"Alright. We will begin the next turn now. First is free actions and defensive actions" Tester then announced. Everyone who was healing didn't have any dice to roll for that, oddly.
Rex's body morphed on its own to make the punk busters, as Guilts C, D, and E all formed their ethereal shields again.
"Now special actions" Tester continued.
All at the same time, Rick, Sans, Lewis, Cole, Curly, and Arcade had their bodies act on their own, pointing an arm at their intended target of healing. In each of their hands, the white orb of light that was one of Silanea's Dreams appeared, then shot a small beam of that same light at their target. All the beams that went into the root didn't seem to have an effect.
But when Lewis's beam hit Guilt E and Cole's beam hit Guilt A, something happened to them. Both Guilts shrieked and started to recoil, only for their movements to suddenly slow to a jittery stop. More of the same light seemed to swirl around them, and they were now as still as statues, their red eyes going out but otherwise still appearing the same. Then the party could hear Silanea.
You want me to forgive myself?
But why? It's my fault...
"Now melee attacks" Tester went on, as if it hadn't happened.
4+5=9
Guilt B uses Dodge!
20+2=22 result: miss!
Rex brought his foot up and tried to stomp it down on the Guilt, but the Guilt slithered out of the way and up around the boot, hissing at him.
"The only ranged attack was cancelled, so we move straight to the last action of the turn, a charge attack" Tester concluded.
3+4=7
Rex uses boosted Dodge!
18+12=30 result: miss!
The Guilt continued to slither upwards at Rex, hissing and snarling, but with a quick shaking of his foot and some shoving, Rex knocked the Guilt away and back to the ground.
edited 3rd Sep '17 11:18:09 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Cole let out a soft gasp at his body's moving despite his not telling it to. It didn't seem to just be him, though, and the others seemed...relatively at ease about it. He hoped that it was normal, at any rate, though he'd never been inside anyone's mind that was quite like this.
He also couldn't help but marvel at the apparent change in the guilt when the healing light touched it...the sound of Silanea's voice resonating around him. Was it...was this the right thing to do?
"Mr. Tester, I want to do that again, to another of the Guilts!" he said, pointing at the nearest one that he could. "Everyone, we need to heal them! It helped!"
Oh. Eve just went home. That was not great timing, but it was at least better than something in the real world killing her that could be a danger to the rest of us. "Oh. That's relieving." A bit of a ship sinker for Ben but relieving.
On the other hand, with how she'd been for the past few hours, I could sense her family's frothing rage from here. That motherfucker...
Everyone who had had the same idea to use the dreams went at once. That was...new. Doing it to the root didn't do anything, but for the Guilts it was a different story. It turned out I'd guessed right. A fluke, but it worked at any rate. They weren't moving, and there was a disembodied Silanea voice in the air.
I sighed mournfully, deflating a bit. "...Ya can't blame yourself for getting tricked. It's not in your hands what other folks want to do." I pointed to Guilt B again. "Y'all heard the toddler."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guessTwo, Excuse You, Ben, Meditation Room
"Wait, why is he not?" Two's brows furrowed when Ben barred Caboose from joining the Knights. "What he did now was an accident. Everyone could have stumbled like that, and even so, Sir Freckles stopped the weapon from hurting me in the first place." It seemed the Intoner didn't realize that "Sir Freckles" sounds a little silly.
"I don't know who Miss Tairee or this Writer are, but this is not a heroic behavior; barring others from repenting." She scolded the apparent leader of City Knights. It felt weird to her; not just the size difference, but the fact that Ben looked to be about the same age as the orphans she and Cent were taking care of. A part of her felt terrible that she had to scold a child in the first place, but at the same time she couldn't just let Caboose be brushed aside like this. By a self-proclaimed hero, of all things!
Another of the City Knights talked about Marcus. "...put him down? He's... he's not an animal." Another child to scold? Two was hating herself more by the second. "And Ben just said you avoid killing too. So which one of these is true?" She folded her arms. "I would like to help, because it sounds like we all need help to survive in here, but I am not joining unless you let Sir Caboose do that."
Astolfo I Hospital I Backing Up Blue
"Ooh, an oath, is it? Yep, sure!" Having said that, Rider placed his right hand on his chest as he took on a slightly serious tone and composure, his smiling expression unchanging. "I, Astolfo, will pledge myself to assist any who are in need of help, to fight against all the evils of the City, to not kill any who dwells in the City and to never falter even at the darkest of times. On my honor as one of Charlemagne's Twelve Paladins and the City Knights, you shall have my word."
Having said all that, Astolfo returned back to his usual self and sighed. "But maaaan~ I'm going to be honest, I'm still not used to the whole 'no killing' part." His previous life and job description kinda had him do all of that stuff out of necessity and duty. "Nothing to it then. Guess I better start training to hit stuff with the blunt side of my blade. That's going to be such a hassle~" It might seem like he's slightly pouting, but since he already gave his word,
It's a shame that Caboose doesn't qualify as a City Knight, though. And the blue girl he'd never seen before seems to share his sentiment. Astolfo, however, decides to cheer the blue guy up, as he doesn't mind having him around.
"Fear not! City Knight or no, I'll be more than happy to have you as company while doing City Knight-ish stuff together! You can sorta be like an unofficial member or assistant or something!"
Now what was it that he... Oh, right. "And Freckles can join in too!" There, done. Problem solved!
edited 4th Sep '17 3:53:00 AM by JustSomeGuy732
Arcade stared at Tester when the AI revealed that Eve was back home. She was gone, probably forever.
His body moved on his own, shooting some kind of light at the root. Whatever the result, Arcade's expression was unmoving. He simply stared at the ground, looking broken.
"I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye..." he muttered. Once he had control of his body, he seemed to shrink inwards. He seemed completely checked out to everything.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."Well, trying to use positive emotions on the root did nothing. As did trying to draw the guilts away. But at least targeting them directly did something.
"Dreams on that guilt" Curly said, pointing to one that wasn't currently being targeted before calling out to Silanea's voice "Because you sill have a chance to fix things, Silanea. But you have to start forgiving yourself first"
Ben glared. "Nobody's putting anyone down. If Marcus acts up, we're gonna catch him and bring him to justice like anyone else. And as for Caboose, I don't wanna let soldiers into the City Knights. Even ignoring his accident, which I can forgive him for I guess." He glanced over at Eve, who vanished right before their eyes. His gasped and moved over to where she was, looking around in confusion.
"Where'd she go?!" Ben insisted, before Morty piped up. He looked a little confused. "She got... sent home?" he muttered. "Well... if that's true, that's really good. I'll... I'll have to talk to Miss Tairee about that and see if it's the case. I'll miss her though." He sighed, putting his hands behind his head.
"Is the no killing thing really that much of a deal breaker to you guys?" he asked. "Heroes don't kill people. Like, think... think Batman. Or Superman. They're the best heroes ever and they don't kill. Think of the City Knights as superheroes. That's what we are."
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Two, What?, Meditation Room
Ben made another reason why Caboose couldn't join. It was... what? "Why? Soldiers are heroes too." Two shook her head. "They protect the people from monsters, they fight off evil empires, they aid the needing in times of need, when storms or floods come."
He seemed adamant about the "no-killing" rule, but even someone like her knew that sometimes it couldn't be helped. She didn't knew the names he submitted as examples of ideal heroes, and she felt bad about what she was about to say, but...
"Ben... I... I loathe to say it, but... killing is something heroes have to do, sometimes." She assumed he held some sort of power to even talk about all this, but even then... he was still a child, dreaming big. "Just like a huntsman killing a deer, there is no avoiding it forever." Two seemed rather upset when saying that, perhaps a little sad. "I know what I've said earlier, but sometimes you cannot reason with the other side."
Hospital
This was more care than people normally gave Caboose. Most people didn't actually want him to be with them, no doubt to keep him safe instead of avoiding him. The only person who actually went so far out of their way for his feelings was Washington. "It's okay," Caboose said to Two. "We can still be friends even if we're not on the same team, like Astolfo said. It's why people always call us the reds and blues instead of the mean people who hate each other because they want a flag." His tone didn't really show enthusiasm at the idea.
When Ben clarified that he didn't want soldiers in the Knights, though, he perked up a bit. "Oh, It's OK then!" Caboose said cheerfully. "I'm a sim trooper." He could elaborate what that meant if asked of course.
He heard Two list off the good things soldiers do. After she was done, he said in the casual manner of one describing what they did on their vacation "Oh yeah, I fought an empire once! We fought for the New Republic but then we found out some really bald guy was tricking them both into fighting because he was really evil so we helped everyone become friends."
Why is a yam attacking me?Meditation Room
Before she could get a response, Two began to argue for Caboose's position, and then one of the people that were frozen in place disappeared, who Ben seemed to know. You could just be... sent back home without warning? Well that made this entire city even more strange. As the conversation shifted to the moral dilemma of soldiers and killing, Makoto crossed her arms and sighed. She just didn't have the patience for this right now. Anat looked down at her and tilted its head, and then held out a hand to cast Diarahan on it's user. The rest of Makoto's wounds disappeared as the green magic surrounded her.
"Alright, I guess you can find me when you sort this out..." she said, walking back down the the ground. Anat glanced at the arguing group and followed behind her. Maybe there was still time to find some actual food before the next challenge started.
Astolfo I Hospital I An Oath is an Oath
Placing a single finger on his chin, the paladin thinks thoughtfully. "Hmm, it's a bit more complicated than that." was his answer to Ben's 'no killing' policy before nodding vigorously at Two's explanation.
Soon after, Astolfo shook his head and waved his hand in a 'don't worry about it' manner. "But what I think won't matter now, anyways! I already gave you my word and I intend to follow through it, so you have nothing to worry about me on that front!" The young paladin gave Ben a thumbs up and an assuring smile, for emphasis.
So he was partially right. They had to use the dreams, yeah, but not on the roots, it was the Guilts instead. Not only that but it killed them instantly without even giving them a chance to dodge. With two of them gone, all they had to do was take of the other ones and luckilly everybody got to act before the Guilts could.
"the only one blaming you for what happened is yourself," said Sans in response to Silanea, before then pointing a finger at Guilt C, "i want to use the dreams on that one," he said.
An interesting happened as well, one of them got sent home in the middle of the challenge. Well, it was no biggie, at least it was only one of them and being sent home was probably a good thing for most of these people. Arcade sure looked down though, it looked like he was really close to that girl.
"i don't wanna be rude, but there's an entire village full of people at stake here. maybe you can ask the librarian to let you send a goodbye letter to her later, for now, we kinda need you to stay focused, dude," he said, not looking directly at Arcade but it was clear that he was addressing him.
The Library
The man from earlier was right; the library really was impossible to miss. Even compared to the other building, it was quite large. If you wanted answers, this was the place to find them.
...Not that Ring Man was going to get those answers so easily. Like the rest of the city, the Library's doors seemed to be built for giants. While he couldn't find a smaller door, he was able to slip in as one of the giant residents walked out.
Somehow, the inside was even more impressive than the exterior. How could so many books exist in just one library? How long had it taken to amass such a collection? How many books were there?
Before Ring Man could marvel any longer, he remembered why he'd even come here in the first place.
Surely, it would be faster to just ask someone for details than it would to "just" find a book telling him. While none of the giants seemed to notice him, he did notice two normal-sized people chatting about something. Although one of them (the man) had a bizarre mask attached to his belt, they otherwise seemed ordinary...enough. Ring Man walked over to the pair.
"I hope you don't my interrupting, but would you please answer a few questions?"
edited 5th Sep '17 9:21:48 AM by astrokitty
Somebody once told me the world was macaroni, I took a bite out of a tree"Come on, it's an actual question. You guys gotta have something to cover your tails when it's cold" that sure was something nice to think about while standing in the middle of a blazing inferno "Speaking of which, an ice cream cone sounds great right now. Can you do something about that, Tester?"
The snakes weren't able to hold a simple conversation and kept blaming Silanea. Luckily, that boring attitude and Rex's horrible luck were interrupted by the rest of the team being able to defeat two of the Guilts by curing them. Silanea was somehow talking, presumably through the Spire, and claimed that she was the only one to blame for all this.
"Ok, let's say this is all entirely your fault. Isn't going as far as asking the writer for help enough to prove you want to fix this? Seriously, this pity party isn't doing you any good"
Regardless, Rex felt odd about something he couldn't quite explain. It was like if a particular someone wasn't there to insult him. Sure enough, Eve had just disappeared and according to Tester, she was back home. Good for her.
"Well, that's a good thing, right? She's back with her friends and everything" Arcade didn't think so and Sans tried to distract him away from the fact that he couldn't tell Eve goodbye. Rex could certainly empathize with the doctor, he never got around to pulling a prank on Eve "Yeah, she's home working again as a broom or whatever. Besides, we've got this in the bag"
"Let's get this wrapped up" Tester commented, and had his screens quickly flash.
The remaining Guilts reared up and hissed angrily, but with their bodies moving on their own, the majority of the party aimed Dreams at them and used them like before. The same result repeated, and the Guilts were frozen up and trapped, leaving all of them inactive. And Silanea's voice was there again.
I don't think I understand...
I guess I can try...
... But if it's not my fault, then whose fault is it?
There was a pause for a bit, as a vanilla ice cream cone appeared next to Rex with another pixellation effect.
Then, the trapped Guilts started to tremble and vibrate. They brought their heads up and opened their mouths gaping wide,note and letting out some unnatural wailing sort of noise; fortunately, it actually wasn't that loud or grating, but it was certainly a bit unnerving. The swirling lights around each Guilt started to swirl around them faster and faster, until blurring to the point of looking like solid rings of light around them; then, these rings contracted inwards, and each Guilt shuddered for a moment.
Then, each Guilt started to shift its form. Each had the tail melt away or split apart, as legs formed, and their overall shape changed to become someone else. Though they still remained the appearance of being nothing more than silhouettes, which made discerning some features a little tricky.
The one standing apart from the others seemed to turn into a man wearing something like a tunic; standing out in his silhouette was metal gauntlets, a large, two-handed mace, and a book hanging from his belt. Of the ones near Rex, one turned into a somewhat weedy looking figure of a man, wearing an obscuring cloak and hood, but with a buckler in his left hand and glimpses of a dagger in his right hand. One turned into a woman who also had a cloak, but was keeping it back and the hood down, as if wearing it for practical reasons rather than to hide herself; she was notably holding a large, very heavy duty and fantastical looking crossbow that kind of looked like what you'd expect if you stacked three crossbows on top of each other and then turned them into one weapon. Then one turned into a figure of a woman in sleek robes, holding a long staff with an orb up at the top end. Then finally, one turned into a familiar looking figure clad in armor, who unlike the others still had the sword stabbed through his chest; he took a moment to pull it out of his chest, and wield it along with his kite shield. Tester's screen that was showing the initiative order had new info pop up.
Warrior: 7+3=10
Sorceress: 2+4=6
Cleric: 5+2=7
Ranger: 2+5=7
Rogue: 6+6=12
New initiative order!
Rick: 10+6=16
Rex: 10+2=12
Rogue: 6+6=12
Sans: 5+7=12
Fighter: 7+3=10
Lewis: 8+1=9
Cole: 6+2=8
Cleric: 5+2=7
Ranger: 2+5=7
Curly: 3+3=6
Sorceress: 2+4=6
Arcade: 1+2=3
All five of them then had their eyes reopen, once again glowing red with anger and hatred.
Around Rex, the Fighter, or shadowy version of Sir Tristen, banged his sword against his shield a couple times, then held his shield forward defensively while shuffling himself a bit closer to the Sorceress. The Sorceress held her staff up high, the orb on the end starting to glow. The Ranger took a half step away from Rex, and aimed her crossbow at him. The Rogue readied his dagger while facing Rex.
Off to the side, the Cleric removed the book from his belt and opened it up, apparently reading from it.
"I will make things easier for you and tell you now: There are no more gimmicks with the Dreams in this battle. Your goal is now to simply defeat the Guilts in combat" Tester then informed the party.
"Hmm?" Dave looked over at Yuna with his eyebrows up slightly. "Girl, do you have any kind of medical experience?" the doctor asked, sounding like he wasn't convinced about her helping him out.
"What the heck are you talking about? I never said anything about killing him!" Louie said towards Two, sounding confused and also somewhat appalled. "Only bad guys even think about killing others! Where I come from, even Pokemon don't kill! You'd have to be truly evil to try to kill!" the trainer insisted, now sounding quite agitated.
"The militia is willing to recruit soldiers" Larry said, to cut into the conversation. "And we understand perfectly well that killing is sometimes necessary" the militia member added.
"Well you know what I think? I think you guys are bad, and just trying to pass off as good! And I don't tolerate bad guys!" Louie yelled threateningly, grabbing one of his pokeballs.
Spiderbee was still looking out the window, when something small suddenly flew up to it. She tilted her head as she looked at the little Thomas on his little broom; Thomas tried to tap on the window for attention, but it didn't really make much noise. The window of this room was also solid and couldn't open, but Thomas motioned frantically to one side and then flew off that way. Spiderbee moved out of the room and towards the one next door, which had a regular window that could be opened.
Nobody answered Gon calling out, as nobody else was in the lobby. But the front door opened again as someone who wasn't shrunken walked in. The floran woman, just under five feet tall, didn't seem to notice Gon as she walked into the room, holding her flamethrower at the ready as she grinned wickedly. Up on her helmet, the steampunk robot did notice Gon, and was aiming at him with its rifle from the cover of the floran's helmet; it didn't fire yet, but it was ready to. And clinging onto the floran's flamethrower was Rega the elite.
The floran moved for the stairwell, not paying much attention to anything else.
Miss Tairee looked over at Ring Man with a slightly raised eyebrow. "You can ask any question you like, but I cannot necessarily guarantee an answer" Miss Tairee answered him.
From the miniature starport elsewhere in the miniature terran base, a relatively large ship
◊ (in that it was maybe just over a foot long) suddenly appeared just above the starport. "Who called in the fleet?" the battlecruiser asked as it spontaneously started existing, before rising up a bit higher and moving out over one of the desks.
edited 4th Sep '17 10:54:26 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Cole watched with some trepidation as the Guilts seemed to freeze up, then...then they changed. Cole stared with horrified fascination at the metamorphosis, eyes locked in particular on the one with the shield and sword, and he pointed towards that form. "That's...that's the man who hurt her! He's the one who tricked her, who took her family!"
He looked over to the rest of the creatures, sizing them up, swallowing hard as he took in the rest of his friends, then let out a breath. "They have a mage...we should aim for the mage first! Mages have most of the power, and they can strike as many people as they want!"
Hospital- Top Floor to Stairwell
The arguing behind Makoto picked up even more as the topic of justified killing was thrown around, and she almost wanted to stay just to say how completely ridiculous the entire thing was. Were they really fighting over who helped people more nicely? There was definitely such a thing as keeping to the moral high ground when possible, but acting like they could stop every bad thing ever without someone having to die was an incredibly flawed attitude. No one was Superman or Batman, but just because they couldn't be flawless comic book heroes didn't automatically make them just as scummy as the bad guys. As much as she liked to think of the world as being that black and white, she quickly learned how wrong that was.
"I bet he doesn't even know what "evil" is if he thinks killing is the worst thing possible," she grumbled, still thinking about what Louie had spouted out. She left the Meditation room and went back to the elevator, only to realize how high up the buttons were. "Well this isn't going to work..." She just had to find a stairwell then. After a few minutes of checking the hall, she found the stairs. They weren't too tall, but trying to jump down on foot would take too long, so she used her motorcycle to hop down the steps faster, working her way back towards the lobby.
Hospital: Meditation Room
"Boy, I wanted to ask if— eh, never mind," Garrett said, both because he lost hope to get an answer out of Morty, and because his attention was drawn away by Not-So-Little Spiderbee pointing out something outside the window.
Garrett approached the window and looked out. He saw what looked like a pair of rudimentary, miniature construction sites. Damn... Looks like it started. Ah, well. No point in wasting further time here.
He looked around for a moment, then approached Ben, who was the only taller person in the room. "Hey, kid. Just wanted to note, if you want to help people, you can start with helping in today's challenge out there. That tower construction or whatever, I think it's begun," he pointed towards the window. "And I wouldn't mind if you gave me a lift there, too."
edited 5th Sep '17 10:27:53 AM by Korodzik
A couple more glowy lights did the trick, froze the last of the straggling Guilts in place and making them...change. Now, standing around the glassy pillar was, what else, a classic D&D party, among them a familiar shape. It was hard to make out some of the fine details given that they were walking shadows, but the lineup was unmistakable. Nice to know that there weren't anymore tricks, at least.
Cole began to yell about first targeting the...mage? I assumed he meant the sorceress since she was the most obviously mage-looking of the shadows. Anyway, he yelled to start with the sorceress since she could hit multiple targets at once and thus do a lot of damage at a fast enough rate to kill us before we could kill them. But...
"No! Clerics can heal and hit just as hard. They keep you from getting through their teammates. Start with the cleric."
I pointed at said cleric, about to call an attack before I thought of a certain ability clerics tended to have that was relevant to me specifically. I had to dwell on it for a moment, but eventually settled on what to do. "Charge with an object. Best to get something in before he starts trying to shoo me off. While we're on healing, Arcade stop moping and keep everyone alive. Ask Rick if you need to heal someone far away."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guessArcade once again kept his eyes downcast as the guilts were destroyed. The only change to his demeanor was the slight tremble that appeared after Rex spoke. He was right, Eve was much better off back home, and Arcade only wanted her back because he was a mess.
He was just a horrible, selfish person. A refrain of selfish, selfish, selfish rang through his head as the final bosses revealed themselves.
When Lewis ordered him to work with Rick, he gave one jerky nod. It appeared as though he was moving his head into place and then dropping it after a second.
edited 5th Sep '17 5:24:46 AM by Skooter910
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."Two, Some Hero You Are, Meditation Room
"You said you would put him down. You put down rabid animals and predators threatening the livestock." Two replied to Louie's indignation. A part of her hurt because as far as she knew, he was still a child, but... all the things he said, it just wasn't right.
And then he tried picking a fight with the member of the other group. For stating his opinion. In a hospital, right next to the unconscious patients. He was so disconnected from reality, it hurt to listen to, but Two could not let him do as he pleased. Slowly, she unsheathed her blade - a monstrous, heavy piece of work that seemed big enough to cleave a man in two - before... handing it over to Caboose. "Can you safekeep this for me for a moment, Sir Caboose?" She asked. "I would loathe if I were to draw it on instinct." Then, with the sword in his hands, the bluenette Intoner walked towards Louie, fists tightening and teeth gritting.
She felt angry. Furious, even. It was a foreign feeling to her and truly nobody who knew her ever recalled her being angry like this; doubly so against a child. Yet, this child was misbehaving, and if that was left to fester, it would grow rowdier and worse by the minute. "You will put down this bomb. This is a hospital and picking a fight in a place like this is something no hero would do. You should be ashamed of yourself, young man!" She said, her voice shaking with both self-loathing and anger. "How dare you belittle others just because they do what sometimes must be done?! Do you think... do you think they take pleasure in killing?! You call yourself a hero, yet you mock and sneer at others like the worst kind of villain!" If unstopped by anyone, she would walk right up to Louie.
There clearly was a lot of conflict going on within her. "You... will apologize to the militiaman and to others for calling them unjust names, or I will discipline you like a misbehaving child you are."

Lewis told him to try to affect a different Guilt, rather than the same one as he was focusing on. Well, Sans had told him to help Lewis, so if Lewis wanted him to do this, then it was probably best to listen to him and do as he was told.
"Okay, Mr. Tester, then I for sure, want to use the healing thing on...that one, there!" he said, pointing to one of the Guilts that Lewis wasn't targeting. "If...if that's all right...?"