The Errant Shard

[Fanservice Girl]

{Video mail sent via 351 to all Fletched Alliance members}

The screen flickers on, a picture of a small bookcase and writing desk comes into view.

"Alright here we go, Hel..... Hover turn around one-eighty, sheesh"

The camera pans round with a whir to show Kumi sitting on the edge of a bed, her eyes slightly red and bleary, wearing her school uniform and nursing a mug of hot chocolate.

"Ugh, no so loud! Right where was I... oh! Yes, hello everyone I thought I'd put this together to see if any one else can help with a small problem. I've been looking for a large rock for a while now and I was really close to grabbing hold of it, when it was uh.. snatched away again."

Taking a swig of her drink, Kumi makes a slightly groggy sound and rubs her eyes with the palm of her hands.

"Well anyway, this rocks about the size of a Refrigerator, is a dark purpely black and glows slightly, it's got like...little purple tendrils that it pulls out of the air. It's easy to spot! Also on one side is a large clamp, four large metal prongs and a circular piece in the middle of them. The circular piece has a hole in the center and glows really nastily...if that makes sense, anyway! I wouldn't put your finger in there. The whole thing makes a small humming sound and occasionally shudders violently."

Taking another drink and letting out a soft sigh Kumi continues.

"Well, it seems that the whole things managed to end up on Strige Isle, with some Archon Sylver creep. If anyone can help find him that'd be great! If not I'll probably have to go to Striga for a bit of a look around. Right one second..."

Shuffling off camera unsteadily, you hear a bit of fumbling around and then Kumi returns with a notebook sitting down again carefully.

"Right, ugh. From what we've managed to work out so far, this thing is probably some kind of.. Nictus shard? Hope I'm saying that right. It's where creepy body snatcher aliens hide if they don't have a body, although there's probably something a bit odd about this one as usually they attack you if you go near them and this one didn't. If anyone knows more about this sort of thing that'd be great! Last night everyone had a lot of ideas of what it could be used for by the Council and none were all that good. Hmmm.. I guess that's it, if you need to know anything else just get back in touch."

Leaning toward the camera, Kumi starts to fiddle with the controls mumbling, to little effect. Eventually she cries out in frustration and the picture careers wildly with a shot of the roof before a sudden thud and then the screen cuts out ending the video.

[Shadowe]

{Huntington Manor}

Samantha Huntington watched the message with slowly mounting horror, sending a ripple of mental energy through the house.

"I'm going to kill him!" she screamed. "Helena! Find that wayward brother of mine and tell him to get his arse here NOW!" A surge of psychic force enveloped her, and she shifted from her rooms at the manor to what Richard persisted in referring to as 'the basement'. Everyone thought that little trick of hers was Helena's teleport network, and she wasn't about to disabuse them of the notion.

The lights flickered on, and Sam used a tiny twitch of telekinetic force to activate the holographic keyboard. Her fingers danced in midair, and a map of the city began to form, zooming out to encompass Striga and Peregrine islands. As she worked, she muttered to herself. "What's the use of having a brother who can sense energy when he's never here when you need him? 'No, Sam, I doubt it's serious. Kumiko's getting worked up over nothing. We'll find this rock, whatever it is, and put it back somewhere safe.' A damned Cyst! I am going to kill him, immortal or not."

After several minutes the image she was composing pulsed in the air before her, spikes of energy flickering across it as Helena attempted to track high-output sources. Sam frowned. "Helena, where the bloody hell is he?"

Helena's reply caught Sam completely off-guard. It should be impossible.

"Master Richard's current location is unknown."

All colour drained from Sam's face as she fought to understand the implications of those six simple words.

"T-then... find Vicky. I need to talk to her. If anyone knows where he is, she will."

[Kitmarch]

Kit whapped the side of her head with a hand.

"Okay. Voice mails bad. Video mails, WORSE. Don't need pictures in my head as well."

Nictus shard, huh? Anyone I know?

"Knowing my luck, in this universe it's probably you, Atrum."

[Victoria]

{Huntington Manor }
The Library

Vicky was curled on one of the large leather chairs, intensely focused on trying to make sense of the mostly complicated legal and paralegal terms that filled the sheets that covered a wide area around her. Accursed american redtape, she had been missing for less than a year, and at this rate, she'd need just as much to recover her property.

Muttering vaguely obscene threats to all the pencil pushers in this world and the nearest ones, she flipped a sheet, and immersed again into reading, underlining a few passages. She knew Richard always got slightly twitchy at her inability to work at a desk like normal people and instead seemed to need to be sitting in the middle of a big pile of paper, but seeing he wasn't around, she put her time to good use.

The sound of footsteps made her rise her head, and she smiled to Sam: the two of them hadn't had much time to talk yet since her return, but Victoria wasn't sure how to handle Sam, especially since the breakup with StoneGiant. Indeed it seemed that bad things happened to good people. Then she realized Sam was talking to her, and she hadn't been paying attention.

".... is Richard?"

It wasn't hard to figure what she was asking, but what was puzzling was that Helena wasn't able of knowing where Richard was. Richard had left her a message, so she had figured Helena would be aware of it. That he had made it so that the AI wasn't aware where he was or the message he left made her think of the "small" mission he had to run as just a quick errand.

Frowning, she set the papers aside: "Richard left me a recorded message saying he had to go to the Rogue Isles, something to help a friend. He said he wouldn't take long and that he would be back tomorrow." She frowns again "I thought it was something standard ... I don't see why he wouldn't let Helena or you know where he was going."

There was always the possibility the matter was far more complicated than he had let on, but a small blessing was knowing that nothing shorter of divine intervention could harm Mr. Huntington. "Is something amiss, Sam?"

[Shadowe]

Sam leaned against the door to the library, smiling despite herself at the paper strewn all across the place. She herself had a healthy appreciation for a good mess while sorting paperwork - it was Richard who was the tidy one - and was glad that Vicky felt the same way. They were unlikely to clash in that respect, and in a house full of women - excepting Dicky, of course, but he didn't count - that could only be a good thing.

"The Isles?" Sam's frown as she digested Vicky's words was sudden and deep. "Now why the hell would he head out to the Isles and only tell..."

She snapped her fingers. "Linda. Right. He's off with little Miss Red, White and Blonde. Fair enough. Hah. For a guy who claims to prefer blondes, he seems to have bugger all feelings for them when he meets them."

Taking a deep breath, she curses. "Amiss? Yeah, that's a pretty good description. Kumiko - you know her? Of course you do - seems to have misplaced a bloody Shadow Cyst, which may now be in the hands of a Council Archon on Striga. Misplaced! How the HELL do you lose a Shadow Cyst?"

[Fanservice Girl]

{Video mail sent via 351 to all Fletched Alliance members}

The tape starts with a blue screen with the words "Nictus Crystal, Follow Up" written in gold atop it.

The video opens with an almost entirely green screen, as you hear the whir of the camera lens zooming out the upside-down head and neck of a Council soldier comes into view, swaying slightly from side to side and backdropped by a dull metal. His mask seems to have been pulled half off, obscuring most of his face but leaving his mouth free to talk. From off screen you hear the Kumiko's voice

"Alright, say it again. I want them to hear what you just told me."

Hesitantly the Council member start to speak, slightly heady from being held upside down for so long

"We were told to keep the cyst safe, we've been moving it from base to base through our tunnel network, I really can't tell you where it is now!"

The head disappears from the screen with a short yelp and you see it swing back and fore in front of the camera a few times before coming to rest.

"I really will drop you if you keep getting this wrong, tell them about the cave!"

"I will! I will! Last place we had it was a cave I've given the location, but I wasn't really allowed in. Honest! The place was full of War wolves, packed really I'd never seen so many in one place." panic in his voice he starts to plead with the camera's audience "This girl's crazy she's already dropped Smith over the edge I saw hey! You can't do this to me you're meant to be the Hero's it's unfair-" with another muffled scream the head once again shakes back and fore in front of the camera.

Stop that, focus! Now who are you doing this for?

Panic sets in on the man and he waves his arms as if pleading again.

"I've told you! I can't say that, they scare the life out of me, I'd rather you tossed me over the edge than have to go against her. She's far worse than you an.. " realizing he's already said to much the Council soldier clamps his mouth shut. A sigh is heard off camera and then the soldier lets out a panicked scream, his body flies past the camera and almost immediately after a loud thud is heard followed by a groan.

"Ugh... hey you tricked me! There's a ledge just here!"

The camera now floats up to show Kumiko standing over the edge of a roof, looking fairly amused.

"Well! I guess it's something to go on, I'll check up on this and see about getting out there? Help would be appreciated! This sounds like a real toughy.."

(( Due to a bit of a money mix up I may not be able to run the IC TF next Saturday, but we'll see. I'll say when I can get a more firm date! ))

[Fanservice Girl]

((Due to the inherent pain in the rear it is to get an IC TF going, how would people like to do this on the boards instead? It does allow a lot more freedom after all and I need some practice doing dialogue like this! ))

[Jake]

Sounds good. It means i don't need to get Sakuri up either =)

[Shadowe]

((I'm more than happy to go for Forum RP on this. Bring it on! ))

[Fanservice Girl]

((I'll get an intro post up before Monday, would do it now if not for being stuck in Uni labs!))

[Fanservice Girl]

{Video mail sent via 351 to all Fletched Alliance members}

Video opens with footage of a small bunker, being patrolled by several Council riflemen. On the top right a helpful map has a location in the South East of Striga isle pulsing with a red dot. A few shots fly out toward the camera hissing past the lens, and the camera pans away. Several trucks comes into view going toward the bunker, and the feed stops with one of the center trucks circled in red.

"That's it!" says Fanservice voicing over the footage "It's definitely in there, all I need know is a few people to come help go get it. I'm in the Base right now and I'll be leaving in a few hours, sorry for such short notice, but getting a good track on this thing's been a pain! If you can come lend a hand, we'll that'd be great."

[Shadowe]

((Eeep! Okay, well, Monday is Megalomania night with the Evil Echelon for me (and possibly Sol), so I can't make it. For an IC reason... umm... Sam's still recovering in the UV hospital, and Richard... umm... might be trying to calm Cassandra down after a parcel she received today. Plas is away from home until Wednesday, so has precisely zero access to the game (and probably not any to forums, either), which precludes Kit from coming along, too. Darn. I wanted to be a part of this.))

[Fanservice Girl]

((We'll be doing it on the forums! I'll make a new thread soon to avoid confusion then ))