Posted December 19, 2019 [U and R - Sector 1 -North Midsection] What.... The hell... Riza looks around as she notice the newcomer had vanished. She raises her eyebrow. "...Did anyone else... No, never mind that. We should move." Riza had been rather quiet as they walked, listening to Seto and Hibiki. She notices the other group of people getting closer and closer as they approached, and she keeps her hand on her holster just in case. The other group notices them, and the one in the uniform- which she notices (much to her disappointment) is not Amestrian, speaks up as soon as they arrive. “Hello. Do any of you know where this is, or what that is?” To which Riza shakes her head. "I'm afraid not." Her hands move to her hips, noting how strange it is to be in the appearance of what appears to be an officer without her usual jacket. While she doesn't feel any immediate threat from these people, her hands should still be in a place where she can reach a fun at a moment's notice. Still, she gives the man with the two-colored hair a polite smile. Her instincts betray her as her right hand moves into a salute, her fingertips neatly in line with the point of her eyebrow. Agh, curse your training. You don't even know what rank he is. "First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye," she introduces herself. Utakata raises an eyebrow. He doesn't recall anyone introducing themselves- this Riza woman already seems to have one up on all of them in the manners department. Riza puts her hand back to her hip and looks at the strange.... mechanical.... Thing. Still, as many times as she tries, she can't pinpoint what kind of monstrosity that thing is. "I'm afraid I'm no mechanic, I cannot figure out what that behemoth is, either. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be close to attacking right now." Still, I don't like it. She furrows her brow staring at the monstrosity and shakes her head. "Still... We can speak as we walk. I'd like to get away from that thing as soon as possible." Utakata looks over at the significantly smaller, and yet equally strange, metal figure. It seems as though it calmed down a little bit, but it still moved in an anxious matter. Curious, Utakata takes his pipe, opens the tube of solution, and blows a singular bubble in the metal thing's direction. He wonders what it'll do- will it calm down? Will it follow the bubble? He then glances at the man who healed him. Oh huh... He has a rather sharp jawline... He doesn't even process the observation for a few minutes, until he blinks in surprise. Did I just...? Bah. Get out of your head, Utakata, it's nothing. He crosses his arms over his chest after he closes the tube and puts the pipe away. It's hard for him to process everything in front of him, but he does his best to take a look at the newcomers- a small, horse like creature catches his attention for a moment. He notices a small young woman, around her teenage years, who seems rather friendly at a first glance. the woman who talks to the healer gives off a more intimidating vibe, her deep brown eyes indicating that she's not here to make friends- but to kick ass and take names. The third human in the squad is a tall man not too far away, giving off an air of arrogance that Utakata doesn't particularly like. Then he closes his eyes and nods. "Yeah, I'd second that. Though from the look of those mountains, I have a bad feeling if it decides to move forward..." As if we could be trapped inside this area... That makes him rather nervous. "Worst comes to worst, we'd need to get over that thing." He takes a few steps forward, away from the giant- whatever in the name of all things good it is- signaling that he'd like to get walking as soon as possible. The feeling of impending doom settles in his gut- even if he's not home... He knows that the danger is far from over. Share this post Link to post
Posted December 19, 2019 Seto Kaiba <Status: Stable> <Active Monster(s): N/A> Hibiki Tachibana <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Inactive> <Location: Sector 1 - Midsection> <People: Hibiki | Riza | Mystical | Utakata | Renarin | Neea | Rude> ~~ Kaiba had to blink a few times when the newcomer had vanished as quickly as she had appeared. Whatever caused this warp must still be unstable, he thought to himself. Maybe it'd bring a card or two of his back to him? Ha, I wish. “Hello. Do any of you know where this is, or what that is?” "No, and no," Kaiba simply answered. He hated not knowing the answer to either question, but he also hated lying. Still, he bristled slightly; these people were actually three people and a machine of some sort. The man he'd just answered had two hair colors, one other had blond hair... What is he wearing?! Kaiba rubbed his eyes at the last one. Either he'd been pulled back about 400 years, or this person had been brought forward, but even so, did he have no shame in how he appeared? And how was blowing a bubble going to help against that gigantic metal monstrosity in the distance? Kaiba put these thoughts out of his mind. Now wasn't the time for them (but by god, did this person's horrid fashion sense irritate him). "By the way, my name is Seto Kaiba." Hibiki smiled at all the others - so many new people! So many potential new friends! She still wanted to get back to her old friends as soon as possible, but for now, she may as well enjoy herself. "I'm Tachibana Hibiki! It's nice to meet you all!" Both she and Kaiba listened as the man in the kimono spoke. Kaiba had to admit, he had a point, and the Duelist had a sinking feeling about it moving and trapping them. "Worst comes to worst, we'd need to get over that thing." He wasn't wrong in that regard. If push came to shove, Kaiba knew he could always use his flying Duel Monsters to help them get over, but he'd consider that option if they were actually trapped. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon. Share this post Link to post
Posted December 20, 2019 [ Sector: Two ] [ Location: Burned Lands ] [ Nearby People: Dio, Veigas, Malefor's Forces ] Veigas’s overconfident comment was ridiculous enough to elicit a chuckle out of Raven. “I’m sure she’d appreciate the challenge,” Raven said. He had to subdue an amused smirk from forming. “She’s complained about not having someone worthy to fight for a long time now.” Not to mention, watching Lu beat down someone who underestimated her combat prowess would be incredibly entertaining, but, alas, now was not the time to entertain such thoughts. Before, Raven had concluded they needed to speak to the strangers before preparing for battle. Upon spotting Raven and his companions, the strange creatures had taken out their weapons and unlatched the restraints on the two largest creatures. Any thoughts of peace or misunderstanding went out the window as Raven saw one of the creatures, the leader perhaps, point its weapon at Raven which in turn led to the group speeding up their approach. The enemy was upon them. Raven’s companions were quick to react. He watched with faintly veiled interest as both demons summon their weapons in a show of purple electricity and a quick display of their weapons’ might. Raven was was more than a little surprised when Dio turned to him for instruction. Both of the demons had made it clear they were highly ranked back in their home realm and, based on Raven’s personal experiences, Raven knew that demons were a rather prideful species. He had expected Dio, or at the very least Veigas, to try and take control of the situation. If he was being honest with himself, Raven had expected them both to be harder to work with, but he was glad to see his prejudice was proven wrong. Before, Raven had concluded they needed to speak to the strangers before preparing for battle. Upon spotting Raven and his companions, the strange creatures had taken out their weapons and unlatched the “We’ll see how many can reach us alive,” Raven said. He glanced over at the bird still perched on his arm. She took the hint and swiftly launched herself into the air and began circling overhead. Steam poured out of Raven’s arm as the orange cracks in between the metal of his arm began to glow intensively. Heat began rushing down the Nasod arm, pooling at the bright, circle in the middle of Raven’s palm. Raven took in a single deep breath and then began to sprint towards the group. He leaped up onto a nearby rock and flung himself into the air. He raised his Nasod arm straight at the approaching enemies as fire began bursting out of its cracks. The flames coalesced at the palm of his hand until it formed into a singular, large ball of fire. There was a small click, and then the ball launched out of the arm in the form on a long, flaming harpoon. There was little time for the enemies to react. The harpoon bolted straight towards the group, landing just in the center of it. Three of the smaller creatures burnt to a crisp upon impact. Two of the more human-sized creatures were scarred by the flames, and the one of the larger creatures was unlucky enough to have its entire shoulder seared by the flames. Most of the others were fanning out the fire that got too close for comfort or were hurriedly trying to kill out the flames before it signed them further. Few were untouched by the fire and were now glaring at Raven and his demon companions with fury in their eyes. Raven landed back on the ground and took several steps back to rejoin the demons. If a single attack was enough to wipe a few of them out, then Raven would hopefully not have to worry about overheating his arm’s core. If it came to that then he’d really be in trouble. Share this post Link to post
Posted December 20, 2019 (edited) Neea The Sniper model simply watched the newcomers warily. The first one to respond was the one with blond fluff. It spoke very curtly, before - seemingly involuntarily - flattening its hand and moving it up to its face, and saying something. Neea squinted as its voice filtered in and out. What's that? Interference? She moved one rifle and swiped the side of her face, wondering if a bug or a piece of dirt was in one of her microphones, but didn't notice anything dislodge. The peculiarity didn't go in and out of silence, either; rather, Xinschi-uual words! Maybe she was just picking up what she thought was words out of whatever this person was saying... something about a behemoth, and walking? There was nothing to indicate that's what the person actually said, other than the fact that there was a giant drone in the distance... The interference went away when the blue-robed one started talking; the supposed dimorphism, coupled with how the blond one's voice being a higher range than this one's, made Neea assume that one was male and the other female. Or they weren't, but they were definitely different from each other, and the associations would work until the machine figured out what these people were. The people continued talking, showing budding trust, but Neea's observation of them paused when the robed one conjured something out of a long tube with a flared end. The object bobbed, as unstable in itself as the nearby blob creatures were, before it released and floated toward her. The mech automatically stepped back, curious, but a little bit concerned. A bubble? She didn't know they could float around at that size! She had only seen them in pneumatic tubes while helping other mechs with plumbing maintenance; that or very small bubbles in cleaners or surface applicants, like paint or sealers. What's this one made of that made its surface tension so strong? Did these people use it as a replacement for elastic? That would be an amazing tale for her friends back at home. A society that uses liquid tension as elastic...! Assuming I'll ever go home, she acknowledged, eye fluttering with sadness for a second. She flashed her scanner over the bubble before it floated into her and popped, but didn't pick up encouraging data. Scanning her arm where it left a soapy residue didn't reveal much, either. Mostly because she still didn't understand half the compounds the other mechs did. Still, she tried to find the silver lining: the fact that these people knew a compound she didn't made her hopeful that they also possessed the technology to know what's going on, and how to send her back to Zirhon. She couldn't be gone for long... the others would worry about her, assuming they escaped that raid... Of COURSE they escaped the raid. They knew where the tunnels were, she told herself, they're fine. They're always fine. "I'm Tachibana Hibiki! It's nice to meet you all!" Neea was abruptly thrown back into reality at the high, cheerful voice. She looked up in shock at the girl who spoke, who wore yellow and had a smile matching her tone. She didn't know if "Tachibanahibiki" was her full name, or if one of those was a different word, but the rest of those were definitely words, and they made sense! "You know Xinschi?!" Neea blurted out, not realizing that she was now understood by the others as well. "Have you-?! Are we...?" The excitement suddenly died as the mech reconsidered the girl's allegiance. Did she know Xinschi because she met the Empire, or has she met the rebels? Sadly, it was important to know which faction. The other mechs all marveled at how Neea didn't look as neglected as they did, and claimed she could "pass for a proper combat model", so if the girl only knew the Empire she might be able to pose as a lost soldier, instead of immediately declaring "I'm a rebel!" and suddenly finding herself imprisoned... After her tense, awkward pause, Neea lamely ended with, "I-I'm lost. And I don't have a beacon. So um, if you know where the desert is... I can find my way from there. O-Or if this is like, the wrong planet, can I take a shuttle home? Please?" ---------- Entrance Area Ionhazard glared at the small brown human at his first answer, the machine's patience wearing thin. "So you're wasting my time," he judged angrily. He quickly turned his anger to the blue girl on his shoulder, "And you! You never told me where your faction is!" Glail hunkered down further, puppy eyes growing wider in dismay and fear as her "dragon" friend didn't calm down. "I don't know where my faction is!" she yelled at him over his engine, "I-I don't know where I am!" She squeezed her eyes shut and swooped her tail over her face, trying to hide new tears as she remembered she was completely lost, with no idea of where her father or her home was. Unfortunately, Ionhazard was cold to her, snarling loudly at this infuriating situation, coming close to the point of being needlessly destructive. It didn't change for the better either. A bright flash! The Commander reared back in surprise, prompting Glail to yelp and uncurl to grab some handholds, as a new image of - him?! - just appeared out of nowhere! The machine was dumbstruck for a couple of seconds as the human's voice, now at his height, started teasing him. Why that insolent little-!! He wasn't sure if this was a hack, or a trick, or some kind of cloak. So his computer defaulted to an attack. "AAHH!" Glail cried out as he abruptly lunged! She managed to grab the beading of a welded seam, ground down to have many sharp edges she could hang on with, just before she fell off. Ionhazard closed his jaws around his doppleganger's neck, tails slashing forward to slice open the gas canisters on the back, arms poised to prevent retaliation- Except he only heard a metallic crash as his teeth only hit each other. His tails went through and abruptly hit earth, his claws raking nothing. What the-?! NOW it finally dawned on him that this was more likely a hack than a transformation. The illusion dissipated instantly, as if made of smoke. Ionhazard ripped his tail blades out of the earth - taking care to do as much damage as possible to it - before pushing air through his vents to clear it away. Glail flattened her ears against the loud, hollow sound, hauling herself back up onto his shoulder and finding a more stable place to sit, between two very warm exhaust vents. The Commander glared daggers into the torn-up crust. The human was nowhere to be seen. His tail blades had missed the spot by a good fifty feet. His tails lashed, claws curling in on themselves. His threads screeched at him for being such an idiot and attacking an obvious trick! He threw back his head and roared, the note ending in a paulstretch, just to get the fury out of his system. The sound echoed loudly throughout the sector; despite it, the slimes continued on, happy as ever, though the ones in the immediate area still bounced a few inches when he slammed a foreclaw into the ground, and tumbled into each other with delighted yelps. "I will FIND you, human! You hear me?! Your visage is burned into my memories!" Ionhazard screeched, "I will make your world perish!" That was the last echoing note. Ionhazard straightened up, suddenly composed again, and stood still, glaring. Glail, who had simply frozen in place, clutching her head in a vain attempt reduce the shear volume of his voice, allowed the silence to continue for a little longer while her hearing returned. Still, she kept her ears flattened and her shoulders hunched, uncertain if she should speak up or not. She didn't remember anything about dragon laguz being so angry. Was it just this one? "You're not mad at me, right?" she whimpered, feeling as though she was playing with an agitated snake just for speaking up. Thanks to being so close to him, Ionhazard was able to hear her, even through his raging thoughts. Still, he took a second to think of an answer. "No," he said. "What did you mean by his world perishing?" He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, which was previously examining the area before him for any movement besides the slimes. "You should know the answer to that." The wolf girl stared down for a moment, wondering if she did actually know the answer, but only ended up confusing herself further. Ionhazard surveyed the valley once last time, searching for any telltale sign of the human, before scowling and turning around, switching his focus to locating the remote signal he noticed earlier. "Where are we going?" "I'm learning the land," he answered. They both looked at the line of stone in front of them. Stretching to the left, it descended into short brown cliffs, revealing a green-tinted ocean beyond. To the right it stretched up and higher, still cliffs, but grey and not revealing what's behind them. The machine let out a grumbling tone before turning to the right, looking down the path carpeted in the vivid greens of vegetation. Different vegetation, but still irritating lifeforms, to him. He wasn't very inclined to get wet, though, even though it would be a straight shot to the signal. Green corridor it is, he thought in disgust. ---------- Fixing up the little drone was thankfully an easy task, and it was back on its metaphorical feet in no time. Now augmented for the water that flooded the room, the giant mechanism that repaired it now gently slid it into the water, where the camera kicked on its turbine and scooted around, enjoying the free movement. The mechanism took a moment to establish a remote link with the camera, so she could see its video feed. "ATRS..." she decided aloud, "All-Terrain Roaming Scoutbot. I suppose you qualify as one now, hm?" The camera just beeped happily, spinning in circles. She chuckled. "All right, there's a gap right there, between the boards. You can fit through. Let's go see what's out there." The ATRS looked where she was for a second, before driving off through the hole, and into the new world. A world that the machine recognized. She gaped at the startling, familiar imagery. A cave, its ceiling covered in brilliant glowing blue dots, its floor sculpted like terrestrial land by rivers and waterfalls of green liquid. The water, surprisingly clear. Schools of alien fish everywhere, their translucent skin showing off skeletons and organs in the low-light environment. Mineral deposits covering every rocky surface. Fossilized remains in the green brine pools. I know where I am, she remotely told the ATRS, which had stopped in complete wonder. Keep going. Find a mineral deposit that looks like a clump of black ore. Bring it back here. The camera beeped in acknowledgement, and went on the search. It didn't take long for it to find the ore. Taking it back was a whole other story, and the mechanism impatiently waited twenty minutes for some controlled bumping of the camera to "float" the ore up to her. As soon as she had it, she snatched it out of the water and scanned it. Titanium! So this was the planet she thought it was... but how did she get here? She believed in multiple universes, but that had to be one heck of a jump to reach a place only known in fiction! She ordered the ATRS to find the surface of the water and worked on making a duplicate to explore the surrounding caves, all the while wondering and marveling at the possibilities. A teleport? A hack? A dream? A wormhole or singularity? Regardless, she knew she wanted to make the most of it. The ATRS eventually found something even more wild, once it navigated out of the underwater cave system. There was land, but it wasn't the land she thought it would be. Instead, it was a whole other universe, and yet another she recognized! Volcanic and wild, with feathered and scaled lifeforms running across its surface. Even the sounds they made matched her memories. She'll have to make an ATRS to explore up there, too! With new excitement drumming through her system, the machine sent the first ATRS to explore across the ocean, going as far out as two kilometers, which she believed would be safe. Then she put her focus into using the surrounding scrap to make more drones, which she'll need for exploration and to repair her facility. She was so ready to tackle the unknown! Edited December 29, 2019 by skwerl56767 Share this post Link to post
Posted December 23, 2019 “I’m afraid not. First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye,” the woman says, saluting. So she is in the military--First Lieutenant? A woman? You’ve seen stranger, Renarin chides himself internally. Different places have different cultures. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean-- Wait, is she even wearing a safeglove? Renarin checks instinctively and immediately regrets it. No, she isn’t, and neither is the other girl. He pulls his gaze away and stares fixedly into the distance, belatedly registering he’s missed the last half of whatever Riza was saying and that the others are introducing themselves. “...my name is Seto Kaiba.” “I'm Tachibana Hibiki! It's nice to meet you all!” The man he’d healed--Renarin still doesn’t know his name--starts talking again, gesturing at the giant not-Thunderclast in the distance. “I have a bad feeling if it decides to move forward...Worst comes to worst, we'd need to get over that thing.” Oh, Renarin does not like their chances of that. “You know Xinschi?!” The other not-Thunderclast blurts out from behind them, and Renarin startles away from it with a small yelp, whirling around to keep an eye on it. It can talk now? How can it talk now?! “Have you-?! Are we...?” It trails off abruptly, losing whatever it was about to say. Renarin feels another incongruous pang of empathy for it. “I-I'm lost. And I don't have a beacon. So um, if you know where the desert is... I can find my way from there. O-Or if this is like, the wrong planet, can I take a shuttle home? Please?” Beacon? Desert? The wrong planet? He doesn’t know what it’s talking about. He shakes his head and says as much. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean. As far as I can tell, we’ve all been...pulled away from where we were and brought here. I don’t think any of us know the way back.” He hesitates, checking if he forgot anything. Oh! Right, Riza asked for his name, didn’t she? He turns back to her, briefly mirroring her salute. “Prince Renarin Kholin, Bridge Four. Nice to meet you.” A roar booms through the air, and Renarin slams his hands over his ears again with a wince. “I will FIND you, human! You hear me?! Your visage is burned into my memories! I will make your world perish!” Oh, that’s bad. That’s very very bad. Renarin’s trust in Glys’ promise of ‘no death here’ is plummeting. Glys whispers an apology and a repetition of the promise in his mind, but even he doesn’t sound quite convinced. “Um,” Renarin says, “are there any ideas for getting out of here that don’t involve going past the not-Thunderclast promising death?” Share this post Link to post
Posted December 28, 2019 (edited) It didn’t seem like the slime could talk. Swift thought it let out a burbling kind of word but she couldn’t be sure. It was mostly quiet and she was straining to hear if the pink creature was saying anything, so when she heard a super-loud clanging sound she jumped almost a foot in the air. Yikes! What the heck was that?! It had almost sounded like a explosion, though it was, more probably, metal knocking together. But why would that happen and how, she had no idea. What should I do now? She thought back to her training. Know your terrain. Alright, then. Landing in a strange world with weird sounds definitely called for some investigation and information-gathering. She shifted quickly into a wolf and bounded toward where the sound had come from. Peeking over a rise, she saw... a blue-haired girl. What? How was that possible? She’d seen people with red hair and people with green skin but neither this color blue. There wasn’t a possible explanation for that, except (in a very basic and easily explainable reason) hair dye or maybe that Regina or some other magic-user around here somewhere; the latter was a long shot, but in her life, long shots were everyday things. She focused on the other features of the girl’s appearance, assessing her. She had tanned skin and a bushy tail the same color as her hair. Powers or prosthetics? Swift wasn’t sure. The girl didn’t seem to have any weapons or claws, so the shifter ranked her as low-danger. Beside the blue girl was a figure who looked like a robot. Strange. She hadn’t seen anything like it before except in movies. It had weird canister things on its back and a face that allowed expression. She’d never, ever, seen anything like it. She ranked it as unknown danger. Right now, all she cared about was getting home; they looked friendly enough to talk to, or at least the girl did. I’ll ask them where this is. Maybe they have an idea. She walked up to them. “Hello?” Did they even speak English? “Do you know where we are?” Edited December 28, 2019 by Swiftphoenix Share this post Link to post
Posted December 28, 2019 [ Combining Groups ] [ Location: Sector One ] [ Form: Human ] Oh! It was a tiny unicorn! Rude marveled over how small it was. He put a hand over his mouth, pretending to be deep in thought, trying with all his might to stop his smile from reaching his eyes. Sometimes witches cloaked themselves as ridiculously cute things like this one, but the longer he was here the more he was convinced that this intervention didn't originate from his own dimension. That was one of the only reasons he ended up following the group he met, which in turn went and merged with another group of people who each introduced themselves. He didn't quite enjoy all the dilly-dallying going on when there was no guarantee that they were safe just yet, but he did admire the optimism of the girl with the red hairclips. She sort of reminded him of his old partner, when they were both in first year. The black-and-blond guy, on the other hand, was a prince? No wonder he had ended up directing the group. In that department, Rude was sorely outranked -- not that he was a stranger to being outranked in the first place. His home environment made him think of rankings almost instinctively and he was a little surprised that his time at the Academy did little to change that. Status meant little when at school. Not even Death's own son got preferential treatment. Rude was about to interject with his own introduction but for a moment he thought he saw two of those giant bestial robots on the mountainside. He blinked his eyes to make sure if he was just seeing things, and sure enough, there was still only one that thrashed about and now screamed...! The prince spoke up after the noise died down. It was Rude's pleasure to offer a solution. "Simple. We run the other direction. But if we are forced to go towards it, our options would be to sneak by it, fight it, or befriend it... but given our metallic friend's current tantrum, that takes out that last option. Or, I suppose, we could hide and wait and see if it gets bored and leaves." "Pardon my manners. I am Rudolph Remington, son and first heir to Count Remington." He gave a small polite bow. Some were using titles already but even if they weren't, he'd still say his own in full. "If we are to work together, it would be ideal to know everyone's capabilities -- if we weren't already under a potential time limit." Share this post Link to post
Posted December 29, 2019 [U and R - Sector 1 -North Midsection] Riza raises her eyebrow at the stranger's sudden shyness. Strange, there's nothing about her that would warrant such a reaction- so unless there's something she's missing... Seto and Hibiki introduce themselves, and the mechanical creature made some excited noises as it asked if they knew something called Xinschi. The taller man jumped in surprise and turned to look at it. "I second what he said," she says as she turns to face it as well. "I'm not certain what Xinschi is, but I'm grateful that we can now communicate. She turned to face the other man, who returned her salute and introduced herself as Prince Renarin Kholin of Bridge Four... Whatever in the hell that could be. Still... A prince? Her eyebrows shoot up at that. Clearing her throat, she gives him a bow at the waist. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well, Prince Renarin." The prince covers his ears when something rather loud booms from the distance, "I will FIND you, human! You hear me?! Your visage is burned into my memories! I will make your world perish!" "...Ah, hell," Riza hisses. She has no idea how fast that thing could travel, but she knows for a fact that risking it would be a mistake. She opens her mouth to speak once Renarin asks for suggestions as to how to avoid it without going near it. The blonde from the other group finally speaks up, "Simple. We run the other direction. But if we are forced to go towards it, our options would be to sneak by it, fight it, or befriend it... but given our metallic friend's current tantrum, that takes out that last option. Or, I suppose, we could hide and wait and see if it gets bored and leaves." Simple, yes. In theory. Riza rubs her temple, and as she's about to speak again, he finally introduces himself as "Rudolph Remington, son and first heir to Count Remington." Ah, well. Perhaps it's the best strategy they've got, at least for now. Depending on how good its eyesight is, sneaking past is probably one of their best bets. It's either that or run off. "Mm, I'm not trained to fight things like that I'm afraid," she muses, "unless it's somehow weak against bullets." ... He smiles as the strange metallic thing takes an interest in the bubble. Well, at least Utakata accomplished something- even if that something was just keeping something potentially dangerous distracted. Utakata does not appreciate the look he got from this Seto character. He rubs his eyes at the sight of Utakata, and the look Utakata gets from him doesn't appear to be one of approval. Yeah, you ain't hot stuff either, he thinks to himself as he looks him up and down. Who in their right mind wears belts on their calves?! Utakata blinks several times, almost missing when the giant hunk of metal starts speaking. He startles and practically leaps backwards away from it, peering at it from a distance. "Shoot, it talks?" He takes note of how the healer appears to startle easily as well. Okay, noted. Do not sneak up behind him. Something tells me he can pack a punch. Once he gets his bearings, he turns to the blonde woman- Riza- and salutes to her. “Prince Renarin Kholin, Bridge Four. Nice to meet you," he says to her. What. Utakata looks at him with shock, raising both his eyebrows. A prince? Now that's interesting. He hadn't heard of many princes back at home, but... It's still pretty neat to know he got the chance to meet- and be healed by- an actual prince. That's a story right there- that is, if anyone he'd tell would believe him. As soon as the thing in the distance bellows again, Utakata startles and lowers into a crouch, balancing on the balls of his feet. Oh no, oh no he does not like that at all. Threats of death let out at a deafening volume? Thanks, but no thanks. He looks up towards the mountains with dismay for a while, quietly listening to the conversation that follows. He shakes his head at the idea of running the other direction. "Problem with running the other way... We don't have a good scope of the rest of the area, for all we know we could be trapped. But I suppose there could be more places to hide if we have to." He stands up and crosses his arms over his chest. Um hello, did you not notice almost everyone here introduced themselves? MANNERS, Utakata, you know better. "Erm, yeah. I'm Utakata, no other names or titles," he says, scratching the back of his head. When he says that, it feels rather awkward. If he thinks about it too much, he'll remember that all he is is a vagabond where he's from... And that'll just leave him depressed. Once he'd proudly held the rank of Jōnin, but he'd forfeited that rank the second Harusame's life was snuffed out. All he is now... No, no, stop that. Stop it, stop it, stop it. If you get lost in your head over this, you know what'll happen. Instead, he shrugs. "Let's just get out of here, maybe we can find our way out of here elsewhere. If we need to go over stuff, I think I have you covered there." He narrows his eyes as he raises to the balls of his feet and looks west. There he sees two figures, one who appears rather tall and dressed in bright red. The other is significantly shorter with unnaturally bright pink hair. He almost does a double take-- Is that the girl Naruto was traveling with-- but realizes that this person is dressed in a completely different style. "....Might be good to go west and see what they're up to. If they happen to be dangerous, at the very least they'd be outnumbered." And hopefully outmatched. Share this post Link to post
Posted December 29, 2019 (edited) Neea Neea shot an offended look at the person in the blue robe. "Of course I can talk!" she said, before feeling confused. Why would that be surprising? She looked at the speckle-fluff person, as he spoke up to answer her, and the blonde girl confirmed what he said in a rather informed manner. Neea's small hopes wilted. So wait... they're lost too? He didn't say he was lost, he said 'us'. Her threads trembled with anxiety. T-They don't know the way back? Something 'pulled' them here? Then the person introduced himself as "Prince Renarin". She didn't know what he meant by "Bridge Four"... was that his row? Yet princes weren't in the military! Oh no, he's a prince. He didn't know the Emperor PERSONALLY, did he?! Neea's growing concerns about the situation she was in only grew worse when a thunderous sound as loud as a bomb suddenly erupted from the other end of the ruins! Everyone jumped, flinched, looked toward the source; she immediately hunkered against the ground, wide eye staring at the cliffs that way. Plumes of smoke still rose past them. That unholy sound, like some kind of hollow, vibrating roar she couldn't identify, had a metallic quality that made it obvious it was the massive drone. Then a mighty death threat followed it, echoing throughout the ruins, and Neea was confused all over again. The drone said it would find a "human". It claimed it had memories. It said it would destroy the world, but most of all, it could talk. Drones can't talk, even hatchlings knew that! So how was a gargantuan drone talking?! The Sniper could only conclude that it wasn't actually a drone, which meant she didn't know what that thing was at all. She did know though, that the deep, growling, malicious voice won't be easily forgotten. She just shook, choosing to remain pressed against the dirt where it felt marginally safer. The colorful blob creatures scattered about hardly seemed fazed by the sound, nor by the great boom that sounded immediately after. They must be truly dumb animals! Renarin asked if there were ideas for getting past the "not-Thunderclast", which by context Neea assumed was the drone. The blonde one in the white coat, who introduced himself as Rudolph Remington - an heir to something about counting other Remingtons? - provided the three most likely options: sneak past the drone, fight the drone, or... befriend the drone? Was he mad? Drones aren't capable of socializing! Fighting it sounded terrifying... as much as she didn't like the cowardly undertones of sneaking past, it was the most appealing option of the three. The blonde girl seemed to share that opinion. Then he pointed out the obvious need for everyone to learn each others' capabilities. Neea just stared at him, trying to ignore the heavy weight she suddenly remembered on her head. She didn't want to fight... she wished she couldn't fight... there were other mechs who liked that! Like... like that brown one that went rogue, and had the Empire all up in arms, and made the rebels hide for months on end. She seemed like she liked a good fight, but Neea? Ohhh, why did they make me a Sniper model? her thoughts moaned, I don't want to shoot anything! I don't even LIKE it! I mean, I might have the programming for it, but I don't think it's running or anything...! At least I'm with these people, she told herself, they seem nice. They're jumpy, but we're all jumpy.... WAIT A SECOND! Neea suddenly looks up, accusatory and filling with indignity on top of it all. "Wait a second!" she shouted, abruptly rising back to her feet, "If you all knew Xinschi why weren't you speaking it before?! What was with all the "buhs" and "gehs" and "mahs", or whatever?! I'm right here!" She stomped her foot, "Don't tell me you don't know it when you're speaking it right now!" She looked at all the strange, flat faces in the group - excepting the long face of the small creature's - second-guessing all the attention she brought to herself and now feeling overwhelmed. "I-I don't understand! You say you were 'brought' here, but something taught you Xinschi! You guys at least know that! And where is this? Why is the sky blue? Why do you all look the same except the pink thing? Why is there a giant drone in the distance?! I don't want to fight it!! I can't fight...!" Neea's composure crumpled yet again as all the questions just came out in a flood, and she found herself crouched down again, arms thrown over her face in distress. "I don't want to go anywhere until I know where I'm starting...!" she sobbed. ---------- Entrance Area It was a miracle that Glail could hear anything over the immense pounding of her "dragon" friend's engine. What sounded like a huge steam engine to a modern person she equated to a clanging heartbeat, like if a golem the size of a mountain had two stones that just bashed together repeatedly. Which kind of fits, considering Ionhazard was like a giant golem to her. Through the monotonous clanging though, her sensitive hearing picked up a human voice, coming from behind them. She turned around just as Ionhazard stopped moving. The eyes on his tails saw what she heard: a new person? Glail clung to the exhaust vent next to her as he spun around, a little unfairly fast for his size, ears flattened against the mighty whoosh! of wind. She still didn't dare look down to see who it was, but she at least knew it wasn't the person her friend was mad at. "Who is it?" she asked, "Is it the Hello Lady?" Ionhazard didn't answer her, and she assumed he hadn't heard her. The robot was instead focused on a wolf, who had shown up from nowhere. Neither the teal-haired person nor the Japanese girl were in sight. The wolf didn't talk, did it? Yet, his tails recorded the wolf appearing, and the voice came out in sync with its approach. Two threads linked up as Ionhazard recalled Glail referring to herself as a wolf. Corpotransation shifters? Did they corrupt Mother Machine's tech? he wondered. He moved with a low whir to look at Glail, still laying on his shoulder. She had attempted to look down at the other wolf, inching toward the edge of the metal, only to gasp and pull back at the terrifying reality of the altitude. Her ears and tail flattened in sync, seemingly real. He looked back at the wolf below him. Also seemingly real. The only difference was Glail was more human and had blue fur instead. Maybe she didn't lie about her faction, he thought. This wolf doesn't know where she is either, but they might know each other. Entertaining that, he decided to try his hand at cheering Glail up, breaking his resting scowl; though he didn't really smile, either. "Look, it's one of your friends," he told her. Glail just looked up at him, ears twitching in thorough confusion. "Friends?" "Another wolf." Hopeful light danced in Glail's eyes, but she hesitated, uncertain if he was applying the term "friend" broadly or not. "Is it Daddy?" she asked, but again, the machine turned away from her, now answering the newcomer: "We don't know where we are," he gestured to Glail, somewhat visible up on his shoulder as she dared to peek again, "but I've located a signal that I'm going to. If you're part of the wolf faction, you're welcome to follow. If you know the teal-haired human though," he barely disguised his snarl, "then you'll be far luckier to leave, before I have a base of operations to hunt you with." "You hunt too?! What do dragons eat? Do you use the operation to hunt?" Glail blurted out innocently. Ionhazard did a mental double-take of the question. 'Dragons'...? Now she's just making stuff up. ---------- [Sector 6] The little ATRS that was sent out across the ocean didn't fly for long before a line of cliffs came into view, tall enough to encourage anything seagoing to detour around them. Thanks to its multi-purpose turbine though, it was easily able to jet up and over the cliffs, albeit sluggishly from the altitude and fighting crosswinds. It was well-rewarded though, and the ATRS sent a clear feed back to its creator of the proceeding valley: Conifers! Conifers everywhere! Immediately the creator felt at home, looking at a forest of dense pine, fir, spruce, juniper, and all manner of other evergreens. In the distance there were some silvery spires, but it wasn't clear what they were. She ordered the ATRS to explore further, and as it did, she noted the long descent and how it spoke of the height of the trees. "This forest must be hundreds of years old..." she murmured to herself. The ATRS continued along near the forest floor, where it was much darker from the conifer boughs linking together like puzzle pieces, only pausing now and then to look at a mushroom, log, or other flora. After ten minutes or so of exploration, it came across a dirt path. It wasn't very wide, and was somehow void of tall weeds and grass. The creator examined the feed as the ATRS chose to go left to see where it led. The path is either new, or maintained, she thought, maybe there's a settlement this way? It certainly doesn't match the two universes near me. She checked on her second ATRS' feed, which she had released just minutes prior to the first one finding the forest. The second ATRS was scooting about the mainland, confirming that it was the alien world she thought it was, and even spooked a couple of bird-like monsters roosting near some lava pools. No sapient thing existed in that universe, nor the aquatic one just beyond her own walls, which meant the pine forest belonged to someplace completely different. She had some theories as to how it was different in the first place, but didn't want to jump to any conclusions yet. So she simply waited and watched, keeping an eye on her first ATRS in case it ran into anything of significant intelligence, simultaneously glad that she kept its speaker installed in the event that it did. Edited December 29, 2019 by skwerl56767 Share this post Link to post
Posted December 31, 2019 (edited) Swift saw the robot pause. Maybe it hadn’t been a terrific idea to talk to it in wolf form. Some people found a talking wolf freaky, and based on what she knew about robots, it might take it a while to process this. So she shifted back into a human, holding up her hands unthreateningly. Then it spoke. “If you're part of the wolf faction, you're welcome to follow. If you know the teal-haired human though, then you'll be far luckier to leave, before I have a base of operations to hunt you with." Teal-haired human? She’d never seen anyone with teal-coloured hair. And factions? What in the world was it — or he — talking about? “What factions? Do you know where Storybrooke is?” Storybrooke. What if Alex was looking for her? What if Emma and the others were being attacked and threatened by evil fairies again? What if... Stop it, she told herself. They’ll be fine. All you need to do is ask for help and make it back before date night. Nobody’ll notice you’re missing. She wasn’t 100% comforted, though. This weird place and things she saw had definitely put her a bit off her game. She’d stood stock still in front of the strangers, lost in her thoughts. Which was obviously not the thing to do with unmeasured danger. She wished they would do something — hold on, they seemed to be communicating with each other! She pricked her ears and heard the words ‘Hello Lady’. They keep talking to each other, but why don’t they answer me?! Come on, answer me! “Excuse me? Big robot person? Blue girl? Can I have your attention please? Where are we?!” Edited January 1, 2020 by Swiftphoenix Share this post Link to post
Posted December 31, 2019 (edited) Renarin nods to acknowledge Riza’s polite response, and then again to Rudolph and Utakata’s introductions. Finally. It’s nice to have names to attach to them. And Rudolph seems to have a sensible grasp of the situation, which is also a relief. “I think sneaking past it is probably our best option if it comes to that,” Renarin says. “I’ve fought things that size before, but…” he frowns, trying to summon his Blade once again. Still nothing. He sighs. “I can’t--I’m not--my Shardblade won’t summon, and that’s the only thing I have that will work against it.” Capabilities… “Other than that, I can heal, and...I’m trained in the spear and Blade.” But he doesn’t have either of those, Damnation… “Maybe we can find our way out of here elsewhere,” Utakata says, rising up on tiptoe to look around. “If we need to go over stuff, I think I have you covered there...Might be good to go west and see what they're up to. If they happen to be dangerous, at the very least they'd be outnumbered.” Renarin follows his gaze and blinks. Huh. He’s never seen that color hair before. He nods and is about to voice his agreement when the not-Thunderclast in their group suddenly bursts to its feet. “Wait a second! If you all knew Xinschi why weren't you speaking it before?! What was with all the "buhs" and "gehs" and "mahs", or whatever?! I'm right here!” It goes on like that for a bit longer while Renarin gets stuck on the realization that oh, some kind of power is translating their words into Alethi, and follows that right into this is just like Father’s power--what was it called? Connection? Yes, Connection, there must be something like that, perhaps it affected each of us when we were warped here...but why did it take longer for this? Is it because it’s not human? “I don't want to fight it!! I can't fight...!” The not-Thunderclast (at some point, Renarin thinks, I’m going to need to find out its name--it must have one) almost crumples into a crouch, throwing the strange barrels of its arms over its face. “I don't want to go anywhere until I know where I'm starting...!” Oh, storms. It sounds like it’s crying. Renarin’s intermittent pangs of empathy surge back full force. He can’t think of it as an it anymore, not with a voice so clearly lost. She, then, guessing by the voice--and she’s not human, but she’s scared, lost, and even more unsure than the rest of them. Renarin takes a deep breath and moves closer very slowly. When did I turn into the one who approached people? “Nobody’s going to make you fight,” he says in what he hopes is a reassuring tone. “No--nobody taught us X--Xinsc--Xinschi? There’s--” he breaks off, stumbling as he tries to find the words. “My father can--” no, that’s not it… “Some kind of power,” he settles on. “I think...that somehow, something is...translating our words. I only speak Alethi. I don’t know why it...took longer for you. I...I don’t know anything about this world, or these people, but…” His hands wave in useless circles in front of him as he searches for words, and he absentmindedly digs his familiar metal box from his pocket to fidget with. Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Click click click. “Nobody’s going to make you fight,” Renarin repeats, more slowly. “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.” Oh, great finish. Excellent job, that’s very comforting. Storms. He doesn’t want to leave it hanging on that, but there’s nothing more he can do. Glys hums inside him, both nervous and morose, and Renarin sighs internally and returns the feeling. Edited December 31, 2019 by Pachimew Share this post Link to post
Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) Seto Kaiba <Status: Stable> <Active Monster(s): N/A> Hibiki Tachibana <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Inactive> <People: Riza | Mysical | Utakata | Renarin | Neea | Rude> ~~ "I will FIND you, human! You hear me?! Your visage is burned into my memories! I will make your world perish!" Oh, that threat did not sound good. That all but confirmed that the metal monstrosity to the east was hostile... which was not news that Kaiba wanted to know. Still, a number of the others in front of them introduce themselves. A prince and a count's son... Quite the motley crew we have here, he couldn't help thinking to himself. Suddenly the thought of him being able to summon flesh-and-blood monsters didn't sound so strange. He then looked at Kimono Man again - he'd introduced himself as Utakata. Bubbles, seriously? That's his name? ...or maybe he meant vagrant instead... Eh, details. They're both negative connotations. ...where Kaiba was from, at least. For all he knew, they could be a badge of honor in Utakata's world. ...yeah, right. What kind of backwards world would that be? Kaiba had yet to hear of any place that didn't treat wanderers as criminals at first glance (as sad as it was, that included his home, but he quickly tried to distract himself from those thoughts). "If we need to go over stuff, I think I have you covered there." Now's as good a time to mention you can summon things that fly, genius. "I've got that front covered, too - I just so happen to be able to summon creatures that can fly..." Kaiba turned to Utakata. "...and no offense, but I think my dragons can carry a human's weight a lot better than a flimsy bubble, even if you can blow one big enough." Hibiki looked at Kaiba. "Or, you know, we can skip both and sneak underneath it? It looks big enough - as long as we're quiet, we can pull it off, right?" Kaiba stared for a few seconds before averting his gaze in anger. Great, she's one of the observant ones, he thought to himself. She'd be no fun if she just pointed out the obvious route every time... He next heard talk of Xinschi and Alethi - what were those? Some kind of language? The way they were speaking certainly implied it... and the way Renarin spoke in particular made it sound like their words were being translated through magic. Great. More nonsense. "I don't know what Xinschi or Alethi is, but Renarin-denka has a point - something here is translating all of your words into Japanese, the language I speak." Hibiki slowly approached the metal creature. "And it's okay. I still want to help, in any way I can. I'm not going to make you fight if you don't want to." Something about the way Hibiki spoke... No, no, don't let them see that it's getting to you. Kaiba couldn't let anyone be anything remotely close to a "friend", especially not this soon after meeting them. "....Might be good to go west and see what they're up to." "Oh, yeah, before I forget," Hibiki turned back around and fished in her pockets for one of the strange objects from earlier, pulling out the yellow one that fluctuated between various states of existence. "There's a bunch of these--" "And pink ones, too." "...yeah. Anyway, both these and a bunch of pink ones are scattered across the ground a little westward from here. We... aren't quite sure what they are... but Kaiba-san and I both have a feeling that they're useful in some way." "At any rate, they're probably still there, so if anyone else wants to play scientist with at least one, be my guest. Anyway, heading westward sounds like our best bet. If people that way are hostile..." Kaiba paused, looking at the sole Blue-Eyes White Dragon he had left in his hand. "...well, they won't last long against all of us." Edited March 14, 2020 by hikarinomemori Share this post Link to post
Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) [U and R - Sector 1 -North Midsection] His head whips over to give this Kaiba man an incredulous look. "Need I ask what I did to you?" He resists the urge to blow a bubble and send the man who insulted him high enough so that if he managed to break the chakra and pop the bubble, it would hurt. He closes his eyes in an attempt to keep some sort of composure. "Good for you if you can summon dragons, I guess?" Do you want a prize or something? Utakata makes sure he doesn't snap at Kaiba as his eyelids cover the fact that he's rolling his eyes. Once they roll back into place, he opens his eyes. "Good to know that we have more than just 'flimsy bubbles' on our arsenal, hm. Thanks for underestimating me though, I appreciate that." With that last one, he cocks his head to the side. His voice is a deadpan, but inside he's fuming. "Or, you know, we can skip both and sneak underneath it? It looks big enough - as long as we're quiet, we can pull it off, right?" In response, Utakata nods. "That can be doable. If our steps are light, we could do that. But if we have to go elsewhere and escape that way, we'll have to take the air, north might be the best way to go." He knits his eyebrows together. "My concern is that if it notices us going underneath, it could crush all of us." Well, unless I go full Saiken mode, but let's not scare anybody here. Then the creature starts freaking out, spitting out names and accusations that make it hard for him to keep track, at least for a second. Utakata raises his eyebrows, impressed at Renarin's tact with the walking metal statue. His eyes soften as he watches- clearly this prince is a very empathetic individual. In some fights, that could prove a hindrance, so Utakata hopes that this man knows how to turn it off if he has to. Like I'd been trained to do. Utakata keeps that thought back as he shifts his weight to his right foot. It's rather interesting though, how Renarin interacting with it seems to strike a chord with Utakata. As much as he will never admit it aloud, he's probably just as scared of this place as anyone else. There have been no threats other than that large booming thing in the distance, but he'd been trained to know that safety is never permanent. If anything, he refuses to be lulled into a false sense of security. He takes note when Renarin seems to stutter and pull out a metal box from his pocket, opening it and closing it. The box clicks as it does so, which Utakata finds fascinating. Huh. That's probably better than risking pulling off the tassel on my pipe... Neat. But... Ouch. I know that feeling of not knowing what else to say all too well. "No," Utakata says as he shakes his head, "we're not going to make you fight if you don't want to. Frankly, I don't want to fight that thing. I have something up my sleeve if I have to, but..." He sighs. "Not a risk I want to take." Then he glances at Hibiki when she holds up a strange yellow object, and Kaiba when he says something about "playing scientist" with them. What happens if I throw one at your head, Seto? "Not sure I want to experiment right now, but maybe I'll grab a few when we go that way." Once more he turns to face the people in the distance, nodding at Kaiba's comment about them. "Yeah. If luck is on our side, they would be heavily outmatched. At the very least, it could give us a chance to show Rudolph what we can do. Though my bet is that they're just trying to figure out where they are and not interested in a fight." Still, Utakata, don't underestimate them. He wishes Saiken would make a comment. It makes him nervous that he can't hear the slug's voice. 💡Utakata will remember you said that. ... "Seto, was that necessary," Riza sighs as she shakes her head. Her brow furrows- the last thing she wants is for these people to start butting heads. All she wants is to figure out a way to get out of here so that they can sooner figure out what's happening. Her hands go back to her hips as she glances between the two men. Utakata deadpans a rather snappy response, which she's worried will set Seto off. "Utakata, maybe we don't want to fuel the flames there. Can we please save it for later, boys? Is that a good idea?" She glances at the metal creature- it seems to have emotions, could it perhaps be another Alphonse? A soul bonded to armor? It's not out of the realm of possibility, but she'd never seen a suit of armor like this before. Renarin, Hibiki and Utakata seem to show some sort of sympathy towards it as they all reassure it that they're not going to force it to fight. She nods in agreement to this, not wanting to say another word. She has her guns, but she knows from her experience at home that just those won't be enough if she comes across a more formidable opponent. Even in her group, she notices that some of these people could probably take her down just from the vibes she's picking up. "Whatever course of action we take... Under, over, around, might not be as easy as we think." Her eyes narrow as she looks in the direction of the mountains. [Sector 2- Burned Lands] Remaining: 7 Grublins, 4 Orcs, 2 Trolls Status: 2 Orcs close to death, 1 Troll injured The Grublins that remain move forward. The two injured Orcs stay behind with the injured Troll. The other two Orcs and the remaining troll also move forward. They move in a defensive formation as they protect their wounded. The two injured Orcs prepare their weapons to protect the Troll. One of the enemies managed to torch a good number of them, but the other two failed to do the same. One summoned a cube and went straight for the Troll, throwing it forward. It clearly missed. The other conjures a scythe and attempts to slice at two of the Grublins, who manage to dodge it. The one with the scythe becomes the Grublins' target, they proceed to surround him and try to hit him with their clubs. Two of them get confused by the formation and kill each other off. The two healthier orcs ready their weapons- one swings an axe at the man with the fiery arm, and the other aims its crossbow and fires. The Troll moves forward and swings a paw at the one who threw a cube at it. Roll for defense. Edited January 4, 2020 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
Posted January 6, 2020 [ Sector: Two ] [ Location: Burned Lands ] [ Nearby People: Dio, Veigas, Malefor's Forces ] The harpoons did not halt the enemies’ movement. The two humanoids, the ones whose bodies bore scorch marks from the flaming harpoons, moved to protect their larger injured companion. That gave Raven pause. Were they all intelligent? Fighting sapient beings would not cause Raven to lay down his arms, but it did bring up a few questions: Who were their attackers and why was their first instinct to attack? They hadn’t even threatened Raven, Dio, and Veigas to leave before they drew their weapons. As far as Raven was concerned, they would pay the price for that aggression. Two more of the ugly humanoids, these ones not injured, advanced upon Raven while the tiny creatures went for Dio and the larger one swiped at Veigas. The enemy with the crossbow had to go through the motions of loading its weapon, giving Raven amble time to notice the attack. The enemy fired, and Raven hastily sidestepped the arrow. It grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood to drip down his face. The orc closest to Raven rose its axe high over its head and fiercely swung it down. Raven caught the blade of the axe with his Nasod arm, grunting with effort. Steam rose up from Raven’s arm as the cracks within it began to glow a dangerous orange. With a loud cry, Raven dug his metal fingers into the axe and yanked it down, dragging its wielder down with it. The creature tumbled headfirst into the ground, but before it could hit the ground Raven yanked the axe out of its grasp and grabbed its face with his arm. Fire burst out of the palm of his hand, singing the orc’s face completely. With a growl, he launched the flaming orc into the one with the crossbow, causing it to fall over. With his enemies disposed of, Raven turned his attention back to his own companions. “Dio! Veigas! Are you two alright?” Share this post Link to post
Posted January 8, 2020 Neea The Sniper model wasn't sure how to react to the sudden kindness she received. She was assured that no one would make her fight, even though the problem of passing the giant drone remained. She peeked at the group past her barrels, managing to choke out one weak laugh through her speaker. "You don't really look warlike..." she said, only to shake her head in dismay. "B-But you don't get it. I'm built to fight, I just..." She faltered, feeling she was betraying her programming either way. It was nice to know they respected her free will, at least, but what should she do? What if the drone finds them and attacks? Would she cower, defying the passionate screeching of the combat model threads, or fight back, tearing apart the pacifist dreamer threads her makers cultured her to have? There wasn't a good balance! She was given a brief distraction from her own problems at the mention of some unknown translator allowing everyone to speak freely. Alethi? Japanese? She's never heard of those languages, but the solemn tones of the people around her didn't give her reason to think they were lying. She also didn't feel augmented, though, and she didn't see a speck of advanced technology on anyone except the broody one in the black coat. Even if he had something to do with it though, he would had to have found some universal language they all understood, then broadcast something, that maybe distorts...? Blast, she was no engineer, and that made no sense. She only knew Xinschi, and no one else claimed to know it! Or maybe... no, if he was translating everything to a simple language like trinary, she would be hearing trinary, not words. She knows trinary. Neea took to staring at the ground, puzzled, her engine valves feeling tight from stress. Her threads were a whirlwind as they tried to piece together the situation, but even in the end, she was only left with theorizing where exactly they were, how they could speak to each other, and how they even came here in the first place. Let's see.... she was on the sand dune... then was here... so a teleport is a likely explanation. Unless this was some kind of mech torture where she was being fed simulations, she definitely wasn't on Zirhon. She could've been kidnapped by the IR, but there were no ships in the area, and the Empire wouldn't have bothered attacking the camp if the IR was hanging around it. So did someone far away teleport her here? Was this an accidental teleport, or an accidental location? If it was intentional, why save her and no one else? While she was thinking, the discussion switched to some glowing objects Tachibik- Tachibi- Ta- Tachibaniki? She and the broody one were holding. They were small and shaped like uniform crystals, yet had some kind of clear, silicon coating on them. Neea flashed her scanner on the one Tachibaniki held out, and received a confusing mixture of chemicals. It definitely was not crystalline nor silicon, but the structure was regular, and the coating came back as some kind of gelatin? An animal product? The two of them had pink ones and yellow ones, with the yellow ones flickering like damaged monitors. A hologram? Yet she was holding it? As bizarre as the objects were, they were only something new on top of everything so far, and Neea made a small, agreeing nod when the robed one suggested picking up more when the group moves that way. Her eye followed the suggested path, and spotted something tall rising past the ruined walls opposite of them. It looked like the giant white and green shzyke that flew past her earlier. From the sounds of it, the others wanted to meet it? "Maybe it can help us," she said quietly, slowly rising back on her feet. Oh dear, she never liked how tall it made her... why did they make her one of the 5-quli-tall models? ---------- Entrance Area "'Storybrooke'?" Ionhazard echoed with a snort. "I already answered you!" This wasn't promising. Unless these supposed supporters no longer used decade-old lingo - which was entirely possible - she should know what he meant by "factions". There was also the possibility that Storybrooke was some kind of passcode referring to the factions; or, it was a pointless town unaffiliated with the struggle of the Machines. He set his jaw, now suspicious. He didn't like being in the position of piecing together strategies and thinking ahead. He just wanted to steal the life from some 100-odd acres of land and scar the earth, readying it for the moulding of a new Machine base. If the girl was part of a supportive faction, so be it - but she better make it clear, and quickly. Glail sat close to the edge of Ionhazard's shoulder, yet kept her eyes on the horizon, revealing the staggering size of the world at this height. Her brow was scrunched up as she tried to pick up the scent of the stranger below, but all of the smoke around them was making it too difficult. It clung to the inside of her nose and threatened to put her in a sneezing fit, which she tried to suppress with some quick rubbing. She still wasn't sure why there was so much of it, and why it smelled so bad - not at all like the bushfires she was used to - but her friend's shoulders rose up in jagged spikes that emitted it. Maybe he ran on fire? She vaguely remembered something to do with dragons and fire. Maybe he had fire in his belly! "Who's down there?" She asked for a second time, upset that she couldn't see the stranger herself, nor hear her very well. Ionhazard's head twitched in agitation. Question, after question, after question...! Too many damn questions! The Commander grew tired of standing around feeling confused and angry. So he opened his jaws and released the tension on one tendril. It shot out of his mouth at high speed, pincers wide, straight for the girl below. Glail's jaw dropped; a tongue?! Well, it wasn't a tongue. More like a living cord that snapped its pincers around the girl before winding back up, pulling her up at high speed. For Ionhazard, it was an easy means of refueling his red matter engine. He didn't intend on eating the newcomer though, not when there was a chance she was another wolf girl, like Glail, and may be useful later. So right before she would be pulled into his jaws, the tendril swung, depositing her a bit roughly alongside Glail before the machine coiled it back up into its sheathing in his mouth. Glail awkwardly jerked forward, like she intended to catch the girl, but hesitated when she landed quicker than she could react. Ionhazard didn't give his second passenger another thought, simply turning again and resuming his path into the next sector. Glail just stared into the girl's pale face for a few more, startled moments, before she broke into a smile. "Are you okay? That looked scary! But I think he likes you!" Her tailed waved happily through the air now that she could finally meet the person! "I didn't know he had a tongue! What's you're name? You smell weird, but not as weird as the man I met earlier. Are you a laguz too?" Share this post Link to post
Posted January 9, 2020 Her spirits fell as the robot said it had never heard of Storybrooke — it looked like they couldn’t give her directions. But just as she was about to turn away and say “Oh, alright, I’ll ask elsewhere” it grabbed her with a cord that shot out from its head. As she tried to jerk away in shock, green eyes snapped wide, it pulled her towards what closely resembled a mouth. It looked like it was going to eat her! What the h-- She readied herself to try to break free from the tendril but then, faster than she expected, it plonked her onto its shoulder right beside the blue-haired girl. Face pale, she looked at the other possible victim. "Are you okay? That looked scary! But I think he likes you! I didn't know he had a tongue! What's you're name? You smell weird, but not as weird as the man I met earlier. Are you a laguz too?" All the questions from the stranger just made Swift all the more confused, but she tried to reply as best she could without giving too much away. “Yes, I’m okay, it was really scary, how can a robot like me, my name’s Swift, what’s yours? Why do I smell weird and what in the history of magic is an Iaguz?” she answered, trying to counter her panic and hide it from the other wolf girl, storing the bit of information about ‘the man she’d met earlier’ away for now, since it might help later. She fidgeted with a strap of leather on her jacket and wondered if the robot planned to eat both of them, maybe later. It didn’t seem like the other girl was afraid of being eaten though, or even realised she was in any danger. Maybe she and the robot were friends? But could a robot make friends? And, if it was possible, how? Her mind was flooded with queries about the land and the slimes and robot and blue wolf girl. How does everything work?! she desperately wanted to know. The thoughts in her mind were Where are we, How do I get home and How the heck do these two know each other?! For now, she settled for trying to hold on while the huge robot walked away, seeming to already have a destination in mind. Share this post Link to post
Posted January 13, 2020 ~~~~ Zephyr ~~~~ Pausing in his step to help Noelle, it seemed the new guy, Doppio, was trying to do the same before he quickly backtracked. It made Zephyr wonder if the guy had never seen a dragon before as he lifted his head back up. Both him and the messenger didn't want any fighting at least as the man freaked out over the bird-like dragon. But… did he say something wrong as he tilted his head with a blink. Shrinking slightly as he looked back to the wind user, whose face was in anguish made him rethink that sentence. He didn't say anything though. "Did I phrase that wrong?" he asked, tapping his talons slightly. "Noelle is right, I did not mean to cause you any further distress." Blinking again as the human male lifted his chin up, Zephyr was trying to understand just what the guy was doing. Before he could say anything else on the subject, a potless slime seemed to distract both the humans and Doppio managed to catch it. Easily turning his head to look at two figures on the ground, one was staring up at the sky, which was a good idea if more slimes were going to appear from the sky, but he felt no trace of any elemental magic coming from them. Not to mention Noelle didn't know them as well, as she obviously was trying to psych herself up. "No," Zephyr answered, looking back at them. "I cannot feel any of the element magic like you possess, Noelle." Oh, but it seemed like the messenger now wanted to get both herself and Doppio out of the water and thus, Zephyr took a respectful few steps back. The man obviously seemed frightened of him and his intent was to keep the peace. "I think I ought to let the two of you do the talking from now on since… miscommunication on my part," the dragon said, fluffing up his feathers in slight embarressment. ~~~~ Mystical ~~~~ Walking alongside Hibiki, Kaiba finally glanced at her, Mystical assuming that the man must have finally taken notice of her telepathy. Not to mention that they finally taken notice of the slimes as one medium sized one headbutted the man on the leg. It seemed none of the humans here have seen these types of things before but she heard the shouting about a robot scaling a mountain made her wonder if it was one of the robot men that were always monitoring around the places. 'I told you, the things that you picked up are called slimes,' the Galarian Ponyta said to solely to the ones picking them up. Looking back at the human who addressed back to her, the unicorn shook her head happily as her mane glowed. Oh, but now they were talking about the robots again and she stamped a hoof nervously. 'I particularly don't like any robots. They're all over the place and most of them will look for a reason to fight.' She could name one in particular who ran around- Metal Man she recalled and he was someone she didn't care to run in ever again. As she hung out with the group, Mystical must have been deeply lost in thought as everyone around her spoke was speaking but she was paying no mind to it as she suddenly shook her head again. 'Ah, I'm sorry, I might have gotten too lost in my thoughts again about this universe,' she said, dipping her head down slightly in sadness before quickly glancing around at the new people. 'Hi! I'm Mystical! It's nice to meet you all!' Share this post Link to post
Posted January 13, 2020 Zagreus Allies: Caspian, Noelle, Zephyr, Doppio Status: Uninjured Weapon: Stygius, Blade of the Underworld Location: Sector 1 Feeling his face wrenched down by slender hands, Zagreus blinks and oh dear, he can’t see. His vision isn’t entirely gone like when his eyes are cut or gored from his face, but dark spots consume the centre of his sight. The spot warps and moves, refusing to stay still long enough for him to figure out the shape of it. Caspian was entirely right -- the damage is extensive. Whatever would he do without Caspian to guide him through the dangers of the overworld? “Is it permanent?” he asks, his voice betraying more curiosity than concern or fear. Were all beautiful things on the surface so dangerous? Briefly, he wonders if staring at Caspian’s eyes would have a similar effect. Not that he can see Caspian’s face, despite how close it is. The soft pressure of fingers on his cheek disappears and the cool breeze wipes away the warm traces of them. He’d forgotten that Caspian had been touching him, somehow. Ah well, they had to move on anyway, and continuing the contact wouldn’t be practical. Hearing voices in the direction that they’d been walking, Zagreus perks up. “Are those people?” he asks, trying to see with his peripheral vision. It’s not very effective, but he thinks he can make out some sort of large green creature and two human silhouettes. “Hello!” he calls out, louder. He hopes that the owners of the voices are friendly; he doesn’t expect to be able to last long in a fight with his vision as weakened as it is and without the help of the gods, nor can he protect Caspian. Still, he won’t go down without a fight if that’s what it comes to. good riddance Share this post Link to post
Posted January 18, 2020 [ Sector: One ] [ Location: Midsection - In Pond ] [ Nearby People: Noelle, Zephyr, Zagreus, Caspian ] Oh! Noelle was right! They were still idling in a pond for no good reason. The dampness of his clothes suddenly became apparent to Doppio. He lifted up one of his legs, shivering as he felt the damp fabric cling to his skin. Ugh, it was going to take forever to get his pants and shoes dry, let alone wash the funk of the pond out of them. Scrunching his nose in disgust, Doppio wadded out of the water and towards land. He tightly clung the slime in his arms to his chest least it leap out of his arms and splash him with icky pond water. The slime appeared to have no quarrel with being carried. If anything, it seemed more than happy to be held as Doppio walked out of the pond and graciously made his way onto solid land. Naturally, Doppio would offer something to dry Noelle off; perhaps he could tear off some of the fabric of his shirt as a makeshift rag or something. Unfortunately, he was hyper aware of the presence of the strange green bird. Although the bird apologized for making him uneasy, Doppio found himself scooting away from the bird just in case. Doppio diverted his gaze from the two, hoping to forget either of them were there. The wetness of his pants caught Doppio’s attention once more. A disgusted noise emitted from the back of his throat as he shook his pants in an ill attempt to dry himself. Why hadn’t he brought an handkerchief or something with him? At least then he could try to pat himself dry instead of awkwardly wiggling his leg in the air! It really seemed like Lady Luck herself was against him. “Hello!” What? Doppio froze in place as he head turned towards the direction of the unfamiliar voice. Oh! The people on the hill finally noticed them. The initial thought that came to Doppio’s head was that they were the enemy stand users who brought him to the pond, but both Noelle and Zephyr had confirmed that they weren’t stands or stand users even after Doppio had assumed as much so maybe the two strangers were different? They didn’t attack on sight so that was good and they seemed very familiar with each other if the weird face touching was any indication. Maybe they were natives who could point Doppio to an exit? “Hey!” Doppio lowered his wet leg back onto the ground before he waved enthusiastically at the strangers. “We’re a little lost. Could you help us?” Share this post Link to post
Posted January 20, 2020 (edited) Entering Sector 2 Glail grinned. So many questions to answer, and she could help! She loved this feeling of being helpful. "I'm Glail!" she yipped, "I'm a wolf laguz! It means I turn into a wolf! I would right now but I'm sure if I did I would fall off." A hint of sheepishness entered her expression, the cool wind from Ionhazard's movement turning her cheeks rosy. "What's a roe-bot? Is that like a row boat? Ionhazard - Iony? Can I call you Iony?!" she abruptly shouted up at the Commander. He grunted in disagreement. "Okay!~ He said you were one of my friends, but I don't recognize you, but he said you were a wolf too!" she went back to talking to Swift, like they were already the best of friends. She gave the new girl another sniff, despite it looking weird with her being in human form. "You smell new, too, like..." Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she patted the metal she was sitting on like an excited child who just had an epiphany. "I know! You smell like trees! Not the trees around us, exactly, but trees! Where are you from? I'm from the desert! We don't have a lot of trees where I'm from. I've only seen one, but it was nothing like the green ones!" Her face fell for a moment as she remembered that she was lost, some unknown distance from home. She looked past Swift, out across the landscape as Ionhazard exited the pass they were in. Sadly, there wasn't a desert, but it still looked cool and new! The right half of the terrain was hilly and forested, a deeper lusher green than the place they came from. Rough cliffs and hills rose out of the soft landscape, many sporting amazing waterfalls that fed the forest below. The right half was a stark opposite, consisting of bare brown stone and a lot of black smoke, similar to what was coming out of her large friend. So much of the land was obscured by smoke that she couldn't see much of it, besides a dim, orange glow that peeked through the billowing clouds now and then. Dividing the two was a long river, coming from the distant horizon and going all the way up to them before turning right into the forests, then the red mountains, which looked a bit gnarly and haphazard. There was so much all at once, her jaw dropped in awe of the explosion of color! "Woooowwwwww! What is this place?!" she gasped. "Not a wasteland," Ionhazard grumbled, eying the greener half of the land with pertinent disgust. He regarded the nearby smoky land with mild interest, however, guessing that it must be volcanic, or at least a massive wildfire of some kind. "Yeah..." Glail said, enthusiasm drained again. Ionhazard couldn't tell her more than that. At the moment, he was uncomfortable with the idea that he had been displaced completely. He didn't recognize this terrain in the slightest. He heard the blue wolf girl sniff, and thought for a moment. "Don't worry," he assured her, "I intend to make a desert. You'll be at home soon enough." The malice lacing his words wasn't even caught by Glail, as she perked up. "Really? You can make deserts?!" The idea that a dragon laguz could have so much power was unfathomable to her! "Can you make a really long desert? Maybe Daddy will find it, and follow it, and find me here!" she said excitedly. Ionhazard grinned. He hardly needed a small child to usher him into destroying an entire forest. Yet... he needed to locate that signal first. His intuitive threads - and experience - kept telling him it was extremely important. Irritating! "Not yet," he said, turning away from the sorely-tempting opportunity, "but duly noted." He followed the cliffs to the immediate left of him, which stretched into the distance and wrapped around the volcanic region. He would soon have to go over the cliffs, but this was roughly the right direction to reach the signal. "Aww!" the laguz wailed, and she hugged his neck even though it was too wide for her to even dream of getting her arms around it. "Can you do just a little bit? Pleeaase? I wanna see!" The machine stopped yet again. Her cutesy voice was replacing the screeching one of his programming, and unfortunately it was far easier to ignore screeching. He growled to himself as he fought impulse and petty justification with the wisdom telling him better. Still... one patch of trees gone wouldn't hurt, right? There's already this smokey patch on the left side. That meant if there were people here, they were already hurting... Easy prey... So tantalizing was the idea that if he had saliva, his jaws would be dripping from it. So let's assume I do as she asks, he entertained the thought, how should I do it? Spread the fire? Choke out the glorified weeds across from it? Find the source of the river and poison it? Mmmm.... poisoning would be nice. I still have neurotoxin, don't I? No, wait... carbon dioxide. I have more than enough of that, and it's soluble. Better yet, perhaps I can split it into monoxide... Glail stared numbly at the machine as he thought. His face lacked too much expression for her to tell if she had convinced him to help her or not. Making a desert seemed too cool! She had a small doubt that he could somehow carve a desert so long it would find her homeland, but it was worth a shot, right? If he could make deserts, she could only imagine the other things he could do! "Iony?" She tried to catch his attention by rubbing her face on him, but he barely reacted. She shot a puzzled look over at Swift. "I-I think he just does this sometimes..." she faltered, starting to feel silly in front of her new friend. Edited January 21, 2020 by skwerl56767 Share this post Link to post
Posted January 22, 2020 Seto Kaiba <Status: Stable> <Active Monster(s): N/A> Hibiki Tachibana <Status: Stable> <Gungnir Symphogear: Inactive> <People: Riza | Mystical | Utakata | Renarin | Neea | Rude> ~~ Kaiba bristled at Riza's words. "...I would prefer it if you used my last name, Hawkeye," he said through clenched teeth. He was on a last-name basis with everyone and he'd rather it stayed that way. As they moved, he was lost in thought. Everything was so new and so different and so utterly terrifying. Yet he knew he couldn't show any fear - he was Seto Kaiba, for god's sake! Seto Kaiba feared nothing, not even the unknown. Sera, when you warned me about other dimensions all those months ago, was this what you meant...? ~~ "Well, well, what have we here?" A young woman, looking no older than her early 20s, looked down at this newcomer to her master's sector with interest. She wore a red dress, had what appeared to be bat wings upon her back, and had black hair with a red streak. Her bright golden eyes had that "pierce into the soul" look behind them. "You look lost, honey. Tell me, what brings you to Sector 7?" Millaarc Cranstoun <Leader: Shem-Ha Mephorash> <Rank: Noble Red - Vampire Commander> <Status: Stable> Share this post Link to post
Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) [U and R - Sector 1 -North Midsection] "...I would prefer it if you used my last name, Hawkeye," Seto said, completely ignoring Utakata's mouthy response. Riza keeps a neutral face and respectfully nods. "Very well, Kaiba. I'll keep that in mind." She ignores the fact that Kaiba says this through gritted teeth, knowing she could draw her weapon and defend herself were he to charge her. Besides, it was a simple mistake to make. It appears he's on a last name basis with everyone- she assumes he will do the same with everyone else in this group. Although Utakata never said anything about a last name, does he even have one? Curious. She then glances at Utakata, who shrugs as if nothing ever happened. "What about you, are you on a last name basis with everyone?" Utakata startles and looks at her with confusion. "....Last name?" "Family name, if you will." This causes Utakata to mouth "oh" and nod. "Um.... I-I have none," he stutters. Once upon a time, that wouldn't have been true. You'd been without that name for six years.... Junsai.... The name you'd abandoned the day you ran from the village.... The day you--- Utakata shakes his head. "I, um.... will use any names people want me to." Utakata concludes that conversation curtly, not wanting to get into that whole jar of worms. Riza looks at him and shrugs as well. She doesn't pry any further- but the nervousness in his voice was so obvious.... Did she pick up on the fact that it was a sore spot? Utakata takes note that one of the people he was looking at earlier had yelled "Hello!" However, it wasn't in their direction at all. Is.... Is there another group of people? He scans his eyes in the distance, and barely he can glimpse something. There's some sort of creature, a large one, off in the distance. He assumes that's where the group of two is headed. "Ah- it looks like they're on the move, there might be some others. Should we get going and check it out?" Then he startles as a voice enters his mind. Ah, I'm sorry, I might have gotten too lost in my thoughts again about this universe. Hi! I'm Mystical! It's nice to meet you all! What the hell- Saiken? No. That couldn't be Saiken. There was no way that six-tailed slug could speak with such.... well.... grammatical-correct.... ness. Looking around, it takes him a solid five minutes before he realizes it's the damn horse talking. "...Mother of god, I almost had a heart attack. Um... H-hi, Mystical." He says as he takes a few deep breaths to calm down his accelerated heart rate. "L-let's go see what's going on with those people- yeah, they seem.... normal..." The last word he whispers under his breath. No, not normal. Everything going on today is beyond normal. Edited January 26, 2020 by Mikasa361 Share this post Link to post
Posted January 24, 2020 Swift smiled in amusement at Glail’s rush of words, her personality so much like her friend Suzy’s. "I'm Glail! I'm a wolf laguz! It means I turn into a wolf! I would right now but I'm sure if I did I would fall off." Another shifter! At last; she had never met someone else who could do it before, though it seemed that the blue-haired girl could only change into a wolf and not other animals or forms. The outlaw’s expression faltered slightly at the next statement: "What's a roe-bot? Is that like a row boat?” What? She didn’t know what a robot was? Maybe she had never been to Storybrooke or anywhere in that world, so she wouldn’t have seen a robot or computer — Swift and Emma and everyone else had been like that too before the Curse. And if Glail wasn’t from here either, this must be some whole other realm, farther away than Wonderland, farther than the Wish Realm, even. ”Um, well, a robot is sort of a machine thingy, I guess, that can do jobs by itself, being actually programmed to do them, they don’t really have minds to think,” she explained. “Except in, like, sci-fi movies and stuff.” Belatedly, she realised that Glail likely wouldn’t know about movies and wondered whether to explain about those too but turned her attention back to what the other was saying, storing her explanatory sentences away for later and pondering the fact that Glail addressed the robot as “Ionhazard”. "You smell new, too, like... I know! You smell like trees! Not the trees around us, exactly, but trees! Where are you from? I'm from the desert! We don't have a lot of trees where I'm from. I've only seen one, but it was nothing like the green ones!" She took it as a compliment; she’d never really thought about what she smelled like, but if she smelled like trees, it couldn’t be an insult, could it? “I’m from Sherwood, but now I live in Storybrooke. It’s a small town in Maine, America. I’m assuming you don’t know about states and things...” Turning to ‘Iony’, she spotted him studying the forest with interest. "Don't worry, I intend to make a desert. You'll be at home soon enough,” said the behemoth, and Swift was certain she heard something more than comfort in his voice. Make a desert? With the forest? Who would do that if they were good people... Unless the robot wasn’t good. She bolted upright, almost falling from her perch on Ionhazard’s shoulder. She was sitting on a big, monstrous, probably evil robot. This is a big change from lying on my couch and having a movie marathon with my dog. At least something was happening aside from Granny burning her lasagna or Hook scratching himself with the wrong hand. The robot had paused, and the other girl had spoken to it — or him — about “Daddy” and then turned towards her, looking flustered. "I-I think he just does this sometimes..." Sorting through her options, Swift decided to do the thing that made the most (least) sense and may get her tossed off the robot. “You can’t turn a forest into a desert! What about all the animals and trees and other plants in there?!” she burst out. ”Why would you even think of it?” By now she was sure that he was bad; his answer would give her more to work on. Share this post Link to post
Posted January 26, 2020 (edited) DIO BURNING CANYON Moderate Fraction's Leader & VEIGAS TERRE Messenger of Destruction Raven's attack is impressive, to say the least -- it reminds Dio of the humans he has met before, in the past, and the ones that he keeps the company of now. Holding boundless power and a determination to carry it through, something that made up for any lack of ability between that of a demon and of a human. It is -- reassuring. To realise that even here, in this faraway land, he can perhaps find those personalities that he gets along with most, away from the troublesome meddling of the other demon lords or the doubtful glances of the humans that, sometimes rightfully, do not let him inside their home. An inbetween, where he feels mostly comfort. He watches as several of the smaller monsters burn to a crisp, screeching as they do so, and the larger monster that had been within the vicinity of the blast stagger back, winded. "Delightful!" Veigas, announces next to him, crossing his legs. "It reminds me of when I used to burn your armies to a crisp, Lord Dio -- how wonderfully they sang then! Would you like to try again?" "Not once," Dio responds, failing to look at him -- he misses the obvious displeasure that sours Veigas' face -- and instead summons his scythe held with his demon hand, twirling the weapon around. The sky darkens in the space immediately above them, before spears constructed of dark energy, blazing blue within swirling back, slam down towards the various monsters collected. Easy prey, Dio thinks. It would be nothing to wipe them out in a single hit. Except -- A dark mass of disjointed reality opens above the monsters' heads, just as his spears are about to hit the creatures, and Dio draws back in surprise, stunned, as his spears are caught in the swirling mass and abruptly suffocated, broken into shattered pieces that wisp away in the light. Veigas throws his cube in the air, smirking from his attack as the void dissipates as well, having barely grazed the monsters. "Look at me when I'm speaking to you, Lord Dio," the demon lord sings, "or I'll twist your arms off next time." Silence. Dio stares at the other demon in disbelief. "Take this seriously," he hisses between his teeth. "Why?" Veigas replies. "He's more than capable of handling them, and it's a good show," Veigas says, inclining his head towards Raven as he tosses up his cube. Dio makes an audible sound of frustration, afraid of how Raven must consider the two of them, now. Just when he was hoping the human could join them on their journey ... "Lord Veigas," he says, trying to keep his voice calm. "Should you take this seriously, I will procure for you some fresh harpy's blood once we return to the realm." "Melted or frozen?" "Your choice." Veigas hums. "I'll consider it. Fight on then, my underlings," he orders mockingly, swirling the cube towards the monsters once more, lazily throwing his weapon at the larger one, but very clearly missing. Increasingly losing his patience with the other demon, Dio blames Veigas' distraction for what occurs next. To his surprise, he finds himself suddenly surrounded by the monsters; Veigas smirks at him joyously, easily floating away from the area of impact. "Maybe you'll die," he calls out. "What a delight that would be to watch, Lord Dio." He could fly out, Dio thinks -- it would be easy to summon his wings and leave, but no. He has promised to aid Raven in this battle, regardless of Vegias' distractions, and so Dio considers summoning Necrotic to dispose of them all. Would it work, though, on such rocky terrain? It seems there is no need. Raven launches into the offensive near immediately, the enemy's attack not even stopping him slightly in his movements, and with a cry the human disposes of the remaining monsters in a way that Elesis would have been proud. Dusting off the edges of his cloak in the aftermath of the battle's events, Dio nods to confirm. "I'm fine. I'd like to apologise for his --" A glare at Veigas, who floats closer, now. "Interruption in battle. My sincerest gratitude for your quick thinking," Dio responds, stiff. Then, a slight pause, as if he is internally debating his options. "You're wounded," he says. "Are you alright?" Humans are remarkably fragile, as he has found out one too many times, and it concerns him -- that the other man would bleed so easily. "Wow!" Veigas says, calling out. "You're remarkable! You should come back to the demon world, you would make quite a good pit slave for the arena -- don't you think so? Lord Dio?" "Behave," Dio snaps. -- Edited April 29, 2020 by Edelgard Share this post Link to post
Posted January 26, 2020 Everyone seems to be on board with the not-Thunderclast doing whatever she wants, except, perhaps, for the creature herself. “I'm built to fight, I just…” she trails off into silence. Built to fight, huh? The opposite of me, then. Renarin can’t help but think back through all the people who had told him he couldn’t fight. Barred him from what they claimed was the highest honor because of his blood weakness. I guess we’re both defying what we were told in different ways, but...it doesn’t seem to make her happy the way it does for me. That’s sad. “Before I forget--” Hibiki pulls out an odd substance. Renarin blinks out of his thoughts and leans over to look at it. That’s...really weird. It looks like it’s phasing in and out of existence. He figures he probably shouldn’t touch it, even though it looks like it would have a really nice texture, but. He wants to. “They look...very interesting,” he says. “Maybe we can pick some of them up after we...finish finding other people.” A bit more discussion that Renarin manages to fail to process entirely, and then-- ‘Ah, I'm sorry, I might have gotten too lost in my thoughts again about this universe. Hi! I'm Mystical! It's nice to meet you all!’ Voice in his head NOT GLYS Renarin startles, looking instinctively for its source, and settles on the tiny horse. ...Oh, Kelek’s breath. “You can talk?” Vyre started at the new voice, bringing his Blade up once again. A young woman in--in very foreign clothes that almost made him flush. She looked mostly human...but only mostly. Well, she made about as much sense as that other strange man. And this new area...it was certainly a shift from the other place he’d been in, but just as strange in its own way. “I have no idea,” Vyre admitted, eyeing her warily. His Lashing hadn’t cancelled when the landscape had shifted...but she was flying too. “I was in one place. Now I’m in another.” Under his breath, he added, “This is the second storming time it’s happened in as many hours.” At normal volume, “What’s Sector 7 supposed to mean?” Share this post Link to post
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