"He has a point..." Mumbles of assent rang out in the throngs of goons as they weighed the odds, what they lacked for overall ranking and combat capability they made up for in brains. At the very least they were smarter than most henchmen which had let them survive up till now.
That particular point was only amplified when they saw their boss get the equivalent of a card backhand and smacked across the room. And also after they saw Astolfo bend the bars to the metal cage like they were taffy before pausing and catching the bowguns to point them in their direction via a rather intimidating display of dualwielding with an easy going smile. Strangely on his back was a bundle full of squirming Poogies fashioned out of his cape which made the overall scene even more surreal.
The people surrounding Jeanne Alter likewise were dealt a huge blow to their morale when they saw their buddies surrendering... and the fact that there were a couple of people running with their fire resistant armor ablaze and screaming from the excruciating pain before they fell down to the ground like overcooked lobsters. With audible clanging sounds, the survivors placed down their remaining arms...
Only for the noise from all the ruckus to awaken whatever was sleeping inside of the giant dinosaur-like skull. Blue carapaced limbs slowly sprouted out before lifting the great weight of the fossil, sharp legs and claws producing sparks simply from grinding across the stony floor. Dark and cold crustacean eye stalks regarded the interlopers in its territory even as burbling sounds emanated out from its crabby mouth. The beast looked like a giant hermit crab at first sight, though its features were decidedly more deadly than the little vagrants it seemed to be based off of.
"Oh my god, it's a giant enemy crab!" A rather spooked voice rang out, the brawny man's complexion turning rather white as he got a good look at the monster that was now standing just within arms reach. "And even worse... it's an Armor Shredder Shogun Ceanataur! It's a Deviant! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Before he could even run away, a cold flash appeared before his head was clutched in one of the thing's claw which was promptly chewed on and disappeared into the Ceanataur's mandibles within seconds. The bloodied stump spouted out a brief gurgle of blood before the headless body fell forward and crashed down.
After the heartless culling of life, the thing simply crouched down before jumping in front of the entrance leading into the cave, claws clacking and sparking with ill intent as it looked at the humans remaining in its territory... and then shooting out a thin but deadly stream of high pressurized water that swept the surroundings. As though a giant had cut through wherever the water touched was a deep mark from the biological hydro cutter, an unlucky few of the man that didn't react fast enough bisected from the innocuous stream of water.
Astolfo for his part had to perform a limbo like action, re-enacting the scene from the Matrix rather easily due to the fact his back was buffered by a group of soft Poogies that acted to prop him from completely falling on his back. "Make sure you guys attack the joints or eyes! Giant enemy crabs are a huge pain in the ass to deal with!" Saying so the boy blind-fired with his stolen bowguns only for the projectiles to be smacked away idly by the thing's claws to explode at the side and frame it like it just came out of an action movie via a sudden burst of flame. "Wow, that crab is a cool customer!~"
"Yeah, I'm sorry you had to see this. The group's... not really good at working together. Reminds me of home actually." Standing at the sideline and refusing to enter the shitshow that had happened due to having quite an abundant amount of experience with being in the middle of such things, the pigtailed teen winced at the poor showing considering that even a bipedal Platypus was showing how done with everything it was.
edited 10th Jan '18 9:34:01 AM by Makaioh
When that mysterious burst of sand started heading towards them...well, Santa wasn't sure what to make of it either. That wasn't a sight she was familiar with at all, unless there happened to be a terrible earthquake going on right underneath them that they didn't notice. She diverted her attention to that odd phenomena, and she asked the captain "What do you make of that?"
"Okay, sir...look, maybe I could just buy it from you, if you really are the owner? I've got lots of cash from the country I'm from, and I'm sure there's an embassy or something you could trade it in with..."
While she said this, however, her eyes seemed to be very, very focused, looking forward at the man and his necklace...or, perhaps not necessarily that...
The Fox was looking around at the other two people here, hoping that they'd step in and answer this lady's question (and not whatever questions Lady had) for her, they didn't. They sure seemed comfortable fighting demons yesterday, but look now and they're all pansies...
That'd just make it worse (maybe better?!) for them, because the only way The Fox was gonna operate here was bluntly.
"...Ma'am. He said a lot of things about you. Very, very flatterin' things."
Docks - Brothership -> Desert
"You got it, brother!" the Red Knight said to Griffith."Capital C Caravan is some pretty hot stuff, must be one hell of a lead you got," the other Knight said.
The Red brother went to the helm, started up the sails, and soon enough they were out of the city and catching up to the Caravaneer's ship. On the other side of the gigantic wall of dust they could see a smaller, second trail. This was much smaller than the main cloud, and was to the side so that the people in the airship couldn't see it from the angle they approached. At the head of this second cloud was a sand ship not unlike the one they were currently on. And that ship was chasing after the dust cloud, following it at full speed.
Desert - Airship
"I don't think so," the Caravaneer told Max. "He wants monsters for their parts, and there's nothing like that in the city besides some ancient bones. Theres so many defenses and people with weapons it wouldn't be worth the effort compared to hunting the monsters himself."Suddenly, a massive figure jumped out from the head of the cloud, erupting from the desert sands like a volcano. It was a monster nearly fifty meters long, its hardened scales catching the sunlight
◊. It was airborne for several seconds before it hit the ground again, diving back in like a fish in a river. The crater that formed from its landing was buried in sand only moments after it was created, the monster kicking up so much sand that it covered the hole and threw up a cloud of sand. As it propelled itself forward, one could see the rippling sand
"Well I'll be," the Caravaneer said. "That's a Dah'ren Mohran. Don't think I've ever seen one this close to town, they usually live deep in the desert."
The Farm
The would-be thief offered no resistance as Carmilla tied her up, due to still being unconscious. The thief's sword didn't hold any surprises - aside from the usual one of being really heavy due to its size - so it could be moved easily enough.Also somehow when she was being manhandled or something a piece of paper fell out of her shirt and landed on the ground and then unfolded itself face-up and revealed an address in the city that was circled several times with red ink.
"Oh... oh my," the cat said, stepping closer to Fox. "What sort of flattering things?"
The Arena
"RANGEROUS DOES NOT TALK! RANGEROUS ONLY KNOWS BLOOD!" the fighter shouted at Susan. He lifted his hands up in the air to get a rise out of the crowd, and he took a few steps as he circled around Susan without getting much closer. When he was between her and the audience, his smiled dropped and he glanced at her."Look lady, it's tough trying to do this when you don't react," he said to Susan in a hushed, extremely nasally tone. "You're not helping out my career here if you don't put some effort into it. I get a cut of the proceeds, I'll give you this stupid thing if you can put on a show. Found it in the dirt anyway. Exciting the afternoon crowds isn't too rough, half the crowd is too drunk to notice mistakes and the other half is too unemployed to spend zenny on concessions anyway, so don't worry about being perfect. Just shout a lot and lift your hands up when people aren't shouting from the crowd."
He cleared his throat, put on his malicious grin again, and then turned away from her to face the crowd.
"RANGEROUS DEMANDS TO KNOW THE NAME OF THE ENEMY HE WILL DEFEAT! DO YOU WISH ME TO DESTROY A NAMELESS FOE?" Even though both his hands were already up, he just lowered his hands a bit and pumped his arms again. A decent portion of the crowd roared. Though, if one was listening carefully, several of the people shouting the loudest had voices that were noticeably slurred.
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Tucker - ...yeah, I got nothing; Poogienapping Caverns
Tucker raised his Hardlight Shield just in time, the slicing water-jet failing to pierce it, but pushing him back a few feet in return.
"It's a what now?" Tucker asked aloud, wondering who the hell came up with that name.
"An Armor Shredder Shogun Ceanataur."
"Asshole Crab, got it. Any ideas, D?"
"As well as the eyes and the joints, crabs are general weak on their undersides. You may be capable of attacking that point for massive damages."
"How am I supposed to-" A diagram flashed up on his HUD, interrupting him. "Oh."
Not wanting to get close to the thing with Armor Shredder in it's name, Tucker dropped the shield, plucked a grenade from his hip, and gave it an underarm toss towards the Armor Shredder. If Delta's calculations ran true, and the crab didn't intercept it or move, the grenade would explode beneath it.
To ensure it wouldn't move or catch sight of the grenade, Tucker shouldered his rifle once more and began making shots at it's eyes.
edited 15th Jan '18 3:58:53 AM by GeekCodeRed
They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
Noire- Gathering Hall
"Boyfriend. The thing you were supposed to say was 'boyfriend'. Has Blanc taught you nothing?"
Noire was kicking herself for that last comment. Mentally, of course. Though, how to get him off their backs now... that is, without starting a bar fight and/or coming off as a complete jerk.
Or throwing their technological progression out of wack. Were they subjected to the "Don't let them know you're not from around town" rule like in every piece of fiction about the subject? Noire had to ask later.
For now. she had to say something. And for some reason, the least rational response clicked.
"Well, we're not all here yet. Group dates, ya know." She said, trying to hold Tessa's hand or something of the equivalent.
"Come on... play along..."
Magilou and Avenger- Poogie Cavern
The arrival of the massive antagonistic crustacean was met with a certain level of surprise from the two female fire (and other things) users, and the card of Magilou's returned to it's normal size. Magilou also winced a bit at the death of the hunter, though whenever that was her fooling around or a legitimate "euagh" reaction is anyone's guess. Either way, she soon got back her brave face
"Well, guys, tonight we dine on Armor Shoder...Armor Sherder Sogan... Armor shredder..." Magilou seemed to exaggerate the name's complexity "Ah, to heck with it, Giant Crab soup! If that's legal, of course."
Magilou began charging a spell again, the circle of light reappearing beneath her.
"By the way, I'm sure everyone's gung-ho about fending off a giant beast for glory and all, but make sure the Poogies are okay through this. Not much of a point going to save the little furballs if we don't actually save them."
Avenger for her part was going to go on the offensive for the grenade. Of course, it would be sheer lunacy to step right near it now (even if, in theory, she could take it), so she waited to follow it up.
A dogged fellow, aren't we?
Lucina - Gathering hall
So, they finally had their first clue - some of the monsters their target liked to hunt. It wasn't much, but it was a start. Did Ser Aryll not say that the monsters here are friendly? Surely they would want to be rid of this monster-hunter too...
There was still the problem, of course, of blunting the Ace Cadet's advances. Lucina had opened her mouth to deliver a no-doubt heartfelt and sincere rebuttal, when Noire took the initiative and took Tessa's hand. The taguel looked between Noire and Tessa for just a moment, before it dawned on her with a wide-eyed, ear-twitching look of comprehension. Ah! A clever deception!
"Y-yes, it's most troublesome!" She chimed in, ears going pink, doing her best to look put-upon - Oh dear, but not so put-upon that she seemed inclined to abandon her so-called date. "Still, I'm sure they'll be along soon - thank you for your warning, we'll be sure to pass it on!"
edited 14th Jan '18 9:45:07 PM by LittleMako
Tessa - Gathering Hall
Inwardly, Tessa winced as Noire attempted to divert the Ace Dork's attention, only for him to redouble his efforts. At least she was trying a new ploy. Group dating? But how were they going to sell that to the Cadet if they didn't have a group of people to play along as their boyfriends who could help dissuade any further attempts to hit on them? And why was she reaching for - and then she grabbed her hand.ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod
Freezing in place as her surprise overrode her thoughts for a few cycles, she eventually managed to start stammering out "Uhhhhhhhhhh ummm uhhhhh we... I... uhhhhhhhhhhh...." She shook her head. Focus Tessa! You have to save the day! Don't say something stupid!
"We're just stopping by while ring shopping! Because she's my fiancée!"
Gathering Hall
The Ace Cadet gave the two women holding hands a blank expression, one that belonged to a man who was on the borderline of defeat. But then, after snapping out of his daze and briefly counting to three on his fingers, he perked up again. A realization - whether by providence or sheer luck, no one could truly say - came to him as he looked at the three women in front of him."Well, it would be a shame for you to have your friend be lonely on that sort of a double date, now wouldn't it?" He asked all three of them as smoothly as he could, turning his attention from the duo to the third one. He gave Lucina an increasingly-widening smile. "A lady such as yourself surely deserves some company from a guy like me while your friends are keeping each other busy. One who won't stand you up and show up late to the Gathering Hall."
edited 14th Jan '18 9:42:16 PM by nman
Ah, wait, she did have a few extra not-servants standing around here. This could be an enjoyable distraction from the important task she had been sent on...
"Captain," she said to the captain as she slowly drew her sword, "Does that beast pose a threat to the city?"
Her eyes looked down to the ground, and she pulled her hat down to cover her eyes a little better. Considering it wasn't anything more than a sleeping cap, this was somewhat difficult, but hey. "Briefly talked 'bout wantin' to ask you somethin', but he brushed it asi—" oh hey, important plot note.
It wouldn't be a proper bandit underneath her boot if they didn't have a map right to their hideout. Such was common among universes, it seemed. "Ma'am, forgive me if y'don't," she said as she reached down and picked up the paper, "but do ya recognize this address?"
Susan's face showed her obvious realization, and quickly swallowed it when she realized she had a show to put on. "Oh, right...just saying, if I start bleeding during this, don't worry," she said in a hushed tone to him, "it's normal." A little wink to seal the deal, and then she took a step back.
Wrapping her arms around herself in a very stylish pose, she loudly announced to everyone within earshot "I am Xilonecho* the Red! I am surprised, I first thought you were one of the vendors here, with your PATHETIC PHYSIQUE!"
Dramatic point time! Everyone loves one of those. "If you wish ME to destroy a WORTHLESS FOE, then so be it! I'll filet you alive!!"
Without any further warning, Susan leaped through the air, spinning in a mid-air pirouette while inarticulately yelling! She tried to spiral herself and her outstretched claws right into Rangerous...though, if he didn't try and block it himself, she'd try to stop right before she actually could hit him.
edited 15th Jan '18 7:35:02 PM by wikkit
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
As she let out a quick thanks, Lapis set out for the overhang where the lovely crew apparently went to do their waste. Man, hopefully Shiriku wouldn't mind doing his business on a net.
...
...
Huh, that wasn't so bad. I mean sure, apparently Shiriku wasn't *ahem* perfectly trained, but eh, it wasn't the end of the world or anything.
She came back, wiping her hands on her skirt, with the tiny spitz following, to watch the mohran's great leap in the air and for a moment be just impressed enough for it to be particularly visible. Specifically, you could observe her mouth the word 'wow' for about a second.
"You think it might be lost or something?" she added to the saint's inquiries a few moments later, after the initial fascination had quelled and the Caravaneer mentioned it was in an unusual spot.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Calamity is a housewife
Jack-O', Caravaneer's Airship
As the others discussed Bullfango's location, Jack-O' had been examining the insides of the airship, looking just a little like a child in some sort of confectionary store.
But something else outside of the ship captured her attention most of all. The Dah'ren Mohran certainly demanded it, with its massive size, along with the way it cut through the sea of sand, leaping much like a sperm whale would. The thing's size rivaled that of the Megadeth class Gears back home, and without any immediate danger present, she was finally able to appreciate the majesty of a creature that size.
She admired the creature with starry eyes, and kept watching it as the telltale sounds of a blade being drawn were heard, she even responded to Santa without turning to her.
"I~ kinda doubt it... we were told before that the monsters in this land are peaceful... no quarrel with humans, apparently."
Very much unlike the Gears, a fact Jack-O' appreciated as long as she was here.
Ragna, Everwood
Still clutching onto the jar, Ragna shifted it to fit under her armpit and returned to the dig site...
"Alright, that's one wave of bandits-"
... to find a fight brewing between Velvet and the ever-irritable Scott, a lanky fellow with a German accent and a bipedal duck beaver.
No, Ragna had never heard of platypi before today.
"- cleared."
She thought that perhaps asking Ranma would be her best bet.
"Lemme guess, Scott said some dumb shit and pissed someone off?"
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani
"Eh... kinda... sorta..." Hedging for a moment in a bid to defend her maybe friend slash current acquaintance in regard to Ragna's questioning even as she looked at the particularly heated argument from an outsider perspective (much to her chagrin considering how much times she was a part of a heated argument with the threat of violence looming over the horizon), the martial artist winced before slowly nodding his head. "Yeah, he pretty much did."
"They won't have my babies!" Astolfo responded with a thumbs up even as he ran around the place like a particularly hyperactive pink blur with an entire cape full of squirming pet Poogies in a bid to keep them safe. "And yeah, that sounds delicious! I bet the others would enjoy some crab meat!"
Making angry crab noises by clacking its shell and frothing at the mouth, the giant enemy crab used its currently folded and rust colored claws to shield its sensitive eyestalks from the weapon fire, the grenade went unnoticed up until the point it exploded. With a bang, the thing was launched about a foot off the ground with its underside emitting smoke before it toppled onto its side with its legs waving around wildly in the air like a forest of swinging swords. Judging from the angry movements, the thing seemed to be quite a bit ticked off to say the least.
"Aw yeah, you attacked its weak point for massive damage!" Unwittingly parroting the artificial intelligence's words of choice was a nearby mook, the one who was currently tending to the concussed Blender in the distance. "If any of you have ice or electric themed weapons, use those! It's weak towards that!"
"Seriously, you're helping the people that killed Benny?" A rather gruff voiced Poogie napper asked even as he glared daggers at the foursome's back, the same guy that had exclaimed about the poor dead man earlier.
"Well, they are sorta taking care of the thing that would DESTROY US ALL!" Rebuking the less farsighted companion while continuing to treat the Blender's wounds with a potion, the poindexter that seemed to know quite a bit about the local ecology then took a glance at the thing... and noted that the skull was pointed directly towards the group... with a build up of light appearing in its maw. "Oh no, it's charging up! It's a firing its laser!" Judging by the wording, some sort of intense beam attack would be coming henceforth if no one did anything to either dodge or disrupt the attack.
edited 18th Jan '18 8:37:35 AM by Makaioh
Desert - Airship
"Hmm... I don't think it should," he said to Santa. "The city's got a solid foundation, it can't dig through the rock like it can the sand. If it walked in though.... Well the Guild should be able to divert it." He nodded at Lapis. "Like you said, probably just lost or confused, poor thing.""Just where exactly are you folks from, if you have to be told that the monsters are good company?" the Caravaneer asked Jack-O' curiously. "And how do I avoid it? That sounds like pure hell!"
As he spoke, a sandship came into view of the airship. It was following after the Dah'ren Mohran, more than keeping pace with it. It sometimes fell back trying to avoid the craters the creature was leaving as it jumped, and then gradually drew closer to it each time it landed. It seemed like it would overtake the giant lizard in a matter of minutes, if not sooner.
The Farm
"I just knew it!" the Cat said happily at Fox's words. "Ask me something? What did - oh, hmm?" she peered over at the paper Fox was showing her. "That's somewhere in the slums. Truly a dreadful place. Anyway, what did he want to talk about? Was it about the business we were discussing the other day?"The Arena
Rangerous rolled back after Susan 'hit' him, the man heaving his greatsword up with a flourish. "BEGINNER'S LUCK! YOU WON'T BE SO LUCKY AGAIN! LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES TWICE - BUT RANGEROUS DOES!""Shelko! Shkelenko! She lowneko!" members of the audience tried to cheer. Susan had a pretty hard name to pronounce.
"What's the big idea?" Rangerous hissed at Susan when his mouth was concealed by his arms. "Stop pulling your punches!"
"PREPARE TO FACE THE HURRICANE SWORD!"
With that, he threw out his right arm like a whip, the greatsword gripped tightly. He started to rotate, getting a large horizontal circular slash going in order to turn himself into a human tornado. Figuratively. He was literally still just a guy holding his sword out level while spinning counter-clockwise.
edited 18th Jan '18 4:05:26 PM by nman
Salute the freedom fairy! ._.7
9S, ambiguously gay duo ship
The android, as soon as he had calmed down enough to verify their situation, had excitedly assaulted everyone around him with a non stop barrage of questions quicker than they could possibly hope to answer him. After learning everything he could from Elesis and Griffith, he had practically danced his way over to the brothers and asked them everything about their world, their culture, their lifestyle, their technology, how their ship was flying...you get the picture. Overwhelming curiosity practically bled from the ecstatic youth; if he had any reservations or sorrow about being torn from his home world, he sure wasn't one to reveal it.
Incidentally, he still hadn't given his name.
"So are there any more...human settlements out here in the desert? What kind of wildlife lives out here? Does it ever — "
He practically choked when the gigantic sand dragon came into view, unable to hold in an awed 'whoa...' as he watched it leap above the sands.
"That's one heck of a monster alright." He tore off his hood to get a better look — revealing for the first time his face and his white, wild hair. While the hint of excitement was still in his eyes, he found himself frowning at the sight of it descending back into the sand as a thought occurred to him. "It's not a threat to the humans here, is it? If it is, we should probably kill it."
He glanced at the brothers, expecting a reaction, but something caught his interest once more out of the corner of his eye and he darted his attentions back to the sands.
"Wait, is that another ship following it?" He leaned over the rails, using his left hand to block out the sun and get a better look. "I can't tell who's on it, but they're following after the monster. Should we help them?"
edited 21st Jan '18 3:12:05 PM by tvtropesnoob
"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016
Calamity is a housewife
Jack-O', Caravaneer's Airship
Jack's grin never left her face.
"From reeeaaally out of town. Tee hee! Don't worry Mister Caravaneer, it's not a place you have to be concerned about. Although I will admit, I've met some pretty nasty specimens where I'm from. This fella doesn't seem anything like... them."
The airship tailing the Dah'ren Mohran caught her eye, and while her eyes took on a serious sharpness, the grin still didn't leave her.
"Looks like we have company. And they've taken an interest in our monster. If you catch my drift."
Ragna, Dig Site
"Damn it, a part of me wished I was wrong."
Placing the jar on the ground, Ragna folded her arms as she watched the ensuing conflict. She was deciding whether or not it was necessary for her to intervene, and the thought scrunched her eyebrows.
Finally making her decision, she stepped forward and somewhat between Velvet and Scott.
"You guys heard boss-man, right? We should be moving to the next site now."
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani
She summoned her sleigh once again, and said to de captain "We will go down there and see what they are up to! Spreading a little Christmas Cheer to them isn't off our itinerary." Then she'd fly down there once everyone interested in this particular leg of the adventure had hopped on.
Turning back to the lucky lady, she said "You got a new sword, congratulations."
"—But, yeah. Ready to hit the road?" and then they did hit the road after the fox picked up the sleepy lady on her back the end
"Not so fast! Spinning uh GLAIVE!" With that cry, she jumped high and tried to counter his horizontal spin with a vertical one, hoping to dodge his blade and (actually) rake his head with her claws. Because, apparently, he wanted to get murdered today. Foreigners are kind of weird.
The Mighty Pen
Tali'Zorah - Dig Site - Mission Accomplished?
Tali had been acting as the eyes and ears of the others during the brief skirmish, but as it turned out, it hadn't been necessary for her to take the field and there were no casualties. That was suspicious, and she figured something else was on the horizon, but it was time to move on. Recalling her spy drones, she rose to her feet and took up a post near the shipboard weaponry. The admonishment of Scott, she felt, wasn't going to have much effect, but it might do the one admonishing him some good, so she let it go on. Everyone needed to let off stress somehow.
"How long until the next stop, then?" she asked of one of the crew.
edited 22nd Jan '18 10:55:25 PM by RedCedar
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao Tzu
Velvet continued to glare at Scott as various people came over to try to get her to walk away. Growling slightly in annoyance, her claw vanished, shrinking back down as bandages reformed around it.
"Fine. This isn't worth my time anyway. Get us wherever the hell we're going next, quicker the better."
With that said, she walked away, headed for the emptiest part of the deck and glaring out at her surroundings, clearly not in the mood to be bothered.
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Tucker - Poogienapping Caves
"Hey, D? We got any ice or electricity?"
"The only electrically-based weapon contained in this suit is an ehmp, which only effects electronics."
"Make with the stabby stabby, gotcha'."
Tucker replaced his rifle and switched back to his sword. Activating his speed boost, he burst forward and would attempt to leap atop the Asshole Crab and stab it's underside with his plasma sword.
A dogged fellow, aren't we?
Lucina - Gathering hall
Lucina shot Tessa wide-eyed glance - it seemed she was going to try and sell this cover story to the hilt! Unfortunately, this had the unintended consequence of deflecting the Ace's attentions ever more firmly onto her. The taguel girl let out a soft, irritated huff, drawing herself up with regal indignation as her blush brightened. That this man would assume that she would abandon her companion just because they were a little tardy. It didn't matter that her companion was entirely hypothetical - it was the principle!
"I will be quite alright, I assure you!" She said, setting one hand on Tessa's back and gesturing towards an empty four-seat table on the other side of the hall. "Thank you again for your kind assistance." This had all the air of a monarch dismissing some underling, and the girl quickly started to usher her comrades away.
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
"Think there might be something unusual driving it out here?" Lapis added to her inquiry, as Shiriku decided he wanted to go on a holly jolly sleigh ride and jumped right into the seat, trotting in a circle before plopping down on one side. "Just thought we should rule it out, since you said yourself this isn't normal for them."
"That inspires hope for the survival of the multiverse..." From the sound of it, Ranma's bemoaning the poor team cohesion on display at the moment didn't exactly encourage Dr. D to be optimistic. "Though I guess any effort is better than none at all. I mean, a dysfunctional team still counts as something, right? If they're still making progress, at least..."
Perry watched Velvet grumpily stomp back onto the ship, putting his hand down though not letting up on the serious expression, then when she was finally out of his immediate view facepalmed and let out a 'this'll be a fun adventure' sigh, before starting to himself walk inside and gesturing the others still outside to follow.
Doof, accordingly, went along, though still hanged around the other, more feminine martial artist in the area (assuming she too started to board again instead of loitering). "Well, I guess that's dealt with. Hey, what's with that lady going on about eating people? Is she some sort of mutant vampire or, like...? I guess I could ask her herself but I don't really want to risk being clawed for a while."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Noire- Gathering Hall
She played along too well. As indicative by Noire's face going red enough to give any Extreme Forged Weapon a run for it's money.
"Uh..."
Just about as she was going to say "T-that was supposed to be a surprise, d-darling", Lucina led her off, and Noire followed, figuring she'd do the same.
She was only glad Neptune wasn't here.
Magilou- Poogie Cavern
"Ice? That's nice. I have the spell... consise."
"Hm. Need to work on how to rhyme, when I have the time."
Magilou was nearly done with the spell, all she needed to do know was...
"Looks like you're going to be put on Ic-"
Was that a spell the crab was charging up?
"Seriously?" Magilou said as she canceled her charge and tried to get out of the way.
Perhaps one day she'll get off a spell. Someday.
"Hey man, calm down. It ain't much to pick a fight over, yanno." Seeing that people were already getting into the whole 'disgusted with the people they had to work with' part of multiversal party hookups, the martial artist hefted a sigh and moved on over to the sleep deprived guy to try to both calm him down and lead him towards the ship so they could get a move on.
A brief burst of light spat itself out from the crab's skull to lance at the position that Magilou had been prior before that attack was prematurely ended by a certain space marine doing the traditional Hunter's approach to inflict large amounts of pain in a small amount of time- jump on giant monster and stab them repeatedly with a sharp blade while hanging on for dear life.
With the thing upside down like it was and the thing's joints being dug into pretty deep by the futuristic weapon multiple grades sharper than a simple steel knife, it was pretty clear how much the Ceanataur was hating the sensation even as its ichor spurted out in spurts and dribbles. The thing unfolded its claws so that the fore-limbs were now twice as long, the sinister scythes then descending towards the annoyance to try to slice and dice.
"Execute Rider of Black special technique!" Bellowing out from his spot and pointing towards the now unblocked entrance leading out of the caverns, the Rider then promptly began dashing full pelt on out of the place. Shocked by the cowardice involved, the Poogie nappers stared blankly at each other before also doing the same thing to take advantage of the distraction given.
Everwood Dig Site - Moving Out
"Not far at all, missy," the ship's captain said to Tali, after letting out a sigh of relief that the squabble had come to a stop. The crew finished packing things up, and they were ready to go.After that, it was smooth sailing.
For all of ten minutes, until the ship fell into a hole.
Cresting over a particularly tree-covered hill that forced the ship to practically fly blind, the sand ship suddenly found itself airborne, falling down into a gigantic crevice. Its fall came to a stop almost as suddenly as it had started, as the sides of the ship scraped against the edges of the fissure until it miraculously stopped falling further. The ship seemed to be in the narrowest part of a roughly triangular crevice, currently wedged into the narrowest part at the tip. Their forward momentum had carried them over most of the gap, leaving several hundred feet of cavernous space between them and the rear wall of the chasm. They were still at least a hundred feet away from the surface, and another hundred or more feet away from the rocky cavern ground below them.
Opposite the ship and at the bottom of the other end of the giant cavern, stood a T-Rex.
◊ Or at least, what people from Earth might think resembled a T-Rex, as for every similarity the creature had with the dinosaur, it had traits distinctly marking it as its own strange breed of monster. Despite all the comparisons that could be drawn to that dinosaur, the main difference was that this monster was well over eighty feet tall, and looked as though evolution had built it to kill anything and anyone it met.
At the moment, though, it was anything but scary. It was curled up on its hindquarters, its legs bent into a squat, and its tail mostly obfuscated due to being behind its body. A large tree trunk with a pointed tip was stabbed into its chest, sticking upright out of the floor of the ravine like a telephone pole. It was prevented from even letting out a proper roar due to the pressure on its chest, so it resorted to letting out a pained, whinny-like roar. Several tree trunks and massive boulders were collapsed onto its back, the sheer weight forcing it to struggle against it to avoid being driven down into the spike. Making matters worse for the monster, the tree trunk in its chest was only one of many that littered the ravine. There were dozens, if not hundreds, scattered about, including under the ship - which they no doubt would have impaled themselves on if they had been going any slower. Some of these sharpened trees were extremely close to the monster, poking at it from multiple directions, and making it impossible to push itself to a side or up against the boulders, lest it impale itself on another one of the
"Damn!" the Captain said, picking himself up off of the floor. He had been thrown against the deck from the impact, and nearly knocked out. "What in the hell - where in the hell?" Looking around the dimly-lit gorge, his eyes widened as he saw where they were. "Must be some sort of... poacher's trap... but... but... I've never seen - hell I've never heard of one this big."
Desert Sand Ship
Over on the Knight Brothers' ship, both Knights were getting annoyed by 9S."What do you mean culture? It's all everyone's ever known. Or you from across the ocean or something?" the Red Knight said, steering the ship.
"Why don't you go ask a blacksmith for technology?" the Black Knight grumbled.
"What are you, an idiot? Anyone hunting a monster's up to no good," the Red Brother added to 9S.
"Hey, we're getting close!" the Black Knight shouted, their ship drawing close to the enemy ship quickly and steadily....
Desert - Airship
"If you say so," the Caravaneer said to Jack-O' before Santa flew away with her sled.Desert - Airship and Sand Ship Crews Combined
There were four people on the sand ship, most of them focused on the monster they were chasing, and either helping to steer the ship or keeping an eye on it.One man, though, stood on the crow's nest keeping watch. He noticed the incoming sleigh and started shouting something indistinguishable to the people below him, who started scurrying around. He turned his bow - a monstrosity nearly ten feet in size - and fired an arrow the size of a person's leg at Santa's incoming vehicle.
Farm -> Slums
As Fox had guessed, the woman wasn't much heavier than your average woman. Though she did seem to be a bit of a snuggler in her sleep. Aside from that, there was no complication with her waking up as they headed back into town to the place the paper had indicated.It seemed the cat lady hadn't been exaggerating. This place was an utter piece of shit. It was a multi-story building that looked like it was probably a business of some sort on the first floor, and probably four floors of apartments, but it was hard to tell for sure as nearly all the windows were boarded up and it seemed like each floor melted into the next. The surroundings weren't too hot themselves, as nearly a dozen cats were strung out on potions, lounging around in the alleyway like mindless animals. To top it all off, despite the sun being high overhead, the alleys were so narrow and there was so much rooftop clutter that it made the whole place extremely dim.
"Hey what're, what's goin' on with Jessie?" A drunk man, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, said as stumbled out of the chair on the porch, staggering his way towards Fox.
The Arena
Rangerous didn't seem to have a snowball's chance in hell to hit Susan, his own large and slow sword swing being no match for her much faster strike. He recoiled back at the blow, doing a dodge roll to put some distance between him and his foe."YOU JUST MADE THE LIST!" he shouted, wiping blood off of his nose with his off-hand and waving it at the audience. "THE LIST OF PEOPLE RANGEROUS NEEDS TO TEACH A LESSON!"
He picked up one of the weapons that had been thrown into the arena earlier - in this case, an enormous axe - and threw it at Susan like a tomahawk.
Gathering Hall - Tessa
"ehehe of course honey ehehehehe," Tessa said absentmindedly, following after Noire on autopilot and sitting down next to her at Lucina's table.The Gathering Hall
"These are on the house," a barmaid wearing a red outfit said to Lucina, Noire, and Tessa, setting down some ice-cold, fruity-looking, and very alcoholic drinks in front of them. She had smile that was certainly there, but the awkward ways she bent her jaw muscles made it look more like she had to force it. "That moron's always trying to chase whatever cute piece of tail hasn't gotten sick of him. Sorry about that."Under her breath, she added "Too bad he never messes up enough that we can ban his dumb ass...."
edited 28th Jan '18 8:33:43 PM by nman
Stop Killing My Titles
Pretty Boy
"Don't mind him, he's from far away." To be fair, the monster emerging from the sand looked like a particularly veritable creature, so Griffith could understand why 9S was so excited about it.
But, there were more important notions to deal with; like the poachers trying to hunt down the sand dragon. "Do you think these might be affiliated with Bullfango?" He asked, drawing his sabre, in an impeccable Hawaiian shirt. "Even if not, I suppose teaching them a proper idea will not hurt anyone. Except them, maybe." There Griffith was, trying to crack jokes.
Cranky Cyborg and Old Crone
"That thing is enormous..." Despite the quiet admiration in Maria's voice, there was wariness too. She knew too well of big monsters and that they should not be trusted so easily, intelligent or not. "By all means, try not to stop by Yharnam then, good sir. The locals are much less welcoming than here, both men and beasts."
"In any case, I suppose it's about time to stretch out these old bones some." And then, she simply stood up, the pegleg turning into a proper limb, rolling her shoulders slowly. "I would loathe to be too rusty for the Bullfango. Keep watch of my wheelchair, if you please." With an agility unexpected of someone both so old and tall, she hopped onto the sleigh, twinblade in one hand, a fancy flintlock pistol in the other.
"...any chance these are Bullfango's men chasing it to a more advantegous location? Anywhere where it would be unable to escape them, for example. I would not put it past him to use the city as such an obstacle; he would be killing two birds with one stone." Max posited, watching Santa and Maria fly off.
Just Old Crone
It was clear the crew of the sandship wasn't friendly. "Let's try and keep one of those rapscallions alive." Maria hummed, taking aim at the incoming arrow - hell of a projectile, that; even bigger than the ones Simon liked so much - and firing. A quicksilver bullet might not have been enough to completely divert such a huge arrow off the path, but it should have been enough to alter its trajectory to make dodging for Santa easier.
grah
Griffith, Brothers' Sandship
"Well, "friend" is a bit of a stretch. After all, it appears we are only meeting now." Griffith smiled thinly in response to Red Knight's query. "Follow the Caravaneer's airship, if you please. The rest of our group is taking the flight with him."
Then, he focused upon the newcomer. "Long story short, we are on a quest to apprehend a notorious criminal. Whatever you want to ask, sir, me or Elesis over there can answer."
Cranky Old Man and Kooky Old Lady, Caravaneer's Ship
Max couldn't help but offer a sour grimace at Santa's claim that her "Saintly Nose" would lead the way. He had no choice but to offer a benefit of the doubt here; it beat flying in circles. Something else got his attention for now however; the cloud of dust rising from the desert. "I don't suppose Bullfango would be bold enough to attack the city?" He theorized with a grim face.
Maria, meanwhile, had to savor the notion of flying for the first time in her long life. There was something exhilarating about the notion of rising up into the skies. The arid desert air made the experience a little less pleasing, but she wasn't the type to complain about such minor inconveniences. "Should he not be there, 'tis probably wise to visit any locations the brigand roamed in earlier." She addressed the Caravaneer after a moment. "There should be a clue or two to his further whereabouts there."
grah