A Stormy Interloper (Open to mass chaos)

[Anonymous]

Its well-known that the people of Connlaoth don't take too kindly to those who wield the powers of magic. It is also well known that the people of Connlaoth tend to kill, masscre, hunt down and otherwise damage most anyone who openly wields these great powers.

So, when a large, mostly naked black man walks into the midst of a city, gets haggled by a begger, and reduces him to a pile of ash with a mighty clap of lightning from the sky, people tend to be somewhat surprised.

Shango cared little for their concerns or petty laws. A being such as him cared little for much of anything. Turning his muscular frame around, he stared up at the larger buildings in the square, searching for something.

He sighed. Nothing out here. Humans always tore down the old to make way for the new. The clues for him to follow could all be dead and gone.

He snarled at a man, moving closer towards him, a sneer in his face. The surprised human dashed away, squeaking in fright. Shango grinned.

Looks like he may get some excitement after all...

[Anonymous]

It was a crowded street and the beggars seemed to be profiting, at least as much as a beggar can profit. Among them was a small boy dressed in brown. The word "dark" described him best: he was dressed in brown, had eyes and hair like mud and light brown skin. He seemed a bit distracted.

Go away, go away, go away, go away... Kieran silently chanted his mantra to keep the evil voices away. It seemed to work, at least untill the female voice spoke:

Darling, why don't you look two streets to your left?

"I won't." he replied sulkily out loud, earning himself some startled and worried glances from the people around him.

But there is something you really would like to see there... the voice was soft and persuading,

Curiosity warred with fear and won. Kieran felt the voice's smug satisfaction as he turned and ran towards the street mentioned. I knew you would do the right thing, Kieran.

That almost made Kieran stop and turn back and resume begging, but he went on anyways.

"Am I in time?" he asked the voice. Seeing the naked man, he assumed that he was. "Who the hell is he?" The voice replied gleefully, He is Trouble/

Kieran had a feeling that he really shouldn't have followed the voice's instruction, and that this was his punishment for being ann evil magic user...He sensed the voices' instant disapproval of that thought.

Now that is not... a voice began indignantly, only to be interrupted by the lightning.

Shocked, Kieran could only think to himself that he should never rob naked guys...

[Anonymous]

Kaminari had been gleefully soaring over the city, luxuriating in the freedom of flight. It was a sunny day, with large puffy clouds marking the rising currents of hot air, making it a simple matter to stay aloft without doing much work. Unfortunately, there wasn't so much as a whiff of a storm on the air -a nice big thunderstorm would have been so much fun to fly into. Catching a nice updraft, the valkyrie sighed slightly, momentarily toying with the idea of prompting the weather to turn into something a bit more interesting. Lazily circling upwards, she regretfully discarded the idea as being foolhardy; she caught enough attention as it was and considering Connlaoth's reputation towards those with magic, she didn't want to draw anymore attention to herself at the moment.

When there are no storms in the area, a weather mage won't tend to be on the lookout for dangerous things like lightning bolts. So, her blue-gray eyes half lidded against the sun, wings spread just enough to keep her aloft, the bolt of lightning that sizzled inches from her wingtip was rather disconcerting. So too was the nearly instantaneous roar of thunder.

With a loud, startled yelp, the valkyrie instinctively flinched away from both the lightning and the thunder, her wings half furling as she jerked away from the heat. Heart beating quickly as a jolt of adrenaline shot through her veins, she narrowed her eyes and glared at the figures on the ground, turning her fall into a controlled dive and landing with a slight stumble near the large male that seemed to be the center of attention.

Instead of neatly folding her wings against her back, the valkyrie allowed them to remain partially-spread, the feathers ruffling as her temper sparked. Her coppery-gold hair was in disarray from her flight, an expression of intense irritation on her features. She stood a touch over six feet tall, the backs of her wings tawny brown brindled with darker brown and gold, while their undersides were a much lighter copy of the exterior.

Stalking forward, she jabbed an accusing finger at the imposing black man, her voice ringing loudly with righteous indignation as she completely ignored the other people in the street. "Just what do you think you're doing? You singed my wing-feathers up there with your little trick and you could have killed me! I should singe you; see how you like being nearly killed when all you're doing is minding your own business! " Crossing her arms huffily, she braced her hands on her hips, impatience filtering into her voice. "Well? Have you anything to say for yourself?"

[Anonymous]

Look again! the voice giggled uncontrollably. A pretty valkyrie maid! What will she do. we wonder? Will she blast Mr. Lightning to pieces? Life is so interesting!

Kieran looked, but didn't give the voice an answer. Instead, he slowly backed away. This was scary, and he had seen enough. All right, it was interesting, but not fun. Those voices had a sick sense of humor.

He winced at the woman's voice, and, hearing her threat, decided that he had definitely had enough. Turning to go, he would have stumbled into someone except for the voice's quick warning. Swerving around, he tripped over someone's foot. "Er...s-so-sorry..." he panted out an apology, sprawled on the ground.

The voice chuckled.

I thought you were my friend...well, a bit. he mentally shouted at it angrily, receiving no answer except another giggle.

[Anonymous]

Twenty-Seven pushed his way through the throng of beggars, merchants, and other various people for whom he had little concern. Mages were said to run amok in this part of town, and more mages meant more bounties. Business had not been well these past few weeks; Twenty-Seven was most certainly disgruntled. He rather enjoyed eating and did not like the notion of being unable to afford food.

A sudden clap of thunder pulled his gaze to a large man wearing barely anything. Twenty-Seven blinked stupidly. How dull could this person be to use magic in the middle of a city? Okay, so he was a bit imposing, but really - if the rumors of the Mordecai were true...

Twenty-Seven's thoughts were interrupted when a small brown-clad figure-- a boy-- tripped over his foot. He stuttered an apology. "Brat!" Twenty-Seven snarled in reply. The boy appeared not to hear him; he was approaching the large scantily-clad man.

Stupid boy. Stupid, stupid boy. Twenty-Seven stood still, waiting to see the fate of the little brown figure. The corner of his mouth curled into a rather ridiculous-looking smile.

[Anonymous]

Shango stared at the irate Valkyrie, raising an eyebrow in annoyed confusion.

What was this...woman...upset about? Something about her wings being seared.

Well, it wasn't his fault if she was too dumb to avoid a bolt of...

Was she still talking? He sighed, glancing wryly out at the group of townsfolk gathering around. This was growing inconvieniant.

"Be silent, woman, your shrieking is like a bird's, its making it difficult to think."

He turned to walk away, his eyes falling on the strange kid's. Something...unusual about him...no matter. No concern of his.

Hopefully, no Cannoloath soldiers would show up any time soon...

[Anonymous]

Getting up, the boy ignored the person who he had tripped over, and walked slowly towards the man. Kieran didn't know why he was going towards the cause of all his trouble, except that the giggling in his head had increased in volume. And had been joined by a deep guffaw.

Why am I going towards that...person? he asked the voices.

Because you're stupid. This time it was a childish girl. She(It?) added slyly, Because we made you too. Because you called us evil. We're not! Anger warred with relief. Anger that the voices dared to try to control his body(and succeeded) and relief that he hadn't been blasted to bits or whatever the man would have done.

Kieran backed away slowly, nearly bumping into the same person he had tripped over again. "Er...Sorry. Really, sir. I didn't mean to...uh...yeah." He sounded stupid, he knew, but it was hard to make a good apology with wierd voices laughing in your head.

Feeling the eyes of the man...the voices said he wasn't a man, but Kieran wasn't sure he could trust the voices...upon him, Kieran squirmed worriedly. Maybe even having the eyes of a magician on you was enough to give you bad luck. Agh...when would the Mordecai come?

[Anonymous]

Twenty-Seven glared at the boy as he scrambled away. Where's he going now? The boy then backed towards him once more, nearly bumping into him.

"You! Kid!" Twenty-Seven roared. He grabbed the boy by the back of his neck, ignoring his fearful apology. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" His green eyes, circled with darkness from sleep-deprivation, narrowed as his face contorted into an expression of rage. "First you're walking there, then you're walking here again-- make up your damn mind, will you!" He glared, then threw the boy to the ground, harumphing indignantly.

Twenty-Seven returned his gaze to the large man. A valkyrie was squawking at him, and he responded in an annoyed tone, looking as if he was having trouble getting his brain to work properly. Oh, how very silly. He then realized how hypocritical he sounded, having just exploded at a small boy for barely anything at all. Shit. I've got to stop doing that.


EDIT (OOC): I've gotta go now, guys. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Kieran yipped in both fear and annoyance. Fear of the big man. Annoyance of the voices, who were practically guffawing now. They had done it again. Of course. Whenever he listened to them, he got into trouble. And this time, he was in big trouble.

We are clever, aren't we? The voice lowered smugly, We know everything that happened, you know. We knew that this man is like this. Can't you see? Look at his eyes.

Kieran did not. He was not that stupid, yet. Well, maybe he was. After all, he had come here. The boy groaned, and laid down on the ground, his back aching.

[Anonymous]

Completely and utterly startled by his response -or rather, his lack of response, Kaminari blinked several times as the man turned away from her, surprised into silence.   Not only had he made absolutely no comment regarding her accusation, but he had been unbelievably brusque. Who was this man? He had apparently called lightning from a clear sky, which was intriguing in and of itself, but he had also done so in a city known to be hostile to magic-users and he was walking around in a fashion practically guaranteed to attract attention. Was he really that arrogant to believe himself safe or was he insane?

Noticing the interested gazes from several nearby people, the valkyrie shut her mouth on the words she'd been about to utter, furling her wings as she stepped closer. Her attention was momentarily captured by the erratic movements of the boy and she cocked her head slightly to one side, noticing that he was the only one -other than herself- moving closer to the odd, dark skinned male. Her curiosity had overwhelmed her brief fit of temper -perhaps he just didn't know how to properly control the forces he'd called on.

Harrummph-ing under her breath, Kaminari again addressed the man that had called the lightning, this time modulating her voice so it was considerably softer in volume. "You really should be more careful -lightning can be tricky to handle until you've got the knack of it." Trying to press her point home, she partially extended a wing, positioning the singed tip right under his nose so the smell of burnt feathers would waft upwards. "I don't care to have my feathers toasted -now I'll have to wait until they molt to get a nice set back again. And is that boy with you? You should keep a better eye on him."

[Anonymous]

Kieran froze. "I'm not the boy, am I?"  The voices didn't answer, but just continued their giggling. Gee, didn't they do anything else? His eyes widened. Uh oh. He'd better rid her of that notion. After all, she looked very dangerous. Help! he pleaded with the voices.

The voices laughed. One of them replied, Don't you worry, darling, after you die, we'll find someone else to Speak to. Which was hardly a comforting thought.

"Please, Madam," Kieran said, raising his hand(why he did that he had no clue, but for some reason it increased the voices' amusement). "I'm not with him. I just came to look." Kieran could only hope that he had said the right thing and was not going to be blasted to pieces by the mage or torn to pieces by the valkyrie.

She'll just blast you too. a voice commented cheerfully.

Again, hardly a calming thought.

[Anonymous]

Were they always going to be this stupid? Teylud had a funny feeling the answer was going to be yes. A huge spectacle right in the middle of the city, and they expected to not all get killed?

"Alright, good citizens!" He bellowed, struggling to be heard about the chaos. "Please clear the area immediately while we wait for the soldiers to arrive!" The other soldiers, that was. He'd just happened to be passing through and heard the noise, but he'd be damned if he let this go on any longer.

But when it came to mages, you shot first, second and third and never asked questions. He took out a revolver and lowered it, trying to get a clear shot at the mage. He'd deal with the bird thing, but he needed to get rid of that mage first. He took a shot, confident enough that it wouldn't hit anything else even if it did miss the targets, but he didn't for one second expect that would be all it took.

((Sorry for the immediate attack, but what'd you expect?))

[Anonymous]

Her attention distracted by the arrival of the solitary soldier, the valkyrie sighed, glancing about. There goes my idea of trying to keep a low profile. Feeling a bit disgruntled at this unforseen change in her plans she took a few steps toward the boy, putting on her most friendly smile. "I'll get you out of here -there really isn't any need to be so jittery. Stay close." Casting a suspicious glance toward the man that had grabbed him so roughly, she flinched as she heard the sound of the gunshot, her chin jutting stubbornly forward.

The breeze abruptly picked up, her hair and clothing beginning to whip about in the increased wind. Palms upward, she gestured with one hand, causing the wind to swirl violently about herself and the boy, forming a sort of dust devil. After a moment's pause, she extended the swiftly twirling winds so the strange man was inside as well. Her funnel remained solidly in place, picking up dirt, twigs, pebbles and other street debris, forming nothing more than a blind that would keep that soldier from seeing exactly where they were. It wouldn't protect them from anything, it just made their shapes harder to determine and hopefully, harder to hit.

Inside the circle of swirling air, it was oddly calm, enough so that Kaminari looked back toward the boy, her blue-gray eyes interested. "So then, what's your name? I'm Kaminari Almika when I want to be 'proper', Kaminari everytime else." The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, a slight note of laughter entering into her voice, though what exactly she found amusing was hard to determine. Gesturing toward the big man, she continued. "And why did you want to meet him?  Had he not singed my feathers -here she raised her voice abruptly, apparently hoping he would overhear- I would have been more than happy to leave him to himself."

((ooc: yay! fun! lol))

[Anonymous]

A crackle of lightning erupted around Shango, vaporizing the shot launched at him. He smiled a wild, somewhat hungery smile at the girl, then turned towards Teylud, wagging one finger admonishingly.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."

He waved his staff, and a swirl of electricity shot into the marketplace, blowing up a stall. Rolling by him came a large drum, being sold on sale that day. He stopped it with his foot, and it fell into position. He raised his staff, clenching it in the middle, pounding the drum furiously.

Lightning began to crackle in the sky, dark clouds swirling around the city like a cyclone. He began to laugh, sweat dripping down his muscular form as lightning began to crash down onto the stone, digging into the streets.

"Foolish humans! You will all hear these drums march you down to HELL!"

[Anonymous]

Twenty-Seven blinked. Had he really just seen a bullet disappear in a flash of lightning? Damn mages. They always made everything so very strange. Twenty-Seven didn't bother with his own gun after seeing the results of the previous attempt to shoot the large man.

He stepped towards the lone soldier. "You, you're some sort of military person, aren't you? Have you got soldiers coming here or what?" He crossed his arms. "If you ask me, someone ought to get the Mordecai to-- the hell?!"

A gust of wind had enveloped the winged woman, the boy, and the large man. He heard muffled voices from their direction but could not discern exactly what they were saying. Then there was yet another bolt of lighting, obliterating a marketplace stall. The large man began pounding on a drum that had escaped the blast, screaming something about "foolish humans" and "HELL!". With each pound on the drum, thunder rained down upon the stone streets.

And they say there's no magic in Connlaoth.

[Anonymous]

Kieran winced at the thought of a newcomer-why was this thing getting more crazy by the second? If he wasn't involved, he would call it laughable. Since he was, he considered it a terrifying, heart-stopping experience. He gulped at the sight of the wind, not even noticing the severe dampening of the voices in his head. Interesting that he couldn't feel anything.

"Kieran Halios, Ma'am." he said, trying very hard to sound calm. Which he wasn't, of course. In fact, he was nearly hysterical. Winged women, tornadoes of terror, lightning bolts from the sky, naked men, and all-out attacks? Oh, God! If he got out of this, then he would definitely become very religious...

He was a bit encouraged by Kaminari's laughing. Most people didn't try and kill those they found amusing. Right? Unless she was a maniac? Well,  she was magical. Kieran could only hope that she was a sane mage.

"Er..." Kieran wondered just how to explain the voices without doing the vocal equivalent of writing "Kill me, I hear magical voices in my head" on his clothes. "I was curious." He lied lamely.

He clapped his hands over his head when the naked man began his drumming. If the drumming was magical, then he didn't want to hear it. If it was a curse, then he would run away at full speed. But since he didn't know if it was a curse, and he had a feeling that running straight into the wind would be very foolhardy...Kieran gulped.

[Anonymous]

Spreading her wings with a flourish, Kaminari bowed from her waist, readily accepting both his introduction and his later comment. "Quite pleased to meet you Kieron. No need to call me Ma'am -I consider us to be on a first name basis after something like this." She waved her hand nonchalantly as she peered through her windy creation, the movement causing her line of vision to fall back across the man with the drum. Slowly tapping her foot, she let her breath out in a huff and stalked over to him, still in a bit of a pet from his ignoring her so easily.

Reaching out, she intended to tap him firmly on the shoulder, a means of redirecting his attention from his rather random and nonsensical destruction. "You. I want a word. Have you any idea of the problems you're causing by yanking storms away from where they're supposed to be right now? Not to mention you're making things most inconvenient. I was trying to avoid having a bounty put on my head, thank you very much. And now, not only will there be a nice fat bounty out for me, but I'll have to put the weather patterns back to rights before I can leave. I insist you stop this immediately."

No doubt she thought she was being very forceful and stern, stating her opinion in that manner. She really didn't want to interfere with another mage's magical working -they tended to get so touchy about things like that!- but if he didn't stop making such a ruckus, she was going to have to do something soon, if for no other purpose than getting herself safely away from here. And Kieron too, she reminded herself.

The poor boy had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was doubtful the authorities would believe that story. He hadn't done a single thing, but they'd probably think he was just as guilty as the rest of them. All the more reason to hurry up and leave before that soldier got his wish and more of them arrived.

[Anonymous]

Her heartful and honest plea to stop drumming was very handidly ignored by Shango, who instead sped up, the stick "BADUMP"ing faster and faster. There was a crack as the staff split in two, causing a crescendo of lightning to launch down from the heavens, engulfing the plaza in front of Shango in an explosive blast of electrical might.

Holding both halves of the staff he drummed faster, his body now encased in a sphere of lightning, his eyes glowing with wild delight.

"Yes! Yes! Come, brave soliders, come do battle with Shango! Let your steel fall before me and let me take your lives! A HAHAHAHAHAH!"

[Anonymous]

Teylud took advantage of the chaos to reload, then grimaced. Things were going to get very messy unless he got a lot of reinforcements. And they ought to be on their way by now, so he was just going to have to hold out a little longer. He had some weapons that could deal with lightning, but first --he'd heard somewhere lightning only lasted a hundreth of a second. That could stop one bullet, but could it stop twelve?

He took aim and the man and then began firing, one gun after the other, until both ran out of bullets. That tactic sometimes overwhelmed the mages -- twelve attacks in a row worked a lot better than one attack twelve times as powerful.

[Anonymous]

Chin jutting stubbornly, Kaminari snapped out the word "Fine" and stalked to the exact center of her controlled whirlwind. She took a deep breath, her body poised. The thought came that it would have been nice to encourage the storm and fly the crazy winds they produced, but she shoved it away firmly. There would be a time for storm-riding later, if she were still alive.

With a purposeful flick of her fingers, she sent the winds twirling faster, pulling them in tighter around herself and the two others. That man was plainly crazed, which meant reasoning with him would do nothing. It also meant she didn't feel at all badly about interfering with his working.  Her gaze flicked next to the storm clouds and she half-closed her eyes, stretching out her perceptions to find where they had been snatched from. Surprised, she discovered that they had simply been called into being here and now, by the crazed drummer. That was a difficult thing to do and she was grudgingly impressed.

Sinking back into her magic, she reached out to the storm, feeling the energy that sizzled through it, ruthlessly bending it to do her will. The darkness of the clouds began to lighten, their formidable shapes beginning to soften and shrink into normal cloud wisps. First, she would get rid of the storm, then she would remove the three of them to somewhere a bit safer.

Unfortunately the sharp, repeated cracks of the handguns tossed a pesky wrench into her scheme. Flinching slightly from the sound, she flung her hands out, calling to mind the heat and power of lava in the heart of a volcano. Pure heat roared out from her, melting several bullets before they could reach their target, but causing tiny prickles of hot metal to bite into her skin and clothing. Grimacing, she left them alone for a moment, thinking quickly of distractions she could produce.

A smile came to her face as she thought of "St. Elmo's Fire" and she flicked several large, glowing balls outside her winds, setting them loose to roll around objects and people. Thought they looked like balls of lightning, St. Elmo's Fire never burned anything, just rolled alond anything in it's path, winking out of existence on it's own. She had no need to keep an eye on them or control them and that was a very good thing. Keeping her wind under control while trying to manipulate the storm to go away was difficult. The winds clamored to be let loose, the storm wanted to grow. Neither thing could happen.