Animation Source Forums

---Update---
October 11, 2008: Ejection complete. Dakota, thank you for your understanding. Your character's profile will still be archived within the RP. The current number of players is now 5 out of a max of 6, however that last slot is locked until further noticed.

((Just some points I'd like to bring up right now.
+ After a bit of hiatus I'd like to recommend that we should all refresh up on the most recent posts.
+ To keep the flow of events as even as possible with the ejection I'd also like to rewine the RP so that Dr. Rex's latest post on this page is the most recent event to happen in the RP.
+ Being that Cyrus is the farthest behind I'm going to talk to him and have post to kickoff the RP once again. He has told me before that he was very busy the last few days, but I'd like to give him a day or so to post.))

[Pretty much, all in a nutshell, after the Pre-Trials celebration, two separate bands of humans attacked Rusty and Swords; Swords was in his abode at the time and fortunately, his mother was able to fend them off. Rusty, on the other hand, was taken a little more by surprise and was left lying on the streets with many a wounds and a missing amulet. A curious Sissmuth, who happen to be waiting for Cyrus a little distance away after his episode at the bar, came to investigate and has now taken Rusty up on his shoulder, looking for a place where he can be safe. Getting the feeling that someone was following them, Sissmuth spins around and raises a prison of stalagmites from the ground to trap the stranger, only to see that it was Cyrus.]

[And we go on from there.]

Wait so does that mean i should retype my last post?

(I think we can allow that, since it wasn't directly a result of some of the posts after Dr. Rex's last post.)

Cyrus sucked in the night air as he ran, relishing in its coolness. Despite all of the confusion, a part of him was glad that his departure from Asper was delayed. -All the more time to enjoy the weather. He brushed past a clump of pines, dodging the low branches and sidestepping some ferns on the ground. As he reached the dirt road the trees ended abruptly, the road extending below the stars in a clear path for miles, free of obstacles. His line of sight was now much better than it had been amongst the pines.

Turning to face north on the road, he started jogging toward the small group of houses along the side of the path a quarter mile away. As he neared them, nearly out of breath, his eye caught a lizard-like shadow making its way out of an alleyway. Could it be? He picked up the pace. Suddenly the silence of the night was dispelled by a deafening groan beneath him, as if a bomb had exploded below the ground and the earth itself was shifting from the shock. Before Cyrus had no time to react, a ring of human-sized stalagmites shot upward from all around him, encasing him in a cage of earthy pillars and sending a cloud of dust into the air.

His heart racing, Cyrus braced himself for the attack. Reflexively he had drawn his two blades and now held them in a guarding position by his face. His eyes darted about the slowly dissipating haze for any sign of an assault. After a moment Cyrus's hopeful suspicion of the magic's source was confirmed-the familiar outline of Sissmuth approached the space between two of the stalagmites. "Sissmuth?!" asked Cyrus cautiously. The air around him was silent again. "It's me, Cyrus!"

[Forgive the longetivity... making up for lost time, I suppose. I hope no one minds.]

For a moment, the shock rippling through Sissmuth's mind made him stop to scan his memory banks again for anyone with the name of "Cyrus." It only took but a moment, and when the name registered, he shook his head to the sides. "Cyrus?" He grunted again as he hauled the unconscious fox up his shoulder again so he could tap the ground softly three times with the tip of his staff. Obediently, the sharp needles of rock grumbled as they retreated back into the ground. What now stood before him was a very bemused-looking raccoon, staring at what he could only take to be a young, groaning fox with one arm draped over his neck.

When Sissmuth sensed he was about to ask the obvious question, he flicked his tongue irritably. "It's not what it looks like," he said.

And when the raccoon's expression didn't change, he scowled. "Stop staring at me like that and help me get him to someplace safe." He turned around and with the their combined efforts, with the young fox's other arm around Cyrus, moving him became a lot easier.

Naturally, Sissmuth thought during the awkward silence, he was all for meeting new people. But given the circumstances, if he'd had any indication that he'd be going through any of the events of tonight, he'd have tried with all deliberance to avoid ever coming to the town of Asper. His wristbands were still glowing -- unable to hide -- and he hissed a silent curse at it. They'd surely attract more thieves. They had to move quick.

The thought of pounding on any door, dumping the fox on the doorstep, then scuttling off into the night was something Sissmuth wouldn't have a problem with, but for the sake of Cyrus, who'd already endured much on Sissmuth's behalf already, he decided with a frown that he may have to stay to make sure this young lad was alright.

Once more, Sissmuth warned himself against becoming too attached. Not to Cyrus, not to this wounded young fox, not to anyone. He had to find that point of equilibrium, when he'd be in close company, yet distancing himself enough to ensure that if anything drastic happened, he wouldn't be pulled down so low....

...it's happened once before.

Those were thoughts Sissmuth didn't want to dwell on, and he shook his head furiously to rid himself of the memories. Who were those friends that were with this fox at the bar? What did they look like? Where could they be?"

Surely, there must be SOMEONE out there who was worried.

The young fox stirred again, and somehow, Sissmuth could tell that the absence of his magic crystals were taking a toll on his physical state; otherwise, he'd have woken by now. Perhaps Cyrus would be of some help in this department, but it didn't take a magic expert to know that if this fox were ever to fully recuperate, he'd need his supposedly stolen magic crystals back.

For a while, Sissmuth had been waiting for Cyrus to come, and now that they had finally met up again, he felt rather stupid to want to depart again. If Cyrus could find someone who could help himself, Sissmuth would be able to retrieve the crystals on his own; there were hundreds in not thousands of anthros in Asper... there were, however, only so many humans. Searching them out would be easier, and after finally taking sure note of the rhythm in which Cyrus's footsteps sounded like, he was pretty sure he'd be able to find him again after the separation.

He took the fox's arm from around his neck. There wasn't time to explain all the details of his plan to Cyrus, and he hoped to high heaven this whole mess would be sorted out by the night's end... after which, Sissmuth spontaneously decided he'd take a nice, hot bath. "I must find the crystals that were stolen from him," he said squarely. "Find a safe place to stay. I will find you shortly."

He flashed Cyrus a look as if to add, "I'm sorry to have put you through all this." He locked gazed with him just long enough to get his message through, and then he turned and dashed back again into the blackness.

Awkward, no doubt. But then again, since when had anything gone smoothly since Sissmuth left his village? There was the little incident with the stone golem at the docks, the sickening boat ride, a walk through the unfriendly Tyran, the drunken brawl, and now this...

Sissmuth wondered just what he'd gotten himself into.

Akari, not wanting to waste any more time with Rusty's life possibly hanging in the balance, sprinted from his back door, heading in a bee line for Hallor's bar. Along the five minute journey, he notified every patrolling member of the Asper Militia to be on the lookout for at least one mugger whose ears were bleeding, and a fox, possibly unconscious, who goes by the name of Rusty. Each of the soldiers nodded, assuring Akari that they'd look for them. Not 100% satisfied with that, Akari continued on to Hallor's bar, only to find a sparse amount of people sitting at the bar table. One person there, the border collie bartender, saw him. "Yew lookin' for yer girl?" she asked, and, in Akari's opinion, trying to joke around with him, according to the baby-talk sound of her voice, since she likely saw him being kissed by Dakota earlier.

"Thanks for the concern, but that's not who I'm looking for," Akari replied, a little impatiently, "I'm looking for a --"

"Never seen 'im after 'e left," she replied an a clearly annoyed tone.

"Thanks so much," Akari concluded rather sarcastically, and turned to leave. Man, one helpful bartender she is... he thought.

Akari quickly ran to scan the area around the bar, and headed off to the direction where he saw Rusty heading earlier. Seeing nobody, and nothing to indicate that he had been there, he went to his last resort. He closed his eyes, and took in a large whiff of air through his nose. He knew Rusty's smell by heart, with his nose about as sensitive as a normal wolf's. Now he knew that Rusty had been there. "OK, Rusty, where are you?" he asked, mainly to get his mind into "Search Gear".

He managed to track it all the way to a desolate alleyway, where it ended, with the alarming absence of Rusty himself. What alarmed him even more, was that he saw a drop of blood on the ground, coupled with a few of his hairs. Akari instinctively drew his swords, looking around rapidly. "Show yourself!" he exclaimed.

Hearing no response, he shook his head, and headed out of the alleyway, since it was a dead end, and looked around. So, he thought, where's the best place to walk around with an unconscious body without being arrested?

After pondering on it for about five minutes, he realized where it was, and turned to his right, facing the street that led to a rather vacant part of town at this time at night. "I'm so onto you, you s--" Akari began to say, but was cut off by a rumbling sound in the distance. To Akari's surprise, and some dismay, it was coming from the same direction that he was going to head towards. He gripped his swords tightly, and swung them around a bit, to get his mind into what he called "The Fighting Zone." He crept along the wall next to the street, slowly advancing towards the corner. Once he got there he peered around it. To his shock, there was Rusty's unconscious body, around the neck of what he thought was either just some lizard anthro, or the one he saw at the bar earlier. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw that the lizard anthro was with this other anthro that had a very bushy tail- a raccoon.

Akari had to act fast, or they may walk away and he may never see Rusty again. "OK..." he whispered to himself, "One... Two... Three!"

With that, Akari burst from the corner, sprinting towards them with all the speed he could muster, holding out his swords openly. He got two-thirds of the way to the two anthros, then stopped, his stance facing sideways towards them, slightly crouched down, holding his swords above and to either side of his head menacingly. "Put down the fox," he said in a low voice, trying to sound as scary as possible, "NOW!"

Sissmuth hadn't gotten more than ten feet before he was stopped by a voice through the darkness. It was like running straight into a solid wall. His first reaction was to hiss callously and point his staff out in front of him. He tried to locate the source of the voice, but the night was thick and impenetrable.

"Put down the fox... NOW," the voice had demanded. What was Sissmuth supposed to think? He was about to go off to find the culprits, but as it seems, he already had his work cut out for him.

"The muggers have returned," he spat harshly at Cyrus. "Go, get him out of here. I'll hold them off!"

He didn't keep his narrowed eyes off the darkness in front of him. "Come out, you cowards!"

Akari, only twenty-five feet away from the two, heard the lizard speaking. What surprised him was that the lizard anthro say something about "muggers" and "returned."

They don't think that I'm the mugger... do they? he thought. Although he kind of doubted it, he didn't want to take any chances. If they had the wrong impression about him, then they might take Rusty's body away and he may never see him again. He decided to

"I'm right here!" he exclaimed. Akari put his left-hand sword away, stood up straight, snapped his fingers on his left hand, and illuminated his face with the resulting flame that appeared on his index finger. "Put my friend down," he demanded, this time a little more calmly, "and I won't fight you, OK?"

Cyrus understood that the situation gave Sissmuth no time to explain himself. Having discerned that he was a generally honest character, Cyrus decided to trust him, regardless of the suspicious position he had found him in. He looked to the stranger in the darkness.

"Who are you?" inquired Cyrus, blades drawn. The question didn't need to be answered- the magical torchlight created by the figure illuminated his face. Cyrus recognized him as the grey wolf from Hallor's bar, the one that had been sitting across from the now unconsious fox. From what he could tell, the two were friends.

Hesitantly, he relaxed his stance a bit. "We're not hurting him, we're helping him! He was attacked." he exclaimed, hoping the wolf was being protective rather than having more sinister reasons for threatening them. Considering the wolf's potential hostility, Cyrus tried to be as convincing as possible. "His crystal was stolen by the looks of it." He elbowed Sissmuth lightly on the arm. "Put him down. I think he's being truthful." he said softly. Eyeing the guarded expression of the wolf, he took a step toward him. "You know this guy right? Help us get him somewhere safe, he's in bad shape." He was nervous now, and remained ready to defend himself. His assumptions about the stranger could be far from correct.

Sissmuth had his suspicions, but hey... as long as they weren't human and he'd seen them before, as far as he was concerned, they passed the test. Besides, he'd be lying if he said he enjoyed lugging around a semi-conscious fox around all night. He definitely wouldn't argue with lifting the extra weight. Then he could finally get to his hot bath.

Upon seeing the wolf's face, he lowered his staff and grunted. Ah, yes. He remembered now. This young lad was the one in the bathroom while he... erm... well, let's just leave that in the past now.

He brought the fox closer to the stranger. "It was very irresponsible of you to leave your friend alone like that. It could have been much worse." His words were harsh, but his tone was only slightly lighter so that he may avoid getting into an argument. This certainly wasn't the time or place.

Before the wolf or Cyrus could protest, he flicked his tongue and swished his staff to his other arm, as if to whisk away their comments. "But no time for that now. If you are who you are, get us to a safe place. Quickly!"

Akari nodded when the lizard anthro finished speaking. As much as he wanted to argue, he knew that now couldn't be a worse time. "Follow me," he said hurriedly, "I know just the place to take him; he lives with a former trainer from Q'ercheck Ental! He'll know how to help him!" With that, Akari sheathed his other sword, and snapped a matchlight on his other index finger, making a distinctive vision for them to follow. The flames illuminated his hands and part of his wrists, even in the pitch black of the night. Akari hurriedly began to make for Rusty's house, but at the same time making sure the others were following him.

Sissmuth blinked. Though he kept his snout shut, he couldn't help but think... a trainer from Q'ercheck Ental? Could it really be...? Though his experiences were limited, Sissmuth had read about and was knowledgeable on much of Ekleron's geography, and was actually feeling somewhat honored to meet a real live trainer.

He didn't know what to expect, though the thought of still keeping a weary eye still lingered. Following the wolf through the streets, he didn't quite feel comfortable with the idea of blindly following a stranger... Cyrus, for some odd reason, first came as an exception to him.

"I have seen you before," he said, thumping his staff rhythmically to the beat of his feet. "But I did not quite catch your name. Who is the fox, and this trainer in which you speak?"

Akari hurried to a corner, peered around it, and seeing nobody, he replied to the lizard anthro. "True," he said, "and I have seen you before as well. I am Akari LaKoth," he explained "The fox is Rusty," he began, "his guardian, Joallel, lives up this way..." Akari paused, looked around, half-expecting someone to turn on some floodlights from nowhere on the entire party. Seeing nothing, he pressed on.

He led the two to Main Street. It was the straightest shot to Rusty's house he knew of that wouldn't take them into the woods. Although through the woods would have been faster, it could potentially be through the same exact place where the muggers took refuge after they attacked Rusty. He stopped. The lights were very bright here, but that wasn't surprising. What did surprise him was that at every street corner, there were barricades of sandbags with soldiers from the Asper militia sitting behind them! Akari extinguished the flames on his fingers and stepped back a bit before anyone could notice his presence. "Shoot," he said, "how are we going to get through that with an unconscious body, without getting arrested?" he asked out loud.

Sissmuth put a finger to the tip of his snout. His eyes picked up and distinguished the figures behind the barricades; some looked drowsy, others were staring blankly in any general direction. He wouldn't have known why, but for some reason, this angered Sissmuth -- which was rare, because he hardly ever got mad. And even he had to admit, the times he had, it was over the most trivial of things; litter on the floor, a snapped tree branch, an itch on his back he couldn't reach...

It didn't matter now. They needed to get through, and seeing that those foolish militia anthros were good for nothing more than standing around, he decided to give them a little waking call.

"Leave it to me," he said to Akari.

Taking a slow deep breath, he closed his eyes and felt the soft churn underneath his feet. He felt part his energy drain and flow down to the ground; the shimmer from one of the topazes in his armbands faded away. He muttered something he, himself, couldn't hear. The churning intensified until the very soil beneath them gave off a low groan.

"Teach those fools how to keep a weary eye," he scowled. And he lifted his staff over his head. In one swift motion, he brought one end down, hard, onto the ground. The earth exploded a few feet away.

Another groan. The soft dirt cracked, and out shuffled a ten-foot-tall golem of clay. It shook the dirt off itself and stared at the now startled brigade of fighters menacingly.

Sissmuth spoke softly, as if he were standing right beside it. "Rattle them up a bit. But take care not bloody the ground."

The clay golem nodded and raised a massive arm that rippled, then molded itself into a massive hammer. The fingers on the other arm lengthened themselves into tentacle-like appendages that lashed out, wrapped themselves around the guards closest to the group, and tossed them away.

The soldiers fired. The golem was losing energy, but with it's other hammered arm, it swung out like a pendulum and shattered a part of the blockade.

Sissmuth turned to Akari. "If time was not of the essence, I would have tried a more stealthful approach. Move, quickly!!"