Benevolent Devilish Angel
Eve began feeling increasingly unsettled. Between seeing how tore up everyone was and seeing everyone do their bests and still having no idea what she herself should do...along with this bad feeling nagging at her mind..she wasn't sure what to do anymore. She could only standby and wait, standby and watch, standby and think...
Think...
Because what could anyone gain from killing this town...? She wanted to know...
edited 21st Aug '16 5:17:30 PM by angeloffluffiness
And in this heart, our bond cannot break. From here to the end and back again I will stand sharp. The light in me will guide you home...
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Heroes - Church, Eden's Gate
"...Jesus, Mareh and Joseph." The man on the altar said, his eyes wide and his hands feeling his now patched-up skin and staring at chaos' wings and Menardi's magic. "You really are angels."
He swung his legs off the side of the altar, and stood up, still feeling the still-bloody patch of skin where his bullet wound had been.
"...didja take the bullet out? Suppose it don't matter, it'll come out eventually." He patted chaos on the shoulder and smiled at Menardi. "Thank ya. I truly mean it. Without you, I'd be in the graveyard with all those other men."
Between Ranma and Menardi's work, the three bed-ridden boys were on their feet almost as fast as the altar man was, surrounded by rejoicing family.
"Lamar Brooks is the no-good son of a bitch who's been terrorizin' this town the past four months. Never met the bastard myself. No-one here has. But he wants this town, and he wants us gone from it. Don't know why. Tried buyin' us out, then tried scarin' us. But I'm guessin' that after the first three months, he got sick of us killin' the outlaws he kept sendin' after us. 'Bout a month ago, he stole or killed all the horses in the valley. Turned away the supply coaches, the mail coaches and the transport coaches. Burned half the farms and homesteads in the valley. Fucker even slaughtered the local tribe a Injuns."
She motioned at one of the injured boys and his family, who were quite clearly survivors of that tribe.
"We been usin' the buildins at either end of the town as fortifications, but the outlaws burnt most 'em down. Stables are left, but they got more bullet holes than most the dead. As for traps... there's two ways into town, and they keep switchin' which way they come in. They come from the North, like you, there's nothin' but desert. They come over the Mountain Pass, and through the forest in the south... there's a graveyard on a hillside 'bout a mile from here. The path to the Mountain Pass goes right through it. We've caught 'em from there a time or two."
Agnes drew her gun, and fired a bullet into the stone a foot from Scout's head, drawing flinches from most and a cry of shock from the Preacher.
"Now, we ain't got no money. Used the last of it hirin' a group of mercenaries to help protect us. Either you help us, or you walk. And if you call me 'babe' one more time, I'll make that ugly face of yours even more ugly."
"Ah, c'mon, Woods." The altar man said, approaching Agnes. "He just tryin' to be friendly."
"West, I don't care for his kinda friendly."
"In any case, you do got money." West said, smiling. "Bein' one of those mercenaries and now the sole beneficiary of that fund, I'm callin' this job pro bono. None of the seven of us had family. No-one for it to go to."
Genos - Southern Burning Building, Eden's Gate
"Hey, Mister? Whatcha doing?"
Behind him, Genos would find a group of four teenage boys, covered in muck and holding shovels, staring at him with open eyes.
"That's Mayor Woods' house, Mister. He might be dead, but his daughter sure gonna be angry if she finds ya thievin'. And she's scary." Said one of the boys, a few years older than the rest.
"And pretty." Said another.
"She hear you say that, Jimmy, she'll put you in the ground sure as she brought you into this world." Said the first.
Villains - Abernathy Lumber Mill
"Actually, Miss Blue, I tried buyin' them out first. This whole enterprise became the cheaper option around the time I got refusals for their weight in gold."
Wyatt returned from the back room, and spread a map
across the table. "Jesus, Wyatt, this thing?" Brooks asked, derision in his voice. "What happened to the other map? The one that showed the whole valley?"
"Last tahm ah saw it, Johnson had it." Wyatt responded, placing little weights on each corner, stopping the map from rolling back up.
"The Johnson that stole my horse?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck Johnson. Anyway, this here's a map of Eden's Gate. Now, I'll be apologizing, because it's upside down. The river runs South, so the bottom of this map is actually North. The cartographer who drew it originally messed it up, so when others came along to add more detail and pretty it up, they never knew about the screwup. Wyatt, you being the mercenary sort, tell 'em what they're up against."
Wyatt looked at the assembled group, and sighed.
"Eden's Gate is in an open-ended box canyon. Unless you want to do some mountain climbin', or you can fly, you can either hit it from the North, or the South. To get to the South, follow the path south a here, through the mountain pass, and past the graveyard. You're have trees for covah, whole forest of 'em. To get to the North, follow the path North. Problem there is thatcha won't have any covah, flat desert. No real four-ti-fi-cay-shuns in the town, they mostly usin' the buildins on the outskirts for covah."
"Now, Eden Valley had a population of about two hundred, includin' a small tribe a Injuns. Ahm pretty sure that's down ta 'bout thirteh. Probableh less. Most men are dead. They bought 'bout a half dozen mercenaries a pair a weeks back, but ah seen 'em all go down. Ah count 'bout a half dozen grown women, nine boys with rifles. Rest are girls and children. And the Preacher."
Brooks smiled, and took over from Wyatt.
"I don't really care how you get rid a these people. Kill 'em, if you want. Slow, quick, torture, abuse, don't matter to me. Or you could just tie 'em up, leave 'em to me for some cheap labour in settin' up the mine. Or hell, if yall just kill the boys, I'm pretty sure I can sell them off to so houses of ill repute. God knows I gotta make some reparations on behalf of some of my employees here. Some of the girls sent here got, aheh, misplaced."
He gave the assembled group a shit-eating grin.
"Don't matter if you think the girls are too young for that kinda work, gettin' them in early breaks them into the lifestyle easier. Hell, some bastards like 'em that yo-"
Brooks was interrupted by a bolt of green plasma striking him in the face, though thanks to immunity, it splashed off him and onto the floorboards and table, leaving smoldering scorch marks wherever it landed. He fell to the ground in shock, crying out as his balance went from under him. Anyone who followed the plasma's path backwards would find it's source: a rounded, matte black gun held in the outstretched hand of Tesseract.
The masked assassin grunted with displeasure, before turning and walking out the front door. Anyone who followed him would soon find him sitting on a large tree stump, staring into the distance in silence.
Hol Horse - Nemesis House Hallway
Prior to being brought in to the house, Hol Horse would find himself in tiny cubicles, completely restrained by invisible forcefields, and forced to sit through hastily-edited footage from only a few minutes earlier, of Liberty explaining
the situation and making the introductions of everyone who hadn't left the house. The footage ended with a title card proclaiming the team he was on (Villain), before the viewing screen erupted into a bright white portal and automated pistons pushed him through. Once he left the white portal, there was no-one in the Hallway to greet him. At least, not at first. Liberty soon walked into the hallway, playing with some sort of advanced phone, before looking up and noticing the new arrival.
"Uh... Look, can we do the introduction when the others come back? It's kinda more for their benefit than the viewers. You understand, right?" They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
sword of promised halp
Tohsaka Rin; Church
The long-haired girl doesn't seem impressed by the situation, but at least she hasn't scolded anyone yet. Her pretty brow is marked with deep creases, in the way of someone used to shaking her own solutions out of the drawer of life. She's kept Lancer on a leash ever since they arrived, reining him in with sharp glances and the occasional elbow to the breastplate.
"Lancer, get outside. Or squish your nose against the wall, whatever. I don't want this woman tripping over her pants to get to you. Not everyone has condoms shoved inside their shoes."
She gives Sousuke a wary glance, then turns her attention to Agnes. Whatever her thoughts on the Sakura Situation, they're clearly at the back of her mind. Tohsaka Rin is a woman of purpose.
"Sorry about that," she says to Agnes. "It's a curse, see."
She laces her fingers together and stretches them out, popping a few kinks in her neck as she does. She sighs in relief. Then her expression lightens, and a few bubbles return to her voice.
"Stress can really kill a girl," she says. "But I'm sure you know that. Anyway, here's the deal. I'll help you, but before that, I need all the jewels you can spare. They don't have to be expensive, but they can't just be bits of colored glass, either. I'd elaborate, but…"
She taps her chin.
"Alright, never mind elaborate. Here it is, short and simple. I use the jewels for magic. I pump them full of prana - that's magic juice - and then they explode, or heal people, or do whatever I make them do. A bit like what my friends did for those poor old saps over there, only more sophisticated."
She has the confidence of a woman with a blank cheque up her sleeve.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to pay me. You won't get them back, but I can't pocket them, either. The jewels blow up after I use them. If I get the chance, I'll return everything I can."
She stops again, looking at her hand. Then she raises it, clearly unaccustomed to sealing her word.
"I promise."
Kotomine Kirei; Abernathy Lumber Mill
When one has become the Supreme Pontiff and helped spoon a world into roughly equal portions, there is a marked tendency for everything else to seem like an anti-climax; nay, a veritable vanity of vanities. Even so now. I arrange my features in the old stoic mask, a paste of wet cardboard and dull incomprehension.
It is at this point that a heavenly drawl breaks into my head; that foster-child of defiance and a singularly slow mind. The nasal voice is grating, rough, and exquisitely obstinate.
Rejoice, Emiya Shirou.
My lips move, but I cannot speak for smiling. I approach him sideways, my gaunt face gleaming in the light of his golden sword. How obscenely wasteful. I have to resist the urge to circle.
"Do you know me, boy?"
edited 22nd Aug '16 7:10:18 AM by troydenite
'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023
The Mighty Pen
Kage - Lumber Mill
I was already starting to get a better sense of things just looking at the map. It was a poor excuse for a map, but it'd have to do. There were a few things we could try. Hell, maybe some of us could fly and come at them over the canyon rim. Maybe two teams, one to move across the flat ground to draw attention, another to advance stealthily through the forest for a coordinated attack? Then the old bastard started yammering on about all the fragged-up things he was gonna do to the townsfolk after we won and someone finally lost patience with him. I grinned as he went tumbling. It might have been pointless, but damned if it wasn't fun to watch. I'm no bleeding heart, but I'd just as soon shoot all the civvies if that sort of shit is what he had in mind for them. They'll end up dead anyway, no matter what I do, it might as well be quick.
"We get it, you're gonna frag'em," I tell the old bastard, "You can stop talking now and let us get to work." I turn back to the others. The guy who took the shot went storming out and I let him go. Better to let him cool off, but that's something we'll have to deal with before we get going. We can't have anyone going soft around here.
"First things first, can anyone here actually fly? Or maybe is just really good at rock climbing? Second, have we got any way to communicate between teams if we split up?"
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao Tzu
Witchcraft!
Quintet - Lumber Mill
For a brief moment, Quintet's eyes seemed sharper, angrier. But the moment passed, and his expression is as amicably neutral as ever.
"... I'll do the job." He said, simply.
This 'Brooks' man was a repulsive person, to be sure. But it wasn't like Quintet had much choice-
It's a fate worse than any death
-and it wasn't like Doctor Wily had never done anything worse. It wasn't like Quintet was not complicit in much, much worse.
He rapped Cy-Kill on the side with his knuckles..
"Hey, what's say you and I get goin' on ahead early and check things out? Since we don't need silly human things like rest."
Damn the man, damn the producers, damn the team, damn everything. Even if I wasn't a good person and trash, there was a limit to how much one could take. The man Lamar was exactly like the scum of the earth that Kiritsugu regularly went about culling, the sort of human debris that did naught but harmed their fellow men and supped from the well-being of others. In short, a human monster that my hands were itching to slay. A remainder of my days of heroism and remnant of youthful frivolousness. Still, in this sort of situation, one couldn't help but wish for the beast in human clothing to die a most karmic death. Hopefully the so-called Heroes would live up to their name and were competent enough to snuff out this poisonous bug.
Out of the sea of memories arose a particularly disgusting face, that of Shinji Matou. That same supercilious cockiness and mouth that spewed forth vile miasma. All of a sudden my killing intent arose, not towards the poor victims but towards this damn buffoon. The feeling of wanting to murder someone and not being able to, of frustrations piling up in one's bosom... My heart was like a furnace that was stoked to the point it all but overflowed with white hot sparks, insane flames of hatred billowing forth every time it was fed. A sneer came unbidden, reflected by the gaudy golden sword I made on a whim.
And then a familiar face brought itself into view via the same reflective surface, that of a angular man with dead fish eyes. "...Fake priest, so you were brought along for the ride as well?" Tilting my head up to stare at the surprise visitor, my eyes narrowed and smile displayed more teeth in a macabre grimace. "I knew that your ways of replacing ramen with mapo tofu and selling Black Keys for ridiculous amounts of money would get you into trouble one day but isn't this overkill? Or perhaps you were someone that always had evil in their heart all along despite your so-called profession as a Father?"
Kotomine Kirei was a man that I had always felt a sort of strong dislike for whenever we met, a shameless hack of a man that nevertheless proved his uses every now and then. A mixed reaction was had towards him, annoyance and grudging thanks for his. rescue and then... mentoring for the lack of a better word that made me the man I was today. It was he that opened my eyes to the hypocrisy of my ideals as well as the man that showed me the in-depth inherent cruelty of the magus world. A dark and poisonous savior that watches over my movements with a faint sense of amusement, he was the overseer of the Holy War. Also a total cheapskate with no sense of taste whatsoever.
Menardi was like the straw broke the camel's back, that last piece removed from a tower of Jenga blocks that caused it to topple over. Not even Ranma with her Soul of Ice could take the verbal abuse atop the horrible working conditions, even if she was soothed afterwards by the fact the damned woman could back up her barking. "Hey, ain't all of us one of you fancy pants magic users." Vehement emphasis was spat about on the specific word "magic" due to it being the very bane of her life up to this point, culminating in many negative brushes with the stuff. "Regular joes like us have to do with actual labor, thanks."
Done with her brief venting of feelings, the girl returned to a more amiable state as she checked over her patients with a sort of mother hen-like worry before deeming they were indeed spry enough to run around like the spring chickens they were. "Alright, that's some good work done here." Packing up her supplies for the moment since it seemed that all those injured that she could help were treated, the redhead looked around back at the mayor with a hard glint in her eyes. "So, if you had to say where the guy aiming for your town was hiding around these parts, reckon you could narrow it down? Chances are, if there's no guy to hire any more thugs, you'd get a lot more piece." The words were idle and playful, though the cold gleam in her gaze told people just how pissed off the martial artist actually was. "It would be a shame if such a man were to... meet with an unfortunate accident."
edited 22nd Aug '16 8:54:56 PM by Makaioh
Vampire Hunter
Juri, Lumber Mill
"Phh," Juri scoffed at Aria's guesses as to her deal as she stretched her legs. "I just like challenging fights."
"The way I see it, enemies are either toys for me to break or insects not even worth my time," Juri explained her particular point to Aria and then turned to Tira. "Why? Because our captors want to see us fight each other... If we are going over to this no-name town to conquer it for this no-name fool, where else would the moral, righteous idiots that also got kidnapped with us be except in the town itself preparing for our inevitable arrival and tasked with protecting the town and its people?"
Then Juri overheard Brooks explaining what he would do with captives, and looked even more annoyed than she had been. If she could, she'd be breaking this idiot's bones. While she was not adverse to causing collateral damage, she was one to avoid killing or capturing weaklings like those who live in Eden's Gate. The only thing that made this trip worth it was the potential to fight Ranma Saotome and some of the others she had noticed were powerful. And some of the others like Tira can follow through with that part of this stupid mission.
edited 22nd Aug '16 9:45:49 PM by GameGuruGG
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Tira shook her head at Aria. Oh, she's around, in my head that is. Sometimes she talks to me, sometimes she's quiet. Depends on her mood. Right now she's being quiet. That usually means she's annoyed with me, or she's thinking of something.
Tira glanced around, as if to check to make sure no one was listening. Then she leaned in close to whisper to where Aria's ear would have been if she was a human. Don't tell her I said this, but she's a really big meanie. Always yelling at me, calling me names, telling me I'm "stupid".
She leaned back out and turned to face Juri, scratching her head as she considered what Juri probably intended to be a rhetorical question. Sadly for Juri, Tira had never heard a question she was not prepared to respond to with the first thing that popped into her head.
Maybe these TV guys got bored with those boring guys and got rid of them? I mean, I guess if they're in the town, maybe they'll be fun to kill? I'm not sure, a lot of them seemed real boring, and it's less fun to kill boring people.
Brooks then made his presentation, and several people seemed angry at Brooks now. Tira scratched her head, the major implications of what he said went over Jolly's head as she focused on the (For her) important part.
But I don't wanna leave them alive! That's really stupid! What's the point of going all the way to this town if we're not going to kill them? You;re really stupid, Mr!
Tira spat at Brooks before wandering away to see what odd and ends she could find. It was really snowy out there, after all, and even if she could not really feel the cold anymore due to the powers she had long ago stolen, even Jolly would admit it was about time to replace her outfit. And luck was on her side as she found a random pile of assorting clothing. She had no idea what it was from, but she hardly cared about the source. She grabbed a few items and vanished for a moment behind a wall, out of sight of the rest of the group.
She reemerged in a much different outfit, with a black and white cowboy hat on, a bandit scarve covering most of her face, a leather, sleeveless shirt on with a holster that she had attached Soulgun and the spare ammo for it too, a belt with her grapple gun on it, and to finish off the outfit, brown cowboy pants and black and white cowboy boots. She stalked back into the room, Gloomy currently in control as she walked over to Kage.
I have this. She said as she pointed at her grapple gun. Useful shit, lets me zoom up to the tops of large buildings. Sadly, these people are so fucking backwater I don't think they'll have anything large enough to matter, and it's not meant for rock climbing. But....did he say there was a forest? At this point Gloomy gave a wicked smirk. I just so happen to be very good at moving unseen, and I've practically lived in forests for most of my life, so it's very easy for me to move through them. If some of you people keep their attention, I think I can sneak past them while they're distracted and slaughter everyone in that town, or just hit them from behind.
edited 23rd Aug '16 12:45:00 AM by Meanken
huzzaaaaaaaah
Tha' Church
To say Scout was confused by chaos' 'pat and an explanation' way of talking was an understatement. "I need the actual kind of money. You know, the paper-y thing— why am I trying to explain it to this guy? He looks like the kind of people I beat up in Boston!" And he made sure to lean over to the nice lady with the guns (Agnes, was it?) for the following phrase. "And I beat up lots of people!"
Pointing at Graham, Scout scoffed loudly. "Oh, I'll show you just how capable I am, Mr. Mummy. That's right! I called you Mr. Mummy. You know, I have a friend back home who I think is also a mummy, but at least he talks like a mummy, so I guess that's one thing you got wrong about your costume, huh?!" He said, delivering that line as if it held any weight or served as a form of 'taking someone down a peg'. "So how about you take some of your bandages and— WOAH WOAH WOAH!"
Jumping back and shifting into an awful 'karate' position, the Scout panted as he noticed the bullet inside the stone. "Alright, alright! Jeez! No need to go wasting bullets on me and that kinda shit— I got the message, alright?" Throwing his hands up in the air, Scout headed outside, grumbling all the way through. He kept on grumbling and kept on kicking any rocks in front of him until he eventually stopped near the small congregation of teens surrounding Genos.
Seemed like a rumble was gonna break out. Now Scout knew rumbles.
Clark remained near the group, just hovering. He felt very useless, the kind of useless you feel once in a lifetime. There were no big dumb monsters for him to punch. It was almost as if all he could do was bear witness to the destruction lead by this Lamarr man. "Ms. Agnes. I don't mean to be a downer but... how can we effectively help you? I don't think our employers will let us stay here for a long time."
Screw the Lion!
"Heh, y'all flatter me!" Kamuz said, puffing out his chest as more "praise"read was put upon him. He immediately deflated from Penmue spoke. "Coming from you though, I know it's total bullshit," he said to the knight. And then Kage spoke, pointing out the need for strategy and the possibility of the heroes being there.
"Ugh, fine, you go ahead with the boring stuff, just point me at I need to break shit," the demon said to the soldier. "And how do you know the heroes will be at the town we're going to raze?"
It was then Tira and Aria went into their conversation. At first he was hoping the two would go into a catfight, but then he found himself actually......interested in their conversation. Honestly, this was the first time the demon had a legitimate interest in what women were saying, outside of the usually screams for mercy, but that was more of a pleasure thing. Of course the specifics of what they were saying flew over the bandit's head, he did outside most of their gist. He found himself far less interested in Tira than before. Wanton murder is always fun, but its only truly great whenever there's loot to be stolen from the corpses.
That, and split personalities tended to be a real turn off.
Anyway, the minion finally came back with a map. Honestly a lot better quality than demon would ever admit to having. Brooks then droned on and on about specifics on the town. Kamuz only really had his attention return at the mention of what to do with the girls after they had presumably killed everyone else in town. The demon was already thinking some rather nasty thoughts in his mind.......
But Brooks suddenly had a face full of green energy, sending him to the floor. Kamuz stood back, shocked for a moment. He then turned to see where the shot came from, and spied Tesseract with a smoking gun in his hand. The demon scowled at the masked man as he walked out, immediately guessing why the Russian attacked their employer. Killjoy, Kamuz thought. Then Kage started asking if anyone could fly or mountain climb.
"*pfft* Of course I can climb mountains! These clubs ain't just good for bashing faces in!" Kamuz smugly said before flexes the muscles in all four arms.
"Well before, I did it with reckless abandon. Now I can't control myself!" ~ Jesse Cox, 2014
Paranormal Activity VII
Ryuko - Eden's Gate Church
After entering the church, Ryuko looked on at the others helping out the wounded, and listened in on the story Anges told. Something about a man named Lamar Brooks laying seige on the denizens of the town lately, and destroying their supplies left, right and center. She scratched her face sighing at the story. Protecting this town sounded like a real task. She did crack a smile seeing The Scout fail ti impress Anges though...
"That right there is payment enough. We'll make sure to send those assholes packin'..." Ryuko said confidently, with a chuckle at the Scout failing to be a tough guy.
Bowser - Lumber Mill
"Blah blah blah blah blah... We got the gist of our mission. If it's as easy as just destroying that town, let's just go already..." Bowser said impatiently with his arm folded. "The earlier the better so I - er - WE can get the rewards sooner.
Your works are one trope short.
Mill
-The man's spiel interrupted by a blast of arcane sorcery to the face but leaving him unharmed, Wulfrik gets to thinking. They clearly will not be able to torture him for information, and from the way he gleefully describes harming others like a Dark Elf slaver with an oversized ego, would probably enjoy it as well.-
This preacher, what god does he serve?
Lancer - Church
Lancer found most of the developments troubling.
Brooks seemed a particularly repugnant fellow from all these descriptions, and the injured assembled. Luckily some of those present could help with that. Lord Kayneth had considerable skill as well in that field, he recalled.
At any rate, helping these poor inhabitants with their problem was something he looked forward too. Neither his conscience or his pride as a knight could forgive Brooks.
Right now though, he probably ought to do as Rin demanded and keep his face hidden. There was a convenient dim corner next to the main entrance, and since he lacked the ability to enter his spirit form it appeared the best option.
"As you wish, Lady Rin."
Medicine - Lumber Mill
There was a lot going on here it seemed, and Medicine would be lying if said she had grasped all of it. She tilted her head slightly to one side as she tried to make sense of matters.
The man's manner of speech did not help matters. Not at all. The end there, before the big masked man had interrupted, was especially confusing.
Was he speaking of selling the other humans? Baffling, but the words that had been spoken offered no other interpetation to her.
Still, what she had understood thus far brought a smile to her face. By assisting this man, she would be helping the intraspecific strife of mankind. If humans saw other humans as property, then dolls would naturally be free to do as they wished.
Smiling, Medicine nodded to herself. Still, just to be sure, she turned to the Brooks person.
"Might I ask you to repeat the second half of that explanation?"
She had to be sure. Otherwise, helping a human would simply be no good, right?
edited 25th Aug '16 8:18:12 AM by joergenjetsam
Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable
Benevolent Devilish Angel
Between hearing Rin talk about blowing up gems, the strange exchange between Menardi and Ranma, wondering where Rose was, the explanation on Brooks, and just about everything else...Eve honestly was at a loss.
"I might tear his heart out. That is, though, very much beside the point. And...that is beneath me, so maybe not. However...I definitely want to beat him to a pulp so that helps."
She blinked then and turned to Rin Tohsaka, "I am unsure if they would count, but I have El Gems." She reached into a small pocket of her dress, pulling out several tiny bluish-white gems, "Would these help you?"
Pausing for a moment, while offering the gems, she looked at Moby and Remy, "Moby, Remy, can you two get me a birds-eye view of the town? Nothing came up from exploring, right? Tell me about the town from above."
The two drones flew off, and Eve was once again looking at Rin.
edited 25th Aug '16 1:59:22 PM by angeloffluffiness
And in this heart, our bond cannot break. From here to the end and back again I will stand sharp. The light in me will guide you home...
Aria - Lumber Mill
"It'll be our secret," Aria said to Tira.She nodded at Juri. While she thought the martial artist could probably stand to be a little more goal-oriented, she definitely understood what she meant about either using or breaking people. "Just keep it under control for now, don't fuck everything up because you want to duel some assholes," she said to Juri. "Keep it in your fucking pants until this shit's over, I'm sure you'll find plenty of volunteers to pummel when we're bored back at the house. Hell, if it'll get you to pay fucking attention to getting things done, I'll fight you when this is over."
If she had eyebrows, Aria would have had to resist the urge to raise them at all of the so-called villains that seemed to have a problem with their assignment. Considering that all of their asses were on the line unless they pleased their producers, what was thirty or less human lives to them? Thirty-one, in her mind, since while their goal was to work for and protect this asshole until time was up, she hoped that they'd have a spare minute after "winning" this horseshit game show contest where Brooks was open season. Not because she was particularly offending by having to kill some innocent bumpkins in the ancient past, but because he
She had her Omni-Tool take an image of the map, converted the north-south orientation to be correct, and then holoprojected it onto the table over the original map. "Alright, now that we have a map that wasn't drawn by a child, let's get down to business. Looks like there are two obvious routes where we can expect resistance, so the fastest way to get this over with is to find a route up onto the cliffside, then throw down some heavy ordinance on the buildings. Everything in this era looks like a piece of shit made either out of wood and brick, so conventional explosives should turn all the buildings to rubble in seconds, and incendiaries will burn what remains - and who."
"I have no idea what this means to you," she said to Agnes and the priest, "but you have my promise as an Oni that I won't let anyone else get harmed as long as I stand. Lemme tell ya, it takes a lot of effort to make me fall, so you're in good hands." Putting the rarely worked-out tactician's part of her brain into use, she asked them, "is there anywhere along that southern part that could be blocked off? Even if its just for a few minutes, that would be helpful."
Oh, right. This is the past. Sometimes it was easy to forget that with all the strange people around him.
In any case, even if their newfound employer certainly seemed to take far too much enjoyment out of this job, he was still going to work. He didn't feel a particular need to help the man up, but he was perfectly willing to ignore his perceived pain and suffering in order to develop battle plans! "I can broadcast and reroute communications through my internals," he said to Kage, "so I might as well volunteer as comms officer for the group. I'm sure I can fuck with my systems to match whatever outdated hardware you all might have. And, I'm not exactly a fan of it, but I should be able to scale cliffs if need be." Saying that last bit did make him a bit wary of having to travel with the red giant...but even if he was annoying, he wasn't hostile like beforehand.
Heck, it was worth a try to see just how much bullshit you could pour into the mouth of a metastreumon like him. It's not like he'd ever had the chance to talk to one before...though, going by the apparent fact that these people were all from different universes, the likelihood was that the metastreumonic force was completely different in all of them. Maybe even non-existent! For that reason he'd have to ask some questions at a later time, partially because he was in the middle of something, mostly because he was going to have to build up a lot of strength to try and get a serious answer out of Kamuz on the matter...
Vampire Hunter
Chun-Li, Eden's Gate
"This Lamar Brooks needs to be brought to justice!" Chun-Li said determinedly, slamming her fist down into her palm, but then turned to some of the others. "Unfortunately, this is a lawless place with the nearest lawman likely weeks away, so we will ultimately have to deal with Brooks ourselves."
"Thankfully, I am an In... a law-woman of sorts," Chun-Li said to the Preacher and Agnes, before turning to Clark when he asked about how long they would have to stay. "Brooks must have a reason for wanting this town off the map... If you are okay with it, Agnes, I would like to explore the town to see if I can find out his motive."
Since Chun-Li knew something of the Wild West, she knew that the fastest, most accurate shot would be the closest thing to the law in a town... In this town, that would be Agnes.
Juri, Lumber Mill
"Please... I've already been thinking up a plan for the town," Juri admitted to Aria. "I may like challenging fights, but I'm not a stupid brute, you know."
Juri glanced over at Kamuz when she said that, before turning back towards Aria as she followed her to the table to look at the map and thought on how to adapt her plan.
"I think we should be prepared in case those heroes show up," Juri added looking at Tira specifically. "From what I've seen, they are pretty powerful so they are not to be underestimated."
Juri licked her lips at the thought of fighting some of the more powerful heroes like Ranma Saotome, before moving on and looking over to Kage.
"When I get into a fight, buildings and people nearby tend to get destroyed," Juri smirked at Aria, darkly chuckling and stretching her legs. "Buildings a century ahead of what this town appears to have."
"I could merely cause wanton destruction to the town, but the heroes will try to fight me," Juri concluded to the others.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Screw the Lion!
Kamuz gave a low "ooooo-ooooo" when Aria pulled out a 3D map model of the town using some sort of strange magic. He started getting interest in the blue skinned woman's words when he grasped the concept of "tossing something really heavy from really high onto the town of innocents" from her explanation. "I can easily toss a couple of boulders up from that cliff right down upon the heads of those little ants!" the demon gleefully said, trying hard not to laugh in sadistic anticipation. "Plus, I can easily make that building over there my first target," he said, pointing to the church on the model.
"If that's a church, we can crush their spirits as well as their bodies!" Kamuz explained. "If the ants are like any other God worshipping losers, nothing tells them how little their God thinks of them then completely destroying their main sanctuary. And if the heroes are there and they're the usual bleeding hearts all hero types are, they'll be too distracted in consoling the heartbroken worms to put up a decent fight!"
"Well before, I did it with reckless abandon. Now I can't control myself!" ~ Jesse Cox, 2014
Stop Killing My Titles
Jan
Oh, here was Captain Buzzkill of the 1st Company of Fucking Shitheads with his tactics and reasoning.
Granted, it wasn't like Jan didn't understand Kage's worries. Idiot he might have been, Kamuz was still a vital asset, especially now that he claimed he can scale the cliffside. Still, a little fun had to be in order. They weren't a military company, after all. "Dude, I think Red Menace over here could serve for heavy ordnance alright." He chuckled, gesturing briefly towards the red giant. "Don't diss the churches though. Priests can be nasty motherfuckers."
"Shit, we have one such nasty motherfucker on-board." The artificial vampire grinned as he looked over at Kotomine for a moment. "Anyway, I'm shit with the whole secrecy thing, so I'm down for being the distraction. As long as you give me the turtle for mobile cover" He glanced at Bowser, then back at Aria's map. "we can do the distracting alright."
Graham
"If he wished to sacrifice that much to gain control of this town, something of equal worth must be hidden here. Jewels. A gold mine. Anything his type would perceive as worthy of his crimes." If the bandaged man was furious, he did not show it.
Thinking about it, it was quite like the situation with White Legs, who craved Caesar's attention by torching his town to the ground and salting the earth. Here, however, it appeared the desires were not of the ideological sort, but of simple greed. That, in itself, was a sin more grievous.
"In light of the situation, I suppose we will have to divide into two groups. One will proceed with fortificating this place while the other, a smaller one, will track down the dog and put him down." He looked over at Ranma, then to Chun-Li. "Seeing what Lamar Brooks has done so far, even relinquishing the town would not satisfy him."
He looked over at the exit where Scout has just left. It was clear enough that militia's leader barely tolerated the boastful man and he was getting on Graham's nerves as well. However, if there was any proof to his abilities, now was a good time to test it. He moved outside to confront the loudmouth, taking notice of Genos and some boys - no doubt locals perusing for items.
"Mr. Scout. I think there's a place where you can be of great use."
grah
Venom Snake - Church
The old soldier followed a good amount of his team to the church after hearing the irate woman's blame on one "Lamar Brooks." He guessed that Brooks was no ordinary criminal if he were to wage multiple sieges and failed, and now, he has a plethora of "villains" to aid him. It was obvious that after all the ransacking the town endured, it wouldn't take another, especially in this condition.
The rest of his team was helping the town as he thought about the situation at hand. It was likely that the enemy would attack from any sides, even over a mountain if need be. Then, he overheard Joshua Graham mentioning a use for the Bostonian Barker. He turned to the mummified man and said, "If you're thinking of that then I'll go with him." He thought that a scouting mission for "the Scout" would be all too fitting, but considering his bold and brash nature, a steady hand and watchful eye could prevent a fatal misstep.
Metal Face - Lumber Mill
He didn't care about Brooks's rambling on about what he would to any survivors, then again, there was little Mumkhar cared about outside of the Monado, causing as much destruction, and grinding the do-gooders morale to dust and since the former is out of his reach, the latter two would have to do. He took a good look at the map, but he scowled at the design, "It looks like a disabled child drew it!" He then heard a shot from a disgruntled Tessaract's blaster and saw the man storm out.
"Well, that settles that," he spoke casually as the map, now made by a woman in blue skin made a more detailed version of the map, "Better than that eyesore already." He figured that the technology was more fancier than what he was used to on the Mechonis, and even those High Entia gnats, but he didn't muse on it too much as he decided to chip in, "The suit I have outside can fly over the cliffs and can fire off ether to blast them back to dust. Though, don't be surprised when I get bored and decide to get more involved."
"I treasure every day with you, darling." "No need to be so sappy, love." "You know that's how she is, Nia." - AU!Pyra, Nia, Mythra
Jedi of the Old Republic
Church
Gemini stood by, listening to the explanation about Lamar Brooks. Seemed to be a pretty bad guy.
Graham then went out to look for Scout, to see if he would help out with something. Venom Snake offered to assist. Gemini walked up to the group.
"I'll go as well. I want to do anything I can to help!"
What is this "signature" of which people speak?
Sousuke - Eden's Gate Church
"Very well, it appears you will make a recovery after all," Sousuke said to the now-healed man on the altar, West."Miss Woods," Sousuke said to Agnes. "I understand the situation you are in may be stressful, but now is not the time to act irrationally if you wish to survive. As I said before, we are here to help, and you have my full attention. No payment required."
"That is an excellent idea, Miss Li, to find his motive," he added to Chun-Li. "This situation reminds me of a village in Afghanistan. I would think that if the waterfall in this town is the only reliable source of freshwater in a large area that does not require scaling the canyon, that is the most important asset this town possesses."
He addressed the crowd in general. "Magic users and others with abnormal abilities," he called out. "If any of you have skills in conjuring poisons, heavy metals, or other toxins, your skills will be useful in contaminating the river downstream of the town. Considering the primitive technology of this era, it is likely that whatever mercenaries are approaching will be drinking from it, or their horses. Thinning their numbers and weakening them before arriving will grant us a physical and psychological advantage."
Aria - Lumber Mill
"Yeah.... Let's call that one Plan B..." Aria replied to Juri. "Give guys like the red brute over here a chance to do their thing from the cliffside. Besides, assuming somehow that doesn't kill everyone outright, you can use the distraction to actually get into town, otherwise it's just going to be you running down a fucking wide open path and letting them take shots at you for five kilometers."edited 29th Aug '16 6:43:54 PM by nman
Mancunian Candidate
Solidus Snake, Lumber Mill
Solidus drummed his fingers quietly on the table, trying in the way of any experienced commander to uncover the flaws in a set of tactics which were, it was becoming increasingly apparent, lacking any. He'd been silent since they arrived, gruff and frowning - at his first because his mouth had been full of stew, whose empty bowl now rested somewhere south of the projection, but now for something more pressing. Every so often he glanced to his right, brushing his gaze over a square jaw and purple skin.
T'Loak had, with no particular warning and an infuriating degree of accuracy, formulated almost exactly the same strategy he had, taken point, and started her brief in precisely the moment he was busy swallowing. He'd almost choked. Ignoring her in the same way he'd been ignoring everybody else, it'd risen out of the twilight and taken him unawares - as such, like any self-respecting craftsman overshadowed by work identical to his own, he was silently dedicating himself to a brutal but restrained dissection, analysing each component in turn to try and find some blemish hidden by the whole, some misplaced component or errant mistake he could retroactively exonerate himself of.
He put the remainder of his cigar back in his mouth, burned out, and started chewing absent-mindedly. There was a problem, and it was that there weren't any. It wasn't a perfect piece of work, but its only real flaws were the unavoidable flaws of the force they had to work with, most of whom were named Tira.
And that was that. His brow smoothed, defeated, but by then he'd already shifted gears.
"You," he said, gesturing with his cigar, "Brooks. We're going to have to make up a lot of ordnance overnight. We could make do with Moloto- firebombs, but we'll want explosives too. What do you have?"
edited 29th Aug '16 7:53:49 PM by OG-Sama
The Mighty Pen
Kage - Lumber Mill
It was good to see that at least a few other people could get with the notion of planning out an assault, though I doubted more than one in three could go through with it without screwing up somehow, and the smartest one was some kind of xeno I'd never seen before. Never saw one that looked so human before, either. Maybe she was some kind of human-xeno combination from people like Oriel and his lot. Yeah, that made more sense, it was about the sort of sick shit the Inquisition got up to. She - if it really was a she - was one xeno I'd look forward to killing if I ever got the chance after getting out of here. There's some things that just shouldn't be. Of course, she had the plan, and it wasn't too bad, given the quality of the people we were working with. Simpler was better.
I turned to point at the two techno types who were talking about going off alone and tipping our hand.
"No, you two just stay here, we don't know what those other guys have got and I don't fancy you getting your heads blown off or shot out of the sky because these hero types were smart enough to post sentries or have got longer-range guns than us."
Then I turned back to the xeno woman.
"And speaking of guns, yeah, great idea about the heavy artillery. You gonna pull that out of your ass, then? Because this place isn't big on tech and what we've brought with us isn't really barrage-caliber stuff. Still, I like it. Some of us climb the cliffs and torch the town from the high ground while the rest of us take out whatever sentries are in the forest and move in from that direction. If anyone's suicidal enough to go in from the desert, the smoke should give them some cover."
Then there was Pen, who said he could set up some kind of voxcaster set. I dug about in one of my pockets and, to my surprise, found a standard-issue combead there. Real Guard officers got those as part of their standard kit, but penal legion soldiers never did unless we were about to deploy into a war zone. Guess our jailers were feeling thoughtful.
"How about this, then," I say, waving it at him, "Can you work with this?"
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao Tzu
Aria - Lumber Mill
"Oh, so you heard all of that, huh?" Aria said to Jolly. "Guess that means your personalities aren't as split as they could be. Tell me, princess, do you hear the other one rattling around in there right now, or is she more of a... silent partner?""Ignore that," she added to Juri. "Name's Aria, which you should all already know unless you somehow tuned out those fucking speakers back at the house. So what's your deal? You going some sort of krogan, insulted by people daring to have guns that you don't, and have to prove you're tougher than any other fucker you see because a pretty girl turned you down? Or are you just angry at the universe because, hey, why the fuck not?"
edited 20th Aug '16 12:04:20 AM by nman