Dearly Departed [Ayame v. Nira v. James]

[|Ayame Unbound|]

[Nira]

Bypassing at this hour was always a bit of a bother. It felt a bit close to breaking laws, though grave visits rarely ever incur the wrath of the keepers. It was what they lived with. So long as Tarah didn't rob any of the old stones, there was no conflict to be had.

Wings of the scarlet macaw, mostly red but with a touch of every color out of the rainbow, flapped just once to augment Tarah's jump. She hopped over the large brick wall, landing softly on the moist dirt on the other side. Her wings folded together as she began to walk.

Even in the darkness, Tarah could easily make out the offerings to the dead. It always added to the sorrow. She wasn't sure if that was intentional or not. Food and flowers were among the popular gifts. If the grave keepers did not clean them out, then they were fated to rot and decay, so much like the bodies down below.

There was a large golden guitar upon the girl's back. A thick yellow strap ran across the front of Tarah's violet shirt, keeping the guitar secured. Her teal shorts were just over the bottom of the shirt, with a salmon belt holding it tight against her waist. The wooden sheaths of four metal longswords were bound to the belt. Two were strapped on Tarah's left, and two were strapped to her right. One of the swords on the left was a perfected artisan creation, and one of the swords on the right was a masterwork. The remainders were average spares.

The goal of the visit was a few faded graves of old forgotten inhabitants. There were no offerings for them. There were only puddles drawn to the ancient stones. The passage of time allowed the weight of the grave to deepen the earth, and so the remnants of weather had made this area muddy. Nearly a swamp, if it weren't for the crisp blades of grass.

The graves did not hide anyone that Tarah knew, but visiting them was important for Aryia Luseen, one of many past lives living in Tarah's head. They were kids when Aryia last cared for them, but they had died as old men far into their seventies and beyond. Tarah stood at what remained of their stones, which held no meaning for anyone else but Aryia.

But it was not a time to talk to the dead tonight. Twenty meters ahead was a woman clad in black. Her silver hair unnaturally shining in what little light the stars provided. Tarah looked northward toward her, and barely opened her mouth to whisper.

"Oh hello, ghost."

The silence carried that whisper far.

["Oogatoi" Somsak]

Thin and otherwise deteriorating grave stones began to tremble at the heavy approach of a figure. This man's rotund stature moved with a stern gait through the area and each step brought with it his massive presence; Somsak, the pot-bellied scythe reaper. His sickle weapon was already in his grasp and was easily carried with one arm; this weapon had been used in past times to strengthen his skill in the Kamushi regimen and now that he was a ninja of Kirigakure, its purpose was to delegate order. 

As Somsak continued to move through the desolate graveyard, he noticed a shimmering tint of silver in the distance. It had been probably fifteen meters away from him and appeared to have been hovering. The moon light hit the tomb wherein this figure stood and Somsak's eyes bulged with wonder. "Is that a ghost?" his high-pitched voice seemed to only pique his interest further as he moved closer, dropping down to an eleven meter distance from the figure. Explosive tags and pouches holding goo and explosive properties were stuffed into his butt bag, and had been his only offensive weapons aside from his large scythe. While the wide-bodied Genin of Mist did carry a chest rig filled with kunai, those and his ninja wire were to be used only for his Hidenjutsu.

The sound of flapping wings alerted the Akimichi to the presence of another: somehow, he managed to turn what neck he had to see the small frame of a guitar wearing woman. The white light of the moon had reflected off of the silver-haired figure and now this woman's guitar. Big Blue looked down at his shozoku, which had been open---he noticed the moon's light bouncing off of his portly paunch and he blushed.

[|Ayame Unbound|]

Tarot Card of Fate
Rank: B
Skill: Ninjutsu, Vocal
Effect: Many different effects depending upon the 'luck of the draw'
Special: Singing
Drawback: Effects enemies and allies alike.
Description: A strange technique where the bard releases a burst of chakra with unpredictable effects. None of these effects hit the caster unless specifically stated. This skill has a thirty meter range and effects each person the same way.
1- Steals a B Rank worth of Chakra
2- Prevents chakra based skills for two posts
3- Removes all stat changes
4- Hits for a B rank worth of damage and breaks one item
5- Cuts physical strength in half for two posts
6- Heals caster for B rank of health and dazes everyone else for one post.
7- Causes the effects of two other cards
8- Stuns for two posts
9- Causes confusion, meaning the body will move opposite to how you intend
10- A rank worth of damage. Halves all skill damage for two posts. Slows movement speed.
11- Feels as if on fire, movement speed slowed, unable to speak. All for two posts. Caster is unable to speak or use song arts for three posts.
12- Deals a C Rank worth of damage
13- Extremely dizzy and nauseous for two posts.
14- Lowers defenses and attacks by one rank for three posts.

Limit: Art of the Bard. 'Singing'.
Pertinent Die Rolls

[Nira]

Tarah had not gone walking through the world with all her protections tonight. Oddly enough, her paranoia wasn't all that present this morning, which left her ironically defenseless on the one night that she encountered others.

It was too much to put up on the spot. Tarah needed a lot of time to set up her defenses and recover the energy lost to put up those fortifications. As such, on this strange night with strange people, Tarah settled for one form of protection.

Without needing to move her hands, Tarah reached into the depths of her soul, and threw a chunk of it into the future. The dimension of time fell away in that moment. Suddenly, part of Tarah stood in the world that was yet to come. Dangers could be anticipated a step before they occurred.

While the woman with silver locks claimed herself as a wanderer and flexed her hands, a hint of danger came tumbling out of time and into Tarah's mind. Damage and drain were coming, and had to be evaded.

Tarah ran backwards, away from the woman. She remembered the path and graves behind her, and made sure not to come close to colliding with any of them. To ensure that her efforts weren't negated by something such as the woman chasing after her, the scarlet macaw wings opened up and flapped to provide an additional boost of horizontal movement.

Thirty meters was the indicated area of danger, so Tarah planned to stop thirty-two meters away. She kept her instant movements in reserve, not wishing to use them unless to counteract someone else using theirs, or to avoid something more terrifying than pure damage and drain.

Once out of range from the danger zone, Tarah bent her knees and kept low to the ground. Though it was difficult for the average person to see in the night, her legs were transformed by the shifting of biomass. Leaving the twenty meter range reduced Tarah's visibility on her foes. Her vision into the darkness didn't extend that far. As so, it was time to fight from a longer range, drastically reducing the amount of techniques that could reach her.

After Tarah's legs finished bending and shifting, she'd jump with a ridiculously excessive amount of force, straight upwards. A large crater was left where she was. She'd immediate go from ground level to being a hundred and ten meters up in the air.

The information gathered so far had been quite useful. The first attack by the woman was a sect of power that Tarah was very familiar with. She was fighting another bard. Being more than a hundred meters away was a fairly good defence against that. Her wings kept her at the height once it was reached. She continued to slowly climb upward, stopping when she was about a hundred and fifty meters away from the ground.

["Oogatoi" Somsak]

Oogatoi would witness the silver-haired siren turn ghastly; her pun made the jolly man laugh heartily, but for only a second. For soon after, he felt a siphoning of his chakra, as well as the immediate heaviness of his buttbag. It seemed that a goo pouch had exploded on the inside and thus that would make all other items unusable; this made him frown.

"Hey.. I had candy in there," he mumbled, noticing the vast drain from his already limited chakra pool. He was a master of taijutsu and thus did not possess a deep reservoir of spiritual energy. If not for great flapping of wings, Somsak would not have noticed the other woman take to the skies; her jumping ability had been incredible as well. The Akimichi was still capable of utilizing his chakra, and so, his form began to rapidly change as he performed the requisite hand seals. The element of lightning surged through his body; yet his control had been exceptional enough for him to contain it without suffering from pain infliction. As he held the sign of Rat, he would open his eyes and allow his illuminated oculars to emit an extremely bright flash towards the incorporeal siren. This was to blind her or distract her, if it could, while the avian woman tried to attack her. To Somsak, this had been a fight against the ghost; for now, given that the flying woman herself presented no hostile action towards the heavyset Mist ninja.

SPOILER: Click to show

Raiton: Hirameki no Jutsu (Lightning Flash) 
Rank: D
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: Causes a blinding flash that can disorientate enemies (up to 10m)
Special: Rat
Drawback: ---
Description:The user holds the rat handseal and closes their eyes, gathering chakra into them. The user then opens them suddenly, and emits an extremely bright flash from their eyes that can temporarily blind and/or disorientate enemies. The blinding effect usually lasts one turn.
Limit: Lightning Release

[|Ayame Unbound|]

[If you guys could give me till tomorrow night that'd be great because I'm too drunk to post. Kthxbai]

[|Ayame Unbound|]

[Nira]

When no further attacks came Tarah's way, she steadied herself at her chosen height. She swept her arm through the air to directed soul into her eyes, granting her vision capable of piercing through the dimly lit atmosphere. Simultaneously, any invisible creatures also lost their ability to completely hide from Tarah's sight.

For the moment, that was supposed to be it. This was a good time to create a miniature soul copy, among other time-consuming preparations, but then the activity below caught Tarah's attention.

The damage done in the battle between the earthbound fighters was not a concern for Tarah. However, another personality was displeased at the sight. Aryia Luseen bubbled up to the surface of the mindscape.

Being one of the good and peaceful past lives, Aryia would originally only be disappointed and mournful at the loss of the graves. Today, on the other hand, was an extremely odd day. The usually separate personalities began to leak into one another. Aryia absorbed a number of unfitting traits, which poisoned her perception of the graveyard destruction.

The sorrow mixed together with anger and desire.

Tarah Featherook went dormant. She was replaced by her legion of past lives, with Aryia at the helm. Only one line of thought clouded Aryia's head: those graves belonged to her.

Aryia furiously brought her hands together to form handseals. In a single reckless action, most of her chakra left her body. Her total amount of remaining chakra divided into six, and five pieces left to form a group of shadow clones right below Aryia. The group formed in a tight formation, one in the center with four surrounding it. The surrounding clones were only four meters away from the central clone.

Each clone took on the personality of a different past life. The center clone was Deena. Janice was to the north, Elsie was to the east, Alida was to the south, and Tanni was to the west. Each had their personalities similarly corrupted.

The five kage bunshins descended. They stopped flapping their wings, before letting their bodies glide lower and lower. They began a short string of handseals a moment before reach a hundred and four meters above ground.

Illusions constructed out of the shadow release, having the ability to inflict actual damage, shot from each clone. The illusory bolts took on the shape and color of various elements. Each bolt was focused on the silver-haired lady, their path controlled by thought. Each clone made ten bolts, making the total assault numbering fifty. They had no control over what specific body parts to target, and could only focus the massive assault on the lady's body.

Ten flaming knives shot from Deena. Flying green rats were released by Janice. Tanni's bolts were in the form of sharp silver flutes. Elsie created what had to be the skeletons of disfigured babies. Alida's bolts were the tamest, in the shape of small boulders.

Less than ten meters above the clone group, Aryia descended as well. She held the masterwork longsword in her left hand, the perfected longsword in her right, and a standard longsword in her mouth.

The legion personality is in control. Main body and clone bodies penalized.
-1 penalty to saves
-10 penalty to striking damage

<Used 5 Times>
<5 saves for damage to be rolled if hit>
Illusory Bolts
Rank: "D"
Skill: GenJutsu
Effect: Bolts of Illusory energy seemingly spring from the user's outstretched hands.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: ---
Description: Affects 5 where no 2 may be more than 10 meters apart. The user is able to perform this technique at a distance of 30 meters plus 15 meters per class level. The duration of this technique is Instantaneous. Illusory bolts strike unerringly (since the user's mind determines the flight path of the bolts), even if the target is in melee combat or has less than total cover or total concealment. Specific parts of a creature can’t be singled out. Inanimate objects are not damaged by the Jutsu. For every Class Level the user may hurl 2 Illusory Bolts. If the user fires multiple bolts, they can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single bolt can strike only 1 creature. The Jutsu can assume any appearance the user desires (i.e., small flaming skulls, pulsing orbs of electricity, globs of acid, shards of ice, etc.), each target receives a save to resist the damage they inflict. If the save fails, the target suffers "D" Rank worth of damage per bolt. If the save is successful, the target only 20% worth of damage, so 5 Illusory Bolts would feel like 1 believed Illusory Bolt.
Limit: Must know the Shadow Perception.

["Oogatoi" Somsak]

The lard Somsak was constricted of movement by some manner of force applied to his maroon shozoku. Had the enemy the power to manipulate cloth? As he struggled to free himself, a muddy maelstrom drew him inward; from there, serrate spikes would impale his heavy body and cause him to squeal in agony. The warping ground would consume the Akimichi and he and his spiritual essence vanished underneath the tomb-laden foreground.

SPOILER: Click to show

ded i suppose