Guns and Sorcery...? (Invite Only)

[mugenginga]

(OOC: So far Ani and Firebreath Fishslap aside from myself. You'll need permission from two out of three of us to get in, at least. And I'm rebooting Magus' plot here, so any old threads with him aren't canon to his plot any longer. Call them OVAs or something.)

It was your average late November day. Average in the Interdimensional Travel Station. Which mean not so average. Not by most universe's standards, in any case. Even those universes that had it as standard generally wasn't a fact known by most people is said universe. So considering the number of portals of all shapes opening, and dropping people out in one fashion or another, it was pretty unusual. Overall. Not for the ITS.

In any case, a blue portal made up of a material like the black miasma, only blue didn't raise eyebrows. The blue bolts of electricty dancing over it? Not many eyebrows. The bolts hitting a vending machine and a mess of carbonated soda spraying across the floor and launching the occasional tin projectile? Yeah, people tried to dodge that.

It was probably a good thing, too. Because the next thing to happen was the portal quite literally shot a humanoid male of indeterminate adult age out of it before snapping shut in a flurry of sparks. The speed was of the sort most people wouldn't have recovered from without massive injuries, but he managed to flip around and kick off the side of the now damaged soda machine.

It was all rather impressive, as the man flipped around and landed on one knee. Especially when you considered the menacing scythe he was carring, the blade in black and engraved in foreign symbols. No one would know what they meant, but some might pick up that they were arcane in nature.

The man glared and looked around at the area. He lifted one of his gloved hands to look at it. An expression of disdain was on his face, as he put his finger together and had to pull them apart. His gloves were worn brown leather, but the fact that they offered a bit of resistance when he pulled them apart meant the liquid he had landed in was sticky. He used his scythe to push himself to his feet and glanced around. His gaze was harsh.

This was not the cavern in 10,000 B.C. This was not 10,000 B.C. at all. Looking at the level of technology, he could only assume he'd been kicked to some time in 2,000 A.D. Lucca had said the portals were weakening for their connection to Lavos being severed. However, it put him further away from his starting point to search for Schala, and if the gates were failing he would have to find another method.

He looked back down at his gloved hands and scowled. His knee had some of the substance on it as well. He supposed it was a potion of some time. It smelled awfully sweet. He looked up again. He still didn't know when he was.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

Seeing as numerous portals were appearing and closing at random in ITS, no one paid much attention when a considerably rainbow one opened up about ten feet above the ground. Even the fact that it seemed to be short-circuiting- judging by the pops and sizzles- didn't catch a single soul's attention in the least. However, the sound of a scream turned a few heads, though they turned right back when the source appeared. Said source was a young woman, either in her late teens or early twenties, who fell out of the portal. The fact that she fell on her face- even if her arms were covering it- did bring about a few chuckles, though.

Groaning, the woman's slightly stocky body gave a few shudders before it finally stretched out, the rainbow portal closing with a snap. She seemed to take a moment to catch her breath, then lifted her face from her arms to look around her with surprised, hazel eyes. One word fell from her lips as she slowly straightened her arms, wincing at the pain in them, "Shit." What had she gotten herself into this time? She shouldn't have clicked that button; Danny had told her not to click that damn button.

Rolling up the fluffy, pale pink sleeves of her hoodie to check her arms, she was relieved to see that the only damage done would be bruising. Looks like she'd picked a good day to wear her hoodie, seeing as it cushioned the blow with its... fluffiness. Realizing that she was getting a few looks for being on the ground, she turned a bit pink and quickly scrambled to her feet. Reaching up, she tightened the brown hair streaming from her ponytail out of habit, and brushed the dirt from her blue, jean-clad knees. "Okay... don't panic... Where's my purse?" she muttered, glancing around.

Her black sneakers made a scritchy sound on the floor as she turned, finally seeing the indigo-colored, leather bag resting on the floor. "There you are." Snatching it up, she threw it over her right shoulder. The left was already occupied by the strap of her colorful satchel, which rested on her right hip. The woman then seemed to check herself over; laptop in bag, headphones around neck, potato gun strapped to back.

Good. At least she hadn't lost anything. "Now... where the Hell am I?" she muttered, scratching her head. Taking another moment to look around, she decided that she'd just have to find an information booth or something. She was about to take her first steps forward when she finally saw the giant, snow white monster with long, blue hair. Wielding an equally giant, black scythe. And covered in soda.

Oh sweet Jesus.

"HOLY SHIT!!! Don't kill me! I have a potato gun and I am NOT afraid to use it, mister! I'm warning you!!" The woman screamed, pulling the pink, bazooka-like weapon off her back and aiming it directly at the... thing.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

The ITS was used to these kind of occurrences. Which was why a girl wearing an outfit that made her resemble Taokaka from BlazBlue with a canary on her head and a very effeminate green-haired boy who had often been mistaken for a girl didn't attract too much attention. What did attract attention was the attack of the flying soda and two people appearing right afterward. And one of those people was screaming something about a potato gun.

But the one with the potato gun didn't matter to Elwood Song, otherwise known as Ellie. What did matter was the drow-like guy carrying a scythe. Because standing before Magus was what could possibly be the biggest expert on video games on the island, and she was also a mega-fangirl. A mega-ultra-fangirl.

"HOLY CRAP IT'S MAGUS! ION, STAY HERE, I'M GONNA GO GET HIS AUTOGRAPH!" Ellie said. She dropped Ion's hand, and he outstretched a hand to try to grab her, but she was too fast. He let his arm drop and sighed.

"Ellie..." he started before sighing and following after. Ellie had crouched beside Magus and was staring him in the eye. And so was Canary.

Ellie looked over at the other girl who had been threatening Magus with the potato gun and stood up. "Hey! Don't shoot Magus! He'll make your head explode with Shadow magic and stuff."

Ion walked over to Magus. "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

[mugenginga]

Magus had stopped and turned as he heard Tara make her threat. He regarded her with a dull expression. Her arm was shaking. He knew well enough to not take odd guns lightly, but her arm was shaking. He took a step towards her to test how capable she would be with the weapon when he heard someone screeching. He managed to catch the name he had adopted to manipulate Ozzie, even as a child, and turne dhis head suddenly.

He looked rather annoyed as Ellie geeked, "My magic does not make peoples' 'heads explode'. Tell me, how do you know who I am?"

His eyes flicked to Ion for a moment. He sensed something magical about the girl, but said nothing of it. The girl also seemed harmless, and right now his concern was the loud girl with the bird on her head. He shifted the position of his scythe. If Tara was observant, she'd catch the slight threat. Almost as if he were daring her to try something while he was mostly focused on Ellie.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

Tara blinked, almost dropping the potato gun as a shriek reached her ears with deafening clarity. "What the-" Before she could complete this thought, a girl with a canary on her head had practically poofed into being beside the white thing. Okay, she had to be dreaming. But... people didn't get hurt in dreams. That meant she wasn't dreaming. Maybe she was hallucinating.

Tara was shaken out of her thoughts when the girl with the yellow bird on her head spoke to her, making the color- what little there was of it- drain from her face. She barely took notice of the other girl who had walked over, full gaze locked onto the blue-haired creature. "HE'LL WHAT?!?!" Oh, she was way too young to die!

Tara had a feeling this was karma getting her back for all of the headshots she'd made in video games. However, when the thing- okay, his name's Magus, right- said that his "magic" didn't blow-up heads, she was thoroughly relieved. She still kept the gun aimed on him, though. Just in case. But right now... she was a littled miffed.

"Why the Hell did you scare me like that, canary-head?! Geez! You nearly made me shoot, I was so scared! Damn bird-brain..."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Ellie turned around again to reply to Magus. Okay, so his magic didn't make heads explode. But it would be cool if they did. "Oh, you're Magus, the sorta-kinda-not-really-'cause-of-Lavos-bad guy of Chrono Trigger, just with a tragic--"

She slowly turned her head around and looked at Tara as the words "canary-head" and "bird-brain" came up. The canary on Ellie's head tilted its own head to the side and blinked at Tara.

"What did you just call me and Canary?" Ellie growled.

Ion could sense something about Magus. Perhaps it was just the odd fonons coming off of this person. It wasn't just first fonons. He seemed to be emitting practically all of them except maybe sixth and seventh fonons. He looked back over at Ellie as she looked like she wanted to tear Tara's throat out.

"Ellie, please don't hurt her!" Ion called.

"I won't hurt her... as long as she takes back what she said 'bout canary," Ellie said.

[mugenginga]

Magus narrowed his eyes at Ellie. He knew what Lavos was, he'd hated the alien for millenia when you considered time travel. He knew what the Chrono Trigger was. There was a reason the blind loyalty of his friends had brought the teenager back to life. He didn't even care about the tragic part. With speed and dexterity that really didn't seem possible for his muscle and how solid the scythe looked, Magus moved.

Unless Ellie dodged or someone managed to pull a trick to protect her, Magus would have the scythe moved with fairly blinding speed. He would have it at Ellie's throat, and his eyes narrow. He couldn't cast magic without the words, but he could use a quicker spell. Ion would feel a slight pulse in the third fon in Magus' aura, as if he were readying a spell that used that fon as a base.

"Who the hell are you and how do you know me?" Magus growled.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

Tara rolled her eyes, unphased by the look she was receiving from the nutjob with a bird on her head. She was the one who was armed, and that woman didn't look so tough. Besides, if she made one move to attack, she'd get a potato to the face at about half the speed of a bullet. "Tch. As if I'm going to apologize to someone who lets a canary use their head as a nest. Birds are annoying, anyway," Tara returned simply, totally careless. Birds were stupid, too loud in the morning, and crapped on everything. Cats were much better.

However, what happened next did phase her; quite a bit, actually. In the blink of an eye, Magus had that giant, black scythe of his pressed against the girl's throat. And then when he spoke, Tara could see his canines flash quite clearly in the sunlight. "Oh, sweet Jesus. He's a vampire too! That girl may be annoying, but damnit, I hate vampires..." she cursed under her breath, brows furrowing.

Steadying her arm, she took aim at the side of Magus's head and pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. She then moved her aim down and fired once more at what she guessed was a sensitive area on the beast, seeing as he was male. "Take that, you gigantic Twilight reject! Vampires don't sparkle!"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Ellie had been about to claw Tara's face open for insulting her bird. What she hadn't expected was shortly after explaining herself for Magus to suddenly press that scythe of his against her throat. Ellie gulped.

"I-I'm Elwood Song, player of video games everywhere. I-I'm one of your biggest fans! Well, I'm a fan of a lot of things, but..." She didn't have a chance to finish as Tara said something about Twilight, and then fired a few potatoes at Magus' head and one at his groin. Ellie used the momentary distraction to get out of Magus' grasp.

Ion had been getting worried about Ellie for a moment there and had been preparing a fonic arte to put Magus and Tara out of commission long enough to get Ellie away. In fact, if anyone had been paying attention to the "girl", they would have noticed he was mumbling an incantation much like a song under his breath. But Ellie had managed to slip away, so he hadn't needed to cast a fonic arte. Good thing, too. Fonic artes, especially those of the Daathic variety tended to rather badly drain him.

[mugenginga]

Magus had actually broken the stance before Ellie had the idea to "get out". The third potato had hit his head well enough that he now had blood trickling down the side of his head. It followed the curvature. It was perhaps comforting that it was red and not some odd color. He didn't know what the hell "Twilight" was, but he'd heard the term vampire. The fangs, it had to be them. He vaulted back with one foot, not unaware that Ion had been casing a spell. It didn't use words he knew, but all magic came from the same basic source.

Right now, Ion was who he was most concerned with, though. Biggest fan? A human? One he didn't sense an ounce of magical energy from. This wasn't the Dark Ages, it couldn't be someone trying to get into his former army. He lifted up and felt his head. What the hell, when she'd said potatoes she had meant potatoes. He'd hardly felt the attempt at hitting a sensitive location, the hardened leather prevented attacks like that. Still, potatoes? Even Lucca would have found that off the wall.

"I am not a vampire," Magus said, "I don't know what a 'video game' is, or why you're my fan. I was minding my own business when she," Magus used his scythe to point at Tara, "Pointed a gun at me. What I do want to know is how in the name of the Gurus do you," Again with the scythe, towards Ellie, "know about Lavos?"

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

So the girl's name was Elwood and she liked video games, too. Well, Tara still thought she was weird, having a bird on her head and all. However, her attack had worked- seemingly- and the woman had gotten out of harm's way. Oh yeah. She kicked vampire ass. Tara was actually considering a victory dance when she realized that even though her potatoes had hit their target and Magus was bleeding, he was still standing. Shit.

Tara blinked a few times at Magus's next words, lowering her still smoking potato gun slightly. "You're not a vampire? Then what in the name of all that is sweet and sugary are you, dude?! And what's all this Lavos stuff you're talking about? Are you speaking Spanish or something? Crap. I'm not in Mexico, am I? Crap!" Okay, so she was mostly rambling to herself now; so immersed in her words was she, in fact, that she slid the potato gun back into its holster on her back.

Or maybe it was the confusion. Yeah, that was it.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Ellie looked a little nervous. Magus was pointing his scythe right at her again. Which looked like it might hurt if he chose to attack. Okay, so she could fight thanks to the sheathed blades she had in her sleeves, but she really didn't want to fight Magus. That was a fight she knew she'd lose. And she had Ion, but Ion always passed out after one spell.

"Um, well, Lavos is the main bad guy of Chrono Trigger. And I'm pretty sure he's the final boss. He's hard to beat. Which I guess should be pretty obvious, I mean, he did cause the world to end in AD 1999, but still," Ellie said.

"Please, don't threaten Ellie like that," Ion said. "I know her hobbies are a little strange, but she's really a nice person..."

[mugenginga]

"Lavos is a word of the first humans," Magus said with no attempts to mask his annouance, "It refers to a giant conflagration, and was likely a reference to the way he arrived on the planet. As for what I am... I suppose a Mystic suffices in this case."

Okay, Magus wouldn't be admitting it but he didn't know that information from his former kingdom. Ayla tended to talk her head off. The girl didn't seem to know the meaning of the word silence, let alone use it. He'd never held her in much regard, she'd been born before magic and was completely useless with it. Even that robot had possessed more capabilities than her in regards to damage related to magic. But he know of the "La" and "Vos" translation thanks to the incessant chatter. Magus didn't lower his scythe as he turned towards Ellie and Ion.

"What are you talking about? Lavos was no game. You know far more about the events of the world's history than you should, as well. A student of Balthazar's, perhaps?"

The actions he'd ended up aiding Crono and his friends with had changed the future. Lavos had not destroyed the world, so the future Balthazar had found would have been different. However, he had no doubt the man would still know of the events somehow. The Gurus were strange like that, and despite that thought he'd always preferred them. They were among the few that saw what was happening to his mother. They'd tried to protect Schala, as well. Melchior had been banished for his attempts, it had turned out.

"And you, what era do you come from? Early Zeal?"

The final bit was addressed to Ion. The clothes seemed wrong and the hair certainly was, but still. Her skill at her apparent age indicated she'd had magic for most of her life. He had no indications that she had met Spekkio, either. So Zeal was really the only alternative. He'd not made it a point to know the people of Zeal, so Ion could have even lived in his era of Zeal. Only those that knew him well could tell he was Janus for the mutations the magic had caused his body.

[Sweet_Chef (Ani)]

Tara listened to Ellie's explanation, nodding her head as she stepped a bit closer to the three. "Oh, I see. A cosplayer, then. Nice costume, dude," she stated with a smile. It was all an act; nothing for her to worry about, in that case. Tara briefly wondered if she was at some sort of video game convention, but then realized her surroundings didn't fit. Well, maybe they were on their way to one, then.

That must mean they knew where she was, and since they were really just cosplaying, they were probably nice. "Hey, do you-" Tara was interrupted as Magus began to speak again, saying how it wasn't a game and saying a lot of strange words. Man, had she chosen the wrong game not to play. Why couldn't she have run into Frederic from Eternal Sonata or Crash Bandicoot or, Hell, Spyro the freaking Dragon?

Instead, Tara was dealing with some kind of mystic from an unknown video game, some girl dressed like a mage, and a crazy fangirl with a canary on her head. Too bad Danny wasn't here; he'd love this. "Man. You take this really seriously, don't you? Anyway, please tell me that at least one of you knows where the heck I am. I'm more lost than Helen Keller in a hedge maze."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Ellie moved her head to the side, and Canary's tiny bird claws gripped her head tighter to keep from falling off. "Balthazar? No, I'm not from Zeal or any place like that at all! I'm from the US! Though it would be totally cool to meet Balthazar or Crono or someone like that."

It looked like Magus thought she was from his world. She wished she was. A world with no doppelgangers. That would be nice.

Ion blinked as he was suddenly addressed by Magus. And Magus was asking him what era he came from.

"Um... I'm not from this Zeal place at all. I'm from Daath. Oh, and it's about ND 2020," Ion said. He looked over at Tara as she asked where they were. "Oh, we're at the Interdimensional Travel Station. The ITS for short."