't done it much good. For the most part it's fine, but there's dust everywhere and here and there the lights in the corners of the ceiling flicker, some being burnt out entirely. "What did those assholes do? Put me down here and forget about me?" You mutter to yourself.

It must of been louder than you thought because the blond Enforcer ahead of you responds. "Not intentionally. After they put you in here something happened and the people who knew you were here disappeared."

"Disappeared?" You say incredulously.

"Yes, apparently they were caught in a plot to develop mass weapons and were dismissed from duty. After that…" Here she gives a small shrug. "They drop off the record. I tried to hunt down where they may have gone, but all I could find were dead ends."

"That doesn't make any sense." You complain. "They were the ones who threw me in here! Why the hell would they go and do something like that?"

"My guess is they didn't." She says. you can't see her face, but her voice clues you onto the fact she doesn't like the situation. "Somebody wanted you to be forgotten. The only reason I found you was because I have a friend in the Infinite Library that's good at what he does."

It's about now that you reach the elevator to the higher floors, yours is on the bottom level. The door is hanging open as well. Judging by the squeal that your door made when it opened you guess that nobody had been around for maintenance in a while. Best to keep them open in case they decided to die after sealing you both in.

As she enters the elevator she finally turns to face you and notice that you're not wearing anything but your underwear. Again that almost unnoticeable blush comes to her face as she stutters a bit in surprise. "Wh….why didn't you get dressed first?" She asks, a small hint of panic in her voice. It's clear she isn't used to handling a six foot tall guy that had nothing to do but read and exercise for the past seventy years standing quite so close to her. Which is weird now that you think about. She's definitely pretty enough to get hit on at least a little bit.

"I've spent enough time in prison clothes." You say, a familiar and long missed smirk coming to your face. "Why? Like what you see?" At your response her eyes narrow a bit and a small frown of disapproval forms on her face. Ouch, you didn't think she would take it that badly.

Choosing to ignore you she takes a small security card from one of her pockets and slides it through the reader near the door, causing the inner doors to swish closed and soon you are rocketing up to the security checkpoint and hanger bay.

All is awkwardly quiet for a bit before you think of a question to break the silence. "So what about whoever handles my books, food, and clothes? Surely they'd know I was down here."

She stays quiet for a moment before replying. "Those were all handled by the computer system. Nobody was actually monitoring where some of their supplies was disappearing to. In fact that was how I found your cell. When I arrived all i knew was that you were here."

Your eyes widen in surprise. "Shit man, somebody really didn't want me to be found huh."

Again her eyes narrow a bit, but if it's from your cursing or who she imagines was responsible for your vanishing in a puff of conspiracy and paper work you can't tell. "Yes it does seem that way."

Everything returns to awkward silence again as she sinks into her thoughts and leaves you to stew in your own. Really what could have changed so much since you were thrown into that cell that caused all this to happen? Maybe you should just ask her what it was she wanted with you? On the other hand she seemed kind of determined to wait until you were somewhere else, you have a notion that she might not want to be found letting you out of your cell and heard giving you information that she herself might not have been meant to have. Still it couldn't hurt to ask right?

[] Ask about why she needs your help.
[] If she refuses ask her why she's snooping.
[] if she refuses leave it be.
[] Write in.

 

[Odysseus2099]

Huh, when I voted to just follow her I meant to imply that we had forgotten to put on clothes because it had been so long since we had done so. I'll be more clear next time. We've been locked in a cell for 70 years, we should be playing up the insanity for all it's worth.

[X] Wonder aloud how long this hallucination will last this time.
-[X] I mean really, its even less realistic than the normal ones. A beautiful girl shows up out of the blue and lets you out of your cell for poorly defined reasons? Your subconscious must be slipping.

 

[Cruentus]

You'll have more chances to be a nut once you get outside. Aren is a guy that comes from a time where the TSAB was far more militaristic than they are now. It wasn't too long after the Unification war had ended and there were A LOT of Belkin artifacts, and weapons scattered absolutely everywhere. With all kinds of pirates and two bit empires fighting over salvage.

You are literally a man out of his time.

 

[Odysseus2099]

edited my vote a bit, more detail.