darkSpyro

"Well what can I do? They don't want my help! And clearly, you've seen I wasn't able to do anything! I tried words, I tried massages, but not even that worked! All I have is a sword and armor! How can I possibly eliminate the darkness inside him?" Angora asked desperately, now knowing that the mission was never going to progress unless Shade was dealt with. She didn't want him dead, but she doubted that would help anyone either. Angora didn't have any magic of her own. She didn't even know Raclaw's mind was linked to him now. How was it possible for her to destroy the darkness without harming the host?

"Linked? That fluffy idiot did what!?" Angora asked angrily, believing Raclaw messed up. She didn't know what was going on in his mind, but she did noticed him under full concentration, and it didn't take Angora too long to correctly deduce he was probably having a telepathic battle with one or the two humans.
"Great. Just when things couldn't get any worse!" Angora commented with frustration, heading to the camp again to prevent them from ruining things further. Perhaps it was time for her to finally step in and not being reduced to the background.

She returned to Shade. only to see the soil around him scorched.
"Fantastic! He's going rogue again! Just please tell me how to stop him! I'll do anything!" Angora said desperately, willing to follow his instruction. She was sick of this madness, and Raclaw and the humans only made things worse. Raclaw seemed stressed himself, making Shade feel the same, and the more they restrained the dragolet, the more dangerous he became.

"Calm? Didn't I tell you before I already tried? I'm not good with words, and clearly, the massages didn't work!" Angora reminded, as usual, Neo not being much help. She couldn't waste any more time talking with him. Even though she was somewhat protected, she could still feel some of the heat. Out of pure desperation, Angora did what she would otherwise never do; she went in front of him and hugged him, holding on to his neck. Even if Raclaw was the one feeling the emotion, it was Shade the one being dangerous, so maybe if she could calm him down, then Raclaw will feel the same...

"Please! I need you to calm down! Relax... and I'll do anything you ask." Angora said as she held on, frustrated at this humiliation. Neo owed her big. If talking and massaging didn't work, then she would have to make him happy somehow to make him forget about his captivity.

Latnok was not having any of it. "Free him? Are you insane? We should just get-"
"Unrestrain him for now," Sere commanded. "You can paralyze him again if necessary."
Latnok let out a sigh which clearly showed his frustration. "Release." The paralysis on Shade ended.
"We will need a more effective means of absorbing latent power," Sere said. "If we cannot come up with one reasonably quickly, then we would be better off killing Shade, unfortunately. Preferably we wouldn't have to, but he has already put us in danger several times in the past few hours. It would seem that my continued presence may be necessary in that regard."

"No-- his latest outbreak was because of me. I let my emotions get ahold of me and get unfortunately got the brunt force of them. I put up a basic barrier between our two minds, but.. but I failed to anticipate the stronger emotions seeping through anyway. For now-- I can strengthen that barrier and try to actively block ANY emotions from seeping through. It will act as a firewall and may interupt or block any attempts at telepathic communication. Assuming it works-- his mind be effectively deaf and he will be immune to any effects that would've been caused by my own emotions. It may even help dampen some of his stronger emotions, although I cannot be entirely sure that the mental blockade won't bounce back to me. Further more, it would only work while I was awake as I can't let my mind idle while doing this. And this would strictly deal with the emotions-- not the latent power itself unfortunately.," Raclaw suggested feeling slightly guilty at causing the latest outbreak and willing to strain himself in order to prevent it again. Another suggestion then came to him as well, although it was one that he would rather not resort to.

'And Sere-- I understand although I do not entirely agree with your methods. The cause is just however and concerning my parents... all I ask is that you try. I'm sorry I went off on you, you were only doing what you thought was best. And regardless of the journey, I ended up in a good place in the end. I just wanted answers and it turns out I have a lot of unresolved emotions concerning my past. I'm sorry.,' he then telepathically spoke to the Grand Master not wanting to leave the previous conversation unresolved. Deep inside, he just wanted to let those feelings out and the Grand Master of the order responsible certainly made a good target to yell at.

"You are forgiven," Sere responded calmly. "Howevrr, know this - I do not make my decisions based on how others may feel, or think of me or us. I make my decisions based on facts. Because the cold, hard truth is, doing the 'right' thing will, in many cases, cause more death and suffering in the end. I cannot afford to err because I want to save face."

Latnok, bow in hand, began shooting arrows at various points around the vicinity. Should Shade need further restraining, not only would he have the collar, but an arrow web as well. As he did this, he spoke to Star. "It's a pretty similar idea, actually. The sword is designed for humans who have mastered light and dark magic. It is powered by resolve, and one's dedication to keeping a balance between doing what is ideal and what is expedient."

Undignified, Angora let's go of his neck and pretends nothing happened.
"Fine, whatever. Are you calm now? You have to relax!" she asked, needing him to keep his anger in check. She noticed Latnok shooting arrows seemingly at random, but knowing him, it came with a purpose, and if it came to him, it can't be anything good. She was already too stressed to get into an argument and didn't want to waste any valuable energy. She went behind a tree to catch her breath.
"Well, finally, calm for now. Now what?" she asked Neo, feeling like too many things were happening. She has been away from the group and missed a lot of events, so she clearly needed some catching up to do.

"So... how many times are qe going to be okay with him losing control and attacking us before we finally get sick of it?" Latnok asked sarcastically, not even trying to hide how fed up he was at this point. "We're already taking a huge risk - if he's going to attack us every time he's unhappy, then I don't think he's suitable for us to bring along for any sort of hardship."
"I may be able to craft a potential solution. Suppose we were to enhance the collar's powers through the use of a conduit - someone bound to it, who has shown at least some resistance to Shade's corruption, capable of siphoning off some of his excess power. With some magic dilution, it should reasonably be possible."
It took Latnok a few moments to realize what Sere was getting at. "No. You can't possibly be serious. Orion, please let Godfather Sere know that this isn't going to work." His frustration was blatantly apparent, both in his voice and his body language, which was rather unusual - he did not usually display it in the presence of Sere. Orders were orders, however...

Quote: Spyroconvexity

"Go talk to him. Shade seems like he need someone to talk to. " Neo said.

"I already told you! I'm not good with words!" Angora repeated, tired of the same subject. However, she quickly changed her mind when she realized that nobody else, not even Orion, was going to help him with the matter. Not even Raclaw, who simply made things worse by linking their minds, doubling his frustrations. And hearing Latnok and Sere talking about restraining him even more, she realized that it was up to her to befriend him and keep him under control her own way.

She went to Shade and climbed his back, getting close to his ears so that the conversation will be only between them.
"Hey big guy. Calm enough already? I know this sucks. Those humans are annoying, aren't they? Always bothering you and trying to control you. Don't worry, I get you too well. Been on the same boat many times. This won't last forever. Once this madness is over, you'll be free." Angora assured, wanting to comfort him as best as she could by saying the words she would've liked to hear if she had a friend.

Latnok raised and clenched a fist in frustration, before slowly putting it back down. "We've already bent over backwards for him. And now you want me to do even more?! This is a load of horse-"
"You will do this. That is an order," Sere said sternly. "Think of this as an opportunity - you will be a pioneer in a new effort to control the corruption."
"Ugh... Sure thing, Godfather. I'll do it, but I sure as hell won't like it. Should've just let the scale corrupt me..."
"Veris, to me." Veris stomped over on Sere's command. Reaching into his bag, he eventually pulled out another collar - every Guardian in the field usually had one - and what seemed to be a large glass. Dismissing Veris with a hand gesture, Sere put the glass up, where his own shadow kept it in place. Then, pulling the shadow from a tree, he formed what seemed to be an anvil. Laying his collar on the anvil, Sere called a ray of light from above - going through the glass, and focusing on the collar. The metal in the collar began to turn red with heat.

'Another collar? What is he going to do-- have Latnak collar himself in addition to Shade and my own.,' Raclaw thought to himself wondering just many collars it would take to control the corruption. He already wasn't entirely comfortable with having to mind link with the madness that was Shade's darkness. He certainly hoped they weren't planning on using that on someone else in the party.

With the collar sufficienfly heated, Sere had his shadow pull out the gem from it. He spent a minute or two charging the gem up with a new spell - a modified version of the current collar effects. When he was done, he put the gem squarely in Latnok's hands. "You do the honors."
Latnok, with his back turned to Shade, abruptly turned forward, firing a force bolt at Shade's old collar, with the new gem being the focus - destroying the old gem while installing the new one.

Just when Angora thought she was making some progress with Shade, she felt most of the blast, knowing what Latnok did when she saw the trace of smoke heading to his collar. Even though she has been avoiding an argument all this time, Larnok simply went too far. She climbed to Shade's head to get a better view of the human.
"You imbecile! What the hell do you think you're doing!? Are you trying to get us all killed? Stop restraining him so much!" Angora yelled as he patted the dragolet's head, trying to keep him calm. She knew how much tension he was feeling being this restrained, and the humans were simply making things worse by reinforcing the captivity.

Latnok, having the personal silence spell still on Angora, completely ignored her. Sere, having overheard Angora, responded instead. "For someone with little understanding of magic, you sure are quick to jump to conclusions about it. Have a little faith. He is simply installing the new gem, while removing the old one. That needed to be done in order to prevent Shade from losing control again while we were doing it. Besides, restraining him has been proven to be quite necessary."
Latnok, hearing Sere, simply gave Angora a classic human finger gesture used to convey contempt, not expecting her to understand what it meant. "Power bond." With that, the new gem shot a visible bolt of wild energy at Latnok, which he braced himself for and sustained. A few seconds later, he began uncontrollably shivering.
"How do you feel?" Sere asked Latnok.
"Like I'm going to explode. Like killing everything would be satisfying. But I feel no compulsions as of yet." He felt the mental presence of both Shade and Raclaw.
Sere then began to address the group. "The idea here is that, using Latnok as a vessel, we should be able to siphon off much more of Shade's residual energy than we could previously - perhaps making it easier for him to control himself, or at least making him more manageable. In addition, Latnok's focus should help Raclaw, at the very least, if not Shade as well, maintain control better."
"Do I have permission to speak freely about-"
"No."

"It's alright Shade-- we know you don't mean it. And I'm sorry too. This latest incident was a direct result of my actions... I let my emotions get the best of me and they naturally came out in you. I'm sorry you had to go through that and I'll try to restrain my stronger emotions in the future.," Raclaw said looking at Shade still feeling guilty over the outbreak. As their two linked minds became three linked minds; he instantly knew what Sere had done and he wasn't entirely comfortable with it. He had volunteered to link with Shade, but he wasn't expecting to become a mental conduit between nearly half the party. Part of him wished he had never suggested that action, but it was too late now.

As Latnok's mind connected to theirs-- Raclaw could sense the Guardians mental presence. And without any mental barriers (yet?) between him and the new connection, his thoughts on the matter would become perfectly clear to Latnok. If Latnok had any sense of telepathic or mental connections; he would see an open road to what represented Raclaw's mind and another partly blocked off road leading to that of Shade's mind. If he looked just a tad further, he would see other roads/connections-- such as those between the collars and their respected users. The road/connection between Raclaw and his collar would appear to be almost that of a multi-lane highway; with Raclaw maintaining control over the collar and the collar still retaining some (be it inactive) influence over Raclaw. If Latnok were able to see it, he would see that some of Raclaw's telepathic energy was constantly focused on and split between both Raclaw's own collar and Shade. With both connections being jury-rigged at various points in time, they required more focus then other connections. 'Anyone else feel like connecting to me? There's always more room.,' Raclaw joked to himself as if to lighten his mood.

Quote: Spyroconvexity

Shade growled a little as the new gem hit his collar but he calmed down seeing how Angora was trying to help him. "Angora it's ok. They are only trying to help me. I can't control my powers. Sense I've been free from the corruption the remaining power from it is overwhelming me to the point I have no control over it." Shade said. "I'm sorry my powers have forced everyone to do this. Even though I hate being like this."

"We know you are, but this isn't permanent. From now on, I'll be on you like a leech, so you better behave yourself." Angora said smoothly, almost as if threatening him. Everybody there was unable to calm him down, so she believed only she could do it now. She was aware of how dangerous and risky that was, but right now, she was willing to help somebody that was probably more than twenty times her own size and that could easily harm her, if it meant the mission could progress.

Latnok was still somewhat spaced out, attempting to process all of the new connections. He already had the mental connection with Shade - now there was the whole mess of Raclaw too? It all seemed like a spider web, except the spider was drunk out of its mind and stopped caring about halfway through. Managing the connections would be something he would have to work on - at the very least, however, he was able to maintain control of his own faculties, thanks to the discipline granted to him by his training. Never having linked his mind with another for any reason other than telepathy, however, he would still have to get a feel for how to control what thoughts and emotions he transmitted.
As some of Shade's excess power flowed into him, a bright blue fire emerged from his arms - rather than harm him, it was a manifestation of him harmlessly dispelling the excess energy. "Just like the Ritual. Never thought I'd feel power like this again... I pray you know what you're doing, Godfather." Memories of the Ascension Ritual raced through Latnok's mind - the intense pain, the fire pouring through his body, the calm guidance of the Godfather and Adjudicator Vellune. His resolve to see the process through despite all the negatives, because he had nothing to lose but his life.
"I have faith in you," Sere replied. "I will remain with you to ensure the viability of this. With this, we can keep Shade under control, while being better able to understand his power and the corruption which drives it. Hopefully."

Angora made herself comfortable on Shade's back, having listened to what Sere said with an indifferent air. She liked him more than she did Latnok, but she still found him annoying. He was just another human with the same air of grandeur as his apprentice, who sick his pet wyvern to whomever displeased him.

OOC: Out of boredom and curiosity-- I made THIS. For anyone curious about just how complicated that "spider web" is.

"Agreed. We've spent long enough here and some exercise would probably do all of us a bit of good.," Raclaw said wanting to move on from everything that happened so far. And concerning the mess of telepathic and mental connections, he knew it could use some work. He would never comment on it, but it was a slow-but-steady drain maintaining the jury-rigged connections that were Shade and his very own collar.

OOC: That is actually really well-illustrated, great job! As much as I want to make a post, I'm way too tired to make a good one right now, so I'll post when I wake up.

OOC: Thank-you! To summarize the connections-- any connections formed by guardians or their collars are STABLE due to the discipline and rituals involved. Any connections formed by Raclaw (due to his lack of such discipline or proper training) are somewhat JURY-RIGGED and a tad unstable. Meanwhile, the corruption itself is its own thing (natural) and Shade himself has no control over anything. The result is that while the stable guardian/collar formed connections can be compared to properly built highways, the same can't be said for Raclaw's connections and it does pose a ever-so-slight strain on him.

OOC: Always the illustrator redwes

Angora also agreed with Raclaw that they should keep moving. Everyone there has had more than enough stress. The troll had a stressful day, so she decided to stay on Shade's back.
"Well Blackie, time to get moving at last. Let's go." Angora said as she kicked his sides as if she had spurs. She has seen creatures like humans and elves doing this to hoses many times and she had wanted to try it even if it wasn't the same thing in this circumstance.

OOC: Reread that first part.

OOC: Sorry. I was sleepy

Angora knew she was taking a bit of a risk treating Shade like that, but he had it coming. Although she wondered if he would want a little revenge after she was done saving the world. She was determined to leave the group after she was done, fearing that some may be thinking to do some harm, especially the humans. She genuinely believed that was the only reason why nobody was openly attacking her, except of course, Latnok earlier, since he was an idiot.

With the memories of the Ritual came the same sense of determination Latnok had leading up to it, which would bleed over into his mental connections. If he could feel this much power now... what would happen if Shade lost control again? It would be more power than he ever had to manage before. But perhaps this could be beneficial. Raising his right arm up, Latnok pulled all the arrows he shot to him, storing them back in his quiver. "Let's go. Time to do what I get paid to." The blue fire around his arms dissipated as he slowly began to adapt to the extra magic. "Let's get to the fight already. We'll crush anyone in out way."
Unlike Angora, Sere did not see the need to ride his mount for a normal travel pace. Instead, Veris walked at his side, attentive to any orders. "I will have to command the Guardians remotely for now. But my magic, my blade, and my mount are with you all."

"Until the mission is over, no?" Angora casually said to Sere, firmly believing he and Latnok would betray them once the mission was completed. If she succeeded, she was going to disappear as soon as the threat was over and leave the group forever.

"That, or until I or Latnok can no longer continue the mission, at which point we would take our leave and wish you the best of luck," Sere said. "We have no further purpose with you once that is done. I was hoping that this would make the beginning of connections between trolls and humans, but your constant spiteful attitude towards humans, along with your lack of meaningful connections to any trolls, would appear to make such a task infeasible." A blunt, matter-of-fact answer - it was clear that Angora had no intention of changing, so Sere accepted reality and was already writing off any possibility of peace with trolls.

"Oh, so now you want to make a connection? Tell that to your boy Latnok! Before you arrived, I tried many times to make peace with him, but he wouldn't let me. Instead, he showed me these horrible visions of him slaughtering trolls and wanted many times to kill me! How can you ever accomplish any peace if you humans refuse to give us a chance?" Angora declared harshly, believing Sere had no right to tell her that when humans were even worse than trolls. It was because of humans like Latnok that there were less of her kind in the world. Show some hostility, or even a little self defense and the humans will exterminate you. That has been their history, and Angora knew it well. Despite that, she didn't hated humans as much as dragons until she met Latnok himself, experiencing human bigotry in the flesh only after she got to know him.

"Latnok was willing to work with you when I gave him the order - however, your efforts to go out of your way to display your contempt for him make such cooperation significantly more difficult." Though Sere did not completely agree with Latnok's methods, it was generally considered bad form to criticize subordinates in front of others. "Something which you have continued to do. We need not discuss the matter any further - we will never see eye to eye on the matter. You will always feel that you are justified, and we will believe that your efforts to interject into others' conversations show the opposite." With that, Sere, though reluctant at first, cast his own personal silence on Angora.

"Well he had it coming. He asked for it!" Angora assured, believing she didn't have any guilt. After talking for a while, she noticed Sere was ignoring her, and it was then that she realized he used the same spell as Latnok.
"Oh goodie. The same coward spell. No wonder you're so ignorant. You use that disgusting spell to be deaf to the truth." Angora said slowly so that he would read her lips, furious how Sere was just like Latnok, and still had the galls to tell her she was the one who needed education. She then made an insulting sign with her hands so that Sere would be convinced on how much she disliked him and how much she hated him using that spell just because he despised the truth being thrown to his face.

Sere's focus was completely diverted from Angora, instead being focusednon a long-range communication spell to the stronghold. With the Tree of Vitality severely damaged, the spell was much harder to focus, but he managed to get through nonetheless.
"Adjudocator Faibian reporting. What do you ask of me, Godfather?
"Faibian, I will be absent for a while. I will give general directions from where I am, but I need you and the rest of the Adjudicators to run daily operations in the meantime."
"You are staying safe, am I correct, Godfather?"
"Yes. No need to concern yourself with me. However, I have some dealings to settle."
"Very well, then. Anything else?"
"What is the status on the Tree of Vitality?"
"A sprout has grown from the trunk and is rapidly developing. Restoration is currently on schedule. We are making sure to give it all of the nutrients and energy it needs."
"Very well. I will keep in touch. I have faith in you."
"I will not disappoint you, Godfather."

Latnok's agitation was visible via his body language - walking much more rapidly than normal, slowing down only to aboid losing the group, being hyper-alert, fists clenched. The fight could not start soon enough - he had the fullest of confidence that they could destroy anything in their way.. He had to maintain his focus, though - there was still a job to do, and Raclaw and Shade would be greatly helped by him maintaining his focus and resolve. Instead, he quickly channeled a powerful force bolt and shot it into the sky to let off some steam.

"I swear Shade, I have been blind all this time. I hated dragons even after knowing what kind of monsters humans were, but it took me interacting with one this much to know how severe their monstrosity is. Just look at them! When they are proven wrong, they simply use that irritating spell to avoid the truth." Angora commented, needing someone to talk to. Shade was the closest and the one she despised less at the moment. All this time, she had thought que never showed any kindness because she believed it was a sign of weakness, but now she realized it was because nobody ever have her the chance. Those who knew she was a troll were unjust to her because they only saw her as a monster, and those who didn't know what she was treated her as an ugly little thing inferior to them. She had too much bitterness in her heart.

Latnok turned sharply to snap at Shade. "Hey, listen here you ingrate. Our 'power over others' is the only reason you're not dead right now. I had the choice to let the collar kill you when I was going to die, but I took it off of you. Now I have to act like some aort of living battery and strain myself while risking my own life and sanity to help you control your power because you don't have the capability to do it yourself, at least not without going berserk and killing everyone. All this when killing you would have been a lot easier. I would think twice about that statement." The connection he felt with Shade left him highly on edge.

Latnok couldn't hear Angora, but she could still hear him. So that's how the new gem worked? She had thought it was simply a stronger version. She could feel Shade's tension and heat.
"Easy there! Calm yourself! He's just greedy, misled soul. He'll be out of your life soon." Angora reminded as she gently patted Shade to keep him relaxed. Not only Raclaw linked his mind with Shade. Now Latnok did it as well. Why were they all so stupid? Don't they realize they're making things worse?

"Wasn't this moron taught it's not polite to butt in private conversation?" Angora added, not caring if Sere or Latnok understood her. She was just so irritated on how the latter needed to have the last word even if the conversation wasn't addressed to him.

OOC: It's Latnok speaking, not Sere.

OOC: Changed it. I'm using my cellphone to type right now and I read that wrong.

OOC: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! SUMMARY AGAIN! I read the response to Star's comment but wasn't on here to reply in time.

OOC: The group is moving out now. Shade's collar has been adjusted to allow Latnok to amplify its power siphoning abilities by using himself as a vessel in order to keep Shade's power under wraps - with it coming a mental bond with Shade and Raclaw. redwes has a well-illustrated chart of it.

OOC: Ah, thanks.

Star had thought about the response for a while. Finally he noticed the others were getting ready to head onward. About time. "So, which way are we going? AND CAN I HAVE SOME HELP GETTING SKYMETALS?!" The second sentence was shouted rather loudly, the dark little fox's frustration quite visible.
Darkheart sighed. "Forget that infernal device and pack up. We've got more important things then your toys."
Star growled at her. "It's not a toy! It's the greatest culmination of my scientific talents ever! I could change the entire timeline with this! It earned me the title of 'Timetwister'!"

In contrast to many other members of the group, Latnok was more receptive to Star and his comments and grievances - perhaps because Star was one of the few who didn't cause him any issues. "Skymetals? Would you mind elaborating on that for me? We have phoenix steel, derived from phoenix ashes, and phoenixes fly... stuff like that?" Latnok was distracted from his agitation for now. "Is it something which will help you get out of this hellscape and back to your world?"