-
[QUOTE=MrSandman;6405612]Ella suppressed the non-customer friendly words threatening to burst from her processor, between the clear misunderstanding and the parroting it was hard not to grow cross with her subpar brethrens performance. Nonetheless, maybe it was simply a matter of communicating in a more slow and understanding way....she'd talked down drunks and crasys before, she could do so with a robot too. Turning her attention while the other dogs were distracted, Ella met the robots gaze and smiled her best customer friendly smile.
"Please pay attention, I'll repeat what is needed once more....I need you." Ella pointed to the robot. "To cause structural damage to that pillar." Ella points to the pillar. "So that it falls over and crushes that dog" Ella points to the netted dog. "In the least amount of time or actions....Does that make sense? Actually no, don't repeat what I said just nod if you understand and then do it."[/quote]
The robot processes these more specific instructions before deliberately and swiftly inclining its head to indicate that Ella had been understood.
[quote]Ella gave it but a moment to respond, using the time to beam more energy to her surrounded friends before grabbing her core and throwing it upwards towards the top of the pillar. Her body shimmered and seemed to phase away, appear at the top near instantatiously before swinging down and catching the orb in one hand and swinging back up to a standing position on top.
"Attention Mongrels!" She addressed the remaining hounds. "Look up here and be distracted like the dumb mutts you are!"[/QUOTE]
The shimmering lights of [I]Holonurse[/I] once again arc out to the bodies of her comrades in combat and provides restoration to all.
[B]- Ella is now at 210/480 ENR (-10 capacity for Stack) (42% of total)
- Krys is now at 180/180 ENR (-40 capacity for Stack)
- Jane is now at 160/160 ENR (-40 capacity for Stack)
- Nemo is now at 241/410 ENR (58%)[/B]
As Ella crows to the beleaguered hellhounds, the robot raises its arm once more.
"Begin tactical sequence," it intones.
The metal warps and flows but instead of forming into a crude blunt instrument, it jitters and sparks as a much more complicated appendage is manifested. A barrel of some kind of weapon, blue light glowing from within. There is a whirr that rises in pitch as the weapon charges and crackles with ice-white arcs of lightning. With a grace and elegance that flies in the face of almost every other movement the machine has made, the robot leaps to the far side of the pillar to the netted dog.
With a high pitched exclamation, a bright burst of energy rips from the barrel and blasts into the base of the pillar. The robot then leaps and hammers a fist into the top of the pillar and sends it tumbling down onto the entangled animal with a sickening crunch and crack at the stone flattens the creature and leaves it pinned below in the remains of the net. There is momentary pause and the animal struggles and squeals, still clinging to life but barely.
The robot looks over to Ella, who has jumped to safety as the pillar fell.
[B]- Ella passed a passive AGI check to stick the landing.[/B]
"Mission accomplished [HARD_LIGHT_CONSTRUCT]. Have you been assisted?" it asks.
-
The hellhound beneath pillar, horks up another gout of boiling blood.
[B]- Small Dog 1 takes 5 DMG from [I]Bleed - Rupture[/I][/B]
With a titanic effort, it flexes and strains against the rock pinning it and the net restraining it. With a surge of effort, it snaps the threads but remains trapped under the stone pillar.
[B]GM Note to Krys[/B]
[spoil]The damage you have done with [I]Rupture[/I] is going to be fatal. The creature doesn't have enough energy to undo the damage at present and isn't smart enough to know that not trying to escape from under the pillar and preserving its energy is the only path to survival.[/spoil]
[B]- Small Dog 1 is no longer [I] Grappled[/I][/B]
The second demonic creature, still aflame from Nemo's spell, barks and surges to defend its brethren, snapping at Krys who is closest to its pinned companion with its jaws.
[B]- Small Dog 2 takes 5 DMG from [I]Bleed - Lacerate [Burn][/I][/B]
[B]Krys you have passed your Hit Check and have the option to select a defensive options, please see the Combat Notation thread for details[/B]
-
Gunfire continues to roll as Krys pivots away from their enemy - Jane, no doubt, continuing her assault - and out of the corner of their eye, Krys sees the larger dog crumple. Someone is shouting - an unfamiliar voice? The girl? - but Krys isn't focused on hearing; instead, they open their gaze wider, seeking to better track the battlefield while keeping their attention on the enemy before them. That one - the smaller hound - hunches, ready to spring...and from nowhere, a fine network of cords binds it, sending it to the ground. Disbelieving, Krys actually hesitates an instant, then a flash of fire flares and they recall Nemo and Rae. [i]A mage. Right.[/i] A mage with power over fire, a manipulator of threads.
[i]We're going to make it through this.[/i]
The thought spins through the slowly fading crystalline latticework overlaid upon Krys' vision, her foray into Time out of Time beginning to fade, her mind sinking back down into the muddy limitations of entropy, and Krys turns hard eyes on the trapped hellhound. "Sorry," they whisper, shifting forward -
- a flash of lightning, a crack of thunder -
- [I]"...cause structural damage to that pillar..."[/i] -
- their foot comes down, immediately pushing back, and a hand rises in front of Krys' eyes as the stony column slams down upon her opponent. "Ashen death!" they spit as pebbles bounce off the gift-of-coat, annoyance crackling through the trance of timelessness as the mechanical being's words roll out. [i]Almost 'assisted' me into...no, no time for that, Krys.[/I] For the dog yet lives, and even now wrenches itself free of the threads. But the column still binds it in place, and the damage caused by Krys' vicious, twisting throw still tears at its life, a life soon to be over.
Unfortunately, it's not alone.
Burned by Nemo's fire, the second of the two smaller firebeasts charges, slavering maw agape. A wash of energy passes over Krys, invigorating them - magic from Nemo? Another source? They can't be certain, and it's not important,, not with priority one approaching. A shift of their body, and Krys faces it head-on. [I]All things,[/I] they distantly consider,[I] are finite when viewed from without, even the infinite. And nothing is perfect, for perfection does not exist.[/I] It's coming in low and fast, intent on tearing out Krys' belly, perhaps. [I]And if not infinite, if not perfect, anything may be subdivided. [/I] An attack may be thwarted; Krys' body picks the proper moment to begin. [I]If all things are imperfect and may be subdivided, it therefore follows that all things possess frailties.[/I] Their body begins, stepping into the attack, choosing the proper target on the snapping, lunging beast.
[I]Hence, all things can be brought to a state where they are no longer themselves.[/I]
Krys' back foot grounds as the front kick slams their heel into the hellhound's snout, opposing its angle of motion directly. The velocities add together, the masses adding together, all to produce the force that passes one way to rebound from braced solidity - Krys' structure grounded into their back foot - and the other direction into an unbalanced, loping body. All the colliding force focused into that thinner length of the hellhound's head and down its spine.
-
[QUOTE=Sharpandpointies;6406127]Krys' back foot grounds as the front kick slams their heel into the hellhound's snout, opposing its angle of motion directly. The velocities add together, the masses adding together, all to produce the force that passes one way to rebound from braced solidity - Krys' structure grounded into their back foot - and the other direction into an unbalanced, loping body. All the colliding force focused into that thinner length of the hellhound's head and down its spine.[/QUOTE]
[B]- Small Dog 2 takes 102 DMG from the counterattack and is dead.[/B]
The light in the creatures eyes dies out and it slumps to the ground. Its fellow, trapped under the pillow and struggling lets out a small whimper as more blood flows from its mouth.
For a moment, there is a sense of tension being released as all obvious threats are neutralised. Combat has passed and they have all survived it. The mysterious robot looks expectantly, or as expectantly as a blank-faced automata can, toward Ella. Doubtless expecting feedback on the assistance it provided.
Atop the roof, Kinu peers down at the assembled combat, still dizzyingly far from her perspective, and sees that her opportunity for a dynamic entry into the fray has largely passed.
The sky above the city is home to the endlessly complex aurora of stars that all who view it know to be entire continuums and realities unto themselves, connected by the ethereal tangle of the webways that bind all realities to each other. To look at even one of these stars is to stare into the heart of infinity, to view a multiverse from outside. The quality of the light in Khazan is strange to those familiar with suns and the passing of day and night.
There is no central light source but rather the ambient glow of a thousand-thousand stars of impossible lustre, giving the vague impression of twilight.
There are no clouds to speak of.
And yet.
There breaks a very gentle cooling rain, the sort of rain one would get in the spring time. Refreshing, cooling and healing. Not heavy enough to warrant shelter but perhaps a reprieve from the fury of combat.
[B]GM Note to Jane[/B]
[spoil]Jane feels a sudden sharp spark of power within her circuits. A dormant well of power that lies within her that she perhaps had not even been aware of previously sparks and grows larger, like a bonfire being stoked with coal. Something, for a tiny fraction of a second, connects with her and she feels the rush of an oncoming power of unbelievable size. It strikes her and subsumes her, filling every circuit for an instant, making her feel curiously energised and - dare she even think it - alive, in a way she has never felt before.
The moment passes and the gigantic presence swoops through her and burrows down into some hidden corner of her being. Waiting to drawn upon but now all but invisible to her internal senses.
[B]Jane has gained +1 RUM point.[/B]
The presence, the thing she felt in that moment was so large that she feels it dwarfs even the moments when Nekro has had a hold of her. What curious thing could make even the touch of a god feel small? As the moment recedes in time, she concludes that she must have been mistaken. While she does not experience adrenaline, Jane is aware of the distinctions in her internal processing in combat versus outside of it. Some transitional sensor must have misfired. Her chronometer was also acting up, all kinds of her normal senses were under question since coming to this strange place.
Something to consider but how to diagnose a sensation when she was starting to mistrust the very processes that allowed her to feel?[/spoil]
[B]GM Note to Krys[/B]
[spoil]For an instant, shorter than the cycle of an electron, Krys feels something. The tiny remnants of the hook in their spirit that brought them to this place tingles and she feels something enormous surge down the thread, as if to enter their very soul. A force or power tears through the quantum substrata toward them with a unified quickness and surety of purpose that is unlike anything they have seen before. It is massive, it displaces and bends all things and for a moment it is perhaps the only thing that exists on this plane or any other outside of Krys themselves.
There is a moment of horrifying tension as the wave stands over them, incomprehensibly huge and larger than the universe, threatening to penetrate and wipe them away in a surge of limitless power.
And then it crests but washes through them. The power earthing itself elsewhere and dissipating into nothingness. The entire experience took an infinitely small fraction of real time and now all seems eerily normal once more.
As they naturally expand their senses a little to explore, they feel some echo or similar feeling to what they just felt centred on Jane. But with her, the power does not leave, it swirls and burrows and then is gone. Buried somewhere deep within Jane's metal form to a degree that Krys cannot sense it nor see any sign that it was even there.
Jane seems unharmed. There is no sign of the force that passed over them both. The air and the quantum substrings are still. There is gentle rain.
If they focus and probe deeply, they can feel the hook inside them. As delicate and as weak as a single hair, it clings on with no clear way to remove it, but it seems like it is too weak a channel for whatever that strange sensation had been.[/spoil]
Trevor runs up, gasping and panting as he had been left far behind by the main bulk of the party. He staggers to a halt nearby, wheezing and gulping in air.
"I couldn't keep up with any of you, mistresses," he says, his face red and sweating, "I thought - I - is it over?" He casts around at the slain hellhounds, knife in his hand, and his gaze comes to rest of the bleeding and struggling survivor lying beneath the pillar.
"Foul fiends," he mutters, before looking over at the group, "What's to be done with it?" he asks. His knife twists slightly as his grip tightens on the handle. He makes no move to approach nor asks permission to engage but it is clear what his intention is.
-
Caught in the last, fading dance of Time out of Time, Krys freezes in place for the barest instant, virtually imperceptibly.
[i]...what?[/i]
A blink, and Trevor arrives, stumbling through the rubble of the square.
"A moment, Trevor." Krys holds up one hand, pivoting to the dog. Bending, she covers it with her own body - not close enough to bite, but enough to shield it from assault. It's trapped, and clearly grieving the loss of its companion...its companion, that had assaulted Krys perhaps to protect it.
And, if Jane is correct, it was [I]used[/I] by another.
No gestures, no incantations, nothing shows other than a grimace - a spike of pain shoots through Krys' head as they once again press their perceptions, their perspective, apart from entropy. Wracking misery ripples through their heart as incomprehensible experiences edge toward full remembrance, but nevertheless, they focus on their objective: the hellhound, its body coming apart in their vision to a latticework of energy flows while twisting forward and backward in a chain through what people name 'time'.
Pick a slice.
Memorize the pattern.
Impress that pattern upon the damaged pattern limping through entropy towards its dissolution.
"You were used," they whisper to the beast, still trapped as it is. "Will you force us to kill you?"
[COLOR="#800080"]OOC - Krys employs [B]"Form Is A Brief Phenomena That Nevertheless Exists"[/B] on the 'hellhound'.[/COLOR]
-
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;6406174]
[B]GM Note to Jane[/B]
[spoil]Jane feels a sudden sharp spark of power within her circuits. A dormant well of power that lies within her that she perhaps had not even been aware of previously sparks and grows larger, like a bonfire being stoked with coal. Something, for a tiny fraction of a second, connects with her and she feels the rush of an oncoming power of unbelievable size. It strikes her and subsumes her, filling every circuit for an instant, making her feel curiously energised and - dare she even think it - alive, in a way she has never felt before.
The moment passes and the gigantic presence swoops through her and burrows down into some hidden corner of her being. Waiting to drawn upon but now all but invisible to her internal senses.
[B]Jane has gained +1 RUM point.[/B]
The presence, the thing she felt in that moment was so large that she feels it dwarfs even the moments when Nekro has had a hold of her. What curious thing could make even the touch of a god feel small? As the moment recedes in time, she concludes that she must have been mistaken. While she does not experience adrenaline, Jane is aware of the distinctions in her internal processing in combat versus outside of it. Some transitional sensor must have misfired. Her chronometer was also acting up, all kinds of her normal senses were under question since coming to this strange place.
Something to consider but how to diagnose a sensation when she was starting to mistrust the very processes that allowed her to feel?[/spoil][/QUOTE]
Jane's circuits click in cool satisfaction as the second hellhound falls dead and the rains descend upon the group.
It is then she feels something else, something greater than satisfaction, greater than...
Jane abruptly crumbles for a moment, falling to one knee as she feels...something.
"Did any of you feel-"
Jane trails off, seeing the others seemingly unaware of the sensation. It was clearly another processing error. This place was clearly a plague on machine sensors. Likely the City was also partially behind her emotion spikes. Shaking it off, Jane frowned. Despite the thrill of victory over life, she knew there was still a piece of the picture in her head that was missing. The picture that ended with all those who had killed...the woman. The woman who was a complete stranger to her. Why was this still so strongly affecting her? Clearly there was a reason the scientists hadn't conducted further experiments with this capability of hers.
Knowing this, however, didn't change the emotions boiling within her core.
She leaped off the pillar, landing in the dirt with a small plume of dust rising and walked towards the two new mechanical lifeforms. Rain slicks off her metallic form, some of it sizzling audibly and smoking as it encounters the energies within her and is instantly vaporized. Her twin pistols are still drawn, yet to be sheathed within her.
[COLOR="#006400"]OOC: Jane starts looking around more intently for the Sorceror who threw the fireball. I think she still has Nekromantia active too, if not, she flicks it on for this.
[/COLOR]
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;6406174]
Trevor runs up, gasping and panting as he had been left far behind by the main bulk of the party. He staggers to a halt nearby, wheezing and gulping in air.
"I couldn't keep up with any of you, mistresses," he says, his face red and sweating, "I thought - I - is it over?" He casts around at the slain hellhounds, knife in his hand, and his gaze comes to rest of the bleeding and struggling survivor lying beneath the pillar.
"Foul fiends," he mutters, before looking over at the group, "What's to be done with it?" he asks. His knife twists slightly as his grip tightens on the handle. He makes no move to approach nor asks permission to engage but it is clear what his intention is.[/QUOTE]
Jane stops searching for a moment, looking over as Trevor arrives and Krys huddles over the last dog.
She glances directly at Trevor for a moment.
"Fortunate you were not here. I doubt your armor was sufficient for a bite that could rend metal."
She looks back at Krys, puzzled for a moment before a process informs her of their likely purpose.
[I]Ah, an interrogation.[/I]
She stalks over to the dog. Her guns still drawn, smoking in the calming rain, she leans over and presses it against the head of the hound, seeming to tower over it at her full height.
"You were commanded by a sorceror, a fire-thrower who killed someone not far from here. Tell us his location and anything you know, if you can."
Jane paused for a moment, unclear if she could really communicate with a canid in this manner. She was aware at the possibilities in translation this city had provided so far, yet this seemed a stretch too far.
"If you tell us, I will give you a quick death."
She seemed to rethink this for a moment.
"One of the others will give you a quick death," she amended, cutting her glance to Krys. "Quicker and less painless than what I gave your larger companion."
The barrel of her gun was not hot enough to cause pain, but it was still warm with use, and she knew the hound could feel it as she made her demands.
-
[QUOTE=Sharpandpointies;6406203]Memorize the pattern.
Impress that pattern upon the damaged pattern limping through entropy towards its dissolution.
"You were used," they whisper to the beast, still trapped as it is. "Will you force us to kill you?"
[COLOR="#800080"]OOC - Krys employs [B]"Form Is A Brief Phenomena That Nevertheless Exists"[/B] on the 'hellhound'.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]
The creatures wounds do not close, it is far too greviously injured for that, but the stuttering coughs of blood lessen slightly and it recovers a small amount of stamina.
[B]- Small Dog 1's [I]Bleed - Rupture[/I] is downgraded to [I]Bleed - Lacerate[/I] via the use of [I]Purge[/I][/B]
[B]- Small Dog 1 regains 15 HP and 10 ENR.[/B]
[B]- Krys' ENR is now at 155/180 (-40 Capacity for Stack) (70% of normal total)[/B]
The four yellow eyes of the creature, still trapped beneath the pillar, clear as its damaged eyes are finally healed. The beast struggles a little, still unable to lift the pillar, before choosing to regard Krys for but a moment, perhaps unsure or unused to this kind of act of benevolent kindness being offered by something it would only ever regard as prey in other circumstances.
It's mouth cracks open, yellow smoke boiling out between uneven pointed teeth as a serpentine tongue licks some of the boiling blood from its palette.
Then suddenly it lurches and a fireball blasts from the maw of the beast directly toward their face.
[B]Krys, you have passed your Hit Check, please report to the Combat Notation thread[/B]
-
Jane arrives, weapon driving forward against the beast's head. Krys grimaces at the contact and again at the woman's words, but can hardly argue with the reason. The final decision, though...
...becomes moot a moment later.
The beast lurches, mouth cracking wider, and Krys moves, scraping a hint closer. The fire roars up...and explodes between the hound's teeth as twin, tanned palms slam the top and bottom of its snout, driving its jaws closed upon its own raging vomit. Shifted slightly forward and to the side, Krys slides away again, hands snapping back out of reach of the trapped beast.
"Mistake," they whisper, shaking their head in bitter sadness.
Maybe it didn't understand. Maybe it can't. Maybe it didn't want to. But its choice is made and, most likely, its experiences will be extinguished.
As all are, in the end.
-
[QUOTE=Sharpandpointies;6406309]The beast lurches, mouth cracking wider, and Krys moves, scraping a hint closer. The fire roars up...and explodes between the hound's teeth as twin, tanned palms slam the top and bottom of its snout, driving its jaws closed upon its own raging vomit. Shifted slightly forward and to the side, Krys slides away again, hands snapping back out of reach of the trapped beast.
"Mistake," they whisper, shaking their head in bitter sadness.
Maybe it didn't understand. Maybe it can't. Maybe it didn't want to. But its choice is made and, most likely, its experiences will be extinguished.
As all are, in the end.[/QUOTE]
[B]- Small Dog 1 takes 16 DMG from the counterattack and 5 damage from [I]Lacerate[/I][/B]
The last of its energy spent on that gout of flame, the creature roars and flails. Unable to escape the masonry that holds it captive, too infuriated and hurt to allow itself to recover its strength, it is consumed by fury. The rain steams on its body and mixes with the blood on the floor as it coughs and splutters impotently.
"Ser Krys," Trevor runs over, "Are you - that was - beastly thing!" The knife points at the creature that eyes it with malevolent hatred, "You want I should finish it off? I - I could do it. Horrid thing like that attacking you when you showed it pity,"
-
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;6406316][B]- Small Dog 1 takes 16 DMG from the counterattack and 5 damage from [I]Lacerate[/I][/B]
The last of its energy spent on that gout of flame, the creature roars and flails. Unable to escape the masonry that holds it captive, too infuriated and hurt to allow itself to recover its strength, it is consumed by fury. The rain steams on its body and mixes with the blood on the floor as it coughs and splutters impotently.
"Ser Krys," Trevor runs over, "Are you - that was - beastly thing!" The knife points at the creature that eyes it with malevolent hatred, "You want I should finish it off? I - I could do it. Horrid thing like that attacking you when you showed it pity,"[/QUOTE]
Nemo had been preparing to yank Krys away with a yarn grapple, but was relieved to see it wasn't necessary. She could [I]feel[/I] how every little move with her magic bit a chunk out of her reserves. For all the range of options she still had, she felt like swiss army knife missing every piece but the spoon and half a plier, and the spoon was bent in half.
"Bad dog," said Rea. "No heaven for that one!"
[I]No heaven for any of us[/I], Nemo silently wagered, not entirely sure why such a bitter thought crossed her mind.
-
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;6406174][B]- Small Dog 2 takes 102 DMG from the counterattack and is dead.[/B]
The light in the creatures eyes dies out and it slumps to the ground. Its fellow, trapped under the pillow and struggling lets out a small whimper as more blood flows from its mouth.
For a moment, there is a sense of tension being released as all obvious threats are neutralised. Combat has passed and they have all survived it. The mysterious robot looks expectantly, or as expectantly as a blank-faced automata can, toward Ella. Doubtless expecting feedback on the assistance it provided.
Atop the roof, Kinu peers down at the assembled combat, still dizzyingly far from her perspective, and sees that her opportunity for a dynamic entry into the fray has largely passed.
The sky above the city is home to the endlessly complex aurora of stars that all who view it know to be entire continuums and realities unto themselves, connected by the ethereal tangle of the webways that bind all realities to each other. To look at even one of these stars is to stare into the heart of infinity, to view a multiverse from outside. The quality of the light in Khazan is strange to those familiar with suns and the passing of day and night.
There is no central light source but rather the ambient glow of a thousand-thousand stars of impossible lustre, giving the vague impression of twilight.
There are no clouds to speak of.
And yet.
There breaks a very gentle cooling rain, the sort of rain one would get in the spring time. Refreshing, cooling and healing. Not heavy enough to warrant shelter but perhaps a reprieve from the fury of combat.[/QUOTE]
The moment Kinu had made her mark, it seemed that it was all over.
[I]Huh, they really work fast. Not bad. Not bad at all![/I]
If she could still blush, there might have been a sight. On the other hand, it seemed the last of the fires still hadn't been put out by the sound of things below.
Casting one last look over the horizon, where the flying mech had last fallen, she attempted to commit that direction to memory...
...then pulling herself over the edge of the ruined building, she jumped.
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;6406316][B]- Small Dog 1 takes 16 DMG from the counterattack and 5 damage from [I]Lacerate[/I][/B]
The last of its energy spent on that gout of flame, the creature roars and flails. Unable to escape the masonry that holds it captive, too infuriated and hurt to allow itself to recover its strength, it is consumed by fury. The rain steams on its body and mixes with the blood on the floor as it coughs and splutters impotently.
"Ser Krys," Trevor runs over, "Are you - that was - beastly thing!" The knife points at the creature that eyes it with malevolent hatred, "You want I should finish it off? I - I could do it. Horrid thing like that attacking you when you showed it pity,"[/QUOTE]
As soon as the gentle rains started, and the demon dog spat its last gout of fire, thunder came crashing down. Previously unseen, Kinu attempted to land from her flying leap, bringing the storm with her directly behind Trevor where he stood.
...or perhaps that wasn't nearly as cool as she thought it was going to be. No way to find out without committing to it.
-
Ella didn't much stick the landing as catch herself, as the pillar toppled she leap outwards to clear before projecting down to the ground and allowing her core to fall into her outstretched hands before placing it back in her chest.
[QUOTE]"Mission accomplished [HARD_LIGHT_CONSTRUCT]. Have you been assisted?" it asks.[/QUOTE]
"Yes.....3.5 star effort, it took some time but at least you got the job done in the....Wait a second, No! I am NOT assisted....because I'm the one who assisted you!" Ella turned and pointed a finger at the robot. "What were you even doing back there earlier. Those flame dogs would have eaten you alive if I hadn't jumped in. Honestly take better care of yourself..." The Hologram fumed. "Whatever....your safe enough now..."
Behind her, members of the group that had shown up rather heroically to assist with subduing the hounds seemed to be in the process of poking the remaining pinned hound...much in the same way a bunch of kids would poke a wounded wolf with a stick. "...I have questions I need to ask, and seeing as your the type to answer them I'm not letting you run off. So get comfortable." Ella flashed a smile. "If you wanna earn that 5 star I mean."
Ella turned her attention back to the broken pillar and the last remaining dog....only to watch in utter confusion as a bunch of what could be described as absolute nutcases, the oddly designed robogirl among them, began roughing up the hound in an attempt to interrogate it? Then heal it...Then beat it up some more....
Was this that thing that sadists do? Or bad cops? Inflicting injury to get an immediate response....Torture?
Ella took a step back towards the robot. It was entirely possible their saviors were even worse then the dogs and it was just not their turn yet.
-
[QUOTE=MrSandman;6407039]Ella didn't much stick the landing as catch herself, as the pillar toppled she leap outwards to clear before projecting down to the ground and allowing her core to fall into her outstretched hands before placing it back in her chest.
"Yes.....3.5 star effort, it took some time but at least you got the job done in the....Wait a second, No! I am NOT assisted....because I'm the one who assisted you!" Ella turned and pointed a finger at the robot. "What were you even doing back there earlier. Those flame dogs would have eaten you alive if I hadn't jumped in. Honestly take better care of yourself..." The Hologram fumed. "Whatever....your safe enough now..."
Behind her, members of the group that had shown up rather heroically to assist with subduing the hounds seemed to be in the process of poking the remaining pinned hound...much in the same way a bunch of kids would poke a wounded wolf with a stick. "...I have questions I need to ask, and seeing as your the type to answer them I'm not letting you run off. So get comfortable." Ella flashed a smile. "If you wanna earn that 5 star I mean."
Ella turned her attention back to the broken pillar and the last remaining dog....only to watch in utter confusion as a bunch of what could be described as absolute nutcases, the oddly designed robogirl among them, began roughing up the hound in an attempt to interrogate it? Then heal it...Then beat it up some more....
Was this that thing that sadists do? Or bad cops? Inflicting injury to get an immediate response....Torture?
Ella took a step back towards the robot. It was entirely possible their saviors were even worse then the dogs and it was just not their turn yet.[/QUOTE]
With the hound already attended to by her new comrades, Nemo decided to break the ice with the newest "arrival" to this strange situation. She stepped towards the strange girl and the giant robot, offering them a smile, while keeping an eye on the hound situation. "Hello there," she said. "We mean you no harm, if you mean no harm to us. Have you been traveling here a while, or are you also a new arrival?"
-
[QUOTE=grampagen;6406888]As soon as the gentle rains started, and the demon dog spat its last gout of fire, thunder came crashing down. Previously unseen, Kinu attempted to land from her flying leap, bringing the storm with her directly behind Trevor where he stood.
...or perhaps that wasn't nearly as cool as she thought it was going to be. No way to find out without committing to it.[/QUOTE]
As Kinu leaps of the roof, she is struck with a tremendous sense of vertigo as she feels and even sees the fabric of space warping around her on her descent. The ground appears to fluctuate between being miles beneath her to almost a foot away for a second or two before suddenly she is falling normally.
The lands on the ground, with a loud crash but with grace and élan. Trevor whips around, distracted from the grim business of the demonic dog and stares up into the painted face as Kinu's cloak swirls around her.
"Whoaaaa!" he says, something about the effortless grace and the brightly coloured warrior of the wasteland seems to stir a more child-like instinct in him. "Mistress Kinu! Such a feat, to leap from so high!" He turns and points at the pinned hellhound that is clearly growing weaker with each passing second, "We got a prisoner. Ser Krys offered it mercy but it tried to burn 'em and we should - we - it's a wicked beast Mistress. No mercy for demons!"
[B]GM Note to Rae:[/B]
[spoil]As Trevor declares that there is to be no mercy for demons, Rae catches that he shoots a very quick glance toward her and Nemo. It isn't a threat per say but it is clear that the child remains uncomfortable with their relationship and perhaps doesn't think Rae so distinct from the hellhounds that now lie slain on the ground.[/spoil]
His hand tightens on the knife once more but, again, as a child amongst adults who are far more experienced than him, he has been brought up to expect instruction from authority.
[QUOTE=MrSandman;6407039]"Yes.....3.5 star effort, it took some time but at least you got the job done in the....Wait a second, No! I am NOT assisted....because I'm the one who assisted you!" Ella turned and pointed a finger at the robot. "What were you even doing back there earlier. Those flame dogs would have eaten you alive if I hadn't jumped in. Honestly take better care of yourself..." The Hologram fumed. "Whatever....your safe enough now..."
Behind her, members of the group that had shown up rather heroically to assist with subduing the hounds seemed to be in the process of poking the remaining pinned hound...much in the same way a bunch of kids would poke a wounded wolf with a stick. "...I have questions I need to ask, and seeing as your the type to answer them I'm not letting you run off. So get comfortable." Ella flashed a smile. "If you wanna earn that 5 star I mean."
Ella turned her attention back to the broken pillar and the last remaining dog....only to watch in utter confusion as a bunch of what could be described as absolute nutcases, the oddly designed robogirl among them, began roughing up the hound in an attempt to interrogate it? Then heal it...Then beat it up some more....
Was this that thing that sadists do? Or bad cops? Inflicting injury to get an immediate response....Torture?
Ella took a step back towards the robot. It was entirely possible their saviors were even worse then the dogs and it was just not their turn yet.[/QUOTE]
The robot let out a small quiet series of computational beeps and briefly looked up.
"I do not detect any <***5**star***> at this juncture. My long range sensors have been damaged by [TRANSIT]. The lights overheard are ... *psssh* *bleep* [ERROR] objects of such complexity that I cannot adequately scan them in a timeframe that maintains this dialogue."
It pauses once more, apparently considering what Ella instructed it to do.
"This [UNIT] does not have a frame of reference for <***get**comfortable***> but I will attempt to comply from context clues,"
The robot spreads its arms into a T-pose and then falls straight back on to the ground with a shifting clang. The surface of its body judders a little as a ripple travels through it. The machine, in certain moments, is clearly closer to a liquid or dense powder than a full solid machine.
It lies on the ground, attempt to follow Ella's instructions.
[QUOTE=Sharkerbob;6407177]With the hound already attended to by her new comrades, Nemo decided to break the ice with the newest "arrival" to this strange situation. She stepped towards the strange girl and the [B]giant robot[/B], offering them a smile, while keeping an eye on the hound situation. "Hello there," she said. "We mean you no harm, if you mean no harm to us. Have you been traveling here a while, or are you also a new arrival?"[/QUOTE]
[B]GM Note to Nemo:[/B]
[B]OOC:[/B] Just a small note, the mysterious robot is a little over 6 feet tall. Hardly a giant, much smaller than the mech the main party saw outside.
-
[QUOTE=Nik Hasta;6407325][B]GM Note to Rae:[/B]
[spoil]As Trevor declares that there is to be no mercy for demons, Rae catches that he shoots a very quick glance toward her and Nemo. It isn't a threat per say but it is clear that the child remains uncomfortable with their relationship and perhaps doesn't think Rae so distinct from the hellhounds that now lie slain on the ground.[/spoil]
His hand tightens on the knife once more but, again, as a child amongst adults who are far more experienced than him, he has been brought up to expect instruction from authority.[/QUOTE]
"Oi!" said Rae bringing up a thread outline from her back in the form of a pointing arm and hand, as her hat swiveling to face the boy. "I caught that look! Listen, kid, you don't have to like me, but you can take my word I'm not a demon." She paused, and brought the thread arm up to rub the approximate spot where a chin would be (incidentally ruffling Nemo's hair in the process). "Of course, I suppose that's what a demon would say, huh? Well, look, I just won't bug you if you don't bug me, square?"
[QUOTE]The robot let out a small quiet series of computational beeps and briefly looked up.
"I do not detect any <***5**star***> at this juncture. My long range sensors have been damaged by [TRANSIT]. The lights overheard are ... *psssh* *bleep* [ERROR] objects of such complexity that I cannot adequately scan them in a timeframe that maintains this dialogue."
It pauses once more, apparently considering what Ella instructed it to do.
"This [UNIT] does not have a frame of reference for <***get**comfortable***> but I will attempt to comply from context clues,"
The robot spreads its arms into a T-pose and then falls straight back on to the ground with a shifting clang. The surface of its body judders a little as a ripple travels through it. The machine, in certain moments, is clearly closer to a liquid or dense powder than a full solid machine.
It lies on the ground, attempt to follow Ella's instructions.[/QUOTE]
"Robots are fun," said Nemo with a little sardonic smile.
[QUOTE][B]GM Note to Nemo:[/B]
[B]OOC:[/B] Just a small note, the mysterious robot is a little over 6 feet tall. Hardly a giant, much smaller than the mech the main party saw outside.[/QUOTE]
~~OOC: Ah, whoops. Please bare with my tapioca brain, my reading comprehension/retention ain't what it used to be. : old_man_emoji :~~
As Nemo opened her mouth to say more, while keeping an ear on Rae's "interaction" with Trevor, something suddenly [I]twinged[/I] on her mystic senses. A flicker of Mana from the flow of energies around them. A familiar whisper of sensation, furry bodies skittering past her feet, before it was gone. Rats! There were rats nearby! Or were there? Had it been a false blip, the shifting reality spitting a bit of that Mana Essence her way? Or were the furry little creatures actually present?
She quickly glanced around. Rat Magic had been one of the more unusual, and temporary, Magic's she'd learned, when a job gone bad had seen her play host to a Rat Pack that had just lost their Mage. Nemo didn't dislike the creatures, but becoming their dedicated host had not really been to her liking, so she'd found herself shifting clients and missions from helping a Rat Mage uncover a lost treasure, to finding a new host for the Mage's Pack. That Magic had been one of the oddest she'd taken on, and it was almost funny to end up with that being one of the few disciplines she retained. It might not be much in this ever-shifting world, but any advantage she could recover, she shouldn't overlook the opportunity.
But rats, of course, were skittish. If there had been one passing by, likely it was already gone. But it wouldn't hurt to look around a bit.