#First our fire alarms kept going off so my mom literally REMOVED them from the ceiling so we have no fire alarms now

[ibetittering]

Never thought I'd edit Sarge to Mitski but here we are

[lycorogue]

Meet My OCs: Lia (Part 1 - Background)

I’m so good at these self-imposed deadlines, aren’t I? Sorry about that. The weeks got away from me between trying to finish a book read before its return to the library, getting my monthly fiction writing up, prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo, socializing, Zumba classes, and a solid week of working without a day off before taking the weekend to visit family. Adding in “research Lia and type up her intro” sort of slid to the back burner. Which means I only have one post to introduce her today; the rest will come throughout the week.

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Lia was the first character I created for X-Future. She was SUPPOSED to be this flirty, rebellious, trying-out-independence teenager. She had potentially volatile powers, and I wanted to see how much damage I could make Lia cause. Basically, she was supposed to be Willow mixed with Trish....

After a week or two of player her, however, it was clear that she didn't want to be any of those things; namely flirty, rebellious, and reckless/cocky with her powers. Sure, her powers were still hard for her to manage, but they usually only got out of control whenever she was angry. Keeping her anger in check meant she became much more mild-mannered, shy, reserved, and maternal. So, I took on Willow to be everything I originally wanted to role play as Lia, and let my original X-Future gal do her own thing. Sadly, Willow, being what I initially wanted to play, soon overcame Lia as my main character on X-Future, but I tried to still keep Lia fairly active. Mostly for more angst-driven sub-plots... Poor Lia...

To find out more about her, check below the break.

I'll try to have Part 2 up tomorrow night in order to better discuss Lia's main relationships. Part 3 will then explain her story line within X-Future, and how it relates to my plan for her in Glitches. Then Part 4 will have more artwork showcasing Lia, Part 5 will have some story samples to better showcase Lia's dialect and personality, and Part 6 will have more of those cheesy WWE13 custom wrestler entrances. 

So I can get started on both my Camp NaNoWriMo project, as well as the next character I wish to introduce – Trish – I'm hoping to have most (if not all) of the other parts of Meet Lia up by Tuesday evening.

Anyway, as mentioned above, Lia's main introduction overview is below. Enjoy!

Overview:

Amelia “Lia” Joan Mordeaux (Madrox on X-Future) was a month shy of turning 15 when we first started playing – roughly 14years and 8months old when sent to the Xavier Institute – and is now just over 18 years old. She's the same height as Willow (5'4” {162.56cm}), which is probably because I'm 5'3” (160.02cm)... and that extra inch is important! Lia also has a fairly lean body, although hers is significantly more pear-shaped than Willow's. Compared to Willow, Lia has a more muscular appearance with thicker upper arms, more defined legs, and more pronounced abs. Since she feels she's constantly failing her friends/classmates/the X-Men (Glitches counterpart to 'X-Men' still needs to be named... Guardians, maybe?), Lia is constantly training to improve herself, and that includes muscle training, self-defense training, and generic hand-to-hand combat training. I'm still deciding if I want her to be some sort of novice MMA fighter. Krav Maga just seems so over-used in media right now though, so her fighting style of choice is TBD, but I'm thinking generic kickboxing is a good start. She also loves to dance, practicing a few hula, hip-hop, and Zumba routines she studied via YouTube (or a Glitches equivalent I need to come up with).

Lia, as I mentioned above, is fairly maternal, usually putting a lot of unneeded pressure on herself to protect her friends and fellow classmates. Regardless of if she's at fault – or, in truth, even in the area – if one of her friends gets hurt, she feels it's a major failure on her part. She also has a bit of an inferiority complex, constantly comparing herself to her “famous” mother (I'll talk about this more in the relationships section of Part 2). Lia is also fairly meek and tries to shy away from confrontation as much as possible. Part of this is because she's a people-pleaser, part of it is because she's fairly empathetic and would much rather try to get everyone to see things from a unified perspective, and part of it is because she fears getting angry and losing control of her powers. Because of the empathy, meekness, and maternal nature, she is the unofficial Welcoming Committee at the Institute; usually offering to escort new students/recruits around the grounds, introduce them to their fellow students, and be the recruit's main companion until they find more friends of their own.

Being a people-pleaser, meek, and constantly questioning her value as a superhero, also means she can be taken advantage of, and she puts way too much pressure on herself. For an example, please see story sample “Check the Ego” at the end of Meet Willow: Part 5 (Stories).

Further Physical Description:

Lia, in X-Future, is half-Brazilian and half-whateverCaucasionEthnicitiesJamieMadroxIs. In Glitches, however, Lia is half-Hawaiian and half-Caucasian (mostly French, but with some Welsh and Norwegian as well). Her skin-tone is a darker tan that resembles her mother's complexion more than her father's. She has deep brunette hair, and she dyes fiery-orange streaks through the underside of it; making the streaks hidden whenever her hair is down, which it usually is. When she's nervous/anxious/overly-excited, she tends to play with the locks of orange. Her hair is bone-straight, and she tends to wear it fairly long, such as mid-back. She also used to keep it tied up, but she would literally burn through the ties and melt the clips, so she rarely does anything with her hair anymore. As for her eyes, they are a honey-brown with a bit of an orange tint to them. They actually appear to have a flame-like flicker to them if one is truly looking.

Family:

Lia's mother in X-Future is the lava-controlling mutant Amara “Magma” Aquilla, and her father is the duplicate-creating mutant James “Multiple Man” Madrox. For Glitches, Lia's mother Keahi still has control of lava and other such things, which I'll get into when I introduce her, and Lia's father Cody Mordeaux is still capable of creating duplicates, but in a slightly different manner. Again, I'll discuss further when I introduce them.

For X-Future, Amara and Jamie met as kids when they became students of the Xavier Institute. We aren't given any canonical ages for them in X-Men: Evolution, but Jamie was definitely the youngest, and looked like he was about 12, maybe as old as 14 by the end of the series. Amara was older, but probably not by much. She went to the high school with the original X-Men clan – probably as a freshman – so she was probably about 13 or 14 when she first appeared on the show; maybe 15 or 16 at the end of the series.

Anyway, using the show as our own canon, Jamie was clumsy, and Amara was very unsure of herself. They were quite the pair. After years of working together, they grew to become confident in their abilities, as well as became close friends. They started dating in their early 20s; Jamie asking Amara to Scott and Jean's wedding. After years of dating, the duo finally married when they were about 30, and retired from being X-Men. They settled into a nice home on Long Island, NY, and started their family.

For Glitches, Cody had gone to college in Hawaii, and met Keahi there. She was still struggling with a lot of anti-glitch sentimentality. Her fire-orange eyes gave her away as a glitch, plus a lot of locals knew of her powers, especially when she used them to help safely remove pressure from the Hawaiian volcanoes without ash and/or lava destroying the near-by towns. People feared the power she wielded, and waited for her to “snap” and destroy them via the volcanoes instead of rescue them from the natural disasters. While Keahi could easily go to college someplace that didn't know she was a glitch, she purposely stayed to fight for equal rights. This passion and activism really attracted Cody, meanwhile his kindness and supportive nature were what made Keahi fall for him. Shortly after college, they got married and moved to the Main Land (California). Soon – I'm not quite sure yet on the details as to how – Cody and Keahi learned about Emily's orphanage/boarding school, and how she was fighting for equality between Humans and Glitches (Emily believed glitches should take ownership of the name). They moved across country in order to help assist Emily and Ryder, but they still kept their lives separate from the school itself. They mostly focused on helping Emily and Ryder find young glitches that needed help; recruiting them to Emily's sanctuary. Eventually, Keahi had Lia, and the couple's involvement with the school waned as they focused on their daughter.

I don't recall the reasoning I had for Lia's full name to be Amelia, but she was given the middle name Joan after Jamie's mother: Joan Madrox. I think I'm going to keep it as Cody's mother's name as well so Lia can keep her canonical middle name.

Anyway, in both X-Future and Glitches, Amara/Keahi went MIA while on an ecological mission to help curb a series of natural disasters after volcanoes (in Brazil for X-Future; along the Ring of Fire in Glitches) started erupting at an alarming rate. Leaving 7-year-old Lia in the charge of one of his duplicates, Jamie/Cody spent a little over a month personally searching for his wife. He only gave up on the search when the pain of not holding his daughter became too great. Each year, on the anniversary of Amara/Keahi's disappearance, Jamie/Cody still spends two straight weeks searching for any sort of new clues around his wife's last known location.

Ever since Lia's mom disappeared, her father has almost literally never left her side. If he had to go to work, or was on his annual two-week-long search, or even if he had a doctor's appointment or had to go grocery shopping, he ALWAYS left Lia in the care of a duplicate. Or... more accurately... he'd send the duplicate to the more monotonous activities: work, grocery shopping, PTA meetings, etc. He took “helicopter parenting” and cranked it to 11. At the age of 14 – when she was sent to the Institute to train – Lia had never once even been left home alone. Twice, Lia attempted to bring a boy home to date – once when she was 12 and then nearly a year later for her middle school's winter formal – and both times Jamie created two dupes: Lia's “Uncles” Maddy (derived from their last name) and Arthur (Jamie's middle name). I have yet to decide if Cody's clones will also bear these names. Anyway, the poor boys Lia was interested in were forced to not only prove themselves to Lia's over-protective father, but also to his two “brothers” (he acted as if he were a triplet), and the triple-threat usually scared the potential suitor off. This means, in X-Future, that Chayse is Lia's first boyfriend and first kiss. More on that in the relationships section publishing next.

Powers:

Lia has the exact same powers as her mother. It's a bit of a list, but it mostly focuses on lava control and all that could entail.

-- Pyrokenesis: Not only can she create fire, but she can also control it to a minor extent. This usually manifests as a wall of fire, fire balls, or a “beam” of fire - like laser blasts - shooting from her hands. She can also propel herself through the air with fire bursts from her feet, much like the rocket flight Iron Man utilizes. She cannot manipulate the shape of fire the way Pyro (Iggy) and Devon can.

-- Geokinesis: Basically, she's an Earth Bender from Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra. She can break apart chunks of earth and telekinetically move them; usually these are smaller chunks of earth, about the size of a basketball, although she can break apart larger portions if she uses other means to move the land (to be explained in a moment). She can, if she concentrates hard enough, also cause or stop earthquakes, as well as re-arrange the landscape within a rough 25ft (762m) radius.

-- Geo-thermokinesis: Ability to alter the temperature – and therefore pressure – of the earth in the immediate area. This allows her to create geysers, which she typically uses as smoke screens, or as propulsion for the larger land masses she broke away from the Earth (as mentioned above), catapulting her into the air. Her geo-thermokinesis also allows her – with great concentration – to either cause or stop volcanic eruptions. Likewise, instead of creating fire with her pyrokinesis, she can rapidly melt the Earth's crust to leave molten lava wherever she wished, within roughly a 25ft (7.62m) radius. A final benefit to her geo-thermokinesis is that she can create any form of lava-rock she wished, either as a means to create statues with differing stone structures (as she did with William; please see Lia's story line in Part 3), a way to create weapons/tools, or in order to manifest armor for her companions, or any other such need. She can create these stones one of two ways: adjust the chemical structure of existing earth/stone through rapid melting into lava and re-forming into solid stone, or creating the rocks from scratch using her own lava (see next bullet).

-- Obsidian Form: With training, she's now able to do most of the above without “powering up” into her “obsidian form.” However, if she needs to push the limits of her powers, and when she was first learning how to control them, she had to “power up” into this form, which amplifies her powers and control tenfold. When she does “power up,” her entire body turns into living lava.

To protect her surroundings and her companions, Lia instinctively encases her “obsidian form” with an obsidian skin (which includes obsidian nails). When she's in this form, her eyes turn into orbs of magma, her tongue is also a sheet of magma, and her hair takes on flame-like properties; flickering with her movements and the wind. Lia's obsidian skin encases her much like a ball-jointed doll, with cracks of lava showing through the flexed joints. Her teeth also become thick blocks of obsidian.

Her obsidian skin kicks in as a defense reflex. If she's ever struck by something that would otherwise puncture her skin, badly bruise it, or cause internal injuries (large falls or being slammed by/against something, for example), she instantly is encased in the obsidian. If she would be burnt by anything, she is also instantly transformed into her obsidian form. With training, she's able to actually focus this defense mechanism in order to armor certain parts of her body while keeping the rest of her flesh, blood, and bone (which makes baking fun because she never needs oven mitts anymore).

While in obsidian form, Lia can actually manifest an unknown amount of excess magma, and shoot streams of lava from the palms of her hand, much like how she can generate streams of fire in her flesh form.

Switching from flesh to Obsidian Form and back rejuvenates Lia, allowing her to heal superficial injuries such as minor cuts, bruising, sprained joints, or chipped skin (see Weaknesses below). For example: a cut along Lia's cheek would mend in obsidian form, and be healed when she transforms back into flesh. Likewise, a crack in Lia's obsidian skin (see below) would be healed by the time she's flash again. Since the rejuvenation requires Lia to convert all of her organs, muscles, tendons, and BONES into lava and then back, more significant injuries – such as broken bones or torn ligaments – can also be healed when transitioning from one form to the next, however, it is extremely draining to do so, and Lia nearly faints from exhaustion once back in her flesh form. On the flipside, more significant wounds such as punctures – being shot or run through – or lost body parts – such as cut-off fingers or busted out teeth – cannot heal via transitioning from one form to the next.

-- Body Temperature Control: To go along with her obsidian form, Lia cannot be burnt, nor can she ever freeze. She can withstand temperatures equal to molten lava (1,300-2,200 F {700-1,200 C}), basically because she herself can BECOME lava. However, anything hotter than 150-degrees Fahrenheit (~65 Celsius) – which, in and of itself, is hotter than the temperature at which normal skin starts to burn – and Lia will reflexively convert into obsidian form in order to protect herself. Likewise, her body temperature will start to rise to counter freezing temperatures; keeping her core temp at 98.6 F (37 C). However, in order to keep her core at the proper temperature, her body will automatically transform into her obsidian form once she hits external temperatures of sub-zero Fahrenheit (below -17 C). She can still bundle up, as a normal human would, in order to keep herself flesh in sub-zero temperatures. However, she really never feels the exhausting heat of summer/a desert, nor get a chill.

-- Elementally-Altered Lung Filtration and Eye Protection: Long and short on this one, her lungs are capable of filtering out the smoke, toxic fumes, and ash usually associated with fires and volcanic activity. This allows her to breathe perfectly fine while in these conditions. The lining of her throat, wind pipe, and lungs also have a higher heat tolerance so breathing in such hot air won't burn her. Her eyes also have an extra layer of protection, which allows them to stay moisturized in extreme heat/dry atmosphere, unaffected by the sting of smoke/ash in the air, and prevents her from going blind in extreme lighting. This also means things like smoke-bombs, flash-bombs, and tear-gas are all ineffective on her.

-- Weaknesses: First and foremost, Lia, much like her mother before her, is greatly affected by her proximity to the ground. If she's separated for long periods of time – such as being in the air, high up in a building, or on a ship in deep water – she develops an illness similar to seasickness/airsickness. She becomes quite weak and faint, as well as nauseated. Her powers don't work as well, or may not function at all, depending on how ill she's become. Because of this connection to the Earth, Lia tends to avoid socks and wears slip-on shoes or sandals/flip-flops. That way she can quickly kick off her shoes and actually feel the ground with her feet in order to anchor herself. She'll instantly start to feel better once she's on solid ground again, the rate of her healing dependent on how long she had been away from land.

Another great weakness of Lia's, as mentioned above, is that her powers, much like everyone’s, is largely tied to her emotions. The violent and destructive nature of her powers are closely linked to her rage/anger. This is discussed a bit more under “Power Manifestation” below, as well as in Part 3 when I discuss her story line on X-Future. Basically, she could unintentionally create an earthquake or cause volcanic activity simply by losing control of her temper and becoming unusually angry and/or aggressive.

While the obsidian skin she encases herself in is supposed to be an extra layer of protection, and obsidian is a very tough stone, it is also quite fragile if hit at the right angle. This means Lia's body is likely to not just cut and bleed, but flat out shatter if hit hard enough and at the correct angle. As discussed further in Part 3, the villain Trish nearly broke Lia's arm off at the elbow because of this flaw.

Another downside to Lia's obsidian form is that everything about her - aside from her teeth, nails, and skin – is made of magma. This means if her skin is broken in any way – the equivalent of her flesh being cut – she will “bleed” lava she can't control, so it will burn anything it touches (aside from her) just like natural lava would. Her tears/saliva are also made of lava, making her equally dangerous if she starts to cry or drool while in obsidian form. (Also, for gross thoroughness, her mucus is also made of lava, so a runny nose or bad cough is equally destructive). All of this is reason for Lia to stay outside of her obsidian form as much as possible to prevent a limb from being broken off or her bodily fluids burning through things.

Power Manifestation:

As mentioned above, Lia has to be careful to watch her anger since her control over her powers greatly dissolves whenever she's enraged. This is actually how Lia discovered her powers.

Even as an infant, Lia rarely got cold, usually running around in shorts and short-sleeves, even in the dead of winter in New York state. She didn't have the full range of her body temperature control before puberty, so she did have to wear protective clothing once the temperature had a “real feel” (includes wind chill) of about 10-degrees Fahrenheit (-12 C), and had to retreat to the shade if the “real feel” (includes humidity) was about 110-degrees F (43 C).

Her main power-set unlocked when she was 13. Her date to her middle school winter formal was just “scared off” by Jamie/Cody and his two “brothers.” Realizing it was her father's fault that her date cancelled on her, Lia threw a massive tantrum. She screamed at her father about his “helicopter parenting” and his constant babying of her; not allowing her to grow up. She yelled about her lack of independence, and stormed out of the house and onto their back porch. The moment she was outside, the ground began to tremor. The angrier Lia got, the more the property shook. Realizing what was going on, and fearful of the destruction Lia could cause with her mother's powers, Jamie/Cody tried to usher her back inside and up to the second story of their home; away from the ground.

Breaking away from her father, Lia raced off the porch and into their backyard. Nearly the instant her bare feet touched the grass, a small crack rippled through the ground, cutting the back yard in half. A few feet in front of Lia, a frisbee-sized geyser opened up, and exploded pressurized water from the town's underground stream.

Frightened by what just happened, Lia's anger instantly retreated, and she rushed to her father's embrace. He directed her to run to the attic and focus on staying calm until he can get to her later that night. He then got to work in duplicating himself so he could rush to repair the lawn before any neighbors noticed the improvised early-December hot spring that popped up in his yard. It only kept about two hours for Jamie/Cody to mend the property and go to Lia. He then reminded her of her mother's powers, and promised to help train her to control them.

He then became even MORE protective of Lia, both to keep her from anti-mutant/glitch attacks, as well as protect her classmates/teachers/neighbors from Lia's accidental activation of her powers. Jamie/Cody almost instantly knew that he wasn't cut out to train Lia, and wished Amara/Keahi was around to show Lia how to use her powers. Jamie/Cody was determined to have Lia finish middle school before getting uprooted. So the two of them worked closely on private training for the next half-year; struggling to keep it hidden from everyone that Lia was a mutant/glitch.  

Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters:

After Lia's middle school graduation, her father confessed that she would probably be safer, and receive better training for her powers, if she went to the Xavier Institute (Glitches alternative name TBD). It was hard at first for Lia to part from the only home she knew, but the realization that she'd be going to a boarding school all but convinced her to go; her chance to finally get out from under her father's thumb.

Lia celebrated Independence Day with her father with an extra layer of meaning; she was to start at the Institute the next day. She spent the rest of July and all of August reveling in living away from her father for the first time. She had some lonely moments where Jamie's/Cody's absence was painfully noticeable, but for the most part she loved the new-found independence. She prepared herself to start high school as a 'new woman' and excitedly looked forward to the school year.

The excitement quickly died during the back-to-school mixer the school held the Saturday before classes were to start. In the X-Future timeline, things were going great as Lia was approached by her crush Chayse. He asked her for a dance, only for both of them to be surprised by Jamie. Lia demanded to know why her father was there, only to find out that he missed her too much, so he signed up to be part of the faculty. Lia, embarrassed, enraged, and deflated to lose her new-found independence so soon after receiving it, stormed off into the yard. She became so overwhelmed that she accidentally switched to obsidian form; burning away the outfit she was wearing. She then had to find a way to discreetly sneak back into the building and up to her dorm room while technically naked...

Thankfully, life got a bit better as she started making lots of friends around the school, unofficially making herself the “mama” of the students. This has its downsides as well as she overburdens herself with responsibility for her fellow students. For more on this, check back in with Part 3: X-Future timeline.

Lia's Style:

When I first came up with Lia, I had her dressing more like Willow, but with a few cover shirts and leggings to be a touch more modest. Almost like she was rebelling with sexier clothes – showing off her mid-drift, her cleavage, bare shoulders, mini-skirts showing off her legs, etc – and then her “Daddy's little girl” persona would kick in and have her cover up with a cover shirt or leggings.

In truth, she still is a touch like this, but she has a bit more innocence in her initial wardrobe than I originally planned. Her outfits also used to mostly consist of grays and oranges, but over the years she's trended more towards reds, charcoal grays, and blacks, with orange and/or yellow as more accent colors to give that lava-like feel to her. Her hair, as mentioned above, is usually bone-straight, mid-back length, and hung loose. When she was younger – about 14/15 – she would wear hair clips to pin part of her hair out of her face, but they kept melting whenever she switched to obsidian. Soon she figured she looked more mature without the clips anyway, and now only puts up her hair for special occasions, such as the prom.

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Aaaand, that's Lia! In a nutshell, at least. Sorry about this being a day late, and only being one part of a 6-part mini-series about her. I'll try to get the others up ASAP so I can also work on my next OC: Trish.

While you are waiting for Part 2, you can use this time to catch up on the other parts of my Meet My OCs series, in case you're new to them.

I started off with a “Who Wants to Meet My OCs?” introductory mini-series:

Part 1: Why I wanted to do this series, and the real-world inspirations for my main two worlds:

Gyateara – a high fantasy world that will, presumably, house many self-contained series that may or may not interconnect beyond all taking place on the same planet

Glitches – a pseudo-cyberpunk future AU of Earth where mutated humans – known as Glitches – must fight for equality, and even survival, while also dealing with the normal dramas of puberty.

In Part 2 of my series, I explained the real-world inspiration for my four main Gyateara OCs: Amara Yori, Jolene Crisslebalm, Natalie, and Connor.

Part 3 of this series went a bit long, so it was broken down into its own two-parter. In Part 3a, I talked about the creation of the four main characters of Glitches: Chayse, Lia, Willow, and Trish. As I mentioned above, I'm working on Lia now, Willow was two weeks ago, and Trish is next. I'll be finishing up with my husband's OC Chayse by the end of July.

For Part 3b of this series, I explained the canonical character origins of my adult Glitches, and how they’ve been reworked to create my still-evolving adult support characters for Glitches: Matteo, Emily, Ryder, Keahi, Cody, and Iggy.

Then, two weeks ago, I switched over to the main portion of this series: “Meet My OCs” starting with my 6-part “Meet Willow” mini-series.

Part 1: Willow's Overview and Background

Part 2: Willow's Relationships

Part 3: Willow's Character Arc Events

Part 4: The Images of Willow

Part 5: Story Samples of Willow

Part 6: Two Cheesy WWE13 Video Game Custom Wrestler Entrances

Again, sorry for the delay on Lia; life got complicated. Look for Part 2 (and maybe more) tomorrow!

[iprefermyanarchycolorcoded]

I wrote a short story

The buzz of the city was overpowering, being from the slums originally Adam had a hard time dealing with the noise of the business district outside of the rare occasion he would run a deal for Papa. It suited him all the more, people in the slums didn't have time for as much prejudice as common folk did. And having purple skin, black eyes, and two horns bigger than those on the goats head of a Chimera opened him up for plenty of slurs and attacks from the “Pure-breeds.”

However being here was a necessity albeit an extremely taxing one. If he was going to take on an entire Necropolis he needed first a Cleric that could be bought, and second as much holy water and godly paraphernalia (shiver at the thought) as he could get his hands on. And Vigil was exactly the place to find those, well hopefully.

“A few cold Iron golems wouldn't hurt on second thought.” He muttered to himself as he walked past the plethora of temples and shrines.

“Pharasma won't work. They'll have their hands on their symbols screaming holy obscenities before I can even get the word mummy out, can't do Caiden Cailen I would need 3 barrel's of Ale a day just to keep their short attention spans focused. Perhaps Iomadae?” Then he looked at himself and giggled a little “I'd wake up with my intestines as garters.”

Ugh he thought to himself Why does it have to be undead?! Why cant it just be goblins or even trolls although smelly trolls are rather easy once you show them you can fly on a cloud of fire. And Goblins may be stupid but they're not feral; shrink down so you don't look like a “Longshank” and throw em some meat, you'd have more than enough time to sneak out with whatever you needed. My life couldn't be that easy though could it. Literally the one thing my spells are virtually useless against.

That's it! He thought I go to Irori challenge a cleric he loses in a caster's duel, as he almost objectively could not succeed and then I only have to pay him enough to cover basic wages. He worked his way to the market place and began to sift through his grimoire and choosing which spells to use to humiliate whatever poor “pure-breed” accepted his proposal.

Sitting down near the fountain he tried to focus but kept having his focus broken by the guards yammering In the nearby alley way.

“I'm not lying there are demons crawling all over the piss pen!”

“There is no way demons got into the city without raising some form of alarm or panic that's ridiculous.”

“Look I wouldn't piss on a rock and call it rain, i'm telling you I saw something trash that house and it wasn't human.”

It was then they seemed to notice Adam listening in on their stage whisper conversation.

“What are you looking at black-blood, take your demon eyes elsewhere or ill shove you in the dungeon.”

Adam really did try not to laugh, but sometimes arrogance has it's detriments. “Boys I hate to break it to you but I could erase you from existence before tea time and have your families believing you never existed before dinner.” He stood up and clapped his book shut somehow managing to make even that sound snooty.

He started to walk towards them muttering a few words they surely couldn't understand under his breathe. They began to draw their swords but as they did they herd a firm and distinctly feline voice aggressively meow in their direction. They turned and saw nothing completely missing the small scraggly ball of fur purring below their noses. They turned back just in time to see the fiend step into the air and disappear entirely.

“Damn wizards and their cosmic bullshit.” Egrin mumbled.

“You're just mad because Ellis ran away with that witch doctor.” Rinald chuckled immediately regretting as his face became the new perching spot for Egrins fist.

“Not cool man. You said you wouldn't bring it up anymore.”

Adam chuckled from a nearby rooftop honestly applauding their ability to enjoy simpleton life. If only the gods had blessed with stupidity. He let out a heavy sigh and began to run toward the piss pen, it was notorious for its smell because that particular part of the slums didn't have a water duct system for their waste like the rest of the city forcing them to defecate in select areas of the city. Although most of them were far too hopped up on Bloodbrush to pay attention and mostly just went wherever they had fallen.

The guards didn't go there much because of the smell leaving the area at the mercy whatever thug was the current “Owner” of the territory.

Detestable but unavoidable. Maybe its a good thing I was smart enough to get out. Not the time Adam, if demons are really running through the piss pen it wouldn't take long before people started dying or depending on the circumstance more were lured out into our plane.

Adam smelled his target long before he reached it. He pushed down the desire to turn around and forget all about this nonsense. It was practically a charity for him to look into this at all.

As soon as he hit the small cluster of huts that made up the neighborhood he could see most of the destruction, all of it was peculiarly... small. Not localized to one place but very small. One of the few times perplexed could be used to describe him. Unfortunately for him this was inopportune time to become lost in thought he didn't realize this however until a small crossbow bolt lodged itself firmly into his right shoulder.

“What in the 7 Pantheon is your problem?” he screamed immediately followed by a few arcane words giving life to a eagle in mid air who promptly removed the burden of the crossbow from the citizen. “Get you demon magic out of here fiend!” The small man shouted.

“Oh hush you spoiled cabbage patch.” It was just a local who had been spooked so there was no need for further education, ignorance leads to violence. It wasn't entirely his fault but he did need answers so he proceeded to half his eagle sweep the halfling up and pop him onto the roof next to him before the spell broke.

Popping out a finely crafted wand of his own making Adam spoke the command word healing the crossbow wound and then popping a few charges of the wand into the petite but filthy man next to him. Once he seemed satisfied by the healing the halfling calmed down and stopped his rather amusing attempts at threats.

“I need a rundown of what happened but make it fast and keep to facts. No conjecture or superstition. It wastes time and my small reservoir of patience.”

Struggling to do as Adam asked but giving it a valiant effort Heither tried to recall exactly what he saw and the best he could do, sticking to facts only of course, was to explain that sometime that morning a small hut towards the center of the cluster had begun to smell. More so than usual so a few of the Copper Viper Crew went to take care of it and they claimed to have seen 4 small ape like creatures fly out of the hut spewing fetid clouds from their mouths and destroying everything in their path. Oh also they were about the size of the halfling. Allegedly he added, a light burn to the small creatures pride.

“Do we know who lives in the hut?” Adam interrogated.

“A kid named Kugak and his parents, but they're juiced up most of the time on Ale and Bloodbrush so they aren't usually home.”

“How old is young Kugak?”

“I think he just turned 12? but I cant be sure he usually sticks to himself swiping books and scrolls from stands and libraries to read. I spoke with him once and he mentioned something about becoming a powerful wizard someday.”

“Of course he did. Wheres the hut?”

Leading Adam to the hut Heither couldn't help but be fearful for the kid. Muttering a few arcane words as Adam entered he was followed in by a small pack of wolves that Heither was absolutely positive were not there on their way to the building.

Confirming Heithers suspicion Adam became to speak to the canines. “Sweep the place, find the smell and bring them back here, and you kid get out here that spell isn't going to fool anyone besides those damn Dretches.” As he finished his sentence the wolves seemed to find the scent and dashed out of the room a rod in Adam's hand illuminating.

Simultaneously the wall on the eastern side of the building shimmered and faded as a young boy with green skin and very pronounced Tusks stepped out looking ashamed. “This isn't what I wanted im so sorry!” He stuttered as he broke out into sobs.

“Stop! You made a mess and you need to focus on cleaning it up. Tears are decidedly less necessary when you realize they'll only get you killed.” He grabbed him by the chin and lifted his face up. “Mother or father?”

“What?” The boy asked confused.

“Which one was the orc?” Adam asked looking at his features?

“M-my dad, it was a raid or something mom doesn't talk about it she just kind of drinks a lot.”

“Yeah, that'll happen, anyway what did you do?”

“I don't know I was-” Adam immediately cut him off.

“That's a steaming pile of horse shit, you were smart enough to get 4 demons from the abyss onto this plane you can piece together an idea of what happened.”

“There was a scroll, that this guy gave me. I was trying to ask him about magic because he said he was a wizard and he said I could use it and get enough money to get out of the slums.”

“You believed him?!” Adam asked as he smacked him on the side of the head. “Repeat after me, We do not accept strange magical items from men we don't know.”

“We do not accept strange magical items from men we don't know.” He managed to get out despite his lip getting caught on his fang.

“Good not hold this wand.”

“Ok-”

“NO!” WOP, he smacked him again. “Did you learn nothing?”

“Oh i'm sorry.”

“Dear Lords Child, what is your name?”

At this point Heither spoke up “This is the boy I was telling you-”

“Silence he is an able bodied individual he can speak for himself.” Heither shrank back into the background obviously irritated.

“Uh im uhm Kugak sir.”

“Kugak what?” Adam asked looking at the boy down his spectacles.

“Just uh, Kugak sir.” He said ashamed.

“Seeing the demeanor shift Adam changed the topic, ok where is the binding circle?”

“The what?” Heither and Kugak asked Simultaneously?

“You used a summoning scroll without a binding circle, of course you did,” Adam began to mutter to himself while walking around the building grabbing some small things out of his bag, “then again you weren't ENTIERLY at fault,” shooting Kugak a glance,

“So what are we gonna do?” Heither asked wondering if the Tiefling was all bark or not.

Running through his options Adam looked at the boys again. Seeing a hilt on Heither's side he asked him “How good are you with that sword?”

“I'm the best halfling in my clergy?” He said tentatively.

“Well that's not the worst thing i've heard today, whats it made out of?”

“Cold Iron I believe.” He pulled the blade out and swung it a few times, letting it whistle as it cut the air. “I've never actually checked, because I haven't actually used it before....”

“Oh heavens.” Adam thought to himself, he just might become religious if the day continued on much longer.

“You, do you know how to use a wand?” Looking at Kugak.

“You point and you say the right word, basically right?” Kugak asked.

“Good job kid, take this” He handed it to Kugak. However The child stared back tentatively.

“You said I wasn't supp-” Adam groaned hearing this.

“That's correct, hello my name is Adam and now we're best friends so take this and do as I say.” This time Kugak apprehensively took the small piece of wood from him. “Now point at that bottle and say firmly but respectfully, SMAAZ!”

The wand sparked to life in his hand, three quick red bolts flew out destroying the bottle. Kugak excitedly began to jump up and down. “I did it! I did something right!”

Had Adam not heard the wolves in the distance he would have allowed to boy the small triumph but this needed to be done shortly before the guard arrived.

“Ok listen, the spell that is chasing the dretches toward us is about to fail when we head out there Heither you and Kugak need to focus your attacks on one at a time. Its the fastest way to dispose of them effectively without a binding circle we'll have to dispose of them the old fashion way. The bolts will not miss as long as you stay focused on a single target. I will keep the rest as busy as I can while you focus them. Are you ready you pint sized little churls?”

Heither spoke up, “I mean no not really.” he was calming the tremors in his hands. “I'm assuming there isn't much of a choice in the matter since a demon is telling me what to do.”

“Watch it hopper.” He narrowed his eyes, Heither’s response to the slur was to also narrow his.

Feeling his spell fade he walked out into the slums the two small ones trailing behind him. Remember what I said and you probably won’t die. They stood in a line watching as not 4 but 7 small beasts with hairless ape like bodies came crashing to a stop about 30 feet in front of them. They began to raise themselves off of the ground focusing onto Adam and his compatriots. Clouds of yellow fetid air seeping out of their snarls as their lips curled over their broken and discolored teeth. Adam thought for a moment that maybe he should send the others back inside, the beasts claws were far more intimidating than he remembered. The patchy hair at least would give the boys the notion that they were unarmored. Seeing the trepidation in them Adam began to speak.

“Lesson 1, Dretches are entirely immune to electricity and poison and resistant to most other forms of attacks like most demons from the abyss. Therefore Stab and my shoot pint sized princes” He then flipped his book open and thumbed through some pages and the dretches zeroed in on the three of him. “Aha, I knew it was in here, sruzmy vorv wzrilqdy, oudzm,” As he finished the words he looked up from the page and watched as his spell took form. Below the creatures Red tentacles began to lift from the ground and wrap themselves around the beasts catching many but not all. “You know its quite satisfying using a spell you made yourself, im going to stand here and appreciate my handy work while you two do, WHAT I TOLD YOU TOO!”

Adams raised voice caused the others to spring to life, the Halfling sped forth launching himself into the nearest freed beast opting for a whirlwind of small attacks and enough agility to avoid most of the feral swipes instead of a frontal “Stand your ground”-esque strategy. as Kugak shouted with maybe a little too much gusto “SMAAZ.” Watching with glee as the targets found their mark right as Heither sunk his blade into the beast causing it to go limp. Two more immediately replaced it but Adam felt as though they could handle them just fine, if not he could always patch them up after. Pulling his crossbow out of his belt he wove another spell and watched as two large, maybe a little too large, snakes wove into creation. He would definitely have to look into the spell later to make sure it was cast properly.

Hearing a cacophony of command words and cackling from the two beasts attacking Heither he was surprised to see the green halfing moving with astonishing grace. Avoiding almost every attack without a mistep. Almost like the thieves he had seen in Cheliax. He watched as two of his snakes began to squeeze the life out of some the beasts he had snagged with his initial spell and aimed Tanglevine, his exquisitely crafted crossbow, at one of the ones desperately fighting with the tentacle prison he was in. He zoned in and let loose an enchanted bolt, hearing the magic sizzle as it made impact was always so satisfying. Watching the creature phase into another plane was just as sweet. Reloading he noticed that the other two were still dealing with their share of the problem.

Wanting to be annoyed at the delay he decided to focus on his task and let another bolt loose sending another one presumably into one of the elemental planes. That would be ideal anyway. Regardless he didn't care as long as they were out of the Piss-Pen before the Guards could be bothered to come help the poor folk. Finishing the other two he was strangely satisfied to see that the boys had completed their objective.

Releasing his spell in time to see the guard headed that direction he shouted out, “Hey you two over here now.” Grabbing both their hands he quickly muttered a few words and they were immediately in another part of town. “So, that went much better than expected, I was fully anticipating at least one lost limb.”

“Where are we?” Heither said looking around aggressively.

“Somewhere in Vigil i'm just not sure where.”

“We're near all the bars, we're still pretty close to the piss pen.” Kugak said head down again.

“How do you know that?” Adam inquired.

“Thats the tavern my mom gets drunk in.” He said pointing to a small building with a sign that said The Cornfed Maiden.

“Classy.” Adam said under his breathe. “Come with me.” He took Kugak by the hand and walked toward the tavern.

“No wait I don’t want to go in there, she doesn't like to see me.” He said digging his feet into the ground.

“Hmm well,” Adam fished around in his bag for a moment. “This bag has 50 Gold pieces in it, you have two options. You take it in there and hand it to your mother and tell her that a Wizard of great power has agreed to train you but you will be leaving and most likely not returning for years if not ever and that gold is for the cost of purchasing her son. In which case I will see you at the town gate at sundown. Or you take this Gold and do whatever you want with it and I never see you again. The choice is yours and I hope you make a decision that you do not regret.” With that Adam turned around magically shifting his clothes into a hood and robes.

He got about fifty feet away before a small Heither runs up to him. “What was that? You can't just spring something like that on a kid and walk away like it's no big deal! You really are a demon.”

“You are incorrect on both accounts, first I am only partly demon, or rather tainted by demonic blood. Secondly,” and he stopped to look at the Halfling, “I absolutely can do this. I was born and raised in slums and I fought tooth and nail to get out. That child obviously has the potential to become something. Maybe not a Wizard but something. His mother doesn't care about him proven by the complete abandon that led to him literally opening a hole to the abyss into the middle of Vigil. If he comes with me I will teach him and train him and he will have the skills to do anything he wants in life instead of living in a literal pile of piss and shit waiting for the dysentery to set in. Now if you'll kindly excuse me I have to go find a Cleric willing to travel with a Tiefling.”

As he started to walk away Heither kept pace and asked “Wait why do you need a cleric, you obviously can handle yourself without any help? Also why did you ask for help you didn't need.”

“I didn't need it, but the boy did. The best way to deal with guilt is to actively do something to combat the wrong you did so I gave him that option. I asked you to help so I didn't have to hover over him and make him feel like he didn’t help.” He didn't want to mention that his motivations were also to see how well the halfling could handle himself in combat. “Speaking of, I forgot to get my damn wand back from him.”

“That's actually kind of … well kind.” Heither said astonished.

“Of course it is, everything I do is well thought out and flawless.”

“You are also incredibly humble.” Heither muttered with heavy sarcasm.

“Humility isn't needed when you can shape the fabric of reality with a few words.” Adam retorted.

“I disagree pretty heavily but back on previous points, why do you need a cleric?” Heither retorted.

“Why are you asking?” Adam said stopping, trying to not let satisfaction hit him before it was appropriate.

“Because I may know of one interested.”

“I need to hire one to accompany me into a Necropolis to recover an artifact I need.”

“Necropolis?”

“A city overflowing with undead creatures and energies.”

“And you just expect a Clergy member to fawn over your prowess and fall head over heels in love with your quest.”

Continuing to walk Adam replied “I'm no fool, I intend to pay them as well as make a heavy donation to the church of their choosing out of the loot pulled in the Necropolis.”

“What if I told you I recently finished my magical training and was interested in accompanying you if for no other reason than to make sure you feed the kid regularly.”

“I would say that these were a very fortunate series of events for me.” His hood hiding his smug facial expression.

“And how do you know Kugak is going to be at the gate at Dusk?”

“Because I could smell the ambition on him, partner. So go get your stuff together, leave this as a donation so your church doesn't get a belly ache and- You don't worship Pharasma, Iomadae, or Caiden Cailen? Do you?”

“Sarenrae actually.... Why?

“Oh no reason” Adam looked at the Halfling suddenly excited for the first time in a long time to be traveling with someone and said as he flapped his robes to the side spinning almost too dramatically. “See you at dusk!”