2023-05-20: Galaxy
- Log: Galaxy
- Cast: Boomerang, Ashley Winchester, Mariel, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ruth Pauling, Marivel Armitage, Venetia Vuong, Josephine Lovelace, Hannah Curie, Seraph Clarine, Eleanor Klein, Medli, Brad Evans
- Where: Outside Meria Boule
- Date: May 20, 2023 (505 PC)
- Summary: The Drifters finally leave the Memory Maze with their missing friends... only to be met by Luceid and Boomerang. One wants to rescue the Sword Miaden, and the other wants a fight with Lord Blazer. Letting them have their Desires would be calamitous, and the drifters move to stop them.
============================<* The Cape of Breath *>============================ Stretching from the edge of the slowly-spreading northern desert, the Cape of Breath is the lush southern region of Meria Boule. Farmland and livestock take up much of the hilly region, dotted with the estates and castles of Merian nobles, often at the height of elevation, but across temperate land to the west great forests begin, still part of the great resources of the Merian nation. In places the badlands of the north find mirrors here, hotter regions with accordingly sparser populations... where people could move. To the farthest south and east are the wide coastlines, each marked with large cities. Only the fortress nature of many estates at the hearts of settlements recalls much of Meria's more warlike history, after the great efforts of the late Queen to ensure peace for all Meria Boule, and the spread of knowledge. Nevertheless, the increasing spread of monsters can make travel without caravan or guards a perilous undertaking indeed. BGM: Wild Arms 2 - Field ~ Wandering
DC: Venetia Vuong switches forms to Hadal Sorceress Venetia! DC: Eleanor Klein switches forms to Eleanor, Sage of Light! DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida! DC: Ashley Winchester switches forms to Musketeer! DC: Josephine Lovelace switches forms to The Peregrine! DC: You switch forms to Wandering Mage! DC: Hannah Curie switches forms to Wandering Mage! DC: Mariel switches forms to Herbalist Mariel! DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Crimson Noble Marivel!
<Pose Tracker> Boomerang has posed.
In the Memory Maze, pyreflies swirl about.
Two groups came together -- those who had been trapped here and the rescuers -- and they just now see each other. They see one another through, literally, the mists; the Memory Maze is a place of towering pillars on a misty plane, stretching out every which way.
A voice crackles over the radio. Cid, the leader of the Al Bhed, speaks. "All right! We're opening the portal!" he says. "It's going to drop you right outside Meria Boule--"
He actually hesitates for a moment over the city's name. He has only been there once and recently.
"--so be ready!"
The pyreflies all swirl together, then a rippling tear in space appears. It opens, large enough for one person to go through at a time. On the other side, Cid and Lilka Eleniak can be seen. They wave -- motioning everyone through.
"Welcome back, everyone!" Lilka says, with a grin.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
How long had it been? A day? A month? Years? Upon emerging from the mists of memory, would they even return to a Filgaia that they would recognize?
These questions and more weigh heavily in the fog, but to Ashley Winchester, they may as well be as ephemeral as mists breaking against the dawn. There is no doubt in his mind as he steps through the flurries of pyreflies. After all, he is bound by far too many promises for a place like this to betray him at the end of the road.
And so, tired, worn down, and still nursing a headache that only being subjected to the unvarnished will of ancient gods of destruction and despair could cause, Ashley Winchester emerges from the mists-- And sees the faces of his friends waiting for him. "Hey," he says with a weary smile, "Looks like we finally made it. Sorry for keeping everyone waiting--"
An enormous serpent suddenly wraps him up, coils around him as if it were trying to smother the life out of him--
No wait, that's just Marivel giving him the biggest danger noodle hug. Here to say...
Welcome home.
"...I'm home," he says with a sigh. "Just a few more steps, right...?"
The gateway opens. Ashley looks up at Marivel with a crooked grin, "As comfy as this is, I don't think we'll be fitting through the gate like this."
The others... can probably go first.
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel was part of the rescuers, not part of the rescuees. It was...
Well it wasn't a trip she would like to repeat, let's go with that. But nobody died so she is counting it as a victory, even if she mostly just wants to rest at this point. If she had her staff, she'd use it as a prop; as is she is still on her own two feet, but her ears droop more than usual.
She's smiling nonetheless, especially when she sees the other groups (Lilka and Cid count as a group). "You made it!" she calls, raising her gloved hand to signal at the rescuees. "There is a portal!" Just in case they haven't seen it.
This also means she is absolutely not going to be the first one through it - she'll let them out first. Thus is life. But she is REALLY looking forward to getting back to Filgaia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Maze has revealed something to those who braved it--a dark and ancient secret, one preserved here like a fly in amber. There is no time to process it. The mist starts to clear, revealing familiar silhouettes.
It also reveals Ida's group, with Ida in the lead. She wears her refurbished body armor, her overcoat and gear, and a strained but genuine smile. Her hands are bloody, with crimson and quicksilver dripping down her palms. Her fingernails gleam like steel. But the wounds are already scabbing over with blueish Hyadean flesh, and the sight of Eleanor, Ashley, and the others--alive, unchanged--makes her laugh.
"We made it," she says, turning back to the others, relief dawning like the sun on her face. (It's sunny, but there is still the shadow of dread.) "Eleanor!" Ida waves, trying to get her attention. "We're here! Into the portal, we'll take you home!"
And then, one after another, they go into the rift. Ida is the very last of their party, to make sure no one is left behind.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Among one of the teams is a large (6'4", definitely big), single-winged... demon? Gargoyle? This is not a novel sight for anyone but the likes of Hannah, but they're wearing Ruth's (still oversized, despite significantly larger form) distinctive manner of clothing and holding her weapon. Her head is bowed, but if Hannah looks head on, even with the changes in coloration that's still identifiably Ruth.
For those in the know of some of the metaphysics of the current situation, this is something of a red flag! By the manner of how they all got to the Memory Maze - a simulated Farplane with significant pyrefly pressure - it's occupying a space too thick for Malevolence to really be out here! Ruth's true self shouldn't be 'out' like this.
Those who could spare any moment of notice (and it's more than understandable if not) might have seen her take this shape when everyone bore personal witness to a conversation between godly and/or demonic bad actors. Was the scope of consciousness being forced upon her too much, or...?
"I'll take the rear," Ruth's voice should confirm any doubt Hannah may have if the monstrous creature is with them - and further any doubt as to whether she's still herself. "I'm... fine. I feel like I fainted... there."
Ruth's not sure where 'there' is. She flicks a serpentine tongue incessantly to make up for the sensory strangeness of this middle space between the Memory Maze and their native layer of existing.
In truth, she's fighting the urge to not follow them back and something about the period where she blacked out haunts her. (That she is good friends with a number of them - especially among some of those once lost to the Maze - makes it a fight she can manage, and... keep fighting, as you do.)
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel, for a moment, is in a serpentine draconic form--wrapped around Ashley Winchester in a tight embrace--
--then the pyreflies swirl and Marivel quickly throws herself off, reverting to her humanoid state and smoothing out her outfit.
"Right outside Meria Boule." Marivel says. "I suspect you'll be seeing Marina shortly."
She pauses a moment and pushes Ashley forward. "You first!"
She looks towards the others for a moment. Her expression dwells on her dear friends, some of whom she hasn't seen for quite a long time by her perspective--such as Medli.
She remembers Brad's Courage, Ashley's Desire, Eleanor's Love, and Josephine's Hope. She remembers how she relied on these memories time and time again.
She remembers Hannah giving her the tools to engage generations upon generations of people and find companionship amongst those she mentored in their youth only to see them grow up and live their lives. Each friend she made this way would eventually become an ache--but she could never give that away.
She looks at Medli, the only one who spoke to her of duty. So young, so mature. Ruth, a fellow monster. Venetia, a fellow scholar. Ida, a descendent of someone she honors who fought, in the end, for all.
She just takes this moment to remember. To engrace this moment on her mind. She reaches forward and squeezes onto Mariel's hand.
But when she turns she's surprised to see that Ashley hasn't left yet.
"Come on, come on, don't keep your HOT GIRLFRIEND waiting!! I promised her I'd BRING YOU HOME." She says.
She starts literally pushing Ashley out through the portal.
She takes one last look back though.
"...Ana..." She says. "...I'm coming back for you. I'm sorry for asking you to be patient again. I always have, and will, love you."
She exhales at that and continues the rest of the way, wiping tears away with her free hand.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia Vuong hears something over her empathite radio earring.
She blinks several times, and looks at her hands. Good, familiar, honest, slightly sensual hands, she thinks. She makes fists and relaxes them. She paps her face. She reaches up to adjust her mask slightly, reaching behind her head to reknot everything and see if her hairpin fell out (it didn't, but her hasty redressing means her hair is a lot sloppier looking than usual).
The door is opened. Meria Boule, Venetia thinks. She has no home town patriotism to think otherwise. Meria Boule has better surface weather, that she cannot deny. She steps forwards --
And sees Ashley. Who is immediately engulfed by a snake. Venetia's hand slips towards her gun, but-- he's alright-- Venetia recognizes the snake -- and she looks to the bulk of coils that is Marivel's polymorphed form, and then to Ashley.
And she gives him a thumbs up.
After this Venetia marches forwards, and she has enough faith in her comrades (and an understanding that surely several of them are going to bring up the rear) that she may be the first, or among the first, to stagger out of the rift. "Lilka!" Venetia declares, throwing up her hands. "They're having a moment. Dinoginos it is good to see you and all of this. That's another adventure for the books, isn't it? If we do an eighth, do you think we'll receive a free gift?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's a fair question. There's nothing about all this business that says they'll have to drop out in the same time and place from which they'd entered, a thought that Josie had entertained prior. Still, the way she figured...
Better out than in. Or remaining in, as the case may be.
"Looks like something's comin'," Josie drawls, peering into the mists ahead. Pyreflies are rising to meet their passage, the only sign that they are not in precisely the place they had started from.
"Well, now."
The mists part.
"Now, there's a sight for sore eyes! Ruth!"
She's referring to the large gargoyle-like figure, of course.
"How the heck ya been! Came all this way for little ol' me? ...Well," she says, tossing her head in the direction of her compatriots in this how-de-do. "Me or the others, I figure. C'mon, then, you lot! Let's not hang out around here!"
She pauses, eying the contents of the Memory Maze, such as they are.
"...Or when, I suppose."
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
They are assaulted with the memory of a god of corruption struggling with the all-consuming fire. There is no outwitting or outrunning it. They cannot fight. All they can do is endure. It is a terrible, draining experience. Hannah's mind recoils from the experience, but even as she tries to shut the memory out, to force her way forward and through it... something within her is drawn to some part of the power on display.
Hannah stumbles out of the memory, dropping to her hands and knees and drawing in a shaky breath. Zephyr lets out an alarmed cry and jumps off her shoulder, landing in front of her with an inquisitive chirp. Hannah shakes her head.
"I'll be fine. Go look after the kid."
Zephyr hesitates but does as he's asked, taking wing and landing over by Medli to lend emotional support.
It takes Hannah a few moments to recover, drawing in sharp, shuddering breathes until she can still her breathing and climb to her feet. Once standing, she draws her black cloak around her protectively.
Two people in particular (namely, Marivel and Eleanor) might remember, as of 5 years ago, an excitable girl with long pink hair, bright green eyes, and an cheery disposition.
The woman who barged her way onto this mission today has cut her hair short (she might've done it herself), has a guarded, wary gaze, and, if you look past the grim demeanor... is just so tired. She also didn't wear a cloak before.
Zephyr looks about exactly the same, though.
She looks to Ida, Tristan and Medli to see how they fared... though her eyes narrow a bit as she looks at Ida's hands. She's about to say something, but then Ida calls Eleanor's name, and her head snaps around to see where she's looking.
Her expression softens, and she glances away, looking decidedly... guilty, for some reason.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Finally. They've made it safely through the Memory Maze, through no small effort. They can finally see each other again - though the mists obscure each other, it's still enough.
"Everyone! It is so good to see you again. I was so worried, I-" Clarine starts, clasping her hands in front of her... and then pauses, as Cid's voice rings out. "...Well, let us save the greetings for when we get back, shall we?"
The pyreflies swirl - and then, a tear in space appears.
"...Shall we?" She says. She dutifully waits for her turn, and then emerges. She immediately offers Cid and Lilka a polite bow.
"You have my eternal gratitude, for allowing us all to reunite." She offers. Lilka especially gets a smile. "You truly are an incredible sorceress, Lilka."
Her attention then turns to the others - the friends they've been separated from for so long.
"It is so good to see you all again. My heart soars, that this parting was only temporary... though I do not have one in the traditional sense!" She beams. ...She seems to be in quite the good mood.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Over the radio--Eleanor knows that voice! And she knows that city!
Eleanor Klein, fresh off of a real set of experiences, not least of which is saying goodbye (for now?) to Anastasia. Now, she sees her friends, and--
"Tristan!" Eleanor calls, as she sees her brother, and rushes towards him, where he hesitates for only a moment before his sister sweeps him into a hug. "It's so dangerous! I can't believe you came with them!"
"Eleanor," he starts, and puts his arms around his sister in turn. "Of course I did. Our family has committed to help ARMS, and..."
"Thank you," she says, as if it weren't something so dutiful at all. Then she pulls back, and looks to her friends. "Everyone," she says, warmly. SHe looks--well. She looks tired, to say the least; Eleanor is wearing a lot of ruined magical jewelry, and her skirt suit is tattered. Nevertheles, her yellow eyes are bright. ...She could use a touchup on her makeup, though.
But Ida gets her attention next, and Eleanor smiles. "You look terrible," she tells her friend happily. "I'm so glad to see you."
Tristan all but drags her towards the portal next, though. "Go, go," he says. "We were here to rescue you and your friends, so.."
Eleanor almost does. She looks around, and her heart swells to see Medli, but then--
"Wh--"
Eleanor looks over Zephyr first, and blinks. "Zephyr???" She says, recognizing the hawk immediately. "But that's--"
"Hannah!?" Eleanor exclaims in shock. "But I thought--you were--Oh, my--"
"Reunions later, portal now," Tristan says, and as Eleanor is working out how to greet her unexpected friend Tristan is nudging her towards the portal. "H-hey, no pushing, Tris!"
"Go, go!"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Miss," Marivel says to Hannah. "I've wondered for five thousand years, but I don't suppose I could have your--"
She takes another look at Zephyr.
Her eyes widen. Then she clears her throat and says, "Achem--I see you got my letter. How fortuitous! Just as planned. I'm happy to see you and I hope we can catch up soon?"
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel is also trying to avoid Ruth, which probably isn't making the party more cohesive. She can't feel her like she normally can with Malevolence, or at least not as much - there's still something there now that she knows to look for it, even though the obscuring nature of this place makes it like 'looking' through a pea soup fog - but that doesn't make her any less unsettled around a Hellion.
Especially right now.
But she is not avoiding Marivel, especially when Marivel comes up to her. She squeezes back, and lingers with Marivel for a moment after she starts pushing people out the door. Well, one person. "We'll come back," she says, quietly. Right now, there is nothing they can do. There might never be. But if there is...
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.
Medli, perhaps the youngest and least experienced of the gathered adventurers, stands back on her own for a long moment, watching the reunions play out. She smiles shyly. Pleased, but feeling out of place.
It isn't until Zephyr approaches that Medli breaks from her quiet reverie. "Oh, mister Zephyr!" A quick bow to the bird. "Did you come to check on me? Thank you! I'm okay, really. I'm just thinking about--"
Red eyes look back the way they came. It's a terrible thing to be alone with nothing but nightmares for company.
But everyone is moving through the portal. Medli turns her back on it, bowing very low to the Maze at large. As her ponytail brushes against the ground, she whispers a prayer for the peace and safety of those still trapped.
"Come on, mister Zephyr! We can't be left behind!" Medli says, brightening as she sees Eleanor. "Let's hurry!"
With that, the little Rito girl chases after Tristan and Eleanor, making her way to the portal.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad Evans will be thinking about what he's just seen for a long time. Memories of others, but also truths kept concealed, stored forever within eternity.
Inevitably, thus, his face as he emerges from the mists and sees others here who he cannot CONCEIVE how he got there, is to blink owlishly and then make no particular expression. He's going to be doing so much math later.
"Guess they figured something out," he asides in Eleanor's direction. When the portal opens and Lilka and Cid call through, that gets the big man to tromp forward. Re-entering reality as he understands it, the first thing he does is hold up the Mechanical Glove and silently spin its internal ammunition belt, making sure it continues to operate the way he thinks it's supposed to.
The second thing he does is nod quietly to Lilka. A silent acknowledgment of thanks for how far the girl's come, before he turns his attention toward Ashley and Marivel.
"Don't you have a bakery to run?" he says, with the faintest lilt of jest. "Get on out here."
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Marivel gives him lip! Snake lip!! Ashley squints at the now humanoid vampire and--
Squeeshes her cheeks. "You know I couldn't fit through that door with you wrapped around me! Jeez!"
"I'm coming," he answers Brad with a nod and a smile. "Come on, let's go home."
Ashley steps forward, through the mouth of the portal...
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Zephyr chirps happily at Eleanor when his name is called. Hannah, though, cringes a little at being recognized. She looks over to Eleanor and nods in response to being identified. She just gives a bashful, "Hey."
But then she's confronted with Marivel herself--and almost feels guilty being identified as 'Miss'. Has it really been that long that she's unrecognizable to her mentor?
But then Marivel does recognize her, and she just nods. "Hi, Miss Marivel. I did. Um, I saw..." She glances to the portal. "Yes, I'd like that. For now, we should get going."
Zephyr chirps at Medli, as if confirming that he's there to check on her. Once Medli bows to the Maze and starts for the portal, Zephyr alights very gently on her shoulder, riding out with her. (He knows not to grip too hard with those talons, fortunately!)
Hannah heads for the portal herself, next, glancing around and watching as people exit, then exiting herself.
<Pose Tracker> Boomerang has posed.
"It was a lot to get it open, too!" Lilka says, after Mariel speaks up. "And it's sort of an amazing feat of sorcerous engineering so--"
"Eh, save it for a research paper," Cid says. "This machina's not gonna keep it open forever!"
On the other side of the portal, they stand on the familiar meadows of the Cape of Breath. A seabreeze blows past them, carrying the faint scent of salt. The grass blows with the wind; a few trees sway. The outline of Meria City can be seen, too, in the distance -- castle, brick buildings, and a few taller ones with steel frames.
It's a welcome sight. For many of them, it is home.
The machina that Cid used is nearby. It is a very Spiran thing, with coils and curved plating, and parts that were visibly salvaged. Several spheres are plugged into it; a few pyreflies drift away from it. Cid looks it over.
And a shadow descends over it.
"Oh, shit--!" Cid yells, jumping back as a bolt of violet light hurtles down, slams into the ground just in front of Cid and hurls him backward. A figure lands near the machina, a moment later.
Boomerang.
The Metal Demon is a being of metallic flesh, with an armored face and torso, and a long duster. Next to him, Luceid lands -- they're a wolf with violet fur, red at the tips, and with blazing golden eyes. The Guardian Lord of Desire looks at Boomerang.
Then back at the others. "You saw her. You saw Ana's place of imprisonment..."
"It's time to find out if you're worthy," Boomerang says. "See, there's one thing Luceid desires more than anything." He turns his head to the machine. "We figure if anything can tear this world open, can bring her back, then it's that. And a Guardian Lord to do it."
Boomerang's eyes flash. "And if we have kill Filgaia to get her back," he says, "then that at least, before Lord Blazer consumes the world, we both get what we Desire."
Boomerang and Luceid both erupt with golden light -- a flash that rises about them both -- and then there is one figure, clad in dark blue-gunmetal armor, with red highlights. Green gems are mounted in the shoulders; golden eyes are behind the visor.
And, gripped in one hand, is a long silvery sword. Boomerang Flash launches forward, and his sword sweeps out in a wicked arc across all of them.
"I know you'll try to stop us, so let's GET THIS OVER WITH!"
DC: Boomerang switches forms to Boomerang Flash!
GS: Boomerang has completed his action. GS: Boomerang has attacked Ashley Winchester with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ruth Pauling with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Venetia Vuong with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Hannah Curie with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Seraph Clarine with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Eleanor Klein with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Marivel Armitage with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Mariel with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Medli with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has attacked Brad Evans with Crescent Arc! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang has completed his action. GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 130 hit points! GS: Mariel partially guards Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 144 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 143 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: Medli takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 75 hit points! GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 131 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Brad Evans solidly guards Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 63 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Ruth Pauling suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 139 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Venetia Vuong solidly guards Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 68 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 89 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 63 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Hannah Curie suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 150 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Crescent Arc for 232 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth can just hear her name being called out by Josie. She even looks up, as a fellow traveler of a similarly checkered career path greets her approach with others not with dread, but enthusiasm and anticipation. Somehow, she works up a little smile and a nod while she tries to sort herself through the simultaneous sensory overload and the environment's seeming lack (thanks to pyrefly pressure).
On the other side, Ruth has the presence of mind to step away from others as a foggy blackish-purple miasma wreathes about her to the sweet, sweet taste of unoccupied spiritual space for it to try and impart itself upon. (For Hannah and Medli's sakes, it's a physical representation of some knotted-up sorrow and, instinctively, worth avoiding.)
Ruth doesn't get a chance to bring herself down when Boomerang and Luceid together attack and have things to say. The voice of Filgaia's embodiment of Desire whispers into that little space as if to touch at that fundamental force of one of the greatest powers that sustain the world.
Boomerang and Luceid don't allow much time for a word to come in as Boomerang Flash strikes true across Ruth with a pained, hissing shriek and droplets of dark purple blood dotting the ground.
Isn't there someone you wanted to have a chance to say-- A pang of Desire touches a metaphysically exposed nerve in Ruth's present state, another defiant, monstrous hissing as she hoists the rifle with help of her tail and lets loose with a shot - one of a shockingly deafening report - to Boomerang Flash's position.
It's inarticulate hissing that backs this, as language escapes her following an unexplainable consciousness-hangover and immediate physical trauma.
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Boomerang with Door Knock! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Ruth Pauling's Door Knock for 191 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
A shadow descends... The Metal Demon, Boomerang, and the wolf Luceid. The Guardian Lord of Desire. And they are here, now.
YOU SAW HER, he says.
"And what of it?" Venetia says, her voice merely ordinary. And then Boomerang speaks at greater length, and he draws upon Luceid, and he embraces the burning agonies of Desire itself in the form of Luceid, and then he declares his intent: To tear the world open. If he will kill Filgaia to requite his desire, he will.
And then he tries to kill them with a sword, of course. A sweeping arc as he launches forwards, and maybe it is only the instincts from old martial arts classes that make the gash on Venetia's arm as bad as they are. Bloody, painful, but not disabling. Not yet.
Fortunately, Venetia knows what to do at a time like this:
"Request denied," Venetia tells Boomerang.
"Do you think you can just carve a path of bodies to fulfill your 'Desire'? Do you think it's going to sway anyone to cooperate with you? Pfeh! Any sympathy I might have is rather drowned out by your willingness to destroy the star on which I dwell! I'm fond of it, and I think you're underestimating it, even now." Her unbloodied arm reaches into her Crest Graph pouch. "I have no intention of *trying* to stop you."
What Venetia does at times like this is *get mad*.
The Crest Graph in her hand glows even as Ruth opens fire. Venetia supplements it with a single piece of amethyst the size of one Venetia, orbited by thirteen "merely" grapefruit-sized missiles that converge against him! Also, for some reason she just threw a handful of money on the ground, which may be Strategy - or possibly a neurological syndrome - or both?
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Boomerang with Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Venetia Vuong's Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~ for 152 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"You'll have to tell us all about it later," Ashley tells Lilka, "Maybe over some coffee and donuts or something? And... Thanks, Lil. You really saved us this time." Because he's nothing if not the world's most oblivious heartstring-puller. After all...
He has somewhere to be. Someone to get home to. The familiar scent of Meria-Boule's rolling plains fills his lungs, and--
A flash of violet light. Voices. Familiar voices. Ashley double-takes as Boomerang and Luceid appear to-- threaten to tear Filgaia itself apart for the sake of saving one forsaken soul.
Ironic, that Luceid and Marivel took very different paths... to the very same place. How much of an impact did Anastasia have on the Guardian Lord, for them to be willing to damn the whole world for the sake of seeing her one more time.
But Ashley-- Ashley's expression is not one of despseration or of shock or anything of the sort. Boomerang flashes in, sword sweeping in a wide arc-- and slamming hard into the edge of the Bayonet. The ARM wasn't there a moment ago, but it is now. Ashley's arms scream from the strain, the shock hammers his eardrums and bruises his ribcage, but he stands firm. "We come all this way to make it home, and you think you're going to stop us!? Putting aside how much it'll piss Ana off if you do this, I've got a promise to keep!"
"Get out of my way, Luceid! Boomerang!!" He whirls back, going from a swordsman's to gunner's stance and-- "APORT!" A canister appears in the baker's hand. He shoves it into his weapon's breach and pulls the trigger, launching a canister full of incendiary ooze directly for Boomerang's center of mass.
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Boomerang with Canister - Incendiary Round! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang solidly guards Ashley Winchester's Canister - Incendiary Round for 151 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to Boomerang! GS: Hyper applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Luceid!" Marivel says, smiling even though she knows how this is going to go. "We did. You understand now, Luceid, this is Ana's..."
Boomerang speaks and she listens to Boomerang speak of the Guardian Lord's desire. She is briefly confused for a moment. "If that's what you wanted..." She frowns. "Then why the hell did you give me such a hard time about it the LAST time we talked, Lucy! That is JUST NOT FAIR. Ohhhhh 'what did you do Marivel? You big mean demon? I'm totally going to rip open the Memory Maze and free Lord Blazer so we can get a quick cuddle in before Lord Blazer murders everyone's souls!'"
The sword sweeps across Marivel's chest and sprays out some black mist from the wound. She steps back quickly.
"Lucy, just so you know, Ana and I smooched all the time, like SO MANY TIMES." Marivel says. "It is all very hot and yuri as fuck!"
She realizes something and look to Hannah. "Ah, don't mind my language, Hannah." She says, because even if Hannah is a super cool drifter now she does still feel the need to be a proper Adult for the girl.
"You told me last time..." Marivel says. "You said that you wanted to fulfill her wish. Her wish was to rely on Ashley Winchester, her wish was to pass on the duty of defeating Lord Blazer to him. Her wish was for him to return to home to his HOT BAKER GIRLFRIEND."
She extends a hand and aims with an APORT of her own a pail into the air that will fall for Boomerang's head.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM9ky7FxzZ0&ab_channel=JeremyMage-Topic
"I miss my friend. I HATE FIGHTING MY FRIEND." Marivel tells Boomerang (and Luceid with him). "But you should be helping Ashley not hunting him, not releasing the demon within him. With him we can do it! I don't care what the future vision says. It's ours to make!"
"I finally have a future again, I won't let your Desire take that away from me! We'll save not just Ana, but we'll save EVERYONE. Filgaia, Anastasia, Lunar, and everyone there! From Lord Blazer... Everything!"
It is a marked change in Marivel from the last time they talked. The last one was ready to give up on everything just for a chance to be with her loved one again.
This one, on the other hand.... Seems much stronger.
"Let's fight together again, Luceid. Let's place this five thousand curse to an end together. Let's live together!"
MEANWHILE
Ah, this battle is happening right outside Meria?
"Ashley...?" Marina asks and steps out of her Bakery.
"..." She takes a deep breath, and she starts running.
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Boomerang with Enhanced Aport Riposte! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Boomerang takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Enhanced Aport Riposte for 65 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Unfortunately, the time for greetings is short-lived. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning crashes down toward them... and following it, Boomerang and Luceid. Clarine gasps.
"It is you!" She recognizes them both - they interfered before, and she fought them then along with the others. And they seek to...
"You seek to free Anastasia. I am sympathetic. However..." She is interrupted as Boomerang launches an attack. It's too quick for her to avoid. She grimaces and floats backward as the sword cuts across her body. Well... she's still standing, metaphorically. "However, to do so at the cost of this world - her world... You will only ensure that her last memories of you are utter disappointment."
She shakes her head. She knows words alone won't sway them, though. They're both intensely determined to see this through and so, the only way to stop them is to meet them with her own determination. With a flourish, Clarine's mirrors emerge as she readies herself together. She puts her hands together and pushes them both toward Boomerang - focusing and directing her light outward in a bright flash of light!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Boomerang with Blinding Flash! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Boomerang takes a glancing hit from Seraph Clarine's Blinding Flash for 0 hit points! GS: Blind and Delay applied to Boomerang! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
Mariel is one of the last ones out, and she exits almost directly into Boomerang and Luceid making a declaration.
"Boomerang! ...Luceid!"
Mariel is, unfortunately, an easy target. She is much more experienced with combat than she used to be (much as she would like not to need to be) but she still isn't as fast, as strong, or as durable as the people who make a career out of it. She has many skills; the sword is not one of them.
The blade cuts into Mariel's side as she rolls, having thrown herself down to roll with the blade so it does not cut through her. She pushes herself back up a moment later - it's relatively shallow, but unpleasant.
"...You're supposed to be a Guardian Lord! You are part of Filgaia - to destroy it is... !" Mariel doesn't even have the words for it. Luceid has always been the most unreliable of the Guardian Lords, and while she does not expect them to do anything in particular in defense of the planet, she thought it was well beyond them to intentionally do something to damage it. "More than that, it is *wrong*."
"We can meet that desire a different way!" Mariel supports Marivel in this - and she doesn't even address Boomerang because she has little to say to him; she has spoken to him before and they have nothing in common, there is no way to make any kind of accord or agreement.
Similarly, Mariel does not attack. She reaches into her satchel, retrieving bottles of green-tinted liquid; opening them, she draws power from them, releasing a grassy smell and a surge of durability - the tenacity of vines and roots that dig even into stone, cling to walls and rock in the most inhospitable terrain.
GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Seraph Clarine with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Marivel Armitage with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Ashley Winchester with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Venetia Vuong with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Ruth Pauling with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Hannah Curie with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Brad Evans with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Medli with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Eleanor Klein with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Sylkis Tincture! GS: Mariel has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: Ashley Winchester accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Eleanor Klein accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Medli accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Medli! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: Mariel accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: Ruth Pauling accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Brad Evans accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Brad Evans! GS: Hannah Curie accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Hannah Curie! GS: Venetia Vuong accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Mariel's Sylkis Tincture for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Shield applied to Mariel!
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Today has been full of unexpected surprises. She'd suspected Eleanor was involved, but not known for sure, but had still ended up in one of her memories--as her, no less--one which raised even more questions about her old friend.
(And current friend, she hopes. If Eleanor is willing to speak to her again after she dropped off the face of the earth.)
She'd known Marivel was involved, because of the letter, but had been wholly unprepared for the revelations about her mentor. To see her (or to see her memory, perhaps? She's not clear on this), to find out something so personal...
And to see them both in person was a bit of a gut punch, after five incredibly long years spent avoiding everybody.
Boomerang and Luceid, however...
She's got nothin'.
She glances around her, "What the hell is he talking--"
Oh crud. He's attacking. Hannah fumbles for the clasp on her pouch, whipping out a crest graph and drawing a line of force across the arc of the incoming strike. She's too slow and it breaks through, the arc of the blow sending her staggering back several steps. She clutches at her chest. "Grrr... If it's a fight you want then...."
She glances at Marivel. "Later!" her tone is a bit harsh and terse, but... this is fighting time. Awkwardness and blushing can wait.
Mariel provides support by way of tincture, and Hannah tosses a quick, "Thanks!" in her direction.
She draws a different graph from her pouch. "I'll try to pin them down!" she announces. She hasn't fought with these people, she doesn't know their strategies nor she theirs, so it's safest this way, even if it tips off their foe. The crest grows a bright blue-white as she channels her power, and then slams it into the ground. "Winter's Grasp!" A tidal wave of ice, beautiful but deadly and sharp and jagged, surges out along the ground towards Boomerang, attempting to entrap his legs, body, an arm--anything at all, really--in ice.
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Boomerang with Winter's Grasp! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Salt. Brad manages to think of a little town off the coast, instead of another thing. He breathes deeply of air that's so much clearer than the still eternity of the Maze.
And then a shadow falls. He senses it with old instincts now-honed, half turning, his Mechanical Glove spinning up. From Brad's perspective it's been one thing after another, but he's run gauntlets before. "Boomerang!" he hisses. The Metal Demon rover is a known quantity, as is his partner the Guardian Lord. "You're not getting a good fight out of--"
Oh.
It's not a fight he wants this time. ...well it is, but, there's a purpose beyond it, for once. Brad's fist clenches tight, and the Mechanical Glove responds with a loud hum as it spins up to combat state. "Fusion with a Guardian...?" Pooka...
Not quite the same. But perhaps close.
He's able to get his Mechanical Glove up to bat aside the oncoming blade, grunting as his arm stings from the hit. Checks around; Cid and Lilka on the generator, Ashley and Marivel moving fast. Venetia's doing her thing and he won't need to step in on that anytime soon. Mariel's surge of strength rushes through him.
"Can't say I don't sympathize with the idea." He reaches to the Glove and yanks a bolt back, making the entire machine buzz. "But I got some folks I gotta see just as bad, so buzz off!"
He raises the Glove and the cannon on the right hand side bursts off several rapid grenade shots, peppering Boomerang Flash with explosions!
GS: Formation! Brad Evans has attacked Boomerang with 100 Knuckle! GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang takes a glancing hit from Hannah Curie's Winter's Grasp for 34 hit points! GS: Entangle and Slow applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida looks Eleanor over, her smile twisting as she takes it in. "Somehow worse than the woman who fought a terrorist mastermind, then was trapped here for weeks," she says. "We... saw things. We can discuss them later." A glance over her shoulder. "Your brother served admirably. And Hannah--"
A touching reunion. Well, as much as can happen before Tristan escorts his elder sister out of the portal. Ida has to laugh.
She steps through the portal, and back into the world she knows. The fresh air of the Merian countryside fills her lungs. Sunlight gleams off the banks of machinery. Ashley rushes forward to congratulate Lilka. Ida's body tenses as the shadow falls over them, dragged out of her triumphant relief by a sudden and unpleasant interruption.
"You," Ida snarls, her eyes--alert, grey-blue--narrow, in one of those looks that could kill. There is only one reason they can be here: violence. And sure enough, they elaborate.
Ida blinks, and in that moment, her right eye turns emerald-green, and no less full of anger.
"No," she says, simply. "You have a right to feel. You do not have a right to--"
And then...
"Armatus," Ida hisses, incensed that they'd do it again, and for such a horrid reason. But again, she has no time to level further accusation. Boomerang's blade whips out, and Ida raises both forearms to guard. The slash glances off, but it's enough to send her staggering back; there should be blood, a horrid wound--
Instead, something else. Blink and you'll miss it. More armor extrudes from beneath the armor Ida wears, metallic but biological, like Boomerang's own. Chips of it fly off, spalling from impact, but there's no blood. Just a violent, jarring blow.
Ida saw Hannah pull that trick earlier. A grin crosses her face as she leaps up and over the icicles, pulls back a hand, and then tries to apply an open-palm blow to Boomerang's face. She lands on the ground beside him, and then launches into a series of weaker blows, taking advantage of the cover Hannah just gave her.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Boomerang with Water Dragon Form! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Brad Evans's 100 Knuckle for 253 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam applied to Boomerang! GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang solidly guards Ida Everstead-Rey's Water Dragon Form for 136 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
For Ruth, there is a wink. It'll do under the circumstances, perhaps.
The young man there as they approach the rift appears to know Eleanor. Trading a glance between her and Eleanor, Josie -- herself the older sister in her own equation -- puts two and two together.
"Hurry up, or your little brother'll leave you behind, Nora!"
And should she get the opportunity, she'll make the move to push Eleanor (gently, relatively) towards the real world. If a particular black and white pigeon goes sailing through the gap back to Filgaia ahead of them all, well, perhaps it's permitted under the circumstances.
They're back, and in their own time.
Or near enough to it.
"Well, I'm sure a technical explanation'd be fine and dandy," Josie remarks, eyeing the machine thoughtfully. "But first things first, yeah?" She pats down her hip, apparently seeking out something that should be on her person. "...Don't tell me I left 'em back in the..."
With a sudden cry, Penelope takes flight, winging off into the near distance. A shadow falls upon the machine that had cleft through time and space, and slowly, Josie turns her head.
"...You," she says to the pair of them -- Boomerang the Metal Demon and Luceid the Guardian of Desire -- both of which she has met before. "Now what d'you lot want?"
They tell her (and everyone else) exactly what.
"...Now ain't that a load of-- You think that's what she wants? Goin' through all that, only for you to undo it?" Her lips press thin as she glances between the two of them. "Don't know what's in it for either of you, frankly, 'cept a world that's tinder for the pyre. Maybe you're fine and dandy with that one. But I ain't!"
The two of them, for a lack of a better word, fuse: Guardian and Hyadean become one being. Just as quickly, that sword swings across the distance and Josie finds there's nowhere for her to go. There's just the blade, its edge rising to meet her.
It lays her out, sprawling across the grass in a place that not too long ago she'd awaited another's verdict. Her hand rises to her chest and comes away red, but as she finds, she's still very much alive.
Perhaps more than alive, as the scent of Mariel's grassy tincture reaches her nostrils. "Whew-- that's a smell," she says, rising to her feet as its power sinks deep into her very being. "Right! Don't let that bastard take the machine! I still ain't looked at it proper yet!"
As cries for the continued relative safety of the planet go, it's a little sideways, but perhaps it might do. Drawing the black shotgun from where it's been slung along her back, she takes but one step to widen her stance and unloads on Boomerang.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Boomerang with Stinger! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Boomerang solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Stinger for 38 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break blocked! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor returns that gaze to Josie, with a lopsided smile--and then a 'hey!' sort of expression. "i'm going, I'm going...!" Then "Was it weeks?" Eleanor wonders of Ida, with a smile. Then--pushing!!
Hannah looks different, but sh's recognizeably Hannah to Eleanor, and she would like to speak with her. But she's being pushed through the portal. But at least there's Medli beside her, "You know Zephyr?" she wonders of her young friend.
She also wants to support Lilka for her great acheivement... but the appearance of their foe forestalls that. "What?" Eleanor starts, blinking as the violet light hurtles down and the Metal Demon is there--with Luceid. "We--yes, but-"
"NO!" Eleanor calls "We want to free her, but not by destroying the world--"
The sword lashes out. Tristan, for her part, immediately rushes up, his shield telescoping into full width as he stands in front of Medli to block much of the strike--but his shield shatters under Boomerang's silver sword, sending him knocked backward against a rock.
"Tris!" Eleanor cries in alarm, but he coughs, and gets to one knee. "That's..." Another cough. "I'll be fine!" Tristan calls. "Fight!" He looks to Ida--if he can meet her eyes, he will. Someone has to protect Eleanor while he can't.
He won't be helping more in this fight; Eleanor herself wavers on her feet, what remains of her enchantments shielding her from the blade but at a cost. "...You're mad," Eleanor says. "What good is it to free her without a world for her to come home to!?"
Eleanor pulls a Crest from her pouch, inscribed with Wing and Muse, channeling magic through its golden threads in a flash of brilliant light. Mariel speaks up--Mariel has the words for it, and, "I will not allow it!"
Sparkling, prismatic ice crashes down upon Boomerang's armor, slashing and crushing all at once.
"We have a duty to this world!" As it happens... she has similar instincts to Hannah. Hmmm. Eleanor rushes up after she uses her Crest beside Medli, narrowing her eyes as she sees Hannah's magic. She's apparently grown since they were younger...
"Thank you for coming," she says then to Medli. "We need to speak, when we can. But for now...!"
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Boomerang with Aurora! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Boomerang solidly guards Eleanor Klein's Aurora for 53 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.
Medli coos as Zephyr lands on her shoulder. "You're so talented, perching like that!" Gently, she pats his head, making sure to move in the right direction so his feathers won't get mussed.
Medli smiles up at Eleanor, moving slowly to keep from unbalancing her new avian friend. "Oh, we just met, but I think we understand each other very well so far. And miss Eleanor..." A little laugh. "I'm so glad you're safe. Welcome home!"
Almost as soon as they emerge on the other side of the portal, a battle has begun. Two -- no, one? very angry person. Medli doesn't know him, but she recognizes the situation. It's the very same issue Medli sought to solve at the Memory Maze planning meeting.
Before she can speak up, a sword is swinging at her. Medli gasps in fear, bringing up an arm to try and shield Zephyr-- But Tristan is there first, taking so much of the blow that Medli is practically unscathed.
"Mister Tristan!" She shrieks, terrified. "I--!"
Tristan encourages them to fight, and Medli gives him a trembling nod. Turning back to Boomerang, she pulls her harp from her back. "I'm sorry. I feel the same way, but! Hurting everyone isn't right!"
Touching her harp, Medli plays a mystical song. It weaves around her allies, strengthening them, clear and sweet despite the chaos of battle.
GS: Medli has attacked Eleanor Klein with Aeolian Chord! GS: Medli has gained 3 Combo! GS: Medli has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein accepts Medli's Aeolian Chord for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Medli! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Boomerang has posed.
Boomerang takes the shot from Ruth's rifle -- the round slams into his armored shoulder, leaving a dent and a spray of sparks from where it impacted. He manages a hiss himself, before he throws a hand up and makes eye contact with her.
It's a brief, inscrutable glance -- from golden eyes that are more mechanical than flesh.
Then, the ghostly form of a violet wolf -- of Luceid -- leaps off his hand, and the shadowy energy charges for her, in an effort to hurl Ruth backward.
"Do I think I can? Maybe, maybe not," Boomerang answers Venetia -- though when he speaks, his voice is overlaid with another. He and Luceid speak as one. "But we mean to FIND OUT!"
He doesn't pay attention to the money hurled to the ground; the amethyst that Venetia hurls is more pressing, and press it does: slamming into his chest, knocking him backward. His hand swings down -- and then shadow explodes up, a spike of shadowstuff erupting underneath Venetia's feet and stabbing towards her.
"Looks like the baker learned a new trick!" Boomerang answers Ashley, turning, as he fires the incendiary cannister. He lifts his free hand -- catches it -- and then the fiery blast explodes in his armored gauntlet. His golden eyes blaze as he does.
"Gh...!"
Then, he lunges forward. Purple and red light dance up the length of his sword, before he swings it down in an even chop across Ashley. "Ana might be angry, but she'll at least be free to be angry!"
The pail falls down -- but it slams into his shoulder, as he ducks aside, and turns to face Marivel. "They always wanted that--but they don't want it. But there's something I want--" Boomerang says. "A battle with the Blaze of Disaster. And if Winchester won't give to me... then there's a way for our desires to align!"
He launches forward, his blade slashing down -- then pivoting on one heel to do a diagonal slash -- and then ending with thurst at Marivel's midsection.
"And so what?" Boomerang asks Clarine. "Bitter disappointment -- better that than being stuck in a prison! Better she be free, for even a moment, even if she hates us both for it! That's what we've decided!"
Clarine's mirrors flash -- and Boomerang has to bring his free hand over his eyes, but it still stuns him for a moment. He grunts, sharply, before he brings that hand back down, and then thrusts it out towards Clarine.
The spectral form of Luceid appears, again, and hurtles off towards Clarine.
"I am part of Filgaia!" Boomerang and Luceid answer Mariel, as one. "And we represent Filgaia's desire--the desire for battle, for one moment of joy, no matter how much we suffer! Can you really deny that is part of Filgaia, Mariel!?" they howl at her.
Then, even as she draws power out -- aiding her allies -- a lance of shadow explodes up from underneath Mariel's feet.
"Don't worry," Boomerang tells Hannah. "You won't be confused for long!"
He does, in fact, get pinned down. Ice comes at him; a wave of it, slamming into him and driving him backward. He throws a hand out again -- and another spike of shadowstuff explodes up underneath her feet, stabbing at her.
Ida comes at him from one side. Brad comes at him from the other. Brad hits like a freight train, the Glove's cannon firing numerous rounds into Boomerang and smashing into his left. Ida comes in like a crashing wave, a rapid series of blows into his side.
He swings for Ida first, his sword whipping across her midsection -- then chopping down with a final strike, before he kicks off the ground. He rises up high -- back flips -- and then comes down with a hard slash straight across Brad as he lands.
The moment after he does, Josephine's shotgun blast slams into his armored side. He turns his head, and then he throws out his hand. Another spike of shadowstuff explodes up underneath her feet.
"Then stop me, if that's what you want! It's the strongest desire that shapes this world!" he tells her.
Brilliant ice crashes onto Boomerang Flash again. He stumbles, sheets of ice falling off him -- from Eleanor's spell, now, and a couple from the remains of Hannah's -- before he looks at her. "And I've got my duty. To see through my desire... and my partner's!"
He throws his hand out -- and that very same partner explodes off his opened hand, a spectral image of Luceid that rushes straight for the elf.
Then, he turns -- and he looks at Medli, even as she plays a song -- supporting her friends with it. "Only way things change... is if you're willing to hurt someone! You wanna save someone? SOMEONE HAS TO GET HURT!"
Boomerang shouts it at her, before he throws his hand out. Then, a spike of shadow explodes up underneath Medli, striking for the girl.
"Is there anything you want bad enough for that, kid!?"
GS: Boomerang has attacked Venetia Vuong with Shadowburst! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Delay expired! GS: Boomerang has attacked Marivel Armitage with Triple Down! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Mariel with Shadowburst! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Hannah Curie with Shadowburst! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Boomerang has attacked Brad Evans with Crescent Fang! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Crescent Fang! GS: Boomerang has gained 2 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ruth Pauling with Mad Luceid! GS: Boomerang has gained 3 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ashley Winchester with Luceid Saber! GS: Boomerang has attacked Seraph Clarine with Mad Luceid! GS: Boomerang has gained 4 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Shadowburst! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Eleanor Klein with Mad Luceid! GS: Boomerang has gained 3 Combo! GS: Boomerang has attacked Medli with Shadowburst! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang takes 24 damage from Poison! GS: Boomerang has completed his action. GS: Venetia Vuong solidly guards Boomerang's Shadowburst for 67 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Medli takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Shadowburst for 77 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Mariel solidly guards Boomerang's Shadowburst for 63 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Mariel gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Mad Luceid for 149 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Mad Luceid for 152 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Triple Down for 177 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Boomerang's Shadowburst for 94 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: Brad Evans critically guards Boomerang's Crescent Fang for 60 hit points! GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Luceid Saber for 136 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Ruth Pauling solidly guards Boomerang's Mad Luceid for 68 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Crescent Fang for 120 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Hannah Curie critically guards Boomerang's Shadowburst for 48 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
The essence of a grassy plant is drawn upon and Venetia breathes it in. To her it is less familiar, but in some ways, that is even more resolute -- the scent of incense, after all, is sacred *because* in some ways it is unfamiliar, a marking of boundaries.
A spike of shadow washes upwards and there is a sparkle-shower of electrical magical interface as Venetia guards as best she can. Nevertheless she is knocked staggering, if not with sudden new openings to the outside world, so that's one thing to be thankful for.
"Then it's to come down to who has the greatest desire? How unfair," Venetia states. "You've got power, allies, a body superior to most of ours. Do you think the man dying of thirst by inches in his remote village wants this any less than you? So, in the end, it is a question of power, after all."
Venetia claps her hands together. "Unfortunate for you," she says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6hmOsyJzVw
For all her boasting, Venetia has come round to focus fully on the battle and the terrible potential of Boomerang. However buoyed their spirits might be, Venetia knows they are all tired. Even she is weary, but she has not been forced to draw that much on magic, instead having to deal with cosmic-emotional strains through the revelations of the Memory Maze. It would be shameful to die with coal in the hopper, and so...
The others are going to converge, Venetia reasons. And Boomerang is fast. They're going to waste their effort. How to interfere with this sequence of events, which she can foresee? Why, with magic of course - another Crest Graph is drawn out, and she holds it, and she waits, and she watches, and as Boomerang throws his hand out for Medli, Venetia strikes-- a sudden forest of crystals rising up, in something like IRONIC COUNTERPOINT to his shadow-spikes, aiming to cross catty-corner above his head and fence him in. They're just selenite; of course he can bull out through them, but he's going to HAVE to, if he doesn't get out of the way.
"I suppose the fact that there is a Guardian," Venetia muses to herself as she wipes sweat from her forehead, "doesn't make their will a good idea." You can have a little blasphemy on the battlefield.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Boomerang with Selenite Sign ~Cavern of the Crystals~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Boomerang partially guards Venetia Vuong's Selenite Sign ~Cavern of the Crystals~ for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Entangle applied to Boomerang!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
In that split second in which Boomerang and Ruth lock eyes while the latter works out the throes of immediate bloodlust from a heightened state of tension, her glowing violet eyes start to narrow in on that window of emotion that... gives her little.
Desire lashes out at her in the ghostly form of a wolf whose very nature is that, and Ruth's wing folds inwards as she presses taloned feet down into the soft earth, clutching at it and pushing against the effort. It ends with an outward swing of said wing as she loses only about two steps of ground, at most.
The strange feeling she gets from Hannah's sorcery nags at her again. Somewhere in that Hellion is a Crest Sorceress of incomplete training but much practice, and even something as simple as those icy spikes - something that does touch on the Muse quadrunt of which she is most familir and skilled - unsettle.
Mariel's gift to those who would defend Filgaia this day from its latest suitor to the role of The One(s) Who Will Kill Off This World soothes the physical trauma from the first slash, if only just so.
"Has Filgaia ever known a joy of peace," Ruth murmurs at the declaration as she chambers the next round of her rifle (or rather, her tail does it for her). Fanged teeth clench as she hears Medli play her tune dutifully and bravely before mortal danger and Boomerang taunts her.
'You wanna save someone? SOMEONE HAS TO GET HURT!'
That Ruth tries to rush in, albeit with a slower, more lumbering gait owing to the imbalances of her sole wing, the bayonet blade of her rifle kicking up sparks as it collides against some hard stone en-route before swinging it up towards Boomerang.
She's proving him right in the moment.
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Boomerang with Scarring Blow! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: Boomerang takes a solid hit from Ruth Pauling's Scarring Blow for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Break blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
It's alright if Anastasia is angry, or disappointed, as long as she's free - even if for only a moment.
"...I see. Then I will respect your resolve." Clarine decides. Respect it - by fighting her hardest against it. That has always been her way, even against her closest friends.
Boomerang rushes at him with a physical strike. She tries to dodge out of the way, but he's quick - he still manages to hit her right in the gut. She doubles over - even for a Seraph, the effect is much like getting winded. It takes a second for her to recover - but when she does, she's immediately back into the fight. She retreats back to try and put some distance between them as his attention turns toward her allies, and then makes a gesture.
Light shines down on Boomerang from above like a spotlight. It highlights him if he finds himself caught into it, making it easier to spot him amidst the chaos of battle. There is a weight to it, as well - slowing his movements and making it easier to take aim.
GS: Formation! Seraph Clarine has attacked Boomerang with Spotlight! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Boomerang takes a glancing hit from Seraph Clarine's Spotlight for 65 hit points! GS: Drowsy applied to Boomerang! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Clarine! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Guardian Power should be something anathema to the Hyadean physiology. Should be. But things have changed since Mother was defeated-- and Boomerang clearly possesses a unique relationship with this particular Guardian as well. Luceid's power flows seamlessly up Boomerang's blade, burning across the Baker's limbs as he struggles to hold back the ancient Hyadean's strength.
"You don't... know what you're asking for, Boomerang," Ashley grits his teeth and slams his heel into the ground below. A shockwave erupts from the point of impact, blasting the black flame away. "Lord Blazer isn't something that you can defeat like that. I can-- Feel him feeding on that desire. He is contest and conflict...!"
A faint, grassy sweetness fills his senses. His heartbeat slows, calm washing over the building battle-fury. "...You can't fight Lord Blazer with a wish like that in your heart. All you'll do is become kindling."
"'The strongest desire shapes this world, huh...?'"
He kicks off the ground, racing forward on the wake of a pulse of kinetic force. Ashley swings, driving the tip of his bayonet forth in a thrust delivered at positively absurd speed. "The world that I want to live in-- is one where someone like Anastasia can live in peace. Where I can live in peace! Even if I have to overcome Filgaia's own Desire to do it--"
"There's no rule that says... That my wish is any weaker than a god's or a demon's! I said it before and I'll say it again-- Get out of my way!"
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Boomerang with Shockwave Crash! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Boomerang solidly guards Ashley Winchester's Shockwave Crash for 148 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple blocked! GS: Mighty applied to Ashley Winchester!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
"..."
"I can't," Mariel says, "even though it's not a desire I share. But there is a difference between a battle that will do nothing but hurt and a battle for a purpose! And if you are going to take a risk to hurt Filgaia that way..."
She steps forward. One step. Then another. "I'll stop you, too..."
Mariel is completely unsuited for such a task. She knows this. Boomerang knows this. Luceid certainly knows this. But her determination to see Filgaia green and healthy outweighs her distaste of battle, her hate of combat.
And indeed when the shadow burst comes, Mariel mostly just braces against it, hunkering down. It hurts; it blasts at her, and she feels it inside, raking at her flesh and energies. But she's still standing, if hunched; straightening is an effort but she makes it anyway.
"I know they miss her. I know they want her free. But - but - what about all the other people of Filgaia? Their hopes, their dreams to live, to thrive? You can want to see her - you can work to see her - without hurting them! And what about *her* desires?" Marivel has already made that point; Mariel will not make it again.
Mariel reaches into her bag again. This time she pulls out a nut, which she cracks, revealing a strangely gummy mass inside. She flings it at Boomerang Flash, and it doesn't hurt a bit when it connects, the shell making a cracking noise on impact.
But the power of the nut releases; fumes burst out, surrounding him, sapping his energy.
GS: Mariel spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Mariel has attacked Boomerang with Powerless Nut! GS: Mariel has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
The first clash with Boomerang leaves Brad with another ringing in his bones and muscles. Boomerang was always terrifically powerful and is only even moreso now, fused with Luceid. Still.
Shaking himself out and rolling his shoulder to try and work through the pain entering his joints, Brad rises again. Someone has to die for people to be saved...
"The strongest desire shapes the world. I can't deny that," he says, slow and thoughtful.
"I know this need to fight," he says, piercing in on Boomerang. "...you burn for it. But people who don't know what to do with themselves with a hoe in their hands aren't so rare."
Then he raises a shotgun the size of his entire arm.
"...sorry. I don't think you'll learn another way like this," he says, and then pulls the trigger, which fires off two shells with so much force that Brad actually physically flies a good ten feet backwards before he hits the ground hard, driving his heels in on impact to stop his slide.
GS: Brad Evans has attacked Boomerang with Super Shotgun! GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Zephyr definitely responds well to compliments and flattery, and is, indeed, very talented. Perhaps mroe than most people really realize. He chirps happily as Medli pets his head the right way. Zephyr offers Eleanor a chirp of greeting, as well.
His wings ruffle as the fighting starts, and he takes off, though he stays hovering around Medli. He cries out in alarm as that purple energy appears underneath her feet.
Meanwhile, Hannah still has her crest graph in hand, and she feels the well of magical energy and potential building up underneath her--and opts to just slam her crest graph right into it, blunting the wrost of the blow with a thick layer of ice that forms underneath her--though the attack still breaks through to lash at her. She snarls as she feels the violet energy strike her, though is able to pull some of its arcane energies into herself.
"I'll take that, thank you," she mutters. She doesn't offer a retort to their foe, instead putting the one crest graph away, and pulling another out. She pushes some of that energy into the crest graph, causing it to glow a bright, fiery red.
She watches the movements of Boomerang as he engages with the full group--the timing is tricky, with so many people around, but clearly he's dangerous enough that she simply cannot hold back. She swaits, and then, charges forward when she finds her opening.
She holds the crest graph up, just under her mouth, inhales deeply.... and spews a wild, nearly-uncontrolled stream of fire. Raw, angry, and nearly-primal, it lashes out without much guidance or precision. She does her best to reign it in, but even so it comes oh so close to lashing out at those she's allied with. Never quite inflicting harm upon them, but it might make one wonder how reckless she is.
(Sadly, this is her being careful.)
Once she's done unleashing that fire she darts back to ready her next attack.
GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Boomerang with Blaze! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 2 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel wonders for a moment if everyone she grows to care for is doomed to end up around the general proximity of Kanon as far as edge is concerned but sets it aside for a moment. There is a moment of overt confusion on her face as Boomerang explains the desires of Luceid and Boomerang. They always wanted that--but they don't want it. But there's something he wants. A battle with the Lord Blazer.
"If you can be patient," Marivel says to Boomerang. "You will eventually. The seal will not last forever. We can fight Lord Blazer together, Boomerang."
She makes the same offer that Ashley made. "I know I haven't always thought the kindest things of Hyadeans but even an old bat can learn new things. You've waited so many years, can you not wait a few more?"
But she is distracted by her moment of confusion and her defenses falter. A few quick swipes of Boomerang's blade open three more cuts across her body. More shadow pours out of her wounds as she stumbles back, falling down into a crouch as she breathes out black fumes. But Boomerang isn't entirely wrong. The strongest desire shapes the world.
Ana might be angry, but she'll at least be free to be angry.
"No, she won't be angry, Luceid." Marivel says. "She'll be sad. She'll cry. She'll cover her mouth in that way she does when she sees something terrible. She'll think 'Ah, this terrible thing happened...because of me'. Her last moments will be miserable."
Maybe it's Kaguya's words guiding this lucidity for her.
"I know that asking you to wait a little longer is against your nature--mine too. I'm not really mad at you Luceid, I just miss you." That's more for herself than anyone.
"...In the Memory Maze, I learned something. Althena didn't betray us. An entity called Zophar prevented her from helping us."
She moves closer to Ashley Winchester, who knows Lord Blazer better than anyone--even Marivel and Ana themselves. She places a hand on his shoulder.
And power fills him, herself--and Eleanor, Brad, and Josephine. By some respects--the people she's known--or known of--more than anyone besides Luceid themself.
MEANWHILE
Marina trips because she's not an adventurer at all. She skins her knee but pushes herself back up. She's close enough to hear the sound of super moves going off and she grimly dusts herself off, catches her breath, and keeps moving.
"You said he'd make it back safe, this doesn't sound safe to me," She complains.
GS: Marivel Armitage has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Ashley Winchester with Booster! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Booster! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Brad Evans with Booster! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Eleanor Klein with Booster! GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Marivel Armitage with Booster! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz, Hyper, Shield, and Surge applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify, Blitz, and Burst applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Boomerang solidly guards Mariel's Powerless Nut for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Interrupt and Weaken applied to Boomerang! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Boomerang has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify, Blitz, Protect, and Quick applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Josephine Lovelace is now being protected by Marivel Armitage!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Hannah, watch yourself!" Ida shouts, over the din of the melee. She (and, distantly, he) don't trust Boomerang not to take advantage of someone's inexperience. Ida herself has fought him several times, and is deeply thankful to have survived. The Quarter Knights--even turncoats--are no longer the invincible monsters they once were to her, but they are still a dire threat.
A familiar-scented green tincture washes out, infusing into Ida's skin. Mariel, she thinks. The extra, mystical boost immediately comes in handy. Boomerang's blade chops through the armor at her midsection, spraying bits of metal into the air. She takes a half-step back, managing to avoid most of the followup slash, but it strikes home nevertheless. Ida takes a stumbling step, blood dripping from the intersecting wounds in her flesh.
And yet, what Boomerang says to Medli is what gets Ida's blood up. "I thought Berserk was the one who bullied children," Ida snarls. A bit of an assumption, but he is growing more awake, and he has deep, formative memories of how Bersek bullied him.
Ida sees flame out of the corner of her eye, and darts back; a moment later, Hannah's spell comes roaring through with shocking violence. Ida looks at her a moment (Ida's eyes weren't mismatched just a few minutes ago, what the hell) The moment passes. Ida lunges forward, golden-white Breath boiling off her right hand as she drives it towards Boomerang. Should it hit, the energy will pour into the Armatized Metal Demon, disrupting his focus. Ida cannot hope to sunder the bond between him and Luceid, but... she can make at least half of that equation hurt, badly.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Boomerang with Searing Ember Strike! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 5 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Brad Evans's Super Shotgun for 192 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Brad Evans! GS: CRITICAL! Ashley Winchester accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Protect, Regen, and Shield applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Ashley Winchester is now being protected by Marivel Armitage! GS: Brad Evans accepts Marivel Armitage's Booster for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper, Protect, and Shield applied to Brad Evans! GS: Brad Evans is now being protected by Marivel Armitage! GS: Boomerang takes a solid hit from Hannah Curie's Blaze for 154 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Searing Ember Strike for 122 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Disease applied to Boomerang! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"What d'ya think I'm doing?" Josie snaps back at Boomerang in reply, leveling the shotgun at him even as the shadowstuff slams up towards her in a rising spike.
She raises her right hand in response, lightning trailing down that arm to meet the shade that seeks her. Not a single finger moves -- even if she could, she wouldn't dare after her stunt against Vinsfeld (it feels like it was only hours ago; it must have been weeks ago). But it isn't necessary: shadow meets the sparking shield and is deflected -- in part if not in total -- from touching Josephine's body.
...Whatever Mariel puts in that medicine of hers is really hot stuff, Josie decides.
She drops back a step, shotgun held before her as if it were a ward against disaster. All around her is chaos: ice, cast forth from Eleanor's hand. A song, of all things, carrying above the din. Sparkling crystals rising like a forest of stone.
Ruth, wading into the fray.
"Tch-- nothing I can't stand more 'n a bully, right," she retorts to Boomerang as he strikes at a young girl right before her eyes. "'N that's all you are -- talk a big blue streak 'bout your desire being strongest or whatnot, but in the end--"
Power fills her, above and beyond what Mariel has already gifted to her.
"In the end-- you ain't no better than the kid what kicks down sandcastles!"
She levels that shotgun at Boomerang. It was one of the Devil Arms, she'd been told. Malevolence thrums within its core. But Josie's just fine with getting her hands dirty.
"C'mon, then!"
She pulls the trigger, again and again, until she has no more bullets remaining.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Blitz! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Boomerang with Red Lotus! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 3 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"That's not a duty!" Eleanor calls back angrily. "Just doing what you want without regard for the consequences... !" Eleanor is cut off by that spectral image that rushes Eleanor faster than she can get out of the way. She takes a hard hit and stumbles backward, stowing her Crest with carefully-practiced ease as she grits her teeth to look forward again--to look to Medli. "Your philosophy is unacceptable, Boomerang."
"You may be part of Filgaia--but we don't simply indulge every part of ourselves to the exclusion of sense! As people, we measure these qualities, we make decisions about them!"
"And if you won't fulfill your responsibility to this world... then someone has to!"
"You tell him, Ashley!"
Then she spots Hannah using a reckless sell. But it is dangerous here--she did say so. "Be careful!" Eleanor calls to Hannah all the same.
She feels Marivel's power, hears her words. Even so, she is sure that it will not come through. But Josie calls him a bully, and...
"True."
"Light of the heavens, gather in flame and smite my foe!" Eleanor extends her hand and it is not only Crest Sorcery she uses, not only the spell of Fray and Fray. There is a primordial Light within the magic as it sparkles from her fingertips, a power older than Eleanor's body by far. And in an instant, a gigantic column of flame erupts from the ground, extending high into the air for the brief moment that it exists, to crash into Boomerang.
Then she moves to Medli. "What he's saying," she says. "...It's wrong. I believe in your way, Medli."
GS: Eleanor Klein has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Eleanor Klein spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Blitz! Eleanor Klein has attacked Boomerang with Castigate! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Gamble: High! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Red Lotus for 251 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Boomerang!
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.
Boomerang's gaze falls on Medli, and she freezes in place -- though her fingers continue her song. It's difficult to even meet his eyes.
As the monstrous being shouts his motivation at the young girl, Medli swallows, glancing away from him. "I don't--" she begins.
Half-a-second before Boomerang's spike explodes beneath the Rito, she feels the ground beneath her feet sort of... shiver. It startles Medli, and she hops to one side to avoid the sensation, gasping as the shadow explodes right where she was.
Despite her timely dodge, the attack still singes Medli's legs. She lets out an alarmed sound, wincing from the pain. "I-- I'm okay, mister Zephyr. Thank you for the warning!"
After everything she witnessed in the Memory Maze... Medli takes in a deep breath.
"NO!"
Medli shouts, squeezing her red eyes closed. "There's nothing I want that bad! I don't anyone to get hurt, ever!"
That golden harp gleams in her arms curiously, reflecting light as though it were a mirror.
"Not even you! Even if this is your duty -- I promised I'd protect everyone! I can't accept your decision!"
Eleanor has taken two heavy hits from Boomerang's attacks. With one more look toward the monster, she runs to Eleanor's side, eyes filled with concern.
"Miss Eleanor, are you alright?" Medli ducks down as Ida lunges toward Boomerang, fright in her eyes. "Thank you... I'll heal you, please don't push yourself!"
GS: Medli has attacked Eleanor Klein with Protective Pitch! GS: Medli has gained 2 Combo! GS: Medli has completed her action. GS: Medli heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 91 temporary hit points! GS: Regen and Shield applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Boomerang takes a solid hit from Eleanor Klein's Castigate for 251 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Boomerang has posed.
Selenite shoots up around Boomerang, doing exactly as she desires -- for a moment, he's surrounded and fenced in. He grunts, lowly, before he looks to her. "Desire and power," he says. "That's just it. The desire... and the power to make that desire a reality!"
It might not be the sort of thing one should agree with, but Boomerang is just sort of like that.
A moment later, then, Ruth rushes in -- the bayonet of her rifle dragging sparks after, before it slams into him. Boomerang can't move away in time, as her blade impacts with his chest armor, and leaves a deep, ugly gash across the metal.
"What joy is there in peace!?"
Clarine's brilliant light shines upon him from above -- tracking him, even as he moves -- and making it hard to miss him. His golden eyes snap to hers, for a moment. "Gh--so that's how you show respect, is it? I like your style."
Then, he turns -- and he sees Ashley surging at him, at a ridiculous speed. His bayonet slams into him, the blade piercing into his armor. He smashes Ashley backward, but quicksilver blood splashes down onto the ground. "Can't fight him--gh--all the more reason to try! And if you think your wish is strong enough--"
He shouts, as he moves back from him. "THEN SHOW ME YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH TO MAKE IT SO!"
Then, his eyes turn back to her. "If their desires -- if your desires -- come before ours, then it's gonna be the way of Hyades. Power, girl!" he says. "Show me you have the strength to stop me!"
The nut that Mariel break cracks apart -- and the fumes seep into him. He grunts, even as he feels his power sapped at. He stumbles, and his eyes turn to meet Brad Evans.
"You get it... but you reject it, too," he says.
The shotgun blast sends Brad flying; it sends Boomerang flying too, armor chipped and scratched, quicksilver rivulets running down the whole of it. He gasps, sharply.
Then Hannah breathes fire at him. It billows out, shooting over him. Boomerang growls -- and when he does, something wolfish, like Luceid's growl, is mixed with it. His golden eyes cut to hers. Then, to Marivel.
His eyes narrow. There's a flicker. Then, two voices speak as one: "So another thing to kill. Got it."
Boomerang whirls, then, and he sees Ida coming down with her fist aglow with energy. She crashes down, her fist slamming into him, and there is a brilliant flash as the blow strikes home -- and slms Boomerang backward.
"Ghh!"
Josie's shotgun erupts, a powerful blast slamming into Boomerang's side. It throws him backward, and he spins around to look at her. His eyes narrow. "A bully, huh? I dunno. Seems like a way of saying how it shouldn't be, instead of how it is."
He forces himself upright, then looks at Eleanor. "It's a duty. An oath -- to live as I want, no matter what, and pursue every desire. It's what makes Luceid what they are."
Flame slams down all around him, as Eleanor's column of fire shoots into the air. Boomerang growls, before he finally breaks from it. Smoke wafts off his armored form; his left eye flickers, and quicksilver blood runs down his clothing, onto the ground.
He looks at Medli. "You're gonna see the world DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!" he shouts. "Filgaia isn't that kind of place, kid!"
The Metal Demon spins, to deal with those close to him. He seems to speed up -- leaving ghostly afterimages. His sword sweeps out, slashing up at Ruth -- under her guard, and then across her midsection. Boomerang pivots, leaping then to stab his sword at Ashley Winchester.
Mid-leap, the sword whips away from Ashley. It cuts through the last of Hannah's fiery breath, flame roiling off the sword, before he slams the blade down for her side side. Then, he turns, and thrusters his sword up at Ida's midsection with a single, powerful blow.
Then, finally, he rushes Josephine. Boomerang becomes a blur, before he slashes at her -- a clotheslining blow -- and shoots past. He spins on a foot, to face the others.
Boomerang throws a hand forward. Behind him, a dozen spectral wolves appear -- much like the single ones he called, they're all ghostly images of Luceid -- and then they fire forward, in a galloping wave. Two slam towards Venetia; another two come careening towards Clarine.
One of them gallops, leaps off the ground, and lowers its head to drill down upon Brad. Mariel and Marivel find a trio that rush in a half-circle around them, before trying to bowl them both over.
Medli runs to Eleanor. Two more of the wolves form -- and they criss-cross, before slamming down for both of them in a blur of violet motion.
GS: Boomerang has attacked Boomerang with Enraged Desire! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Interrupt expired! GS: Boomerang accepts Boomerang's Enraged Desire for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Hyper, Quick, and Surge applied to Boomerang! GS: Boomerang has attacked Venetia Vuong with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has attacked Seraph Clarine with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has attacked Mariel with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has attacked Brad Evans with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has attacked Marivel Armitage with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has attacked Eleanor Klein with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has attacked Medli with Rush Cascade! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ruth Pauling with Shadow Boomerang Maximum! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ashley Winchester with Shadow Boomerang Maximum! GS: Boomerang has attacked Hannah Curie with Shadow Boomerang Maximum! GS: Boomerang has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Shadow Boomerang Maximum! GS: Boomerang has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Shadow Boomerang Maximum! GS: Boomerang has gained 3 Combo! GS: Boomerang takes 31 damage from Poison! GS: Blind and Poison expired! GS: Boomerang has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong solidly guards Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 91 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Mariel suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 243 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Mariel gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Mariel receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Mariel enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Medli suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 186 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 225 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Shadow Boomerang Maximum for 156 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine partially guards Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 138 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ashley Winchester suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Shadow Boomerang Maximum for 214 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 103 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Ruth Pauling suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Shadow Boomerang Maximum for 257 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Boomerang's Shadow Boomerang Maximum for 84 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated! GS: Hannah Curie takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Shadow Boomerang Maximum for 109 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Brad Evans partially guards Boomerang's Rush Cascade for 109 hit points! GS: Riposte applied to Boomerang!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
"There is joy in peace! In a life well-lived, in making things better, for everyone - of building instead of destroying, in making something new or making something better..."
Mariel trails off. Boomerang won't listen to her, and Luceid - well, Luceid does what Luceid wants; it is the entire principle by which they live. She can't break through that; he is the Guardian of Desire, and in this he can outstubborn her any day of the week.
But she still feels awful about it. And she's still not going to let the two of them do what they want. The consequences...
Ghostly Luceids rush Mariel, and Mariel struggles to deal with them. She draws in power, seeing they are *Luceid*; she isn't a shaman as humans use the term, but she has some connection with the Guardians, and perhaps she can shield herself from the expression of Desire. Not stop it - nothing stops it. But protection.
It has mixed success. One bites her leg, yanking at it bloodily and dragging her off-balance; another slams into her with enough force that she falls, especially pulled off-balance by the first. She screams as she goes down, a moment of panic.
On the ground, Mariel rolls, then scrambles on two arms and one leg, trying to push herself away from the charging wolves. She manages to get to a sitting position, a root in her hands: a rare item, seen by a few, twisted and dried.
She draws energy from it, through it; the root appears to undessicate, swelling back into life before it begins to sublimate into pink sparkles. Life - Filgaia's life, bound up in the magical medicine of the Holy Root - begins to spread from her in a wave, helping wounds and restoring health. She's still in a lot of pain, and it shows; her breathing has a catch in it as she tries not to call out. But it helps, and it helps more than her. Even Ruth, even Ida; people she never thought she would want to work with.
GS: Mariel has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Medli with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Eleanor Klein with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Marivel Armitage with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Hannah Curie with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Brad Evans with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Ashley Winchester with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Seraph Clarine with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Ruth Pauling with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has attacked Venetia Vuong with Holy Root! GS: Mariel has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Mariel heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 234 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Mariel heals Ruth Pauling! She gains 176 temporary hit points! GS: Mariel heals Mariel! She gains 183 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Mariel heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 185 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Mariel heals Venetia Vuong! She gains 230 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Mariel heals Seraph Clarine! She gains 237 temporary hit points! GS: Shield applied to Mariel! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Mariel heals Marivel Armitage! She gains 179 temporary hit points! GS: Mariel heals Ashley Winchester! He gains 177 temporary hit points! GS: Mariel heals Hannah Curie! She gains 180 temporary hit points! GS: Mariel heals Josephine Lovelace! She gains 180 temporary hit points! GS: Mariel heals Brad Evans! He gains 178 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida jukes back, leaping over the flame-scorched ground. She observes Boomerang with a trained warrior's eye, watching for that telltale disruption as her Breath burns into his body--it's there, but this is a powerful Armatus. Boomerang has bonded with a Guardian Lord.
'...then it's gonna be the way of Hyades.'
In the back of Ida's mind, he stirs.
you know nothing of hyades
"You disgusting little man," Ida says, glaring at Boomerang from behind her guard. But dare she say any more?
sieg is dead, etiri is dead, good people are dead, and you--
Boomerang strikes low, and fast. The blade scythes across Ida's midsection, as if Boomerang were executing an encore performance of that last strike, and this time, there's more power behind it. But it meets with her hands; there is a horrible, screeching scraping as his steel meets with hers.
The armor has spread across her hands. Hyadean biometal, just like Boomerang's.
i'm sorry i grieved for you
Masayoshi Soken - Final Fantasy XIV - Weight of the World (Prelude Version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPSOaSwdEaE&ab_channel=MasayoshiSoken-Topic
For a moment, Ida's eyes go distant, as she turns to the second mind within herself. There isn't the vision, the mingling of memories, but she can feel a presence at her back, solid and warm. "Together, then," Ida says, and she turns to the source of the warmth and life that suddenly blooms in her. "Apologies, Mariel." She throws her head back, clenches her fists, and draws in her breath. She starts to change.
Ida jolts upright, pulled off the ground by some force; her flesh boils beneath her clothes, and then overtakes them, all alien blue-silver. Her body grows, a dull metal groan emanating from inside her as muscles reknit themselves, and bones lengthen. The outermost layer of flesh hardens into blue and gold armor, halfway between conventional Hyadean plate and Dragonscale. Her hair snaps loose from its bun, and pours down her back, lightening to age-darkened bronze. Her face is still hers, but harder, sharper. Her eyes are the color of blued steel.
"Hold fast," Ida says, her voice slightly deeper, more resonant. She lands, spreads her arms. Things unslot from the wing-like vents at her shoulders, glowing with the white-gold of her Breath. They're--wings? feathers? They're the suggestion of feathers, like a prototype that isn't wholly realized, and they whip out around Ashley, and Medli, hanging by them. Another hangs by Ida herself. They're vectors for Ida's own life-force, diffusing it like... like it's a force field.
"Worse things than you two have failed to break us!" Ida roars.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Ida of the Method!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ashley Winchester with Realign! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Medli with Realign! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
What joy is there in peace?
There's so much. Too much. Too many things that he had taken for granted in the foolhardy pursuit of a pedestal that killed anything that stood atop it. Too many things that are at risk now-- not only from the monstrous swordsman, but from the thing lurking inside of him. From whatever it was that saw Valeria deciding that the risk of Lord Blazer's freedom was one worth taking.
"I can't tell if you want to fight Him just because you think it'd be fun, or if there's something more to you than that, Boomerang," Ashley grunts, boots skidding across blackfire-scorched ground. "If you do fight him and win... then what? What's left for you after your last glorious duel!?"
They're wearing him down, but-- what's that mean for something like Boomerang Flash, drawing as he is upon one of the greatest of Filgaia's Guardians? Ashley steadies himself-- but his arms are shaking from the fatigue. How long had they been in the maze? Now that they're back in reality again, it's as if everything just feels... so heavy.
Not that it'd matter, even if he were in top fighting shape. Boomerang did not survive for so long by culling the weak. He's not Berserk. Boomerang moves faster than the eye can follow. He plunges his sword down into Ashley--
And, with a wet noise, plunges deep into his shoulder.
"Hnng--" the Musketeer gasps, stumbling back as Boomerang slips away to prosecute his carnage further afield. He drops to a knee, hand drawn up to try and staunch the bleeding, his Bayonet falling and plunging tip-first into the ground. Is this as far as his strength can go...? Against something like Boomerang-- against Luceid-- is this as much power as he can muster?
And if so... How can such meager strength overcome the Blaze of Disaster? When he has to rely on its terrible might just to stand on the same battlefield...? Ashley's breath rattles with pain and frustration. Flame licks from his wound, cauterizing blood and burning away flesh behind his fingertips. "I'm... not going to go quietly. If you wanted to fight the Blazer, then..."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia's gaze passes over her allies, her comrades. Perhaps even her... friends.
They are holding up. Marivel is bolstering them, and Mariel of course is taking her steps too. The rest are fighting, but again the question comes to Venetia: How much do they have in them? Boomerang may talk a good game, but this is perhaps the ideal ambush -
Though he also needed to know, Venetia thinks. If he'd simply trapped us...
EVERYONE HAS A PLAN UNTIL THEY ARE SAVAGED BY A GHOST WOLF. That is what happens to Venetia; one of the roaring, howling creatures approaches her, overbearing her to make her stumble back. Only long and anxious practice keeps her from dropping a Crest Graph; by the time she has shaken the shade off, Mariel is calling out a sacred root's essence. It flows into her.
"That gives me an idea," she mutters to herself. Another Crest is drawn.
"Well, then... if it's all down to power, then the only hope is that power should be in the hands of one of virtue," Venetia theorizes aloud, "and that their strength should not falter, and neither should their heart. Such a person would be one in a million."
She closes her eyes then. Perhaps she's out of boasts. Or perhaps she's just casting the spell. Which seems to do a big fat lot of nothing as there is a silent tension in the magical realm of the air, as if the Ley itself is taking a breath inwards. Something coalescing...
The earth here is still good, healthy, and so the smell when the hypothetical roots' actions reach the imaginary/real barrier and actually plunge through a physical object, SUCH as the earth, smells good in itself, not simply flinty or dusty. The invisible rooting extrusions spread out before Venetia in a broad fan, the webbing of the sub-roots avoiding everyone with one, solitary exception - the point where they all converge - Boomerang.
"Eleanor!" Venetia calls. "Do you know anyone like that?" (Eleanor may not have been listening to Venetia's monologue, but so it goes. Commit to the bit.)
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Boomerang with New Derivative Sign ~Hypothetical Root~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Boomerang solidly guards Venetia Vuong's New Derivative Sign ~Hypothetical Root~ for 155 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Entangle applied to Boomerang!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Indeed!" Clarine declares. In the end, this is what it comes down to - testing one another to see which of them will emerge. Though she may not agree with his intent or his method, his drive - his, well, Desire - to make them into reality cannot be denied. For one such as him, there is no better respect than to meet it with her full strength.
And he, too will meet her with his - now, she finds herself faced with ghostly images of Luceid. They rush toward her and she focuses her mirrors to intercept them. She can only hold them for so long before they crash through her defenses and into her, sending her reeling.
Fortunately, she is covered. Mariel draws upon the power of the Holy Root, and life spreads outward. It washes over Clarine, easing her wounds. Her burden is lessened.
"You have my gratitude." Clarine calls over to Mariel. She has the strength now to fight back. With a gesture, her mirrors disperse and she extends her hands forward. Beneath her feet, a Seraphic glyph bursts to life.
"One thousand divine lights, arise and light the path to tomorrow... Radiant Cannonade!" Clarine incants. From her hands she unleashes numerous beams of light. They go flying - but not at Boomerang. They race for the mirrors and reflect off of them - and then another, another, until a dazzling array of beams fills the air. And then the mirrors redirect themselves - and suddenly, Boomerang will find a volley of beams rushing toward him from every possible angle.
GS: Seraph Clarine has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraph Clarine spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Boomerang with Radiant Cannonade! GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: Boomerang solidly guards Seraph Clarine's Radiant Cannonade for 212 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Yeah, well, eventually sure--" Marivel says.
And then she promptly gets run over by a dog. Doggy! She loves dogs. Luceid is why she loves dogs. Not that Luceid is a dog.
"Fccccck!" She says as her head bangs against the floor. "Stop making me swear in front of the kids!" She says, disoriented enough to forget for a moment that is an illusory Luceid.
Marivel lays on the floor as the phantom Luceid fades, coughing out another plume of ash.
And someone steps up behind her. A young woman in peasant garb not unlike what Rochelle might have worn. SHe wears a pale pink shawl over her dress and has long brown hair tied into an anime mom's braid across her chest. You know the kind. She wears white shoes and otherwise looks completely and utterly unremarkable though there is a faint scent of <s>Dread</s> BREAD around her.
She doesn't lift Marivel up.
"You said she'd be safe," This nobody, this peasant girl that some might recognize as Marina Irington says to Marivel.
"Well I didn't think Boomerang would show up." Marivel says, sitting herself up.
Then she cracks a cheeky grin, "I don't know the future, after all."
But she does know Mariel who fuels her with the energy of Filgaia's own life. It isn't poisonous to Marivel. She is reminded of the blessing she lost so much for.
Marivel stands up but Marina's eyes are firmly on Ashley.
If you wanted to fight the Blazer....
He's hurting. He can't even breathe. He's so wounded... And tired. Are these the battles he's been shouldering all this time? Is this the weight of the world he had to carry on his shoulders?
Marina runs towards Ashley, heedless of the danger. "Ashley...!" She cries out. She doesn't care, she had to deal with the Crimson Noble's bullshit for so long she just doesn't care about destiny or any of that bullshit. Her desire? She just wants to be with the man she loves, wants to hold him when he is hurting and tell him that it is okay, that she is there.
She has no talent or skill in battle...
But Marivel doesn't only see Anastasia in warriors and heroes. Once upon a time, she was just someone who cared deeply and truly for the people important in her life. That is all she is. And perhaps the Guardian of Desire can see it too.
Perhaps not. "Stop..." She says, "Stop this senseless fighting---"
Marivel stands herself up rushing in that direction---
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
"I do!" Brad roars back to Boomerang, as the Super Shotgun turns to construction matter in his hand. Strength roars through him, Marivel's blessing, Mariel's too. "I found something more important than the next battlefield. Never thought I would. You never even thought that far, did you?"
He pries open the Mechanical Glove, preparing a new Heavy ARM Cartridge, but he's not prepared for a spectral wolf to barrel down and drive into his chest. Brad can only fight back with force, slamming his fist into the side of the thing's head once, twice, then firing the cannon into its skull to smash the specter. Thus delayed, Brad slams his next cartridge into the Mechanical Glove's slot, then swings the weapon up. A large shape begins to form on the side of the Mechanical Glove, building itself out - a ribbed cannon of the kind seen in beam weapons, a large casing, a lens apparatus...
"WATCH YOUR EYES!" Brad roars, just before a scintillating beam of colors rips from him toward Boomerang, searing the eye and also hopefully his metal flesh.
GS: Brad Evans has attacked Boomerang with Thunderbolt! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
'What joy is there in peace!?'
Ruth just has a bitter laugh at that, as so many scream their defiance and Mariel talks of the joy that there is in peace. Others, bring down Boomerang to the like of a bully.
The rifle discharges just as Boomerang speeds at her. She was able to catch his speed before. This time, she does not, as that second shot will just miss Boomerang's opposite shoulder and past his head just as he slashes up and gets past her defense, parrying the rifle upward.
There's no force in creation that can get her to let go of it any more. This is exploitable, and the force of Desire behind it is enough to get her to overcommit to it as she staggers back the once within that very small window between blows, and with the blade coming in horizontally...
Throws herself upon it like she's trying to bash him with her entire bulk. In that respect, it doesn't take - he's a blur, off after the second clean blow, as she falls to a kneel with labored breath.
Medli's kindness stays unbroken, as so many appeal to her worldview. Mariel extends a kindness to someone she normally wouldn't, the Holy Root doing its best to stem the bleeding of her wounds, and then...
"No."
Ruth's words are soft, and they might not carry, but.
"He's right. The world... it never worked that way." Her fingers twitch as sobering wounds driven by elemental Desire challenge any who might even have the inkling of the idea otherwise. There's pain and fear everywhere around her, inviting her to indulge. Her serpentine tongue flicks at the air.
"I lived a world so built up the way it was... it was a cruel kingdom. Celesti." Ruth laughs, letting tears fall. She feels a few more tears drop on her. Tears... from above. "The only way to make things better was to destroy it... and kept destroying." They intensify. Little puffs of nebulized contradiction, carrying the scent of despair, rise where they fall. (By and large, it doesn't seem to get on anyone unless they're trying to hug Ruth or something, which they aren't! And now's a bad time for that.)
"And then that's all the world asked, or wanted of someone like..." Me. The rain continues to build, casting a greater shade around her. Is now the time to give the one so closely allied to Desire strength by agreeing with them?
She does see that flash of green in Ida's eye... and the shape she takes, of who that represents and what they must be doing together. She sucks in more breath that doesn't quite leave her.
"Cruelty. Suffering. Death. They condemn it, they crave it," the miasma continues to build until Ruth's form starts to obscure within the rising fog of the (strangely, heavily localized) pounding rain striking at her. Boomerang's strikes were true, and she's wounded... but Malevolence, sometimes, suffices for providing for blood and breath alike.
"This cruelty... is it decided, or is it made, I wonder," Ruth asks, as that rain is ceaseless. Endless, like the tortured sobs of a victim of tragedy spilling their lamentations from the heavens above, spilling out both from above and as a stream going for Boomerang Flash while the gargoyle-shaped Hellion either struggles with actually moving.
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Boomerang takes a solid hit from Brad Evans's Thunderbolt for 270 hit points! GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Boomerang with Inconsolable Heavens! GS: Ruth Pauling enters a Counter stance! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 3 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Zephyr gives a soft chirp as Medli confirms she's okay, staying airborne and lifting up into the air a little to keep a better view of the battlefield. He swoops down to warn both Eleanor and Medli about the incoming attack made of entangled wolves with another hawkish cry, but can't really do much more than that for them.
Hannah just nods in Ida's direction to stoically acknowledge her warning. She's not new, but... this type of pitched battle doesn't necessarily suit her, either. Too many people around that she has to worry about, not like when it's just her and Zephyr--and she sent Zephyr off to watch over Medli, to boot. But she does cast an another acknowledging glance Ida's way once she's finished spewing fire. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't have the demeanor of someone acting crazed and recklessly--it's just how her magic is, not how she herself is.
But Boomerang cuts through the last of her gouts of flame with his blade, cuts at her, and she throws herself aside. A different kind of fire lances down her side as the blade makes contact, cutting deeply even though she avoided the worst of the blow. She holds her side as she staggers to her feet.
Eleanor tells her to be careful. Well, she's glad Eleanor is still concerned for her safety, even if the warning feels a bit self-evident. She acknowledges it with a nod and a, "You too!"
But her flame attack is followed up with Eleanor's--they didnt plan this out, how could they have?--but she stares at the power her school friend unleashes, looking back and forth between caster and target.
What the hell was that?! She could sense another power there, though... she's hardly one to talk, now is she?
But Mariel comes to all of their aid with the power of the Holy Root, and she breathes it in as she feels the fresh wounds start to knit a little. Another brief nod to Mariel, and an equally brief, "Thanks."
Not much for words in the middle of battle, is she?
Still, attacking by charging in like that is reckless, and with Ida doing... something she'll have lots of questions about later, and so many attacks flying around, she instead chooses to take a more remote attack option this time. A change of crests, this one glowing brown with the power of Geo as she touches it to the ground. It rumbles, and smooth, sharp spikes suddenly erupt from the earth in a spray of dust and pebbles.
Hannah gestures with the crest graph, and they all launch directly at Boomerang. "Earthen Bolt!"
GS: Hannah Curie enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Hannah Curie has attacked Boomerang with Elemental Bolt! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Sure it's how it is," Josie tells him, the shotgun held loosely in her left hand. "The strong trampling the weak and all that. It's the way of the world, yeah?" Her lips quirk in a lopsided grin. "That's why these lot're tryin' to change it!"
'These lot'. Not her.
But she'll fight to defend their desire, if that's what they want.
She glances, fleetingly, in the direction of others -- others who say their piece and similarly declare a stand against their point of view.
"Just a chip in your pile, eh?" she murmurs, tossing her black shotgun aside. With her now empty left hand, she points at Boomerang. "The way I see it... givin' up and saying 'that's just how it is'... well, hell! Might as well kick up your legs like a dead beetle, if that's your thinking! But if you're thinking to change the world instead... maybe it'll fail. Maybe you're right! This world's gone bad and it's only gonna get worse! But strivin's better than accepting it! You given up on Filgaia already, Boomerang?! Luceid?!"
His answer to her may at least in part be conveyed by the swing of his blade.
This time, there is space. This time, she sees him coming -- it's only moments, but it's enough to leap upwards, to escape the worst of what the swing would have brought to her.
Only her landing is poor: he had clipped a leg in her escape, sorely enough to impinge further movement. "Tch," Josie hisses, shifting her weight to her right. With her left hand, she reaches with surprising slowness for the smaller ARM holstered at her hip. Is she perhaps attempting to prevent them from guessing her next move? Fingertips grace the very top of the grip.
But then, there is light. Light, and life -- cast forth from the Holy Root in Mariel's grasp in a shower of pink sparkles. Josie's hand lingers there where it is.
And snaps with surprisingly suddenness for the ARM holstered on her opposite hip.
Once, this ARM had been part of a Gear of ancient origin. The Gear had an arm that had been damaged beyong repair, but Josie had salvaged a fraction of the metal. With time and effort it had been reborn as a weapon as light as a feather and all the punch of an ARM twice its size with nary the kickback to show for it. What wonders are the works of Zeboim -- or its metallurgists, at least.
She breaks for Boomerang, leaping as she fires off one, two shots for their merged form. The only hint of what she's trying to do -- delay, disable -- might come from the fact that she's squeezed her right eye closed.
For once, when attempting a shot like this and in this manner, Josie is trying to aim precisely.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Blitz! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Boomerang with Suffering Bastard! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Shield expired! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang partially evades Ruth Pauling's Inconsolable Heavens for 184 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Boomerang solidly guards Hannah Curie's Elemental Bolt for 80 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute applied to Boomerang! GS: Boomerang enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Disease and Drowsy expired! GS: Boomerang solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Suffering Bastard for 159 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Hex applied to Boomerang! GS: Interrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Boomerang has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey heals Ashley Winchester! He gains 143 temporary hit points! GS: Cover applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Thank you," Eleanor says to Marivel, with a pained smile. She's still tired. "But I have to push myself. I have a responsibility. ...But with you backing me up, I'm sure I won't fall even so." And indeed--Medli's healing makes the difference in the next moment.
It's a near thing, though--the wolf slams into her, and Eleanor stumbles and nearly falls, letting out a cry of pain despite herself as she's hit. It's almost too much. There's been so much in the past while, and now, in the midst of all this...
"...You--"
At this point, though she's faltering, Mariel's Holy Root takes effect. The wave of healing energy suffuses her, a magic that is now altogether more familiar than it once was. She finds herself stronger. Stronger enough to hear Venetia's theory, and...
Eleanor smiles, despite the pain. "I do!" Eleanor calls to Venetia. "Some say she's a great sorceress indeed!"
Then she covers her eyes as Brad shouts about it.
The question of how the world works is one that Ruth has much to say on. She speaks of Celesti...
"It isn't about how the world works," Eleanor says. "How can we make a better world if we do not look towards what it 'should' be?"
There are many things on the battlefield she can't focus on at the moment, but she can focus on that much. She looks to Hannah--and looks back to Boomerang. "My duty," she says, "Is to preserve this world. To save it. To revitalize it. And to destroy or put away all that would harm our Filgaia!"
In the wakeof Josie's shot, Eleanor calls up another spell, this Crest of Wing intensified, the gold of the Crest's inscriptions shining brilliantly in the light.
"O breath of life that suffuses this world! Bring your passion to bear!"
Eleanor throws forth her hand, and a pair of green windblades rush from her outstretched palm, one vertical and one horizontal, rushing for Boomerang like crosshairs.
"We will not fail here!"
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Blitz! Eleanor Klein has attacked Boomerang with Crosswind! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein gains 29 THP from Regen! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang takes a solid hit from Eleanor Klein's Crosswind for 329 hit points! GS: Dispel! Burst, Hyper, Mighty, and Riposte removed! GS: Blind and Jam applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Destroy them, the impulse craves. Invasive thoughts crawl across the periphery of the mind. Every breath strains a punctured lung, fanning the flames that will consume him-- consume the world. Destroy the Guardian Lord, banish Desire to the abyss of the Ley-- and then burn creation down to the very last scrap of primordial ooze. It'd be so easy to just win, all he'd have to do is give in--
A voice cuts through all else. A voice he recognizes-- a voice that shouldn't be here but is.
"Ma...rina..." Ashley wheezes, the flames already licking out over his shoulders-- and still, she rushes to him. Throws herself around him. "I can't-- it wants out. It's so close to what it wants--"
But-- she's here. She's right here. Ashley squeezes his eyes shut and closes his arms around her. He's so close. Just a few more steps. All he'd need to do is to defeat the Guardian and then feed the machine their power, and the world would be free to burn.
But.
Something stops him. The damnable cage. The prison that still refuses to yield.
Marina is right here.
The flame retreats, as if being wrenched back before it can burn her. "S...sorry. It was-- a little more dangerous than we planned, but..." Ashley's grit teeth form a pained grin. The Holy Root's power flows over him, mending his wound. Ida's life force fills him, closing the gash. "...But I made it home. I'm home, Marina."
"...And I'll have to apologize again, 'cause if I don't finish this, he's going to do something... awful." With one arm, he holds Marina close. With the other, he loads a fresh cartridge into the Bayonet and braces it against his shoulder. "Cover your ears, Marina. This is gonna be loud."
"Though I guess--" Ashley manages a sheepish smile as he pulls the trigger and unloads the entire clip at Guardian and Demon both, "--There's nothing senseless about a fight to protect the one you love, right?"
GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Boomerang with Blast'em!!! GS: Ashley Winchester gains 24 THP from Regen! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Boomerang takes a solid hit from Ashley Winchester's Blast'em!! for 212 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey heals Medli! She gains 139 temporary hit points! GS: Cover applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
BGM: The Promise FFXIII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZdQG0E3r6U
But really, every human can be like Anastasia and so Marina isn't particularly special either. That's what Marivel learned ages ago.
"Anastasia is not anything special, that's what made her special." Marivel says. "If you destroy Filgaia, you're destroying all those wonderful people just like her. You'd be killing her, for good."
None of these mortals are special. Not even the special ones. That's what makes them special.
Just like Marivel is alone, but not alone. Just like how she has chosen to be immortal but mortal.
Crimson Nobles have a love of paradox and contradiction baked into their soul and Marivel is no different.
Marivel positions herself between Boomerang and Marina--who is now what's keeping Knight Blazer--maybe Lord Blazer himself--from emerging just yet.
Marina embraces Ashley. It's brief as she steps back, leaning against Ashley's arms as she--
--is totally blushing faintly and she uses her free hand to cover one of her ears.
The one you love. Not the ones you love. THE ONE YOU LOVE.
"Ah...well..." Marina is flustered for the moment.
Marivel sprays out a cloud of noxious fumes at Boomerang Flash to discourage any pursuit of Marina. At this point, she has no idea what they'd do in the course of their Desire.
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.
Medli shrieks in terror as the wolves descend on her and Eleanor, the sound coming out somewhere between human and bird. The small girl is sent tumbling away, crying out again as she hits the ground.
Curling her body around her harp, Medli checks to be sure the instrument is safe before attending to herself. She sniffles, softly touching a long gash in her left arm.
Boomerang's words hit the Rito girl hard. She looks up at him, tears in her eyes. For the moment, her song goes quiet. Ruth's voice takes its place.
"Miss Ruth..." She whispers. "I... I'm sorry you had to experience that. I can't imagine.."
Medli thinks of the memories she saw in the Maze. Moments of violence and pain. Without fail, every experience showed how the world can't change unless people get hurt.
"I --"
In this moment, as her spirit falters, Ida's wings wrap around Medli. She gasps, reaching out to touch the white-gold feathers, newfound determination on her face.
"I'm sorry, I still can't agree!" Medli calls. "Even if the world is really like that -- that nothing can change without suffering and hurting each other... Can't it be changed?"
Staying on the ground where she fell, Medli touches her harp once more. This song is slower, more resonant. "I think it can be! I think-- no. I know!" Red eyes shimmer with refracted light. "I know things can be different!"
"And I'll fight for it! A world where nobody has to be hurt!"
GS: Blitz! Marivel Armitage has attacked Boomerang with Bad Breath! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Mariel heals Medli! She gains 237 temporary hit points! GS: Medli has attacked Eleanor Klein with Harmonic Glissando! GS: Medli has attacked Ruth Pauling with Harmonic Glissando! GS: Medli has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Harmonic Glissando! GS: Medli has gained 3 Combo! GS: Mighty, Riposte, and Shield expired! GS: Medli has completed her action. GS: Medli heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 91 temporary hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Cover applied to Medli! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Medli heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 88 temporary hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Cover applied to Medli! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Boomerang solidly guards Marivel Armitage's Bad Breath for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disrupt, Mute, Poison, and Slow applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Medli heals Ruth Pauling! She gains 87 temporary hit points! GS: Blitz applied to Ruth Pauling! GS: Cover applied to Medli! GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Boomerang has posed.
"Yeah, and does joy change the world?" Boomerang asks Mariel.
He cranes his head, then, and looks at Ida. He considers, for only a moment, before he shifts. "You can hate what I have to say. If you want to deny what Hyades was -- what Mother made us -- then you're lying to yourself."
The invisible roots that Venetia summons fly up -- slam into Boomerang -- and hurl him backward. He gets thrown back. That sends him flying backward, reeling, and he slams into the ground. He comes up in a three-point stance. "Nngh--"
Clarine's spell fires a moment later. Boomerang starts to move, but the beams don't come for him. They come for the mirrors.
Then they reflect back, slashing into the Metal Demon. He is cut into; he stumbles, then, and forces himself back upright.
"Never needed to," Boomerang answers Brad. He turns -- the cannon that comes out of the Mechanical Glove makes him stare, for a moment -- and then the cannon fires, brilliant light hitting him again. Parts of his armor begin to burn away, at the edges.
Ruth's rain pours down around him. A few motes of Malevolence dance near -- and then fly away, repelled by his Hyadean nature. His eyes narrow, as he looks up at her. "Yeah," he says. "Humans do. Hyadeans, too. It's what people want."
His fingers curl into a fist. "It's the world they've made!"
Hannah sends spikes of rock, erupting from the earth, at him. They slam into him, many shattering against his armor; his armor is cracked here and there, from it, and he stumbles backward. Then, he looks to Josephine--
And there is something there. Hesitation, perhaps; discord, perhaps. Have they truly given up on Filgaia?
Josie's energy blast fires, from that huge and ancient cannon. The blast of energy slams into him, burning away even more of his armor. It is ragged, burnt away in many places, and runs silver with his blood.
"A better world? You're speaking in platitudes! Many have tried--and it still hasn't happened!" Boomerang snaps back at Eleanor. Two windblades shoot into him, simultaneously. "Ghh--!"
They tear through, chunks of armor shorn off. He stumbles backward, quicksilver splashed onto the earth behind him.
Then, he looks back at Ashley. "The duel after that. And the duel after that," Boomerang says. "That's all there is."
He sees the fire shooting across Ashley. If he had a mouth, he would grin; instead, his gold eyes watch. The left still flickers. Both of them turn, though, as Marina runs towards Ashley.
"Who in the--"
He starts to swing his sword backward, ready to move. He catches, though, that the flame withdraws -- and his eyes turn back towards Ashley, as he pulls Marina close, and then fires a cartridge that throws Boomerang backward. He stumbles, a large gash cut into his armor.
"Gh--" He looks at Ashley, and he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand when Marivel explains to him. The blast of foul miasma shoots about him. He looks from them to the Rito girl.
And she still can't agree.
"How many people have already tried?" he asks. "Wanting something..." There's another flicker in his eyes. When Boomerang speaks, it's not with Luceid's voice overlaid. "...It's not enough, kid."
Then, he shakes his head -- and his eyes widen. "I'll show you... I'll show all of you! LUCEID!" And their voice joins his; the Guardian Lord speaks with him, though their voice wavers more than Boomerang's. "Let's go! ZERO COUNT--"
Boomerang Flash shoots into the air, raising his blade upward. Violet and shadowy lightning arcs out, all around him, and hurtles into his sword. Then, he comes crashing down into their midst; when he hits, there is a massive shockwave of shadowy light, which erupts in a powerful explosion that tears through their ranks.
"--EXECUTION!"
GS: Boomerang has activated a Boss Action! GS: Boomerang has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Boomerang has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Boomerang spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Mariel with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Venetia Vuong with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Seraph Clarine with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Brad Evans with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Ruth Pauling with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Hannah Curie with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Eleanor Klein with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Ashley Winchester with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Marivel Armitage with Zero Count Execution! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Boomerang has attacked Medli with Zero Count Execution! GS: Boomerang has gained 1 Combo! GS: Boomerang takes 33 damage from Poison! GS: Boomerang has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Marivel Armitage solidly guards Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 170 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong accepts Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 428 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: CRITICAL! Brad Evans solidly guards Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 157 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: COUNTER! Ruth Pauling counterattacks Boomerang with Counter Attack! GS: CRITICAL! Ruth Pauling takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 378 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Mariel takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 182 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Mariel gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein partially guards Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 241 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Medli takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 399 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 352 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace suffers a terrible blow from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 404 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: Ashley Winchester has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Ashley Winchester takes a glancing hit from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 175 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 142 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang partially guards Ruth Pauling's Counter Attack for 240 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: You have activated the Force Action Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Hannah Curie takes a solid hit from Boomerang's Zero Count Execution for 380 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Hannah Curie gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Boomerang!
<Pose Tracker> Mariel has posed.
"Yeah, and does joy change the world?" Boomerang asks Mariel.
Mariel, sitting because she can't stand, her leg too wounded for her to put weight on, looks up at Boomerang - and through him, Luceid.
"Yes," Mariel says.
"Joy changes the world more than anything else. People build to make something new, or make something for someone; people learn and study for the joy of knowledge. Even you - even you! You take joy in battle, which I don't - but even that changes the world. And can change the world for the better, if only you choose the right battles..."
"...to protect other people's joy..." She smiles, to see Marina and Ashley, even through the pain.
Mariel cuts herself off with a hiss as she tries to rise, and fails. Her leg still does not cooperate. She tries, again, when Boomerang draws back, leaps into the air, comes down among them -
There is no way Mariel can evade. And she doesn't. The explosion erupts, literally picking her up and throwing her yards; she hits heavily, rolls, ends up on her back. The world spins around her as Mariel, dazed, tries to sit up again and just barely manages it. She reaches into her bag -
The potion she was reaching for is broken. Her hand touches only something liquid and sticky, which she wipes on the side of her robe. What she actually retrieves is a flower, small and white and uniquely hers.
"Please..." Mariel can do little more, at the moment, but pray. Pray for Filgaia; pray for joy; even, deep down, pray for Luceid.
GS: Mariel has attacked Mariel with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has attacked Marivel Armitage with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has attacked Ashley Winchester with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has attacked Venetia Vuong with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has attacked Medli with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has attacked Hannah Curie with Small Flower! GS: Mariel has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mariel has completed her action. GS: Venetia Vuong accepts Mariel's Small Flower for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Hyper and Lock state applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Mariel's Small Flower for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Lock state applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Ashley Winchester accepts Mariel's Small Flower for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock state and Surge applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Hannah Curie accepts Mariel's Small Flower for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock state and Protect applied to Hannah Curie! GS: Hannah Curie is now being protected by Mariel! GS: Hannah Curie enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
As she recovers from the invocation of the Hypothetical Root, Venetia's eyes turn to the side, towards Marivel. Blasted as usual (she thinks, with some fondness) but there is someone coming up behind her.
Venetia doesn't recognize Marina immediately.
But Ashley did... and for a moment, Venetia feels a stark, psychological terror that even the Memory Maze could not reach.
For Venetia is a scholar, at the core. Venetia has done formal inquiry; she has written papers and monographs. She has collaborated. She has cited, and even *been* cited. And she has read, as she must, of the history of Filgaia, much of which she has learned from if-not-quite-primary certainly-not-very-secondary sources. Tales that suggest so many people who set out on a path not unlike the one she is on, or that ARMS is on.
That Ashley, who contains Lord Blazer, is on.
Boomerang is here. Lethally fast. Potent in power and skill alike. All of them are sore tested. Venetia has not worried much about Hannah mostly because she did not yet *notice* Hannah -- and because she trusts Eleanor. Hannah is also unknown to Boomerang. Marina, too, must be, but --
I see the precipice, Venetia thinks, but what can I do about it?
Helplessness. But --
-- but, Venetia thinks, as she reaches for her Crest Pouch once more: but I *can* do something about it. Another Crest comes out, held up as Venetia half-turns. She does not greet Marina or call out to her. The Crest is held up, and there is a surprisingly subdued (if... intense) ripple of light, something like if you held a ruby up to the light, studied how it looked, and made it into helices of liquid. It might give Marina a certain serenity of heart and confidence.
That is why Venetia does not try to guard herself when the storm is unleashed, the throbbing explosion of shadow and rage and desire that smashes into her. In a lot of ways, it could have simply been a regular explosion; it is, perhaps, a magical aspect that helps her, for Venetia has cultivated her magic for over a decade, now, and may even have trace amounts of meta-thallium in her bones or other organs.
It lifts Venetia up and throws her about four or five yards. When she lands, it is rather hard. What saves her, perhaps, from some of the worst possible outcomes is that instead of firm crusty grass land soil, she lands in some of the earth she had previously churned with the Hypothetical Root; still fresh and airy, it is a relatively soft place to land, although the force is still shocking, stunning, enough to force the air from her lungs. Several Crest Graphs spill out of her pouch, and her gun, for a wonder, has jumped out of the holster and fallen into the loose earth.
And there, half-buried, sore, wondering on some level if she's broken a long bone, Venetia Vuong laughs; she laughs as she pushes an elbow on the outside of the dirt and pulls herself outwards. She speaks, though not very loudly, and perhaps mostly to herself, or to God.
"It's things like - that - that make me the world's greatest magician, Mr. Rang. They tried their best..."
Venetia looks up, lace mask slightly askew. "And I'm going to actually do it!" Somewhere, she can smell a flower.
She also looks over and sees a coin. "Lucky,' she says, collecting it. A pause. Then Venetia remembers she'd thrown her own money on the ground a moment ago! And so, without much fanfare, she brings out another Crest, staying half-sprawled in her half-of-a-grave, bringing it up with a weary flourish. What lands on Boomerang is relatively paltry, as these things, go: a sort of powerful magnetic attraction, but only to precious metals.
Such as the silver in the coins Venetia threw, which whiz towards him. Something like low velocity bullets. But it's the thought that counts.
GS: Medli accepts Mariel's Small Flower for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock state and Quick applied to Medli! GS: Venetia Vuong has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Venetia Vuong spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Boomerang with Precious Metal Sign ~A Fistful of Gella~! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Gamble: High! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Venetia Vuong's Precious Metal Sign ~A Fistful of Gella~ for 206 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Boomerang gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Mariel's Small Flower for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock state and Surge applied to Marivel Armitage!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine does listen intently as everyone says their piece. They truly have come a long way - will it be enough to reach him...? Not without showing their strength to him, she supposes. And he has his own to show - Clarine grimaces, bracing herself. Demon and Guardian unite truly as one, unleashing their combined power against all gathered. Clarine can only direct her mirrors forward as light and shadow explodes outward. Nothing is spared - Clarine's mirrors are torn away from her and she is sent flying, crashing to the ground.
...But she stands. With some effort, she stands.
"...I have put my faith in these people. They are too stubborn by half, you see - but it is because of that that I believe them when they say they're capable of something." Clarine says, chuckling softly. "Again and again has my faith been rewarded. It's why I stand with them now."
Her expression becomes serious, then. Gold and violet surrounds her for a brief moment as she casts a spell to improve the rate at which she can draw upon power. And then, she begins an incantation.
"O holy one, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupt souls..." Clarine incants. Once again, a Seraphic glyph spreads out from beneath her feet. She raises a hand... "Judgment!"
When she cast it last, she spread it out to encompass Ganondorf's forces. And so, she brings her hand down - now, the light of judgment comes for Boomerang Flash alone. Columns of searing light rain from the sky, hammering his immediate vicinity. Her allies, at least, are spared - where the rays fall is ultimately up to the whims of chance, but she has at least that much control.
GS: Seraph Clarine spends 1 Combo on Link! 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! 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 activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Boomerang with Judgment! GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Clarine's Judgment for 280 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Ashley's girl is here. Brad's head whips around to note her, but...Marivel's got it. Ashley, too. He has to trust that, he can't fight with someone this completely in his face and try to attend to the back line.
"Feelin' like we have different ideas of what you need," Brad mutters, just before Zero Count Execution erupts in front of him. Brad thrusts his arm forward, the Mechanical Glove's barrier shield absorbing much of the damage; when it finally does crack open and allow forces through, Brad is buffeted but not battered uncontrollably by it.
He's able to keep a strong stance despite it all. He smashes his fist into the side of the Mechanical Glove, knocking off the remaining residue of the Thunderbolt, then signals another construction, a scaffolding building itself along the side of the weapon.
"You're right. Seems like this planet's pretty dedicated to walkin' to its ending. But..."
He levels his ARM. There's a missile in the scaffolding now.
"You oughta know all about wanting something so bad you'll push the world aside for it."
It fires, a gout of flame before the mini-size penetrator missile fires in a straight line to punch into Boomerang's armor and then explode.
GS: Brad Evans enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Brad Evans has attacked Boomerang with Mini Scud! GS: Brad Evans has gained 1 Combo! GS: Brad Evans enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action. GS: Brad Evans has canceled their attack on Boomerang.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
The one you love.
The one you love.
His heart quickens, beating like a drum against the inside of his chest. Ashley watches Boomerang Flash rise into the air, before boomeranging down in a veritable lightning bolt (perhaps even a lightning flash) of shadow and power. "Hold tight, Marina," Ashley says, clutching her more greedily.
He won't let go. He can't let her get hurt. In this moment, he'll give everything to keep her safe. If the strongest desire is what shapes the world...
Then in this moment, Ashley is god.
The blastwave approaches. A torrent of shadow and black light roars all around them. The musketeer leaps back, catching the worst of the blast with the flat of his bayonet braced awkwardly against his shoulder, protecting Marina in its shadow. Spiderweb cracks spread across the blade as pure force pushes him ever further. The bayonet-- shatters. Shards of steel carve bloody lines across Ashley's cheek, cuts his shirt to ribbons, but Marina is spared. "...You okay?" He asks, injured but-- carrying on with a smile even so. "Stay close, okay?"
"...Of course joy changes the world," Ashley answers, lifting his ruined weapon. The blade is gone, but the stock and ARM itself are intact. Another cartridge appears, loaded one-handed into the breach. Crystalline and pure, the round begins shining like a beacon as the bolt locks. "In so many small ways that it's barely noticable, but... it does. It's only when it's gone that you know."
"...This world might be cruel, people might hurt each other all the time, but there's good in it, too. There's the kindness that we show one another. Small acts of joy and love that make it a world worth living in. Just because people aren't making grand gestures about it doesn't mean they've given up. Even what looks 'small' to you..." He lifts the remains of his weapon high, contrails of blue light reaching out-- to Marivel, to Brad, to-- everyone. Connecting everyone's hearts. The crystal of Empathite glows bright with the light of collective dreams. But most of all...
It links these two. Marina and Ashley.
"...No. There's nothing small about it! The world you're trying to destroy is the one where the woman I love lives! Endless duels, self-destruction, the end of all things-- they're all empty compared to this! Marina! I love you more than anything else in the world! I want to spend the rest of my life with you! And dangit, even if it makes you sad to see me fight-- I'll fight tooth and nail to protect our future together!" Love for another. Desire for the future. Courage to protect it. Hope-- that a brighter day exists. Ashley's spirit flares, and in that moment the Blazer's inexorable grasp on his soul loosens ever so slightly. He brings the weapon down, takes aim, and--
Fires.
...Discharging a column of pure light that, by some quirk of the damage the Bayonet has taken... is somehow shaped vaguely like a heart...?
...
Ashley... may not have noticed that Marina was blushing as hard as she was, or maybe he would have been more... subtle.
GS: Seraph Clarine used Force Action: Mystic on Ashley Winchester! FP up! GS: Eleanor Klein used Force Action: Mystic on Ashley Winchester! FP up! GS: Ashley Winchester spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Brad Evans with Unison Impulse! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Ashley Winchester with Unison Impulse! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Marivel Armitage with Unison Impulse! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Unison Impulse! GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Eleanor Klein with Unison Impulse! GS: Ashley Winchester has launched an attack Link! GS: Ashley Winchester accepts Ashley Winchester's Unison Impulse for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Lock state applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Eleanor Klein accepts Ashley Winchester's Unison Impulse for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Hyper applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Brad Evans accepts Ashley Winchester's Unison Impulse for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Surge applied to Brad Evans! GS: Ashley Winchester spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Ashley Winchester has attacked Boomerang with Rising Nova! GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashley Winchester gains 33 THP from Regen! GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action. GS: Marivel Armitage accepts Ashley Winchester's Unison Impulse for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify and Blitz applied to Marivel Armitage! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace accepts Ashley Winchester's Unison Impulse for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Blitz and Regen applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Snipe!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie lands, but a moment later, wheeling back, away from Boomerang. If it hadn't been for Mariel's intervention back there, she would have been essentially dead in the water -- forget about any advance or retreat.
Thus, she's in a good position for it. She can see it, when it happens. She doesn't call out. Her voice isn't one that could reach him. But she can see it, the flames licking off his back--
She can see the way that girl flings herself at him even so.
So that's his girl.
This, too, is the way of the world... isn't it.
She marks it well, that pause of theirs. Have they given up on the world? Perhaps so.
"That don't give you the right to decide for the rest of us," she says, narrowing her dark eyes. "What we do is what we do, even if'n it's been done before. Even if we fail. You don't get to decide if it's worth it or not."
She's no proper Guardianist. That fell to her sister, who died long before ever reaching her dream. Or did she waver? Is that why she turned on--
But no, that's not important right now. This Josie's no Guardianist, but she knew enough from her sister. Guardians project the prayers of the world. The will of the people of Filgaia give them strength. When there's much hope in the world, Zephyr is strong. For something like desire-- there's got to be a lot of desire in Filgaia. Everyone wants something, sometimes with all their heart. And maybe that gives the Guardian strength.
But that strength, it doesn't reflect back down to the people. And the Guardian gets to feel, in their own way, those unrealized dreams--
"...Hurts, don't it. Luceid."
She's not unkind, even as the Guardian -- wavering or no -- lends Boomerang their strength.
Her lips move, the resulting explosion of light and force stealing the sound of her voice. She moves.
She's not fast enough. She's nowhere near fast enough: the shockwave catches up to her, hurls her through the air. She's aware of flight for an instant. Then she's aware of force, of impact, of terrible crunching pain.
Josie is then aware of nothing at all.
But there is light in the darkness: light that has its origin at Ashley's Empathite crystal. Josie's fingers twitch and with a groan, she rises up, inch by bloody inch.
"If Vinsfeld-Goddamn-Rhadamanthus couldn't kill me," she says, cracking open one eye to stare at Boomerang, "what makes you think you can?"
She rises to her feet. She sways, yes, but here she stands. Slowly, she raises her ARM and, her eyes fixed on Boomerang, fires seemingly at random to her left.
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Boomerang with Walk Me Down! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace gains 31 THP from Regen! GS: Amplify and Quick expired! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Ashley's girl is here. Brad's head whips around to note her, but...Marivel's got it. Ashley, too. He has to trust that, he can't fight with someone this completely in his face and try to attend to the back line.
"Feelin' like we have different ideas of what you need," Brad mutters, just before Zero Count Execution erupts in front of him. Brad thrusts his arm forward, the Mechanical Glove's barrier shield absorbing much of the damage; when it finally does crack open and allow forces through, Brad is buffeted but not battered uncontrollably by it.
He's able to keep a strong stance despite it all. He smashes his fist into the side of the Mechanical Glove, knocking off the remaining residue of the Thunderbolt, then signals another construction, a scaffolding building itself along the side of the weapon.
"You're right. Seems like this planet's pretty dedicated to walkin' to its ending. But you oughta know all about wanting something so bad you'll push the world aside for it, Boomerang!"
He levels his ARM. That scaffolding builds itself out, rapidly filling the space until Brad has to drop to one knee to support it. It's a HUGE weapon, with two heavy feet on its supports, a long barrel split down the middle. Electricity sparks between the hyperconductive magnetized rails, and--
Brad clenches his fist around the trigger. Wait for it. When the moments align...When Boomerang has to stop...!!
He breathes in, feels Ashley's unflinching dedication...and can't hide a smirk as the besotted young man roars his love to the sky.
"You want to test your flame against ours. Fine."
"Let's test! FIRE!"
There is a magnificent whining sound of capacitors suddenly filling to capacity, then a clamorous zpAAAAAAAAAAAAAK of electric discharge as the rails fire a single slug at speeds too dizzying to describe straight for Boomerang's heart.
The force of the passage leaves a trough in the ground, and hopefully a hole in Boomerang.
GS: Brad Evans spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Brad Evans has attacked Boomerang with Final Force Restrictions Relieved - RAILGUN! GS: Brad Evans has gained 2 Combo! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Brad Evans has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
AS USUAL AS USUAL. Well, Marivel is essentially just a body without any sort of protection beyond what mystical defenses she can summon.
Marivel has enough of a moment to actually notice something different with the way Hannah is casting. She hadn't immediately thought much of it--magic is more art than science, even with the Crest Arts by her understanding--but the fact it is consistent makes her consider it again.
It doesn't seem to be causing her any harm, though, but a dreadful thought occurs to her.
Did she.... get kicked out of school?!?!?!?!?!?
"Hey," Marivel says to Hannah. "I was surprised before but...thank you for coming. And being a friend I needed when I was in that memory. I hope we can travel together for a long time to come."
She hasn't talked to Hannah in years and she has a moment to, like, THINK about it since her words aren't reaching them. They don't even seem to understand. If Boomerang is defeated while fused with Luceid... Will Luceid be okay? He is a Guardian Lord, a bit bigger than a Seraph or a Daemon--but she can't help but worry for him about what might happen.
Marina holds onto Ashley as tightly as she can. As scary as this is... Her heart is beating so quickly less because of the mortal peril and because of what Ashley just said.
The one you love.
Though that doesn't mean it is entirely not because of the mortal peril either. She winces with every blast, energy bolt, scythe swing, and corrupted blast of doom and shakes with the appropriate amount of terror.
But she holds onto the one she loves too with everything she's got.
"...I love you too," She says into Ashley's shoulder.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0HedGFiCE
"Please...don't leave me behind for that long again..." She cries into his arm. "Please keep coming home safe. Please, please, please..."
Ashley unleashes his power. Marivel is joined with his power and she whispers softly...
"Arc Impulse..."
And even Marina, in her own small way, provides a bit of power to it.
This may be important later.
Marivel will never refuse an Arc Impulse. "HE managed it..." She laughs and then--
--The Crimson Noble braces against the explosion, that light infused power from Ashley shielding her from the worst effects--though she still has to strain against the blast to avoid being sent flying. For once, Marivel doesn't just roll with the super explosion and lay down in a mess somewhere. She stands. She resists it. Even if it's meaningless.
Because even the meaningless are meaningful.
"Don't you get it, Luceid?! He's capable of everything Ana could do! She can too! It's not special, but it's still SPECIAL. Don't you see it yet?? Put your trust, Luceid, in the people that Ana is still protecting out there to this day! That's what she desires, Luceid--stop...stop being like me and letting your pain and loneliness rule you any longer. I know it's been long, but you can break free of this cycle and step into the future! You have to, for Filgaia, for Ana, but mostly--for yourself!"
The glow intensifies as she recalls the technique.
"ARC IMPULSE!" Marivel shouts hthough it is less from her--
--and more her power infusing Ashley and adding to it as brilliant light explodes outward and towards Boomerang Flash even well beyond her friend's NovaStrike--augmenting it with his own power.
Her own power.
"Everyone's power...!"
GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Blitz! Marivel Armitage has attacked Boomerang with Arc Impulse! GS: Marivel Armitage has gained 1 Combo! GS: Marivel Armitage enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Ashley Winchester's Rising Nova for 286 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Boomerang! GS: Hyper applied to Ashley Winchester! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Josephine Lovelace's attack becomes clear! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Moderate! Gamble: Moderate! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Tequila Sunrise for 196 hit points! GS: Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Brad Evans's Final Force Restrictions Relieved - RAILGUN for 267 hit points! GS: Boomerang has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Marivel Armitage's attack becomes clear! GS: Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Marivel Armitage's Red Power for 225 hit points! GS: Boomerang has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Medli, too, shields Eleanor once again. Eleanor feels her music suffuse her. This is why she can't give up. This girl...
Many have tried, and it still hasn't happened. Eleanor knows that much. Even so...
"That's not true," Eleanor says. "The fact that we've never fixed all of our problems doesn't mean we haven't made any progress! And for the things we haven't done yet--we'll build on that progress! Instead of forgetting and starting over, we'll work together!"
Frustration creeps into her voice, "And we'll do it because I damned well say we'll do it!"
But he has something to show them--and that shadoy lightning crashes down against Eleanor, who is blasted off her feet, falling some distance away to tumble on the ground. Her shields protect her from the worst of it, but even then the sheer force of the attack is enough. "Gh..."
"So that's... your power."
But Ashley's power is greater, to her mind. The power of Ashley's love for Marina... Eleanor feels it. It reminds her of the precious person that she wants to see more than anyone else, for all that she loves others. And so...
"That is what we have that you lack, Boomerang. You seek battle... But we love this world, and the people in it. And that will make the difference!"
"...So Ashley," she says. "You can hardly die right after you've proposed to your girlfriend, can you? I assume you're getting the ring soon?" Eleanor pushes herself up, the power of teasing Ashley--though she means it--helping her raise her tired bones. She reaches her feet again, and extends her hands, beginning to focus the Light within them. "Now!"
Eleanor extends her hands, and the Light that was in them begins to shine from her palm, like a searchlight or the Sun in its brilliance. It has no terrible corsucating power; it does not boom forth like a beam. It simply is, gentle light--
A gentle light that burns away all falsehoods and impurities, the very same Light that banished Ganondorf's Shadow under the Gerudo's resting place. And Eleanor wields it on Boomerang, where it may well spark into flame.
"Now, fade!"
GS: Blitz! Eleanor Klein has attacked Boomerang with Revelation! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein gains 32 THP from Regen! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's not at random.
The single bullet streaks through the air to rebound off the stock of Josie's discarded shotgun where it remains nestled against a low shrub, to ricochet back towards Ashley and ping off his bayonet's blade.
To bounce off of, at last, Brad's now-revealed railgun and fly ahead towards Boomerang, well ahead of the chaos that will follow.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marina is only blushing more and more. "Oh gosh this is the worst time ahhhhhhhh..." in the background. She won't forget this Eleanor.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
'Yeah. Humans do. Hyadeans, too. It's what people want.' Ruth's lip curls on reflex, feeding into unkind words spoken to her. Years of being built up as a blessing, for the pointed ears she was born with - and for all that to come crashing down when, understandably--
She clenches her hands against where she holds her weapon.
She can feel Medli's upset from all the way over where she is at coming to an understanding that some among them have lived and led awful lives beyond the simple, positive imaginings of her own upbringing. How Eleanor speaks and corrects her about how it's not about how the world works, but how it 'should' be. How Ida's wing-feathers are shelter and renewal to those seeking both shelter and impetus to keep flying through all of it.
Medli plays her harp to a restorative, supportive tune that a part of Ruth's mind is trying to get her to chase off, as the rain continues to fall upon her.
Something about the scene with Ashley and Marina stings, rather than warms, above and beyond the mrotal danger Marina is placing herself in, as there's that hint of wavering in the united power of Boomerang and Luceid alike, and...
A massive shockwave, and yet...
Boomerang Flash finds the rain has not ceased. It's a flood, virtually a waterfall from some nebulous concept of 'on high.' No amount of physical force exterted is moving any of it, as it pools, and keeps pooling around them.
Whether Ruth was thrown by being near the epicenter of that burst of power or merely shoved back isn't clear, but in this moment... she's the one who sits closest to the portal device, looking all the world like a decorative grotesque to adorn the passageway to the world where Anastasia lives. The (conjured) rainclouds above her render most of her features in darkness, beyond the glow of her eyes.
Her posture is slouchy, head drooping, with a tired, wounded smile - it's unambiguous that she was hit, hurt, and hurled in some form before any sort of visual clarity returns in the wake of such a blow. She does look like she might've been brought low.
Prayer for something better is made on tiny flowers that grow humbly against all odds, to the the world's greatest magician declaring their success.
"The only thing I've ever brought is fear, pain, and anguish," Ruth says, sitting where she does. "It's everywhere. It doesn't stop." Downcast, she's looking to her rifle. Her wing unfolds, starting to curl inward like an attempt to hide from it while the rain still washes over her where she is. How many times has she said something like this?
Her tail opens the rifle and ejects the two remaining bullets in the clip outright, as they clatter on the ground. She holds the rifle up, brushing her face along the side of it with head bowed.
"Anastasia deserved better, didn't she?" She has the wrong tense (probably) but the sentiment is there. "To see a world she saved as its greatest blessing. The same world... a heartless monster made to bleed, scream, and cry." The usual self-flagellation.
Ashley proposes to Marina, and Ruth sucks in a breath and just looks away.
"Someone found worth in someone like that, didn't they," she's not looking at anyone here. Her tail starts to snake along towards where she keeps the clips, with which she parts a hand to remove it. "Doing this, right now... keeping Anastasia from someone who loves her." A sad smile. "How many... Desires did that heartless monster take then? Even now."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
"Maybe I - we - prolong her suffering, this way. I can't give her happiness. I can't give her peace." The Granasian rosary around her right forearm always feels tight like this, but it feels even tighter, emotionally, and with that...
A tear runs down her face, down the shaft of the rifle, and into where a clip should be fed. Every gesture that follows is consistent with someone locking in and finishing a reloading process, as she points it up towards the sky in her left arm while the length of that ever-long tail snake upwards to hold it steady.
A deafening bang, as the 'clouds' above seem to part, letting in a shining light down over Boomerang.
"When our eyes meet with the heavens upon our deeds..."
A stream of prismatic light descends - so translucent as to be nonexistent, but devoid of warmth or joy. It's bright, clear, and without blemish (the usual spiritual taints notwithstanding) - but... so empty. Like a storm has passed, and on the other end...
"What is left beyond this Hollow Radiance?"
The light's weight is utterly oppressive, for being something that doesn't have capacity to do so, a dull, hollow rainbow as the rain just... ceases, outright. All that's left, after the strife, after the struggle, is just this. Is it worth it?
"All any of us can be do is be worthy of this world of blood and tears... and hers, even as we add more." Ruth says, lowering her rifle down to a resting position again. "Even if all I can bring to bear to wash away it away with more of it."
It is her Desire, no matter how utterly nonsensical and self-defeating.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
P-p-proposed!? Ashley only doesn't double-take because he's KIND OF BUSY bracing a giant heart beam right now but he's totally giving Eleanor a horrified side-eye that rapidly morphs into shocked realization, then frantic embarassment. "Aaaaaa this isn't what I had plannnnnned---"
Oh no, they're made for each other.
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Ruth Pauling has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Ruth Pauling has attacked Boomerang with Hollow Radiance! GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ruth Pauling's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Ruth Pauling gains 0 THP from her Cautious! GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Low! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Eleanor Klein's Revelation for 136 hit points! GS: Dispel! Hyper and Quick removed! GS: Boomerang has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Ruth Pauling's Hollow Radiance for 237 hit points! GS: Delay and Weaken blocked! GS: Boomerang has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"You said you wanted us to be together forever that's what a proposal is, Ash...! I don't even know who you're fighting! Are you inviting them??" Marina is increasingly spiraling.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
There is much about the Hyadean experience Ida does not understand. She never lived it, even as she presently wears Hyadean flesh. But the way Boomerang uses Mother's atrocities to justify his actions...
"Mother murdered Hyades," she says. She thinks back to Riesenlied, Noeline, Zed, and all the others she's met--to Kalve, her worry drawn tight. "And everyone turned on her, as she deserved. So many people are living, now, for the first time!"
"You're right about one thing, though," Ida says, and she steeples her hands. More of those little prototype, metallic not-feathers peel free from her back, and the vents encased in the spines at her shoulders and knees start to vent gold-white Breath. The shield around herself--a prototype in itself, an expression of her other shape she's still working on--glimmers in the light. "There is joy in adversity, in combat, but not without loss. Not without lessons, and sacrifice." Ida's lips part in a smile that is at once fierce and knowing. "It's a fine line we walk, and you've strayed far."
Malevolence prickles at her senses. The sky opens. Something approaching worry tugs at Ida's heart until she realizes that K.K. had to literally steep an Anomalous Orb in at least three cities' worth of Malevolence before it could threaten a Guardian Lord. Luceid is... almost certainly safe. Let's go with that.
Marina runs in. For a moment, Ida freezes, running through the same calculations Venetia does. The feather-drone(?) orbiting Ashley adjusts itself to envelop both of them in its shield. Boomerang's violence reaches a crescendo. Ida digs in her heels, and braces for impact.
The shockwave slams into her. Her shield holds for a second, and then fails with a snap-crackle like an appliance immersed in water. Ida sways back, even as the impact blackens parts of her armor, and forces her to take one staggering step, then another. Blades of force shear off part of a pauldron, slam into her torso, and draw lines of quicksilver across her face. She sways forwards, almost doubling over as Boomerang's fury passes. She takes a breath, then another. Silver blood drips down her cheeks and forehead.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
And it hurts, on some level, seeing Ashley open his heart to his beloved, and have his love returned. There is a hole in Ida's heart, full of worry, not sure if she should start searching and never stop, or... never start, for fear of what she might find.
But as the light of Ashley's heart arcs into the sky, Ida vows to find him. To try.
"She's right, Ashley," she says. "You can't die now. Not when you have your whole future ahead of you!" Ida of the Method is bloodied, and battered, but still standing. "And Medli--" Ida glances down at the Rito girl-- "I'm right here with you." Her fingers curl. The vent at her right shoulder fans wide, and Breath pours out of it. Several more of those little feather-drones latch onto her forearm, and glowing vein-like tubules in her armor pulse brighter.
Ida literally rockets forwards, propelled by life-force turned into kinetic energy. At the forefront is her fist, shining with blinding radiance. Ahead of it is a horrible shockwave, air screaming before the rush of a catastrophic blow.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Blitz! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Boomerang with Fourth Method - Blind the False Seer! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed from Stoic to Avenger! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"W-w-wha-- no! I mean, yes, I said that! So I guess!!?? And maybe!? Boomerang's a fight-happy jerk, but Luceid might be okay I guess!?!?" Oh no they're already planning out the wedding. Already!? In the middle of SUPER LETHAL COMBAT!?!? (Ashley might also be spiraling)
GS: Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Fourth Method - Blind the False Seer for 254 hit points! GS: Boomerang has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.
"What else is there to do?" Medli asks Boomerang, her voice shaky. "My friends, my world-- what else can I do but fight for things to improve?"
Medli's arms tremble, blood staining her tunic as she continues to play through the wounds she's taken. Even though Boomerang is terrifying, it feels awful to watch him take hit after hit. How long can this go on?
Boomerang's sword crashes down, striking Medli cleanly as she lays on the ground. She screams again, the sound echoing as cleanly as her harp-music. Everything hurts, so much, but-- she's still here. So she must go on.
"Please stop this." Medli begs. "You're hurting more than anyone, right now. We all want the same thing! Please, just stop--!"
With gritted teeth, the little Rito girl touches her harp once more. True to her word, she's done nothing to hurt Boomerang, and she holds fast to that. She won't be someone who hurts others. Not now, not ever. The only thing she has left is to grant strength to the ones who can finish this.
"Great Valoo, give us strength..." She whispers, completing one final musical bar. The song raises into the air, empowering Ida, even as the other woman reaches out to her.
With her song finished, Medli topples to one side, harp clutched tightly in her hands even as she falls unconscious.
GS: Medli spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Medli has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Transposed Vibrato! GS: Medli has gained 1 Combo! GS: Medli has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Medli's Transposed Vibrato for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Amplify and Lock state applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Medli's Reload! and Gleam activated! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"LUCEID??" Marina asks. "LIKE THE GUARDIAN OF...Of..."
Steam blows out of her ears yeah she's destroyed.
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
This is why she doesn't get involved. She's got enough problems of her own without worrying about... the fate of all of Filgaia, apparently. All she wanted to do was to repay a debt to a mentor, hopefully do a favor for a friend and then... and then...
And then what. Go on her way? Leave her mentor and friend behind again? There is already so much guilt, but... it's safer for them that way, right?
And yet, she sees what everyone around her is capable of, extraordinary powers, startling transformations. She sees how they all have things to say to this Boomerang, ideals and convictions. Even that little Rito girl who's been so damn brave.
How is it she doesn't even know her name yet?
But she has such convictions too, and if that little girl can keep standing up for Filgaia.... If Eleanor and Marivel can speak with such conviction, try to disuade Boomerang and Luceid of the error of their ways...
But Boomerang seems determined to end this decisively as he rises into the air. There's barely enough time-- A hasty crest graph pulled from her pouch and applied to herself. A turn of her back as she wraps her cloak around herself, hunkers down, and waits for that horrendous wave of shadow and force to wash over her, pounding her with so much force... She squeezes her eyes tight, grits her teeth, tries to endure the hellish attack...
(Zephyr, for his part, chirps an apology to Medli and takes off into the sky--his only chance of surviving such a thing is to fly up and over it, and Hannah will need him in a moment.)
And once it passes she is still. Wisps of shadowy energy waft off of her and her cloak as she sags, draws hoarse breaths, tries to recompose herself... For a moment, it is too much to think about, to comprehend what her next action might be... but then Mariel makes her wish on that flower, and she feels that small little blessing, that desire to help others, and finds... she has the strength to stand.
It is slow, and ungainly, and she staggers, pitching to one side, but little by little she rises, slowly raising her head until she can set a baleful glare on Boomerang. There is something roiling within her magic now, as all thoughts of keeping her clam, of keeping her restraint leave her, and while she may not have the dramatic transformation of some of her temporary allies, there is still something dark and angry stirring within her, manifestly evident for anyone with a sense for magic.
"I don't know..." She spits out between haggard breaths. "... what the hell it is you want..." She reaches into her pouch, and pulls out two crest graphs. One glows bright yellow with Wing, and the other bright red with Fray. "... But if you think, I'm just gonna stand by while you bully everyone just so you can provoke some... some fight..." She starts to take a few steps closer, both crest graphs still glowing. Zephyr circles overhead, giving her eyes on where everyone is, and once she has the clearance she needs, she stops.
"Then let's fight." She brings up the glowing yellow crest graph, raises it high, and slashes it diagonally down across her body. In response winds start to stir into motion, circling around at blistering speeds. A ghostly, eerie screeching sound rises up--one Ruth is fajmiliar with. But as the winds start to stir up she brings the glowing red crest up, inhales, and breathes flames into the growing cyclone. Angry, roaring flames and screeching winds twist and turn in a tumutulous whirl, an unholy melody of flame and sound, surging right for Boomerang.
GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Hannah Curie has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Hannah Curie spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Hannah Curie has attacked Boomerang with Elemental Combo! GS: Hannah Curie has gained 1 Combo! GS: Hannah Curie has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Boomerang suffers a terrible blow from Hannah Curie's Elemental Combo for 360 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Boomerang! GS: Hyper applied to Hannah Curie! GS: Boomerang has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Boomerang has posed.
"That's--that's not enough!" Boomerang answers Mariel. Except, he doesn't answer her, because he realizes something.
He doesn't have an answer for her.
Silver coins -- thrown at him by Venetia and her gravitational force -- go flying free. They shoot into him, piercing through his armor, and shooting out. Quicksilver blood runs down him, as he stumbles away.
"G-gh... that faith is--going to run out--"
His retort to Clarine is clipped off, as the sky opens up with her light. Beams of light cascade down, slamming into the Metal Demon; they slam into the ground around, too, and there are a few localized explosions, but it's all centered on him.
"It... it isn't enough," Boomerang repeats to Ashley. But his voice is just his, now; Luceid does not speak with him. "Strength, power, fighting, those can overcome--"
The heart that Ashley fires into the sky shines brilliantly. But it's his words, too, that stop Boomerang.
Josie's rifle fires. The ARM's bullet punches through him, after those ricocheting shots; he stumbles backward. Brad fires his railgun, the supercharged round exploding forward. It rips through his armored body; he stumbles, bloodily.
The Arc Impulse -- joined with Ashley's shot -- slam into hin. He gets slammed forward, crumpling, and only barely standing. Hannah summons wind and flame, which roil over him, and he crumples down finally -- to one knee. "G... gh..."
He looks at her. "...not... not bad. Guess you do put up a good fight."
Eleanor's light burns across him; parts of his armor begin to dissolve as he turns to look at her. Her light is joined by Ruth's; a brilliant, oppressive light that shines down upon him. He turns to look at all of them.
He looks at Medli. "Kid... you should learn. Sometimes, some of us--" It's just his voice, now. "We take it too far. We can't stop and turn back. You shouldn't end up like us."
Finally, Ida comes flying in. Her fist, swung back, slams into Boomerang. She strikes with her own life force -- with the light of Eleanor, Clarine, and Ruth -- and the brilliant light from Ashley raining down. She strikes into Boomerang, and the energy slams into him.
He is consumed, then, by a golden glow. It bursts outward -- and then into a hundred thousand motes of light. The Hyadean vanishes in that burst of light.
There is an outline of Luceid then, too. The Guardian Lord of Desire looks to Ida, then to Mariel, and then to Eleanor and Medli's prone form. Finally, they look to Ashley and Marina. Their eyes close, then.
They fade away, but a lingering sense of their presence remains -- though only for a moment.
A moment later, then Cid of the Al Bhed pops his head up from behind his machina. And clears his throat: "Filgaia marriage proposals are awesome. Don't worry, son! Me and all of the Al Bhed are gonna be there! WE'LL BRING THE BOOZE!"
CLAIBORNE
In an alleyway, there is a flash of light. A moment later, a small dog steps out; brown fur, with white on the head and paws. They step out, and a tarnished golden tag sways with the name written on it: 'TONY.'
Tony steps away, into the street, and finally begins to walk again.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Luceid..."
Maybe Marivel can only chase it.
"God is looking at me Ashley..." Marina whispers with wide eyes. "Did we make God sad??" Or worse???
But that is the only second most mortifying thing that happens to Marina today.
Don't worry, son! Me and all the Al Bhed are gonna be there! WE'LL BRING THE BOOZE!
Marina, at wits end, asks... "Who are these people?" As she imagines, honestly quite accurately, the Al Bhed at a wedding. Somehow she has a pretty clear idea of them already.
But Marivel answers first.
"Fellow travelers, is all." Marivel says with a relieved little smile. "Fellow travelers."
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
It's over.
Boomerang... Luceid... They both disappear into so many motes of light, but before they do--
'Did we make God sad??'
"I think... I hope that we've just given Luceid something to have faith in again." Uh. What does it mean that a god was present to witness his proposal? Does that mean he's got serious divine backing for it, now?
. . .
D-does this mean that the wedding will have to be Guardianist?? Uh, hm. Hmn.
"Oh, uh!" These people! "You've uh, you've met some of them before. Most of them are from ARMS, though there's one I don't recognize. And the Al Bhed are... Uh. From... the Silver Star? I told you before about the islands in the sea at the far side of the moon, right?"
Fellow travelers, Marivel says.
"...Yeah."
...
How high proof is Al Bhed booze...?
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
The great warrior passes. The Guardian, if not exactly freed, is no longer bound to him. He dies in his beliefs, honest to the last. The light fades...
Venetia crawls out of her slip trench. She is, well, completely covered with fine earth. She sets about brushing it off, and tsks at herself because she can't find a gun or several Crest Graphs. But...
Venetia puts her hands on her hips and grins like a million Gella. "Well, well, well! All of that's put to paid, and we came through the surprise guest without anything too mutilating happening. It's even pushed forwards a few things, it sounds like! My congratulations to both of you," Venetia says, approaching them as if she somehow just became Ashley's wealthy aunt who is also going to tell him about his provisional acceptance into H*gwarts.
"Yes," Venetia tells Marina. "They're foreigners, with ways different from our own, but they're good fellows ultimately. Why, they built the device that let us rescue your snugglecap here, and let me tell you, I have NO idea how it works!"
Venetia laughs again. It's a very honest laugh, and not a cackle at all.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"S-snugglecap???!" Ashley squawked just a little bit there. Oh no.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marina does relax. She's not a jerk even if she is alarmed. "Oh, well in that case, they definitely have to come." She has no comment for snugglecap. "Maybe something outdoors..."
<Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
Hannah drops to her knees after Boomer and and Luceid are finally defeated. She drops her crest graphs onto the ground and just pants for a moment, catching her breath. Then, she closes her eyes and draws in a deep breath, holds, and lets it out slowly. She repeats that several times until the magic roiling inside of her is a lot calmer.
She generally prefers not to kill, but in a life or death situation... A situation with all of Filgaia apparently at stake... Well, she can live with that.
When she's ready she picks up her crest graphs and puts them away, and then turns to Marivel. That determined, frustrated, and scarily potent mage from a moment prior is gone, now, and she looks at Marivel for a moment before bashfully glancing away. "H-hey, Miss Marivel. It's been... too long. You're welcome, and sorry I..." She's not quite sure how to put what she needs to say into words. "... Sorry."
She blinks a little bit. "You... remember me, from that memory? So... that really was you?" She nods. "I'm... glad I came too. I never knew that you... well... yeah." At the offer to travel together she looks to Marivel again before glancing away. "We... should talk about that. But not here."
It's not a 'yes', but... it's not exactly a no, either.