2018-10-27: Secrets at Sea
- Log: Secrets at Sea
- Cast: Janus Cascade, Maya Schrodinger, Seraph Lanval, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ree, Ines Colina, Gwen Whitlock, Wizzro
- Where: Silver Coast
- Date:2018-10-27
- Summary: What ace in the hole has Janus been concealing?
==============================<* Silver Coast *>============================== The Silver Coast is the name given to the northeastern coastline of Ignas. The origins of the name are lost to history, but residents of the area tend to assume it reflects either the famous white-sand beaches northeast of Lacour, or the region's distance from the desertification slowly spreading out from the continent's heart. The Coast and its surrounding territories are claimed by the Kingdom of Lacour, and contain a wide assortment of biomes, from plains to rocky hills and mountains to rolling beaches. Major roads between Lacour and its next two largest settlements - the Port City of Hilton and the Academy City of Linga - are heavily patrolled by the kingdom's soldiers, and are generally safe. The hinterlands, however, are plagued by monsters of all types; researchers in Linga can find a variety of uses for the body parts of monsters, and do a brisk trade with Adventurers seeking to protect the population and make a little coin to boot. <Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
The ships making way for Elru are not fully out of communications with each other. Sailors have had means of spreading word across boats for many years, after all, and Memory Parrots and their kin make communicating between captains who know each other simple enough of a task.
And the word those messages carrying is of a ghost ship. It's not hostile - it's not some Metal Demon assault vehicle, or something so terrible. It is, however, BIG, easily the size of two of the merchant vessels doing most of the Drifter-ferrying; and it's a metal one, an ARM-ship of some description. Most captains know better than to bother craft that might only be peaceful because nobody's accidentally angered whatever spirits guide it...but in the night, it glows. And the light has been getting brighter and brighter.
And tonight, like a beacon across the seas, a pillar of light has split the heavens, as though calling all within radius to witness the vessel. Something is happening.
Boarding from vessels is difficult due to the differences in scale, but a few creative applications of rope should get the job done...
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Aboard the Fereshte
Prior
A searing lance of brilliance soars for the distants stars above, disappearing far into the sky. It's hard not to notice, frankly, and the scurry of activity aboard the mobile base of the Outreach is testament to that. It's also decided, wisely, not to take the vessel directly towards the disturbance. But forgoing an investigation entirely would be unthinkable. That's why a bookworm in a green sweater is hurriedly taking her spectacles off and pelting down the corridors at a heck of a pace. There's a little something in the hold that should do, and hopefully nobody will miss it -too- much. . .
The Open Waters
Now
A small, inflatable craft of matte black scythes through the water at a tremendous clip towards a mysterious vessel wrought of metal. It holds two unlikely passengers: a small, cat-like creature wearing a scarf, and an adult girl in an orange dress with a lever-action shotgun in one hand and a small pistol-gripped device in her other.
"You didn't -really- ask for permission to take the boat." gripes Shady Thousand, the actual competent member of the Schrodinger family adventuring party. "Eh~, better to ask for forgiveness than permission." is Maya's answer, through she can't find it in herself to feel as casual as she sounds. "I'll hop on board and get to the bottom of this, and we'll head back before anyone realizes we're gone."
Shady rolls his eyes, but knows better than to object. More importantly than that, Maya whips the pistol upwards and pulls the trigger. A hook sails through the air like an arrow, a long coil of rope dangling behind it. Most improbably, it catches on something on the mysterious vessel. The blonde offers her companion a devil-may-care grin and flicks a switch on the pistol with her thumb. She rockets away after the hook like a shot. Wow, why don't you ever use this tool in any digs?
Never fear. Bookgirl is here.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The Ruby Empress, once a scourge of the seas of an entirely different planet, is presently playing the role of being one of the beacons of hope Filgaia has in delivering those able and willing to fight the Metal Demons head-on.
There are other concerns at play - and a consensus that they can't leave a weird glowing thing in the ocean alone. At least one more cause for detour can be made, in case this is some sort of weird Metal Demon weapon whose appearance is designed as such to obfuscate its origins and intentions until it is too late. Is a big signal light that pierces the heavens 'too late?'
Fox Company loans their ship, and with it, the careful watch of some of the most able-bodied seamen (and seawomen) you may yet find. Most are staying behind as a just-in-case measure, as well as to facilitate further communication and coordination with a number of other ships that are on standby for a worst case scenario. As a crew, Layna's are just about the best to be found on this world or the next. If things go bad, all hands need to be ready to fight off whatever might jump out.
(Also, Talise is trying on her awesome new admiral's cap. This is important. Attachment management is serious business. They're also arranging strategies with Layna through a game of backgammon.)
Hooks are fired through cannons with attached ropes in which to attempt to clutch onto the strange glowing seacraft. Tense moments pass as each impact and try to dig in, as though waiting to see if something terrible might yet rush down through the ropes. A few crewmen stand by on hand with knives in case the call is to cut those ropes off and go for distance.
"Heeeeeey," oh, there's Lanval, that annoying drunkard Seraphim, "Iiiii'd better take a look-shee, 'm thinkin'~." Well, okay, then he's not staying behind with the others. He might need someone to carry his vessel bottle up, because heck knows he's not that great at climbing... usually.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida stands at the Empress's railing, watching the drifting hulk through a pair of binoculars. "It's old," she murmurs. "Very old. I'd wager it at least dates back to the Day of Collapse, if not further. How long has it been drifting...?" The mystery is a welcome distraction from her wounds, which--while tended-to by her comrades--still ache when she moves in certain ways. The right side of her face is covered in gauze bandages, and there are undoubtedly more beneath her dark metal-cloth coat. She passes the binoculars to one of Layna's crew, calmly. "Watch the rail," she says. "The moment anything goes wrong, we'll send up a flare."
And with that, Ida plucks up Lanval's bottle, tucks it into a spacious pocket (because of course her new high-tech alien armor needs those) and grips the boarding line. From there, it's basically a matter of inching across the gap between ships, breathing deeply and trying not to think too much about the yawning sea below. "Are you comfortable, Seraph?" she asks Lanval, about halfway over.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Ree curses as she struggles with the ropes transferring her to the larger myserious vessel, as well as against an entrenched case of moderate seasickness. The ocean is Not Her Kind of Place, and if she hadn't been hired to be here, she would be safe and warm and cozy somewhere on land. This glowing ship was weird, and if there was one thing she'd learned, it was Weird Is Bad. Unfortunately, Weird also usually guarded secrets or treasure, so here she was, seeking one or the other, or perhaps both. It was too bad Weird made her earn her valuables Every. Single. Time. She needed, she reflected, to raise her rates for jobs on water...or at least learn how to swim. Someday. In case she ever needed to go near the water again. At last the raven-haired Geohound hauls herself onto the deck of the drifting abandoned(?) ship, where she assumes a defensive stance, just in case, ARMs at the ready. No telling what monsters or mechanisms could be guarding this place!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Honestly, with the amount of Drifters heading to sea, it's a little amazing it's taken them this long to ill-advisedly hunt down a mystery ship. However, there's only so long you can leave a glowing ancient relic alone before you have to do something.
One of the many on the deck of the Ruby Empress, Ines is here for an arguably more pleasant reason than her first encounter with the pirate vessel. The towering beastwoman surveys the ship as they draw close, taking it in as much as possible. "I'm more worried about what might still be active on it than how old it is, personally," she says, as she walks over to test the ropes. "Who knows what sort of defenses this thing has?"
After satisfying herself that the rope will support her weight, Ines grabs on and starts hauling herself up hand over hand, at a decent pace. That said, it's hard not to notice the orange clad woman making a showy and much more rapid entrance. "I'm thinking she had the right idea."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"'m jusht fine... thanksh fer the pickup." He trails off into a more subdued 'mmmm'-ing. The way the cloth moves in that pocket is kind of weird - not bad, just weird. It feels firm, but it has a lot of give. Still, he allows himself to stay alert. He remembers how worried Ida got about high places. If she falls, he can catch her on the water.
He doesn't have a great plan beyond 'catch her on the water' but he would.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Word gets around fast.
That's the only reason Gwen can figure out, when a Memory Parrot suddenly had a message *for her*, minutes after a pillar split the heavens. It was, from all people, her own Auntie Frea.
'Please investigate the ghostly ship, and make a report via the parrot.'
She assured the others it'd be quick, and not to worry. After all, look, there's others going too! She'll just borrow this nice side boat and.... row.
Yeah, she didn't think this through at all, aside from dress appropriately.
By the time she makes it to what she is now terming 'the goddamn giant metal boat with the asshole ghosts', Gwen is ready to look at those ropes and call it a waste of time. After all, there's no such thing as 'ghosts', aside from the miscellaneous explained phenomena that could be considered ghosts, but aren't, you know, *ghost* ghosts.
Now she hauls herself up a random rope cast by one Drifter or another. Like.... Maya. "Don't pull up yet, I'm usin' this!" When she does get to the rim of the boat (or whatever it's called, Gwen's not a sailor, she's a courier) the redhead just spills onto the deck with the grace of a healthy sealion. ".... lemme catch m'breath..." Grey blue eyes shoot to Maya. ".... oh, ah, hi, Maya. N'..." A lot of other people here, in fact. ".... hi," she mumbles. "If y'see n'old ship 'round thereabouts... uh... s'not a pirate ship, I swear. Please-don't-shoot-it."
You know, a dastardly Filgaian pirate. Not an upstanding Lunarian pirate, like Layna.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
People assemble, eventually, on the deck. It's a huge surface, and it's DEFINITELY an old battleship - gun emplacements still gleam even in the starlight, a central tower splitting the huge deck into parts. This place has been damaged, and recently too - bullet holes and even the distinctive holes left by punches with the power of bullets, spear damage and crackling lightning scars marking the deck. The foredeck has entirely caved in, as though something punched through. The pillar of light that marked this place has not faded, but it is slowly dimming, sparking and crackling as if some unknown power were being released, on an axis seen but not felt.
Then the light fades entirely, leaving behind three figures standing on the deck. One cranes his neck until it releases a crunchy CRACK of vertebrae; another stretches his arms skyward. And the third...
The third clutches a bright red-hued pendant in his fingers like it were the most valuable thing in the world. Janus Cascade.
Janus looks up at the party, raising his empty offhand with a lazy, limp-fingered wave. "Well, howdy," he declares, and starts ambling in the entire opposite direction of the arriving Drifters. "Y'all don't gotta worry about this none. As ya can see, I have exorcised the beast."
"He shot it," Romero says, proudly.
"Ghosts die when ya shoot 'em!" Dario boasts.
"So how 'bout y'all just pick over whatever I didn't find, and we can all call this square, yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya surveys her new position atop the unfamiliar ship, only to hear a familiar voice begging her not to let go of, or discard the rope. Gwen, bless her heart, pants for breath on the ship's deck and also pleads for clemency for the pirate ship in the waters just behind them. ... wait, pirate ship? The blonde swivels her head quickly with eyebrows soaring. "Pirate ship?" she echoes, spying the Empress now. Maybe her approach was from the opposite direction. "Well, I guess... I'm not really out to sink any ships, so I wouldn't worry about it...?"
Her attempts to assauge Gwen's fears, however, are interrupted by the Cascade Ghostbusters emerging from the fading beam of unfathomable power. Maya's expression is one of tempered amusement. The kind of amusement you equip, forcibly, to make things like God-shaking powers and transportation to other planets seem like rowdy adventures and not terrifying, traumatic events. The blonde hefts her lever-action over one shoulder.
"Mister Cascade," the Schrodinger girl greets him with practiced pleasantness. Her gaze searches the ship, surveys the damage, looks for hints of fading spirits. Demons. Ghosts. It returns to the blue-haired man with the beautiful pendant that no doubt does not belong to him.
A thief from long ago...
"Care to explain what this is about? Or where you took that little necklace from? It clashes with your eyes, you know. Terrible look." Maya lays a hand at her cravat and looks mockingly mortified. "Or perhaps what all the light was about?"
... who stole the power of a God.
Maya slowly paces as she speaks, half-stepping in front of Gwen protectively. She hasn't been able to clear the idea from her mind, not since the disaster in the Coils, that the rifle-toting Geohound and his lackeys are dabbling in shit leagues beyond their ken.
The blonde's physical form wavers, kind of like a mirage on a hot day, and a glowing veil of particles the colour of the noonday sun and as fine as sand roil upwards from Maya's dress, before wrapping themselves around her and fading away again. The whole process takes maybe a half-second. The gunslinger in the orange dress is inexplicably now a ponytailed version of herself in crimson plate armour, wielding a sword and shield. Uh. Okay.
"Or did you all just know we'd come a-running with this kind of ruckus being made? Unfinished business and all..."
She seems more interested in answers than looting or fighting, but clearly expects the worst.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It may be a moment before Gwen's even noticable, slumped over by the railing as she is. That is, until Janus speaks, and her head snaps up.
Fog blue eyes meet the back of Janus's departing head, and the ruby red pendant in his fingers.
Her mouth thins to a stoic, hard line.
She could say nothing. They're all on their way to deal with the threat of Mother.
She could just shoot the damn pendant out of Janus's hand with her very shaky, unsteady ARM hand.
"_Janus_."
NOPE, she's not having it, she ran out of mental appeals to logic and strategy around the middle of her short rowing session to this goddamn metal boat.
In contrast to Janus's cool demeanor, Romero's trimuph, and Dario's pride, Gwen's the odd example of absolute anger. "What the hell are you even expectin' to come out of this? And why do you think this goddamn demon king'll be gracious 'nough to grant that wish? Seems t'me he'd be more happy t'just do whatever the hell he'd want." She steps forward, past the safety of her friends and the protective Maya, until she stands right in front, practically fuming with uncharacteristic rage.
And with it, a thread of concern, stringing it along. "We're all practically goin' up against Mother, and meanwhile, you're continuing with this mess?! The *last* thing everyone's gonna wanna deal with is some angry demon king, and all they're gonna think about is the asshole who decided it was a great idea to free him! Do you *want* to be that idiot? You're smarter than this!!"
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Topaz eyes gaze calmly at the disturbance as Gwen and Maya both react to the pale-haired stranger and his lackeys. One woman addresses him as "Cascade," the other as "Janus," so he's Cascade Janus? Or maybe Janus Cascade? The deal he offers doesn't seem half-bad to Ree, until she hears mention of a Demon King, a pendant, and sealing. Well that sounds dangerous! She keeps her weapons trained on Cascade, careful to aim for a clear shot that won't hit her fellow Drifters. She might need them to shield her later...
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida finally reaches the mysterious vessel's railing. She grips it with both hands, keeping her legs locked in place around the boarding line as she eases her body up and over. Once she's certain she's above stable ground, she lets go, and flops onto the deck, landing with a solid 'thump'. Pain shoots through her stomach, and she reaches down to check Lanval's vessel--which, thankfully, didn't smack into anything on the way down. Ida rises to her feet, and glances around the vessel's deck. It's very old, and very sophisticated--part of Ida's brain starts marveling at it, while the rest of it focuses squarely on the three figures emerging from the light.
Ida is silent for a long moment. She becomes acutely aware of Devil's Due, resting in its holster at the small of her back. If this is turning into a standoff--which it might--she looks woefully unprepared. "I suggest you listen to Miss Whitlock, sir," Ida says. Her tone is curt, clipped. She glances to the side as particles swirl, and sees Maya...
Doing that. She blinks.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
And they manage to be beaten here. Great. As Ines hauls herself over the railing, she can see the obvious signs of a fight, as is the presence of Janus and Friends. Whatever the party here was, looks like they turned up late. Still, Janus has her attention. Or, more particularly the reactions to Janus have her attention. She glances across to Ida, the only other person here she at all knows, but there are no answers to be gleaned from her face. Maya suddenly becoming a knight does not help matters.
The beastwoman shifts stance, ever so slightly. On the upside, she doesn't have to worry about drawing anything for when the standoff breaks. It just would be nice if she had the slightest clue what folks were actually arguing about, but now is really not the time to be asking questions.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Thanksh for the lift," Lanval manifests out of Ida's pocket in a flash of aquamarine light, among those capable of seeing such, and then there's a barefoot, ragged, portly phantom of a water elemental who manages to be a bit steadier on his feet than he usually manages. Maybe it's something to do with being on a vessel already wobbling on the water. The physics about a someone that does not adhere to them with few exceptions continue to be a headache, and are also way less a problem than what might be happening right now.
"Huh? What'sh he mean 'bout--" He goes silent as Maya suddenly changes form in a way that sort of resembles-- oh, wait, no she isn't a Hellion, but, wow. Lanval stands around looking a bit lost as to what this all is between the mortals this time - he's not used to really having to heed their squabbles all that closely outside of acknowledging stuff like 'oh that one's a Hellion, better keep a watch so it doesn't make the air thicker with the purple stuff' and 'oh this means there won't be as many half-finished drinks today, aww.'
No, something else catches his eye, which opens half-lidded as it follows the blue-haired man. Something about the shape of it. Has he seen something like that? Must've been something striking if he recalls the shape of it but not it itself.
Gwen elucidates some.
"W-Waaiiit, wait... demon king, ya mean like... The Demon King's Malice demon king?" Lanval asks.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus' eyes are hungry as he regards the bauble in his hands. His ARM is slipped across his back - something he almost never does even in casual moments, and to see it now...what's got him so confident...? Gwen's pendant doesn't seem to react to much of anything, even now. He half-turns, watching Maya speak - watching her change, and something thoughtful flashes across his face. But before can address that, Gwen is yelling at him, with Ida echoing. And all Janus can really do for it is laugh.
Which he does, chuckling merrily at the furious rebukes he receives. "You aren't my business anymore, sweetheart. Not unless you've brought that girl of yours for me to ice. I got bigger fish I'm fryin'."
His eyes tick to Gwen...screaming. And he laughs again. "Yeah! You're all doin' a real bang-up job fighting the evil alien demigoddess. Really knockin' out of the park. I heard they'll even have Hilton put back together this generation."
He reaches into his pocket with his offhand, producing from within his old pocketwatch, regarding it thoughtfully. "Sorry, you just have this strange feelin' I give a good god damn what you suckers want outta me. But I'm afraid I just don't have time to--"
Boy. Allow me.
He stops. His grin slowly splits wider. "Oh...you want a piece of 'em, old man?" he laughs, and he reaches down into his pockets, producing the other object he's been obsessing over lately: A gold ring, set with a large red stone.
What else is an old wizard good for? Hyee hyee...
Janus laughs in time, then turns to face the group properly. "Well then!" he laughs. "Keep 'em busy for me a while, will ya, Wiz?"
Then he pitches the ring, overhand, directly at the group. It arcs down, tink, tink...roll.....to a stop.
And then it explodes.
Shadow magic rips out of the object, a thick, oozing puddle of muck seeming to rise up around it. It looks like Malice, though it doesn't have quite the same burning spiritual sting.
And then a hand bursts up out of the muck. Not quite skeletal, but with decrepit, decayed skin, like a mummy's. The hand is outsized, the arm too long. It slams down into the deck, clawing into it to bring another arm up, and then a shrouded form arising. The figure that claws itself free is shrouded in what could only be called a wizard cloak, an elaborate robe with tattered edges, the upper shaul adorned with tassles. It jingles and clatters with the sound of its several necklaces and adornments. Beneath the hood is....well it must be a head, but all one can see is a single, massive red eye, centered like a cyclops, blazing red with malicious intent.
"Good evening!" the figure says, and then blinks, and then instead of an eye it's a mouth, uncomfortably bulbous, with grotesquely rotten teeth. "I hope you'll entertain me! It's been so terribly long since I battled with HEROES! KYAHAHAAHHAHAHA!"
And while he cackles, he spins and swirls, bolts of Dark magic forming around him and firing down upon the Drifters! "Oh but where are my manners!" he crows, his mouth closing and blinking back open as an eye, focused squarely on Gwen. "A murderer must introduce himself, yes? My master told me that once. Then you may call me..."
TWISTED WIZARD
WIZZRO
His wrist twists, and instead of a blast of shadow Magic, Gwen finds herself contending with some manner of screaming one-eyed piranha-toothed glob, blasting at her to bite into her shoulder. As for Janus...
You can just about catch sight of him leaping off the edge into a waiting boat.
DC: Janus Cascade switches forms to Twisted Wizard Wizzro! DC: Maya Schrodinger switches forms to Shining Knight!
GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Seraph Lanval with Shadow Bolt! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ines Colina with Shadow Bolt! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Shadow Bolt! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shadow Bolt! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Ree with Shadow Bolt! GS: Janus Cascade has gained 1 Combo! GS: Janus Cascade has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Malicious Beast! GS: Janus Cascade has completed his action. GS: Ree takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Shadow Bolt for 90 hit points! GS: Maya Schrodinger critically Guards a hit from Wizzro's Shadow Bolt for 36 hit points! GS: Maya Schrodinger has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ines Colina critically Guards a hit from Wizzro's Shadow Bolt for 38 hit points! GS: Ines Colina has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Ree does stare a bit as Maya transforms, but, hey, she's on her side, so...
She does seem taken a bit aback as Wizzro emerges from the thrown bauble. "'Wizzro?!?' You can't think of a cooler name than than?" she taunts. Good thing she has her ARMs ready! She takes aim at the shadowy figure and fires, just as one of his Shadow Bolts strikes her in the left shoulder. She winces but keeps firing, though her aim is off a bit. That shoulder HURTS!
GS: Ree has attacked Wizzro with Hired Gun! GS: Ree has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Shadow Bolt for 189 hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Shadow Bolt for 92 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
To no surprise of the audience, at least, Maya is spiritually sensitive enough (and then some) that Seraphs are definitely real peoples to her. The recently-transformed young woman's eyes quickly swivel to Lanval, who oddly slooshes out of Ida's pocket. The Demon King's Malice, huh...? "Tell me what you know about this later!" she calls quickly to the Seraph. Lanval, Maya hangs around with some of the weirdest people on Filgaia. I ain't selling you short, but trust me on this one.
Speaking of which, the Knight's gaze meets Ida's briefly. Whatever power Maya is exercising, her brash confidence seems replaced with something more stern in those eyes. But there's not that much time to analyze this. Because Maya starts to charge halfway through Janus's speech, which is actually most unlike her. She takes off from her starting position like an armored rocket, but that's hardly enough. "Wait, Janus!" she yells after him as he lobs a tiny, twinkling object at the Drifters and leaps from the edge of the boat. Even if she wanted to give chase, the great swirling of shadowy energy unleashed by the sudden summons stills her advance.
You'd think the shield at Maya's hand would be better suited to blocking the oncoming blast of negative energies, but consider the way the arming sword on her gauntlet glows with a pallid blue hue. Magical weapons, you know? The blonde knight immediately pivots on one foot and greets the magical bolt with a fine upward stroke. Some of that magical force shatters, small fragments of darkness biting deep into the girl's form. The rest?
Home-run swung right back at that giant, spooky, talking cloak.
"You've come at a bad time." Maya chides Wizzro, though she obviously takes the threat seriously. There's no joking in her tone or her gaze. "Might you serve this 'Demon King'? Or just the greedy man who left you here to slow us down?"
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Malicious Beast for 106 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The Water Seraph is standing equal parts paralyzed in confusion... and fear. He remembers going into the depths of that place out in the desert, and being truly disturbed about the character of the water down there. He had a sense that some of the creatures there kind of wanted to reach out and take him into it, maybe because in a sense he is water.
Dark magic strikes out, and Lanval starts to wobble about some more in such a way that the dark energy just only passes through him briefly. It is but a miniscule span of time for the totality of his existence, but he will remember that fraction of a second in which the shadow magic coursed zapped through him. He teeters and totters along, having trouble centering himself even well after it's over.
"That'sh a shwell how-do-ya-do..." He croaks out as he plants both feet at last, but he's leaning waaaay back, on top of facing the wrong way to start. (Maybe that's why he's leaning back instead of turning around.)
He's leaning so far back that he's coming up a bit too close to the polite murderer who has so introduced himself, and Lanval's right eye opens a bit.
He swings the gourd he's holding back, as if to bash them with it from a strange and unwieldy angle while he takes a swig from it, culminating in him... just flopping over, like he'd dare lie down prone in front of a foe of great power that most would not be able to describe the character of.
"...'ll be right with ya," he murmurs.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Wizzro with Leisurely Lunge! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Maya Schrodinger has attacked Wizzro with Seven-Star Sword - Return Volley!! GS: Maya Schrodinger has gained 2 Combo! GS: Maya Schrodinger has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Ines hadn't even fully noticed Lanval was there, but her attention is occupied elsewhere and Seraphs are still weird and off to her anyway. Besides, there are more pressing issues and horrifying robed eye-mouth things are new. Ines brings her arms up in front of her as the shots of darkness come barreling towards her, and she activates the iron symbols on the back of her hands, and the barrage of shadow bolts crash into suddenly metallic arms, sending Ines sliding back across the deck, and hitting into the railing, which dents a little from the impact.
"Aren't you a polite one?" Ines manages with a grunt, pulling herself back up. And then she starts to run towards the dark wizard, launching herself airborne with a gust of wind at her feet and taking aim at Wizzro's- eye? Face? Mouth? Whichever one it is at the moment- with freshly hardened fists.
GS: Ines Colina has attacked Wizzro with Iron Haymaker! GS: Ines Colina has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida made a note of that ring back during the dig in the Serpent's Coils. As Janus pitches it onto the deck, she reacts as though he'd thrown a live grenade--she twists on a heel, leaps, and rolls across the deck, taking cover behind the bulk of a half-melted gun turret. She peers out from behind it, her eyes widening as she sees that... that massive, twisted hand, and then the figure attached to it. It does not look like anything living, and it's close enough to the feel of the Malice that Ida's gut insists it must be related, but it's not a perfect match. She stares as Wizzro introduces himself, clinging to the gun turret with white-knuckled hands. She ducks for cover, disappearing behind the bulk of the turret. It's not enough.
Bolts of eldritch power punch clean through the reinforced steel. Necrotic energies course along the length of the turret, leaving nothing more than rust and powder in their wake. Energy leaps out at Ida in great bolts, crawling across her torso, seemingly seeking out wounds it can tear open. The wrecked gun turret--now holding on by a few threads of intact metal--sags to the side, and collapses with a metallic groan. It's not enough to drown out Ida's scream of agony.
The young naturalist half-crawls, half-drags herself out from her ruined cover, leaving a trail of blood splatters on the deck in her wake. She sucks in a breath with lungs that don't quite want to function. Everything feels cold. She pitches herself upright, and bites the inside of her cheek. Come on, she reminds herself. You've had worse. Berserk hit harder. Harken hit harder. Siegfried hit harder. Bits of focus start to trickle back. Ida manages a quick-draw, aiming and snapping off a single slug at Wizzro's center of mass. At least, what she hopes is his center of mass--it's hard to tell what exactly lies beneath that cloak.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wizzro with Chi Bullet! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Maya Schrodinger's Seven-Star Sword - Return Volley! for 89 hit points! GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Ines Colina's Iron Haymaker for 67 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Never said we were doin' great," Gwen hisses, through clenched teeth. "Just that we're aimin' to stop it. Buildings can be replaced, but people's lives can't be. You, of all people, should know that!"
She's wincing from the sting of that comment, wishing she could take it back. But maybe, it'll snap Janus out of that... whatever it is. Whatever sort of haze he's in, staring at that red gem.
On top of that, there's no reaction from Gwen's pendant. It might as well be a nice necklace, an artifact from a time no one knows about. Hardly the sort of valuable artifact that should be around a simple courier's neck. Which leads to one single thought in the back of Gwen's mind:
'What if it's fake?'
Not fake in terms of being a priceless artifact, but fake as in 'this pendant is bears no significance in sealing any sort of king, demon or no'. Just a red herring, to lead would-be thieves astray.
Like that red ring Janus is throwing at them. Gwen attempts to shoot at it with her still twitching ARM, but the aim is laughable, merely shooting off into the distance a safe way's away from anything living.
And now... there's.... this wizard guy. Gwen just squints at the cackling mage, her ARM still extended. "Wizz...ro...?" They're heroes? Well, of course they're *heroic*, but heroes, like in a novel?
But then there's a strange piranha thing on Gwen's shoulder, chomping down onto it and making that exhaustion turn into outright *pain*.
Desperately jerking the thing aside with her much weaker left hand, Gwen reaches down to her boot, to draw out her PROUD BLADE.
.... well, her trusty knife. Filgaian metal! Very nice. Just... not impressive as a sword. But Gwen's sort of past that.
"I don't have time for this!" she yells, running *at* the creepy mage, attempting to land a nick of damage on the thing. Something selective, in order to slow him down.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Wizzro with Comet Clip! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Ree's Hired Gun for 68 hit points! GS: Wizzro critically Guards a hit from Seraph Lanval's Leisurely Lunge for 25 hit points! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval has lost 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Comet Clip for 28 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Wizzro! GS: CRITICAL! Wizzro guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Chi Bullet for 98 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Wizzro has activated a Force Action! GS: Wizzro has activated a Force Action!
<Pose Tracker> Wizzro has posed.
The pendants may or may not be fake but that barrage of shadowy magic sure isn't! Wizzro cackles as Ree taunts him and lunges, a keening "KYAHAHAHAH" as she barrels at him, firing wildly. "My name is a beautiful thing, I'll have you know!" he crows, twirling away and directly into Ines' fist. That one takes him across what....WOULD be his jaw but his mouth is inthe middle of his face and is also his eye, so, his... ch...eek....?
Anyway he goes whirling wildly through the air, recovering with a bobble like a tilting doll. He turns a mean smile from that oversized mouth on Maya, who has just smacked him with his own fire. "What if it's both? What if that's the same thing!? Hee hee....what if my king is gone, so any old prince will do!?" he cackles.
Then a GIANT HAND erupts from the center of his robes, grabs Maya around THE ENTIRE BODY, and then just lifts her up and slams her ot the ground, smashing her so hard the deck's armor plating cracks. That's left him wide open for a sock from Lanval, who clobbers him over the back of the head, prompting the wizard to lash back at Lanval and fire a horrible chewing monster to gnaw on Lanval's arms.
Then Ida shoots him, center mass, BANG. He staggers, yes, but it gives her no information on what might be under those robes. Wizzro's mono-eye blinks at her, and then he cackles again, waving his finger in her direction. The magic around her sparkles, coalesces....
Focuses. Condenses. Into a man with a red jacket, blue hair...the colors are faded, but the man's the same. The doppel-Janus drops his ARM down, grinning at Ida and offering an arched eyebrow as a salute. "Wonder how this thing works," he says, in Janus' voice but Wizzro's words, and then shoots her.
As for Gwen, that knife stabs into him, and he just looks at her for a long horrible few moments.
"You know," the wizard says, suddenly terribly serious. "You're the only one he still worries about. And it is a servant's duty to fix the worries of his master! HYAHAHAH! LET US SEE YOU ENDURE IT!"
Then he thrusts his two hands forward, a bead of darkness gathering between them that then RUSHES out, a screaming ray of shadow that threatens to erode Gwen to nothingness right then and there! "WITHER!" Wizzro screams at her. "WITHER LIKE YOUR GODS!"
As for anyone nearby, they have to deal with power racing away from that eruption of magic, shadow magic blasting out from Wizzro in every direction, ripping defenses down and sending people flying!
GS: Wizzro has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Wizzro has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Floor Master! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has attacked Seraph Lanval with Malicious Beast! GS: Wizzro has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Wizzro has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Shadow Cannon ! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with DoppelGunner! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ree with Shadow Onslaught! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ines Colina with Shadow Onslaught! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Ree takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Shadow Onslaught for 143 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ree! GS: CRITICAL! Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Floor Master for 224 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Maya Schrodinger! GS: CRITICAL! Ines Colina critically Guards a hit from Wizzro's Shadow Onslaught for 92 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Ines Colina! GS: Ines Colina has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has lost 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades DoppelGunner from Wizzro!
GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Malicious Beast for 59 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Shadow Cannon for 190 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval lies on the ground too close to Wizzro for anyone's comfort, much less his own. That's why he's having himself a drink, a nice swig to try and calm the nerve-equivalent even as he hears screeching, cackling, ARMs fire, and the like. He's going to need to loosen up a bit more. After aaaaa--
There is a horrid chewing monster on his arm and there is something insidious about how it takes him this long to notice it's trying to eat into him. He flails more animatedly than he usually manages, rolling across the rotting, broken deck with a panicked yell. He frees his arm, but he doesn't free himself of the beast's attention.
It's something of a bit of comic relief as Wizzro tries to twist away the resolve of Gwen about a man that has given her much cause to doubt and worry over the years. Lanval gets inventive with his flexibility, for an entity whose mind oft seems dull. The way he twists, bends, and wriggles seems to be just at the very edge of what the human body is capable with. It helps that he isn't one, but the manifestation visually seems to at least pay lip service to those rules.
Then, Lanval holds up his gourd when he seems cornered against the snapped mast, and the horrible chewing monster gets a fang stuck within the opening of the gourd.
"Hm, hm, hm." A spreading smile on that dumb face of his, and Lanval suddenly seems to have a bit more power in this encounter, turning and swaying as such that the beast is being held just at bay of touching him... and can't find the means in which to wriggle their fang out, or otherwise wrest control of the held drinking gourd.
"Heyyy, 'm... not really on board with the whole witherin' thiiiing," it should be a defiant retort, but it sounds more like a tired, sleepy protest akin to begging mom to let them sleep in for five more minutes. Cool, fresh moisture fills the air around Lanval as he goes about casting another Seraphic Arte, to further project the element in which he embodies.
"Mmm... shaaaaaay, ish it a shpecific God? Liiiike, um. A Fengalon, or shome shuch~?" And then, moments later, the gourd rumbles...
And the horrid beast that's been chasing him is expelled in a geyser-like blast of water trying to blast it back towards Wizzro and further drench him, while Lanval falls onto his seat from the force of the expulsion with a surprised laugh.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Wizzro with Unending Fountain! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Ree stands by as one of her companions, evidently some kind of sharkwoman, charges Wizzro and punches him in the face. Ida near-collapses on the deck but get off one bullet at her foe. Ree herself also prefers to attack from a distance -- though in this case the enemy also has distance attacks in the form of shadow bolts. No telling what else the wizard was capable of. Wizzro directs shadow lances at her, and they strike her indirectly. She staggers but still manages to raise both ARMs again and fire, aiming for the bulk of Wizzro's body. If he doesn't have a magical means of defense or a way to dodge, she can hardly miss.
GS: Ree has attacked Wizzro with This is Foreplay! GS: Ree takes 9 damage from Poison! GS: Ree has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
The big phantom finds the would-be knight in shining armor an easy target to track. Spirited as she may be, Maya lacks the swiftness usually flowing with her movements. "Kch--!" a gutteral noise as a phantasmal hand zips through the ghostly wizard's robes and closes around her, lifting her into the air.
Quoth Wizzro: 'Hee hee....what if my king is gone, so any old prince will do!?'. Maya will remember this, but first, must contend with the creaking of her bones and the metallic groan of her armour. One problem gives way to another, as the knight is open-palm slammed into the deck of the mysterious vessel. There is a person-shaped dent in the armor, which bodes ill for the person in question.
Small blessing: a tidal wave of negative energies washes overhead without actually making contact.
Soon after it passes, the heavily-wounded Maya sits up with surprising quickness, but this comes at a cost. Namely, the feeling that everything is broken, or on the verge of breaking. "Defend Gwen!" she shouts, voice unfazed by her rapidly-failing physical form. "Don't let this foul thing take it from her!" except, Maya hasn't really defined what 'is' is, so maybe she's concussed as hell.
Still on one knee, the shield-maiden works quickly. One hand clasps the hilt of her sword, bringing it back to bear. "You know you only delay the inevitable. The more trouble your new master stirs, the quicker the noose will tighten!" her words are spirited, but are they backed by much?
The sword in Maya's hand glimmers the colour of sunshine and dawn, and though Wizzro is a cheating bastard who can bob and careen around the ship with nary a care in the world, one of her many weird and borrowed powers can make up the difference there. Though she draws well short of reaching Wizzro with her blade, when next she swings it, a bright crescent glimmer of force carries forth from the motion of her swing and arcs towards that big, evil eye.
GS: Maya Schrodinger has attacked Wizzro with Seven Star Sword - Corona Slash! GS: Maya Schrodinger has gained 1 Combo! GS: Maya Schrodinger takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Maya Schrodinger has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
The dark magic surges over everything, and even as Ines tries to protect herself by projecting a shield of metal in front of her. But even that's not enough, the instant wall getting swallowed up by darkness and disappearing, leaving the onslaught to drive her to the ground. It's painful, and even the relatively stoic geohound cries out in pain. And this is just what those on the periphery of Wizzro's power.
What's worse is the fact that the darkiness is infecting her entire system, continuing to sap away her strength as well as just straight up causing pain. Red blood leaks from her mouth, and Ines pulls herself up to her feet. No time for messing around with something this tough.
Ines starts casting quickly, the runes on her body glowing green. The knuckles on her right hand suddenly sharpen, and extend as metal grows over them. "You're a damn yappy bastard, you know that!? Might be time you shut your damn mouth already!" For better or worse, Ida's shot revealed that the twisted wizard has a center of mass, and Ines charges right for it, once again boosting herself with a burst of wind magic to propel her toward's Wizzro, and to try and drive sharpened fist into the horrific creature.
GS: Ines Colina has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Ines Colina has attacked Wizzro with Hullbreaker Knuckle! GS: Ines Colina takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida takes a few precious seconds to regain her composure as Wizzro reels back. Whatever hit her feels like it dumped cold water on the bonfire of her lifeforce--not enough to smother it outright, but enough to make it gutter, dangerously. There's no sign of damage to the thing's body--if it even has one, per se. Wizzro gestures at her, and her heart thumps against her ribs; fresh adrenaline washes into her bloodstream, and her whole body tenses up. It's not another shadow bolt. It's...
A washed-out copy of Janus Cascade. Ida takes cover, rushing past Lanval and his terrifying one-eyed assailant and ducking behind a few empty munitions crates. Wizzro makes the key rookie mistake of not leading the target. The bullet goes wide, burying itself in the deck where Ida stood a few seconds ago. She takes a moment to recover, to breathe.
"'Servant'?" Ida says. She shouts, the better to ensure her voice carries over the din. She sounds skeptical, to say the least. As she speaks, she pulls a metal canister off a hook at the small of her back--part of a utility webbing Kalve built into her armored coat, because having an alien ARMs Meister for a boyfriend has its perks. She lights the thing's fuse, and throws it. It hits the deck beneath Wizzro, clatters, rolls.
Then it erupts with a thunderous bang and a flash like lightning going off at point-blank range. The others can probably deduce that it's not to be looked at, but Wizzro might not be so lucky.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wizzro with Flare Grenade! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There is something... enjoyable about a being that is so unabashedly committed to their role. Like watching Yaro from afar and not having to directly fight him and realize that _he is a being that genuinely wishes to do Mother's bidding_.
Also, like Yaro, it's really, really hard to get a handle on just what Gwen is dealing with. Or how preceptive they are.
Which leads to this moment, where she finds herself staring at the wizard, her PROUD BLADE still buried in him. And he's looking *back* at her. And he's *speaking* at her, this is really, really personal and she's not sure what to think of thi-
'You know. You're the only one he still worries about."
Surprise washes over Gwen's face, for a moment, before something in the bend of Gwen's lips softens.
And then the world explodes. Or she explodes. Or light explodes. Or existence explodes, maybe everything at once, blotting out the pain and ordeals of her companions. Wither, like your gods.
....
There's still a part of Janus that cares. It could just be a lie, meant to manipulate her. But she'll seize on it, and use that to climb back into reality, using it like every little truth, half-truth, and white lie she's ever told to get by.
But there is one truth: Vash was right. No matter what, this twisted, distorted, beautiful world is ultimately made of- ---
She stands, coughing, rubbing her mouth against her sleeve like she swallowed something poisonous.
"Hey. Before I go on." Yes, she's _talking to the dangerous mage guy_. "... Thanks. I guess I didn't realize how much I needed to hear that." She's smiling, and drawing her right fist back, still close enough to engage him one on one.
And then, she throws a punch at the mage who nearly obliterated her into nothingness.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Wizzro with Special Delivery! GS: Gwen Whitlock has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 121 hit points! GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Seraph Lanval's Unending Fountain for 98 hit points! GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Ree's This is Foreplay for 85 hit points! GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Maya Schrodinger's Seven Star Sword - Corona Slash for 152 hit points! GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Ines Colina's Hullbreaker Knuckle for 107 hit points! GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Wizzro!
GS: Wizzro has attacked Wizzro with Sploosh! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Sploosh for 0 hit points! GS: Wizzro gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ines Colina with Summon Wallmaster! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Malicious Muck! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Malicious Muck! GS: Wizzro has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Malicious Muck! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ree with Malicious Muck! GS: Wizzro has attacked Seraph Lanval with Malicious Muck! GS: Wizzro has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Wizzro has posed.
Wizzro's offense is silenced when Gwen SOCKS him, an overwhelming haymaker piercing his annihilating ray and earning a "BUGYA?!" from the Twisted Wizard's face as he spirals away, slamming hard into the ground. He rights himself, soon enough, crossing his arms with palms up to conjure a shield of darkness. Maya's blast crahes against that field, as does Ree's bullets and even the Malice Beast that Lanval fires back at Wizzro on a torrent of gushing water. It cracks, sparks...but the wizard remains. "FENGALON?! Gyahaha! That little kitten's breezes could hardly ruffle my master's coat!" Wizzro crows. "I would've thought a creature of the Blue Star would know what a god is, little spirit!"
Then he shrieks because Ida's flare goes off.
Then he shrieks again, because Ines just decked him again. "WOULD YOU KINDLY DESIST!" he roars, and then thrusts his hands forward, miamsa boiling out from under him. "I am quite finished with your punchiness! To the sea with you!"
Ines has mere seconds to notice the shadow over her before a GIANT HAND soars down from the sky, its fingers digging in around her, ripping up plate and woman both, and then just....leaving.
The muck at Wizzro's feet continues to boil and seethe. "Silence..." he says, only now replying to INes' quips. "No I believe I have been quiet for MUCH too long! I'LL NOT BE SILENCED AGAIN!!"
And then he disappears.
No, actually he just melted, turned into more of that soupy, not-quite-Malice churning, darkness spreading out from where he was and seeking to drag the Drifters down into it. It doesn't pull them to some strange alternate world...but it does siphon off their vitality, filling Wizzro with power!
Meanwhile, when Ines comes to, she's....back on the boat.
And too far away to punch him again.
GS: Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Malicious Muck for 129 hit points! GS: Wizzro drains Maya Schrodinger! Wizzro gains 64 temporary hit points! GS: Ree takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Malicious Muck for 62 hit points! GS: Wizzro drains Ree! Wizzro gains 31 temporary hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Malicious Muck for 130 hit points! GS: Wizzro drains Ida Everstead-Rey! Wizzro gains 65 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Malicious Muck for 134 hit points! GS: Wizzro drains Seraph Lanval! Wizzro gains 67 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ines Colina guards a hit from Wizzro's Summon Wallmaster for 115 hit points! GS: Poison and Reaper! Statuses applied to Ines Colina! GS: Ines Colina takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Malicious Muck for 129 hit points! GS: Wizzro drains Gwen Whitlock! Wizzro gains 64 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Huh?" Quoth the Lanval, as the Wizzro reveals familiarity with where he hails and what he is, who remains seated while water sprays everywhere out of the gourd. The geyser turns into a trickle in time, where he holds the gourd up outright. Both eyes are open, without the glow that tends to accompany that sort of thing - he's positively stunned by some of the implications, all from an innocent question about what pantheons are actually in play with all of this.
The muck starts to form from where Wizzro melts into the ground, spreading themselves thick somehow as the deck seems to go from 'deteriorating deck' to 'all of this murky darkness.' He blinks, every time closing his eyes further between blinks until he finds he's waist-deep in...
"Oooowah?? Aaiiiieeee...!" The water spirit waves his arms, but it keeps drawing him in further and further. The essence of fresh, clean, pure water with a hint of celebration. Depending on Wizzro's tastes, his life essence either tastes nice or is kind of gross, but is probably the good kind of intoxicating?
A partially-submerged Lanval drifts about in the soup, straddling the line somewhere between discomfort and utter agony and it sure looks like Wizzro could consume him outright, just... sip him on up, pop, gone.
"Mmmmmph~!" Lanval's head starts to dip underneath the darkness, and all seems helpless - it might be.
There is a swell of water, the essence of which all life requires, and a splash of the inky blackness pushing back a ways like a shockwave - but it stands only as a temporary displacement, enough to reveal the visage of Lanval hunched over like he's slammed his very gourd on the ground. It is not an impressive burst. He doesn't clear away much space, if at all, and it could well just splash back and swallow him back up again.
It is a disquieting feeling, to be a being of water, and yet feel completely walled in by other not-water, in ways the mortals among them could never quite grasp.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Wizzro with Water Walled Out! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Ree gasps as Wizzro's muck envelops her feet and legs, draining off life force as it clings. "That's gross!" she complains. Fortunately it doesn't seem to siphon her energy completely, though it does dampen her spirits far more than she'd like.
"Defend Gwen," the woman-turned-Knight orders, so Ree turns her attention to her. Gwen must be the befreckled redhead lingering far, far too close to Wizzro's core. That's a dangerous place to be, but Ree can do a little something to help. Runes along her arms glow red as she casts a spell in Gwen's direction...
GS: Ree has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Coolsoothe! GS: Ree has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ree takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Ree has completed her action. GS: Ree heals Gwen Whitlock! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
While Ines sees the shadow coming, she's not fast enough to get out of the way. The hand slams her solidly into the deck of the ship, crushing her as the hand rips the segment of deck she's on away and into the sky. For a split second, she blacks out.
Once Ines pulls herself up she is... once again by the edge of the ship and away from the fighting. A long way from the fighting. "Shit."
The beastwoman starts running, full tilt for the battle. Still not fast enough. Not even close. She's running out of options. Fine, desperate times and all that. She slides to a halt, and starts chanting quickly, the earth symbol on her chest glowing. "Oi!"
Then, in the next moment, two sorcerously summoned, very large chunks of rock hurl toward Wizzro, aiming to crush and grind the wizard between them. "You haven't gotten rid of me yet!" Sure, she may be a distance away, but maybe she can still draw some attention from everyone else. Particularly those left a little fragile from Wizzro's ongoing assault.
GS: Ines Colina has attacked Wizzro with Tectonic Breaker! GS: Ines Colina has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ines Colina takes an additional 30 damage from Reaper! GS: Ines Colina takes 7 damage from Poison! GS: Ines Colina has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya's magical swordplay is not wholly ineffective, but as far as she's concerned, she hasn't had enough practice with this projection and it shows. The source material was so incomplete and half-translated, to boot, but it's a poor worker who blames their tools.
"Familiar with the Guardians, are you?" she scowls, bringing her sword to one side and straightening her grip on it. "But that false confidence won't save you. Your master fell once, if this is all to be believed, and your new one is hardly immortal." and just when Maya would move to leap and strike, her boots fail to budge because she is ankle-deep in magical shadow-sludge.
***
Somewhere on an inflatable boat not that far away, Shady Thousand cups his eyes with a hand and peers up at the gigantic, animated cloak with a huge eye and disembodied hands giving the assembled defenders of Filgaia an absolute hiding. It is not, he decides, a great look.
***
The world's colours are all fading from Maya's vision, and if the flow of energy through her body is anything to be believed, all that lifeforce is exiting through her feet. "Gwen!" the knight shouts once, doing her utmost to call Gwen to her senses despite the emotional and physical beating she's endured thus far. "Lady Rey!" another shout. Hopefully Ida, uh, recognizes being addressed as such. "I will draw this fell creature's attention, strike or get to safety as you will!"
maya, Wizzro can--he can hear you, you know, and. ugh. just ugh.
A tiny part of Maya makes a note to maybe, someday, figure out how to overwrite less of her personality in future endeavours if she lives past this day. That's not this day, though, and the ponytailed blonde grinds her teeth while drawing upon what strength remains. A nimbus of sky-blue warmth wreathes her from head to toe, and the underworld muck recedes just enough for her to break free.
With what is surely a last-ditch and foolish attempt to stave off the phantom's assault--or at least keep it from getting its grabby-hands on the pendant, Maya grips her sword in both hands, shield still worn on her arm, and lunges. Upwards. A burst of azure blue heralds the movement, the girl flung into the air on invisible wings, the point of her sword aimed right at that big eye!
GS: Maya Schrodinger has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Maya Schrodinger has attacked Wizzro with Seven Star Sword - Samidaregiri! GS: Maya Schrodinger has gained 1 Combo! GS: Maya Schrodinger takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Maya Schrodinger has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Your master?!" Ida shoots back, even as she stays well out of Wizzro's line of sight. "Your master is a thief and brigand with delusions of grandeur." Lanval, knowingly or not, has gotten this creature talking, and even if this encounter is going south remarkably fast, she can still learn something. She can still figure out what's going on, and how to stop it.
God, Ida thinks. Please let me figure this out before it's too late.
Ida can't stay hidden forever, though. She rises from behind the crates, drawing Devil's Due again as Wizzro shrieks about how Ines's punching offends him. She was expecting more shadow sorcery. She was not expecting a giant, clawed hand to drop on her from out of nowhere. "MISS COLINA!" Ida screams, eyes going wide. The hand vanishes, and Ines with it. Then the deck turns into horrible, sticky muck, not quite as unpleasant as the Malice but still horrible to touch. Ida's right foot sinks in, and before she knows it, she's submerged up to her thigh. She pitches over, grabs wildly for the edge of the deck.
'Lady Rey!'
Everstead-Rey, Ida thinks, but she doesn't give voice to the correction. She thinks back to what Fei told her, to what she's been able to piece together--as though her mind were searching for anything it could use for inspiration, or a defense against the enervating entropic muck. She sags forwards. Maya tells her to act, but her voice is distant. Only Devil's Due feels solid.
It's enough. The ARM is whole again. Its presence reminds her of what she has overcome. The First Method: The Unity of Tool and Hand.
Still submerged almost waist-deep in the muck, Ida levels that gun at Wizzro, her face twisting in a look of determined focus. Her lips peel back from her teeth as her focus tightens, and chi boils within the barrel of the ARM. Without another word, Ida pulls the trigger, and a great gout of flame races at the eldritch wizard. It takes the vague suggestion of shape mid-flight--clawed limbs, a mouth, blazing eyes. A serpentine dragon.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 4 Combo on Poison and Gatling, including 2 on Gatling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Wizzro with Dragon's Breath! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Seraph Lanval's Water Walled Out for 98 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Well, Gwen's not going to lie. That felt *amazing*, the way her fist slammed into Wizzro, and the *sound* he made-
wait, she's supposed to be the hero, FOCUS.
Maya and Lanval aren't the only ones who notice Wizzro's mentions. "Wait, you know about Guardians on a name basis, *and* that the Blue Star is a thing?" And not only that, he knows about Seraphs, and possibly, Janus's inner thoughts.
_what the hell did Janus get himself into_
Concern makes Gwen overshoot her need to focus, narrowing down on the simple fact that Janus, and by extension, Dario and Romero, have gotten themselves into a unique sort of situation that grows ever more complicated and dangerous, on levels far worse than just 'deadly'.
But first, they all need to survive. "H-hey!" Gwen panicks as Ines is *snatched up* by that giant hand, missing that critical moment when Wizzro himself dissipates into some sort of Malice-laden goo, spreading quickly through the surface of the ship.
"Gh... what is this stuff?!" Gwen flails as she finds herself sinking, sinking, sinking, the very lifeforce that sustains her leaking away into Wizzro's own. The spot over her health begins to subtly glow through the fabric of her blouse and best as her ARM begins to work overtime.
'Gwen!' Someone's calling her name. The knight / mage / gunslinger / friend who knows a bit of what she's going through. Ree's magic flows towards her, calling her back. Survive. She has to survive. Wizzro clearly wanted her gone, because her existence impended his master's full grasp on the Drifter, if likely in an extremely tiny way.
She can do this.
She is in this goo, but she has her ARM, and lightning, and the mage is the goo, and the lightning is her, and if she just holds out, for just one moment, concentrating on where everyone is positioned, charging up. Her left hand presses over her chest, over the not quite mechanical and not quite biological beat of her heart, and the faint outline of that green pendant, held securely within.
And she releases all that energy out, casting it into the muck siphoning her life force, drawing her own electricity away from possibly hurting her friends.
"We can do this. We'll overcome all of you, no matter what."
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Wizzro with Return To Sender! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Return To Sender for 94 hit points! GS: Wizzro guards a hit from Ines Colina's Tectonic Breaker for 91 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Wizzro critically Guards a hit from Maya Schrodinger's Seven Star Sword - Samidaregiri for 60 hit points! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Maya Schrodinger has lost 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Dragon's Breath for 35 hit points! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has lost 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Wizzro has posed.
"Aren't they all!?" Wizzro crows back at an unseen Ida, even as his goop siphons the power off from so many other fighters. He reconstitutes, brimming with might. "Heroes and fiends, all of us thieves! Stealing from the past, from our forebears, from our gods and our Guardians and our kings! KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! That is how they willed it!"
Something in what Maya says makes Wizzro falter. There's no face to see, but something about his posture...she actually cut him, with that one. But what in her words struck him so?
Whatever it was, it makes him turn toward her. The blade she swings slams into his upraised hand - CARVING into mummified meat.
"I waited so long," he says, with a sudden, horrible clarity.
Then he raises his free hand and releases another shadowy, annihilating ray at Maya, a screaming blast of Dark power so total that even the mighty knight will struggle to not be stripped away by it.
He rips his hand off her sword, just as Ida comes at him, blasting him with a sparkling, crackling chi dragon. His eye slowly turns to her, and then he snaps his other hand up, firing THE SAME blast at her, twin piercing - they're not even spears because they're the size of carriages, walls of light produced by a madman's power.
"KYAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!" he shrieks with laughter, even as Ines blasts him, staggers him. Even when Lanval's waters wash across him, to so little effect.
Then he starts to spin - that magic spreading out into a destroying spiral, the muck from before suddenly churning just as more of those CREATURES leap and swirl within it, chewing on anyone unfortunate enough to get too close to the remaining puddles of Malice goop. No more words from Wizzro.
Just ecstatic, psychotic laughter, as he releases magic fit to destroy withiout limit.
GS: Wizzro has become ENRAGED! GS: Wizzro has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Wizzro has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Shadow Cannon ! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has spent 5 Combo on Gatling, including 4 on Gatling! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shadow Cannon ! GS: Wizzro has activated a Force Action! GS: Wizzro has activated a Force Action! GS: Wizzro has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Malicious Beast! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ines Colina with Malicious Beast! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ree with Malicious Beast! GS: Wizzro has gained 2 Combo! GS: Wizzro has attacked Seraph Lanval with Malicious Beast! GS: Wizzro has gained 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ree takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Malicious Beast for 96 hit points! GS: Jam and Poison! Statuses applied to Ree! GS: Wizzro has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Shadow Spiral! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ines Colina with Shadow Spiral! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ree with Shadow Spiral! GS: Wizzro has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shadow Spiral! GS: Wizzro has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Shadow Spiral! GS: Wizzro has attacked Seraph Lanval with Shadow Spiral! GS: Wizzro has completed his action. GS: Ree has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Ree completely evades Shadow Spiral from Wizzro!
GS: Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Shadow Cannon for 186 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Maya Schrodinger! GS: Maya Schrodinger has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Shadow Spiral for 228 hit points! GS: Maya Schrodinger enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Maya Schrodinger has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Malicious Beast for 204 hit points! GS: Jam and Poison! Statuses applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Ines Colina guards a hit from Wizzro's Malicious Beast for 67 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Ines Colina! GS: Ines Colina enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ines Colina critically Guards a hit from Wizzro's Shadow Spiral for 47 hit points! GS: Ines Colina has gained 1 Combo! GS: Wizzro has lost 1 Combo! GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock strikes at Wizzro with a counter attack! GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Wizzro's Malicious Beast for 77 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Wizzro takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Counter Attack for 173 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Shadow Spiral for 230 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gwen Whitlock has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Wizzro's Shadow Cannon for 179 hit points! GS: Break! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Shadow Spiral for 116 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Seraph Lanval takes a glancing hit from Wizzro's Shadow Spiral for 116 hit points! GS: Seraph Lanval enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Lanval has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The waters splash, but the muck splashes back down before the Water Seraph can even bring up the will to once more rise up and fight. On all sides, the muck once more brings forth more of those toothy one-eyed horrors, their tendrils lashing out as if to try and restrain the divine dullard from daring to defy. Not one, not two, but also not four, three of them. One for every arm, one just kind of chewing wherever they feel like. In his case, the torso of his manifestation. Down and down into the muck Lanval goes, to disappear underneath...
There is a sick, squelchy pop is Lanval is expelled from the swampy darkness, less out of any power - he looks limp, like a ragdoll, eyes half-open and empty of that spark of aquamrine that crests 'frightened,' 'disgusted,' and 'possibly comatose' all at once.
This is also because, while the expulsion does not quite angle him for the cleanest catch, it is enough to throw him into the outer edge of one of those sorcerous lasers. There is no telling what a dead-on hit would have done, but there can be educated estimates by what happens as Lanval's manifestation spirals and rolls across the deck.
When he hits the railing, his body disappears in a flash of aquamarine light that drifts hastily back into Ida's very pocket, where his vessel presently rests.
"...Th-that'sh the Demon King's power...?" Lanval's voice whimpers, virtually inaudible over the cackling.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
A cold fire burns in Maya's eyes as she stares down the wraith from a time long forgotten by even Filgaia's ancients. She hangs midair in that one moment, sword ablaze with the light of distant stars. Hangs from the hand raised so effortlessly to block it, gripping the hilt with fading strength. Is it foolishness? A personality quirk of whatever bizarre persona she's equipped today? A tiny speck of courage from whatever remains at her core?
Courage is a poor ablative material, however, and there is little the woman can do to fend off the gathering swell of fell energies. If it keeps the so-called Demon King from returning so quickly, well, maybe it was all worth it. A shrill roar fills the air as darkness swallows the blonde knight whole. Armour cracks, fragments, and crumbles away to dust before the enervating powers of nothingness!
More to the point, the human ragdoll is propelled away from the battle on a fount of negative might. Flung through the air, a fittingly broken imitation of a greater figure from a similarly forgotten age.
***
This is about when a cat-shaped figure darts out from--above? The angle is hard to read, honestly, but with surprising strength, it snatches the falling, fading Maya from her oceanbound trajectory and redirects their momentum inexplicably to land at the edge of the deck.
There would be time for putting everything overhead down on paper later. After they rushed this fool girl to the infirmary and pray someone, somewhere aboard the Fereshte, has the magical or technological ace up their sleeve to keep the dying embers of Maya's lifeforce alight.
"You." speaks the knee-high cat, addressing Ree. The fact that Wizzro's lasers could evaporate him in a heartbeat doesn't seem to register. "Take this idiot girl and follow my lead," before dumping the unconscious Drifter at her feet. She's too big to carry for -long-.
He's pretty sure this isn't the worst pinch they've been in.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Creatures emerge from Wizzro, swarming, milling, overwhelming. Shadow teeth and claws dig into Ree painfully, yet they also push her out of the way of Wizzro's second attack. Enough is enough. Survival mode engaged -- time to get out of Dodge! Even if it meant following a talking cat (?). Ree half-carries, half-drags, half-encourages Maya over to the ropes attaching the Ruby Empress to Wizzro's derelict vessel, where crewmembers scramble to help them board -- and to cut the ropes after everyone's safely on board! Now all they have to do is sail out of range of Wizzro's attacks, and hope he doesn't follow!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida sends everything she has against this creature, and falls short. Her heart lurches in her chest as Wizzro extinguishes her chi--it's like he's putting out a light before bedtime, it's so easy. She stares into the swirling darkness as it gathers in his palm, her legs moving almost mechanically--she tugs and pulls and strains against the ooze, but she's stuck fast.
Idiot girl.
The beam strikes Ida dead-on, and she disappears into the maelstrom of dark magic. The only thing that escapes is a single, ragged scream, raw with agony. When the light fades, Ida rests limply against the edge of the pool, slowly sinking into the muck. The color is completely gone from her face, save for the dark, ugly bruises and burns. The hair at her temples has gone grey. She sags, coughs, struggles against the dark magic like she's back in Lacour again, like that horror is trying to consume her lifeforce.
It's all she can do. The world is starting to fade.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'I waited so long.'
Wizzro's words to Maya cause a chill to wind down Gwen's spine. The way he says it.
Again, _what the heck did Janus get himself into_?
Gwen has a startlingly short time to ponder this before Maya receives a powerful ray to the face. "MAYA!" Gwen should've shot that pendant, or that ring, or *something*.
Ida is fired at next, with Gwen being far too weak to do much beyond cry out the naturalist's name. "IDA!"
And now... it's everyone else's turn. No ray, just dozens and dozens of those strange, painful piranhas, swirling with the circling movements of the dread mage.
Gwen struggles against them, but her last attack has already bled (literally) much of her own energy, causing the normally pyrite gold glow of Gwen's ARM to begin to bleed to a more urgent, pulsing red.
She survived. Now all she needs to do is- OH GUARDIANS THAT WASN'T THE END MORE PIRANHAS
She falls to the muck, nearly senseless, barely breathing.
Hiro and the others will be okay, right? They will.
She'll just... need to snooze here.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
The spiral of magic and monstrosities start crashing out of control, and the only thing saving Ines from the worst of it is, ironically, the distance granted when she was grabbed and pulled away by the giant hand creature. But even from this distance, it HURTS. The creatures rip and tear, leaving open wounds all over Ines' frame. The blasts of magic slam into her, piercing her magical defenses. Waiting it out isn't an option: Wizzro has already won, staying here means certain death.
Unfortunately, most people aren't capable of moving.
Ines is. And instead of running, she activates another spell. Her skin hardens like rock, and once again she starts sprinting towards the heart of the spell. Where Gwen and Ida are. She's lost track of Lanval entirely, and Maya may be handled, but the other two are her immediate concern. "Keep breathing!" She yells, even as shadow creatures continue to tear at her limbs, cutting through the stone and drawing yet more blood. "None of you are dying today, damnit!"
She grabs Gwen with one hand, hauling the courier onto one shoulder with inhuman strength, and then turns for Ida. Ines is barely able to grab her without getting consumed by the heart of Wizzro's spell. Even the retreat is coming at great cost. A careful return to the Empress isn't happening here. Instead, Ines puts the last of her strength into hurling herself and the others over the railing and into the sea. Likely death is still better than certain death. And the Empress' crew should be skilled enough to fish them out and then get the hell out of there.
There's A LOT of blood in that water, though.
<Pose Tracker> Wizzro has posed.
Wizzro's maniacal, screaming cackling continues as the beasts leap and prance around him, CHEWING on anyone they catch and his blasts of magic spiral around, sawing through anyone unwise enough to be upright.
But he can only do that for so long, and after a period of time, the great wizard tires. He collapses, hunched over - he has no legs to speak of but his robe does hit the ground, one great hand slammed into the deck, his whole form shaking with exertion.
"My king..." he breathes, single eye flicking up to watch the Drifters plan their escape.
"Soon....kyehehehe....very soon....!!"