[attr="class","cromscroll"]

So it would seem that there was something actually useful hidden under all of that self loathing. Tali made sure to sit there quietly, his eyes locked onto the map. He wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though, every piece of information was useful and the source didn't matter. In the end they would either die or he would kill them to usher in a new era. There was a certain peace to knowing that, he didn't truly need to worry about tainting himself by collaborating with sinners and demons, he would be absolved of everything in the end.
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With that thought he nodded a few times as Henry spoke and marked out areas on the map. He gave a satisfied grunt and another nod before picking up the pencil and making a few additional notations of his own in shorthand to condense some of the information he had been given and add it on to things he had already learned. With all that done he took another drink of water and refilled Henry's own glass with the same. "I appreciate your assistance Henry. So that you know, this isn't the first map I've made and information from others is always valuable. As much as I might wish I could, I can't do everything on my own, so I take help where I can get it." He wasn't sure if he wanted to make a dig at Henry through that but it might be needed.
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"I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you but I wouldn't want to lie, I don't often have to deal with drunks. If it makes you feel better as well..." He turned and gave a level stare to the other man. "...I don't watch TV, never have. Had much better things to do with my time." He thought about that and realised that he actually spent most of his leisure time, limited though it was, playing video games rather than bothering with TV. At least games would help with his twitch reflexes. He gave a shrug and a soft sigh. It did bother him that he had found no signs of the Bastion so far but it was best to keep that to himself.
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"So, how did your tutorial go? From what you said earlier I imagine poorly but I haven't heard of many tutorials going well. The Voice is cruel indeed but we must endure, the flame of conviction cannot be extinguished so easily." It was amusing recalling the words of the Father from the religious sermons. The fire in his voice brought a warmth to him and only ever strengthened his resolve. He'd need to draw on those memories as best he could these days until he could make new, better ones.

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Henry Reese

[attr="class","cromscroll"]

Even though he knew they were weak and impaired, it didn't do to underestimate any opponent. Dantalion let a calm rest over his body and mind as he marched forwards. Instinctively he located escape routes and hunting for any signs of traps or additional foes but he couldn't see a single thing. That was good, that meant this was going to be as simple as possible. He adjusted his grip on Fury and brought it to a ready position, couching it under his arm and moving into a jog.
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Surprise and disorientation was the name of the game here and attacking from surprise would definitely help with that. He moved into the middle of their little camp, shook himself out and then took a deep breath. One of them stopped for a moment and sniffed the air but before they could say anything, Dantalion struck. Swinging his lance forward he rammed it into the beasts chest causing it to grunt. The other two jumped up as Tali appeared from nowhere in the middle of them. Then he pulled Fury's trigger and the shotgun snarled into the night, blowing the troll into pieces and splattering it across the ground behind it.
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He then spun and hopped backwards, reaching out with his energy and bringing forth Slaughter, the horse of War. Red skinned with a mane and tail of ember-flecked smoke, it appeared under him and carried him in a circle around the two trolls, offsetting his speed penalty and corraling them together as they struggled to get themselves into a good enough position to actually fight back.

[attr="class","cromtag"]

[attr="class","cromscroll"]

So it would seem that there were some strange places that were kept secret from normal people. The thought of that worried Dantalion somewhat as it meant there was a possibility for entire places to be kept away from him, places that might hold the people he was looking for. Luckily making friends was actually going to help him out a lot this time considering what Nikolas just said that he could do. Although there were always trade offs with this sort of thing, if he wanted to make use of it again then he would likely have to give some kind of payment for it.
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"I appreciate your assistance, my friend. This world is unkind but together we might just be able to cleanse it and usher in a new era." He smiled and nodded as he followed along behind the other man. "A subclass sounds interesting, I don't believe there are many of them around. Perhaps I will go and try and gain one myself." He chuckled quietly and gave a shrug. Having more power certainly wouldn't be a bad thing, he knew the Voice had been giving him more abilities on occasion and his natural strength was growing rapidly, far beyond human norms. This new world was strange.
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Once they entered the forge, Dantalion thought upon going on guard and summoning a weapon, they certainly weren't in the city anymore. However he stopped and shook his head. If he was to get into a fight here he wasn't even sure how to get out but it had to be done, Nikolas didn't seem the type to try and assassinate him here. Once he had calmed himself down a bit he let out a sigh and reached into his inventory, noticing a few items that he was sure hadn't been there previously but they would certainly make a better fusion than his original plan. He put the banner scrap and the coin away and instead drew forth a suit of armour that he hadn't yet worn and on top of them, a strange red rock. He handed the items over to Nik alongside his cloak and stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest to see what would happen. "I know it's not the original idea but try it with those instead, I've got... A good feeling about it." He murmured.

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nikolas

[attr="class","cromscroll"]

Dantalion pursed his lips as the two items were brought out to him and he read the little item boxes that came with him. On the one hand, any defensive item was good and in the war against demons shame was a useless thing to be tossed aside but... He still had some of his dignity left. His mind flashed to thinking about meeting members of the Bastion, or his own blood relatives, wearing one of these items and the relentless mocking he would endure from it. It would be good natured but he knew it would follow him even into the new utopian world they would be creating. Those thoughts immediately put him off of the items.
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He let himself return to the real world and shook his head slightly. "I'm afraid neither of those items would be too useful for me." He gave a soft chuckle before the other man mentioned about pairing items. With that Dantalion paused for a moment before pulling two things from his inventory. The first was a strange scrap of a torn and faded banner, the other was a worn coin with a faded bust of what appeared to be a general on it. "I was recently given these by the Voice of the World, they do not seem to have any immediate effects."
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He looked at the information for them again before giving a bit of a shrug. "It says they can be used for crafting but I'm not sure what use they would have when crafting normally? I can't find a way to fuse them together into anything useful. If you have some kind of trick to it I'd be happy to hear it. I do remember talking to a girl called Vanilla and she could apparently enchant things, so perhaps it requires a specific class ability to be able to use it?" He slid them across the table for Nikolas to look at before going back to a more resting state, eager to hear if there was a secret trick that he could make use of later.

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nikolas

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Persistence and determination were the most important qualities he had at the moment. His skill at arms, his ability to survive in the wilderness, those would be pointless if he didn't have the will to use them. So far he had hit nothing but dead ends and walls in regards to his current objective. None of his family had returned, no one from the entire commune as far as he could tell. He had left marks that would identify him but he'd checked them recently and no one had added a response. There were still no gates to his home and recently his current idea had been to get as close as possible and try walking.
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So it was that he was sitting in the corner of a somewhat busy bar, taking up an entire table by laying out a map on it, at least as best a map as he could draw. He had noted landmarks that he had found and his paths to try moving towards his home but none of it had worked. He either became horribly confused and returned to where he was or the 'system' would simply not allow him to continue onwards. He hadn't found any other gates either so he would need to try and discover some new methods. He reached out and unstoppered his canteen before taking a slug of water and putting it back.
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He had been so focused on his map and his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed any of the behaviour happening around him, nor did he notice the man moving next to him until he was suddenly far too close. He instantly reached out to grasp one of his weapons but recognised they were in a safe zone and even if he did summon one of his armaments he wouldn't actually be able to use them. Instead he grit his teeth and turned his icy blue eyes onto the man as though he was getting him a target lock rather than just assessing him. Dantalion then gave a soft grunt and went back to looking at his map before he spoke.
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"The same series of events that lead all of us here. I was born, I lived my life well and then the Light came heralding the..." He paused and shook his head slightly, no need to give anything away "...An oncoming change. Sure enough, that change came and we were brought to this world. Now I'm searching for the rest of the Bastion, my commune, so that we can work together to achieve true peace in a world full of monsters and evil." He gave a shrug, no more details were needed than that. "What about you, are you happy just partying in this new world? Or has it already proven too much for you?" He raised an eyebrow but there was no accusation in his voice, he was genuinely curious why someone would impair themselves so heavily in a situation where death lurked around most corners.

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Henry Reese

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They were so close, he could see the light through the trees, they just had to make it there. Dantalion grit his teeth and hissed out a breath as they moved, at least he didn't have to dodge when the damn Strix launched a feather at them, he was glad for his allies at least a little bit. At least the ogre was slowed down for now. He stopped for a moment and readied his bow once more, aiming it upwards before they moved into deeper tree cover. With a grunt of pain from the force of pulling the string, he launched another glowing arrow to clip the Strix's wing again, this time on purpose, if he could convince it to stop flying and fuck off that would be for the best.
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With that done he turned and continued moving deeper into the woods, making sure to stick to tree trunks as best he could not only for support but also because it was where the branches above were thickest and it would make it far harder to launch attacks at them from above. "Keep moving, the light is getting brighter, we must be near the escape point. Do not move through any clearings unless you have to." He snarled, though it was hopefully obvious he was just in pain and not actually angry at them, they were useful sinners and he was not about to complain about it, they could have left him here to die after all.
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There couldn't be much left to go unless they truly did have to fight the Ogre... He reached out for Warlord but he could tell that the horse wasn't ready to be summoned again which bothered him deeply, it would have hurt a hell of a lot to ride a horse with his ribs like this but more pain for less time was better as he could get somewhere safe to rest.

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Try Hard Rory Perkins

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Yet another path leading nowhere, his home was still locked off and he hadn't yet managed to find any gates to it. If his resolve had been weaker he might have been angry about it but that wouldn't help the situation, he simply had to continue searching. Things had given him hope however, he had met people that would surely assist him if he asked and could possibly be used to absorb blows if need be. He felt something that might have been guilt but he supressed it quickly and shook those thoughts free from his head. He had found himself here in Unison Central however, it was the cloest safe zone that he could start hunting from.[break][break]
Dantalion took a moment to pause and reach into his pocket, pulling out a strange tattered fragment of cloth. Something that might once have been a banner but now done seemingly nothing. He looked at it for a few moments, studying the symbol on it. It had a certain draw to him, it made him think of the Bastion. He sighed softly and put the fragment away before letting his thoughts return to the present and actually taking in his surroundings. Here nothing could attack him even if they wanted to so he wasn't worried about constantly watching his back. There were people milling around but honestly not many, there wasn't really many people left in the world it seemed.[break][break]
As he was looking around he realised there was someone he actually recognised here which was interesting. Tali chuckled quietly before walking over to the table and taking a look across everything that was available. "Quite done with murdering spiders, my friend?" He said with a small smile. Nothing on the table really interested him, though he did make sure to look at them all fairly closely. "If you're here, I imagine you're not having much luck with your family search either?" It was harder putting his lack of progress into words but he knew Nikolas understood the feeling.
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Then he noticed the little sign about a special deal and pointed it out after making sure Nikolas was done talking, he wouldn't want to be rude after all. "What's the deal you're offering?"

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nikolas