So...who wants? Hmm? Anyone!? Bring it!!
Lets see if I've been gone so long that Luna or Crono have to defend my vet status again...LOL.
*** ****it. I JUST started a fight, like today, and there's no way I can do two. Where the hell have you been?
yea, maybe im up to it, I gotta wait another three weeks for Nido, so why not?
Oh ho! Fresh fish. I figured I'd be taken by some new talent. Very well then, have at thee. Arena or first strike?
The snow fell. An indiscriminate blanket of ice. The mountains a pillow upon which the village rested.
Snow crunched underfoot, the only noise that could be heard for miles. A lone traveler walked through the snow, an ant. The wind from the mountains crept up on him, an overbearing bully trying to steal his too-thin jacket away, and whipping falling snow into his face. Still he walked on. Lips frozen with blood from hundreds of tiny cracks in the tissue, beard hung with icicles, he focused solely on his destination, eyes half closed against the gnawing wind.
He was becoming numb. Slowly but surely, he was loosing feeling in his extremities. It drained out of him, as if someone had poked holes in his toes and in his fingertips, and were slowly pulling it out of him. His hands could barely clutch his cloak anymore, and his thoughts just focused on the village in front of him, nestled comfortably at the base of the enormous mountains. A mile away, maybe. He was almost there, he could make it. His feet became blocks of ice at the end of his legs, each step a concerted effort. The ground began so slope upward, after miles of travel across the frozen desert. His movements were now beginning to become more robotic, every step taking too much thought, forcing his mind from his destination and onto himself. It was so cold. He knew that something was wrong, that he was doing something wrong, but he couldn’t think. The wind forced its way through him, wiping the slate clean with every gust, forcing him to refocus every time. His eyes were beginning to fail, and his mind was playing tricks on him. He didn’t know where he was, he couldn’t remember, all he knew was that he felt odd, like he was standing in quicksand. His eyes shifted upward, toward the village. By now, he was close enough to see details in the buildings, close enough to see something on one of them. His face contorted with recognition as his eyes went dark. A final gust of wind tore down the mountainside.
Edgar watched from his vantage point, high atop the old buildings. His face was grim as he watched the traveler fall, disappointment rocked through him. This wasn’t the one he was waiting for, he wasn’t strong enough, so Edgar resumed waiting.
The snow fell gently here, where the wind had no room to pick up speed from the cascading range of Himalayan mountains. It dusted everything in the village, a loving caress and muffling blanket here, making the village feel timeless in its antiquity. Edgar strolled through its cobbled streets, meandering his way back to his vantage point atop the temple that sat overlooking the village. The shirpa had brought him to the monks that inhabited the temple, who had let him stay there. So now Edgar stood, occasionally glancing out across the plains of ice, waiting.
OoC: sorry about the wait. I got busy, and I couldnt really get the beat to the writing that I wanted, but its just an opener, so I figured i'd post it so we could get underway.
[COLOR="LightBlue"]::Hours must have passed....days possibly. This far north the veil between dawn and dusk seemed thin indeed. This was where it was to happen, but the Other should have shown himself by now. He'd felt the presence descend upon his world, and knew that it would be here that their paths crossed. He should be close. He has to be.::
::Just as he'd begun to let these thoughts sway him, another figure, a speck in the maelstrom, flickered upon the horizon. Edgar's keen eyes caught sight of a figure in white and black, with a long blond ponytail flitting at the whim of the wind, followed closely by long white skirting flowing from his hips. Thick gloves matched thick boots, purest white. He smiled with anticipation when he noted what followed behind.::
::An enormous silvery sword hung from his back, very easily as tall as the figure itself, glistening in the dull gray miasma, as if defying the haze with it's own radiance. It loomed vast and ominous behind him, like some barely tame creature waiting to lash out.::
::As Edgar continued to size the man up, he noted the figure had halted his progress some few hundred yards away. Was he ready? Was that the ground he'd picked for their duel? ...Should Edgar oblige him?::
::He squinted against the frost in the air and caught the barest glint of a sinister smile playing across the stranger's almost delicate features. So curious was he that it almost slipped his notice that the stranger's hand had slowly come over his shoulder, and taken hold of the massive weapon at his back. What was this? What sort of...?::
::Then, in a whirl of white powder, the figure vanished into thin air, but Edgar knew what to expect from this. He reached for his own weapon and brought it to bear just in time to land a strong parry against the stranger, who'd appeared once more just a few feet above him, poised to strike a vicious downwerd slash that sent then both entirely through the roof of the monastery, down some fifty feet into and through it's ancient hardwood floors.::
::With cvarefully placed jabs and kicks along the way down, the stranger had made sure that Edgar would recieve the lions share of the punishment from the fall. On his back, of course. The stranger, however, landed on his feet. Unfortunately for Edgar, those feet were planted squarely on his chest when they landed. Now the stranger stepped backward, relieving the strain on his chest, only to shatter a few ribs when he kicked Edgar across the Chapel and into a row of pews.::
::The Stranger, who had the look of an Angel incranate, save for the vicious smile on his face, finally spoke.::
"Well met, foe. I am Lord Coren Donovanis. High General of the Aegis Templar and bound by blood to Gabriel himself. Your world is now mine by virtue of the UUC's Darwin Act. I have come to cleanse it. Starting with any class A threat I find. That might just mean you. But class A's usually fight till the very end. You decide your worth in our history from here on. Have at thee!"[/COLOR]