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[OPEN] Week 217: Just Popping My Collar

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"My collar transports me to a nearby area whenever I try to cast a kidou," she admitted, since it seemed as if a lot of them already admitted their own afflictions. "So far, I'm trying to work on my hohou with it so that I don't end up facing the ground everytime. Working it for my advantage, if that's what it is," the arcanist merely chuckled and looked up at the small crowd that had gathered on the tournament grounds.

"At the moment, I'm listening to my collar, in case it has a reaction on what I decided to do with my curse, but it seemed quiet thus far," she lifted her slender fingers to touch the collar, hidden right beneath the red-violet scarf around her neck. "Still, I covered it. I just had a nagging feeling that it's watching me, sometimes even listening to my affairs -- as if it was a tracking device given to us." An audible sigh of disappointment escaped her lips. Surely, she heard those whispers coming from the collar -- and she was fairly sure that it wasn't hers. She heard laughter from it whenever she failed, and that faint jeer seemed to drill into her mind.

"My assumption on this curse is that since it seemed to have a different effect on each of us, it might be sensible that each of us has a different solution as well -- although that of the same nature." She shrugged, unable to discern what she wanted to say next. She had speculations, but she didn't want to sound like a crazed theorist who managed to cook up tons of unsupported theories.

"Also, it might be difficult to remove it physically. We knew what happened to Kusajishi-taichou, and attempting to tamper it physically might be equally risky, if not outright impossible without perishing first." Quite worried that the others now thought of her as a loon, Yuurei had to divulge her little experiment that somehow supported her claim. After all, it might help if the others knew. "I tried to make it bigger, just to check if I could slip out of it. Unfortunately, it felt as if my body's size would follow. So another assumption I made is that the collars are directly connected to our soul. And since it affects our powers, it might be connected to where our reiatsu come from, in one way or another."

She was not knowledgeable enough about the workings of their shinigami bodies, but although it was a shot in the dark, she knew that before power, there must be a source -- whether it was unique to them shinigami, she had no idea. Surely though, she referred to something they did not have as a human -- reiatsu.

"As far as I understood with our mitsudomoe, it is made to create a bond between our kidou and our reiatsu stream. At the moment, the mitsudomoe is equally dysfunctional; and upon hearing the others' afflictions, I'm starting to think that it might have been connected directly to where our powers come from."

Well, somewhere down there, whatever it is...​


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guis, sorreh for bein a chatterbox but
*pokes thread* yeah. :<
 
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Kago stared intently at each of the woman as they spoke. Every idea that was mentioned seemed to be based in some kernal of logic; however, without actually testing out these ideas, they would remain being only theories.

Lowering the tip of the pen to the paper, the vice-captain glanced down and began writing the ideas for removing the collars. 'Lazarus' and 'cero' were the first two ideas he recorded, each on their own line. Underneath, he added his own idea: sealing kais for those who cannot release.

Writing the last word on the page, Kago gazed out into the group once more, trying to make eye-contact with each person. "Now that we have a list of ideas, albeit short, we will need a volunteer to test them on."

Pausing, he allowed the risks to take hold in their minds. "Who step forward to volunteer?"




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Four words echoed through the area. Four words that probably made Haresuno shiver in fear, balm in admiration, become overcome by arousal, suffer shock, experience awe, boil with anger, gasp in jubilation, revel in ecstasy, or maybe simply ignore.

"A new challenger approaches.”

The lavender-haired woman broke out of her flash step. Her hair was messed up, and she placed her hands on her knees and panted. "Once again, flash stepping from Fourth to here... Bad idea...” she took a deep breath in before looking up again.

"Oh.”

Lucia suddenly got the shivers herself, as she realized that she blatantly interrupted, a group consisting of a Vice-Captain, Captain and a whole assortment of seats higher than her. She remained quiet for the moment, allowing the awkwardness of the situation to set in before clearing her throat, "So, yes, collars, yeah, don’t take them off. People die that way.”

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"As usual, it’s a pleasure, Lucia,” Adelaide responded to the awkward arrival of the healer with a worn but content smile. The two had worked together on one of the highest-stress days of Adelaide’s quite lengthy life, and the trust that built was remarkable. Even if the person she had that trust in sometimes was remarkable in quite a different way.

Patience was a virtue, and the healer had only just arrived. Adelaide decided a friendly bit of information was in order, "Actually, we’ve decided to come here, to try an experiment with ways to dislodge the devices without necessarily physically disconnecting them. I convinced Captain Haresuno and Kago here to let me call a healer I trusted before anyone tried anything.”

She hesitated, knowing full well what they were doing was dangerous and reckless, but also that it had to be done. "If no one tries to turn these things off, these people will be prisoners of their past the rest of their lives. Although it might not be totally safe, this is probably the most prudent course of action.” And Lucia could be trusted to do the job at hand, without too many others needing to be involved. This was as big as this club was going to get, and Adelaide wanted the last member to be someone who wouldn’t let lines be crossed that shouldn’t be crossed, and could treat injuries that might ensue from some of the more dangerous methods.
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"Well I have an idea that might work. I have been studying the technique of an old, and what seems to nearly lost ability. The technique I speak of is Shunko, and Hanki is the ability I think might do something." He began to speak as he stepped closer to the group. All eyes were on him at the moment. "Hanki is a special ability in which I can convert the energy built up inside of me and disrupt a persons' kidou flow. Just like Yuu had mentioned, the collars might be feeding off reiatsu within each person." He nodded over to the beautiful woman as he supported her grand theory.

"My theory is to unleash Hanki, which will disrupt the flow and possibly cause the collar to lose its connection. Best case scenario, the collar comes off, or weakens a bit. Worst case... well, this technique has not been used in a long time, and not in this fashion. I can foresee pain, probably lots of it. Which is why...," he looked over to the Captain of the Eighth, "... I would like to test it out on Senesati first. He is strong enough to withstand the damage should it not do what I expect. So what do you think, captain. Feel up to it?"
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Note
This collab has been dragging on and participation has dropped significantly. It will close this week whether any progress is made or not, so start working on those turns.



The vice-captain of the eighth stepped in between Senesati and Lucas. "I’m sure Anenokoji-taichou would not mind volunteering, should it come to that,” he answered before the captain could respond. "As I stated before, however, we should start with least threatening theory first and work our way up to something like shunko.”

Glancing down at his list, Kago mentally sorted the ideas by threat level. "Judging by the ideas presented thus far, Adelaide’s kidou concept appears to be the safest one to try first, given her expertise with kidou. Would someone mind being a volunteer to test this theory?”

The nobleman’s eyes only searched the crowd for those known to have any side-effects of Prometheus’ curse.



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"I understand what you're saying; you want to try the less dangerous stuff. I don't think we should waste time for everyone to spurt out ideas and then label them by severity. So Far we have had three ideas. Someone is going to eat a cero the face, which is not going to happen seeing as we're not going to go find us a Vastro Lorde for it. We can cast Lazarus and try to trick the collar into thinking we're dead, which can work for some but not all."

Lucas was trying to watch his tone as to not be too disrespectful, but in his eyes it seemed they wanted to play the care bear style and not try some of the more volatile ideas. "Our third idea is to use a forgotten technique which is built for disrupting the reiatsu flow in a target's body, which may actually have an effect given what we know about the collars. Yes I may have said it will be painful, but then again it might not. "

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Keeping his eyes fixed on Lucas, and Adelaide, Haresuno said, "The problem with Lazarus is that it is a self-targeting kidou,” Haresuno pointed out. "You have to be either extremely skilled with it to use on other people, or done via an enchantment. Seeing as how most of us can’t cast at the moment, the Lazarus idea hits a bump.

"And to your idea of disrupting the flow of energy from the collars, Lucas, how are you going to differ our reiatsu from that of the vasto lorde’s? Even my own techniques for weakening and dissolving others reiatsu doesn’t work on it.”

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(Just been waiting for something pertinent for my dude to do.)

Zak listened to the banter, no one really seemed on board with the whole dying for a minute idea even with an experienced, or what he took to be an experienced, healer on board. No one should want to die per se bit simply disrupting the flow of energy within the body quite frankly seemed too easy an answer. Ptometheus was an ancient creature and its spells likely required more than a simple trick to break...then again, sometimes the most complex of locks used the most simple of keys.

"Alright, I'll do it if no one else is going to step forward." The Templar said. He flicked his cigar away and approached Tenchra, "What do you guys need me to do?"

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"I actually thought about that, sir,” Adelaide put a hand up to answer Captain Haresuno. She smiled, having not actually shared this bit of her plan with her cohort, and motioned to Udo as if by way of dramatic reveal, "Tabawara Udo can cast kidou effectively. If it works for him, we know the effect works and can engineer a way to confer that effect on others.” It was something Udo should’ve expected her to do after hearing Adelaide’s plan, but not something she explicitly mentioned to him.

There was also the darker side to her idea, which Zakeriah had mentioned earlier. Adelaide introduced this part far less enthused, "Also, though I don’t necessarily think its our best plan, it has been mentioned that a more dramatic solution than my idea is to actually, momentarily, induce death. Zakeriah’s idea was to bring himself to the edge and have our healer, Lucia, revive him. I don’t know how safe that would be,” she looked to Lucia for clarification of if it would even be possible, "but it was an idea one of the people here provided.”
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The silent figure’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as his hand hovered over the collar, just barely activating the ebony mark’s plaguing effects. The tinge of fear crept up on the reaper but only as quickly as boredom with his presence at this meeting. Dropping his hand and coming back to the world of mundane senses outside of a blood-rushed battle, Kurohashi lurched forward and pulled the black fabric covering the collar to the side, exposing it and delivering himself as a subject.

If their time was limited, there seemed no sense in not trying more than one option at a time.


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"Alright then,” Kago announced firmly upon hearing Adelaide’s proposed idea.

Pointing to Zakeriah and Lucas, he addressed them directly. "You two head over to the far east side of the arena. I’m not sure what adverse effects make arise from messing with these collars, but for the safety of those present, we need to separate you from the rest.”

Turning to face Udo, the vice-captain gave him his orders. "I want you to head to the far north portion of the arena for the same reason. The rest of you,” he stated, looking over the motley crew, "remain where you are, but split into two groups. I want you watching for any signs of wavering from the collars.”



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Adelaide grinned warmly, having just come up with a damned clever idea. She hoped Lucia would follow suit, "New eyes observe my enemy, record his iniquity and judge his fate.” She bowed to Kago with the most impish grin on her face he had seen from her. Damn, did she look cocky right now. "Bakudou Forty, Surveillance Clone.”

Three Adelaides walked out from the original and also flashed impish grins. The third walked to the mute shinigami while the others went to locations indicated by Kago. In unison, the trio spoke. Her plan was clever, as all her plans these days seemed to be.

"I’ll go with Udo, if you don’t mind.”
"I’ll go with Zakeriah, if you don’t mind.”
"It looks like this one wants to help out too, Kago."

The real Adelaide shrugged, "I’ll follow my orders and remain here, I don’t know what they’re thinking.” She laughed a little at how totally unseriously she was taking this. After taking a breath to calm herself, she explained, "It’s useful to observe these efforts, Kago. This lets me do so safely. I’ll report to you as soon as any of my clones see anything worthwhile.”

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The sixth seat's eyes lit up and he mused, A compliment? It'll be bad form to refuse, don't you think?

Udo, if you smirk any harder your face will tear, answered the 'de-clawed' spirit in a most unimpressed tone. Space Ratchet wasn't in the mood for playing around when his power was on the line.

Oh, right, sorry, replied the reaper. The middle-aged man ruffled his hair a bit and said to the Adelaide-clone, "Soo... we go wandering that-a-way and you teach me Lazarus?"

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The clone which was headed off in the direction Udo was indicated to go looked anxious to get this process underway, "I can show you how it’s done, yes.” She looked over to the actual Adelaide for a pensive moment and back to Udo.

The true Adelaide provided the context the clone was looking for; "I’ve done it once or twice to practice since Kago killed me that one time. I’m not an expert, but I do wake up each time.” She shrugged and looked back to her clone with a rather hopeful expression. It just made sense that there wouldn’t be someone expert in the "play dead” spell the time it was most needed. Adelaide had believed it was a good way to prepare a surprise attack while critically injured so was starting to learn it after being critically injured by her vice-captain. Hopefully her basic understanding was good enough.

The clone started off again, expecting Udo to follow, "Come along, Sixth.”

The real Adelaide offered an innocent shrug yet again, "I’d listen to her, Udo. She does outrank you.” That prompted another, marginally inappropriate, laugh from the Fourth Seat.
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Zak strode over to the area Kago had indicated accompanied by one of Adelaide's clones. He wasn't particularly afraid to die but he hoped the healer was on his game; he wasn't exactly welcoming the idea of scattering into spirit particles and flowing into the great cycle. If he couldn't ever use his sword, his companion, again though then what would really be the point of maintaining this existence?

Once they got to what he figured was a safe enough distance he sighed and turned. His hand found the soft leather grip of the weapon he could no longer depend on. "Alright Lucas, are you ready to do this?"

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He followed his guinea pig over to the area. He was not as strong as Senesati was, which could be an issue. He was hoping to be able to use his full force to make sure if it was going to work it had the best chance of success. With this man, he might have to tone down the power, but would it be sufficient? Could he use full power and try to direct it all into the collar? There were so many questions and possibilities, and only testing them out would it work.

"Let's get this started..." he said as he removed the top part of shihakusho. Spreading his fingers wide and pressing the tips of each finger into their counter parts he held his hands together as he began to build the energy. He could feel it flowing through his body, growing in strength rapidly. The energy began to pool in his shoulder and back condensing into that area. Sparks of raw energy began to erupt and flicker alive from his body. His reiatsu sky rocketed as he pulled his hands apart finalizing the release of the ancient technique. He stood there for a moment as the sparks of energy flickered alive, kicking around wildly, dancing over his skin, he waited to make sure he was able to stabilize the volatile power. He smiled as soon as realized he had successfully used the technique, now the next step was siphon the energy into Hanki.

"Alright get ready..." without hesitation Lucas quickly stepped forward and wrapped his hand around the man's throat as he focused all the energy into his hand. he could sense the reiatsu flow within the man, this is what he had to interrupt, to destabilize. The energy erupted and shot into the man's body attacking the flow of reiatsu. He poured every ounce he could into him, the moment he could feel the energy become volatile, and begin to destabilize he let go and stepped back. Lucas dropped to a knee as he quickly began to concentrate trying to keep the power of Shunko under control, only once had he had the power destabilize and explode, and it landed him in the fourth. So far that has only happened once out of the two times he had actually used this technique.

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"Greater Clensing Barrier,” Lucia chanted, as she watched the Mystic begin using Shunko. She knew about the destructive potential after seeing the power her captain wielded when using it. "I would be careful with that,” started Lucia, "We still don’t even know what type of reiatsu signature is emitted by those collars. For all intents and purposes, they’re made of something even beyond what we know.”

She paused for a moment before continuing, "If you misjudge how much reiatsu each of the collars is giving off any attempts to neutralize it could end up causing an overload on either your side or his.”

[103]
 
Zak felt the energy lance through him as soon as Lucas placed his hands on the Templar's throat. He had never really felt the ebb and flow of reiatsu so acutely before. Every part of his body felt alive with electricity and fire; he could see the purple and green energy flowing thriugh his veins and permeating his every cell. There was something more though, something black and pulsing. The curse. Black corruption spread through his body like roots sprouting from the collar on his neck. They touched everywhere corrupting everything, it was as ingrained into his spirit as his own life essence.

The power that flowed into him seemed infinite and wild. It filled him like an empty vessel but it only flowed around the black roots invading his being. Lucas poured more and more strength into the spell in an attempt to overwhelm the curse and Zak could feel something happening...perhaps...

Suddenly the contact was broken and Zak gasped, his vision was blinded by wild energy surging around him. He stumbled back a step wrapping his arms around himself as if trying to hold himself together. He felt as though he might explode, energy was surging wildly from Lucas as well, but he still couldn't see. The Templar dropped to one knee clenching his teeth and squeezing his eyelids closed again as he tried to get himself back under control. He did not have the training in harnessing rei that healers and sorcerers did. Right now he didn't care if the collar was off or not, he just was hopping he could hold himself together.

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"Lay down and close your eyes,” Adelaide’s clone instructed Udo. She hadn’t a ton of experience with Lazarus but this was more or less how it worked, "let the kidou flow through your body, let it chill your blood, let it stop your heart.” She was instructing her mentor, which when this clone was dispelled was going to amuse the real Adelaide greatly.

Of course, letting a kidou kill its caster was a hard thing to do. "Your instincts will be to stop this process, to abort mid-incantation or to resist it once you’ve spoken the words. You need to resist that desire; your instincts won’t serve you in this endeavor. The kidou will suspend your life, not end it. It will replace all things, even your reiatsu, with its magic. There should be no way to discern what you’re casting from actual death.” It sounded all far more dramatic than it was, of course, but it was the perfect feign of death, and that did deserve some dramatic flair.

"You will remain aware during the process, but I suggest letting your body cool for a minute or two before bringing yourself back,” spoke the clone. There was no way of telling if these things would immediately register death, or even if this imitation would fool them.
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