"Generally I work better if I have something to work with at the start."

I focus my intent into a kiai as I stomp the metal ground below me dislodging a spirit of metal in front of me which I punch continuously for a few minutes to make it into a prefect twohanded sword.

"Do I need to make it magical too?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:56, Mon 19 Oct 2015.

"If possible. So far, you are demonstrating Solar level skill with your environment." The weapon is high-quality, although not quite perfect. Functional, however, and quite durable if your aim is to kill horses. "So far, so good. Show me your finished product."

I step away from Thane so I have room to perform a long kata with the sword. The kata clears my mind as I construct a path for chi within the sword to aid it in striking true.

"I'm not quite done yet."

"Let me know when you are. You might want to polish the sword's appearance off a bit. Make it like it's going in some Solar's hallway to show off to guests, but it also has to be functional. You got the second part down. Most people get the first."

"... Sorry, my sense of aesthetics isn't that great. Anyway wasn't the point of this to see what I can make on short notice? Anyway, You might want to turn on your essence sight. Because I'm going to show my other style of magic."

I feel out that massive source of red mana I felt before And start a slow controlled draw from it. I channel it into the sword to change the nature of the iron to be like the Elemental Iron I experienced In the That Plane of War who's name I can't pronounce. Red Mana is the energy of Chaos and War. Iron is associated with Ares or Mars. And though that Chaos and War. Therefore Iron purified to an absurd degree becomes a perfect tool of war by becoming indestructible.
I'm infusing the sword with red mana to strengthen it's nature as a weapon of Chaos and War while using the red mana to burn away any impurities both physical and metaphysical. I'm going to take it slow so I can maintain control of my power.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:46, Mon 19 Oct 2015.

For a brief moment, your facial features flash into a two-faced monster with blazing antlers emerging from your head. The environment is promptly flash-scorched within arm's reach around you and the upraised weapon. "Chaos" and "restraint" (i.e. "slow") do not mix well, and the conflux of energy blasts back into you with no ill effect to you, then the illusion is burned off your face, into the weapon.

Thane, on the other hand, is rather aghast. "What in the name of hell are you?!"

The weapon is forged. It has some sentience you can sense in it, and it aches to be used. You feel it. You also feel a hint of annoyance from your pocket as well. Jealousy, perhaps?

"Woot! It worked! oh wait. You asked me to make this into a functional display piece...eh opps. I guess I'll keep this one.

Oh you asked a question. I'm a human verser. but we tend to pick up various abilities that add to what we are. My three main abilities are Akashic Martial arts, Mana and chi Manipulation and the various more mundane skills I picked up. What you saw is a relatively minor side effect of my channeling of red mana into the sword to transform it. You see, I channeled too much red mana before and damaged my aura. Now I leak magic and produce side effects. Unless I explode. That really hurts by the way. I honestly should take it easy and let my aura heal. But That generally doesn't happen. I could use my other style of magic but I have to do everything with a martial arts theme. And if I overuse it the Pattern Spiders get pissed off at me and rip me apart...

oh that visage you seen was my Avatar."

I assert my will over the sword letting it know I'M in charge. But when it is time, It will be used.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 14:59, Mon 19 Oct 2015.

You sense two things in quick succession: the sword simmering down to the point where the blade, once red hot with power, suddenly drops dramatically in temperature, to the point where it now absorbs heat. A sense of sullen disappointment radiants from the weapon.

The follow-up sensation is smug satisfaction.

"I know about the martial arts thing, and the red mana issue. I was present for both when you explained them." He seems to have forgotten he's supposed to be diplomatic, and seems rather annoyed. "I asked what you are, not what you know. Human is not something that you are. I mean, I suppose medically you are still human, but your Essence is all over the place and doesn't match your species. I'd say you are Fair Folk, but you haven't died yet and your Essence doesn't fit."

"Wait." He thought of something. "How much contact with our culture have you had?"

You hear a sly voice in your mind. "Wear me, and lie."

I'm not putting you on until I understand what you are.

"What do you mean by all over the place? Sorry, but I'm new here. So I don't know what to compare myself to in your world... So yeah. This is the first time I encountered your culture"

"How...?" He takes a step back from you. "How do you speak our language so fluently?"

You do not get any further communications in your mind. You do, however, have enough battle experience to recognize when someone is about to attack you, or at least warming up to the idea.

"Hold on. I'm an experienced world traveler. I picked up a blessing that allows me to understand and speak any language."

Something is very wrong with this "Thane." Wear me, and I will elaborate. Refuse, and he will try to kill you. I can help you avoid a costly battle. Look at his gathering Essence again, then put me on. I am out of time for more.

"Do you, now?" Thane is beginning to glow golden, and a large, curved scimitar appears in his hand. "You claim power not your own, take on the form of the Fair Folk shock troops when channeling large amounts of power, and your Essence twists the Loom. We should have seen you were an infiltrator some time ago."

He is clearly getting ready. Power is assembling around him, and you sense something...strange about his power.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:12, Tue 27 Oct 2015.

Fine, Tell me.

I slip my hand into my pocket and slip the ring on.
I activate iron skin technique.

"I do not wish to fight you thane. But I'll defend myself if I must. You said so yourself. My essence doesn't match that that of the Fair folk. Besides I don't have their feeding maws."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 11:42, Tue 27 Oct 2015.

"I care not for your trick...er...y." The world slows for a moment as pretty much everything changes the instant the ring slips on to your finger. Now...return me to...my...master?

You sense a confusion from the ring, which you may or may not care about. You notice Thane's aura has something in it hiding his aura, namely that there is some green tinge of power hiding in it you've never seen before, but resonates with the ring. You think he's probably some kind of Primordial double agent. He is not what he says he is at all. You also aren't sure if you even care about really anything other than whatever you want to do in the moment.

You feel an absolute mastery of power over all things in the dark, be it actual darkness or a metaphysical one, like concealing the truth. You can pierce all darkness lesser then yourself, which is all darkness right now. You can become the absolute foe to whomever you want, and you find yourself really, really wanting to oppose Thane's goals, which oddly enough, he doesn't have any of his own. He's hollow, like you. You still hate him, though, because he's opposing you and what you want to do.

You care for nothing, save yourself. You feel no connection to anyone not you, feel no sense of honor, no desire to fight, no desire for anything but the moment. You feel better than ever, though, like you can do anything. Hell, you can: nothing is beneath you anymore. Truth is a commodity to be shared only with yourself, or when you can crush another with it.

Nothing can confine you, for in you is the power to be free from all restraint, physical, moral, mental, whatever. Nothing can hold you from what you want.

And all that stands in your way, is some diplomatic little worm who can no longer draw upon that hated power of righteousness, the one thing that can actually still threaten you. Who knows what bauble he traded it for? You can show him with glee why it wasn't worth it as long as you are around.

...You find it difficult to tell where your thoughts end and the ring's influence begins. The ring itself is very confused, though, and wondering who in the hell you think you are defying its power, and how you are doing it.

OOC: Verser soul structure, hard at work. You don't draw on a charm pool. You ARE the Shadow of All Things, for all intents and purposes, which confuses the metaphysics of this world to no end. Anything that thematically falls under your themes (listed below) you can attempt and likely succeed at.
    Your themes: shadows, darkness, night, fear, lies, subtlety, treachery, blasphemy, malice, crime, seduction, indulgence, revelry, sophistication, corruption, debasement, slavery, despair, resistance, persistence, transitions, weddings, funerals, death, reptiles, spirals, the Fiend Caste, caves, mines, graveyards, doors, daggers, seven-section staves, flutes, dirges, tarnished gold, and obsidian.
    Your flaws: Roleplaying challenge. You are an utter sociopath. You CAN be "heroic" for a certain definition of the word, but you are likely to be rather backhanded about it. Truth is only something you can do if it will hurt someone, or cause some damage from being revealed. You have an Urge to serve yourself, first and foremost. You can be motivated to do other things, but only if you choose to oppose another. Sunlight hurts your eyes, and holy powers can wreck you if you wear this ring. Darkness always retreats from light, even reluctantly.
    Oh, and you can take the ring off at any time, once you can figure out why you would want to within this character perimeter.

"Mwahahaha!!! I can see your betrayal of you fellows and society. You Have rejected the power of Righteousness and thrown your lot in with the primortals. And here you thought I was a mere fair folk. Hahaha. You pathetic man, Can you not see my true glory? I AM The Shadow of All Things and you will dance to MY Will Puppet!

I'm going to forcibly take control of Thane and enslave him to my will.

Thane, in pure terror, manages to shake you off, but he's definitely rattled. "You are akuma?!"

He snarls quietly. "A shame you didn't tip your hand sooner. If you can feign your death, we can talk later. For now, play along and 'die.'"

His sword still glows bright gold, although you sense no righteousness in it. He delivers one sloppy, easily countered attack that is clearly meant to be something for you to interact with. "NOW YOU DIE, MONSTER!"

The power you would have expended taking control of his will mostly returns to you.

I turn into a being of living shadow and slip behind him and congeal back into myself. I then strike with my newly made sword in a powerful overhand swing charging it with darkness and spite, Hopefully catching him unaware.

He fizzles into sea foam in surprise, some of which freezes as a result of your chilled sword, publicly tipping his hand given the amount of surveillance you are both under. "What are you DOING?!" Thane is furious with you now. "Do you realize what you've done?! Years of work, infiltration, ruining because of you stupid outsiders! You have no place here, and you will not usurp my masters! They know what you are, shinma-spawn, and you will not leave here alive!"

At this point, his weapon glows again, and you feel a strange urge to look at the shiny weapon and get closer...until you reflexively and almost contemptuously decide not to. You also see the underside of his skin beginning to writhe, like he has something alive inside him and under his skin.

OOC: Oh, an extra benefit from wearing the ring. Your ego is so colossal, your willpower increases by a full 1-X value, maxing at 3-10 as normal. If its already 3-10, you gain an overwhelming sense of smug self-satifaction from the knowledge you cannot be more awesome.

"HEheheHA! You shouldn't have attack my Imperial Awesomeness! Now I'm Going to kill you Worm!"

I'll focus on thrusts to keep him out of range while I focus my power into his shadow. Once I've built up enough I'll solidify the shadow into a multitude of spikes to stab him in the back.

OOC: You are terrible at being a villain, which is actually a good sign, in and out of character.

"Look. At. The WEAPON!" He takes a swing at you with each word, not wanting to get to close to your surprisingly heavy weapon. It's rather hard to swing right now, as you sense a sullen mood from the sword. If you had empathy, you might notice it's still chapped about having been told it won't be fighting. Even though it is being used in a fight right now, it's still upset.

You do sense triumph from the ring at your blade's discomfort.

Thane's shadow emerges to stab him as alarms go off, with gold and silver lights crazily dance across your vision, making a strobe effect out of your sword and magic duel. His flesh is torn off his body, and a half-dozen tentacles emerge from where he once was to strike you. You aren't really sure what that...mass that is standing where he was actually is, but your instincts recognize it as Thane, and your hate does not subside.

One of the tentacles picks up his weapon and gurgles speech at you, and the floor begins to melt around it. "I shall dissolve you until there is nothing left, not even a soul. Then I shall poison the memories of you while you were here until nothing remains but pure hatred."

Oddly enough, you sense one more hole in yourself, one you just noticed: your knowledge of Akashic magic is gone. Strange that you would think of that now.

That revelation infuriates me. ALL power is MINE to do what I want with it. I search to see if I still have my mana based magic.

I hang back and only cut the tentacles that get near me. if one grabs me I'll simple escape by turning myself into living shadows and move further away.

He still still has eyes and other body cavities that are filled with shadows. I'll infuse those shadows with my essence. Once I saturate them I'll cause the shadows to burn with a black fire of spite and hatred

Thane is struck, and then begins to glow as appendages with dangling glowing green light emerge from him. "Is that your only trick, little man? Stab it with a solid shadow? I shall-"

A solid beam of light cuts off his increasingly growing form. He screams in pain, and melts through the floor. You hear loud crashing, and you can see the dim glow of lava and feel a rush of heat flooding the room.

"Secure that breach! Scan the magma for life! The akuma may yet live!" You hear a deep voice, and for the first time, you witness a large black man with a plain staff approach. He wears solid white robes, and is escorted by a golden construct.

His light burns, and your instinct calls you to hate, fear and kill this man. "State your side, creature. The fewer words, the better. We have little time."

"I'm on your side." I lie with apparent sincerity

I may want to hate and kill this man for his righteousness but I know that I would die if I fought him now. if not now then I would eventually be worn down by the resources of a world. An I don't do suicide. For all my power I'm ultimately a coward and devoid of virtue. My Foolish other self would be willing to fight a battle that could kill him. But I grew a brain.

This presents a bit of a problem for me. They can see my essence and know that I am The Shadow of All Things. They will hunt me down to kill me. I Could hide from them here but there is an easier way. My foolish other self. Take off the ring and I revert to my foolish self, undetectable to my hated foes. That fool will keep the ring because he deems it to dangerous for anyone else. But he just wants the power for himself. And when his virtue fails him and he deems there is no other way, He will put the ring on and I will be reborn.

With that thought I pull off the ring and put it back into my pocket.

OOC Hopefully that chain of reasoning will help me take the ring off.

It resists, and it is only with tremendous effort that you can remove it. You are physically tired from the mental effort, and you feel so weak now...although you feel your connection to Akashic techniques returning, and potentially with a roar.

The man cocks an eyebrow at you, and points below. Your eyes sense a lot of energy coming from the magma. "If you have any preparations you need to make, I would make them very quickly. That cold weapon...it might help us."

He looks to his companion. "Order an emergency, and get the work crew to dump as much coolant as they can in the disposal."

He smiles back up at you. "Are you in the condition to fight? You...aren't radiating blasphemy anymore. Because you and I have to stop it from leaving this area."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:28, Mon 09 Nov 2015.

...that was an odd and disturbing experiance. When I put that on...myself without morals or virtue...the ring made me like thar. Dangerous but even more dangerous for other people. It's disturbingly accurate when the truth hurts others. But is not completely right.

"...I've fought in worse conditions."

I draw upon the ambient white mana in the city I was in before to cast Holy strength on myself to help me get back into fighting shape.

"Strength born from the Fetters of Righteousness.
Cast down the Wicked with that Might.
Holy Strength!"

"I can probably freeze the entire area down there and encase it in the solid material.
But it'll take me a bit to gather the essence needed to to that and I might explode catastrophically from doing that. Are you willing to take the risk?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:40, Mon 09 Nov 2015.