A Fantastical DOUBLE CHALLENGE

I think we should bring in someone to judge this from the outside, In case we don't kill other in ten posts.

 

I think we should bring in someone to judge this from the outside, In case we don't kill other in ten posts.

 

I've no clue. Most likely DW, maybe Destiny. I'm also contemplating asking Hope, if she's interested. They're the only ones I'd fully trust with such responsibility. Also, Z, feel free to recruit your own partner, unless you'd rather wait and team with whoever else shows up.

 

It'd be much appreciated if you could give a more elaborate explanation of their powers.

 

Ushered in by a rising column of bright, lustrous energy, a young figure stepped out into whatever realm it was. The figure was that of a male, standing between five and six feet in height. A single glance at him would suggest that black was his favorite color. Everything he wore was black, from his overcoat, to his turtleneck undershirt, to the pair of combat-made pants, and down straight to the high military or work boots that adorned his feet. Even his eyes and shoulder length hair were a deep, dark shade of black. Only his skin, a darker brown tan color, seemed to be spared this effect where visible.*

Without so much as a word, or even a grunt or sigh, the young man places his foot down on the stone surface, issuing in a dull thud. His other foot followed in suit, and as he exited his portal in his entirety, the energy faded from the scene, leaving his pillar unoccupied, save for his own presence. Still without sound, the youth looked across the range before him, looking for, if nothing else, some sign of life other than himself. As far as he could tell, there was nothing to see outside of the hundreds of pillars, and the misty abyss that coated the majority of his vision.

Just hope Malisa is having a more exciting time than this, he thought. It been about a week or two since he had parted ways with his previous partner. Fortunately for him, she had been kind enough to teach him how to travel between dimensions before heading off, which worked out well... except for the fact that his lack of control had left him in the most desolate, if a bit intriguing, of places. As much as he disliked it, he had to admit that he sort of missed the company of other humans. Otherwise, splitting up had been the best idea they had come to.*

"Useless," he muttered as be rubbed his hair out from his eyes. He couldn't see a this with the veil of fog hanging so thickly in the air. There was little way anyone could have used their eyes to see in such a place, unless they had just born with that sort of sight. "It's been a while," he said softly. Concentrating more mindfully on his surroundings, he gave the range a scanning feel. He hadn't felt for energy in about a month, so it was pretty difficult to grasp anything. For a second, he thought he felt a quick spike of energy, faint over distance, or otherwise an error on his part.*

Either one was possible in such a place as where he was. But after a few seconds, he dismisses the feeling as a mistake, and contemplated an immediate departure. There was no real reason to make a rest stop out of such an empty and open location. It couldn't even sustain the base resources, like water and food. And as far as he could discern, there was nothing worth exploring in any direction, save for more pillars, which weren't exactly strong attractions in the long run. In thought, he wondered what might reside at the base of pillars, if such a place even existed.

"No point staying here too much longer," he told himself, stroking his hair, wondering curiously as to where he'd try to go next. It was just*then, his ears licked up the sound of a joyous, cackling voice nearby. Looking over towards a nearby pillar top, he saw a second person, apparently arriving just after him. He knew not the name of the person, nor did he have any recollection of his face. Whoever they were though, they seemed a bit odd in their attire, and as much ungainly, in the young man's eyes, in their manner of carrying themselves. He didn't waste his time contemplating their reason for being there; they were probably there under the same pretenses as he was. So be resolved not to ask questions.

"Excuse me," he said to the stranger, pulling at a clump of his black hair. "You got anything sharp?"​

((Due to having not known about Requiem's post until after I had constructed over half of this one, I've kept it at Glyde having arrived ahead of Kilet, and noticing his arrival. The "faint energy" he felt was, with reason, the of Ryan calling his Aura weapon, which I imagine would let off some traceable output. And in any case, it was only faint because Glyde only ever started to learn how to make use of his "sixth sense," a while ago, and has hence, been unable to get anything too reliable in such a place as where they are currently... I feel I should also state that Glyde's backstory doesn't involve him knowing that a fight is at hand)).

 

The more the black-clad young man observed the oddity of a person several pillars away, the more he began to question their sanity. At his mere mention of his need for a sharp object, he had apparently sparked a lengthy recant from the stranger. With each word the kid, or man, or whatever they were spoke, the black-clad being found himself more lost than found. There was speak of some Arena, which he didn't quite get; he had never set foot in any such thing, unless the training hall back at his old Academy was the matter of discussion. Yet he doubted that, and speculated that the stranger knew something that he didn't... Or really was just off of his rocker, the latter of course being preferable.

Towards the end of the spiel, however, the stranger did divulge something that made sense. It took him a bit of thought, but the young man in black manages to piece together the message. He and the stranger were the same, somehow, yet at the same time different from each other. They were both from the same place, bit again, at the same time, from places completely different entirely. Before too long, he knew that to mean that the stranger was like Malisa; the two, or now three of them, were all from the same place, but from different eras, or variations of it. Their base essences were the same, but their specifics varied by multiversal differences.

His uncertainty about the stranger only mounted higher when they procured for him a knife. Not that a knife was anything bizarre or threatening in itself; the stranger took the liberty of tossing near-carelessly to him across the distance of some three or four pillars. In a cautiously frantic, and disbelieving rush, he clapped the handle of the knife between the palms of his hands. Throwing the stranger an indifferent nod o his head, he recollected himself. He took the knife in his right hand, pulling at his hair with his left and ran the blade against the thick clumps. It wasn't the most exciting work, bu was also a bit painful as his hair lengths came off.

After several bouts of suppressed grunts of discomfort, his head was left with a significantly lesser amount of hair. Uneven, and crude, it remained at a rough neck length at the back and a mushroom do at the front. Satisfied with his work he gave another nod to the stranger, and lobbed the knife back over to their pillar, laying by their feet. With a somewhat clearer line of sight he looked over the plane of pillars a second time; the way he saw it, it wasn't worth the stay. "I don't know about you," he said, "but I think I've seen about as much as I can bear of this place."​