2024-05-31: Mercury Poisoning
- Log: Mercury Poisoning
- Cast: Malik, Seraph Ragnell, Kalisa Dragmire, Asgard, Eleanor Klein, Ida Everstead-Rey, Jacqueline Barber, Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Lanval, Venetia Vuong, Shige Kiwako, Gwen Whitlock, Lily Keil
- Where: Kislev-Aveh Front
- Date: May 31, 2024
- Summary: In the middle of a battle between Aveh and Kislevi Gears, something ancient yet new arises -- and threatens both the Gears /and/ nearby settlements.
<Pose Tracker> Malik has posed.
The war between Aveh and Kislev has roared to life once more. It never really stopped, but sometimes it is quieter -- border skirmishes, rather than pitched battles -- and this took hold in the wake of the Metal Demons and Odessa. But, in recent months, the war grew more active.
This is something that some Drifters involve themselves in... and wiser Drifters steer clear of.
Today, though, word has spread from a battle outside of Dazil City. After hostilities broke out, both Aveh's and Kislev's Gears fled the scene of battle -- and not because one side proved victorious, but because of an assault by a mysterious third party.
Or, technically, an assault by their own machines.
For those coming to investigate find that a number of Gears have half-disassembled themselves -- turned into a monstrosity composed of pieces and parts of the Gears. It is a tangle of arms and legs, moving and fused together at odd angles. It moves more like a pile, almost-slime like, with weapons studding its mass.
The amalgamation of Gear parts moves in almost feral, animal-like way. It comes rampaging over the nearby hill, and leaves debris in its wake -- pieces of the Gears making up its body, which have broken off.
On a nearby cliff, a man with blonde hair -- and white robes -- watches. Malik cracks a smile, the Prophet folding his arms. "Well! I'd say for a first test, this is going swimmingly!"
DC: Malik switches forms to Dragon Fossil Amalgamation!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
The hostility of humankind is a thing that ebbs and flows but never, ever actually stops. This is something Ragnell is cynically aware of. She doesn't know that humanity will ever be better. That's why she threw her lot in with the Trial Knight--but that's another story.
The story told right now is a story of ancient bones made into weaponry, and those bones finding new, gruesome life out of the weapons they were fashioned into. Ragnell was prepared for that, but still she watches the amalgamation's rampage below with a rare total lack of humor, arms folded over her poncho, feathered hat shading her eyes.
One of the reasons for her total lack of humor right now is the fact that she's standing next to Malik.
"That's one word for it," Ragnell tells him, tone flat. "Personally, though, it's borin' just to watch. I'm hopin' the Drifter crowd shows show up quick so I can beat the shit out of 'em." She drums her gloved fingers on one arm and finally flashes an ugly smirk. "Humans did this, so they gotta get what's comin' to 'em."
<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.
Kalisa Dragmire, the girl who would dare claim the last name of Ganondorf, has been keeping a rather low profile as of late. She made her first foreboding appearance in Adlehyde, summoning the Sage of Light to her with a rather audacious manipulation of the timeline, but has hardly made a peep since. At least, not as far as most Drifters will be aware.
There was the challenge she issued to the denizens of Energy Nede the week prior, and even though the scale of power and force on display may have been disquieting to the younger trainers... she seemed to have no ulterior motives besides the fight. She even admitted that she was not following any directives for Ganondorf that day, if she can be believed on that point.
So what might be her motives for being here today, on the cliff, watching this demonstration?
A young woman--a teenaged girl, really--steps up beside Malik. Dressed in Gerudo armor, bold red with gold trim. A black metal spear rests on her back (Dragonfang, she had called it), and, of course, she wears a mask that covers her face at all times (plain white, with purple markings under the eye and a blue mark on the forehead.)
"I see. So you seek to turn their weapons against them," Kalisa comments. Despite the mask covering her eyes, the way her head tracks the amalgamated gear shows clear interest. "A clever strategy."
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
Another figure watches from the same cliffside.
Once upon a time, he dissected the conflict between Aveh and Kislev, as people died, and died, and died. Some survived, some were broken by it, some grew stronger. At the time, the why, or the how didn't matter. As time flowed on, it all came to be represented by a singular thing, a grinning death's head.
The past becomes the present once more. The debris of a battlefield takes on new meaning, new context in the once and future battlefield. Gears congealing and coming together like mere corpse stuff.
The Golem says nothing at first, watching with his arms crossed, his armored coat swaying in the wind, as he stands beside Malik, he thinks of that entombed visage.
Memory after memory, reviewed in real time, he remembers once, when this desert was a place of flowers, petals dancing in the wind. He thinks of Melody and her definition of beauty.
He has his.
"We take another step." He replies to Malik, eventually. He is changed, from the last time he served his Master, "Towards that distant dream of what Filgaia could be."
Uncrossing his arms, he eyes the points of entrance, where he knows they will be coming, and that Ragnell will thus, not be left wanting.
"Let us ensure it survives that clash with his reality."
GS: Your next attack with the Counter flag will display with the name Polytropos.
DC: Asgard switches forms to Divine Fortress Asgard of the Million Memories!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor Klein is being very, very careful with this war. If ARMS were to get involved, particularly with Eleanor at its head, then the political ramifications could be... significant. She doesn't want to start a continent-spanning conflict. But this?
...This is a threat to the world, and Eleanor cannot stand idle.
So, the mighty Three of Hearts deploys. A bulky Gear in beautiful sunset tones, it is golden and purple and pink, and loaded with weaponry. Its wide shoulders conceal many cannons; its huge hands are ideal for punching. And Eleanor pilots it, thanks to friends who helped her salvage it on the Thames years ago.
She looks through the viewscreens, searching for the source of this monstrosity.
"We cannot allow this rampage so close to cities," Eleanor says. "Or at all, given the profane use of these Dragon Fossils. ...We will lay them to rest, and stop this evil!"
It's not just a matter of ARMS anymore; this is her duty, as Sage of Light. The Three of Hearts begins to advance towards the monstrosity...
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Word got out fast. Dazil is already preparing for the worst-case scenario, and--as it happened--that's where Ida was putting the Dust Dragoon through its paces following heavy repairs. She deployed immediately.
The command Gear stands atop a sand dune, half-crouched to make itself a smaller target. Its right hand clasps the barrel of the Three-Dragon Cannon, resting the butt of the weapon against the sand. Its coloration--the deep blue and bright gold of Ida's house--stands out against the desert. Its sand-colored cloak flaps in the wind.
In the cockpit, its pilot stares, horror building in her gut. She trains the cameras on the... the thing, while making note of other signatures: Asgard's, for starters, and an anomaly identified as 'probably Seraphic'.
"Good God," Ida breathes, as she gets her first good look at the amalgamation. Her eyes widen behind her visor. Gloved fingers flick across a trackpad as she pans the cameras back and forth, scanning the thing with every sensor she can bring to bear. Data streams through the Gear's computer, slowly compiling into a composite picture of the machine. Ida sucks in a breath, bracing herself before she scans it for lifesigns.
Were those Gears piloted when... something happened to them? Ida doesn't know. She doesn't want to know. (She has to know.) But she knows one thing:
"That's active Living Metal," she says, her voice tight as a drawn bowstring. "Be careful, Gwen." Eleanor and Ida are of one mind on this matter, too. "Understood." The Dragoon rises, and hefts its cannon up, resting it against its shoulder mount. "Firing to disable."
Lightning crackles through the weapon's barrel, building into a single, massive charge. A moment later, a loud CRACK splits the air as dozens of Dragon Filaments spit a massive electrical bolt at the amalgamation.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malik with Three Dragon Cannon - Voltaic Breath! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Malik fails to charge Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Voltaic Breath for 267 hit points! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The war between Aveh and Kislev... It is something that Jacqueline has kept an active eye on, but ultimately, there is little she can do. She can't, and won't, shape the course of nations - only be ready to defend what she cares about if it begins to spill over.
But today, a strange rumor reaches Jacqueline - Aveh and Kislev Gears had fled a battlefield due to a mysterious attacker. Rumor says that the machines themselves turned against them... This, naturally, warrants investigation.
And so, Issachar flies out over the desert, scanning the area from above. The shambling mechanical monstrosity, as it happens, is easy to spot. Jacqueline stares in disbelief.
"I agree..." Jacqueline replies with a nod, as Eleanor lays the mission clear. "This... amalgamation. Something must be at the root of it, to turn so many Gears upon themselves. I don't know who would do such a horrible thing, but... we have to stop their plans here and now."
With that said, Issachar draws its spear.
"Issachar, engaging!" Jacqueline calls out. She flies down to combat range before drawing a Crest Graph, inserting it into a panel on the console. Symbols of Wing and Muse appear, and Issachar extends its free hand. Bolts of crackling lightning rush out toward the amalgamation before leaping back to Issachar, forming a current to siphon energy back toward itself.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Malik with Siphoning Current! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Malik mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Siphoning Current for 212 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber drains Malik! Jacqueline Barber gains 106 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's bad luck, kind of, sort of. Josie's business, as a rule, involves staying as far from the active front as possible: this isn't her war to fight. But the problem is, wars have a tendency of shifting boundaries and there aren't that many safe routes of passage that aren't hell for entirely different reasons possible across parts of Ignas.
So here she is.
And here is a monstrosity.
"Well, if this don't beat all," Josie murmurs, wrinkling her forehead as she stares up at the abomination of Gear Parts and Fossils. "That don't seem half sporting, for one. And for another ...the hell've those bastards gotten up to?"
But here she is with her rifle (and technically her Pokemon) and not much else. Maybe she can get in a lucky shot--
"...And what's he doin' here?" she asks aloud, spotting a familiar face (well, figure) with the Prophet Malik. It wasn't all that long ago that she'd tangled with Asgard's other allies: Team Rocket. Is he playing for two different (not necessarily in opposition but definitely different) sides?
And her gaze shifts to Malik, turning at a distance between him and the amalgamation. As she recalls from her time in Odessa, if any of those lot up there are responsible-- well, it's a pretty safe bet from her point of view.
Drawing her rifle, she squints one eye shut as she takes careful aim, drawing a bead on the Prophet's skull. Her finger slips over the trigger.
Can a single shot be heard over the din?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
SOME MONTHS AGO
The war front had itself a storied set of misadventures involving a hijacked runaway maintenance Gear and a group of unidentified trespassers (hi Rille, Sable, Shige, and 'Luna'). That this nonsense happened at all might have been the little ripple of cause/effect that might have softened up the idea that Gears and other machines behaving strangely should be a thing requiring immediate response.
This may be giving the perpetrator of the months-old isolated incident maybe a little too much credit, though.
NOW
"Heyyyyy~" That's Lanval's voice on the comms channel. Seraph Lanval is a stalwart ally of the Drifter community and a devout protector of Filgaia as a whole, but the Gear comms channel is not really a place for him to be verbally lounging around. He's still Lanval, for all that entails.
"'m comin' in." Coming in with someone, then? A few of his common acquaintances do have Gears, but... Layna hasn't chimed in of her presence. Someone should be saying they're coming in with Lanval. "'m near the hill with the big green ship hull shtickin' outta it."
...Lanval is riding with someone, right?
Cresting that sandy dune with the 'big green ship hull stickin' out of it' is... a blocky, clumsy, heavy, not very well-articulated maintenance unit that should be sitting in a repair bay assisting in all the laborious upkeep of Gears and their environs. It tries to wave an arm up high in a wave.
"'m wavin' sho ya can shee me," oh no. That is Lanval, unaccompanied.
"...Right then, hearin' ya loud 'n clear on that, Ida," Lanval says with something approaching gravity in his voice as he starts coming down the dune on a Gear meant strictly for level, paved floors and not... sand.
The consequences show of this immediately as the Gear tumbles, one arm grabbing onto that 'big green ship hull.' Its weight tears off a significantly large chunk of it and sends it flying towards the amalgamation purely by accident.
(Also by happenstance: there was a live munition in that chunk.)
"'m fine," Lanval remarks, Gear now half-embedded and prone at the bottom of a dune. "...I ain't gonna leave ya hangin' on shomethin' like that," he says.
DC: You switch forms to The Peregrine! DC: Josephine Lovelace switches forms to The Peregrine! GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Malik with Mint Julep! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Malik with Out of His Depth! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Seraph Lanval gains 5 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: Asgard used Defend! He takes Josephine Lovelace's Mint Julep attack on Malik on himself! GS: Asgard mostly guards Josephine Lovelace's Mint Julep for 30 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Asgard! GS: Riposte applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malik fails to charge Seraph Lanval's Out of His Depth for 231 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia Vuong, whose self-awarded but potentially-valid title is recorded elsewhere, came here with Eleanor Klein. Perhaps the idea of 'avoiding the profane use of Dragon Fossils' is a smidgelet awkward for a Galadian individual, but the general idea is, of course, one to which she can wholeheartedly subscribe.
Venetia is hanging out on the shoulder of the Gear. No, that's not quite correct. Venetia is wearing enough gear that if you didn't recognize all that Venetiaism around her, she might not be identifiable: goggles and a filter mask, recently rehabilitated thanks to operations with breathing hazards.
She also has binoculars, which are a little awkward. But as she scans the area, Venetia finds - after several sweeps - some individuals standing on a cliff and looking as happy as worms in fresh-brewed muck!!
"I think I've found them," says Venetia to Eleanor thanks to the empathite sliver on her earring. There is then a brief delay...
As Venetia *stacks buffs* on herself.
One of these spells is perhaps familiar to professional "Magician Spotters." The liquid-ruby glitter as Venetia takes the obvious and sensible precaution in the face of a nearby battle of Gears. Some might invest in armor or in wisdom: Venetia Vuong figured out how to avoid dying when killed.
The second one is less familiar and seems to be more... wind-y.
"Hold the shoulder steady for a moment, would you?" Venetia tells Eleanor. "And... I'm..."
sproing!
"Off--!!"
Venetia looks pretty negligible as she travels through the air. Goodness, Venetia thinks as she goes: I can see why that old hag thought this was actually the ability to fly. From the right angle you do feel like it, and I suppose if you caught thermals... it's a shame it's really just a long jump. (In this, dear reader, there will be more revealed at a later time.)
Venetia sails through the air.
And loses altitude gradually.
It is clear to Venetia somewhere around the 70-to-the-target that she is not going to make it. Venetia, beneath her dust mask, frowns. She is at 80% before she comes up with a secondary plan, and she chooses her target with an intent glare, one hand drawing out a Crest Graph - she's probably almost close enough to be made out as a human figure rather than some object or random fragment thrown off of the Three of Hearts - and the other...
... throws about 260 Gella in assorted loose change forwards...
Which scatters with a merry noise on the cliff top, around the feet of Malik and assorted others. Venetia herself descended out of view at about the 92% point, and has presumably gone splat.
BUT NO: A few moments later, a strange feeling might wash over Ragnell, and she'd probably recognize it as a magical attack, whose exact effects aren't instantly clear... until all the thrown coins (and any other gold or silver that happens to lay about) is violently and quasi-magnetically attracted to her!
Venetia, 15 yards below the cliff face, hangs onto a bristlecone pine tree that's established itself. A nearby mountain goat regards her phlegmatically.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Precious Metal Sign ~A Fistful of Gella~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Seraph Ragnell mostly evades Venetia Vuong's Precious Metal Sign ~A Fistful of Gella~ for 40 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
What better person to take on an amalgamation of parts than a barely scrapped together ghost ship crewed by an amalgamation of spirits and the cat operating the thing? Realistically, she's barely gotten the thing working again after the last incident. She's still riding support though. Still along for the ride in something of.. a more confident look than she has had prior. Said confidence is oddly nostalgic memories of learning to operate a ship and there's something right about a cat and a chariot of sorts right?
For what it's worth, the crew isn't visible yet. Not as more than faint shadows at the corners of one's eyes. She's trying to learn, in a way on the fly. Some of the crew are different than prior too. Having moved on, one way or the other. Not that anyone, but the feline can really tell right now anyway.
"I don't think I'm qualified for that-" she says into her own radio. Spotting Malik. Confused at the amalgamation. "I think you need an engineer." It's something of a joke and an acknowledgement of what she's seeing. She's not great on radio comms yet, but it's better than chugging along. Literally. And she's sounding surprisingly calm and collected!
She does work the throttle though. Leaning into it. Pushing the secured seat back so she can get a better view while operating the systems.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
---EARLIER---
There is irony in a courier's work being disrupted by a lack of supplies. In this case, it's due to the war effort, and Gwen, being the sort of person she is, is here to investigate some rumors.
As it turns out, Gwen's Gear needs repairs.
"Y'gotta be kiddin' me. A week?" Gwen groans, running a hand through her hair. "It'd be faster if I just go get the parts for you at that rate--"
Except, she can't. No ARM can overcome a desert warzone, especially if its owner is terribly fleshy. To rent out a horse would likewise be dangerous now; Gwen wouldn't feel great about putting any creature in danger.
After giving the vendor a sympathetic glance as he looks around in the back, Gwen hesitates, looking out.
_A pale girl with a scarf covering her head stands in the doorway, staring back at the courier with an expectant gaze. Her clothing, consisting of those handmedowns so familiar to Gwen, has its left sleeve sewn fast to its side, in place of where her left arm would be._
Gwen's left hand itches her right arm idly, apparently staring off into space as the vendor comes back. ".... Um. Hold that thought." Gwen presses some money on the counter. "I got a thing I gotta take care of."
---NOW---
Ida's warning doesn't go unheeded. Holding onto Ida's Gear, Gwen stares straight ahead at the monstrosity. Her right ARM itches again. "Dragon fossils, huh... Guess my intuition paid off. Gotta pay my dues."
Clutching her right hand into a fist, the courier ignites the Chrysopoeia process, sending slivers of light up the nerves of her shoulder. "I'm dropping off here," Gwen yells, as the world seems to slow, in that way that's gotten so familiar to her.
Slipping down to drop towards the sand dunes, both of Gwen's eyes are now aglow as she lands...
.... and continues rolling down the sand dunes, because she didn't think that part through.
.....
Hefting her tiny self onto her feet from where she rolled to a stop a distance away from the amalgamation, Gwen shakes some of the sand sticking to her hair, and glances up. "....."
This is... even worse, up close, its animalistic movements slowed down for Gwen to appreciate in all their disjointed glory. Draining the Mockingbird's lightning into her right fist, the courier mutely runs in, coming in to deliver the first blow to one of those... feet?
One of them, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
The Elegy's guns soon begin to light up. Swinging into position. Shades briefly manifesting, firing at the.. what is she dubbing it? She didn't give the order to open fire either. She leans forward shouting, "H-hey you're supposed to wait!" Though.. she does seem mollified in realizing they're probably better on the mark than she is.
They were soldiers and all. The ammo is strange. Somewhere between real and not. Probably tapping into the magic brought along with the feline beastfolk
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Malik with Deck Guns! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Malik mostly guards Shige Kiwako's Deck Guns for 75 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Corrode applied to Malik! GS: Jam blocked! GS: Quick applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Malik with Yliastrum! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Access! Gwen Whitlock takes 30 damage! GS: Malik mostly charges Gwen Whitlock's Yliastrum for 153 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jam blocked! GS: Mighty applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
"If you believe it is profanity to stir the memories within aged fossils, then I would posit you have been blinded by the desert glare, Eleanor Klein." Asgard pronounces, simply, "Do you truly believe that laying them to rest serves anything but your own sense of justice?"
A shot, a crack of thunder, upon a battlefield such as this it is easy to miss within the din. A bullet hurtling through the air on a trajectory straight towards Malik's head.
Asgard does not visibly move, but then his image blurs, and abruptly, he is elsewhere, the image of Malik dwarfed within her scope, the Golem's palm raised as the still intact bullet can be seen, suspended, as if his barrier were attempting to arrest it's momentum slowly, the bullet pushing back against it until inevitably, it stops, still intact.
The Golem plucks the bullet out of mid-air between two fingers, and flattens it, it's reddened eyes still making contact with his former comrade.
"Josephine Lovelace. Only you would have the audacity to imagine that the Divine Fortress could fail at it's duty. Though it is not an unfounded belief."
The Golem begins a gradual walk towards her, ponderously with every step. Compared to the colossal titans doing battle, he is diminutive, tiny. Just over three meters, despite being broad of frame.
"My earliest memories, long before I even encountered you, Josephine, were of the Elw's formidable war machines, the Golems." The Golem speaks, with a sense of gravity, "At the time, I failed at my purpose to stymie their advance. I was akin to a newborn in experience and strength, but I offer that not as an excuse."
Unfathomed Force - Ao no Kiseki OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9mL0PasBkw
The Golem raises a hand, and suddenly the air grows thick with the smell of Ozone, the air crackling with power, as a sudden column of lightning falls upon him, consuming him until he is but a photonegative, the sand around him cracking and shattering as it's rendered into glass.
Within each of the shards reflects a fragment of the visage of the Guardian of Lightning, Noua Shax. Two glowing red eyes appear within the black of the flash, as the Golem reappears, his form crackling with a current of electricity that runs along his armored frame.
"But an explanation of why you will fall here today."
The Golem is off like a shot, a runner at a block, crossing the gap with surprising rapidity. He scythes at her low with an arm as if to take her legs out from under her, before his knee suddenly strikes upwards, trying to launch her skyward.
... But he is already there, with a hammer fist, trying to smash her back down to the Earth. To those who have seen him fight, it might seem eerily similar to a fighting style of one simple country Doctor, albeit modified for his size and bulk.
Despite being former comrades - no perhaps because they are former comrades, he does not insult her by attempting to hold back.
GS: Asgard has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Million Memories: Ancient Strike! GS: Asgard enters a Counter stance! GS: Asgard has gained 3 Combo! GS: Asgard has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Malik has posed.
"They sure did," Malik says. "Pretty foolish, huh?" he tells Ragnell, with a laugh -- and then he looks at Kalisa, and he nods. "Exactly. They're made with Dragon Fossils. Remains of Metal Dragons. So if this works..."
He quiets, though, as Asgard speaks. He tenses at the Golem's words.
"Time to see what it can do!"
Electricity explodes from the Dust Dragoon, slamming into the strange amalgamation. It jerks and twists, lightning arcing across it; then it surges forward, rolling parts of its mechanical body over itself, limb-by-limb, to come closer to the Dust Dragoon.
Its advance is stayed for a moment, as Issachar flies in from above. The Omnigear's spell crashes down, lightning slamming into it. There are loud POPS and sprays of sparks -- and then huge chunks of metal explode and fly away from it.
Several Gear heads -- mounted in ever-shifting masses of metal, some folded over by shifting masses of scrap -- turn and twist, looking at the two Gears attacking it.
Then, a Gear's leg lifts -- the foot was abandoned, though, and a hastily-added chaingun is there instead.
It opens fire, and shells rip across the battlefield, peppering the Dust Dragoon and up towards the Issachar.
The heads all swivel as one at the Mint Julep -- at the ship, with a maintenance unit attached -- making its way over these blasted lands. The torn-free chunk of hull hits the amalgamation, bouncing off, and tearing away several chunks of Gearstuff with it.
It shudders a moment, before two different Gears' arms -- and then a quintuplet of half-dismanted Gear torsos, like a writhing worm -- push it out of the sand it had been smashed into it, and as 'upright' as such a thing can be.
Then, those arms all reach out -- debris, other arms, and a couple of legs compound and add to each other, as they reach out and try grasp onto the Mint Julep, and wrench it towards the main body of the amalgamation.
Shige's gunship may be hanging back, but it hasn't escaped the notice of the amalgamation. Several of the embedded Gear heads turn, looking up at it. Gear eyes blink -- because scrap has been turned into something like eyelids -- before its guns fire, shells slamming into its mismatched body.
Then, several holes open -- gaping maws filled with dust and shrapnel falling into them -- before spewing out a trio of small rockets, made of compressed debris and armor, which hurtle off for Shige's ship.
Gwen lands near the amalgamation. The entire thing churns, like a slime made out of ever-shifting plates of steel, grinding machinery, and the like. Then, a massive collection of pieces of Gear limbs, torsos, and part of a crane extends outward.
Her lightning-infused fist shatters the Gear foot and the wrist it was attached to, compacting them back into the body. But then that huge tendril comes crashing downward, towards her.
The crack-boom of Josie's rifle gets Malik's attention. His head swivels; the blonde-haired man's eyes go wide, as he gets a good look at her. "What in the he--"
He takes a step backward -- he's no warrior, and that and Venetia leaping for Ragnel activates his flight instincts -- and before there's movement. He turns his head, as Asgard intercepts the shot.
And begins walking towards Josie.
"Whew!" Malik says. "Can't buy the farm before I get back to Mom~!"
GS: Malik spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Malik has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Chaingun Burst! GS: Malik has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Chaingun Burst! GS: Malik has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malik has attacked Seraph Lanval with Grasping Growth! GS: Malik has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malik has attacked Shige Kiwako with Bio-Missile Volley! GS: Malik has gained 2 Combo! GS: Malik has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Tendril Smash! GS: Malik has gained 3 Combo! GS: Malik takes 56 damage from Corrode! GS: Malik has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace critically fails to evade Asgard's Million Memories: Ancient Strike for 219 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber mostly evades Malik's Chaingun Burst for 229 hit points! GS: Corrode applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey critically fails to charge Malik's Chaingun Burst for 299 hit points! GS: Corrode applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.
Kalisa glances to Ragnell and nods, once. "If there are worthy fighters among them, I will be satisfied." Having a machine to fight is all well and good, but... Kalisa would rather do her fighting herself.
She looks to Asgard and regards him silently for a moment. They have not spoken at length, yet... but she is curious about his battle capabilities. Taking another step... "Indeed."
She turns her attention back to the rampaging Dragon Fossil, scanning the area for the Drifter interlopers that are sure to come... and pauses as she sees the Three of Hearts come onto the scene. Behind the mask her eyes narrow, and under her breath she utters but one word.
"Sage."
Winds begin to whip around her, and a flurry of sand starts to swallow her up. "The Sage is mine," she declares. "Do what you will with the others." The sands rise up all around her and in the next instant, when they disperse, she is gone.
With another flurry of sands she appears directly in Eleanor's path, far ahead on a hill top. She is relaxed, but she is looking right at Eleanor--or right at her viewscreen, at least, but there she is. She seems relaxed, arms hanging by her sides, and she seems to almost wait a moment before taking any action--as if she were waiting to make sure she had Eleanor's attention first. She tilts her head a little, as if asking a silent question.
A hand comes up to her face, fingertips resting on her mask. Shadows flash across her face and suddenly the mask changes: bronze now, with a pair of marks on each cheek, and a bar of metal over a detailed mouth.
Dark shadows flare out from the mask, surging back over hear head and down her body until she is fully encased. She begins to grow, suddenly, slowly walking down the hill in ever longer steps as she approaches the Three of HEarts, until suddenly they are on much more even fighting terms.
And she never breaks eye contact the entire while.
"Let us see how much the assistance of that mechanical construction aids you, Sage!"
BGM: Boss Battle (Ocarina of Time) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTqDvaNXri4
Any passengers riding with Eleanor only have precious moments to dismount--Kalisa jumps suddenly, leaving behind curls and wisps of shadows in the air as she traces a path up--and at the apex of her jump she flickers out of sight. In the next moment is driving her spear--which is now also gear-sized--down at Eleanor's Three of Hearts with a shout.
DC: Kalisa Dragmire switches forms to Kalisa Dragmire ~ The Desert Titan ~!
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Mirage Dive! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kalisa Dragmire's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter! GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein fails to charge Kalisa Dragmire's Mirage Dive for 296 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: Seraph Lanval mostly charges Malik's Grasping Growth for 149 hit points! GS: Break and Slow applied to Seraph Lanval!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Yeah. Astoundin' how fucking *terrible* mortals are, innit," Ragnell tells Malik with a tight smile. She doesn't weigh in with Kalisa or Asgard, though she did nod at each of them earlier to acknowledge their presences. There is a touch of wryness in her expression when Kalisa remarks on a good fight; Ragnell knows she just said basically the same thing, but it's so much more earnest coming from her. For now, she goes back to watching the Metal Dragon amalgamation below. At least, until the Drifters arrive.
Asgard might be the first to explicitly spot the incoming crowd, but for all that Ragnell couched her words as a 'maybe,' she was 95% certain she wouldn't have to wait long at all. Sure enough, there's a lot of familiar faces down there (technically presences rather than faces, given all the Gears, but still), including Eleanor--of course *she'd* be leading the pack, given her particular abilities--Gwen, and Ida. And of course Lanval... but Ragnell doesn't want to fight one of her own kind right now. She's really in the mood to shoot a human.
So it's pretty easy to notice when a human goes sproing!ing into the air at quite a significant altitude. Ragnell frowns at Venetia as she ascends, then down at the coins as they clatter around her and the others. "The hell is this s'posed to be," she mutters, peering at them.
Her only warning comes in that strange feeling--a sense of magic, focusing in on her. She instinctively ducks back, but those coins *are* scattered directly beneath her, and so it's impossible to evade them all. Whap whap whapwhapwhap!!
"Ow!!"
This is honestly the best use of money Ragnell has seen in her eight hundred-some years of life. It's pretty impressive, actually.
Which is why when she jumps off the cliff to leave Malik and the others to figure out their own fights, mercifully in time to not have to hear Malik talking about his mom a g a i n, *zorch*ing out of sight and teleporting short-range in a burst of lightning to a spot near Venetia's pine branch, it's which a smile.
"Howdy howdy howdy! Man, I was *jus'* sayin' I was hopin' y'all would show up an' entertain me, an' boy, did you deliver!" Ragnell winks cheekily at the Crest sorceress. Her sass is undercut by a certain tension in her jaw, an anger that pulls her frame taut like a piano wire. It's nothing personal to Venetia, but still-- "Lemme express my *deepest* gratitude to ya!"
Then she pulls a gun on Venetia and fires--not at her, but at the weak point of the tree branch she's clinging to. Sometimes, the best attack is letting nature take its course. (If Venetia still had sproing juice left in her, then surely she wouldn't be clinging to a tree but floating gracefully back down to the ground. QED! Ragnell will no doubt find out momentarily if her logic holds up or not.) However that ends up going, she'll leap after Venetia momentarily.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Venetia Vuong with Storm Shot! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Venetia has found them. Eleanor nods, within the cockpit. "I can!" Eleanor says of holding the should erlcear, and watches through her viewscreens as Venetia takes off. She assumes she's got that covered.
But, "The dead should rest, Asgard!" Eleanor calls. "...Not that pressing them into service as Gear parts was better," she admits, "But even so. Can you tell me that stirring the flesh of the dead is right?"
Sorry, Venetia. Eleanor doesn't like Guild Galad's main industry!!
Before she can argue the point any further, she abrubtly stops--because she does see Kalisa, somehow staring right at her camera. And something... changes.
"What...?"
She recognizes the sort of magic that this is--a magic not seen on Filgaia in thousands of years. And shortly, Eleanor sees her foe staring at her, nearly the size of her Gear. And she leaps.
"No!"
Eleaor's Gear is battered by the spear of the desert titan, knocked backward by the force of the strike even if the spear doesn't penetrate armor enough to get to its internals. The distress is real; Eleanor is fond of this Gear, and such a nimble opponent...
"Fine," Eleanor says. "I'll show you my facility with the technology of the modern world!"
The Three of Hearts adopts a more stable stance, and its pauldron on the left slides away, revealing a great cannon. "Three of Hearts engaging!"
A blast erupts, and the shell that comes crackles with electric power to disable and confuse.
"I should've known the King of Evil would be involved in a plot like this!" Eleanor challenges Kalisa. "Well, we won't allow it!"
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with Disabling Shot! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action. GS: Venetia Vuong fails to guard Seraph Ragnell's Storm Shot for 0 hit points! GS: Blind and Jam applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: COUNTER! Kalisa Dragmire counterattacks Eleanor Klein with Chaotic Thrust! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Very High! Kalisa Dragmire marginally charges Eleanor Klein's Disabling Shot for 235 hit points! GS: Cripple and Drowsy applied to Kalisa Dragmire! GS: Eleanor Klein fails to guard Kalisa Dragmire's Chaotic Thrust for 223 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Kalisa Dragmire!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
There is also a figure approaching Josie, through the air. Lily Keil heard about this battlefield, and knew what she needed to do. ...As it happens, that involved getting something out of storage...
"Josie!" Lily calls, her eyes black with the power of her flight. She is holding a very large cannon, mostly thanks to her gravitic magic.
"...I'll go tend to the wounded," Lily says. "But you can stop these things. With this."
"...It's time."
Unlike Jay, Lily is entirely willing to influence the course of nations... but doesn't care to do so here. The days when she was a daughter of Kislev are long gone.
"Don't argue. You can't do less than the best you have against Asgard. ...It's mine to give. And yours to take."
Lily presses the cannon towards Josie.
GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako perfectly evades Malik's Bio-Missile Volley for 0 hit points! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Malik mostly guards Gwen Whitlock's Stuff Attacking From The Other Side!! for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Heads turn to look at them, displaying a rather alarming awareness. Jacqueline suppresses a shudder. And then, a leg, rises - but where a foot should be is a chaingun which opens fire. Issachar darts through the skies to avoid the incoming volley, but it proves much faster than she initially gave it credit for as bullets still rake across Issachar's form.
"This is... altogether unnerving." Jacqueline notes, exhaling. "Be careful, everyone!"
She circles around it, trying to get a good angle. Still... it may be some manner of horrible mass, but it's still composed of Gear parts. The way the heads turned to look at her... This is something she can take advantage of. Another Crest Graph is drawn and inserted into the console. And then... Issachar dives in close to the amalgamation - close enough to ensure that none of the others will be caught in what she's about to do.
Issachar casts its arms open wide and waves of static electricity erupt off its form - capable of scrambling signals and disrupting instruments.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Malik with Static Burst! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes 63 damage from Corrode! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Malik mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Static Burst for 0 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Malik! GS: Drowsy blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Luckily for Ragnell, Lanval is occupied with an abomination, and also struggling with the nature of being Seraph Lanval, who shouldn't be trusted with heavy machinery on principle. He's someone else's problem today.
Maybe for not much longer, with how Lanval's Gear simply cannot get up out of the dune on its own, leaving them easy pickings for the grasping growth of five arms to heft the smaller (but still proportionally heavy) maintenance Gear upright.
Luckily, Lanval faces the consequences of being ensnared without mortal yelling terror, mostly on the benefit of not being mortal.
"Awful kind of ya ta help me up, if ya can hear me in there," he says of the horrid, multi-Gear abomination. Ida was clear that it's active Living Meal. Lanval is able to keep himself upright as his Gear is being dragged towards a doom that is still vague on the gradient of 'certainty' but is leaning more in the direction of 'certain.'
He sees the many mouths, the strange blinking, and the eventual drag-down into the morass that has already claimed far more capable Gears than his own.
"Mmmph." Lanval calms down... and...
Snores, loudly.
A Seraphic Arte circle (Gear-sized, for the occasion) forms underneath him, as a great large sorcerous bubble appears to flit towards the abomination with faint, shimmering iridescence like the fuzzy colors of a dream (and not a highly pixellated, artifact-filled scale-up of an older resolution art asset) that explodes with a gentle invitation to rest.
"Ya really should jusht go back ta shleep, 'll make it lessh noishy shoon," he says.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Malik with Sleepy Bubble X L! GS: Seraph Lanval gains 5 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
It's probably good, for Venetia, that she pulled herself partway upwards and stowed her Crest Graph because there comes Ragnell. ZORP - yup, there she is.
Venetia looks at Ragnell, not down. "Well I'm glad that I amused you during your monstrosity construction exhibition day," Venetia says, which was probably just the prelude to her ranting about something, but oh no: Ragnell fired at the tree branch. ENDING A LIFE THAT HAS LASTED LIKE FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!
Well, maybe not. These pine trees are sturdy, and nobody disturbs them except the goats, who don't like the taste. Perhaps the tree will sprout again.
Venetia begins to descend and Ragnell can probably tell she is falling more slowly than she should. However, it's something like fifty percent the usual falling rate, rather than the extremely survivable bordering on adorable 'ten percent' or so. (The goat looks downwards, bemused, then looks up at Ragnell with those uncanny, plus-shaped pupils.)
"Gmrmrmrgh!" Venetia mutters, before she twists herself around - still holding onto the 'majority of the pine tree' (perhaps she'll use it as a cushion? or as improvised armor?) - and kicks off the side of the cliff, which does give her a lot of sudden horizontal movement and the opportunity to avoid plummeting to a somewhat more delayed doom!
By leaping out into the great open yonder.
Venetia leaves that problem for Venetia in Two Minutes, instead pulling her gun and shooting a number of loud rounds from the Gunsmoke ARM, leaving several clouds of gunsmoke in her wake. Also bullets. For Ragnell!!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Seraph Ragnell with My Gun Will Stop The Enemy And Their Associates! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Malik marginally guards Seraph Lanval's Sleepy Bubble X L for 193 hit points! GS: Drowsy blocked! GS: Malik enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: COUNTER! Seraph Ragnell counterattacks Venetia Vuong with Counter Attack! GS: Gamble: High! Seraph Ragnell mostly charges Venetia Vuong's My Gun Will Stop The Enemy And Their Associates for 133 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's face twists in a grimace as the amalgamation twists and writhes. She pulls the stick back, and presses the pedals; the Dust Dragoon steps backwards, the sand shifting beneath it. "God, it's like a Reaper but with Gears," Ida says. A moment later, a picture-in-a-picture lights up on the panoramic display, selected by facial recognition software. Ida's grimace turns into a scowl.
"The Prophets," she growls. "Stay alert. Asgard's here, too, we can't--"
A chaingun erupts from the mass. "Gh--!" Ida grunts, and she presses the jet pedal to the floor. Jumpjets fire, stirring the sand beneath the Gear into a storm. Lead slugs stitch through the air, slamming into the machine's armored side, and tearing divots out of the shoulder, arm, and thigh.
A moment later, the letters SORCEROUS ANOMALY DETECTED flash across the screen. "Eleanor!" Ida shouts. That's Kalisa. Kalisa, the Prophets, a Seraph--Ragnell? the other 'sorcerous anomaly' is reading as Lightning--and Asgard. A cold lump settles in Ida's throat.
It only gets worse as the mass drags in the support Gear. "Lanval," Ida realizes, horror in her voice. "Lanval, why are y--no. Let him go." As if she could somehow convince the zombified Fossils within the mass to become quiescent. "Don't let it touch you!" Ida cries, as if Lanval's example wasn't illustrative enough. The bullets don't stop coming. The Dust Dragoon lands with a heavy CRUNCH, stirring up the earth beneath. "Gwen! Incoming overhead! DUCK!" A moment later, a tongue of fire leaps from the Three-Dragon Cannon's barrel, and Ida rakes it across the amalgamation's body, trying to melt the more solid-looking portions with a blistering inferno of Dragonfire.
"You fool," Ida spits, and the Dragoon's head swivels to regard Malik. "This isn't anything's will." Ida's own anger amplifies as a second consciousness stirs within her. Fafnir floats towards the surface of his dream, with such suddenness Ida's voice skips and breaks as he tries to cry out. "All you've done is make another Reaper!"
God, Ida thinks, as she sucks in a deep breath. Not now. Not now!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malik with Three Dragon Cannon - Flame Breath! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes 61 damage from Corrode! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Malik mostly charges Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Flame Breath for 254 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong fails to guard Seraph Ragnell's Counter Attack for 175 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The bullet never connects. There, in the blink of an eye, Asgard intrudes into her bullet's path and plucks it from midair as easy as one might pick an apple from a tree.
The mirthless smile on Josie's lips suggests she knew this was a possible -- nay, likely -- outcome of her attempt to interrupt the Prophet's control of the amalgamation. "Can't blame a girl for tryin'," she drawls, that smile growing thinner as Asgard's attention focuses in on her like a laser sight.
She's not a short woman by any means, but even her approximately 1.8 meters is dwarfed by Asgard's size.
Much as he himself is dwarfed by the Gears and the abomination Malik controls. Holding her rifle against her body, she tenses in anticipation of Asgard's next action. And she's right to do so.
Even if
his movement
is too fast
for even her to track.
She slams into the earth, ragdolling under the impact crater she's created. The last few seconds are a blur. Where is her rifle? It's not here. She must have lost her grip on it when she was struck. Well, there's nothing else for it, then. Josie draws a sidearm as she pulls herself out of her crater. It's a weapon woefully underequipped for a battle against a foe like Asgard. But sometimes, you make do with what you--
have.
"--Tiger! Ain't that a sight for sore eyes!" she calls out. "Lend me a hand, would--"
Lily says she's tending the wounded. Josie blinks. "...You? Wait," she starts to say.
And Lily knows her well enough to tell her to not even try to argue. Throwing up both hands, Josie can but shake her head. "Well, here's a pretty mess! But I ain't lookin' a gift horse in the mouth, any! Hope you've been takin' real good care of my baby, now!"
Once upon a time, this same cannon killed some of Lily's squadmates. That was before the Wolves clawed this part back, before they broke Gryndille to pieces. Now it lands almost gently, close enough to Josie's position that it just about settles in at her side.
"Well, well," she says, taking up position with the cannon. "Looks like the tables've turned, Asgard! Prepare yourself!"
Lily must have prepared it, she realizes, for the cannon takes almost no time at all powering up. Lights flash down along its length, burning bright amidst the haze of war. Turning the cannon so it fixes on her Golem adversary, Josie sucks in a breath as the cannon begins to draw power up from its core and then, in a burst of light and sparks...
...it fires.
GS: That attack doesn't exist. []
DC: You switch forms to Repurposed Ancient Cannon Nostos! DC: Josephine Lovelace switches forms to Repurposed Ancient Cannon Nostos!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Asgard with Do Not Take Pity! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Access! Josephine Lovelace takes 30 damage! GS: COUNTER! Asgard counterattacks Josephine Lovelace with Demonic Retribution! GS: Gamble: Moderate! Asgard mostly charges Josephine Lovelace's Do Not Take Pity for 132 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: COUNTER! Josephine Lovelace counterattacks Asgard with Polytropos! GS: Josephine Lovelace critically fails to charge Asgard's Demonic Retribution for 236 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!) GS: Asgard mostly evades Josephine Lovelace's Polytropos for 43 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige jerks the controls hard to the side when she sees the rockets fired off her way. Rolling the throttle all the way forward. This is actually not quite what she's used to of course. It's a little different back home, dodging into waves and the like, but it's the same idea right? That's what she tells herself. There's a clank noise as her lantern rattles into the control panel from it's hook.
The rockets do zip by though and she does look relieved. She's barely gotten this thing operating. Again.
She scans the horizon briefly, watching the ongoing brawl, unsure just.. how it got so big. Something easy to lose when you're always looking inward. There's a sharp rattle from the ship though, shaking her quite literally out of her reverie. No one seems in particularly bad shape (That she can actually reach right now-) and she swings the barely hovering ship around, kicking up dust and whatever else into the air as she throttles forward again.
"Ordnance?" She calls out. Ear flicking as she gets a call from the pipes she can hear, but.. well there's no one else on board so it's irrelevant! A rack is swung out on an arm and aimed. The figure manning it was at one point, a Kislevi trooper, though only partially visible. Grisly if one were close enough. She's listening intently, making a few adjustments. If the frankenmech wants to fire explosives at her (She.. thinks they were? Maybe kinetic.) She'll return the favor! She also won't admit that she's receiving updates from the crew and isn't.. fully in charge. Well she is, but she doesn't feel like it as she's relying on the remnants who won't leave to guide her on operating this dubiously held together machine.
There's probably some humor there about the cat barely being held together. She's getting better though.
"Everyone okay?" She finally asks, swapping over to the radio instead of her internal commo.. system? Tubes? She still doesn't know. "J-.." she starts, then pauses, "Just call if you need help. I'll be there." She's trying!
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Malik with Heavy Ordnance! GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: Malik mostly guards Shige Kiwako's Heavy Ordnance for 134 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Malik gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell hadn't meant to break off the whole pine tree; she'd aimed for a spot closer to where Venetia was holding on. But sometimes things don't go the way you intended them to. Similarly, it's not *her* mostrosity construction exhibition day, and theoretically that's not supposed to be the point besides, but it amounts to the same thing in the end, so Ragnell takes it on the chin and refrains from a pithy counter-quip.
"Later, goat," she tells the bemused goat, just before she leaps after the falling-more-slowly-than-usual Venetia.
Venetia kicks away from the cliff wall and opens fire; Ragnell returns fire with her paired pistols. Bullets, both lead and lightning, fly furiously between the two, leaving trails of smoke and ozone in their way. Ragnell is left with a few smoking holes in her--good thing physicality is just a suggestion when it comes to her. Physicality-as-a-suggestion is the same reason why her speed matches Venetia's, despite Venetia's fall being magically altered.
When the mutual bullet barrage ends, Ragnell doesn't keep shooting; instead, she calls up a Seraphic glyph at her feet as she begins to cast an arte. However, it glows not golden like her Seraphic artes usually do, but a pale, frigid blue.
"Come, frozen atmosphere, and rend through my foe! Cool Sanction!!" Ragnell calls. The magic ignites, so to speak, and a chill fog whirls around Venetia, slow at first, then with frightening rapidity as massive spikes of ice form within the chill cloud and stab inwards towards her. They'll shatter and crumble a moment later.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Venetia Vuong with Cool Sanction! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Ida's warning, filtered through Gwen's senses, is somehow understandable. What should be a mess of slurred words, like a record player in sore need of cranking, is converted into what Ida should sound like.
Or what Gwen imagines it should be. Either way, Gwen's own reaction is the same.
"....?" To be fair, Gwen's ability to talk without effort evades her right now. It would have been useful here, maybe, if Gwen's words could equal some modicum of 'will' to coax the Fossils to understand.
However, that part of Gwen's being is messy: a thing that is her, but isn't. A part that is a lens, to understand something could crack a person's sense of self, ir overwhelm someone with not enough of a sense of self in the first place, if the fossil had an identity beyond '-I will be-'. There is no Fafner here.
But in the now, Gwen is Gwen. She came because she saw a reflection of herself that expected her to do *something*, but is that merely her will reflected back at her, willing Eleanor's orders?
The tendril comes down towards Gwen in that moment, and in the space of time Gwen can act, she draws out the Mockingbird's electricity again as she leans *into it*, using the contact to deliver a charge to absorb, as well as jettison away any remnants that could be sticking to her.
The veining discharge of lightning gives way to ice crystals now, as Gwen draws on the ARM's enchantment to unleash an arc of ice towards another leg.
(She is not at all copying Ragnell.)
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Malik with Rime Edge! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 3 Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Access! Gwen Whitlock takes 30 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
Asgard does not in fact miss Ragnell's implication, but he shows no sign of hostility to it. After all, he knows it to be true. There are more memories within him of human cruelty and apathy than there have ever been of heroism, and compassion.
This desert that stretches forth before them, more evidence perhaps of their point.
"Should they?" He offers a question in reply to Eleanor, "And what is the wisdom in allowing the memories within to crumble to dust? Surely you understand as a scholar, that so many of humanity's mistakes are repeated out of ignorance of their own history."
It is possibly a touch surreal to Josephine that he's debating the merits of 'necromancy' in a sense while trying to kill her, but then again she's probably had way weirder conversations in fights.
As Malik walks towards Josephine as well, he senses his approach even though he does not look at him, his Auto-Defender protocol after all monitors him in real time for all threats.
All threats.
"Nothing will so much as touch you." Asgard tells Malik, evenly, despite his blase attitude. "It is my duty to do everything in my power to see your dream come true." It is a contrast to what he said earlier isn't it? Perhaps he wasn't speaking of Malik's dream.
But now he is.
His attention soon moves to Lily Keil and that cannon, his vision suddenly moving through various spectrums to identify the object - it does not take long before he pronounces. "And you think what, Lily Keil? This will close the gap between us? You have made a fatal error in bringing this here." The Golem raises a fist, "How much stronger do you think my Master's creation will become, with the memories of GRYNDILLE?"
The cannon fixes on Asgard, and he takes a step, he starts to run - and is then utterly consumed by the blast, the light and sparks completely drowning out the image of the Golem. And despite all expectations of Josephine perhaps that he would make it to her despite the blast, he does not.
The moment the light glare fades is when he does, by his head suddenly rocketing down to slam into her, a full half of his body burned white from Gryndille's cannon, as if it's sheer force had burned away color from him, wisps of smoke rising off of him.
"I see... it's separation into your hands has done little to diminish its raw power." The Golem's synthetic voice hitches in a way that is strange for those who remember his prior malfunctions, but in the moment perhaps it's as if agreeing with Lily, "But have you truly unlocked it's full strength, so swiftly?" He asks, and for a moment, it's like he's asking Josephine. Everyone knows that ARMs grow in power with the wielder - but Josephine is a new wielder, isn't she?
There is a sudden clicking noise in Asgard's frame, that only Josephine is like to hear given how close one must be, and in that same moment, a sphere of Guardian flame comes to life over her head.
And descends detonating in a roar as it blackens the sands and reduces it to glass.
"Let us find out - before I separate you from it."
GS: Asgard spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Asgard has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Million Memories: Ancient Spell! GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo! GS: Asgard has completed his action. GS: Josephine Lovelace mostly guards Asgard's Million Memories: Ancient Spell for 87 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Interrupt blocked! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Josephine Lovelace receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Josephine Lovelace has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.
Malik explains about the Dragon Fossils, and Kalisa nods to him, briefly, in the moments before she springs into battle. "I see. They should prove quite potent, if they can withstand the rigors of combat."
Ragnell said essentially the same thing--but Kalisa wants more than just 'beating someone up'--one cannot prove themselves in combat against an inferior opponent, after all.
But her spear strikes true, damaging even the construction of a gear in her current state--though there is little doubt that she could still be lethal without the mask, if she wanted. Eleanor promises to show her the technology of the modern world. "Do you ever fight for yourself, Sage?" She says the last word with a barely-concealed contempt. "You raise armies, you enlist the aid of machines of war--"
A great big cannon is revealed, and a crackling shot is launched at her. Kalisa attempts to tilt into the shot, to swat it out of the air with her spear, but it slips past her defenses and sends her reeling back, heavy footfalls flattening the ground.
But as she stumbles she tilts, redirecting her momentum to lash out with her spear. It flies for the Three of Hearts once more, out of Kalisa's grasp, though a thin trail of shadows drifts in the air between her outstretched hand and the spear.
As she regains her footing she makes a sharp gesture with her hand, and Dragonfang flickers out of sight and into it once more. Tendrils of electricity still flicker over her form for several moments, and her muscles twitch and spasm briefly before she gets herself under control once more.
"Do not be so quick to abandon the old, Sage." Kalisa gestures with her free hand, and from underneath Eleanor's gear, from out of its shadow a massive hand made of inky shadow arises. It claws for the gear, seeking purchase, and moments later another arises, stretching out on a long tendril of umbral matter. Then more, and more. Some go for the legs, others the arm, another pair seek purchase on the torso. But wherever they can hold fast, magic starts to drain out of the Three of Hearts and into the supposed depths of the shadow below.
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Shadow Seal! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has completed her action. GS: Eleanor Klein fails to evade Kalisa Dragmire's Shadow Seal for 71 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mute and Starve applied to Eleanor Klein! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Malik mostly guards Gwen Whitlock's Rime Edge for 114 hit points! GS: Jam blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Malik has posed.
"Completely!" Malik answers Ragnell with another oblivious laugh.
Issachar circles around, before flying in closer. And, sure enough, several of the Gear heads in the amalgamation turn and look up at her Gear. Eyes blink, unevenly.
Then, electricity explodes off Issachar. The Gears are still mechanical; they still rely on sensors, on components. The result is the entire thing shudders and twists with discomfort.
Then, a pair of tendrils -- compressed debris, manipulated via makeshift limbs -- wrench free, and shoot up for Issachar. They twist and maneuver awkwardly, blindly -- then lurch in, trying to find their mark, and grapple the powerful Gear.
The Seraphic Arte circle gets several heads looking in Lanval's direction -- several others jerk about, thanks to Jay's disruption. The glowing blue light, soft and gentle, seems to make the whole thing grow sluggish for a moment.
Dragonflame from the Dust Dragoon rolls across it; armor slags, glowing red hot, and pieces of it begin to burn -- where wood (is that part of a windmill?) got incorporated into its mass.
The heavy ordnance from Shige's gunship fires into the amalgamation. Explosions rip through it; the entire thing shakes, violently, before two, then three, then four limbs reach up. They lift together -- merge, as pieces of metal begin winding and weaving together -- and then it rockets forward, trying to slam into the gunship. And around it, as it tries to engulf it.
Its body shakes, when Gwen's ice slams into it. The amalgamation is moved backward, knocked away roughly, and its whole frame shudders for a moment.
Then, echoing what Issachar did earlier, the strange interlocking plates and machinery twitch -- and a blast of lightning explodes out from it, hurtling straight towards Gwen.
Malik looks at Ida, in the distance. "Another Reaper? This is all new!" He glances at Asgard -- then nods. "Counting on it!"
Then, he pulls out an object: a glimmering dark blue crystal, except it is mired in rock and ore. Some of that ore is Dragon Fossil, in and of itself. He grips it and focuses. "Now..." he says, and then louder: "ENHANCE!"
There is a groaning from the amalgamation.
Then, something within it lurches. The whole body undulates and twists; at the center of it, something inside of the amalgamation smashes into the debris lair at the top, trying to break through. There is a dread sense of something wrong.
It hits Lanval; it hits Ida, a sensation of something within it.
Something on the verge of clawing its way out of the amalgamation.
GS: Malik has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Tendril Entangle! GS: Malik has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malik has attacked Shige Kiwako with Engulfing Crash! GS: Malik has gained 1 Combo! GS: Malik has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Electrostatic Burst! GS: Malik has gained 2 Combo! GS: Malik has attacked Seraph Lanval with Creeping Sensation! GS: Malik has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Creeping Sensation! GS: Malik has gained 2 Combo! GS: Malik takes 83 damage from Corrode! GS: Corrode expired! GS: Malik has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong fails to guard Seraph Ragnell's Cool Sanction for 186 hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...Nobody's better with a big gun than Josephine Lovelace," Lily declares to Asgard. "I have faith in my friends, as much as you do in your master. They're what connect me to this world."
"It will be enough. ...Until I face you again. As Lily and Sharon both."
"...Because Gryndille is my memory!" she shouts.
"Good luck, Josie. And... don't die."
She shoots back into the air, a scream of power folllowing her as she takes off towards Dazil City.
GS: Jacqueline Barber marginally evades Malik's Tendril Entangle for 134 hit points! GS: Entangle applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock mostly evades Malik's Electrostatic Burst for 34 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Gwen Whitlock's Jam Ward may block the effect! GS: Jam applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Lanval critically fails to guard Malik's Creeping Sensation for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Lanval gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Delay and Disease applied to Seraph Lanval! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey fails to guard Malik's Creeping Sensation for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Delay and Disease applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Countermeasures!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"That's..." Eleanor has no immediate answer for Asgard, on the thought of the memoriees of the dead. "That much is true. I myself rely on memories of the past. ...But can you feel it? What he's doing?" Malik's wrongness echoes to her. "It isn't right. It's a perversion of the natural order!" ...It's probably for the best she isn't paying attention to Shige over there. Or would she find Shige different?
But she is busy with Kalisa, and Kalisa hhas a question, too. Fight for herself?
"I don't have time to be as selfish as that," Eleanor counters her. "People depend on me. My life is more than just my own. ...You should understand that much, if your bloodlust doesn't blind you to it."
But the 'old' is not somemthing to relinquish its grip. From the shadows come more shadows, and the Three of Hearts is enfolded in darkness. The magic with which she's infused the Gear starts to drain out of it. "You--"
She narrows her eyes, at her display through which she still sees Kalisa. "Discard the old, like you've discarded the honor of the Gerudo?" Eleanor counters. "Your people hate Ganondorf for what he's done!"
She breathes in. There's only one option, really. So Eleanor places her hands on her console, and begins to focus. Golden light shines from her hands, and then begins to shimmer from the Gear itself.
The Three of Hearts shines--and a torrent of Light crashes towards Kalisa's shadow!
...But the Gear, enchanted as it is, was not designed for such enchantments...
"I'll be fine, Ida! Focus!"
GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Kalisa Dragmire with Sunburst! GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 2 Combo! GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"'m doin' all right, Shige," Lanval says unironically even though he is currently being pulled ever nearer to the morass of massed Gear parts. He tries to flash a thumb up, but the closest thing to a thumb on the arm he's trying to signal with is a nub put in an unfortunate center-oriented place and there's no way to make a kind gesture with it. Also, he is presently ensnared.
"...Okay, they ain't wantin' ta go ashleep," Lanval murmurs as his voice gains that little touch of urgency. Lanval's manifestation almost never really opens his eyes. Two completely unrelated maintenance ports open up wide with the same character one might going bug-eyed, and that's as strange a description as it sounds.
"Ida!!" Lanval calls as a horrid groaning bears down upon him on an existential level he knows is wrong, speaking as an elemental spirit. "Everyone!! Shomethin' in there'sh wrong.... 'n itsh' tryin' ta come out..."
He sounds terrified, for someone technically not in direct physical danger (in so much as Gear-Vessel distress and destruction goes), as the maintenance Gear wriggles helplessly in its grasp. "'m gonna ashk real quick, ish it rude ta shcream on yer weird metal talkin' thingsh? I might hafta....!"
...
"what'm I shtill shtandin' here for," he murmurs in a bit of self-awareness as he wriggles an arm with what limited range of motion he can, mechanically reforming it into a hose nozzle. How much he's actually practiced any part of this thing's movements or systems as a spirit embodying it... well.
He at least understands, 'water can cut,' and after doing whatever it is within that hose to give it such a pressurized setting...
"It'sh comin'!!" Lanval doesn't think he can stop it from emerging. The best he can do is to try and cut himself free as he tries to wave that ensnared hose arm to try and cut free with a decently capable water cutter imitation.
GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Malik with Once Again I Have Doused A Worthless Object! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval gains 5 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Kalisa Dragmire mostly evades Eleanor Klein's Sunburst for 281 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kalisa Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Blind applied to Kalisa Dragmire! GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
It wasn't a very big pine tree, even if it had been there for a while. Not the best environment, perhaps... or it was too dry... or maybe the goats HAD been at it.
And most of it clings to Venetia. Or rather, she clings to it. She keeps falling backwards and Venetia swiftly encounters the vulnerability here, because she has a gun with five (5) rounds and Ragnell has like, a gun with as many bullets as she has sorrows probably. Venetia calls out, "Ow!" when the bullets begin to nick her flesh.
"Not very polite of you, but I imagine you take pride in - gah!" One advantage of this TREE HUGGING is that the tree is pretty durable... but it's looking fairly ragged, and Venetia is starting to run out of air to float/sail through. She can feel a strange magic beginning to form. Damnable and blasting breccia and barymetrics, Venetia thinks as it forms, tightening up around the tree as --
SSSHHHHHNKKK
Sparkle~!
The ice breaks free and Venetia gasps for breath.
Venetia's head turns for a moment as she realizes, to her irritation, that her breath-mask has broken. Not that she needs it, but how much has broken? Did the Persephone Sign fire? She doesn't think so. How sure is she? She can see the ground, having entered the zone perhaps thirty percent of the way up off the ground. (in other words, next round is GROUND CONTACT whether Venetia wants it or not!!)
Internally she thrashes for a moment, but the furious mental screaming is swiftly replaced with -- something. There's an angle here.
What is it?
Well, either way, Venetia's gun has gone away; she might have put it back in its holster but there's some tree in her way. What's less in the way is her Crest pouch, which she manipulates - only to have there be a clatter as several of the plates go flying through the air! "Tch-- DAMNIT--!!"
A barrage of amethyst crystals, each one comfortably the size of a small pumpkin with a single large one, go flying after Ragnell as Venetia shouts out, "So were you just here for the violence, or are you throwing in with the author of this hideous thing!!"
GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Blind and Jam expired! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action. GS: Malik mostly guards Seraph Lanval's Once Again I Have Doused A Worthless Object for 252 hit points! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell mostly evades Venetia Vuong's Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~ for 110 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Ragnell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Being close enough, the static reaches its mark - but being close enough means that she's within the amalgamation's range, too. Tendrils of compressed debris shoot out and Jacqueline attempts to fly out of range... but not quickly enough. The tendrils latch onto Issachar's legs, and Jacqueline grimaces.
"It's got me!" She warns - and then, the amalgamation lurches. She can't sense it herself - but Lanval can, and she listens as he shouts his warning. "There is? So this thing... it's just a... cocoon? Everyone, be on guard! There's no telling what'll come out!"
An intermediate form, to protect it while it evolves... Jacqueline shudders again. If it's wrong enough to worry Lanval, she really doesn't want to see what it is.
At this rate, she has a feeling they might not be so lucky in that regard.
Another Crest Graph is drawn and set into the console - this one, two crests of Geo light up. Issachar raises a hand, and stone, dirt, and debris begins to gather and form into a large earthen spike. It casts its hand forward, then, as if to hurl the object - and the spike obeys, flying primarily toward one of the tendrils latched onto Issachar.
As the spike flies Issachar accelerates in the opposite direction, attempting to free itself from the amalgamation's grasp.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Malik with Rock Formation! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes 75 damage from Corrode! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As the amalgamation lurches back, Gwen steps back herself, panting.
The Mockingbird's power just may be getting easier to control, or Gwen is finding herself reacting towards the thing with extra prejudice.
Maybe, she's still chilled by her meeting with Loren, and what emerged during it, that whatever her ARM brings feels like her true self.
Ragnell and Gwen's use of electricity is not exclusive to them, however.
Nor is Gwen immune to it, when her attempt to evade mostly succeeds, but not in the ways she would have appreciated, moments later.
The Mockingbird contorts alarmingly; Gwen cries out, holding a hand to her chest. An exertion of her own will corrects it, but the world swims for a moment, even still, as Gwen realizes the truth of Ida's earlier words.
Which is why--
Ida senses something. Lanval senses something.
Gwen... senses nothing.
Lanval warns that something is coming; Gwen, in a brief panic, throws out a random storm of beams, all sound and spark.
Whether a chance of some damage will occur is up to chance.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Malik with Friggjarrokkr ! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Access! Gwen Whitlock takes 30 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida presses a hand to the side of her helmet, white-knuckled. She can't will Fafnir to become quiescent any more than she can the Fossil horror. She takes one deep breath, and then another.
'Everyone okay?'
'I'll be fine, Ida! Focus!'
"Understood," Ida grates out. Her vocal cords respond, but there's still a skip at the end. Shige is here. Shige and Eleanor are here, and all right, and what is that--
A ghost ship, Ida realizes, dimly, as she puts two and two together. It's fine. It's friendly.
What is definitely not fine: Lanval screaming in panic. Ida barely has time to process that before the same horrid feeling grabs her by the heart, and by the guts. The Dragoon freezes, mid-stride, its cannon still raised--in that moment, its pilot gasps into the open mic. Sharp, panicked breaths follow.
"What have you done?" she whispers, the Dust Dragoon's optics still fixed on Malik. "Lanval's--he's--something's inside! Kill it!" It takes focus, but Ida drags herself out of her own fear, and pulls up a targeting reticle. She aims for the amalgamation's center of mass, flips a toggle switch, and pulls the trigger.
Again, an electromagnetic torus starts to build within the body of the Dragoon's main gun. This time, though, it doesn't discharge as a tangible bolt: it amplifies, and then washes outwards as a directed electromagnetic pulse. It's invisible, but definitely tangible--especially to any machine caught in its way. (Ida's watching out for Lanval and Gwen, or trying to.)
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 1 Combo on Interrupt! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malik with Three Dragon Cannon - Directed Pulse! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes 62 damage from Corrode! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Malik marginally guards Jacqueline Barber's Rock Formation for 250 hit points! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! Gamble: High! Malik perfectly guards Gwen Whitlock's Friggjarrokkr for 152 hit points! GS: Malik critically fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Three Dragon Cannon - Directed Pulse for 0 hit points! GS: Drowsy and Interrupt applied to Malik! GS: Malik has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: CRITICAL! Shige Kiwako mostly evades Malik's Engulfing Crash for 102 hit points! GS: Shieldbreak applied to Shige Kiwako!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's a weird conversation that Eleanor and Asgard are having. There's no escaping that. But in her long career as ne'er-do-well, Drifter, and terrorist, Josie has had way weirder conversations. She's had way, way weirder conversations!
But in the end, her only comment regarding the situation is this:
"It'd make a cute little girl sad if'n she saw all this, right," she says to Asgard. "So I don't think I've even got a choice 'bout what to do, yeah?" Riesenlied would probably cry. And Josie can't be having that.
"Nora! We've gotta take it out!"
Her gaze is on Malik in the moment and almost, nearly, Josie's fingers itch for her sidearm. But unfortunately, her luck (such that it is) has run dry. With all eyes on her -- Asgard in particular -- it's looking damn near impossible. Slim odds are one thing. Impossible odds are another.
But is it doomed to remain so impossible forever? Here Lily intrudes with her gift.
It comes with a price. Fail and hold her ground, or win the day, and they'll certainly take the cannon out from under her. And that's something Josie absolutely cannot permit. "Over my dead body," she promises Asgard, baring her teeth.
And then, she fires.
And she only exhales once she sees Asgard emerge from beneath the glare of that shot and is able to ascertain exactly what she was able to inflict upon him. Not bad. And yet--
"I don't plan on it or none, Tiger!" Josie calls out as Lily makes her departure.
Her gaze flits back at Asgard. Not bad, certainly. But the fact of the matter of the situation is... she's on the back ropes as it stands. The cannon's powerful, there's no doubting that after the initial shot, but it's not precisely any more mobile than it'd been when she'd last used it years ago. And Asgard, by contrast, very much is.
He's right about the cannon. After this long, they're no longer synchronized properly. She can use it, sure, but it's like using a muscle after taking too long of a break: the effect won't be the same, or as strong. And while Lily's definitely been taking care of it, the cannon hasn't been used since Josie left it behind.
Asgard meanwhile isn't pulling his punches. That's his way of respecting her, she supposes. But it does mean that she's going to have to make this next one count. It could be her last chance.
"C'mon, Nostos," she murmurs, finding the first interlock and releasing it. Something clicks and she jerks her head upwards: there, overhead...! Ducking behind a more heavily armored section of the cannon, she throws up her arms. "O, thou...!" she calls, lightning snapping outwards in a sphere about her. The flame washes downwards, around her shield. It still burns. Some of the cannon's plating buckles and warps. Josie, the moment the flood of dangerous heat fades, throws herself at the cannon again. Second interlock. Third!
Fourth.
"Okay. Okay. Full power--" she calls out, shoving her body against the cannon to direct it back towards Asgard. Black glass -- what had been sand -- cracks underfoot. He's close, far too close. But there's no real choice in the matter.
Light and sparks burst from the cannon's forward aperture in a sudden blinding flash... but all is still. Did the cannon fizzle out? Was it too much power?
Josie feels the cannon shuddering. "Come on--!"
And there is light. Like a roar from the heavens, light pours from this ancient artifact, this brainchild of Sharon Wyatt. There is all the power of a star here, comrpessed into a single beam of light. It might seem, nearly, as if it is a light that could continue into eternity.
And yet, as Asgard would know best, even an eternity can someday end.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: You have activated the Force Action Lock On! GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 4 Combo on Interrupt and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Josephine Lovelace has attacked Asgard with The Tenth Black Night! GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 3 Combo! GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action. GS: Access! Josephine Lovelace takes 30 damage! GS: Gamble: Very High! Asgard critically fails to guard Josephine Lovelace's The Tenth Black Night for 310 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Asgard gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Interrupt applied to Asgard! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Asgard enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Cripple and Jam expired! GS: Asgard has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt! GS: Strain! Josephine Lovelace takes 50 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
At least that pine tree was shorn in service of a greater good: shielding Venetia's soft and squishy body. It doesn't let her finish that thought she started out on, but at least she gets in a jab later on as she calls up that Crest spell and hurtles several chunks of amethyst at Ragnell by way of magic. Even in midair, Ragnell manages to snap herself up and around the incoming crystals--but that last large one impacts heavily in her midsection, knocking the breath out of her and cracking a couple of ribs..
Or, well, it would if she had ribs. Or needed to breathe. You get the idea. Sometimes injury is only an idea.
Idea or not, it's still painful. Ragnell croaks out a laugh all the same. "Absolutely I'm here for th' violence," she calls, which is technically entirely true. The ground is imminent, but all the same, it gives Ragnell a moment to look back towards the amalgamation with a grim stone-facedness, and so catch the moment when it groans and lurches and starts to tear out from inside of itself. That look tracks up towards Malik and that focus object he has. Even from this distance, that distinct silvery ribboning over the blue crystal says a lot. "Tch," she growls, one side of her mouth pulling down.
Then she brings her pistols together again to aim for Venetia. It's as she's observed: she has as many bullets as she has sorrows, and then some. This particular sorrow will glow a steadily brightening white from both muzzles until that beam merges and BLASTS out towards Venetia, perhaps destroying what remains of the pine along the way.
GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Venetia Vuong with Tempest Laser! GS: Seraph Ragnell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong perfectly guards Seraph Ragnell's Tempest Laser for 102 hit points! GS: Blind and Jam blocked! GS: Mighty applied to Seraph Ragnell!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's trying to track.. a few things all at once. All things considered. There's chatter on the radio, which she's trying to keep up with. 'Reaper?" She's pretty sure that's something else, but there are those stories and-
She pushes it aside. The deck crew are chattering to her. Distant whispers to most, a strange eerie sound to some. Perfectly normal to her. It's fine. She shakes herself out a few times, trying to focus. Usually this is easier, she's sure.
That it's usually easier because she's sloshed and rolling with it crosses her mind. She even reaches for her bottles. They're gone. Someone went and stole them. And it wasn't even a certain poltergeist too!
Her right ear perks up and her head darts to the right. There was a call out and a tendril that hadn't been there before is rising up from the animated junk yard trying to lash out. It's big, it's fast and she's not exactly in a gear so trajectories are a harder thing.
"Hold on-" She intones (Hopefully into the pipes, not into the radio, but..) and suddenly pulls back sharply on the throttle and turns hard into it, bringing the ship almost sideways. The blow glances off of the reinforced deck, leaving a dent, rending a few holes, but nothing critical as they continue on the way.
When she stabalizes she's jostled around to put it lightly and there might be some upset comments from the crew, met with a wry, 'You're fine it's fine stop." They're already dead and stuck to the thing in a way.
She does actually sound apologetic though.
Her brain's starting to catch up and she's.. actually feeling confident about what's happening, in a way. It's not going great on all fronts, but she can help there too if they are able to overcome the threat right?
Lanval sounding.. urgent is actually worrying, despite the words though. "I don't think that thing can-" she starts, then he sounds terrified. That's a new one and her ears flip back. There's a wry thought that she didn't think he was capable of that kind of worry.
"What is it?" Her own voice suddenly a lot more flat. When she hears that kind of language, it's.. in her territory or adjacent right? Or is she just realizing it finally?
This is reinforced by Eleanor's comment. There's almost a smile there. she's flying a ghost ship. Which isn't really in much better shape than the adhoc mech. "There's a lot of that flying around." She does actually focus though. Bringing her own power to bear. Trying to.. actually figure it out herself rather than just relying on others. She's riding the throttle again even.
With that, she begins to focus that magic towards the machine. A wrong feeling cold creeping in, creating your typical clinging, creepy, clammy mist. Just, considerably colder and localized. And still growing colder. A call to silence of some kind. There's more ice magic in play! Or.. adjacent. Again. There are wisps of light playing in the mist. Seeming to be the concentration of the cold. Bringing just the hint of salt in the air. Something focused from her memory.
GS: Shige Kiwako has attacked Malik with Harsh Winter! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Malik perfectly guards Shige Kiwako's Harsh Winter for 224 hit points! GS: Delay blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Malik has posed.
The 'blade' of water that Lanval cuts slashes into both of the arms grasping the Mint Julep. As he predicts, it does not cut through them. However, into is enough; these compounded pieces of debris do not have the advantage of well-designed mechanical sekeltons, and the limbs slump uselessly.
This lets Lanval move his boat-Gear backward.
The tendril gripping onto Jay's Issachar thrashes -- side to side -- and then stops, as a large earthen spike shoots up. It shreds through both of the tendrils, and they fall free, letting it fly backward.
Gwen's beams lance through it. Some rip out of the other side of the amalgamation; others catch something within, and secondary explosions erupt across it. It thrashes in response -- a tendril, hastily formed, flies wildly right over Gwen's head.
The electromagnetic pulse from the Dust Dragoon rolls over it -- and short circuits throughout the amalgamation erupt as sparks, loud pops of fried electronics, and some limbs crumpling. The thing sags, for a moment, under its own weight.
Ice -- with a whiff of salt to it -- shoots over the surface, digging into it. Pieces of plating begin to crack; parts of it sag further, the ice pushing down upon it.
"Now," Malik cries out, "rise! RISE!"
The entirety of the amalgamation thrashes. The thing in the center of its body slams upward; the metal screeches, bending and shifting. Plates give way as a bulge of debris appears in the middle. And then it
RIPS
and a ghastly, malformed draconic head tears free. Its eyes glow with a pale, flickering electronic blue light. The corpse of the Metal Dragon SHRIEKS, the first vocalization that the amalgamation made. The head sways, as if drunken.
Its entire body begins to thrash about, violently. A huge piece of its mass -- bound torsos, combined limbs, and a hint of a jet thruster -- slams at the Mint Julep.
Two arms come up -- rushing above Issachar -- and then wind together. The hands grow, swelling as they consume parts of the arms. Then, it swings them down for the Omnigear in a brutal hammer blow.
Heix smaller tendrils shoot out from the pile of amalgamated gear parts -- and fire like spikes, trying to impale the Dust Dragoon a half-dozen times.
A large mass of Gear torsos, several legs, and pieces of battered canon rise up -- and then hurtle off towards Shige's gunship.
A Gear's foot tears out of the debris, armored plates popping off and flying into the air. They crash down into the done. The leg unfurls -- then STOMPS down, trying to squash Gwen Whitlock underfoot like a fiery insect. The malformed draconic head SHRIEKS again.
GS: Malik has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Malik has attacked Seraph Lanval with Violent Thrash! GS: Malik has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Violent Thrash! GS: Malik has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Violent Thrash! GS: Malik has attacked Shige Kiwako with Violent Thrash! GS: Malik has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Violent Thrash! GS: Blind expired! GS: Malik has completed his action. GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Shige Kiwako mostly evades Malik's Violent Thrash for 378 hit points! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Shige Kiwako enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Malik takes 150 damage! GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Jacqueline Barber critically fails to guard Malik's Violent Thrash for 585 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Strain! Malik takes 150 damage! GS: Seraph Lanval has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: Gamble: High! Seraph Lanval marginally guards Malik's Violent Thrash for 502 hit points! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Strain! Malik takes 150 damage! GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: Gamble: High! Gwen Whitlock mostly guards Malik's Violent Thrash for 129 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures! GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Malik takes 150 damage! GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Ida Everstead-Rey mostly evades Malik's Violent Thrash for 341 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Reaction bonus! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Strain! Malik takes 150 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
"And who decides what the natural order is?" The Golem's reddened eyes glance towards Eleanor, "You? Does it come from 'a feeling' that it is? 'A belief'? How many atrocities have been justified by religious demagogues claiming something- or someone is a 'perversion' of the natural order?"
Asgard looks then to the Seraphim, Ragnell, "I ask you, Ragnell, do humans use similar justification on your world?" It is a question, given that he knows mostly of Filgaia, not Lunar, though perhaps it is a question that he believes he can field an educated guess to the answer.
Lily and Sharon both?
"Then I look forward to your progress, my new, old friend." Asgard replies to her, "But I have not your faith in her gunplay." Josephine speaks of a cute little girl implying Riesenlied, and Asgard looks at her for many long moments, before, "Isn't it already, Josephine Lovelace?" He asks her, and for a moment there is gentleness, "I have memories enough of tears to understand, they need not be shed, for some to feel sorrow deeper than all the tears of time."
There is something that she promises, "And mine." He replies calmly, despite his burns, body still crackling with that power. "It is thrilling, is it not?"
Even.
Even perhaps when it's sad.
The cannon's forward aperture fires in a blinding flash, and this time the Golem puts his barrier up full power, and the heavens roar, as the light and energy strike it, and plow right through it, engulfing the Golem in light that feels like it could burn for away even eternity. Perhaps it is will, perhaps it is desperation, but it feels like she has accomplished it.
For in the afterglow of the blast, the Golem's form is now fully blackened, as he takes a step forward, then topples, the light in his eyes dying on the way down.
However, before he even hits the ground, there is a strange effect. Josephine will see it, something appearing in the air like clockwork, ephemeral gears that grind to a halt. Then start turning backwards.
And it's like Asgard rewinds, his eyes coming aglow as he moves back to a standing position, and moments later, the blackened ruin that was his body turns back further, as those all over will feel the telltale Guardian magic.
Indeed... it is easy to assume that eternity can end. Harder, to make it so.
"Mag-*hss*-nificent."
Josephine hears the pop crackle within him, as his eyes focus upon him, one dimmer than the other, "Lily Keil... was... correct. I have not been pressed by even an ARM like that since long... long ago." The Golem smiles, it's like now he's repairing in real time. "Thank you. I will count this amongst my most precious of memories memories."
As he raises a fist, and closes it, as Josephine feels his barrier energy constrict her, and abruptly raises her into the air. As the Golem's image vibrates with energy, his form splits, and surges outwards, rising up to attempt to meet her in mid-air.
"Release... Oh divinity... that dwells within my fists, surge forth!"
Those images arc through the air, rebounding into her time and time again, that surging light blurring faster and faster until the blurs of Asgard become like shooting stars.
"... Infinitia... Soul!"
GS: Asgard has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Asgard spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Asgard has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Infinitia Soul! GS: Asgard has gained 1 Combo! GS: Asgard has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
A direct hit! Venetia hopes it dismays Ragnell enough to
yeah
that's not happening, is it
Venetia is getting dangerously close to the ground and she calls back, "Is that so," even as the tree is hugged tighter and Venetia turns while embracing it. The obvious thing she's going to try to do is land on the tree, but turning in midair while hugging onto something is rather hard -- especially when you're being shot. Venetia tightens up, but the bullets slam into her, a few of them going SPANG off of a convenient piece of metal, others biting hot blurring lines of pain until for a moment --
Externally, Ragnell can see that she scored one hell of a hit. It's, let's be polite, a career-ending injury -- there's a lot of blood, for a moment, but then there's a sound of something cracking and snapping back and -- what? Did it actually hit? The magic goes off.
-- oh, there it goes, Venetia thinks as she finishes turning herself around and pulls
BACK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnT7WNS2YYY
Which reorients the tree... and means that for a fleeting moment Venetia looks at the horror of the construct. It twitches. Screeches. A Metal Dragon -- was it -- No, Venetia thinks, it's probably not complete. It's something sewn together, a patchwork horror. Her eyes widen, in a mixture of professional awe and a brief moment of visceral horror. For after all:
What if he did... whatever this is... in Guild Galad?
But then the severed base of the broken tree hits the ground. The pine wood bends... more of Ragnell's bullets shave off boughs and limbs and needles as Venetia hikes up her legs and plants her right foot on top of the tree and just as she hears something groan...
STOMPS with her left foot.
sproing!
yes, it makes the same sound
Hurling back upwards, a lot faster than before, Venetia's eyes blaze, discernible beneath the goggles as she says, "So you like the violence, eh!? Well, I'd hate to leave you bored after you came all this way to watch the horror show! Clench your teeth, girlie! SIMULACRUUUUUUUUUM--"
She must not have dropped all the Crest Graphs. There is a shimmering glimmer of Ley in the air as Venetia brings it upwards, trailing almost like a glitter of stardust behind her since she isn't usually actually hurtling through the air when using her metathalloid magicks:
"Sign!"
It congeals suddenly into a spectral shape of purple stone, towering and standing directly behind Venetia. Riveted bronze hides the eyes of the statue-shape's face, but the rock lips are cracked with a pull back and gemstone teeth glitter as a fist comes backwards into a single enormous high speed left uppercut!!
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Simulacrum Sign ~Velvet Underground~! GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Venetia Vuong's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.
"Bloodlust? How little you understand me, Sage. If I wanted naught else but blood, I should find no shortage of it!" Kalisa takes up her spear in both hands once more, getting ready to watch for Eleanor's next atttack. "Though I will concede I understand you on that one point--our lives are indeed spoken for by others."
She is Ganondorf's blade, after all.
Kalisa cannot see Eleanor's eyes narrowing, not directly--though to be fair, neither can Eleanor directly see Kalisa's narrow either, behind that mask. "My honor is intact, Sage. Those who do not serve him are fools who do not understand their place." She snorts. "Did you think you could dampen my resolve so easily, when I bear his name?"
Kalisa watches as Eleanor's gear beings to shine--and suddenly she jerks back, moving swiftly as she tries to keep ahead of that torrent that comes for her--but she's not quite fast enough, and the edge of Eleanor's magic still clips her, in the end, and she lets out a pained grunt as she stumbles back. HEr body is wreathed in shadow from the magic enabling her enlarged form, and Eleanor's magic proves mighty enough to strip some of that away from her.
Kalisa shakes her head slowly, in a way that suggests she might be trying to shake something out of her line of sight; maybe the mask didn't protect her from all that harsh light. The shadows slowly flow back onto her body too, though the aura is thinner than it was before.
She turns her head to listen as the Metal Dragon bursts free of the amalgamated gear, and nods to herself. Now for the real test, it seems.
"Your magic is potent, Sage, but I should expect nothing less from you." Blinded or not, though, she straightens up. "... However, you are not the only one blessed with the gift of magic. I will show you the might of a Gerudo warrior!" Her spear is sheathed on her back, and she holds a hand high up overhead. Black flames erupt into life, churning chaotically above her in a ball that rapidly grows larger and larger.
It roars with calamitous intent, and the shadows sustaining her transformation are flowing up into the ball to cause it to surge even larger still. She lowers her hand, bringing a ball as large as she is--as large as a Gear--down in front of her. It launches forward, splitting into several smaller balls along the way and weaving around each other as they target themselves directly at Eleanor.
GS: Kalisa Dragmire has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Kalisa Dragmire spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Shadow Flare! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kalisa Dragmire gains 5 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Kalisa Dragmire has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein critically fails to evade Kalisa Dragmire's Shadow Flare for 684 hit points! GS: Eleanor Klein has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace critically fails to guard Asgard's Infinitia Soul for 342 hit points! GS: Josephine Lovelace has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's Gear does not quite have the articulation for a cartoonish arm-flail leg-sweeping tumble, but there is a very spirited attempt at this that ends up having him prone again - and flopping most the rest of the attached boat debris from his earlier tumble atop him, at that.
The amalgamation thrashes, and to Malik's command, something rises. Whatever of the Mint Julep is attached to Lanval is completely obliterated.
It's a form of serendipity it's even there, as that serves as (marginal) armor against certain destruction. Any corporeal, mortal Gear pilot would have reason to believe a fellow corporeal, mortal Gear pilot within Lanval's misplaced choice of appropriated maintenance Gear would be dead based on what does pierce through and draw (metaphorical) blood. (The ambient lighting does give the leaking fluids a blood-like hue).
SMASH
CRASH
BOOM
Smoke starts to rise from the prone-lying machine, and Lanval goes quiet. One could believe Malik's creation might have in fact managed to find some means to make this contact a thing of existential lethality, but then...
Water. Water, in all of its forms great, and not. (and a muted, though mood-ruining, belch)
"What'sh yer name?" Lanval calls over loudspeaker. "...Never mind, don't need it... one shec..."
Seraphim often enhance their powers through the use of a focus related to the element in which they are stronger than. Seraph Lanval, a Water Seraph, moderates and overcomes the element of fire in Althenian sorcery physics. He has said before how alcohol, a liquid so suffused in fire-aligned energies, has been his preferred focus.
What else is a flammable liquid?
The power of water swells anew.
"As I was saying...!" A mirthful voice that's not really easy on the intercoms, he should take that in consideration next time, but after all the horrid abomination screeching maybe this isn't so bad. "Thou art the only one whom can beseech one to rise!"
"Schturdark!" Comes Lanval's voice. It's not like a Medium's Summon, in that their visage is not brought to the forefront, but for those familiar with the embodiment of the Water of Filgaia, his presence bears down on some level. "By pact to protect the Water of Filgaia itself, I doth decree and declare an enemy to all Filgaia stand before! Grant unto the children of Filgaia the means to Sustain the World against such that would injure the Water of Filgaia beyond repair...!"
An urgency, as energies start to seep among those standing before the abomination. To the Dust Dragoon, the Issachar, the Snow's Elegy, and Gwen, the power of water to cleanse and wash away starts to seep into them - to give them the push to just wipe this enemy and abomination to life straight off Filgaia itself.
"...that'sh yer cue," Lanval murmurs as he lets his Gear lie prone.
GS: Seraph Ragnell mostly evades Venetia Vuong's Simulacrum Sign ~Velvet Underground~ for 64 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Seraph Lanval spends 1 Combo on Reload! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Shige Kiwako with Lord Of The Lake X L! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Lord Of The Lake X L! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Lord Of The Lake X L! GS: Seraph Lanval has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Lord Of The Lake X L! GS: Seraph Lanval has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Lanval gains 5 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Seraph Lanval has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake X L for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!! GS: Jacqueline Barber accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake X L for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake X L for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Many," Eleanor admits. "But how many atrocities have been welcomed because their perpetrator knew how to spin the right argument? How many people have suffered from evil disguised as good?"
"...You can hear it. Listen to Lord Lanval! Filgaia's very Guardians cry out against this!"
"I serve The Power That Shapes The World! I know where this world's destiny lies, and it is NOT with your Masters!"
At least thre's Lanval to support her; at least Lanval understands, even if Asgard doesn't. But Kalisa--
"How am I supposed to understand someone who hides who she is? Your mask doesn't do me any favors!"
Fools, is it? Eleanor grits her teeth. "I will not have you dismiss them so easily! They rose up with strength against him!"
Her magic is pootent... but, it seems, not potent enough. The 'might of a Gerudo Warrior' comes, and the calamitous shadows that rush down at her Gear shatter into it with decisive force. The beautiful Gear is rocked backward, and falls to its knees. Its controls no longer respond to Eleanor's commands, and she shivers as the magic of her enemy kisses the cockpit.
"No!" Eleanor says. "Everyone... Hang in there! We can't allow this!"
But her armor is broken, for now. And there is not much she can do about that.
"Maybe you can beat me," Eleanor says, "But not them!"
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The tendrils are shorn, and Issachar is free. The Omnigear retreats backs and turns to face it once more, stopping in mid-air... just in time to see the amalgamation rise. Jacqueline stares, horror crossing her face.
"What... is this...? By the Guardians, did he... reanimate the dragon...?" Jacqueline gasps. "...Ah!"
She clasps her hands over her ears as the Metal Dragon shrieks. And then, above her - two arms rush above, winding together into one. Issachar is fast - but it's still recovering from being bound. It braces itself as the massive arms slam down, crashing into it and smiting it into the desert below. For a moment, Issachar is still - as is Jacqueline, hurled from her chair by the sheer force of it.
But Lanval's voice reaches, his voice reverberating, and she feels the presence of Schturdark. It's like being splashed awake. Jacqueline hauls herself up - and as she does, for it responds to her thoughts, so too does Issachar, driven by her desire to fight back and now empowered by Lanval and Schturdark's cleansing water.
"...Thanks, Lanval. I needed that." Jacqueline says gratefully. She picks up her glasses, cracked from the impact, and slides them back onto her face as she returns to the pilot seat. "I won't let you down."
Standing proudly once more, Issachar leaps back into the skies, spear in hand. At Jacqueline's mental command, the bladed feathers of Issachar's wing unit detach - though rather than soar toward the enemy they get into formation around the head of the spear, spinning around it. Issachar thrusts its spear forward and a great beam of lightning erupts forth toward the Metal Dragon - with each feather sending forth their own electrical beam in unison.
GS: Burst added to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Malik with Dynamic Sorcery! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes 60 damage from Corrode! GS: Corrode expired! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"All the Goddess-danged time," Ragnell shout over to Asgard. "Drop by th' Church of Althena sometime t' learn more!" Beyond that, though, she lets Asgard and Eleanor have it out between themselves. It's not like Eleanor is wrong--but she's not about to explain the particulars.
Yeah. No. That's not happening.
Venetia performs an impressive bit of magic, changing what would have been a career-ending injury into... not that, for the pine tree cracks around to protect Venetia from the worst, both from the ground and Ragnell's guns. Ragnell lands the same instant she does, which means when Venetia moves her foot away from what remains of that poor pine--
SPROING
"You really like doin' that, huh?" Ragnell calls, looking up as she shoots upwards. The Ley glitters around Venetia as she shouts, then sends down a spectral stone statue to SMASH down a fist at Ragnell to crush her under its considerable weight! And as shards impact ahead of the main crush, Ragnell vanishes beneath its shadow. It seems like maybe the bothersome Seraph is down for the count--
No, Venetia wouldn't be so fortunate. There's a snap, crackle, and a pop, and Ragnell reappears atop that fist. She bares her clenched teeth in a vicious, humorless grin up at her opponent.
"Nice," she calls. "Now it's my turn!!"
Wind begins to whorl around Ragnell as she snaps her arms out and spins. It picks up dust and rain and, with lightning crackling on its curves and hail forming in pellets, it rapidly picks up speed to become a massive circular storm. Within its eye, Ragnell crafts the tempest, then sends it on its way by snapping her paired guns at Venetia. It's not bullets she fires, though. The cycle is far worse than that--especially when, once it reaches it her, it is inclined to just sit on top of her, dumping just all sorts of nonsense on her head, until the magic sustaining it depletes and it breaks apart.
The other battles are proceeding apace. Ragnell's vented enough at this point; she needs to go back to seeing the "experiment" to its end.
GS: Seraph Ragnell spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Venetia Vuong with Cyclone Mixer! GS: Seraph Ragnell has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Venetia Vuong with Tornado Chaser! GS: Seraph Ragnell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong mostly guards Seraph Ragnell's Cyclone Mixer for 143 hit points! GS: Amplify applied to Venetia Vuong! GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive! GS: Venetia Vuong fails to guard Seraph Ragnell's Tornado Chaser for 191 hit points! GS: Venetia Vuong has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Malik fails to guard Jacqueline Barber's Dynamic Sorcery for 506 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Malik! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber!
<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.
Malik has summoned forth something from repurposed gear parts and a Dragon Fossil--but another ancient power iscalled forth as Lanval channels Schturdark to bless the others. The Oracle will prove problematic, summoning forth that blessing... best to act quickly.
Eleanor claims to know where the world's destiny lies. Kalisa approaches the disabled gear with a contemptuous snort. "You know nothing, Sage. I told you before: the future you strive for is not the one that will come to pass."
She says that with complete certainty.
"My mask should be the least of your concerns." She is almost upon the gear now. "Their strength belongs to their ruler, as mine does."
She reaches out for Eleanor's gear, intending to rip it open to get to Eleanor. "I will take on any who challenge me--and I will strike them down as easily as I have done you."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor can't do much about the amalgamated Dragon now. She instead listeness to Kalisa, and what she has to tell her. "...You sound certain," Eleanor answers, stony.
"But even if you can defeat me, I--"
"What a terrible, cruel, heartless Sage you are!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaHDfAOOMug
A voice calls out over the battlefield, feminine writ large, before a resounding woman's laughter echoes after. "You come to my lands, you do not seek me out, you do not even call to me when you are in need!"
"Uh?" Eleanor looks up from her seat, and on her viewscreen and in everyone else's sight there appears a figure in brilliant glittering sparkles: A Great Fairy, a black silhouette in an orange cloak, a hood concealing her face but for two glowing eyes. The cloak disappears into nothingness beneath her, a draping fabric where legs might be; two dellicate arms extend from either side of her torso.
And she laughs.
"I suppose I'll forgive you," she says, and reaches down through the battered armor to scoop up Eleanor from her seat. "Because you're just so cute!"
"Ah?" Eleanor starts, blinking widely up at the Great Fairy. "But, that is..."
"Let's get out of here," she says, and then turns, waving one of her four hands at the Golem. "Asgard~!" she says. "You're really working hard, aren't you? I'm afraid I can't invite you home while you're working for them. Ta-ta~!"
She and Eleanor both disappear in a flash of golden sparkles.
The levity of the moment gives way to the monstrosity of the greater situation, though; Eleanor is gone, and her Gear is a wreck. ...The Fairy says nothing to Kalisa at all, save for a harsh glare and her own disappearance.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
In spite of the circumstances, in spite of his lack of faith in her gunplay, Josie smiles at Asgard. "Heh. So you do get it. Then you also know why I ain't backin' down."
The fact that it'd make someone else sad is reason enough for her.
The fact that she's made a promise to Lily to hold the line is merely the icing on the proverbial cake. Over her dead body. And she had said she wasn't intending on dying today. "Ain't it always," she answers Asgard, flashing bared teeth.
It's now or never. She can't hold out against him much longer, so it's time to give everything she's got -- everything that the Nostos has got. And so she undoes all the safeties and all the systems that keep it from utilizing its full power, burning the weapon at both metaphorical ends like a candle. For a moment as she slumps against the too-warm and hissing surface of the cannon, she can almost think that it was enough.
It almost was. But...
The ultimate fortress is not so readily shattered. Josie, lifting herself from the Nostos's burning plating, slowly stands to face him.
Even now, she's smiling. What can she do but meet this with a smile? "Ha... you're welcome. Now, come on," she encourages him, beckoning with her left hand.
"I did say 'over my dead body'. If you want it--"
His barrier constricts her in the next breath. "O, thou--" she gasps out, defiant to the last. "Lightning--"
The sparks that swirl and swarm about her do not lash out for him. They hang as a shield to cloak her, protecting her even if she cannot otherwise move a muscle. She had made another promise, after all. And even as that light swirls about her with all the pace and bright fury of iron from the skies, this is the one she aims to keep.
Even when she slumps and falls away into unconsciousness, unable to sustain herself any more than that.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Whatever's animating this thing, at least parts of it obey physics as Ida knows them. She lets out a breath between her teeth as parts of the amalgamation crumple, and gravity seems to reassert itself. But then, Malik issues his dread command.
The blood drains from Ida's face. Her hands jerk the sticks back, and her feet press the pedals--the Dragoon steps back, settling into a defensive stance.
"What," Ida breathes, as her own shock and horror mesh seamlessly with Fafnir's. "What in God's name--"
A Metal Dragon. An undead Metal Dragon. A beast straight out of Ida's nightmares, brought to horrid un-life. For a fleeting moment, Venetia Vuong and Ida Everstead-Rey are of one mind.
Home, Ida thinks. What if he did this in--
Tendrils lance out for the Dust Dragoon. Ida hits the jets a moment too late. The Gear takes to the air, and the first tendril catches it in mid-flight, stabbing clean through the thigh. Another glances off the shoulder, ripping open the pauldron to expose the servos beneath. A third slams into the Gear's belly. The fourth stabs into the chest, missing the cockpit block by less than two meters. The whole Gear shudders and groans around Ida with each impact.
HUMAN FILTH
Ida's right hand twitches and spasms. Distantly, she watches as the Three of Hearts falls.
"Eleanor," Ida croaks, eyes widening as Kalisa threatens to RIP OPEN THE COCKPIT to get to her. "Punch out. You have to--"
WHO WERE THEY demands Fafnir, in a voice no one--not even Ida--can hear. Ida feels that boiling-hot rage nevertheless. The Dust Dragoon dangles limply from the abomination's tendrils, impaled a half-dozen times over, now.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
The Oracle commands their attention. Schturdark's blessing floods through their shared mind-space, and for a brief instant, both Ida and Fafnir turn to Lanval--and then each other. The Clarity of Water clears the fog.
Together, then.
Ida's right hand twitches and strains as it flips up a panel and SLAMS into the button beneath.
For a moment--from the outside, anyway--nothing happens. But those who're able to sense such things might sense the energy of more Living Metal as it emerges from its torpor within the Dust Dragoon. As it weaves its way through the Gear's superstructure, linking its pilot to her machine.
The Dragoon's eyes ignite with life beneath its battered, sculpted 'helm'. Its hands twitch as they reach up, grasp those impaling tendrils, and then TEAR with hideous strength. The Gear wrenches itself free with a hideous metal-on-metal shriek, then lands on the dusty earth, joints bending into a crouch the machine simply couldn't manage with its gait-control software alone. Its chest heaves in mimicry of breath as coolant and hydraulic fluid drip from its wounds. Its head tilts towards Malik with an all-too-organic motion.
The Dragoon dropped its cannon when the amalgamation impaled it. It doesn't go for it. Instead, it thrusts its right hand forward in a knife-hand strike, Living Metal pouring out to form a spear-like blade. It drives the bladed hand directly for the amalgam's center of mass. Its left hand lashes out in a brutal, reflexive punch. The right hand morphs back into a--
Into a humanoid hand, devoid of stock Gear articulation, with Living Metal where the joints go--
And the Dragoon grabs for the amalgamation's draconic neck, applying pressure even as it tries to wrestle the thing to the ground.
This is not how Gears work. Gears should not seem to strain, or twitch, or flinch in pain, or grapple desperately.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with First Method - Steel Colossus Synchronization! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has launched an attack Link! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed from Link to Hero and Link! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Ida Everstead-Rey's First Method - Steel Colossus Synchronization for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Lock state applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malik with Fourth Method - Strike Down The Sun! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes 58 damage from Corrode! GS: Delay and Disease expired! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Malik critically fails to guard Ida Everstead-Rey's Fourth Method - Strike Down The Sun for 479 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Malik!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Malik's shout finally draws Gwen's attention. Glowing eyes widen, then narrow into a glare.
.... Thankfully, Gwen's not distracted enough to witness and appreciate the birth of Malik's newest creation.
The courier's face falls slack as the Metal Dragon births and thrashes itself free from the casings that formed its 'cocoon', like a gruesome butterfly.
All Gwen can do, besides recognize the cold horror seeping up from deep inside her, is stare up.
And then, it shrieks.
The sound breaks the fearsome chill in Gwen's legs. Running, she claps her hands over her ears; the shriek seems to ring inside her ears and inside her head. Anger trembles in her chest. Where does it come from? Gwen, the lens, or what is on the other side? Or is it...
The power of Schturdark, channeled through Lanval, grants blessings on his allies, granting Gwen assurance and cooling her chest. It's good that she has that, as the Metal Dragon masters its body, simply running will not be enough.
Chancing a glance behind, Gwen's glowing irises zero past the amalgamated dragon to the far reaches of the field, where Kalisa comes to Eleanor.
_She promised Eleanor she'd protect her._
It'll be too far away to intervene for Eleanor, but she has to at least *try*--
An unsheathed leg puts a stop to that, coming down on the courier's tiny body.
.....
Almost like it was synchronized, as Ida hits that button, a bright spike of light expels outward from underneath that foot, as Gwen forces out a fair amount of energy outwards, akin to a small explosion.
Enough, perhaps, that the scrambling little creature that is Gwen can crawl out from underneath, still somehow alive and whole.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Malik with Infans Solaris! GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Access! Gwen Whitlock takes 30 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"I do," Venetia confirms, before
s
m
a
s
h
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.
???
The smashing doesn't happen. The Simulacrum's face turns towards Ragnell. 'Velvet Underground' scowls with the force and fury of an ancient war god before choosing to disappear with dignity.
Venetia Vuong does not have this option. Wind rises upwards. "Oh for Dioginos's sake!" Venetia groans, pulling herself up into something of a defensive crouch in the air and ending up toppling. She is able to avoid transient bolts of lightning, but then the storm is upon her.
Venetia, partly aloft thanks to that enchantment she laid upon herself long minutes ago, is battered and buffetted, pelted with hail. Even a lightning bolt arcs through her, albeit perhaps not as harsh as the one she'd curled defensively against.
Venetia can feel the storm starting to fade. She grins, through the pain. Now I'll show her, Venetia thinks; now I'm going to show her what it is she's gotten into, coming here to watch this atrocity clamber up on its hind legs and
THUMP
That's when Venetia hits the cliff wall.
It's not a sheer cliff - Venetia slides down about six meters before coming to rest on a ledge, or at least a rise, which is suitable to hold a slumped human being. Her eyes are rolled back in her head and she is momentarily insensate, or at least, unresponsive. She will likely get her head together just in time to see something awful, but Ragnell has won the field. This is not something you shake off without powerful sorcery.
And even the world's greatest has limitations.
GS: CRITICAL! Malik critically fails to guard Gwen Whitlock's Infans Solaris for 426 hit points! GS: Jam applied to Malik! GS: Strain! Gwen Whitlock takes 50 damage! GS: Malik has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Asgard has posed.
Asgard appreciates Ragnell's answer, all the same. He can fight his own battles after all, he merely sought knowledge. "I feel as if... I'd learn very little." He cracks a synthetic smile, a touch asymmetrical from the damage, and Ragnell might know in this moment that he has a sense of humor.
Still, it's not as if Eleanor is wrong perhaps, but there is a difference. It is not merely that he is trying to twist arguments, it is that he truly believes something.
Of what it takes to change Filgaia.
"I know... all too well the cruelty... of destiny, Eleanor Klein. Your 'power' has abided by Cain's atrocities... for the entire span of history." With one dimmed eye he looks at her, "And now you... attempt to hand him another victory, in the name of scrupulosity." There is a stiffness to his movements that wasn't there before.
It is different than in the past, the way the Metal Dragon shrieks, and yet Asgard abides that as well. The Great Fairy shows up, however to whisk Eleanor away (As one does when one is a capricious giant woman), and Asgard addresses her. "You say that as if I have... changed sides, but I have always been working for them. Even before, they existed in this world."
Josephine did say over her dead body, and in the end, she chooses defiance. Asgard steels himself, as if he were ready for her swelling lightning, but...
"..."
It never comes.
Asgard's pose straightens, and for the longest time, he stares at her unconscious body. She is a threat, ultimately - to her Master's cause. But once upon a time, no matter for how brief a time it was.
She was his master.
And there remains a bond there.
Just like her and her ARM.
The Golem treads up to her body, and it would be so easy to end it, to take it. Yet as he looks upon Nostos...
"Pointless."
... some bonds cannot be broken, even in death. Adding it to Malik's creation would offer it no additional strength, because of her bond, this he understands.
"... My evaluation of your gunplay, was incorrect."
Turning, he leaves her lying there. Because while she is vulnerable, he knows if she is strong, she will survive this too. After all, luck?
That too, is a form of strength. Before long, he is back at Malik's side, and Malik is almost certainly too distracted to have seen the outcome of the battle.
"I return." His optics, try to focus on the draconic creature that he created even as it begins to fail, "Formidable, to stand up against an Omnigear for this long." He asides, absently.
His thoughts stray farther than where his eyes rest.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.
Shige's.. not normally in a position where she's both able to do something about her own internal demons, so to speak since the demons are actually there. When the draconic head rears, showing itself. She tenses up. She stops paying attention to anything else. For a brief moment it almost looks like she's turning the wheel to ram the thing.
Hair on end, tails out, claws digging into the wheel, leaving gouges in the grip and the wood beneath. Throttle all the way forward. "You should stay. DEAD." She shouts. starting to adjust the line. She really does plan on ramming it. The rational part of her mind has briefly left the cockpit.
She is yanked pretty hard by an unseen force and something else grabs the wheel, steering them away, not quite at the last second, but closer than the remnants working with, and keeping an eye on the feline would have liked.
The figures manifesting in the cabin are familiar to anyone lcose enough to see the old soldier wearing older armor at the wheel while a long haired figure holds Shige against the wall.
Frost builds up on the window. Between the confined manifestation and Shige being furious enough to almost do something she'd gennuinely regret, the room's gotten bitterly cold. Then just as suddenly she's dropped and she slumps forward. The figure at the wheel saying something, a conflicted look on his face before he too fades away.
The wheel stays locked ahead until she gets back into position though.
When she stands up, she's gotten herself composed.. mostly. She reaches forward, clearly trying to keep from shaking. Teeth grinding as she wipes the frost away so she can bring the ship around.
"You do not belong in this world. I will take you where you belong whether you want it or not." This is said through grit teeth. She'd.. really prefer a different outcome. The cat has some issues still.
This hasn't been a flawless correction. The ship is rattled, quite literally by the proximity. And the launching of detritus straight into the hull of the ship wasn't doing any favors. Rending holes through freshly patched armor. Impacting hard enough to shift the trajectory first towards, then away. The pilot about slams into the glass, catching herself painfully on the wheel at the last second, she did.. impact and is briefly dazed.
She might have needed the impact, she had still looked on on the avenging side of things up until that moment.
Drifting, briefly through the mist. She stands back up straight and clings to the wheel, head bowed forward like she's murmuring a spell, or a prayer for the dead.
Ice clings to the ship and windows. Building up. Rattling even more than before. Something begins to manifest in the mist. Coalescing. White robed with gold trim. The sound of a ticking clock manifesting briefly. Gears whirring steadily. Ever onward.
The hooded figure isn't quite the same to everyone. Shige's own view is something akin to a helmsman, a broad hat over a hood. The whirring mechanisms are the same, as is the slowly rocking pendelum blade.
The figure looks up and a beam of light pierces through the mist.
A pale, eerie glowing snowstorm appears. The feline being who she is, the rain storm one might have expected was something more familiar to her.
A beckoning finger gestures to the dragon, trying to pull at whatever binds it to this world. Then just as quickly, the figure lowers its arms and fades away.
And Shige's shaking. Like she's made a mistake. A slap of reality in a sense. She's not sure if she consciously summoned the figure, or something else that's been gnawing at the back of her mind.
GS: Shige Kiwako accepts Seraph Lanval's Lord Of The Lake X L for 0 hit points! GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Shige Kiwako! GS: FP up! Seraph Lanval's Reload!! GS: Shige Kiwako spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Shige Kiwako has attacked Malik with To the Last Gun! GS: Shige Kiwako has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shige Kiwako gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Shieldbreak expired! GS: Shige Kiwako has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Malik critically fails to guard Shige Kiwako's To the Last Gun for 582 hit points! GS: Strain! Shige Kiwako takes 122 damage! GS: Malik has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Malik has posed.
"My name is--" Actually, Lanval doesn't need his name. Malik's eyes screw up, angrily, and he tugs his white cloak up with one hand. "Gh--enemy of Filgaia?! That's rich. You're looking at your best hope of saving this stinking planet, right here!"
In his other hand, the strange blue crystal glows. It has uneven pulses through it; some of the ore and stone on it flakes off. "Not sure this thing's up to the task..."
He looks at the Great Fairy, then -- and his mouth hangs open.
Issachar slams into the ground -- and the amalgamation doesn't have the awareness to think to press the attack, even if it could. It thrashes, shrieking again, and again.
The bladed feathers swirl about the spear -- and then a storm of lightning beams slams into it, beginning to burn away the armor and framework of the amalgamation.
The foot that tries to slam down atop Gwen is struck. Her foot hits it -- and the explosion blasts the Gear foot apart. It slams down into two, smoking, fiery halves on either side of her.
Shige calls upon Ge Ramtos. The Guardian of Death manifests in the air, above the amalgamation -- and beckoning pulls at it, dragging out some life force. The thing thrashes, madly, in protest -- even as it's pulled closer.
The Dust Dragoon's eyes light up, and then it rips the tendrils away. Already rattled from the other attacks slamming ito it, the aftermath of Issachar's electrical attack still dancing over it, and the Dragoon surges in without opposition.
It grabs the draconic neck. The thing turns, mouth open -- and it SHRIEKS again, for it cannot roar -- before the Living Metal making its neck up suddenly falters. It squishes like cottage cheese between the Dust Dragoon's fingers; its whole head pops, silvery metal exploding out like molasses, and coating the Gear.
The amalgamation falls still -- individual Gear parts separating, limbs and scattered metal in a huge debris pile all around their Gears.
Malik looks at Asgard. "Formidable, but not enough. It's not stable," he says. "Leehalt's going to need to refine this thing."
He looks off towards Ragnell, then towards Kalisa. "Time to go!" he says. He looks at Asgard and nods, before he pulls out a Teleport Gem.
Standard issue, for Calamity; they give them to anyone who needs one.
The Prophet squeezes it in his hand. It shatters, and he's gone in a blink of light.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Credit where credit's due: Venetia weathers most of that storm quite well. But it's always that last hit that's the hardest to endure, isn't it? Ragnell rises, pistols still in hand, as she sees Venetia grinning on the tail end of the cyclone--but she hits the cliff wall and smears down. Ragnell observes this; then she holsters her guns. She has no reason to kill Venetia. If she lives, she lives, and if she dies, she dies. It doesn't need to be at Ragnell's hand.
She glances over at Asgard when he lays down a bit of snark, and she quirks a bit of a smile back. "Oh, you'd learn plenty. They'd just be all the wrong things," she quips.
That piece of humor passes as she looks back at the amalgamation. The view from down here at the cliff's bottom isn't the best--so once again she vanishes in a bolt of lightning, reappearing up high at the cliff's top. From there, she can see that ship wreathed in mist and frost bring down a blizzard of death down upon the amalgamation. Kalisa and Asgard look to have won their own battles, and good for them, but Ragnell's purpose in being here is wrapped up in this 'experiment' of the Prophet's. Frankly, she's already seen enough of it, but she'll see it through to the end even so.
Malik's claim that he's Filgaia's best hope of saving the world gets an open eyeroll out of Ragnell. (She doesn't say anything though, and she's reasonably sure Malik will think she was eyerolling at Lanval, because she's known him maybe a day and she already knows he's that kind of person.) Her frown deepens at his assessment of the amalgamation when it finally succumbs to the many attacks it endures and pops like a great silvery pustule, then falls still.
"Rest in peace," she murmurs under her breath.
Then she takes out a Teleportation Gem of her own, gives a curt nod back to her fellow Calamity members, and shatters away.
<Pose Tracker> Kalisa Dragmire has posed.
Eleanor says she sounds certain. Kalisa doesn't respond to that.
But her attempts to grab Eleanor are interrupted by the appearance of a Great Fairy. Kalisa shields her eyes at the sudden appearance of brilliant sparkles. "What sorcery--"
And that moment of hesitation is all the time the Fairy needs to scoop Eleanor up and whisk her away. Kalisa lowers her hand, a moment later, and is silent as she stares down at the battered, broken--and now empty--hush of the Three of Hearts.
"Your allies answer your call, even when you do not make it," she mutters darkly, with a scowl. "And I am denied my prize yet again."
She turns to observe the fate of their resurrected Metal Dragon--and under the onslaught it falls. Formidable, but not stable. Malik says it's time to go, and Kalisa nods silently.
She does not take out a Teleport Gem, however. Instead, the shadows that maintain her transformed state start to ripple up her body, dispersing in small waves as she shrinks back to her normal size. As the last of those ripples passes over her face the Giant's Mask is replaced with her normal one.
And then the winds kick up, circling around her until she vanishes in a flurry of sand.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
POP
The amalgamation ruptures. A wave of quicksilver coats the Dust Dragoon, bright and gleaming against the damage it's sustained. There is something resembling deep satisfaction in its eyes. That satisfaction turns to rage as it glares across the field at Malik--
Who is gone in a flash. The Gear turns its attention back to the pile of parts. No lifesigns--human, Hyadean, or otherwise. It drops to a crouch before the remains, cocks its neck back. Another ugly tearing splits the air as the Gear's damaged shoulder opens wider. A bright white glow emanates from inside as Dragon Filaments--WHERE DID IT GET THOSE--burn within the improvised containment of a jumpjet housing. Dragonfire scours the field, melting what's left of the amalgamation... and the fossils animating it.
Only then does the Gear collapse, like a puppet with the strings cut.
Ida will be found in the cockpit later, still dangling from inert strings of Living Metal, and unconscious from exhaustion.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There may come a time when this was a bad outcome, but today, somehow, Gwen is alive.
Lying on her back on the ground, Gwen turns her head both ways look at each disintegrating half of the Metal Dragon's foot.
Clods of dirt fall from Gwen's back as she rises, shaking her sweat-stained curls of debris.
It's just Gwen now, the very ordinary courier, dressed in dirty stained clothing she'll have to mend, likely with her left hand, since her exposed ARM is limp against her side.
"H-hey," she manages to choke out, before a clawing sadness scratches up her throat from her chest.
It follows with tears and sobs, and a melancholy both too old and too new for Gwen's heart to comprehend.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval isn't position to take immediate stock of those injured and in need of help, as there's that overwhelming enormity of that sudden emanation of wrong starting to ebb and fade with that explosive end to the abomination that was brought back to the world of the living to drag more into death (or worse) by its might.
The Bacchus-class Maintenance Gear would be stuck like a turtle on their back were it not for the gentle decline of the dunes of which his 'mighty' chariot rests. It casts a stark difference between the ghastly, unnatural flexibility and mobility of the Dust Dragoon in the final moments of the Metal Dragon's returned existence and... that. (The idea that Lanval's Gear can - and does - get up might be its own physics horror, but let's not dwell right now.)
Dragonfire destroys what's left. Understated, Lanval lifts an arm on the Gear and there's a 'pfft' of a pressurized hose just quietly dealing with the rest as to not release more dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere than is needed by destroying the remains in dragonfire. (He's hung around Guild Galad enough to theorize that 'the stuff they burn and put in the air isn't great, let's give Solais Emsu a small break here').
There might be some chatter here and there about who's wounded, who's where, or what have you, but he can trust Jay with the immediate medical needs and/or unguarded Brewte Force caches (he can taste it from here, in his own imagination) as he ambles along to the ghostly ship.
"We both made a big ashk," Lanval says to Shige as he is now idly hosing down a fire. "But shometimesh... ya gotta be willin' ta do sho."
...
He raises the hose up towards Shige's ship inquisitively. He's not sure how much of the boat is 'actually dirty' vs. 'important for existential integrity of between-life-and-death space.'
Last thing he needs to do is to is to scatter the spirits she's worked hard to help gather and show the way to in a wave of hosing.