Rein Initiative
Posts 54
Power Level 30
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Post by Seraphim on Nov 6, 2016 19:11:40 GMT -7
Earlier that day, Seraphim caught wind of some supers in the Keeper cell she identified trying to worm their way into Pandaemonium, likely to influence their decisions. It wouldn't be hard, Aurora Disicio was more easily manipulated than she thought, therefore Seraphim couldn't let it happen. The target hadn't shown up to fight any of the dragons in recent memory, likely because his power wouldn't be very useful against them, but it meant there wasn't any reason to hold back on him. It wasn't until she was just a few paces from where she intended to ambush the Keeper when her brain assimilated thoughts of mass murder, a thought that only existed to attract people from Rein. She stopped and took a moment to try to identify where this was happening and where the target was. It quickly became clear to her that she would be too late.
Her body was at the peak of human condition, but it was still human. She didn't any supernatural means of getting around, and she needed to get to the other side of the city, and then get to an island, in the span of ten minutes in order to stop this. It wasn't physically possible for her to do, not without help. The most she could hope to do was clean up and stop the super from doing further damage. However, Solomon was in the area, thinking of little more than fighting and testing out some powers. They were dangerous thoughts, but they were what was needed for now. He would do.
It wasn't until she was firmly in combat with her own target that she realized her mistake. This was Solomon, yes, but it wasn't Solomon, in the same way that most of her thoughts were not hers. It was something she understood, but found it difficult to recognize before problems occurred because it was nearly impossible to separate them from normal thoughts. It wasn't until he was in combat that she realized his initial thoughts actually meant. Exactly what was going on she wasn't sure, but she couldn't allow this to continue. What would inevitably happen if he continued on this course of action could not be allowed to happen.
But she would still be too slow.
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Seraphim sent a few more shots towards her target, not bothering to confirm if they hit or not. She would be able to tell from a distance, but she didn't have time to act on that knowledge anyway. What this Keeper could do paled in comparison to what Solomon would do in the short term at least. She could come back later to deal with this problem, later wasn't an option for Solomon. She ran as fast as she could out of the building, taking the shortest path she knew of. She didn't care if there were people in her path, she would plow right through them if it was the fastest way to get there.
She took the time to take a small detour to a locally owned car shop. The mechanic had a couple of cars he needed to work on, and a couple of cars that were finished. Seraphim quickly grabbed a blow torch, and a large sheet that was nearby for good measure, grabbed the keys to one of the fixed cars and sped out of the shop. She heard shouting and gunshots behind her, but she couldn't focus on them right now. She had to move as quickly as possible. She turned her attention to the roads, taking the ones with the least amount of people and the least amount of stops. It was easy for her to tell when people would stop and when they would go, so it was easy for her to run red lights and stop signs without causing any accidents or slowing her down, so she took every opportunity to do so causing more people to swear at her as she sped past. She didn't have time to wait for the ferry, and this car wasn't going to be able to get across the water. There was a couple getting onto their private boat to get back to their home, but they were going to have an additional passenger today. Seraphim was heavily armed and already fully prepared for a bigger fight than they could hope to give. She wouldn't let them complain about her presence or the speed she needed to make their boat move at.
Solomon's arm had been shattered. She knew it was unlikely to affect what he would do to her, but it did tell her what she could get away with doing to him. The sense of bloodlust was stronger here. She needed to remind herself that letting Solomon continue was objectively bad, and that Solomon dying would also be objectively bad. This was unusual. She couldn't let those feelings get to her. There was more than she was expecting here, but she could handle it. She'd felt worse. Taking the most direct route to his location, Seraphim ran as quickly as she could. She was faster than the majority of humans, but was ultimately too muscular, especially in her upper body, to compete with the fastest of even unpowered humans. One voice was silenced, and Solomon's mind slipped further. Suddenly dozens of voices were silenced all at once and more continued to follow. As expected, she was too slow.
When Seraphim arrived at the scene she was breathing heavily from pushing her body to its limits for so long. But for once, she managed to show up in time. Solomon was looking at his sister, raising his hand like he was about to kill her too. As much as she would have preferred to have a little more time to aim, she couldn't afford to take it. She pulled out the only gun she would be able to fire fast enough to stop this, one of her larger handguns, and aimed directly for his head right between the eyes. Given she had to basically draw and shoot, she figured it'd be in that general direction, but wouldn't be surprised if it ended up hitting one of his eyes or his jaw instead. If someone with as much strength as Gluttony could only do that much damage, then she was not the least bit worried that this shot would do more than annoy him. With the shot fired, she ran.
Before coming to Emerald City, she was given some information on the people that would be working under her, mostly to help prevent situations like this. She was only told of dangerous things, things to watch out for. There wasn't a lot she could do to stop Solomon's rampage, but she had a few ideas. For now she needed to get him away from the populated areas and toward somewhere more suitable for mass destruction. She knew vaguely where the Keepers' sanctum was now, as well as the home of some of their unpowered servants, and considered them acceptable targets. The sanctum itself was built to withstand a dragon attack, so she doubted Solomon would be able to do too much damage to it if he was able to do any at all, but some of the mansions acting as entrances, and the unpowered servants with in, were less likely to be able to stand such a force.
As much as her body wanted to stop and rest she couldn't afford to stop running yet. Seraphim figured it was likely that he would be faster and that attacking him like that would be enough to distract him for the time being. If not she'd just have to try harder and she had plenty of weapons and ammunition with her.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 134
Power Level 31
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Post by Solomon on Nov 7, 2016 0:55:55 GMT -7
A turning point had been reached in the power rush. The steep uphill shot had reached its peak, leveled, and was now set to sit and molder away. The thrill of battle was still there - indeed, still was the only thing there - as was the desire to prolong it, but it had grown cold. The joy was shifting, towards no longer gaining from the fight solely itself but from the effects, the destruction fighting caused.
In some ways, Poppet did register in Solomon’s mind as his sister. The face of the woman before him certainly was connected to a whole number of thoughts and emotions. But, it wasn’t the kind ones that he saw in her; that she was the only member of his family he’d cared for - the only member of his family he could truly consider family - or how much his twin meant to him even after two decades of separation. Instead, he saw the only family he had, who had never once returned his efforts of trying to contact her again. The deep guilt that he hadn’t given more effort himself. He could have, he knew; he could have returned home, tried track her down in person, had he just spared the time. That he hadn’t, and that he didn't know why he hadn't only burned him deeper. He’d had plenty of time. Years. Was he afraid he wouldn’t succeed? Or, in returning to her, he’d have to return to his parents as well? That she would’ve changed? Perhaps he was afraid she would not like how he’d changed, who he’d become, and… this. Perhaps it was because he feared he’d find his own expectations to be romanticisations of the truth.
Poppet had not let him down, but a hesitancy remained from him to her. It was as though he was walking on glass, avoiding this topic of why he had never come, because he didn’t have a reason to give. He wasn’t sure she’d forgive him, and so he never brought it up. At least until he could give her a proper answer, he’d told himself, or he could make it up some other way.
Perhaps, his powers said in turn, it would simply be easier to end it. Another loose thread cut cleanly. That was nice and neat, wasn’t it? Quick. Straightforward. Troubless. Solomon raised his hand, speaking the last few words of a spell-
And a bullet pierced through his right eye. Solomon let out a loud, pained yell, and raised his working arm to cover the injured eye. As tough as his spell might have made him, eyes were one of those things that could only be strengthened so much. Blood ran thick through his fingers and tightly shut lid.
His remaining eye turned to find the source of the fire, and fell upon… Seraphim. Solomon’s arm dropped to his side, and his head and shoulders tilted absently to his injured right. Blood streamed down his fingers and face. The smile that grew wide and upwards to teeth showed no pain from the ruined eye, or the right arm that still hung limply from its socket, in spite of the exceptionally potent healing spell. The damage caused by Gluttony was too great to be fully repaired by a single spell alone. Solomon let out a single, low laugh.
Poppet was forgotten. His query was running, and he needed to catch up.
Solomon stepped past Poppet, taking several long strides, the swords hovering about him gathering and reforming into a slowly spinning circle behind him. And then he broke out in a dead run.
His right arm was dead weight, but he didn’t need it. He was still faster than any unpowered could hope to achieve. At this rate, he figured he would gain on Seraphim soon enough - and if not him, his swords would first.
The first one flew. Moving and a moving target made aiming difficult, further making a thoughtless scattershot unlikely to hit anything. One would do for now. The sword shot with the speed of an arrow to where he estimated Seraphim would be by the time it arrived. Solomon himself gave chase, sprinting after her and speaking the next spell he would cast. The fire spell he’d been planning for Poppet could wait - the electricity one he’d used on Gluttony before, with a mix of range, power, and the benefit of letting electricity do the bulk of the aiming, would work fine next. After all, he still needed to gather more data on its effects. The book it was written in, hovering along his side, spun open to the designated page and began to light as he spoke the words.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 54
Power Level 30
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Post by Seraphim on Nov 8, 2016 19:04:58 GMT -7
Seraphim didn't have to look back to know that she was being chased, or even to know what Solomon was up to. It took a moment for peoples' bodies to catch up with their minds, but her power worked instantly. She knew what he was going to try before he could even hope to move. She stopped abruptly in her tracks to let the sword fly past her. It was only a hair away from grazing her, but she didn't even flinch as it went past her. The only thing she could think of was how this maneuver was going to cost her precious seconds to lure Solomon to a more suitable area. It was still a fair distance away and he was already set to catch up with her before reaching that place. She was going to have to get creative, especially considering what was coming next.
She broke out into a full run again, moving as quickly as she could. Before he finished casting his next spell, Seraphim reached for the large sheet she managed to grab before coming here. It would offer minimal protection from the lightning, but it was big enough that it might disguise her movements long enough to let her avoid the worst of the blast. More than that though, it was made of a thin material that should be reasonably flammable. At the pace he was running at, and casting at, it seemed likely that the spell he was casting would be enough to set it on fire, and that he might run into it. If even one of his books was destroyed that would be a huge boon for her. She grabbed two of the corners, and used her run to make it puff out like a parachute before letting it go. From there, she took a sharp turn to the left and moved her right arm to try to absorb the worst of the shock. In that arm, only most of the hand was metal, and would disconnect itself from the rest of her body upon receiving a shock like that. It would mean she wouldn't be able to use her hand anymore, but that seemed better than the alternative.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 134
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Post by Solomon on Nov 15, 2016 0:53:23 GMT -7
Lightning shot down the street, lighting the tarp instantly and blasting the trunk of the aged oak tree several meters beyond into splinters. Electricity crackled out, jumping into metal, liquid, and anything unfortunately close before leaping out to several more targets. The flash was over in an instant. Smoke and embers rose from much of what it had touched. Only Solomon himself didn’t need to worry about being struck; few of his attack spells could hit him. A little extra energy expenditure was entirely worth that benefit.
One such exception was the fireball spell he’d cast earlier in the battle, because it was something that was meant to be launched. The fire retardant spell he’d cast had worn off about half a minute afterwards, its use spent and time up.
This was not a consideration as Solomon bolted after where he had last seen Seraphim, and had since lost sight of her, and thus unflinchingly into the flaming tarp. He swatted aside a charred corner that flew against his chest, the smoldering of his shirt and burns on his bared arms not even registering.
Nor did that his book had caught alight. His elemental spell book, as it were, the cover of which had seen its fair share of prior scaldings. Solomon’s books were built to last, and flew along at a considerable pace beside him, which didn’t lend good conditions to keeping a fire. Had the book been closed, it would’ve gained a few new char marks. But it’d been open, and several pages caught fire. It was quickly put out by the wind, but several pages had sizable chunks gone. The spells contained on were ruined.
The missed sword picked itself up from the ground and flew to join the rest. Once free of the fire (minus what was lingering in his hair), he quickly spotted Seraphim and continued in swift, determined pursuit. She could not outpace him forever.
The fireball he’d been planning was gone (ironically, burned). Instead, be began preparing an earth spell - one that could sheer and then churn a city block as though it were dough, cut and then folded upon itself. The block occupied then by Seraphim would do. This would certainly cut utility pipes, which would allow water for him to use in a follow up attack. The pages flew to find the spell.
But first came the swords. One had not worked, so he would try ten - each shot with only a moment’s thought to aim, but in quick succession and near enough to each other that should one be a few inches off, another was a few inches to the side. Even should none of them hit, it might buy him time. Both to cast and to catch up.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 54
Power Level 30
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Post by Seraphim on Nov 16, 2016 21:33:42 GMT -7
Seraphim was used to being a one man army. She could take down entire groups alone, and had done so numerous times in the past. However, that was only because most of those people didn't even know she was there until it was too late, and she could set up the circumstances to always be in her favor when they did. She always knew what they knew, all of their weaknesses, and how to push them into favorable directions. Her power was useful for this, and gave her enough of a defensive edge against even other supers that she could normally win any fight she got into. That wasn't the case here. Direct confrontations were not her forte and she had no way to manipulate the circumstances. As things stood, her power still gave her a way to avoid a lot of his attacks, or at least to have a few seconds to prepare for them, but if he was going to continue using such wide area attacks she was going to have trouble lasting long enough for him to use enough energy to return to normal. Her power had no direct offensive capabilities, so she was effectively fighting a super on drugs as an unpowered person. She was going to have to get creative and rely on her knowledge against how little he likely knew about her.
The first step was to not die here.
Her plan to deal with the lightning half worked. It was scattered enough that, combined with the sheer amount of metal in her body, her hand wasn't going to be enough to absorb it all. It was insulated so she wouldn't get struck by lightning constantly, but this was aimed right in her direction. Her hand absorbed the brunt of it, cutting itself off from the rest of her body so that it wouldn't travel through her as expected. There were scorch marks running up her wrist, and most of the synthetic skin covering it was peeled or burnt off, revealing a now smoking serious of complex parts. The hand would be useless for this fight now. She could probably reconnect it, but that would take time she didn't have right now. If the attacked stop there, she wouldn't have much to worry about, but the rest of her was simply too close for that to be all. All of her bones had some kind of metal in them to reinforce them, and she had several mechanisms inside of her to allow her to perform inhuman feats. Most of them were safe, but there was only so much that could be done to insulate her body in the areas with thinner skin, most notably, her joints. The lightning was attracted to her elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles almost as much as it was attracted to her hand, and some even went towards her far hand. The areas that were mostly skin were badly burned, and some of the skin on her left hand and elbow were stripped off completely much like her right hand, revealing structures similar to what was in her right hand in both the hand and the elbow. For a moment, her joints locked nearly making her fall on her face.
That moment gave her a chance to look back while she tried to force herself to move again. Normally she wouldn't have, but it was nice to confirm his location in this case. The fact that he was on fire and it was barely registering in his mind made it difficult for her to read just how successful her ideas were. The fact he was still charging at her, and even lighting himself on fire to do so, proved exactly how single minded his assault was. This gave her a couple of ideas, the first of which she was almost certain wasn't going to work, but it was worth a shot while she couldn't move much else besides her mouth. Seraphim knew how he felt about his position with in Rein and how he felt about her in normal circumstances. She had to use every advantage she had here.
"Solomon stand down!"
The first sword flew past her face as she turned back around, likely because of another sudden stop. A second one was right on its heels and would have impaled her skull had she not leaned forward in time. Stiffly, she put the blow torch in her teeth, pulled out her handgun again, and raised her arm so that her now useless hand would get impaled by one of the swords, then quickly moved it a little bit more to protect her head from a second sword. Between the two swords, her hand was only holding on by a thread now. Fortunately, it was a very sturdy, metal thread, not that it would have mattered if it fell off completely at this point. Another she shot at in such away that it would change its trajectory just enough to miss her, and to land in a position that was advantageous to her. Carefully, she pulled out one of the swords stuck in her dead hand while the rest of the swords he launched landed in various places around her. She could tell they were meant to hit her based on how she dodged, so the only safe spot was right where she was standing. By that point, the ground around her was vertical enough that she wouldn't be able to run up it. That was fine, that was exactly why she needed to catch a couple of the swords. The one she shot landed in a spot she could easily jump to. All she needed to do was place the two she caught a little higher up and she could climb them like stairs before the spell crushed her.
There was one thing that was unavoidable though, and that was the water. If she still had the tarp she might have been able to protect herself, but it was ashes in the wind at this point. The area was flooded, and Seraphim herself was completely drenched. She couldn't let him launch his next attack. Given his frenzy and single minded pursuit, that shouldn't be a problem. Without looking towards him, she shot in his direction again. She was completely aware of his movements because of her power, and they were easy to track. It was a trick she often used while sniping so that her target didn't have to be sitting still for her to make accurate shots from long distances. This time she was aiming for his teeth and tongue. Even though he would have to heal himself later and would need to speak for that she didn't hesitate for a moment. Surviving right now was the most important thing, she could worry about how to fix him later. If worst came to worst, he could always do what she did when she lost limbs in battle anyway. After the shot, she jumped off the edge of his earth attack in an attempt to hide behind it and disappear again.
Despite the situation she was in and what just happened, she looked completely unfazed, expressionless, much like she always did. She was used to this by now.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 134
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Post by Solomon on Nov 27, 2016 1:42:20 GMT -7
The command was heard, but not heeded. Why would he stand down? He had no reason to, and it was a silly thing to do for the person he was trying to kill. His grin twitched and he was considering shouting something back when he heard a gunshot.
The bullet entered through the side of his mouth, piercing diagonally through his tongue before coming finally to its end in the gum by his back molars. Surprised, Solomon slowed to a stop, ceasing to speak his spell and rubbing his jaw. His tongue was in shreds; what few parts of it weren’t seared useless tasted nothing but blood and burnt flesh. His mouth was filling with blood, and overall was no longer responding in the way he needed it to. Solomon would’ve paid it little mind - it was just another wound to add atop the piling others - but was it stood, there was no way he could speak spells. A shame, really - he was about ten words from completing his next.
This left Solomon in a bit of an impasse. He could go the more manual route of spell casting and begin handwriting them; there’d be no need to speak them for the first casting. This, however, would require time and for him to remain stationary. If Seraphim were to try to flee, it would provide the opening, and that was… problematic. He could continue chasing after Seraphim, but that would require forgoing spell casting. He did have weapons, both from his presently active spell and readily available in his pocket book, but he didn’t have guns and he’d be facing hers in melee. His present telekinesis spell on the swords was due to end before too long as well.
The optimal course of action, really, was to start writing a healing spell to repair his tongue so he could speak again. Perhaps another afterwards to slow the bleeding so he could draw the battle out longer and into his advantage. If Seraphim were to leave, he could attempt to find her again, and speaking would return his access to the higher power spells in a reasonable amount of time.
The issue with that plan, however, was that it wasn’t an attack. It meant spending no small amount of time on a slow building spell for very little payoff. That wouldn’t do. What he wanted to do was continue the assault, hard and fast. It didn’t matter if he couldn’t speak or if he was losing blood if he could end her quickly.
And, he did have one card left.
Since the recent dragon attack, Solomon had been wanting to see how powerful an attack spell he could create. Making a new one from scratch was a lengthy process that posed problems of its own, so he had conducted this experiment on one he was already well familiar with. Namely, his meteor spell. He’d rewritten the spell, employing newly found tricks to strengthen it at the cost of a greater amount of energy, optimising it until he could rightfully consider it at the maximum of his abilities. Should it work as he expected, it would be a fair bit more powerful than the version he’d cast during the dragon attack.
He’d not yet used it since he first got it down on paper; mostly because he’d had no reason to during the initial fight over the other spells he had and could prepare, and the unwieldy, unaimed nature of the spell made it inefficient against a single foe (and because he doubted it would be appreciated if he gave it even a little bit of a test run at the FOB). As such, all he needed was a mental command to activate it.
It might not be the best spell he could use against Seraphim, but it was a spell he could use, and now seemed a fine time to indulge in some inefficiencies. Solomon did not continue his chase after the Rein. Instead, he came to a sit on the pavement. His pocket book floated down before him, and his elemental spell book beside that. From the first he drew out a pen and a notepad, and the second flipped to the large set of glowing pages that made up the readied meteor spell. Solomon wiped the moment’s blood from his chin and cheek, flipped open the notebook, and gave the metal command to activate the spell. The book flashed, and Solomon began to write.
The first meteor, perhaps about as large as a family car, formed from the top of one of the clouds hanging overhead and fell much like a large rock dropped from a high place. The second came from the next cloud over, larger than the last and trailing whiffs of smoke. From the third on, the rocks picked up speed and flames - materializing at the tops of clouds, falling as though they’d been thrown, and each glowing white-hot. They would crash without aim into buildings, pavement, or whatever else happened to be in their path. Walls would be toppled, along with large parts of buildings; perhaps the whole, should it be hit in an unfavorable spot. Pavement would be left with craters several meters wide and a handful of feet deep. At least a hundred rocks would take chunks and punch holes in the clouds and then the ground below. However, due to their location on the island and the unfortunate positioning of the spell that placed Seraphim at its center, a good number of the rocks would simply fall into the ocean. This was also a disappointment, but it was one he could live with to greaten the chances of meteors impeding his small and mobile target.
Solomon spat out the blood gathering in his mouth. The destroyed eye and wounded tongue were beginning to add together into a burning on that side of his face, that was at one time dull and another sharp. His balance was slightly off due to blood loss. He lingered on the pain for a moment, more out of habit than anything else, before returning to the more important task at hand. His off hand made fine, swift marks on the page, filling lines in a matter of moments in a well-practiced script. Still, it would take him at least a full minute to write out what would be another water-based spell. With the meteors hopefully serving as a distraction, he’d decided to take a risk and attempt another more powerful attack; this one would draw forth all available water - from the broken pipes, houses, but in this case most likely the ocean - and force it in a rush towards a single point, in a single direction. On this casting, it would be towards Seraphim, in the direction of himself. Much like he didn’t need to worry about being hit by a meteor, he didn’t need to worry about being caught up in the flood; the water would part and reform around him as though he were in a glass sphere. In tandem, this clever pairing would hopefully solve both his issues of lacking an offense as well as keeping Seraphim from getting too far away.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 54
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Post by Seraphim on Nov 27, 2016 13:50:17 GMT -7
There were upsides and downsides to removing his ability to talk right now. The upside was that she wasn't going to die yet. The downside was that it meant fairly wide-spread destruction of the area, and now she had to figure out how to survive something as wide spread as this. He wasn't aiming this time, beyond centering the spell itself on her, which meant that she wouldn't be able to predict where the meteors would fall as easily as she did his previous attacks. At this point she could not count on dodging them, so she only had a few seconds to think of a plan before the meteors would start falling.
Solomon's own movements gave her the opening she needed. He wasn't worried about getting hit by the meteors. Whether that was because he wouldn't be hit by them or because he wasn't thinking about defense at all and didn't care if he got hit by them she wasn't sure. The one thing she did know was that this wasn't a recent creation, and therefore it must have been created when he wasn't completely focused on attacking and only attacking. He would have worried about the possibility of the meteors hitting him or his allies during that time in all likelihood. If not then they needed to have a serious talk later, but that wasn't important right now. It seemed like her best shot of not being crushed or set on fire, so she was going to take it. He was going to sit down as well in order to cast more spells, so there was no point in trying to lure him to a better spot right now. If he wasn't going to chase her and was going to keep destroying the area anyway, then she might as well try to mitigate as much damage as she can and reduce the odds that she gets caught up in one of his spells.
Seraphim holstered her gun, and grabbed the blowtorch from her teeth. Before Solomon even hit the ground she was charging towards him as fast as she could. It was times like this that she was glad at least her legs couldn't get tired anymore, even if her lungs and heart were screaming right now. A meteor fell not too far behind her, making her stumble forward from the shockwave and burning the exposed skin on her arms. It was fortunate that he was successfully catching up so she didn't have to run as far to get to where he was. She wasn't sure how many meteors she'd be able to deal with otherwise. A second landed only a few feet to her left, knocking her off her feet and singing her clothes and hair a bit. She did her best to roll to get back up as quickly as possible, but there was only so much she could do from an impact like that. It slowed her down, but she got back on her feet as quickly as possible and continued the charge.
She eliminated the easiest way for him to cast spells. If she could completely eliminate his ability to cast spells then the rest of this should be straightforward. Seraphim may be human, but she had several modifications made to her so that even though she could only use her mundane abilities to fight, they were good enough that she was capable of fighting dragons. She found it unlikely that Solomon would be able to best her without his spells. She flipped on the blowtorch and held it out towards the floating book, choosing that one over his writing surface mostly due to it being further away from him. She figured it'd be harder to stop her from setting it on fire. If he did try to stop her, she would know before he even started moving and could adjust accordingly. However, she didn't stop moving. Whether she hit the book or not, she turned sharply and directed the blowtorch to the inside of the bookbag on his back. There were more books in there, and it if could serve as a momentary distraction it'd give her more time to go for them directly. If he ignored it, maybe a few flames would get past the flame retardant covers and to the pages themselves.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Nov 28, 2016 0:55:28 GMT -7
The sound of footsteps coming towards him drew Solomon’s attention. Seraphim was charging at him of her own volition. Strange.
This change in her tactics also required a change in his plans. This spell was a lost cause if she was going to engage him close-range; there was no way he’d be able to both write and fend her off.
This point was proven soon after. Seraphim closed the distance between them much quicker than he’d been anticipating. Plans had to be made quickly - he would switch to a more pure and immediate offensive, in the one way he had. After the earth attack, he’d let the swords rest where they’d landed. He called them back now, as quickly as they could come. Only four of the twelve returned - the rest had been buried too deep beneath the rubble. Solomon dropped his pen and began to move to his feet to catch the quickest of the remaining quartet.
But, by the time the first one was within reach, Seraphim had already set the first of his books ablaze. Even had it not been open to pages, the concentrated flames of a blowtorch would’ve been enough to cause significant damage to the cover. As it was, the open pages of the nearly stationary book were cinders in moments, and the rest was caught enough that it would’ve taken drenching the book in water to put it out. It had also been the book to contain the bulk of his offensive elemental spells, and it, too, was a lost cause.
Nor was it the end of Seraphim’s strike; Solomon was just on his feet when suddenly she was behind him. Blade firmly in hand, he swung backwards in a slash that would leave a stationary target with a gash vertically across their chest, but it was already too late. The covers could offer some protection, but not nearly enough. The sides of each were soon aflame, fire catching at the weak corners and traveling upwards and inwards. It contained his healing, every day, and group spell books, as well as his pocketbook. The thinner later two were quickly catching.
Solomon didn’t stick around. Though it, along with the swords’ spell, wouldn’t be lasting for much longer, the short range teleportation spell he’d cast earlier was still active. On a mental command, Solomon seemed to split into two half-formed images before vanishing completely, reappearing in the same fashion about five feet behind Seraphim.
A small part of him said now was not the time to continue the assault. The battle was turning out of his favor. All that was left was to engage Seraphim in melee, and while he still had enhanced speed and swordsmanship, he was down an arm and growing dizzy. He knew Seraphim’s powers were well-suited to such combat, and her physical skillset likewise; and his lack of further knowledge only weighed in her favor. If he fought her like this, he would lose. He knew this. He should use his advantage of speed and run.
It gave him hesitation for a moment, but the flood of battle was quick to reject the notion in its entirety. ‘Losing’ didn’t matter. All that mattered was fighting the target before him; Seraphim, and that was easy enough, wasn’t it?
Solomon charged. Taking wide, heavy strides, he moved towards her. Once in range, he’d bring a strong strike down from over his shoulder towards hers, followed by a swift swipe at her midsection. The remaining three blades, too, had returned; as he made his first swing, the first of the blades would shoot to pierce her other shoulder. The second, trailing close behind, was on course for her leg, and the third her side.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Seraphim on Nov 28, 2016 9:59:35 GMT -7
The moment he teleported away she knew the fight was hers. Seraphim could already see his planned attack, and not only was it easy to defend against, most of it wouldn't even do anything against her. She helped him close the distance between them without even a moment's hesitation dropping the blowtorch behind her. A moment before he started swinging, she turned her body sideways to avoid his vertical strike, and put her useless left hand between her midsection and his second strike. The three levitating swords all hit their mark, leaving a dent in her skin before the sound of metal hitting metal echoed throughout the area. They weren't strong enough to break her body, especially not the right side.
Serahpim didn't waste a moment. With her hand free now, she reached for his neck before his own strike was complete. If he was so focused on attacking and not worrying about defense, she expected it to be easier than usual. She didn't intend to squeeze it hard, just hold it firmly enough that he wouldn't be able to squirm away easily. If she managed to get a grip, she would put a little bit of pressure on his carotid artery. Between that and his current bloodloss, with any luck he'd just pass out for a little while and the effects of his power on him would fade.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Nov 28, 2016 14:39:34 GMT -7
The first miss was mildly surprising. The downward swing was almost enough to knock him off his feet. He’d recovered quickly enough to make his second thanks to momentum, but his effort was for moot. The clang of the swords - all the ones that struck - against her were extraordinarily surprising. He thought he had to be mishearing things, but his sword strike against her arm confirmed; it felt like he’d just slammed the blade into a steel pole, a far throw from the soft flesh he’d been anticipating. As it was turning out, Seraphim was made out of goddamn metal.
Blood had been flowing fairly freely from his eye ever since he’d been shot. His mouth wasn’t faring much better. The blood loss had lowered his reaction time, and the surprise had gone and given that diminished reaction time a good hard kick in the shins. Perhaps under a clearer mind he would’ve thought to teleport away, but as things stood, Seraphim was too fast and it was too late by the time he realized he’d been grabbed at all.
It didn’t take long. He tried to raise his arm for a reactive swing against hers, but, moments after she had his neck, it fell limp to his side. The sword dropped from his fingers to clatter on the pavement. Soon following, Solomon’s consciousness was at last relieved, and his body slumped with it.
Without someone to control them, the two books and cindered remains of the third that had hovered about him dropped motionless to the ground. The three swords had their return likewise cut short. The last meteor that would fall formed and slammed into the side of a building. That spell, too, had been stopped early.
It was over, and Seraphim had won.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Seraphim on Nov 28, 2016 20:34:50 GMT -7
Once his consciousness faded and he started to go limp, Seraphim moved her hand away from his neck and gently lowered him to the ground. Leaving him on his side so he wouldn't drown in his blood, she collected his books and the paper he was using to write on before. She had little doubt the police would arrive soon, and being spotted like this would be inconvenient. Leaving the blowtorch behind, she took the leather bag he was using to carry his books and strapped it onto her shoulder. That could carry the books, and then she could carry him. As long as she moved carefully it should be fine.
She stopped at a grove of trees, the center of which now had a large meteor in it. It was hidden enough that they shouldn't have to worry about the police, and far enough away that it would take some time for them to look through there anyway. Hopefully by then the two of them would be long gone. Seraphim didn't have a first aid kit on her, but the fight had cut up one of her pant legs badly enough that there wasn't much point in trying to preserve it. It would be more effective as a make-shift bandage. She did her best to wipe the blood away and then used a few pieces of cloth she tied together to make a makeshift eyepatch to put enough pressure on his eye to help stop the bleeding. His mouth would be much harder. It was regrettable that she had to shoot it in the first place. The best she could do was shove bits of cloth into his gums to help stop the bleeding there, but there was little she could do about his tongue. She tried anyway, making an odd contraption of cloth and twigs to at least attempt to slow the bleeding. The rest of that leg went into taking some of the broken trees from the meteor to make a quick splint for his arm. It was probably unnecessary, but she didn't have much to do until he woke up. She left him on his side again because of the bleeding, and sat a few feet away from him with in his view if he woke up in that position. Between them, she left the paper he was using to write on and the pen he was using to write with before she charged at him. That should at least let him heal himself. From there, she waited for his thoughts to return. Once they did and he realized she was there she turned towards him.
"Welcome back."
There was no need to say more yet. He needed a moment to heal so he could talk again, and to survey his surroundings. She wasn't completely sure if he would understand what just happened, but she got the feeling he would. It was best to let him see it before trying to explain anything.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Dec 5, 2016 22:14:55 GMT -7
Solomon woke slowly. His consciousness and feeling came back in small chunks for the sake of not dropping it all on him at once. Honestly he wanted to go back to sleep - another five to twenty hours was an extremely appealing notion - but he was in pain, and whether he liked it or not, that meant something had gone wrong somewhere and it required his attention. Reluctantly, he set in motion his usual method of getting up come finding himself sleeping on the floor again while he dealt with actually waking up.
As soon as he tried to move his right arm, pain shot through his shoulder. Solomon flinched, his memory dropped the ball, and everything that had transpired over the last few hours came rushing back to him. The battle, the blood, and the death caused and almost caused by him. He remembered all of it. He always did.
He gradually and carefully pulled himself up from the ground, favoring his left side heavily and his left arm entirely. His right arm was in a splint, he noted, with thanks; the injury had registered as little more than an inconvenience before, but now even the smallest movements sent bolts of pain through his arm. The splint helped with the worst of it. The whole of the right side of his face burned as well, to the point that it was dizzying.
But, the pain was proof that he was himself again, and that gave more relief than the pain itself could overweigh. Pain was the singular constant that could assure him of that fact, as his priorities, motives, and cares subtly shifted under the influence of the rush. In the higher stages of the bloodlust, he couldn’t tell he was there; as far as he was then aware, he was acting under a perfectly clear and reasonable mind. It was the one difference that couldn’t be concealed; the other him didn’t feel pain.
He spotted Seraphim almost immediately, in part because of how quickly she spoke up. He nodded absently. He was glad to be back, though where that had left him... Her presence did well to fill in all of the gaps as to what was going on; the bandages, the change in location - they were in a glade now, he noted. No longer in the buildings, but near enough that it hadn’t been free of the meteors. They were still on the island, then, and she had likely been waiting for him to wake up.
The next step was made obvious upon seeing the notepad and pen. Pulling the two closer to him, he situated the pad under his leg so he could hold it in place and flipped past the water spell left partially completed, abandoned at the beginnings of a triangular diagram. First, he would need something to cease the blood loss. The bandages had stopped the bulk of it, but he felt lightheaded enough that leaving it be for too long chanced a second loss of consciousness. Solomon opened the pen and began to write.
He sketched in fine, quick print, tracing the occasional diagram and flipping to the next page once it was covered, and tried not to think about how it’d happened again. And how he’d failed to keep it from happening, and now he’d killed another super and how many dozens more people? For absolutly nothing but a stupid mistake. What had he been thinking, coming anywhere remotely near the Isle? He couldn’t just assume that places normally abandoned would certainly be so. He should’ve known better than to go within any proximity to other people once he started using large amounts of power, and he should’ve known better than to make decisions such as that after he’d already begun to feel his power take hold. Even looking back now, he couldn’t tell if he had made the call to come here with a sane mind, or if the power had pushed him in that direction. Not that it mattered. The fact that he hadn’t factored in that this could happen was a failure on his part that he couldn’t overlook.
He stopped abruptly, not realizing he’d been nearing the end of the spell until there was nothing more to write. He relaxed the grip on the pen he hadn’t noticed he’d begun clenching. With the needed command, the spell activated, drawing the power required from the closest of his books. A shiver ran up his spine as he felt the energy run through him. He could tell parts of whatever pages it had been taken from had been burned away; it was spotty and incomplete in nature, but it would work. It was necessary and would be over quickly enough.
He took a moment to remove the bandages no longer needed from his face and mouth. Small streams of blood gathered slowly into small droplets around their wounds, like when water filled above the ridge of a cup but had yet to spill over. They would soon stop the flow altogether. Solomon began on the next spell.
As much as he tried to push them away and focus on the task at hand, images of what had happened kept coming back to him. He didn’t used to care if this happened to him; if he was using that much power, it usually meant he was in a large fight anyway, and the speed gained and ability to fight in spite of injury was useful. Destruction caused or lives taken didn’t matter. There had even times when he’d purposefully tried to get himself into that state; he had a small set of power-expensive spells specifically meant to burn energy quickly and kick him up into it. But he wasn’t supposed to be like that any more. He knew better now, and he’d been trying to better himself. That’s why he’d rejected his old life and joined Rein; to stop others from making the same mistakes he had, and to make up for what he had done. He could change his goals or his values or how he saw people however much he wanted, but if he kept repeating the same damn mistakes, all of that meant nothing. Solomon clenched his teeth, not caring that it hurt. He knew this, and he’d promised himself he’d do everything in his power to keep it from happening again. And yet it had.
He’d killed another super. He’d killed more civilians. He’d attacked his allies. He’d tried to kill Seraphim, and he’d tried to kill his sister. Nothing had changed. He hadn’t changed.
The spell was done. Again the command was given and the energy spent. His mouth took priority, and so was where the effects were focused. Not unlike the healing spell he’d cast after Poppet’s attack, blood and loose skin flowed backwards into the wounds, reversing the damage to his gums and tongue, and generating new muscle and flesh where needed. Burns vanished, and holes knitted themselves back together. He spat the now freed bullet into his hand.
He tried to address Seraphim, he owed it to her, but he found it impossible to look up from the pages in front of him. “Sorry.” He said anyway, quietly and humbly.
Solomon began to mutter the same spell again. There was still an eye to heal and an arm to attempt to mend.
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Rein Initiative
Posts 54
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Post by Seraphim on Dec 6, 2016 17:45:20 GMT -7
Emotions were inconvenient. Seraphim was fully aware of the pull they had on most people, and at least had some idea of how to handle them. She wasn't sure if she was the right person for this particular situation given her own emotional limitations, but she was all she had at the moment. The time Solomon spent unconscious at least gave her a moment to center her thoughts on what she needed to accomplish. Solomon had to stay in Rein and had to continue using his powers to maintain order and bring peace. That was all that mattered. Whatever she had to do to accomplish that was what she would do, nothing else mattered here.
She could tell immediately once he figured out what happened, the sudden rush of strong emotions alone made that obvious. Despite feeling his emotions as intensely as he did, there was no change in her expression or thought process. As strong as they were, they paled in comparison to the thousands of others' she felt too. One of the upsides of her power when it came to dealing with crime: she always knew how the criminal felt about their actions. There were times when they could be saved, and she would always know when it was worth the effort. His thoughts did not betray her expectations, he was indeed worth trying to keep. Seraphim stayed quiet while he healed himself in order to let him come to terms with the situation. There was nothing she could say to make it better.
"You didn't hurt me too badly," she said after a moment of silence after his apology. "This," she lifted her destroyed hand, "was only meant to be temporary. There was no time to fix it properly before I had to be deployed again. Now seems like a good time for basic maintenance."
Her expression was still completely neutral and there was no hint of emotion in her voice. Seraphim lowered her hand again and looked at the tops of the trees. There was a slight breeze blowing through the leaves and it was looking like it might rain. After giving Solomon a little bit longer to heal, she turned towards him.
"When I first joined Rein, I was told something useful. I tell it to everyone that doesn't have complete control over their powers now. The best way to handle such powers is not to try to control them, but to find ways to cope with them, to find ways to make their effects less disastrous or at least make it so you can handle the effects, depending on the power." Seraphim paused. "You already know this, but it would be useful to hear. This will happen again. That is what it means to have a power that is not completely under your control. However, you are wrong about what it says about you. If you hadn't changed at all you would not be feeling this way, and you would not be thinking of ways to improve the world around you, or thinking of ways to prevent this from happening again. It's only your power that has not changed, but your power is not you."
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Rein Initiative
Posts 134
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Post by Solomon on Dec 11, 2016 5:10:10 GMT -7
The third spell was focused on his eye. Upon being cast, the bullet was repelled out as tissue refilled the hole, the last few drops of blood flying from its surface back into the wound as it fell into his hand. He placed it upright next to the other bullet, on a rock to his side. Vision began to return to the eye, and he blinked to bring it into focus.
He took the time of Seraphim speaking to call over the largest of his spellbooks. Plans to survey the damage, however, were cut short as what Seraphim said both physically and mentally froze him.
Solomon glanced up at Seraphim and stared, blankly, at her for several seconds. A light smile grew on his features, and his head turned downwards over his shoulder as he closed his eyes and exhaled loudly through his nose.
“I would think I’d remember you can read minds.” He chuckled.
She was correct, his power was not him. He couldn't forget that. However, he also couldn’t ignore how much of him it affected; it was the reason he had cared little for other people’s lives, and why he’d seen those who alive as little more than resources. Pieces to be moved and used as needed. When his power required him to take full or partial lives regularly in order to work, he had to numb himself to the matters of other people. When he read about the lives he’d stolen, recorded in his books, he numbed himself further. When he no longer cared, he no longer cared who he hurt, and how many he killed. Perhaps she was right, he had managed some change. He wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t. But, that was how he had coped for twenty years - it was the only way he knew how to cope, and he couldn’t continue to rely on it so heavily. Now, he felt like he was actively fighting his power in an attempt to find new means. Of controlling or coping, he couldn’t say. Just something that worked, because the consequences of failing meant that happened.
“But thank you.” He said, trying to sound sincere. It was harder now than it usually was.
The eye and the mouth had been comparatively contained wounds, easy enough to repair once given the time. The arm, however, was going to require some concentrated healing. That would be best done somewhere a bit more secure and when Seraphim wasn’t waiting on him to speak one to several ten-minute spells. He would settle for basic care for now.
The bottom edge of the large spell tomb was charred. Solomon set the hovering book to flip through the healing spells that made up the first third of the book, but the flames had reached far enough that almost every page had at least something missing. He sighed let the book drop to the ground. Save for the energy in the back, it was now pretty well useless. He called over the small pocketbook.
The leather-bound notebook was in worse shape than the tomb. Nearly a third of its bottom had been eaten, and several pages in the front were completely black. But, by luck, the few glyphs that marked the stored spare of his healing tomb were in tact. The page and air surrounding rippled as he reached in and withdrew the much larger book.
He set the tomb in his lap and began thumbing through the pages. It was actually previously his main healing tomb as the wear on the front cover showed, until he had come up with a more efficient organizational scheme for his spells and wrote a new one, and it’d been demoted to spare. He already had the next spell in mind, and familiarity, at least, meant he found it quickly.
Reciting spells had become so second-nature to him that he could do it essentially unconsciously. Normally this was a boon, but presently it meant he was unwillingly thinking about what had happened and what Seraphim had said again.
He appreciated the effort, but he knew it would happen again. It would continue to keep happening, very likely either randomly, like today, or after a large battle like a dragon attack. That was what worried him. He couldn’t express how relieved he was she wasn’t too injured, and what had been done could be fixed. He was further that his hopes that, should this happen, he could rely on her were proven more than correct. However, he was also aware that today he’d gotten lucky. It was no understatement to say Seraphim had shown up in the nick of time; if she hadn’t, it was possible he could’ve killed more supers - including his sister and another Rein - and extraordinarily likely he would’ve killed a good deal more civilians than he had. It ran counter to everything Rein, he, was working for. Hell, if he wasn’t part of Rein, he would bet money he’d be on the faction’s list of supers to stop. Did they really want to keep someone like him around? Someone who might kill his teammates for no more than a careless mistake? He'd done it before.
He couldn’t afford that. If he were to leave the Rein Initiative, it wasn't an exaggeration that he had nowhere else to go. He could go back to being an unaligned super and try to accomplish his goals on his own, but he wouldn’t know where to start. He’d have nothing to fall back on should he slip. Rein offered him focus, teammates, and clear, assured goals. It was finally that something made sense, and he was terrified he would lose it.
He couldn't manage to completely match Seraphim's flawlessly emotionless expression, but his was mostly blank in all but the slightly knitted right brow as he turned the last page of the spell. He finished off the last passage and the small collection of paper flashed. Almost instantly, the pain in his arm began to subside. He was just dulling the pain, not yet actually fixing anything, but it was a much needed start. Once it’d receded to a more manageable ache, he turned to another spell and began speaking. The bone would need to be repaired next.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Seraphim on Dec 11, 2016 20:41:36 GMT -7
As expected, her words did nothing to cheer him up, but that wasn't what she was trying to do. Her demeanor wasn't useful for that. At the very least, it looked like she didn't have to worry about him going rogue or leaving, but having him fear his powers would still be problematic. Seraphim could understand to an extent because of how she reacted when she first got her powers, but Solomon's powers were not new to him. She would have thought that after all this time watching this happen would mean little to him and that, while it was not something he wanted to happen, that he would stop fighting it. It was difficult for her to gauge whether his power was worse than hers in that regard. Her power would never make her accidentally kill someone. Every death she caused happened because of conscious thought and effort on her part, there was no avoiding responsibility in that regard. Further, she felt every thought and every emotion of her targets before they passed as though they were her own. But she felt nothing about any of this anymore, and she hadn't for decades now. It was not a feeling she could understand.
"Apologies, I try not to comment on peoples' internal thoughts, but it's difficult for me to tell the difference between a voiced thought and an unspoken one." She paused. "I hope you don't mind if I continue. Your well-being is important, and there's no reason for you to suffer though this alone when you do not need to." She didn't wait for a response, or even a thought, before continuing.
"Can you honestly say you don't care about people? You are upset because of a mistake, however if this had happened in the middle of nowhere would you be feeling the same way? If no one had been hurt, would you be feeling the same way? If you did not care, would you be relieved that I was not hurt?" Seraphim paused. "Caring is...relative. That's why people will be upset that they stubbed their toe, but will feel very little about people in other countries being slaughtered. It's why when a city is attacked by a dragon, people might feel a pang of sympathy for all the people killed or hurt, but if a beloved pet gets hit by a car they will feel so much more. Your feelings are not unusual, nor are they the feelings of someone who doesn't care. Acknowledging that you have to hurt some people to save everyone does not mean you do not care about the people you do hurt. It is different from before. You do not view them as pawns or power sources or you would not be feeling this way.
"You are thinking as though your power is a burden, or some terrible force that needs to be fought. It is not, and there is no point in thinking that way. It is a tool. Its existence means nothing, the only thing that matters is what you do with it. Don't fight your power, work with it. It makes you do things that you consider undesirable, so be prepared for those undesirable moments because they will happen. You have already done so with part of your power; you've found a compromise on where to get what is necessary to use your powers, so there is no reason to believe that you can't do the same with this. Think about what happens and how to lessen the effects you consider undesirable. I am willing to assist in anyway I can if you need outside assistance to stop you.
"Don't be afraid of yourself. Find ways for you to trust yourself. Given Rein is not a very public organization, we all had to be found. For many of us, especially the ones who were recruited before supers became public knowledge, that meant we had a violent history. Many of us have done things we regret, you are not unusual in that regard either. What matters is not what we did, but what we intend to do now. Remember what happened in the past so you do not make the same mistakes, but don't dwell on it. It will interfere with what you need to do now; it will interfere with bringing peace to the world. You have a place here, and what happened today has not changed that."
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