Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Six


Xellous: the main character, a fifteen year old male played by Ryan. Last session he encountered the first side-effects of the Nameless, who can wipe humans of all their memories.. except these particular humans, who all seem to identify as Charles. Odd. Xellous wields a pair of bracers called Vulcan, which make him phenomenally competent in hand-to-hand combat, give him an understanding of khen-zai anatomy and tech, and set targets struck by him on fire.

Telos: A hero from another place, another time. Telos had gotten stranded on this planet in combating the Nameless, years ago, and is now traveling with Xellous and Kora.

The Khen-Zai: A wicked remnant of the unknown proto-race. They designed humans, elves, and numerous other races, to serve their perverted and twisted ends. When the Nameless manifested the khen-zai abandoned their creations to their own whims. Until now. Now they want their former property and the planets they're on back. One of their top leaders, 7-of-10, has claimed the right of parley with Xellous.

Kora: Xellous's wife. She had been kidnapped and had her memories wiped clean by the khen-zai. She has a baby son, Gerard, who is currently down for his nap. She wields the bow Pyra, which is known for being able to blow up practically anything it hits.



Kora was no longer panicked. She was reaching for Pyra. Xellous calmed her down, telling her this was the first time any khen-zai had come to just talk. That could not be wasted. this was different enough that they needed to find out what was going on. Kora glared at 7-of-10, bu she nodded assent.  Turning to 7-of-10, Xellous graciously thanked him for coming to talk to them, using the full ranger of aura communication that khen-zai used. The black khen-zai was impressed. The rumors about Xellous were all true: Xellous was seriously gifted in aura manipulation. He asked Xellous how he had managed to learn something so sophisticated, given humanity's penchant for rough materialism. Xellous shrugged; he had just picked it up, naturally. 7-of-10 could hardly believe a human could have done it, but the evidence was there before him. Xellous was unique.

7-of-10 told Xellous and Kora that the Nameless were just a bit more to the west, and that he had come to stop them from facing certain doom. that would be a shame, given how unique  and interesting a group they were. They had far exceeded all expectations of their stock, and the khen-zai had gone from annoyed to pleased with their progression. And they wanted to help Xellous continue to evolve. He was a far more valuable asset than enemy, as far as they were concerned.

Xellous asked to talk with Kora a minute, alone. 7-of-10 condescended. Stepping back a bit, Xellous asked Kora if this was she could go along with. Kora was pale and trembling, but she agreed that if the khen-zai could help them get to her mother they needed to follow up on that opportunity. She gave her assent.

Xellous came back to 7-of-10 and was about to-

Telos came along.

His sword rang, raging lighting began to pour out from within the blade.

Xellous and Kora shouted at Telos to stop! Interposing themselves, they explained that 7-of-10 wanted to talk about the problem of the Nameless, of whom they had no idea how to deal with themselves. It might help get to Kora's mother. Telos paused, and then put his sword back in its sheath, the lightning fading as he did so.

Xellous told 7-of-10 they were willing to talk. What did the khen-zai want to discuss? 7-of-10 said the khen-zai wanted to help Xellous develop a device that would allow him to face the Nameless... which had nothing to do with Telos, Kora, and even Ikuinen Lampo. They didn't need to see what the khen-zai had to show Xellous. Xellous needed to come with him, back to the mothership, The Triumph of Thought.

Xellous could see right through that.

They wanted a lot more of him than that. He wasn't being told half the truth.

Channeling as much as he could into his aura Xellous demanded 7-of-10 be honest with him., here and now. He said there was no way they would trust with the khen-zai with something like that, how stupid did he really think they were?? 7-of-10 screamed that that no evolved monkey could speak to him like that! A wave of destructive energy came out of 7-of-10. Xellous pushed Telos and Kora out of the way, covering himself in an aura shield. The blast, which ripped up all the ground around him, merely bruised him, but the effort of making the shield hurt his body more than the blast. He charged 7-of-10, hitting him and setting him on fire with Vulcan. Kora had an arrow flying from Pyra a second later. Xellous breathed a sigh of relief.

The arrow bounced off of 7-of-10's flaming armor, exploding behind him, harmlessly.

There was a jetpack built into 7-of-10's body, which was powered by his own biological aura. 7-of-10 threatened Kora, telling Xellous he needed to surrender, because 7-of-10 was going to kill her. Even now the khen-zai wanted them to work together, on their terms. It wasn't too late.

Xellous redirected the aura flow in 7-of-10's body into the jetpack and winced in pain at the toll it took on him. 7-of-10 fell to the ground, surprised. Xellous grabbed him, holding him in place. Kora screamed at Xellous to get the hell out of the way! Earth beneath 7-of-10 was reaching up, grabbing him, responding to Telos's spell. Xellous jumped, focusing all of his aching aura on keeping 7-of-10 from shifting away.

As he passed out from the pain he saw Pyra's arrow flash.

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