Tamaranis

I contest that most of the rest of the world will seem much, much crueller the majority of the time. I mean, how cruel is it even possible for a forum to be? Too bad, Ntraveler. You're imaginitive and the stuff you write is fun to read, but you've got some rage/hostility/righteousness issues. ...I do wonder if he'll ever read all these responses. This brings to mind a bizzare train of thought about the nature of time...

And now I, also, work Saturday. What a black friday this is indeed.

“Ugarte! Bob!” Robby’s cry was shortly echoed by that of Llassar, but there was no response. They’d been searching the ruins of Ugarte’s estate for several hours without any sign of Robby’s wealthy alleged patron. Robby had recovered a servant’s uniform and had replaced the tattered and scorched rags he was wearing with it, without bothering to get his right arm into the sleeve, but that was the most exciting thing they’d found so far. “I heard something, there!” Llassar dashed to a pile of ruined stone and brick and began furiously digging Robby and Teq ran to aid him, but not quite as quickly as they had the first three times Llassar had thought he’d heard a muffled cry for help under the rubble. Teq was exhausted and the when the stiff fabric rubbed against Robby’s burns it was quite painful. Robby mused that if he were healthy he could have made faster progress than the three of them were now making by working together. Instead he dug weakly and only used his left hand. Teq was in a similar situation, lifting heavy pieces of stone with relative ease, but moving slowly from a mixture of blood loss and exhaustion. Then, to the surprise of all but Llassar, the rubble emitted a faint groan. Robby and Teq bent all their limited strength to the task now, and the three rescuers came to an intact section of wall between themselves and whoever was trapped within. “Robby?” Teq said. Robby shook his head, “I could knock a hole in it, but I might kill him. Let’s try to dig around.” Minutes passed and the digging continued. With all the injured and unaccounted for in the city there was no one else to help and the work went slowly. Eventually they managed to uncovered the broken edges of the small section of wall. The three of them lifted together and discovered a man trapped beneath. The man far too heavy-set to be Ugarte, but not nearly large enough to be Bob. He screamed as they lifted. He was lying in a dip in the rubble, which he must have fallen into just before the wall came down. The small, hollow space had saved his life but the lower half of one leg had not been in the dip with the rest of him, and had been crushed nearly to the point of being severed. He clawed at the legs of the companions, and begged for aid, nearly tripping Teq with disastrous results as they pushed the ruined stone completely clear of him. Once the nature of the injury became apparent Llassar began looking ill. “Llassar, go find a priest!” Teq ordered. Llassar gave a weak nod and staggered off to comply. “Your son hasn‘t seen combat before today, I take it.” Robby said as he attempted with only his left arm to stop the injured man’s thrashing, which could only worsen the injury. Teq kept his torso pinned as he spoke, “I’ve taught him how to use a sword, but you can’t teach some one how to deal with what the sword does.” Robby brought a knee into play in an effort to prevent any more blood from pouring out the injured leg. He debated trying to render the fellow unconscious, but decided it might be dangerous, as he didn’t really know what other sorts of injuries were at work here. “He did pretty well, I think.” “He’s just coming down from his battle-rush now, though” Teq said. Whatever he was going to add, conversation stopped when the thrashing of the injured man’s intact leg brought it suddenly into contact with Robby’s broken arm. Much to Teq’s relief Robby didn’t release the injured leg though he seemed to stop breathing for a moment. An undetermined period of time passed in silence with both men focussed on their injured charge before Llassar returned with an old, exhausted looking priest who himself sported a painful looking cut across his mostly bald head. Several more minutes passed as the priest recited prayers that his god mend this unworthy mortal flesh. The injured man stopped his mad attempts to escape, but Robby and Teq did not release him until the priest announced he’d finished. The man didn’t rise from the ground, instead he commented that his leg still hurt. “Oh yes, don’t walk on it, yet.” The priest sighed tiredly, “The bones will be very fragile for a few weeks.” Only then he noticed Robby’s arm, “It’s been splinted properly, Give it time.” And he tiredly moved on. Llassar and Teq managed to fashion crude crutches from the surrounding rubble, having only one useful arm Robby wasn’t of particularly great use in the process, and instead he wandered off, continuing to search the rubble. “Teq. Lassar.” He called in a voice that was calm but carried with it a certain urgency. Teq approached at a controlled jog. Llassar, alarmed by seriousness of Robby’s tone, drew his blade and approached more slowly. When they found Robby, however, he appeared to be in no danger. Robby reached into a hole he’d dug into the rubble and drew from it a handful of shining whitish coins. “Silver?” Llassar asked, not recognizing the metal they were made from. Robby tossed a coin to Llassar and when he caught it he was surprised by the heft. It was far too heavy to be silver, too heavy to be gold, even. “Platinum.” Robby said. Llassar turned to coin over in wonder, his home hadn’t been worth this coin. “You’re holding a small fortune,” Teq said to Robby, suspicion creeping into his voice. “And there’s a much larger fortune here.” Robby supplied, “The money Ugarte was willing to pay for Gyrfalcon‘s head.” “You knew this was here,” Teq said, “You came here to loot the ruins.” “I don’t like robbing the dead.” Robby explained, “but he hardly needs this now, and I intend to use this money for the same thing Ugarte would have. We can’t nearly carry all of it, but we can still hire a few swords on our way to kill Gyrfalcon."

So are you opening an RP with a poem, or is this in the wrong forum?

>, <

It doesn't seem to want to send me a validation email...

I didn't mean them to be anything, really. I was doing that thing where you indicate a variable word or phrase by putting it in those odd shaped brackets, as I have often seen done, the comma was in there because I was only doing that to be silly and the sentence seemed to benefit from a comma if you read it as: "It's FRIDAY, it's FRIDAY indeed." The >, < was just kinda there, and I noticed it afterwards. C'mon, get your head in the game here, Katz. I wouldn't say it was an accident if I'd done it on purpose. My brain isn't even shaped right to do that sort of thing on purpose. (Though it may benefit from removing the space, I'm not sure. Probably depends on the font type.)

<Title of this thread>, <Title of this thread> indeed. Hey, lookit! I accidently came up with an emoticon!

See? I warned you about her. Didn't I warn you?

New protective enchantments had been raised over Salinye’s hostel. These new enchantments were full of holes and much weaker than the ones that had been in place before. Tamaranis could have slipped through, or failing that, he could have dispelled a few and simply punched through with minimal effort. That would have been poor manners, though. Instead he placed his new location in the Hostel’s courtyard, and began walking, intending to gain access to the inside of the Hostel by more conventional means. He became immediately aware, however, of a collection of baleful energies. Holy symbols, Holy water, blessed blades, blessed armour, all the things the faithful used to destroy undead. It wasn’t a presence he welcomed, but considering recent events, it was a situation he was willing to accept. The situation seemed a little less willing to accept him, however. A pair of heavily armoured humans, one male and the other female, presumably paladins, moved to place themselves in his path. When Tamaranis kept on moving as if to walk straight through them, they drew swords. He stopped a few paces short of impaling himself on their blades. “My presence was requested, let me pass.” He stated simply. “Well look at you now, trying to waltz in here like you’re alive or something, not even bothering to hide what you are.” The woman challenged. “Not that you’d have been able to hide it from us, mind.” “I’m sure one of your employers mentioned I would likely be in attendance and warned you against trying to impede me.” Tamaranis responded. “Gyrfalcon said something about you,” Said the man, “said a vampire might show up in the middle of the day with his own personal darkness to hide him from the sun.” Tamaranis said nothing, waiting to hear the rest of what Gyrfalcon had told the man, “Never finished what he was saying, though” the paladin admitted, “he seems a busy fellow, I’ll have some one go ask what we‘re supposed to do about you.” If for some reason Gyrfalcon had assumed responsibility for repair of the hostel and defence of the hostel and the surrounding countryside, it might take hours for these holy warriors to actually bring him here to tell them to let Tamaranis though. Being a ranger, he might even be miles away personally ensuring the forests held no trace of the undead army that had attacked the hostel. “That’s alright, there will be no need to disturb Gyrfalcon’s busy schedule.” As much as the artificial darkness protected him from the sun, Tamaranis had no desire to spend the next several hours standing in it. He gathered the darkness to himself, intensifying it in preparation for another sudden shift in his location, it looked like he was going to be punching through those new defensive enchantments after all. “Oh no you don’t!” The two paladins advanced on where they had last been able to see Tamaranis, which was where he still mostly was. Tamaranis debated what course of action he should take over the next second or so. He could change the target location to somewhere not shielded, and by the time one of the swords reached where he was now his location would be too ill-defined for it to touch him. Being blind as they were in this darkness, he could parry the blades of the paladins for the few moments it would take to reach his current destination. He could even simply let the swords strike him and eliminate the small threat by snagging them in his body. Then again, mortals had been challenging him with impunity and seemingly without fear, of late. Something that would have to be corrected sooner or later, and preferably sooner. The Void, as always, encouraged Tamaranis to end life, and he felt inclined to indulge it, just now. Gyrfalcon wouldn’t appreciate the deaths of his mercenaries, and the others would likely echo that disapproval, but considering the circumstances they would probably forgive him this small indulgence. A blessed sword whizzed through the air where Tamaranis’ head had been as he leaned back, another plunged into his torso. Unlike ordinary steel, it caused actual pain. Tamaranis snapped the darkness outward, keeping it so total that anyone using light as a part of their sight in any way would be unable to see. Drow would have been blinded by this darkness. Only creatures such as undead, that saw what they gazed at through a mixture of magic and force of will, could see within this. At the same time, he drew his own sword and thrust it at the arm holding the one he was currently impaled on. Keeping the plane of the blade parallel to the offending arm, Tamaranis drove his sword through armour flesh and bone. It continued on, passing through flesh, then armour again. The arm was skewered rather than severed. Though he had the strength to remove it with a simple twist, Tamaranis didn’t bother, it was the arm of a mortal human, it was already made useless by the wound. Instead he simply pulled his sword straight back and free of the wound. Somewhere in the process the paladin that had stabbed him lost his grip on his weapon. Both paladins prayed, calling out to their god for light. The prayers were answered, but the normally potent lights only flashed briefly before being consumed by the surrounding darkness, accomplishing nothing more than confirming Tamaranis had neither advanced nor retreated. Both paladins showed stunning bravery by continuing the attack, the one with the ruined arm swung his shield, as there was no hope of recovering his sword. For his bravery, that paladin was rewarded with another ruined limb as Tamaranis drove his free hand into the oncoming shield with enough force to overcome both metal and bone. Tamaranis stepped forward, knocking the injured paladin to the ground and avoiding a downward stroke from his companion which, Tamaranis noted, nearly cost the prone man a foot. Turning to face the remaining paladin, who was now unsure of his position, Tamaranis spoke a single word of magic that sent the irritating sword still embedded in his torso rocketing outward. It struck the female paladin hilt-first. The impact would have been stunning, even injurious perhaps, if not for her armour, which made it merely distracting. Guessing his position by the direction the attack had come from, she stepped forward and swung her blade in a wide, obvious arc that Tamaranis easily intercepted. Anticipating retaliation, she brought her sword up in the desperate hope of parrying an attack she couldn’t see coming. Tamaranis obligingly brought his sword down on hers with inhuman strength. The force must nearly have broken her wrist, but she managed to hang onto the sword long enough to parry another blow, then she was weaponless. Tamaranis allowed the light to return almost to normal as he thrust his sword easily through her armour, neatly separating her heart into two halves. There he froze, still perfectly calm and controlled despite the violence he had just taken part in, allowing the would be undead-hunters a moment to realize how easily he’d dispatched two of their number. Rather than simply take in the sight, however, an unruly cleric took that moment to try and turn Tamaranis. The darkness that surrounded him flapped madly as if it were a cloak and a mighty wind were coming from where the cleric was standing, but otherwise Tamaranis didn’t react. The cleric continued on, unperturbed by Tamaranis’ lack of reaction. He channelled progressively greater quantities of divine energy, until it became too much and the greatness of it began to scorch his soul. And when that proved to be insufficient, he called for yet more power... “I’d stop that, if I were you.” Tamaranis’ voice was calm, commanding, “Your companion yet lives, but it’s a delicate thing, and you’re becoming something of a distraction.” The paladin he’d skewered was standing now only because her weight rested on Tamaranis’ sword, and he refused to move. Her blood had ceased to flow almost instantly when he struck, but her eyes still moved, frantically searching for some escape. She’d have cried out against the pain of steel embedded where steel was never meant to be, but she had no breath. “Repairing the physical damage shouldn’t be a problem with so many clerics about,” Tamaranis said, “And I won’t allow her soul to flee for some minutes yet, unless you should try to provide me with another distraction.” Having said that, he lowered his arm and allowed the paladin to slide free of his sword. Then he brought it down in an overhand slash at nothing, and brought it to a sudden halt just below shoulder level. The blood on the weapon continued on its path, leaving the weapon perfectly clean of it. He then sheathed the sword. “Let Praises be unto whatever lord you worship that you were in the employ of those I call allies when you attempted this foolishness.” Tamaranis said, still keeping his voice level, not allowing it to take on a mocking tone. The darkness enveloping him once again became completely and utterly obscuring. Suddenly it relented, and he was gone. *** Quite the opposite of the flash of light that usually accompanied teleporting magi, the space behind a chair in the meeting room became too dark to see for a moment, and then the darkness relented and Tamaranis was there. “Perhaps I could have afforded a delay after all,” Tamaranis said, noting only Salinye and Merelas were present as of yet. “No matter, good to see that both of you survived.”

Normally Robby was quite the climber so long as hand and foot holds were available. As long as there’s something to haul on it’s a matter of the ratio of strength to body mass. In this situation, however, with one arm that refused to work, and a lot of muscles in his torso fighting back when he tried to use them, getting down from the roof was a gruelling task that ended in a short fall, as that was less painful than more climbing. The demons in the process of sacking Tel Reth, however, didn’t seem interested in letting him stumble off to find a corner to hide in. The first one to spot him stood only three feet tall, but that was because it wasn’t really standing. It was vaguely humanoid, but was slouched far forward and occasionally using it’s hands as well as its feet to walk. For a moment they just stared at each other. Robby silently hoped maybe there was something wrong with its eyes, or maybe it would get distracted by something, he really didn’t feel like killing any more demons. He wasn’t so lucky though, because it suddenly and almost soundlessly began a charge. Robby anticipated that it would rise on two legs as it reached him, and placed a foot solidly in its throat. Though he was certain he’d crushed the creature’s windpipe, it didn’t stop. Whether it was already dead and too stupid to tell, or whether it wasn’t a serious injury, he couldn’t tell. The demon reached forward, trying to get a grip on the leg that had struck it, but moved to slowly. Robby maintained balanced and kicked again into the centre of its chest. This had little more effect than the last time, though the breaking bone was very audible. Then it managed to get a hold of him. He was lifted into the air by his head, and lashed out with his good arm at one of those holding him, and aimed a third kick at the creature’s head. Robby found himself rolling on the ground again, trying to keep his broken arm from being jarred. Rough earth grating against his burns was completely unavoidable and brought tears to his eyes. The demon, however, didn’t press the attack. Instead it rasped, stumbled, and fell, though exactly what had finally brought it down, Robby couldn’t say. Once he got to his feet he walked over and solidly booted it in the head, however. Two more, these ones, winged, and currently in the sky, seemed to notice the sound of that last impact, and swooped down to finish off one of the remaining defenders of Tel Reth. They danced in the air over Robby’s head, kicking at him with taloned feet. Robby made a good show of ducking, and lashing out with one hand. Talons striking him about the head and shoulders didn’t slice nearly as deeply as it seemed they should have, and in fact seemed to rebounded as if struck. Robby thought he probably managed to break at least one foot, but the shallow cuts through burned skin hurt terribly and he was going to slowly run out of blood at this rate. Provided he managed to keep both eyes in his skull. Suddenly one of the demons picking at him from the air shrieked and fell to the earth. Robby wasted no time in taking advantage of the situation. He fell, putting himself momentarily out of range of the one still in the air. As he fell, he brought one heal down on the prone creature’s back with all the force he could muster, knocking it back to the earth as it attempted to rise. It didn’t seem as resilient as the last one, and he had probably just broken its spine, but just in case, he kicked straight out at it as he hit the ground, sending it skidding across the street. A sword flashed out and severed the descending talon of the other demon. It started to ascend again, but the blade came again as it did so, opening it’s belly. The demon made it a fair ways into the air, but the wound was terrible, and spanned the entire width of it, it suddenly failed at holding in it’s innards, which began to tumble toward the earth. The demon shortly followed. The swordsman responsible offered Robby a hand to help him rise, which he accepted. The man was in reasonably better physical condition than Robby, which was good or he might not be standing, but appeared distraught, which was only reasonable. A younger swordsman who appeared quite unhurt but equally unnerved accompanied him. “Thanks for the hand,” Robby said. He couldn’t think of anything else to add. Probably they were all about to become part of the nameless number who nobly died in futile defence of Tel Reth. More demons came, but they showed no interested in the three. They ran perpendicular to the street, from intersecting streets and alleys on one side to intersecting streets and alleys on the other. For several minutes they were treated to a visual display of the vast array of monsters they were up against. Then no more demons appeared. A few more minutes passed, and a voice called out in victory somewhere in the city. A human voice. Others answered it, but neither Robby nor his two rescuers felt the inclination to shout for joy. *** “I’ll fix that arm for you, it‘s never going to heal right on its own.” “Actually, it will.” “Listen, this will only hurt for a moment, then the pain will be gone.” “No, trust me, it won’t.” “Listen, if you can rush out and fight demons to receive those wounds you can tough out two seconds of pain to heal the wounds.” And with that the armoured priestess Robby was arguing with abruptly seized his arm, twisted, pulled, and managed to line the bones up as they were meant to be. She murmured a healing spell as she did it, but the gentle sound of the prayer was no comfort to Robby. Unaffected by the healing magic, the pain of what she was doing had no barrier. He sharply exhaled, and managed for a moment to fight the urge to take the breath back in and scream. “Oh, it’s broken here, too,” She noted. It took every ounce of Robby’s will not to respond to the continued care with violence. Instead he nearly broke his free hand pounding it against the earth which, he realized, would have been a very unfortunate thing to do considering how the current healing was going. “Oh come on now, it doesn’t hurt that bad.” The priestess coolly informed him.

”Commander Kessic, look at this.” Kessic, commander of Ren’Rack orbital observation post 03 examined photos taken of a very strange something moving across a Maqqaran encampment. ”What is it?” He asked. "I don’t know, commander, I just spotted it a few minutes ago. I’ve never seen anything like it." Kessic flipped through the photos, studying the device. It possessed an assortment of projections that were not limbs, which meant they were weapons. As he flipped through them he noted the position of the Maqqaran soldiers. He came across a shot that seemed different somehow than the last, he flipped back and searched for the exact difference that had caught his eye. Ah, yes something on the ground, the arrangement of rocks and sand near the machine was different in one shot from the other. Upon examining closer for what might be responsible for this, Kessic spotted a man holding a grenade launcher. Had he fired on the device? Was this a test of its armor? It certainly seemed the weapon had been fired, but there was no obvious damage to the probe. Yes, they must be testing some new weapon down there. A research team hidden in plain sight, made to look like just another military encampment. He, Commander Kessic, Second Class would be the one who spotted it in the nick of time and acted swiftly to prevent the enemy from gaining an insurmountable technological advantage. He’d make first class for this, no, he’d be a general inside a year. *** The Maqqaran soldiers, caught up in examining the strange device that had followed Kregg to their encampment, weren’t ready for the air raid when it came. Tata-Ri'n scambled for cover, weapons, or their own aircraft, but the response came too slow. A few aircraft got off the ground, but only rose a few hundred meters, at most, before colliding with a collection of Ren’Rack missiles. Other missiles struck the ground and did not detonate, but instead emitted a strange field that bent light, creating a visible distortion. The distortion overtook Tata-Ri'n running to anti-aircraft guns that should already have been manned and they fell dead instantly. The probe’s pre-programmed response to the battering it was taking from shock waves and torn earth, which it interpreted as re-entry turbulence, was to retract it’s many limbs and simply roll with the blasts. It did this successfully until a missile many times its size struck it, and detonated in stages. For the first few hundredths of a second it took the missile to deliver its multiple warheads the probe’s armor held out, but one of the final warheads actually managed to penetrate the armor, and detonated within it, stripping the probe of it’s defenses. The next reached the delicate inner mechanisms. A Maqqaran response to the extermination of one of their encampments, down to the very last Tata-Ri'n, came quickly. Both sides rushed ground forces in to support their air, and the fighting continued into the night.

Note: The Hunt just sorta got moving again.

Robby caught the intense white glow of a gathering lightning bolt out of the corner of his eye. He immediately switched from a run to a dive, and felt the energy crackle overhead. For a brief moment his vision whited out, and he could feel his hair standing on end from the near miss. A spear apparently crafted out of ice that he hadn’t even been aware of was embedded in the earth next to him. He rolled to his feet searching for some sign of his attackers, and spotted a pair of creatures that didn’t seem to belong in this world. Both were naked and genderless, which usually meant some sort of inferior golem, but Robby couldn’t fathom deliberately crafting a creature to resemble either of these, except as gargoyles. One was nearly seven feet tall, and much too thin to be anything living. It’s skin was excessively taunt, as if it had been made for a much shorter creature. The other had the dimensions of a normal man, but rather that simply possessing skin, it also appeared to be scaled in places. Short hooks and spikes of bone emerged from its body seemingly at random locations that should have made movement awkward, but didn’t. Because it was closer, Robby dashed at the taller demon, but it chanted softly and vanished from sight before he reached it. The chanting continued for a moment, then abruptly ceased. Robby drove a fist at where he’d last seen its solo plexus, but met with nothing but air. It was either very quick, or was teleporting in addition to being invisible. Another icy spear came at Robby, this time from above. He swung a hand out and struck it mid-shaft. The spear shattered. The magical cold permeated Robby’s hand, abolishing all feeling, and the fragments that struck him were painfully cold. In sharp contrast to the cold, the lightning that struck him had a curiously warm feeling to it. Robby lost all coordination, managed to take a spastic step, and fell to the ground. He involuntarily thrashed for a moment, trying to regain control of his limbs, then lie utterly still. The shorter demon appeared over his unmoving form, and said something derisive in a language that seemed made for saying derisive things. Then Robby exploded into motion again. He didn’t know how quickly he could kill the demon, but they seemed to need to chant in order to use their magic, so he threw what was really a brawlers punch at its jaw with his good hand. The force behind it was astounding. The demon’s jaw cleanly snapped on the right side where he struck it, and messily snapped on the opposite side. Flesh and muscle were unable to absorb the shock and tore. The jaw hardly seemed to remain attached. The demon, shocked at the damage it had received, swung an arm out in a hasty attack, trying to ward his opponent off. Normally this would have been a disastrous manoeuvre, but when Robby reached out to seize the arm, his frozen hand didn’t respond properly. It opened too slowly, and ended up simply striking and sliding across the demon’s arm. His fingers caught on one of the hooks, stripping flesh off, possibly to the bone, but Robby couldn’t feel the injury. The demon swung its other arm, this time more deliberately, but Robby lashed out at the wrist with his good hand. A hook curved close to the wrist snapped off, and its arm was knocked away, but the demon’s wrist itself remained intact. Before the creature could react, Robby brought a knee into an unprotected portion of the creature’s chest. He hadn’t been able to target any specific organs, and he wasn’t ever sure where they’d have been in this creature, but there was the satisfying sound of snapping ribs. The demon stumbled backward, almost toppling, and Robby didn’t let up that attack. He hammed at the torso with his fists, waking forward to stay with the demon as he drove it back. He couldn’t quite seem to deliver the same force with his frozen hand, but in a matter of seconds the demon collapsed with the hooks covering it’s torso shattered. None of its assorted vitals, assuming it had any, could have survived the assault. Thankfully it showed no signs of regenerative abilities. Then Robby heard a sizzle behind him. He managed to get a few steps away before something struck him, sending him careening through the air. Intense, painful heat washed over him, and he simply curled up and focused on making sure he didn’t get sliced in half colliding with some random object. Robby didn’t see the street coming and struck it gracelessly. Unable to figure out which way was up, he just protected his head until he came to a stop. Once he did he scrambled to his feet, and was relieved to discover both legs still firmly attached after the blast. A quick visual check confirmed both arms still mostly intact as well. He wasn’t sure about how much skin he had left, however. A third ice spear came at him, seemingly from nowhere. Robby barely managed to stay on his feet as he leaned under it. He was forced to simply dive for the ground to avoid a fourth. He got to his feet and ran as best he could in the direction the ice had come from, searching for some telltale sign of the demon’s location, but something unseen caught him in the chest and pitched him back onto the street. Robby again staggered to his feet, and managed to catch a few syllables of the soft chanting that accompanied the demons’ spells. The creature was standing atop a two story home and shop, and seemed to almost be waiting for Robby to notice it. Robby darted for the entrance, narrowly avoiding a blast of lightning launched from the rooftop. He turned a shoulder to the door and ran into it, smashing it off its hinges as he ran through and into the shop. Quickly he spotted the stairs, and dashed up to the second floor where the shopkeeper had lived. His corpse was there, but there was no time to mourn strangers. Robby quickly gained access to the roof, but the demon who had been there moments before was now nowhere to be seen. Then he heard the chanting again. A moment later he spotted the creature on a rooftop across the street. The demon smiled and raised its arms. Robby dashed toward the demon and the edge of the roof. A tiny flaming missile shot from the demon’s hands to the building Robby was on. Robby leapt from his rooftop. The side of the building facing the street disintegrated in a fiery blast. Robby twisted in the air to face the explosion, bringing his arms up in front of him, as if trying to shield himself from the blast. The shockwave raced out and struck him. Robby shot across the open air between himself and his opponent. Unlike with the previous blast, he retained control of his orientation in the air. His feet met with the demon’s face. The demon’s head visibly changed shape as the skull split apart at the point of impact. Several vertebrae in the long neck shattered to facilitate the head snapping backward a whole 180 degress. Robby, unable to stop the momentum he’d gained from the blast, continued on past the demon, nearly rolled off the opposite side of the roof after coming down. For a moment, Robby didn’t move. From where he was he could see the tall demon was completely and irrevocably dead, but he didn’t feel much better. Most of him was burned, particularly his arms. The hand that had been frozen had gone through a partial and instant thawing with that last blast of flame. That in itself was painful, and feeling was unpleasantly returning to the torn fingers. That arm seemed to have gotten broken just now, too, through at exactly which point in his wild ride through the air he couldn’t say. Probably ribs were broken here and there from being knocked about as he had been. It was tempting not to move just now. But this building was on fire. Probably the whole city was on fire. There were demons about, and as much as he hurt now, Robby knew it would be worse if he fell into their possession. The burns he told himself, only hurt, they wouldn’t stop him. The general bruised and battered feeling of his torso was a little worse, it might become a problem depending on what sort of shape his was actually in, but for now that was just more pain, he could cope. The broken arm and ruined hand were different. That would slow him down and put him in a disadvantage if he had to fight again, but one arm still worked well, and he could kill a man easily enough with one hand. He’d been built to walk away from worse than this. And he really didn’t have a choice. Robby clenched his teeth and slowly started to get back up.

Heh, I guess we'll be finding out what went down soon enough. I'm personally of the belief that a language is a language and nothing more, and it's awfully silly to form a federal party in order to look out for a specific province... but that's just me.

*Tamaranis concludes that the brain damage has gotten worse, and he's seeing things now.*

And here I thought you were going to come to my aid or something... ...I guess that noogie caused some brain damage.

It leads to confusion as to whether some one is suffering from some unidentified "stomach bug" or influenza, which are very different things.

Well I did, but that's not really what we're going for here.

You really should try to avoid the use of this term, as there's technically no such thing.

It's odd, actually. Of the people I know, almost no one supports the conservatives, and yet they seem to be ahead in the polls. I know they're not bogus polls because I've helped conduct them... Anyway, the conservatives call themselves the conservatives because they're anti-abortion, seem to have a secret anti-homosexuals agenda of some sort, and generally seem to be against the sort of social movements we've come to associate with a first world country. Also, I think they hate the french. They've got this odd notion that they can triple military spending or some such. Canada's military is really hurting, but I don't know where that money is supposed to come from... The liberals want to push through legislation making gay marriages legal... This seems to be the only thing they're willing to actively take a role in doing, as politics is about not upsetting anyone. Strange thing to do since it upsets a lot of people. Oh, they're also all about gun registry. But they can't seem to figure out what the hell they're doing with regards to that.

Well maybe move the comment and delete the thead? I guess I could just repost the comment myself...

Eh, I wouldn't have offered random "drive by" feedback if I'd been aware there was already a thread... Just delete this one, if you'd be so kind.

Maybe if I start the thread, some of our excellent reviewer types will review it. The thread certainly has a lot of views. It's getting read for sure... I suck at reviewing things, but I'll give a little bit of something you might technically consider feedback. I did not see that coming.

Actually, I think a minority government might be a good thing... If they do the "govern properly because they can't get away with evil" thing instead of the "do nothing at all because they're afraid the other parties will gang up on them, out-vote them, and bring anarchy to the country. Or something"