2017-09-20: Metal Slugs and Spooky Ghosts
- Log: Metal Slugs and Spooky Ghosts
- Cast: Yarobeleedt, Talise Gianfair, Layna Manydays, Rudy Roughnight, Seraph Mirielle
- Where: Gunsmoke Desert
- Date: Sep. 20, 2017
- Summary: Yarobeleedt attempts to pry information out of a Baskar exile, only to meet a spooky ghost. And some Drifters, those too.
==============================<* Gunsmoke Desert *>============================== The Gunsmoke Desert occupies the northwestern portion of Ignas. This desert is different from Aveh's. Instead of rolling dunes of sand, it has dry and cracked ground, and the mountains that rim it also intrude into the interior, forming stunning rock formations that can look as beautiful as they look impossible. The settlements here are hard-pressed to survive, consisting of countless small towns. The lucky few are connected by railways to the Seed Cities scattered about the Gunsmoke. Many are lost to the sands, which cover them and a tremendous concentration of ruins from Filgaia's past. This makes these badlands the heart of Drifter activity in Ignas. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z_CxmE0AkA
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
The Gunsmoke Desert... home to an ever-shrinking number of settlements that can no longer sustain themselves as all turns to nearly lifeless desert. The name of this one of interest, today, is not of great importance. Its people will likely be abandoning to follow the train tracks a few towns over to November City within the month, and it shows.
Old wooden buildings are left to rot, storefronts abandoned. There's still a functional saloon that gets traffic, but its aging owner can't find anyone to run it. There's a few last jobs the residents want done here before they all move out, the majority of it concerning resource gathering for the journeys ahead (and in one outlandish case, dealing with a livestock uprising that has seen a bull permanently installed in the shrinking town council).
There does remain one thing - one person - of significant interest to the Metal Demon people, for absence of much else of relevance to their fell aims for the planet and the Guardians.
A traveling Baskar exile - a stone carver of no small amount of skill - is resting his legs at the saloon. He has seen maybe about fifty summers come and go, but the tolls of his journeys look to have added an additional ten on their own. The circumstances of his exile are vague, but nonetheless, he holds valuable secrets that may yet help the Drifters in their search for the Guardian Statues.
He recently sent the party on some unspecified errand. The amount of time it takes for them to complete said errand is just enough time for them to come back to smoke and fire in the distance... all the better reason to hurry back to see what could be going on. Bandits? An exploding spitoon? Another livestock mutiny?
Worse.
Some disgusting yellowish naga-slug-blob thing in plain sight, surrounded by Metal Beasts of a skeletal nature wreaking havoc. The party will catch sight of their errand-giver - the Baskar exile - backing away as the yellowish Metal Demon creature draws nearer.
"Tell! Tell!" The creature gibbers. One forearm looks like a sickle. Another, an irregularly-barbed spear. They writhe with irritation every few inches they have to continue crawling through the sand that gets sucked into their blobby lower body. "Tell Yarobeleedt statue, stat!! You!"
"Never! The people of Filgaia will not bow to you!" The exile stands no chance, but in spite of his backward walk, talks a good enough game.
"Fufufu. But will blade and bash to you!" That makes no sense whatsoever. This was probably a really funny bit of wordplay in the original Japanese. But, there you go. Horrible monstrous thing, in the middle of a town under siege, threatening everyone there.
What comes next underneath the hot desert sun that bears witness on a cloudless sky should come natural.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise had hoped to set up shop in the saloon and play her wya to a little bit of prosperity. Sadly, the market's dried up. She settled for talking to the only person who seemed to have gella - the old Baskar.
As she rides back towards the town, though, whatever errand she undertook now well over and done with, she blinks at the sight of smoke and flame flickering from what once was a perfectly peaceful little collection of shacks. Her lips come together, and she gives the reins of her grey horse a jerk, spurring the big gelding forward into a gallop.
"I don't like this," she says with a look towards Layna. The two had gone out on that errand together.
-----
Flames flicker. The old Baskar exile isn't going to be able to stand up to the gigantic, sluglike monstrosity looming over him.
And then there's the sound of hooves, followed by a horse whinnying and a pair of heavy boots hitting the ground. Then thumping closer at a very fast pace consistent with someone sprinting.
It's Talise. Leaving her horse behind, she jumps out of the saddle and breaks into a dead run. There's no time right now to strategize because it sure looks like the old man is in trouble - and from someone she recognizes as a Metal Demon. One of the ones who attacked at the Guardian Temple - at Adlehyde, even.
She assumes Layna knows what to do - because right now she's about to do something impulsive, and relatively urgent.
"HEY," Talise shouts as she unsheaths her sword with a loud hiss of metal. "Don't even think about blading or bashing him!!"
She puts a fine point on her request by powering forward and attempting to slam her sword into Yaro, hoping to physically check him away before following up with a hard swat from the flat of her sword to encourage him to take her politely-worded advice.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Don't Even Do It!! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Don't Even Do It! for 105 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna had been tagging along with Talise. She had mainly been hoping to hang out, maybe see if this town had any good booze. Unfortunately, it looked like anything she place might've had had dried up ages ago. Sure, she still had her own drinks, but...she was always looking to try new stuff.
Of course, just like Talise, she can recognize when trouble's afoot. She had returned from the errand along with Talise - and whoever else might've been there at the time - and that sight clearly meant trouble. Layna frowns, and nods toward Talise. They didn't need to say anything to reach an understanding.
Layna's right behind Talise as she rushes in, draws her sword, and attempts to smack the...was it a Metal Demon? It didn't look like any she'd ever seen, but either way it was a problem. She veers off, however, and rather than joining in on the bashing, her target is the old man.
Using Talise as a distraction she slides in, placing herself in front of him as a shield.
"You hanging in there, old man? We've got this covered, so go find someplace safe, aye?" She says, looking back at him with a grin before turning her attention toward the slimey, snakey creature.
A little more help would be nice...she had a feeling punching this thing might be difficult.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Layna Manydays with Batten Down the Hatches!! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Layna Manydays heals Layna Manydays! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
A simple gunshot rings out in the distance as if in response to Layna's unspoken wish for aid; but any wound caused by the attack is likely not grievous. After all, the shot was from extremely far away and the ARM in question was never really meant to be a sniper rifle. But when you have a high enough caliber shot and a good enough aim, it's amazing what can be accomplished.
For those that look toward the attempted headshot (which maybe a dramatic graze at best), there is a lone figure making his way toward the town, first at a walk, then at a jog. His figure is hazy, the desert heat causing it to warp as if some sort of mirage. But in time, the blue hair is seen as is the red bandanna which wavers in the warm breeze. The leather boots continue onward with a calm stride, the wisps of smoke flow from the barrel of the Hand Cannon to dance across his face, the brown eyes resolved as he comes closer.
It's Rudy Roughnight, who seems to either have a case of right place, right time... Or this is a hunt that finally has a payoff. Which is it, who knows and it's clear the boy isn't talking.
Finally the jog begins all but a hurried run, the young man moving to exchange cartridges, load bullets or whatever it takes to prepare for the next painful volley. It looks like Talise and the pirate have an outcast to help turn the tide.
GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Yarobeleedt with So It Begins! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action.
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades So It Begins from Rudy Roughnight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Mirielle has posed.
November City had been far too stimulating for the Seraph named Mirielle, with their newfangled devices and rockabilly music and refridgerators. But, most of all, these border towns still believed in the glory of oil lamps and candles. A vintage feel for a vintage place.
Lightbulbs, you see, were the true evil of the times. Monsters? Pfeh. Malevolence? A looming evil, but the true threat to piety and belief was that bit of filiment in a glass bulb.
With that in mind, an old man had a quest and as an adventurer, even a spooky ghost adventurer, there were standards and rules. Helping him out was natural!
This means that upon returning, seeing a smoke, fire, and a TERRIBLE MONSTER was well and truly awful! At LEAST .8 Lightbulbs!
To those that can see her, Mirielle clasps her hands before her and frets, pointing. "Look! He's in trouble, and the city... It's good that we didn't mess around and came back quickly... Praise Althena for the small blessings..."
But hey, that snake-slug-naga thing... Has spooky skellingtons? METAL spoopy skellingtons?
"H-hey! Hey you!" She shouts, waving her arms up and down from behind Yarobeleedt. Surely this one can see her. Surely!
"In the name of the Goddess, stop... burning this city down and meanacing the elderly! If you're going to do it, you should do it in constructive ways!"
She stops. Her expression turns thoughtful. "Actually I'm failing to think of good ways to constructively attack the elderly and burn villages down. Maybe if they're vile and wicked sorts and..." She trails off.
"Wait, that doesn't matter! You're co-opting my bit! Skeletons are my minions, not yours!"
She raises up her arms, her sleevs fountaining out darkness that pools around her feet, as she summons up her OWN spooky skeletons - these not made of metal, but black shadowstuff, which rattle and cackle and make extra spooky noises as they try to meanace Yarobeleedt with their bonyness.
GS: Seraph Mirielle has attacked Yarobeleedt with Spoopy Skellingtons! GS: Seraph Mirielle has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt critically Guards a hit from Seraph Mirielle's Spoopy Skellingtons for 16 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
The cavalry arrives. The exile kind of spoils the surprise by stepping off to the side to allow everyone a bit of extra room for their dramatic entrances against the Metal Demon menace - which allows one certain Hand Cannon user the possibility of a much clearer shot in the chaos.
"You can't be left! That is right," so... taunts?... Yarobeleedt, as he draws back a sickle arm with a sickly gleam running down its blade...
Talise catches it before it can come down, with a bit of wrestling. The length of his forearm expands with the strength in which he tries to throw his arm down into the caught slicing motion, seeing the turn of his head and those creepy beady eyes as a tongue lolls out the side of a mouth too wide for the shape of their face.
It is as good an unspoken 'huh' as any.
Talise turns the flat of it against his face, dipping his upper body back with a screech. He doesn't seem to have all that functional a spine - his upper body nearly bends inward to the snake-ish blobby bottom half below, an arm flailing uselessly in the air to accompany this ear-piercing whine of pain.
It is as good a spoken 'ow' as any.
He backs away, only to find Layna's form obscuring his target's. "Come, panny?!" (What's a panny?)
"You are a sight for sore eyes," the exile says the tired phrase, but as far as his eyes go, Talise and Layna are definitely a sight. But let's not linger on that.
Mirielle's lectures seem to go unheard - much of it is to be expected, most people cannot see or hear her, but the influence she holds over the very element of darkness inspires fear and dread for those who have no other explanation.
To the senses of the simplistic Metal Beast skeletons, it's like their own shadows are trying to lunge at them. Yarobeleedt suddenly crouches low and covers himself with both arms, gibbering incoherently as one such shadow caresses his face gently.
He goes from 'domineering, scary inhuman thing' to 'pathetic blobby pile of semi-solid metal' right quick, as the Metal Beasts are distracted with matters of... what may or may not be their own shadows?
A loud bang goes off from the distance. The bullet whizzes past the Metal Beast skeletons, just as Yarobeleedt thinks to come upright.
The round grazes past his face with a spark flying off his cheek to show for it. Those beady, unsteady eyes turn painfully (it's kind of gut-wrenching to imagine seeing an eye refocus and move around the way Yarobeleedt's own set do) to catch the stoic defiance of a blue-haired young man closing in.
"An oiling~" He whines incoherently, as the exile backs away to the top of an outhouse so he has a better vantage point of the action (and to better allow the trio - well, actually a quartet - room to battle).
"Is able to value to you??" Yarobeleedt mutters. "Then is free soon. Free free. No refund, sale." That's probably long-hand for 'oh now I'm going to kill him out of spite even if it takes away the reason I'm actually here.'
The more important detail is the way he lunges at Talise with a backhand swing of the scythe-hand, trying to skewer Layna with the opposite. He undulates forward at a pace that ought to be faster were it not for the irritating scratchy-itchy feeling of his undereverything across the sand, flicking out the scythe arm as it turns into... a hammer-like mass?
Reconfiguring weapon forearms - this makes him a deadly combatant in close combat, if he can so easily reconfigure the shape of his arms to better counter and overcome others' more static hand-to-hand fighting tools and abilities.
Somewhere along the way he might feel a bump he can't quite explain as he unknowingly seems en route to plow over Mirielle as he rears back this new hammer arm to try and clock Rudy one across the face, toxic spittle dripping out the tongue as it flutters out the side of his face to his rapid movements.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talise Gianfair with Sly Sing! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Layna Manydays with Sue Tabbing! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Seraph Mirielle with Call Ide In! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Sue Mash! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Sly Sing for 61 hit points! GS: Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Sue Tabbing for 101 hit points! GS: Seraph Mirielle takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Call Ide In for 103 hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Sue Mash for 61 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise technically isn't cavalry! She got off her horse.
"Thanks -- get yourself somewhere safe," Talise breathes with a quick snap of her head towards the old exile. Then she's pivoting to Yaro again, taking a step back and gripping the hilt of her sword in both hands.
And then skeletons start showing up. A startled Talise squints at them for a couple of seconds, then peers towards the voice she can hear. "Oh. It's one of you," she remarks with a dull surprise as her gaze centres on Mirielle.
Well, centres on Mirielle as best she really can. Seraphs are always initially kind of blobby to her at first.
As Rudy comes in foring, Talise nods to him quickly, then pivots to meet the resurgent slug-demon-guy. That heavy scythe-hand hurtles in, and Talise holds her ground, digging one heel into the dusty ground and whipping her sword up at an angle to try and parry away the worst of the scythe. She gets most of it but not all; the sickle-hand rakes across her upper body and rips a few rings out of her mailshirt, not so much cutting her as knocking her back in a hard stagger.
As Yaro reconfigures his forearms again, she widens her eyes a little, then narrows then, letting out a low hiss. "Look. You don't belong here," she growls. "I've met some perfectly nice Metal Demons but I've got no qualms about kicking you back to wherever you came from!" Especially if the exile knows a thing or two about the Statues, she realizes - they can't let the Metal Demons find out where any of them are!
With Yaro attempting to steamroll the poor Seraph, Talise takes off after him, attempting to come around and flank him. He's going a bit quicker than she is, though.
She catches up - she throws herself forward and rolls into a quick cartwheel, eating up distance, then springing up out of the ensuing crouch and launching herself at Yaro. Both hands tighten around Rastaban, holding the two-handed sword low. Her shoulders bunch.
"Hooooooooaht!" she shouts as she attempts to catch the charging Metal Demon with a powerful rising slash, aimed to rip through his defenses with a thunderous strike!
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Tidal Blow! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Tidal Blow from Talise Gianfair!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
That gunshot comes in at a good time. Layna glances back in the direction it came from, and offers Rudy a grin and a nod as he approaches. She remembers him, though she doesn't know if he remembers her. For now, though, she turns her attention back to the enemies at hand...especially as strange shadowy skeletons rise up to assault them.
Help from the shadows? Interesting...
What she wasn't prepared for was the way the snakey slimey creature's body shifts. His wepon thrusts forward in a stab, hitting her solidly. That might've been dangerous, if she hadn't had her guard raised to protect the old Baskar.
She takes a couple of steps back, her hand going to her side to test the injury...and she grins.
"So...you're like that one, huh? Good to know." She comments. She lunges toward him. One arm reaches out, grabbing one of the skeletal Metal Beasts and hurling it at Yarobeleedt before sliding her bladed gauntlets on her hands and attempting to punch right through both of them.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Yarobeleedt with Scuttle the Prey! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Scuttle the Prey for 106 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
As Talise and Layna offers their nods of respect and camaraderie, there is no response from Rudy. If one did not meet him previously, one may think him rude or the like. The reason is perhaps clear with the full attention the boy gives toward the Metal Demon, as if a frog studying a fly before it catches it. For now, the skeletons are discounted as a magic, perhaps from one of the two ladies. He doesn't even look toward the Seraph, but perhaps like the Metal Demon, he doesn't see her.
However, the snake-like creature is far more dangerous than a fly and even tracking it with his full attention isn't enough to keep Roughnight ready for the attack from Yaro. The toxic assault attempts to hit Rudy, but he blocks it with his knife. It isn't enough to completely repel the attack, but the painful stab doesn't dig in nearly as much as it should have. In this moment where the two are close together, the outcast only has one simple question, his words dripping with an ire that seeps through despite the softness of his words.
"Were you there for the attack on Adlehyde?"
The question comes as Rudy's forearm glows, the defending limb glowing blue with a mysterious power. The gun is twirled in Rudy's other hand before he leaps back, breaking the distance to fire a simple round into the ground. It seems rather larger, the size of a shotgun slug, but the reason for that is clear as a brief dust devil kicks up, with lighting spinning around it. It might sting, but more importantly it gives Rudy a chance to get his bearings and hopefully be more than ready for the next attack.
GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Yarobeleedt with Solid Storm! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Rudy Roughnight's Solid Storm for 13 hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Mirielle has posed.
Metal Demons? This guy looks like a hellion! A really big hellion... a BOSS HELLION!
Mirielle may be an ancient spirit of darkness, unobservable by the eyes without a high spiritual resonance, and a knower and dweller on many dark secrets... But she has no idea what a Metal Demon is. He looks more sluggy than metal-y? And skeletons? Classic hellion knockoffs! Like, you know, giant spiders, and stuff.
Mirielle twiddles her fingers and sweeps her arms about, her Shadow Skeletons dancing to the beat of B-Movie Horror, cackling loudly and jangling bonily before Yaro turns about and begins lunging around attacking people, clotheslining Mirielle with a hammer and sending her tumbling to the ground, gouts of shadowstuff flaring from her sleeves and just sort of spilling all over the place.
And Mirielle (to some, a dark smudge on their sight) just lays there on the ground for a while.
"The ground sure is comfy today..." She mumbles, before sitting up, clapping her hands on her face and furrowing her brow. "Ugh... no! Can't let the hellion get the better of me. Not when it can't even see me! ... How weird, shouldn't Hellion be able to? No matter... if it's a physical type, then one of my signature artes should help everyone..."
Drawing up into a kneeling posture, she draws both hands together, clasping tightly before her nose. The skeletons fade away, the shadow congealing into a pool with the damage spray that getting sideslammed had caused, amalgamating together until an armored hand reached out of the 'hole' in the world. Then, a black-armored shoulder, and a helm, and breastplate... A whole 'Black Knight' crawling out of the ground, pointing at Yarobeleedt and unleashing a terrifying metallic screech!
Thankfully, for everyone else, it's just a loud, strikingly feral noise.
GS: Seraph Mirielle has attacked Yarobeleedt with Knight Terror! GS: Seraph Mirielle has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt critically Guards a hit from Seraph Mirielle's Knight Terror for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Rastaban does not go wide, as Yarobeleedt's forward movement exceeds Talise's well-trained positioning and dauntless offensive. Saying that goes wide sells both of their efforts and disciplines short.
The margin of error between safety and slicing is thinner than finest razor any of them can conceive. The tip of the blade makes contact at the very tip as Talise rises upwards, loosening a miniscule amount of the metallic biomass that makes up his lower body that flies off the edge of Rastaban. Even as mere droplets, they collide against the wood and the rusted metal that make up the landscape of this doomed town with noisy 'crack' sounds that give but a glimpse as to what great force Yarobeleedt narrowly evades.
"Nice Metal Demons?! Yarobeleedt much nice twicer!" He has to be, because Talise is not dead and that must mean the Metal Demons she faced failed to kill her, right, which-- actually that kind of dampens his prospects even in the moment of bravado at piecing her words together incorrectly against their actual meaning.
Layna intercepts this dumb train of thought on his part by shoving a Metal Beast skeleton - these things are heavy! - towards the craven creature who flails as it accidentally embraces him. From the corner of one of his beady eyes, he can see Layna move in, and changes his opinion about the situation in a total one-eighty.
He tries to cower behind the Metal Beast skeleton suddenly on top of him, which is of very limited help in this specific example because the skeletal Metal Beast's body mass is - like a skeleton - made up of many narrow shapes that easily allow a blade gauntlet to slip past and strike into the... meat?... of the monster. Gross strangely-colored quicksilver ichor coats Layna's gauntlets, an acrid smell flaring from the splatters.
If Layna is all of a sudden squeamish and doesn't want to look at the damage she's doing, the pained screeches are a fine enough sensory clue.
Shoving the Metal Beast off of himself just in time for Rudy's pointed question, he thinks of all the setbacks and failures he suffered. The embarrassments. How one of his own kin just had to stop him from killing humans to maintain her cover, when he could have finally killed some... or... the ^Big Flower^...
...
"Fufufu. Adlehyde did hide, Yarobeleedt play seek! See kill, see chaos! See--" Rudy's forearm glows, and he crosses his arms in front of himself as the round shot at the ground explodes into an obscuring, prickly-shock cloud that sees him shudder and contort as it flexes out the electrical surges going through him. Empowering himself with fantasies of grandeur as to thinks he wished did happen in Adlehyde by his own hand, as the dust cloud clears he starts to rear back a now re-configured sword arm from the previous hammer arm--
Something... comes from the ground. What? His head bends towards the left unnaturally, as though the concept of his neck were just a strongly-worded suggestion and not an absolute.
There is a metallic scream.
His form goes low to the ground, and a sheet of shiny metallic fabric encompasses him.
...
...
...
...
...
...He just... waits it out inside a sheet of metal-like fabric, wrapped around him like some sort of cocoon as it shivers and shakes like an insect waiting to break out into adulthood at the very first opportunity it can break through its hibernation housing.
All the better reason to keep slicing/stabbing/shooting/scaring him.
Meanwhile, the Baskar exile standing on top of the outhouse turns his head towards Mirielle, a hand to his chin. Does he notice her...? He doesn't seem to say anything one way or the other.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Yarobeleedt with As Seen In Digger Combat Challenges!! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's As Seen In Digger Combat Challenges! for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Tch," Talise hisses as she sails past Yarobeleedt, momentarily convinced she made more contact than she did - but the fact that he keeps on moving and talking tells her she fell short.
Her own momentum works against her and keeps her from following up. "You're threatening someone who can't fight against you!" she shouts back, but she's being carried away by the tail end of her leap and can't really deliver on her backsass, woe is her.
Finally her boot hits the ground. She pivots, sweeping Rastaban out to her side in what's probably a needlessly dramatic stance, but she's got a few metres and doesn't see the problem.
Then she realizes why she has space. The Metal Demon isn't coming after her. Talise stands in a ready stance but can't do anything more than blink at the sight of Yaro curling in on himself like he's some kind of gigantic slug-turtle-thing.
She doesn't even consider that he might come out stronger. In fact, her first assumption - when she sees that the cocoon-bound Metal Demon is shaking like that - is that he's scared for some reason. Slowly, she lowers her sword a little ways. "Layna," she says in a lower tone, leaning towards her friend. "Is it... possible that this one's, like... a baby Metal Demon or something? Like... one that's scared of fighting?"
Yaro himself is spared by one sad and simple weakness on Talise's part, the one that makes her much less of a pirate than certain of her companions: She's so invested in the idea of a fair fight that she can't bring herself to attack someone who looks helpless or scared, even if it' a Metal Demon. As she stands there, it's clear she's unsure of herself - she opens her mouth a bit and then closes it, blushing, glancing from side to side, shifting her sword in her hands and trying to figure out what to do.
Which is about when her eyes catch sight of a Metal Beast.
"Right. Cleaning up the trash," she calls as she rears back and attempts to kick one of the Metal Beasts right in its skeletal chest. She swings her sword hard a couple of times, aiming to begin smashing Yaro's metal entourage into little metal bits. It's at least something productive to do that doesn't make her feel like she's kicking a scared puppy.
A scared... metal... terrifying... puppy...?
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Nice Talise! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna grins as she feels her blade make contact with the creature. She had been worried she might not be able to damage it effectively, but that didn't seem to be the case. She backpedals a bit and frowns as it replies to Rudy's question.
"Is that so...?" She comments with a frown. Sure, she didn't have any real prior attachment to Adlehyde, but to hear it talk about it like that? She flexes her fingers within her gauntlets.
Suddenly, however, she's stricken by a loud, feral noise. Did it come from the creature itself...? She looks around in concern...but the sound of it has apparently caused the creature to retreat into some kind of shell out of fear.
She glances toward Talise with a frown.
"Nah. I think what we have here...is a coward. Talks a big fight, loves making those weaker than it suffer, but can't stand getting hurt itself. You've seen the type before, aye? Plenty of those blaggards on the seas." She walks up to it and plants a foot on the cocoon.
"So I don't feel at all bad about..." She rears her foot back to deliver to it a solid kick. Maybe she's kicking Yarobeleedt to someone in particular, or maybe she see's just sending him into a wall?
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Yarobeleedt with Has a Real Kick to It! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Nice Talise for 127 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Has a Real Kick to It for 110 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Mirielle has posed.
Mirielle has a moment's reprieve as her METAL SPOOPERSON scares the <s>Hellion</s>METAL DEMON into a state of... passivity? Well, that's neat. Normally, a shadow conjury like that would slow down a 'monster' like Yarobeleedt, and potentially blunt a few attacks, not send it into full lizard brain shut down mode.
"D-does this planet make even more potent my shadowy dominion? Is the darkness so strong here? I--..."
Mirielle trails off, noticng the Beskar elder sort of... staring at her? She waves back, a little finger wave, before the task at hand. The spooky Dark Knight Conjury just sort of seethes, standing there threateningly with its clawed gauntlets and smoking helm as it... does... nothing.
Much like a deployed haunted house attraction, mostly it just continues to meanace.
"Hey, while the monster's distracted, run away!" She realizes, her voice echoing and distorting.
Even those who aren't fully attuned would hear that last bit. Clear as day, echoing creepily.
"...run away! ...run away!"
Hopping back up to her feet, Mirielle fixes her dress, looking to Lanya. "Hey! It's the pirate woman! Hey! Can you see me? Ugh, being a helpful spirit is so hard... Maybe it's not Humans who are the problem, but us Seraphs..." She laments, drawing the power invested into the knight back, moulding it into a curtain that she throws out and up. As she does so, the edges become like a cloak, and the corners grow little clawd hands. The center top gains a bump, like a head, two spooky eyes white-dotted where one would expect eyes to be, a giant... black, looming sheet ghost?
Well it falls on Yaro either way, the looming spectre toppling into the metal comfort blanket. "If it stays like this, we can just... leave?"
NO MIRIELLE, BAD, THE CITY IS ON FIRE.
GS: Seraph Mirielle has attacked Yarobeleedt with Looming Darkness! GS: Seraph Mirielle has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Seraph Mirielle's Looming Darkness for 141 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
A glance is given toward Talise as she blushes and speaks toward Layna. The boy doesn't know what is said due to the whisper, but Layna's words catch the notice of Roughnight. "She's right," he points out, as he puts away his bowie knife. The metal demon's tactic is observed carefully as Rudy considers what to do, but the words he speaks stir up something within the normally quiet and gentle soul. "He's a metal demon. He's hurt people. Killed people."
The flames. The sounds of war.
The cries of woman looking for her lover. A sound of a guard telling others to leave him.
...The Red Balloon flies.
"I won't let it happen again. DO YOU HEAR ME?" The voice roars out as Rudy merely lashes out, closing the distance between himself and Yarobeleedt. A gloved fist comes in with a haymaker, empowered by an unnatural strength to try and crack the cocoon. For now, the Seraph is still not heeded by Rudy. But who knows, with the anger in his voice and the beginnings of tears in his eyes, it's likely retreat wouldn't be considered even if he could hear her words.
GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Yarobeleedt with Rudy is Cross! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Rudy Roughnight's Rudy is Cross for 107 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
As deliberation goes on about the nature of what it is they're standing against, the creature in the little steel fabric sheet cocoon wiggles... fearfully? It proves an ample time to focus on the less fearful Metal Beasts that roam the countryside.
For Talise, the ones she picks a fight with prove tough to overcome if she tries to take on more than one at a time, but her swordsmanship will see her through in lightening the grip of terror this Metal Demon has so far inflicted (on top of confusion). Thinning the crowd goes a long way to seeing to saving what's left of this town. Hers is a winning battle in the long term, but the attrition could add up - the skeletal Metal Beasts can heft their blades and swing with appreciable force even with an apparent lack of muscles or anything else that would dictate their ability to move at all. A few swords seem to drip with venomous liquid...
Layna gives the cocoon a kick. It might sting her foot a bit for the effort, but the cocoon currently sits on a decline. It's just enough of a push to get it rolling, rolling, rolling as it squirms...
The Baskar exile shakes his head slowly at the advice of the words that seem to carry in the wind in a way that seems to run counter to their intent - an inflection that is a reflection of the very focused nature of the Seraph's existence as an aspect of darkness. Looks like he hears her clear, and seems confident in the four of them to handle it. (They still have to discuss payment!)
...the rolling thing comes to a stop as the looming spectre topples onto the cocoon-like construct, and there's a muffled screaming underneath as though its very shadowy nature simply seeps through the molecular-sized cracks of the material, and the whole thing just flips and flounders until it - and any prospective laughter one might have at the misfortune - ends abruptly before a youth whom has fully absorbed the weight of the tragedy he bore witness to.
Where Layna's kick seems successful when aided by the decline the cocoon is situated in, Rudy's punch...
...In its raw emotion, its target seems to move it as though it were a pillow.
The cocoon tears free of its occupant as both item and owner are thrust airborne. Yarobeleedt's mass spills (splashes?) against the well-trodden sand of a decaying and burning settlement, scrambling and screaming to get upright as the slug-worm-baby(?) thing inches away from the furious tears in Rudy's fierce gaze...
One arm reconfigures into a flat board of sorts, like a shield, and in its backing away it seems to be trying to shove past Layna like an afterthought, trying to move past, further and further into the town.
His other arm turns into a long, thin, whip-like shape as he sees his precious, precious sheet cocoon start to try and go off on its own way. When he rears it back, he fails to account for Mirielle's presence - he will be mystified as to why it's about to wrap around thin air.
Rudy can still catch up to him and strike again - or line up a shot at his exposed back. Yarobeleedt seems unrepetant for anything he is presently doing, acting only out of self-preservation as the situation rapidly turns against him.
The sooner all of them put him down, the better.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Talise Gianfair with Arbitrary Indication of Metal Beast Attrition! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Layna Manydays with Push a Bar! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Seraph Mirielle with Luna Way! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Rudy Roughnight with In Which A Boss Monster Forgets They Don't Get The Escape Command! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: CRITICAL! Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Arbitrary Indication of Metal Beast Attrition for 88 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Talise Gianfair! GS: Layna Manydays takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Push a Bar for 48 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Layna Manydays! GS: Seraph Mirielle takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Luna Way for 78 hit points! GS: Entangle! Statuses applied to Seraph Mirielle!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise backs off a second between swings to shoot Layna a grimace. "I've run into a coward or two, yeah. I'd rather fight someone who can stand up and face the challenge!"
As Mirielle speaks up, Talise calls, "I can see you, Seraph!" There are two pirates here, after all, even if Talise was a pirate for only about half her life.
As she starts forward again, she crinkles her nose, swallowing anything she might want to answer Rudy with - he obviously has a deeper grudge against Metal Demons than she does. But then, her own is somewhat more academic, if only because Filgaia isn't her home and she can tolerate Zed for brief periods. Knitting her brows, she begins to move after the Metal Beasts again -
One of them catches her while she's distracted and manages to land a solid slash that rips a gap in her mailshirt. The injury's not deep, but she's forced to jerk away and step back, gagging a little as the venomous blade does its work. "Damn it," she hisses, a sick sound creeping into her voice. She wants to throw up.
But she doesn't have time for now. Ducking away from the pesky Metal Beasts, she takes off after Yaro, though her cheeks are taking on a bit of a green tinge and she looks like she's on the verge of losing her lunch. Gritting her teeth, she forces herself through the curdled feeling racing through her system, hoping to Althena that it'll work itself out somehow. "C'mon, body, don't fail me now," she growls as she sprints towards Yarobeleedt, sword flashing as she sweeps it into an aggressive posture.
She's being a little more aggressive than she usually is, to be honest with you - if only because she's hoping to take advantage of the demon's apparent fear of the situation.
"Yiu are not getting into that town!" she shouts as she takes a hard swing. Rastaban's blade practically sings in the air with a metallic hiss as she levels a quick slash at the blob-demon-baby's upper half, then twists and carries the backswing into another stroke.
At which point she'll try to put the dot on it by attempting to kick him in the face as hard as she can. "That's for Adlehyde!" she shouts irrationally.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Yarobeleedt with Infinitely Rippling Stream! GS: Talise Gianfair takes 4 damage from Poison! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Rudy Roughnight critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's In Which A Boss Monster Forgets They Don't Get The Escape Command for 0 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Stream for 160 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
'Run away?' Layna frowns, glancing about. Where was that creepy voice coming from...? Unfortunately, Layna still can't see Mirielle, or even hear her effectively, so to her, the voice is just a strange, creepy aside.
Rudy meets the cocoon with a powerful haymaker, which gets her attention. She had felt how durable it was when she kicked it, but he split it apart like it was nothing.
...Just how strong was that boy?
It tries to flee, but Layna moves to intercept it. She winces slightly as it collides and tries to shove past her. She stands in the way, though glances toward Talise when she comments about Seraphs.
...Was that what was making all the weird things happen?
Here comes Talise, though, bring Rastaban down viciously. Layna backpedals to give her plenty of strength to swing.
"Aye, let's finish this quickly! There might be people who need treatment." She says.
"Keep at it, me hearties! This isn't over yet!" She shouts. "Strike with everything you've got!"
Her voice carries pretty far, as it happens.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Talise Gianfair with Captain's Orders!! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Rudy Roughnight with Captain's Orders!! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Seraph Mirielle with Captain's Orders!! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Seraph Mirielle takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Captain's Orders! for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Seraph Mirielle gains 15 extra FP from Layna Manydays! GS: Talise Gianfair takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Captain's Orders! for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Talise Gianfair gains 15 extra FP from Layna Manydays! GS: Rudy Roughnight takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Captain's Orders! for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Rudy Roughnight gains 15 extra FP from Layna Manydays!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Mirielle has posed.
Mirielle, robed in black and weilding the powers arcane and unknown, was not ready to face a <s>Hellion</s>Metal Demon. She just wanted to help out some humans and do a good. She just wanted to do a good! Every time she's wanted to Do A Good on this planet, things have gotten entirely out of hand, but this... This is an extra level of entirely out of hand. Out of hand... and off the ground, to boot!
Mirielle is picked up and, robed and black and filled with dark secrets, does her best Gandalf and the Balrog impression. The rotoscoped version, where Gandalf is a narb and gets dunked on by a weirdass snarling thing that looks like its in fuzzy slippers. It's not only awful - it's embarassing.
She's cast about, smacked on the ground, and then smashed into a building, which is still smoking and perhaps filled with fire.
But Layna's encouraging words are cast into the darkness and the smoke and broken wood, and something answers. It's not... probably what anyone wanted.
Through the windows, there's a skittering, and then eyes. White with a black dot, surrounded by darkness. Spiderlike legs burst from the broken holes of the building, scratching and grinding against the ground, before aiming to spear Yarobeleedt a few times, the terrible apparition(s) on the inside changing into hands, scratching against the glass, and moaning sounds, before a lound 'WHUMP' sound happens.
GS: Seraph Mirielle has attacked Yarobeleedt with Bump in the Night! GS: Seraph Mirielle has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
As Yaobeleedt really doesn't fight in the way Rudy Roughnight is really used to Metal Demons fighting, there is a brief pause as the boy watches as the creature gets away. Confusion momentarily replaces rage as the blue haired warrior tries to figure out what exactly is motivating this creature to do what it does. The brief lapse results in the young man shaking his head as Talise's rage reminds him of his own goals and encourages him to continue onward.
The Hand Cannon spins around in the ARMslinger's hand even as the other arm is raised in front of Rudy, allowing the exposed forearm to glow blue once more. Layna yells to finish the battle, reminding Rudy there is more to this battle than mere anger, despair, and self-loathing. There are other cities, the rest of the human race, and the world itself that needs protecting. But he needs to be better. He needs to be stronger.
The Hand Cannon stops spinning and is leveled right at Yarobeleedt. A half beat passes before Rudy grits his teeth and takes that extra measure of time to aim. Once he's all but sure he has the beast in his crosshairs, Rudy will then unleash a powerful round with his ARM. Should it impact the midsection as planned, there will be a condensed explosion that will slam into the shapeshifting fiend as it seems like that weapon shoots more than just bullets and distracting gadgets.
GS: Rudy Roughnight has activated a Force Action! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Seraph Mirielle's Bump in the Night for 169 hit points! GS: Rudy Roughnight has attacked Yarobeleedt with Boosted Shell! GS: Rudy Roughnight has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt has activated a Force Action! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Rudy Roughnight's Boosted Shell for 149 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Yarobeleedt finds himself panicking anew. He's grabbing hold of something but he can't see what it is, that arm flailing the wrapped-around nothing around and hoping whatever it is, it gets off! While Mirielle is (at present) in the middle of being at the wrong end of an alien horror panic attack, others move in to take advantage of the moment of weakness.
Layna rallies the rest to deal with the rest of it. Her voice carries above the chaos and the flames. Even some of the Metal Beasts see their attention wavering as the Captain's orders cut through all lesser noise, ensuring her makeshift crew heeds her words...! A true gad ass.
Talise takes off in pursuit after Yaro with the opening afforded as she plunges the blade into his upper body - which seems a lot more solid than the rest of him, forearms notwithstanding, shoving itself through the harder metallic shell that still conceivably works as armor. Her attempt to twist and wrench it about into a combination of strokes is a bit messy, and requires a lot more tugging on her part - but she can put a boot on his lower body for stability as she does so, twisting and contorting the orientation of his upper body and face to a spray of that quicksilvery blood...
And he gets booted in the face, launching him a short ways as his lower body pulsates grossly and tries to feed mass into the upper body to cover for the grievous wounds. One forearm turns into a stake for stability to rise...
The beady eyes get beadierto the weirdness within one of the nearby windows. Eyes. Eyes of... what? He's a scout. He has seen so many different eyes (almost all of them scary), but these, these eyes...
Legs. His mind cannot comprehend the dimensions and movements of these legs, as they approach him to a perception that borders non-euclidean until he feels the sensationof them trying to tear into him as a scratching rings in his ears harsher than any screech he can muster (and that is a feat)! The entire building shakes, and Yarobeleedt back-surf-crawls away as he brings his arms in front of him, shaking in terror.
"mother" He murmurs, so shaken that a lack of proper capitalization or punctuation may pass editorial muster in this one circumstance.
He is not covering his back, as Rudy readies the ARM one more time. For the creature's lack of fortitude and character, this is a Metal Demon. He is spreading, willingly, as much tragedy and terror as he can as part of the campaign to destroy Filgaia and its inhabitants. Just like so many, many, many years ago... and now, today, here, and now.
Click.
- = B O O M = -
The explosion blows out glass as the block of buildings shake and shudder. Sand flies up everywhere, obscuring the visual sight of the shambling half-melted menace. There is a spray of ichor, and a scream that appears almost lost entirely to an explosion that will rob almost everyone nearby of their hearing for some passing moments. A few Metal Beasts are utterly demolished by proximity. (The remainder will be trivial enough to clear out, comparatively.)
The creature is not there when the smoke starts to clear. Evaporated? Escaped? The only clue seems to be the size of the crater, and another smaller hole underneath... but there's no further sound of any other sneaky movement to be found.
4200 EXP received.
Rudy Roughnight has gone up a level!!!
Some things are still on fire, but the Baskar exile pops down from his not-too-dignified perch towards the lot of them.
"Even if you came back and told me you didn't do what I'd asked," he says to those two he sent on the errand to begin with, "after something like that... I think you more than earned me holdin' up my end of the bargain. You four saved my skin." This number may confuse those unaware of Mirielle's presence.
He does turn towards the troubled young man with a bit of a frown. That ARM... that dangerous, cursed thing... he seems to be internally debating if using such an awful device may be the only way to decisively stand against the Metal Demons.
"...I'll tell you all what I know about some of the statues' whereabouts," he says, "once we got everyone accounted for."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise is about to go for another swing, buoyed by Layna's words of encouragement - until Seraph Mirielle does something terrifying. The swordswoman screeches to a halt.
"What in the blue fuck," she says, her eyes wide as some of the colour draining from her cheeks. The darkness wreathed around the building and the Metal Demon himself is a sort of magic far more horrific than what Talise is normally accustomed to. "Sweet Althena's thong," she breathes a familiar epithet, taken aback enough that she loses track of Yarobeleedt for a minute.
Soon enough, it's over, with a blast of Rudy's ARM. The scream is heard but Talise can't find anything that looks like a body. Darting forward, she clicks her teeth together and hisses with disappointment. "Damn it, if he burrowed," she mutters, but she slowly lowers her weapon, the tip of her sword touching to the ground.
Eyes lingering a moment on Mirielle, able to make her out more clearly now, she trudges over towards Layna, falling in with her fellow moon pirate pal. Still pale, she manages a wan smile as the old Baskar exile reintroduces himself into the picture, seemingly none the worse for the wear. "Yeah... yeah, no worries. All in a day's work," she says as she wipes Rastaban's blade with a bolt of rough cloth, ensuring it's clean of gross quicksilver Yaro juices.
As the old man makes that offer, she nods once. "We'll help you account for everyone, then."
Perhaps this'll all be worth it, and they'll be a step closer to those statues after all.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
...Well, that was a little bit terrifying.
Was that directed at the horrors unleashed by the Seraph, or at the sheer power of Rudy and his ARM?
That'll be left vague, for now.
When the smoke is clear Yarobeleedt is gone, leaving behind only a hole and some leftover Metal Beasts that should be easy enough to deal with. Layna returns her gauntlets to their pouch. She wouldn't need them for the rest of this.
Eventually, the old Baskar approaches them, and Layna offers him a grin.
"Aye, what she said. We woulda done it either way." She replies, then glances back in the direction of Rudy.
"You two really came in handy! Thanks for the help!" She says. She can't actually see Mirielle, so she just hopes she's somewhere in that vicinity.
With that said, she returns her attention to the Baskar and nods.
"Aye, you'll have my hand in that, as well." She agrees.
It seemed he did have at least some information, but they would have to wait and see just what that was...
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Mirielle has posed.
The spiderlike legs fall to the ground, and then into it, melting away into convenient and wavering shadows cast by the flickering firelight and bits of wood. It's almost convenient enough to write off as a very elaborate trick of the light -- if they hadn't just scraped and stabbed something, that is.
The eyes and scratching hands melt into the wafting smoke on the inside, and the creaking of the door on its broken hinges is the only spooky sound that emits from the building.
Then, coughing up a lungful of smoke as she stumbles out, Mirielle waves at her face, stinking of woodfire like she had just gone through a grill.
"Is everyone... alright? That Hellion sure was something... I've never seen one like that. I'm just glad to stop something like that from hurting th-..."
"Did you say 'Sweet Althena's...'?" She beams. "I'm glad the faith is alive even here!"
"Oh, and if you need help putting out the fires, I'm alright at snuffing out candles and the like."
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
When the Metal Demon has gone, there is a brief nod of satisfaction. And Rudy actually smiles? He looks toward everyone, his chin raised with pride as he looks toward everyone. He doesn't really get a response out toward anyone gathered before the stare from the Baskar causes the pride within himself to fade. As if physically struck, the boy takes a step back with his head lowered.
"Good work, everyone," Roughnight says to everyone gathered. Offering a few scant words to his allies, Rudy then turns around and just start making his way toward the horizon, figuring it far easier to just leave on his own terms than waiting around to be kicked out. As he soon becomes just a hazy imagine in desert heat, he begins to whistle, letting the slow but sad tune keep him company as he makes his way onward.