2018-03-10: A Lunar Landing
- Log: A Lunar Landing
- Cast: Leon Albus, Riesenlied, Lily Keil, Fei Fong Wong as Hammer, Josephine Lovelace, Noeline, Emma Hetfield, Cecilia Adlehyde
- Where: Meribia - Blue Dragon Way
- Date: March 10th 2018
- Summary: The Black Wolves (or at least, some of them) and the Dawn Chasers (or at least, some of them) find themselves deposited on Lunar; already battered and beaten from their trials before and during the battles in the Pleasing Garden, they quickly find that there is no time for them to rest yet. And that Lunar is a very, very strange place.
DG: A party led by Leon Albus is now entering Big Trouble in Little Meribia. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Stop Right There! *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In a flash of silver light, you are whisked away from Filgaia, and appear in the middle of the port city of Meribia. Specifically, you appear in its marketplace: a bustling, busy place that is teeming with activity. Colorful stalls and tents have been placed up, where people sell handmade goods, leathers, and smithed tools and jewelry. Meribia is well patrolled, though, and the sudden flashes of silver light draw attention. From men and women wearing polished steel helms and breastplates, carrying spears. Low-ranking Guardsmen turn and stare in your direction, before one bellows: "Stop right there!" The chase is on! =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
PLEASING GARDEN, IGNAS, FILGAIA
"Nnh..."
Hammer had pulled Leon and Lily out of the way, and with healing items -- and a lot of luck -- gotten them clear of the devastation wreaked by the Lord of Calamity. It is late in the battle when Leon comes to. He stirs, slowly, and sits upright. He has a hand over his side, where Harken's blade bit deep. He looks towards Lily, first. Then, once he confirms that she is reasonably well-off, he looks to Hammer.
"I agree," he says. "I would much rather not be out there." He glances through a crack in the wall. The glowing red fire, billowing up, is what he sees first. But, then, there is the ring of silver light.
He vanishes when it washes over him.
MERIBIA, MERIBUS, LUNAR
The air is different. Leon notices that first. It is clearer and thicker, being at sea level. And, of course, it smells of salt -- of the ocean, as a sea breeze blows in. The bustle of the market can be heard, and Leon looks around. There are other flashes of silver around him, as others are whisked away from Lost July and here. "Where are..."
He looks up, and finds himself staring -- unknowingly -- at his own world. The Blue Star is so much larger than Lunar in the sky, with a swirl of clouds visible even here. Leon's jaw drops, slowly. "...we?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
...
...
The Tainted stares towards Nasrin. No longer was she garbed in the capelet and gown of the Fereshte, but once more, draped in the shredded, twisted remains of the neonate suit. A tattoo-like mark at her clavicle identifies a bar code and experiment number...
I clung to those words so hard...
I didn't have any words to live by...
The Tainted clutches at her chest, as she buckles gently and whimpers.
I just wanted you to... live on...
Some way... any way... inside of me...
The Hyadean in the rags drops to her knees. Her throat is dry. Her eyes are wet. Her mind is burning...
Seek... the new world...
Seek... the... new... world...
Her thoughts are blurring. Something is shaking her.
Mama...
mama...
Mama, wake up!
BACK IN REALITY
Leon can see Riesenlied dropping out from the thin air, collapsing down onto a nearby piece of the street. Then someone's calling out haphazardly:
"Mama... mama... Mama, wake up!" Mikaia urgently calls as she shakes her, Janey looking around with wide eyes as she-- gawks up and back around again. She bites her lip, sniffing the air. "Whoa... is that... the ocean...?" She swallows, then perks up.
"Mister Leon! What happened?!"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
PLEASING GARDEN, IGNAS, FILGAIA
Thanks to Hammer, the flames about Lily's person have died down, though her armored jacket is ruined, warped and burned--and taken off in any case to apply some healing items. Her strange circuitry glows orange-red where it's visible under some bandages--which is not, terribly. She is... Not so bad, though. At least, not physically; she's had about has bad. ...Leon, for one, has seen her heal burns like this herself, without the help of additional items. So it's not so bad.
...But she is not awake, at first. Her lips twitch, her expression troubled.She says nothing about whether she'd rather be here.
MERIBIA, MERIBUS, LUNAR
The salty sea breeze hits Lily's nose and she blinks suddenly, rising with a start. "What--where--" She coughs, with the suddenness of it, looking around immediately; flashes of silver, Leon's voice...
"What...?" She starts to calm a little, but her golden eyes are troubled, haunted. "We aren't..." She starts to remember. She turns to look at Riesenlied and the others, and then back to Leon. "How...?"
The Domain is gone. Lily's fingers curl against the cobblestones.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer is a rat beastman in a green cap and unicorm with glasses. He is very furry but more relevantly, knows a great deal about healing items and mechanics while also having a skill in 'finding things out'. He has absolutely no combat capability whatsoever except for maybe a single panicked move once in a while. He has talents to compensate for his meager charisma score when it comes to being a merchant. Probably. He doesn't get a chance to reply to Leon before
MERIBIA, MERIBUS, LUNAR
Hammer blinks several times and he says, "...Did the Elw just grant our wish?" He stands himself up and takes a look around for a bit. Eventually, he looks towarrds Mikaia. "H..hey... don't shake her. She's probably hurt!" He rushes over to Riesenlied and uncorks a potion, crouching by her and trying to pour it down her throat. It should make her feel better. Maybe? Hopefully? He was able to tend to Lily and Leon for long enough that he doesn't figure they need constant supervision--not until they get to somewhere they can pass out at least.
"...But I don't recognize... any town like this." Hammer says. He looks around a bit more. "Hey..."
He hops back to look at Lily. "Where's bro?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
PLEASING GARDEN, IGNAS, FILGAIA
To say Josie's encounter with Id and his Gear had not gone well would have been an understatement. Following evacuation onto the Fereshte, her wounds had been treated and the archaeologist had been put to bed, a prescription that for once she hadn't fought.
Stirring in her bunk, she slowly awakens, sheets shuffling about her.
What's the bright light? It's as if it's everywhere...
Penelope, perched on the bedframe, shuffles slightly to the left.
MERIBIA, MERIBUS, LUNAR
The first thing that Josephine Lovelace notices as she blinks in the light is the sudden absence of her bed.
The first thing people might notice about Josephine Lovelace is possibly the clothes... or the partial lack thereof. Clad in little more than a nightshirt and a whole array of bandages -- visible down the legs, over most of the left arm and peeking out of the nightshirt top -- she sits there as if stunned for the moment, attempting to get up to speed at all pace. Her hair, loosed from its usual braids, spills loose across her shoulders.
"...Where the fuck are we?"
Thus does Josie make a question of the world.
She glances down at her bandaged legs, wiggles her toes experimentally. "And where are my pants?!"
As if in a sort of answer, Penelope alights atop Josie's head.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
The great warrior falls and Emma Hetfield feels...
What?
She feels pain, she feels fatigue. Emotion feels hollow and meaningless. Berserk has fallen but what was the cost? She sags, only the remains of the glossy yellow carapace she wove for herself out of the stolen data of another Metal Demon keeping her upright.
Maybe this is worse than I thought, Emma thinks. Perhaps this is death? I thought I would be terrified, but perhaps I'm just too tired. There is a light through the thin skin of her eyelids. Ah, she thinks - people have reported this.
The light washes...
...
...
Emma opens her eyes.
Let's review Emma's situation last time. She had been in her habitual salmon dress with a green blazer. A bright yellow carapace of what we all would know as plastic even if Emma has not yet determined that this is where the future rests was brutally struck by Berserk, cracking but not fully eroding. A helm, the upper half of a torso glacis plate, and some leggings remain to Emma.
Emma's first analysis is, "If this is heaven, why is my arm still broken?" She says this aloud and directly to all within the immediate area. Her uninjured arm comes up, fumbling with her helm and pulling it loose, letting it fall to the ground with the indifferent KLONK of the habitual litterer.
Emma shakes her hair out a little. "I must look like complete garbage," she muses. "Do the Guardians have a branch office here?" Her eyes track after several mercenaries, and Emma muses aloud, "I recognize them! I think. They're cold blooded killers. This probably isn't heaven, and given the lack of fiery demons prodding my rump with red hot grilling forks, we can rule out the other outcome."
"Perhaps I've been reincarnated. But, hm-" Emma looks down at herself. "Rudy, what do you -"
Rudy isn't there. Emma tries again. "Cecilia -"
Her head turns.
She looks down.
"Goodness gracious. Cecilia, listen to me! I'm going to sing to you and I expect you to sing along so you don't succumb to shock and die in this alien world where we've been reborn." The Emulator is drawn out, fumbled with clumsily. There is an edge beneath Emma's gabble.
SOON
Emma Hetfield, still partly in yellow, clomps towards Hammer. "Excuse me, sir," she calls ahead! (Hammer stands out more than most people, due to his intense Hammerness.) "Can you help a princess in exile?"
Emma has fashioned a travois and lubricated it with graphite. She then lashed it to her waist. Yes: She has hauled Cecilia on a sledge these -- little bit of a ways. Is this grim determination? Or did she just not reliably know how to 3-D Print a wheel and axle?
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is no stranger to the trickery of gods and ancient peoples by now - she would normally say she's had enough meddling to be done with it for a lifetime, except for the simple fact that that's obviously not true at all. It's something to do with the way she keeps surprising herself in how far she'll go to chase down what's important to her, a creed that led her all the way through Lost July and the ordeal of the Pleasing Gardens in pursuit of whatever was pulling Riesenlied there.
And beyond, it seems, to Lunar. Somehow, the metal demon can just tell that's the case, the moment they wink into existence in the air above Meribia, from one fall to another. Maybe it's the way the moon hangs in the sky, larger than it's ever been, a different colour and shape. Maybe it's the tickle of Duras Drum's amusement in the back of her mind, and the Guardian relishing the face she'll make when she properly has time to process it.
But they're still falling, Riesenlied and Janey and Mikaia all - so Noeline grabs Mikaia and Janey to her tightly, doing her best to also take the brunt of the fall for Riesenlied as well. The impact is jarring - but it's significantly less far than the prospect of plummeting however many kilometres into Lost July, and Noeline's at least got the presence of mind to take it at a roll.
"--kh--" she spits - she's been taking injuries all day and can't stop the mixture of pain and irritation from escaping her - but forces the rest of the noise back, pulling herself up on her hands then to her knees as she takes stock. "--are you two alright?!" she blurts urgently to the pair of children before her eyes actually focus on them, then looks over at her partner.
"Riese! We're here! Focus on me!" she calls as she clasps the other woman's hand to her chest, glancing for a moment to Hammer's attempts to revive her - but she can't help but wince at the same time, certain that medical assistance is far from the only thing the other metal demon needs, right at the moment. "We're here. Janey and Mikaia and myself. We're all safe. Focus on that, alright?"
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Good news, Cecilia! Innocent orphans are present! If we did die, this might be some kind of mid-tier heaven," Emma says aloud in tones of jollity. "Limbo at worst! Did you ever hear of Limbo? I had to read a pamphlet, 'That's What I Call Heresy Volume 11,' on a train once."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Janey looks at Emma, who she's familiar with due to her presence around town based on when they were working on installing the Emma Motors to the Fereshte: "I ain't an orphan no more, I'm the Lord of Calamity!" A pause, and she glances around. "Even said it to the real one's face!"
She gives Emma a super toothy grin.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
PLEASING GARDEN, IGNAS, FILGAIA
Cecilia stares at Berserk with a rising hate in her veins. The planet's will had seen to Berserk's maiming guided her on the path to flensing that invincible armor that had vexed her time and again.
But it was her will that decided to kill him. Rip him apart with all of Fengalon's fury. A small vengeance, but satisying in its way, and the moment of emotional validation sees the adrenaline holding her on her feet evaporate.
So she fell over, her body - her entire skeleton a shambles thanks to Berserk's wrecking ball giving her one last goodnight kiss - held together entirely by the residual power of Odoryuk, her skin ashen and her teeth stained red.
By the time the Lord of Calamity's fiery doom strikes out - and the Elw ruin's teleportation ring sweeps out just slightly faster - the Princess looks slightly somewhat like a corpse candidate. She stirs just so before the ring hits her, and she washes away in a sprinkle of light.
MERIBIA, MERIBUS, LUNAR
Emma comes up on a group of people with a corpse on a sledge. Oh, no, actually it's breathing.
Cecilia mumbles, "she's a...small wonder...." in minor participation with Emma's earlier request.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline rather loudly clears her throat at that; the rebuke might be rather lessened by the amusement dancing in the back of her throat, and the way she's knelt next to Riesenlied clasping the other woman's hand - but she still looks across at Janey's boast with a rather flat expression. "--and we are going to have a talk about what age is appropriate to confront primal foes, young lady."
She's slowly managing to take stock of her surroundings and those who've appeared with them, carefully propping Riesenlied up as she does so - on the one hand, it's a relief to see them. On the other, it means a great many of them are missing from Filgaia, especially the Princess of Adlehyde, and she puts on a rather glum face at that prospect. "We are on holiday," she decides on the most diplomatic way to put it, if the least helpful.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily stirs, blinks, looks at Emma, and past her to Cecilia. "...For fuck's sake," she murmurs, as if she has a hangover, "Don't announce yourself as royalty..." But Lily can see that she's breathing. She starts to rise, looks around to the others, checks them for obvious injuiries like the hypocrite she is about these things. But there was... There was a question, in her ears. What was...
"Josie?" Lily asks, "They're on the table across from your--" She pauses. She looks over to Josie. "...Why are you--"
She looks over to Janey at the talk of the Lord of Calamity. She actually laughs once, hollowly. "Nice. Nice, Janey. Good work."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Anything for anybody who killed that monster." Hammer says cheerfully because this is Berserk we're talking about and he's perfectly okay with dehumanizing anything that can crush him with a hard enough glower. "It's lucky I always stock extra." Hammer says. He finally gets that gunk into Riese's mouth before hobbling over to Cecilia. He's hobbling because to be perfectly honest, all that excitement at the Pleasing Gardens was more movement than he usually engages in.
He will pour two potions for Cecilia because she's royalty and Hammer, again, is smart enough to not fight Berserk and Lady Harken so he's smart enough to give princesses special treatment.
Hopefully nothing startling happens while he's doing this.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I don't know. Where in the blazes is this? Are we on Aquvy? I heard that Meria Boule and Sylvaland are greener, but..." The bustling of the market doesn't sound right; there isn't the clang of ARMs, nor the hiss of steam. Nor does the air have the bite of burned fuels, and his eyebrows knit together. He looks from Lily to Janey and Mikaia. And, then, Riesenlied. His eyes widen.
"Janey, Mikaia," he says. He nods to Hammer as he he hurries to help Riesenlied -- and then he looks to Noeline as she falls there, with them, and nods. "Noeline's right. We're all here. We--"
He turns to stare as Josie is deposited, unceremoniously, and half-naked. He opens his mouth, and then closes it. "We're working that out, Josie," he says. "Do you need my coat for the moment? I think your pants could be very far away."
Which is what he says as Cecilia and Emma approach. He raises an eyebrow at Emma's question, his mouth open to answer. He sees the princess she means, though, nd his eyes widen for a moment -- and then he nods. "Princess," he says. "Yes, we'll help. It seems we've all ended up here. Now, I wonder--"
"You! Stop right there!"
Leon turns and stares for a moment at the polished steel helms and men wearing the garb of Althena's Guard; blue uniforms, white lining, and polished silvered helms and breastplates. Spears are drawn. He stares for a moment, then looks to the others.
"I think we should continue this discussion elsewhere!"
He reaches to the coat -- pulls out a rope -- and snaps it for the knees of one guard, like a makeshift whip. Then, Leon's tearing out of the alley and ignoring how badly his wounds scream at the sudden movement.
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Climbing Rope toward his party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lets out a very shallow, pained cough as Mikaia timidly steps back from Hammer and whimpers, "Please help mama..." The potion starts to take effect, as she looks towards the Hyadean as she rouses from her stricken slumber. Noeline's rousing words seem to stir her from unconsciousness...
It's time for you to rise once more. Good luck, 'Riesenlied'...
Her eyes flutter wide open, as she spasms and her stomach tightens, sending her into a tightened squeeze. "Ah-- ahh--"
Mikaia flinches, then more happily says, "Mama...! Thank goodness--" she looks behind to where Cecilia and Emma is, before-- her eyes widen and she sees the guardsmen coming.
She looks at Janey, and Janey looks back at her with a grin, as Lily praises them.
Janey suddenly bolts up to a sprint as she exclaims, clinging onto one of the guardsmen's sleeves:
"HELP! Help--" she points in the opposite direction of the group. "My mama got hurt by someone in a red cape, they said they were Lucia the Lord of Calamity!!"
Janey: pragmatic as f.
Also, totally unaware the Fiends just beamed down into town somewhere approximately now.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer yelps predictably as this happens and ends up dumping healing potion all over Cecilia.
Honestly, this is probably okay for her too. Looks like you've gotta go fast! Hammer suddenly feels has incentive to keep up with the party and feels fully rejuvenated.
"Ha! Nice one!" Hammer gives Janey a thumbsup. "...Hopefully that doesn't cause them any problems."
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Don't undermine your claim with conditions, Janetty," Emma says to Janey in tones of light scolding. She watches as Hammer gets out the potion funnel and says, "I don't want to plague you but I'm actually in incredible pain myself, it's just not going to kill me. Probably."
Guards show up. Emma stares at them with incomprehension. "What? No," she says, before trundling in the approximate direction of Leon. If Cecilia is revived, she cuts loose the travois, to leave a large yellow plastic object to mystify the primitives.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's demeanour changes just a little as Leon addresses them; she's more serious, her mouth drawn into a solemn line. She's still clasping Riesenlied's hand, of course - still cradling the other woman against her - but she seems more ready to throw off the joking side of her nature. "I-- while I do not even begin to know the details of 'how', I am reasonably sure that we are on--"
Of course, that's when the first yell from the guards goes up, answered by a second, and then a third. Noeline's head snaps around in the direction of each, taking in the city and their surroundings, and instinctively tucks both Mikaia and Riesenlied closer to her, hoisting the latter up into her arms. "I think you're right," she mutters back to Leon with a curt nod.
Her pods, disoriented by the shift in location, have been doing nothing more than circling slowly in place; a nudge from a shoulder pulls Strife out of its logical loop, though, and the little ARM hovers down to bump gently into Mikaia as if it were a protective dog. The motion seems to suggest it wants to give her a ride, and Noeline just huffs softly in satisfaction at the sight of it.
Cities are something she's used to. Even on a different planet, there are carts and shops - which means the biggest road is probably the one that's going to lead to any gates. Taking it might be risky, of course, but the alleyways and side streets look large enough to use, and if their immediate surroundings are any indication they're hopefully in a regular pattern and not a series of twisting shapes.
The thought process is more or less instinctive, and she throws a glance towards Janey's plan with a nod of recognition, trusting the distraction to her. "--this way," she declares to the supplier who's joined them, taking Leon's lead but-- visibly hesitating for a moment, wondering if she should somehow try to shoulder Cecilia's weight as well.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily starts to realize that Hammer helped her quite a bit, and she puts her eyes on him for a moment, not quite managing thanks before things get... Weird. Janey is grinning, Riesenlied is waking up, and she sounds like she's not healthy--"Riesenlied--" She starts. ...The guard tells them to stop. Lily doesn't even have to look at Leon, frankly. She just frowns at the guards. "...Don't think so," she says to them, and starts to rise. Her burns are still painful for now, worse as she rises and uses her muscles. Running that fast is going to be a problem. "Hey," she says to Janey, "Come on." She waits for Janey to book--and then puts out her hands, and the ground between them and the guards starts to ice over in a flash of blue light and chill mist.
"Don't think so," she repeats, and ducks down to scoop Cecilia up into her arms, despite the loud protests of her body, and start running. "Hey," she greets, as she runs after Leon.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A little pointedly, Josie looks over to where Lily had suggested her folded clothing would be and raises an eyebrow. "Or maybe not, Tiger? ...What happened to all of you? You look like you picked a fight with a traincar."
A pause, though, does insert itself as Leon suggests he... take her jacket. Standing up carefully (...for various reasons?) Josie takes a test step forward on bare feet. "...Mm, good enough? But if you're offering, Lion, I'll take you up on it."
"...Somehow, I get the feeling," she starts to say, turning her head to stare down the street, "we're not gonna exactly have the chance to go shopping."
The potentially cool moment on her part might be undermined by the pigeon atop her head, though.
"Well, time to get out, kids! Tell you what, let's get out of here and then we'll have a chat!" She only pauses to stoop and scoop up her pack -- which, of all things, appears to have made the trip along with her (possibly because of its contents) -- and break for it in the opposite direction.
With all the haste her bandaged body can muster, at least.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
It does take a funnel but by golly it works. The faint lightshow sparks off, and when it fades Cecilia's skin is an altogether healthier if not entirely lustrous shade, and the Princess emits an entirely alive groan and plants a hand against her sledge, drowsily dragging herself upright to stare around. "....what a quaint little town," she says, with the mild delight of someone who isn't entirely in the moment. Her head swivels toward the guards. "Oh, it's knights! I haven't seen knights in ages. I wonder if they know Captain Ozma..."
Which is when Lily scoops her up. She moans in agony as it feels like her entire skeleton creaks from the motion, which maybe is what actually happened. "That really hurts....oh hello Lily!" ... "why is anything?"
It's not an especially astute question but it seems to cover all the bases she needs answers on at the moment. She looks toward Emma who she usually relies on in matters of 'the state of reality'. She will have enough presence of mind to be actually useful soon, probably.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stop Right There!.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Stop Right There! *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In a flash of silver light, you are whisked away from Filgaia, and appear in the middle of the port city of Meribia. Specifically, you appear in its marketplace: a bustling, busy place that is teeming with activity. Colorful stalls and tents have been placed up, where people sell handmade goods, leathers, and smithed tools and jewelry. Meribia is well patrolled, though, and the sudden flashes of silver light draw attention. From men and women wearing polished steel helms and breastplates, carrying spears. Low-ranking Guardsmen turn and stare in your direction, before one bellows: "Stop right there!" The chase is on! =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
=================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia - Round 1 *>================== ========================< Results - Stop Right There! >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Climbing Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Strife 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emma Hetfield 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon doesn't rush ahead for long. He keeps to the back, waving people through -- his eyes dart to Janey and Mikaia, and he makes a face at Janey. He looks to Riesenlied first, though. "Riese, stay with us," he says, with a glance to Noeline. "If you need one of us to carry her, just ask--and Janey, be careful! You might tell to that to the wrong person!"
The tell-tale flash of blue light, and the shock of cold mist, is enough to make Leon know that Lily won't be far behind. He looks over his shoulder as he waves Emma and Hammer along, and then looks to Josie.
"Afraid it'll have to wait!" he says, as he waves her along, hand still on his rope, and eyes on the guards, as they stumble over the ice. One falls flat on his backside. He looks at Cecilia, in Lily's arms, and then at the guards. One of them throws a rock for the back of Lily -- these men aren't accustomed to deadly force, it seems -- but they lag behind.
"Let's go! Lily, you have the princess?" he asks, as he starts running.
The guard in the back calls out. "Wait, Ferdinand!" he says. "The child told us that the Lord of Calamity is near! We must go find her! It is Althena's will!"
DG: Riesenlied has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>====================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Out of My Way! *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The crowds in Meribia's markets are thick and heavy on market day... and, really, they have seen thrilling chases through the market before. After about ten of them, an enterprising entrepreneur accepts that she can't just stand and gawk. As a result, the people here aren't clearing as fast as you would like. They push and press against you, not making way -- but maybe a show of force will get them to scamper out of the way! Before the guards show up. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Wolves keep sprinting, the guards distracted for a moment by a bevy of tools -- tripping rope repurposed from grappling hooks, spreads of mist and other such details. Mikaia lets out a little 'eek!' as she climbs onboard Strife and pets it on the head as it potters ahead next to Noeline, who scoops Riesenlied up into a no-doubt familiar princess carry by now.
Riese stirs gently and hears Leon's voice, after Noeline's. To stay with them... "Sorry, everything's blurry..."
Janey shakes her head as they hurry onward, and-- come onto an absolutely thick wall of people in front of them. "Darn, is it rush hour or something! Eghh, come up with a plan..."
She pauses, and then looks towards Riesenlied's waist and snatches something from it.
It's... the cucco flute.
She looks at it for a moment, Mikaia's face going blue. "No, Janey, no, think of everyone else's lives..."
Janey stares and says, "It'd be soooo fun..."
"No angry cuccos in town!"
"Baww... fine, I'll think of something else."
She looks back to the crowd, and then sneaks up around an alley and puffs up her breath as she shouts:
"I'M VASH FON BORGANBERG OF NEO-VANE!"
She sucks up more breath:
"VASH LIVES!"
She darts into another alley.
The crowd is getting really agitated. 'Vash? Who's that?' 'Did she say Neo-Vane?' 'I don't want any trouble...'
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer is going to have a hard time here. He struggles to push through the crowd and follow the others, but is likely going to need help! Oh no! Hammer was a buff, now he's a debuff! The humanity!! "Gyaaahh...!" Hammer cries out. He doesn't have a gun to shoot in either the air or in...other places...at the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Oh thank you so much," Emma says to Lily as she hoists Cecilia up. "This is perfect. We can have a conversation. Cecilia, I don't know where we are, other than a town, not too dissimilar from Port Timney. I hope we can get some oysters, because I am very tired and also in severe pain."
Trundle trundle trundle.
"Good job, Janetty," Emma praises the orphan as they keep moving, but soon enough the crowd is thickening.
"Sigh," Emma says. "Miss Keil, if you have a moment, hold on."
... something... gets stuck on one of her sachel charges. Looks like some kind of white putty. Emma carefully draws back a couple of clear vials, which she is then left holding with great concern, glancing round for a trash receptacle. "Hm," she says. "Anyway - that should enhance the blast significantly - try to aim away from people's eyes, I might have missed one or two of the acid ampoules."
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool The Anti-Door Equation toward her party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily gets a reward for her heroics: first, picking up Cecilia is painful. Lily's hands are still extremely tender. ...And then she gets a rock right between her shoulderblades, and stumbles briefly. "Gh--" She looks at Cecilia's face, "Good question. I need.. a drink." Then louder, "Got her!" up to Leon. ...She hears the others talk about what they need to do, and she realizes that it wasn't a spear they threw for her back. Are they... using nonlethal force on them?
Huh.
But Emma moves back and Lily nods. "Oysters sound good. I can... do something about the pain once I have room to breathe..." Hammer is having trouble. Hammer--is crying out. "--Shit," she murmurs, despite the Children present, and then glances down--there are charges sticking out of her satchel, and Emkma has been... doing something to them. She blinks for a moment... and nods. "This is gonna hurt, Your Highness," Lily mentions, and then shifts Cecilia from a bridal carry to a fireman's, right over her shoulder, and pulls the charges. "Time for some fireworks." Lily breaks off that section of charge and hurls them upward. "Close your eyes!" she calls, and then clenches her fingers into a fist--gold light crashes about them and they explode in a serious display of pyrotechnics that isn't actually going to hurt anyone...
But is damn well going to be startling.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Explosive Charges toward her party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's nod to Leon's offer of assistance is the most serious one she's managed yet - but even then she keeps her hold tight on Riesenlied, her face set in a line. "... it's alright," she mumbles gently, privately, to the other demon in her arms. "Take as much time as you need." There's a deeply worried tone at the back of her voice, held in check - but she presses on, letting out a faint sigh of relief as Lily appears to scoop Cecilia up into her arms.
The Princess' response - a series of rather blitzed questions - pulls another of those snorts of amusement from her; her eyes might be locked on the road ahead, but she can find time for that much, especially given that somehow she's starting to find this situation very nostalgic.
Running through a town to dodge a group of guards is a much simpler prospect than pretty much anything else they've been up to recently, and certainly a lot less dangerous than facing down the Demon of Elru or Berserk point-blank. On impulse the spy chuckles as she abruptly scoops up Mikaia onto Riesenlied's lap and hops on board Trouble all in one motion, letting the little robot carry them both forwards at speed.
"--be careful!" she calls to Janey with another spike of concern, but she can appreciate the skill with which the Munchkin of Calamity slips into the alleyway's shadows. Besides, the crowd is already beginning to press in on them, and Trouble - Trouble doesn't seem to want to particularly stop. Noeline isn't quite sure when the little ARM got the set of cardboard wings and beak, but the pod's so protective of them it's certainly begun to evoke the image of a cucco... and especially at times like these, where it barrels ahead in challenge regardless.
Sucking in a breath, she hunkers down. At the very least, given the way the group looks: "--wounded, coming through! Move, or we'll move you! We're in a hurry here!"
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I... think she has a couple of things mixed up," Leon murmurs, as he looks over his shoulder at Janey. She darts into an alleyway -- and he looks ahead, as a wealthy and somewhat rotund priest of Althena steps into his way. Leon gives him a good shove, pushing him to the side. Then, he shouts.
Years on the battlefield have given him one great advantage: a good pair of lungs and skill in making his voice carry over firefights. Perhaps he can make it carry over a maddened, bustling market. He shouts out: "Move! Out of the way! Important business, coming through!"
Then, he reaches back, and grabs for Hammer's arm. "Hammer, keep behind me at all times," he says. A recurring theme in his life over the last few weeks.
The explosions shoot up over their heads. Leon winces -- and then he looks down, and he keeps moving, running at Noeline's side.
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Running on cobblestones barefoot, with her bones singing a tune of pain, is perhaps not the best situation Josie has found herself in, but it's also unsurprisingly far from the worst situation she's found herself in.
Luck seems to be on their side for now -- with the guards further behind them (thanks to them making all speed and utilizing the Art of Distraction) it seems as if they may yet make a clean(ish) getaway.
"...Fengalon's teeth," Josie utters, at the sight of the crowd before her.
"Smart kid," she comments, a wince criss-crossing her expression as she shuffles the pack off her shoulder, and she drags out from its depths a... mattock.
josie no
She brandishes it, as if it were a riding crop instead. It is for now merely a threat. Falling in alongside Noeline, she echoes the Metal Demon's sentiments:
"Out of the way! Injured, coming through! Mining accident!"
Penelope continues to ride high and in style atop her head.
Explosions ring out overhead; Josie archs an eyebrow but keeps moving. Penelope, oddly (?), doesn't even seem the least bit fazed about this scenario.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Burst... and mix!!!" Emma says, inexplicably.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"OK," Cecilia says, absorbing Emma's and Lily's mutual assessments. "...Oysters sound nice...A place this green should probably have to be near the sea, right?" That feels logical somehow. Maybe she's still dazed though. "Once we get some room I can help with healing too..."
Thus everyone learned the most important lesson of all: Protect your damn healers. Even when they're DPS primaries.
Since people are voicing complaints, she says,"I want a potion berry and a hamburger." .... "Three--" ....... "Fourte--"
Lily shifts her position and Cecilia groans again. "Twenty!!"
... "why is everyone in the way," she whines, as explosions rock across the sky. As is her way with Brute challenges her participation is mostly moral support.
Fortunately she hurts enough to decide that randomly mule kicking anyone in front of Lily would hurt more than she's willing to risk.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Out of My Way!.
=====================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>====================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Out of My Way! *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The crowds in Meribia's markets are thick and heavy on market day... and, really, they have seen thrilling chases through the market before. After about ten of them, an enterprising entrepreneur accepts that she can't just stand and gawk. As a result, the people here aren't clearing as fast as you would like. They push and press against you, not making way -- but maybe a show of force will get them to scamper out of the way! Before the guards show up. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia - Round 2 *>================= =========================< Results - Out of My Way! >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leon Albus 5 --(10)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 5 --(10)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Explosive Charges 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cecilia Adlehyde 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emma Hetfield 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass The Anti-Door Equation 4 Brute Effects: Efficient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Leon Albus 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Oh no, poor Hammer!
Mikaia yelps as she floats up on Strife and holds her hand out for the poor rat Beastman. "Mister Hammer, over here! Hold onto us~!"
Emma and Lily quickly get a plan in action. Lily arms one of her charges, and Emma adds to the explosive mix with one of the acid ampoules. Unlike how Emma is looking, though, it doesn't wind up being a wastebin bomb -- it just explodes in the air--
A display of pyrotechnics that Trouble winds up being in the middle of.
"W-what is that?!"
"Is it a-- chicken?!"
"Get out of the way! Aah!"
The crowd is certainly loosening as people fall into a furor and start trashing left, right and ever which way. Noeline shoves her way through as Riesenlied keeps her head drooped, looking towards Cecilia for a moment with a little wince.
"Where... where did Lucia and the others go...? We were trying to-- we were trying to save everyone from a big blast..."
Her memory is fuzzy. She holds her head where she probably still has some legitimate physical trauma from how hard Berserk squeezed down on her skull.
Leon gallantly protects Hammer, Mikaia nodding as they move along. Janey finds that her calls that Vash lives isn't quite received warmly... do they not... know who Vash is?
Huh.
(To whit: The extent of Janey's plans is to just throw a bunch of Proper Nouns that she knows adults fear.)
Josie's yell of a mining accident has more pull-- "Oh, get out of the way!" "It's over that way, hurry!" Looks like Meribians know it's serious when miners are involved.
Very depressingly, there are no Potion berries, or hamburgers. Cecilia's smile and enthusiasm may be gone at this point.
DG: Emma Hetfield has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - FURY PIGEON *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Pigeons are evil, vengeful animals, whether on Filgaia or Lunar. As you run through the market, you draw the attention of one such beast. It descends abruptly into your number. Talons scratch and claw! Its beak pecks and pokes! Its wings flap! And it squawks its protest right in your face! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer ultimately has to snag onto Mikaia's hand. This gives him some distance but then he loses his grip because he does not lift and Mikaia is a child. He does manage to land on his feet, having made some progress, and thankfully manages to get behind Leon where he stays very close to. He doesn't cause any further complications after this and manages to stick with the group.
"The way that crowd acted... they must be used to having to help the Guard out." Hammer manages, panting for breath.
He looks around again. Still no sign of Miss Elly or bro, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Our beauty's bewitching them, Cecilia," Emma says. She sounds unhinged.
Emma is really not looking her best. Her eyes are ringed darkly. Her skin, always fair, is unusually pallid. She has a scrape on her cheek that had leaked a trivial but scenic amount of blood. Also, she's wearing battered armor and is probably just saying things arbitrarily, like a dog or ghost.
"I don't know where we are," she huffs at Riesenlied, not out of frustration but out of strain. The presence of two minors and one miner won't be enough to protect them, evidently, Emma thinks.
Take a left. Down an alley. Not a narrow one. Emma sways, her face blanching further as the pain in her arm grows. "Hnnnh," she says -
There is a coo from around a corner.
Not a cucco. This noise has no soothing puffiness to it.
A cold presence appears. A trickling down everyone's spine. A sense of great evil that has roused itself and cracked one topaz-yellow eye to gaze upon an unfeeling world.
THOOM
THOOM
THOOM
THOOM
The presence grows towards lethal intensity, the choking, roiling sense of something awful curling in the periphery of your vision rising. "Ghhgk," Emma chokes. "After we've come - all this way - out of the frying pan and into the fryer--?!"
THOOM
THOOM
THOOM
IT walks forwards. IT, the bearer of a thousand dark nightmares. IT, the monster of refined power, the epitome of Malevolence. IT strides. IT struts. IT comes.
IT has the form of a rather portly pigeon; a large example of its breed, but not the largest. To those with eyes to perceive, it... is a rather purple pigeon.
IT cocks ITS head. A round eye, vast, cool and unsympathetic, regards the exiles.
"Whhoo?" IT asks.
BGM SHIFT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My1BasHDpnE
It flies straight for Leon's face!!
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I sense danger!" Hammer shouts. "I SENSE DANGER!"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Hammer... have you seen Fei? Or Elly? They must be here somewhere--well. I suppose I shouldn't say that," Leon muses, as they move. "We don't have the foggiest of where we actually are."
He says this as he follows Emma, taking a left, rounding the corner into an alleyway. He turns, hearing the loud, airy thump of wings -- the soft, but not friendly 'coo' sound. His eyes slowly widen, and then the pigeon descends.
It slams into his head. Its claws rake his face and he screams, yanking at it with his hands, tyring to smash it away from me.
"YES, I SENSE IT ON MY CHEEKBONES!" he screams at Hammer. "GET THIS BLOODY THING OFF ME! GET IT OFF!" he screams, without even the slightest veneer of competence or control.
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Mikaia's little wings flap up and down as she exclaims, "My brethren, no!!" She pauses for a moment, clinging to Strife harder.
Riesenlied lets out a sharp gasp as she holds onto her head, whimpering, "Birds... no... birds..."
She-- she trembles as the pigeon dives towards Leon, and she bravely looks towards Janey as she hurries back and exclaims:
"Mama! You're the only one who can!"
The cucco flute is presented to her.
"You're the Birb Whisperer, mama!"
Riesenlied shivers, sweating. "I can't... I can't... possibly..." she sounds uncertain, as she accepts the flute and clutches it tightly in her hands, looking up again. "But-- but Leon is--"
She breathes deep and plays a little melody. A melody that reaches the soul of one adorable round birb to another.
Hopefully, hopefully, it will entice the pigeon to come land by her shoulder.
And not, y'know, summon a horde of cuccos -- which as of the Wolves' Pleasing Garden dig were definitely in the vicinity....
The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline has a tight hold on Mikaia, at least, so the girl isn't about to go flying because of Hammer's weight, at least not in the short term; she, uh, helps out by giving the poor supplier a light nudge with a foot as she passes. It would pass for a kick were it not quite light by her standards, and mostly used to get Hammer stumbling in the right direction at a pace that allows him to find his feet. "--keep up! Barge through if you have to!"
Fortunately, the pyrotechnics behind her give them all an opportunity to get through, even if the metal demon has to blink at it in some naked astonishment. Only the renewed cry of the guards kicks her back to the present, as Trouble banks a corner and into an alleyway. Riesenlied's mumbling catches her ears, as does Hammer's argument - and Emma's rather sulky response. "... we are on Lunar," she decides to announce, moments before the pigeon she hasn't noticed yet bears down on them. "Transported here, in some fashion. I'm more and more sure of it. The level of technology, the people - they don't match the Filgaia I know--"
An angry squawking cuts into her thoughts, and she swerves automatically, trying to dodge something she hasn't even spotted yet, Trouble bumping straight into Leon for a moment before it manages to right itself. "Miss Lovelace, I know 'controlling' a pigeon is a suggestion at the best of times, but even so--!"
For a moment, her instinct it to shoo at it, but-- it isn't so much that she herself notices the Malevolence, more than the Medium within her alerts her to it; she's always piggybacked off of it when it comes to extrasensory abilities, and here on Lunar it's no different. "--Leon!" she grits her teeth, amending her statement as she realizes this isn't actually Penelope, and instead places a hand on Riesenlied's back as Janey exhorts her to use the flute, offering silent support.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Who knows? Still, call it just a feeling, but I don't think we're on Ignas at least," Josie opines, bracing the mattock against her shoulder a moment once they're free of the crush as she fumbles for her bag.
She's in the process of tucking it away when a dark shadow falls upon them.
THOOM
THOOM
THOOM
It comes.
For a long, paralyzing moment, Josephine Lovelace, pigeon whisper, fixes her gaze upon the terror that comes stalking out of the allyway. Her lips part as she remains mute in horror. Can it be? Is it possible--?
"That's no ordinary pigeon, Sugar! Look sharp--"
Too late. It flies, already on the attack, right for Leon.
Which is answered by a second whirr of wings and a rising trill of pigeon-song. There, in a streaking blur of white and black feathers is
Penelope?
Can it be true? Has the pigeon decided at long last to be something other than a liability?
Or perhaps as beak and talons tear inwards, just out for blood.
There can only be one!
Josie, still frozen there with her hand in her bag, slowly extracts a flask from the depths of her pack, very deliberately unscrews the cap, and tags a swig from it.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Mining accident. Sure, why not?
The noise of course resounds in Lily's ears, taking a distant look in her eye as she keeps running. There are a number of things mixed up here, but she keeps moving. Wounded. Yes, they are that. Lily glances to the spy briefly, but only briefly. Lily can hear Cecilia wanting food and--
"I'm sure we can find some hamburgers," she says distantly, and then Riesenlied asks questions. "I don't know where anyone went," she admits. "I've been unconscious for... I don't know how long. Since--"
She cuts off suddenly, jaggedly, shakes her head.
But they keep moving, it works, until... there's... a...
Right, Josie asked about her pants. And now theres this, a bird. Lily lifts an eyebrow, until it goes for Leon, and she abrubtly narrows her eyes. "I'm going to kill that bird," she says simply, stalking forward. "And eat it." At that, she finishes closing the distance, and shoves her tender hand straight between the pigeon and Leon's face in the midst of pigeon battle, glowing red as she works to heal Leon's face.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"That happens a lot to me!" Cecilia says to Emma. She sounds unfocused.
She is in better shape than Emma by virtue of Hammer. She is not in good enough shape to think very much about healing Emma's poor agony. She will feel awful about that later.
"I don't recognize this place at all...it's like Port Timney, but something's wrong...I think...the guards should..." ...she slumps. "No I guess nobody knowing who I am is pretty typical..."
Oh God she's descending deep into the Eeyore Place. But before she can fall too deep, Leon is being killed by a pigeon and eveyrone is scrambling. "Huh? What!?" she stammers out.
She looks up and sees it. So many people seem so preoccupied with purifying the wicked.
Cecilia just suddenly yells "DESTROY EVIL" and thrusts a Fray/Fray crest forward, where it erupts in light and blasts Leon in the face with a fireball.
Hitting the pigeon would also be nice.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Crest Graph Case toward her party's challenge, FURY PIGEON.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - FURY PIGEON *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Pigeons are evil, vengeful animals, whether on Filgaia or Lunar. As you run through the market, you draw the attention of one such beast. It descends abruptly into your number. Talons scratch and claw! Its beak pecks and pokes! Its wings flap! And it squawks its protest right in your face! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
=================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia - Round 3 *>================== ===========================< Results - FURY PIGEON >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Crest Graph Case 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emma Hetfield 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overzealous(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Two of them at once is not getting them off of me!" cries Leon, though whether his words will be heard through the muffling of Penelope's feathers, squawks, and the furious beating of wings is an open question. Then the fireball hits him in the face.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"R, right. I'll help--" Hammer reaches for the bird and--
Okay no, there's like spells and other pigeons and flying right at Leon. Hammer hits the deck instead.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Leon Albus has fought many a foe in his career. This creature's wing-strikes burst with the force of a Gear; the claws rake with the agony of serrated and rusted poison. Gryndile is worse than this thing -- but few others, perhaps.
Riesenlied plays the flute. The notes echo hauntingly... But the malevolent bird does not respond. The notes rise, calling to all birds...
Janey and Mikaia get a front-row seat to murder. Lily shoves a hand forwards and the pigeon RAKES at her while letting out a "coo!" which has the meat-obliterating force of an industrial slaughterhouse pressure hose. The creature in avian form is toying with them; her magic can sooth Leon's wounds, and it is good that she did, because these wounds were filthy and septic (in that brief moment). Leon might have died, certainly would have been scarred, by this creature.
What is it? WHY is it?! Emma moans in dismay.
A fireball erupts at the bird, and it is thrown to the ground, trailing several pulsating violet feathers. There is a stink in the air, and the bird hops up, shakes its head, and turns its attention towards Cecilia with that same soul-deadening horrid force, the sheer PRESSURE rising again as it ruffles up its chest feathers.
Persephone strikes. She smashes into the unknown bird and FLATTENS momentarily. The malevolent pigeon turns its head and gazes at her.
"Coo," it says. (SUBTITLE: Useless.)
"Coo! Coo!" With a SLAM of a waddle, the bird turns its attention towards Josephine's avian life companion. (SUBTITLE: Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!)
And then, suddenly there is a glimmering shhhhhhING! and a single glint of dawn-bright luminance. The vacuum bow shock of the sudden strike slams into the alleyway like a gale-force wind, throwing Persephone to safety and the wicked bird aside. ("Gyah!!!" Emma protests.)
Fluttering up and landing on some filth, the evil bird gazes down. Of course it recovered first. "... coo," it says. (SUBTITLE: It's you.)
Standing there in the center of the alleyway path is a small brown sparrow with an orange beak. Held in its wings is a glittering blade whose steel ripples with resonant force, like the pure tone of a church bell seized in steel.
"Peep," the sparrow replies. (SUBTITLE: At last.)
BGM SHIFT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyRVlFzIWXw
"Peep! Peep!" the sparrow continues, hopping its way to face the evil pigeon. (It continues to hold the blade.) (SUBTITLE: It's been how long, Xenortus? The centuries have worn on but you've remained, always hiding from me. This is the end of you. This is the end of our eternal dance!)
"Coo! Coo!" replies the evil pigeon. (SUBTITLE: Ufufufufu. How soon you forget your vow, Seraph. If you reveal your full power here, the city may survive, but look upon these ragamuffins. Everybirdie will die. Die... yes, die in agony. I'll feast on the remains...!)
The sparrow peeps in dismay, and then speaks aloud in a sudden and inappropriately mellifulous voice. "Run," the sparrow says. That chocolatey voice continues: "This foe's beyond you at this point in the game. You're tired... but there's hope. As long as you retain your love of the flight in the clear blue sky...!! Carve it into your soul!"
"I think we should listen to the sparrow," Emma opines.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Sealed Filgaia Door *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You run down one of the narrow (though not narrowest) alleys cutting through Meribia's market. As you do, there is a flash of silver light in the air ahead of you. Then, a massive, slate-grey stone door appears before you in a flash of light... brought directly from one of the interior buildings of the Pleasing Garden. You need to do something about it quickly, because the guards are hot on your heels. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A fireball erupts, practically at point blank range, shunting the hellpigeon aside. Josephine Lovelace, itinerant archaeologist, freezes at that moment, flask of whiskey still lifted to her lips.
The urge to drain the entire flask sings to her for an instant.
But even Josie has to lower the flask of liquid courage as Penelope dives for the plump purple pigeon and is--
is--
Turned aside.
Josie's dark eyes grow wide in horror, the full attention of the most foul fowl turned upon the young fancy pigeon as she looks on from the sidelines.
"Penelope!"
Dazed, Penelope shakes her head as she rights herself, rounding on the soul-burning horror that is now intent upon her. Something akin to a grim, bloodthirsty determination alights in the bird's black eyes, the same force of will that allowed it to attempt to challenge even a cucco.
"Coo." (SUBTITLE: Nevertheless... I'll kill you.)
"Penelope! No!" The true horror begins--
Interrupted only by a single shining point of light. Cut free from her fight against the malevolent bird by that sudden intercession, Penelope wings away into the skies above the city, casting a few shed feathers in her wake, left to slowly drift towards the earth.
Josie, meanwhile, half-lifts the flask to her lips again as the sparrow addresses them only to glance down at it as if to silent ask, 'but am I drunk enough for this?'
In the end, she inclines her head in a short nod, and in deference to the hellish spiritual pressure on display in this alleyway:
"Yep."
So they run.
But unfortunately, unfortunately:
Light shines at an inopportune moment, just before they clear to the other end of the alleyway. There, before them, it stands:
The door, still glittering with runes, made manifest from the depths of the Pleasing Garden. If someone's not looking where they're going, it appears with such abrupt finality that they may even slam into it.
Josie skids to a stop, long white hair fluttering out behind her. She glances first back the way they came, where a truly epic battle for the ages is perhaps underway, then back at the out of place door.
The flask is stuffed back into the bag. She draws forth the mattock.
"You know, I like our odds better here," she says, before taking a one-handed swing for the fences.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied is clutching at her head this entire time, through the epic exchange of good against evil. She squints her eyes just a little tighter, gazing towards the little sparrow...
"... I, too, must choose the reason I fly..."
As if offering no further clarification, she glances up towards the skies for a moment, towards the blue orb in the sky that Noeline's pointed out before. With a wince, she mutters, "Even in this new world... I still seek it, Trial Knight..."
They pace forward, and a familiar door emerges into their path. "W-why?" she gasps. "Why has it come with us--"
THOOM
"Eh?"
As Josie starts hammering away, Riesenlied has a look of consideration. "Josie, I think I sense--"
THOOOOOM
A very round hole explodes through one side of the metallic rune door.
It's a very battered cucco that looks like it's gone through the entirety of the Garden and through space as well, resoundingly landing on Riesenlied's lap.
"G-goodness, little one... did you follow us all the way here?"
Coo.
"Oh no..." she pats her head. "Did you get teleported as well?"
Coo.
Riesenlied blinks. "Eh? Then how did you..."
Coo....
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Flute of the Cucco Queen toward her party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
... ... Noeline stares at the exchange they leave behind, her face rather glum; Trouble is the one steering for the moment as her mind struggles to catch up, and she's not entirely sure if it's the fatigue doing most of the talking. Can Metal Demons get tired? She's not sure she's really ever checked if the physiology works the same way, but she's quite sure that 'metal fatigue' is rather different in spirit.
She continues to watch as the door from the Pleasing Gardens crashes into the ground in front of them, neatly and improbably blocking their path; here, at least, she's roused out of her confusion, but to be quite honest, the sight of the thing just raises her ire instead.
"... Trouble," she states, her voice held in a steady note of cold steel, white-hot anger hiding just behind it. "Look after Riese and Mikaia. Don't drop them. Keep them safe." She slips from the ARM's back, leaving behind the pair; she's got enough trust to know that the pod won't drop them, and from the look of it, Riesenlied's chat with one of her beloved cuccos is probably doing her some good. Interrupting her would be a little unfair, right at this moment.
Besides, she's got a score to settle. A hop forward becomes a job, and then a thundering run directly at the barrier. Her hands held behind her as she rushes it down, motes of power coalesce around them as she summons forth her blade. This is evidently not the time for subtlety; the weapon is the sheer slab of metal she's used before, practically the same height and width that she is and solidly thick besides.
With a complete lack of grace, she puts her whole strength behind the weapon. It isn't any kind of martial form or anything so fancy - just a Hyadean-powered baseball swing backed up by a very, very long day. "Begone, already!" she snarls, even if the impact might simply let the guards know exactly where they are anyway. Sometimes, you've just got to let off some steam.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma stares at the door.
"Let this be our last tango," she says, reaching into her jacket and producing a wad of that white material. She advances and says, "This is rather melancholy, isn't it? I don't have the ingredients to make this again. I don't know if we'll ever see its like again, in this world."
"But," Emma says, "its purpose is to explode... no!"
"To blast down doors!"
Emma tiptoes out of the range as people get buckwild. As a cucco arrives with great force, Emma stares at it for a moment, blinks, and nods once to the plump bird.
After this she moves back to Cecilia's general area again. Which is probably around Lily, honestly.
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool The Anti-Door Equation toward her party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily isn't going to talk about what happened. She has no intention of doing so. Being told a fight is beyond her, that a bird is beyond her--
Nevertheless, she looks down at her shredded hand, shakes her head as they move away. "..." Flight... Well, she can fly. But...
Lily shakes her head, shakes out her hand, the blood dripping away. There's a sting in it still. ...Lily shakes her head, keeps moving. "...Your Highness," she says, "Can you walk yet...?" She is still frowning at the sudden fireball. As they go.
She seems to be getting very tired, however, ignoring her wound for the moment as her steps begin to slow. The rune door appears... and Lily's golden eyes move up to stare at it. She starts to set Cecilia down, at that, staring at the Cucco that is landing on Riesenlied's lap. She looks between her... and the door.. and as the Cucco coos...
"Arf!"
Dog trots up from behind them, tilting her head, looking over at the avian, at Riesenlied. Lily glances down. "You..." She trails off. She looks to Emma, who brings out the material. "We may not."
But she pulls another charge out of her bag, at that, then another, placing them at weak points to complement Emma's bomb.
She steps back... and snaps her fingers. They don't make such a snappy sound with the blood though.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Explosive Charges toward her party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon rubs his blackened, scratched face. He looks a sight, even with the healing that Lily has worked on his face. He groans as he does, and then he looks down. He stares at the sparrow.
It speaks to them.
"I--I agree," he says to Emma. "We should listen to the sparrow."
He runs with Josie, darting down the alley and happy to put them behind him. He slows, though, as he spots what appears in a flash of silver: a door. His eyes widen for a moment, before he frowns. "It seems... whatever caused that teleportation brought some other things with it."
He looks at the battered cucco. "Like that."
And then the door.
Leon lunges forward, and rams his shoulder into the door -- though compared to a mattock, a cucco, Trouble, and two sets of explosives, that shoulder isn't much. He recoils back, and then pauses. "Ah--Dog came over, too," he says. "Good."
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia blinks owlishly at Leon. "Oh," she says, slowly. "I think the first pigeon was the evil one. Sorry!"
Cecilia watches in mute awe as the sparrow arrives to save them, unable to fully comprehend the wonders taking place before her. "It doesn't feel like a Guardian...except it feels a little like a Guardian...?" She'll get around to remembering Seraphs are a thing she's known about for some time later. Instead, she says, "I...I think I'm alright."
She flinches visibly when Lily sets her down; but everyone's wounded and she doesn't want to weigh Lily down anymore than she already has. "I'll manage," she says. "It's--"
*THOOOOOOOOOM*
"...how! Why!" she yells at the door, flailing, which is her only contribution to the effort.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sealed Filgaia Door.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Sealed Filgaia Door *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You run down one of the narrow (though not narrowest) alleys cutting through Meribia's market. As you do, there is a flash of silver light in the air ahead of you. Then, a massive, slate-grey stone door appears before you in a flash of light... brought directly from one of the interior buildings of the Pleasing Garden. You need to do something about it quickly, because the guards are hot on your heels. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness==================================================
=================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia - Round 4 *>================== =======================< Results - Sealed Filgaia Door >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 15 --(20)--> 35 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Flute of the Cucco Queen 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Explosive Charges 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 15 --(20)--> 35 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emma Hetfield 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass The Anti-Door Equation 4 Brute Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 60 --(10)--> 70 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Madness Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer follows after the group, looking back towards the pigeon battle periodically. He sees amazing things. Leon says they should listen to the sparrow and he adds, "Huh. I guess birds talk in Lunar. That makes sense. Because it's the moon. Right. I wasn't the only person hearing that. Good."
There's a door. Hammer is frankly too perplexed by bird battle to really help here. He's still thinking about the birds.
"And apparently they're pretty powerful. They can carry swords. That also makes sense," Hammer says. "Because this is Lunar."
He looks up at the sky for a moment before looking back down.
He starts shaking in place. "...And they have grudge matches. The birds. That...also makes sense. Because this isn't Filgaia, where birds...don't usually do that."
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Oh is THAT what happened," Emma says as Hammer says this thing aloud.
"Cecilia," Emma immediately reports even though Cecilia is like right there: "We may be on Lunar. I suppose that makes sense, it's the most parsimonious explanation, but I think we should await full confirmation before we make all our plans along those lines."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The door. Already the greatest foe of all who wander the wastes, standing firm in the face of whatever might, grand or fell, is laid upon their thresholds.
And this door is... an Elw-crafted door, hewn in ages now long lost.
Explosives are unleashed. Noeline smashes her sword into it. Josie slams a mattock into its face. A cucco punches through the back of it.
It, apparently, matters not. As the smoke clears, the door still stands.
The runes upon it shine with a fierce light.
It's...
It's going to blow.
Running: advised.
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>====================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Blue Dragon Fist Disciple *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Althena's Guardsmen are not the only people patrolling the streets. Master Lunn teaches disciples of the Blue Dragon Fist, who practice their martial arts. One of them steps around the corner -- and when he sees you, his eyes widen. Then, he leaps into the air, and launches a flying kick right in your direction! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer is already a hammer shaped outline when Emma starts commenting back at him.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's sword, with all her power behind it, rams into the door - and the resulting clang is enormous and resounding, billowing out of the alleyway and leaving several townsfolk to look towards Althena's church, as if expecting mass to have started. And yet, the door is unmoving - and worse, a series of familiar lights begin to light up around its rim, the sensation of a vibration running through the stonework's frame.
Too late, Noeline realizes she's seen this door before, recognizes it for what it is - before a wave of force blows her backwards from it with a yelp of pain, sending her staggering for her feet as she skids to a halt. For a moment, she touches at her lips, feeling a crack bleed silver, and she winces in annoyance.
"--new detour! To the left!" she calls immediately, doubling back to bolt down another alleyway before they get stuck between a guard-shaped rock and a hard place, her movements pulling Trouble and its passangers after her as she switches routes.
* * *
Within a nearby dojo, students train relentlessly under the watchful - if rather senile - presence of their age-old master. He is sombre, silent, his legs folded in a lotus position as he watches on and does not, in any way, nap.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG
"--t-the alarm! Enemies! Come to take our sign!" the elderly master stumbles up, and immediately pitches over to one side with a wheeze as he loses his balance. "G-go, my students!"
Several of them look amongst each other, and shrug.
* * *
Noeline's run is headlong, and her attention focused forwards - but a feeling pushes her away from the wall next to her, which is probably for the best when a martial artists busts straight through in a flying kick; for a moment, the metal demon almost wonders if Fei has somehow managed to catch up to them-- but then realizes her mistake. Fei's form is not nearly this sloppy, and he certainly wouldn't be eager to use it.
Pivoting, she catches the man's foot with her hand, twists, and more or less throws him aside. "This town is ridiculous!" she accuses the open air, then frowns solidly. "--keep going!"
DG: Noeline has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's eyes widen as she's sent tumbling when Noeline gets blown off her feet, crashing against a barrel as Mikaia whimpers and calls, "Mommy!" Janey drops in at about this time, having taken some other passageways with a quiet grimace of, "Wow, this town's really going all out on us, huh?! It's like that time we--"
A pause, and she says, "Wait, I could still be grounded."
She helps Riese up, at least until she sees that the cucco is rather faithfully lifting her up. "I--I..."
Things are starting to filter back into her thoughts as she picks the worst time to start panicking:
"W-wait, where is the Fereshte? Where is everyone else? Are they all right?!"
She gets a kick to the face for her troubles.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Left!" Leon repeats in a hurry.
He runs after Noeline, but his eyes widen -- because the doors to the building ahead of them open, and he comes face to face with a martial artist leaping at him in a flying kick. "Is this really Lunar? This isn't what I expected at all!" he shouts, before he swings up Argent Divider. He doesn't think better of it. He aims over the martial artist's shoulder, trusting his allies to handle him. After all, there are more in that dojo.
Leon draws the bead, then fires.
A round hurtles out, screaming over the martial artist's soldier as he kicks Riesenlied in the face. The round explodes with a brilliant flash.
Then Leon frowns sharply at the martial artist, and calls out: "Riese! We'll figure it out later! We have, er, pressing priorities!"
Like the foot in her face.
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Flare Gun toward his party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"It's gotta be!" Hammer says. "There's way too much Guard here and it sure ain't Adelhyde! And also I looked up!"
Hammer sees a kung fu disciple. "W...WAIT!" He shouts, wagging a hand at the warrior. "You are a martial artist...like bro! If you want a real fight you should...go find him!"
This isn't just self preservation. Considering the injuries of his companions, he'd rather prevent fights than anything even if it means missed exp.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia shouting at the door does not help anybody, as usual.
"Huh?" she says to Emma, and looks around dazed. "What, like the Old Moon? But that's..." Not a thing Cecilia ever really 100% bought in to...on account of her being able to see that it was a dead wasteland with her eyes. She is about to use those same eyes to consider the sky of this place when the door explodes and Cecilia finds herself grateful to be exactly not far enough away to avoid getting blown off her feet; she lands on her ass with a groan of genuine pain.
"Left?" she says, and everyone's running so she has to hobble upright and hustle after. She stays back with Emma because they are in approximately even levels of pain and also because mages get the back, that's just common sense.
GOOOONG
Cecilia looks around muzzily, and almost misses the high-flying martial artist except for the fact that he kindly introduces himself at speed to Riesenlied. "I don't think," Cecilia says, with the pained clarity of a person who knows they have no clarity, "I'd remember the ship even if I'd seen it..."
But she reaches down to her Crest Graph Case, going through the handful of crests there. Healing? Hah, nah. LIGHTNING THOUGH
She thrusts it forward, her staff appearing in her hand as she reinforces the magic circle int he air. "Spark!" she calls, as the Wing and Muse crests flash in the air, before resolving into rakes of lightning that crash against the offending kung fusm'n.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Crest Graph Case toward her party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"It would be the nearest inhabited world," Emma says to Leon as they hustle around.
Then she looks up as Hammer mentions it. "Well," she begins, before there is the distinct sickly sound of a foot reaching the face of Riesenlied. It's a sound that is surprisingly distinctive.
Emma stares glassily at the karateka through her glasses.
Then she raises the Emulator and, despite her broken arm, enters a short but extremely specific command.
Green light rises around her lightly as Cecilia goes for the lightning. "I," Emma tells him, "am extremely tired of people beating up a handicapped woman in front of me."
SHHHHUNK! Four metaphorical swords smash down from the sky into the ground around Emma, crackling with luminous violet arcs of electricity, brightening in harmony with the use of Crest Sorcery. They are helpfully tagged: REASON, SCIENCE, INDUSTRY and IMAGINATION. An ionic field begins to develop around her, Emma's hair rustling slightly.
"I have had the absolute WORST day of my LIFE in the last YEAR AT LEAST, and I include the time I was shot by a criminal! You, Mister Kickypoo, are going to take your foot and turn right around and march it back up the happy hoppy trail to Fluffy Bunny land," Emma shouts over the rising storm of surging electricity, "or I am going to send you there toot suite, whether you like it or not!"
"Oh, they're going to see this, aren't they?" Emma says, philosophically. (In the distance, something entirely unrelated explodes.)
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily, too, is blasted back by the door, by the runes on it, by the explosion. She rises from the wall where she'd fallen, looking up to Noeline's detour. She shakes her head, and starts to stand. She takes off after, somewhat slowly. Cecilia, of course, now has to walk for herself. Lily is definitely slow. Slow enough that she can see Mikaia and Janey have trouble, that Riesenlied starts getting up. She asks a question--"I'm not--"
They go left. Riesenlied gets kicked in the face. And Leon shoots over the guy's shoulder to stop the others. Lily looks that way after closing her eyes against the flash, frowns, looks to the martial artist. Hammer... Hammer makes things nice.
Lily sighs, abrubtly. "Yeah, we're on Lunar," she says. "We must be. It... feels different."
Lily lifts a hand as Cecilia shoots lighting--and sighs again. She remembers that the guards didn't try to kill her. "...Don't think this means I'm going soft," she says, and conjures a bit of shadow, infusing it into her bloody hand. She steps up to the karate man amidst everything else, rears back her fist--
And punches him in the face. "Take a nap."
Then she starts off.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Needless to say, Josie hotfoots it. The grimace that flits across her face suggests she's not precisely having the best time of it right now, either. She has to... do something about her shoe situation, they did not pave these streets with the barefooted person in mind.
"Left it is!"
The detonation is a loud one, as the door has its due. Josie incongruously ducks as a piece of debris goes whistling past, just over her head.
"So this is Lunar? You sure about that, Hammer?"
She's not skeptical, per se. Just... considering her options.
"If I'd known I was about to go on a one-way trip to the Old Moon, I woulda..." She trails out. "Wait, now what-- Sunshine?"
A rummage within her pack punctuates what otherwise is a particular tense moment, as they're set upon by a whole school of martial artists.
She whirls back in a spin of her own as a fierce kick is thrust her way.
"Maybe--"
She sweeps out her own leg, coming in at an angle towards her aggressor as she indulges in a spot of rather dirty fighting.
"Listen to Leon?"
Jab to the ribs included.
"So, what's your shoe size?" she askes her opponent, finishing up the assault with her bag and all its many contents swung in a weighty arc for their head.
The flask of alcohol pops out, nearly as an afterthought to the whole business. Josie snags it onehanded and with the dexterity of the practiced dipsomaniac, unscrews it one-handed and has herself an impromptu drink.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Blue Dragon Fist Disciple.
=====================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>====================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Blue Dragon Fist Disciple *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Althena's Guardsmen are not the only people patrolling the streets. Master Lunn teaches disciples of the Blue Dragon Fist, who practice their martial arts. One of them steps around the corner -- and when he sees you, his eyes widen. Then, he leaps into the air, and launches a flying kick right in your direction! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia - Round 5 *>================= ===================< Results - Blue Dragon Fist Disciple >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leon Albus 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass Flare Gun 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 35 --(5)--> 40 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 35 --(10)--> 45 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cecilia Adlehyde 35 --(5)--> 40 Pass Crest Graph Case 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emma Hetfield 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Leon Albus 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's haphazard throw is enough to toss the first martial artist aside with ease; Metal Demons are probably not known on Lunar, after all, and so her strength is rather a few notches above what anyone would normally expect - let alone the expectations of a somewhat hapless martial artist who just attacked them out of the blue.
"We-- we do not know yet. But they must be safe, either here or on Filgaia, and we will find them," Noeline declares back to Riese - and only then turns, realizing that she's facing down an attack of her own. "They have faced down wor-- Riese!"
For a breathless moment, it almost looks like Riesenlied is going to take a kick to the face for her troubles and woes - but at the last moment the cucco that's picked her up suddenly rises to bodyblock the shot. In a timeless instant, its eyes begin to glow a fiery red - before Cecilia's bolt of lightning puts the man down, leaving him twitching on the floor. The cucco seems to calm, nod respectfully and-- settles for just standing on the man's head briefly for good measure.
Leon's disorienting blasts and the front line combat of Josephine and Lily are enough to head off most of the initial attackers, who are powered more by enthusiasm than any amount of strength--
--and off to one side, a dozen or so martial artists have gone down to their knees, quivering a little as they are captive witnesses to the sight of an angry Emma Hetfield delivering a lecture, a sight that has been scientifically proven to be stern enough to bring even a young, excitable Shalune Amira to a halt. "Y-y-yes, ma'am!" one of the more sensible martial artists at the front of the cluster says, as Hammer surely dances in victory just behind the scientist. "W-we're very sorry, ma'am! Please, allow us to make it up to you, ma'am!"
The group moves on without incident - and with several new pairs of shoes.
DG: Leon Albus has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - A Clever Disguise! *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You run into one of the large, open plazas of the market. Guards can be heard behind you, still shouting for you -- and there are also guards that appear on the opposite ends of the plaza, from the left... and then from the right! However, you catch something: a stall with rack after rack of local outfits. This may offer a way to blend in. Or look ridiculous. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon sticks his pair of shoes in his coat.
And the group moves on, rushing into an open plaza. There are a few cries -- it seems they're not the only ones who escaped this day -- but there are also telltale gleams of light from polished helmets to the north and south. Leon stares, eyes darting to the left, then the right. "We're boxed in," he says. There's guards everywhere except the way we came--"
A shout echoes from behind them: 'You there! Blue Dragon acolyte! Where did they go!?'
"--everywhere," Leon amends. He grits his teeth, until he catches slashes of color. Ahead of them are racks and crates in a stand. The owner, it seems, is held up by some of those guards -- arguing angrily, a distance away -- and that leaves an opportunity. Leon's eyes narrow.
"Come on," he says. "I think I see a way out of this."
He heads to the cart, and begins looking through it as quickly as he can. His fingers linger on a linen shirt, before he moves to the next one.
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's eyes widen, her breath shallow as Mikaia squeaks out, "M-mom..." as the cucco starts to glow red...
"No, no, don't..." she urges of the cucco, but-- strangely, the cucco does not call out to ba-kawww to its allies and summon death upon this poor martial artist. Who soon runs off.
She looks rather haggard, nodding as Leon and Noeline call after her... and as she senses the anger of those guards surrounding them, the frantic nature of their search, she can't help but admit, addressing what she thinks is the elephant in the room:
"... does... does anyone else sense Malevolence... everywhere around them?" Riesenlied sounds incredibly guilty and uncomfortable.
She hruries after Leon and she adds, "... it's not overwhelming like Wehaca or Krosse, but... it's... prickling and nauseating, like in the distance..."
She hesitates for a moment, and looks at a few outfits. "I can't really disguise myself well..." her wings stretch out painfully for a moment. "But..."
She looks towards her satchel for a moment, and gets a quiet idea. "Lydia's clothing... maybe this is the time..."
There's a quiet smile towards Noeline as she steps towards one of the changing rooms, hurrying as Mikaia bobbles in to help her out.
When she's done, she's in what is unmistakably Baskar garments; it's a sleeveless gown with a white colouration, peaking to edges of light blue with detached flaring sleeves to accomodate her deformities. Ephemeral gold trim borders the pleats at the centre of the gown.
"... it's wonderful ..."
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon's Tear toward her party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Gh--" Punching a guy in the face--in the hard, bony face--turns out to be a mistake for Lily and her already-hurt hand. She flexes her fingers with a wince as she starts moving, after... stashing some shoes in her satchel, because why not. She can hear the shout echoing from behind them, and as Leon heads to the cart, she lifts her eyebrow. "You're... kidding," she starts, and then she looks down at her burned, ruined clothes. She thinks about it. "...Yeah." She moves towards one of the racks. But she pauses, at Riesenlied's question.
"...Yes," she says. "Yes, I feel it. All over... I thought it was just me, because of..." She trails off, "Long story."
She too moves to a changing room, though not until after pausing. "...Miss Hetfield," she says, and reaches over to her. In the next few moments she's constructed a rudimentary brace and bandaged her own bleeding hand back up. She works... awfully quickly, for some reason. Some... military reason.
A void-cleaning of her hand of dried blood later and she's flipping through garments with her good hand, looking and looking until--
"...Ah."
Lily Keil is hard to recognize when she steps out, in a draping white dress, hooded and with lines, with gold lining and belt and bell sleeves, along with a red shawl. The hood, of course, is up, and her satchel is over her shoulder; she's in browns rather than blacks, brown lining some parts of the robe and brown for her boots poking out from the hem. She looks... Well, like a mage. Very much like a mage.
"...Lovely," she says to Riesenlied, her voice low. Then she looks to the others. "...Let's get moving." She pauses, at that... and pulls out her notebook, holding it at her side to complete the look. ...It could be a spellbook, the way it's battered and beaten and cared-for.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Notebook toward her party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Well, if you're sorry," Emma says, and the shuddering horror of a gathering limit break vanishes. "Now git!"
"Forgive me for talking slang like that," she says as they keep moving forwards. "I -"
Her glasses gleam when faced with the RACK(s of clothing). "... I suppose this is a matter of necessity," Emma says, before reaching towards a rack - and going ash gray as the pain washes up her body.
HOWEVER: A quick consultation later and the guidance of a selected piece of clothing due to this, and Emma Hetfield emerges from her own changing cubby with a quick-folded hip bag that's totally not just her blazer and also her old shoes and dress wadded up.
She is wearing a white dress with a black jacket over it and a lot of white ribbon, although the 'jacket' has lace criss-crossing over the bosom area. It is accented with a necklace made out of what seems to be green beads of witch-glass or some similar inexpensive spherical bauble. Perhaps most tellingly, Emma has let her hair down for this, and it's pretty wavy from being tied back so much.
"To answer you, I have no idea about Malevolence. I had assumed I just had acquired the natural fragrance of hard work due to having to save Filgaia. Lily I MUST thank you, the brace blends in perfectly!"
To Cecilia, Emma asks, "It isn't too showy, is it?"
There's a picture of some kind of ancient hieroglyphic or amateurishly drawn deity or nun or something on the Emulator in one of her hands. Emma's outfit isn't quite identical... but it's certainly close.
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"My, how generous you are," Josie comments, striding away from the poor student who took an entire archaeological (??) pack and then some to the head. She selects a pair of shoes that look about her size.
They're close enough. It's fine.
"...Yeah, I do, too, Sunshine. It's all over the place. Hmm..."
Further speculations about this line of thoughts and what they could mean for them and the Old Moon must be soon set aside, however.
The shout from behind them, the sun glinting off plate armor...
Josie glances around at the group at large, as if assessing the lot of them and their relative conspicuousness, and nods grimly.
"Could be a problem. Thoughts?"
It's at that moment that Leon speaks to a potential plan...
And wherein Penelope wings down from the heavens to settle atop a rack of clothing.
"Coo."
What sights has she seen? What battles has she witnessed waged from her eye in the sky?
Some stories are for another time.
"Not bad, Lion," she says, switching over to his nickname once again. Her own gaze settles on the clothing Penelope has apparently selected.
"Well, it's gonna sure be a disguise," she says, ducking into the booth.
Her bag is conspicuously stuffed once she exits, a while later.
(she may have helped herself to... more than a few options. for later. when she's not still swathed in bandages)
She tugs up the hood of the black worn robes over her face, small mouse skulls and beads included, on which she has applied hurried but still plausible age lines. "And don't you say a word, Lily."
She leans on a gnarled piece of wood, which she uses to hobble her way forward. To the casual eye, she's nothing more than a dubious grandma and her... feathered friend.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Penelope toward her party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline frowns uncertainly at Riesenlied's comment, lifting her head to the air as if to sniff out the Malevolence around them. Unfortunately, she's not anywhere near as sensitive as her partner, and is forced to simply furrow her brow in a rather quiet fashion. "I can-- somewhat feel it around me, but--... no, I think you are right," she huffs softly to herself, not entirely sure what to make of that fact.
It does at least give her a reason to look for Janey and Mikaia, ensuring they're safe and seeing if they feel it too; she doesn't exactly expect Janey to be the most sensitive soul either, but she does pause for a moment to pat Mikaia gently on the head. "... either way, Malevolence or no, we'll take care of you, hm?"
Still-- her gaze is rather wary as they make their way into the square, aware that the alarm raised by multiple groups of Filgaia survivors have likely caused the guard presence to increase in the area. Leon suggests a disguise; Noeline huffs softly to herself in mildly grumpy disagreement, but follows the man's lead anyway, returning Riesenlied's smile as she sneaks towards the back of the shop.
When she reappears, it's-- well, it's-- shouldn't a crack hotshot Metal Demon spy at least know how to disguise herself? Isn't this the time to avoid detection, rather than court it? But Noeline will be Noeline, it seems, and as uncompromising to her ideals as she ever is.
Her colours are inverted, the long crimson dress exchanged for a shorter one in black with red highlights. She's evidently found some pieces of armor back there as well, wearing a light breastplate over her torso and a set of long, sleek armored boots and gauntlets over her limbs. Her hair is exactly the damn same, but rather than a hairpiece she's got it tied up with a pair of red ribbons instead.
She could more or less pass for a knight, if one rather more fanciful than most of the utilitarian Guard, but as 'disguises' go it's pretty poor. And perhaps that's exactly what she's going for, because she immediately kneels down with a pleased hum to take Riesenlied's hand and kiss the back of it. "... shall we go?" she asks in what is obviously at least halfway to teasing.
She stands up again, this time taking Riesenlied's hand in hers - and hesitates, as she looks between Lily and Josephine. "... ... are you-- quite sure you didn't get each other's outfits by accident?" she comments with a lazy grin.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Hammer heads to the cart, finally kinda chilling out. It seems even with their injuries, the team can readily handle whatever problem is coming their way. Sometimes it's scary to him just how powerful these people are. And startling. Every time he thinks he understands their power level, they keep going even further beyond. He lowers his head lightly. Quietly. He does not dance the dance of joy. He does investigate the various outfits for something appropriate but, to be totally honest, this is something that he can't really hide himself with. His appearance is very particular but he can at least dwell as a local merchant. Maybe with that Ramus Company.
EARLIER, BACK WHEN WAYSIDE WAS A THING, REMEMBER THAT?
Lydia rushes up to Riesenlied after one of her trips, carrying a bundle of clothes and beaming up at her. "Hey...hey...! Riese!"
She shows a many-fanged grin as she holds out the outfit. "Since Halle approves and all... And since you're communing with Guardians left'n'right... I figured you should look the part! I don't do a lot of tailoring...eheh...so let me know if it doesn't fit right and I'll make some adjustments."
She looks at her feet awkwardly, red in the face. "L...let me know how you like it...!"
NOW
Hammer walks back out, dressed as a local merchant!
It looks kind of similar to be honest.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia watches the man drop like a stone, and then tunes in to Emma's angry speech. Oh....was it that bad for her? Cecilia hasn't really taken stock on that level in a while. She'd probably get depressed. She wants to smile for her but finds she's too tired to even make the effort. She tries to path Emma on the shoulder instead. "I think the gates are close," she murmurs. "Let's get somewhere we can...stop."
That's definitely happening int he next 30 hours. Absolutely.
They emerge out into the open and Cecilia has to just take Leon's advice and hustle over. "The song is different," Cecilia murmurs, at Riesenlied's words. "I can't pick out the Guardians very clearly now...the song of this place is very different from before." She grimaces, hand rising to a brief flareup of pain on her shoulder, one of many places in immense pain from where Berserk bashed her senseless. "That...happens sometimes, on Filgaia, but it's never been this different."
Now if only she had some solid, irrefutable piece of evidence! Something obvious she could look at! But instead she looks at Riesenlied. "But I feel that, too. Like there's something watching me..."
She looks across the racks quickly, but her overall damage level finds her having some amount of trouble focusing. Ultimately she pulls off something that looks like it fits and vanishes into a dressing room, muttering, "'s fine" at Emma in the tone of someone who wants to lie down forever.
She emerges in something close to a priest's garb, an ankle-length dress all in white with faint trim and--
It looks a lot like the dress she wore in Adlehyde.
Her face says she is going to set this object on fire at the first opportunity.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clever Disguise!.
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - A Clever Disguise! *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You run into one of the large, open plazas of the market. Guards can be heard behind you, still shouting for you -- and there are also guards that appear on the opposite ends of the plaza, from the left... and then from the right! However, you catch something: a stall with rack after rack of local outfits. This may offer a way to blend in. Or look ridiculous. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia - Round 6 *>================== ========================< Results - A Clever Disguise! >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 45 --(10)--> 55 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 35 --(5)--> 40 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass Penelope 3 Wits Effects: Resilient and Liabili -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Dragon's Tear 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 45 --(10)--> 55 Fail Lily's Notebook 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 40 --(10)--> 50 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emma Hetfield 35 --(5)--> 40 Pass Text File of Her Own Wisdom 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 90 --(25)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Leon Albus has successfully explored Big Trouble in Little Meribia!
======================<* Big Trouble in Little Meribia *>======================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Blending Into the Crowd *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your hastily-made disguises prove effective! The guards stop, looking each way -- and one looks right at you, but then walks on by. You have a chance to slip into Meribia's crowd, and look around the city without any fear. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"They have some amazing things here," Leon says, with a glance at Riesenlied's find. He looks over them as they change, though he remains behind a rack of clothing. He is pulling a few things on over his clothes -- and stuffing his coat, as best he can, in a bag. Even if he sighs, a little, at being called 'Lion.'
He steps out last.
Leon is wearing a dark green robe. The front of it is done up in swirling red, gold, black, blue, and silver patterns that at garishly overly complicated. There are plates and discs of various coppers and gilded nickel hanging down from it. The robes, for no abundantly clear reason, have sixteen belts strewn across them.
He also has a hat on. A headpiece is more accurate; it is made of wood and has gold lining and red and green paint, and has baubles stuck in it that reflect the light. He also looks like he has a gut; he shoved his coat in there.
The worst, though, is the shoulder pieces: he is wearing full plate mail pauldrons, for some reason. Except, each is built up to contain a wooden lantern. The lanterns are lit.
"I won't even pretend to understand," Leon says. "Let's move."
He steps into the crowd -- and everyone turns to stare. Thankfully, that distracts for most of the others, as they walk out. A guard atarts to walk up, until a cry is heard: "The Lord of Calamity...!"
And then Leon manages, somehow, to blend into the crowd.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
A presence within the dressing room senses that Leon's ensemble is lacking its piece de resistance.
Riesenlied's cucco settles ontop of his head.
Done.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily outright stares at Leon as he comes out. As he steps into the crowd. The guard starts to walk up, and Leon blends in. ...Lily follows, meeting him after she works her way over. And then...
"Leon," Lily says with great seriousness. "...I need you to promise me never to wear that again."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's grin kind of dies on her face as she shoos Janey and Mikaia out of the shop again, taking Riesenlied's hand in hers as she leads the group away; she's obviously caught sight of Leon catching the crowds, her face falling at the sight as a significant amount of the townsfolk start to wonder if this is some new theatre troupe rolling through town. "... do I assume that he's sleeping on the couch? Not that he'd fit right at the moment," she adds with a snort.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma, who is literally face blind and had to dress herself up like a character from ancient cartoons, gives Leon two thumbs up for his costume choice.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"It's a promise that I have already made to myself, Lily," Leon sighs. His helmet squishes down over his face because the cuccoo nests upon it.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"..."
Josie is, at least initially, speechless.
Then: "Leon. No."
The fact that her outfit does ultimately pass muster without any comment, though, will leave her grouchy later.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia does not stand out to quite the same calamitous degree as Leon, but she nonetheless does draw a few eyes. One problem is the outfit; she's gotten used to moving in freer clothes and is not particularly feeling up to adopting the mental state required to move in a restrictive dress. It feels like her whole brain is itching to be rid of the accursed thing.
Another is that her head is panned up about 45 degrees and staring blankly at the actual planet that is just...hovering there in plain view.
Looks like she finally noticed it. "Fil...gaia..." she murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied nods extremely gently at Cecilia and Lily's words, perhaps feeling a bit more relieved that it isn't just her. It isn't like it's actively pressuring her, but... it's just noticeable enough to be bothersome, like something at the periphery of her mind's eye. She holds onto Noeline's hand as she, Janey and Mikaia walk out, the former child giggling at Leon to go, "Next Hallow's eve costume?" "Don't be on it!"
She does-- stop and stare with Cecilia, however, as she gazes towards Filgaia in its full... barrenness.
"Duras Drum was right..." she murmurs. "Filgaia and Lunar both look like desolate stars from each others' views..."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Toldja," Hammer says ruining everything. "Never underestimate the power of my information network."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... we will fix that soon enough, I suppose," Noeline sighs with a faintly amused smile. Now that they're roughly safe, the fatigue is starting to catch up with her, and the warm grin is tired but also full of life, and tinged with the relief of people who have been through hell, Quarter Knights and airship crashes and the Demon of Elru all, and somehow come out the other side.
"We find the Fereshte and ensure the others are safe, we find Duras Drum's location - ah, Princess, I should probably speak with you about that part at some point," she natters without pause, and gently squeezes her partner's hand. "And we keep going, as best we can. For the time being, let us find a place to hole up outside of town, and see who else was thrown over here."
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"If this outfit is typical," Emma observes, "I already like things better here. I feel so free. But maybe that's just the deilirum talking..."
She does tilt her head back to gaze up at the distant shape of Filgaia. So near, in a way: but yet, so far away.
For now.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia mutters, toward Noeline, "Yes, at some point, yes."
She shakes her head, rubbing her forehead from a new kind of headache. "The Guardians are quiet here," she mutters. "I hear something, but it's not them. ...ugh." A grimace as her thoughts refuse to cohere. "I can't think about anything until I sleep for thirty hours and have five bowls of chow mein."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Someone, as it turns out, fully believes in the power of Hammer's information network.
"Please, Mister Hammer..." Riesenlied begs. "If you can find out anything about the Fereshte and our people... please, let me know. I will pay any price you ask."