2021-01-09: Some Mild Terrorism
- Log: Some Mild Terrorism
- Cast: Yue Rohay, Marivel Armitage, Acacia Saitani, Venetia Vuong, Josephine Lovelace, Jacqueline Barber, Eleanor Klein, Ethius Hesiod, Rebecca Streisand
- Where: Sylvara Great Woods
- Date: January 09, 2021
- Summary: The great woods of Sylvara come under attack from a familiar Veruni Gear that's once attacked the Valeria Chateau. Odessa's objective is seemingly simple: set fire to the great Lost Woods to expose the Elw Teleporter for their operations. But is anything always as simple as it looks?
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
The Great Woods of Sylvara is as timeless as the nation of Sylvaland itself -- a massive expanse of woodlands that stand as a testament against the desertification of Filgaia itself, as if bearing a will of its own. But there's more to it than that -- the forest holds many secrets of its own; the Koroks and Deku that dwell within, not to mention dotted ruins and of course...
The Elw Teleporter.
Sylvaland intelligence has received news, relayed to ARMS, that Odessa possibly plans a dastardly operation to burn the forest down and expose the Elw Teleporter for their own operations.
When ARMS and other associated members arrive, the sight of a blue and white Veruni Gear seen before in other occasions such as the attack on the Chateau certainly lends credence to that.
They're also too late! Fires are dotted around a clearing in the Great Wood!! The fires have started!!! The fires...
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahV9Rw5u9Tk )
A Wise Deku Scrub wags a wooden finger and points out:
"First, gather some Deku Sticks!
The firmer and drier they are, the better they'll burn!
Smaller branches are easier to work with, so split bigger branches in half!"
A small quartet of tiny Shals sit around the Scrub, eyes lighting up.
"Then... the secret to easily starting a fire! This!!"
It holds up a Deku Nut.
"Use a match or lighter and nestle it under your pile of firewood...
Tada!! You have an easy campfire!
Build a formation of rocks to protect it against the wind..."
The Mini-Shals wave towards the camera. Then they return to roasting marshmallows, dancing, and playing with the other Scrubs. Even the Skull Kid is present for some music.
"Please camp responsibly!
Make sure you have a bucket of water to put out the fire!
Also, check your campground rules, and use a stand if required!"
...
...
"Yuuuuuu-e," echoes annoyance from the crystal inside her cockpit. "Whatever is this?"
Yue slacks back in her seat and watches from one of the Aura's cameras. "I am starting a fire in the Great Woods, mother. Just as you asked."
Have you ever seen a crystal emit an angermark? Now you have! It's a mysterious and powerful skill!!
DC: Yue Rohay switches forms to LZ-00 Aura - Disappointing Mode! DC: Acacia Saitani switches forms to LZ-01 Nephele! DC: Venetia Vuong switches forms to GGMA-RV-SoM-1: la femme Ametrine!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
CHUNK CHUNK CHUNK CHUNK.
An Asgard (Jr?) is marching through the forest before ultimately stopping near the campfire. Sitting on its shoulder is Marival Armitage. Armitage is carrying ONE Deku Stick in her hands. At the end of the Deku Stick is a marshmallow.
In her other hand is a bag full of graham crackers, chocolate, and more marshmallows.
"Okay," Marivel says. "I brought the goods, but I didn't bring a lighter. If I brought a lighter, it'd be against the spirit of camping."
"Asgard has some sleeping bags inside of him," Marivel adds.
Asgard Jr gives a thumbsup of acceptance. "How many marshmallows are you going to want?"
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia's been stewing for a while. Even a return to Meria Boule and the familiar, comforting confines of her apartment - undertaken with the Nephele on high boost because screw using anything less - can't fully ease her annoyance and irritation at the world right now. She has only the kindest words for Kamui and Gami's presence in her life, but there are times when she just wants to throw a blanket over herself and just eat the shittiest possible comfort food she can find, and the crowded apartment and her own wounded pride only let her get away with half of that.
With that plan off the table, she'd thrown herself into work instead. An extended stay on Spira always means having to rush out a new issue of the Bouletin afterwards, if nothing else to try to recover readership and report on where she's been, and it helps her get up to speed on what's been happening... and maybe, just maybe, sneak a feeler or two outwards into the history of Eleanor's betrothed. Professional ethics are mostly guidelines, right? Besides, she's not about to actually discuss her findings with anyone any time soon. It's just being cautious.
It all helps distract her, but doesn't really solve the underlying problem - and that's why she's back in the cockpit of the Nephele today, seeing if a little flight might cheer her up. There's a practical reason for it, too - chances are, she's going to have to fight Yue sometime soon, let alone anything worse. It'd probably be best if she could swing the ancient Gear around without wobbling every time she tries a maneuver.
It didn't take the reporter long to decide that feeling the wind in her hair kind of necessitates actually being able to feel the wind in her hair.
Kind of disgruntled, she'd been about to turn around when a ping from her radar caught her attention. She's used to ARMS emergency calls, she's used to the odd sensation of someone talking to her through the Empathite. This isn't either, and something new - like the Gear itself is nudging at the edge of her concentration, pulling her attention towards one specific point in space.
A sneaky little suspicion tells her to follow that impulse, and she quietly steels herself, sucking in a breath.
--and then lets it out again with a heaving sigh, staring at the scene in front of her as she feels all the fight she'd built up drain out of her. "Right. Of course," she mutters weakly to herself. "I could use a Gear-sized marshmallow right 'bout now." Left at a loss, she doesn't know how to begin breaching every topic she wants to breach. Rather than risk ramming her foot down her mouth, the Nephele simply hovers down towards the clearing at a slow pace, the backdraft from the engines washing the area of the fire with warm air.
GS: Acacia Saitani has attacked Yue Rohay with Fire Support -Literal Version-! GS: Acacia Saitani has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay accepts Acacia Saitani's Fire Support -Literal Version- for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
OVER AT A SCENIC RISE OFF SOME DISTANCE AWAY, one of those towering limestone pillars that are sometimes used by people who really get into defensibility to build their invincible fortress, vulnerable only to needing to pull everything up by a bucket, there is a small academic adventure, supported by...
AMETRINE! A GEAR!
Which is better than a bucket brigade.
Venetia Vuong is eating a meat that had been roasted on the dig site campfire, with a can of cooked rice near her feet. Up on the observation deck, Jimmy Chan, heroic intern, is adjusting his firearm, having chosen to wait for his rice and shredded share of meat to congeal to a tepid mass because he ate it. This culinary perversion is common in the underdwellers, who often eat things cold out of cans.
Jimmy looks left. "-- I think there's a fire over there."
"A new fire?" Venetia asks.
"In the Great Forest of Sylvara? Localized entirely to one location and coming without lightning or obvious precursor conditions such as dry weather or nearby Diggers?"
"Yes!"
"Can we go check it out?" Venetia concludes.
"I don't know, can we? You are literally dripping meat grease into the piloting seat, and you also stole my gun," Jimmy complains. "I had to buy a NEW gun!"
"Can't hear you, James! Let's go!"
Ametrine turns away from the limestone pillar.
"But..." says the lead geologist who is suddenly marooned.
SOON
actually that just happened but Ametrine is like 30% larger than even a regular Gear thanks to its dramatic observation deck mounting. It's very clearly coming in the direction of the fire.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
For a dastardly plot, so the intelligence suggests, to burn down the Sylvara Great Wood, it makes sense that Odessa would send their best and most black-hearted. Their most capable of agents. Ones adept and familiar with the woodlands, with familiarity with ARMs, explosives, and sorcery.
And so of course they have sent--
The traitorous archaeologist and madam of mayhem, Josephine Lovelace.
Who is currently seated on a log, roasting a hot dog speared on a stick.
Maybe... maybe Odessa picked the wrong operatives for the job...
"What kind of marshmallows?" Josie asks nonchalantly of the figure riding atop a Golem as they make their arrival onto the, er, campsite. This is definitely a campsite now. She turns her hot dog carefully, trying not to singe one side of it too much. "The old kind? Or the new kind?"
It seems that ARMS is appearing in force now, though, as the Nephele begins its descent.
"Try not to put the fires out. Getting them started was a pain in the ass," Josie remarks, turning her hot dog again.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline Barber is not a member of ARMS. A certain Light Seraph who is would have been here... but, she doesn't have a Gear, and she's currently napping soundly in a well-formed ray of sunlight, so it would've been rude to wake her, really.
And so, today finds Jacqueline carefully piloting her Gear through the woods. Fortunately, she makes it through without disturbing the woods overly much, and she arrives at the center to find...
...What looks to be a friendly outing...?
"...I'll admit, of all the things I expected, it wasn't... this. And now I'm not entirely sure how to react." Jacqueline admits. She looks from fire to fire. ...Are they in danger of actually spreading? Does she need to do something? ...Honestly, it kind of looks like everything is already under control...
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
It is a fact well known that Eleanor Klein loves her Gear. It's big, it's pretty, and it's full of weapons, all wonderful qualities to have. She happens to have it out at the moment with a friend, testing out some of the new features added by the Thames' crews, when she hears an alert from the Empathite radio. There is, apparently, an Emergency. A ping from the radar.
And Eleanor calls over to Rebecca, "It seems there's something going on--this way. Would you come with me? If you'd rather not get involved you can at least pass on a message..."
She doesn't want to assume after all. But she can basicallhy feel the wind in her hair in here. Basically. In fact it's a very comfortable cockpit, as a rule, complete with a lovely space in back for naps. It is almost luxurious. And so, Eleanor arrives, and... there's...
"Aha," she says, over the radios.
"The crystal looks terribly angry, doesn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius does not work for ARMS. (It is debatable if he even works for the Caravan Kinship for how little merchant-ing he does, which is to say he does zero.) His presence is more a perfect storm of circumstances. He's in the middle of fussing over any amount of minute details as regards his approach to piloting a Gear in Spira, as that sort of escalation seems impossible to avoid. He did not want to apply any sort of new coat of paint on the unit that can be considered his, but found himself at a quandary in that it would be for some nebulous 'best' if paints were applied to give it the same common tones seen in Al Bhed machina salvage. It's a lot of excessive thought over something so incredibly minor, in the face of an inevitable development as contact increases between Spira and the strange Otherworld that is 'Gaia.'
* * * M O R E - E X C E S S I V E - F U S S I N G * * *
Another Gear arrives on the scene on the tail of others, from a different direction than Jay's despite the (technically same) affiliation. His Gear is on the lighter and more maneuverable end, but special care is taken on his part to move through the woods without risking setting off a spark. A laser rifle-staff is raised to shine a light for better visibility, as it takes him time to get through some of the thicker parts before he catches sight of a clearing. The light cuts out, the Gear's posture goes to a crouch for stability.
Ethius struggles a little with the controls for bringing up the scope view, because the panel operates on the assumption its user is right-handed. He is not. (He refused to change this when he had a chance to, for some reason.)
"...Beyond the choice of location," Ethius says in communication over to Jay specifically, "this situation appears different in severity than presented."
'Presented' by second-hand information he technically wasn't in on.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca was in Sylvaland already... shopping with Eleanor... for reasons that are...
... well, they will not be listed here. Such things belong to her travel diary alone.
And then word comes from Eleanor that... "Heh. I'm in the neighborhood aren't I? Of course I'll come - not about to let you head out there with no back up."
Thankfully, she had the Eurydice, her Gear here with her.
-=-=-
The Eurydice tromps up, it's gear sized ARM drawn.
She stares at the scene.
The Aura - and the Mini Shals and Asgard Junior, the very large Ametrine and...
"Excuse me, but if you all are out here camping. You have a real funny way of going about it." Rebecca announces through the external comms.
Before... Eleanor announces something interesting... and suddenly her Gear's cameras focus in, before she asks the Aura(And thus Yue) in shocked tones.
"Did you just call that Crystal Mother?"
As far as Rebecca knows, Yue is already... really old... but perhaps that's not the fact she should be focusing on.
DC: Eleanor Klein switches forms to Three of Hearts!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
There's a friend!! The Mini-Shals have a friend... in Asgard Jr! Yue tilts her head as she regards Marivel arriving on her small robot with camping supplies, shifting slightly as she glances to the crystal.
One Mini-Shal looks up to Marivel and gives her a powerful thumbs up.
Then it goes *pewwwwwww* and flies off into the distance, because the Nepehele hovers down and washes air into the area!!
Yue's lips purse as Acacia arrives, and scratches her cheek quietly and glances away. Well, the two people she's most awkward around at the moment are immediately here...
The Veruni's eyes catch the Ametrine marching across at a distance, but she doesn't move to ready up; the Aura (and now Nephele) is mostly standing at attention. (She also remembers Venetia, but doesn't know the Ametrine, so.)
In truth, Yue was a bit worried when her mother said another Odessan agent would make sure things would go to plan, but--
"That Josephine...!!" the crystal grumbles.
She's a bit curious about new and old marshmallows, though. To her, 'old' marshmallows are the domain of highly processed foods from the Zeboim era...
Yue, on the other hand, recognises both the Three of Hearts and the Eurydice... and the Jaeger, though the other one with it isn't familiar. There's quite a gathering of Gears here now.
Eleanor and Rebecca get an angle that others -- especially the crystal -- might not, as it shakes further in anger as she declares, perhaps in a rare slip-up:
"Yue, if you do not begin your mission in earnest, you realise what will happen to dear Minder. Do you want to see her little smile disappear?"
Yue pauses, as she lifts her head up and hears what Rebecca's just asked her. "Ah. Yes, I did," Yue answers, pushing the crystal aside and terminating its line. Eleanor can see that it visibly dims, the connection through the Ley gone now.
"I have been asked to be more aggressive to you all. Let us begin. There will be doughnuts later, courtesy of Marina."
The Aura's eyes flash, and several canisters along the sides of the clearing light up. From within, more Mini-Shals appear!! They hop up, raising Deku Sticks and Nuts in their hands as they aggress upon the group of assembled Gears!!
They set forth with their devilish task of...
Bonking your Gears' heels with sticks!!
Splattering Deku Nut powder on them!!
Drawing a picture of themselves in crayon on your paint job!!
And other such shocking things!!
(The one by Marivel doesn't do that. Instead, it just climbs up on Asgard Jr's other shoulder, as if wanting a ride.)
GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Rebecca Streisand with DIY Pop Knight! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Ethius Hesiod with DIY Pop Knight! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Jacqueline Barber with DIY Pop Knight! GS: Yue Rohay has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Acacia Saitani with DIY Shock Soldier! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Venetia Vuong with DIY Shock Soldier! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Eleanor Klein with DIY Shock Soldier! GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action. GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Yue Rohay's DIY Pop Knight for 93 hit points! GS: Break applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Acacia Saitani takes a solid hit from Yue Rohay's DIY Shock Soldier for 146 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Acacia Saitani! GS: Rebecca Streisand guards a hit from Yue Rohay's DIY Pop Knight for 92 hit points! GS: Break applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Eleanor Klein guards a hit from Yue Rohay's DIY Shock Soldier for 104 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Yue Rohay's DIY Pop Knight for 86 hit points! GS: Break applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Venetia Vuong guards a hit from Yue Rohay's DIY Shock Soldier for 106 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Venetia Vuong!
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
The presence of Odessa... perhaps Acacia, as a good card-carrying member of ARMS, should say that Josie's presence gives her pause and sets her on edge. But if she's honest, it doesn't - her attention is too fixed on Yue for that, and the history behind the two of them is a little too complicated for her to consider herself here for ARMS' sake rather than her own.
(At least, that's what she tells herself.)
"I'm kind of relieved to see you're still capable of being really annoying to someone," she admits softly under her breath, trusting the Nephele to have a means of contacting the Aura even if she doesn't explicitly know how to turn it on. She doesn't mean to sound like she's pouting and grumbling but it comes out anyway, her heart a little too pinned to her sleeve right now to avoid it.
She does dimly register Eleanor's presence behind her - but chews at her lip a little more, still not really sure how to approach things on that end either. 'Hey, help me out with my romance problems and I'll help you out with yours,' is probably not the best ever opening gambit, let alone the fact that she doesn't trust herself to even be able to muster that much politeness right now.
In the end, she decides to risk landing at one edge of the clearing, watching in silence as the Mini-Shals scurry towards her and everyone else's Gears in a flurry of activity that somehow manages to poke its way through the Nephele's shields - though to tell the truth, it's probably more Acacia's piloting at play, as she bonks against a tree on her way down to ground level and then nearly pitches the Gear sideways, several systems firing at once to try to correct its new-type pilot.
She does her best to stay focused and ignore her own slip ups; it turns out to be surprisingly easy, especially given the crystal that pulses with light. She watches it, her lips pressed thinly together, and only when it has winked out does she risk opening her mouth. "... Yue. How do we get you out of this? Or Minder?" she adds softly. She's not sure if Yue will answer her - not sure if Yue even can, past the fear and the rules she's set for herself. But it's a question she'll keep asking as often as she has to.
GS: Acacia Saitani has attacked Acacia Saitani with Auto-Repair System! GS: Acacia Saitani has gained 1 Combo! GS: Acacia Saitani has completed her action. GS: Acacia Saitani heals Acacia Saitani! She gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Quick applied to Acacia Saitani!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"VUONG YOUR EARRING IS TALKING" shouts Jimmy.
Ametrine comes to a halt for about a full minute.
(Interior design: Venetia climbs up the ladder to the observation deck, meat held firmly in teeth; claims the earring; puts it in; swallows; answers Eleanor, "What what? Crystal?"
"I'm not camping," Venetia answers into the Empathite. She then reaches over to turn on the microphone to answer Rebecca:
- -1 FUNCTION (CENTER,) NOT FOUND
A small flock of birds, startled, takes off.
Venetia frowns.
Jimmy turns the telescope downwards to try and get a better idea of what these maniacs and die-hard easy-campers are doing. He immediately reports in a panic, "They're comin for the legs!!!!"
"What the devil? ARgh! No! These damn things! They're getting their dekus all over our boots! This is inconcievable - undefensible - agh!" Venetia says. The Ametrine stands there, quivering with building outrage for a moment, because of its lack of immediately useful weapons -- before Venetia snaps her fingers. "I'm going to lean it forwards!" Venetia announces. "Shoot the gun at them! Five rounds rapid, canister shot!"
Ametrine begins to lean forwards as if executing an abdominal exercise. From the vaguely en-femme head ornament placed at the top, the mouth slides partway open, and pouty lips that have been painted a glossy purpllish red because why wouldn't you give your robot lipstick, part a little more.
A tongue comes out. The tongue...
IS A GUN!
The mini-Shals are fired upon!
"That's like three rounds," Venetia says, "and hardly rapid."
"I AM LOADING A FRIGGING SHIP GUN AT A LIKE TWENTY DEGREE ANGLE VUONG"
"You're talking like you already graduated," Venetia complains. "Eleanor, what in Dinoginos's name is going on out here? Are they starting fires with these... these miniature... miniature... things? They seem endearing, even if I care not, BECAUSE THEY'RE DEFACING MY GEAR!"
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Yue Rohay with Pintle Rifle In The Lips! GS: Venetia Vuong gains 5 FP from Sufferer! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Pintle Rifle In The Lips for 180 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
In most cases, perhaps, Josie's presence here would have ensured the work was done, one way or another. But--
"And poor little me, without a Gear or none," Josie remarks to herself, as more of the machines make their entrance. "So, what do you think? We got some kinda mole?"
She pulls her hotdog out of the fire, inspecting it carefully. "After all, we didn't even get 'round to the beers or none," she laments, giving a longing glance to a nearby cooler. Still, she stands up as well when the crystal starts leveling threats. "Ah well. Guess it's that time, right," Josie remarks, gazing up at the lot of them.
Her expression is a thoughtful one as she takes a bite of her hotdog and starts chewing.
"You know," she says after swallowing, because she's not a complete disaster, "Least Odessa could do is lend me a machine..."
She continues to eat her hotdog. First things first.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"...Yeah, I don't know..." Jacqueline replies hesitantly to Ethius. "Let's just keep an eye on things for now, just in case. Yue is nice, but..."
...And then that crystal speaks, filling in the situation a bit for Jacqueline. She frowns in response.
"...Ah. So, that's how it is..." She murmurs. ...This was kind of a difficult situation. Well, at least she could see why things were going as they were. From within her Gear, Jacqueline sighs.
"...It sounds like she's being manipulated. Try not to be too rough, okay?" Jacqueline asides to Ethius, before switching over to public broadcast.
"I see! Well, I certainly can't allow this to stand..." Jacqueline says. But then, suddenly, Mini-Shals emerge from the Aura, spreading over everything! They cling onto the Jaeger, too, and start scribbling all over it!
"H-hey! That's not going to be easy to wash off!" Jacqueline complains, trying to shake them off. And then, the Jaeger reaches for its side-arm.
Oh no!! Is Jacqueline going to shoot them?
"Sorry, Mini-Shals... it's time for you to sleep!" Jacqueline says... and fires!!
...The shell, after traveling through the air for a bit, soon bursts open to reveal a large, comfortable blanket that looks to cozily wrap up some of the Mini-Shals.
...Ah. Well, Of course Jacqueline wouldn't be able to actually hurt them...
And then, as an aside...
"...Um, are you going to be alright down there, Josie...?" Jacqueline asks. She does know she's working with Odessa now. She's just the type to worry.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Yue Rohay with Pacifying Shell! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The Aiguille's semi-concealed position provides it with a few useful tactical benefits - but its current position gives it a unique blind spot that this introductory surprise takes advantage of!
"There's canisters situated at the edges of the clearing," Ethius mentions over to Jay, "they're deploying autonomous drones." They have names - 'Mini-Shals.' He doesn't call them by their proper names.
The Aiguille's systems do pick up movement, but because of all the brush he's using for cover, he has no clear visual for what's approaching him. He can see there's two distinct kinds. Some are holding sticks, some are throwing natural explosives. All are adorable.
The rifle-staff is lowered towards the ground to try and intercept the tiny Mini-Shal movements and rise up. The 'and rise up' is what saves him - he misses the chance to poke/knock-over the incoming Mini-Shal(s), and it is revealed he's got 'assigned' ones with the explosive Deku powder. (It misses getting inside a joint, but from the knee down that limb's days could be numbered!)
This forces him out into the clearing proper lest he risk starting a fire there if the powder goes off. Yue may not recognize who or what may be piloting it, but the Aiguille is 'just' a relatively uncommon salvaged Gear from the Kattelox region, famed for undetectable short-range spurts of movement and 'needling' with a laser - an excellent ambush and sniping unit, even if the beams would make shots of origin obvious.
...Also now it's out in the open in a clearing, so that's one major advantage it has nullified.
It's out in the open at an angle and distance Ethius really does not like (too close), but he shares none of Acacia's concern about how to get Yue out of their current predicament - the rifle-staff is taken to swing horizontally, its segmented construction allowing it to be pliable enough to use for actual bludgeoning without that much risk of a need to find increasingly rare replacement parts.
For the moment, he doesn't reveal his voice to Yue. As if there were some element in which the ensuing strife is being performed in relative earnest, playing unwittingly into the hands of another's cruelty - just as Jay suggests 'not to be too rough.'
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Yue Rohay with Horizontal! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Secret reasons that are secret!
"I appreciate it!" Eleanor remarks to Rebecca over the radio, and smiles at her display. It's nice to have friends. Especially friends with Gears. And given the terrible situation...
-=-=-
Really, Eleanor would try to help Acacia regardless! Whether she'd accept a lot of help in return is another matter. But here and now she is... perhaps concerned by Josie's presence but not actively alarmed at the moment, with the way Yue is behaving. Not until, of course...
The angry crystal keeps talking. The angry crystal that refers to Yue's mother. that goes out.
Rebecca suggested camping. Venetia of course asked her waht was going on. Thus, "They are rather adorable, aren't they?" Eleanor inquires. "They appear to have been starting very safe fires. However, these are two... very dangerous Odessa agents," she says. Then pauses. "Really."
Pause. "Oh! Don't ruin my paint!" she complains, and picks up one the Three of Heart's feet with the levers and controls and starts shaking off little Shals.
"I'm honestly not sure how much I should say here," she admits to Yue. "You say the connection is closed?"
"We should treat this seriously... even if there are doughnuts later."
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Yue Rohay with Magician's Trick! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay guards a hit from Jacqueline Barber's Pacifying Shell for 0 hit points! GS: Drowsy and Weaken applied to Yue Rohay! GS: Yue Rohay activates Guard bonus! GS: Yue Rohay takes a glancing hit from Ethius Hesiod's Horizontal for 133 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Yue Rohay critically guards Eleanor Klein's Magician's Trick for 47 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca doesn't understand much - really anything about Yue. However, the threat that the 'Crystal' makes her feel cold inside.
"Save your doughnuts! Just tell us what's going on-" And then she's set upon by Mini-Shals. "-this again!"
They batter her Gear's heels with Deku sticks, and Rebecca at first doesn't consider it much of a threat. They're sticks.
Until her Gear's alarms start to blare. Diagrams coming up on the viewscreens that seem to analyze the sticks.
"You're kidding me." Rebecca says, "The readout on those little sticks is comparable to one of Dean's shovels! ... how the heck are they so fragile..."
Rebecca tries to simply shake them off like Gulliver against Lilliputians but it's not going so well for her. For one thing, her Gear despite being a Gear - is not the big stompy kind, nor is it particularly well armored. So with effort, the Mini-Shals manage to dent her Gear's ankles. "I think we have more to worry about than our paint jobs Eleanor!"
And eventually she takes off running for the trees, being chased after by the Mini-Shals.
"So you're starting these forest fires under duress?" -as she darts past trees that seem to break up the sight line of her gear somewhat... aiming it's firearm, then firing off a shot.
A streaming contrail of violet follows the shell as it tries to impact into the Aura, before fragmenting into so much impossibly sharp shrapnel on impact.
"If you have anything to say about what's going on - about the murky choices you're having to make..."
As Rebecca specifically... perhaps strangely, uses Yue's own words during their last encounter in regards to the things she might have to do for someone's sake...
"... then might be that I could pass it along to someone."
It's not hard to understand who she means... on who that 'someone' might be. Even Rebecca doesn't know whether Avril would want to get involved or not - would want to help. She barely even knows how Avril feels about Yue...
... but it's better than just doing nothing, and keeping things as they are. Meanwhile, there's something about Josie's voice that raises her hackles... a bit... but... right now it doesn't even occur to Rebecca to do something about the lone woman on foot. With a Gear that'd hardly be playing fair, even if she is, like Eleanor said - a very dangerous Odessa agent.
Really! The Hot Dogs have nothing to do with undermining that.
GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Yue Rohay with Heart Seeker! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Asgard Jr is basically Asgard (Marivel Type) but more adorable. Marivel returns the thumbsup, sticks a marshmallow onto t he stick, and walks across the mech stick the stick inside Asgard Jr's fist and let him focus on making the smores for a while. She sits down on the arm and waits for the marshmallow to roast.
She kicks her legs back and forth.
"Are you really threatening your own daughters?" Marivel asks. "I'm going to find you one day."
She quirks her head to the side. "And I'm going to free them from you. Whatever method is at my disposal."
GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Rebecca Streisand's Heart Seeker for 250 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Acacia needles her for what she is -- someone capable of being really annoying. It's not something she can really argue against, even if one part of her quietly feels... glad... that she's here. Not that she'd ever voice that out loud.
But she asks the most direct question.
"I told you, did I, Acacia? You have... to fight me," Yue murmurs.
The Ametrine's mouth opens and you know what they say about a sharp tongue, well a gun tongue is an even more deadly variant of that. BOOM
DRAMA
A Mini-Shal is struck. Dramatically, music plays as it collapses to one side, its chauffeur glove-covered hand cradled over its wound. It reaches up...
It can see... a certain pink-haired engineer with a moustache giving a thumbs up back at it. Soon, Reunion... the tattoo on this one is #69.
(It's okay, another Mini-Shal bonks it on the head for being so dramatic and drags it off.)
"I'd finish your hotdog if I were you..." Yue does remark to Josephine, though it seems like she doesn't need any prompting. She has very little idea of who she is, but sometimes you can understand when someone's on the same wavelength of 'don't wanna do this'.
The Jaeger wiggles and the Mini-Shal stands steadfast, but... BOOM! The shell erupts into a blanket that... it's certainly very attracted to, curling up and dozing off with a big 'ZZZ' bubble over its head.
The Aiguille gets horizontal pretty fast -- though Yue ponders for a moment if they've got something in mind, with the presence of the sniper unit out in the open... but she abandons it a moment later, since she's not really up to thinking tactically.
CLONK
The Aura's head rattles a little as the rifle-staff connects; she shoves it out of the way gently and paces away from the Nephele and the clearing, while the Three of Hearts paws off the little Shals.
"... you may do as you please," Yue answers Eleanor. "But please treat me as seriously as Sylvaland or ARMS would like to treat this threat."
Rebecca questions how little sticks could do so much damage, but it's a little known fact that deku sticks are as powerful as the legendary master sword... ... for one hit.
The Eurydice runs off, but the Mini-Shals don't give chase; Rebecca gives her a lifeline, though. If you have anything to say about what's going on, about the murky choices... perhaps she could pass it along to someone.
"..."
The shrapnel falls first, lancing through a knee joint and causing a potentially dangerous shower of sparks; Yue is distracted as she fires birdlime onto the site of fire, before murmuring:
"We all... make our own choices, whether by choosing to act... or choosing not to act. As I told Eleanor... please treat me as a threat to this country."
Marivel plots the end of Yue's mother, as the battle rages on. Maybe Josephine has something in common to talk about, bad parents and all.
"The best way to attack without risk of damage to the forest or pilot would be..."
Yue's fingers are already flying over the ol' Dvorak keyboard. The Aura's eyes start to flash, and suddenly systems around the area wirelessly pick up a signal, and--
Monitors blinker out--
Weapons lock up for a moment--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ***WINNER!!*** =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Video. A Seed City Plant is seen in the distance; POW! Gunshots!
A popular Seed City entertainer duo -- a bronzed blonde cowgirl and a man in a cow costume -- pops into sight!
"C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !"
The cowgirl points fingerguns at the camera and winks. "You're our 1,000,000th viewer!! That means you win, that's right, Moo Moo, what do they win?"
The man in cow costume twirls around and raises both of his hooves up.
"Sixty six million in double dollars!!!!"
The cowgirl gasps, as a pile of horses run off from a nearby stable.
"Sixty six million double dollars!! Darn tootin'! You could even pay off the Humanoid Typhoon with that kinda dough-o-la!!"
The moo man winks and declares, "It's easy! You might think you have to +guard against credit fraud... you might even think you have to +evade taxes!!"
They both pop poppers into the air. A horn toots.
"But all you have to do is +charge +charge +charge your credit!! ACT RIGHT NOW!!"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ***WINNER!!*** =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Mini-Shals are busy putting out errant fires around and on the Aura, while this advertisement goes on......
_____________________________| QUICK TIME EVENT!!!|_____________________________ _ SIXTY SIX MILLION DOUBLE DOLLARS _ _ _ _ _ _ Rebecca Streisand, Eleanor Klein, Ethius Hesiod, Jacqueline Barber, Venetia _ _ Vuong, and Acacia Saitani: _ _ +qte/react <guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge>/<guard/evade/charge> _
GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action.
QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Rebecca Streisand takes 0 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: FAILURE! Venetia Vuong takes 358 damage and gains 75 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Acacia Saitani takes 0 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Eleanor Klein takes 0 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Jacqueline Barber takes 0 damage and gains 30 FP! QTE!!! Challenge Result: Full Success! Ethius Hesiod takes 0 damage and gains 30 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"That's not what I meant and you know it," the reporter bristles slightly, her brow furrowing at the curt response. "All that's going to do is keep us going around in circles." Frustration bubbles up behind her voice, and her hands clench on her controls for a moment. "Don't get me wrong. If you're really doing this, I'll meet you every time I have to. But don't think I'm going to be satisfied with just that," she rumbles out.
But what's most frustrating is the nasty little prickly feeling down her back that Yue's probably right to some extent. It's not like she has an answer to the VR Syndrome, and she's lived through some of Minder's coughing spells, wincing internally at the rattling noises coming from the environment suit. Taking the girl out of it-- well, she doesn't begin to know what might happen, but it's not a decision she has any right to make.
It's not like she's in the habit of voicing them, but it's still disorienting to be left alone with her thoughts as the lights and the power of her cockpit wink out for several moments, static bursting through her radio loud enough to make her wince. Instinct makes her pull up on the controls, hoping that they might at least be connected to the machine still and generate some kind of block - but there's no impact, and it doesn't take long for her systems to blink back on, a series of lights showing a surprising lack of effect.
Part of her wonders if that's thanks to the Nephele's systems, or Yue's own sense of morals when it comes to her in specific. Maybe the thought's a bit indulgent. Maybe not. ... now's not the time to examine it too closely.
"I get the second punch in the end. Minder first," she growls as her machine powers back up and lifts off from the ground in a low thrum. "--it's not like you're taking this all that seriously, either," she mutters under her breath as she decides to meet Yue at her word; she chases the broken form of the Aura down, obviously intending to try to grapple it to a standstill.
GS: Acacia Saitani enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Acacia Saitani has attacked Yue Rohay with Rushed Spike! GS: Acacia Saitani has gained 3 Combo! GS: Acacia Saitani has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Acacia Saitani's Rushed Spike for 328 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There are things that Josie is more or less just fine with doing. Murder, for instance. Theft, kidnapping. Betrayal.
And there are things which she is less fine with doing. She hails from Marze, a village nestled next to one of the few forests on Ignas. Setting a forest fire... maybe might be a little beyond the pale...
"Got it in one," Josie remarks to Yue -- there's probably some sort of radio device clipped to her collar -- before doing just that.
"What, this?" Josie remarks to Jacqueline. She may be waving an empty stick that formerly held a hotdog. "Tch, you ain't seen half the scraps I've been in. I wager I've enough for you lot even as I am." She pitches the stick into the fire, then stoops to retrieve her shotgun.
"Ain't nothin' personal, like," she adds, running a check on the weapon, her lips quirked into a slight smile.
There is indeed a certain familiar... something about Josie's voice.
It's just that she's a far cry from the helmeted Crusader 'Racca' from long ago -- at least as far as appearances run. Indeed, Josie pauses as Rebecca -- from within that machine -- expresses her dismay over the choices on display here and now.
"Ain't so much duress as... eh," Josie shrugs, slightly, as Yue speaks up. "Well, maybe some duress. Be as it may, now that you lot are all here--"
There's a saying that runs 'never bring a sword to a gunfight'.
Josie's brought a shotgun to a Gear fight.
This is also not the right tool for the situation. Still, she swings up that black shotgun and takes a shot at Eleanor's Gear, aiming -- as well as one might -- for one of the external cameras.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Eleanor Klein with Scorched Wing! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein fully evades Josephine Lovelace's Scorched Wing for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"There's no reason I can't multitask Yue!" Rebecca announces, tersely. Because it's not like she ever stopped thinking of Yue as a threat. She's already lining up her next shot.
When suddenly her monitors blinker out and her weapons lock up.
"Not THIS ag-"
And then the advertisement pops on. And Rebecca is so startled she jumps within her Gear's harness as this comes on.
"Do I have to override a-"
charge charge charge
"-gain."
Rebecca goes cross eyed. Then looks at her Original Medium.
...
...
...
A memory of someone exchanging a card in June City for Goods and Services comes to mind.
"Oh."
Rebecca suddenly slips the Original Medium into the Eurydice's amplification systems. Then removes it. Repeating this two more times. Her Gear systems light up. "Yes!"
She's certainly not worried about any consequences of this, because it's not like there's any actual money involved.
-=-=-
Later at a Guardian Temple. A courier delivers a letter addressed to Solais Emsu at the entrance.
The contents state: 'Hi there, a chrge or hold was placed on your account from REBSTREIS for $$66,000,000. Std courier chrges apply.'
Someone's going to be blaming Avril for this one.
-=-=-
The Gear sized ARM whips up immediately and starts firing some accurately aimed shots, in a tight grouping at the Aura. "Some duress?" She gawks at Josie's words, as her head whips around to see her taking aim at Eleanor's gear. She's not exactly worried about Eleanor here though since uh...
...
... It's a shotgun. And Eleanor's in a Gear.
"You're kidding me? You're going to attack us on foot? This is some kind of trick isn't it?"
GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Yue Rohay with Mourning Field! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a glancing hit from Rebecca Streisand's Mourning Field for 161 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Where Yue doesn't seem to have her heart in it (understandably), the opposing pilot all but overcompensates his movements on the assumption Yue might yet be as he moves with the direction of its soft deflection. He starts trying to maneuver it around the clearing to get out of the way of some of the other attackers, maybe start to line up a shot--
--He takes note of Josephine down there. He has seen her with an anti-tank ARM from when they stormed the old Metal Demon research facility. That he hasn't seen it on her person or in proximity yet adds another angle of complication about where might even be safe to maneuver as he keeps the other eye on what the Aura's doing as Yue speaks with her usual resignation.
The eyes flash as he presumes some sort of head vulcan fire, firing up the short-range jets to make a sharp maneuver to the left--
Everything blinks out. Weapons lock up. He can't deactivate the jets. Aiguille is now gliding rapidly at a dangerous pace and he has no visual feedback as to how much 'clearing' he has to move or where everyone else is--
"C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !" The odd man's eyes widen.. and then return to their natural resting position of 'unsettling glare.' Oh, it's one of these things that... he knows about, but it's the first one he's ever seen? (Ahhhh he doesn't have time for a dark descent into amnesia mind games, not even if it's a machine for pigs! The true origin of this memory will have its rebirth later.)
He doesn't think about it other than to keep pressing the buttons, instinctively jamming a finger on the video a few times before slamming said hand on the console a few times to figure out what button it wants him to press.
Good news, as it fades thanks to rapid hitting the button it wants him to: Ethius did not throw the Aiguille into the trees, and has just managed to disengage the Phantom Jets so that he stops strafing hot circles around the clearing.
Bad news: his heading is confused, and the visual returns showing that he's currently at an awkward eleven o'clock from someone else's machine.
He has no choice but to speak and disambiguate what just happened, and in doing so, reveal to Yue who the pilot is.
"I have reasserted control of the unit and am repositioning." That particular cadence in their speech is, unambiguously, Ethius. (In retrospect, the very lack of any might have given him away too.)
"...Miss Jay," Ethius remarks to her as he goes back to private channels, "I cannot shake the thought that this may be a decoy operation."
That familiar shotgun discharge is picked up in his line of sight, helping him reassert where Josie is in all of this and what her target(s) are.
"I am transferring over relevant data to the Jaeger." It's not clear what exact handshake protocols are compatible between Gears, sometimes, for how varied all the salvaged and refurbished machines are - but Ethius makes the attempt as he situates towards the western perimeter of the clearing.
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 1 Combo on Inspire! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Intel! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Jacqueline Barber accepts Ethius Hesiod's Intel for 0 hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber activates Reload!! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains a Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Yes, of course Yue would want her to react with that kind of seriousness. But Eleanor doesn't think that blasting Yue on the spot is going to do anyone all that much good, least of all the Minder. Nevertheless, she can't just leave...
That would make things worse quickly. As Acacia says.
Monitors blink out. Weapons lock up. A video appears!! Gunshots! It's actually kind of delightful. But Eleanor already knows what to do with money! Charge it! And so she does. Eleanor... specifically, sort of just reboots her system because come on. "Honestly..."
How much does Eleanor know here? How much does she not so? It's hard to say. Even to herself, when it comes to situations like this. "Yue..."
Josie joins in, and Eleanor spots the shotgun in one of her cameras, immedaitely moving to shift the Three of Hearts such that it takes the shot on the armor, not on the camera. "Right. Nothing personal," she replies. "It does seem easier to look at it that way, doesn't it?"
"All right," she says. "In that case, I will deploy the necessary countermeasure for this sort of attack." Eleanor turns a few dials and flicks a switch, deploying a particular button, the glass of which pops rises off on its hinge as she begins to aim it.
This one goes not at Josie, but at the Aura, as Eleanor fires the weapon, and--Well. Something happens. Something definitely happens, as Eleanor's Gear rushes forward, and swings out a great hand--
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Yue Rohay with Fortune's Favor! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Finally, the Jaeger manages to get free! The Mini-Shal curls up... and the Jaeger reaches down to give it a very gentle pat on the head.
The Jaeger straightens up, then, and looks toward the Aura. Jacqueline hears what she has to say with the others - treat her as a threat, huh...? She frowns a little.
It's as she does this, though, that the Jaeger's systems suddenly go dark!
"...Huh??" Jacqueline reacts, watching in confusion as a strange broadcast appears on her screen! Jacqueline immediately frowns. These claims...
...are too good to be true!! As an experienced merchant she knows when she's being lead on.
"Sorry, not interested..." Jacqueline murmurs with a frown, hard at work on trying to flush the interference from the Jaeger's systems. Eventually, she draws out a Crest... and gives the system a good, charging zap!
"...Be that as it may, this is still really dangerous..." Jacqueline replies, as Josie assures that she'd be enough for them even as she is. Jacqueline's not about to test that theory, because for right now her focus remains on the Aura.
But first, Ethius has something to say as he gets his Gear back under control.
"...A decoy? Hm..." Jacqueline says with a frown. That would explain a lot, but... at the same time, could they afford to turn their attention from what was going on right here? "...Keep an eye on the situation. Let me know right away if you spot anything."
The Jaeger returns its sidearm to its holster and draws it again, taking aim at the Aura before firing. This time, it isn't a comfy blanket - it's a special shell designed to compromise recovery systems, making it difficult for a machine to automatically repair issues.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Yue Rohay with Perpetuating Shell! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Catastrophic! Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Eleanor Klein's Fortune's Favor for 580 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Yue Rohay! GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Perpetuating Shell for 126 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hex applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"James! She's talking about choices down there or something. Be ready for anything," Venetia says to the observation deck feed.
Jimmy rolls his eyes behind his domino mask and makes an obscene hand gesture BEFORE
SUDDENLY
VIDEO!
Both Jimmy and Venetia are distracted by screens they didn't think were really gonna work except for atmospheric lighting and absorbing and necessarily discharging Gear Refractor power, light up! Jimmy is hypnotized by the cowgirl and immediately becomes her minion.
"What! Why is this Spiran woman giving me - that's how much? That's like one hundred and thirty six million regular dollars," Venetia mutters to herself. "With that kind of money we could afford the entire new Crest Sorcery wing... we could endow a scholarship... I could probably actually break off that strange sheep girl from her shadowy masters... we could even afford to get sauce to put on the noodles -"
"James! Fire the gun!"
Venetia considers why the gun isn't fired, and decides to try a strategy of shouting louder. "JAMES!! FIRE!! THE GUN!!"
It doesn't work.
(Jimmy has already attempted to superchat the cowgirl.)
"Son of a Bouler," Venetia growls, instead slapping another control.
SHOONK! Hydraulic pressure fires out jagged anchors from what appeared to be a decorative skirt. The sudden attachment of anchoring chains, possibly firing straight through people and/or less resilient trees, shakes up the immediate area of the battlefield. It also helps pull Ametrine back upright, dumping Jimmy down on his face.
"Why are the leg parts flashing amber," Venetia says. "I mislike these surface sticks and these so called 'trees' which produce them."
GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Yue Rohay with Carapace Anchor! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Slow expired! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Yue Rohay guards a hit from Venetia Vuong's Carapace Anchor for 145 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... I know I've never really been able to satisfy you. I don't think I'm someone you should keep chasing after," Yue answers Acacia, perhaps accidentally making a double entendre about their relationship, but if you brought it up, she would probably explode. Actually, that might be advantageous right now, but--
CRUNCH
The Nephele seizes its sister unit, and there's another shower of sparks from its already-busted knee joint; Yue grimaces as the controls slam back against her (cuffed) arms. "#37," she announces, as a Mini-Shal holds up an extinguisher and starts spraying the area.
Rebecca creatively overcomes the distraction using... the Mediums? She can sense one, distantly; she quietly places a hand over the one in her pocket. Poor Granny and Shaun are going to have a ball with that one.
There's another CRUNCH as Rebecca's shots end up landing against the gem-like surface on the Aura's chest; Yue feels that one, as her cockpit rattles and one monitor goes blank.
"Wouldn't it be easier... for you to just not worry about what you heard, Rebecca?" Yue asks Rebecca. "As for that 'someone'... you told me once you embrace both sides of her. You know what she'd say. She's... like that."
A pause, as she admittedly is keeping it ambiguous as to who she's referring to -- Avril, or the Ice Queen. Because she sure is much more haunted and obsessed about one half of her.
Yue hears the Aiguille's pilot for a moment. Seems familiar... and if it's Jay's companion... that man? He's slacked on the attack for now, but Eleanor's got double the shift since she knows that all she has to do is do a quick reboot. Really!
She gets an appropriate countermeasure because Eleanor's Gear rushes forward and--
JOOORT
--such is the only appropriate sound effect for a hand that ends up slamming so hard onto the Aura's face that it spins three-sixty, entirely unhinged on its swivel. Yue's about to enact recovery when Jay's shell sinks into her, and auto-repair systems go down.
"#16...," Yue announces, as another Mini-Shal starts haplessly plugging wires back on the Aura's head.
Venetia and Jimmy nearly fall for the wily woes of the virtual potato (a tuber, you see) that is the advertisement, but then Venetia slaps a control and--
SHOOONK
(Yes, this has just become a colorful interlude of sound effects.) The anchors shoot out and scrape-lands against one of the Aura's armor plates and shears it off. It then lands against a tree, and a Deku Scrub angrily shakes its staff and hucks it at poor Jimmy's direction.
...I...
"Not now," Yue growls as she battles warnings and suppresses error overrides.
...IAMALIVE...
"Not -now-, Melos," Yue hisses again, even as the Aura starts to gain a faint, strange sheen of light-blue; the same light as when Acacia, Marivel, Rebecca and Eleanor fought it in the Chateau. She distracts it, overriding the system's attempts to awaken--
"Gotta do this trick now..."
Where there was video, there's a song now. A slow, pleasant song of hand-plucked harp notes, seguing into a slow piano sequence...
"Mec Sonata #4... it'll work."
The Aura is shining, as this happens -- its hands spread as an electronic attack occurs with the masquerade of cascading, translucent feathers spread from its wings, the gem on its chest ebbing and flowing with a powerful white light.
"I don't mind... if you want to pull out, Lovelace. Gear plates are more replaceable than flesh."
GS: Yue Rohay has activated a Boss Action! GS: Yue Rohay spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Venetia Vuong with a Song for Everyone's Gears...! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Jacqueline Barber with a Song for Everyone's Gears...! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Eleanor Klein with a Song for Everyone's Gears...! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Ethius Hesiod with a Song for Everyone's Gears...! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Rebecca Streisand with a Song for Everyone's Gears...! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Acacia Saitani with a Song for Everyone's Gears...! GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay has adjusted their boss level for 6 opponents! GS: Rebecca Streisand takes a solid hit from Yue Rohay's a Song for Everyone's Gears... for 382 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rebecca Streisand gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Yue Rohay drains Rebecca Streisand! Yue Rohay gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Yue Rohay's a Song for Everyone's Gears... for 218 hit points! GS: Yue Rohay drains Jacqueline Barber! Yue Rohay gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated a Force Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Yue Rohay's a Song for Everyone's Gears... for 364 hit points! GS: Yue Rohay drains Ethius Hesiod! Yue Rohay gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Acacia Saitani takes a solid hit from Yue Rohay's a Song for Everyone's Gears... for 368 hit points! GS: Yue Rohay drains Acacia Saitani! Yue Rohay gains 200 temporary hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong critically guards Yue Rohay's a Song for Everyone's Gears... for 75 hit points! GS: Yue Rohay drains Venetia Vuong! Yue Rohay gains 76 temporary hit points! GS: Eleanor Klein critically guards Yue Rohay's a Song for Everyone's Gears... for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein activates Countermeasures! GS: Yue Rohay drains Eleanor Klein! Yue Rohay gains 78 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Why not?" Josie answers Rebecca, still smiling in spite of that shot of hers failing to take the target. "Might be fun. Ain't taken on something this big in a dog's year," she adds, discharging a single shell upon the packed earth of the campsite. "Maybe you should give a shot sometime, kiddo," she drawls. "It'll put curls in your hair."
Meta...phorically, one assumes.
"Suit yourself," is her response to Jacqueline. "Just try not to step on the fires or what, yeah? There's gonna be a sing-along later, and what's a sing-along without a campfire?"
She's probably joking around but it's hard to tell.
Above and around her machines collide. Josie's lips move. That's Klein, Barber... damn, Vuong... someone who's being quiet and...
Josie huffs out a breath.
"Don't you worry 'bout me none," she replies to Yue. "I'll get when I'm good and ready. That machine of yours holding on up there?"
She moves at speed thereafter, circling behind the Gears. The good news is that she might be harder for one of them to hit. The bad news is everything else. Still--
She draws a bead on what she thinks might be part of the fuel tank for the machine Ethius -- unbeknownst to her -- is riding in. Whipping up the shotgun, she cracks off a shell for it.
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Liquorice Piercer! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"That's not what-- aaaaagh," Acacia just opts for the more direct argument, then grimaces to herself as she shifts her controls and tries to get a better grip on the Aura without breaking the fragile machine to pieces, aware that Yue herself might not do a lot to stop it. "I'll decide who I want to chase, thanks! Besides, you gave me this Gear and told me to take care of it, so I'm just trying to look out for you in turn! Someone's got to save you both from your own stubborn-assed self!"
The Aura slips her grip, and she's about to go redouble it when Eleanor slips past her, delivering a blow that makes her briefly stop and stare in sheer disbelief. It's kind of heartening, in a terrible vengeance sort of way, and for a moment she has to wonder if she even needs to step into the noble's love life, or whether she wants to be on the receiving end of another punch like that.
Then she's whirling at a familiar, tickling sensation. The Nephele lurches with her, and this time she's not really sure if it's just her own amateur piloting skills doing it, or a response to that vague flickering light she can feel more than she can see around the Aura. It's that, more than anything, that pulls her up short and stops her further going on the attack, the Nephele hanging back as she second-guesses herself.
Maybe leaving all the electronic side of things up to her Gear is the next thing she needs to correct if she's seriously going to chase after Yue; she yells as her console seizes up, and not for the first time in facing the Aura. The Nephele's engines suddenly gutter, and there's a lurching moment where the machine drops like a stone before managing to reboot just in time to catch itself before it can crash down amidst the trees.
So far, she's steadfastly avoided actually hailing any other member of ARMS - but there's an urgency to her voice as she does it now. "--careful of how much you damage that thing! I don't want a repeat of last time!" she calls over the radio, which...
... well, the simultaneous way in which the Nephele cups its hands and then launches a cracking bolt of something like ether at the Aura may make that statement seem a little rich.
GS: Acacia Saitani has attacked Yue Rohay with Insult and Injury! GS: Acacia Saitani has gained 2 Combo! GS: Acacia Saitani has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Liquorice Piercer for 93 hit points! GS: Ethius Hesiod has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Acacia Saitani's Insult and Injury for 316 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
There's something about the way that Josie talks that gets under her skin a bit. Like there's an edge of familiarity to a certain someone. Yet she can't quite finger it. "Some other time." Rebecca answers with a certain dryness.
"I get enough of that from someone I know."
And then, Yue... "..." Rebecca doesn't answer Yue at first. Because those words sting, as if Yue had just slapped her in the face. Perhaps she didn't mean to, but it still feels that way to her, "If I wanted things to be easy... then I wouldn't be on the path I'm on, now would I?"
And then there's a certain edge to her voice as she continues, "And I'm not gonna assume anything about what she'd say when I bring this matter to her attention."
It's true, she does embrace both sides of Avril...
... but every day, Avril still keeps her guessing. It's not so simple reading her, and that's... always been fun to her. Not knowing everything about someone. There being some... mystery surrounding them. What they're thinking, feeling, acting.
And then like before, the music starts... the Aura's powerful white light washing over her Gear, overwhelming it. There's no escape, because she still has trouble even comprehending the form that Yue's music takes. What kind of an attack is it. Her Gear systems rapidly - so rapidly starting to lose power.
And so instead, she calls upon a different power in her original Medium. Placing it in the slot again, as she keeps her fingertips upon it. Reaching out into the ground beneath her, into the spiritual leylines of Filgaia. Wisps of violet shadow coursing over the Eurydice like strange circuit like veins. As if she's absorbing something back out of them.
And then with a quirk of her lip, "Whatever - if you want to keep it your business then I'll stop being nosey." She then calls upon her Medium to do the reverse. To flood some of that power back outwards... right near where Aura is.
"Still gonna tell her though." She says in a way that feels faintly childish compared to her prior comment.
The ground rumbles, as cracks begin to form, liquid bubbling forth. And then... water bursts upward into a powerful, pressurized stream that tries to flood through the Aura from below before losing momentum as it sprays above the forest canopy...
... where gravity then takes effect afterwards on all that excess water.
GS: Rebecca Streisand spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Rebecca Streisand with Shade's Abeyance! GS: Rebecca Streisand has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rebecca Streisand has launched an attack Link! GS: Rebecca Streisand's stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Rebecca Streisand accepts Rebecca Streisand's Shade's Abeyance for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Surge applied to Rebecca Streisand! GS: Rebecca Streisand spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Rebecca Streisand has attacked Yue Rohay with Empty Wrath! GS: Break expired! GS: Rebecca Streisand has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Rebecca Streisand's Empty Wrath for 398 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Whatever the theories the Aiguille pilot is floating as he finds a stable position to prepare to shoot, he notices there's something odd with the green glow. He has no real frame of reference for what the Aura can do outside of direct mechanical movements. Ethius is good at estimating the ranges of movement and probable ranges in which a weapon can operate - but glowing, without further context...
"Something's occuring," Ethius states the obvious. He starts to glide to the right at a measured pace, as if believing the current heading of the Aura might be key for what comes next.
Sound. A piano sequence. He activates the short-dash jets to further circle as he moves to adjust communications--
A sensory shock as something makes contact through the laser-staff, causing it to jump all the way through the system. It gets a deadly grasp through multiple points of output, siphoning strength from the engine(s) in pulsing surges.
The Aiguille's posture collapses into a kneel, putting more structural stress on one leg over another as more energy gets sapped and pulled over.
"I have lost balance," Ethius' voice is tinged with that hint of mounting stress - the song itself is tonally pleasant but there's a quality to it that aggravates him. So many things played through monitors just do. "Lost readings on targets."
He hasn't had much opportunity to put the optimal amount of hours in mastering the control panel top to bottom (...or take one afternoon, just one afternoon, to ply the Gear mechanics on the Thames with enough greens that they find some way to rearrange it to better accommodate his dominant hand, but that's something he's just not going to do) as he investigates some secondary means to get the Aiguille's main weapon responding. He takes a his-actual-eyes inventory of the situation from cameras.
He doesn't see Josie anywhere - that's a critical issue he acknowledges right as it's too late for him to do anything about it. She hits something that explodes, knocking out a sub-generator and undoing all his effort to rebuild an adequate amount of charge in the main weapon. "Struck from seven o'clock," Ethius remarks. He has no great back-facing weapons to work with, but there's Josie.
He has to make use of what level of charge is rapidly fading from the laser-staff from the efforts to recover and compensate for what that strange song-signal did. Ethius discharges it with only a lower lean for angle correction, snapping it towards the Aura at around hip-level of lower in a streak of old-but-still-respectable laser fire.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Yue Rohay with Snap! GS: Break expired! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Yue Rohay critically guards Ethius Hesiod's Snap for 44 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Yue Rohay activates Guard bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
JOORT. It'll do. It bears repeating: Eleanor Klein loves her Gear.
"...Yue," Eleanor says delicately. Then she doesn't call her out on what she says, because there is no delicate way to do that, and she is rather being serious at the moment. Especially not when Acacia answers as she does. She rather has it taken care of.
Also, Eleanor could potentially do that again.
The attack is very pretty. Eleanor appreciates the music of it, anyway. Excepting the fact that it's wreaking havoc on her Gear's systems. She gets an idea from the same countermeasure she applied against the commercial, and abrubtly--
As Eleanor considers Acacia's advice about the glowing, and recalls a few things herself, she just outright shuts the power down on the processor and boots it back up again. "Honestly," Eleanor says, and looks at Josie in a new light. She really is doing this on foot. And with Yue...
"We couldn't do away with the campfire for the singalong," Eleanor says drily, and then sighs. She just sighs, because of the Nephele's statement and then action.
"We'll handle it as it comes up," Eleanor decides. And then says, "Don't worry, Rebecca. I think you rather should."
The Three of Hearts then lifts its arm and a segment shifts away revealing a very large-barrelled gun. "Are you quite all right Mister Hesiod?" Eleanor wonders, and wonders the same of Venetia, all of a sudden. "Sticks can be a lot of trouble," she says, and aims at the Aura to open up its defenses--
Percussively.
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Yue Rohay with Prisoner's Complaint! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Slow expired! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Eleanor Klein's Prisoner's Complaint for 100 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Immediately upon confirming contact, the Jaeger's side-arm returns to its holster to switch out ammo types.
"Only as long as you promise to follow the proper fire safety protocols! Honestly, you probably shouldn't even have so many open flames in the first place... I can overlook them for now, but just as long as they behave." Jacqueline says.
She's about to take aim again, when suddenly a song begins to play over her speakers. Jacqueline listens, dumb-founded.
"...That... what is that? It's pretty, but... who's playing...?" She murmurs. It distracts her long enough that it leaves the Jaeger open to the following attack. White light washes over Jacqueline's machine. Power suddenly begins to drain away. Jacqueline jerks the Jaeger back out of range, but the damage has already been done.
She frowns, though, as she hears Ethius's voice, and the stress in his tone.
"Are you alright? We'll be fine - but let me know if you need some help." Jacqueline asks.
But right now, she has her own machine to worry about, too.
"Come on, move..." Jacqueline murmurs. With some effort, the Jaeger manages to raise its side-arm once more. Energy is starting to return, but more slowly than she'd like.
"...Sorry, this is probably not going to be pleasant..." Jacqueline apologises to Yue before firing.
This particular shell... the only way to really describe getting hit by it truly is 'misfortune'. It possesses a powerful scrambling effect of its own and, not only that, imposes deteriorating effects that will rapidly reduce a Gear's structural stability.
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Yue Rohay with Misfortune! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Break expired! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Misfortune for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple, Jam, Mute, and Corrode applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
The electrical - no, electronic - attack makes the Ametrine jitter and shudder as its control motors begin to cycle back and forth with incredible speed. One arm swings forward, the other back; the torso shifts; a sudden sequence of swift, heavy-sounding motions -
Jimmy hangs onto his chair for dear life, even as he stares with horror as his fast-cooling rice and meat flies out through Ametrine's lips/gunport. "No--!"
* Jimmy will remember that.
"I feel as if I've been sucked into a Gear battle contrary to my desires," Venetia growls in the cockpit. She pops her jaw left and right as Eleanor speaks to them. Venetia can remember this person - Yue? What are they up to? Perhaps Venetia ought to pay closer attention, or perhaps she is simply... upset.
And so Ametrine pivots at the waist...
Three of the anchors are retracted up into the machine's body, save the one nearest to the Aura...
And as THAT LAST ONE retracts, Ametrine surges forwards, bringing back one fist --
Yes! Even in the face of light and sorrow and infinite music (good thing Marivel isn't here, Venetia thinks, foolishly), Venetia's grudge and mastery of basic mechanical operations give her a power. A secret weapon...
A FIST!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Yue Rohay with Ametrine Straight! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Ametrine Straight for 252 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yue Rohay gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disease removed! GS: Yue Rohay has activated a Force Action! GS: Yue Rohay has activated a Force Action! GS: Yue Rohay has activated a Force Action! GS: Yue Rohay has activated a Force Action! GS: Yue Rohay has become ENRAGED! GS: Yue Rohay spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Yue Rohay with IBRINGIAMWILLALIVENOTMEFORGETBACK! GS: Yue Rohay has launched an attack Link! GS: Yue Rohay's stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Yue Rohay accepts Yue Rohay's IBRINGIAMWILLALIVENOTMEFORGETBACK for 0 hit points! GS: Corrode removed! GS: Amplify and Hyper applied to Yue Rohay!
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... it might be at its limit," Yue admits entirely to Josephine, sighing as she reaches towards a lever and pulls it.
It might be missed in the heat of combat, but another canister pops loose, carried by two Mini-Shals. They plant it ontop of a nice table. The Dekus are extremely excited about this one, for some reason.
"You can do what you want with it, Acacia," Yue murmurs. "I wouldn't be upset if you sank it."
It's kind of a lie, because the reason she gave it to Acacia in the first place is because she's incredibly incapable of letting things go. She watches the Nephele drop, but...
Acacia's not out of it -- and what comes out is a positively chi-powered Guiding Shot, legally distinct from other turtle-powered martial arts, shall we say -- which shreds one of the shoulderplates on the Aura. She's manuevering as much as is possible, which is to say, not a lot, given the forest--
"#9..." Yue mutters. The Mini-Shals are doing the brunt of the work here.
Rebecca responds rather firmly, and Yue picks up that edge in her voice. "That's true. There're far easier paths for Drifters to take. ... I do hope that ... it works out. For the both of you--"
She doesn't get to finish, since the ground rumbles, cracks form... and pressure fires up in the form of high-impact water, from underneath the Aura -- and try as she might, she doesn't get away in time; an entire thigh loses its plating and a great number of wires go astray.
Rebecca says that if she wants to keep it to herself, then she'll stop being nosey. And that... seems good enough for Yue, if only that it lines up along the lines of who's on the line.
All this for Minder, after all--
Her attempts to wrestle control get disrupted again when Ethius capitalises on the attack; his staff-rifle might be old, but laser fire is... well, laser fire, singing through in one red-hot hole too close to the cockpit for comfort.
"Eleanor," Yue does at least speak back to the noble of Klein. The large-barreled gun fires away at her, shredding away and forcing the Aura to abandon the shield that it carries when it splits in two. "I suppose not..."
Whatever she says is interrupted, because Jay's shell comes next -- and she's not the only one that can fight a Gear's systems, it seems; warnings come up and further systems fail. "I wouldn't wish for it to be," Yue answers Jacqueline.
Yue pauses, as she stares towards the Ametrine and gets one good look-- "Venetia?"
The anchor drags back at that point, with the Ametrine surging forward. And sometimes, you have beam rifles, you have musical EMP attacks, you might even have magic... and sometimes--
FIST
The Aura is sent flying once more, and crash-lands against a patch of forest, mysteriously but fortuitiously smashing open a cracked bit of land as a suspiciously familiar puzzle jingle plays.
(Some green-clothed kid will be here for it later.)
"That's just about done it..." Yue mutters, before-- pausing as the sphere in the centre starts to ebb with an uncomfortable light. She sighs. "... all right. Josephine, I'm out."
She stares towards the sphere.
"Not today, Melos."
Outwards, the Aura undergoes a visually disturbing transformation as--
...AAAAOOOO...
--an eerie, beast-like howl erupts through the already-misty forest, as its jaw just about pops loose; a ghostly glow wreathes around its form as it ascends, a menacing blue comet streaking through the skies. Energy readings and threat levels go off the charts as its heat signature starts to outpace radar and sight readings--
"Not today, Mother."
--and she presses a certain red button.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
It happens pretty darn fast.
The Aura's entire body lights up, bright-white heat outlining its joints as they begin to visibly disintegrate; it hurtles through the forest until it's clear, and--
SPLASH
--makes a burning landing somewhere in the far reaches of the ocean off off Sylvara's coast.
There's silence for a moment, then...
POP
The last canister opens. It's doughnuts!! The Deku cheer and celebrate, hopping around on one foot and dancing. Mini-Shal salutes the skies, for some reason.
... someone's having fun, at least?
GS: Enrage purges all positive status! GS: Hex expired! GS: Yue Rohay has completed her action. GS: Yue Rohay has attacked Yue Rohay with Self-Detonate! GS: Yue Rohay accepts Yue Rohay's Self-Detonate for 252 hit points! GS: Yue Rohay has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"Liar," mutters Acacia. If she feels bad for attacking Yue right as she said not to, it doesn't show in her voice, which is a lot more level than she really expected. It's been freeing, getting some of her annoyance out on Yue, and she does honestly feel a lot better for having been able to say some things to Yue's face. Perhaps it's not exactly the most romantic of meetings, but she can rest easy that it is a very 'them' meeting.
That's probably okay, right?
Any further thoughts are cut off by the sudden flare of power. "Shit!" she blurts under her breath as the urgency of the situation somehow spurs her to do a remarkably better job of piloting the Aura, swinging it wide around the clearing before starting to chase the other Gear upwards. Her teeth gritted, a spike of fear starts to manifest in her gut at the thought of the Aura once more taking over Yue's senses, and--
--and then it detonates, and splashes down somewhere far off and harmlessly, and once again she's left staring in confusion at the open air as Yue - circumstances aside - just kind of runs off. Gently, the Aura starts to hover back downwards, letting her digest what just happened. "... always using your mother as an excuse," she grumbles, but instantly regrets it. That's a much more off-colour joke than she intended, and rather unfair besides, and so she finds herself adding a mumbled 'sorry' right afterwards.
Such is her contriteness, it's going to be a couple of hours and a good meal before she realizes she should totally have threatened to step on Josie.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie is really doing this on foot.
It isn't even the first time!
Be as it may, though, even if she is putting up a fierce fight despite being under-equipped for the job... all things must come to an end. She blinks the once when Yue makes that particular admission.
Her gaze tilts towards Yue's Gear. Then she blinks again. "Wait. Shit, you're not kidding around-- what's with your--"
She angles the shotgun downwards and begins to back away. All's fair in love and war, yes, but sometimes you just don't want to deal with a machine doing particular things.
Especially like that. "...Right. I'm out!"
There is a dotted outline of a Josie left here as she skedaddles herself off towards the deeper parts of the forest.
The fact that there's an explosion after tells her she made the right decision!
(Sadly, this means that she misses out on the donuts. Crime doesn't pay!)
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline frowns, at that. She wouldn't wish it to be, huh...?
"...Are you doing this as a way of punishing yourself...?" Jacqueline asks. She flinches back, though, as a terrible howl emits from the Aura.
"H-hey, what's-"
And then the Aura explodes, and goes sailing off into the distance! Jacqueline gasps in shock.
"Wh-what in the... She's... she's okay, right??" Jacqueline asks, immediately concerned. She looks toward Josie...
...Or, at the dotted outline that was once Josie. Jacqueline blinks.
"...H-hey, wait, you can't just run off and leave all these fires unattended...!" Jacqueline complains. Fire safety is very important!
...As such, Jacqueline will reluctantly stick around until the Deku are done partying and the fires can be properly handled, out of a sense of responsbility...
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The pilot of the Aiguille quietly exhales as much of the sensory overload passes. "...Unit remains responsive," he tries to play off the stress. He regains control of the Aiguille's ability to rise and move, trying to approach as the Aura goes flying after it suffers the wrath of the FIST.
The staff-rifle is raised at the ready to shoot, as a strange light envelopes it. He doesn't open fire - he can't make sense of what's going on with the change in its... outline?
So many warnings go up, and Ethius slows the approach... and then a few steps backwards to give clearance. Is it about to explode? The way it is ascending into the air is--
He can't call what's going on because what's going on has already happened by the time it could. It escapes in disconcerting fashion as it takes to the air and takes their leave in the direction of water, leaving him to the surrounding destruction (and also donuts).
"...I've lost visual." Everyone has. Words trade about as to further concern about Yue's condition and situation - something this man appears to not have weighed in, out in the open. No well-wishes, no bargaining, no shouts of concern - it was about as all-business as it could get.
"..." The situation is as puzzling as it is worrisome, mind already racing to the logistics of what this all could have accomplished and what it might have meant - perhaps missing the forest for the delicious donuts strewn all over that he won't partake.