Viche just glances away awkwardly. While not nearly as much as Courne, Viche does still respect King Vegeta, so if a Vegeta scolds him it wouldn't exactly fall on deaf ears.
"Oh, I didn't know someone else was watching.", Courne says. "... what's trick or treating?"
"Going around begging for candy while dressed up."
Courne just raises an eyebrow.
"... that's weird."
Courne then seems to get an idea and turns to Vegeta.
"We'll be going then. I've got a lot more training to get to. But before I leave, I was hoping you'd answer a question I have."
For some reason he shows a somewhat cheeky smile.
"What's your opinion on half-breed Saiyans, King Vegeta?"
Viche now looks at Courne like he asked Vegeta the stupidest thing in the world.
"The hell kind of questions are you wasting his time with, Courne?"
Edited by DevilPsyco on Nov 2nd 2022 at 2:49:28 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.
Strongest In History
Data Freddy
Tager eats the punch, recoiling but quickly recovering.
He sets his sights on both Cassidy and Fallen Sunny, and delays his movement.
As soon as Freddy's attention is put on Cassidy, Tager goes for a grab; if successful, he'll unleash a Genesic Emerald Tager Buster!
Odio
Defense simply stares at the interaction between Ovarr and Odio, suddenly realizing that he may be in over his head.
In the end, stubbornness prevails, and Defense attempts to grab Odio's attention, channeling Odin to spawn a firing squad's worth of Gaster Blasters to fire upon Odio!
He also summons a larger one behind him, which is trained not to fire with the rest, but instead to react to Odio's inevitable evasive movement.
"DIO is the ultimate being! The being of the future! Dare you not to rival me!"
Nicole watches as Ovarr gets near-fatally blasted and subsequently hauled off by Psyco.
"Ah, crap, there goes the guy who actually managed to cause some real damage," she remarks. "Well, at least I don't have another Dio on my hands."
Swooping back into the fray, she attempts to seize Odio by the throat, hoist him into the air, and chokeslam him with all of her considerable might.
"The hell could've happened to this dude? Is his story like mine or Narktus'?"
Green Death
Varik nods and readies himself. Once Sporacles gets thrown, he'll launch Timestop towards the Green Death the moment it turns to look at Sporacles.
And right as Varik goes for his attack, he suddenly realizes something that even the narration got wrong, so it's not really on him.
"Wait, shit! Timestop is effective against non-living enemies like robots, not undead enemies!"
With that realization, he now knows that there's only about a 10% chance that even if Timestop hits the Green Death it'll actually stop the Green Death.
Varik tries to move as fast as he can, immediately ready to pull Sporacles back if Timestop fails.
Another side-effect of this is that due to his movements, his Planetbuster charge doesn't go up this turn.
3/13
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.
Luctor et emergo, lux et veritas, pactum serva..
Greentide: Cataclysm
War is not a fun romp in the park. It is a brutal act of sanctified butchery. Usually done by powers above the common man, sending them to fight on foreign fields to keep the population in check or to amass resources. Yet from where these forces came from, that was only part of the truth. Orruks and goblins had nothing better to do than to fight for their enemies, erected walls and forged steel to slay others, so why shouldn't the Greenskins bring them war. For the Ogors, Tyranids, Silent Ones, and Psyrens: it was food, the lifeblood of clans and hordes or hive fleets laid on the flesh or souls of their enemies. For the Fimir it was retribution, the act of crawling out of societal rot and rising above competition, it was an act to be noticed and seen as mighty. For Xenarchs, it was a chore, weeding out competitors and acquiring riches to syndicate and store. For Kurnous and the Lizardmen, war was the only way to ensure chaos does not take hold of this domain, to prevent the cycle. And in a sick, maniacal way Malal's forces wanted to break the cycle too.
It was in their blood that war was the way of things.
As soon as Green realized herself in the horde of greenskins, instead of them turning on her, they cheered, seeing the bruising on her knuckles and the blood running down their head.
"KRUMP! KRUMP! KRUMP! KRUMP! KRUMP!"
They fought harder, and though the chaos warriors were hard to crack, the greenskins were dead hard to break as well! Crude metal blades met refined axe heads, and when those blades met their mark it was either in thick fungal hide or accursed melded metal skin. The Bonesplittaz rushed to the front, crashing into the oncoming warriors, and though bare chested and without much to warrant as actual armor besides the occasional bone rib plate, they tanked blow after blow from many of the accursed warriors, before finally falling, usually after driving the femur of their previous conquest straight into the head of a skilled marauder, and breaking their head with a crude and vile snap. It was Skarsnik who was surrounded, as Gargants smashed into the enemy's rank, and gave him some reprieve from the madmen. He instinctively hopped onto Gobbla, trying to avoid the swinging blades of the Malal worshippers. And in a split second he turned to face Green-
"HEY GREEN! DEY SAID YER FACE WUZ LOOKIN RATHER RED!"
More of the Cyborgs marched past Buu, and it was obvious what they were doing. They were atomizing the dead, then using their powers to fire onto the living, creating grievous wounds upon their opponents for them to harvest from later. The one he was engaged with seemed to be putting up quite a fight, as its funneled maw began to try and take in the air around Buu to quickly atomize his living form. Yet one good punch to its chest cavity and suddenly the screaming and wailing of souls was heard, as the decompression in its abdomen flapped about wildly as the construct spun around, before crashing into the earth. And it was here that Malenia would come in, her splendid display of carnage upon the Soul Grinders and Neophytes of Malal soon proved to be an irresistible sight, and soon the Black Orruks and Da Immortulz lunged into the fray once more. Grimgor was the last to charge in, having already been riddled with wounds from Malenia's blade, but soon he was back to his usual violent self. The greenskin's head connected with the helm of a Chaos Warrior, and before they could regain their footing, Grimgor hefted his great axe, swinging it in a wide arc that sheared the Chaos Warrior's shield in half and sent him sprawling. The savage warlord stomped down hard on his opponent's sword arm, knocking the cursed blade from their grasp. A few chaos worshippers heard this and tried to rush in to assist their allies, only for them to get mowed down by Balboa, as he used his biological shotgun to rip open their backs, letting them bleed out as Ogor Mounrfangs closed in on the dazed warriors of malal, the colossal tusked hyraxes slamming into the crippled forms and eating them on the spot.
The Tyranids offered the Fimir Lord some breathing room, as horrific shrieking was heard as Malal Steedmaidens and Forsaken Druchii charged at the nids, however they horrifying amalgamation of Hormogaunts, Warriors, and Carnifexes soon threw themselves against the Accursed tide of Malal, scythes and corrosive acids bubbling away the defenses of the Malal Possesed Dark Elves, and the scales of the dragon ogors. But it wasn't enough, and luckily for the Trygon and its crew, they would be able to retreat, as the Hormogaunts were trampled over by Steedmaidens, as they attempted to soon combat the Carnifexes in melee with great hammers of tempest like strength. Nakai meanwhile had found himself covered in the gore of his opponents, panting as he looked to those around him, seeing some warriors halting their assault. One Dragon Ogors lunged forward, charging as she let out a great battle cry. But one of the Dragon Ogors looked to her sister charging Nakai, and deep down knew that would be their last great charge. She took a deep breath, and roared too, her short, spiky hair bobbing up and down as they charged into their sister, tossing them aside. Only for Nakai to come in with his Maul, crashing into the chaos beast's more womanly body, and immediately tearing the hide apart and rupturing the organs. Nakai took a bit to take in the scene. It reminded him... no. They were beasts, who gave themselves away to the ruinous powers. Even as the spared Dragon Ogor looked on in shock, their goals, their intentions, they were murderers. He brought his maul down onto a lunging marauder, sending them flying through the air, and continued his rampage.
Wurrzag was able to breathe now that he wasn't being held in place, quickly grabbing the squig and pulling it off Corva's face. He sounded exceptionally casual about the whole ordeal, looking at an approaching Chaos Giant. He laughed a little as he started to dance in place, his staff rattling above his head. The brute continued to charge at the three, a whole host of chaos trolls and Warriors at the giant's feet. The terrifying colossi wasn't alone, as several more with horns covering their eyes, and stone-like feet of obsidian blackness charged forward, their skin paler than untouched snow. In their hands were great clubs of dark energy, which swirled and convulsed on itself like grubs writhing in a corpse. Wurrzag cackled and raised his foot up, energy swirling around him as a green vortex seemed to appear above the charging pugilist, as the shaman looked to the battlemage and cosplayer.
"WATCH AND LEARN UMIE!"
He stomped his foot into the ground, and coming from the vortex was a far larger, scarred foot and leg about the size of a football field that soon smashed into the oncoming battle-line, squashing several of the Chaos Giants and an entire legion of warriors. The Orruk laughed and danced in place from his display, though the Chaos Trolls soon engaged the three as they erupted from the earth like horrid moles, with swarms of malformed impish creatures coating the earth like a plague of rats.
The Psyrens seemed to finally find their bearings, no longer fighting on their own front as they slithered into rank and file, cutting at their opponents with horrifying ease, though being the glass cannon style types, they were put down just as swiftly if they were hit. Save for the Ironscales, who could tank the hits with terrifying ease, being a good two heads taller than the warriors, the masked serpentine women brought down upon them glaives and spears that rendered the afflicted warriors into nothing more then piles of flesh and metal they threw back towards their sisters, so that they could harness their souls in sudden feeding frenzy like gee. As the Horsemen of Malal came in towards their flanks, the Silent Ones launched a surprise attack with several gun lines rending them to shreds, as they seemed determined to end the fight quickly. Wyverians and Treekin soon tried to protect their flanks from the sudden surplus of Malal Daemons pouring in on them, bows fired off in sync to at first pepper, than with the constant wear from the large arrowheads meant for piercing the hides of wyvern and beast, impaling daemons to the ground as the treekin swatted away any sort of threat. The Horned Redhead lunged into the fray, and her presence seemed to anger the Daemons wholly into a ballistic frenzy. They focused on her, which gave the other's time. She was no demigod, but she did have history with a certain god of carnage that had given her boons in the past. Now, the experience of such slaughter was guiding her blows, as her axe was never still for more than a few seconds. It sailed through the air in wide arcs or sudden chops that left the ground split once it passed through her foe.
Kurnous was trying to focus on the Malal Champion, as Kroq-Gar might have literally gone from facing the full brunt of a skaven pike charge to being in the midst of a Destruction Horde, but the way he was fighting was making it difficult for Kurnous to land a clean shot. Kroq-Gar was unnecessarily fast for what he was, weaving in and out of the strikes from his opponent once their shoving game went nowhere. It was mostly him blocking the living skull blade of his opponent, dancing around his opponent with sudden bounds and strikes of the tail. A far more forward and direct manner of dealing with the issue then what was happening to Apothea, for as soon as she lunged one of the warriors was struck, gripping at the blade in their chest while the other two immediately closed in on her, one trying to bring their axe to her shoulder wielding the arm, the other her midriff.
Warriors of Chaos do not fight like frenzied ratmen, or zealous daemons.
They fight with the sole purpose to be the last one standing.
Kit lands atop a chaos troll, the creature breaking under his impact as it sprawled its limbs out to the side like roadkill, as he stood before another massive beast, as it raised it's club and tried to strike onto Kit it's warping properties, as they sizzled the air behind it in its wide arc. The sand being tossed aside soon regained composure as the crystals blinked back to life, the earthen manta warriors charging back into the fray, as Gunfire resumed upon the assassin.
At first the retaliation, and the combined efforts of those trying to mend reality seemed to be getting somewhere. The fighters actually were able to down some Heldrakes, as they crashed into the war torn earth below, having attempted to nab up the one Eve they could see. Phillip's own forces soon scattered and though they withstood the frontline, a tactical retreat was due. The defenders were stalwart, attempting to be an impenetrable wall. Azura and her host alongside Nia were relentless on the frontline, as Chaos Warrior and Hooked Horror fell at their feet. Mechs abominations exploded, and the attack from the multicolored superheroes offered a great diversion from a relatively shorter defensive wall. But the real star of the show, seemed to be Adam, in which the Skeletal Jackal like beast within the reflections, the corner of his eyes, seemed to be enthused in how Adam and Melia were dealing with the issue.
Eve and Melia's combined efforts seemed to be going well, as the portals shrank, and a few of the warriors seemed to pause, looking to the rips in reality as they seemed to shrink. Their chest heaved and they lunged into the fray with suicidal desperation, only for Azura and the other's to bring them down. Simon was looking to Azura with widened eyes, gulping as he held up his guns, looking a little nervous.
"HEY! Can your friends like... get me some bullets. I am not going in with axes against something-"
As he spoke a Limbo-Tick lunged forward, hoping to snap him in his jaws, before one of the horrifically altered chitin men of Meteorika struck in turn, the creatures brawling in the street like rats, tooth and nail with rapid bites towards the other's face and throat.
"-Like that."
Murasa at first seemed to be faring better, as none tried to approach her after the bombers and the floating Eve showed their willingness to defend her. Minus, one of the Null Marines, as it turned to her and started to fire out black and white pods out at her, pulsing with a faint glow before they'd blow up around her footing, hoping to envelop her in the blast.
Meanwhile Adam's dueling proved superior to the average Forsaken Druchii, as they found themselves devoid of limbs or heads as they tried to close in on him. Yet their numbers and their willingness to throw themselves at him prove to be what worked in their favor. Especially since not all of them wanted to engage in a stoic competition of blade mastery. They just shot at him with barbed crossbolts, hoping to make purchase and limit his movements. And in the broken glass at his feet, and the peripheral of his vision, he heard the creature speak. It was not as gravelly as before, but it was filled with certainty and conviction. This was the tongue of a scholar, a philosopher, a savant. It betrayed its ghastly visage with a therapeutic yet scornful aura.
"To purge the world of vice and sin, your entirety of your goals laid upon your sleeves and tongue. And you saw corruption everywhere. Monsters and scourges wherever your eyes glared. You made "friends", though we deep down know they are at best acquaintances. You have such a black and white worldview. In-fact it is so worldly-"
He heard the voice just mere centimeters away from his face, as he felt cold air flow over his cheek, even as another Forsake tried to reach for his arm, and wrestle his sword away. Futile of course, for Adam's strength was leagues above his, but perhaps that is what this creature wished to see. As he suddenly saw the warriors helm lifted from their head:
"Except within."
The Forsaken seemed unmoved by what happened, as more closed in around Adam, hopping over the bodies he had left bisected and mangled at his feet.
"A walking contradiction, unwilling to go silently into that gentle night. Pursuing an end goal that will never end. A lifetime wasted chasing yin and yang, yet never knowing how they coexist. You have forsaken your own existence for child's play."
It soon walked out of his view, leaving him to deal with distant replicas from a long dead timeline. The figure snaked its way around, till it saw Meteorika and grinned, hoping for her to take note of it as its reflection could be seen on the pools of mercury and shattered glass below, as if it was walking over them, yet there was nothing there. Instead she heard the laughing of the Seeker of Despair as it lunged back into the fray, laughing as it chastised Loki.
"You hit like a warrior! You speak like one! Why oh why are you playing second fiddle of all things!? Come to me, let me give you the reigns of domination~"
And that's when the reflection spoke to Meteorika, its voice coming through as that same educated inflection, yet now her own voice laced it in as if they were speaking in sync.
"The Shepherd guides his flock... To slaughter? That is usually how these things go. Now with you little pastor I won't waste much time, you've been pushed around all your life. This time though it is divine, that being that pushes you around. You will care not for what I say, so why even bother. Tread carefully..."
As it slinked away, some beast akin to the artillery beast leaped from building to building, before finally landing before her, with horrific scorpion-like claws coming from their maws as they suddenly hoped to snap her up.
That same figure soon could be seen walking behind Gabriel up a mostly fallen tower, looking down and scoffing at the angel, as explosives rang out across the Archangel's frame from the Null Marines. It set its eyes on Melia, and spoke near her ear, yet there was nothing there to her right, or her right. A nagging voice, something she was used to probably. But now instead it took on a dark broch manner of speaking, as in her peripheral she saw a jackal's skull gaze at her with a cruel indifference.
"You have done it again. Stepped into the role of savior. Guardian. Warrior. Vanguard."
Claws soon appeared on the side of the closing rip, gripping them with a vice like grip, as the skull's mouth opened as if it was smiling, the inside of the eyes swirling like a malign vortex devoid of color and dimension. Two dimensional illusions that gave off the illusion of depth, as it now became obvious the thing glaring at her was not of a singular plane, but rather existed on an axis comprising many more edges.
"That being no matter the face, and how it betrays your own twisted self-deprecation: you endure. Stalwart, pained but never giving in. A ludicrous display of which you believe to stare into the abyss and no longer dread it. That uncertainty is still there, and it is ok to admit you are not stronger then it. You never will be. No one ever will be."
The claws suddenly spread the portal wide open and coming forward was a colossal beast, a creature that was of proportions akin to a battleship. It lunged forward, hoping to Grab Melia as it came crashing towards the Warfield below. And as it did it crashed with such force many defenders may be blown back, and the most zealous near it soon found themselves looking at the bloated beast with overlapping maws, and fetid eyes as it looked to the Exotic Venture fighters and with swiftness beyond possibility raising a massive arm with rotating barrels, and fired into them, deatomizing the fighters. And it spoke as it lifted itself upon its many legs, which resembled sprawled out and robust human arms, as it moved forward-
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light-"
It opened its crab like claw towards a set of those possessed men Eve and Gor's followers had brought upon the field, and from its hand came bitter, freezing fire that swept over them, those afflicted soon being turn to statues that it swatted away into shards of ice, the creature continuing to spread over the deceased, which began to twitch back to life as creatures of black swirling energy, from their wounds there was a singular white beam that shined through, as they shambled over towards Gor's Chosen.
"Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night."
And as it shambled forward, it shot down at the tower behind Murasa, as the combination of the deatomizing bullets and the freezing flame soon wore it down, as the building began to crash down towards her, the creature still speaking as its ran forward tossing debris away as it charged for Gabriel, trampling those along its way.
"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright-
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
The portals reopened and on all sides of the conflict the wind seemed to try and push the defenders off course, as the portals reopened, and pouring out were now a whole host of nightmares from both sides. More Null Marines emerged and began to lay fire down on the defenders. The Greentide, Hub Centralis, it didn't matter, even Kit was soon having to deal with the sudden blast of percussive force around him. And the host, they began to sing. With force and purpose, as those marines who did get into melee range soon tried to hack apart defenders with their Chain Axes, shouldering blast to their spiked pauldrons to close the distance.
" The things that you conceal, they can't hide you!
A Hooked Horror that would usually be easy for the Silver Knight to disperse soon began to duel with vigor, dancing around its combatant as it tried to land a lacerating blow, yet not a fatal strike. It sounded introspectful, if not downright honest and heartfelt.
"The things that you reveal, they can't guide you!"
Nia soon heard somethign running at her from behind, seeing a whole host of monsterous, chitinous horses with draconid faces with four almost squid-like mouths stampeding at her, the riders seemingly made of this same beast's hide, their weapons pointed town towards her like lances, searing through the air as they suddenly closed the distance.
"What you thought was real, is just a lie too!"
Malenia could hear something flying down towards her and Grimgor. It was a colossal beast, almost draconic minus the strange wings that resembled several interconnected petals, as it closed the distance rapidly, white fire as white as a sheet billowing from the sides of its' maw.
"If you can't find the truth, the truth will find you!"
Soon even the Fimir Lord was cornered by a new set of Soul Grinders, as they marched towards her with the intent to tear her apart. She roared instead, lunging into the middle of it, throwing one practially to teh ground as she slammed her blade into its underside, souls and daemonic ichor pouring out like a geyser of black crude oil, while her soldiers joined the fray, fighting like cornered beast as the Soul Grinders looked for openings within the fighters, and punishing it harshly with a sudden grab of the combatant and routinely smashing them against the ground.
Heldrakes poured forth and soon engaged the colorful caste of roller skaters and flying super humans, while others slammed into the fighters, tearing them assunder as the forces below continued to chant, as parts of the fighters fell to the ground around them like a hailstorm.
"The things that you detest are deep inside you!
The things that you possess, they only ride you!
The words that you confess are just a lie too!
If you can't find the truth, the truth will find you!"
Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Nov 3rd 2022 at 6:20:01 AM
Awawa
Monster Eater Champion
Hub Centralis
Gabriel
Gabriel is nearly struck down by the collective gunfire, ready to flee, tasting his own blood.
But not yet.
"Take heed. I will not suffer this defeat without repricussion." As he begins to bleed profusely, His wings finally emerge to their full length, enveloping the city.
The tips of his wings move to brush against the enemy's ranks and artillery, unleashing a power fitting of an archangel.
After that, Gabriel dissappears in a flash of light.
Makima
Makima finally reaches the frontline, Spamming the hell out of the sandevistan, despite how it would usually affect human biology and psychology. She numbs her dread via control of her own mind, and begins to move through the ranks, firing off finger gun shot after finger gun shot, picking up weapons and using them... And sending chains all over to the mercenaries under her control.
A rocket strikes makima, but a random mercenary suddenly blows up instead of her. She looks on at the chaos entities, with a dead silence. Numbed emotions.
The Mercenaries with her Act suddenly with ridiculously more coordination than before, as if they were of one mind.
Denji and Aki
As Makima's barrier is somewhat weakened by her heading out, Reality once again begins to falter around Denji and Aki. Aki simply says "The time for tears is over, It's time to fight again. Get a move on."
Aki begins to move into the fray, guided by the future devil's many possibilities. Denji, on the other hand, sits still briefly, before saying... "Miss Makima... maybe she's changed. I... I can't let her die to that thing. I know you have done horrid things miss makima, But... I still love you to the bottom of my heart."
Denji sighs, before running into combat, pulling on the cord connected to his heart... As he begins tearing a path to the frontline.
V1
v1 shoot da deemonss
Edited by ReynTheLord on Nov 2nd 2022 at 10:35:42 AM
Hi
Apothea Alone
Apothea remains, her greatsword trapped in the grip of her enemy and the friction of their flesh. If she had more than a split-second, she could easily wretch it from their grasp, but she does not have any more than a split-second.
She lets go of the weapon, but her opponents are fast, and the strike against her midriff is strong enough to leave a sizable wound that is, gratefully, only relatively surface-level, for her efforts to evade it.
But she knows, in this chaos. She knows full well.
Her only weapon left is ill-suited to duels like this. A sword with a broken blade can only get her so far, and she knows every one of them she kills will cost her something.
That is not to mention everything else. The chaos and the bloodshed, events beyond her comprehension unfolding in her peripheral vision.
She was a fool. That is what she thinks.
And she prepares to use what power remains in her to finish this fight one way or another.
Hand on the handle of her remaining sword as she backs away, Apothea readies herself. Spiraling from her body, energy in each of the elemental magics begins to leak: Earth magic that shakes the ground beneath her feet, Electric magic arcing across her body just as before, Fire magic burning around her wrists and ankles, Ice magic drenching her surroundings in a cold blue-white mist, Typeless magic framing her in a halo of white, Water magic swirling currents in swirls across the surface of her skin, Wind magic collecting upon her hands and the blade of the shattered sword, swirling in light-green hues.
A cacophony of energies, crafted exquisitely from burning her own lifeforce.
With eyes closed shut as ever as they are, their ashes discarded long ago into the winds of an age gone by, she prepares to strike.
And yet.
Yet.
As she follows through, energy giving her power enough to simply will the blade of the shattered sword into reality at thrice its length, slashing with all the force required to bisect the two warriors that stepped forward to attack her-
Apothea considers.
She remembers, a flat and dry voice, calling her name.
She remembers, the sound of a whisper in her ear, telling her to live.
She remembers, the way the regret crept into Kroq-gar's voice in that way so unlike herself.
That she would never have recognized, if it weren't for her.
For Hera.
Yes, she can see it now. The face that never smiles, rarely blinks, and does not flinch. The mouth that does not eat, does not drink, does not breathe. The life that does not feel, does not want, does not rest- and yet...
How could a being like her persist?
No, how could a being like her live?
...
Ah, the answer.
Apothea stops consuming her life to fuel her attacks, retrieves her greatsword with a mighty one-handed tug, and resolves herself.
She will not die today!
She cannot.
And, facing that reality, she fights with a renewed vigor, abusing again her great speed to dip in and out of combat with the Warriors of Chaos, all the while attempting to attack them anywhere that presents itself as a weakspot, using her greatsword with the precision of a weapon three times smaller. That is to say- to cut necks, disable kneecaps, stab through below the arm and to the heart- attacks ranging from disarming to terribly lethal, Apothea trying to use her speed, range, and brief battle momentum boost from her application of full power, to control the flow of combat.
Ultimately, she can't do this indefinitely, not against warriors this well-seasoned, but she will try for as long as she is able.
She is under no illusions- they may not be as fast as her, but the difference between her and even one of them is smaller than she'd like. Any suitable counter-tactic, and...
...Well, she'd get there when she'd get there.
Hub Centralis - Philip
Ultimately, Philip cannot sustain. As he descends from his decisive attack, his two remaining soldiers take his side, barely able to stand- only for one to take a final, deadly blow, and collapse to the ground beside him.
Philip raises his staff, and sends away the other before they can be inflicted with the same fate.
Now alone, save for his Silver Knight and something else watching in the darkness with a bemused laugh.
And indeed, in the reflective earth beneath him, rather than his shadow, he spots with some shock, the collector
◊, true form revealed though not unleashed in the mysterious mercurial reflection.
"Is this a bad time?"
Philip's only response, as the Silver Knight deflects away an attack directed for him with her spare sword, is a shockingly angry "YES!"
To which The Collector simply laughs, vanishing into Philip's reflection as it reforms at his feet.
And, distracted for that one split-second, a weapon strikes towards his back-
Only for his Silver Knight to step in, and take the attack in his place, falling to her knees from the weight and the pain.
And before even a moment passes from that attack leaving its mark, Philip raises his staff, and the two of them are finally correctly teleported away.
To an unassuming eye, simply him being concerned for the well-being of his companion, or perhaps overwhelmed by his losses to the point of making his own tactical retreat.
Indeed, that is part of it; Philip is overwhelmed, he is tired, and he considers this fighting in a very real way beneath him.
The other reason?
That, he keeps closer to his chest.
Edited by Whoma on Nov 2nd 2022 at 10:29:22 AM
And it's something quite peculiar / Something shimmering and white.
Extreme math nerd
Exotic Battlegrounds
Nina's hand doesn't even reach the doorframe before it slides open automatically, letting the warm air inside the building flow outward. There are currently a lot of people occupying the building, and what feels like one explorer mech for every five people. Icarus is nowhere to be seen - however, there is a request terminal where you can potentially ask for his (or any other specific Exotic Ventures member's) presence, or just ask for assistance.
Estraole
Stefan is standing outside the gates to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. He's got an Ikea bag full of various ingredients - over six pounds of meats, baking flour, sweet potatoes, eggs, and, of course, spices; he's also wearing his favourite orange backpack and the Battleslab. He's not sure if he should be nervous or excited about this.
For good measure, he decides to take a picture of the mansion, before he takes a deep breath and...
Ding dong.
"What I don‘t like about measure theory is that you have to say 'almost everywhere' almost everywhere." - Attributed to Kurt Friedrichs
Divine Burden
Eve smiles as her allies help her with the portals, which allows her to focus on her attack, something that couldn't have been done beforehand. Thanks to her allies's actions, the young-ish looking woman slams her hands together, one eye glowing green as she casts powerful Time Magic to accelerate the orb's creation. What could have taken her dozens of seconds -unthinkable, with the Warp everywhere around her- now only takes about five, and the orb increases to a much greater size, about that of a building.
Then, Eve is able to further get the time to focus on it, applying very precise Blast Magic as well as Space Magic. As she does, she's too focused to quite help Beto, but her flying clone is able to easily do so, shooting her healing beam at him to get him back to form, and even giving him a slight buff in the forms of an enhancing white aura. She even gives the same healing and buffs to his allies!
I'll always help you, don't worry! Eve says, until the wind nearly blows her away, the Warp re-entering at full force. Now that'd be a complicated problem for Eve if she had no time to charge, and it still is one, but she can do more than forlornly stare at the portals, her stamina depleted: she can fight back now, her other red glowing red as it allows her to look for the positions of the ugly beasts, their presence and their location right now, while the other eye warns her of where they will be.
ENOUGH OF THAT FUCKING SONG! Eve says, spreading her arms, and the orb explodes into lights, becoming thousands sharps spears of light that spread across the battlefield, like rays of the suns but decidedly more lethal. Nearly all of them attempts to impale the Warp invaders to shred them to pieces, each beam attempting to blast a large hole through their torso or vaporize their heads off, curving and swerving in mid-air to hit with precision despite being a widespread attack. A painful punishment will then sear their flesh, as Eve unleash her brand of Space Magic to specifically hurt these beings of a different spatial wavelength, attempting to burn their very souls down to the core.
And some beams will go for another if one dies fast enough, moving very fast across the battlefield.
This might prove problematic for the local Kaiju, as multiple beams converge on it, melding one very large one that attempts to pierce through its unholy flesh to enter its grotesque body, keeping themselves stable with Space Magic, before exploding, attempting to take out the atrocity from within with one great magic eruption. And a few more beams demonstrate that ability to explode as they attempt to blast through one of the portals.
There, entering the Warp in all its horror, each beam detonates, creating an explosion of tremendous size, so large that from the portals great blue columns of energy will blast forth, as Eve attempts the next best thing next to closing the portals: spawn-camping.
She eyes the big great portal, ready to assist Melia with it soon as her attack is done firing. After enough seconds, the beams fade, and the attack end, leaving Eve to contemplate her effect on the battlefield. Nidrugg, her staff, floats as it charges up another spell, a floating grey orb glowing close to one of its "mouths". Space Magic.
She guides her beams with great power and precision in the meanwhile, attempting to turn these overwhelming tides by decimating the beasties. And her attack clone attempts to help Adam, sweeping over the battlefield and letting loose with her attacks over the Forsaken Druchii, attempting to get Adam what he needs to prevail and covering for her allies, as much as she can anyway.
Eve is right to do so, because Adam took a few more arrows to the body. Nothing liable to stop him, and he doesn't show it, but it's damage all the same, with the other Eve being too busy handing out healing and buffs to Makima's mercenaries. Wiping some blood away from his lips, Adam snarls as he attempts to decapitate a Druchii, then grab its head to fling it at another, blitzing over to then try to impale its body upon his sword and tear it apart with a quick upwards motion of it.
He's fighting to his very best, not accepting defeat in any manner even as he mostly fights alone. Still, now that he has allies coming, he could... walk back and let them to do so, right? Well not him! You'll only look all the more ridiculous, losing to me with cowardly tools and numbers! Adam spat, his movements a little slowed down, but no less lethal. Deciding to even the odds, he sheath his sword, but finds himself so weakened that a Druchii grabs his hand.
He listens to the beast's speech, albeit not by choice. While his strength is great, he attempts to headbutt the creature away, which will shatter its helmet and reveals the truth anyway. Irritated and somewhat freaked out, he attempts to tear its legs apart with a slight kick, then moves to stomp its head flat with a crushing stomp (duh), shattering the ground beneath him as he does, and even cratering it, his hand moving unimpeded to the sheath of his sword.
The universe is less complex than you think! Good people do good, evil people do evil things! Good doesn't do evil and evil doesn't do good! It's because of dimwits thoughts like this that evil beings of your kin can proliferate! Yes! I see monsters and beasts everywhere I go, and I know that my friends might walk into a dark path never to return, all because of people who see abominations like you as things worthy of life and respect!
Adam hunkers down, and even before he pulls his sword out, the crater around him widens, invisible slashes gouging out the ground and slicing matters to nothing. Still, this attack won't be as devastating as Eve's: the arrows did their job in weakening job. Not that he'll regret ever stepping into the backlines. Better those arrows hit him than someone else.
I WILL SEE THE END OF EVIL ACROSS EXISTENCE SCUM! MY LIFE WILL NOT END A POINTLESS CRUSADE! TETRAGRAMMON FIVE!
Adam pulls his sword out in one slick slash at the heavens, and the Forsakens who approach might be cut to atoms by his subsequent attacks, as a storm appear around him. Althought it's not one: merely, it's the speed of his slashes, allowing him to strike in every direction at once, attempting to wipe away the crowd in one strike that is many at once. What he slash isn't destroyed: it's gone, until there's not one piece of debris left in a large radius around him. Merely a barren piece of land, eerie in its clinical destruction.
Your disgusting philosophy... coming out of the diseased mouth of a fell creature... It enrages me! Let's see if you'll be spouting that garbage out to the flames of Hell! Adam says, eyes wide, almost drooling in anger. He coughs, still having arrows lodged in his body, but still begin to run deeper into danger. This leaves the attacking Eve all bothered, because he'll die at that pace, his anger blinding him.
Please, don't let him die! I'll be bringing someone to heal him! She yells to anyone coming to Adam's aid, blasting away at the troops below her, as the other Eve clone goes for the backlines, abandoning the mercs and Makima.
Meanwhile, Loki smiles mysteriously at the Seeker, running at her with bone daggers, which he swings gracefully at her. He puts up a fair amount of efforts in dodging, which should make it surprising when he's struck: instead of being wounded, her blows stop on an invisible armor upon him, with insects crawling out from him, as if he'd been covered in them to start with.
He then reach to try to hug her, wrapping his arms around her frame as he attempts to let his bugs consume her. He's silent all the while, and doesn't notice or care for Meteorika's plight: with the beast in front of her like that, she can't use her Cursed Energy for much!
I'll need to make that the biggest Domain Expansion ever! Hmph! I can't waste my techniques on a simple critter such as this! Meteorika jumps to avoid the tendrils. Without allies to help her out, she might be kept out of the main battlefield or not unleash her technique at all!
Hm hm! Hey! Did you know that my Idle Transfiguration allows me to reshape bodies or memories by interacting with their very souls? I only need to touch them once to do that! Crazy, huh? Meteorika answers the being, running at a progressively faster pace, her Cursed Energy building up to empower her. She can't actually use it now since she's holding most of it back for her Expansion, but it grants her a boon in the most important attributes as she attempts to punch the creature in the face, with an uppercut from which red-and-black lightning erupts from.
BLACK FLASH! The blow will be strong enough to throw the creature up in the air, exposing its stomach as Meteorika takes to the sky, attempting to hit it with a flurry of kicks, each causing the same effect.
BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FL BLACK FFLAASSSSHHHHHH!
Who the fuck are you anyway? You couldn't even name my favorite brand of cereals if you tried! Stop attempting to deduce my standing in life! For while I was once a mere recipient of empty Hatred, I am now progressing to my ideal self! My very apex! And so are they, though the overwhelming challenge you represent! Meteorika yells, smirking maliciously, braids floating in the wind as she accelerates, invigorated by the Black Flash, her Cursed Energy ascending higher!
If all is well, she speeds towards the battlefield empowered!
Philip might be one to flee, but I'll turn the tides!
Elsewhere, Gor's enjoyers are bathed in flames, and too mindlessly angry to turn away from them for the most part. Evelyn "stks". Sure would be useful if Veilman were here! What's so important about attacking those dark wizards anyhow?! Evelyn uses her powers of 'Gloutonnerie to begin eating the flames, moving her jaws about in a grotesquely warped fashion to eat the flames, with no ill effect to herself.
As she does, Azura steps between her and the infected crowd and slams a big meaty shield between her side and the others, expanding it into one great big wall between themselves and the others. I-I think your clip is bottomless, my friend! Try it up, but not upon my followers, For!- Azura finds herself interrupted, as a woman begins to mindless attack her barriers. And so do the rest of them, attempting to break through and failing, for now, because it's some tough stuff
E-Evelyn! Stop that at once! They don't need to fight for now!
Evelyn shrugs to Azura. Wasn't told to by Meteorika.
Well, I am telling you to!
Great Pope's order, sorry. Sit tight and watch for now, okay? She's about to use her-
EMPOWERED DOMAIN EXPANSION: 5 (+black flash +binding vow)
...
Elsewhere, Malenia does her best, fighting as a REDTIDE, spreading crimson everywhere she goes with her violent yet graceful strikes. Her earlier wounds stop bothering her as they close, and she simply apply herself to fending off the invaders, until they stop being a problem. She does nod to Grimgor, seeing him in action and approving.
Still, she's killing fast, and keeps a straight face through it, surprise creeping on her fair features as she spots a massive beast in the distance. Still, instead of the usual things you'd do being faced down with one of these, Malenia simply twirls her sword to clean the blood away, reflexively doing a snapping movement with her arm.
I am Malenia, blade of Miquella.
And with that, she begins to run at it!
Edited by Bolded1 on Nov 3rd 2022 at 5:11:38 PM
Fallout 2? More like Fallout 2 bad.
Explora Colores
WAR P
" It's working! Keep it on!"
And thank you for your healing, girl!
It seemed like the combined effort to trap the portals was working well... Until the giant creature appeared, and the chant began.
What... The heck... Is that!?
The group began to run towards the creature, but soon they were ambushed by the Heldrakes.
Damn! There are more of these things!
" I'll go to attack that giant thing! You, try to clear the field! And you, giant centipede, help me with the giant!"
"Inti, lend me your power!"
Pampín rises her staff over her head, and a huge beam of light appears from it, forming what looks like a huge light sword, and with it she tries to attack the giant creature, while Mukade, the giant centipede, targets it with more poison jabs.
Dynamax turns: 2/3
Meanwhile, the Explora Colores, the Insect Ladies, the other superheroes (even the newly healed Super Beto) and the rollers clash against the Heldrakes in a melee.
...
The Heavens
Two angels are watching the Hub Centralis events on a mirror.
Poor men... Amparo, do you think they need of our help?
Amparo, sitting on a flying couch, says:
Maybe... Who do you think will need more of our help?
Angelo looks at the fighters.
What about that girl in pink armor?
She!? We don't get along with pagan gods! Know what? You will go first.
What? But I'm not ready yet!
You will be, trust me.
Amparo kicks Angelo, throwing him towards the battlefield. He will arrive next turn.
I hope my assistant will be fine. If not, I'll gonna fire him.
With that, she lies on the couch, mirror in hand.
Exotic Battlegrounds
When Nina saw the mechs, she put a face of a clear nerdgasm:
"Guys, look at those mechs!"
Uh... Earth calling Nina? Here!
"Eh?"
She follows Luna to the assistance terminal.
"Who's that "Icarus"?"
Dunno, maybe the local's owner.
"Let's call him."
Nina solicites Icarus' assistance.
Edited by BombonBombin on Nov 3rd 2022 at 7:56:54 AM
Business Youkai of the Mountain
That Really Greens my Tides
As is their frequent lot in life, the hormagaunts eat shit. But they have one last surprise for Malal's forces, the hormagaunts upon death explode like toxin filled grenades, spraying the highly corrosive substance on Malal's forces that the other biomorphs are conveniently evolved to resist. The lead Carnifex used its scything talons to block the Steedmaiden charging it, then pushing its weapon away to then headbutt the Malal warrior, aiming to either crush their skull with its own or gore it on its tusks. Its Toxin Sacs would ensure either attack would be laced with deadly poison.The shooty 'fex meanwhile continued to fire its Heavy Venom Cannon and Deathspitters at the encroaching forces, though as they got closer it closes its mouth and hunched forward. A distinct high pitch noise almost like screaming ensued as after some moments of charging up it spat out a glob of Bio Plasma. One of the Tyranid Warriors that remained hopped onto its back to use it as a firing platform, adding its own Venom Cannon to its barrage. Any foes who got closer would then have to deal with its Boneswords.
The other remaining Warrior, meanwhile, joined its larger kin in getting stuck in the melee, using its superior agility to do its best to weave between its enemies' blows while slashing at them with its own scything talons. The Trygon Prime might have retreated but now the Hive Mind wanted to gauge this unfamiliar opponent using its remaining forces.
Speaking of...
Reprium
The Trygon Prime resurfaces, looking around with all its senses, physical and psychic. It doesn't spot any potential hostiles so it fully drags itself out of the ground, its entourage following out. This was a new environment and with little information available to it, the Hive Mind would have to play it safe for the near future. Looking at its available forces, it decided that for now a stealthier approach would be beneficial.
The Trygon Prime began burrowing again, intent on finding a cave to set up a base of sorts but instead of all of its entourage following, two of the Genestealers remained behind, dispersing into the woods. They weren't Lictors but they would suffice for now.
Murasa has a rough day
Murasa barely manages to graze out of the way of the explosions, guessing from experience that glowing projectiles are bad news. Unfortunately graze still means she takes a hit, more parts of her glowing an eerie green as she loses corporeality."Grr, looks like I'm getting worn down." she grumbles. She doesn't notice the building heading for her but conveniently was already throwing her anchor at the Null Marine to then grappling hook herself towards him, aiming to get close enough to then blast him at close range with her danmaku. She then follows that up summoning a bunch of geysers around herself and under any opponents.
SDM, and now for something completely different.
One of the servantbots opens the door, Stefan greeted by a butlerbot. It lets him in and guides him to the fancy foyer. It seems to silently inform the rest of his arrival as Rumia glides in.
"Oh hi! Flandre's busy right now so it's just me!" Rumia says. Flandre meanwhile is "busy" reading a manga on her bed, looking more like a stereotypical teenage girl than she usually does. Stefan will notice the lighting is rather "moody" (aka dim) by human standards, likely due to both residents being rather nocturnal so to them this is normal lighting.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."
it's hunting season
Insid
The moment she senses and sees Laxin through the door, she begins to feel incredible amounts of hate towards him just by virtue of existing. Killing his own men was one thing, a religious space wizard mage killing soldiers, nearly sets her off.
"Two can play that game you pile of dogshit!"
Emma's musket shifts into the lightsaber pike that quickly sucks up energy, the source of power: anything around her, namely the scraps of life force remaining in the dead imperials all around, and the surrounding heat. The room starts rapidly cooling, although nothing much changes aside from it being mildly chillier.
"Captain to Lieutenant Everglade, you are enacting a violation in an agreement you made with your weapon! The neutralization team will be deployed if you do not cease!"
Her eyes momentarily light up in emerald green, before she takes a deep breath, the blade of the lightsaber pike is incredibly unstable.
"Fuck bureaucracy I'm killing this fucker myself! Besides, the protocol only referred to living things, his ass is dead to me!"
"... You have 5 minutes"
She immediately dashes in with a wild frenzy of slashes and stabs at Laxin, it's clear whatever action she did is making her high. Amidst these strikes, the lightsaber pike morphs back to her handgun to fire a cheeky energy shot.
Outsid
The remaining men realize they can't run, so they stand their ground mid pursuit and start firing again at the Sith Warriors, some of the more ingenious and terrified ones ones begin shooting at the trees. It's hard to tell which.
"Forgive the sudden intrusion but begin to make way, the neutralization team has been deployed."
"Roger!"
Erika's focus on commands makes her duck at the last second, a bit of her hair is burnt as she descends down. Trying to cross slash one of the Sith Warriors and attract all 5 of their attention so both Bell Units, which have descended much lower, can start raining bullets on the Sith Warrior while encircling them.
"Dang it! Well, it's a lost cause, fire the gates to route them here."
The remnants of the star destroyer are shot through the railguns, this brute-force technique of FTL lets them arrive on t-t no evirra meht stel LTF fo euqinhcet ecrof-eturb siht ,snugliar eht hguorht tohs era reyortsed rats eht fo stnanmer ehT
"Ah... Crap, I can't have Captain Lucas take it lest I jeopardize the operation of the millennia for some Dinghy..."
.ega gnuoy ot eud tub ,daed llits si werc eht ,etar rewols a ta stcejbo serotser tI .hguone gnol ti ot desopxe nehw ecnetsixenon fo etats a ot nruter dluow yeht sa ,efil tsom ot elbisseccani ,nihtiw emit sdniwer hcihw ecaps fo trap a otni detfird evah snugliar fo etuor eht ,deneppah tahw sezilaer lleB
She sits down and raises her legs up against a control panel. Observing the fight through the Bell Units patrolling the skies.
"Aahh I'm gonna have to wait till Lieutenant Everglade's back to collect all this crap."
Green grumpily grimaces at the guess that she is not Green, but Red. "Man, Woman, I can accept, but NEVER RED" She immediately rushes to thrash Skarsnik for this absolute debauchery, but stops last second realizing she can't attack him, since he's faced away and she can't really turn around what's inside a Gobbla.
So she goes to the source of chaos, the warriors. Green's faint sense of these warriors' presence within chaos gives her a faint reminder of what previously bested her upon leaving to embark on a journey with Mark. Despite being enraged, her passion for fighting makes her not lose her precision to her wild instinct in the moment as she goes to target a shielded Chaos Warrior to try and rip it out of their hands. Soon bashing their head in with the same shield which is amplified by her lightning and moving onto the next. Otherwise striking them with a firm rush of front kicks to trip up their balance.
Edited by BoniniBanana on Nov 4th 2022 at 2:29:39 AM
real
Monster Eater Champion
Hub Centralis, Warpstorm.
A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES
The spacetime fuckery occuring from the warp seems to have some unintended effects, as something falls from the sky into the fray of the battle.
A young, green haired, Caveman with a Big Stone Axe made of bone and stone. The little guy looks around, confused, unaware of what the hell any of this is.
"Pogo?"
A group of Daemons approaches the little guy, as he notices he might be way out of his league. He begins to step back... Before he sees something.
A Woman in danger, in need of help, moments away from being killed.
Pogo, Both in danger and seeing a woman in danger. Readies his weapon...
Before Screaming so loud, all Daemons and enemy marines nearby are Hit with DIVINE TYPE DAMAGE, Rushing in to combat immediately afterwards.
Pogo Has entered the fray, moving in to the battlefield of Daemons and Chaos Marines, No clue what is happening. No clue what anyone is saying.
But By god he's motivated.
Extreme math nerd
Exotic Battlegrounds
After a while, Icarus walks through the building's entrance in his explorer mech.
"Heya, I'm Icarus. You needed me specifically for something?"
He tilts his head, trying to remember who the three humans in front of him are. Why would they select him specifically for assistance, he hasn't given himself any kind of priority... maybe they just selected a random member from the list, and it just so happened to be him. He makes an internal note to put an availability note on the employee list.
"What can I help you with?"
SDM
Stefan admires the mansion as he walks inside. It's not quite Gensokyo, but getting to be here in person isn't a thing he had ever expected to experience. The moody lighting makes him a bit nervous.
Will the residents spare him? Surely he hasn't done anything to warrant not being eaten... what a bizarre thought to have.
His mood lightens up once Rumia appears.
"Hi! I've prepared, uh... a bit more than a treat for you and Flandre. How hungry are ya?"
He pats the Ikea bag on his shoulder.
"What I don‘t like about measure theory is that you have to say 'almost everywhere' almost everywhere." - Attributed to Kurt Friedrichs
Business Youkai of the Mountain
"Ooh what did you bring?" Rumia asks, invading Stefan's personal space to try and look in the bag. As for the answer to his question, Rumia smiles in what's probably meant to be a friendly manner but considering Stefan's worries, her sharp teeth probably make them worse. "Hehe, I could eat a horse!"
Considering Rumia, she probably isn't talking metaphorically.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."
Extreme math nerd
Stefan gets a bit nervous at Rumia getting this close, but doesn't complain.
"I brought a lot of meat. I think a quadruple portion of one of the recipes..."
He sets down the bag and pulls out a book, titled "Destiny - The Official Cookbook", and flips through it.
"Chicken fried steak. Might not be enough for you, actually, even though... I think it's twelve pounds of meat in total. We'll see, I guess?"
Chicken-fried steak
If there's one thing the shipwrights in the Hanger love, it's a hearty meal. This delightful dish provides the team with a huge amount of energy after a long shift working on everything from jumpships to Wayfarer-class Sparrows.
Business Youkai of the Mountain
"Hmm... Okay! But don't tell Mystia. She doesn't like it when I eat birds." Rumia says after a moment, misunderstanding what chicken fried means. "I can show you where the kitchen is~."
If he follows, she'll lead the way to a fancy kitchen, humming along as she does so. As expected, the kitchen has more robots in it. Evidently Flandre preferred a normal kitchen with automatic staff than one with automated appliances.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."
Extreme math nerd
"Oh, wow, great, thanks!"
Stefan gets to work unpacking his resources and putting them on a counter. He didn't expect an actual kitchen, and he would've been ready to request one from Icarus.
He grabs eight sweet potatoes and starts scrubbing them under a tap.
"So, do you want to chat or do you want to wait until the meal is ready and do... whatever you feel like? How do you usually spend your day here, actually?"
Twice baked sweet potatoes
I saw a few Crucible contestants enjoying a plate of something with a side of what looked like sweet potatoes. Suddenly, one of them shouted in excitement about some sweet business they finally found. I have to assume they were talking about the sweet potatoes they were eating, so this dish must be a hit at arenas. The contestants were just so excited that I had to include my own sweet potato recipe in this book.
Ingredients (doubled for Flandre):
4 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean
Olive oil
Salt
Canola oil
3 shallots, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped chives
6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup coconut cream
2 teaspoons Spicy Smoked Paprika Salt (see the end of this scene, maybe?)
Honey
Edited by StepexNo2 on Nov 4th 2022 at 6:17:19 PM
"What I don‘t like about measure theory is that you have to say 'almost everywhere' almost everywhere." - Attributed to Kurt Friedrichs
Explora Colores
Exotic Battlegrounds
Nina looks with interest at Icarus' mech.
So... You are the owner of this place? I am Luna, he's my friend Simón, and the girl at the moon is Nina. Do you have something to ask?
Simón pokes Nina on her shoulder.
"Oh, right. I'm interested into training my rollerskating team in this place! Could you take us for a guided visit, please?"
Business Youkai of the Mountain
"I'm fine with either~." Rumia hums, sitting on a chair and kicking her feet back and forth. She then thought about what her answer should be. "Hmm, I like to read books with pictures, or try some of the games here. Or train with Flandre."
"Back home I'd play with my other friends Wriggle, Mystia, Cirno and Daiyousei. Though they're not here." Rumia sighed a bit before returning to her cheerful demeanor. "But I have new friends and Flandre here so it isn't too bad!"
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."
Akuma Shogun
Greentide
Watching the orks fight with their usual brutishness against the horde of chaos, both girls soon realize they are clearly out of their element. However, this doesn't stop them from fighting for their lives. Corva fights with fiery fists, while Mahke infuses her blade with pure electricity. Will they survive this?
Hi
Hub Centralis - Melia & Nia
One moment further, she just had to push. The ether within her body was beginning to build beyond her ability to contain it, even despite the strides she had long since taken in containing ether on a scale undreamt of by the High Entia of the past.
She had thought that capacity of herself unlimited. That was naive of her, as she could plainly tell, now.
But only a moment would be needed, and all of it would be over.
Just. A moment-
A voice. A vice. The sound of malice in the corner of her eye and the sight of a jackal's skull in her ears- no, wait, her mind, it felt... scrambled, like she was standing in a thick jelly, like her mind was suspended in a liquid.
Recognition, she understands what she missed. A distant feeling like rising hatred, the pooling sensation of this warp tearing away at her senses. She was not, as she dreamed, a step away from victory. The ether within her had not built as high as she had liked, and at this distance the affinity bond with Nia could not make up the difference.
The dark voice passes through her. For a moment, it sounds like a letter. The last letter, once again asking her to let go, to give him control, to stop shutting him out. Always, to no avail. No sickly words or torture could make her yield, and the sensation upon her mind could break, if she fought it hard enough.
But there were cracks.
Of course, Nia could only undo so much damage. Stop it from being permanent- but brains are not something she can heal so easily. Courier Six and Adam Smasher's attacks, not so long ago in the grand scheme of things and yet somehow so distant on the horizon of time; Those blows she had taken, the damage to her mind that had been inflicted. It left...
Damage. So little, that it might not ever have mattered. So little, that in a day's time, it would be gone.
But in this moment, it had been just enough... to make her lose track of something very, very important.
A setback just long enough to let the words she hears then feel precisely as potent as they are intended to be.
It knows, she is certain, in the same way she knows, that she alone cannot be touched by its words, only disturbed for the most fleeting of moments.
It has nothing, she recognizes as it speaks and tears its way into open reality, in its voice. Nothing that can hurt her.
Was she alike to it? Akin to it, even? To embrace reality so fully as to allow it to pass through you in its entirety?
No.
Of course not.
Whatever ways the two of them were alike, they were surface-level.
Her voice echoes out.
...But before its sound can reach, it is snuffed out.
The atmosphere surrounding her, crafted delicately from ether of the wind- that is the limit of her voice. With no medium to speak through, her words are lost.
To the abyss.
And surging forward then, tearing through the rift with such violent and tremendous force, the monster that meets her takes her in both hands. Melia, sparking with ether on a level beyond her control, her staff at her side but not at her call, can only shout- not scream- in fury, the field around her broken and leaving her to choke on absence for much of their combined descent.
Not that it lasts for long.
Melia sparks through the sky, illuminating it for a moment like a bright and incandescent star. Though it is pointless, her brightness is greater than the ambient warp, drawing for a moment the attention of Nia as she battles with the brutish monsters that have become oh-so demonstrably common.
It takes her a moment, a split-second, to recognise that the bright shining star is indeed Melia Antiqua, and for a moment beyond that she believes that light to be their long-awaited victory taking form.
Until, of course, she notices that that star is falling, falling from the sky, its light dulling with every moment in the hands of a beast beyond reckoning, until, with a violent, tremendous crash-
Melia is broken against the ground, and impaled through the center of her chest. Not by any beast, nor by any monster- but by a bar of metal, sticking haphazardly through the broken asphalt of the street beneath.
The last thing that had hit her. The ether remaining her body had been sufficient to stop everything, in truth, every aspect of the monster's attack nullified entirely by the force she had accumulated and only partly burnt away for lack of control over it.
Except the very last piece. A complete shard of utter, unfortunate happenstance.
And though in the far distance, feeling her affinity link snap with not the littlest fanfare, Nia knows what has happened.
She knows.
And she tries, desperately, to resist, rushing past the fighting, ignoring the wounds she takes along the way, to try and get to Melia, but she can't do it- not for long, not for more than a few moments at a time, and as the song of the beast echoes across the city she can only fight. The chitinous horses, monstrous centaurs of make that which only the warp could ever dream, clash with her, and their words pass across her with a faint memory.
Everything that exists is reality, Melia would say.
But Melia was-
...
Alone.
She could hear it, faintly. The sounds of battle ringing in her ears, though the sensation was distant, like listening to music while submerged in cold water.
The metal rebar jutting through her chest took up much of her vision. It had, of course, gone through her back, and destroyed everything along the way- lungs and heart and all.
She might even panic, but there was no panic left in her body. In fact, there was very little left of her, really. Silently hoping, on the edge of her consciousness, that she might feel the hopeful sensation of Nia's fluid water ether restoring her to her senses and filling her with life once again.
Oh, she might have thought, then, So that's what they meant. Never stronger than it indeed, it had taken her without a fight.
The beast, or the abyss?
Did it matter?
Everything mattered. That was why- that was why she would get up, and she would continue to fight, even though this...
Melia tries to stand up, but finds her muscles betray her.
Ah, yes, the metal had gone through her back. The first thing it hit would have been her spine.
Her mind, too, can find no purchase, swimming with thoughts that she cannot parse, a cacophony tearing through the water just beyond her senses.
The world, she can think, it needs me.
But the world can need no one. And her, it finally, conclusively, rejects.
And the cacophony turns into silence as she passes out of thought.
Oh You Who Drifts In The-
"-currents. Upon this, your finest hour, you have returned to me."
Words never meant for her, and yet in her direction,
speaks Z
◊, the purple color of the lights upon the core of Origin suspended in their shared inky void the only source of color shining upon the two of them.
A spotlight shines, from above, upon her, revealing the floor of a stage beneath her feet. In the light, wearing her dark dress with its raven-like feathers, she can do naught but kneel.
"I can grant it to you, of course. What it is you desire, above all else," speaks Z, his voice not tinged with the faintest hint of mirth nor malice, only the cold dispassion of a person without an identity of their own whatsoever.
Melia looks up, though she cannot stand. Flakes of ether shed from her prone form, as she stares at her captor. The last letter that had confined her for so long.
She had nearly forgotten, in truth. The world that they had shared was an eternity in the blink of an eye.
Z, of course, was dead. He had been for years, an eternity compared to the fraction of an instant he had so desperately clung to. The thousands of years she had spent chained to his essence were but a memory of a memory, floating on the edge of her soul.
And yet here he was.
"Z," Melia speaks in return, "You have nothing to offer me. Now, if you should be so kind as to allow me to die, I might restrain myself from killing you again."
Z's face does not change.
"Could you do it? Kill me, and in doing so ensure your own death? You are not stronger than it. No one ever will be."
He is quiet. Dispassionate, even compared to his... "usual self". Melia stares at the person, at the conqueror, at the concept, and sees right through him. Past him, and stands up by the strength of her own legs.
"Always. A thousand times, if necessary. If it means I die, then so be it."
Z nods, and slowly, but surely, turns away.
"Could I have ever understood it? Humans?"
Melia blinks, surprised, at the startling silence of her enemy.
"...That, I am not certain of. Did you ever try?"
Z pauses, for a moment in the dark silence of the amphitheater, before giving his quiet reply.
"I do not suppose I ever tried. And why should I have? It is your feelings that gave birth to me, after all. I know better than anything else, what lies beyond your each and every mask."
"This is not real, is it?"
Z nods.
"All that exists is reality. You said it yourself... but yes, this is not "real". I believe you already know why that is."
Melia nods, in return.
"All that you are is within me, just as it is within all of us."
Z turns back towards her, and smiles, splaying his arms wide as if addressing a grand audience.
"The river of fate has long since run dry. And yet still, you would cut me down, knowing that means you die?"
"May die."
"Will die."
Melia pauses.
"I see. Then you will-"
And without a second thought, Melia summons her World Ender to her hands, and lunges for her the heart of her dead foe.
Z, for his part, but a memory of a memory in a place formed only from, can do little more than die upon the sharp edge of her staff.
The void shakes. Melia closes her eyes, as she feels inclined, and finds herself suspended in thin air.
In front of her, the sight of a vast white planet below, viewed from the edge of space. Its surface, once blue and green, is consumed by white, fluffy clouds.
Behind her, a space station, connected to the planet by a vast elevator stretching down into the clouds below, floats in serene suspended animation, the gargantuan orbital ring attached to it seeming unmoving in its orbit around the little white planet below.
Melia... doesn't know this place. She cannot recall, anywhere in her memory, having been somewhere like this.
But, as she turns around, she finds herself face-to-face with someone she wishes, more than anything, she did not have to see again.
And yet, she cannot make his figure out. In one moment, she sees a man in the uniform of a professor, of a scientist, a white labcoat and ID badge- and the next moment, she sees an old man, a void where the left side of his body would be, writhing with shadow- and in the next moment, she sees the god she recognizes, clad in gold with ring-like wings, his slightly-too-long blond hair and far-too-cruel blue eyes a mockery of-
"It is just as I said," he sneers, "All beings born of the Bionis will return to the Bionis. That is the vision of which I am the origin. You cannot defy the passage of fate."
Melia, for a moment, tries to run over and try and throttle the god himself. It is the least he deserves, and yet, she cannot move from the spot she is anchored to.
It does not feel, however, like she is being restrained, merely that she is...
...Her vision blurs, and she swears she sees a sky swirling with color, but blinks it away.
"Look at you. You have even embraced your true form! Or can you call those brilliant wings of yours anything but my design?"
Melia looks upon the god, and smiles in defiance of his words.
A part of her does care, truly. But the remainder of her could not care less
"Those are brave words coming from a dead man. I have had enough of this charade. Zanza! If you do not cut the crap soon, I should have to pry it from your cold, dead hands for a second time!"
And Zanza, for his part, laughs. Not a cold, uncaring laugh, marred by an echo borne of power beyond power. It is a sad laugh. A lonely laugh.
"How can I not feel triumph?" he says, though there is none of his characteristic empty enthusiasm behind it, "You took everything from me. My world, my life, and then..."
"...Your power."
"Those replicas are mere imitations! They cannot control fate as I once did!"
Melia looks at Zanza. He looks tired. More tired than she has ever seen him.
The deafening silence of space falls upon the both of them, as Melia thinks.
She closes her eyes again, and-
"What is there to say, to you, really. I have spent a long time, wondering what I would say to you, if I ever saw you again. I could never truly find the answer in me, but..."
She shakes her head.
"It does not matter, does it?"
Zanza lowers his gaze, towards the cloud-covered planet below.
"This scenario. You, Z, and I. We are not real, are we? And I do not just mean this shallow... hallucination, I suppose. Call it a vision, the name is not relevant."
But.
"I do not care. If I die, or if I live- only that my memory, and my feelings, carry on into the future. If that is all I can have, then that I will accept."
She looks back to Zanza, and then past him.
"But if I am, truly, going to die... then I would have asked for a better death. To live, a little longer, that isn't selfish of me, I do not think. If I am to die, then I will resist until I am dead. That is part of who I, Melia Antiqua, am, and always will be."
"You will die. You will return to me."
Melia shakes her head, firmly this time.
"I will die, one way or another. But return to you? I can hardly return to someone who is dead."
Zanza is silent, hearing her say that. He would not be, she knows, if it were truly him, and so she continues irregardless of who or what it truly is she is talking to, whether that be herself, or...
"I shouldn't have to restate it. I know now, in my heart, or whatever remains of it... that as long as I am living, there will always be a way. I am, only, lightly embarrassed that it was you who showed me it."
"Zanza" lets out a short, derisive laugh, before shrugging. "It is just as well. I am you, after all."
"I certainly hope so. It was not a very convincing impression."
Melia closes her eyes, and focuses. For a moment, she swears she spots a cross-shaped green light hovering in the corner of her eye, but it is gone in the same breath.
She feels, in her chest, a sensation of pain, the most terrible pain she has ever felt- mingled in equal parts with a strange warmth she can only barely place.
Her vision, swimming in equal parts with the vision of this place she does not know, the shadow of the abyss she is rejecting, and the swirling of colors and violence that arcs across the sky.
For a moment she recognizes, on the distorted edge of her senses, a familiar sensation fading way, as Nia returns to her fight, only able to heal her for the tiniest of split seconds.
Because, in truth, Melia is not strong enough alone.
...But who is?
Desperately, painfully, despite her body's total fundamental inability, Melia forces her right arm to move.
She takes the bar stabbing through her chest, and holds it firmly in hand, the blood upon it- her blood- making it hard to grasp, let alone move.
Then, with equally as much pain, still holding on to the rebar, she takes her other arm and lifts it with a surge of impossible, inexplicable strength.
For a moment, she tries, and fails, to lift herself this way.
But she cannot budge.
The warmth in her chest- in her heart, or what remains of it- turns hot and painful, like a scouring light within her threatening to burst. It even seems to cloud her vision, as if bright enough to see.
But despite this, she carries on.
If she cannot tear herself off of this trap, then she may as well...
Well,
Tear the trap off of her.
And she feels, so clearly, so suddenly, the obvious answer- what it is she has to do.
So, with the piece of rebar in both hands-
Melia thrusts the steel down and back into her chest.
With no resistance, it bends, light in golds and greens and whites shining where it falls, as if her chest were absorbing the steel rather than having it pass through, as if there were no wound and instead, in its place, a gap, a voracious void, from which nothing can escape.
It hurts, now, more than ever before. A shocking, drowning feeling that she knows is right but cannot help but scream as she feels, her body growing somehow stronger with every bit of the long steel reinforcement she plunges further through her own chest.
Until, at last, she can tug no further, the metal plunged as far through her as it can possibly go.
And the light she swore she could see grows to an astonishing, blinding radiance.
And from her position, her chest glowing with an impossible light, Melia ascends from where she was broken, her wounds mended without a trace, the light within her literally shining against the dark, so bright that the very presence of it should act anathema to any creature of warp that dares so much as approach her-
Melia lets out an angry roar, landing on her feet as she reaches for her chest.
At first, a dull shine, as her hand plunges deeper into her own chest than it ever should- as if there were a cavity there, as if it were empty, which it abundantly clearly isn't (there's really rather a lot of material there)
Then, as if there were something to grab ahold of within, Melia's grasp takes purchase upon what should be the remaining fraction of rebar still within her chest...
But as she takes hold of it in both hands, it is indeed a shard of metal that she pulls from within-
-But not the same one that was there moment ago.
Shining like a brilliant star, as red as the blood that coated it mere moments ago, Melia draws the Sword of Origin,
◊ its size perhaps a tad tuned down for her own use but nevertheless perhaps a little large for her small stature- not that it particularly matters. The strange orb of Ouroboros within the center of the weapon, too, is absent, a change to go along with its new startling red color.
Nia, in the far distance, lets out an enthusiastic "Melia, Kick their ass!" though is quickly forced to return to her fighting.
Melia, for her part, points her new weapon towards the beast that crushed her, and states her defiance where she could not before.
"And you claim to speak for the abyss?" she says, even knowing this beast before her and the voice from before may not very well be the same. But she knows, somehow, that that voice must be listening, and if they are not she may very well force them to by strength of her will alone.
"All you talk of is the absence of life, and do you know what I believe? I can feel however it is I wish to feel about the abyss, about death, because nothingness does not have a voice!"
She frowns, almost dismissively, at the monster, then, and its uncanny poems and reckless power.
"And even if you are, truly, an emissary of the abyss as you claim..."
She flourishes the weapon, releasing a wave of light that falls across the battlefield literally carrying the echoes of her willpower upon it, her message broadcast for all to hear-
"Then we will resist, more surely than the sun will rise!"
Edited by Whoma on Nov 3rd 2022 at 9:00:52 AM
And it's something quite peculiar / Something shimmering and white.
Extreme math nerd
Exotic Battlegrounds
"Hi, uhm... Dunno what you mean by owner, I just like to stick around and help out here. Sure, I can give you a tour, follow me!"
Icarus goes to the back of the building. The central pathway has a crossing in the middle, and visible seams as well as a danger stripe at its entrance and end. To both sides of the pathway there are two arenas each, and they're all occupied by other people testing the space or trying to beat up robots.
On the other side of the building, there's a lot of seats and sofas. The back wall of the room is lined with a set of monitors, which each have a slot underneath. Off to the side, there's a conveyor belt where some of the visitors are setting down tablets with dishes.
"First of all, this is the cafeteria. You can order almost anything here... There's a couple of really exotic recipes that we aren't quite aware of yet, but beyond that, you should be able to request whatever you want! The meat is lab-grown, so don't worry about animals suffering."
SDM
"You know, Gensokyo sounds like a fun place to be in. If you aren't human."
Stefan finishes scrubbing the sweet potatoes and goes over to check the recipe book.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh.
He sets up the oven as specified, then checks the recipe again.
Poke several holes into the sweet potatoes with a fork. Rub each with olive oil and season with salt. Bake for 1 hour, or until soft and cooked through. Once cooked, set aside until cool enough to work with. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
As instructed, he starts poking the potatoes with a fork, and mutters to himself.
"Come to think of it, is it just me or is a lot of stuff in Gensokyo anthropocentric... of course it is... hm."
Rumia probably won't be able to keep up in a philosophical meta-discussion on the nature of youkai.
"So, you play with fairies and other magical beings. What's it like, danmaku? I think I've heard that Cirno sometimes does lethal pranks on humans."
"What I don‘t like about measure theory is that you have to say 'almost everywhere' almost everywhere." - Attributed to Kurt Friedrichs
it's hunting season
Hub Centralis
William can't stop drinking, bar and inn-goers that have decided to bet him in a drinking contest have quite literally caused the establishments to run out of their alcohols from his physical inability to get drunk. Not that the owners would notice, since they'd also be wasted as a result of joining in.
In this episode of trying to feel real, he's accepted yet a another drinking bet. The contestants playing dirty by spiking his drink with a variety of sedatives and literal fucking rat poison only end up dumbfounded as he continues taking shots completely unaffected. Only thing of note is his wincing as each drink gets progressively shittier in taste, in some cases literally.
real
Camille is not bothered by seeing Olivia counter her so easily, since such strength can only excite her. She smiles... until Olivia strikes her in the back of the neck, shocking her and freezing her up, face blank.
But as she falls, struck in the back of the head, she decides to up the ante, activating Limit Breaker just as she is struck. Her head bends down, and blood appears at the spot where she was struck, but she attempts to strike Olivia's unprotected flank (left if she struck with her left arm, right if otherwise) with a strong hit. However, instead of sending her flying this time, Camille uses this brief contact to try to briefly bend the iron in Katre's blood.
Lord Ninth then attempts to use this to stun her, and moves with a ruthless series of jabs and punches to the neck, eyes, chest and torso, trying to paralyze her by hitting important spots within their bodies, sort of alien vital points, to then continuer her attack.
She doesn't falter in her offensive, Lord Ninth smiling earnestly.
...
Vegeta consumes the bean and heal up, scoffing at Viche. You could take some inspiration from your friend! Tsk! I know a few people who would, too.
huh so you're not... trick or treating?
... What did you think we were doing? asks Vegeta, baffled. Trick or tr-ridiculous! We're grown men. What are you doing in that jumpsuit anyhow?
what are you doing half naked
Vegeta rolls his eyes, but Saitama shrugs. you guys were decent though, it was fun
Fallout 2? More like Fallout 2 bad.