ic How to Build a Better Scythe

[Fox]

"Not for humans," Wraith replied. She'd stepped toward Kimber, but the current situation there seemed...somewhat too awkward to intrude into. Instead, she wiped herself of gore as best she could and moved around to the aurochs' head, kneeling down with an expression something like remorse.

"<Though your actions were against me and mine, know that I know they were not born of malice or hate,>" she hummed in an alien tongue, drawing an odd symbol in the air over her victim's forehead and gently closing its eyes. "<You were worthy prey, and will be remembered. No ire or wrath chases you into the void - return to the cycle at peace, to pass or begin anew.>"

"I do not hunt beasts with others anymore," she rather belatedly continued, glancing up at Frost. There was a hint of regret in her voice - something lost. "I venture into the forest on my own to hunt sometimes, and when I 'butcher' it is to ensure my prey goes to no waste - always ensuring it was an acceptable death and that it feeds its...I think the word is 'ecosystem'."

An absurd third arm grew from her back, grabbing a handful of snow and passing it to two others to begin scrubbing blood off chrome. "When I carve, it is for less picky eaters. I am sure I could do it for normal humans, but I do not claim to know a great deal about how they prefer it."

[Electra]

Koshiro just sighed when Kimber put a hand through his chest, just like old times. He took several big, cautious and extremely clumsy steps backwards from Kimber's... whatever she was, the evil annihilist girl, who looked like she was about to go severely damage-bound against not only the cow, but anything she perceived as a threat. And then he repressed his gag reflex as Wraith exploded the blinded aurochs from the inside-out with the sort of special effects typically reserved for horror movies. He was mostly successful; the green on his face faded quickly under the continued bite of the wind around them. 

With the threat abated for the moment, he recalled his flock, letting them settle back into place on his armor or wheel around him in a dizzying parabola.  A few were too soaked with gore to rise from the snow at all, but most were only flecked with blood, adding distinctive notes of red to the otherwise mostly-white group. "Are we really going to need supplies for this?" he asked Kimber. "I kinda thought this would be an in-and-out thing." 

[trollthumper]

"Well, I guess it's better than letting it lie here," said Nick. "I mean, it might make a good meal for some... whatever feasts on aurochs, but it might also go to waste. Besides, I've always wanted to taste food from another plane." That wasn't exactly true - he'd tasted the fruits of Underworlds where doing that kind of thing wouldn't bind you to the firmament; some of them had tasted of warm fruit juice filtered through ash - but Wraith had gone to a lot of trouble doing some fairly frightening things to that killer cow, and he was damned if he was going to act like it had just been nothing. Besides, Velkr might take umbrage with the meat just lying there.

"Yes," said Velkr, his grip on the axe slowly loosening. "The wild aurochs can be a challenge sometimes; skalds say that the struggle makes the meat all the more savored." Something in his voice indicated he was surprised - maybe a little disturbed - at how little of a struggle it had been to utterly destroy the aurochs. "And a meal may help to steel us for the voyage ahead."

"I'm starting to wonder how much steeling may be required," said Temperance. She was trying to keep her cool exterior - she was a girl of the modern world, and knew that meat did not magically appear on the supermarket shelf. But seeing how easily and utterly the metal girl had torn the auroch into bloody gibbets... well, it was the kind of thing to make a woman consider salads and pasta for the next week or so. She tried to push it down - It's just like that time your sight flared up at the butcher shop; you got through that without going vegan, you can get through this - and maintain her focus on what was important. "So... what comes next?" 

[Gizmo]

"Shh, no, no," Kimber soothed, running the back of one hand lightly over the side of Tarva's throat and letting just a sliver of her cooling aura spread outward, distinct from the plane's inherent frigidity. She reminded herself that proposing the wholesale slaughter of a species really wasn't an acceptable demonstration of affection but she was honestly more worried about whatever price came with the witch's more aggressive shadow magics. "It just caught me by surprise, we're okay. We're--"

Koshiro's question cut her off and she cleared her throat awkwardly, immediately aware of the number of eyes surrounding them. "O-oh, um, not really! We're already a bit over halfway there so it's not like we'll need to make camp or anything," she assured the Detroit hero, wincing visibly at the blood splatter on his army of cranes and made a mental note to make it up to him; their excursion had already run into considerably more drama than she'd planned. She hesitated a moment, looking down at Tarva before making the decision not to extricate herself from the other woman's grip until she seemed ready. She did straighten enough to survey the gory battlefield. "Gosh," she murmured, shooting Indira an appreciative look. If her friends were going to fly off the chain any time she stubbed her toe the whole corporeal thing was going to be a little complicated but the certainly appreciated the gesture.

"Really, it's a good sign that the horns could hit me!" she reasoned, doing her best to swing the overall mood back to something more positive. "Means Jötunheim was the right choice for this! Oh! Oh! Renarde, there's some garbage bags in the duffel, we should at least pack some of the auroch with some ice for Becky! Um, did everybody want to stop to eat? I guess we could but, uh... not everybody here actually eats so using all of that up is going to be tough."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox stared sidelong at Tarva. She wasn't entirely sure of the specifics of their relationship. She'd known she was that protective of Kimber. She did not like the signs of being that protective. It was... an aggressive kind of affection. A kind she'd seen before. "We came here with a job to do, wiping our species for the actions of two isn't one of them," she said quietly. "Believe me, I read the manual before we came here."

She hovered gently over to one of the great carcasses, unwilling to trudge through the debris and snow and dirt. "We just got here, I don't know if we need to stay to eat. We could take some meat with us, and if need be, I can conjure up something to cook it with." The witch looked around at the group. "I think what just happened is a good primer for here. It's dangerous, we don't want to hang around unnecessarily, but we should also come prepared. Ideally we don't want any more injuries or problems. We'll have them, but a back-up plan for hunger is probably a good idea."

Edited August 7, 2015 by Ecalsneerg

[Avenger Assembled]

"In wilderness, you never pass up chance for food. And there is no wilderness like Jotunheim - not in all Nine Realms." Frost turned out to be quite professionally knowledgeable about animal slaughter, and within minutes had (with Wraith's help) butchered a substantial quantity of quality rib meat. Most of them do not eat, he thought with a look around at the others, but to have the meat is better than to let it waste. "Will freeze what we don't eat tonight - save for later." He pressed Citizen, both the strongest of the group and the least likely to be nauseated by carrying slabs of beef over his shoulder, into service - and with ill grace the robot decided to do a favor for the famous Russian hero. 

"Ugh," commented Sharl, keeping the rest of his thoughts to himself. "Okay, I think we're done here," he said once he was back in the air, trying to ignore just how weird this place was. "I can just carry people to wherever we're doing this magic...thing." 

"I wasn't going to kill all of them," Tarva had muttered sulkily when she disengaged from Kimber, still trembling with the aftereffects of what looked to have been swallowing a considerable amount of magic. "Just enough of them." Despite her feelings, she did pitch in to help with the animal slaughter, pulling out a sharp-looking knife from behind her dress and going to work with obvious experience on the butchering of the meat - when all was said and done, she had nearly as much blood on her as Comrade Frost - and that was a lot of blood.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy picked herself up and brushed herself down, completely unconcerned about what would happened if the beast hadn’t been stopped. In fact she couldn’t help but be impressed by the mighty beasts power.

“It would be a shame to lose such magnificent beasts, however ill tempered they seem to be.”

She gently patted the hide of one of the creatures as she walked round to where the rest of them had gathered.

“Whatever you plan to do I suggest that we don’t dwell here too long, I assume something must prey on these beasts...”

[Gizmo]

Between them the group from Midgard proved startling efficient in the art of butchery even if half or more of them lacked either the ability or inclination to eat meat themselves. Those who wanted to bundle up some of the resulting cuts had a chance to do so but by the time the great beast Sharl had stunned into unconsciousness had begun to stir again it was clear that the bulk of the slain animal was going to end up a meal for those scavengers or predators Lucy had been concerned about. The partially digested bones and jotun equipment found in the auroch's gullet painted a grim enough picture the local food chain that it was difficult to feel too much regret as they made haste to continue on their way.

Kimber's estimate of their progress turned out to be on the spot as the primordial forest opened up into a similarly scaled clearing with snow covered underbrush taller than Sharl's robotic body jutting out between uneven rocky outcroppings breaking through the forest floor. The stones grew larger the further away they got from the gargantuan trees until they culminated in a mound that went beyond mere hill to become more of a small mountain. Rough, jotun-sized stone steps had been set into the edge of the bluff to form a winding stairway and even set against the ancient forest the wear of the elements made them seem impossibly old. Amongst the telephone poll thick creeping vines and stubborn scrub plants were the eroded remains of pillars and archways, snow settled into the deep carvings of runes making them visible even from the base. Rising even over the top of the bluff was the culmination of the ruins, a ring of cyclopean stones punctuated at each cardinal point by a great tower, the northern cracked and crumbled at its midpoint and the eastern almost entirely intact. Each tower was carved into an abstract likeness of two jotun standing back to back, one looking inward to the center of the circle and one pointing outward with a raised arm. Only the giants of the eastern tower were completely recognizable as such; the arms of the southern sculpture ended at the shoulder and the western tower ended unevenly part way up their chests. Those in the group attuned to such things could feel magics of belief and the fundamental elements, of death and rebirth suffusing the entire clearing, slumbering but still ebbing and flowing like a bottomless ocean just below their feet.

[trollthumper]

It was majestic. It was wondrous. It really was not his thing. 

That wasn't to say Nick was bored. No, it was the exact opposite - he was enthralled... and more than a little terrified. This was a place where the divide between life and death was more of a dotted line. This wasn't a new sensation - it was the kind of thing you got in the presence of some gods, especially ones like Osiris who strode that line as a second nature. But it was strange to feel such forces churning about, to feel like one was in the presence of something stirring in the womb... or turning over in its sleep. 

Temperance, meanwhile, did not have a great grasp of the nature of the forces lying under this place, but she knew they were there nonetheless. She felt like she was standing in a giant's footprint - an ironic comparison, given where she was - and waiting for the peal of thunder that would tell her where the other step would land. She tried very hard not to think about what had happened here, and instead turned her focus towards what would happen here. "So. Where are we going to start?" 

[Fox]

Wraith viewed the ruins with a magic-less but appreciative eye. "It is unfortunate. I would have liked to have seen this place when it was new, I think."

"I suspect I will be less than useful for a while," she observed - no sarcasm or admonishment, just a simple statement of fact. She was casting her three-eyed gaze around the ruins again, but this time it was critical, searching. "If I am needed, please do not hesitate to call on me, but I will otherwise get out of your way and...the phrase is 'stand guard', I think? I will keep an eye out for trouble while you all work."

She bowed, turned, and dashed off across the snow toward what she apparently believed to be the tower with the best height or vantage point. Climbing was as simple as growing an extra set of legs and scurrying up the side in a lizard-like spiral; once up top, she seemed to plant herself on all fours, graceful spines growing from the top of her head to shift and sample the sounds in the air.

[Electra]

"I'll do the same," Koshiro agreed. He didn't have much sensitivity to magic, but there was just enough to have him uneasy as he stood on the ruins, feeling power rumbling under his feet. "Last thing we need is another giant cow coming in and disrupting everybody's concentration. I'll just get the lay of the land while you're working." A phalanx of cranes broke off from the cloud wheeling overhead and dove for the moutaintop, refashioning and refolding themselves in flight till they became a sleek paper airplane with crenellated edges. Koshiro hopped nimbly onto the paper creation. "If I start screaming incoherently, that'll be your clue that something's wrong," he advised, then kicked off into the air. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Hands in his pockets, Comrade Frost wandered out into the center of the circle, doing his best to ignore the icy cold all around them. "I have seen a circle like this before!" he called, but for once there was no joviality in his voice. "In the frozen marshes of Ladoga, in the cold winter of 1941." He pulled up his hood, his face all but vanishing in the shadows beneath but for glowing red eyes. "Is standard magic for these purposes, for the summoning of the dead and their energies." Kimber had not asked what he had told Hel about this mission. That was, he had long since decided, for the best. "Come, let us do our work." 

Citizen stayed in the air, flying along besides Papercut, though he had to keep enough distance that the air kicked up by his flight didn't disturb the other hero's passage. "This is a freaky dimension!" he called to Koshiro as they went. "All I'm getting from the atmosphere here is electromagnetic discharge; and it was even worse back in that circle," he said as they made their way over the trees. "Like a lightning strike 'hanging' in the air, waiting to go off." 

Soaked in gore up to her elbows, Tarva began walking the edges of the circle while she muttered softly to herself, obviously looking to Kimber for further direction. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Whilst Lucy couldn’t feel the change in the air, her sense were so dulled by being undead, she could still sense the power flowing through the place. Whilst she waited for Kimber to explain what she wanted people to do she took the time to admire the sheer enormity of the architecture around them. It was almost a shame that soon trouble might sight here, but it was something Kimber needed to do so she was ready to play her part.

“It’s an amazing place you’ve picked I almost wish I could visit a place like this and just take in the scenery. But that not why we’re here, so what’s next?”

[April]

A hand gently touched the shadow priestess at the forearm.

"You OK, Tarva?" Eve quietly asked the shadow priestess once the two were separated enough from the others for some privacy, or at leas the illusion of it.  The telepath maintained her gentle hold on the dark haired woman for a moment, ignoring the blood and gore that coated her arms, before letting go.

"I want you to know, I appreciate what you were planning to do," Blue Fox continued shaking her hood back and removing her mask; some blood ended up getting smeared across the mask but she paid it no mind.  "And I saw what you did.  I don't pretend to understand magic but I know how extremely unpleasant psychic feedback feels, and what I saw looked painful."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Come on and witness the amazing magic of the...oh!" Tarva turned to Eve, a look of confusion on her pale face, before looking down at her arms. "Oh, this little gift from the dead cow? I hadn't really noticed." She concentrated, eyes turning black, and black light seemed to radiate from her arms, making the drying blood crumble away in frittering fragments of ash. "I've worn worse. And longer." She flexed her fingers back and forth, pale digits now clean, and smiled that too-bright smile at Eve as she visibly gathered her thoughts. "I was wroth," she finally said. "Foolishly so." She glanced back at Kimber. "All I did was embarrass Kimber - and burn my throat," she admitted. She did sound rather more hoarse than when she'd begun. "Do not fear," she told Eve with great sincerity. "It will not happen again." 

Edited August 14, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Gizmo]

Looking up at the ruin from the base of the bluff, Kimber took a moment to calm herself with a few deep breaths, even if they were strictly speaking only an affectation for her. After all of the research and questing and preparation the metaphysical weight in the air hung particularly heavily on her shoulders. "Okay. Alright," she muttered to herself, double-checking the architecture of the worn towers to make sure they matched her diagrams closely enough for everything to go as planned. Floating over to Dimitri she gave the bundled up draugr a nervous smile. "Here goes nothing, eh, Uncle? Could you grab Nick and Equinox and meet me up at the summit? I'll go get Tarva and the artifacts."

Seeing the shadow priestess speaking privately with Renarde, Kimber cleared her throat audibly as she approached to make her presence known. "Hey! Looks like we're good to go. Thanks for carrying the bag for me, Eve." Lifting the duffel telekinetically so that it floated in the air next to her, the poltergeist chewed on her bottom lip and gave Tarva a sidelong look. "Are you still up for this? Is your throat feeling better?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Shaking off his grim mood, Frost beamed at Kimber. "Naturally!" He gathered up Nick and Equinox the way he would any other young people, by clapping his hands and calling, "Nicholas! Equinox! Come come," he declared, pointing towards the summit before flying over there himself in a puff of white mist. Waiting for them there, he smiled broadly, "So! We create abomination of life and death today." He didn't sound bothered by the idea - in fact he sounded positively delighted. "Ah, is just like I am become new father, eh? And you all are godparents!" He clapped the two younger practitioners on the back, beaming. "Such a day!" Without comment, at this juncture he took a loose cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a battered old metal lighter. "I would offer you smoke, but I know how young people are!" 

-

"I'm up for it," said Tarva with a smile, her voice sounding scratchy and dry like she'd caught a cold - something Kimber had never actually known her to do. "Don't worry about me," she went on before coughing. "Everything I'll be doing is based on body movements - and talking like this will help with the summoning." Bold words or not, she coughed again, clutching her hands tight against her sides to avoid grabbing onto Eve or Kimber and pulling them down.  

[Gizmo]

By the time Tarva coughed a second time the look of quiet concern on Kimber's face had given way to an audible note of annoyance in the back of her throat as she planted her hands on her hips. "Yeah, alright, tough girl. Just hold still a minute." The darker blues that gave definition to the phantom's monochromatic appearance deepened into light-devouring black, creating sharply defined lines in contrast to her transparent cerulean and sapphire. With lines of her face picked out in smooth, inky brushstrokes she floated forward a few steps and placed her lips firmly on top of Tarva's.

Though she was concentrating too much on the spell itself to make the kiss particularly sensual, Kimber's distraction didn't prevent her from letting the fingers of the hand on the back of the Terminus witch's head tangle a little more into jet black locks that was probably strictly necessary. The feeling of tendrils of the shadowstuff of der Schattenwelt curling about inside her was nothing new to Tarva but where her shadows had the warm if claustrophobic closeness of heavy blankets pulled over one's head the power reaching outward from Kimber had the quality of a cool, insistent breeze under the shade of a tree. The shadows rolled down Tarva's throat then pulled back, drawing the hurt along with them, leaving her feeling as good as new.

Letting go after the better part of a minute, Kimber drifted back out of Tarva's personal space, eyes slightly glazed and an oily dribble trailing from one corner of her mouth. She hacked violently for a moment as her colouration returned to normal, giving herself a shake. "Guh! If I'm -- hhk -- if I'm being honest that went a little smoother in my head," she admitted with a smaller cough, her own voice noticeably hoarse now as she wiped the trickle away with the back of her cloak's sleeve. She felt a little like she'd gargled the contents of one of Siobhan's ashtrays. "Nice to know that works, though! Hhh--! Hoo, okay. C'mon, the others are already waiting. Eve, could you link up everybody who's not helping with the ritual itself? Don't want anybody getting lost!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox landed on the mountainside, finally pulling the raccoon out of her coat to send it snuffling about in the rocks and ice around the three mages. Well. Two mages and one vampire. She pulled out a crumpled packet of cigarettes from her pocket and set one in her mouth. "How us young people are? Prone to buy our own, you mean?" she said wryly, firing a brief burst of flame out of one finger to light it.

"It's not the abomination I'm so worried about. We play fast and loose with the boundary between life and death all the time. I suppose I should be more concerned with that, but not right now." She frowned at Nick and Frost. "Who is this girlfriend of Kimber's? She has... anger issues. Are we fine with this? Are we fine with them?" The witch smiled ruefully. "I know all about teenage romances with the edgy cool one."

[Avenger Assembled]

Equinox's question left Dimitri with a dilemma between his word and his good sense. "It is...imprudent of Kimber," he finally conceded. "But what might any of us do for the chance to know another's touch, if we were denied such things?" Silently, the thermovore stared down at Kimber and Tarva and took a deep puff on his cigarette, eyes flaring red. "Good blend, good tobacco!" He finally exclaimed before turning to Nick and declaring, "Come now, you must smoke with us! Is death, to be sure, but you know death well." Looking back at the couple, he kept speaking in a quiet murmur as he handed the lit cigarette to the necromancer. "Presence of Annihilist in Jotunheim has caused some...irregularities with Lady Hel. I have solved them for now with certain oaths but it is well we do not tarry. Beings outside of our plane are not interested in stories of repentance. Only destruction." 

- 

For once, Tarva was geniunely at a loss for words - her cheeks flushing black, she put her hand to her mouth for a moment. But she didn't back away from Kimber, either, and didn't seem as eager to pull away as she had been before. "You..." She paused, noting the change in her voice, then said, "T-thank you, Kimber, that...You took my wound upon yourself? Why?" She didn't sound angry, just thoroughly baffled. She licked her lips. 

[Gizmo]

"Maybe I just like the sound of your voice," Kimber put forth airily with only a little cough, reaching out to tap Tarva on the nose with an index finger. Feigned nonchalance didn't come easily to the emotive specter, however, and a moment later she using the same fingers to push a few strands of hair behind one ear self-consciously. "I should've asked before, um, touching but I kinda thought if I -- hhk, sorry -- if I explained you might not let me heal you. It's just, you only hurt yourself because you were trying to protect me and after what we talked about it was really nice to see you caring about something." She didn't give voice to the more selfish thought that said it was especially nice that Tarva seemed to care about her, specifically, but with cobalt blue rising in her cheeks she had a feeling that subtext was pretty obvious no matter how carefully she phrased things.

The priestess' confusion at the idea of anyone doing something nice for her made Kimber's chest ache a little in a way that had nothing to do with the second-hand shadow burns but knowing that she hadn't immediately pulled back or walled herself off in response brought a small, shy smile to the ghost's lips, still stained a little darker than normal. "It was sweet and it didn't seem -- hckh -- fair for you to feel bad because of it, eh? B-besides," she added, becoming more aware that they had a sizable audience and tucking her shoulders together, "the spell's pretty specific, so who knows when I'd get to test it again! I think the, um, the others are probably waiting, so...!" Despite her words she moved to close some of the gap between them and waited for Tarva's readiness before heading for the top of the bluff.

[trollthumper]

"Kimber is..." Nick tried to find the right words, but it felt like he was tattling on some level - not that he didn't want to talk to someone about some of these issues. He took Dmitri's cigarette, taking a quick puff. "I talked to her about it. She's... working some things out. Well, technically, both of them are. Kimber's trying to work out the fact that she can become tangible, feel someone's touch, and has fallen for a woman; Tarva is dealing with the fact that she spent a lot of time doing whatever she had to do to survive in the Terminus. I can't say I'm entirely cool with it, but - and God, I can't believe I'm saying this - I know there were a few relationships I was in my parents would have flipped out over. Maybe she would let it work... or maybe we could talk to her about it. She already talked to me; she might be willing to share concerns with those who are concerned for her." He took a deep breath, looking out at the auroras hanging over the skies of the icy realm.

"And if she does anything to hurt Kimber, we can always go after her like she owes us money." 

Edited August 19, 2015 by trollthumper

[Avenger Assembled]

Tarva hugged Kimber, her arms warm and strong as she pressed Kimber's head against her chest. When she was done, she released the spectre and smiled shakily. "You are my boon companion, Kimber." She met her eyes, black film standing out in her own, before she wiped a hand across her face and took a deep breath. "Come along. Let's give you your flesh." Reaching down, she held Kimber's hand all the way up the hill. 

-

"Smoooth, eh?" said Frost with a broad wink at Nick. He watched the interplay between Kimber and Tarva below like the old vulture he was, red eyes narrowing. "I am sure we can deal with situation as it grows." He thought of Nick besides him, and Equinox on the other, and was struck by a sudden feeling of age. Am I so hard? So brutal, and these young people so soft? He decided to keep his own counsel when it came to Tarva's situation, and was all smiles to greet Kimber and Tarva when they arrived at the top of the hill. "So, tell us ritual, Kimber!" 

[Gizmo]

It was Kimber's turn to be entirely flummoxed as Tarva pulled her along toward the bluff, glancing over her shoulder to give Eve a look searching for some sort of direction before becoming entirely too distracted by the sorceress' thumb tracing slow circles in her palm. She'd only ever heard the taller woman use the term 'boon companion' in one other context and while the enormous weight of the sentiment had been clear to her she wasn't really clear on the specifics and that terrified her in a weirdly giddy way. Healing Tarva's throat had just felt like the obvious thing to do; she certainly hadn't planned ahead for this sort of reaction and now she felt like she had a million questions she couldn't actually form into words. The raw scratchiness at the back of her mouth certainly wasn't bothering her anymore, at least.

Frost's greeting jolted her back to the present, abruptly aware that at some point she'd managed to fit her side and shoulder quite snugly against curves draped in black. "Ritual! Yes! Right! Aheh-ha haaah... Okay." Sliding her hand out of Tarva's as casually as she could manage - which wasn't very - and floated to the center of the summit with her duffel hovering just behind her. "I've gotten all of you to go over parts of this to double-check my work but with all the calculations and stuff done it should be pretty straightforward! I've gathered together four 'objects of power'," she continued, making finger quotes in the air, "and each of you will be using the part I already showed you to, well, charge up one of the pieces, eh? Then I'll be in the middle, here, fitting them together into the right 'shape'." With a wave of her hand the zipper of the bag undid itself and the contents began to float out. "Things might get a little intense and vision-quest-y but that's normal! Probably!"

The first object out of the bag was a jagged shard of faintly blue-tinted metal that whistled as its impossibly sharp edge cut through the air. It hung in the air between Kimber and the northern tower and she gestured for Dimitri to head over in that direction as well. "So! First off, a fragment of the blade that carved out the heart of Ymir, titan of elemental poison and father of all jötunn! Heimdall let me keep it after Temperance and I helped him with a thing," she explained. It was fairly obviously why that component should be the draugr's responsibility. "That'll be the blade." To the west she partnered up Eric with what everyone present clearly recognized as a human humerus. "For the tang, a bone from a cursed death, cold, forsaken and untimely. Er, which would be mine, obviously. Duh." She didn't seem overly upset by the thought of her own unpleasant end; if anything she was picking up speed now that the culmination of all her work was at hand. "I washed it off first, if that helps! Okay, now, this is the big bit." A long tree branch slid out of the duffel, having barely fit diagonally inside. The bark was a bright, unmistakably luminous silver, pulsating with life and power. It went to Siobhan near the southern tower. "A fallen branch of the Furion's Silver Tree to form the snath! Pieces almost never fall off on their own, I guess, but when we were there I explained what I was thinking about and they're pretty super into the idea of forging signature weapons! It's already just about bursting with elemental energy, so careful!" Equinox's explosive approach to nature magics seemed like a good match for the bombastic cosmic power of the Silver Tree.

The last item out of the bag before she set it carefully aside was the smallest, about the size of a saucer and carved from a porous, milky bronze material none of them recognized. The shape was clearly a stylized representation of some sort of animal skull, halfway between a jungle cat and a horse but with one too many eye sockets. Although the craftsmanship was obvious the sculpture had been scarred by angry claw marks, gouged with alien symbols that smacked of the profane. "This is an idol to a goddess of the Kinigosi, Wraith's people. We found it on a world where... well, it was real bad and Wraith figures its old owner must have lost faith near the end. We can't make it like it was before but that's okay 'cause everything changes and it can still be part of something really great!" She telekinetically presented the idol to Tarva by the eastern tower with a bright smile. The metaphor surely wasn't lost but from the way the phantom was rubbing one hand over her shoulder she was drawing a parallel to herself more than anyone else. Taking a deep breath, Kimber crossed her legs underneath herself and cast her gaze up at Indira's perch for reassurance before looking about the circle. "Well, the sooner we get started, eh? Ready?"

[Fox]

There was the sharp noise of metal on stone from up on the tower, and its source was immediately clear to anyone who looked upward. Wraith's attention wasn't on their surroundings anymore. She was hunched up on the edge of the tower like a silver gargoyle, and she certainly looked the part: she'd become all spines and blades when Tarva touched the profaned idol, and even from the tower's heights her eyes were large, black, and...intense.

She waited until Tarva had made eye contact before turning her attention - partly, if not entirely - back to her self-assigned duty, the worst of her reflexive armament retreating back into her body. The message was clear: tread carefully.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Fox