>>158937
Spend some time with Everett, Jai, Dahlia and see if Pyramus wants to hang out as well.

Having other people around you could be good. Also tell Everett that you don't blame him for what happened. It was the Arks fault, they're the ones to blame. Not him for wanting out of a fraternity that demands that their members mutilate themselves.

>>158952
>Making some friends in the Authority could be good for our health.
Or, you know, not. The only people we should be really trusting is our current circle of friends. Period.

Dio needs to talk with Everett and see how he feels about all this. It's pretty important to get his input.

I think we should show the video to Orpheo as well.

Brom 2010/04/03(Sat)13:37 No. 158990 ID: f98e0b
File 127032702259.png - (162.75KB , 800x600 , 89.png )

Dio has been generally avoiding Everett, but whatever. He asks around for him and finds him in the library.
"Hi," he says.
"Hey," says Everett.
"I'm sorry about, you know."
"It's cool."
"It wasn't your fault, man. They were just- you know."
"Yeah."
"Okay."

That could have gone better.

>>158990
Well tell him that if he ever needs anything or feels like hanging out he just has to ask.

Then find Dahlia and see if she wants to hang out. Maybe have Pyramus around as well. He's been on his alienation and has been a combat mage for some time, he should understand what you're both going through.

>>158990
Ah... hmm. Not much for small talk, but you still want to offer something as a gesture of goodwill, like being there if he needs help or something. A quiet bro is still a bro.

How about you just extend your hand and say "If you ever need anything, like for kicking ass or whatever, I'm there, ok?"

We should talk to Jai first.

>>158990
"Say... what are you gonna do?"

Invite him to a movie night with the group or something. We need to let him know it's cool without outright saying it (again), and resuming normal friend behaviour is a good way to do this.

Then set to work inviting other people to said movie night. We're all buds here.

"Seriously, man. I'm happy you and Jai are dating. Don't let this get to you. Me and Dahlia are both battlemages, we can look after ourselves, especially now that we know to keep our eyes open.

Is there anyone else you can think of who might be targeted by those Ark guys?"

Ask him how he sees out of that mask. I don't see any eye-holes!

>>158990

Leave.

>>159137
Black is see-through.

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)08:26 No. 159485 ID: f98e0b
File 127039476360.png - (158.92KB , 800x600 , 90.png )

>>159137
Thaumaturgists don't need eyes to see.

"Seriously, man. I'm happy you and Jai are dating. Don't let this get to you. Me and Dahlia are both battlemages, we can look after ourselves, especially now that we know to keep our eyes open. If you ever need anything, like for kicking ass or whatever, or if you just want to hang out, I'm here, okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay. Bye." Dio turns to leave.
"Dio." says Everett. Dio turns around. "Thanks."
"No problem."

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)08:28 No. 159489 ID: f98e0b
File 127039493217.png - (214.74KB , 800x600 , 91.png )

And about a half hour later Dio's back on his favorite dock, watching the ocean with Dahlia.
"I had no idea there was a pier here," says Dahlia.
"Few people do," says Dio. "It's where I sometimes go to, you know."
"Feel all quiet and reflective?"
"Yeah. We killed people."
"They would have killed us, but yeah. We killed people."
They sit in silence for a bit.

+10 friend points.

dreamfolk: appear to bug dio about how him and dahlia sit in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)08:31 No. 159491 ID: f98e0b
File 127039508649.png - (217.96KB , 800x600 , 92.png )

And then Pyramus and Jai show up out of nowhere.

"Hey," says Pyramus. "I brought turkey sanwiches."
"Not hungry," says Dio.
"Yes you are," says Jai.
"Yes I am," says Dio, taking one.

They eat in silence.

>>158986
Talk to Dahlia about this. Her father might want to see the video too, eventually.

First get that birth control charm implanted inside your body.
After that, spend the day with Dahlia and Pyramus. Also, look into better ways of quickly communicating with each other and practice them.
It is not possible to overstate the utility of quick, secure, and/or undetectable communication. If possible, find a way for one of you to piggyback on the other's senses, and look into being able to show each other memories - not a general sharing, just making it possible to intentionally send one through the link.

>>159494
oh wow, you are late as hell with those suggestions.

>>159491
Dahlia is looking for reassurance. Move closer and offer to put your arm around her.

>First get that birth control charm implanted inside your body.

That seems a little, uhm, extreme?

However, the ability to set up some kind of secure 'comm network' in case of threats sounds handy.

comm network = yes
implantation = no

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)08:59 No. 159502 ID: f98e0b
File 127039675471.png - (219.42KB , 800x600 , 93.png )

>>159494
Dio will breach the subject at another time. He's not implanting the charm inside him, that's just weird. What if he wants kids, some day?

Jai says, "I remember my first kill."
"Aye, me too. Everyone does, I s'pose," says Pyramus, skipping a stone across the water, bouncing it aloft with Evocation every time it looks about to sink. "Sticks wi' ye."

"It was... let's see. On my Alienation. Bandit. He tried holding me at knifepoint and got all handsy. I didn't mean to. It was just supposed to push him off. I guess it was the stress or something but instead his torso ended up twenty feet away from the rest of him."

"I was guarding a caravan for the Qal," says Pyramus. "Looter. I told him to stop but he didn't. I grabbed him and he panicked, I guess. Pulled a knife and ended up a pile of ash. We all go through it. Ye're lucky ye both can at the same time."

"I just twisted my wrist and his neck opened and it just got everywhere," says Dahlia, suddenly. Dio puts out his hand and she takes it. "I'd practiced the move hundreds of times, on glamors and dummies and in bouts. It was so...easy to kill someone, even a mage. Just...slice, spurt."
"We're battlemages," says Jai. "Soldiers, sort of. It'll always be easy."
"But the first one's the hardest," muses Pyramus, flicking his arm and jumping the rock back into his hand, then throwing it again. "Ye're both growin' up, an' into some of the first promising damn illusionist battlemages we have. This'll pass, mostly."

>>159502
Odd, I suppose entire masses of people can get through their whole lives without killing. But that's because their protection, their killing, falls to us.

>>159502

"Would it have been whole different if we were the attacker? Do those kills count? Being a killer?"

>>159505
That's a terrible thing to say. Don't say that.

Are you really the first promising illusionists? Act surprised at this at first (unless you knew about it beforehand) and then nod about how it's a lot less straightforward, y'know, sneaking up with knives via magic instead of just blasting with raw firepower.

Say that you want to try another magic duel against a standard battlemage soon. I know you just had a traumatic experience, but that's why you need to get back on the horse as soon as possible, before fear and guilt can start getting in the way.

>>159507
agree on all counts. the sooner that horse is going again the better

>>159507
And, the sooner you find out about any potential psychological ramifications that may apply in combat scenarios, the better.

Don't want to find out you hesitate with a knife now when you DON'T have those battlesuits keeping you alive.


Oh, offer to teach Dahlia Entomb if she doesn't know it, and maybe she can teach you blind. I mean, both illusionists, so it should be teachable, and it would be a bonding experience.

Not to mention trying to teach someone else how to do something you know usually ends with you having an even better grasp of how to employ that knowledge yourself.

>>159502
"I think the one thing I'm afraid of the most is that I might have liked it."

>>159507

Sounds like a plan to me.

>>159509
Feel free to describe your kill.
Say you want to practice fighting as a team and fighting outnumbered.
Can you and Dahlia go on alienage together?

Give him more time, jeeze, killing people is bad, don't numb yourself to it.

>>159514
Except Dio DIDN'T like it. He was pretty clear on that.

>>159522
Hell no.

He's going with Jai, if he's going with anyone. Not negotiable.

>>159529
Dahlia might be the jealous type and not be fine with that. So you're going to have to talk about that later. Hell, it'll show you have enough balls and dignity to actually talk to her about stuff which would put you ahead so many boyfriends out there you'd make progress towards a sure-shot for Perfect Boyfriend of the Year.

>>159529
They might be able to go together anyway. We don't know if you can have two students to a guide.

 

>>159532
Oh SHIT, mage squad with all our bros Jai Dahlia and Pyramus.

Guys, he CAN'T go with Dahlia. She hasn't gone on her Alienation yet. Erm. Wait, when would she go on her Alienation? Her Oculus is already fully set in.

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)17:12 No. 159663 ID: f98e0b
File 127042632761.png - (217.59KB , 800x600 , 94.png )

"Mine was freaking out about his arm," says Dio. "I did something to his head. And I just stabbed and kept stabbing. Huh. He barely noticed. The first stab I wasn't sure if I could do. Then something just, I don't know, snapped. And I thought, what the fuck. And so I kept going, even after I knew he wasn't coming back."
"Sometimes I wonder if that's what happened to me, and I just never stopped keeping going," says Jai. "Because now I know there's no coming back. We do it so other people don't have to, you know? Everyone else would go through what we do if we didn't do it. That's...comforting to know, somehow."
"Anyway, it can be fun," says Pyramus. Everyone looks at him. "What, it can be. Ye can't let it control you, but there's an undeniable thrill, exercising all that power an' potential. Like a loaded crossbow or a wound-up spring. Just...whoosh."
"Whoosh," says Jai.
"Whoosh," mutters Dahlia, scooching closer to Dio.
"We've been through it and we'll keep going through it, lad," says Pyramus. "And sometimes I wake up with the shakes at night and I need to go outside and just blow something up, just get it all out and forget the face of that looter, right before the fire crawled up his body. We're in the shit, but we're in it together, lad. And we do good. If you need to talk to someone, sometime. I'm here."
"Me too," says Jai. She looks over at Dio and Dahlia, now gazing at each other. "But, ah, right now I have a test to study for. In that class."
"Aye, that class," says Pyramus, amused. "Think I'd better hit the books too. See you when I see you, all."

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)17:12 No. 159665 ID: f98e0b
File 127042634359.png - (214.74KB , 800x600 , 95.png )

And then they are alone again.

Hug girl.

Read note Hug her.

*Slow, ambient piano music*

"Dahlia? I think I'd rather not be alone tonight. Would you be ok with holding each other all night? Just holding."

Hug her

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)18:10 No. 159698 ID: f98e0b
File 127042980145.png - (214.94KB , 800x600 , 96.png )

>>159666
>>159667
>>159678
Yeah, okay.

"I think we may have something here," says Dahlia. "I mean I've known you for two days, but I feel, like, a connection. If that's the word."
"Something beyond the usual teenage horniness."
"Yeah."
"Me too."
"I don't want to rush this. But um. Be with me tonight? Not like that but just... be there? For company?"
"Okay. Yes."

"Well we've got the day ahead of us, first. The romantic mood's sort of deader than the arkers, though, isn't it?"
"Pretty much. So could you teach me Blindness?"
"Could you teach me Entomb?"
"I think so. We'll figure it out. Kick each others' asses all over the arena."
"I'm looking forward to it. Maybe this time you'll actually land a solid hit."
"I got two last time."
"My ass, one of those was me!"
"And one of those was the wall thing I did!"
"Well if we're counting the wall thing, that was a hit, but it seems more like luck to me..."
"Luck was you guessing which clone I was."
"It was the underwear!"
"Well maybe this time I'll go commando."
"Commando? Really?"
"No. Chafing."
"Figures. You get me all excited, and then..."

Brom 2010/04/04(Sun)18:10 No. 159701 ID: f98e0b
File 127042983945.png - (212.96KB , 800x600 , 97.png )

And they chase each other off, laughing, to their distant, stained, uncertain future.

>>159701
PROTECTION, DIO! PROOOOOTEEEEEECTIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOON!

>>159704
shut it, he HASS the rock.