I was hoping to find a few who would be willing to join meh Role-Playing forums... -sobs-
[right][snapback]372716[/snapback][/right]

Shadow’s eyes widened in surprise at her sudden motion, though he didn’t resist…by reflex, he raised his hands in a motion to throw her from him, but restrained himself out of fear of injuring her. He waited, instead, blinking in surprise, as she performed whatever enchantment she was working….

So warm…

Within his mind, the layers of time seemed to peel backwards…fading slowly into nothingness. Slowly…surely…the memories of his past dwindled into a void, the story of his life, that he had forged arm in arm with his many companions being erased before his very eyes.

His battle with Haplo…his efforts to rescue Neveya from Nagash…his first encounter with the enigmatic Washu…the endless night that he and Kagato had endured against the arch-demon Deburato…his year long trek with Kagato through the magically created time altered dimension…

In reverse order, every event that had shaped his life…every memory that Neveya seemed to assess as bad was stripped away against his will, torn from him as his mind tried desperately to wrestle them back.

The sight of his home…his family…destroyed by the demon he had later killed…his first battle with Kagato…

And, as memory after memory left him, he began to realise that it wasn’t so bad…he felt liberated….at peace for the first time in years. It was as though a cloud was drifting slowly away from him, the whispy fog of his memory drifting into a cast iron box, all his troubles to be discarded in one, easy step.

The worst of his deeds still remained…it was merely the haunting destiny of his attempted redemption that had left him. However, slowly, those memories would follow, as the course of Neveya’s spell finally reached the moment that had began it all; His death and his subsequent rebirth…and in the merest of moments it was gone, as the path of her magic moved on to remove the event that immediately proceeded it, his first encounter with Illerina…

…Illerina…

“No!”

With a sudden explosive crackle of electricity, the interior of his lair was illuminated by a crimson light as a single beam of energy sprang into existence from his palm, crackling with an electrical hum as, wielding the beam as though it were a sword, he swung it, point first, in a downwards motion, roaring in agony as he felt the finally layers of his fading humanity disappearing almost beyond his reach.

With a fierce crackle, and the sickly sweet aroma or burning flesh, Shadow’s blade found its target....though it had not been Neveya.

As the blade, its task done, was dismissed by its creator, Shadow suppressed a grunt of pain as he slumped against the metal wall of his home, clutching his right forearm close to his side, his flesh hideously seared by his own weapon…

Pain…it had been enough…enough to stop it…his mind, and his memories, had survived by a hair’s breadth. As he opened his eyes at last, fighting against the stinging pain in his arm, he fixed Neveya with a glare.

He remembered….everything…

“I am not your pawn…” he murmured softly…his voice was not accusing, merely a soft, exasperated sigh. The words of a man tired of being chased. “I am not yours to move and sacrifice as you see fit. You do not have the power, nor the authority to choose my destiny…to choose what memories I keep and which I lose.”

With an obvious effort, he heaved his weight away from the wall, standing by his own power as he took a half step towards her, releasing a hold on his arm to allow it to hang by his side…it wasn’t a crippling wound…he had not lost so much control of himself that he would make such a mistake. The heat of his weapon had instantly sealed the wound, and he was in no danger of bleeding…

…but it had been enough to bring him back…

“This is my life, and it is mine to lead,” he continued. “You have no right, in this world or the next, to choose my path for me.’

“The burdens I bear are mine…the deeds I live with are mine…the thoughts in my head are mine…and you will not touch them. They have made me who I am…and I will not have you, or anyone else, simply ‘create’ a new me when the current one isn’t to your liking.”

Turning his back once more, he flexed his fingers briefly, testing to ensure his arm was still useable…the damage was limited, it would heal in time. He didn’t doubt Neveya was not through with him yet…but if it were possible to get through to him, he doubted very much an attempt to deceiving him into believing he was something he was not would be what managed to do so.

Though she did not turn away from her miniature adversary, Washu’s gaze shifted in the direction of her partner’s approach. In truth, there was no need to see him to know he was now present…the intensification of the crowd’s thunderous roar was enough to tell her another combatant had taken to the field and, as the doorway behind her opponent remained empty, that left only her partner.

She had not had much time to communicate with him since their last encounter…in fact “Pigeon boy” and “you moron” remained the only terms she had yet used to address him. Strategising was, as she had mused before her first battle in the tournament, somewhat of a double edged sword…however, this was certainly no excuse for being ignorant of her partner’s potential inclinations.

A sudden movement on the part of her opponent, however, dispelled any intention she may have had to drop her guard to acquaint herself with her ally. As the tiny mage began his advance, she had stopped short of liberating her sword from its sheath by a mere heartbeat before his intentions became clear – nothing more threatening than an offered handshake.

Her hand frozen upon the hilt of her sword, an inch of glittering blade free of the scabbard in her reflexive draw, she regarded his extended hand in a perplexed manner, her bow knotted in her surprise. Though she did not accept the offer, she did finally relinquish her hold upon her weapon, her hand dropping to her side as she removed the scowl from her otherwise pretty features, her bow shaped mouth curving into a genuine smile.

It was strangely refreshing to meet an opponent who was not the typical, testosterone fuelled war junkie, who wasted more preparation time on their weak attempt at pre-match banter than honing their combat skills…Formality was often lost on the battlefield, and was generally only to be found now in the naive.

It was cute, in something of a childish manner. Washu actually found herself reminded in many ways of herself, as she had been only a year before…a bubbly, energetic young girl, who had been more at home writing humorous reports for the tournament matches and airing them on the Shinra News Network, than participating herself. A far cry indeed from what she had become…

She rarely smiled now…rarely had time for fun and games. By the aging process of her own race she was barely an adolescent…but the events of the past year weighed more heavily upon her than the millennia that had preceded it. A year spent under the harsh tutelage of Kagato had hardened her more than, until this moment, she had initially realised.

In many ways, she had grown to be a great deal like her mentor - serious to a fault, guarded, dour at times, her budding sense of humour chiselled away to the point that the closest she ever came to making a joke was the same dry sarcasm often demonstrated by Kagato. It had largely slipped her notice that, even as her skills in the martial arts soared to levels she had never thought herself capable of achieving, her very personality had been remodelled along with it.

However…it was a change that was needed, in a place such as this…

The Washu of a year ago would not have survived her encounter with Owari…even if she had been as powerful then as she was now, her body could not achieve what the mind would not allow it. There was no room for formality in battle…no time for etiquette, or concern for your opponent’s well being. These were not duels, they were full scale battles…victory was determined not by who landed the most blows, or executed the prettiest techniques…the winner was the one who was still standing when it was over.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson Kagato had taught her…was that an opponent was there to be defeated. If you aimed for anything less, if you held back out of some sheepish desire not to cause too much harm, then you risked any chance you had of victory…a battle was only worth fighting if it was fought with the sole intention of winning it.

For all that…she was not Kagato. Despite her extensive military background, Washu lacked the same penchant for genocide that had earned Kagato his living in the past. The fact that he seemed to be making an attempt to reorganise the current Soldier organisation into something remotely resembling a benevolent peacekeeping force, did not in anyway change the fact that he perfectly fit the classic definition of a psychopath. Washu had never been able to bring herself to the same depths of unfeeling as her mentor…which was perhaps why her power had reached a plateau recently…

That, however, was another matter…in his brief contact, this ‘Vivi’ had told Washu everything she needed to know in order to dismiss him as a secondary target in the battle that was to come…and to know that she need not keep her guard raised until the battle commenced.

Turning her back on the tiny figure altogether, she returned towards the doorway through which she had entered the arena, her attention once more upon her partner as she offered him a brief nod. Glancing briefly over her shoulder to ensure their opponents remained only one in number, she muttered to Andre out of the corner of her mouth, lowering her voice to a volume sufficiently low that only he could conceivably hear her.

“He carries himself like a child,” she murmured. “Try and stay close to his partner…I’d wager he’d hold back on his offensive if there’s a chance he’d strike this….what’s his name? Fenrir..or…Fenris…or…something.”

Reclining suddenly in a cat like motion, Washu doubled over to such an extent that her forehead pressed against her bare knees, her arms clasped over her shins to hold the stretch for a count of several seconds, before she relaxed. Rolling each arm in wide circles, she continued to warm up her joints for her impending exertion, her eyes remaining on the doorway through which Fendin would enter, though she continued to address Andre.

“We’ll take cracks at each in turn,” she continued softly. “Alternate between which of is fighting which…we’ll be able to keep the offensive, and hopefully they’ll have trouble adapting to the constant change in fighting style. Unless you have any special preference…perhaps you’d like to start with the little guy?”

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, her legs moving in something of a pendulum motion to keep her blood flow going, a sudden shriek of metal signalled the drawing her of sword, the blade whispering free of its iron sheath as the crowd, upon seeing the weapon drawn, exploded into an even greater frenzy.

“Whatever you do,” she continued, relaxing the fingers of both hands around the hilt, ensuring the leather wrapping was secure, “don’t stop moving.”

With a flourish, she swung the weapon skywards, the sun’s rays dancing across the glittering shaft of the curved blade as, briefly, she played the cheering crowd – the crowd’s support was a minor advantage after all…tens of thousands of people cheering for your opponent to beat you senseless was, after all, likely to have a detrimental effect on anyone’s confidence.

“As soon as the other one appears,” she uttered, “we move…we’ll forgo the usual verbal diarrhoea.”

Have you ever dreamt of what may lie beyond the horizon?

Have you ever wanted to expand that horizon to a distance without limits?

Have you ever wanted to change the world?

Soldier is the elite, autonomous fighting force of the former Shinra Conglomerate; the best trained and equipped fighting unit in the world. Protecting the citizens of Shinra from harm, every man and woman of the organisation is a true hero of our nation.

As a member of Soldier, you will be schooled in all forms of warfare, from the finer points of strategy, to the robust Soldier style of martial arts. Earn rank, prestige, and respect in a career where every day is a new chapter in the ongoing adventure of life as a Soldier.

Soldier – driven to be the best, driving the rest into retirement.



Greetings all, and may I say that I have seldom been in such eager anticipation for anything as I have been the unveiling of the affiliations. For months now, secret planning has been underway to make this project as thorough and well devised as it possible can be, and now we bring to you…*drum roll*…the ultimate in RP enhancing tools!

Soldier, like all the guilds, is an in character organisation entirely. In joining it, your character will actually ecome a member of Soldier, complete with rank and position within the organisation (and a snazzy signature image), and all the resources and contacts pulled by the vast Shinra military.

We will offer our members missions that will constantly be churned out of the Shinra think tank (that’s me and Hitomi), that will provide you inspiration for RPs, and allow you to advance in rank through the higher echelons of Soldier, until you reach the coveted position of First Class. Skilled RPers may also be selected as an apprentice to our 1st class members, and form strong bonds of friendship with an instantly established RPing group!

Do you think you can handle the chain of command? Do you think you can handle a whole new dimension to your RPing? Do you think you have what it takes to number among the finest warriors history has ever known? If so, then Soldier is the only choice.