"Oh look, company." Lei spoke, taking a peek outside through a window. Henrik refused to call him by his real name as it was too similar to his own. In fact, "Henry" was his nickname back when he lived in America. With the mention of more visitors, Henrik looked over at Iris and told stay upstairs until he called for her. He had no reason to trust these strangers. "One of them is that guy who appeared with Lu." 'Great. Only more reason not to trust them.' Henrik's eyes shifted over towards Lei as he reached for the doorknob, pausing for a moment. 'Would they be able to see him? It'd certainly make me feel like I wasn't losing my mind.' Despite not saying anything out loud, Lei laughed and shook his head. At least that meant that the others would not be able to hear whatever rude remarks Lei would have to say. He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on something. If they caused any trouble Henrik wanted to make sure he would have the advantage. After a bit of preparation Henrik finally opened the door, immediately taking a headcount. Just five of them. That would be easy enough to handle. Unsure of what language to use Henrik first spoke in English, his accent matching that of an American. "I'm guessing you're looking for Araquiel. What do you want?" "You might want to repeat that." Lei walked forward, looking over the group. "Try Spanish. ...And do it slowly. This one looks to be dim witted." He pointed towards Samuel before poking a finger through his head. Of course, Samuel would neither be able to see, hear, nor feel any of this. Henrik repeated the statement and question in perfect Spanish but did not follow through with Lei's suggestion to speak slowly. Just because he could handle things if they got messy did not mean that he was eager to throw himself into a brawl with five strangers. Due to their complexions and hair colors, Henrik had a vague idea of where the others possibly came from but the only one he was certain of was Alistair. Still, it was obvious that some of them had gone through a good deal of traveling. "Don't bother beating around the bush. Let's get to the point. I've lost my patience for strangers." Henrik's eyes shifted towards Alistair. "Especially for snakes."
Cecil and Squall both at 100%. I really should get around to playing FFIV. It's only been remade a hundred times.
"You can wake up anytime you want." Henrik pushed hard on the ground, his body failing to respond to his commands for it to rise. Lei had gotten faster and several times stronger. It was only now that Henrik realized how much he had been holding back. Figment of imagination or not, Lei was beyond human. Even with all the power he had been gaining he had been forced into the defensive. Every blow he blocked, every punch he dodged, each retreat he made only ended with Lei getting closer to being one step ahead of him and within seconds, once he was, every attack landed. If Henrik had already begun to awaken his powers, if this had been more than a dream, he would have had broken several bones. If Lei had truly been his enemy, wounds like these would be the least of his worries. "I'm not done yet..." Henrik forced himself onto one knee, blood trailing down his reopened cut beneath his eye. "Yes you are." Lei held out a hand, touching his thumb to his middle finger before he flicked his finger out towards Henrik. He was thrown back several feet with just that motion. Once more, Henrik refused to stay down. He stood up slowly before staggering forth towards Lei. "What's the point of this?" Before Lei could speak Henrik added, "I know you're trying to make me stronger. But why project this image? My home. My neighborhood." "If you don't want to be reminded of what you're fighting for, I can arrange a change of scenery." Lei snapped his fingers. The ground beneath Henrik's feet vanished instantly, leaving him with barely enough time to grab onto the ledge of the fracture in the Earth. Lei walked over and crouched down towards Henrik, extending a hand out to him as Henrik hardly had the strength to pull himself back up. Reluctantly, Henrik took his hand and was pulled back up to take in the new sights. The sky was on fire or, at least, it appeared to be. The sun was nowhere to be seen but neither was the moon yet the shades of red and orange in the sky lit up the ground enough for him to see. Pillars of black smoke rose in the distance. The only sounds he could hear were that of crackling flames of the remains of houses. "What..." Henrik turned around. They had not changed positions, this was still his home. At least, that's what it used to be. "You humans are so unimaginative." Lei sighed. "Ooooh, fire. So scary." He sarcastically spoke. "But I suppose it gives you an idea of what's going to happen." "Unless it's stopped." Henrik growled lowly. "Not going to happen. I don't have faith that you or any little gang of Fallen angels can stop Lucifer. You're all weak. Fragile. And far too human. Why don't you just sit there and die quietly?" "If that was the case why bother helping in the first place? Why try?" To this, Lei smirked but did not answer. Henrik clenched his fists tighter, digging his nails so hard into his hand that he broke the skin. This shadow of an angel taunted him at every chance he had, he would offer answers at the end of every task he gave yet never followed through, and every time he showed an ounce concern towards Henrik he would turn around and claim that fighting was a futile attempt. And now, now, he was claiming humanity to be a weakness. "IT'S NOT OVER!" Henrik lunged at Lei with no hope of connecting with his punch and, in fact, missed entirely as Lei stepped to the side. The remains of his house had collapsed, but not because of the fire. Stunned, Henrik stood still unsure if it had been just a coincidence. Lei turned around to look behind him, following the direction Henrik had punched. He raised an eyebrow and made a "Hm" of amusement. "Don't feel too proud of yourself. You hit a support." "Wait a sec." Henrik knew Lei was trying to put the dream to an end already, but there was still something that needed to be answered. "What was your real name? 'Lei Kara', being Arakiel spelled backwards, isn't your real name. Besides, if you wanted to be technically correct, isn't there a q in it?" "I'm not fond of spelling it that way. I'm not fond of spelling it at all." There was a pause. It was a long enough pause to make Henrik think that Lei would refuse to answer but yet again he was surprised. "My name was-" Henrik snapped awake. He looked at the time, glad that he had managed to wake up before Iris despite it being nearly time for lunch. He reached up to touch his face expecting to find a reopened scar yet there was nothing. He checked his arms as well as everywhere else new scars should have been found but he could not see anything. Perhaps it was out of pity or perhaps this time, it really was just a dream. "Henry. Real funny." Henrik muttered lowly. That had been Lei's name when he was human. It was a worse joke than the last name. Only this time, it was real.
More naval gameplay. Edward seems like a fun character. We get to see some stuff on forts too.
Hm. Tuesdays and Thursdays, for me, are filled with school and work. Luckily, I'm back online at around 8 PM...including Mondays and Wednesdays. It's just Tuesdays and Thursdays give me no free time until then. So yeah, Tuesdays and Thursdays are bad times for me. I have no work or school on weekends though. Woo.
"Are you alright?" Iris leaned against Henrik's shoulder as they drove home, having just left the hospital. "I'm happy. I just didn't expect to hear that." His eyes glanced down to the two lists of names Iris had jotted down on their way home. He wasn't fond of most of them but, thankfully, neither was she. "You know..." Henrik paused, taking a deep breath. He had told her as much as he possibly could, about nearly everything. Iris had taken everything better than he had expected and never once wavered in her confidence in him even when he sounded like a mad man. He didn't know if it would carry over to something like this however. "Nephilim..." He paused again before sighing out. "You can't have them normally." "Normally? What do you mean?" Iris looked up at him. "Are you suggesting an abo-" "No!" He quickly interrupted. "No. I would never say something like that. It's just...you wouldn't survive it." Henrik pulled over to the side and rubbed his eyes. "I know how important this is to you but..." Doing things naturally was what Iris had always wanted. Taking that away from her for just the hope that she would have a better chance felt wrong. "She's doing better than anyone else in her condition. It may not be impossible for her to survive a natural birth but, the thing is, I've never seen that happen." Henrik's eyes shifted towards the rear view mirror only to find that Lei was sitting in the back. Of course, Iris could not see nor hear the man but that did not make it any less of an invasion of privacy to him. The sudden appearance of Lei was not surprising though, his sudden change of tone and attitude was. It was actually as if he cared about what would happen. "Go on. Don't mind me." "This means a lot to you Iris, but I won't let you take any risks on this." Henrik spoke lowly. "I can't lose you." "And what makes you think your way is any better?" Henrik gripped the wheel tighter in order to restrain himself from punching it. "I don't know! But it's better than testing our luck!" He knew why she had been so calm about it. Even when he told her at first that she might not survive the birth she had spiraled into depression or anger. Even with all the power between himself and Lei, he knew that she was still stronger. She had to keep it together for the both of them. "Alright..." It was hardly time to feel relieved but this made him feel just a little bit better. They finished their drive home and went to bed immediately because Arch isn't sure what to add on from here.
Kendric's power momentarily rose as the white flame passed him by, searing the air and destroying a police vehicle. He turned his head towards the remains of the car, hearing no screams. They must have died quickly. He clenched his hands tightly, shaking visibly. 'They had no chance.' The sleeve on his right arm was burnt leaving the skin underneath mostly unaffected but his cheek was hot and dry, as if nearly all the moisture from it had evaporated. His right hand suffered a similar ailment but outside of light burns, his own power had managed to protect him from the superheated air. "I don't want to fight you." Kendric spoke lowly towards Sarah. "You can walk away from this." He took a step back, tensing up in expectation of further violence. Even with his speed being greater than that of Sarah's he knew he would not be able to close the distance between the two fast enough to avoid being hit, or at least feeling the area of effect, by one of her attacks. The same could be said for running away. The moment he turned his back, she might attack while his guard was down. 'Come on, guys. Get out of here. I can't distract her forever.' As Sarah continued to approach Kendic took several more steps back away from her. "What reason could you have for doing this? You and your friends set us up! And if that wasn't enough, you're killing off police as well. Do you want to make enemies of everyone?" He took another step back, seemingly nervous. "You should be the one surrendering. You won't get away with this." Kendric shifted his attention to the blade strapped to his side. He wasn't sure if such a blade would be able to handle Sarah's power if contact was made with it. Her power was definitely immense and taking her head on was hardly an option he wanted to consider. If Sarah refused, his only option would be to defend himself. 'Just back off...there doesn't need to be anymore fighting.'
"I'm fine, Iris." Henrik stated plainly as he took her hand from his cheek. "No new scars from last night." He looked over towards the window that had been shattered in his dream from both last night and the night before. Unlike him, damage done to the surroundings did not carry over from his dreams. At least this was good news for their insurance. He looked down at Iris's hand and sighed out, taking a moment before he spoke again. "Things aren't going so well back in-" "I thought they had everything handled over there. You're not planning on leaving, are you..?" Henrik shook his head and released Iris's hand. "No, but I know there's others out there like me and I know that that's where they are." He crossed his arms. "Even if I knew how to find them, I can't leave you alone." He paused before adding in, "And I don't know who I can really trust." He sat down at the dining table and shifted his gaze towards Iris's stomach. "Your parents are going to think we lied about when we found out you were pregnant." "Are you calling me fat?" He laughed for what felt like the first time in weeks since this whole thing started. "It's just, it looks like you're not in the first tri-" "You're calling me fat aren't you?" Iris smacked Henrik's shoulder causing him to wince as she hit one of his scars. Upon noticing his reaction Iris frowned. "I thought you said you didn't have any new scars." "Not any you can see." Henrik spoke lowly only causing Iris to hit the same spot on his shoulder once more. "Hey!" He shifted and turned so she wouldn't try it again. Rubbing his shoulder, Henrik muttered a barely audible halfhearted apology for not telling her the full truth.
Fragments of glass fell to the floor, bloodied shards reflecting faintly from their position on the pavement. The man brushed himself off and, despite being covered in small cuts with many still having tiny bits of glass in them, smiled at the one who had tossed him through. Yesterday the outcome of the struggle was different. It was not he who had been thrown outside but rather, Henrik and he had not been smiling when he picked himself up off the ground. Lei cracked his neck before motioning for Henrik to come closer. Henrik responded by jumping out from the shattered window. "You're slowing down." He bluntly stated, glass crunching with his footsteps as he approached Lei. "Last time you nearly took my eye." He pointed at the faint scar beneath his left eye. Iris had not been happy to wake up and see that the day before. Rather than nightmares that Iris was continuing to experience, Lei had taken over the role of making his dreams as uncomfortable and painful as possible. Despite not trusting Lei, Henrik found his dreams to be better at training him than his waking hours. Lei was smarter than he let on and not just due to his secrets about their abilities. He was cunning, viscous, and relied on every underhanded trick in the book in order to win a fight. Needless to say, Henrik learned quickly otherwise he would have been killed. At least, that's what Lei told him was possible if he refused to defend himself. He wasn't about to find out whether or not it was possible to be killed by something that came from his own mind. "I'm not slowing down." Lei spoke after a moment of silence. "You're just getting used to me. But you're still relying on anger, not instinct." "Hm. I've noticed something." Henrik looked at his hands. He was a physicist, not a fighter and yet with every punch he threw he could not help but feel a sense of familiarity with violence. "That mist, it's shown up when I'm angry. I've been angry with you plenty of times in..." He looked around. "These dreams, if you can call them that. Why haven't they appeared here?" Lei smirked only making Henrik uncomfortable. It was as if any kind of smile did not belong on Lei's face. It looked totally unnatural for someone like him. "I'm restraining it." He reached for his side, pulling out a particularly long shard of glass that was wedged inside him not giving it a single glance before he dropped it. "It's not good for your--our--health. Plus, things aren't the same here as they are when you're awake. Using that in here would be..." Lei paused before chuckling, "messy." "Since when did you have control over my powers?" "The very day dear ol' Daddy created me." Henrik sat up and blinked several times, placing a hand on his forehead as he reoriented himself. There was no transition between his dream and waking. He felt as if he hadn't slept at all, but the time on the beside clock told him otherwise. He looked over at Iris who was still asleep, adjusting the covers to keep her comfortable before sliding out of bed. He waved a finger at the closet door opening it with no effort. He knew he had been getting stronger but every interaction with Lei made him feel uneasy, especially now. It was disturbing to think that someone else, or at least a different part of his mind, had so much more control over his powers and could use them(or prevent their use) without his own knowledge. 'I'm either going mad or whatever I'm seeing, if Lei's real, really has this much more power than me. But why? Was there some accident Up Above that created him?' Henrik sighed as he changed clothes, trying to ignore the migraine that emerged since he awoke. Whether or not he was losing his mind, the damage to his body was real.
Was out of town for a few days, got back today, had to take care of school stuff as well, and for the next two days I'm forced to go to work meetings that'll take up most of my time. So yeah, I won't really be around until the end of the week. Dx
Trailer from Gamescom: I didn't even know that this showed up there. Still looking forward to this game.
Looks nice.
Gamescom trailer. More hype.
Iris had been asleep for a good while now. It was why Henrik had the opportunity to talk to himself or, at least, the other side of himself. She would accept him no matter what but that did not mean he wanted to worry her further unless he truly believed it was something she needed to know. Lei was on his side, albeit he wasn't sure how that worked. He at least assumed that the only person Lei would hurt was him. 'At least...I think that's the case.' "I'm not the one who's going to get her killed. You've already gotten the head start on it anyways." "Hm." Henrik mulled his options over. "Unless you're in the business of abortion, she's going to die. Of course, trying something like that would-" "Wreak havoc, both emotionally and physically more than likely causing her to die anyways. Yes, I know." Henrik crossed his arms and sat down on the couch. There was one rather obvious solution, to him, but he had no idea if it was even viable. It seemed too easy but at the same time he couldn't help but feel like it might make matters worse. "Caesarean? Can't say I've seen that tried before." That was all Lei had to say on it. Henrik probed his mind to try and get a more specific answer from him but nothing came. Lei either had nothing to say on it or he was still thinking about it. Either way, Henrik wasn't happy. This wasn't helping at all. Rather than go upstairs he decided to lay down on the couch to avoid disturbing Iris. Especially now with an entirely different kind of dream to expect. If Lei had anything to say, it would have to wait until he was fast asleep. Henrik closed his eyes and soon drifted off.
Kendric's power only continued to rise gradually, already surpassing that of anything capable of the average child. Of course, Tasnica's academy was home to the most talented students from within its city and both countries. His golden aura emerged, filling the yard he was in with a shimmering yellow light that pierced through the air. The family whose house he was by seemed not to be home as nobody came to stop him from releasing his strength. Their neighbors however were a different story. Civilians who had sensed Kendric began to crowd near their house's fences as heads peeked over. Shouts to call the police were easily heard. "Hm. Better take this to the streets. I don't want to wreck this family's back yard." Kendric crouched and pushed hard on the ground, launching himself more than a dozen feet into the air and landing onto the roof of the house before leaping down into the streets. His calm demeanor broke when he sensed magic far above the level he was putting out as well as the disappearance of several smaller sources that had been approaching. He narrowed his eyes. Kendric had an idea of what had just happened. One of the adults must have felt his presence and decided to kill off any pursuing police to get him to themselves. It was either Nadine, Taras, Sarah, Shade, or Naomi. He hoped it would be Taras. Despite Taras's great strength, as he probably had the most raw power of the bunch, Kendric knew what to expect from another Biokinetic. He was left with the choice to either run, and risk getting caught in a worse situation or just put himself further from the borders, or fight until he had a chance to flee. Anyone with any common sense would have run. The power he felt was intense, but not unstoppable. Kendric hated violence, he would rather take a hit than throw a punch, but the more he ran the more people would be killed. The police who had just been killed were on his head. Kendric patted his pocket where the stone was. Not everyone knew he had it but as long as he did, he could keep the attention on himself and buy the others some time. He took in a deep breath, set in his plan. Everyone seemed to be indoors again. They were afraid. He wished he could head to a less populated area but unless he left Tasnica there was nowhere else to go to. It was a dense city. Determined to show that he was not afraid, Kendric forced his power to rise which only caused the aura to grow further. 'Don't expect to swat me out of the way like a fly.' Kendric clenched his fists tightly, ready for whoever was coming. Many police have left their posts. Several of the streets that had been blocked off were now emptied. Now would be a good time to leave the city.
Henrik rubbed his cheek, feeling over recently made scars. He stared at the mirror in front of him as he tried to piece together what might be happening but nothing that came to mind made any sense. The answers he came up with were not the ones he wanted. When Iris asked how he got them he wasn't sure what to tell her. He was still unsure if he was losing his mind or not. It was always possible along with his increasing paranoia that he had developed multiple personality disorder due to everything that had happened. "You're not that kind of doctor. Besides, could mental disorder do this?" The mirror suddenly cracked. "Don't look so sullen, Henry. I'm here to help." He sighed in frustration and glared at the cracked image of the man standing behind him, taking down the broken mirror and laying it on a table to avoid getting any broken glass on the floor. Of course, the man was nowhere to be seen in the room. "Help me? I woke up with cuts and bruises." The bruises were, thankfully, hidden by his clothes which did keep Iris from finding out that he was more injured than he appeared to be. "You know my name and I've yet to get yours." Speaking out loud to an empty room only made him feel like he had lost it. Especially with the fact that he was getting answers. "Araquiel." "Your human name." The man's laughter echoed in Henrik's mind only angering him further. "Oh fine, killjoy. My name was Lei Kara." Hearing it in his mind came with more than just sound. Henrik knew exactly how to spell it as soon as it was spoken to him. It wasn't a very funny joke to him and he had no intention of wasting his time continuing to pursue the subject when "Lei" was not going to be serious about it. The only thing Lei seemed interested in was antagonizing Henrik. "Good." Lei spoke even though Henrik had not said anything. "Stay angry. That'll make you stronger. If I find that you can't handle yourself better in a fight I'll do you a favor and kill Temeluchas myself. That is something within my power." Henrik scoffed as he stared at the broken mirror. If he didn't have enough power to do it himself right now, how could a figment of his imagination have a better chance? "Survive another night and I might give you an answer." It seemed all this alternate persona could do was beat around the bush and annoy him. Still, if Lei could make him even just a little stronger, Henrik would play along. "Fine. Whatever." He said against his better judgment. Henrik wasn't sure yet if he preferred the nightmares over someone as annoying as this.
Crisis Core was close. The Walking Dead(aka "The Walking Feels"), Secret of Mana(when I was younger), and Final Fantasy Type-0(sadder than Crisis Core). Spoiler: Type-0 With the first ending, every character, except two, dies. Their final moments are just so tragic. At least my favorite characters(the most important ones), Machina and Rem, survive in that ending. They get married too!
I've got plenty of SNES games. Maybe one of them is rare. I've got Secret of Mana though. Sadly, there's no case or manual for it that I own. So in its current condition, it's probably not that rare. Out of recently released games, I guess the rarest game I own is El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.
Hopefully you get that new laptop soon! Though I already knew about this. In the meantime:
The first game was definitely harder than the second. But I'd hardly considering the controls of KH1 to be worse. In fact, I felt that it felt better than KH2. The close up camera made fights feel that much more epic. Not having special effects taking up half the screen when the keyblade hit something gave attacks a bit more weight. Combat was slower but it felt like it had more meaning, like it was more personal. Yeah, there were some camera issues but I never really noticed them most of the time. Admittedly, I've replayed KH2 more than KH1 but that's just because it was easier to jump in and mess about. Less thought was required. I didn't even have to worry about magic because it would always recharge pretty quickly if I ran out. In KH1, you regained MP by connecting enough hits to enemies or with MP orbs. Otherwise, you needed items or a save point to recharge it. Also loved the fact that you could "overcharge" your MP gauge by having it fully charged and landing enough hits to line up the blue gauge with enough yellow bars to act as an extra cast of magic. It felt great.
