2021-11-05: An Undermined Undertaking
- Log: An Undermined Undertaking
- Cast: Xenia, Lily Keil, Emeralda Kasim, Elhaym van Houten, Fei Fong Wong, Azoth, Ida Everstead-Rey, Citan Uzuki
- Where: Clozer Woods
- Date: November 05, 2021
- Summary: The Digger's Guild of Kattelox Island has called for Drifter assistance in dealing with a hostile takeover of one of their salvage operations. The instigator of which reportedly looks an awful lot like Xantia...
==============================<* Clozer Woods *>============================== Situated upon the northwestern end of Kattelox Island, Clozer Woods presents perhaps the most challenging environment for both Drifters and Diggers alike - with another entrance to the Underground Ruins, along with a mysterious entrance to a Ruin whose door remains untouched to this day... well out of climbing or walking reach, necessitating some kind of aerial travel. The Guild has been hard at work at a Digsite to enable access, but the progress is at best laboriously slow with the threat of the Pirates around. BGM: Mega Man Legends - The Apple Market
<Pose Tracker> Xenia has posed.
While the call for assistance from Kattelox Island's Digger's Guild made it clear that there was a rare and valuable Refractor involved, it would stand to reason that many of those who responded to their call for Drifter assistance did so primarily because of a different aspect. The supposed ringleader of the outlaws who took over a digging operation by force: Xantia, of all people.
That part of the equation was at least settled in short order. Because Xantia herself was among those who responded, along with several members of the Black Wolves who could vouch for her having been elsewhere while the hostile takeover took place. The assertion that Xantia has a twin sister named Xenia might have been viewed as a poor attempt as misdirection, were it not for two known factors. Xantia had a good reputation with the Digger's Guild, having aided them for an extended period of time in the past, and, more convincingly: she was known to have been looking for someone who resembled her by the name of Xenia during that time.
Even so, to discount the possibility of an elaborate ruse, Xantia was asked to stay behind, so that the presence of this twin at another location could be verified without a doubt. Though reluctant, and needing some reassurance from her friends, she relented to that condition, asking the others present for only one thing.
"Please, if you can... try and get her to talk about herself, or about me. Whatever you can find out could be very important."
*******
That was some time ago. The group has since traveled to the indicated dig site deep within the woods. Upon arrival, it was immediately apparent that something's wrong. Despite the advice to approach the entrance to the site quietly to avoid attracting the attention of the armed guards posted outside, there were no guards anywhere in sight. None laying in ambush either, going by the fact that it was possible to just go right on in without provoking any reaction.
Shortly after stepping inside, a clue was found as to why that might be: the corpse of what may have been one of the aforementioned guards. Judging from the burn on his back, he was struck from behind by something that was very different from his own weapon: a high-quality but common gunsmoke ARM that was left where it fell. Whatever it was that killed this man, rather than bullets, it was some form of energy, whether magical or technological.
Noises from deeper in soon attracted attention. Shouting. Gunfire. Mechanical groans. Screams. It took time to pinpoint the source, having to navigate twisted, maze-like, but deserted hallways in order to reach the particularly tall and wide entrance to the large chamber at its furthest end. As if in warning to what would be found up ahead, another corpse lay just outside of it, in gruesome condition due to having been subjected to a massive crushing force.
The inside of the chamber is the site of a massacre. Several more dead bodies are scattered around the chamber, at least eight at a quick count, many of which showing similar signs of mutilation as the body at the entrance, though two that are close together are unrecognizably burnt. One of those whose face has remained intact enough to determine facial features could possibly be recognized by Lily Keil or Fei Fong Wong, because they have seen this man before. The greasy, sketchy scrap dealer by the name of Graham Ritz, the man who they first heard the name Xenia from and mistook Xantia for her.
The manner in which this group must have met their end is self-evident: a hulking Reaverbot, its lower body ending in tank treads and a massive drill for a right hand sits silently at the back of the room. Thankfully, it appears inactive. Posture slumped, emitting smoke and showing clear signs of battle damage, its single eye dimmed and lifeless.
The silence in this room of death and destruction is broken by the sound of slow footsteps. Someone is still alive. And they soon become visible as they step around the giant mechanical guardian, stopping as they come into view of those at the entrance.
The woman has Xantia's face, as well as her voice, but little else in common with her twin. Blue hair, a pair of blue-tinted shades, some sort of high-tech bodysuit, and her way of speaking is different, evoking a subtle sense of derision.
"My, my, would you look at that. So many familiar faces."
The gaze of the woman named Xenia passes over everyone present, lingering on each of their faces for a short moment. The likely reason for her being here is evident just by looking at what she's carrying under her right arm: a very large Refractor, colored red.
"Oh? She's not with you? That's surprising. I doubt she's gotten any smarter, so I assume there's a reason why she couldn't be here. Oh well." There's a one-handed shrug from her free left hand.
"I don't suppose you could make this easy on all of us and step aside? I don't have business with any of you. Unless... you have business with me?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Frankly, Lily would be dubious of bringing Xantia after Xenia in the first place, after what they've seen before. She for one does not mind Xantia staying behind, for all that she knows Xantia won't like it much. It will be... simpler, to deal with Xenia alone. Maybe. That's the idea, at least...
But Lily has been walking through these mazelike corridors for some time, stopping here and there as something has been seen. Noises from deeper within--bodies on the ground. Lily kneels down beside the sketchy scrap dealer to identify him, and looks between Fei and Elly for a moment before she concludes, "...Loose ends tied up." She says it grimly.
But up ahead, the Reaverbot she spots--inactive... and ah. Footsteps. Lily looks to Xenia, and narrows her eyes, regarding her quickly. She casts her eyes about the room to see whether she has any backup, but it seems to be just her for the moment, with that Refractor.
She moves to the side, stepping in front of Elly. She is here with a group, obviously, including Fei, Elly, and Ida among others. And she is watching Xenia.
"I'll tell you why," Lily says, "If you tell me what you need the Refractor for." A pause. "...And you already know we're not going to let you go that easily."
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Fun fact: Emeralda is a full member of the Adventurer's Guild.
Seriously, she's on the rolls and everything. They let her look at the good contracts, now that she is about fourteen (as best anyone at the Adventurer's Guild knows, and she didn't tell them otherwise).
The Diggers' Guild isn't quite the Adventurer's Guild, but Emeralda has been recently trying to get a licence for *that*, too, and having one helps you get the other. This is, she thinks, possibly her in to get a real Diggers' licence!
But even more important: it's Xantia. Or Xenia. Or both, sort of. "Of course!" she'd promised Xantia, rising up to her full height (now not quite so low). "I'll do it! You can count on me! You're coming too, right?" That to the other Wolves - but especially Fei and Elly, because, c'mon.
*******
On the way down, before they were anywhere that could be considered dangerous, Emeralda wanted to talk. She likes to talk, and it has been a while since she's seen some of the people here - Ida for one, Azoth for another (and the last time she spoke to Azoth she was quite a bit smaller than she is now). "Have you done anything fun lately?" she asks.
But as they get closer, she gets more serious. It's dangerous, after all; they're here for a reason and that reason clearly includes violence. Despite everything, Emeralda had avoided the corpses, as they make her slightly uneasy. She's seen worse, but... that doesn't mean she *wants* to see worse. She sticks with the group until she sees the destroyed Reaverbot.
That coaxes her out of the shadows, stepping away from where she'd stuck near the others, just long enough to prod it with a foot. It fails to move (she didn't push it very hard). She just wanted to make sure *it* was destroyed. And then Emeralda freezes - she heard the footsteps.
"Hey, it *is* you!" Emeralda blurts out, as soon as Xenia looks at her. Not that they weren't pretty sure, but... well, sometimes you have to double-check. "Anyway, she, uh, she couldn't make it. Because of. The Reaverbots?"
Emeralda is actually usually not this bad a liar. She just didn't have any responses that Xenia would believe, anyway.
"Why, were you expecting her to come? I didn't think it would make her smarter if she didn't..." Emeralda trails off for a moment, then: "And, no, we can't! But - yeah, what she said," Emeralda says, pointing at Lily.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I'll do my best," Elly promised Xantia. She sounded... dubious about it; as if she did not expect to succeed. Maybe she's just in a mood this week. It's happened before. After this, with a deep breath, she was off.
But that was then, and this, here, is now.
If Elly had five gella for every time she had come past a strewn array of corpses, she would have perhaps fifty gella, which is not really a lot of money as these things go but it is a little strange that it's that high (or should it be higher? No, no, don't nurse that old sore right now).
She breathes deeply, through her mouth for the most part, because she doesn't want to smell the blood.
When they reach the Reaverbot she grasps her staff in case of a disaster, but the thing seems well and truly dead. Elly is able to put together at least some of this - the Reaverbot, most likely. Activated. Perhaps a tragedy, or perhaps a really convenient accident. Elly is no crime scene investigator; she must guess. She has to guess less, at least, once Xenia makes herself known.
"Which part of this was your business?" Elly asks Xenia, her voice controlled but letting at least some of the anger and upset through. "All of it? Is there someone else with you?" (Her eyes flick, momentarily, to Lily, and then with a little more worry towards Emeralda. She may be more mature in form now, yet somehow, Elly thinks, she'll never quite stop worrying.)
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong is pretty anxious about this situation. Trying to drag answers out of Xenia--well, he's not sure that's going to work out too well. It'll just be a fight and honestly, he finds Xenia to be a victim herself at this point. He has likely shared his thoughts on this to Elly but is largely consuming himself with self doubt.
Maybe not as much of a victim as the corpses he keeps running into on the way over to the digsite. Fei startles at seeing Graham Ritz and hold on. Graham Cracker. Ritz Cracker.... .... ?????? But Fei luckily doesn't make that immediate connection so he gets to be horrified instead of thinking about snack food.
He looks up at Xenia, and then sort of awkwardly looks away.
"...Did someone as strong as you," Fei asks. "Really need to kill all those people?"
That's ok Emeralda, if you give the Adventurer Guild your REAL age they'd have to let you do whatever you want! You're old enough to be their great great great great great great
*one hour later*
great grandma. Fei shuffles his feet awkwardly. "I bet most of 'em weren't even aware what was going on..."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
To Xantia's plea, Azoth gave a smile. "Anything she says will be stored verbatim in my database," he promised her.
Information was the hope from the beginning. Leading outlaws wasn't a Xantia thing to do, but there was someone easily mistaken for her. Someone with her own strange designs. Azoth chose to be open with Xantia, and with Xenia's insight onto Xantia's relationships, this may have burned a bridge. But there's a large group today. A lot of variables. He hopes one of them can get something to slip.
*******
So off he goes with the others, as cheerful and smiley as ever even with Emeralda among them. But if he ever catches a glance from her, it will be by dropping his -- a guilty look to the ground, and the only silent acknowledgment of what she now knows about him. And yet, what she asks him... is unrelated. He smiles as if forcing it, letting it ease into something more natural. "I did make a new friend," he says. "Her name is Bea and she is very fun to talk to."
For the rest of the journey, his eyes are bright and surveying the area around them until... it's too quiet. His eyes dim. Azoth doesn't have to personally inspect the corpse to identify that there's no life left in the man. And there are so many more corpses to see, further in, including the Reaverbot. But the dead are dead, and Azoth must focus on the tasks that can still be done.
"Hey Xenia," Azoth chirps as if he had not provoked her the last time they spoke and blatantly ignored anything she asked of him. He looks over the bodies around them and, instead of whistling, chirps a long beep of a sound. "This is really quite a mess..." He eyes the Refractor, then meets her gaze. "...Worth it?"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Fangs of Valmar made an attempt on Ida's life last week. They seem to have lost track of her--or vice-versa--but she made sure to spread word of them through the villages near Vane, just to keep people alert. Now, she's traveled back to Filgaia to get in contact with a few other Drifters, and to center herself by doing something familiar and creative. She was browsing the scrap markets when the rumor reached her ears. Ida doesn't know Xantia that well, but she was there during The Incident in Dazil, and she knows Lily well enough to get in contact with her in a pinch. She stuck with the Wolves as they followed the trail of screams and smoke.
Ida stops in the chamber entrance for a moment, armored trenchcoat settling around her. "Damnation," she whispers, her whole face tightening at the sight of the gruesome tableau. The stench of burned flesh is familiar to her, but that doesn't make it pleasant. Her eyes catch movement in the darkness, and she whirls to face Xenia as she comes striding out of the shadows. "You have explaining to do," Ida says, lips parting in something approaching a snarl. "But first you're going to put down that Refractor and step away from it, slowly." She doesn't draw an ARM, but she clenches both fists--and that's as much a threat as drawing an ARM could be, from her.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The rumors had even reached him in Shevat. Of course it wasn't Xantia. But that only meant that the one behind it was certainly...
Lily isn't alone in that assessment. It would be for the best for the two of them to not meet again... particularly if the things that Xenia had told him about her mission and Xantia were even partially true. Therefore, when they had asked that Xantia to stay behind...
"Of course. We will see what we are able to do," Citan had told her.
The screams carry first. It's not long after that when they start to find the bodies.
"What is the purpose of this...?" the doctor ponders aloud, gazing down at one ruined body. "To try to draw her out? But..."
Lily, it seems, has recognized one of them. Kneeling a moment, Citan looks over the corpse of the dead man then glances up at Lily. "Someone that you knew?" he asks her, creasing his brow when she speaks of a loose end. Standing, his gaze turns then towards the giant Reaverbot.
"Then, this is..."
Footsteps echo out through the room.
"Xenia, are you the one behind... this?" he asks, gesturing out at the room around them after she at last shows herself, stepping out from around the stilled machine. "What could you gain from all of this? Surely it is not merely the Refractor. What is it that you are planning?"
He doesn't speak of Xantia's absence, instead glancing once in Lily's direction as she makes her own ultimatum.
"...Indeed. We cannot let you pass."
<Pose Tracker> Xenia has posed.
Xenia just sort of gives Emeralda a look when she moves to kick the Reaverbot. It seems appreciative, perhaps she enjoyed something about that. "It's me~," she confirms far too cheerfully.
She then laughs when she catches Lily's conclusion regarding the bodies in the room. "Wow, you're really something, took the words right out of my mouth! You're welcome, by the way. These guys were human trash, the world's better off with it cleaned up."
She seems to take Elly's words as appreciation, bowing her head in slight exaggeration. "Yup, all me. These idiots thought otherwise of course. So easy to predict. If only everyone was, that would make my job a lot easier."
She cants her head at Fei's question, clearly finding it a ridiculous one. "What's wrong with that? Strength has nothing to do with it. You throw trash in the garbage, it's natural."
Next is Azoth's turn, and Xenia... Xenia very pointedly doesn't respond to him. She just narrows her eyes. There's more than just a little displeasure in her look. In that instant, Azoth may realize... Xenia knows. Knows that he didn't just choose to ignore her, but also that he talked to Xantia about it.
Citan may feel the same, given that she next turns that same look on him. She does give him a response, though. "Do you honestly think that I'm going to tell you anything? You had your chance. I don't have any more use for you."
Her disposition changes back to what it was when she responds to Lily's offer to tell her more about Xantia's absence. "Ah, you want to trade info? Sorry, I don't need to know that badly. Besides... whoever speaks up first in an information exchange loses. That's not gonna be me."
But it's Ida who gets to the heart of the matter most directly. Xenia smiles at that, this sort of statement being what she most expected to hear. "Oooh, you planning to make me talk? How exciting! You're every bit as scary as you appear, Ida Everstead-Rey."
She shrugs her shoulders. "Honestly, it'd be funny to see you try to stop me if I just decided to leave. But that would be rude, after you came all this way. So what the hey. I'll give you some entertainment, just to kill time. Though you'd best not disappoint if you don't want to get killed along with it."
She moves faster than an instant. A handful of small capsules are thrown without any visible throwing motion. A cloud of thick dark gas emerges from them - some sort of smokescreen? It's certainly very hard to see through, but it's not just that. It seems to dull the senses, rendering one sluggish for a time. Moreover, its function doesn't require one to inhale it, affecting human and machine alike simply through exposure. Whatever sort of compound this is, it was clearly meant to deal with a great variety of targets, to be able to affect them equally like this.
But, the more pressing concern is that in the time that Xenia was obscured from view, she's made her way elsewhere. When she can be seen again, she is knelt on top of the Reaverbot's left shoulder, both hands pressed down on top of it, sending ripples of blue energy cascading through the inert mechanical guardian. The Refractor she was carrying is nowhere to be seen. But that may be the least of anyone's worries, as in response to this, the Reaverbot's eye illuminates, and it starts to right itself, its joints groaning in protest.
Xenia smiles as she stands upright, crossing her arms as she is raised up higher by the Reaverbot stretching up to its full height. The machine's drill-arm spins up, rapidly gaining speed until it looks fully ready to bust through whatever solid surfaces happen to be in its path.
Unfortunately, you are now the ones in its path.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Inexorable Excavator
RILDOZADO
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ_rkXkCBVc
Xenia laughs from atop her ride as its internals start to rev up. It won't be long until it's ready to move against you. This is the last chance to decide fight or flight. Xenia knows which she would prefer.
"I suggest you don't wait until my little friend flattens you. Go on, give it your best shot!"
DC: Xenia switches forms to Reaverbot Rildozado!
GS: Xenia has attacked Lily Keil with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has attacked Emeralda Kasim with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has attacked Azoth with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Arresting Agent! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has completed their action. GS: Lily Keil suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Lily Keil! GS: Emeralda Kasim suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Emeralda Kasim! GS: Citan Uzuki partially evades Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Azoth! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Shield applied to Xenia! GS: Elhaym van Houten activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"He was the businessman who first told us about Xenia," Lily explains for Citan's benefit, and anyone else who might be curious. But soon, with Xenia talking... Lily is no longer answring her friends. Elly looks to her, and Lily looks back--she shakes her head slightly, side to side.
"That so?" Lily inquires about them being human trash. ...For better or worse, she shows no indignation over the carnage; it is what it is. There are others to mourn them.
She glances once at Citan, when Xenia indicates they've spoken before. But she can get an explanation for that later. She simply regards him for an instant with a neutral look before looking back to Xenia... who declines her exchange offer. Lily had a feeling they wouldn't get much out of her, but it was worth a try.
"All right then."
"Ida," Lily says next. "Be careful. She's extremely fast."
And Xenia proves it, with her talk of entertainment. The capsules rush forward, and Lily coughs as she inhales some of the smoke, though it isn't necessary to do so for it to slow her down. While her system purges toxins quickly, it isn't fast enough to stop Xenia moving herself and handling the Reaverbot. The machine is sure ready.
"...My best shot, is it?" Lily steps forward, her eyes beginning to turn black. Her hands extend forward, palms-out, and she begins to rise from the ground, hovering above the stones as her markings blaze through her long sleeves for an instant, prismatic wings growing from her back.
Icy mist gathers in front of her hands--and erupts into a gigantic spear of ice, which rockets towards the Reaverbot's eye.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xenia with The Grief of the Snake! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil assumes the Hero stance! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Xenia takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's The Grief of the Snake for 122 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Guard bonus and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
("Should I meet Bea too?" Emeralda had asked Azoth, back before. Maybe she just wants to talk to Azoth again. It's been a while.)
"Well, I just asked, because I'm pretty sure having Xantia and you here at once wouldn't confuse any of *us* because we can tell you apart, so it doesn't seem too stupid for her to come...?" Emeralda keeps going because... well, she talks a lot.
Fei may have been the one to ask that particular question, but when Xenia responds to it, it makes Emeralda upset.
"What? That's not right at all! That's not what you're supposed to use strength for," Emeralda says. "You're supposed to... to go on adventures, and help people, and explore cool places, and find out mysteries. Not kill like this!"
Emeralda takes half a step forward as the smoke comes down. Her hair shifts, forming itself into something like a giant fan, but it can't blow in all directions at once; clearing one way only means she gets caught in another direction. And though Emeralda doesn't need to breathe all that often, it seems to be working anyway. She stumbles, once, but catches herself.
Emeralda's eyes narrow for a moment in thought - and then she uncoils her scarf from her neck. She spins one end of it, the knot in it enough weight to keep it taut, and then flings that end at Xenia, holding the other.
The entire scarf stretches, extending a good twenty feet with the weighted end of it opening up into a disturbingly human-like hand. Anyone looking at Emeralda can see that her throwing hand has merged with the scarf, so that's probably *her* hand on the end of it -
She grabs at Xenia's leg and simply tries to drag her right off the Reaverbot. "I got you!"
GS: Emeralda Kasim has attacked Xenia with Ribbon Lock! GS: Emeralda Kasim has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Would you care to elaborate?" Ida says, eyes narrowing as Xenia describes the men who now lie dead on the floor. "Because right now I see a woman trying to frame her sister for murder as well as theft." Are the two related? Ida doesn't know. But she does know--from Aunt Anna, as well as Ragnell--that a well-placed jab can get someone talking when other methods fail. And Xenia, knowingly or not, applies the same principle to her.
"Oh," Ida says, as silvery-blue veins lace their way down her cheek, pressing against her skin with a rippling motion. "You don't know the half of it. And I'm not even the most dangerous one here." She glances back over her shoulder at Lily, and there's a subtle nod of acknowledgment--and an equally-subtle shift in Ida's posture. Her knees bend ever-so-slightly, her feet shift apart. "Azoth, get re--"
Ida barely sees Xenia move. When she does, it's almost like two different flipbook drawings. Her eyes widen. She charges Xenia, and makes it all of two steps before the capsules break open. Ida sucks in a breath on the third step, and the smoke floods into her lungs. Creeping numbness settles into her limbs. She coughs, violently, eyes narrowing to slits as she looks up at the Reaverbot--and Xenia, perched atop it. "We don't exist for your amusement," Ida growls.
Reddish-quicksilver boils out of Ida's sleeves, seeping through her coat and gloves and hardening into blue-and-gold exoskeleton. When it reaches her hands, it sweeps outwards, forming sharpened edges around her fingers--effectively turning her hands into bladed striking surfaces. Ida surges forwards, driving her right hand at the Reaverbot's plating; she follows up with a hammer-fist strike with her left hand, and then a lashing knife-hand strike with the right. Her stance shifts again, growing lighter, more responsive--Xenia can certainly identify a defensive stance when she sees one.
"Emeralda!" Ida shouts, as the teenager(?!) flings out her scarf. "Be careful!"
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Xenia with Water Dragon Form! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey assumes the Stoic stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Arresting Agent for 0 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Shield applied to Xenia! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
("Yes!" Azoth says enthusiastically. Grace might get along with Emeralda, too, come to think of it. Maybe that would help with the loneliness.) (Azoth, don't encourage Emeralda to befriend criminals!)
Azoth keeps his eyes locked on Xenia as she ignores him, his gaze unwavering and his expression unflinching. He's made it difficult for himself if he wants information out of her -- but he weighed his options, and he weights keeping Xantia's trust in the long term far higher. But it's disconcerting how she already knows. It was disconcerting how much she knew about his interactions with Xantia to begin with.
"Aw, don't be mad," he says, tone still teasing. "You know how the story goes -- beep boop all logic no feelings. You're going to have to open your heart to me if you want me to understand. I'll try listening this time, promise!"
Yes, the known liar promises to listen.
Xenia vanishes, and Azoth goes on high alert. He's seen how fast she is (or hasn't seen it, to be more precise, which is the concern), and when smoke fills the room, he loses more chance of identifying her, Ida's warning lost in the haze. Azoth's circuits twitch and spark, mechanics sluggish and calculations slowed. Oh. Unexpected. Clever?
Then the Reaverbot is up and Azoth gives a dejected set of beeps. "You're going to drag it into this? Come on, it's been through enough..."
But Azoth isn't here to run away. He snaps his fingers, forming a blade of light near his grasp as it spins lazily. "Sorry about this," he says to the Reaverbot before pulling snatching the sword out of the air -- sort of. He never grips it, but it chases after him as he charges the Reaverbot in his own burst of speed and slams the blade for its optic sensors, exploding with a blast of crackling, brilliant light in an attempt to temporarily overload them.
GS: Azoth has attacked Xenia with Flash Drive! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Xenia suffers a terrible blow from Emeralda Kasim's Ribbon Lock for 80 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xenia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Xenia! GS: Shield applied to Emeralda Kasim! GS: Xenia activates Countermeasures and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Keep her talking, Elly thinks. Keep her talking. Learn things. Part of her recoils at the thought of continuing with this, but... her fingers curl for a moment, and at the point of something Xenia says, Elly exclaims --
"They aren't garbage!!"
But there isn't time past that to say more. Xenia evens the odds - already probably leaning in her direction however gently - with smoke, and Elly coughs, raising one arm to veil her face and cover her mouth partway, shuddering before there is the sound of machinery coming to creaking, stretching, early-morning life.
"... Those people aren't garbage," Elly says to Xenia then, looking up towards her. This seems to have piqued her.
"Do you think they're garbage because they don't have your advantages? Because they don't have your beliefs? Because they weren't able to defeat you, or escape...? None of those reasons are worthwhile. None of them asked to be born where they were, but all of them built lives for themselves. Even if they didn't have the 'power' that you did, they were still worthwhile-- and 'power' isn't something you have forever, either!"
Then-- Elly looks down at her feet. (THIS part is feigned. Don't tell Xenia.)
"... But I suppose you're not interested in things like that, to hear you talk. They're not funny. They don't help you forget about..."
And because Elly cannot live by deceit alone, and with the pang in her heart at the memory of Mr. Ritz's mute face, she raises one hand upwards, the other grasping her staff. It's a very wizardly pose for a moment, and the resulting eruption of flame in a circle round (and partially IN) the cockpit is, perhaps, well suited for one of sorcerous might. Hopefully this will not sting anyone diving in to administer an ass-kicking; however, Elly did leave a weaker space, more or less facing towards them.
GS: Xenia solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 39 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xenia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Xenia activates Guard bonus and Sufferer! GS: Xenia's Blind Ward prevents an effect! GS: Xenia takes a solid hit from Azoth's Flash Drive for 135 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Countermeasures and Sufferer! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Xenia with Thermo Boundary! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Xenia suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Boundary for 94 hit points! GS: Entangle applied to Xenia! GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"'Human trash'... is it," Citan echoes, regarding Xenia steadily in that moment. He himself is at a remove if one is to look at him: an island in a fog-laden lake. But her attention turns to him, then.
And she says that she has no further use for him, that he had his chance. Citan exhales a breath, shaking his head. "So be it," he tells Xenia, before turning his head to look Lily's way, of all people. He shares that look with her, for but the fleeting moment. 'Later' is perhaps the promise made -- later, when the matter here is settled.
"'Some entertainment'?" It's not quite anger, not quite irritation. But nevertheless, Citan shakes his head at her pronouncement. "We are not here for entertainment, Xenia!" But he blinks. "Wait--"
Still, she moves fast, too fast for him to get out any more than that before she throws out a handful of capsules. Throwing up an arm as they hit the ground and break open, he is only just able to prevent himself from inhaling too much of the smoke. It does nothing for the obscuring cloud that also roils up. Only blue lights cut through the haze a short while later, and it's here that the doctor takes a shocked step backwards, perhaps realizing what their source is. "No-- it is still functional!"
The lingering smoke kicks up about him as the machine continues to power itself up, clouding his vision. Citan takes a step backwards, as if taking the moment to similarly take the Reaverbot's measure, to take in the shape and hazards of the battleground they have now found themselves within.
Ever so slightly, the air about him shifts. It is not that the smoke has lifted in any sense of the word in his immediate vicinity but rather that there is a light mist now coming to join it. Gently, it captures and traps a bit of the light.
"Elly, Fei, Emeralda! Watch how it moves! Be careful to stay out of its path!!"
Lily, perhaps, he feels less of a need to worry about in this situation.
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Citan Uzuki with Kouga! GS: Citan Uzuki enters the Stoic stance! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 1 Combo from him Cautious! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Citan Uzuki accepts Citan Uzuki's Kouga for 0 hit points! GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Citan Uzuki!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
A smokescreen UGGHHH
Fei feels like it's not JUST smoke though. Something is screwing with his senses as the RILDOZADO revs up. Xenia EVILLY laughs while suggesting everybody NOT get flattened by a reaverbot.
"...Uggh..." Fei says, thinking that Xenia's reasoning probably explains why neither of them actually learn anything about each other.
"It...actually isn't how the world works." Fei points out. "Do you ever like, just hang out with people...?"
But this doesn't mean he's not going to try to lunge forward with a fist and slam it into the reaverbot, hoping that it looks stronger than it actually is. "How about that!" He says. He manages to not get too question marky about it. He is still thinking about how horrible all these murders are and it's sort of getting to him. Or maybe it's the agent. But at least he's...
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Xenia with As Strong As Three Raditzes! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Xenia critically guards Fei Fong Wong's As Strong As Three Raditzes for 35 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Guard bonus and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Xenia has posed.
Xenia did say to give it one's best shot. Going straight for the eye with an ice spear big enough to pierce it straight through and a blade of light is not an unfair response to that. Indeed, one might expect that to be a weak spot to be exploited. Both Lily and Azoth's aim is dead center, and would have - should have managed to do exactly that. However... the air shimmers in front of the Reaverbot as the spear strikes, crashing upon some sort of barrier. Xenia's work, no doubt. It stands to reason - as damaged as the Reaverbot is already, it needed some reinforcement to keep it going. And Xenia is evidently capable of providing that.
"About what I expected," Xenia notes calmly. "Of course you'd try to end the fun before it begins. We can't have that, now."
She then hmphs as Ida accuses her. "Framing Xantia wasn't the point. I just needed the right people to believe the wrong thing. Not like she would get in trouble over that, who would believe she could organize something like this?" Later, when told they don't exist for her amusement, she certainly seems amused by that assertion. "Well, excuse me for trying to give your existence some merit. You're an accident and a half, Ida, and you know it."
Needless to say, that gets her some ire in response, but it's clear that between the Reaverbot's own solid frame and the shield, it's not going to be easy dealing solid damage through fist strikes - not even enhanced with blades. Keeping defense in mind at the same time may be prudent, but perhaps going all out may be required here.
Fei's strikes seem to reinforce the notion that punches are going to need an extremely large amount of oomph to get anywhere. Tiredly, Xenia answers him, "No, Fei, I do not 'ever, like, just hang out with people'. Some of us aren't afforded that sort of luxury."
Xenia doesn't dignify Azoth with a response until he expresses dismay over getting the Reaverbot involved. She still sounds more angry than snarky when talking to him. "Would you look at that, Azoth. This machine knows how to follow simple instructions. If certain others I could name were better about that, maybe we wouldn't be here right now."
Elly's flames wash over the Reaverbot's form, as well as Xenia's, but neither seems terribly bothered. Because of the shield? But Xenia doesn't seem to be covered by it...
She also looked ready to ignore Elly's claims regarding the non-trash status of the people she killed, but seems to be getting more ticked off the more she hears. Until finally she snaps, "You don't know anything. They're garbage exactly because they used what power they had to get where they are, trampling others in the process. I did them no worse than they did to others, it's what they deserve. If you think my 'power' has anything to do with that... well, like I said, you don't know anything."
As if looking for someone to vent her anger on, she singles out Citan, chiding, "Holding back as usual. You're going to regret that. I'll--"
Not in the mood for any lectures on strength, she didn't pay any attention to Emeralda. This was a mistake, as her leg is unexpectedly latched onto. She comes very near to getting dragged right off Rildozado, but quickly turns to grab hold of its massive shoulder. An energy surge passes through her, her suit sending Ether feedback akin to a powerful electric shock back towards Emeralda to free herself.
Flipping back onto the machine's shoulder, she stays knelt down, sending an even greater amount of energy surging through the machine. Just by looking at it, it's clear that she hasn't just revived the machine. She's enhanced it, made it stronger. The barrier was one thing, but its entire form is surging with the power of Ether, pouring out between the cracks of its armor in crackles of blue light.
"Alright. Time's up."
With that, the machine starts to move. One might expect it to be slow, given its size and the tank treads it has to work with for locomotion. But perhaps due to its enhancements, it rolls forward extremely quickly. Those who were using magical or magic-like means may wish to get out of the way, as Rildozado is heading straight for them, aiming to simply plow right through them. As it does so, its left arm lashes out, seeking to punch back those who tried to punch it - as well as attempting to catch Citan.
GS: Xenia has attacked Emeralda Kasim with Ether Feedback! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Xenia has attacked Xenia with Etheric Enhancement! GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue. GS: Xenia accepts Xenia's Etheric Enhancement for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, Lock State, and Surge applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia has attacked Lily Keil with Bulldozer! GS: Xenia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Bulldozer! GS: Xenia has attacked Azoth with Bulldozer! GS: Xenia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Giant Fist! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Giant Fist! GS: Xenia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Giant Fist! GS: Xenia has completed their action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Emeralda Kasim suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Ether Feedback for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Emeralda Kasim gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Xenia! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Xenia's Bulldozer for 150 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Xenia's Bulldozer for 187 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten activates Sufferer! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Cripple Ward prevents an effect! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Xenia's Giant Fist for 52 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey activates Power Burst! GS: Citan Uzuki partially guards Xenia's Giant Fist for 81 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: Shield applied to Xenia! GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Giant Fist for 82 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Fei Fong Wong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer! GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from Xenia's Bulldozer for 300 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Xenia!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Beep boop. Lily glances Azoth's way, and notes his apologies to the Reaverbot. She didn't think to make those, either, any more than she did for the fallen humans. But Elly--Elly's exclamations, of these people...
Lily feels a pang of something like guilt, for not caring more than she does. They did all have lives. And they ended here. Power...
What is 'power'?
Lily watches Xenia as she speaks. "...That's..." What she says to Azoth. But Lily has no retort; she is not naive enough to voice the thought that comes to mind. So instead she says, "You're right. I was hoping to take care of things early. ...But Elly knows more than you think. People like Elly are why this world still has a chance, Xenia. The ones like you and me aren't. And you know that--and you don't like it."
She might be trying to make her angry, now. But when time is up, Lily does not move out of the way--instead she brings up a barrier of darkness, a spherical void in existence that protects her from the treads--but can't stop the kinetic force from getting through, knocking Lily and her barrier both long out of the way. "Gh--"
"We've got to get through that barrier!" Lily calls, and takes no offense at Citan not warning her like the others--she can take care of herself right now. And she does, the barrier dropping as she flies back towards her opponent. Extending her hands to each side, Lily conjures up twin blades of darkness, hammering at the Reaverbot and Xenia's barrier with both at once in a clash that flashes with blinding light.
"Does a 'design' make something worth something on its own?" she asks in the aftermath, thinking of Ida.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Xenia with Eclipse! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"I'm fine!" Emeralda calls back to Ida, though she does take advice from Citan. Even though 'do not get run over' seems like about the most obvious advice ever, it never hurts to spell it out.
Of course, then Xenia keeps talking and Emeralda gets more upset. "Don't talk to my friends that way!" She raises her voice, suddenly angry. The way she spoke to Elly and Fei started it, but what really nailed it was the way she referred to Azoth. She doesn't know a *lot* about him, but she knows he's a machine - like her, sort of - and that was cruel.
Though this isn't the time for Emeralda to dwell on what, exactly, she is, and what it means. She sets it aside for now.
Instead she yanks on the scarf hard, as it grabs Xenia. And that's all well and good, but the electrical surge forces her to drop it, the bolt crackling up the 'cloth' and back to Emeralda's body; she lets go, the scarf just a scarf again as Emeralda's hand returns to normal, the no-longer-stretched scarf shortening back down to its normal length suddenly.
Emeralda stays on the ground for a moment too long before she flips up to her feet in a very Fei-esque bit of acrobatics. The Reaverbot isn't quite coming at her, which gives her a moment to circle, to suddenly leap into the air -
Emeralda comes down with both legs fusing together, forming a giant drill aimed at an angle. She's aiming at the Reaverbot, not at Xenia, but she's likely to spray up chunks of metal at the other woman if she actually penetrates the outer armour of the Reaverbot.
"I don't know why you seem to think you're so much better, because you're just the same as everybody else!"
GS: Emeralda Kasim has attacked Xenia with Leg Spin! GS: Emeralda Kasim has gained 1 Combo! GS: Emeralda Kasim has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly breathes heavily, several times. Xenia is telling them a lot of things. Elly is worried she won't remember half of it because of how cruel half of it is. Her fingers curl weakly.
"All I know is that you're so cruel," Elly answers Xenia; "just like so many other people become."
And that is about all she has to say because now she has to move. Elly watches Emeralda's high speed approach, her heart pounding as she takes one step back and to the left. Another one at the same angle as she hears the engine cry out. Dr. Uzuki is warning them. Elly takes her eyes off of Xenia as she prepares something in her head and takes one more step JUST as the thing SURGES forwards-
Which means it clips her and sends her spinning in the air, tumbling almost a full five hundred and forty degrees and improbably enough stumbling back on her feet despite a huge bruised feeling in her leg and hip but it doesn't feel broken or, at least at present, incapacitated, and so it is time to put
ELLY'S BIG ANTI-ROBOT PLAN (sorry Azoth, not you)
into action.
Elly throws her left hand forwards to face towards the right side of the Reaver, splaying them out as she gazes at the treads. They're simple, robust - the road wheels, Elly decides, gotta be one of those. Her eyes narrow as
STAGE 1: THERMO CUBE
a small space of sudden and intense Fire-type Ether forms in front of her palm, a momentary cubic centimeter of star-stuff, superheated and held in place by pure theoretical construction. It casts a warm solar glow over the room, improbably. Elly's fingers crook forwards for
STAGE 2: THERMO DRAGON
the point where the plasma ripples and unfolds, doubling and redoubling as containment breaches in a sinuous snake that makes that daytime glow intensify forwards, the light dimming as the inevitable interaction with the room's atmosphere and simple attrition from no longer being a point of total psychological focus makes thermal intensity fall. Can't be helped. The pattern of the approach does resemble the longer form of a river dragon and this would be pretty respectable in its own right as a sallying-forth except that there is absolutely a
STAGE 3
which is when the ripple of plasma-fire suddenly freezes for a single heartbeat and then *contracts*. The contraction marks the point where it does fully erupt into flame, a dull roar of incinerating power as the white-shading-to-reddish-yellow suddenly blooms a paradoxically cold blue, thrusting straight at the mechanism Elly had spotted and arcing up - hopefully to break a track--
"Xenia-- Is it us you're trying to tell these things?" Elly suddenly remembers having just said.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Xenia with Thermo Incinerate! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Xenia suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's Eclipse for 112 hit points! GS: Dispel! Lock State removed! GS: Mighty applied to Lily Keil! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia critically guards Emeralda Kasim's Leg Spin for 36 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Guard bonus, Countermeasures, and Sufferer! GS: Xenia critically guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Incinerate for 58 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth grins at Xenia's mockery of him. "Oh? Are you saying I could have prevented this? Really, you've got to explain this sort of thing. It's how I optimize my behaviors for next time!" Once he comes in close with his attack, shielded as it is, he speaks out again: "...And I mean that, Xenia. If there's a more optimal option, if there's something that makes more sense... That's how I work. But you haven't shown the data -- what you're doing isn't making any sense at all."
Given her reaction last time, Azoth's finds it unlikely she'll take the bait. He isn't sure how to work with that just yet. ...What he doesn't expect is everyone else's reaction to it, casting them a brief, startled glance.
All he can do is observe, calculating running for each attack on Rildozado, how they land, how it reacts, and how Xenia reacts with it.
Rildozado begins its assault, and Azoth is too close, too slowed by the gas, to get out of the way. It barrels straight over him, the sight of Azoth lost in the dust kicked up. Somewhere there is a sickening metal crunch and a distressed beep that goes silent.
A few moments more. Time enough to observe how Rildozado moves. How it makes its attacks. Where the vulnerabilities are.
Lily makes her strike for the barrier, and Azoth leaps from the dust with a disjointed, warped beep of error. His lights flash red, his arm not quite attached and sparking, one leg dragging behind him awkwardly. He thrusts another blade of light into the barrier, opposite Lily, red and flickering with his damaged, error ridden nature, but still of the disruptive make-up he calculates it to have.
With a kick off the shield, he detonates the blade, trying to shred through the rest of Xenia's defenses with an explosive, crackling energy while launching himself a small distance away with a surprising graceful flip, landing rough and snapping his jostled limbs back into place so that red light again turns blue.
GS: Azoth has attacked Xenia with Installation Error! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Well, then how can you say you know how the world works??" Fei throws up his hands. Sorry Xenia, it was a TRICK QUESTION ALL ALONG.
But on the plus side, Fei throwing up his hands means that he isn't blocking and that means a GIANT FIST can send Fei flying across the map like a cartoon character, smacking into a mine wall with a groan.
If it was just FEI he'd call it a bluff, just say 'hey fine TAKE THE SHOT then Xenia!!' but his friends are here too and well he's not so sure she's entirely bluffing. He can't risk them. And, well, he has some things to live for too you know?
Watch how it moves, Fei thinks, be careful to stay out of its path. Thanks Doc, Thanks a million.
He stands up and says, "Okay. Don't get hit Fei! Easy. EASY."
"--So.... a dog eat dog world huh?" Fei says sadly.
He darts in again, trying to unleash a burst of ice out of his hands and into the reaverbot!
"If he's watching you somehow, maybe Shevat can free you--" Fei says.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Xenia with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"And so that gives you the right to decide what you may do with their lives?" Citan says simply, glancing again at the bodies of the fallen. "I see. Then that is your definition of 'power'. "
There are a number of things with which Citan Uzuki now much concern himself in this very room. Lily turning herself into some sort of cybernetic being, while concerning, is neither particularly new nor even close to the top of that list.
The Reaverbot, by contrast, is certainly way up there.
Especially when it proves that it can move that fast.
"No--" and for a moment Citan's attention is elsewhere.
And then he turns his head.
There is no time to escape that fist as it swings his way. Instead as the machine lashes out at him, he braces himself for the strike.
And what will certainly follow it up. It throws him back a good distance, sending him sliding in a long dusty skid as he lands, having righted himself in mid-air.
"She is... not playing around," he murmurs as he gets to his feet.
"Agreed!" he calls back to Lily. "But first, I believe I must even the playing field!"
The air around him doesn't merely shift. It unfolds, tendrils of mist coiling out from that place on the battlefield this site has become and spreading fast to envelope just about everyone in this space.
It's cool, soothing to the touch: a spring day's morning before the sun climbs high in the sky. It brushes past, taking much of the lingering smoke and dust with it, caught up in its unrelenting grasp. It sinks into the self and restores.
Citan pauses here as the mists swirl about him, a rare open display of this particular skill, and readjusts his glasses.
"'Holding back', am I..."
But he turns his head towards Elly as she says something quite important, as it happens.
"No... she means to tell this to 'her'. It is hard to believe that you are her sister, Xenia. Never have I seen such opposites!"
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Citan Uzuki with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Azoth with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Emeralda Kasim with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Lily Keil with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Renki! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 2 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki's Stoic stance ends. GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Lily Keil accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Slow removed! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Slow removed! GS: Emeralda Kasim accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Slow removed! GS: Citan Uzuki accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple and Slow removed! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Slow removed! GS: Elhaym van Houten accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Slow removed! GS: Xenia takes a solid hit from Azoth's Installation Error for 103 hit points! GS: Dispel! Amplify, Burst, Shield, and Surge removed! GS: Shield applied to Azoth! GS: Xenia activates Countermeasures and Sufferer! GS: Xenia solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 65 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Fei Fong Wong accepts Citan Uzuki's Renki for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple and Slow removed!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Then try to stay fine!" Ida shouts back, to Emeralda.
The Reaverbot is less decrepit than it looks, and Xenia is undobutedly to blame. Ida steps back, coughs violently into her armored shoulder, and glares knives at the machine's operator. "And what gives you the right to pass judgment?" she growls. Her anger's flaring, and she knows it; she lands a few more futile jabs on Rildozado's chassis, but can't break through that shield. The others have history with this woman. The Wolves, she was almost expecting, given Xantia's one of them. Emeralda is Wolf-adjacent. Azoth...
There's no time to think. Ida throws herself to the side as that tremendous fist races at her, but the toxin slows even Hyadean nerve impulses to a crawl. She turns, armor spreading across her left torso. A horrible CRACK splits the air, and Ida goes flying, trailing bits of exoskeleton in her wake like spall. She twists downwards, sinking clawed fingers into the floor and slowing herself with a hideous SCREECH of metal on metal. She ends the motion in a crouch, fingers embedded in the floor up to the second joint, having traced out two long sets of gouges in the alloy plate.
"AZOTH!" Ida cries, eyes going wide. She sees him hit the ground, sees exposed wiring and pseudo-muscle at his joints. Her head whips back towards Xenia, and she blinks. When her eyes open, the right one is bright green. "That's enough out of you," Ida growls. Not even the blessedly cool aura of Citan's Ether can chill her anger completely. She takes her first free breath, and doesn't quite realize why. "That's enough out of you," Ida growls. "If you want to talk to your sister you can do it after we rip you out of there!"
In the blink of an eye, Ida's left hand whips an ARM from her holsters, but it's not Devil's Due. The gun could be its mate, but for the odd set of seven sockets along the barrel, mirrored on the handgrip. Only one is full. The excess exoskeleton peels from Ida's left hand, twisting downward and forming something vaguely like a magazine. Ida snaps it loose, slides it home, and takes aim.
The unnamed Devil Arm roars. Tiny plumes of Malevolence rise from its barrel as Ida opens fire, each pull of the trigger sending hundreds of tiny biometal splinters downrange. Each glows white-hot, charged with both tremendous thermal energy and the tiniest kiss of Malevolence--not enough to be dangerous, but enough to hurt.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Xenia with Burning Quicksilver ! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Xenia suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Burning Quicksilver for 0 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Countermeasures and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Xenia has posed.
Xenia looks more pleased than she did before, rising back up to full height after sending Rildozado forward. The machine continues to move on its own accord as she does, making it at least appear as if she isn't affecting direct control, but as it's not making any moves to swat her off its shoulder, there must be more to it than that. Xenia certainly doesn't seem worried about that, nor is she having trouble keeping balance while the Reaverbot is in motion.
She loses her pleased smile as Lily speaks to her, but it doesn't seem to make her angry so much as... bitter. "...hmph. I'm sure the world has a chance. Whether or not it does has nothing to do with me." At least some of that seems to have hit the mark.
Which is perhaps why Emeralda's words cause laughter, of all things. "Is that what you think? How about yourself, do you think you're the same as everybody else? I think you have every right to think you're better than others, too. After all, that's how you were made to be."
To Elly, she replies, "The world is cruel, Elhaym. I think everyone here knows that. I'm just playing by its rules. It's not my job to make it better. Just less bad." As for the question posed... "I'm telling these things to anyone who will listen. Too bad no one ever does." Which she considers the perfect time to turn her words on Citan. "The fact that you think we're opposites shows how you little you understand, even after everything I've told you. I assure you, if our positions were reversed, there would be no difference."
Azoth is being his usual self in his dealings with Xenia, which she clearly finds insufferable. "It's all about the data and optimization with you, isn't it? You'll never understand while you're just faking the human element. A machine that won't evolve beyond their nature is of no use to me."
That statement gains an even stronger sense of finality given how she sends her ride directly over Azoth, not batting an eye at the terrible sounds left in the wake of that action. But it clearly wasn't fatal, as he soon rejoins Lily for a joint strike on the machine and its barrier. Lily's blades of darkness combined with Azoth's blades of light create a combination that's both poetic and effective - the barrier strains under the assault of light and dark, until it finally shatters, flakes of Ether dissolving into nothingnesss. Xenia hmphs, but seems mostly non-plussed.
It's only after Rildozado lets out a pitiful whine that she leaps into action, pressing her hands to the side of its head. It's losing steam, appearing to mostly keep running on what Xenia is providing it. Elly sought to capitalize on the briefly exposed mechanics, but the Reaverbot suddenly jerks sharply to the side, narrowly avoiding taking what could have been crippling damage in the wake of a violent conflagration.
Emeralda attacks the Reaverbot with a spinning leg-drill attack. There's some irony in that, given that it possesses a giant drill arm of its own. And therein lies a problem: the problem that it can strike back in kind, answering the leg drill with a much bigger arm drill before much damage can be done.
Fei's words seemed mostly ignored thus far, but when he brings up Shevat, he draws Xenia's immediate ire. Her ire in the form of a canister that she chucks directly at him - a contact high explosive, as he'll soon discover one way or another. She shouts at him for good measure: "Shevat can't do ANYTHING! They never could, and they never will!"
And then there's Ida. While Xenia may have had some form of response ready, when she notices Ida's anger, she wisely elects to hide behind Rildozado's big head, to avoid getting caught in whatever it is that the Devil Arm is about to send her way. It doesn't do anything to help the Reaverbot's poor condition, but it's clear that as long as Xenia is there, forcing it to keep going beyond its limits, this may be a long battle.
A battle which Xenia seeks to shorten. Hidden compartments build into the top of Rildozado's treads slide open, and from them emerge long tubes that immediately start to spew forth a storm of flame. All those left directly in front of the machine find themselves at risk.
...Which leaves only Citan, who wisely kept his distance. Wisely, except for the fact that thanks to what happened in their last encounter, Xenia very much has a bone to pick with him. Leaping back out on the machine's shoulder, she extends an arm in Citan's direction, declaring, "And you! Don't think for a moment I've forgiven you! This is what you get for stringing me along!"
It may not have looked like the Reaverbot had any ranged weaponry. Apparently that was not the case, because its left fist suddenly detaches, launching itself directly towards the simple country doctor. As if that wasn't enough, the right fist also does, sending the giant drill flying towards him as well, before both return to the machine and reattach in short order.
GS: Xenia has attacked Emeralda Kasim with Drill Arm! GS: Xenia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Charged Compound! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Xenia has attacked Lily Keil with Flamethrower! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Xenia has attacked Azoth with Flamethrower! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Xenia has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Flamethrower! GS: Xenia has gained 2 Combo! GS: Xenia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Xenia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Flamethrower! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Xenia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Rocket Punch! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has launched an attack Link! GS: Xenia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Rocket Drill Punch! GS: Xenia has gained 2 Combo! GS: You have finished a Link/Follow chain! GS: Xenia has completed their action. GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Flamethrower for 170 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Poison applied to Lily Keil! GS: Emeralda Kasim's Break Ward prevents an effect! GS: CRITICAL! Emeralda Kasim solidly guards Xenia's Drill Arm for 51 hit points! GS: Emeralda Kasim activates Power Burst and Gleam! GS: Citan Uzuki solidly guards Xenia's Rocket Punch for 59 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Lowest! Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Xenia's Charged Compound for 123 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Evade bonus! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten partially evades Xenia's Flamethrower for 138 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Shield applied to Xenia! GS: Elhaym van Houten activates Sufferer! GS: Elhaym van Houten loses 0 THP from Disease! GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Low! Citan Uzuki takes a glancing hit from Xenia's Rocket Drill Punch for 41 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Xenia! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Flamethrower for 170 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Shieldbreak applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Shield applied to Xenia! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth solidly guards Xenia's Flamethrower for 69 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Shieldbreak applied to Azoth! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
It really is about data and optimization. Azoth is what he is. And how useful anyone finds that... well. Xenia certainly doesn't. And he can't retort it before she runs him over. At least being a machine means he can survive it. (This may also be insufferable.)
"Don't worry about me, Miss Ida!" Azoth calls to her, smiling and smacking his skull so a dent in it pops back out and makes his skull stop looking caved in. He grins broad and sheepish. "Eheh."
Azoth catches what the others are saying, about Shevat, about being watched. These pieces begin to make more sense of the situation, but it isn't enough. He needs more data. And he wants something to bring back to Xantia -- and maybe that's part of being the machine he is, wanting to be useful. But she's been useful to him. It's only fair.
Citan gets a mouthful, and Azoth feels a little less guilty for not attempting that option for more information. His own plan may have failed, but it seemed the second place option would have met the same fate.
Flame spews at him, and Azoth thrusts his arm out to conjure one of his shields made of a veil of energy, like a dome of hexagonal light protecting him. But the fire is strong enough that it cracks the surface, and Azoth flinches, limb sparking before forced to leap back, scrambling to get away from flame as his shield generator short circuits. He gives a distressed beep, trying to form another, then another, only producing sparks.
All right. This needs to end.
Azoth makes a finger gun with one hand, one eye closed as he takes aim. "Everyone!" he calls out. "There!" With a feigned recoil as if making some manner of powerful strike, he fires a harmless beam of light from his finger at the Reaverbot, lighting up a glowing target where he calculates the most vulnerable place to land their strikes.
GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Emeralda Kasim with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Citan Uzuki with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Lily Keil with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Convergence! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Emeralda Kasim accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Emeralda Kasim! GS: Elhaym van Houten accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Quick applied to Azoth! GS: Elhaym van Houten activates Sufferer! GS: Azoth accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Azoth! GS: Citan Uzuki accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: Quick applied to Azoth! GS: Lily Keil accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Lily Keil! GS: Quick applied to Azoth! <Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Citan's will emanates outwards with a cooling ripple. Elly can feel the pain in her side recede, though it does not unfortunately disappear. Still, better a bad bruise than a bad bruise and runaway tissue swelling. Being impaired while running would be very bad around now, wouldn't it?
"Then what IS your job?!" Elly cries out to Xenia. "You sit up there on top of your, your infantry Gear and you just... INSULT people-- no, that's just what I've seen... I'm mistaking the trees for the forest. Is all of this just to flatter yourself!?" Elly's struggling to keep moving AND speaking, but that was what Xantia asked them to do and *hell or high water* she is going to at least try.
She yells about Shevat. That's interesting, Elly thinks.
A moment later a port on the side of the Rildozado opens and Elly stares into the port of
-- a port of something that's about to shoot fire at her and it's going to hurt and hurt and hurt and hurt and hurt for what feels like forever and then and then and --
-- then --
The flame comes, sure enough.
And when it fades...
Elly isn't there! The flame did billow upwards, unnaturally, but Elly has opted to approach rather than fling more Ether at the thing. Realizing, perhaps with a sudden burst of horrid brilliance, that she's right by the thing's side *with a large metal tool object*, Elly begins trying to beat that mechanism that she had been aiming at. Now it is concealed, but she tries to bang the panel loose with desperate speed, even shoving the underside of the wrought-iron staff into it and trying to throw it down with her body weight, sweat sheening on her skin -- the earlier ration of sweat having, of course, instantly vaporized a moment ago --
And as for this thing, it simply won't go.
Elly kicks off, landing in a crouch. "Hwahhh--"
The metal staff crackles. The crackling rises upwards, an improbable monopole of crackling negative electrical force sizzle-snapping as it coalesces, wrapped by distorted Ether patterns into a jagged knot of crinkled-noodle potential that periodically snaps into momentary ribbons. Raising the staff upwards, Elly brings it above her head and approaches that point. Strike, strike--
Azoth. Azoth is telling them something. Pointing -- what's wrong with his head, Elly thinks, with dread, before vaulting upwards and swinging the metal pole back for a single bursting overhead strike towards that indicated sector, the crackling discharge concluding with a rattling THOOM of thunder. (Of course, it's pretty loud in here as it is.)
The thought occurs to Elly as she lands: Why is she furious with Dr. Uzuki?
GS: Blitz! Elhaym van Houten has attacked Xenia with Anemo Zap! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Azoth! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong is getting kind of getting beat up by this reaverbot pretty bad here. Xenia talks shit about Shevat and--
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SHE'S RIGHT *trollface*
--Fei sighs, laying flat on his back, charred up and bruised from the explosion that impacted him at close range, and he says, "Well," Fei says. "It was just an idea. Maybe Doc knows someone?"
This is what you get for stringing me along!
"Wait what?" Fei startles. "What??" This is impossible. Citan knows everything! And he doesn't string people along! Ever! He's a great guy!
Fei thinks about all the little piecemeal info that Doc gave him over the years bit by bit truth by truth.
...That was probably a SPECIAL SITUATION!
Fei thinks he's mostly had enough at this point. Elly is shouting at Xenia things that are hard for him to argue with. He wants to believe it's more than that. He NEEDS it to be more than that.
"Please... They suffer enough." Fei says as he channels darkness ether into his hands--
--and SLAAAAMS both towards the reaverbot!
GS: Blitz! Fei Fong Wong has attacked Xenia with Infinite Darkness Ether Channel! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
'Do you think you're the same as everybody else?'
The question actually throws Emeralda for a moment, mostly because it's something she's had to think about more than a little bit lately. But she follows it up with 'that's how you were made to be'.
"..."
Emeralda focuses on dealing with the attack rather than responding immediately. The giant arm drill comes out, and Emeralda's response is quick; she splits her legs back *into* legs, balancing incongruously ontop of the Reaverbot as she drops to a kneeling position, plates forming across her knees and down her legs like paired shields.
The Reaverbot's drill hits Emeralda with a spray of sparks and what, on closer inspection, seems to be an unpleasant metal dust that is rough to breathe, like standing in a sandstorm without a mask. Emeralda grits her teeth through it, and after a few moments the drill pierces through -
But Emeralda springs off the Reaverbot as if those shields were launch platforms. Her legs reform a second time as she flips, landing on her feet with a solid impact.
"No," Emeralda says. "I'm not. I'm different, even when I don't want to be... But that doesn't make me 'better'. I'm still..." I'm still Emeralda, she thinks. A human imitation, something made to be like a human, but not. Why isn't she like the others? She still didn't know. Kim would have, but Kim isn't here. Maybe one day she'll find out.
Her voice raises. "But - I still don't want to be like that! I don't want to be 'better' than everyone else! And I don't want to do it by hurting people! But I won't let YOU hurt people, either. Not Fei and Elly and not Azoth and Ida and not Dr. Uzuki!"
Azoth gives her somewhere to aim. Emeralda gives him a little bit of a nod - 'Thanks!' she mouths - and then she takes advantage of it, sort of. Emeralda hooks her thumbs around each other, spreading her hands wide as they expand - no, flatten, turning into huge flat hand-shapes, almost like a bendable plate of metal.
She begins to flap her hands, up and down, nearly as tall as her entire torso is, and a windstorm springs up. More than a windstorm - a tornado, forming in between her cupped hands, which she releases after a few moments of building speed at the flank of the Reaverbot!
GS: Emeralda Kasim has activated a Force Action! GS: Blitz! Emeralda Kasim has attacked Xenia with Tornado Hand! GS: Emeralda Kasim has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily strikes in time with Azoth, watching his blade of light and his error red flickering. It's strange to watch. But she feels a certain satisfaction in the combination. ...Just like she does in how Xenia reacts, though it's not a pleasant kind of satisfaction. "Not your problem, right?" Lily confirms with Xenia. But she keeps talking--and keeps talking to Citan. If their positions were reversed...
"But they aren't reversed, are they?" Then a look to Azoth. A machine, and its purpose... This bothers her, but she can't express it.
But Shevat--Hm.
Lily has little time just to 'think' about it--the flames come for her, and Lily is indeed at risk. She brings up her hand to create a barrier of ice, but isn't in time. The flames hit her, and Lily is briefly engulfed, disappearing from sight with a shout. Her icy barrier melts in an instant, and Lily has to leap back, too, jacket ablaze. Hurriedly, she strips off the armored overlayer, revealing circuit-like patterns all over her arms that are blazing in blue for her attempt at ice. She grits her teeth; there are obvious burns on her still, through she manages to put out the rest of the fire after a few moments. And then Azoth marks a place--a glowing target. Lily eyes it. She thinks. If they can end this more quickly...
Lily hovers upward again. "...Are you really that different from a machine?" Lily wonders of Xenia. Maybe she wonders it of herself sometimes, too. "If you really think..."
No. Lily shakes her head. She too wants to try to bring something back to Xantia, but is unsure how. So she focuses on what she can do. She feels the Ether building in Elly's great maneuver, and thunder BLASTS her ears as she turns back towards the Reaverbot's new position. Lily breathes in--and finds... she doesn't hate her. She can't bring that to bear right now. She wonders--there's so much she doesn't know, and now, she feels a similarity....
So she doesn't unleash her dark magic. Lily instead begins to channel Ether in a more unfocused manner, letting it gather around her--there is a small vortex forming, stray rocks and things starting to move towards her as if gravity changed in the moment. She holds it in, rather than discharging it, and a golden glow radiates from her markings, brighter and brighter as she extends one hand.
A tiny pinpoint of light bursts into being, and quickly it accelerates. It grows brighter and brighter, leaving imprints in vision if anyone looks directly at it, and begins to grow.
"...If your positions were reversed, like you said to Citan..."
The light intensifies further, growing from the size of a marble to the size of a fist, and begins to float outward, towards the Reaverbot.
"Does that mean... that we would be friends? You, and us? Like her?"
Unattended objects start to gather towards the center of the coming explosion, sleeves and folds of cloth on bodies gathered upward as if by an unseen wind. A sound begins to roar past. And suddenly, that spike of gravity buckles, and the whole thing collapses inward.
"...Is that why you're so angry?"
It explodes suddenly, a gigantic ball of seething nuclear fire that cracks the walls of the cavern and briefly blots out all sight.
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Lily Keil has attacked Xenia with The Swallower of the Sky! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil takes 17 damage from Poison! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Xenia takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Anemo Zap for 167 hit points! GS: Dispel! Shield removed! GS: Jam applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Guard bonus and Sufferer! GS: Xenia solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Infinite Darkness Ether Channel for 85 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Xenia partially guards Emeralda Kasim's Tornado Hand for 158 hit points! GS: Slow applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Guard bonus, Countermeasures, and Sufferer! GS: Xenia partially evades Lily Keil's The Swallower of the Sky for 187 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xenia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Fleetingly, Citan's gaze falls on Azoth... just as he pounds a dent out of his own 'skull'. Just a fraction, he raises an eyebrow.
He is silent a moment as Xenia tells Elly that the world is cruel and unjust, watching her out of the corner of his eye as if he were anticipating in some way her response.
And then he provides one of his own. "That is your view of the world, Xenia. Not our own, nor is it the reality of the world. It is true that the world is a cruel place, but that is because there are those who make it so."
Does he know Xantia so poorly as all that? He smiles, an expression that outright fails to meet his eyes, and shakes his head. "Perhaps so, and I would say the same to her as I am now to you. You do not understand your sister, Xenia. And perhaps she would not understand you if she were in your place."
For all that she yells about Shevat, though, Citan doesn't say a word.
But as things go now, they had gone then -- Xenia has neither forgiven nor forgotten what had gone between them. There is no space for him to so much as respond, not when that fist detaches from the Reaverbot's body and comes spiraling right for him. Judging from that sound in the distance, that would mean that the right is also--
There is no time to deliberate. Citan leaps. Landing atop the left hand as it crashes towards him is rather more unsteady than he'd anticipated: he stumbles, landing heavily atop the hand which continues to grind into the stone beneath them. Worse, the other hand is still incoming!
It's a dance of inches. Rising to his feet atop a most unruly 'stallion', he twists just as the right hand -- drill and all -- passes over the left. A moment slower, a little more to one side than the other, and perhaps it would be a different story. But instead what happens is this:
Citan leaps from the back of the left hand and lands, dust pillowing out about him, and clasps his right hand across his left upper arm. Red flows between his fingers, staining his sleeve.
"That was very nearly too close--" he utters, seemingly to no one in particular.
Just then, Azoth points a finger(gun) at the Reaverbot, directing a beam of light right for a particular point on its body. "Aha," murmurs the doctor.
Before launching himself forward. Ether leads the way before him -- lightning, a windstorm, a great all-consuming fire -- and there he is, following in their trail. He's far too distant from the machine to strike at it. Indeed, he would need to be a great deal closer to so much as touch it.
But he is a student in the Shevat style, just as Fei is.
And as Xantia is.
The air before him parts when he brings down a hand as if it were instead a blade. Into that gap, water begins to surge forth, following the trail set by so many others into a terrible, rending tide.
"Xenia! Enough of this!"
GS: Citan Uzuki has activated a Force Action! GS: Citan Uzuki spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Blitz! Citan Uzuki has attacked Xenia with Suisei -Retsu-! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cover and Riposte expired! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida glances back at Azoth, eyes widening. His words would be more effective if he weren't simultaneously pounding a dent out of his own head, but it's possible that's not where he keeps his brain. Ida lets out her breath in a sharp -hhht-, feeling her anger sink into her heart. Xenia has the advantage here, and not just in terms of firepower. Her objective--and the full extent of her knowledge--remains unknown.
But then Fei triggers an eruption, and Ida tries to seize on it. "If you're so powerful, then why are you so angry?" she says. She whips Devil's Due back into its holster. "Why would you need their help? After all, you're so convinced of your own might that--"
It's deploying--!
An impulse races down Ida's spine; fear spikes through her hindbrain, courtesy of her link to her other half. The heiress throws herself to the side, raising both arms as the flamethrower tracks her, spewing white-hot, burning gel. Exoskeleton erupts from her forearms, twisting into a single plate--a shield. It's not enough. The pain bites through her armor, digs into her flesh, her nerves. Ida bites the inside of her cheek, steps back, and whips her arms to the sides. The shield shatters. The gauntlets go with it, splintering apart into fragments of flaming biometal. Ida drops to the floor and rolls, putting out a few lingering flames; smoke rises from her as she leaps to her feet. Everything hurts, the brand-new burn wounds most of all. Her trenchcoat held, but the shirt beneath is ruined, stuck to bleeding, raw flesh.
"Fei, Lily--" Ida chokes out, clenching her fingers. "Keep it immobilized--" Silvery-red pours from her wounds, forming temporary patches across the burns. It'll have to do. Ida counts down under her breath, waits for her opening. Her eyes settle on two points Azoth marked near the thing's front--dangerously close to the flamethrowers, but perfect for what she has in mind. Did he intend that? She stands her ground as Fei blasts the thing with raw darkness, and Lily summons up a force so bright and terrible Ida has to turn away, lest she be blinded. Finally, Citan charges, and so does she.
Ida charges forward, grips the Reaverbot's chassis with both hands. As it moves--perhaps to reposition, perhaps to evade Citan's attack--Ida sets her feet, clawed exoskeleton extruding over her boots. "Hggh--" she chokes out, as alien flesh threads through her system, further reinforcing muscle and bone. Quite suddenly, it's like a tow truck has grabbed hold of the Reaverbot--a tow truck that won't let go.
Ida's grunt turns into a bellowing war cry as she twists, lowers her hips, hefts the thing's chassis onto her shoulders. And then, with a single, springing leap, she hurls it backwards, trying to embed it in the floor. Xenia might just go with it, if she can't leap free in time.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated a Force Action! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Blitz! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Xenia with Overturn the Black Tortoise! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Xenia solidly guards Citan Uzuki's Suisei -Retsu- for 101 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xenia gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Overturn the Black Tortoise for 175 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Xenia has posed.
Elly inquires as to Xenia's job. That may not have been expected to get an answer, but she gives one: "My job is whatever I'm told my job is. As for my words... heh. Like I need any self-flattery. Maybe if you listened, really listened, you'd see the truth in them, instead of just interpreting them as insults. Is there really only one among the lot of you capable of that much?"
For some reason, she looks at Fei after that. But his words clearly aren't what she wanted to hear either, and she sighs, shaking her head. "I don't aim to make anyone suffer needlessly. But I think you know that. At least, one of you does."
Ultimately, she doesn't really seem interested in having that conversation. Conversely, she seems very interested in Emeralda's reaction. She actually... applauds it? She literally does, clapping her hands several times. "Bravo Emeralda, you really have grown up. You don't let those doubts get to you, and decide for yourself how to be. That's the first step." The first step to what? Why does she seem so pleased about that? Xenia doesn't say.
Whatever the case, Xenia is considerably less pleased when dealing with anyone else. She doesn't even let Ida finish talking, claiming, "I'm not angry," even though she sounds very much so.
Citan failing to die properly doesn't do anything to improve her mood either. "Oh, of course, I don't understand anything about my own situation. Xantia is the one who doesn't understand anything! And it's better that she never does! But I can yell that as loudly as I want, nobody ever listens!"
By the way Xenia looks at Azoth, she may be just as displeased about him not having the decency to stay trashed after getting run over by a giant robot, and also refusing to be killed with fire. One thing's for sure, she really doesn't like him anymore. If she ever did. Probably not, given how she's constantly looking down on him. At this point, she doesn't even really seem to want to deal with him anymore, just sighing at this seemingly ineffective light beam. "What are you doing now, you stupid--"
Are you really that different from a machine?
Lily poses that question to her, which seems to strike a nerve. She immediately whirls around to face Lily, eyes narrowed.
Elly takes advantage of Azoth's indicated weak spot to strike it with all her might - enough to immediately knock the slowly reforming shield back out again, sending sparks fly from where the machine was torn open in its wake.
Fei attacks with pure darkness, tearing off more sections of armor. Without Xenia's active attention, it seems to struggle to deal with such punishment, sputtering in protest at the continued abuse.
Emeralda knocks the Reaverbot around with Wind Ether, an impact which causes it to shudder, its own Ether charge starting to wane in response. Water Ether is next, Citan's strike nearly enough to extinguish the flow entirely. Xenia should be pleased about him no longer holding back.
And yet... she only has eyes for Lily throughout that whole ordeal, flat out ignoring the damage to the machine as she continues to listen. If her and Xantia's positions were reversed... is the fact that they're not the very reason for her anger? Xenia's expression seems to soften somewhat. But she doesn't answer. She can't. Because that's when energy gathered by Lily in front of the Reaverbot suddenly ignites.
Xenia didn't move to try and prevent that from happening. But she does move to avoid the most dire of consequences, slamming her hands into the side of the machine's head and re-establishing the flow of Ether, sending it into overdrive in an attempt to get clear. But there's no escape from something that big. It causes the machine to crash into a wall, where it sags down pathetically.
Ida comes in for a coup de grace on the immobilized Reaverbot. Lifting, impossibly, the giant machine, and sending it crashing down in a heap. The floor is made of metal too sturdy to be broken through outright, but its upper body has been unrecognizably compressed by the impact. It certainly doesn't seem like it could still move after that.
...But where did Xenia go? The problem with someone who can move as fast as she does is that once you lose track of her, it's difficult to determine her whereabouts. From all anybody could tell, she vanished in the wake of the bright light following Lily's explosion of Ether. Wherever she is, it seems unlikely that she would still have been on the Reaverbot by the time it got slammed into the floor. Unlikely... and yet...
Abruptly, Rildozado springs back to life, righting itself as it's energized by a massive Ether surge. That must mean Xenia is right next to it, somewhere! But there's no time to follow up, not right away. The Reaverbot is now completely out of control, zooming straight ahead while swinging what's left of its arms wildly, flames spewing out of the cracks in its armor. It's not stopped by crashing in the far wall, but simply turns and speeds backwards until crashing into a wall again. It won't stop. It's not going to stop, not unless its rampage is ended, one way or another.
But Xenia... Xenia is over by the entrance, now holding the red Refractor under her arm again, and one of her explosive canisters in her left hand. She's just standing there, watching. If she got at all hurt in the earlier exchange, there's no visible indication of it. While much of what she's thinking may be a mystery, she must be wondering... will they choose to deal with the machine, or risk coming after her? According to her estimations...
Without a word, she throws her canister in Ida's direction, as the one she judges most likely to come after her. This one is unlike the one she threw at Fei earlier. This explosion is much, much larger, more akin to a demolition charge than anything meant for anti-personnel uses.
As for everyone else... well, it's obvious what the immediate threat is, isn't it?
GS: Xenia has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Almighty Amalgamation! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Rampaging Reaverbot! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Lily Keil with Rampaging Reaverbot! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Azoth with Rampaging Reaverbot! GS: Xenia has gained 2 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Emeralda Kasim with Rampaging Reaverbot! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Rampaging Reaverbot! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xenia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Rampaging Reaverbot! GS: Xenia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shieldbreak expired! GS: Xenia has completed their action. GS: CRITICAL! Emeralda Kasim suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Rampaging Reaverbot for 155 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Emeralda Kasim gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Cripple, Poison, and Weaken applied to Emeralda Kasim! GS: Emeralda Kasim activates Power Burst and Gleam! GS: Elhaym van Houten suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Rampaging Reaverbot for 131 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease, Slow, and Weaken applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Elhaym van Houten activates Sufferer! GS: Elhaym van Houten loses 0 THP from Disease! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Xenia's Almighty Amalgamation for 117 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Azoth's Poison Ward prevents an effect! GS: Azoth fully evades Xenia's Rampaging Reaverbot for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Azoth activates Evade bonus and Gleam! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Xenia's Rampaging Reaverbot for 62 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Break, Disease, and Hex applied to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil activates Guard bonus! GS: Lily Keil loses 0 THP from Disease! GS: Citan Uzuki suffers a terrible blow from Xenia's Rampaging Reaverbot for 137 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Blind and Cripple applied to Citan Uzuki!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
As they strike, almost as one, Elly looks up to Fei for a moment.
Some part of her -- something, a stray memory or a fantasy or a disgusting piece of imagination, it must be, it has to be that -- expected to see nothing there but something smouldering and dead, but instead Fei is there. When his head moves and their eyes meet, she smiles, just in time for the blooming of nuclear fire.
It's a brief moment, of course, but in the end she lands near him.
"I think she's upset," Elly says, as Xenia begins to address Citan with eloquence and something resembling - yes - that's definitely sarcasm. Elly grasps her staff again and raises it before herself, staring ahead with a faint tremor in her body. Not injury, now, but anxiety. She's focusing on something. Maybe holding her shot - Ida is hefting the thing and - "She - she lifted it!" Elly cries out, in astounded surprise. The thing is brought down with a smash hard enough to rattle the floor and perhaps the entire area around the facility.
In the chaos afterwards, the Reaverbot is made into something deranged, apocalyptic in its speed. Elly glimpses where Xenia is going but the fact that she's fleeing-- is this what Xantia would want?
Elly decides in a silent moment. Whatever happens, the Reaverbot running amok is unacceptable. Is it worth it if they pursue Xenia and Azoth or Ida or Dr. Uzuki are mutilated or killed? Well, there's one way to solve that problem.
Up comes the staff. Elly's focus dissipates itself, a glowing spot appearing on the ground as she stares at it with a demonic intensity for a moment. The little patch of molten metal emits some gentle mist which *you absolutely should not breathe* (maybe Ida, unsure) as the Reaverbot slams backwards and then - forwards -
The superheated metal begins erupting just one hot moment before the Reaverbot crosses over it. You can see the flash as it starts to erupt a moment before one of Rildozado's treads rolls onto that superheated spot, which on its own wouldn't have done much: but a few heartbreaking moments ago, Elly managed to push something into the superheated realms of sustained and carbonizing plasma, and this time it's happening *again*.
GS: Elhaym van Houten spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Elhaym van Houten has attacked Xenia with Thermo Incinerate! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 2 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth looks back at Xenia, and his playful demeanor fades for a moment. He's expressionless at first, letting her see the emptiness in his eyes and his face in response to all of her hostility. The way she speaks to Emeralda, to him as a machine, and the way Lily's remark seems to strike something deep. Ragnell had said something along those lines concerning Xantia.
"Xenia," he says, "...Are you unable to evolve beyond your nature? What is it you're trying to defy?"
But there's little left time to talk in all the fighting. The explosions. The Reaverbot, thrown, and Xenia vanishing with her unnatural speed.
For all the rampaging Reaverbot's erratic, wild movements, Azoth's eyes flash. Trajectories calculated. Points of impact predicted. If he were any slower in his calculating, he would be burnt, crushed, thrown -- his shields are already down, and Azoth has to move. He weaves through drills and arms and flames, properly determining that no impact will stop his fellow machine from trying to destroy everything in its path.
It won't stop, and unfortunately, Xenia guesses Azoth's own actions correctly: stopping this from continuing to hurt everyone else is the higher priority. A spike of pain lances through his core. He didn't get any answers for Xantia. He doesn't have a valuable piece of data he can bring back to her, to make anything clearer. To make it easier. Bright lines crawl across his body, his circuits lighting up under his synthetic flesh. Azoth forms a blade of light, then another, then another, with every narrow dodge, deadly mechanical limbs only missing by fractions of an inch.
Once he's collected several, he slides under the machine, slicing at it from below to emerge on the other side and spin, firing off every gathered blade toward it in a brilliant homing barrage of blue and fuchsia light.
GS: Azoth has activated a Force Action! GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Blitz! Azoth has attacked Xenia with Overclock! GS: Azoth has launched an attack Link! GS: Azoth enters the Avenger stance! GS: Azoth spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Azoth has attacked Xenia with Blade Server! GS: Shieldbreak expired! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Blitz! Azoth has attacked Xenia with Blade Server! GS: Azoth has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily gets across what she's trying to say. Her words, one way or another, seem to have reached Xenia. Lily catches that softening of her expression. But they cannot afford to stop fighting. Lily couldn't recall that power even if she wanted to--it's too late by that point to avoid the reaction.
"...Better that she never does, huh." Lily turns back towards the Reavrbot as the light fades, and looks for Xenia. She does not immediately find her. Not until the machine springs back to life. The Reaverbot is raging and rampaging, speeding and speeding, and Lily turns--long enough to see Xenia.
She has to throw up another barrier that blocks her sight after that. She can't see any injuries, but there is a greater threat in the moment--Lily might be able to escape it. She considers that, as the rampage batters against her shielding, cracking her defenses and jarring her arms badly. She is still a little on fire. The fact that she avoided most injury from the rampage doesn't do a damn thing for the debris that's piled all around her, preventing her from getting out or following Xenia at the moment. ...And it doesn't prevent it from hurting the others.
"Damn," Lily swears, and abandons the idea of going after Xenia. Her prediction is right, when it comes to Lily; Lily focuses on the machine. She lets that irritation fuel her magic, focusing on her frustration with not being able to get these answers for Xantia, on the pain in her limbs from the burns, on the fact that the enemy before them must be destroyed--
Lily's skin would be hot to the touch right now, with all the magic she's been channeling. But she spots Azoth moving, and like before when he moved in time with her, she finds herself able to approach from the opposite way--Azoth fires beams of light, and Lily starts firing blasts of gravitic energy, pure darkness exploding in photonegative colors around the Reaverbot, each one the size of a head--over, and over, and over, half a dozen before a final explosion.
"Xenia! This isn't over!"
GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Lily Keil has attacked Xenia with Hexenhammer! GS: Lily Keil has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lily Keil takes 26 damage from Poison! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Xenia's Rampaging Reaverbot for 119 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Fei Fong Wong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disrupt, Drowsy, and Jam applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ah. So she does have a master. The question is, who? Solaris seems the obvious answer, but the way she reacted when Fei mentioned Shevat doesn't square with that. Whomever she serves, Xenia insists there's truth in her words. "Maybe your delivery needs work," Ida says, baring bloodied teeth. "And don't you dare talk to Azoth like that, ever again!"
There will be time to discuss the matter later. What matters now is ensuring everyone survives to have that discussion. As Ida hefts the great Reaverbot, everything compresses into the present--the adrenaline surging through her, the tension in every muscle, the almost-preternatural alertness of her mental counterpart. When she lets go, she whips around and raises her fists, fully expecting reprisal--and then realizing she's lost sight of Xenia entirely. "Damn it," Ida growls. "Did she--"
And then the battered, burned Reaverbot lurches back to life. It's in terrible shape. Ida doesn't have Azoth's sympathy for these machines, but if it can experience suffering, it is. "It's still up! She's still here!" Ida's head twists, aggravating her burned neck; her eyes dart about, scanning the room, before finally spotting Xenia in the entryway.
She sees the canister in Xenia's hand a moment later. In the next heartbeat, it's flying at her, tracing out an arc in the air. There's no time to warn the others. Ida's right arm is a blur; Xenia's own preternatural sight makes it easier for her to see the heiress extruding a piece of biometal the size and shape of a playing card. It flicks down into her hand, detaches; Ida throws it at the canister, manages to deflect its arc ever-so-slightly with a 'tink'.
Rather than catching her head-on, and spreading through to the others, the shockwave erupts with some distance to spare. It's still enough to grab Ida out of the air and fling her like a ragdoll. She hits the ground in front of Fei, skids a few feet, leaving a smear of crimson and quicksilver behind her.
"Ghk," Ida chokes out. New, dull pain in her side alerts her to bruised ribs. "I'm all right," she says, trying to give her best reassuring look to the others. "I'm all right!" She pushes herself to her feet, takes a few wobbly steps before regaining her balance. She tracks the Reaverbot with her eyes, trying to anticipate its movements while not exposing herself to Xenia further. She could core it in a single strike, but that would leave her wide open. Azoth would defend her, unquestionably, but he's badly-wounded--to say nothing of the others.
Ida reaches for Devil's Due. The weapon all but leaps into her hand, the Dragon Filaments within charging almost instantaneously. Mismatched eyes stare down the Reaverbot as she sucks in a breath, taking the energy of the world into her lungs. Ida holds it for just a moment. When she exhales, plumes of golden-white rise from her lips. The rest flows down her arm, into the gun. A brilliant sun-fire glow emanates from the end of the barrel.
Ida takes aim, and pulls the trigger. A plume of white-hot Dragonfire erupts from the ARM, taking on shape as it races at the Reaverbot. Jaws open wide, revealing razor-sharp teeth of flame. A long, sinuous body follows. The fiery dragon races through the Reaverbot, more than hot enough to melt through Gear armor.
Ida grimaces in the wake of the shot, and turns to glare knives at Xenia as she makes her escape. Lily said what she was going to say, after all.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 3 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Xenia with Breath Of The Fire Dragon! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's Stoic stance ends. She enters the Avenger stance! GS: Shieldbreak expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda still feels those doubts all the time, so she's not entirely sure Xenia has the correct read... but it's not like she's ever sat down and talked to Xenia. (Or Xantia for that matter, not in a long time. Certainly not since she 'grew up'. Maybe she should.)
But on the other hand, maybe she does have the right read. SOMETHING made Emeralda grow up, after all, if only a little. And she doesn't seem to have all her memories, so it wasn't that. Still...
She's clapping. That's weird. Emeralda doesn't think she likes it, or what it means.
"How would you know? You didn't want to talk to me," Emeralda calls back. "You think you already know everything! You're always like, I know best, and you can't understand me or my plans! Well maybe we WOULD understand you if you TALKED about yourself more instead of trying to run us over with a Reaverbot! I bet you don't actually care about me now either, you're just trying to make me mad!"
Emeralda starts to turn her hands back into their normal proportion, which takes a few moments simply because they were so flat and broad. She could use them as a shield in the meantime, but with the Reaverbot streaking around, blowing flames everywhere, she can't figure out which way to hold them -
"HEY AZOTH! I'm gonna help! Don't hit me!" Emeralda leaps forward, into the fire - and she breaks.
Emeralda disperses into three points of energy - not just energy, but electromagnetic balls with a nanite shell, a cloud of near-liquid metal whirling around them. They spread, passing through the flame... and not harmlessly. But the three wisps make it through, weaving in and amongst Azoth's slashes. They impact with the mass of - well, about a third of Emeralda, each of them sixty pounds of powdered metal slamming in and tearing away like a self-propelled sandstorm. Gotta knock it aside, gotta break it so whatever power she's animating it with stops working... gotta draw out the electricity? That makes sense to Emeralda, and so her little wisps of metal reach in, trying to ground out some of the Reaverbot's power.
Eventually the little streamers of energy and metal between them, tiny near-invisible threads, draw them back together into a point. The point shimmers, crackling with electromagnetism as a big ball of unformed silver before shaping itself into Emeralda's more accustomed look. She has reformed near Elly, her hands raised as if preparing to block something. She couldn't catch Xenia and she knows it, so she didn't even try. Electricity crackles along her body, and it's not Emeralda's electricity; where it passes, she loses colour for an instant in little streaks of silver.
GS: Emeralda Kasim has activated a Force Action! GS: Emeralda Kasim spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Blitz! Emeralda Kasim has attacked Xenia with Reycount! GS: Emeralda Kasim has gained 1 Combo! GS: Emeralda Kasim takes 28 damage from Poison! GS: Shield expired! GS: Emeralda Kasim has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
She's not angry, she says.
Xenia, for a lack of a better word, rants in his general direction. His reaction to her this time, though, is not to continue to attempt a rebuttal but instead to smile.
It's fleeting. But it's genuine.
For an instant, it may be possible to believe that they've won. But--
"Where is Xenia--"
There is all-too-quickly no time at all to worry about that. The Reaverbot lunges upright and begins to wheel about chaotically.
Oh, and it's spewing flames.
Even an attempt to leap out of its way doesn't work as well as planned -- its advance and the rock it has churned up in its passage send Citan crashing into a nearby wall. Bracing himself against it as he works his way back up onto his feet, he finds he's become half-blinded from an exuberantly-bleeding wound to the head.
Still, even one eye is better than none, and as the machine continues to wheel about...
"Hurry! We must finish this, quickly, before it brings everything down around us!"
It's coming close again, perhaps using Ether to hone in on their positions. Very well, then.
Breaking away from the wall, he zeroes in on Elly, perhaps realizing to some extent the trick she's attempting. Coming to a stop alongside her, he regards for a moment more that growing 'spot' on the floor...
And then, taking a breath, half-way squats and slams a foot against the ground. Shifting to drop to one knee, it's followed in short order by a sharp punch.
And then the ground trembles. Rock juts up from beneath, perhaps to attempt to 'emprison' the Reaverbot over the hot spot. To lock it up in such a way that it cannot hope to escape Lily's spell.
Or Emeralda, being very much herself.
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Blitz! Citan Uzuki has attacked Xenia with Chisei -Hou-! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 2 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong takes a soft breath when Xenia focuses her gaze on him. And then, more importantly, speaks as to the entity within him. She didn't need to specify that hard. Fei knew. He's experienced this reaction before. Many times.
The Reaverbot kicks the shit out of him. Fei doesn't retaliate. He looks to Elly for a moment but doesn't speak to her either. Not even to Emeralda. For right now, Xenia has the full force of his attention. Even the reaverbot kicking the shit out of him is more an afterthought that he's enduring.
"Why is it..." Fei asks rhetorically. "That everybody wants me to be as so fr--freaking wise as the mass murderer inside me who kills towns and civilizations because he is sad."
He looks up fiercely. "Is that what wisdom is to everyone?? You're right, how can I be as so BRILLIANT as Id? I don't even have 20 years of memories, I don't even have TEN. And I'm supposed to MADLIB the correct answers to your hints while you laugh and sic killer robots on me, probably because some asshole has made you feel like you can't do anything but hurt people and laugh about it but I can't even be one hundred percent sure of that much!"
Energy crackles in Fei's hands as he starts blocking. He's still trying to avoid swearing in front of Emeralda but maybe he thinks 'fucking' is offlimits but 'asshole' is fine. He's weird like that.
"Maybe we're stupid, DA DOI, but I'm not the esteemed Professor Raydon, okay? I'm just some idiot trying to do his best! I know it's not enough! I know it's never ever been enough!!"
He's starting to tear up as the stress he's been pushing off him starts hitting home. "I couldn't stop Mother, I couldn't stop Sin, or Seymour. I couldn't even stop Siegfried from commiting suicide by Solaris! And lord knows I haven't been able to stop their continued exploitation of this world! I couldn't convince Timotheus to stop being such a dick, I couldn't stop Josephine from betraying us and leaving us even though she was one of my closest friends...!" He's crying now, openly. "Being Xantia's brother is one of the few things I feel like I've managed to do right, I just want her to be happy, but she wants to know the truth even if it sucks so she doesn't have to have it hanging over her forever. Can't you see that it's going to gnaw at her forever?? And maybe you think that's better than whatever pain lies beyond it, maybe you're right! But how can I... We just want to HELP but you're killing people! Were they good people? Probably not! But... f-frick! Nobody's a good person...! Some are worse than others, sure, but if you have the power to stop people without killing them then you should try because...."
He stumbles back. "...The language of Filgaia is love. IT has to be. It can't be just violence because otherwise what's the point?? What's the point if all we've got is... Is hurting each other, over and over. There's no escaping this sector. To be honest for the longest time I thought this world was the only world we'd ever see. But even so, all we have is each other. We're not going to be saved by some Federation in the stars. We have to save ourselves! And we have to START by trusting each other or at the very least not LAUGHING because people are doing their best even if that best isn't good enough. Because people fail and die all the time. They do their best and fail and die. And that's... That's how it USUALLY goes. We can't always be correct and smart about everything. Sometimes we just have to..."
Doc gives some instruction. Fei closes his eyes and lets out a faint 'whuff' of a sigh as he opens up his palms and guides them around in his body in a beautiful motion, sparkling dust hanging around in the air around him--
Before he brings both his hands forward and--
--attempts to judo flip the reaverbot.
"Sometimes we just have to take a leap of faith and hope that the other wing will come to buoy us in to the sky beyond."
GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated a Force Action! GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Fei Fong Wong has attacked Xenia with Third Eye Sleepwalking! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Xenia accepts Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Incinerate for 269 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Xenia! GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia accepts Azoth's Overclock for 133 hit points! GS: Mighty and Quick applied to Azoth! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia accepts Azoth's Blade Server for 289 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia accepts Lily Keil's Hexenhammer for 316 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia loses 0 THP from Disease! GS: Xenia accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Breath Of The Fire Dragon for 264 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue. GS: Xenia accepts Emeralda Kasim's Reycount for 281 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia has Fallen! They are no longer able to fight! GS: Xenia accepts Citan Uzuki's Chisei -Hou- for 268 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Xenia! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia has Fallen! They are no longer able to fight! GS: Xenia accepts Fei Fong Wong's Third Eye Sleepwalking for 299 hit points! GS: Xenia activates Sufferer! GS: Xenia has Fallen! They are no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Xenia has posed.
One thing is clear: the Reaverbot's rampage will not end on its own. Its behavior has become downright self-destructive, mindlessly careening throughout the chamber - or at least, seemingly mindless, as it still is very clearly aiming to catch whoever it can in its path, for as long as it remains capable of it. And so it falls to those present to stop it, for the safety of all present.
Elly starts things off with the equivalent of an Ether mine in the explosive force applied to Rildozado's underside. This would have surely sent it spinning off-course, but Citan acts to trap it in place, preventing further harm and rendering it immobile for a time. Azoth then strikes the exposed underside with a blade of light for good measure, buying plenty of time to impale it with storm of similar blades, while Lily bombards it with the opposite element from the opposite end. Emeralda barrels straight through its inner workings, sending arcs of electricity every which way.
Rildozado sputters. Even with a hole straight through it, it still attempts to move again, forced to act far beyond the natural limits it reached a while ago. Ida acts to stop it from gaining any traction, flames engulfing the now thoroughly misshapen Reaverbot. Xenia returns Ida's following look with a strangely empty expression, her only commentary a neutral, "Huh."
Other than that moment, most of her attention remained on Emeralda throughout. She didn't get to respond to those last words. Perhaps she's bothered by them. Either way, she doesn't seek to clarify. She has a very 'done' look to her, and may not be entirely sure why she's stuck around to see how this plays out.
That is, of course, until Fei moves to address her, very directly. And she just stares, emotionlessly, or so it appears. For the longest time, it doesn't seem like she's going to say anything in response. Is she even listening?
The Reaverbot, even half melted, is somehow still moving. It's heading straight for Fei. And is casually judo flipped aside. It doesn't move anymore after that.
"...I can't understand you. Any more than you can understand me."
That seems to be the entirety of Xenia's response to Fei. The only other thing she says is a response to Lily's assertion that this isn't over, without much enthusiasm.
"You're right about that."
And then she's gone, speeding off in a blur or blue light. There's no gloating, no final jabs. Not exactly acting as someone who's pleased to be getting away with her prize. Failing to kill those who came to stop her probably doesn't explain that. After all, that was never part of her goal.
Privately, she mumbles something to herself as she's making herself scarce.
"...Ask yourself that question first. Dumb robot."