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[axiomystic]

Musalodi (Salo) Player Information Player Name Jake Contact vikarmic | Vikarmic#8518 AKA Masego at Sidereal most recently, a long list of dubious wizard boys prior, and an even longer list of monsters. Character Basics Character Name Musalodi Series/Canon Scarlet Odyssey AU/PG/Canon Point Just before the end of Primeval Fire Cottage Moss House Canon Details Before the final battle Character Details Age Roughly 20 Hair/Eyes Dark/faceted rainbow Height/Weight Tall/Thin Notable Traits Always wears a pair of spectacles that are actually magitech artifacts. Eyes are obviously artificial, with faceted rainbow pupils, and don't work particularly well. Prominent tooth gap. Intricate fractal metal tattoos up both arms that sometimes glow or spark red. Probably wearing a shirt and loincloth if given the option. 15 Second Summary Salo grew up an outsider in his village, due to "unmanly" behavior such as a fascination with magic and machines, a distaste for violence and a habit of asking inconvenient questions. Born in a magically-powerful backwater, Salo soon discovers that the world and its magic are far vaster and more dangerous than he ever could have dreamed. After an escalating series of shenanigans including his own death and resurrection, he plays a central role in saving his world and correcting wrongs that have lingered since long before mankind settled his world -- and some that predate their presence in the very galaxy. Abilities & Permissions Abilities Salo is a powerful Red mystic, wielding the six crafts of Storm, Fire, Blood, Earth, Mirror and Void. He's got a vast library of spells to draw on and he's a fair hand, at this point, at working up his own. He can also instinctively perceive and analyze magical energy, even energies that aren't part of Red magic, though if he's not familiar with the paradigm he'll have a harder time. So far he's regained his Void craft (spacetime manipulation). Salo was resurrected as an atmech, or magitech android. While he's mostly close to human standard, he's extremely resilient, heals quickly and cleanly from even the most severe injuries and can instinctively perceive network signals and interface with electronics. He's likely to be able to hack computers and other machine with his brain, particularly if they're magitech, and probably even if they don't have a network interface. Permissions No insect-related stuff or bathroom stuff, please and thank you. Talk to me about cannibalism beforehand. Other than that, keep in touch, especially if things get violent; Salo strongly prefers not to hurt people but he's more than capable, if needed. Sensing Salo's senses extend into network signals and radio waves; he can probably overhear phone conversations and Internet traffic. He's got excellent magic perceptions so he can see/sense any of that that's going on too. Anyone with a sense for machines or magic can tell fairly easily that he's a soul attached to a construct body, although one that mimics human functionality in almost all respects. There's a crystal in his brain that's his actual seat of consciousness, and there are enchanted metals all through his body. His spectacles are finely enchanted (they actually bypass his eyes and project images directly into his optic nerves). The very skilled observer may pick up that his ruby pendant is also a potent artifact of some kind. Memory Registry Positive Significant • Seventh birthday with his mother • First time in orbit • Casting his first spell • Reuniting with Ilapara • Reuniting with Tuk • Regaining his Axiom Positive Trivial • Stealing a library of spellcraft • Niko dreams • Sparring with constructs • Messing around in Ziyo's mind construct • Settling in on the Ataraxis • Saving other atmechs from the Professor's experiments • Talking arcane theory with Nimana • Hanging out with Monti Neutral Significant • Waking up as an atmech in a ruined city • Facing the redhawk for the first time • The Book of Lies • Facing the lake: "I want to try anyway" • The final trial, rejecting the gods • Saving the king from underworld spirits • Leaving on his pilgrimage • Communing with the Lightning Bird • "But you don't have to be." (Confronting the Maidservant) • Agreeing to help the King Neutral Trivial • Days of frustration trying to master enchantment • Tour of the Academy • Giving Tuk his blessing • Fixing the mill, again • Meeting Ilapara • Nursing a wounded monitor lizard back to health • Meeting Tuk, buying out a slave auction • Meeting the Imperial siblings in a library Negative Significant • His mother's first cruelty • His mother's final cruelty • The attack on the kraal • Monti's funeral • The riots • His first death Negative Trivial • Brothers being assholes • Discovering what happened to the slaves he freed • Everyone disowning him • The Professor's "experiments" • Running from scavengers Skills • Atmech characteristics • Void basics • Mirror basics • Storm basics • Earth basics • Fire basics • Blood basics • Library access • Higher Red • Ziyo • Ancestral talent • Archery • Survival

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The attack on the kraal

[axiomystic]

Salo is playing matje (a strategic board game that never really gets described) with a younger boy, Monti, who he sees as almost a little brother, when they both hear a horrible shriek from outside the little shed they're sitting in. Salo looks out the window, but doesn't see anything unusual; he tells Monti that he's going to walk him home anyway. Monti agrees with unusual alacrity, and the two of them lock up the shed and go outside.

Immediately, they both spot a writhing mass of inky darkness in the sky above the kraal -- a mystic's hypnotic Seal, presenting the image of an infinitely black sphere with a prismatic corona. The Seal imparts the knowledge of its owner -- a terrible warlord with one red-burning eye, seated on a throne of shadows, whose army has plundered far and wide. Monti asks Salo who it is, and why he's here, but Salo tells him to hurry and not think about it. They've almost reached the gravel road that winds through the kraal when dust begins to rise from the earth in front of them.

The dust forms a twisted human skeleton, with grotesquely elongated arms and talon-like fingers, seven feet tall and shrouded by dust. White flames burn in its skull and lick out its eye sockets. Salo recognizes it from stories -- a tikoloshe, summoned by black magic from one of the realms of the underworld. The tikoloshe turns to the boys, and Salo grabs Monti and runs.

They run into the heart of the kraal, pursued by the same horrible shriek that first alerted them that something was wrong. Another tikoloshe manifests itself in front of a woman on her way back from drawing water and rips her apart; Salo is overwhelmed by horror, but manages to keep running with Monti until the younger boy trips and drops his matje case. Salo picks him up bodily, despite his protests, and keeps running until they encounter three spear-wielding men in red loincloths: Ajaha rangers.

Salo asks their leader, who he calls Aba D, what's going on, and learns that a Umadi witch bypassed their defenses and is responsible for the creatures. The rangers assure the boys that they'll handle her, and Aba D orders Salo to get Monti to safety despite his questions. The boys don't run, though; they watch as the three rangers fan out, looking for their enemy.

A swarm of flies, moving with a single purpose, hovers above them, and Salo shouts a warning too late; the swarm smashes into one of the rangers, hurling him into a tree. Aba D shouts for the boys to run, which they do, but the swarm follows them, reconstituting itself into a naked woman -- tattooed on every inch of skin, cosmic shards blazing, eyes burning red and teeth filed to points. Salo switches to the Umadi language and asks why she's doing this, what they've done to her, but she doesn't respond before Aba D slams into her with his shield, the power bestowed on him by the queen of the Yerezi making him far faster and stronger than any mortal man.

It's not enough. The witch toys with him, hurling a spear of distorted space as she drifts around half-corporeal, then summoning more tikoloshe, but Aba D is undeterred. He charges his enemy as Salo and Monti finally run.

With warriors battling tikoloshe and worse everywhere around them, the two boys make it to the heavily warded chieftan's hut, which Salo seals. Safe for now, the boys listen fearfully to the sounds of carnage outside. Monti is understandably traumatized, and Salo fails to reassure him. Eventually Monti asks Salo why he isn't out there, fighting; why he isn't a ranger like his brothers. Salo's answer is weak; it's a question that hurts him, and his explanation that some people have other talents than fighting rings hollow. Monti calls him a siratata, a really nasty gendered insult, and Salo tries to reason with him; it only makes the boy more determined, and he says that he's going outside to fight.

Salo grabs his temper with both hands and tries to talk him out of it, claiming that he'd be a bad friend if he let Monti go. Monti seems to accept this, but tricks Salo into leaving him unwatched and slips out through a window. Salo runs after him, through a dozen scenes of murder, past the bodies of people he's known all his life, and just as he's nearly to Monti's hut, he hears a shriek and sees a tikoloshe disembowel a young boy.

It throws Monti's body aside, and Salo runs to him, cradling the boy's ruined body in his arms. The tikoloshe approaches, raising a talon to strike again, but he doesn't move.

Monti is dead, and it's his fault.