Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Twinwolf]

"I don't think he ever actually clarified it very well so I have to figure it out myself."

[Strider03]

"No, definitely not on purpose. If I can make it up to you in some way, please let me know." He muttered.

Yuki made her statement.

"Didn't I?" Shef thought he'd explained when they'd first met up, but it did seem possible he'd brushed over it. "Remember the duplicates of us? My training was. . . is? Don't know. My training is to fight the person behind that. Came into the exercise thoroughly blind, and thought a disguise might be useful, so I chose this. Seemed distinct enough from my usual appearance. . ."

"That clear things up?"

[Chevaleresse]

"Alright. Well, the first thing is that I think tracking down that priest would help with the whole. . . starting on fire thing. It'll be easier to deal with everything else if we can track him down. Do you have any idea where he went off to?"

[Empiricist]

Sakurako
So... this concert is a little more uh, casual, than what you're used to. You're not sure if part of Jacqui's gimmick - a perk of having her own little pocket dimension, or just how they do this kinda thing 'round these parts, but it's all arranged more like a lounge or a cabaret with people sitting in comfy seats, around tables, or just standing round drink in hand. Jacqui's positioned up on the stage, visage broadcast through the screens, voice cast through the speakers. It's a lot less hectic than your typical concert. For now anyways, the mix of an open bar and free movement is a volatile combination and presence of her minions certainly do not assure you.

Lights cascade through the twisted metal and broken sky. Constructs raise up on the stage behind her, the visual kick in. Still for all she has at her disposal, all that magic, all those resources, it's all muted, low key. It's there so it's not just her standing on stage singing, but if you had to guess, that really was the focus at the end of it all. The show begins with a piano love ballad. You've got to admit, she's got heart. You're not sure whose heart, but she's a got a lot of it.

Your team has positioned their share of the "totally-not-going-to-go-on-a-rampage" bots behind the stained glass, the boundaries between the world outside and backstage where you currently reside. Gives a good distributed view of the place, plus it means you can move them in to triage a situation ahead of your own arrival.

No problems just yet but you've gotten eyes on the target. He's currently sipping a soda under the Tree of Treachery, Broken Promises and the Endless Torment of Eternal Damnation. The client is nowhere in sight.

"<Hmm weird, I'll give her a call.>"
"<You don't think she bailed on us do you?>"
"<Would she really?>"
"<Maybe, it must be pretty nerve-wracking doing this at a concert. They're beyond the norm by design so it can feel alien from the get go.>"
"<Pink shirt by the fountain.>"
"<Pink shirt by... what?>"
"<We sure that's her?>"
"<Well she's talking into a phone so...>"
"<Hold on, I'll tell her to brush her hair.>"
"<Yup definitely her.>"

...What the hell is she thinking? It's all fine and good to try and doll yourself up. Hell maybe in this weird world of sorcery and witchcraft putting on an illusion to calm the nerves might be reasonable. But she's, she's illusioned herself up alright. She's illusioned herself up into a cute boy!

"<Why's she disguised as dude?>"
"<She says she was thinking maybe if she pretended to be a guy it might be easier to become friends with him and figure out things from there.>"

Judging by the fact that she is now face-palming and fidgeting, and on the verge of rolling around on the floor, now that she's said it out loud she's having some serious doubts about this plan of hers.

Okay so. The rational, logical, grounded in reality part of you says, no, no that is not going to work. That is some irrational "sounds like a plan til you take a step back and realize it's fucking moon logic" sorta deal right here. Meanwhile the intuitive genre-savvy part of you can see where this crazy train ends up. It ends up in chapter five hundred and fifty fucking seven with a now sexually-confused Remigio realizing that he might have feelings for his best friend and wingman (who is obviously just Charlotte) especially now after a contrived series of coincidences at the school festival placed said friend in a maid outfit all while Charlotte has to deal with the fact that one of her friends has a major crush on her cross-dressing alter ego.

Though of course, looking at the map, at this rate NEITHER OF THESE THINGS WILL HAPPEN ANYWAY AT THIS RATE because she's like, halfway across the bloody venue from Remigio.

Shef and Yuki
"Um... I think I'm missing some context here..."

[Strider03]

"Training exercise. Was told I had to assist Noriko and Yuki with getting out of Kingshaven without them knowing of my presence, and had an unknown adversary that would try to stop me, and I was also unknown to them. Thought I could pull something off with multiple appearances. But the situation changed, because Noriko left, so now I'm just fighting these students with Yuki." But he was still using the illusion, and he wasn't sure how to answer why. It'd worked out with the fight against the playwright, but that hadn't really been planned.

Maybe it was more of a cautionary thing right now, lending a sense of security.

[Empiricist]

Noriko
"<...We don't know. He suddenly ran off.>"
"<Maybe someone else here saw him?>"
"<Or the staff if he passed by them.>"
"<He has an office in the chapel too, perhaps we could have a look around...>"

Shef
"Oh, that makes-" SUDDENLY EVERYTHING IS PAIN AND YOU CAN'T SEE SHIT. YOUR EYES BURN. IT FEELS LIKE AN ENTIRE LEMON TREE IS FUCKING YOUR EYE SOCKETS. YOU TRY TO COUGH YOU TRY TO BREATH BUT INSTEAD OF AIR YOU GET WHAT FEELS LIKE LIQUID NAPALM.

Pepper spray. It's fucking pepper spray. The Awakened equivalent anyways. And right now your head is stuck in a fucking bubble of it. Can't tell how much damage it's doing. Only thing you've got to go off of is the pain and that's hardly a reliable indicator. You've got Yuki with you anyways, can always get her to heal you.

You force your eyes open. Pain. Part of you wishes you didn't do that. The same part of you that wants you to crawl into a hole, curl up into a ball. That dumb animal instinct part of your brain. You've gotten good at ignoring it. It hurts like a bitch sure, but it's going to keep hurting unless you pull the plug on this spell and to do that you've got to find the source.

[Now Playing:

Maul

]

You can barely see anything, through the tears, through the rippling surface. You can see enough though, the aura of the spell, and in the crowd an aura that matches it.

Sounds are twisted, distorted through the filter of fluid. The noise of the crowds, Hanako's voice. You can't make anything else. But above it all, above the the noise, above the pain, you hear something, a voice breathy, sultry, ringing in your brain.

"<You've been a very bad boy and bad boys need to be prosecuted, to the full extent of the law~>"
Oh god, what fresh hell is this?

There's some attacks inbound now too. Five projectiles airbursting into a scatter of munitions around you and Yuki, the resulting submunitions are pretty low velocity though.

Must have some degree of control to them too - Hanako's caught up in this too, if they hit her it's game over for them.

Yuki
So uh, all of a sudden this fucking bubble of liquid appears around Shef's head and he doesn't look like he's having a very good time. You send some healing his way reflexively really but it doesn't work - it's not really hurting him. Like it looks like it's unpleasant as all hell, but he doesn't seem to really be taking damage from it.

Several magic circles fly up out of the crowd, scattering through the skies high above.

A figure leaps out of a second story window and what the fuck is he wearing? He looks like he just walked off the set of Jesus Christ Superstar, the 2000 edition. He's got this modified SS officer's coat that billows dramatically behind him, worn open as to reveal what lies beneath, namely a fully sculpted muscle cuirass, what appears to be a pro-wrestling title belt, and a sparsely armored pair of trousers. His headwear is similarly eccentric, a pair of shutter shades and a beret with two badges on it. He strides forwards towards you an aura of confidence about him, which well yeah, you'd need to be pretty fucking confident to walk around wearing that. In his hands he brandishes a large curved sword, a kriegsmesser you think, Minato mentioned them before you recall, said they're very good for cutting.

Two people join him from the crowd forming up at his flanks. Honestly compared to him their attire's pretty damn tame. There's a lively girl in a colorful stage magician's outfit with a pair of rabbit ears and a tophat. There's a youthful boy wearing a cloak a few sizes too big and doing his damnedest to look even smaller.

It's the magician that initiates the attack, springing a deck of cards between her hands and launching the top five at you and Shef. They were in order the Ten of Hearts, the Ace of Clubs, the Jack of Clubs, the Five of Spades, and the Seven of Hearts. It's a pretty chaotic scatter that becomes only more chaotic as each card detonates mid-air into a scatter of projectiles looking exactly like their respective suits. Thankfully the velocities are fairly low, you could probably weave between them, if you y'know gave a fuck about dodging or had much practice with them.

The swordsman meanwhile just stands there as if waiting for your charge, readied to protect his comrades.

Spoiler: Worldlines (click to show/hide)

Shef
Status: Fine, his head is inside an orb of pepper spray, 9 cached portals
World Line: 2 1 5 3 1 5 4 4 3 3
Alterations: 5
Resolve: 2

Yuki
Status: Fine, some shielding
World Line: 6 4 5 2 4 3 4 5 3 2
Alterations: 5
Resolve: 2

Bashful Lurker
Status: Fine
Details: Hiding behind the Sanguine Swordsman.

Domineering Assailant
Status: Fine
Details: In the crowd, maintaining an orb of pepper spray around Shef's head.

Plucky Magician
Status: Fine
Details: Firing exploding playing cards at Hanako, Shef, and Yuki.

Sanguine Swordsman
Status: Fine
Details: Standing before the Bashful Lurker and Plucky Magician as to protect them.

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

[Strider03]

As the liquid engulfed his face, Shef stumbled backwards, struggling against the gut instinct to pull his hands up, as his lungs and eyes seared. Priority one was extinguishing this effect. He knew the source, and then he heard the attackers voice, or so he inferred. What the hell was wrong with everyone?

<I want my lawyer.> Shef thought. Normally he wouldn't have deigned to respond, but there was a goal here. Could he keep this communication channel open? The enemy had decided, for some reason, that they wanted to be in his mind. That would be a mistake.

He could see, vaguely, his target. Good enough to open fire at least. Four shots, center of mass, and timed precisely with it, a command. If this person wanted a conduit directly to his mind, they'd sure as hell be getting it.

Open fire on the assailant, single portal to get the bullets up above the crowd and descend at the target, activate requiem taking advantage of the mental connection, and time it to impact with the bullets. Command is to dispel the pepper spray effect. If this works and Shef's vision is cleared, fire expulser round at the swordsman to get him out of Yuki's way. One cached portal to move Shef a bit out of the way of some of the card attacks, and others applied as necessary to deal with any that are still approaching.

[2+2] 1 5 3 1 5 4 4 [3] 3

[Chevaleresse]

"I see. . ." It probably wasn't going to be that easy to track him down. Maybe finding him would be easier after another thing was taken care of. "Yeah, I can go in and look around. Maybe I'll make progress towards the other issues, too."

[ragnarok97071]

Okay, so... good and bad things.

Good thing, the mark probably wouldn't be as on guard around another dude and to be honest with how her life has gone recently relying on anime tropes for success might as well be normal.

Okay, so, uh, try to herd the two of them together?"

she'd look around to try to locate some kind of landmark or otherwise something to orient based on, likely somewhere roughly in the region of the middle of the two or toward the mark. after all, herding the lovestruck girl would be... easier. Probably.

[Twinwolf]

"Hey, we just finished the last fight! Another already?" Yuki didn't actually sound at all upset by this, more just a commentary before she charged them with the chainsaw.

Start a black arrow going into the crowd, don't trigger until either finding for sure the guy attacking Shef; if he's not stupid enough to trigger it then have it flank around to come at the enemy from the side. Yuki herself, charges forward, dashing past sword dude and going in on the Magician. Also, start up Chain Lightning.

[Powder Miner]

Faith

Mind controlled people, a mysterious elite enemy, snipers, and more of those heavy burst missiles incoming... well, to be blunt, that was a lot of bad shit. In fact, it was rather too much bad shit to deal with at once, and Faith realized that she very clearly wasn't going to be slugging it out with all of it at once. There was really only one reasonable thing to do, and that was to get the hell out of dodge for the moment and ready up for what she assumed was going to be a much more difficult fight, since actual competence did appear to be involved. ...shit, she hadn't even been hit once so far, had she? That was probably going to change if she let it.

Faith tilted sharply downwards and dove, jetpack thrusters burning at maximum capacity, right out of the blast zone (albeit leaving her detection field where it was) and hopefully too quickly for the sniper to, well, snipe her or whoever was rolling around taking out her less impressive allies out of the picture to find and catch her, much less whoever was doing mind control. But that wasn't the only thing that she was doing to maintain her safety -- a shimmering yellow shield also popped up in existence around her rapidly-hurtling body as well. She did admittedly worry that this would serve as a beacon, to some extent, but she was just going to have to hope that the fog was capable of shrouding her, because she didn't relish the idea of getting sniped without a shield up.

At the same time as all this, Faith communicated, a finger to her ear at her communicator since it wasn't like she actually needed free hands beyond the one currently holding her wand to do her magic. The first thing she sent was a private message to her various AI-and-cat sources of information:
Eagle 4 Sailor Sun <<"Fluffles, Winter, Enn, keep me posted best you can about the sniper in particular! I think I can probably both best take a crack at him and am worst-equipped to deal with getting surprised by him!">>
And then she sent another private message to Eagle Squadron:
Eagle 4 Sailor Sun <<"I'm diving! You should all probably follow me and put up defensive measures -- there is WAY too much going on to sit around, so we'll need to prepare some!">>

Faith rapidly dives, and puts up a Shield of Courage! ...Alteration the 2 to a fuckin' 3 and use it.
World Line: 4 6 4 2-->3 4 1 1 4 5 5

Distance
Eagle 2 ♡Nemesis♡ <<"Sounds good to me! No magical girl, even a SINISTER magical girl, abandons her companions!! Spaaaace Barrier Area Deflection!!!">>

With that rather blocky declaration, Distance swiftly followed suit, although she was much less concerned about the current situation than was Faith. Sure, the whole thing had honestly really pissed her off, but she was made for this sort of thing, and she was undeniably a whooole lot more powerful than the poor bastards getting knocked away left and right by those mysterious squad guys. Plus, these guys were all loser supervillains anyway! Bad style, bad behavior, really, she didn't know where they got off thinking that they were cool and real supervillains. So why be afraid of them? She had the skill, she had the inclination, she could definitely chump these losers.

The defensive measure that Distance put into place as she dove was a bit less direct than the one Faith was using, but it was a lot wider, and if anyone DID take a shot, she would be protecting probably the whole squadron! Specifically, she introduced subtle and wide twists and eddies in the spatial fabric of the area around them -- each twist large enough in width that nobody in the squadron would be getting torn apart or hurt, and subtle enough in magnitude that nobody would end up getting turned around, but enough in overall effect to twist bullets and rays and other projectiles out of their initial alignment just enough to almost certainly miss whoever they were aimed at.

Distance sets up a wide spatial distortion field around the squadron as she dives, subtly deflecting projectiles! (Hopefully! (If it's even needed!))
World Line: 6 1 3 4 6 2 3 4 6 1

[cronos5010]

Quickly turning tail to escape incoming fire, Immanuel gathers his swords around him before launching his way out to relative safety.

Immanuel dives out of harms way, and alters his 1 to a more respectable 2.

[Empiricist]

Shef and Yuki

Spoiler: Rolls (click to show/hide)

Shef: 4, Hyper[3]
Yuki: 6, Hyper[5]

Bashful Lurker: 6, Hyper[R]
Domineering Assailant: 3, Hyper[4]
Plucky Magician: 6, Hyper[4]
Sanguine Swordsman: 4, Hyper[3]

[Now Playing:

Maul

]

So Shef, you force your will through the channel and the bubble bursts. Fresh air floods your lungs and for a brief moment you can see a pale line tracing between you and your target. The line snaps as does your channel. Four rounds crash down. Maybe you hit them, maybe you didn't; you can't tell - the moment they stopped that spell the moment their signature vanished. Target's disappeared back into the crowd. Great and you still can't see shit. effects are fading fast - benefits of your Awakened nature. Not fast enough though, you decide to save the Expulser round for later, no need to waste the shot right now. Bullets those you can track at least based off their magic. You portal open to the side, snapping open a second cache to catch a few stray shots. Hanako's presence vanishes for a moment. Right, phasing, is that why you couldn't sense her earlier? Still the shots are slow. Painfully slow. Her phasing doesn't cover her for long enough and she takes a hit. There's a faint flash and a connection?

No damage taken. Hmm...

Yuki charges forwards. A bullet brushes towards her side. A connection and then, discharge. A hit staggers her, not the heaviest hit, her shield took the hit for her but it's enough to stagger her a bit, and enough for two more bullets to find their marks. Two more connections and a whole load of nothing. So that's it. Those bullets don't really have a payload per se, they just establish a link to something, and that something if it hits is what does the hurting. End result, they could fire it right at you three confident it wouldn't just randomly nail Hanako. By the looks of it, whatever it's tied to has a limited power supply, it needs to recharge after a proper discharge. Good to know.

Yuki you don't have edgy red eyes so you don't notice any of this, you just keep on trucking and lunge forwards with your chainsaw, course with their positioning and that glancing blow throwing you off, you find yourself facing down the Sanguine Swordsman rather than the Plucky Magician.

He raises his blade as you cleave downwards. Sparks fly as steel grinds against steel, he doesn't take your blow head on though, he lets your blade shift the angle of his own, redirecting your strike away from his body. Your chainsaw craters the ground as he in the same motion brings his sword against the side of your neck.

Ow! He got you! You think! it's kinda hard to tell because if he did you've actually already fully healed from it at this point. He's uh, not got the most damaging swings it seems, and with your black arrow's search through the crowd kinda invalidated by the whole the "Shef doesn't really have a lock on the perp" thing you bring it back around, going for the flank.

So now the magician tosses another spread of cards, the Five of Diamonds, the Queen of Clubs, the Seven of Diamonds, the Three of Diamonds, and the Five of Hearts. They all burst into projectiles that are kinda just saturating the entire area. You, her, the swordsman, and the Lurker.

Speaking of which the swordsman is now just trying to kick out your legs from under you while the Lurker kinda just clutches his coat close and aims a sci-fi looking pistol at you. They seem to be completely neglecting Shef and the pepper spray person is still at large.

High above, the magic circles begin to grow, the sigils in their centers expanding fractally in patterns reminiscent to those of snowflakes.

Spoiler: Worldlines (click to show/hide)

Shef
Status: Fine, pepper spray is wearing off, expulser readied, 7 cached portals
World Line: 1 5 3 1 5 4 4 3 2 3
Alterations: 3.5
Resolve: 2

Yuki
Status: Fine, slightly winded, minor shielding, Chainsaw Lightning, Teleportation Arrow flanking the Sanguine Swordsman
World Line: 4 2 4 3 4 5 3 2 6 3
Alterations: 4.5
Resolve: 2

Bashful Lurker
Status: Fine
Details: Hiding behind the Sanguine Swordsman and aiming at Yuki.

Domineering Assailant
Status: Unknown
Details: In the crowd.

Plucky Magician
Status: Fine
Details: Deploying exploding playing cards at her position, potentially catching herself, Yuki, the Bashful Lurker, and the Sanguine Swordsman

Sanguine Swordsman
Status: Fine
Details: Trying to kick Yuki's legs out from under her.

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

This is where Yuki's melee descriptors work against her, since the swordsman actually knows some swordplay letting him ward off Yuki's regular attacks despite having a lower stat for this sort of thing.

[Strider03]

Shef blinked, clearing his eyes as much as possible. Those in front of him weren't moving particularly fast, so he wouldn't need to focus, just be able to track outlines. He wouldn't be able to find the assailant in the crowd right now, not without playing a card he wanted to keep close to his chest, and even then it would be a bit of a gamble. Better to wait for the next attempt to blind him or similar, and make a concerted effort to get hits on them. A serious risk that they were setting up something dangerous, but he'd have to live with that.

The projectiles were interesting, but he couldn't make heads or tails out of them right now.

For now, Shef decided to devote himself to making sure that Yuki would not be triple-teamed. Expulser was loaded and ready, so he'd be able to fire that instantly, followed by something a little more damaging.


Expulser on the swordsman to open a path up for Yuki, aim a bit to try to blast him into some of the projectiles. Yeah they probably won't hurt, but whatever. Since expulser is already readied, use Rapid Fire [4] on the Magician. Requiem the lurker to use maximum power in his shot, then portal to catch the lurker's shot and send it into the magician.
[1+3] 5 3 1 5 4 [4] 3 2 3

[Twinwolf]

Well, the flank will work well enough! Keep the arrow going and hopefully hit the swordsman when he's not expecting it. After shef shoots him and hopefully gets him out of the way, try and charge down the magician before the swordsman can stop the attack, or if he didn't get knocked away just try to beat down the swordsman. Also, toss a non-hyper heal Shef's way.

World Line: [4] 2 4 3 4 5 3 2 6 3