2018-12-06: Bottom Feeder
- Log: 2018-12-06: Bottom Feeder
- Cast: Yarobeleedt, Ashton Anchors, Fei Fong Wong, Seraph Solanine
- Where: Photosphere - The Gutter
- Date: December 6th, 2018
- Summary: Every inch of the Photosphere continues to be fought for, no matter how grand nor inglorious the original intent or usage of said inch. A small team explores the Gutter in search of Tainted survivors - the Metal Demon underclass. To the more able-bodied of their number, the Tainted are the weak, the incapable, the unworthy to partake in battle. To yet another, they are something unthinkably ghastly: food. The identity of this 'yet another' may be even more horrifying than the previous statement.
=======================================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>=======================================
Where a society exists, there inevitably must exist a divide in it.
And those that are divided downwards, further and further, fall into the Gutter -- a colloquial term for the giant scrapheap ghetto that has gathered at the bottom of the Photosphere, along the ridge where the spherical spaceship rests against the canyon wall. The Gutter is largely composed of shanties lined up against each other, with haphazard streets largely carved out over the centuries from the various community efforts. The wall against the east serves as an exit to the Arctican wasteland, below the line of the Photosphere barrier, but it is largely a death sentence to go outside. The Gutter is a term that has many connotations, almost all of them negative; it is a term for where those that are unfit for purpose go, for those that refuse to obey orders, for those that simply can't lend their efforts to the ongoing conquest of Filgaia.
But hope does not die so easily.
Down here, over the many centuries, demons have come and gone -- demons that are called the Tainted. And though there are many who have been robbed of all sense of hope and life, there are still many who gather together to cobble a living out of meagre means. These demons are largely forgotten by their peers -- they do not receive support or aid, and they are left to fend for themselves against the breach of monsters, not to mention any Metal Beasts thrown down from the various experiments that happen upstairs.
Amidst the Tainted, their greatest success story lie in the Ebony Wings, a scouting group that rose out of nothing to end a resource crisis back in 79 PC. Their exploits are still seen today, in the form of the Ebon Roost, an overhanging perch where a large number of Metal Dragons are birthed, raised and trained. Other locales include VAL-HALLA, a small bar in a back alley that the group use as a makeshift base of operations outside of the Roost.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygpjMbQeBas
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Alhazred had at least four dozen - possibly more - Tainted brought up from the Gutter for one of his twisted experiments. Things did not go as planned, and there are already whispers among the infiltrating Drifters about a large insect of a THING that's been prowling the Photosphere. In their wake, dessicated Hyadean husks, the majority of which were among the wounded and those plagued with birth defects. Already helpless within the cruel expectations of their society, there is no more help that can be rendered unto them.
The upper levels have less reported sightings by the hour. There may be prayers that a team of Drifters may have already dealt with it. Perhaps Clive, Gallows, and Jet got rid of it while they were waiting for Virginia to regroup with them. For those more initimately aware of the social situation upon the Photosphere prior to the all-out assault, there is a much more horrifying theory at play.
No, a reality. If this monster is targeting Tainted, then the only question is to why it took them several hours to be of the mind to delve there. There being the Gutter.
The scrap heap of the Photosphere, where all the garbage filters, where the wear and tear upon the architecture sees to its slow erosion against the surrounding canyon outside of the alien structure. Above ground, living quarters are orderly in arrangement and spacing. Below ground, it is a free-for-all of improvisation and circumstance. Derelict shanties dot the darkened depths, and the scent of death and decay are strong. There is no greater warmth to be found.
The battles may have already spread further down here, judging by the drying quicksilver splatters that now currently dot one of the clearer 'streets' of the Gutter. Barrels smolder with acrid smoke, scant embers the only passing hint that there was any light - any warmth - here at any point. Metal Beasts bellow from the distance, and up overhead is the silhouette of a Metal Dragon who otherwise seems uninterested in this part of the Gutter. There may be shelter ahead - or a means in which to locate and rescue survivors - through a larger shelter that seems an abortive attempt at an elevator back to the higher levels of the Photosphere.
The smell of quicksilver blood is stronger, the closer one gets.
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Two weeks ago, Ashton promised the Wayside Outreach to help regain Riesenlied. But in the chaotic scramble to enter the Photosphere, he had lost track of all of them. And while the Ley Dragon could be seen... reaching it was another matter. After several hours, the swordsman was forced to admit it: he wasn't going to connect up with them again.
But that didn't mean he couldn't do his part still. The Tainted - those Riesenlied had gathered around Fereshte - had treated him with great kindness. Ashton - himself cursed with a form that garnered fear and shock from normal folks - felt a kinship with the twisted rejects of the Metal Demons. He could at least help them.
Which is what has brought him here, deep into the Gutter.
On his shoulder, Weepy wrinkles a sensitive blue nose at the overwhelming scent of metallic blood. Ashton frowns. This is a very bad sign. (To be fair, everything in the Photosphere has been but you gotta roll with it.) Both blades are drawn as he creeps forward. "I am thankful none of us are afraid of spiders, by the rumors we've heard."
Wait, is he talking to the dragons?
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Is Fei afraid of spiders? Not really. He's more afraid of jumping puzzles but odds are that his lack of fear of spiders isn't going to stop him from being horrified by what happens today.
Fei cares of the Tainted. He wouldn't say he feels as if they are his people, but they do have a lot of traits that he has grown to admire despite one of his first real contact with the average Tainted was a lady who was part refridgerator.
Fei is doing a little better now. He has had a small amount of sleep, a naptime if you will, but he is still low on sleep and his instincts are screaming at him that he needs to be wary pretty much constantly. He has come along with Ashton because this seems like a small problem that could become a big problem if left unchecked.
He doesn't answer Ashton's question. Instead he looks at him, and that's it.
He is wondering if he's imagining him talking to the dragons or if he really is talking to the dragons.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
To the peoples of Filgaia whose conflicts with the inhabitants of the Photosphere have spanned , this is a place of unimaginable dread and reckoning, a glimpse into the inner workings of a foe that has remained mythical and alien even after so long. To the Seraph Solanine, herself an alien to this world, and one very recent, the political and historical depths are unknown, and this particular area stands on its own experiential merits, a place of gradual decay and darkness, a monument to that and those that have been cast off and left to the mercy or cruelty of the Dark, both long ago, and judging by some of the husks, very recently.
This is a place of imminent danger, but the Seraph can't help but drink in the sights of such a place, small bits of useless, corroded and decayed junk she passes over with her own shadow disappear into its depths, souveniers to be studied and admired indoors on a sunny afternoon.
She was glad she followed those she recognized, the artist and the Dragons. Familiar faces however brief their contact might have been on the lonely Blue Star.
She notices they seem to have more pressing business than just sightseeing or exploring, and does her best to find a happy medium between a observational stroll and keeping up with the group. Luckily their cautious pace has accomodated this.
When Ashton mentions spiders she nods visibly but silently in Fearlessness of Spiders. Unlike moths she considers them valued children of the Dark. Still, she wouldn't be surprised if he was talking to the dragons instead.
DC: Seraph Solanine switches forms to Knight Shade!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
The trio do pass a 'BAD SINE,' in the form of a shattered flat plane of indeterminate make with these letters barely legible. A reminder of a crude attempt by one of the denizens of the Gutter to try and open their own VAL-HALLA. Historically, a greater cultural leap than first appears. For a lack of hope or security, they grasped unto the linguistical concept of a pun... or simply had poor spelling.
It is a bad sign.
The smell is just as bad a sign.
There are no good signs in the Gutter. Even if they are to discover an unscathed survivor or two, doing so involves the discovery of what sort of squalor in which they've had to exist. They can already see it through the gaps in shanty walls. Life in Filgaia - the Filgaia they knew (or are getting to know) - is already difficult, with many needs barely being met. This is... worse.
Creepy might be the first to hear it, but not by much. Something tinny touches down on the ground inside the ill-fated taller structure, the sound of a weight pressing up against a wall inside with a 'thump.' A subtler series of tapping noises.
Something noisily slides behind Fei. A cursory - or more committed - examination reveals that's just gravity taking its course with how the refuse here refuses to settle. It is possible that nothing here has ever been properly disposed, merely dumped. Honed combat instincts would reiterate that there is nothing there. Just a bit of bad luck with the forces of the universe. An unwelcome, startling sound.
The three of them (five of them?) are resolute souls. The mere sound of collapsing garbage won't send them on
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
THERE IS A FLASH OF BLINDING LIGHT AND DEAFENING SOUND AND THE SENSATION THAT MANY TINY BLADED FRAGMENTS ARE ATTEMPTING TO EMBED THEMSELVES IN ONE'S FLESH OR METAPHYSICAL EQUIVALENT AS A DISPLACED BREEZE RUSHES PAST THEM
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ashton Anchors with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Seraph Solanine with Pale Faced!! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
As sight and sound slowly return, there is a large yellowish metal bug thing, who has visible veins of quicksilver pulse into greater clarity even through the darkness. Through the abdomen, through their glossy cicada-like wings...
Even through their compound eyes.
Solanine herself has the most abrupt introduction to this massive metal insect, whose great, bushy moth-like antennae bristle as they seem to lean (unwittingly?) just shy of her very person. Attached to their proboscis, clutched between two hook-like forearms, is a doughy-looking Metal Demon whose eyes grow more distant from the thing that has stabbed their mouth-tube deep into their neck.
They promptly drop said body, where gravity also takes heed of it like it were jealously guarding its property. The hollowed-out husk comes to a stop before Ashton and Fei, the terror forever burned upon the fallen Tainted's face.
It - the large insectoid thing - says nothing. Instinctually, it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that should be expected to speak. How can one attach personhood to something like that?
"^Meat Remonsssssss^." Then it does.
DC: 1 turn has elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 4 turns remain!
GS: Ashton Anchors critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 31 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 93 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Seraph Solanine guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Pale Faced! for 85 hit points! GS: Riposte! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The pure depressed state of this ghetto banks even Ashton's relatively upbeat self. He's had it rough - but this? This is far beyond anything he's ever had to suffer through. And all he can do right now is to try and help the scant handful of survivors to their feet and direct them towards the Drifter camps and potential safety.
Then, right as the tension hits a peak with the falling debris? The world is full of light and sound and pain. Ashton, out of pure reaction, braces himself and throws up his arms to take the worst of it. It still hurts - but the assault on his senses is nowhere near as effective as the one on the body.
That... -thing- must be what the rumors were speaking of. And it's certainly spider-like enough to fit the description. Then it speaks and a little bit of Ashton recoils inside. "Ugh."
His blades come up - then he quickly executes an up-down slashing combo. Not to strike, but to unleash a heavy gust of his own wind at the creature. "I don't know what that thing is, but it seems little more than a savage monster!"
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hurricane Slash! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has lost 1 Combo!
DC: MISS! Yarobeleedt completely evades Hurricane Slash from Ashton Anchors!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei promptly kung fu kicks garbage.
Then he laughs awkwardly for a while to show the audience that it was just a fake out there's nothing to AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Fei at first thinks he's about to die because he can't see, he can't hear, and he feels blades digging into his body. He doesn't even get a chance to think something dramatic, or sad, to think Elly's way. But after a moment of reflection, he realizes most of those blades hit him along the arms. Fei blinks his eyes more tightly shut then gradually opens them up. Using the Solar Flare is just mean, Yarokrillin.
Then he blinks and stares at what he sees. A Metal Beast going after the Tainted?? The body lands near Fei Fong Wong and he rushes towards it, ducking down to examine the body, see if they can be saved...but judging from their expression, Fei dips his head down.
He doesn't say anything.
But then the creature speaks and Fei's hands slowly curl into fists.
"Yaro?" The same creature who was scared of small children?
Fei looks at him. Ashton calls him nothing more than a savage monster. Is Siegfried just letting him run amock? Does he even know what is going on here?
"You feed on your own...? Why??"
He doesn't strike, not immediately.
"They're your people! WHY!?" Fei shouts again, angrier. "WHY!?"
Angrier still.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with WHY! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's WHY for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
Where there was darkness there is suddenly light, bright and painful with edge of blades. The Seraph of Shadow reflexively summons a shell of darkness to protect herself from its brilliance, but that which already cut, continues to ache and hurt, and as she expands her dark within its shell to smother the light which remains, and recover her sight, she grows ever angrier at this affront. She pulls the darkness closer, and forms from it a suit of full plate armor, and pulls her hood over her head. Her vision clears and she beholds in front of her a strange creature who, while monstrous, its general form is known to her.
The form of a traitor.
That of a creature born of the dark that instead seeks its very own light. She scowls through the last of the residual blindness that this one seems to have found it. A grave sin that shall now be repaid.
Behind her a section of shadows coalesce into orbs, that bloom into the shape hensbane flowers briefly, before forcing the black energy outward into a beam aiming for the creature which compounds its crimes against nature by daring to speak its broken words.
GS: Seraph Solanine has attacked Yarobeleedt with Hyoscyamus! GS: Seraph Solanine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Solanine has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Seraph Solanine's Hyoscyamus for 115 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
As Ashton swings his blade up and down in which to summon a gust of wind, the creature's bulk seems to shimmer about it, and the surrounding world - what of one exists down here - seems to take its place as it reappears higher up in the air. This may have saved Solanine... if the creature could see them.
It shimmers similarly again, in and out, in and out, giving away that it's not a teleport. It's optical camoflauge, being engaged and disengaged like a child finding novel amusement in a light switch. Its present height seems to be selected specifically in which they believe they're out of reach of Ashton's blades.
Even with the voice, there are other features that would point to the creature's identity. The general facial shape, with those little nostril-holes. The shoulders. The pathetic snake-slug-whatever who has attempted at almost every turn they could take to impede the Drifters on their quest to save Filgaia from Mother is... this cicada-moth-mosquito thing.
Quicksilver drips from the end of the proboscis, the drops echoing louder against the scrap metal beneath it than it has any right to.
"Mother shorter wants Metal Demons...!" The awful thing above rasps, as some mouthpart of indeterminate but probably foul purpose lulls out of the end of the proboscis like his tongue used to. "They are weak. Can not unstroy Guardians... they are weak. They offend Mother!! So Yarobeleedt onend the offend." To hear this thing make an attempt at extended exposition sounds like torture for all parties involved. There is the character of Yarobeleedt's own voice, which has always been unpleasant. There is also the sense, with their words being strained, that there may be something else yet it would rather do with said mouth.
Tragically for Fei, the dying Tainted seems to have only just enough life left to twitch a finger towards them. They don't even have a full hand. That in this moment, this Tainted - who may have never even seen life outside of the Photosphere, to instead be surrounded by the hateful messages of the dominant culture above - could have seen Fei from the word 'go' as a friend, someone to live with.
That chance is gone.
"Yarobeleedt is not Tainted!!" He squeals back angrily at this 'WHY!?' His position in the air grows less certain, angrily hovering to and fro. "Tainted most reserving of all to keep living...! New children--"
Solanine flexes her elemental essence, as darkness with their own will. The light - or lack thereof - bends strangely, and Yarobeleedt seems to notice this irregularity in the lighting between their many, many, many tiny little eyes. It is telling that his erratic hovering direction seems to be moving away from it, like it were startling.
Black energy lances out. The creature shrieks as the darkness blooms sprout about him on impact, where he suddenly hurls himself into the surrounding refuge. Startled.
"Who?? Who is not there!!" It shrieks, as it points a forearm out into the open air. A forearm that is known to take the shake of a variety of painful-looking weapons... which instead forms into a complex-looking laser ARM, firing wild shots in Solanine's direction. There is a sense that this is wild spraying and not a carefully aimed attack, for even when it might 'hit' in the vision of the others, he's spraying it outward towards any other irregularity perceived or real - in which Ashton and Fei are part of this collective sweep for whatever just startled him.
That element of this horrible beast seems to be, on some level, present.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Seraph Solanine with Panic!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Panic!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ashton Anchors with Panic!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
DC: 2 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 3 turns remain!
GS: Ashton Anchors critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Panic! for 40 hit points! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Panic! for 38 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has lost 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Solanine guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Panic! for 105 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The creature flickers - Ashton frowns deeply, trying to track where it is. Easier said than done, that.
He has to hunker down under the spray of laser-fire, letting a beam slash through his dark robe. Creepy hisses as another beam gets a little too close for the red dragon's comfort. Thankfully, it's a fairly random spray rather than concentrated.
"You know this -thing-?" It's not entirely a surprise that Fei knows some weird people - but is this really 'people'? "Is this a Siegfried thing again?" There's hesitation in Ashton's movements for a moment. He knows as well as anyone the situation the Metal Demons are in with Mother - if there's a chance for an ally, he doesn't want to ruin it.
But then - no. The Tainted at their feet dies, like so many others have at this creature's claws. That demands resitution in kind.
"You, creature! You are not Tainted indeed - they are your betters." Of course, that's about the only part of Yaro's rant that Ashton can parse but that's bad translation for you. He lunges in close, swords flashing horizontal then vertical again and again. He might not land a hit this time, but he can at least force the monster back. Keep it on the defensive.
GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Yarobeleedt with Cross Slash! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Ashton Anchors's Cross Slash for 93 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei gets an answer such as it is. He doesn't understand it. It's not because Yarobeleedt in general is hard to understand, no, it's his choices that he doesn't understand. But even those choices aren't given much consideration as Fei embraces the fallen Tainted for a moment. He doesn't know who they are, what their life was, or anything like that--but sometimes you want to show affection to someone who never had a chance for a good life. Maybe that speaks to Fei in ways he doesn't yet understand.
But then there's the situation.
"Those you call Tainted," Fei says. "Are the only people who will ever mourn you."
He stands himself up. He looks towards Yarobeleedt. He looks to see if he can see that demon in the reflection. Right now, he does not. Instead Fei draws out a metal chain attached to which is a Nisan cross, and he looks at it. He stares at it.
"...You love her don't you? Your 'Mother'. When I think about how you have been misled to this point, I can only feel pity. You will never have your Mother's love, Yarobeleedt, because the one thing you care about most...She cares about not one whit."
"Survival."
Fei gets grazed by the blast as he darts forward, throwing out a palm strike out of which erupts a large burst of clear, solidified ice!
"Every Hyadean slain is a tragedy," Fei says, perhaps to AShton, or maybe to Yaro himself. "For they will not have lived as part of this world." He glances to Ashton. "But he is not a Siegfried situation, no."
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ashton Anchors with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong has canceled their attack on Ashton Anchors. GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 127 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
Flickering lights, flickering lights. It defends with light, warping it around itself to hide itself from view, and attacks with light, launching beams of it every which way.
Unfortunately one of those ways was Solanine's, and a laser light hits her once in the armor, causing it to shake and grow dim, and she lurches back in surprise at the contact. It's been a surprisingly long time since she'd been hit by pure light, or really any attack of that kind of force. being casually unseen by most entities and fighting mostly monsters, to whom light is a rare tool in the arsenal She didn't miss the feel of it one bit. She concentrates and her armor darkens again, and she pulses shadow energy into it, bolstering it further, and leaving her holding a two handed sword, black as night.
The excess energy overflows and blooms outward in a halo of darkness, an arc of which crests towards the creature to try and dim its light
Solanine tries to follow the conversations happening, but as difficult as it is to understand the creature's words themselves, she has little to no context for what can be made out or is being said to it in return.
GS: Seraph Solanine has attacked Yarobeleedt with Vestia! GS: Seraph Solanine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Solanine has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Seraph Solanine's Vestia for 70 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Cover, Mighty, and Shield! Statuses applied to Seraph Solanine!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
The laser firing continues on for much longer than is necessary. There's something Yarobeleedt can't see, something he can't tell. He just knows he wants to shoot it, but to say he is distracted by this would give the advance scout's observational capabilities - limited as they are in this specific set of circumstances - he can see both men approach, bearing barbed words as much as they do sharp swords and punishing palms as they fight past the rain of laser fire like they have a purpose to do anything other than lie down and die.
"Ziekfried!!" Yarobeleedt screams that name in unbridled fury as Ashton brings it up. The sound carries, ear-splitting, and the entire area rumbles. Yarobeleedt's sheer volume is unto itself a deadly weapon in these environs, as a few collapsing pieces of detritus remind. One such one crushes the now dead Tainted, ensuring - unless great pains are taken - that this spherical memorial to true evil and a thousand year lie will be where they are laid to rest. "^1/8192 Page^!! That is Ziekfried!"
So taken by anger, as the horrid thing slides backwards, Ashton seems to get at least the first part of that Cross Slash laced against an arm. Quicksilver stains the blade as Yarobeleedt vacates his temporary cover. "Tainted do not love Mother!! I love Mother! It is defitting for ^Meat Remon^ to not stand in any proximity!" That is nearly complete nonsense, but perhaps one has to surrender themselves into madness to truly be able to utter, 'I love Mother.' "No Tainted will morun! For no Tainted will be asphere to mourn!!"
The creature's head turns as Fei holds up the Nisan cross, as if expecting something more from it other than a dangling piece of metal. Somehow, through all the ambient echoes of destruction and agony, Fei's words come through sharp and clear. Fei is a young man, but there is a timelessness to his pointed words and observations that transcends their physical youth.
"I love Mother... I love Mother through all... is all... is every... is singularity--"
'Survival.'
Fei darts forward and gets out that palm strike that comes up short. The clear, solidified ice that appears, however, ensnares around Yarobeleedt. His bulk slides back until it hits and topples over a shanty, shattering the icy cover and leaving the insectoid horror stunned.
It still draws breath, as evidenced by the unnatural pulsing of silvery veins that flare in and out, sometimes growing so thick they look like they should burst.
"Is fine... is granular... if Mother love ^Meat Remon^ more." Is it? The creature's body flickers again, but their pacing is more sedate, walking between those four legs while the other two up front seem to be ready to configure into something--
The antennae shudder again at the change in the lighting. They know there's something going on, but what is it? The halo of darkness washes out and envelops the creature, and there is another scream. A scream that seems less angry, more frightful, and Fei's claims might ring ever truer to the uninitiated.
Survival.
The bug thing flies up and clutches against the side of the taller shanty they were all about to look into before they were rudely interrupted. Their head turns, as though unable to accept their eyes simply cannot tell them.
"What? What is the ^Unlight^?!" Verbal confirmation, then, that the Shadow Seraph is an entity he cannot fully perceive. "Take ^Meat Remons^ from Mother?! Take Yarobeleedt for full?! You cannot full Yarobeleeedt! Such emptyyyy!!" The screaming continues, and the consequences of this begin to follow suit in earnest, as more of the collected scrap and garbage of the Gutter topple and fall, threatening to entrap the more physically inclined under mobility-reducing rubble.
Yarobeleedt is so freaked out by this, whatever this is, that he flies off his temporary wall-perch and touches back down somewhere near Solanine. This may be mildly unnerving, but he's not facing her.
"Is the unself afraid?! IS THE UNSELF AFRAID?! Manyfraid of Mother?? If not ^Meat Remon^... fu fu fu... tremor, tremor, TREMOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRR~"
He doesn't have to be directly facing Solanine for the screaming to be excruciatingly awful for even an elemental spirit to be subjected to.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ashton Anchors with Knock Knees!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Seraph Solanine with Scream Terror!! GS: Yarobeleedt takes 10 damage from Poison! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
DC: 3 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 2 turns remain!
GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 88 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Knock Knees! for 93 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Ashton Anchors! GS: Seraph Solanine guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Scream Terror! for 112 hit points! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Seraph Solanine!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The enraged scream drops a rain of garbage on to the field. It falls down all around, making Ashton stagger and stumble for a moment. A huge chunk of debris crashes down atop him, and the swordsman disappears from view!
Is he crushed as the murdered Tainted was?
Clearly not, because he's in the main party. And clearly not as he clammors up atop the chunk of what was once makeshift building.
"The Tainted do not love Mother because she deserves none and they know it! It's brought naught but pain to this world - to your world! To everything she's touched!" Ashton points one of his blades down at Yarobeleedt. "Mother is the one that's a fool! We want nothing of her!" Under his robe, Symbological tattoos glow as he gathers power. "Do you hear me?! Your Mother's so foolish that when she hears you talk of love, she thinks you're playing tennis!"
Leaping from his perch, Ashton lifts into the air. His robe flutters, letting him hang there for a moment. And he lands - instantly a blur of motion. While the Double Dragon Duelist isn't fleet of feet, he is swift of swing. And strong of soul. The blades in his hands go snicker-snack, flashing with fruminous fury.
"SWORD DANCE!"
GS: Ashton Anchors has spent 4 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Yarobeleedt with Sword Dance! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ashton Anchors's Sword Dance for 199 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei grimaces and winces, covering his head for a moment as he stumbles backwards. The anger is not just palpable, it hurts. Was there some kind of falling out, Fei wonders. Has Siegfried finally seen Mother for what she is? He seemed to but...so many times it seemed like Siegfried was ready to change course, only for him to come back harder. Maybe he shouldn't get his hopes up, but this may be his best chance to reach out to him if such zealotry is no longer in the way. But those words come with a more frightening reality.
"You plan to kill them all?!" Fei says with wide eyes. "Their lives matter just as much as yours! And so long as you kill others, you open yourself to being killed!"
Trash starts tumbling around. Fei weaves between it but this is hardly a typical kung fu battle. He is clobbered repeatedly by falling junk even though he is largely able to avoid getting wholly crushed underneath trash which would, to be fair, be a pretty awful way to go even for Fei.
"Ashton!" Fei shouts, seeing the man vanish. You never know when someone you think is comic relief is suddenly going to shoot Elly's mom. Or Ashton! And honestly there isn't much about Yaro that feels really comical right now either.
He is relieved when Ashton seems to be alright, and then confused. "Tennis...?"
Wait, that's what confuses you Fei? You got through ^1/8192 Page^ but tennis is what breaks you??
Fei turns back to Yarobeleedt, arms bursting into flames as he leaps through the air and tries to exploding fire punch the creature that Yaro has become in a single, smooth motion. Still a sense that Fei is holding back, still a sense that the hasn't lost all hope for the Metal Demon.
"Mother doesn't love us. Mother does not love."
GS: Fei Fong Wong has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 264 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
The Seraph of Shadow, bolstered by her elemental magic and her confidence growing at the sight of the creature's growing terror, begins fading in and out ever closer to put herself within blade's reach. Her stride is cut short by the creature's shriek of pain, a cutting wail that disrupts her concentration, causing all of her constructed bolstered shadows, her armor and those enveloping her blade to ebb away from her and recede.
The Seraph staggers and stumbles and a grasping veil of darkness rises around her, struggling to reform her armaments while she mutters some very impolite interjections. After a moment her head clears and the darkness embraces her once more, though her constucts less vibrant than before.
She slashes her sword before her, cutting the air and Yarobeleedt's own shadow begins to wave and warp beneath it. until a greatsword's blade of dark energy, wrapped in the vines and blooms of shadowcrafted nightshades stabs upward from it towards the metal demon, hoping to find its guard down in wake of the fiery fist and flashing swordstrikes.
GS: Seraph Solanine has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Seraph Solanine has attacked Yarobeleedt with Terminus Est! GS: Seraph Solanine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Solanine has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Seraph Solanine's Terminus Est for 130 hit points! GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
"Tainted do not unserve to love Mother!!" The screaming continues on Yarobeleedt's behalf as he swings back about to better face Ashton and Fei as they navigate the collateral damage situation. It may be a coincidence, for all that's happening to and inside the Photosphere, that it feels as though the Gutter rumbles underneath Yarobeleedt's retort to Ashton's declaration.
There is a fierceness in Ashton's movements, a power and speed that cuts deeper within the recesses of memory than it does into the physical mass of the cannibalistic coward as the Sword Dance turns the flank of the creature's body into its dance floor, splashing quicksilver every which way.
"^Tri-Face^ know nothing of love!!" Yarobeleedt screams, as one of the antennae might brush Weepy in an experience that might be deeply unsettling but not physically painful. The fibers of the antennae are so fine... so needly. "...is ^Tri-Face^ a ^Meat Remon^?" The dragons sure aren't a... whatever the... really, where does the 'remon' come from? There's 'demon,' what's a 'remon?' Maybe there is no point delving further into that gibberish.
The foul creature makes gagging and coughing noises as the biomass underneath loudly churns, attempting to shore up where wounds are afflicted. From the proboscis, with a choking wheeze, a fell yellow-ish vapor cloud escapes with a hiss. If any of the three on Ashton's body inhale any great amount of that, it quickens the heartbeat in a painful way - a poison, of some kind. The Yarobeleedt of before now sure liked envenoming foes, a tactic fit for a craven worm. Now he's a craven... moth-mosquito-cicada.
It abruptly stops when there is a blade from nowhere he does not see, does not hear, but absolutely feels. The darkness given will might strike closer to the... no, to say 'heart' is doing too much service. 'Center' is more like it. To the center of the beast than any have thus far. They can feel everything in there pulse, pulse, pulse. Even when constrained to the realm of the corporeal, there is something fundamentally alien and uncomfortable about it - like this should never, ever be. Something that feels so forsaken that even the Goddess' enemies on Lunar would rather toss this thing out back.
Something on the creature's abdomen detaches, lines of plated steel turning into floating sheets of metal that orbit violently out of shock, flitting through and battering Solanine indiscriminately only by proxy as Yarobeleedt flits forward, bowling past the Dual Dragon Duelist and the Shadow Seraph before they can get in more licks (for now).
"Yarobeleedt will live them NONE," he retorts to Fei's declaration of his plan. "Their lives antimatter!!" He rants and raves and spits and curses--
And he gets punched in the face by an explosive flame. There is something understated about Yarobeleedt's reaction, as though physically rooted to the spot from where Fei punches him. The leftover momentum from such a grand strike reverberates through the very ground, and more of the surrounding environs tumble.
'BAD SINE' falls off where it is held, and it, too, will be lost to history.
Roughly half of Yarobeleedt's left (his left) compound eye is smoky. Teary-looking, even, as nasty fluids leak from where smoldering fist hits. The smoky sections of eye bulge anew, and the creature's head twitches. More biomass pumps into repairing it.
"Fu fu fu." Yarobeleedt laughs. "I see it. I smell it. Love. Love. Mother loves you. Mother loves all ^Meat Remons^ now. ^Meat Remons^ Mother's children."
...And with a pace, deliberate and slow, it may reach into the recesses of Fei's experiences. Back in Adlehyde, when they were trying to flee. How slow, how deliberate, Yarobeleedt slithered towards them. His insect feet carry him at that exact same speed.
"You are manyfraid. You are allfraid. Of love. Of Mother's love." Yarobeleedt's eyes take on a more iridescent shimmer. He does not raise his arms to attack, as though he were speaking from a position of power over the young man. "You can not see it."
"You are ^Cow Herd^."
YArobeleedt keeps pacing forward. The eyes flash more vibrantly...
...then virulently...
And the intensity grows. The eyes, themselves, are weapons - weapons firing many flashing lasers of different colors. Debilitating, attempting to attack photosensitivity as he tries to push Fei up against a corner.
"^Cow Herd^ know not love. ^Cow Herd^ is onefraid. Fu fu fu... will take to Mother."
"Will show ^Cow Herd^ Mother's love~"
...
...
...
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ashton Anchors with Lily Livered!! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Seraph Solanine with Hide!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Play Dead!! GS: Yarobeleedt has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yarobeleedt takes 9 damage from Toxin! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
DC: 4 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! 1 turns remain!
GS: Seraph Solanine guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Hide! for 104 hit points! GS: Cover! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Ashton Anchors guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Lily Livered! for 120 hit points! GS: Reaper! Statuses applied to Ashton Anchors! GS: Ashton Anchors takes an additional 15 damage from Reaper! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Yarobeleedt's Play Dead! for 217 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
He's in too close. Ashton snarls as he slashes away at the insectoid monstrosity that was/is Yarobeleedt. It isn't wild movements but precise, measured ones - but it means he's in too close.
Too close to avoid being splashed by copious quicksilver and far too close to avoid that cloud of vapor. Certainly so when there's three mouths and three noses.
Choking, Ashton staggers back and clutches his burning throat. "Tri-Face?" He coughs through his indignation despite that it's a fairly accurate nickname. "I'm no--" He tries to object to being a 'Meat Demon' as well, but that's lost in the pain of trying to breathe.
Weepy weakly tries to snap at the antannae that comes near - but fails. Creepy attempts a gout of fire - but can only cough and choke. It seems for a moment like Ashton's disabled.
But he rallies. Or tries to. "Fear is-- Fear is no shame!" Ashton's barely able to hold his swords as he coughs again - in fact, he drops one entirely.
The hand that lacks a sword grabs into his robe - Ashton pulls out a thin blade. A strange one that... it looks like a normal knife until you try to actually lock eyes on it. The metal itself seems to avoid the eye, slipping away when focused on. "Only -surrender- is!"
The thin, strange knife - one could almost call it funny - slices through the air, hurled like a dart.
GS: Ashton Anchors has spent 1 Combo on Disease, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Ashton Anchors enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Ashton Anchors has attacked Yarobeleedt with Funny Slayer! GS: Ashton Anchors has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ashton Anchors has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt guards a hit from Ashton Anchors's Funny Slayer for 44 hit points! GS: Yarobeleedt has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off all temporary hit points! GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt! GS: Yarobeleedt enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Not a Meat Demon! A Meat Remon! What does Remon mean? Nothing! But it's not demon. That's for sure. Because otherwise it'd be...Meat Demon. Which would be a pretty metal band name come to think of it.
Yarobeleedt confirms--or at least appears to confirm--that he won't let the Tainted live. Fei's eyes narrow sharply. What is he doing, he starts to wonder, trying to communicate with someone who doesn't wish to understand others? Why offer such courtesy to one who seems to care not for whether they understand him.
But that's how it always is, Fei thinks, isn't it? Why is he thinking like that, he wonders, does he really have that experience? Where are these thoughts coming from? Are they even his?
Fei walks backwards hesitantly after his strike, shifting to the defensive.
"Afraid?" Fei asks.
He slides another foot back.
"Afraid of Mother's..."
Mom, help me!
"Afraid of Mother's love...?"
What are you doing!?
"No." Fei says.
No!!!!!
"NO!!" Fei screams suddenly, eyes wide, seeing everything, seeing nothing.
A crackling red aura ripples around Fei's body but before it can properly solidfy, Yarobeleedt slams him with laser shot after laser shot, slamming him against a hill of garbage and pinning Fei against it.
Coward
"Shutup!!" Fei yells.
Soon.
"SHUTUP!!" Is Fei even shouting at Yarobeleedt anymore.
He curls up, in agony, writhing when suddenly...suddenly he remembers.
He remembers Elly pointing a gun at him.
It was the hope that he needed. They tiptoed around each other's damage, angered each other, hurt each other, saved one another.
"I..." The red aura dissipitates. "I ... I know love."
And with that Fei bashes away a laser blast barehanded before leaping into the sky and coming down towards Yarobeleedt, intending to slam his foot into Yaro's head.
And again.
And again.
"That's right..." Fei says, suddenly calm. "I'm a ^Cow Herd^."
GS: Fei Fong Wong has spent 3 Combo on Headshot, including 0 on Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Tenbu! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Tenbu for 210 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
Seraph Solanine shudders as her shadows convey the alien feel of the creature's insides, somehow more unsettling than even that of a giant living insect, which she was more familiar with. Alas she has little time to reminisce about her years of local monster slaying for its abdomen detaches and shoots some sort of metal at her and the shrapnel finds her as a target by virtue of casting a wide berth... spelled with a E She very much hopes. Sola's very much trying to get her mind off of this thing's twisted biology as it is.
It's barrelled its way past Sola and Ashton and is now fighting with Fei, there's some sort of screaming going on between them ever bit as passionate as the fires of Fei's flaming fist and the thing's laser beams. At least she thinks so. The only thing she can make out is "Cow... herd?" It did look like it was eating that odd humanoid it had earlier. She supposes it is big enough to eat entire herds, though it's certainly not going to find any in a place like this. She thinks? This whole place is a bit odder than most she's been, save the Glint Mirage. There's that same kind of feel to the metal now that it's made impact. The sacrifices one makes for knowledge... This has been one of the most wearying battles she's had for a while, but the creature's unsettling weirdness and pathos has robbed it of the thrilling feeling of challenge and conquest one would get from facing a more dignified foe. She doesn't know where to get a Cow Herd at this hour, it seems to think Fei knows... wait why is she even entertaining its nonsense?!
She concentrates on a patch of darkness near the creature, and erupts it into razor wave of hundreds of nightshade petals, seeking to blot out the light.
GS: Seraph Solanine has attacked Yarobeleedt with Exodeconus! GS: Seraph Solanine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Solanine has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Seraph Solanine's Exodeconus for 122 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
Seraph Solanine cheers for Ashton! And Fei! You guys are Epic Speeches Mid-Leap Masterclassing.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Yarobeleedt has always been a big scaredy-snake, prior until now. Time and time again, starting from the attempt to attack the Starfall Saloon and gradually onward, the Drifters of Filgaia and their newfound fellow travelers from Lunar - and maybe other places yet to be known - he has been overturned by an increasingly more confident and capable set of adventurers who seemed to have grown ever stronger.
Now he has the power again, Yarobeleedt seems to assert as Ashton does not condemn the idea of fear itself. Through valor, and maybe some luck since Chapapanga is a touch occupied with a most dire matter to keep pulling the strings of fate like they oft do as the very Luck of Filgaia, hurls a strange-looking knife that refuses to be defined by any look.
Through the edge of one compound eye, Yarobeleedt sees the funny-looking knife fly, and there is something decidedly not too funny about the way the respective arm catches it. The way Yarobeleedt used to morph those arms into hand-to-hand weapons of improbable and sometimes ineffective shapes... the only 'funny' thing about it is that he catches it by the blade, and doesn't see it fit to remove it while they press upon Fei.
It falls out of his forearm/foreleg by itself, more for its refusal to conform to observation.
There is nothing truly funny going on here.
Nightshade blooms, shaded in the absence of light, as though they were nourished by the ill lighting of a world where there truly was no light beyond whenever someone opened up a shaft to dump their refuse, or by whatever salvaged junk could be recycled into something useful. Even the hue of Yarobeleedt's body is something of a cruelty, the yellows and the silvers, as if demanding to be what is beholden in such a dreary place.
Fei's screams to 'shut up' are honored mostly by proxy because of this intrusion, and the creature's debilitating eye lasers come to an abrupt halt as more organic material anathema to Filgaia spills. Startling. But not because of that - but because of the strange change of... color... around Fei.
Yarobeleedt leans closer. Is that where the ^Unlight^ has come from? It is when Fei says his answer. He knows love.
Yarobeleedt backs away with wings fluttering as Fei takes to the air and starts to strike at his face. Again, and again, and again. He can feel the skull compress under every blow, watch his facial dimensions contort and appear to crumple. Every strike seems to carry the weight of something far greater than Fei's physical mass. Yarobeleedt gets more than a black eye. He is getting possibly four-digit black eyes, as fluid of a color unlike most of what seems to come out of him spills out. The nature of this color is lost in the darkness.
The creature doesn't scream. The creature only has some small control over its own momentum. The optical camoflauge flickering halts, as if deciding at that final moment of impact it should keep it on. A displaced breeze fills the space between everyone.
Like he wants to hide from a fury unspoken and unheard, but felt, with his movement only being able to be tracked through the shuddering and shuffling of the collected detritus that makes up the Gutter. Tense moments may yet pass, as if wondering if the horrid thing will return.
There is a rumbling throughout the ground. They may be compelled to brace themselves, but when Yarobeleedt doesn't resurface in a timely manner - or any manner - that can be observed where they are, this rumbling means something else entirely.
Something even worse is happening.
They need to hurry.
DC: 5 turns have elapsed in the battle against Yarobeleedt! No turns remain! Time has expired! The battle is over!
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
The choking is still there. It hurts, to the point of Ashton's eyes watering. All six of them.
He can't focus, he can't concentrate. The power of his sorcery dissipates, bleeding off around him with a tingle of the skin and a hint of ozone. The two dragons are in similar shape, coughing and trying to catch their breath. (Do they have seperate lungs?)
The mercenary adventurer drops to his hands and knees, trying to clear his head and find his breath.
Perhaps it's a good thing that Yarobeleedt has withdrawn for the moment. At least he's been staved off from hunting the Tainted for now.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong does not give chase. He can't catch up with Yarobeleedt. Fei exhales faintly and presses his hand to his forehead. Then, still calmly, he makes his way towards Ashton. "Come on." He moves to help Ashton up. "We need to evacuate this man. I think he'd be appreciative if he could go home." Fei looks at that frozen mask of terror and, a moment later, uses his hand to shift the expression into one more peaceful. Sometimes lies beat the truth.
"Let's go. The others need to know about this."
<Pose Tracker> Ashton Anchors has posed.
Ashton takes the hand up. "Thanks." He nods in agreement at the suggestion - though he pauses first to look over towards the Seraph of Shadows.
While she was somewhat lost in the chaos of battle, there was no missing the signs. Unlike the monstrous once-Metal Demon? Ashton's learned to see them. "You coming?"
Then - he leans down to do just as Fei said. To evacuate.. and to spread the word. This is certainly not over.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.
Seraph Solanine stands from bracing herself against the quaking of what turned out to be the creature's... escape? She stays still for several moments, waiting for it to emerge again in a burst of odd chaos. But it never arrives.
She spends a moment wondering exactly what that thing WAS, when her contemplation is interrupted by Fei and Ashton's interplay, and she watches Fei's change of the humanoid's expression with curiousity. She often forgets that death has more meaning to mortals, and they observe rituals to respect and "comfort" the fallen, even if you don't know them.
She summons a shroud of darkness to drape and help bind the body, and she crafts a Brugmansia, an Angel's Trumpet to bind to it. They might not persist once she's gone, but she feels it might be a kind and polite gesture. Even if just to repay Fei and Ashton's valor in the conflict.
Ashton addresses her directly to her surprise. She nods to him and follows them, open to helping transport the body if needed.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei pauses. He looks up at Solanine. "Thank you." He says, smiling at her at the sudden (to him) gesture of kindness.
It's brief, but with a quiet genuine touch that is difficult to mimic.
And with that it's back to safer territory.
Not that anywhere is safe.