Dawn of Arcana

[AMDreams]

They say that everyone is born with a god. This god is not a bearded omnipotent man resting in the clouds. This god isn't an object of worship. No, this god is not the type of god we're used to. But there's really no other name that suits them. Because these are the ones that watch over us throughout our lives. These are the ones who protect us. These are the ones who listen to our prayers. And if it is in their power, these are the ones who give us miracles.

They say that at some point in our lives, we all borrow a bit of our god's power to create miracles. Everyone's done it. Then why are we being punished? Because our gods are stronger? Because we happened to score a little too high on our screening test? It's not like we are the only ones with gods. You all have them too. So will you stop looking at me like I'm some sort of monster? Will you just let me stay and live like you get to, with your friends and family? Will you not send me away?​

Journal Entry of Ryder White
August 9, 2274​

~~~~~

Nearly a century ago, humans discovered the existence of gods, mysterious entities formed from a strange type of energy that seem to shadow us throughout life. A couple of decades later, they discovered a way to tap into that strange power to produce results that could only be called "magic". However this "magic" could only be used by certain people called witches. The world celebrated this development. Then came the 4th World War . . . and Ulysses Foster.

After Ulysses Foster, witches became seen as monsters. All witches were forcibly moved, whether they had even formed a contract yet, to a safe location. A walled off city in a frozen wasteland, devoid of all life. Welcome to Daten City.

~~~~~

"GRRAAAGHHHH!!!"

The day at the Red Fang Temple started like any other. With Geming Yang, Captain of the Red Fangs and infamous hothead, screaming at the top of his lungs from the roof of the temple. Because according to Boris, being a man meant rising with the sun. It was a ritual that annoyed nearly everyone living in the southern area, but no one was reckless enough to face the Chinese muscle bag to ask him to stop. And so everyday, like a rooster, at the crack of dawn, the area of the Red Fangs would awake to their very own alarm clock.

"Good morning Red Fangs! Rise and shine! Today is another beautiful morning closer to our revenge on those cowardly humans who imprisoned us here! Come on, my Red Fangs, let me hear you roar!" Boris was known for his lack of indoor voice. A common joke among the Red Fangs was that you could sense him coming from a mile away simply because he was that loud.

After his wake up call, Boris jumped down from the roof, 3 stories high, and landed on the concrete with a loud thud. He took in a deep breath of the cool Russian air. "Today is a beautiful day, right Wukong?" he said to his gauntlets where his god resided. No audible voice answered him back but Boris smiled, feeling the Monkey King's answer anyway. This sort of phenomena wasn't uncommon in Daten City, especially those with a relationship as close as Boris and his god.

"You're right. It's the perfect time for a run!" And with that, Boris took off on his daily run around the city.

~~~~~

Daphne practically skipped down the hallways of Green Dragon Labs, humming a tune. She was so excited. Last night, a fight broke out between two witches and well, the Black Hunters didn't exactly make it on time. Now she had a fresh corpse to dissect tonight and she couldn't wait. She had to act quickly before the mana disappeared but they had to disinfect the body first.

What sort of secrets could she discover from the body? What sort of breakthroughs would be made tonight? The anticipation was killing her. But first she needed her daily coffee.

She went outside and headed for her favorite little cafe, a small place but they served the best coffee in Daten City. After ordering her cup, she sat at one of the tiny tables outside, sipping coffee while eating olives out of a jar she carried with her the entire way and finalizing the lab report from her last dissection. Sadly, there wasn't much to tell from that corpse. The mana was long gone by the time Frankie made the first incision. Hm . . . perhaps a live body would be more . . . interesting.

Daphne began laughing creepily to herself, scaring some of the other patrons. That is until a silent voice told her to stop. "Oh, yes. Sorry Athena. I just get so excited sometimes."

~~~~~

"Captain Hawthorne, I'm sending the suspect your way." Titania Fullbuster, better known as Anya, was running down Fifth St, dodging and weaving through the crowd, on the tail of a witch suspected of using magic to hustle money from small shop owners. Everything seemed to go according to plan. Some of the officers had blocked off many of the possible escape routes. The others, like her, were leading him to the alleyway were Alex was waiting. The suspect was just about to reach Alex now. In 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Nothing? Anya watched as the suspect ran off and into crowded Central Square. What? Why didn't Alex capture him? Upon reaching the end of the alleyway, she saw no one. The captain was nowhere to be found. That lazy little a**! As much as Anya respected Captain Hawthorne and admired him due to an incident where he had helped her when she was still a newbie to Daten City, his laziness was such a pain in her side. It was a miracle that he was the one appointed to Captain of the Black Hunters when the previous one was killed last year. Fortunately, he was serious when they were handling big situations but it'd help if he was serious during these little ones as well.

Anya touched her choker. "Marchen, 'Red Riding Hood'." Her eyes turned a crimson color as her senses began to heighten. It was too late to go after the suspect since she didn't have a sample of his scent. However, there was a scent she knew all too well from having to do this numerous times. She caught whiff of him and started running toward Seventh St.

~~~~~

Alexander "Alex" Hawthorne was currently in the company of two women outside a bar on Seventh St. He pulled out two roses from thin air, thanks to his god, and presented one to each of them. "It's only suiting to present lovely flowers with flowers, no? But I do think that your beauty is much more intoxicating than the scent of these roses." Both women blushed heavily and took the flowers while giggling. He was about to kiss one of their hands when he heard a voice yelling from behind him.

"HAAAWTHOOOORNE!!!!!!"

Stun baton fully charged, Anya ran from out of the crowd and directly at her captain, only to have him grab her hand and stop her attack. Smiling at her, Alex said, "Well, I'm afraid I can't let you hit me, my little Lily of the Valley. That would hurt." Then he sent the two other women away before turning back to his lieutenant, still gripping her wrist tightly in case she wanted to use the stun baton on him again. "Now, what has my precious Lieutenant in such a bad mood?"

"We lost the suspect today. The one who was hustling money from the shop owners." "Aw, don't worry. I'm sure you'll do better nex-" "We lost him because of you!" she shouted, interrupting him by smashing the top of her forehead against his chin. Anya then grabbed Alex by the ear and began dragging him in the direction of Black Hunter Headquarters. "You're going to write an apology letter to everyone involved in the plan today for your incompetence!"

This sort of scene was fairly common. Anya forcing Alex to do his work. Normally, Anya was a more calm and logical officer, but she just couldn't help but lose it when it came to her Captain. Mostly because he was the main reason why she even joined the Black Hunters, having admired him ever since he had saved her three years ago. She trained hard to become a Hunter, just to find out that her hero was . . . this . . . It was so disappointing.

 

[lone]

"Bang!"
One shot in the head. The frantic criminal fell down as Regina appraoched him. A puddle of blood formed under the man's head, and Regina's expressionless face was reflected on the red pool.

"This is temporary execution due to the suspect's defiance."
Even when there is nobody alive to hear her, Regina said the sentence aloud. She shaked the blood casually off the sword. The fancy sword transformed into the old ring which was worn on her right middle finger. The criminal died even before the real fight broke out.

Regina holded the criminal assigned to her on one hand and dragged him along the way. They were near the Black Hunter Headquarters when Regina recongnized voices she knew.
"Good day, Lieutant Fullbuster and Captain Hawthorne." Regina, with her peculiar emotionless voice, saluted to them.
"I caught the criminal suspected as one of the Red Fangs." Regina dropped the man's collar infront of the two black hunters.
"The suspects had to be executed due to their defiance." Looking straight and hand still on her forehead, Regina continued. "I request for the disposition of the injured suspects, Lieutant Fullbuster,"-her eyes darted toward the Captain's ear and Lieutant's hand-"and useless Captain."
Regina's stare was now focused on the Lieutant, as if to say that she would receive orders not from captain, but from the lieutant.

~

"As usual, dear sister."
Grenoa smiled delightfully at the paper crane landed on his finger. He had also received the information that two dead corpses were found, but that was out of his interest. His interest was more on living people, not dead ones. Grenoa spinned his chair as he leaned comfortably on the back of the chair.

"Void of any reaction."
He closed his eyes. Grenoa's smile widened as he thought of the blonde girl with the lion and bloody criminal. She was still mysteriously emotionless. He shuddered at the thought of that transparent green eyes reflecting him. He was madly in love with the girl.
"Agape. Yes, my love is agape. It is infinite and fervent! I am ready to sacrifice everything for this love!"
Grenoa forcefully stood up from the chair, making it fall down. He walked across the clean and modernly decorated apartment and opened the window with a big motion. He leaned against it and looked at the Western part of the city, where Regina was.

"I just can't bear what kind of color your eyes will be shaded in." When I break that cold, doll-like expression of yours, sister.
Contrast to his emphasizing motion, he whispered softly. But the his eyes contained the madness, the insanity of a man who lost his mind. Thousands of schemes passed his mind, which will certainly destroy a normal person's mind and bring out pains and sufferings so great that they will be soothed only by death.
"...but you are special. You will not fall down by such things."

Turning away from the open window and the sunlight, Grenoa muttered. His face was shaded by his own shadow as the sunlight illustrated his figure.
"Expect something fun. Something really fun." I'm making a special gift only for you, dear sister.

~

(OOC: Had to change some stuff due to AMDreams' request. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

 

[Adam Onasi]

Peter was not at home, but that could not prevent the boisterous wake up call from travelling through the streets, flying up through the wind and settling heavily into his ears. It was a familiar sound and still a jarring sensation, even from several blocks away. He was atop one of South Daten's tallest buildings, sitting cross-legged by the ledge, green eyes eagerly watching the skyline.

"Rise with the sun," Peter mumbled ritually and sarcastically in answer to Boris' call. Something he should try one day. He enjoyed a weary smile as the sun completed it's slow ascent over the battered horizon. The crisp morning air filled his lungs as he took a deep breath. It was impossible not to admire the skies, day or night. This morning the sunrise was fraught with bellowing purples and oranges.

He had spent the better half of the night on the run from the black. Peter affiliated himself with the Red Fangs almost immediately upon coming to Daten City four years past. He had managed to stay on the good side of the Black Hunters for his first year and quarter in residence, but either in a fit of stupidity or serenity he performed a grandiose speech calling for witch equality after a Black Hunter jeered, "You won't ever set foot outside these walls, kid. You'll die here." Before he could consider himself, a tirade of words flowed from his mouth in retort, describing all of the relevant and fully likely possibilities and outcomes in which he would walk free of Daten's walls, and every other witch with him too, thank you very much.

The short speech must have been more inspiring than he realized, because several arguments began around him simultaneously and a small riot broke out in the Central Daten market, then and there. The Black Hunters got control of the situation fairly quickly, but Peter hadn't stayed a moment to find out if they had a problem with him.

After that, a Black Hunter had stopped him in the busy streets one day, placed a firm grip on his shoulder, stared him in the eyes, and spat, "I know you. Black hair, green eyes, and red fangs."

Peter shuddered, not for the wind. The sun was up and that made it time to head home now.

 

[Silver]

Sophia was laid out on a random roof in a random part of the city. Beside her lay her weapons, in easy reach of course. And to the other side of her, unseen by any othrs eyes but her own, was a large silver wolf. Every now and then one of the beasts ears would twitch as he kept a lazy watch over his witch. There was something about the sun, it made both witch and god sleepy as the heat leaked through their bodies. Sophia herself was somewhere between dozing and waking. She was supposed to check in at the headquarters today to see if they had any jobs for her. She hadn't done so the day before. In her defense, there was a lot of yelling and crashing and she hadn't wanted to get involved in any yelling and crashing situations, so she'd simply turned on her heel and left. A grimace crossed her face now as she finally let her eyes pop open from the memory and back into the present.

The girl turned over onto her stomach and stretched lazily, Sev, her lupine god, let his eyes pop open to rest on her. The gold, even in the light of day, still had a faint glow to them.

"It's time to go then?" He asked even as he pulled himself to his feet, stretching himself as he did so. Sophia tossed a half smirk at the wolf before rolling up and onto her feet completely.

"Yea, I s'pose so." She answered aloud as she bent and swooped up her weapons. Slowly, she put them back into their place before she crossed over to the fire escape she'd spotted earlier. "Meet you at the bottom?" She asked, even as she threw herself around the fire escape and began her decent. Atop the roof, Sev snorted before he just reappeared on the street below, sitting and waiting for his witch's feet to touch the ground. A few minutes later, Sophia let herself drop the last few feet to the pavement, landing in a practiced crouch. Without any other words between the two of them, they turned in the general direction of the Black Hunter headquarters and started off at a leisurely pace. Out of habit, they kept to less used routes. there was less hustle and bustle to dodge if they kept out of the way of the crowds.

Time passed as the duo weaved through Daten's alleyways. Finally, however, they caught sight of their destination. Again, another grimace passed over Sophias face.
"What do you think the chances are that everyone's in a good mood today?" She asked as she paused just outside of one of the side doors. Of course, she'd been told that she was more than welcome to use the front door. (she was fairly sure that had been a hint to actually use the front door instead) But she liked sneaking in through the other doors, it was funnier.

Sev glanced at his witch before he snorted and rolled his eyes then shimmered out of existence, more likely than not waiting for his witch within the compound walls. With an audible sigh, the woman followed, slipping through the door and into the hallway before she began her auto route towards the officers offices.