2022-08-06: Traitors to Guests
- Log: Traitor to Guests
- Cast: Ptolomea, Lily Keil, Venetia Vuong, Ruth Pauling, Kamui, Seraph Clarine, Fei Fong Wong, Ida Everstead-Rey, Seraph Boudicca, Brad Evans
- Where: Kasutho Island
- Date: August 6, 2022
- Summary: A small team, with ARMS guidance, slips into the first Diablo Pillar. They come face-to-face with Ptolomea.
<Pose Tracker> Ptolomea has posed.
Recently, Lord Irving and Matilda Whitehead met with members of ARMS and Drifters to inform them of a dire situation. Odessa sought access to a powerful flying weapons platform -- and with several spires, called Diablo Pillars, could cause it to fire its main weapon with such rapidity that it would bring Filgaia to its knees. They had the coordinates for one such pillar already.
The Diablo Pillar is a large but narrow blue tower. It has a crystalline look; a blue structure, multifaceted, with a single doorway inside. When they arrived, the ones coming here had to dispatch a few Odessa soldiers on guard outside.
Now, there is a doorway, already open.
When they enter, they find the room is a large, cylindrical one -- though it tapers into darkness, rather than a roof. There are several consoles scattered about the room. In the center of the room is a man with bronzed skin, a jagged scar down one eye, and a large cybernetic ARM that is also an arm. It ends with three, jagged blades.
This is Ptolomea, a field commander of Cocytus. He stands up straight, as they enter. His chin lifts.
"Should have known you lot would track us down," Ptolomea says. "So be it."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil, as one of the Black Wolves, has been hired by Shevat to track down these Pillars, instructed to work with ARMS... and to, if she finds one Ptolomea in particular, eliminate him. Would she be involved in this regardless? Probably. Odessa is her problem already, given one Dietrich Keil. ...But not like this, and not working with the others nearly as much. So, here and now...
She's with Fei! And she came up to the ARMS group and offered their assistance, and she's been walking through, handling Odessa soldiers as needed, Dog padding along behind her to watch her back. Lily is dressed in black military gear, an armored jacket and pants, along with a sword at her hip and an ARM at her side. She is not even pretending not to be here to fight, her long hair down and her overall posture... imposing.
Her golden eyes set on Ptolomea as they set through the doorway, and she comes to a stop, stepping out of the way of the others to allow them to get in, too.
"I'm here for you, Ptolomea," Lily says. "Courtesy of Shevat."
"...I won't insult you by offering a peaceful out." She adjusts her stance, and brings her hands out to her sides, already preparing to gather magic within them as her circuit-markings light up violet.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Approaching the tower, Venetia - travelling in company with her comrades and allies - had been talking to herself surprisingly often. Was this the mutterings of someone struggling to keep hold of their sanity in the face of the horrors of Filgaia?
'come on girl, big hero time, deep breaths, face front, no fear,' a pause to take another sip of a dilute mixture of Heal Berry peel extract, Aquasol, and sarsparilla mixed with carbonated water. A patent remedy for general healthy, if not something particularly perilous if you're not just downing it in gallon jugs.
After the disposition of the guards, Venetia had tightened the belt on her jeans, dusted off her robe, reloaded and checked her pistol, and re-centered her hairpiece. A single tight nod and a clap of her hands followed by a breath out. "Alright," she says. "Alright--"
Through the door, and destiny.
A console-laden room. The strange screens and monitors of ARM technology. Venetia glances round - did she expect anything different? - but the looming man speaks to them.
Venetia glances to Lily for a moment, then forwards.
"Ptolomea," Venetia declaims (in her Fill a Classroom Voice), "you have done well, though in a wicked cause, to reach this place in your life. Whatever brought you here, the situation is now changed. I would call upon you to take this chance. The secular authorities will have their say, but if you have been fighting for the safety of Filgaia, or for individuals upon it... then I can assure you that you can only make them safer by turning your coat *here* - and *now*."
"I can make no promises beyond this time," Venetia concludes with a CLAP of her hands. (Her right hand immediately slides down to rest over the hip pouch of her Crest Graphs, but then, that's probably understandable.) "Make your call."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth, ARMS' most recent new member, helps pick off the Odessa soldiers on the approach. She was a sharpshooter with very few people who could consider themselves peers in the 480s. In the 500s, that number of 'peers' may not be that much larger than then. Malevolence flares off in trace amounts where it reinforces wounds that would otherwise have prevented her from wielding her rifle like so. She holds herself from indulging or lingering over-much beyond sneaking a prayer for one not quite dead who bears an uncanny resemblance to someone she might have seen in her Aquvy Union days.
From there, Ruth filters in with the rest with a measured, restrained look on her face, head slightly bowed. There are things that could be said that she refrains from - in the moment - as they come face to face with a field commander of Cocytus who makes his defiant acceptance of the inevitable.
She knows what she's here for, a little creeping smile as she holds her peace (and her opposite-of-that).
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Several enormous blasts fly through the door on ARMS' approach.
Kamui marches along with the others, not dressed in her peaceful Saviour robes this time -- no, she's donned what she's found of the Fourth Armour; the headpiece donned on her forehead, the new X-Buster, and the Leg Parts...
The armour is still missing.
"I'm running out of time..." she murmurs.
Her eyes flash red for a moment as she continues her march, moving past fallen bodies of Odessa soldiers. She stops to check, but she didn't hit their centre-mass; they'll be fine.
"I have to keep searching. I have to make this quick."
She lifts her X-Buster up and levels her gaze at Ptolomea. "Have you made peace with your human gods?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
The time had come to challenge one of the Diablo Pillars - the one under the command of Ptolomea. ARMS has been briefed on the situation, and now, the only thing to do is to march out and confront him. The Diablo Pillar is an impressive thing, looking up at it - and Odessa is already here, requiring them to fight through some of their soldiers to make it to the heart of the Diablo Pillar.
Naturally, Ptolomea is here, waiting for them. He stands, and as he addresses them, Clarine inclines her head in greeting.
"Cocytus Ptolomea. It is good to see you again in good health. I am Seraph Clarine of ARMS, and we have come for you." Clarine greets. They have fought once before, but she doesn't recall if she gave her name that time. With a gesture, her mirrors slide from her sleeves, positioning themselves protectively around her. This was always going to result in a fight.
Briefly, she assesses those who have joined her so far - Lily, Venetia, Ruth, Kamui... her gaze settles on the latter for a moment longer. She is pleased to fight alongside her friend once more. Soon enough, her attention returns to Ptolomea.
"Is there anything you would like to say before we begin?" She asks.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Marivel has explained to ARMS that some of the next few battles she just can't participate for 'Timeline' reasons and has left it at that. Apparently, this is one of them. Brad's in charge, she said! What an unreliable vampire!!
Nevertheless, you do have Fei Fong Wong which in terms of competency is probably not quite as good but in terms of pure overwhelming power, well, hopefully it's aimed in the right direction. In truth, Fei has some questions for Ptolomea now that he knows the truth of Shevat, and--more of the truth about himself.
Well, it's not like he can't understand a grudge about Ptolomea.
"That all you gotta say?" Fei asks, folding his arms across his chest. He gives Lily a look for a moment who says she won't insult him by offering a peaceful out.
Uh.
Fei raises his hand. "I will insult you by offering you a peaceful out."
He gives Lily a bit of a sheepish look before turning back.
"Look, I know that Shevat isn't perfect, Shevat has done terrible things. But if you think this weapon of yours is enough to stop Solaris and save the world, I hate to tell you..."
He frowns. "You can't defeat them with just some weapon. It won't work. Neither of us care about the 'folks in charge', but that kind of weapon will wreck many lives. 'Specially in that guy's hands."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Heimdall Gazzo is the linchpin of Odessa's endgame. Taking the Diablo Pillars--and the officers assigned to protect them--won't necessarily stop it, but it will severely hamper Odessa's force projection capabilities in the short-term. Ida knows what's at stake here, and it weighs heavy on her, but the lessons of the Fire Shrine linger in her mind. No sacrifices. Not if she can help it.
The heiress takes to the vanguard as the team makes its way through the tower, moving with swift, practiced brutality--but the kind that leaves enemies broken and salvgable, rather than dead. When she steps through the final door at Lily's flank, she looks like the special operative she signed up to be. Her refurbished combat armor gleams in the light. Her long armored trenchcoat flares out behind her as she walks forward.
She stops in line with the others, her eyes glancing first to Lily, and then to Ruth--she can taste the little flares of Malevolence, here and there, and reminds herself of her other duty here.
"Ptolomea," Ida says, her voice calm. "You know what will happen now. But before--I want to say that you were right. This world is broken, and those in power cannot save it."
Ida's brow furrows in focus. She sweeps out an arm to indicate everyone else. "But there is a better way than what Vinsfeld offers. We will find it, and we will cancel this apocalypse." A pause. Ida smiles at Fei, and Venetia. "There it is. Your chance to join us."
But despite her words, Ida is bracing for the worst. Her body is tight with tension, ready to leap or guard at a moment's notice.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca has a duty to this world, now -- but even if she did not, she would be here, because she has a duty to her friends just the same.
She hands Venetia some water, on the way in, tells her that she ought save her healing items for when she is injured. Little expressions of care. You know.
(She notices those flares of Malevolence; consciously, deliberately, she makes sure to walk close with Ruth after her sniping efforts, and thank her for her hard work. Boudicca, for her part, summons winds which confound them at a distance -- making them easier for Ida to disable.)
The one she enters the room with, though, is Ida -- her best friend and partner in their duty to Filgaia's salvation. She does not flinch or falter; neither does she storm in too quickly. She's with everyone, after all. Besides, Lily's right there at Ida's other side, so they have plenty enough strength to afford to moderate themselves.
A glance to Clarine, who demonstrates the proper manner -- and Boudicca, the younger Seraph, looks to Ptolomea just the same. "I am the Seraph Boudicca," she introduces herself, "Oracle of Moor Gault, and I mean to stand between you and this devastation. It is too much -- too heavy a burden for Filgaia, who carries so much already!"
Ida handles offering him the chance to turn back; Boudicca sticks to a reason why he should.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad Evans has more than a little personal stake in this one. Odessa's personal for him, of course - he won't be able to truly relax so long as Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, his former commander, is running around with the kind of power that destroyed their homeland. But Ptolomea was also part of that army. Little but the whims of fate separated the two men.
Brad marches into the Diablo Pillar, preserving ARM shots where possible; gunning men down with the Mechanical Glove's plethora of fire modes if he must. He expects he'll need to trash this place.
Him, personally. He's the demolitions expert, after all.
The big man steps in. Despite his huge muscle, it's with a technician's eye he scans the screens, assessing which ones he can access - or destroy.
And in the end, his eyes scan up to Ptolomea.
"You should consider the sorceress' offer," he says, low, flicking a switch on the Mechanical Glove's side.
"...I say that, but you wouldn't have gotten this far if this were something you were going to stop."
<Pose Tracker> Ptolomea has posed.
"Kind of you to ask," Ptolomea says to Clarine. He looks them all over, in turn.
"I should have expected Shevat would send someone my way," Ptolomea says to Lily. He cracks his neck, rotating it to the side. "Their own damn problem."
He looks at Venetia, then shakes his head. "I'm not turning my coat. I'm finished with Filgaia's authorities. The ones who haven't bled the land dry have stood by as good men and good women died for their safety. They've been restrained, when restraint lets the world die. Shevat, Meria, Sylvaland, Guild Galad... even Adlehyde."
He shakes his head, looking at Ida. "I doubt you are and don't think you can. I'd sooner die than surrender to cowards like that -- much less fight for their behalf." He looks at Fei, then -- and he considers for a moment. "The lives of everyone on this planet are waiting to be wrecked. They will be wrecked. We're picking who wrecks them, how, and what it looks like after. Can you do that?"
His one eye looks back at Kamui's two. "I've made peace that I accept no peace with them."
Then, he looks at Brad. He considers him for a moment -- and shakes his head. "You're damn right I wouldn't, Evans," he says. "Nearly all of my soldiers are dead. We've fought a war... and we've paid the price. But still--if I can't accept this world--"
He shouts, as he aims his arm-mounted ARM cannon at them. A round fires out, exploding in their midst.
"--THEN I'LL DIE AND TAKE YOU WITH ME!"
GS: Ptolomea has attacked Brad Evans with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Kamui with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ruth Pauling with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Lily Keil with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Venetia Vuong with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Clarine with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ptolomea with The One-Eyed Commander! GS: Ptolomea has completed his action. GS: Ptolomea accepts Ptolomea's The One-Eyed Commander for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: Cover and Mighty applied to Ptolomea! GS: Kamui partially guards Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 66 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated! GS: Lily Keil takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 104 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans solidly guards Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 61 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 88 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ruth Pauling solidly guards Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 79 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 100 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong solidly guards Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 68 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: Seraph Boudicca suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 106 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 51 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...It's fine," Lily says to Fei, shaking her head. She wouldn't change it about him, that he'd try to talk this out... but she thinks she understands Ptolomea better than most of the people here, most of ARMS. She doesn't know him, but... she, to, i a soldier.
The world is broken, Ida says...
"...I don't have much good to say about the authorities either," Lily admits. "I wondered once, if this world was too rotten to save. And you know? It might be. But my friends haven't given up..."
"So I'll support them. We're not that different, Ptolomea. ...We just signed up for different sides."
"...And I don't think that 'wrecking' is inevitable."
The round explodes in their midst, and Lily throws up her arms, a barrier of darkness erupting before her to deflect some of the shrapnel of the blow--and to shield Dog. "Dog, go!" Lily calls, and Dog drives off into the room, while Lily approaches Ptolomea directly.
"That's right. We'll let our power speak for us. That's the language we know." She lunges--and then swings out a hand, open-palmed. Violet flashes on her skin, as a necromantic spell erupts forward, a sickly green-violet light extending from her palm as she sees to drive it into Ptolome and infect his life force directly.
"Live or die, by our strength!"
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui's gaze levels towards the others gathered for a moment; some offer them a chance to turn back, to not go through with this. Not Lily. Fei points out that the Heimdall Gazzo will only ruin things further; Ida speaks of a better way. Boudicca mentions her station as Oracle and as a bulwark against destruction... Brad is here too, already assessing the Pillar. Ever practical. Venetia's speech is powerful and bold; Ruth, on the other hand, is quiet in the background.
...
She quiets her heart for a moment, looking at Clarine.
Ptolomea's round bursts, and Kamui is a shadow for a moment as she takes a light hit on her shoulder, scuffing armour as she reappears nearby a wall and climbing upwards.
"Good. Then you won't die knowing falsehood in your heart," Kamui whispers. "As someone who once rejected this world too... I'll do for you what history couldn't for me."
She rises upwards, placing herself above Ptolomea -- and then her hair briefly transforms into crystalline flowing shards of ice as an enormous Frost Tower appears around her.
Then it descends.
GS: Kamui has attacked Ptolomea with Hunter Arte - Frost Tower! GS: Kamui has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Kamui has completed her action. GS: Lily Keil has attacked Ptolomea with Affliction! GS: Lily Keil has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lily Keil has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Kamui's Hunter Arte - Frost Tower for 179 hit points! GS: Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Lily Keil's Affliction for 156 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Ptolomea!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong takes in a deep breath. And then lets it out slowly.
"...Yeah, maybe I should be finished with 'em too. And I can't speak to the rulers of Adlehyde before Cecilia. But--she cares about the people who fight. She gave us a home."
Give it up, Junior
Fei swallows faintly.
Guy's made up his mind. What, are you going to force him to live? Maybe you'd make a good Solarian after all.
"Shutup..." Fei murmurs. One might worry he's talking to Ptolomea but he's not looking at him at all. Almost too softer for him to hear.
Fight him and you can save what remains of his soldiers. Maybe. But a Shevat General is nothing to sneeze at. How do you think--
Id goes quiet. He almost let something slip. Fei shakes his head. Don't pay it any mind.
While he's distracted, the ARM cannon slams into his gut. He grimaces and stumbles back, sinking to a knee.
"...Dammit.... DAMMIT!" Fei shouts as he rolls to his feet. "You people, always rushing off to die...!"
He darts forward, swinging both of his hands for the side of Ptolomea's head, intending to give him one heck of a headache and fuck up his equilibrium.
That's right. Always rushing off to die. And you wonder why I try to hasten things along. Because you know damn well the kind of people they'll take with them this time.
Maybe today you lose Lily. Oh she's powerful alright, but there's nothing as powerful as a mad fool ready to throw themselves into the Abyss.
GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ptolomea with Tenbu! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
'--THEN I'LL DIE AND TAKE YOU WITH ME!'
An arm-mounted ARM cannon goes off, and Ruth runs in there with an ear-splitting grinding of her rifle's bayonet blade showering sparks on the ground. To appearances, her armoring is 'far too many layers of cloth' at best, and the shrapnel goes through it like it ought.
It doesn't stop her. Most of the shrapnel that would land in truly debilitating, show-stopping places is stopped by the shaft of the rifle itself. For its unwieldy size, her rifle has proven sturdy.
The shaft is swung up into the cannon's barel to try and destabilize Ptolomea's grip and stance, breathing in the lingering fury and despair of a soldier standing their last.
"How little it mattered to Zoara," Ruth says in a discordantly quiet voice for the excitement in the space, "who it 'wrecked,' when... how... to see the likes of you still feel that way..."
The upward shove is as much force as she can muster at once in the moment, her mind abuzz as a thousand tiny thoughts crawl about waiting for that excuse to undo the chains around her heart.
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ptolomea with ARM to ARM Combat! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has entered Stoic Stance! GS: Ruth Pauling gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Tenbu for 97 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia looks around as other people address Ptolomea. The fact that her line is probably closest to that of the caring and sweet figure of Seraph Clarine makes Venetia question several things about herself, but in a discreet, internal way.
Others are nearer to her position, which makes her feel better about herself.
"Throw away the future for the sake of the past? Well," Venetia says, "that's your choice, and it's hardly unprecedented --" Her tone has scorn but
A. that's not unusual
B. She's not speaking as loudly as she could, due to anticipation of some horrible THING about to happen given the renown of the horror-show warriors of Odessa
C. Yeah, there it is
The cannon comes up and Venetia throws herself to the ground. BURST! Shrapnel skittrs over her back, hot needles of pain where it touches her skin through her clothes. Roll to her back, kip back up, breathe out. She's alive and nothing's failing to work. That's good, Venetia thinks.
"Looks like it's a knife fight," Venetia says, mostly to herself as others begin to pour their rage and fury into Ptolomea. Venetia knows many of these people; Lily, the terrifying apparition; Fei, the handsome and strong-backed co-digger; Kamui, the sorrow-laden enigma of the past; Ida, the ambitious and big-hearted gentlewoman; yes, Venetia thinks, they're not going to lose FAST if nothing else.
She pauses for a moment when Ruth fires her gun and quickly glances at Ptolomeia. THEN she proceeds with her thought.
"Evans!" Venetia says, drawing forth a Crest Graph. It glows a luminous red, like blood as imagined in a vision or like a ruby somehow made liquid.
It emanates over Brad.
There is not a drastic external effect, but Brad is blessed with a certainty; a knowledge now that come what may, *he can take it*; that death has moved a little further from him than it typically is for those who walk the cursed plains of Filgaia. A blessing? Or the curse of the dwellers in the void? (Probably the first thing, contextually.)
"Get him out in the center, if you can!" Venetia concludes.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Brad Evans with Persephone Sign ~Death Defiance~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea partially guards Ruth Pauling's ARM to ARM Combat for 43 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca reflects, here, on the similarities she sees -- between Ruth and Ptolomea. Both soldiers, both wounded by the world, but...
Boudicca has seen that Ruth can't accept herself, for what she's done. And Ptolomea, it seems, can't accept the world.
She is saddened by the link she draws; it slows the breeze at her feet, as she springs away from that burst of his ARM. Boudicca springs upwards -- when she lands, her cloak has a good few holes, settling back behind her. Call it a metaphor.
"Ida," she calls, reaching out. "This man will only accept a conversation of violence, I think." She snaps her fingers, flint to steel -- and the breeze about her catches flame as it spirals to find her Seer.
She looks to Ptolomea, and frowns. "We will not die today. Nor will the world."
Whether he dies... is up to him, she supposes.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Smoke Sigil! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Boudicca's Smoke Sigil for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Seraph Boudicca's Reload! activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
'I doubt you are and don't think you can.'
Ida's teeth gleam in the light as she flashes a smile. It is not the smile of a woman who has yet to see the full extent of the world's cruelty. It is not the smile of a woman who is baring teeth like a cornered animal. It is a smile of genuine defiance.
'THEN I'LL DIE AND TAKE YOU WITH ME!'
Ida is already in motion, leaping to the side as shrapnel rips through the air. "Fei, Lily, move!" she roars, even as bits of it fly towards her, striking her breastplate and scoring the metal deeply. The impact is like the result of a rough shove; not pleasant, but she's not bleeding. She hisses out a breath between clenched teeth. "All right," she says, to Venetia.
She takes a step forward, and in that moment it feels like she has all the winds of Filgaia at her back. The flame in her heart burns harder and brighter as her Oracle stokes it like a forge. "I can speak that," says Ida, and she blurs forward, leading with a palm-strike to the big man's chest. She doesn't stop with that, of course; she starts circling him, launching light, distracting attacks to test his defenses. To bide time until she has an opening. But--
"Fei," Ida says, in between strikes. "You're here. Listen to us."
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ptolomea with Water Dragon Form! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has entered Stoic Stance! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 49 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine looks toward Boudicca, as she makes her own introduction. She nods, briefly, in her direction, before looking to Brad - and then to Ptolomea. She listens as he speaks.
A part of her had hoped there was a chance he would accept the offer of peace, even though she knew he wouldn't. It is important, however, that it was even extended in the first place.
Ptolomea fires an explosive round into their midst and Clarine retreats back, raising her mirrors to intercept the blast. Even still, his power washes over her - this will be a difficult fight.
"...I see. Your determination is noted, Cocytus Ptolomea." Clarine says. "However. We shall not die. The world yet lives, but the destruction Odessa seeks to bring will only wrack it will further pain. Can you truly claim to be able to assuage that pain after you have inflicted it?"
Regardless. Now is the time to fight. With a gesture, red light emanates out from Clarine, settling over many of her allies to infuse them with greater fighting strength.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Kamui with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Venetia Vuong with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ruth Pauling with Acuteness! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Ruth Pauling accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad thrusts up the bulk of the Mechanical Glove, the device shimmering with a faint energy shield which absorbs the brunt of even Ptolomea's powerful bombardment. "Can't say I don't know how you feel," the big man says. As always, his voice is a deep rumble of a thing, low and contemplative, even as battle begins. He sweeps his arm wide, thumb clicking an invisible dial within the Mechanical Glove, an enchantment wrought upon it casting it in a cold-blue sheen.
"But you've forgotten what we were fighting for. The little kids and their frightened dogs. The men who saw too much and now they can't see at all. You've become the man we hated. ...maybe Vins always was like that, and we were too blind to see."
He feels Venetia's power burn through him, giving him a tie to life the likes of which he's not dared to dream of for a very long time.
His own life isn't what he's here to defend.
He levels the glove, and its machine cannon buzzes to life, firing several grenades infused with ice toward Ptolomea, peppering him with chill.
"I'm ending this. If that's ending you...we make that choice together."
GS: Kamui accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Kamui! GS: Venetia Vuong heals Brad Evans! He gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Venetia Vuong's Reload! activated! GS: Brad Evans has attacked Ptolomea with Coldcock! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action. GS: Venetia Vuong accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Boudicca!
<Pose Tracker> Ptolomea has posed.
Violet light slams into Ptolomea, blasting him back -- and worse, as it seeps into him and damages something fundamental to his existence. Lily's spell leaves him looking that much more haggard; a feat, given that he already looked rather haggard.
Kamui's tower of ice descends. It smashes into him, knocking him back; shards of ice leave lacerations across him, blood splashing on the floor. Ptolomea runs forward -- sprinting only to run up the tower and leap, then coming down for Kamui and Lily. He lands between them. The bladed ARM spins up, and he slashes across Lily with the serrated edges of one of them -- while his gauntleted fist smashes out for Kamui.
"I'll show you that strength! The strength of a soldier... one who won't accept this world!" he shouts. "Who will give meaning to the deaths of his comrades!"
Fei comes at him. His hands slam onto the side of Ptolomea's head, making his head ring; his eyes widen, as he looks up at Fei, and then he shakes his head. "You know why we rush to die? Because the other choice--is the one SHEVAT MADE! To stagnate! To decay, without dying!"
He swings around his gauntleted hand, and tries to backhand Fei away from him. He swings his other ARM around -- and catches the ARM from Ruth, barrel lodged in barrel. He grunts, yanking it backward, and hastily takes aim. "The world is cruel--it doesn't forget tragedy. It doesn't see them happen!"
The ARM fires, a round hurtling at Ruth -- though Ptolomea struggles to draw the bead in close range. Then, he twists, and aims a shot between Boudicca, Clarine, and Venetia. He fires a round -- and it explodes, shrapnel firing out every which way between the three of them. Never take pressure off those bolstering enemies; it's standard Shevat doctrine.
Ida closes in. Her quick attacks strike him -- and she finds him to be literal and metaphorical iron both. Muscled and enhanced with cybernetics, and he doesn't break under those first strikes. Ptolomea swings back a hand, and then smashes his gauntleted fist for her midsection with one mighty blow.
"I can. Pain can't be avoided--but what comes after can make the pain worthwhile!" he answers Clarine.
He looks back at Brad -- and his chin lifts. He looks at Brad, anger flashing in his eye for a moment. "They never appreciated us, Evans. We bled and we sacrificed, and they never cared," he says. "You might end me... but in choosing this path, you end nothing!"
Brad's grenades fire. Icy spikes explode out around him, hoarfrost covering him, and Ptolomea shakes it off as he sprints towards Brad. His ARM comes back -- and then the three serrated blades spin, as he closes the distance, and slashes all of them at Brad.
GS: Ptolomea takes 34 damage from Poison! GS: Ptolomea has completed his action. GS: Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Brad Evans's Coldcock for 147 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Ptolomea! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Lily Keil with Iron Saber! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Kamui with Steel Hand! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Odessa Crush! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ruth Pauling with Iron Shot! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Venetia Vuong with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Clarine with Bladeburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Odessa Crush! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Brad Evans with Iron Saber! GS: Ptolomea takes 32 damage from Poison! GS: Cover and Mighty expired! GS: Ptolomea has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Kamui suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Steel Hand for 175 hit points! GS: Cover, Hyper, and Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: Seraph Clarine takes a glancing hit from Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 53 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: Lily Keil solidly guards Ptolomea's Iron Saber for 95 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: Seraph Boudicca partially guards Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 63 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ruth Pauling takes a glancing hit from Ptolomea's Iron Shot for 59 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty and Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong solidly guards Ptolomea's Bladeburst Round for 88 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Venetia Vuong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Ptolomea's Odessa Crush for 57 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui descends ontop of the Tower she's created, but this ends up being a tactical mistake; Ptolomea rushes up the length of the tower, leaping towards her and smashing his gauntlet and forcing her to draw her arms in a boxer's block that still sends her flying and crashing against one of the Diablo Pillar's strange walls.
"You don't even understand how much you're making the mistakes of those five hundred years before you... the mistakes both humans and I have made," Kamui intones after she digs herself out.
"They had no solutions back then. I had no solutions back then. I created a little utopia for my kin and it ended under the gaze of a weapon not unlike the Heimdall Gazzo."
Kamui lowers her head.
"In the end... none of us can escape our fate. Do you see these people, these Drifters, fighting so hard to make a difference, to not repeat the mistakes of the past? Maybe it's their fate to change the world. But ghosts like you and I..."
Her hair turns into little more than strands of lightning.
"Ghosts of the past should well and truly stay in the past. Your time is over... and the time of my own destiny is nigh as well."
She fires -- this time, it's a wide-casting net that threatens to catch Ptolomea, electrified with small power nodules on its ends as it does so. A little war crime for a treat.
GS: Kamui has attacked Ptolomea with Hunter Arte - Lightning Web! GS: Kamui has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Kamui's Hunter Arte - Lightning Web for 172 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Cover, Hyper, Mighty, and Shield removed!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Ida calls out to Fei. Lily also calls out to Fei, "Fei! Eyes up!"
She hears Ruth's quiet voice, though. Talking of who it wrecked. She is... concerned, for a moment. Ruth could be dangerous. And yet...
She could be the edge they need, too. In the meantime, Lily takes an instant to notice the strange magic Venetia uses. She can't quite identify it, but it's powerful. ...As is even Boudicca's acceptance that this won't end peacefully.
But Ptolomea does not allow them quiet contemplation. Lily sees her spell work, but Ptolomea is clearly able to deal with pain. The bladed ARM spins up as he lands between them, and Lily is pushed back by the force of the blow, a ribbon of blood slashing onto the ground in the wake of his strike, the feeling of cutting through flesh and armor both. Lily steps back, gritting her teeth. "...I understand," she says. "...The memory of your comrades..."
She thinks of it. The ones she lost, to Gryndille. The ones she lost, to her own actions. The ones...
"But I have comrades to honor, too."
Lily drops back to one knee and focuses. The wound she has is bleeding badly; there is one solution she has, and she enacts it. "<Limiters... deactivated>." Lily's voice is almost mechanical as she speaks the ancient tongue, and abrubtly her eyes go black and prismatic, her markings lighting up, spectral wings erupting from her shoulders.
"The world is cruel. I won't deny that. Is the pain, is the destruction worth it? I don't know."
"...But I know I can't accept anyone who Father would follow having this kind of power."
She rises, floating into the air, and begins to weave power with her hands, markings glowing golden as she begins to cast. "<The birth of stars>," she murmurs, and brilliant lights in gold begin to float around Ptolomea, above and below. They start to move towards one another, and Lily holds them still, as if forcing together two similar magnetic poles.
"And I know I don't believe in destiny!"
The two points meet, and there is a terrific explosion.
GS: Lily Keil has attacked Ptolomea with Stellar Cauldron! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Lily Keil's Stellar Cauldron for 118 hit points! GS: Disease applied to Ptolomea! GS: Strain! Lily Keil takes 66 damage! GS: Fei Fong Wong critically guards Ptolomea's Odessa Crush for 43 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
A glittering red light washes over Venetia in turn. It's a different sort of light. She breathes out with effort, gives Clarine a passing thumb-upturned gesture, and replaces the Crest Graph. Turning to face Ptolomea, Venetia feels shrapnel whizz through her. Her head dress jerks a little; a wasp-sting rip over her bicep.
She pushes past it. A Crest Graph is brought up -- and a fragment strikes it with a loud TANG! Venetia pauses, looking at it, and draws the fragment of metal off of one of the strangely glittering inlays. A quick glance, but - it's fine.
Venetia flicks the shrapnel away.
"This isn't the world you're all ASSUMING it is! Guardians save me," Venetia says with a sort of theatrical exasperation. "I suppose even if the past is gone, the scars remain. Especially if you were there."
Her head tilts forwards slightly. "Fair enough. But!"
The crest comes above her head, twinkling with jewel-like light. "For the sake of everything that comes after, I'll show you a glimpse! Rest in peace if you insist upon your despair! Horahhh--!!"
The light forms a single great crystal of amethyst and twelve orbiting smaller crystals. 'Great' being, of course, 1 Venetia in mass and resting on top of the Crest Graph, implausibly; 'smaller' being perhaps the size of a reasonably juicy grapefruit, the kind you're pleased to be paying that price for because you got good value.
Venetia hurls her arm forwards as if pitching a line drive. The greater crystal flies towards Ptolomea, with its orbiters vectoring in along the way!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Ptolomea with Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
When Ptolomea is able to yank it backward, he's able to destabilize Ruth in turn - and put her in a compromising kneel as he levels his weapon against her, to speak of the cruelty of the world, how it can't forget things it refuses to see.
Ruth knows far better than to be deer-in-headlights when the ARM fires, and the jerking move of her head is the difference between 'head being taken off' and 'shallow gash going across the left side of her head and also her elongated ear,' a hiss as she stays low while an explosive shrapnel burst meant for others goes over her.
Clarine's red light shines upon Ruth - someone accepted as a comrade and friend in spite of the dangerous truths of her nature - and the Celesti Civil War veteran has a bitter laugh around the time after someone else has their say in the argument.
Brad taking the brunt of Ptolomea's latest movement is what gives her the clear to get up and move again even as (currently) crimson stains her shawl, eyes closed taking in the fatalism of some - such as Kamui, over there.
"The world makes it cruel... or is it those that want to make the world theirs, I wonder," that dissonant quietness continues from Ruth as she parts her off-hand to grab at a Crest Graph and invoke its spell - a misty, billowing fog like a fresh early morning rain races out towards Ptolomea's position.
"There was blood and sacrifice in Zoara... but was anything there worth appreciating," there's a smile there that does not match the words at all, an emotional bleed-over of pushing back against whatever nerve-laden landmine her feelings are setting off, "other than the vultures waiting for the dust to settle?"
If Odessa and the whole world are at war, a part of her might wonder what sorts of vultures are waiting on the wings of that, this time.
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ptolomea with Rolling Fog! GS: Ruth Pauling gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~ for 89 hit points! GS: Brad Evans solidly guards Ptolomea's Iron Saber for 68 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Sweat beads on Ida's brow as she strikes and steps and strikes, finding absolutely no opening in Ptolomea's defenses. She hasn't forgotten the time he almost killed her--how she ended up in Shevat's infirmary, heavily-sedated, for the better part of a week. She sees the micromotions of his strike--a tensed muscle here, a shift in stance there--before he launches it, and in that moment, she feels fear.
The man's fist is like a piston. The tortured groan of advanced alloy echoes through the room; Ida flies back, hits the floor, and skids three feet with a horrible scraping noise. She lies there for a moment, sucking in a breath--perhaps trusting in her teammates to keep Ptolomea off her while she recovers.
He listens. Grief moves through his soul like glacial ice. Faces flash past him, some happy and confident, others struggling for breath, covered in silver. Could this have been him? A soldier looking for a place to die? Just like Sieg?
Ida's eyes snap open, and one of them is bright emerald-green. She tightens her shoulderblades, rocks back on her elbows, and leaps up to her feet. "You... know?" Ida whispers, to Fafnir. He doesn't answer, of course, but she feels something stir inside her. Ida leaps forwards, landing next to Ptolomea, and lets the memories guide her. Biometal extrudes around her hands, forming blades around her fingers; she lunges in a strike for Ptolomea's midsection, keeping the other arm up to guard. She brings the striking arm back to guard, and changes off, the next attack a hook that turns literal as her fingers cup and the blade develops a tearing, claw-like curve.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ptolomea with Muscle Memory! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Rolling Fog for 65 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"I see. And what is your vision for the world? What do you hope for it to become, on the other side of that pain?" Clarine asks. Another explosive round is sent her way. This time, she's prepared for it. A quick gesture brings up a pair of mirrors which, rather than intercepting the full brunt of the explosion, seeks to divert some of it away from her. She's quick enough, this time, to do it - though the sheer force of it still sends her reeling back through the air from where she floats.
Once again, her attention settles on Kamui. She is... quite intense. Judging from what she says, this matters seems very personal to her... but Clarine can't help but find the way she speaks of her destiny concerning.
"Kamui... Do not forget. We are with you." Clarine says, before turning her attention toward Ptolomea.
She holds her hands out toward him, and light begins to build, concentrating to a single point - before bursting out toward him in a brilliant, blinding flash!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ptolomea with Blinding Flash! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Clarine's Blinding Flash for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Blind and Delay applied to Ptolomea!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei hears Ida again speak that he is here. And to listen to them.
Oh she worries too much. You're not going to let me out over some Shevat operative you barely know. Does she think she understands, just because she has an inner voice that knows everything?
Fei looks to Ida for a moment, focusing on her.
I wouldn't take the stage right now. I haven't in years, not for more than a moment here and there. Did you think it was because I couldn't? I want you to understand these people. Because he's right. Shevat chose stagnation. But you and I, the Stillness was forced upon us. I'm so envious of him. He'll be free of pain soon.
But you and I... Have so much more work to do before we can rest. So long as there's living creatures in this world, Fei. Eternity won't leave us.
A backhand goes for Fei and he raises his arm and rolls around Ptolomea's punch, refusing to be knocked away from him. Ptolomea's complaints about Shevat are valid and yet...
They betrayed the future for the illusion of an eternal peace of now. You know this and you work for them. Because it is convenient? Why don't you tell him why?
"...I'm not happy about Shevat's choices either," Fei says. "But all they wanted was to live peaceful lives. Maybe some other men can hold that against them, but I know how all too precious those moments of peace are. A shortsighted mistake, but they're already starting to move again, Ptolomea...! And I refuse to believe that our lives should be defined by how they end, and not by the moments of peace we find with those we love. A hundred, a thousand, a million years--it matters more how you spend it than how you end it! Who do you love, Ptolomea? Have you left anyone behind? Have they left you? Is it just you and your soldiers now??"
He darts forward again, throwing three quick strikes with his foot, fire exploding off it with each and every strike.
The asshole in his mind is quiet for a moment as his eyes slant towards Lily.
"You still could have a long life ahead of you. You could...fish. You could write. There's a thousand things you could do with your life rather than end it for some cause!"
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ptolomea with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Quick added to Brad Evans! GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action! GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 174 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad is in charge of this operation and should probably say something to Kamui about all these red flags she's handing out, but he's a bit busy having a debate fight with Ptolomea. But he's doing his best to hold the line, because he has been tasked to do so. Ptolomea's fully equipped for melee, something Brad barely is; for all his vast size and powerful muscle, Brad favors technical weapons. Still, the Mechanical Glove is a powerful ARM, and he's able to thrust his FIST into those propellers, punching them aside to prevent them from sawing him completely in two.
"They care. They care more than you can imagine! That's their world we're playing this sick game on!" Brad finally snaps, his voice a booming thunder. He thinks of a little girl, a young woman proudly twirling in front of him to show him the woman she'd become. An old dog on a quiet porch. "You may be right. Slayheim, Meria...Spira and Pentagulia, all of it's the same, corrupt old men with the nicest robes they can find, shouting orders from their great big chairs! But this isn't their world, Ptolomea!"
He rears back, and the Mechanical Glove clicks as something inside shifts gears and the whole thing turns an angry red from redistributed forces.
He lashes out fiercely, driving the massive glove toward Ptolomea's jaw in a harsh right. "Kings aren't the ones who cry out to be saved!"
GS: Brad Evans spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Brad Evans has attacked Ptolomea with Hammer Fist! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action. GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Brad Evans's Hammer Fist for 78 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Clarine's red light settles over Boudicca; the warmth of illumination warms her breeze, just the same, summery and bright.
She throws up a gauntlet-clad hand, as the shrapnel bursts -- and elects not to leap away, this time, so as to not leave Venetia to catch too much of the blast. Clarine might be a spirit like her, but Venetia is flesh and blood! Luckily, she also has Crest Graphs.
(Boudicca doesn't bleed much, herself. She wouldn't want to worry anyone.)
She looks to Lily, as she hears her deactivate her limiters. "<D...don't forget that there's a, um, everyone's, a risk of injury here!>" Boudicca stumbles over her Ancient words, much more girlish and unpracticed. She's trying to warn Lily that many of their friends here are mortal, even if much is lost in translation. (Lily, too, is mortal, as far as Boudicca knows, even with her strange capacities. She's worried about her, too.)
Boudicca's common tongue, at least, is much more dignified. "You do not feel seen," she surmises, saddened. "This is a thing we spirits know. Taking such loud action is... a declarative statement, yes. Perhaps you could scar your existence on the world, with such a ferocious weapon. Perhaps they would see you, then."
She grasps her tonfa, expression hardening. "But what do you surmise shall come AFTER you DECIMATE their EYES?!" Boudicca demands, as she leaps in to strike him low, tonfa lashing out at his knees.
Boudicca doesn't enjoy conversing with violence; sometimes, there's no avoiding it.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ptolomea with Rabid Lunge! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Rabid Lunge for 30 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Ptolomea!
<Pose Tracker> Ptolomea has posed.
"You're saying history repeats... but it's that attitude that excuses not trying to change things!" Ptolomea snaps back at Kamui, even as the electrified net catches him. It sends a good, mighty shock through him -- and he tears it away, hurtling it to the side, but left rather frazzled in its wake. "Nngh--even if it seems similar, the differences are what matter! The fact that we can make this be the end of the cycle!"
He looks at Lily -- his eye narrows at the word 'father.' "Keil's daughter, then... I'm not surprised."
Golden light slams together; Ptolomea brings his arm up, the blade locked tight, and the explosion slams into it and knocks him backward. He is struck a moment later by Venetia's crystals -- his blades coming up, catching one of the orbiting gems, but the others slash into him and leave gashes.
"Maybe--and maybe not," Ptolomea says. "But I'd rather take a chance than accept a world like this!"
Fog rushes across him from Ruth's Crest Graph. He stumbles backward, with a grunt. Then, he looks at Ida -- his eye regarding hers that turns green. She swings her blade down, and he blocks it with his arm-blade, but it's still with enough force to shove him back.
"I want a world where we don't lay our lives down... for people who don't appreciate it. A world where we cast down those who would cannibalize it for their own end!" Ptolomea answers Clarine. Light blasts, and he covers his good eye with his arm; he still blinks after images out.
Fei rushes in. "My soldiers are dead--my comrades are buried. There's none but me left," Ptolomea says. "And I abandoned my family when I abandoned Shevat! I gave my life up... to make the world be what it should be!"
Fei's blows impact him. He has blood running down his chest and staining his opened vest, now; he grunts, those three kicks knocking him backward. "Gh--"
Ptolomea turns. He brings his still flesh-and-blood arm up, hand open, and catches the Mechanical Glove. The blow rattles his bones, sending a ripple up his muscles in his arm. He grunts loudly. "If they're crying out... then they can LEARN TO STAND UP!"
Boudicca slams into him. Her tonfa strikes his leg; he stumbles back, knee weak from the blow, and he is driven from Brad. He looks down at her. "We will rule this world, and we will make it RIGHT!"
He hoists his ARM above his head. There is a fiery red glow inside of the cannon of his ARM -- and then it fires, and a shockwave of fire and force explodes out throughout the room.
GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Brad Evans with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Clarine with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ruth Pauling with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Venetia Vuong with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Lily Keil with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea takes 22 damage from Poison! GS: Ptolomea has completed his action. GS: Brad Evans suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 310 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Brad Evans gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Brad Evans enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lily Keil partially guards Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 145 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 261 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: Seraph Clarine solidly guards Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 121 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling solidly guards Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 122 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 160 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 121 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Venetia Vuong suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 267 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Venetia Vuong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Kamui with Fireburst Round! GS: Ptolomea has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Keil's daughter? "That's right. I'm getting good money to go after you... but I'd do it for free to destroy that man's plans. His, and everyone who works with him."
As Lily steps back, the astute might notice a trickle of blood from her nose in the wake of casting that spell. But Boudicca notices something else, and Lily glances towards her as the spell finishes. "...I'll remember," she says, switching to the common tongue they share. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."
But then Lily looks to Fei as he speaks, and there might be an moment of understanding there as she does. Is he really just talking to Ptolomea when he says that? ...Perhaps it's a little apologetic when she says, "Some people just can't."
But she notices Ida's green eye--and she frowns. "Ida--you in control over there?"
The red glow of that cannon--that shockwave pre-empts Lily's initial response to what Ptolomea says. It hits her dead-on again, but her whole form lights up in golden power, providing a barrier against the attack. ...But it drains yet more precious energy, and Lily huffs as her transformed state hangs on. "...They won't," Lily says of standing up.
"They never will. That's why.." She trails off, and shakes her head, rising up again. "Was it fire...?"
"Let me show you what I know of fire."
Lily rises back into the air, and abrubtly she is engulfed in flame, debris and shrapnel starting to orbit around her as the force of her magic draws it in. She extends a hand--and a burst of blue-white bursts forth from the red-orange aura around her, draining away all that fire into one column of power that cascades towards Ptolomea.
Lily hits the ground a moment later with a huff. "Ruth! Remember the people you're trying to protect!" She has to remind herself, too.
GS: You do not have that Force Action. [full] GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Lily Keil spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Formation! Lily Keil has attacked Ptolomea with Prominence! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea solidly guards Lily Keil's Prominence for 131 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Ptolomea! GS: Lily Keil drains Ptolomea! Lily Keil gains 66 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Ptolomea's words resonate with Fei but he can't accept it.
Hahaha, the cycles never change. But you haven't realized that yet have you Fei? Aren't you gambling too? Who do you think you're gambling here? Yourself? Her? No. You are gambling them.
Fei startles back as fire slams into his body. In a way he's lucky it's fire. It's less effective on him than other forms of assault.
I do feel bad for her though. Being bound to Moor Gault... Like us. Yes, in that way...
He feels Lily's eyes on him. His eyes widen when she shares a simple truth there. "But... I'm sure you can." Fei says quietly. "You aren't...alone."
Ptolomea abandoned his own family. "And you'd throw your life away here, rather than see them one last time?? I don't understand!"
Who even...killed his comrades? Was it ARMS? Did he somehow miss....
"We'll change it," Fei says softly. "We will. I won't let it end like this!"
He flexes his fingers out, rears up his leg and slams it into the floor, sending a barrage of ice erupting out of the ground towards Ptolomea!
"We'll change things...without losing everything. Somehow. No matter how many times we have to repeat it."
Easy for you to say, you won't be the one that has to carry it next time. If there is one.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
"You should listen to that woman," Kamui points at Ruth. "You should listen to me. We both have seen what a world scoured in the wake of the anger of the wounded results in..."
She's silent for a while. Listens to Brad's shout about how kings aren't the ones crying out to be saved. That's right... they were all...
Clarine is the one to reach her.
"... it's because... you're all with me that I can accept this destiny, Clarine," Kamui whispers in turn. "It's fine. I've lived a long enough life. I understand the future... and what needs to happen to see it be shaped into fruition."
She levels her gaze on Ptolomea again and lets her breath out, focusing... suddenly, there's an awful distortion of darkness and negativity emerging out of the Reploid's body as
T I M E S T O P S
In the few precious moments of the murky dimension of her Dark Hold, Kamui steps closer.
"You're so stuck that you can only think in dichotomies. Change nothing, or change everything," Kamui murmurs. "In this way, you aren't that different from how I used to be. That was why I accepted Valmar as an ally..."
She raises her hand, and snaps her fingers. Several spheres of white-hot plasma surround Ptolomea, suspended in the air in spiral formation as she passes by on the other side.
"... and thus--"
T I M E R E S U M E S
and a barrage of sudden Buster fire is Ptolomea's problem to defend!
GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Kamui has cancelled 2 Force Actions. GS: Kamui suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Fireburst Round for 229 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Kamui enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Kamui has attacked Ptolomea with Hunter Arte - Dark Hold! GS: Kamui has launched an attack Link! GS: Kamui has entered Link Stance! GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Formation! Kamui has attacked Ptolomea with Spiral Crush Buster! GS: Kamui has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kamui has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Fire. Flame. Bursting force, like a shell but without the fragmentation. He's using different weapons now, thinks Venetia, along with a hiss of pain even as she is able to draw out a second Crest Graph; any promise of some insightful DUAL WIELDING is rather neutralized when this one simply digs up a big sine-wave shape around her, giving her a divot to crouch in. Sparing her, perhaps, the worst of it. The ground untenses as she exhales.
In this little bit of a foxhole, Venetia leans back and turns her head. Reaching into one pouch she brings out yet another Crest, watching for a moment. She raises the Crest Gr
aph, pausing for a moment as Kamui seems to have moved strangely...
Up it comes. This is a smaller Crest, and the effect is simpler: a zone of thick portland-cement wetness in the ground, something to grasp and cling at Ptolomea's feet. A distraction. Is she hurt worse than she's letting on? Maybe.
"Then you'd cast down, those who would use the inheritance of the past for their selfish ends?" Venetia shouts.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Ptolomea with Pozzolanic Sign ~Zone of Adhesion~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Heat and force explodes out the room from Ptolomea's cannon, and somewhere in the brief tempest of heat distortion, dust, and debris, there is a flicker of violet at about eye-level while the whole shot washes throughout the battlefield of Ptolomea's last stand.
There is a space within the chamber lousy with knotted-up emotions of... Guilt. Shame. Regret. Despair. Her silhouette seems a touch... different, like something is draped around it, and as color and clarity return in the aftermath of that...
Ruth's single wing of her true self, something demonic and gray like stone, holds the brunt of that as the blackish-purple miasma rises about her. Streaks follow the trail of her boots from how far she's thrown back, but she remains upright.
'Ruth! Remember the people you're trying to protect!' Lily calls as she's among the first to recover from the shockwave.
Ruth's wing fans out, revealing the rest underneath her - still in the proportions of her former shell, bereft of her other bestial features aside from the change in coloration of her face, hair, and eyes. What's worn on her extremities is still there.
"You won't." Ruth says, gently, not even a forked tongue flicking to taste in Ptolomea's anguish as the released miasma starts to pull back into her. She catches a good ninety percent of the ambient Malevolence as the wing shrinks back down into her back, distressing sounds of flesh and bone being forced to transform back into the shape of her former self. Fresh blood turns from its Malevolence-influenced purple back to a normal red.
Her rifle is raised, pulling a bead center of mass.
"There's a kinder world so many deserve," thoughts drift for a moment towards Elise, who has since closed herself off from everything around her. "Isn't it... funny," her heart wavers, in turn empowering what fell force lets her keep fighting, "our only way forward is cruelty... pain... and loss? When it's done, will you accept yourself?"
A resigned acceptance that the only way to protect the rest of the world is to visit that same cruelty she once embraced, rejected, and then embraced at the same time since - shooting a bullet through the column of power that Lily's thrown forward.
It's not the first time in her history Ruth's put precise shots through improbable visual or even physical obstructions.
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ptolomea with Resigned Knock! GS: Ruth Pauling gains 20 THP from her Cautious! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Kamui's Hunter Arte - Dark Hold for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Ptolomea! GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Kamui's Spiral Crush Buster for 252 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Pozzolanic Sign ~Zone of Adhesion~ for 64 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Entangle applied to Ptolomea! GS: Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Ruth Pauling's Resigned Knock for 171 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hex applied to Ptolomea!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca looks to Ptolomea, brow creasing in tension. "You... you say you shall make it right... but 'tis your own rights you impose, Ptolomea! You cannot force the world to see you..! Even if you made it so -- even if you crafted such a force that you must be seen --"
She has to remember to frown. It is only years she has had muscles to her face, eyes more than hollows, lips which fall.
"Do you think," asks the Beast, "they would hear your words? Do you think they would not impose their own meaning on your violence, entirely apart from your intentions..?"
Well. Fei's seen what enforcing being seen did to Boudicca, back then. A thing more stringent, more unkind --
Anyway.
Boudicca leaps away from the shrapnel -- twists, sharply, in the air, to avoid the plumes of heat and flame. (They are still so, so injurious, even given her bond.) When she lands she puts her tonfa away, to clasp her hands, frowning deeply.
"Ida!" She calls, again, calls her here, calls her back. "They speak now of the flame -- let us bring the wisdom of hearth to him!" Once more, she snaps her fingers, flint to steel; the flame sparks from them, fed by her breeze, as she sends it spiralling for Ida's heart.
"Key--!"
GS: Formation! Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ptolomea with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea partially guards Seraph Boudicca's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 204 hit points! GS: Ptolomea enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Slow expired!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Lily is also giving Brad some concerns, here. What IS that? The technician in him worries, but magic isn't in his skillset. He has to trust, for now. Mostly because he's right up in with Ptolomea!
Briefly! Then his hand gets caught, bone-rattling force blasting through his foe. Brad's teeth grit, and the word comes to him. "Coward," he spits. "You can lead soldiers, you can make them fighters, but every one of them learns to hate this world like you do! FEAR the world like you do!"
The blast rips through him - finally, forcefully disengages him from Ptolomea, sends him tumbling ungainly backwards, flat on his back, blood dribbling from a cut on his side, a cut on his face.
A big palm slaps the ground, and he forces himself upward, lips curled, something burning his eyes and heart.
He levels the Mechanical Glove again, something clicking into place inside as he loads a new firing mode.
"You'll never see the hero you want to meet if you lack the courage to be him!"
The glove spins up and roars, rapid-fire bullets demanding Ptolomea's attention and forcing his attention back to Brad.
GS: Formation! Brad Evans has attacked Ptolomea with 100 Knuckle! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action. GS: Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Brad Evans's 100 Knuckle for 264 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Ptolomea answers her question, explaining his vision for the world. Clarine considers it for a moment.
"...I see. That is... your world." She replies, offering a polite incline of her head as acknowledgment. "Thank you, Cocytus Ptolomea."
Whatever she thinks of his desired world, she still has every intention of stopping him - to continue fighting alongside her allies with the goal of disabling this tower. But before she can do that... Ptolomea raises his ARM.
"Everyone, be wary!" Clarine warns. She positions her arms in front of her once more, her mirrors forming up in front of her. A barrier of light forms between them, just in time to be engulfed by the shockwave of force and flame. Her barrier strains against his power... and then, it shatters, mirrors clattering to the floor as Clarine is blasted back.
Her barrier was able to resist some of it, but it took a great amount of power just to hold for that long... But she can't waver here.
She looks then, to Kamui, studying her face. She's silent for a moment, and then, she nods.
"...Okay. Then I will continue to stand by you. Whatever is to come, you will not face it alone." She says.
She turns her attention, then, back to the rest of her companions. She spreads her arms outwide, a Seraphic glyph flashing into existence beneath her feet.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Ptolomea answers her question, explaining his vision for the world. Clarine considers it for a moment.
"...I see. That is... your world." She replies, offering a polite incline of her head as acknowledgment. "Thank you, Cocytus Ptolomea."
Whatever she thinks of his desired world, she still has every intention of stopping him - to continue fighting alongside her allies with the goal of disabling this tower. But before she can do that... Ptolomea raises his ARM.
"Everyone, be wary!" Clarine warns. She positions her arms in front of her once more, her mirrors forming up in front of her. A barrier of light forms between them, just in time to be engulfed by the shockwave of force and flame. Her barrier strains against his power... and then, it shatters, mirrors clattering to the floor as Clarine is blasted back.
Her barrier was able to resist some of it, but it took a great amount of power just to hold for that long... But she can't waver here.
She looks then, to Kamui, studying her face. She's silent for a moment, and then, she nods.
"...Okay. Then I will continue to stand by you. Whatever is to come, you will not face it alone." She says.
She turns her attention, then, back to the rest of her companions. She spreads her arms outwide, a Seraphic glyph flashing into existence beneath her feet.
"Root of all creation, grant us the breath of life... Revitalize!" Clarine incants. At her command, the light beneath her feet spreads out to encompass the entire room in a circle, forming symbols in patterns across the floor. From this circle, light shines forth - warm, invigorating, protective light.
"Fight on, endure... and demonstrate to him your determination!" Clarine calls.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Lily Keil with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Kamui with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Venetia Vuong with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Brad Evans with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Revitalize! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Seraph Clarine heals Lily Keil! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Clarine heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Clarine heals Venetia Vuong! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Seraph Clarine heals Kamui! She gains 210 temporary hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong has canceled their attack on Fei Fong Wong. GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong has canceled their attack on Fei Fong Wong. GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ptolomea with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ptolomea goes flying back, but Ida doesn't go right after him--he recovers fast, as evidenced by how easily he turned Kamui's ice tower on her earlier. Instead, her gaze darts sideways for a moment, locking onto Lily's. There's no sign of a disconnect when she nods. "I am," she says. She shakes her arm, and the blade twists back into a hand again as the fingers pop free of the exoskeleton encasing them. "He heard another soldier in despair. But the only way to talk was violence."
Speaking of violence.
Ida glances up into the brewing firestorm, and throws her arms up to shield herself. The exoskeleton that formed her blades wicks up around her arms, and those shields extrude from her forearms. The shockwave slams into her, and sends her skidding back across the ground. Hot wind boils past her, and her armor blackens and cracks under the heat and pressure. A streak of flaming shrapnel punches through her left shield, and traces a burning line across her cheek. Ida lets out a sharp yelp of pain.
The tempest subsides. Ida sags, bits of Hyadean exoskeleton crumbling to the ground. She hears Boudicca's voice. "To the Heart's Ignition!" she roars, as she snaps upright. Boudicca's flame strikes her dead in the chest, tracing out fiery glyphs across her chest and down her arms. She rushes Ptolomea again, leading with an uppercut; her right fist blazes as she launches it right for the larger man's chest. If it hits, Ida leaps into the air, twists, and throws a backfist at him; a second eruption of flame bursts from her heart to add a little extra to the blow once more.
GS: Formation! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ptolomea with Key to the Heart's Ignition! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 118 hit points! GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Key to the Heart's Ignition for 89 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ptolomea has posed.
Lily strikes Ptolomea with her flame. A column of fire and force that hits him, blowing him backward. His feet scrape over the crystalline floor, before he forces himself up to his feet.
Who killed Ptolomea's comrades? It was a lot of people. It was ARMS, in their battles in Spira and Aquvy; it was soldiers across Aquvy; it was Yevonite monks, when they fought; it was battles against Solaris and Shevat both; it was the myriad mishaps and accidents that come with a war effort. It was not one event, but a slow trickle of deaths...
...and so few replacements.
"You're too damned confident in the face of tragedy!" Ptolomea shouts back to Fei. The ice he shoots flies at him, striking into him, cutting his legs and midsection up.
And then Kamui's blasts come -- from Ptolomea's viewpoint -- out of nowhere, blasts knocking him back roughly.
Ptolomea swings his ARM out, in an arc. The cannon inside opens fire -- this time with a powerful machinegun. Bullets sweep out ahead of him in a wide arc, the shells lancing across Clarine, Lily, Fei, and Kamui. The rounds clip the floor; blue shards of crystal explode up into the air, and rain down like glass. The rounds stop, a hollow clicking as he uses up the machinegun rounds inside.
"Gh--damn!"
He turns, towards Venetia -- and sees the ground shift. The crystalline floor grows murky, cement-like, and his feet stick for a moment. "I would--and those who sit idle, as others die for their world!"
Ruth's shot pierces through him -- into his side and out his back, with a splatter of blood. Ptolomea grunts, raggedly. "Gh..." He doesn't have a good answer for her.
Together, Boudicca and Ida send a wave of flame and wind for him. He brings his arm up, the bladed ARM catches the fiery tempest -- parting it around him, like a wedge cutting through a stormfront -- and then catches Ida's fist, too, before throwing her back from him.
"HYAH!"
His leg shakes, where he was struck across the knees earlier. His pants are slick with blood; one boot slips a little. There is another click inside his ARM; then, he aims, between Ida, Venetia, Ruth, and Boudicca. He fires, a rocket loosing from it. It strikes the ground, the detonates with a--
Crack--
--THWOOOOOOM
And a shockwave explodes outward between them. It rattles the floor, coughs up chips of crystal, and makes cracks shoot through the crystalline walls nearby.
Ptolomea lowers his ARM, the blades scraping the floor. He turns his head towards the man who called him a coward.
"What do you know of courage!?" Ptolomea shouts at Brad. "You run from your own name, EVANS!"
Brad's glove spins up. The rounds punch into Ptolomea's flesh, bullets slashing through -- or getting stuck. Blood runs down his chest and back in rivers, now, and leave the blue crystalline floor slick in his wake. Somehow, through might and stubbornness, he charges for Brad. His claw opens up, the three blades opening -- and he slams it forward for Brad's chest.
Then, the three blades SLAM down. Ptolomea wheels his body around, sweat and blood flying out in droplets, before HURLS Brad away from him -- and for one of the consoles on the wall.
GS: Ptolomea has activated a Force Action! GS: Ptolomea has activated a Force Action! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Lily Keil with Saber Shatter! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Saber Shatter! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Kamui with Saber Shatter! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Clarine with Saber Shatter! GS: Ptolomea spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Brad Evans with Power Lift! GS: Ptolomea has launched an attack Link! GS: Ptolomea has entered Link Stance! GS: Ptolomea spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Ptolomea enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Brad Evans with Steel Crusher! GS: Ptolomea has activated a Boss Action! GS: Ptolomea spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Venetia Vuong with Ptolomea Dynamite! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ruth Pauling with Ptolomea Dynamite! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Ptolomea Dynamite! GS: Ptolomea has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Ptolomea Dynamite! GS: Ptolomea takes 31 damage from Poison! GS: Ptolomea has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Lily Keil takes a glancing hit from Ptolomea's Saber Shatter for 124 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lily Keil gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lily Keil enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Kamui suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Saber Shatter for 185 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Kamui enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Saber Shatter for 238 hit points! GS: Shield added to Kamui! GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Clarine heals Brad Evans! He gains 215 temporary hit points! GS: Brad Evans takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Power Lift for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Brad Evans gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Brad Evans! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Ptolomea Dynamite for 453 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Steel Crusher for 232 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling suffers a terrible blow from Ptolomea's Ptolomea Dynamite for 284 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Ptolomea's Saber Shatter for 107 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ptolomea enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong takes a solid hit from Ptolomea's Ptolomea Dynamite for 519 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and SOS Overdrive activated! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Fei answers Lily, and it's what she expects of him. Nevertheless... "That's true, I'm not. So maybe you're right," she allows, and that's the best she can do. But it is something. Something, like Ruth showing her 'true' form, and then mentioning that kinder world. And like...
"Fei's not confident. He just has hope. That's the difference. ...Between someone like him, and..."
Ida says she's in control, and she works with Boudicca closely, so Lily is willing to trust that. "Fair enough," she says of violence. But Brad--Brad makes her wonder. The hero you want to meet...
Is she, too, just showing fear of what the world could be? Is her belief that she might not be able to achieve it a form of avoidance?
Lily finds herself hesitating for a moment, but that ARM swings out, and Lily dives for cover, her armor shredded by the bullets that send her tumbling down when she hits the ground after all. It is Clarine's light that protects her, rtaher than her armor; that protective light take wounds that should be fatal and changes them. Determination, she says.
"...Yes," Lily answers. "Fei... you're right."
"I'm hiding from the world that 'could' be because I know the world that 'is'..."
"I'll meet that 'hero'. I'll find him. For myself, too."
Lily lowers her hands, pushing herself up off of the ground. The wings fade; her eyes remain black-on-black, but the markings die down, as she reaches to her side, and pulls the longsword there. "I won't be trapped in fear." She hefts the blade in both hands, and it glints--anyone familiar with the style will recognize this as the second stance of the Kislevi Six Hews. She raises her blade, and then brings it up, forward, parallel to the ground. Black mist begins to seethe from the sword around her, as if her shadow is rising from the ground to join her. ...No--exactly like her shadow is rising up from the ground to join her.
"Haaaaah--!"
Lily charges, and swings her blade across Ptolomea, charging right through to the other side, where it will be seen whether or not she hit.
"Never again."
GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost! GS: Hyper added to Lily Keil! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Lily Keil has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Lily Keil spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Lily Keil has attacked Ptolomea with Black Wolf's Claw! GS: Lily Keil gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lily Keil has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Lily Keil's Black Wolf's Claw for 295 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ptolomea gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Ptolomea's Ptolomea Dynamite for 131 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Ptolomea charges him. The attack is ferocious. Once again, Brad's weakness in melee is exploited ferociously - the blades carve into him, cutting thick, deep ravines in his flesh, and when he's thrown, rivers of blood splatter across the crystal floor. He slams hard into the console, which shorts out and erupts in loud, crackling sparks and electrical fires, while Brad languishes, carved for serving and breathing his last.
But his eyes open.
He stumbles forward, his wounds sealing over thanks to the miracle of Venetia's boon. His flesh hand hits the floor, stabilizing himself.
He thrusts out the Mechanical Glove, and it begins to mist out the construction matter it uses, layer upon layer of something building itself around his arm.
"A fool, too," Brad chuckles, his voice thick. He coughs as the apparatus finishes - a massive cannon, the size of a carriage, made of materials Filgaia no longer knows, the barrel shaped in a wide rectangle. Not for a physical projectile. Light sparks deep in its belly as particles gather.
He breathes heavily, and uses his free hand to drag the targeting device over - not that this thing has a whole lot of range.
"I'm not running from anything. My name doesn't matter. THAT name, does."
And then the Thunderbolt cannon lights up, releasing a massive column of blue-white light down upon Ptolomea, scouring even the crystal they stand on with its power.
GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action! GS: Brad Evans has activated a Force Action! GS: Brad Evans has attacked Ptolomea with Thunderbolt! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui finds herself overextended and exhausted after her manoeuvre, her resources spent; the gem on her circlet and chest both are blinking bright red as she turns and grimaces, Dashing past to try to evade Ptolomea's cannon, but she's too late. It lances across her arm and sends her spinning and skidding out of her move, landing on the ground.
"Power distribution is abnormal..." Kamui mutters. "Ngh... I used too much."
It's only through Clarine's barrier that she survives, invigorating light pushing her body to move further.
There's a faint exhale as she rises to her feet again, raising the X-Buster and shifting her entire body to support it in a bracing stance.
"You should answer her. She's exemplary of the kind of people your ideals should have an answer for," Kamui murmurs.
The X-Buster charges; wisps of indefatigable light withdraw into the barrel of the arm cannon, and her entire body converts that light of Clarine's into power of her own.
"... for the record, I ended up not having any answer for them either."
She lets loose -- and what erupts is less of a Buster shot and more of a sustained, screen-clearing and shining laser, consuming everything in its path.
GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Kamui has activated a Force Action! GS: Kamui spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Kamui has attacked Ptolomea with X-Buster - Maximum Discharge! GS: Kamui has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Confident??" Fei says. "You think I'm confident?? Also I mean it's totally legitimate for someone to change their name--Brad can be Brad if he wants, lets not be medieval about this--"
Yeah Fei got the wrong idea here.
He kind of lost his train of thought there actually.
An explosion goes off underneath him from the crsytal bullets and he is slammed against the ground, burns across the front half of his body. Resistance isn't immunity.
He looks to Lily. A world that could be.
Ptolomea wants that too.
"I'm terrified, every day... that I'll lose someone precious to me. But if I've learned one thing about Solaris is... Even if you destroy it, if you just replace it with another Solaris... what's the point?"
"Vinsfeld has no edict. He works with an actual king of darkness.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth waits for Ptolomea's answer as she drains some of the rancor going on in her head down to her heart as her right hand flourishes to load the next bullet in the storied clip of four. Where one may believe Ptolomea's slowing...
Through the wave of flame and wind, a rocket leaves, and strikes the ground. Ruth is only able to take one step in a direction ultimately fruitless other than 'up,' for the shockwave hurls her upwards, contorting and spinning in the air.
She comes down - not all that far from Ptolomea - and lands on her knees with a pained yelp as the bayonet blade embeds itself against the chamber floor somewhere between the formed cracks. Her breath becomes labored. Ptolomea's singular focus on Brad in that span of time is providence, as she rises up with the help of her rifle, but...
Can't get it loose. It reminds her of the time she was accosted at Halim. She laughs, bitterly, lowers her head, and looks upon the Granasian rosary still wrapped around her right forearm as others state their resolve against this.
She tilts the rifle towards her, pulls the trigger once for a deafening bang and a ricochet that completely misses Ptolomea.
Fiddling with it to load in the next bullet, she does it again - and the recoil of the second shot is enough to get it loosened out of there, with a humbling stumble into a crouch. (This other shot also pings off somewhere irrelevant.)
"...You couldn't answer me whether you'll accept yourself." Ruth strikes up a conversational tone far too hushed for the pain coursing through her legs. "If you can't... will you accept the scars you've left?"
The rifle held, she charges forward. Malevolence wreathes her left arm to give her the strength of a life that she can't quite resolve, looking to try and run through Ptolomea, look him in the eyes -
To see her own, wide, equal parts excitable and sorrowful -
And not pull the trigger on the fourth and final bullet, but to drink in a shared moment of two soldiers left with the means they have to give anything back to the world.
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action! GS: Ruth Pauling spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Ptolomea with Scars of Celesti! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has entered Hero Stance! GS: Hyper expired! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia watches Ptolomea. She listens. To him, of course; to the others as well. Her eyes flick to Clarine as she feels vigor wash into her, resting inside of her breast like a warm coal in a brazier on a chill, damp night. The feeling seems lucky, somehow.
The undulation in the crystalline floor does not protect her from that shock wave. In fact, it bursts on her, Earth itself betraying her. She is thrown backwards, hard enough to hit the wall and bounce, groaning involuntarily or at least gasping before sprawling forwards on her belly. The gun in its holster falls out, though it doesn't rattle far. The leather top on the Crest Graph pouch stays where it is.
She lays there, eyes wide and staring for a moment. Did my heart stop, she thinks. But then --
"Ptolomea..."
I can feel my right leg, Venetia thinks. It might be broken. Or is that my hip? No, I don't think it's my hip. But I can feel it, so my spine isn't cracked up too bad. Thank you, Clarine, Venetia thinks further, her eyes flicking towards her. What do Seraphs like, anyway? Look into it later.
"... I couldn't agree with you more."
Venetia pushes herself up with her left hand. "But let me ask you... How many battles, or wars, have there been in the last several years...? We can't blame you for what's happened before your movement began... but how many towns have been butchered, or conquered, or placed under military occupation... who might have resisted, if your strength, or the strength of your cronies, was turned to its defense?"
"How many people might have praised you as their saviors?" Venetia says, scooting her left leg forwards. (ow ow ow ow ow ow, she thinks, though her face stays like stone; the mask helps at moments like these.)
"How many ancient ARMs have you collected as part of your quest for power...? Probably many we've never even heard of. People who would stand idle and let others die... or use the gift of ARMs for their own selfish ends... those people are *just unforgivable*."
Venetia's eyes widen behind the mask. They track for a moment towards Lily, towards Fei. Hope, she thinks. Yes. They want hope. They're hungry for it. They haven't given up. Am I really arrogant enough to put myself in this seat? Yeah, Venetia thinks as she pulls herself upwards, reaching back to use the wall against the anchor point. Yeah, I decided that one pretty quick.
It's not broken, Venetia decides, but boy, does it hurt. It's probably swelling up like a sausage in the boot. Ow-ie. But can I get up further? Her eyes flick towards the bloody wreck of Brad Evans.
And then he rises.
Yes, Venetia thinks. Yes I can.
Pulling herself upwards, she puts the pain into her voice as a grating noise. "Ptolomea...!! You've missed the last station!! You're on the Chibiki-Iwa express train now! Do you know where it ends!? Languish in the agony of knowing your mistake. And!"
Her free hand whips up one last Crest. "Become a monument -- to your own folly!! Foundry Sign!" An opaline halo rises around her, as the magic flows up, contorts, weaves around as the world itself takes a breath...
And it forms something quite prosaic -- a sort of idealized drawing of a foundry crucible. It tilts forwards as it begins to float, a merry thing out of a tale of witches and sorcerers, until it begins to sway back and forth, flicking lashes of molten bronze that spark as they hit stone, on its inevitable pathway to heave the rest out at Ptolomea himself!
(Venetia makes an eloquent face of catastrophic agony and slumps back to the ground during this hellish flight, but she manages not to make a noise louder than a muffled groan. Dignity! Dignity, old bean.)
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated a Force Action! GS: Venetia Vuong has activated a Force Action! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Venetia Vuong has attacked Ptolomea with Foundry Sign ~The Statuary Garden~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Confident??" Fei says. "You think I'm confident?? Also I mean it's totally legitimate for someone to change their name--Brad can be Brad if he wants, lets not be medieval about this--"
Yeah Fei got the wrong idea here.
He kind of lost his train of thought there actually.
An explosion goes off underneath him from the crsytal bullets and he is slammed against the ground, burns across the front half of his body. Resistance isn't immunity.
He looks to Lily. A world that could be.
Ptolomea wants that too.
"I'm terrified, every day... that I'll lose someone precious to me. But if I've learned one thing about Solaris is... Even if you destroy it, if you just replace it with another Solaris... what's the point?"
"Vinsfeld has no edict. He works with an actual king of darkness."
Okay but ARMS TOO? But Fei doesn't seem to be aware of that so we keep on going here.
"Cecilia isn't like them. I know that much. And maybe... Maybe Shevat even learned its lesson. That's why they asked us for help. Give us a chance to break the cycle. One last time. If we fail again..."
Fei hesitates. "If we fail again, I'll call it quits."
Still trying to reach him huh...
Fei closes his eyes, shutting out the voices within. Maybe they aren't the same.
Maybe not the same enough.
But they're here and he isn't alone.
"So long as they're here... My fight isn't over. But you still have family to return to Ptolomea. Even if you abandoned them, you can still..."
He throws a singular palm strike for Ptolomea's mass.
"Return!"
GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ptolomea with Third Eye Sleepwalking! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Brad Evans's Thunderbolt for 338 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Ptolomea's ARM is swung, unleashing a violent hail of heavy machine-gun fire to tear through everything in his path. Crystalline shrapnel becomes an issue, as well. Clarine's mirrors rise to protect her, but there's only so much they can do - mirror after mirror is shattered, dispersed into motes of light. Clarine herself is riddled with bullets, too - motes of light rising from her form in several places.
It may be nothing but her willpower holding her form together at this very moment, preventing it from retreating to her vessel. She must see this through, however this ends, before she can allow herself to disperse for recovery. She owes her friends and allies that much - and him, as well.
"The world... will continue to endure. We shall see to it. And shall see it bettered. I give you my word." Clarine says. "And if my word is not enough, then let this light serve as my bond!"
With that, her mirrors start to move, rearranging themselves about the room. Many of them have been destroyed through battle, but that's fine - she can use the crystalline structure of this room to her advantage. Once more, a Seraphic glyph appears beneath her feet.
"One thousand divine lights, arise and light the path to tomorrow... Radiant Cannonade!" Clarine incants. From her position, numerous golden bolts fire out. They don't strike Ptolomea directly - instead, they go for her mirrors and the crystalline floor, reflecting off of surface after surface and picking up speed until, eventually, they begin to redirect toward Ptolomea himself - a volley of light aimed at him and his immediate vicinity to cut off any avenue of escape.
GS: Seraph Clarine has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Clarine spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ptolomea with Radiant Cannonade! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shield expired! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea suffers a terrible blow from Kamui's X-Buster - Maximum Discharge for 490 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Invigorating light falls on Boudicca, again, and she nods to Clarine. "Yes! We will not falter!" The breath of life is something Boudicca, whose life is breath, is entirely comfortable occupying.
Ida brings the flames of Moor Gault to Ptolomea, and Boudicca has to believe they strike true, even if he catches her fist. She springs back, again, from the rocket he fires in response to their attack -- but Boudicca is not a soldier; she does not expect the shockwave that shudders the ground as she lands.
She stumbles, and the wind loses her balance to fall to the ground. The shockwave, passing through her as easily as it does the air around her, cares little for the way she declines to be hit by those shots directly. Ptolomea's pain waves over Boudicca -- through Boudicca -- in the language of the soldier, a language she speaks as clumsily as her first.
"Ah... it hurts... does it not?" She asks, and might not entirely be asking him, voice gentled by the force of it as she pushes herself standing with a gust of air.
She looks to Brad, her hand curling at her heart, before she returns her attention to Ptolomea. "I... understand fear, myself, but... I know Brad to be bold and mettlesome. If he says the sad fate of those scared people can be broken..." Her hand swipes, down, to the ground. "It shall sunder! What matters his name, should it suffice?! He returned to us, after I saw the grief of his ending! This! This is what matters, Ptolomea! Your actions! Your effects on the people of this world or any other!" She gestures, fiercely, and without weapon in hand.
Open-palmed, her hand splays, towards the martial artist who has outlived her so, so long. "Listen to Fei! Go to your family, whilst still they might mourn your passing! Be a person the world would miss, if you miss your comrades so! What meaning is there, otherwise?!"
(Here she spares a thought to Kamui -- who sounds as if she doesn't see that meaning for herself, either -- but she cannot linger too long, in the heat of battle.)
Boudicca does not speak the language of violence well; even so, it is the language Ptolomea speaks.
And she did promise Clarine not to falter, even hard as it is to keep a hold of her physical form under Ptolomea's pressure.
"Blow, storm," Boudicca incants, as another wind-green sigil appears about her feet, "and stopper misery! Howling Gale!" Throwing her hands out, she sends the swirling winds about her to him, instead -- hoping to eclipse him, for just a moment, in those swirling hurricane winds.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated a Force Action! GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Ptolomea with Howling Gale! GS: Hyper expired! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
That click gives Ida a moment of hope. Ptolomea might be a cybernetically-augmented super-soldier from a top-secret city-state, but even he is subject to mortal ammunition counts. But then she hears that second click, and her heart leaps into her throat, and she screams out: "SCATTER!"
The rocket blooms into a wave of destruction. Ida has already thrown herself away from the center of the blast; the shockwave catches her, and sends her tumbling. Fire washes across her face, and blackens her armor. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Venetia hit the wall, sees her mouth open in a groan. Is she fine? Please be fine. Ida is focused on something more deliberately horrible, the gleam of Ptolomea's claw as he--
"BRAD!" Ida's voice is a raw shriek.
'You'll never see the hero you want to meet if you lack the courage to be him!'
This human. His heart aches for this human. So many lost. So many forgotten. And for what, in the end?
But that green eye focuses on Brad, widening as the bleeding, wounded man picks himself off the ground. Ida breathes again. He... sees. This dream is...
"Ptolomea," Ida says, her lips twisting. "If the world became what you want it to be, could you bring yourself to live in it? Or are you looking for a place to die? Death's Door herself saw your path, and turned away!"
Ida clenches her fist. Light uncoils from within it, the brilliant golden-white of her power mingling with the fiery spectrum of Fafnir's. A wordless roar escapes her lips as she falls into synch with Fei, rushing forwards beside him. The shockwave of her punch is channeled, controlled--the impact is no less bone-crushing for it, nor is its searing radiance any less for it. Fei is still trying. Who even knows what Id's telling him? If nothing else, Ida can be there with him, now.
This is a part of Luisa's legacy.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ptolomea with Unbroken Lotus Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has entered Avenger Stance! GS: Amplify and Burst expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Scars of Celesti for 219 hit points! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Disease, Disrupt, and Poison applied to Ptolomea! GS: Ptolomea has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Ptolomea solidly guards Seraph Clarine's Radiant Cannonade for 148 hit points! GS: Ptolomea has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Ptolomea partially guards Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 179 hit points! GS: Ptolomea has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Ptolomea solidly guards Venetia Vuong's Foundry Sign ~The Statuary Garden~ for 148 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Ptolomea! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Ptolomea has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Ptolomea solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Third Eye Sleepwalking for 185 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Ptolomea has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Ptolomea takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 281 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Ptolomea has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ptolomea has posed.
Ptolomea knows of the Kislevi Six Hews, even if he doesn't know the style. "What in the--" He starts to ask. Lily charges, and the blade bites deep. He shouts with alarm, then pain, as she tears through. His body staggers, as she rushes to the other side. Shadow and blood wisp off him.
The X-Buster fires -- the blast slams into his ARM, as he tries to block it, and sends one of the blades flying as it's torn off. "Gh--"
He looks at Ruth. "Of course I accept the scars. It's regrettable--but I caused them. And I would again!" he tells Ruth. Her bayonet stabs into him, spearing through him. "Hrk--"
He shoves her back, with his good hand. But he stumbles, weakly, now. "What are you getting at...?" he tries to ask Venetia -- but she explains, and his eyes widen. Lashes of molten bronze slam into him, burning off a second blade, and leaving a wicked scorched mark across his chest.
"There's no return for me! I won't... I won't accept it!" he says to Fei, as his palm strikes his chest. He's smashed backward, into Clarine's mirror-derived blasts of light. They smash into him, throwing him backward, left and right, and forward. He staggers through it, raggedly. "How... can you be... so sure?"
He looks up at Boudicca; his good eye narrows. Her wind rips at him, and he just barely manages to not be thrown aside by it. The blades of wind lash over him, cuts upon cuts, from the powerful gale. "I don't need a place to die..." he tells Ida. "I want a world that--that..."
But the words fail him. Ida's punch smashes into him, the shockwave sending him stumbling back. He raises his battered ARM -- but there's only the hollow click of emptied chambers. His eye turns towards a great, gathering glow.
Brad's weapon charges up. Motes of light are drawn into it -- and then the Thunderbolt fires. The massive column of energy strikes Ptolomea dead on. He is hurled backward, smashed into the wall. He is burnt; he is bloodied. He crumples down in a heap, his eye on Brad. Then, on the room.
"So... this... this is how it ends," he manages. "Gh... Commander Vinsfeld... is it worth it?"
Ptolomea slumps back. His good eye goes glassy, and his body grows still.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Thunderbolt sizzles - the one-off constructions of the Mechanical Glove don't have much in the way of redundancy or durability. It's burnt out after one shot. That's fine; it'll decay back to construction matter shortly. He disengages the Glove from it, and grabs at his neck, rolling it until he gets a satisfying pop and stretch.
He watches until Ptolomea stops moving, and dips his head quietly. He balls his unarmed fist in front of his lips, a silent prayer.
Then he steps toward the consoles, saying, "We have to do better than win. We have to make sure the world after is one that won't create more."
He finds the console, and begins shutting down systems with a confident hand. "...until there's no more need for heroes," he murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily is quiet, in the end. To all the answers, to all the questions, what he will and won't accept. She simply stands, holding her sword, and looks down. She turns, in the end, towards where Ptolomea is hurled backwards. The question...
"...I'll ask him myself. When I catch up to him and to Father."
Lily looks down, and wipes the blade of her sword with a hand, void magic clearing away the blood as her fingers pass over it.
"...I could've been just like you. I think... I still could."
Lily sheathes her weapon, and shakes her head, closing her eyes.
"But I'll fight on. ...For your memory now, too."
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui's expression is flat and undisturbed even after she holds position, as Ptolomea stares to Brad and whispers of whether or not it was worth it.
"... it won't be long until I join you. Don't worry."
She scans for life signals and finds none; there's a quiet moment for her... then... her eyes scan around and the displeasure grows on her face.
"... it's not here either. Where do you want me to search, Lumen...? If I don't find it before then..."
Explaining positively nothing, Kamui disappears as a literal bolt in the blue, rising up into the air as little more than particles.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
In that moment where eyes meet, it is Ruth who recoils. She's shoved back, as Ptolomea's failing strength gives to his feelings there's no return. He can't accept it, and she can't watch any further.
But she can never fully look away.
She's not far from Brad in terms of offering prayer and putting forth an outward image of peacefulness through her own wounds and physical strain. Ida's calls to Ptolomea about how she saw that path and turned away...
There's a little smile there. At best, most of the time she can only pretend at it.
It's gotten easier. It's gotten harder. A smile is gotten, one way or another, slaking the worst of it on the feeling of Ptolomea's suffering leaving.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Because I must. And because I have faith in those who stand with me - in their strength, their determination, their kindness... Because they are here, I can trust that this world will be better." Clarine replies, as Ptolomea asks her how can she be so sure. "They restored my hope."
They fight - and in the end, Ptolomea falls, and goes still. Quietly, Clarine shuts her eyes, bowing her head.
"...Farewell, Cocytus Ptolomea. You fought well. We shall see to it that those beneath you are treated fairly. ...That is all we can offer you, now." Clarine replies, and her head rises. She watches Kamui leave, and then looks toward Brad, nodding quietly.
"...Yes." She murmurs, in agreement.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
How can you be so sure?
Fei knows that question was for Clarine, but he can't help but feel it directed at him as well. How can he be sure of this when he is so sure of so little? That there is a place to return to? That there is a better existence beyond just Solaris, and that building a house with Solaris's tools will just create another...Solaris.
How does he know?
Ages past
They run. Through the desert. And a hand that once extended down lays still. But before even that.
A view of the moon. A moment, a flicker of what he first saw when reaching Lunar. A memory he scarcely understands. That does not truly belong to him.
"I'll tell them." He says softly. "Your family. Even if you abandoned them. I'd like to think... they still would want to..."
He exhales slowly.
Ptolomea goes still.
"...rr....rrRAAAGGHH!!"
Fei slams both of his fists into the ground.
"The truth is... I've just seen what becomes of me when I think like you... All I know is... I can't be that person again."
He takes another shuddering breath. "...I'll bring you home."
He stsands up again and he crouches down to pick him up and then Kamui--
"Holy shit NO, OH MY GOD, WHAT?" Fei look to Kamui, "What are you, FIFTEEN? Jesus Christ." Fei stands up with the body. "Don't you dare...! What is it with everybody being such a fan of dying dramatically all of a sudden??"
He adjusts his body to make holding Ptolomea more comfortable. "I'm going to Shevat!!"
He starts marching off before pausing and looking back, "Listen!! The job is to Live! Not to die! Get it? LIVE? Memorize it. GEEZE."
He can't throw up his arms but he does it metaphorically as he stomps off.
"Can't believe it, can't believe this, you all need a therapist or something...!"
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia breathes heavily with the pain in her leg and side. Oh, yes, she thinks. Maybe it WAS broken a little. That was a bad idea.
Even so, she chuckles, in a ghastly tone. "It's always good to win an argument," she manages to get out, before concluding with a quiet "ow," and digs out some sort of Heal Berry homeopathic gummy from her bag, which she gulps down and which at least eases things.
She looks towards Kamui JUST as Kamui does that strange disappearing trick. "I should tell Armitage about that," Venetia says, after several seconds of shocked silence.
"Evans," Venetia says quietly. Then she raises her voice. "Evans! There's no great haste but I'm going to need your help to leave. And Clarine, yes, let me ask you, is there anything you particularly like to eat, or drink, or.....??"
She is trailing off partly in ignorance and partly because of Fei's immediate departure to the smoking section outside. Considering this in painful silence for a moment, Venetia opts, in the end, not to say anything witty, but to slouch back against the wall.
Whatever else may come, that's a goal for our side, she thinks: if, despite all, with a little unease.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Though we spoke that tongue, still, you..."
Boudicca looks to Ptolomea, who cannot look to her in turn; they decimated their eyes, one soldier after another, one justification after another.
She looks to him, and she looks away. The story her fingers tell is trembling, as Kamui's disappearance and Fei's recriminations ring in her ears.
"To live... is a better aim. But... he would not stop... I, we had to..."
Her fingers tighten, as she looks, sidelong, to Lily. Being like a soldier... doesn't it frighten her, with all the ambiguity inherit in the statement?
Killing someone... no, even now, it is always...
"We gather... too many memories, I think."
She will stay behind, to see to Venetia and the others; Boudicca has no intention of leaving anyone behind.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A hollow click. Is this man hollow, too? Could he live, even if he won? Who asked that question? He knows someone had to ask for him to answer. Was it... her?
Ida's feet slide to a halt, keeping her from following Ptolomea's path. She sees a bleeding, battered Brad raise his titanic ARM and unleash apocalyptic force. Ptolomea goes flying. For a moment, Ida slides into a fighting stance again, expecting him to get back up--
He never does.
Not for the first time, Ida listens to someone's dying words. Her throat tightens, but she forces herself to look. This is how it ends for Ptolomea.
She has no words. She can't even bring herself to say a prayer, or make a gesture of blessing. Instead, her eyes open in alarm as Kamui and Fei inadvertently widen the cut. Kamui is gone before she can intervene, but Fei--
"Fei," Ida says, and her mind flashes back to the young man falling towards the lava. "That goes for you, too." She doesn't follow. That... needs to happen when she isn't still raw from watching a man sacrifice himself on Vinsfeld's altar. Her body is burned and battered. Her eyes dart towards Boudicca. "Boudicca," Ida says, "do you have some water?" An almost trivial request. But care is never trivial, is it, in the face of something like this.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Care is never trivial -- and is Boudicca giving it, or being given? "Of course," she replies, either way; she delivers one of those water-skeins she always carries with her to Ida, handing it over carefully, mindful of her burns. "Please, take all that you need. You did so..." Tears well in her eyes; she swallows, blinks them away. "... so well, Ida. Ah, do excuse me..." She tries not to be too obvious about wiping her face, as she goes about the task of healing. (She will accept what comfort comes her way, though. Care is rarely so unidirectional.)
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Yeah don't worry!! No death wish here!" Fei says to Ida, trying not to explode figuratively, metaphorically, or literally. He stalls at Boudicca's words because he's been there. He has. Is still.
He'll apologize later. She's looking out for him. She's a good friend but right now he really needs to get alone and fast before he lashes out more.