2023-03-18: The Unsung War
- Log: The Unsung War
- Cast: Zhang Xiumei, Solitaire Collier, Erzebet Lefanu, Seraph Ragnell, Ratatoskr, Azoth, Eleanor Klein, Hicalu Wilwisp, Ashley Winchester, Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Clarine, Ida Everstead-Rey, Brad Evans, Juni Vandrer
- Where: Heimdall Gazzo
- Date: March 18, 2023
- Summary: ARMS has made its way through Heimdall Gazzo. Before they can reach the innermost area, though, there is a final battle with who remains from Odessa.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
ARMS has made its way through Heimdall Gazzo.
They had to push their way through via drill-tipped, rocket-armed shells -- and then fight their way past defenses of ancient Zeboim automatons, the layout of the ancient sky fortress itself, and the last of Odessa's troops. Odessa put everything it had into defending it.
Now, multiple groups arrive at the same time in the central elevator room. Here, several elevators lead onward -- to the bridge, where Vinsfeld awaits, and to the engine room, where control of the ship can be seized. Both will need to be taken. And, to make matters worse, the alarm that went up warned that the intruder that impacted the ship landed near the engine room.
But the way isn't clear.
For Odessa is fielding its finest -- between the arriving elite of ARMS and their goal is a number of Odessa's best soldiers.
For one final standard, between ARMS and Filgaia's future.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
"Enough."
A familiar (to some of you) mouse-girl in Odessa uniform--still barely a teenager--approaches the group from a side cooridor that had been blocked off by another ARMS squad.
Solitaire is wearing the blood of slain ARMS officers like a sash across her Odessa uniform. It drips off of Patience--Nidhogg to those that know them--in such quantities it is clear she's been busy. Outside of a few Ruth-inflicted bruises, Solitaire doesn't appear to be injured--unless those blood splatters are covering them up anyway.
"Why are you fighting us? You too, are workers. You too, are soldiers." Solitaire shakes her head. "Do you not wish to be free of your bloody work? To return home to your loved ones? To not be sent off to kill and die on behalf of distant masters you scarcely ever see--if at all?"
Solitaire pops a gummy into her mouth and swallows it down. It helps keep the scratch off her voice.
"Vinsfeld, regardless of what you think of him, is at least trying to bring a better future to Filgaia. The cost may be higher than you are willing to pay, but is there truly a price too high for freedom?"
She carves a line into Heimdall Gazzo's metal floor with Patience and then steps back.
"...I will not allow you to pass this line. .... Having tasted freedom... I know how precious it is... What I'd pay for it..."
She readies the Demon Axe Nidhogg before her. "..... But I will not disrespect your warrior way... You killed the Old Man. Ptolomea.... I will fight. I will chase my dream to the end..."
"That is.... What freedom is... To me."
She turns her head and coughs but then she steadies herself--ready for whatever may come.
DC: Juni Vandrer switches forms to Aldakhili Stalker!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
As the group makes their way into the central elevator room - the logical place, the natural place, the tactical and strategic core, the arterial highway that will lead to the end of all things -
Well, it's where YOU'D put an ambush, wouldn't you? Or at least a defense.
There are some improvised objects and indeed the first arrivals can see a huge horse-Beastman slamming down a piece of recovered scrap before running off down a side pathway -- Edward will have no role in what happens here, now, on this field.
But do you know who is?
https://i.imgur.com/wU8Fa4D.jpg
This person.
"You know, I think Solitaire put it pretty well," says Erzebet, who is in fact in exactly that pose, right now. "So I won't repeat anything that she said."
(Inwardly Erzebet wonders. Solitaire believes. She thinks good old Ratatoskr believes but she doesn't really know him very well, and maybe she can't, because he's an alien. The philosophical challenges of communication are abstract, and perhaps Erzebet's lousy life decisions and established self-image have overcomplicated this, but be that as it may.)
(Do I believe? Do I believe in what I'm doing? Am I here because I want to be or did I just fall into it, following a path of least resistance that went into unusual cases and anomalous places? I've left humanity behind, haven't I? I've left the old views behind, haven't I? What else have I left and lost?)
(Does this sort of thing bring the dawn? And why did the gun tell me that, back in the day?)
"I guess what I want to say," Erzebet says as she sweeps up some blood off her jacket's side and raises the thumb up, still wet, to her mouth to suck clean: "is, just how much of a price are you guys willing to pay for your take on the future, you know?"
The lenses of her glasses gleam an anomalous orange. "Well," she says, with a blood-wet smile, "Let's find out together!"
DC: Eleanor Klein switches forms to Eleanor, Sage of Light! DC: Solitaire Collier switches forms to Malice Striker!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
The Seraph Ragnell, known irreverent jerk and literal free spirit, is in the paramilitary organization known as Odessa. She hasn't bothered to tell most of the Drifter community why. What would be the fun of just saying, anyway?
When the alarm goes up, she's lounging at the heart of Heimdall Gazzo, seated upon a machine with her back sprawled on the wall, arms folded behind her head, one leg crooked up atop the machine, and the other dangling lazily off its side. As Solitaire steps out to boldly face the encroaching Drifters, Ragnell crooks a sharp half-grin and utters a low "heh."
"Freedom, huh. Good for you, mouse girl," she comments to Solitaire. To Erzebet, she says, "There's no point in tellin' 'em all that, you know. If Drifters were the kind o' folk who'd just let other folks do whatever they wanted, they wouldn't be here in the first place." To both, she declares, "But I get it. It's satisfyin' to get the last word in."
She hops off her perch, executing a sinous full-body flip that might be impossible for actual human beings. When she lands, it's with one hand on the brim of her hat, hiding her eyes but not her broad, vicious grin. In a snap of motion, her paired pistols are in hand, twirling until she aims them at the Drifter crowd.
"So yeah, I'm up for findin' out too!" she crows.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
There's some more movement around the periphery of the central elevator room. It's easy to dismiss as just movement of ancient Zeboim defenses making their pre-programmed rounds along Heimdall Gazzo, but the rhythm that would be expected of the automatons gives way to more organic, chaotic echoes. Like it's... someone...
"...I almost missed it..." The shine of Ratatoskr's solid yellow eyes accompanies a breath-heavy voice as he comes out from some loosened Zeboim segmented alloy plating. His human blood-colored armor is worn and chewed up from fresh run-ins with... who, or what, exactly? No one saw him or even fought him until now, as he awkwardly interposes himself among Odessa's final line.
"I was there when everyone came together to fight against Mother on the Photosphere..." The Hyadean stands at his impressive full height, which is exactly at eye level with Brad, but he's still a lanky fellow. It's at the tip of his tongue, one of his usual lines of 'that was great,' but it doesn't get voiced. "...And just when I thought that might've been it, there'd be peace..." He grins a little.
"...For all we'll never know, I'm seeing it here... this really is the greatest years in the history of Filgaia and beyond... I'm glad I'm here to see it." For how arrogant and kind of obnoxious Ratatoskr's usual speaking voice is, his is quieter, more reverent, a side-eye (kind of? his eyes are solid so it's tough to track movement outside of how his whole head does) to those gathered.
"...Whatever happens... I'm not letting it disappear like so much has..." He starts to part his arms in a Muay Thai like stance, raised arms, palms downward, one knee raised and slightly bent. "Right... wrong... this is history in the making..."
"Whoever's writing it from here... I'm bearing witness!"
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
Zhang Xiumei is clad in her armor, as she walks. She is visible first by the parts that glow -- Pulse Saber, already drawn, eyes, and gems and rings of light around her hips -- and then all of her as she steps into view. Clad in white and green armor, with a black bodysuit, and looking at the Odessa soldiers gathered.
She glances sideways -- looks at Azoth, meets her friend's eyes, then nods. "Be careful, Azoth. Let's not give Kamui any more reason to be sad," she says, with a smile.
She looks at Solitaire, for a moment, and her eyes narrow for a moment. She notes Ratatoskr and Ragnell; both who she has had encounters with, before. Then, she looks up, peering at Erzebet. She catches the way she licks the blood clean.
"We've already paid a price," Xiumei answers, coolly. "We're just cashing our last check. The future can't be one where Vinsfeld leaves cities destroyed."
Then she holds her hand out. Cubes of light explode into being, in front of her hand, and then condense down into a short, one-handed cannon. She aims it for Erzebet -- draws her bead -- and pulls the trigger. Three bolts of white-green light explode from the barrel for her.
She calls out to Erzebet, as she fires. "So if there's a price to pay... then we have! And we'll keep doing it, for this world we love!"
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst! GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth is in a hurry.
They're close. So close! Agonizingly close! Already, he's cleaved through several Odessa elites with his group on the way here, but there's just no end it it, it seems. There's elites and then there's elite elites. This isn't a battle that will be over quickly, and he needs it over quickly! An already well bloodied warrior, Ratatosker, Solitaire, and even... Ragnell.
Azoth puts his hands on his hips and flashes Ragnell a look that says 'oh you'. She gets a few seconds to enjoy it before his demeanor hardens into something serious. He meets Xiumei's look with one of his own, nodding firmly. "Right. You, too. We'll see this through."
Solitaire asks if there's a price too high for freedom.
"Uh, I dunno, freedom itself?" He winces with the quip. "Solitaire, come on now, weren't you the one warning me about being exploited? You can walk away and go free without helping someone hold all of Filgaia hostage."
But for Solitaire to be here, she must have her own stubborn reasoning, just as the rest of Odessa does. (And Ragnell.) Azoth's face turns grim. "A friend of mine is going to lose her freedom. People like her and me... once freedom's lost, we sometimes never get it back. So..."
He snaps his fingers, and lines of bright, blue light pulse through his body, spreading from his chest to his fingertips, and even over his face.
Then, in a blur of speed, he launches himself forward... one whole entire inch over that line she's carved into the floor. He flashes a smile dipping forward into a bow with arms spread in a cheeky challenge.
"...I need past your line."
GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with Overclock! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Azoth accepts Azoth's Overclock for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify and Lock state applied to Azoth! GS: Quick applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst for 170 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Zhang Xiumei!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor's boots click to a stop.
"My loved ones are those whose blood Vinsfeld would spill to bring about his 'new age'," Eleanor says to Solitaire coolly. "Many people have many ambitions. That he pursues his does not make him noble."
She regards Erzebet, ahead, only after she notices the horse-Beastman running off. ...That's for the best. She doesn't really want to face him again... But her?
"I don't," Eleanor says of Solitaire putting it well. But Erzebet wants to say something. And she is definitely bloody again. How much of a price?
"...Yes," the Sage agrees with Erzebet, glancing to Ragnell, and then to Ratatoskr, before considering her in particular. What she wants to say, with her bloody jacket and mouth...
Ratatoskr is going to 'bear witness'. To not let it disappear. But Erzebet...
"I suppose you'll see," Eleanor says, rather than saying something cool and heartless like a part of her thinks might be dramatic. She pulls her golden pistol, instead. Xiumei has more impressive words than she does, and Eleanor smiles at her.
Then she lifts her weapon again. "For Aquvy, and Filgaia!"
Eleanor's gun glints brilliantly in the light, and then she fires a bullet that explodes into ice on impact, seeking to freeze the other woman in place.
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Frigid Bullet! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Eleanor Klein's Frigid Bullet for 73 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.
Tristan Klein is counting on Hicalu! Sure, he thought he'd joined ARMS when he said it, but Hicalu didn't know he'd given the frankly outrageous impression that he was anything other than the local baker NPC.
Anyway, that means that a terrified foxman ran after Eleanor's party after they cleared out all the dangers, yelping and whining the whole way. He bought a fold-out box to hide in when someone looks his way. He's Solid Fox, now.
At that same periphery where Hicalu would have been perfectly happy to hide, though --
There comes --
THE MOST TERRIFYING SOLDIER IN ODESSA! --
(*According to Hicalu Wilwisp.)
Ratatoskr, all made of knives and grins, seems... quieter, though, than he was before. Hicalu peeks out of his Hiding Box, and wonders whether he's even really trying to stop them... if he really wants to just see it happen. Is that terrifying guy... more complicated than he thought..?!
NOTE: Hicalu's big fluffy tail is sticking out of his box. He hasn't exactly figured out sneaking yet.
Hicalu hastily folds up his Hiding Box and tucks it back in his bum-bag (you know he has one of those), shaking like a maraca the whole way through. "Uhh, ummm!!" He stammers, as he fumbles with his telescoping staff, and --
drops it on the ground --
and hastily picks it up and actually unfolds it, waving it at Ratatoskr. "I-I live in a c-c-city! A lot of t-t-the time! S-so! Um!! I'm g-gonna stop you!! T-t-this is a good idea a-and I'm NOT CRYING!"
NOTE: Hicalu is currently crying.
He's also scurrying forward to bonk Ratatoskr with his healer's stick, though. Give him that much credit.
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Ratatoskr with Big Bonk! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action. GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Hicalu Wilwisp's Big Bonk for 16 hit points! GS: Interrupt applied to Ratatoskr!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
What price is freedom worth?
Isn't putting a price on freedom kind of... pessimistic, inherently? To imply that there's some kind of minimum bar to entry, that 'freedom' shouldn't just be the default state of things and that 'sacrifices' are needed so that 'those who remain' can reap the benefits of freedom, is...
It's a sad way of looking at the world.
One that smacks of being instilled by someone who ultimately sees life as transactional.
What does that say about Vinsfeld Rhadamanthys...?
Ashley doesn't know. To be honest, Ashley doesn't know much about the man at all. He was one of Brad's old comrades, he knows that. He's obviously a charismatic person, that's obvious. But he also wields terror like a bludgeon, smashing the everyday lives of innocent people for the sake of his ideals-- and that is something Ashley cannot stand.
"...Why do you think we'd take your freedom...?" Ashley asks, stepping out from his own corridor. "All we want is to put a stop to this madness. Whatever future Vinsfeld is fighting for, it's not worth as many lives as he's willing to sacrifice. To say that a 'better Filgaia' demands sacrifice..."
"If that's the dream you're chasing, then we've got no choice but to stop you here! Everyone, heads up!" Ashley loads a canister and...
Fires!!
AT THE PARTY!?!?
No, it's not a weapon! The canister bursts, deploying a trio of mini-canisters full of... HEAL BERRY MUFFINS!! "Courtesy of another baker's recipe! Eat up, we'll need all the strength we can get to push through this!"
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Ashley Winchester with Canister - Portable Pastries! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Brad Evans with Canister - Portable Pastries! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Azoth with Canister - Portable Pastries! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Ashley Winchester accepts Ashley Winchester's Canister - Portable Pastries for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Regen applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Azoth accepts Ashley Winchester's Canister - Portable Pastries for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Burst and Regen applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It won't be long now.
It's not for the sake of redemption. She'd said as much to Irving Valeria himself and others besides, not the least of them the Trial Knight themself. What has been done can't be undone: she doesn't expect foregiveness. But neither is she about to lay herself down and let the world do as it will.
This isn't her atonement. It's because it's the right thing to do.
And if she's able, it won't be the last thing she ever does, either. As she had said before, there's a long road left for her to walk.
Of course there's an obstacle in her path. But then, she'd said as much: of the sorts that had stayed with Odessa, either they're true believers, or...
"Well, well, looks like us lot're all meetin' up again," Josie drawls, from the opposite side of the battlefield from her erstwhile allies.
"But I told you already, right? I ain't got a reason to side with you now." Her lips split in a grin. "And I ain't gonna have much of a future, neither, if'n I don't take the fight to you, yeah? So you can miss me with that business about home and the like. I'm playin' for keeps." She swings her rifle off her shoulder, the action punctuated by Penelope's flight for the ceiling rafters.
That defiant smile of hers diminishes when her gaze settles on Ratatoskr. "You're really doing this, huh, Rata? Well... far be it from me to take it from you. If you're up for observin', then I'll give you a show--"
Enter Hicalu Wilwhisp, who had previously been well-disguised as a box. The boy fumbles with his staff and immediately drops it.
"..."
Hicalu is definitely crying.
"Try not to kill the kid, though?" she says to Ratatoskr, shrugging in a broad, 'what am I going to do about this' sort of way.
And then she shoots Ratatoskr.
GS: Brad Evans accepts Ashley Winchester's Canister - Portable Pastries for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Regen applied to Brad Evans! GS: Hyper applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Screwdriver! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Screwdriver for 49 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine is here - she has fought through Odessa's forces along with her friends, to the heart of Heimdall Gazzo...
...where the last of Odessa's elite now stand before them, barring their way forward - whether that be to the engine room or to Vinsfeld himself.
"...Is that truly freedom? To live with a blade looming above one's head?" Clarine asks. "...Heimdall Gazzo is a threat. No freedom it brings can truly be called 'freedom'."
...Her attention, then, turns toward Ragnell.
"...It is true, what she says. We are a rather stubborn bunch, are we not?" Clarine agrees. She watches her intently as she performs a flip. Ragnell is one of her closest, oldest friends.
She has not forgotten, however, that she has thrown her lot in with Odessa. Her reason still yet alludes her - but, there is one way she yet known to figure that out. She makes no attempt to dissuade her from her current course of action. She has far too much respect for her than to assume that she has approached this idly.
"Then let us show you." Clarine says, as Ragnell echoes Erzebet's declaration that they find out how much the Drifters are willing to pay. With a twirl, Clarine's mirrors emerge from her sleeves, floating around her as she readies herself. "And let me show you, Ragnell - just how far I have come!"
She casts a hand out - and a burst of light flares out, rushing toward Ragnell before erupting in a blinding flash!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Incandescence! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Odessa is throwing everything it has left at this gambit. Ida was betting there were more lines of defense behind the initial defense team, and she was right.
The martial artist slips out from behind Ashley as he approaches the Odessans. She rests atop the razor's edge of tension, ready for the inevitable violence. Her gaze flicks to Solitaire as she speaks up, and a sadness seeps into her eyes, for just a moment. She blinks, and then it's gone.
"Then bear witness," Ida says, having apparently singled Ratatoskr out as her opponent. All the tension seems to flow out of her as she slips into an open-handed stance, and steps forward. "And--"
'I-I live in a c-c-city!'
Ida's head whips to the side, resolve giving way to momentary horror as Hicalu tries to engage. Why is he here?! Ida has no time to think, but she does have a pretty good grasp of how Ratatoskr operates. She just has to give him a more appealing target. "The heir of Luisa Rey challenges you, warrior Ratatoskr." The language is a little stilted, but it's a valid traditional Hyadean format. Ida immediately launches into a flurry of light, testing blows, providing Ratatoskr with combat enrichment in the form of finger-strikes and open-palm blows.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Water Dragon Form! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
The Hero of Slayheim arrives. The man several times betrayed and near as many times killed by Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus. For more than anyone else, Odessa has been a personal affront to Brad Evans, as the man who has seen Vinsfeld's playbook before. The central elevator room opens up and...indeed. Of course the ambush is here.
...and Solitaire speaks.
"Mine," Brad says, quietly, to the assembled, and bends his neck until it cracks. Then he marches closer, eyes leveling to the child - as he sees it - spattered in crimson. "One of Ptolomea's folks, huh?" he says. "He and I had some disagreements. He had convictions, but we couldn't understand each other at the end."
He watches her cough, struggling. He watches her steady herself.
"Freedom for you, huh...freedom as long as you aren't killed by a man who kills his best friends. That's not much freedom, little lady." He pulls his Mechanical Glove up, fingers coiling one by one under his gaze.
"'fraid I'm gonna have to ask you to see a bigger world than this," he says, and then the glove emits a loud whine as he winds up and decks her across the face.
GS: Blitz! Brad Evans has attacked Solitaire Collier with Punch Drunk! GS: Brad Evans gains 59 THP from Regen! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action. GS: Solitaire Collier takes a solid hit from Brad Evans's Punch Drunk for 100 hit points! GS: Break applied to Solitaire Collier! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 51 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Clarine's Incandescence for 129 hit points! GS: Blind blocked! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni's arrived alone. She had taken her dropship trooper ride with an AI that had other missions in mind. This means she's kept at a low ready. Creeping along, low ready. Hood up, mantle locked down, dull and mottled grey coat buttoned up and secured and kit set to webbing.
She steps up the pace though, spotting the others.
Lifting her rifle and resting it against the corner where she's taken partial cover, she thumbs the toggle to extend the barrel out and responds to Collier's question with, "History's filled with self-proclaimed saints." She doesn't go any further though as she changes her focus to the other blood soaked individual.
The barrel of her rifle extends and locks into place. A very faint glow trailing along the circuitry before dimming out of existence again. "The same price any soldier pays to protect their home, adopted or not and the people of it. I have a hunch you'll punch out before we do though." She's got a cold touch to her voice. The bloodlust on display, stage act or not has set a resolve in place.
GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Juni Vandrer with Long Barrel Configuration! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Juni Vandrer's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
"..." Solitaire looks to Ragnell. She doesn't actually know Ragnell well. "Mm." Solitaire says to her. She isn't going to argue that the last word is awesome--though who is going to end up with that last word is likely still a point of contention. Even so, her words may have been less for the Drifters as so much for the Odessa Agents that are with her. Solitaire isn't exactly known for getting too chatty outside of dire circumstances and even when she is, it's usually one and done.
"Is it Filgaia he is holding hostage? Or the current hegemon?" Solitaire asks Azoth. "Will you kill the old men and women holding our world hostage? ... Could you even?"
She spins her axe forward but Azoth does have words that strike a stronger chord with her. "...Your friend, whom do you mean?" Her eyes slant to Xiumei for a moment, then back to Azoth. "....'Kamui'?"
Unfortunately before Solitaire can ask anything else, Azoth crosses the line!
Why does Solitaire think they are going to take away her freedom? Solitaire didn't say that they were, but Solitaire answers anyway, "Death...is the ultimate denial of freedom." She sighs, knowing this truth--and knowing that even so she must swing her axe. "But no. A better Filgaia does not demand...." Her eyes narrow. "...But it does accept."
Ashley summons HEAL BERRY MUFFINS.
Solitaire doesn't seem to realize that the muffins are only for Ashley Winchester's allies as she just snatches out a hand and steals one of Ashley's muffins... just like that!
She munches down on it. "Mmph."
Chomp chomp. "...Mm......."
...Solitaire... Are you okay?
"This muffin..." Solitaire's eyes sparkle. "....Is really good."
She shoves the rest of the muffin into her mouth, pinning it there with her mouth. She doesn't look sorry about stealing Ashley's muffins at all!
Brad speaks up next. Solitaire's eyes slant back to Brad. He says something that gets her eyes to widen.
And her resolve is pressed enough with those words that he can get a good clobber into Solitaire's face. Her head jerks to the side from the force of the blow. She stumbles back, bleeding from her lip.
She swallows down Ashley's stolen muffin.
"Yes." She says, of being one of Ptolomea's. She might be the last soldier of Ptolomea left alive or out of prison.
"...Kills his best friends..." Solitaire is getting more economical with her words. Her voice is hoarser, softer. "What do you...mean?"
She steadies herself.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W36pEP9LYE
"...You all crossed the line."
A dark aura crackles around Nidhogg as she swings the axe in a wide arc towards all three of those who crossed the line, intending to rip into them quick and hard and force them back while she takes a moment to recover. Ashley--the farthest back, requires her to take another long swing.
"He spoke of you like a God." She says to Brad, then his gaze turns to Azoth. "...But I will not fall to those who wear collars. Azoth... Are you here because of your friend or because you are made to be here?"
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Solitaire Collier with ImPatience! GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 2 Combo! GS: Solitaire Collier's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Solitaire Collier heals Solitaire Collier! She gains 172 temporary hit points! GS: Regen applied to Solitaire Collier! GS: Hyper applied to Solitaire Collier! GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Brad Evans with Talons of Nidhogg! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Ashley Winchester with Talons of Nidhogg! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Azoth with Talons of Nidhogg! GS: Solitaire Collier gains 63 THP from Regen! GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
When Azoth gives her that 'oh you' look, Ragnell slips him a subtle wink. She's not going to stand in his way directly, any more than he's going to punch directly through her. But they've all got their reasons, so when Azoth turns to Solitaire, she lets him without comment.
But there's someone else here who isn't just going to look past her at a different opponent. When Clarine faces her, Ragnell's sharp smirk turns wry as she slumps just a bit to one side.
"Had to be you, huh, Clary?" she drawls. "Well, that's fine. If you decided you're gonna side with the humans to the end, then sure--I'll put to th' test just how much stronger you've grown since the old days!"
And the first way Clarine shows that is by being the first to pull the trigger, so to speak, by shooting out a fierce blast of light that hits the Lightning Seraph dead-on. She staggers back, raising an arm to shield her eyes, but it's too late; the flash is too bright, and for a moment, she's blinded.
This doesn't stop her from launching herself to the side and opening fire on the last point where she saw Clarine. Bursts of lightning bullets arc towards Clarine, though perhaps she too has already moved out of the way by now.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Clarine with Storm Runner! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Azoth takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's Talons of Nidhogg for 158 hit points! GS: Break blocked! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Ragnell's Storm Runner for 135 hit points! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's Talons of Nidhogg for 124 hit points! GS: Break applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
A glowing, armored warrior is the first one to be in Erzebet's sight. Erzebet is wearing a kind of nice white uniform which is now dirty and coated in blood, and she has a gun and glasses. Of course, she has her own advantages. Xiumei receives a shark's grin in reply.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sScUY8joks
"Common confusion," Erzebet says, "between 'can't'... and 'mightn't.'" And her eyebrows lift upwards. "Oh, do you love it?"
Erzebet runs forwards with her head down, accelerating not to the side or backwards, both of which would make sense, but TOWARDS Xiumei! "Not all of us are so luckyyyyy!!" Partway through she seems to reach a certain threshold and accelerates, the shots ripping through her side as she swerves to avoid bodily contact and pivots around, slamming both feet into the opposite wall and looking upwards at Xiumei with that grin as she brings up her gun--
Which is when Eleanor shoots! Erzebet finds herself attached to the wall by one foot, her low boot and her ankle encased in the ice. Erzebet looks downwards at this weight bearing oddity, and looks up towards Eleanor. "Good move," she says as she lowers her gun downwards and shoots into her own ankle with a horrible crack and wrenches herself free!
Of course, this does put her on the wrong foot. Or the right foot, as the case may be, but it will be a moment until the matter resolves itself. Fortunately, this moment means that Erzebet doesn't make a second pass which could have probably been a lot worse, because if she can run that fast, she rcan at least kick that fast, too.
Erzebet's gun comes up, held one handed but with curiously absolute stability. Rounds are fired, red hot and streaking, towards Eleanor and Xiumei. Not just the hot of gunfire, but truly heated, like shot baked in coals before being loaded in the cannon for its trip into the enemy rigging. Two short flurries of rounds, and then another rifle trooper is present.
Erzebet turns her head. Her glasses gleam almost a perfect block of orange.
"Do you think so?" Erzebet answers Juni. Then, louder, with feeling: "Do you think so!?" Erzebet pushes herself off the wall with her injured foot, crouches and then
LEAPS towards her, arms coming up in what looks like something like a bear hug. But the thing is, it's not a hug:
She's going for the neck. To bite, and to tear, and to finish her thought: "I very much doubt it!"
GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Zhang Xiumei with I'm Burning 4 U! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Eleanor Klein with I'm Burning 4 U! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Juni Vandrer with The Feast of Blood! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has completed her action. GS: Juni Vandrer accepts Juni Vandrer's Long Barrel Configuration for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Juni Vandrer! GS: Mighty applied to Juni Vandrer! GS: Juni Vandrer takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's The Feast of Blood for 91 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Erzebet Lefanu! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's I'm Burning 4 U for 168 hit points! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans partially guards Solitaire Collier's Talons of Nidhogg for 98 hit points! GS: Break applied to Brad Evans! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: CRITICAL! Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Erzebet Lefanu's I'm Burning 4 U for 84 hit points! GS: Disease and Poison applied to Zhang Xiumei!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
Xiumei smiles back at Azoth. There's a nod, and then she is off.
Erzebet runs towards her. She looks ready to run right into her, but she swerves to the side -- kicks off the wall -- and then Eleanor's shot lands. Xiumei moves a hand through some ice dust in the air, glances at her fiance, and gives her both a smile and nod.
There's a moment of rank horror when Erzebet shoots her ankle; it passes, though, and she sees the shot fire for her. Xiumei tries to jump to the side -- and the heated bullet grazes along her flank, hitting the armor with a spray of sparks and leaving an ugly, melted gash in the armor.
She is sent into a spin, and then runs. Erzebet leaps for Juni, fangs bared. Xiumei tosses the Pulse Cannon -- it bursts apart into so many cubes of data-light and fades -- and then she leaps. The Pulse Saber is gripped in both hands, as she comes crashing down for Erzebet.
She aims a foot down, trying to kick into Erzebet, and then slams her beam saber down as she finishes her jump. "You could have chosen to not do this! To not press one man's will on all of Filgaia!"
Breathlessly, she adds: "And you still can choose!"
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Pulse Saber - Jump Slash! GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zhang Xiumei takes 31 damage from Poison! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber - Jump Slash for 136 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
All of a sudden, Hicalu interrupts the goings-on, and even Ratatoskr flinches at the sudden appearance. How did a master of stealth hide within the singular shape of a huge fluffy tail?!
Hicalu's conviction, such as it is, belies his inexperience. Ratatoskr has watched and studied the movements and techniques of so many martial artists and other makes of warrior over the years of his freedom that he has not spent wisely, and there are few things more dangerous than an amateur.
The lack of injurious force is made up for with help of leverage and surprise at the way Hicalu swings at him, striking him along the jaw.
'You're really doing this, huh,' he is addressed by Josie (in short, he doesn't speak over her until she's done).
"...Getting here wasn't easy... I wasn't even asked to come...!" Ratatoskr's grin settles to a smile. Odessa either forgot he was working for them despite his prominence in some operations, or they simply did not want him here.
He showed up anyway.
He raises a hand to catch the bullet(s) shot towards him. The make of Josie's rifle and bullet selection is much better suited to making him regret that than he'd care to admit, but he has always been enthusiastic about collecting bullets. Even now, as quicksilver dribbles down a fresh wound.
Ida's keen eye for Hyadean biology will let her see that he does bear some recent wounds from other scrapes. If he 'wasn't asked to come,' he probably - definitely! - had to fight through automated defenses.
The heir of Luisa Rey challenges him, warrior Ratatoskr. He responds with swift, evasive maneuvers, meeting finger strikes and open-palm blows with strikes of a nature alternating against what she uses for things he can't sway out of outright, made a little more tough because Hicalu really did smack him upside the head!
He is suitably enriched, the grin returning to overtake his more somber smile.
"...It's all right... I'll remember how he smells so no one gets that wrong!" He corrected Lan about the specific floral smell he had before and he'll do it again FOR THE ENTIRETY OF FILGAIAN HISTORY if he has to.
"...I wouldn't ask for anything else..." He says to Josie.
"...and I'll accept the challenge of the heir of Luisa Rey as many times as she offers... everyone's!"
Energy from the horn courses inward and goes through his entire body with a gleaming sheen, as the blood red of Ratatoskr's armor - something that by old Metal Demon standards is incredibly childish because the color of human blood is supposed to signal 'good job, good work' to neonates - gives way to the color of his own Hyadean blood. (The exact mechanism for how or why is, in the moment, unclear.)
"Through The Ink That Writes History Within Us...!" He calls, reaffirming his martial stance.
"Hyahaha--!" That obnoxious, youthful laughter. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now but here!!"
He swings outward with a roundhouse kick to Ida and Hicalu, finishing with a rushing elbow towards Josie as if to reassure her that there is no distance he won't attempt to challenge by rushing headlong into it.
(Even if Hicalu didn't bonk Ratatoskr upside his fool head, there's enough posturing involved here that slightly improves one's odds of dealing with what he's flinging out.)
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Kamui," Azoth responds simply.
Ashley fires his weapon with a warning and Azoth spins around on a calculated algorithm to catch the cannister before any other data registers. He pauses, beholding the muffin with big, round eyes. Azoth cannot cry, but the lenses over his optics can waver like he's about to.
He's never received a muffin before...!
It goes directly on his head like a hat, perfectly balanced in all of his manuevers henceforth. (Azoth is very, very good at compensating for a passenger. Even if that passenger is a pastry.) He may not be able to eat, but warming his unliving robot core... has power.
So does knowing the stakes of his allies.
"They're right. Sacrifices don't buy you freedom. They only buy you a world where sacrifice is an accepted currency. Even your own, and your freedom with it...!"
The swing of an axe cleaves into him, raking across his body. Azoth does not make a pain display in audio or visual, but Solitaire can feel it: that same resistence of cutting through the metal floor as she makes solid contact with Azoth's chest. The wound does not bleed. It sputters elecricity, sparking instead.
It's all as he said. If he can't talk Solitaire down... he'll have to go through her. Before he knew of Kamui's predicament, Azoth had already resolved to come here. Because of a collar? Or --
Azoth's eyes gleam with unrelenting light. A sword of energy forms just outside his grasp, not quite wielded, as he meets Solitaire's force with his own erratic slash, the ARM energy of it detonating with a disruptive crackle.
"I'm here because I made a promise!"
GS: Azoth has attacked Solitaire Collier with Power Strip! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth gains 57 THP from Regen! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: Ratatoskr spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ratatoskr has attacked Ratatoskr with The Ink That Writes History Within Us...!! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: CRITICAL! Ratatoskr heals Ratatoskr! He gains 359 temporary hit points! GS: Lock state and Regen applied to Ratatoskr! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Boss Action! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with And This Battle Is The Newest Page! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Hicalu Wilwisp with And This Battle Is The Newest Page! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Josephine Lovelace with And This Battle Is The Newest Page! GS: Ratatoskr gains 63 THP from Regen! GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Erzebet is a foe Eleanor remembers well. ...But she still doesn't expect her to shoot her own ankle to get free. "Wait--" The Sage's eyes widen as she starts forward, and then she fires those rounds towards them, a flurry of rounds. Eleanor is caught flat-footed herself, battered by them; if not for her magic jacket, the bullets would've gotten a lot more personal, but the impact and the heat are still enough to knock her from her feet. "Oof!" Eleanor hits the ground, and rapdly turns to get herself up on one knee.
Orange...
"Don't--!" She winces at Juni's predicament, but she has an approach of her own she can manage. She lifts a hand. "O sacred light that shines above--"
Eleanor rises to her feet, and throws out both hands, golden radiance extending from her in all directions to settle on Juni and Xiumei and herself. "Purify!"
Once, she would've needed an Ambrosia to do this, but now she can Mystic her very self for the same purpose. It is not Crest Sorcery at all!
But Xiumei...
"You could've CHOSEN not to attack a SCHOOL!" Eleanor shouts at Erzebet. "Sielje's academy still bears the scars of your attack! Her students still remember the terror of that flame!"
"...But, even so..." Xiumei wants to give her that chance, and..."Just be careful, Juni!"
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Juni Vandrer with Restoration! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Restoration! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Eleanor Klein with Restoration! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein takes 33 damage from Poison! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 20 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Poison removed! GS: Eleanor Klein heals Zhang Xiumei! She gains 20 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Poison removed! GS: Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Ratatoskr's And This Battle Is The Newest Page for 48 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's And This Battle Is The Newest Page for 48 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's And This Battle Is The Newest Page for 55 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine catches Ragnell's wry look, and offers her a small smile.
"It had to be." Clarine confirms with a nod. ...She would rather it be her than anyone else, to be facing Ragnell now. She wouldn't have this any other way. "I am - and they have sided with me in turn."
And she says she'll put her to the test - and Clarine readies herself!
"I welcome it!" She declares. She shoots first - but Ragnell is not, has never been, slow on the draw either. Quite literally, in fact. Clarine moves to glide out of the way, but for those who are so familiar with each other's movements - her path may perhaps be predictable.
The lightning bullets arc toward her and lightning crackles across her form. Clarine grits her. If she were a being of flesh and blood, her body might have difficulty listening to her - but for now she endures it, gesturing downward with one hand. Suddenly, a single ray of light shoots downward, heading right for Ragnell!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Limited Ray! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Clarine's Limited Ray for 162 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni's ears twitch as she lines up a shot, responding to Collier's question simply. "Yes." She has absolutely no problems with the question. "I've never claimed to be a saint though."
Erzebet's charge and obvious bloodlust brings up a few memories of things decidedly not a person. Alien creatures. She gets her arm up, jamming the armored coat in the way.
"I do."
The barrel of her rifle is lifted one handed and she jams the thing against Erzebet before pulling the trigger. The brief wind-up time of the rail driver giving a brief moment of warning before the slug screams down the barrel.
Ripping her coat (and probably more away. She's ignoring that pain.) free, Juni hops back, adjusting her rifle and shouldering it. Ignoring blips on her HUD. Warnings. Complaints, whatever. She's out of the way for Zhang's swing into things.
She rotates, keeping both Eleanor and Zhang AND the other friendlies in mind. Each getting lit up by her system as she twists her hand to toggle something. Giving her clear warning of friendlies in the point of fire. This is one of those rare moments she wishes for the simplicity of a shotgun. Oh well.
"Thanks Eleanor" She calls out. Voice still largely cold. Focused more likely.
"Can you even tell me how you've made the world a better place? Have you ever questioned an order, or even rejected one? Stand down. Hands up." The others are trying to talk her out of it. Maybe they can secure her? She's following their leads.
GS: Eleanor Klein heals Juni Vandrer! She gains 42 temporary hit points! GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Point Shooting! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Juni Vandrer's Point Shooting for 171 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick applied to Juni Vandrer!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
"This isn't the first rebellion Vins has led." Brad warns Solitaire. She calls him by a nickname, a rare honor possessed by none else alive, to drive home that point. He watches her ready herself, and he brings up the Mechanical Glove to try and bat away the worst of her attack, though the metallic CLANG CLANG is joined by a meaty shwunk, as well. He grunts in pain...but doesn't yield. Instead, he looks up at her. There's no pity, no sorrow, just...focus.
""Last time, he walked out on us at the very end. Left us to die while a madman wiped out a nation. Then set himself up as king of the ashes. And because one of us happened to survive, he was even able to pin the whole thing on them."
"That'd be about now, I think, for you. What do you think? Did he sound that motivated in that big speech of his!?"
He levels the Mechanical Glove, and the cannon on its side opens fire, spattering Solitaire with gunfire.
GS: Formation! Blitz! Brad Evans has attacked Solitaire Collier with 100 Knuckle! GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo! GS: Brad Evans gains 65 THP from Regen! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.
Hicalu pulls up, and sniffs the air. Sniff, sniff...
"Hey! M-my muffins! Whoaaa look at that M-MUFFIN BAZOOKA! That's s-s-so COOL! N-new avenues in p-pastry delivery!!!" For a moment, Hicalu is totally distracted by Ashley's amazing invention.
Luckily, this doesn't get him killed, because Josephine and Ida are here.
He laughs, nervously, as a scary martial artist and a scary... gun... artist join the fray. "Uuuhh... haha... w-w-we're not gonna die, r-right..?" Oh Guardians are they gonna die. "Oh Guardians, a-are we gonna d-d-die?!" Hicalu spills out, because he has NO filter when he's scared.
"T-Tristan w-w-wanted my help s-so I snuck in b-b-but -- YIPE" is Hicalu's eloquent response as he scrambles back from that kick, falling ass-over-teakettle and scraping his knee in the process, which still hurts. "I'm okay!!" He yipes more eloquently, as he picks himself up.
Wisely, he puts his stick back on his belt.
"U-uhhh, you, y-you really l-like fighting, um, so, I, uh, I got..." What cute little support move will Hicalu pull out as he makes shaking hand signals to match those tattoos up his arms? (He has to stop and start again because he's trembling far too hard, but the second time, he gets it.) The very supportive element of --
-- the vacuum of space? --
-- builds, as he invokes: "Sacred Pain!", and the energy of this element is pink as it washes over Ratatoskr to drain his energies and transmit them back to Hicalu himself.
Is it just a condition of rolling a baker that their powerset is extremely dire?
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Ratatoskr with Sacred Pain! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action. GS: COUNTER! Ratatoskr counterattacks Hicalu Wilwisp with Counter Attack! GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Hicalu Wilwisp's Sacred Pain for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break, Cripple, and Jam applied to Ratatoskr! GS: Mighty applied to Hicalu Wilwisp! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp solidly guards Ratatoskr's Counter Attack for 43 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hicalu Wilwisp gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
A muffin is stolen!??! The enemy is a muffin thief!?!?
...
Well, Ashley thinks to himself, she is a mouse, after all. Mice... do like eating stray crumbs. And as she's a very big mouse, the muffin probably counts...?
Meanwhile Azoth wears his muffin like a hat. This is adorable, so Ashley gives him a pass. It's hard for Ashley to tell whether a robot can eat or not these days. Kamui has kind of ruined his ideas of what robots can and cannot do.
She's not a robot, anyway. She's a friend.
An axe cleaves into the baker, sending him sprawling back. He had blocked the blow with his bayonet, but a crushing axeblow still cracks bone and bruises the body. "Ghh. And who's going to receive those sacrifices? Vinsfeld? You can't water a field with blood. All this is going to do is kill a lot of people-- and breed hatred and resentment!"
Ashley steps in, one leg anchoring like a pillar to the ground, the other swinging out like an axe of his own. When the heel makes contact, a device in the musketeer's boot engages, emitting a powerful, unidirectional shockwave. "If you think people are willing to sacrifice for the sake of freedom, how many lives do you think will be given to fight back against Vinsfeld's new world? How can anyone be free when the Heimdall Gazzo has a gun pointed at everyboy's heads!?"
GS: Azoth used Force Action: Mystic on Ashley Winchester! FP up! GS: Break removed! GS: Zhang Xiumei solidly guards Erzebet Lefanu's Crystal Teardrops for 88 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein partially guards Erzebet Lefanu's Illusionary Dance for 133 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: CRITICAL! Juni Vandrer takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL for 201 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"My hairstyle is--"
Xiumei can't quite finish, as she hits the ground, and skids, seeing Erzebet's hand aimed at her. "He tapped into it to use it!" she cries back. "To use people like you! You heard his speech, didn't you!? He said that something was taken from him... so he'll give that pain back to Filgaia!"
Golden light from Eleanor's spell washes over Xiumei. It infuses the burning streak across her armor's side -- and that cools, leaving a lingering amber glow in its wake.
She bounces away from Xiumei, in a sudden and terrifying rush. Xiumei can't intercept her before she flies at Eleanor, and then she comes back at her. Her punches slam into Xiumei, repeatedly, but many hit armored forearms -- as she tries to block them with each blow. Her eyes narrow.
"I'll show you, if you insist!"
She rushes forward. The Pulse Saber sweeps out in a slash in front of her, horizontal and wide; there is an afterimage of green light screaming across the front of her. Then, she slashes upward, with a broad arc in front of her.
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Pulse Saber - Double Slash! GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber - Double Slash for 135 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Erzebet Lefanu enters CONDITION RED!! GS: Entangle expired!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Had to, huh," Ragnell echoes, not to Clarine but to the air for some reason. "Well, ain't that sweet."
There's something about her even tone, the dimness of her crooked smile, that makes it hard to tell if she means that or not. Then again, they *are* friends about to fight, not for the first time and probably not for the last.
The lightning bullets strike, and Clarine returns the favor, casting a Seraphic arte to call down a bolt of light from the blue. It strikes Ragnell soundly, its force arcing down her form as she twists to avoid getting hit on the head, at least. (She does so love that feathered cowboy hat of hers.)
"Damn, Clary, didja always hit that hard?" she calls as she half-turns and flips into a backstep, landing in a crouch. "But can ya hit this *fast*?!"
Rat-ta-ta-tat-ta-tat-ta-tat-tat, report her pistols, unleashing bullet after bullet, one after another to keep from ruining her aim, to strike Clarine and force her and her mirrors back.
No psychoanalysis or taunting or dissection of her motives. As friends and as Seraphim, they're past those kinds of head games.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Clarine with Blitzstrahl! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Seraph Clarine solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's Blitzstrahl for 51 hit points! GS: Break applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
"...Why would... This 'Kamui'...be here?" Solitaire asks. She does, at least, listen. "...A promise? Does that promise... give you strength?"
Ashley unleashes a shockwave that sends Solitaire crashing backward into the backwall. She slaps her freehand against the wall moments before impact to dampen some of the damage to her body. She drops down after and adds, "If we could build a better future with only one death..." Solitaire asks. "Would that be acceptable to you? You've killed plenty... of my comrades... to protect this Filgaia... Do you believe I should not...be willing to do the same?"
How can anyone be free when Heimdall Gazzo has a gun pointed at everyone's head? It's a good question. Is this a power Vinsfeld would give up? Solitaire considers this for a moment. "...Patience?"
Mm... Every government has some form of oppression or method of control. A truly anarchic solution does not exist. Of course, it is conceivable that this weapon can be used--then discarded.
"We can simply use the weapon now then destroy it." Solitaire says before throwing her axe for Ashley's head, aiming to hit him in the head with the head of her own axe, jumping up to catch it on the rebound. She hears Erzebet shout that eloquence is useless. It's true, but for some reason--she wants to be understood by these people. She wants to understand them. They are both soldiers, workers really...
It is cute that Azoth is wearing his muffin as a hat though.
She startles at seeing electricity spark out of Azoth's body after she strikes him. So it's true! He is some kind of electric doll! "...Mortals were not enough to crush under their heel, they make their own so they never know freedom." A tear wells up in her eye as she brings her axe down upon Azoth's blade. She presses against it as the ARM energy suddenly bursts--and sends Solitaire flying back once more--slightly scorched!--but this time she lands on her feet, darting back forward at Azoth as she swipes the axe for Azoth's legs, trying to knock him flat on his back, slamming a foot down for his stomach to try and pin him there.
"...This weapon could free you," Solitaire says. "It may be the only way to. It may be the only way, Azoth...I can only imagine...how powerful a tyrant must be...to hold you."
Brad sprays gunfire at Solitaire, forcing her to flip back. Her left arm gets sliced open by the bullets but Solitaire can't linger on Azoth for long while the War Hero's on her.
"...The very end... Like now, you mean." Solitaire says. She thinks to her hungry days and nights when Odessa could no longer foot the bill for her services, when they were out of contact... She thinks of Old Man Ptolomea and how he died alone. "...He sounded...wounded. Defeated." Solitaire says. "...But he said to expect his axe." She grips her own tightly.
He must speak of Slayhelm....
"...If that is true, he betrayed the cause..... from the very beginning..." A fury flickers behind Solitaire's eyes. Vinsfeld spoke of this man like he was a friend, but could it be a trick?
She darts forward, leaping up into the air, spinning around in a summersault as she tries to kick Brad's chin and then slam the shaft of Patience into his gut.
"Why is this...the first I hear of it...? .... ... Are you saying ... you are the sole survivor?"
Her eyes slant towards Erzebet, RAtatoskr--even Ragnell. "...."
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Ashley Winchester with Buried Crown! GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 1 Combo! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Azoth with Crumbling Foundation! GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 1 Combo! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Brad Evans with No Vacancy! GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"You weren't?"
For the first time in this encounter, Josie looks decidedly astonished.
"Well, don't that beat all," she settles for, propping her right hand on her hip. "Ain't you the determined sort!"
Which he demonstrates when he snatches her bullet out of the air.
"Y'know, they ain't cheap," she remarks, in an off-handed sort of way.
...They're not cheap largely because she has no consistent income at the moment and insists on doctoring them up (probably because of opponents like Ratatoskr! ...Maybe he's lucky he caught it out of the air.).
"Sure enough. By now, I figure, there ain't no way I'm talking you outta this!" Josie says to him, coupling the remark with a wink and a nod.
And the stock of her rifle when he comes in for her (and Ida, and the kid). It's in imperfect improvised block, but it at least slows his roll enough for it to be slightly less like getting hit by a freight.
"...And whaddya mean, 'smell'?"
Are they about to die?
"Nah. ...Well, probably not, I figure," Josie remarks to Hicalu. "But you'd better put up like you mean it, kid -- he ain't just playin', neither! ...So, what, did you sneak up here, too?" Though unlike Penelope, he's certainly the combatant-type. "Color me impressed! You've got guts, kid!" Even if, she reflects privately, he doesn't... act like he's the type.
Still, he's got about half of it right. Maybe the rest will come later.
Which, speaking of! As Hicalu works his spellcraft he'll find that Josie has taken the moment to scoot off behind him, using him as a... wait, is he her distraction or a barrier!
In any case, a bullet will fly through the waves of pink sorcery.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Grasshopper! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Azoth suffers a terrible blow from Solitaire Collier's Crumbling Foundation for 162 hit points! GS: Weaken applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gamble: High! Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Grasshopper for 179 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Somewhere, Tristan has the urge to sneeze.
Juni's voice is cold, but that's not the worst thing in the moment. The worst thing is quickly...
Erzebet.
Eleanor frowns sharply at the crack about Xiumei's hairstyle, but she doesn't say anything about it--she's too busy catching her breath off another of spells. But what could it have been...?
Erzebet seems to realize something, and... Suddenly grows angry? "Look out!" she calls to Juni, and then that central kick hits Eleanor full on, knocking her entirely out of the way for the moment; Eleanor gets only one advantage in the moment, and that's that with her so thoroughly out of the action for a moment she has time to get up without being entirely noticed. Eloquence...
She already made her moral argument. This is not just about Odessa, for her--it's personal.
"You won't break my shield," Eleanor promises. "I'll show you more than ideals--"
"I'll show you LIGHT!"
Eleanor lifts both hands, and they suddenly shine brightly, as Eleanor lunges at Erzebet, seeking with her glowing, burning hands to grab the other woman's arm and pull her away from Xiumei, with all the fury of the Sun itself.
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Incandescence! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Deep breaths!" Ida's gaze flicks over to the panicking fox-man, confirming that yes, she knows him. That bakery at Guild Galad--and then, inexplicably, the fight in the Resting Place. "Take deep breaths!" Ida circles Ratatoskr while she speaks, her feet moving in a smooth sidestep. Her guard stays up, and Hicalu might note--on the off-chance he's noticing useful things through his panic--that she's trying to stay between him and Ratatoskr.
Ratatoskr, meanwhile, gives her a workout. He has learned a lot since they first fought in that abandoned manor, and when he throws that kick, Ida's forced onto the back foot. Her forearms snap up, and there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it rustling of the fabric beneath. A loud CLANG echoes through the room. Ida rolls with the strike, twisting left. A pained grimace lights up her face.
"Well struck," she says. She pulls off her left glove, jams it into a coat pocket, and holds out her bare hand. A stretching, slithering motion passes through her palm, spreading out to her fingertips. A bloodless hole opens in her flesh, and something metal and uneasy-feeling shoots out, reforming itself as Ida grips it. A Devil's Arm--a heavy pistol that looks like it could be the long-lost mate of Devil's Due--lets loose with an echoing, unnaturally-brassy BANG. A moment later, a hail of metal needles rake across Ratatoskr, each one subtly cursed.
GS: Erzebet Lefanu solidly guards Eleanor Klein's Incandescence for 89 hit points! GS: Blind, Jam, and Mute blocked! GS: Strain! Eleanor Klein takes 52 damage! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Burning Quicksilver ! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Burning Quicksilver for 38 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's Buried Crown for 141 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Solitaire Collier!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth says, "Kamui's... sick, and I need to find her, and I need Odessa and Vinsfeld and the Heimdall Gazzo out of my way!""
Azoth says, "...This weapon could destroy everything worth being free for.""
Azoth says, "Right there!" he calls out to Ashley and Brad, the light not targeting a weakpoint on Solitaire so much as giving a leading line of sight to compensate for her quick movements."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Kamui's... sick, and I need to find her, and I need Odessa and Vinsfeld and the Heimdall Gazzo out of my way!"
And he's got a punch for Vinsfeld to deliver on someone else's behalf, if he can get to that point.
But whatever charge Azoth's makes meets Patience instead, legs swept, body flown, then prone, smashing to the ground with another sputtering spark and pinned under Solitaire's heel. It's an interesting position to be caught in by someone who speaks so resolutely of freedom, and who dares say there's a freedom available to him while doing it.
"...This weapon could destroy everything worth being free for."
He doesn't have to detonate himself to get Solitaire off of him, it turns out. She's chased off, giving him the space to deftly roll back onto his feet, hands together and laced into the mockery of a gun. He points toward Solitaire's darting frame, eyes bright, and a laser line of blue light marking the patterns of her movements.
"Right there!" he calls out to Ashley and Brad, the light not targeting a weakpoint on Solitaire so much as giving a leading line of sight to compensate for her quick movements.
And then, as if to prove the point, he draws an arm back and appears to hurl, with great force, a javeline of pure ARM energy against Solitaire and Patience in an explosive burst.
GS: Azoth spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Azoth has attacked Brad Evans with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Ashley Winchester with Convergence! GS: Azoth has attacked Azoth with Convergence! GS: Azoth has launched an attack Link! GS: Azoth accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Azoth! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Blitz! Azoth has attacked Solitaire Collier with Circuit Breaker! GS: Azoth has gained 1 Combo! GS: Azoth gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Azoth gains 60 THP from Regen! GS: Azoth has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Ashley Winchester accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's No Vacancy for 190 hit points! GS: Delay and Disrupt applied to Brad Evans! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Brad Evans accepts Azoth's Convergence for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Brad Evans!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
With a shake of her head, she replies simply, "You wouldn't be the first monster to use charity to try to assuage that nagging guilt at the back of their mind." She laughs, the sound almost mechanical through her gear, "Even if it's sincere, how much suffering have you brought to others?
Caught out in the open, the alien woman doesn't exactly have a lot of options to avoid incoming fire. Ducking down, turning away and catching the brunt of it against her armor was probably the best option out of a series of bad choices. Even with a half second warning. It's the tradeoff you get for using a long sniper rifle in a brawl. The armor is shreded. Or the coat is at least. Frayed, showing hints of the material beneath that actually protected her. There's darker stains already spreading. With a groan she stands and mutters what can only be some incredibly impolite things in her own language. She adjusts her grip, her left arm's more than a little shaky for a moment. Using that long tail and a low stance to line up another shot. Tracking her target and waiting for Xiumei to finish the swings before following up with carefully aimed slug.
"Careful you two. She's bitey" Sure it's a pained joke, but she had to make it. The warning was real though. A serious tone follows it up, "Make sure she doesn't tear away." Literally. She's advancing on the group now, to try and clear her angles and maybe get in the way if the other two are in more trouble than she is. She did say she'd protect her new home and its people, right?
GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Pin Down! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu partially evades Juni Vandrer's Pin Down for 57 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Drowsy applied to Erzebet Lefanu! GS: Quick applied to Juni Vandrer!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine notes her tone, and the dimness of that smile... It's a wonder where they come from, but she hardly has the time to dwell on them. Ragnell has never been the sort of opponent one can face while distracted.
"I have been training." Clarine replies proudly to Ragnell's question - but, she's almost immediately put on the defensive as she counters back. She holds her hands out and her mirrors rush out from around her, forming a protective wall. Bullet after bullet races toward her, moving to intercept. They move this way and that way through the air - and each one that makes contact elicits a wince from Clarine. Rat-ta-ta-tat... the storm doesn't let up and Clarine starts to slip, some of the bullets making through their way through the wall.
Eventually, though, she does get a breather. With a single finger, she traces a circle of light in the air - and a similar circle starts to form beneath Ragnell's feet, and the moment the circuit completes, light flares up from beneath - and starts to follow her, highlighting her for further attacks.
Clarine appreciates the lack of head games. Here and now... it's just the two of them, and that's fine with her.
GS: Formation! Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Spotlight! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"That's not how weapons work-- that's not how power works!" Ashley barks in reply. An axe sails directly for his head. Sadly, Ashley is not Zed-- and thus his head is not made out of steel dense enough to dent space battleship-grade armor. He tilts his head out of the way just in the nick of time to avoid traumatic brain injury, the axeblade instead scything across his shoulder, its edge slick with blood.
"How long do you think it'll take until this weapon is no longer needed? One generation? Five? After that long with so much power at his fingertips, would Vinsfeld-- or his successor-- be able to give it up? Or would it just hang in the sky forever, never letting anyone stand against it?!"
"How is that 'freedom!?'" Ashley demands, taking a step, then another, then--
He disappears.
...Ashley reappears on the far end of the mousey warrior an instant later, his Bayonet having in the interim swung in a singular, cleaving arc, tracing the line Azoth calculated on his behalf.
...Iaijutsu, performed with a Bayonet the size of a greatsword, propelled by shockwave-emitting boots.
"...I recognize that it's hypocritical for me to be talking about power... But there's a difference between what I've got and the threat that this ship-- that Visfeld-- represents...!"
(Ashley is, also, listening intently to Brad's story. He'd heard bits and pieces before, but... Well, he is a Brad Evans fanboy, so.)
GS: Blitz! Ashley Winchester has attacked Solitaire Collier with Phantom Fang! GS: Ashley Winchester gains 57 THP from Regen! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet relents in her punch rush, taking several huge breaths. It's like standing in the exhaust of a tea kettle. At least this probably verifies that she's alive. As Xiumei rushes, she tenses herself, and then she leaps upwards --
She realizes the feint got her wrong too late. Erzebet tries to jerk herself downwards. This doesn't work very well even if abruptly changing your center of balance in the sky usually does something. Her arm had been thrown out, probably to reach for her gun. The coat-tail comes down over Xiumei's beam saber, which of course cuts through white cloth like it was thin-pressed butter, but there's enough fabric to briefly entangle.
Erzebet, perhaps, can sense peril. How well can she regenerate? She opts not to test fate, it seems; with a spasm of flexioning muscle and a foot briefly on Xiumei's shoulder, she rips the jacket off, with the follow-on part of the strike throwing a visible black burn against the back of her calf, ripping the seam of that pant leg as well.
Erzebet lands and breathes heavily again, which is when Eleanor reaches out to grasp her arm and pull her and then release an incinerating sunlight flash that washes outwards as Erzebet screams and --
when it fades --
Erzebet's arm, reddened but badly scorched, is there. She opens one eye into a slight squint and looks at Eleanor.
"Heh," she says.
"Because of the Crimson Nobles, right? Like Marivel, and that old ****," Erzebet says. "I've seen it once or twice myself -- what happens to them when they're subjected to things like that. But," Erzebet makes a beckon gesture with her other hand, which Eleanor is likely not going to fall for, "but let me tell you --"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf9e9lJgaVU
"The Crimson Nobles have all sorts of bizarre, mysterious, glorious powers... it's a shame that they're gone, because they could have been a positive force... a real asset to the movement... but they've all got that vulnerability, don't they? That deep rooted vulnerability to the power of Light, like, the Symbological kind of light."
"While whatever good old Jehenna put together," Erzebet continues, "I can tell you that when it comes to such light, *I* don't burst into flames and die. I just *hate* it."
At this moment Erzebet does that blur-thing again. She does a full three sixty, reaching out with her OWN hand to grasp at Eleanor as she pivots and, afterwards, hurls her like a Sage-sized discus directly towards Xiumei with sufficient force to, perhaps, silence the both of them.
"AND AS FOR YOU" Erzebet says, turning her head to look towards Juni, at the point when Juni fires her weapon again. It rips into Erzebet's bare left shoulder, producing a bloody chunk which immediately begins boiling with that pink-wax feeling again as she strides forwards, perhaps deliberately.
"And AS for YOU," Erzebet continues. "It's an INTERESTING question-- a COMPLEX question-- but do you know what, I'm going to give you an answer. The answer is N. Do you understand what I mean? It's an algebraic variable--"
As she has been walking Erzebet's right arm, from the shoulder down, had turned reddish and somewhat unpleasantly vascular. But it's also rippling now, as if the muscle underneath her skin is growing, moving from 'nothing in particular; gets exercise' to 'athletic and industrious' to a lurid sort of hypertrophy. She kicks off with her booted foot --
Leads with the opposite knee to try and get Juni into the air, or just temporarily off her feet from a close in strike aimed at a rising motion towards her midsection --
"AND NOW," Erzebet says, "with some TOMATO SAUCE-- We make it N PLUS ONE!!"
Her right fist, red and leathery, smashes downwards towards Juni's back as her leg moves back. It makes a noise like a gunshot firing as the tip of her knuckles momentarily breaches the sound barrier, on its way down!
GS: Erzebet Lefanu enters CONDITION RED!! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Good-bye Used-goods World!! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Eleanor Klein with Good-bye Used-goods World!! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Erzebet Lefanu enters CONDITION RED!! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Juni Vandrer with Wanderer of Atonement! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has launched an attack Link! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Erzebet Lefanu spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has attacked Juni Vandrer with Our ways are not your ways - and there will be to you many strange things.! GS: Erzebet Lefanu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Azoth's Circuit Breaker for 117 hit points! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Break and Shieldbreak applied to Solitaire Collier! GS: Azoth enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Azoth takes 50 damage! GS: Solitaire Collier partially evades Ashley Winchester's Phantom Fang for 150 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Die? Die!" Ratatoskr goes about that question-into-exclamation thing he does as Hicalu shakes and shudders. "Come on... you're alive right now... and you're fighting!!" And honestly Hicalu has it right. "On the decisive battle in one of the greatest wars of any time...!"
Ratatoskr has always been a fancier of sorceries. He can never grasp their use, by his biology, which has just made them more interesting to see, experience, and fight against - emphasis on experience, as he hurls himself forward through whatever blast he's envisioning through Hicalu's done-on-second-try-spellcasting, as pink-hued energies roll around him. (Something else physical gets in there - Josie's bullet - but more on that later).
There's nothing untoward about whatever energy the Sacred Pain takes from Ratatoskr, at least, showing that Hyadean biology is perfectly compatible with being a target of strangely morbid Symbological spells that specialize in the void of the vacuum.
Somewhere in the follow-through and reposturing, Ratatoskr's tail has to take up space somewhere, and it is unfortunately a large, heavy thing made up of segmented metal plates that stand to bludgeon Hicalu a good one as something of an unwitting counter-followup to the strength-sucking spell. Ida's presence probably prevents a heavier collision there.
Ratatoskr's quicksilver gleam lessens as something takes leave of him, slowing him down physically as he comes about point some time after Josie seems astonished about the sheer amount of determination and pluck Ratatoskr has to just put himself in this.
"...And I didn't even have to talk you into fighting me again...!" He returns that wink and nod with a grin. What happened at the Resting Place seemed to show a more conflicted Ratatoskr, who has fallen into his old brand of escapism of 'fight everything'. When he raises his left forearm, he notices a fresh stream of his blood, and a new strike close to his elbow that might have gone deep enough to hit whatever in-built ARM handles the compressed air shotgun within that part of his limb.
Ida has his attention then with a compliment, helping keep him off of hurling himself into Hicalu (immediately), as Ida brings forth something he doesn't quite recognize the nature of. The shape is 'a heavy pistol,' but the report, the manner of ammunition that he tries to catch with the already injured arm...
His left hand spasms on that impact as he feels a sting of something, albeit fleeting. As he rises up again, energy pulses through him anew as wounds knit at faster response than normal. Over yonder, Brad - someone of deeply important historical perspective if he speaks true - is sharing perspective on Vinsfeld's ways and how things got to where they are. For a moment, Ratatoskr catches Solitaire's glance.
The doubt doesn't catch him, because he is living his best life even as blood is shed over Erzebet-side, and moving masses of light and lightning are beaming and shooting one another.
And he is still moving, erratically, quickly, another series of rapid striking blows against Ida who is closest to him. Elbows, knees, and in one instance he tries to discharge the compressed air in the injured arm but it doesn't go off, leaving it a matter of pure technique.
Even without many words being said, Ida and Ratatoskr are warriors of Hyadean culture - even individual blows say a lot, and she will notice something keen even in the relentless flurry: he is not using his claws - using nothing that would be a killing blow.
Even now.
"Hyahaha--! Come on," Ratatoskr's breathy call for action comes from a place of adrenaline trying to fight off pacifying fatigue, as energy builds in his horn and tries to shoot past Ida to strike him. "You got more than that... you come this far to confuse me with words you repeat before you even say them? You come this far to confuse me with words before you even say them!" (It's called stuttering.)
Finally, maneuvering around, suddenly he slams his tail down on the ground and unfurls his liquid metal patagium like a (metal) fleshy shield between his limbs before launching himself back-first towards Josie while adding some space between himself and Ida.
(It is also because Penelope is directly above him in positioning and he's not taking chances.)
GS: Ratatoskr spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Ceaseless Conflict! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Hicalu Wilwisp with Yggdrasil Arrow! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Reverse Ambush! GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ratatoskr gains 62 THP from Regen! GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action. GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Good-bye Used-goods World! for 226 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Good-bye Used-goods World! for 153 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Charge bonus activated! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp suffers a terrible blow from Ratatoskr's Yggdrasil Arrow for 117 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hicalu Wilwisp gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak blocked! GS: Hyper applied to Ratatoskr! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace partially evades Ratatoskr's Reverse Ambush for 107 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover and Quick applied to Ratatoskr! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Ratatoskr receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Ratatoskr enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Seraph Clarine's Spotlight for 57 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Drowsy applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Solitaire lays into him and Brad can only grunt as she smashes his chin, sends the great brick of a man toppling to the side. He's grown skillful; his boot finds the ground before his braincase, allowing him to stumble to a recovery just in time for her to smash him in the gut. He glares at her as she asks her final qustion, sucking air into battered lungs.
"They call me the Hero of Slayheim," he grunts. "They call me the traitor that destroyed it, too. Whatever you believe, I was there that last day. Vins was supposed to be with most of our army."
He rises again, strength filling his frame, mechanical glove flickering as its onboard emitters start to work. "They weren't. Maybe he has changed. Maybe he put enough of himself into this that what Odessa's become broke him."
His eyes firm. "Think he'll be better?" He nudges his chin at Ashley's points. "Expect his axe. That's just shorthand for him deciding he'll kill the whole world."
"I don't know," Brad finally says. "I thought he was my friend. But it turns out I don't know the man."
Azoth calls guidance. Brad's eyes tick to find the line and he grunts a nod. He thrusts the Mechanical Glove forward, and missile scaffold constructs itself along his outstretched arm, a missile appearing inside. "I cannot let you stop me until I do!"
It fires, and explodes as mightily as ever on contact.
GS: Blitz! Brad Evans has attacked Solitaire Collier with Mini Scud! GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo! GS: Brad Evans gains 50 THP from Regen! GS: Regen expired! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"Nora!" Xiumei cries out, as Eleanor rushes in, both hands aglow. She turns as Erzebet kicks away from her, losing her jacket on the way. She sees that Eleanor grabbed her -- with no small amount of damage inflicted -- and is up close to her.
Until she isn't.
She moves like a blur, grabbing Eleanor, and hurls her. The elf slams into Xiumei; Xiumei stumbles back, but keeps her footing, and gives Nora a nudge.
"She's fast," Xiumei says. "Careful."
She looks at Juni, eyes wide -- there's no time to reply to her -- and sees the brutal attack that Erzebet levels. Xiumei takes off in a tear, hurtling towards her. She comes closer, just after that brutal punch for Juni's back, as she holds a hand outward.
The gem in her chest armor flashes.
And a shimmering field of light erupts about Erzebet, in washed out grey-greens -- and everything seems to slow. Like being stuck, for a moment, in molasses, unless she tears free of the field of light before it sets. It lasts for only seconds.
But how long those seconds take to pass.
GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Timestopper! GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action. GS: Juni Vandrer suffers a terrible blow from Erzebet Lefanu's Wanderer of Atonement for 118 hit points! GS: Juni Vandrer takes a solid hit from Erzebet Lefanu's Our ways are not your ways - and there will be to you many strange things. for 176 hit points! GS: Juni Vandrer enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Brad Evans's Mini Scud for 120 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Brad Evans! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Erzebet Lefanu accepts Zhang Xiumei's Timestopper for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Erzebet Lefanu!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
As Solitaire expresses doubt at Vinsfeld and then glances at her would-be compatriots, Ragnell laughs. "Didn't take you much to stop believin' in the old man, huh?" she calls to her. "Not that I blame ya. Odessa's been doomed to crumble for a while now. Only an idiot wouldn't have noticed that by now!"
Azoth's declaration that he needs to find Kamui gets a little huff out of Ragnell, meanwhile. She still doesn't comment on his goals, though. Not aloud.
"I can tell," she says to Clarine, of her training. "You're less timid than you used to be, too. I hate to say it, but I think hangin' out with these chumps has been good for you." She pauses. "...What about Nimue? Haven't seen or heard from her in an age."
As she speaks, Clarine traces that circle, and the gesture is mirrored at Ragnell's feet. She leaps back in time to avoid a direct attack, but the light that shears up does beat into her as she's leaving, sending her tumbling. She turns the fall into a backroll, then launches herself into a run as it trails after her.
As she runs, the muzzles of her guns charge with intense light. To unleash it, she does have to stop, potentially leaving her vulnerable to more attacks as that spotlight catches up with her--but in the meantime, Clarine will have to contend with a considerable-sized laser back.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Clarine with Rage Laser! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's Rage Laser for 71 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.
Ratatoskr launches himself forward, and Hicalu yelps: "Eeek!!" He throws his hands up to defend himself, and ends up tumbling back anyway. "Y-yeah, I... I guess I'm fighting... aaahhh, w-why am I f-f-fighting?!" It's because Tristan is REALLY cute. That's why.
He picks himself up easily enough, at least, thanks to Ratatoskr being more enthusastic than bloodthirsty. He subsequently tries to run away from the Giant Death Tail, but -- tragically -- Hicalu trips over his own tail as he tries to turn tail and run, and his tale ends with falling flat on his face and getting THONKED with the squirrel's greatest weapon. "Waaahh!!!!"
He's okay.
"Y-yeah!" Hicalu exclaims, to Josie, after she asks about him being here. "I-I snuck in after Tristan's sister, s-s-so she kinda took care of all the scary stuff..."
Except, of course, for the scary stuff RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. Well, being fair, Eleanor is dealing with something DEEPLY TERRIFYING over there, but there's a reason Hicalu isn't going anywhere near Erzebet's Blood Zone.
He takes some COMICALLY deep breaths when Ida tells him to, which -- really get to the edge of hyperventiation, but he's trying his best. It kind of helps! Until, that is, he looks to her again and sees HOLES IN HER FLESH FILLED WITH HORRIBLE METAL WORMS OR SOMETHING WHAT IS HAPPENING, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
(That's his very eloquent translation of those thoughts.)
"G-geez... even though you're the scariest guy here, everyone here's really scary...!!" Hicalu exclaims, to Ratatoskr. "B-but -- b-b-but like, b-being scary doesn't mean you're a bad guy, right?!" Compared to some of the fights he can hear with those big ol' ears of his...
Could Hicalu be glad he's fighting the very scariest Odessan?!
"I-I weren't never much of a fighter, but, um, I-I can, uh..." Hicalu, too, knows the pain of stuttering, as he tries to get through another spell only to flub the verbal component with, "F-f-flare-- uhhh, one sec," and he waves his hands, and tries again, and this time his somatic and verbal components go off with: "Flare Bolt!"
And lo does Hicalu's personal spin on Fire Bolt launch out, more flashbang than fire, to Ratatoskr. It's not the most... devastating magic out there, but it is VERY bright.
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Ratatoskr with Flare Bolt! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action. GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Hicalu Wilwisp's Flare Bolt for 60 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Ratatoskr! GS: Quick applied to Hicalu Wilwisp! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Ratatoskr's Ceaseless Conflict for 72 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Quick applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Oh, Eleanor is familiar with how Erzebet is bitey. That is certainly true.
But she is not familiar with something else. Eleanor uses her power as best she can, and it burns within her to use it, a Light she still has to force herself to be able to use in such a way--but it will be worth it. She can defeat her, here and now--
"..."
Eleanor does not fall for the gesture, but she does remember what she knows of Crimson Nobles. "Ah," Eleanor answers, as Erzebet mentions that she hates it, and braces herself. Then she is THRWON into Xiumei, slamming into her fiance with full force. But Xiumei keeps her footing, and Eleanor looks up at her for a bare moment--"I will," she tells her. It's reassuring. In a way that none of that was.
"...Fine," Eleanor says. "I have something else I think you'll hate, then."
"I'm familiar with old legends. But I guess sometimes there are new legends."
"So let's make this one."
"...And it sarts with--" Xiumei makes a move, her armor flashing, and Eleanor pulls a Crest finally, this one of Wing and Muse. Its gilt surface gleams in the electric light of the chamber, as Eleanor calls up its force.
"Winds of time, surging forever onward--"
"Bring now your boreal force! Aurora's Ascent!"
Eleanor throws out her hand, not noticing Hicalu SELLING HER OUT nearby.
Instead, she enhances her spell and a terrible blizzard descends upon Erzebet to try to freeze her down once again, to counter all that terrible fire.
"So... COOL IT!"
GS: Eleanor Klein has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with Aurora's Ascent! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Erzebet Lefanu suffers a terrible blow from Eleanor Klein's Aurora's Ascent for 200 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Erzebet Lefanu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Mighty removed! GS: Cover and Mighty applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Juni Vandrer has activated Force Action: Lock On!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
The comment on a variable is met with a derisive snort, "Which math are you going by?" Juni is trying to keep moving, but again, long rifle, kind of awkward. Less than great injury, she's had better days. Worse too.
She looks to Xiumei, too slow on both their parts. The blow to her back would reveal a surprising amount of impact plate! Layered and spreading the impact out across her ribs instead of breaking her back. Luckily. She's sent ass over end by the hits, but that's not about to stop her. Her computer's got some opinions on the situation. Warning lights, flashing, the AI's even resorted to name calling at this point. Not that anyone's really seeing that. She's ignoring it even.
Grabbing her rifle where it landed. She sits up slowly. Lifting a knee and curling that long tail around to act as a stabalizing platform. Close enough to a bipod.
"You do this kind of work clean. Minimal collateral. You work slowly with the people to get them on your side. Show them the better way."
Lifting her head, she makes an adjustment first on the rifle, then at her wrist. There's a flicker of infrared at her hud. A warning flash as she overloads the battery again.
"You don't drag people that didn't have it coming into it unless you have absolutely no choice. You're no better than any of the people you're railing against."
She grits her teeth and slows her breathing down. Ignoring the pain in her ribs. The probably breaks there. That's a later problem. She's not rattling when she breathes, it's fine.
With a simple trigger pull, the gun winds up, a sharp whine and then a bang that leaves the barrel glowing. The alien then drags herself to her feet and tries to level her rifle against her arm, using her elbow as a support. Still trying to cover the other two even if it's probably not in her best interest.
GS: Juni Vandrer spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Juni Vandrer has attacked Erzebet Lefanu with End of the Line! GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo! GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action. GS: Erzebet Lefanu takes a solid hit from Juni Vandrer's End of the Line for 207 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Juni Vandrer! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Thank you. I have been working on that, as well." Clarine replies sincerely, as Ragnell comments that she's less timid. ...And, she even has a smile. "Yes. They're good, earnest people - they have shown me both kindness and strength in turn. Strength of arm - and strength of character, as well."
As for Nimue, Clarine nods.
"Yes, she has not been as active as I - but she is well. They have been good for her, as well." Clarine replies. Her tone is casual - but she is still mindful of Ragnell's movements as she moves to roll out of the way her light. She sees the way the muzzles of her guns begin to glow with intense light...
Clarine takes up one of her mirrors in both hands to further brace it as that great beam rushes toward her. The sheer force of it pushes her backward, she's losing a little ground - cracks begin to form in the mirror and then it shatters, shards of glass and silver dissipating into motes of light as Clarine recoils back. Its sacrifice spared her from much greater harm... but it would be a lie to say she escaped unscathed.
There's still plenty of fight left in her, though, if the Seraphic glyph bursting to life beneath her feet is any indication.
"O seven brilliant blades, I call upon you to descend and loose your shining might..." Clarine incants. "Prism Sword!"
At her command, six swords of shimmering, prismatic crystal appear in the air above Ragnell. They descend toward her, following her movements thanks to the circle of light tracking her, looking to pin her in and forming a cage of light between them. And then, finally, once these six have landed, the promised seventh appears and descends for Ragnell - and all at once, the swords detonate in a dazzling display of rainbow light and crystal shards.
GS: Seraph Clarine spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Prism Sword! GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Break expired! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
Solitaire leaps up, dropping down onto the Brad's missile as it launches out towards Solitaire--but then it explodes and sends her slamming into that back wall again, this time leaving a bloody smear against it. Her uniform just isn't built to withstand this kind of abuse. She rubs blood from her lips, glancing to Erzebet and Ragnell for a moment. The Hero of Slayheim. It should be easy to distrust the word of Evans--or at least just presume it is the word of one against one--a whole wash.
Azoth's own words are sympathetic. A sick friend he wants to help. Who is...here? Odessa and Vinsfeld in the way? A sickness that could take away her freedom. She doesn't want to hold anyone's chains, not forever--she'll make any sacrifice necessary..
It becomes clear why her speed isn't working, though--Azoth is helping them with targeting. The power of an electrified doll. Patience, for a moment, shorts out due to the strange power unleashed by Azoth--the power itself further surges through Solitaire and she sinks to one knee, grimacing.
She swings Patience up to protect her body from Ashley's bayonet, but it still punches through her defenses and sends her sprawling across the floor.
Ragnell tells her that it didn't take much for her to stop believing in the old man.
"...He is just a man." Solitaire says eventually. "...I've had...concerns for a while now."
She pushes herself back up to her feet. "Vinsfeld... put out these messages to the whole world... to take the world on instead of alliance building, instead of reaching to the suffering places and building them up--like Rosalia--like Old Halim... He sent his lieutenants to fight on their own to protect this weapon...instead of protecting them. A movement...is only as strong as its people."
"...I didn't mind that the movement was crumbling." Solitaire admits. "If it was a fight worth fighting for, I would fight it until the end. But a man who throws away his brothers and sisters... And thinks that is strength..."
Solitaire rolls her shoulders back.
"...Far as I'm concerned... Is no friend of the Revolution."
She looks to Ragnell. "Thank you, Ser Ragnell--for sticking with us through a doomed cause. And for...believing in freedom."
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2iwgW98sk&ab_channel=MekkahDee
"Erzebet! Ratatoskr!" Solitaire channels dark power into her axe, holding it above her head for the moment. "Vinsfeld has betrayed us!" Solitaire shouts. "And these men and women have a friend to save. If you are staying because of me... Do not. Save yourselves...and let the dream...of a better tommorow survive...!"
She steps around, between her three opponents and her friends. She doesn't know if they'll have as much luck esaping, but she cannot give up the fight so long as they are still here. Her bond between Ratatoskr and Erzebet--and perhaps even, in this moment, Ragnell--is not a lie.
"Even if the cause was a lie... Your friendship is not... And well worth fighting for..!"
She wheezes out that last bit, leaping back, clambering up to the roof of this section of Heimdall Gazzo as Nidhogg's power erupts all around her--
--but this isn't Nidhogg's full power.
Solitaire is holding back.
"Ratatoskr..." Solitaire tosses the dog tags she has towards him. "I'll witness the rest for you."
It's her only idea of how to get Ratatoskr to take this opportunity to abscond.
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Solitaire Collier spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Azoth with Ragnarok On Schedule! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Brad Evans with Ragnarok On Schedule! GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Ashley Winchester with Ragnarok On Schedule! GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 1 Combo! GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action. GS: Azoth solidly guards Solitaire Collier's Ragnarok On Schedule for 173 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Azoth gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Let's just put it this way, right," Josie tells him. "I ain't here to mess around. And neither of us is gonna back down." Stand around arguing for him to back off, and they'll waste both their time -- as well as whatever clock is ticking down for the major cities of Filgaia. She couldn't give a rat's about the leaders and the powers that be, but...
There are little sisters living in those cities, too. They have nothing to do with any of this, but they'll receive Vinsfeld's 'judgement' all the same.
"Huh," Josie says, when Hicalu explains that he'd just snuck in after them, especially Eleanor. "Not a bad idea. Li'l Nora sure can leave destruction in her wake."
Her gaze darkens; she, too, has caught snippets of the conversation had over yonder. "Wouldn't surprise me or none. None of 'em were good people," Josie remarks, having had a lifetime's experience herself with 'not being good people'. "You sure this is who you wanna die for...?" It's not for Ratatoskr that she asks this, for she already knows his reasons for fighting and they are arguably unimpeachable (by her, anyway), but of Solitaire.
Erzebet after all is Erzebet, and she knows for a fact that Ragnell's loyalties lie elsewhere.
A piercing scream rips her attention away from her target (Ratatoskr) and over at Ida, who is currently producing armaments out of her very flesh.
"Not bad," Josie remarks after a moment's consideration of this. "Pretty handy, actually! Don't suppose it's the sort that anyone could learn?"
She, after all, is merely loaded for bear, as the various holsters strapped to assorted parts of her body tell. It would make carrying all sorts of armaments much easier! She could even do away with that 'surrender to security' sort of business that pops up now and then, which is a huge drag.
This is probably not the sort of response that Hicalu would have hoped for.
She doesn't stay put behind Hicalu long, holstering her long gun and trading it for a side arm. Her goal, it seems, is to ambush Ratatoskr from behind while he engages Ida and Hicalu, which--
"Guah! You--"
--doesn't work as planned when he attempts to ram her. Dancing to one side, Josie nearly evades him only for him to clip her; even like this he lands with enough momentum to send her ARM flying out of her hand.
"You're a real wildcard, y'know...!" she says, cracking the knuckles in her left hand. "O, thou--"
She bothers with the incantation, because she wants this one to smart.
"LIGHTNING!" Electricity coils down her arm as she invokes her own form of Symbology and, grasping the sparking bolt in hand, hurls it overarm at Ratatoskr.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: You have activated the Force Action Fury Shot! GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Bolt Lance! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Bolt Lance for 170 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans solidly guards Solitaire Collier's Ragnarok On Schedule for 182 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated! GS: Brad Evans enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Break and Delay expired!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Well, that explains why Hicalu is here. It does not help at all to ensure he leaves here alive. "Deep breaths," Ida repeats. She sets her feet, and faces Ratatoskr's assault. Her open hand catches his forearm, redirecting an elbow-strike with a gentle gliding motion. The Devil's Arm locks with his other elbow, giving Ida a solid surface to parry with and shove. She steps back as Ratatoskr drives his knee at her--
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'
--And here Ida makes the mistake of glancing at Hicalu. She doesn't step back far enough, and Ratatoskr's knee slams into her stomach. There's an audible thunk as she goes stumbling back, a visible dent in her armor. She lets out a 'Ghh', a sharp exhalation, and then breathes in. Hicalu is all right--did Josie do--no, probably not--oh no, he was--
"I'll explain later!" Ida shouts, to both Hicalu and Josie. "Esoteric and alien!" And hopefully not something Josie can copy, because good Lord that woman is dangerous enough with just Symbology, heavy ARMs, and moral flexibility coupled to stubbornness.
Ida's stance suddenly shifts. She clenches her fists, raises them up in something more like a boxer's guard. This more closely resembles standard Hyadean close-quarters fighting...
Because it is. It gives way to a ruthless, relentless series of punches--first, a low strike to knock the wind out, then a jab to the shoulder to throw him off-balance, then a punch directly to the face.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Muscle Memory! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 75 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Ashley Winchester has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's Ragnarok On Schedule for 361 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet breathes heavily as Juni begins to speak. "Oh for god's sake," Erzebet says, rearing back and bringing both her hands up in order to probably make a herculean haymaker and possibly aim it at Juni's neck
EXCEPT
THAT TIME
HAS
STOPPED
Or at least slowed. Erzebet begins moving at something like a fifteenth of her normal speed, and she seems to twig to something happening as the sparkling space around her restrains her movements. Her hands unlace with the gradual prayerfulness of the very ill as she looks towards Xiumei, who can see a look of disgust and petulant fury unfold on her face. She opens her mouth to say something --
Which means that she can see Eleanor's spell. It's probably remarkable that Erzebet brings herself up into a sort of cross block in something resembling regular speed even in the tremendous deceleration of the timestopper. Remarkable reflexes, really. Whatever or however she did it. It doesn't help her much.
She isn't touching the ground, and so the ice that encases her in rime and pain produces something like a snow-covered carcass, the sort of thing you find in the permafrost. Grayish if quickly re-pinkening, Erzebet is already struggling as she falls to this half-fetal position on the ground.
Juni might wonder, will she just shatter into a thousand pieces at this shot?
Alas, perhaps, it is not to be; the round fires, briefly visible as it enters the field of Slowed Time, ripping across Erzebet's back and ripping out a great gouge that produces slow-motion splatters as she topples forwards. But stopped time is eroding, and Erzebet lands face down and oozing blood for a moment, although she does kip - heavily - to her feet afterwards.
"Hhhhh," she says, looking at Juni for a deep teeth-bared moment--
And then Solitaire kills something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcFuxKlg_VY
Erzebet's gaze doesn't really leave Juni, who she may have identified as the greatest threat (powerful gun, vs. Xiumei's primarily melee armament and Eleanor's wind-up time on powerful magics) but her saccading eye behavior may reveal she's hearing. Listening.
Comprehending.
Perhaps if she had more benzine in the tank - if she had been luckier, or if she'd gotten a chance to really dig into someone and build her momentum - or simply had avoided the horror of stopped time - maybe things would have been different. Now, though, her head turns slightly, eyes flickering. The lenses of her glasses flicker too, strange hieroglyphs of orange in reversal view.
"You should be careful," Erzebet says then. "Maybe you have come up with a better way. But that means if it stays just a dream, you're the responsible one, doesn't it?"
Now her head turns to look at Eleanor, and momentarily towards Xiumei, at whom she narrows her eyes slightly.
"I guess this means hope's going to be on you, won't it?"
Erzebet then falls forwards -- into a runner's stance. "Because grease this for a larkaday. SKIDOO!" And with this sudden and incomprehensible knot of Lingan slang, Erzebet breaks into an all-out run-- with that same inhuman speed as before -- towards a hallway away from the elevator nexus.
Distantly, there is an inhuman cry: 'eeeEEDDDWWWAAAAAAAAARRRRDDDDDD'
More distantly, a faint but distinct impact with a following tat-a-tat-a-snap! and a faint shift in the air pressure.
And that, in the end, is that. All of it ended, except for the blood on the floor.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Seraph Clarine's Prism Sword for 101 hit points! GS: Quick, Shield, and Shield applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
For a moment, Erzebet vanishes from Xiumei's sight in a storm of ice, snow, and wind summoned by Eleanor. She is encased in ice -- and then shot. It all comes crashing down, and Erzebet hits the ground. Xiumei stares at her.
Solitaire's words ring in her ears.
She looks at Erzebet, then, as she stands, Xiumei lifts the Pulse Saber -- ready, if she tries -- but she sees it isn't necessary.
"I won't argue with you," she says. "It does."
She watches as Erzebet bolts away -- and then she lowers her blade. The energy blade touches the floor for a moment, leaving a melted gash in it, before it winks out. She exhales, after that. "...She's gone."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Humans generally are," Ragnell says back to Solitaire, just a touch pointedly. Being beastfolk, she assumes the mouse girl knows that better than most. Her thanks, though, get just a cynical laugh. "I haven't been here for the cause, an' I don't believe in freedom, I AM freedom. But sure, if it makes you feel better--you're welcome."
While her smile doesn't fade (after all, she's the one who said it first), Ragnell huffs again as Clarine praises her companions in ARMS. And again, she doesn't countermand her. The news about Nimue gets just a curt nod too, though 'curt' doesn't mean 'unfriendly' or even 'uncaring'--far from it in this case. Case in point: "Good," she says, and leaves it at that.
The mirror shatters, but Ragnell knows better than to think that means Clarine is defenseless. A Seraph's weapon is no more physical than the Seraph who wields it. As the Prism Swords fall, she is caged within them thanks to the Spotlight. Bringing her weapons around to shield her from some of the damage helps, but it's a powerful spell and that can only do much. She's still standing when the light fades, but her stance is crooked; she's taken a beating so far.
Given her throaty chuckle and her broad grin, she doesn't seem at all unhappy about it. She does, however, side-eye the other battles--Solitaire straight-up renouncing Vinsfeld on the spot, Erezebet outright cutting and running. "Hmmm... looks like the organization's finally crumblin' all the way," she remarks. "Well, now that the end's here, I got no reason to stick around. The one I actually joined for is off doin' his own thing anyway, seems like, so seems like it's also high time I get back to doin' the same."
She smirks back at Clarine, wrists crossing as she calls up her own magic in the form of a golden glyph at her feet. "...But that'll come soon enough. Right now, I'm havin' too much damn fun t' just cut an' run on you now, Clary!" she calls as it sends up sparkling motes of light.
"O darkened stormclouds! THUNDER BLADE!"
A sword made of pure lightning shucks down from the heavens (such as they are in a place like this) to impact near Clarine. Said impact alone sends out a wave of force--but that's not the end of this arte. After crackling for a heartbeat too, the sword itself EXPLODES, sending out a blast of lightning in every direction. If Clarine isn't quick, she'll get stunned by the first and swallowed up by the second.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Clarine with Thunder Blade! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Drowsy expired! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine solidly guards Seraph Ragnell's Thunder Blade for 116 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
How often is it that words actually get through to someone on the opposite end of ARMS' perpetual battlefield? Ashley blinks slowly as Solitaire speaks. He exhales slowly, arms relaxing somewhat. "...Does that mean you're going to--"
Dark energy swirls around her upheld axe. Ashley winces and braces as Solitaire swings, unleashing a nova of anathemic, demonic energy. The musketeer shouts as the impact hurls him hard into a nearby pillar. He staggers forward, demonic energy smoldering around his limbs.
It hurts.
It hurts. Something inside demands retribution. A voice in the dark screams, voice dripping with malice, with hunger. Fight. Fight. Make them pay...!
Ashley...
Drops to a knee, a hand pressed to his skull. "Ghh... Let her go. If she wants to go... Then let her go...!"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Despite Brad's story and Ashley's words seeming to reach Solitaire's understanding, the Nidhogg still raises up and erupts. Azoth erects a shield of light against the swirling darkness. One moment, he's pushed back, heels scraping against the metal. Another, the shield forms cracks over its hexagon grid. Another still, and it shatters, knocking Azoth back, with the last wisps of the dark biting at his body.
His axe wound is still sputtering with electricity. He regards Solitaire long enough to satisfyingly calculate whether or not he thinks another blow is coming, and then both wound and the lines coursing through his body dim down.
The other combatitants have their own reasons for fighting, and none of them seem to involve dedicating this much of their time, energy, and blood to Vinsfeld. And there's Brad's story of surviving a great betrayal... his own strength used and discarded. Humans even doing it to fellow humans is nothing new.
But it's never easier to understand.
"If the Heimdall Gazzo could feel... do you think it could ever be 'free'? Or does its strength ensure it never will be? All of its power, every time, attributed to the one who stole it..."
Azoth does not expect an answer. The battle seems to be ending, but there's enough urgency for him to linger, keeping near Ashley in case he needs a shield -- in one direction or the other -- while that demonic energy smolders.
"The battle's over. We're letting her go."
It's a confirmation and a reassurance, although Azoth's not sure why it needs to be made, only that he's picked up on that it probably does...!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Scared...? Bad...?" Ratatoskr asks somewhere in all of this shouting and sorcerous power being flung around behind him and to the side, and even to the front. He cranes his neck down, bearing upon Hicalu with brightening solid yellow eyes. Ratatoskr doesn't blink. He is all eyes. Well, two eyes that are all eyes, no lids. (Whatever surplus of lids he has, he has never applied them to his mouth.)
It wasn't all that long ago where he seemed unsettled for being where he was. "I'm a historian, and I will see and bear witness to--"
Hicalu cuts him off with a Flare Bolt, and Ratatoskr's entire world is blindingly bright even as he lunges at him (missing - this time, thanks to the blinding effect). It's a rushing palm strike that goes over Hicalu entirely without him having to do anything to protect himself. (For the moment.)
He's trying to follow Josie's voice while his sight is compromised when she calls him a wildcard, hurling himself head-long into electrical power as the Bolt Lance lances through him and bolts down through the ground, his segmented metal plate tail just fanning out line a huge lanky pineapple while it works out the residuals of it. It smarts, and some of it even sparks out through his horn anyway.
And he still has the presence of mind, somehow, to know what Josie's talking about. "I could explain it now...!" Not any better than Ida can, but he's a young man and he's always going to be competitive about that. His sight still isn't back, as Ida goes in with her maneuvers.
He raises a knee into the low strike to parry it from taking the wind out of him, blunting the impact of intent but not the strength of technique Ida has mastered and internalized, nor the arm of a fellow Hyadean that she has uniquely made her own as much as it is still Fafnir's. The most successful of the combination is the shoulder jab that puts him off in a stagger, if only far enough that the punch comes (almost) short enough the full impact doesn't go through.
Ratatoskr's all grins again even as faint shapes start to come back, ready to start anew as the gleam of quicksilver pulses and shines throughout his armor and the rest of him. He loves the 'native' combat disciplines of the two worlds, but Ida offers something unique in combining the world of his birth and her own.
He never wants the fight to end.
Solitaire calls out, speaking of how Vinsfeld has betrayed them. This is a conclusion Ratatoskr should have come to, in some respects - he was forgotten and uninvited to come be aboard the Heimdall Gazzo. Whether that, or a mere failure in communications and logistics due to each and every one of Vinsfeld's elite Cocytus leadership having passed away in vain defense of the Diablo Pillars...
"I remember what Mother said all too well..." He says, uncharacteristically solemnly for the nineteen-to-twenty-five-year-old. Yet, he remains completely amped up, curling fingers and twitches of a flattening tail that hasn't come down from the Bolt Lance shock in full, as if he were still here in the exciting moment.
"Whether the cause is a lie... whether it is the truth... this is history." Ratatoskr's grin levels closer to 'smile.' "Some of my favorite war heroes are all here... it's not enough to hear what came after! I'm here to live it now...!"
He protests, as Solitaire throws dog tags at him. (A few of them seem to have a familiar flavor of Malevolence rising off of them, which is of no harm to Ratatoskr by any means but a clear signal to those aware as to the fates of some of those Odessa soldiers.)
...
"...You're not far off," he says to Solitaire, "...I counted how many possible soldiers that could be on board... this is four-fifths of them...!"
He looks to the frightened but courageously present and fighting Hicalu, the cool and confident Josie set on her ways regardless of where her ways are going, and to the woman who walks across and unites two worlds.
Over yonder, towards the Sage of Light, the mysterious Beastfolk from beyond the stars wielding things he's not sure he's seen Zeboim-era weapons come in, and the armored Xiumei who has the backing of long-gone warriors into the modern day.
Of where Erzebet flees.
Ida may be aware that if Ratatoskr had the gumption, he would gleefully fight all six of them at once, and maybe even the other four. He scarcely looks that injured, or that winded - his martial techniuqe having improved leaps and bounds over time.
Every part the Metal Demons of recent legend.
"I want to keep this moment, you know..." He says to the gathered.
He doesn't leap back into relentless violence.
GS: Ratatoskr gains 65 THP from Regen! GS: Shieldbreak expired! GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor's spell is as effective as she had hoped. Even in the face of Erzebet's remarkable ability to block, it seems to take enough effect. She notices the struggle. And she notices--
Ah. That moment. There it is.
"...I am," Eleanor answers Erzebet seriously, when she speaks to her, along with Xiumei. "It is."
And Erzebet goes. Eleanor does not even try to stop her, turning her way, and then back to Xiumei. "She's gone," she agrees. And then....
And then Azoth asks a question that she hears, and wonders. And Ratatoskr makes his statement. He wants to keep this moment, he says. The others are already going. But Ratatoskr...
"You can't," Eleanor says to him, raising her voice over the din. "It's a moment. And like all moments, it will pass. It will become memory, and..."
Eleanor's face turns down. "...Memory isn't the same as forever."
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Her posture changes. Brad shifts his fingers in the glove, queing something up, but not quite releasing its fury yet. He hasn't lied - at least, not on anything important. And she has heard it. Here, on Odessa's last legs, is when reason can again apply. Solitaire falters...but, it doesn't quite break her yet.
Even as she says tshe'll let them go, she must issue one last strike, and Brad's brace with the Mechanical Glove blazes with the faint light of a deflection shield that sends much of the force scattering, though cuts still fly open from invisible impacts.
He almost moves to strike...but Ashley and Azoth call to let her go, instead. He grunts, and straightens out of combat posture.
"Machines don't ask us to create them. They can't possibly be responsible for the power they are made to bear. But..."
He starts marching toward the central elevator and the final path toward Vinsfeld. "I guess you'd have to find someone who knows what freedom is, first," he muses.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
'Good', Ragnell says, and Clarine nods. That she says anything at all in response is good enough to her - it would have been easy enough to say nothing at all.
She's pleased at Ragnell's response to her attack, but she, too, isn't unaware of the situation around them. One by one, the agents of Odessa stand aside, in one way or another.
"So it would seem." Clarine notes... and then, her head tilts curiously to the side. "So this was because of someone? I am curious, now, as to what sort of person drew your interest."
...But as Ragnell continues, Clarine can't help but smile.
"I would be disappointed if you did. 'Twould be a shame to end this now." She replies. ...It's been a while since she's been this thrilled for a fight.
It's Ragnell's turn to recite an incantation. Thunder Blade is a familiar spell to Clarine - and with that familiarity comes respect for what it's capable of.
Clarine attempts to drift backward out of range of the spell, but she's not quite quick enough - it slams down to the ground near her, the shockwave sending her reeling. She won't be able to recover fully. She grimaces and braces herself, bringing up a mirror to defend as the sword explodes in a burst of all-consuming lightning. It erupts around her and sends her flying. For a moment she's unmoving - but she recovers, doing a backflip in mid-air and catching herself with one of her mirrors.
She's looking worse for wear, too - she's clearly exerted herself, saved from heavy breathing only due to not needing to breathe at all.
...But there's still plenty of fight left in her. With a flick of her hands her mirrors fly out to surround Ragnell.
"One thousand divine lights, arise and light the path to tomorrow..." Clarine incants, another Seraphic Glyph appearing beneath her feet. She brings her hand forward, fingers splayed out and pointing toward the mirrors. "Radiant Cannonade!"
Countless beams rush out - impacting both mirrors and the surfaces of Heimdall Gazzo. Where they hit, they reflect, and with each reflection they gradually pick up speed - and then the mirrors' positions shift - sending a volley of laser beams Ragnell's way, coming from all directions.
GS: Seraph Clarine has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Radiant Cannonade! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Seraph Ragnell takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Radiant Cannonade for 201 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
Solitaire waits to see if the others are standing down. It seems like they are, so she spins her axe around once before fastening it to her back.
"Mm." She confirms once more with Ragnell. "......So you don't believe in yourself?" She asks as she tries to parse Ragnell's badass line.
She pops a second gummy into her mouth. These things help keep her voice going strong but since Erzebet is leaving and RAtatoskr is standing down, she can probably give it a bit of a rest--at least, she doesn't have to shout anymore. What a relief.
She knows Ashley from reports but not very well because she cannot read. She approaches him first, oblivious that his energy is actual demonic rather than SFX demonic and she tries to help him up and feed HIM a healing gummy.
"Muffin Man," Solitaire says seriously with absolute conviction. "You must stop Vinsfeld."
Brad is already moving on. "...I will keep looking," She tells him. She doesn't tell him to stop Vinsfeld because it seems she doesn't really need to. The Muffin Man seems like he needs a bit more support though, so she will help him up. She kind of brushes at the demonic energy as if trying to pat it out.
She watches Erzebet leave. And she listens to her. She is a little sad--but she's mostly glad that Erzebet's okay. Maybe they can fight together again under someone more worthy? Or perhaps they'll have to carry the mantle on their own. Solitaire doesn't know right now.
We're letting her go.
"Thank you." Solitaire says to Azoth as she approaches him. "Would you like me to sew your wound shut?" He said he was an electric doll so... He learned from his Master... the power... OF NEEDLE AND THREAD.
But other than that she looks around a bit before adding, "But first," She says. "You said you had a friend who is sick and needs help?"
"I will help you rescue this 'Kamui'."
If Heimdall Gazzo could feel, do you think it could ever be free? Or does its strength ensure it never will be?
Solitaire thinks this question over. It's a good question, really, on the responsibility of strength.
"Though we fight for freedom, we are never free... of our responsibility to each other. If Heimdall could feel, if it could think..."
"It can be free. You are no different, Azoth...."
Conviction returns to Solitaire's eyes.
"But we will start with your friend."
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Ashley Winchester with Xander's MIRACULOUS minor Healing Potion! GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cripple expired! GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action. GS: Solitaire Collier heals Ashley Winchester! He gains 89 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.
"Yeep!" Hicalu yelps, at that palm going over him, anyway.
But -- he's a historian, he says, and Hicalu will at least hear him out this time, with those big fluffy ears.
"I-- I never was too good at all that b-book learning stuff," he says, and almost manages to say it normally, since Ratatoskr has laid off for the moment. "S-so I think it's really cool how you know all that history, right? M-Mana -- she's, uh, basically my mom," Hicalu has absorbed not enough or maybe too much of the meaning behind Ratatoskr's statements, "she was always tellin' me t-to be, uh, present in the moment too, yeah? Though, uh, I-I think that's 'cause I freaked out a bunch..."
He scratches at an ear. "I-I think you can probably see all this stuff without, um, h-helping the war crimes? I, uh... I-I mean... it gonna help if I s-say I'll fight you? I-I-I'm not really t-the guy you want there, I'm n-not any kinda hero, but, um..."
Hicalu looks back and forth. "Uhhhh, Guardians, I-I dunno what to... hey, you liked the Vacuum spell, r-right? That's, um, i-it's not one I use for this stuff too much, but, uh... check this out!"
Hand gestures! "Energy Net!" A cloak of magic settles over Ratatoskr! "S-since you're so f-f-fast, t-this is a spell for stealing your fastness!" Which, indeed, is what THIS vampiric spell is up to.
"There's a-all sorts of that stuff you can see, b-b-but if everything gets destroyed, t-those fights will go away!" HE'S TRYING HIS BEST TO SPEAK RATATOSKR'S LANGUAGE HERE AAAA
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Ratatoskr with Energy Net! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action. GS: Ratatoskr accepts Hicalu Wilwisp's Energy Net for 0 hit points! GS: Drowsy and Shieldbreak applied to Ratatoskr! GS: Riposte applied to Hicalu Wilwisp! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Heh. Nothin' short o' th' so-called 'King of All Evil.' Which, for a guy with an epithet like that, he's surprisin'ly reasonable." Ragnell shrugs. "But given the kind o' things he's capable of an' the forces he's been bringin' to bear, we thought someone like him stood keepin' an eye on."
...In other words, Ragnell joined Odessa to monitor Ganondorf and his forces--and based on her use of 'we,' it seems a certain someone else thought this was a good idea too. It certainly explains why she's never seemed all that interested in Odessa's goals, but... has she ever actually joined Ganondorf in battle, either?
Either way, it seems as ever, there's only one person to whom she's truly loyal.
Clarine's been doing well this fight, regardless. Regardless of what all they say, it's clear that neither of them is fighting as hard as they could--but at the same time, they're not pulling any punches, either. "You don't need to believe in a fact. It just is, whether you believe in it or not," she asides to Solitaire, but her eyes never actually leave her tango partner. It doesn't help much; the Radiant Cannonade's field of effect is so broad that it's nigh impossible to avoid, and with that Spotlight still clinging to her, Ragnell's already at a disadvantage. The barrage of lasers build up and shoot in towards her from too many directions to all evade, and when they impact, they create a storm of light that consumes her in its field.
For a moment, it seems as though Ragnell has been defeated, at least this time around.
"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens..."
Then, within the dimming light, there is a silhouette, battered, seared--but very much intact... and countering with a powerful arte of her own.
"Command thee, who opens the gates to hell..."
A massive glyph forms under her, around her, *above* her, reaching taller and taller and taller, so tall that it seems like the engine room couldn't possibly contain it.
"You better still be standin' after this one, Clary!" Ragnell reaches out a pistol-wielding hand to point out at her as the very ceiling seems to become a massive stormhead, flashing light within the darkness, smelling of wind and ozone.
"INDIGNATION!"
Guided by gold and indigo glyphs, an overwhelming bolt of lightning, thicker than a redwood, falls.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Seraph Clarine with Indignation! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is not sure if it is surprising or deeply appropriate that Solitaire was the first to break ranks. She glances across the room as the Beastwoman makes her statement.
She steps backwards, arms still raised, the gun held in her off-hand in a reverse grip. She sizes up Ratatoskr, who is still not anywhere close to winded. He's come far. In a strange way, Ida feels proud. "Then keep it," Ida says. "Hold it in memory." She glances back at Hicalu, as the net flies, but she herself makes no attempt to continue the fight.
"And live to pass it on." Ida glances at the trail of blood Erzebet left as she fled. She blinks, and her right eye goes green. She feels a tension in her throat, and an urgency in the back of her mind. "Do you understand?"
Ragnell's arte goes off mere moments later, casting Ida in shadow.
GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Indignation for 226 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Pass! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
A hand is offered. A gummy is shoved into his mouth before he can say no. But it tastes good and vaguely of healing potion, so it's not as though he's going to die from it (yet (it's xander, you never really know))
"T-thanks," Ashley says, his hand falling away from his head as the demonic flames flicker and fade. Most of them were the result of lingering energy from Solitaire's attack anyway, so it's not as though she's about to get superburns on her hands from touching Raw Blazer Energies. "...And thank you, again. Our goal here... isn't to exterminate Odessa. If I can trust you with Kamui, then you can trust us with Vinsfeld."
Ashley stares into the middle distance, watching Brad's back walk away from them. "...Maybe after all this is done, you can stop by at the Irington Bakery and have some more muffins?" ALWAYS BE SELLING, EVEN ON A DISK'S FINAL DUNGEON. With that, he turns to follow Brad into the heart of the ship.
...All the while, deep within his heart, a demoniac power writhes and seethes.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Fortunately -- if much to Josie's displeasure, given the face she pulls -- Ida's talents are (probably) not transferrable skills.
"Oh yeah? Go on," she prompts Ratatoskr, all the same. Never stop dreaming, perhaps?
Though...
One by one, they begun to withdraw. It might just underscore the sentiment that Josie had expressed earlier to Eleanor and Xiumei: that of those left in Odessa, the remaining were the true believers, those who got pulled in by forces beyond their control, or those who want to burn the world to ashes.
Though, she thinks as she regards Ratatoskr, perhaps there's a special fourth category just for him.
"That many between us all," she remarks, regarding the dog tags.
"Weren't all that long ago that it would've been me, there, too."
She holds no weapon. There's no way for her to signal that she's standing down. None, save for this: pulling out a cigarette, Josie lights the end with a snap of her fingers.
"All good things," she tells Ratatoskr, "come to an end. I ain't doing this to the bitter, right. I'd say you've tales enough of this for decades. Or longer."
Cigarette held in her lips, she withdraws a second cigarette and offers it over.
"It's been fun. But..."
There's another she has to contend with, before all this is through.
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Cigarette?! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Ratatoskr accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's Pass for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ratatoskr accepts Josephine Lovelace's Cigarette? for 0 hit points! GS: Cripple, Interrupt, and Jam applied to Ratatoskr! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Ratatoskr has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth looks up toward Brad, letting his expression display a vulnerable bit of surprise. "... Yeah."
Error: 'freedom' undefined.
Solitaire approaches him, and now Azoth does give a startled beep as he looks at her. "Huh? Oh, uh. No. In fact, you shouldn't stick any metal in me at all. For your own safety."
Thankfully, Solitaire can lend aid to Ashley. Although, Azoth's worried it can only treat the battle wounds, and not this other struggle Ashley's experiencing. It's not doing a lot of Azoth's opinions on power being a curse.
But Ashley seems to stabilize. "...All right." He looks to Solitaire. "I won't say no to your help."
The most important thing is protecting Filgaia. And, hopefully, their friends along with it. Time is short.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"...I see. So it was him." Clarine notes curiously. She was monitoring Ganondorf... That is, in its own way, a relief. She smiles. "I understand."
Ragnell disappears in a storm of light - but from Clarine's stance, it's clear that she doesn't believe for a second that she's been defeated. She readies herself when she hears that incantation begin, knowing what it entails. She begins to motion with her hands, drawing her mirrors back toward her. They form around her, forming a protective shell.
She can feel it - the power building, and building, and building. And so too can she see it.
And then it descends.
Power and destruction given form as lightning and focus through glyphs. For a moment, Clarine's immediate area erupts with light and electricty. Everything in Clarine's immediate vicinity is destroyed, but as for Clarine herself...
...Indeed, she still stands.
Electricity crackles over her body. Her mirrors have all been destroyed in the process of protecting her from the attack. She can no longer maintain her typical hover, feet planted on the ground...
...But even still, pushed to the very limits like this...
"...I... still stand." Clarine replies. It's clearly taking her some effort. "Now witness... what I have gained!"
Briefly, gold and violet light surrounds her. The flow of energy around her quickens, allowing her to draw it in more efficently. And then...
"O holy one, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupt souls..." Clarine incants, closing her eyes. Now, she lifts up off the ground once more, arms spread out wide as a massive Seraphic glyph appears beneath her. And so - "Judgment!"
Above, the ceiling blooms with light. If they could see the sky, it would be shining, too - and then, the light begins to fall. Columns of pure light descend from above, one after another in a expression of Clarine's will. Where they fall is random, but guided by her - Ragnell, now, is her only aim and focus here.
GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Clarine with Enhance Cast! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has launched an attack Link!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
BGM: Tales of Rebirth: Scutum - Unflappable ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SMm6hIBGtM
Ratatoskr goes over the names of the tags gingerly, handling them with utmost care even with sharp fingertips. It is his birthright to retract and mold the ends into something else - that he does not think to do so is how much faith and confidence he has in his finger dexterity not to damage them. He lingers on one for some reason unknown to those outside - a masculine one he knows is common in Arctica.
That might've been the one who accosted him on Mt. Gagazet. He's gone too, then. Mother's cruel bioengineering didn't give Ratatoskr's lineage functioning tear ducts, if he were ever of the desire - or need - to shed them.
'You can't (keep the moment),' the Sage of Light speaks from a position spanning an unthinkable span of time. 'Memory isn't the same as forever.'
"...and I refuse to lose them to 'forever'...!" He snaps back, his grip on the chains of these dog tags tightening.
Hicalu speaks up, shakily compared to some of the more resolute words being shared while there's a really cool light-and-lightning show going in the periphery.
"Crimes? Crimes!" Ratatoskr could almost scoff. Then definitely does. "It's not about that... and it would...! You're a warrior like anyone else..." That's either high praise or a failed perception roll, take your pick. He watches the way Hicalu waves his hands and chants his syllables, and then there's an energy net spell that just goes 'thwip' around Ratatoskr, as Hicalu reasons how all those fights will go away.
"...Would they? Would they! It always felt like they were building to something even greater..." Delusion of a young man with an overactive imagination, perhaps, to Hicalu's thoughts that they'd all 'go away.'
'Then keep it. Hold it in memory. And live to pass it on.' Ratatoskr spies the glint of green in Ida's right eye, as his fingers curl around the dog tag necklace chains. He might be the only Odessa operative alive who even has an inkling of who some of these people here were, many of whom he never got to fight.
"...And life is fighting..." It's a culture extremely few among the surviving number of Metal Demons under Mother have ever been able to divorce themselves of. Does he understand? That's not a question that can ever be answered on the spot when he continues to let his interests and enthusiasm keep getting the best of him.
(INDIGNATION happens here to aggressive disc reading sounds from... somewhere. It's totally freakin' rad.)
Even knowing and seeing what he has, between a vision of Hyades' final days and what his shadow in the Darkness Trial spoke of him.
Josie offers her part. That many between all of them. Wouldn't have been long ago that Josie's would've been in that number, too.
"If the end comes," when, not if, but Hyadeans are biologically immortal against old age as far as any one knows, "I'm not going to be happy with just decades... no, centuries... no, longer."
Eleanor may see a twinge of ambition of someone who may not grasp how long a span of time he must be imagining, and yet might be able to achieve that if his own impetuous youthfulness doesn't do it to him.
When Josie offers that cigarette, Ratatoskr takes it. It's warm now, burning. It can only stay burning for so long before it turns to useless ash, and so, Ratatoskr takes that drag.
He sputters and coughs, because it's horrible for Hyadean lungs too. No one wins with cigarettes. (Not even immortal Living Metal killing machines.)
The quicksilver luster of his armor fades back into blood red, for reasons that continue to be strange and obscure. (It remains a point of curiosity rather than a point of alarm or a window into some other strange power that has entered the ecosystem.)
"..."
A side-glance to the likes of Solitaire and her axe. He's one of the few people alive who had any sort of experience with who that axe was before they became an axe, at that.
"...If you leave out one detail, leave anything to the ages..." Ratatoskr grins. "...You won't? You won't...!" He's still in an energy net.
He kind of casually walks off despite having an energy net still sapping his agility, following after Erzebet's trail of blood with way less urgency than maybe he ought to but then again perhaps the net's an issue.
But he was there for the last of Vinsfeld's remaining forces. To see nearly the entirety of the end of it....
(As he leaves, JUDGEMENT happens here to more aggressive disc reading noises.)
GS: Seraph Clarine has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraph Clarine has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Seraph Clarine accepts Seraph Clarine's Enhance Cast for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Surge applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Judgment! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.
"Well I might miss Vinsfeld," Solitaire admits, embarrassed that she cannot be in two places at once. "But I'll tell you everything I see." She technically could split up with Patience for this purpose but she'd rather not.
And of course there's the danger that Solitaire, someone with no book learning at all, might not be able to share EVERYTHINg. But she'll do her level best. She knows how important it is to Ratatoskr and Ratatoskr is her first friend so he is important to her.
Azoth tells her to not stick metal into Azoth.
".....Oh." Solitaire says.
".............Sorry."
She feels bad for cutting him open because he can't be stitched up apparently! She has much to learn about Azoths.
"Okay," She says to Ashley. "They're really good muffins."
Very good muffins have had an appreciable effect on the >Convince action today.
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.
"W-we won't leave anything out," Hicalu is sure to promise Ratatoskr, which may at least mean he'll get a firsthand account of Vinsfields' confrontation from someone. It's clearly very important to him and --
Hicalu just REALLY WANTS THE DIPLOMACY VICTORY, OKAY???
Unfortunately he also kind of indirectly promised he'd help in even more really scary battles, which is why he looks entirely harried. "I, uh... s-sorry, I kinda, I need a minute... h-h-here, I brought up some of these..."
And so, Josie and Ida receive their rewards for winning this battle:
HEAL BERRY MUFFINS.
They're delicious and healicious!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Ragnell suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Clarine's Judgment for 222 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell does bear witness--and she does it with a smile.
The two of them are walking their own separate paths, but she's genuinely happy to see how much her friend has grown since the old days. Like Clarine said of her companions in ARMS, she's strong now, not just in artes but in character. It wasn't so long ago that she was terrified of the dark. Now, her power is more than enough to tear clean through it. As Judgment falls from the heavens, Ragnell does her best to avoid it, not wanting to insult Clarine by simply letting her win--but it's enough to zag when she should have zigged, and the holy light cleaves through her. She snarls in pain and drops to one knee. She's not dead, but at this point, continuing the fight any further would be dangerous for her.
"...heh. I know when I'm beat." Head bowed, her smile takes on a fonder quality as she touches the brim of her hat. "You did good, Clary. I'm proud o' ya." She lowers her hand to drape in on one knee and looks up to meet her eyes. "And now, since you didn't lose t' me, you better make sure you don't lose to no one else, y'hear?"
Her humanoid form dissolves them, fading out at the edges and coalescing into a ball of golden light. "'Til next time, old friend," her voice reverberates; then the orb that is Ragnell zips off at speed.
...at such speed that it'll be easy to miss her doubling back and entering Azoth from an angle. This is probably fine.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
The light fades... and in the end, Ragnell is left on one knee. Clarine floats gently back down to the floor. She stumbles briefly, but manages to retain her footing.
Ragnell is... proud of her. Even exhausted as she is, a wide smile crosses Clarine's face.
"...Thank you, Ragnell. That means much to me." Clarine says, resting a hand over where her heart would be and offering her a respectful bow. "Of course. I shall not disappoint you."
She straightens up, just as Ragnell dissolves into a ball of light.
"Until next time." Clarine agrees with a resolute nod... and then, turns to face her allies. They've already attended to their own issues by this point.
"Thank you, everyone, for allowing me to face her alone..." She says earnestly. She needed this - for whatever it is that fate has in store for them beyond this moment.