The Solutions Man

RP blog for William Strife, CEO of Strife Solutions. If you have a problem, I can solve it - for a price. ((tag me as corporateeviloverlord. icon/sidebar by jury)) M!A: None

[guitarvis]

Day … ? Day 1, I guess

Woke up super groggy today. Might have had something to do with having a ton of cobblestone rubble around and on me. I don’t know where I am – this was some kind of building? Looks like it was blasted apart. Maybe I set off a trap? Sounds about right. I mean, because there are lots of traps in places not because I’m careless or anything like that. I’m pretty sure I’m not, anyway. No, I am definitely not! I am Parvis, the great adventurer! I adventured to this place and ran afoul of a foul trick! Yes, that must have been it.

I think I’ll take a nap now. My head really hurts…

Day 3

Dug some chests out of the rubble. Looks like they got thrown around by the explosion. Someone collected a whole lot of neat stuff! But a lot of it got broken when the place blew up, or came down. There are a whole bunch more buried and shattered chests underneath this mess. I found some bread and old iron armor, and a sword! I’d say that’s a good start to my new adventure: finding out where the heck I am! It must have been one hell of an explosion, there’s debris from one end of the island to another! Oh, yeah, I discovered that I’m on a small island, part two of the mystery! There weren’t any boats at any of the beaches so I’m not sure how I got out here, unless they got wrecked by the explosion too and sank. I’ll have to figure out how to build one. Er, build a new one, that is, because I am a great adventurer! Of course I know how to build a simple boat!

Day 6

I uncovered some stairs but halfway down they were completely blocked up. No telling if there might be a cool treasure down there, or just more broken stuff. If I had more tools I might consider it worthy of excavation, but it looks like a lot of work right now, and I’d rather spend my time searching for boat supplies instead of wasting time on a dead end.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

Day 34.

There’s definitely someone else here. Before, I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but I saw that figure rummaging around the crash site again, humming to himself. He seems awfully cheery for a guy who woke up in a crater.

At least, that’s what I’m assuming. I guess my jetpack must have malfunctioned and exploded on top of this guy’s house - that’s the only reasonable explanation. Doesn’t explain why the crater’s so damn big, though. Nor does it set my mind at ease, knowing that I can’t actually remember what happened. I’ve got to be on top of things.

Hopefully he doesn’t discover my temporary base before I can fix my jetpack and get back to Strife Solutions HQ. I can’t imagine how much my interns must be missing me!

Day 35.

Nothing to report.

Day 36.

Nothing to report.

Day 37.

That guy’s either an idiot or just plain crazy, because I saw him talk to a horse earlier. I’ve got to get out of here as soon as possible. Luckily I found a chest full of all kinds of rare metals - I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I took some of them... all of them... Probably wouldn’t even know how to use them anyway.

Day 38.

Nothing to report.

Day 39.

Considering putting in a bit of extra time to rebuild my Atomic Disassembler. It would slow progress on the jetpack, but it might be useful. You never know what could be lurking out here.

[heronfem]

Gentle reminder that often creativity decides to hibernate for a bit.

It’s okay.  You’re not broken, you’re resting, and much like spring, creativity comes back.

[wilwheaton]

I needed to read this today.

[wnq-writers]

Remember this: There’s a reason why you buried the memories of what used to be deep within you, in places you thought you’d never seek out again. Nostalgia is the enemy, don’t let it dig up old memories and lie to you all over again.

nicole moon (via wnq-writers)

[corporate-evil-overlord]

((sup

apologies for the lack of replies, i’ve been doing things. thats not to say i’ve not had the time, i’m just shit at time management.

i was gonna do some replies tonight but i still have a lot of thinking to do in terms of figuring out what happens when - because like, strife’s not in all these places at once, right? so i need to work out the order in which all these threads are happening, because it’ll affect strife’s reactions.

thanks for being so involved in all this, by the way! i hope you’re all enjoying it. i’ll reveal what really happened soon - hopefully before i go to germany on tuesday...

stay frosty my dudes))

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[parv-parv-parvity-parv-archived]

Parvis frowned, “Will, how do you not remember what blood magic is? You- you were the one that taught me about it.” He said and took a step back, “Are you sure everything is okay?” He asked, ignoring Strife’s further questions

[corporate-evil-overlord]

“Of course I remember what blood magic is!” Strife laughed, as if nothing was wrong. “I just momentarily forgot that you did it. That’s all.”

…This might not be going well.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

Perhaps not the best idea to taunt the other bloodmage, but Parvis doesn’t take the best decisions even when his fight or flight instincts kick in. Matter of fact, he seems to act worse then.

With a bit of effort, the dagger is slipped inside the enderpouch. Now that he doesn’t have to worry about it anymore, he can focus on leaving the madman chasing him behind and- Is that a fireball that barely missed him?!

[corporate-evil-overlord]

Strife is certainly a madman, alright.

Determined to catch him, he pumps all the blood energy he has into getting close to Parv. Bounding over trees, lakes, hills – he doesn’t care how long it takes. He just keeps throwing magic at him in the hope that something’ll hit.

(And down far below them, the other Strife sees a tree burst into flame next to him, hears the carnage from above, thinks Shit, and follows.)

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[skyscouting]

Lomadia blinks. Of all the things that she’d been expecting, that wasn’t one of them. Carefully, she draws her sword.

Silently, she curses the fact that Witchery isn’t so useful in active combat. 

“What happened to the fancy tech?” She asks, to try and stop herself from just… running. It’s been a long time since she’s been in combat with anything more than a monster.

Gripping firmly, Lomadia moves her sword so it points directly at Strife. She doesn’t move to attack further - defence is her priority here, even if this isn’t exactly a regular old sword-fight.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

Strife snorts. “Tech? Oh yeah, you still think I’m the business man, doncha?

“Well, I don’t really have time to explain – things to do – but I’m not the guy that uses tech.”

He swipes at her, experimentally. Testing her reflexes.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

Colour drains from his face when he sees the pure rage written all over the blond’s face. Or, well, whatever still was on his already pale face.

“Who’s the stupid one now, eh?”

Unbound orb still held tightly in his hand, he turns on his his heels and points it at the sky, letting the invisible power drag him into the air.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

With the speed of precision, Strife brings out his own orb and shoots towards the rapidly escaping Parv. His mind isn’t even words now, just furious noise, all directed at him. There’s no way he’s letting this fucker escape.

In mid-air, he puts away his knife in favour of casting miscellaneous spells in Parv’s direction; fire, lightning, anything which could catch him out.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

(intermission)

From somewhere way off, there were voices. There was screaming, and shouting, and threatening whispers; sounds of glass breaking, of stone cracking; fear, surprise, horror, danger, danger-

And Strife woke up.

It took him a moment to realise where he was. His senses were severely dampened, and not just from the way his head throbbed and his whole body ached – he felt like he’d been asleep for months.

And then he looked around, saw the trash all over the floor, the dust, the plants growing in the cracks in the walls, and realised that he had been asleep for months. Everything came to him suddenly. He was in his new (well, new six months ago) blood altar room, the one he didn’t even want, the one he’d hoped he’d never have to build. The place was still a wreck from when the other him had appeared-

The other him who was still here.

Strife got up – on shaking legs, supporting himself against a wall, but up. He stumbled up the stairs into the remains of his tower, threw himself through the door…

And fucking ran.

@recklessbloodmage @skyscouting @parv-parv-parvity-parv @oneheartlessceo @the-demonic-parvis @cruordemonis

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

He is about to reply when the words sink in. Wait wait wait. Backtrack. What was that? Did Will say what the musician thinks he said? And that weird emphasis put on the word I. He’s… He’s not talking to the CEO is he?

The moment he feels that his hands aren’t held in an incredibly tight grip anymore, he rises a hand and pushes the knife wielding hand away while he reaches for his unbound orb with the other one, pointing it forward once he’s sure that he won’t get his head sliced off.

As soon as he’s a safe distance away, Parvis turns around to face the blond and takes his dagger out of his boot, tensing up. He’s not dealing with a normal Will, but rather one that never broke away from blood magic. But how is that possible?

[corporate-evil-overlord]

The spell is cast-

On thin air.

Strife looks up, his face turning into one of pure rage as he realises what’s just happened. This idiot just made things a lot more difficult… for both of them.

“You piece of shit,” he growls, and charges towards Parv, knife raised.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[skyscouting]

Well. Shit.

Really, the best course of action, in Lomadia’s opinion, would just be to get out of there. But it’s fairly obvious that Strife doesn’t want that to happen.

Which sucks, really.

Eyes wide, she slips off her bag. It’ll only weigh her down in the eventuality of a fight, and she doesn’t want it, or its contents, getting damaged.

“Well, I’d rather not fight, if it’s all the same to you.” Her hand still hovers over the hilt of her sword.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

“Me neither. But I’m guessin’ you don’t wanna get hurt either, and that’s what’ll happen if ya don’t,” Strife says, right to the point.

With the non-knife hand, he pulls up his other sleeve, revealing scars which start to glow a fearsome red. He brandishes his knife.

“Your move.”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

“I prefer to be called creative. I ask all the important questions.”

He also prefers to be alive instead of dying at the hands of blood magic (oh, the irony), but it doesn’t look like that wish is going to be granted either.

“Yeah, you are a bloodmage. Not that it makes much of a difference considering that you used to do blood magic back in college. Once a bloodmage, always a bloodmage. Still surprises me that you broke away.”

The tightening grip draws a pained hiss between gritted teeth out of the bloodmage. “Ow, ow, ‘ey! Easy there, I bruise quickly.”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

Strife practically facepalms – or he would have, if he had a hand free from threatening Parv.

“That’s the difference, Parvis,” he hisses. “I never broke away. I never passed Space College. And I’m getting a little bored of this.”

Keeping the knife where it is, he uses his other hand to attempt an incantation, releasing Parv momentarily. The idiot won’t be smart enough to try to escape, anyway.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[parv-parv-parvity-parv-archived]

“Oh, the bandages? They’ve always been there Will, ever since high school and ever since I started blood magic. They just hide my scars and stop me bleeding out, y'know? And uh… I don’t know how to explain the other Parv; he’s just really nice.”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

“Blood magic?” he asked, surprised. Parvis, doing blood magic? Strife wasn’t sure what, but something about that was just wrong. But, shit, that must be normal here. “Oh, uh, yeah! Yeah, I getcha. Sorry, I just forgot for a sec there.”

He smiled calmly. “So anyway, have you been makin’ progress with that? Discover any new rituals?”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

Oh. Oh. Well, crap. Serves him right for being too curious, but at the same time how is he supposed to know when to stop? It’s not like he can suddenly tell that he is about to uncover some dark secrets.

“Aww, how nice of you to congratulate me.”

Laughing in the face of danger; seriously. It was more of a reflex than anything, a way to try to buy himself time in hopes that he can come up with a plan to escape the madman.

“I never said that? You have all those machines and whatnot. You are anything, but helpless.” he tried to defend himself. “And if I am?”

If only he were able to reach for his own dagger. Maybe then he could stand a chance.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

“Wow,” Strife sighs, “you really are an idiot.”

Perhaps he shouldn’t waste time explaining, but what does a villain do other than explain everything to the victim? Makes the death sweeter.

“I’m not the business man,” he stresses, tightening his grip until it hurts. “And you’re not even gonna think about tryna resist me.”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

The moment the smile is gone he knows he’s in trouble. He has asked too many questions, pried a bit too much, stumbled over something he isn’t supposed to know.

He is about to take a step back only to freeze in place when the blond disappears in a flurry of red particles. Will can be anywhere now.

“What the-”

It’s the most he can get out before he feels the cold steel blade against his neck and the solutionist behind himself.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

“Congratulations seem to be in order,” the blood mage Strife whispers in Parv’s ear. He’s got a tough grip on him, the knife a hair’s breadth away from touching his throat. The mask is gone, the pretence dropped. William Strife is an entirely different man now.

“You guessed it, Parv. I’m not the cute, helpless little business man you know,” he growls. “But I’m afraid you’re not gonna find out the rest.”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[skyscouting]

Okay, even if this wasn’t getting more unnerving by the second, Strife giggling is the single most self-contradictory thing Lomadia has ever heard. 

Steady breathing. In, and out. In, and out.

“Maybe I don’t want to answer your question.” Eyes straight ahead, tone firm. “It’s not really any of your business either way.”

One of Lomadia’s hands comes to rest on her hip - barely a few centimetres above the hilt of her sword.

[corporate-evil-overlord]

He snorts. “Alright then. I know the answer anyway.”

And he does – he can feel her blood, pumping through at a speed nobody could get to without being terrified. He can feel her breathing, her failing attempts to calm herself. Oh, this is fun… but more could be happening.

He takes out his knife.

“Quit acting like this ain’t a showdown already,” he snorts. “I can see you reachin’ for that sword.”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

it’s been a while [open starter]

[recklessbloodmage]

“So you came back to magic. Blood magic, the thing you despise the most and for which you berated your poor Parv for yet still helped start it.”

The bloodmage frowns for a moment before he rises an eyebrow. The things he’s gathering from talking to Will don’t add up. Quite the opposite, they seem to contradict themselves.

“What’s your deal?”

[corporate-evil-overlord]

Strife’s smile disappears completely. For a moment, he’d considered keeping up the act, but well – Parvis appears to have noticed that something is up.

And that just won’t stand.

“Yes, Parvis,” he says, his face shifting into a smirk. And then he disappears, leaving wispy red particles in his place.

And then Parv can feel a knife at his throat, with Strife holding him from behind.

“Blood magic.”