MOOD: Pissed ACTION: Using his magic on the swarming robots. Remaining free.
“Damn, I hate always being right,” Surtur growled and immediately put up his fists in an attempt to block the advancing robots. He felt Ymir bump into him, and he gently moved him aside. If he could keep himself between Ymir and the rest of the robots -- and the platforms that were clearly meant for restraint -- then maybe at least Ymir would have a chance to get out.
“You good over there?” he called, sparing a glare at the Corrupted Senshi (Hylonome). “What do you think will happen once the rest of us are taken? That they’re not going to come for you next? Why don’t you use that Chaotic power of yours and do something with it?”
He was already cursing under his breath. He didn’t have his old powers, his stronger powers.
“As fun as this might seem, I don’t think you mean those restraints for what they could be used for,” Surtur scoffed. Some had theorized that these robots could feel emotion because they were now sentient.
He sincerely hoped they felt his magic.
He let them gather around him, reach for him, grab for his arms and clothing -- and then he murmured his attack.
Quote:
Sailor Scout Attack: Forlorn Heart
Surtur’s target is hit with a heavy wave of depression and feelings of emptiness. Everything around them appears as though it has lost all color saturation, or has been covered in ash or dust from decay. There is no physical damage, but the attack can be disorienting and emotionally draining. It lasts for thirty (30) seconds and can be used three (3) times. It affects enemies within a ten foot radius around Surtur and the magic will follow him if he moves, but the effects end if the target moves out of the radius.
MOOD: By the Psonics! ACTION: She may not be getting ganked by the other robots, but Bo is on a MISSION
It happened so suddenly that Tere could only blink before there were very, very angry robots trying to trap them down to the beds. It was only the intervention of Bo - who rammed her out of the way - did she even avoid the crazed robots. What the in the Abyss were they going to try to do to them!? Terebellum stumbled over a cable on the floor and landed on her side with a grunt of pain.
Then Bo spoke and yellow orange eyes snapped to the Resonator above her.
"This one is mine. Your fithy inferior technology will not have her!"
The ram's voice was tinny and loud and full of a hatred Terebellum had only heard once before.
"No... no they've corrupted your purpose Bo!" She shouted, scrambling backwards as the ram slowly moved in her direction, something glowing in her chest.
"That is incorrect, false senshi of Terebellum. It is you who has poisoned the hearts and minds of Terebellum. You, who would usurp the power that rightly sits with the Syonis, the true rulers of our star. You who would steal the mantle that is unworthy of a filthy Psyoni such as yourself," said the ram, voice clicking with a long locked away voice file.
Terebellum's back hit one of the structures in the lab.
"The star chose me, Antecedent! It is not my fault you and yours let Chaos poison our it!" she cried as the ram stood over her. The whole lab had vanished around her, so lost as she was in a memory she wished had stayed locked within crystal.
"I will fullfill my directive, as directed by -static- and our trial. False senshi Terebellum, your soul is forfeit."
The golden orb in the middle of Bo's chest pushed outwards until it floated in front of Terebellum. Before she could speak, or call on her magic, or do anything at all, tendril shot from the orb into her chest and extracted the crystal that held her soul. No sound escaped her mouth as Terebellum fell to the side, lifeless.
The orb sank back into Bo's form, and the ram turned to leave the building.
Quote:
Bo has yanked Terebellum's starseed, under some guise of removing the 'false senshi'! She is now attempting to make her way out of the lab while the other organics are busy with the robots. Feel free to try to stop the ram!
a-disgruntled-dragon
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cibarium rolled 1 20-sided dice:
6Total: 6 (1-20)
cibarium
Noob
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:08 pm
The sleet pelting the robots did little damage to most of them, save a few with exposed circuitry who sparked and shuddered with the impacts. Several came out of the assault with new cracks in sensitive sensors. Surtur's magic, meanwhile -- there was a pause in all of them. A ripple. A shiver. It had certainly been felt on some level, somehow.
But they were already empty.
They were already decayed and rusty. It was a minor difference.
With fanfare commemorating Bo's victory, they advanced again, unconcerned with the lifeless body at their feet.
Quote:
Roll a D20 to evade capture. If your roll exceeds mine, you remain free.
MOOD: Utterly horrified ACTION: Arriving at the scene
Coming to check the door again, and seeing it opened again, made Kurma's blood run cold. Seeing this forsaken place reappear after the universe had spent so long free of its presence had already been more than enough, but it awakened an ancient pain in his soul that it was this piece, with this building. And someone had gone inside.
Only the tiniest glimpse of a shoe heel turning towards the stairs was caught, enough to alert him that someone was inside right now.
A panicked breath and a flash of amber light later, he had appeared downstairs. The glow in the doorway attracted his attention, as did the commotion surrounding it.
"No."
Frantic pale eyes darted between the robots, and the senshi, and Bo and the star seed, and the golden orb that now imprisoned it. His grip on his own golden globe -- different yet clearly similar -- tightened in his hands, but the look on his face suggested it wasn't a protective move. It was something more complicated than that. He looked furious.
"Who taught you how to use that?" he asked, demandingly, at the resonator ram. "You're not supposed to have that. Put it down, spit that star seed out! Right now!"
a-disgruntled-dragon
Kurma's orb fits the description of someone who passed the trials long ago. But what is this organic doing attached to it?
MOOD: Freaking out ACTION: Trying to make sure this one is left alone
Encke and Home Helper had opted to walk around its little accidental new home. It figured he might be interested. He seemed so interested in everything about space. And in the process, maybe it could find an organic it felt comfortable taking the starseed of. Surely there was one nearby causing a disturbance. Surely there was one it could tackle, and take the starseed of.
Was there a ruckus over at the-- oh no, no, why was there a barrier and what was happening over there and--
It scuttled away, and Encke's eyes widened.
"What's going on?"
"Stay back!" It had to make sure everyone in there was alright. It was probably better this organic kept its distance. Everyone in there needed help and -- oh why was Encke following! "I just need to check on something! It has to do with our trial. Do not worry."
Home Helper entered the fray to witness Bo was victorious--and getting yelled at by some other man--and senshi were attempting to attack their fellow robots. Perhaps these were the disruptive ones they were looking for--
Encke stepped behind Home Helper, and quietly murmured, "Ah." And then, "What's happening here?" warily. "Is there something I can do to--"
Home Helper turned around to snap at him to leave, but Encke's voice had gotten cut by being forcefully grabbed by a robot whose body wrapped around him like a vise. His voice died in his throat as his pupils turned to specks, and he flailed and shoved as ineffectively as he could as he felt his heart start slamming in his ears. Not this. Not this.
"A good turn does nobody any good. Please enjoy your continued longevity. Goodbye, Mr. Araya."
Encke sucked in a breath, and then two, and then three, and then five, and then ten, and then his world was swimming as all he felt was chains and the endless ring between his ears. He pulled for his comet.
Nothing.
Home Helper scuttled over to the other robot and wailed a, "Leave him alone! He is helpful to us!"
As the robot unslithered itself from Encke, it pointed to the orb that sat suspended empty in its body, and shook their head.
"He is helpful to me!"
It had not decided to leave the non-disruptive ones alone just to have its fellows kill them instead!
MOOD:thonking.jpg ACTION: Standing behind Kurma, watching everything go to hell, making absolutely zero movements to try to help
Well, everything was really going to hell in a handbasket, wasn't it.
Larimar hadn't been meaning to investigate. Ze wasn't, necessarily, of an investigative nature. But ze'd spent long enough staring at the stars, and being free of having a panic attack, that ze'd started to get really ******** bored -- and there'd been some noise this way, and a group of people who'd headed off this way, and after debating it for a while, what ze'd walked in on was --
Well, at the very least, Larimar had been <******** right about the robots trying to kill people. Take that, universe! Not that ze could boast about being completely ******** right to anyone, because it wasn't like ze had really told anyone or even socialized voluntarily, but still!
So there were a few options here: ze could intervene in favor of the non-robots, or leave, or try to stab Kurma (probably a bad idea, but he was in front of zem), or. Actually, that was basically all the options, besides 'intervening in favor of the robots', which was stupid.
However: there was basically nobody here who was Chaos. Just one Senshi, and, quite frankly, she was first-level; that was pretty much cannon fodder as far as ze was concerned. So, Larimar reasoned, ze... didn't actually care? If these people died? But it was still entertaining to watch, kind of, in a weird morbid way, and with Kurma in front of zem (******** teleporters), that formed a body barrier between zem and the robots.
Ahhh. There was nothing quite like live entertainment.
MOOD: Unnerved. ACTION: Fighting off more robots. Too consumed with his own thoughts to notice much else.
Ymir didn’t have the luxury of caring for other people. He certainly remained aware that there were more bodies in the room than there had been before, but his attention was on the swarming robots, not the newcomers.
Or the body of the other non-Earth senshi. Ymir didn’t look at her, couldn’t look at her, didn’t want that image in his head when he could barely look away from the beds with their restraints as it was.
He shoved one robot into another. He swept the legs out from under a third. He stepped closer to Surtur, his only known ally, and thought they should make a run for it, sacrifice the two Chaos poisoned figures to the robot hoard and leave the others where they fell.
Ymir tried to vocalize this, but he could not seem to find the words. The beds were close. The restraints stood out among them, ominous and vile. The robots closed in, reaching, grasping, tugging, too many to fight off in his weakened state. He pushed them away, punched one that got too close — a ringing smack that left his fist aching.
He collided with Surtur in the mayhem and was relieved that Surtur had not yet fallen, but worried that he might.
Worse than the thought of his own starseed being plucked from his body was the prospect of facing this strange second chance at life alone.
MOOD: Angry ACTION: Demanding Kurma take responsibility and help those still with their starseeds to get out.
They were not going down yet! His eyes narrowed momentarily on the robots that barely flinched to his usually devastating magic. Maybe it was because his power was still building back up. Maybe it was because they really couldn’t comprehend emotion. It didn’t matter, because they needed to get out of this place and warn the others.
And then someone magically appeared. The one who appeared with them originally. The one who left them alone with barely a word and no warning of what to expect.
Surtur felt a flare of anger.
“You knew they could take starseeds?” Surtur spun around to growl at the man (Kurma). “You didn’t bother to warn us?”
He could sense Ymir close to him. He could tell Ymir was panicking. The other non-Earth Senshi had her starseed taken.
“Get us out of here!”
If the man could easily move from one place to another, he had time to take them with him.
She had spent a long time curled up next to her fallen stone, talking to Basiluzzo until her heart rate had gone back to something steady and her breath had started filling her lungs again. There was no cold water to splash on her face afterwards, so there was nothing to do but wait until it stopped looking like she'd just been crying before she went out to look for Encke again.
He wasn't where he'd been before, so that meant the searching for him took time, too.
Her attention was drawn away by some noise in the distance. There were clicks. There were screeches. There was unsteady, broken whirring, and there was a lot of it. There were people's voices, too. The voices did not sound happy. Were people trying to fight each other again?
Pendour looked at Basi over her shoulder with a little shrug, then stepped forwards towards the building where it all seemed to be happening. She'd already diffused one situation tonight, and she still had a little magic left.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, she was immediately rammed into by something that looked like an oversized Roomba with smoke coming out the back of it. She stumbled, but as she did, she ran her thumb over her signet ring, and the light began to ripple over her skin as if she were at her Wonder.
She got her balance back before she could stumble into the bed behind her, and it was then that she managed to look around. It was then that she managed to see the way the broken robots here were swarming everybody in this place. It was then that she saw that Encke was not only here but tied down, and she could see the fear in his eyes.
Her own heart, which she'd just so carefully calmed down, started to pound again.
"Let him go," she said to the large robot with the arms that was closest to him. A few others were swarming around her ankles but she sidestepped them. The extra grace from her Aspect helped keep her from tripping over any of them.
"I'm here," she said, much gentler, to Encke, before she reached down to start trying to pry at the restraints with all of her Knight strength. She'd pull them free from the rest of the bed if she had to. Her pacifism didn't extend to furniture.
It did extend to robots, and so she was as gentle as she could be as she used her elbows to keep any robot arms or tendrils from getting too close to them.
"You're okay," she whispered to Encke, even if that might be a false promise.
Seiana_ZI
ASPECT OF NEPTUNE: Light dances and ripples off of Neptune Knights as if they were submerged in ocean water. They can handle combat with the elegance of a sea creature in its natural element, able to rebound from knock backs and falls with ease and grace.
MOOD: Furious ACTION: Trying to get robots away. Helping Pendour help Encke.
Talking to Pendour had felt good. Seeing her breathing evening relaxed him too. She was alright. She would be alright. He would have offered her some cold water to help if he had it, but since he didn't, he waited with her until she was comfortable again. That was when he got up and followed, noticed that both Encke and Home Helper had wandered off, and sighed and joined Pendour in the search.
Their search took a momentary pause when he heard all of that commotion, and his brow knit in turn when Pendour looked to him with a shrug. That guy--Kurma, Encke called him?--had said this place was dangerous. What was going on in there? Was anyone in trouble? It sounded like someone was.
Basiluzzo had not been expecting the swarm of angry robots. He reached out to catch Pendour if she needed it, but she soon had her balance, and Basiluzzo shot a glare in the direction of the Roomba bot. Would have told it to watch where it was going, but there were a whole lot of robots that weren't watching any damn thing. <********>. Alright. He skipped around one, twisted around another. Basiluzzo did an exceptionally skilled backbend to get below the fray for a moment if he did say so himself--how the hell had his night job become so useful for fighting? It was a scramble that looked unfairly intentional and he knew it. As he moved, he caught that Kurma was there--he wasn't positive that was a good sign.
Pendour was off again, and Basiluzzo followed her gaze and direction to a sight that made his heart freeze.
He ran after her as well as his legs and this robot sea would allow him, summoning his feather to his hand and blowing on it in the direction of all nearby robots. He caught that Home Helper was one of them. He also didn't care.
Basiluzzo reached into his subspace pocket. With an expertise he wished he didn't still need, he thumbed out a single bottle, popped it open, and pressed a single pill that was in it to Encke's lips. He would know what to do.
"We got you," he echoed Pendour, whisper quiet.
stari_maga
he holds up the feather and blows on it to summon a wind within a 10 ft diameter space; this wind will give allies a boost to their speed and buffet enemies and has a total duration of 30 seconds
MOOD: .... ACTION: Remaining free. activating "chaotic" powers and dismayed at the results.
Chaotic powers? Did she have those? Hylnome scrambled out of the reach of another press of robots in time to fully comprehend what it was that one of the strange senshi was shouting at her. Frantically she glanced around for a familiar face and finding nothing shrunk back from the fray. Seeing one of the senshi she had followed fall with what seemed like her starseed pulled had Hylonome placing her hands over the place where hers rested. Even as chaos-filled as it was, would the robots want hers? She wasn't so sure.
Her sense of relief was palpable as more people crowded into the room. More people perhaps meant less attention on herself but even as she tried concentrating enough on calling forth a magical power. She wasn't even sure if she could. Never had she used magic in her short time in being a senshi. Was there magic inside of her? There was a sense of futility in the exercise but still Hylonome found herself trying to grasp at anything that felt familiar to her. Words bubbled up from her throat and she gave voice to a phrase that wanted to be heard.
"Hylonome's Grace,"
What followed left the senshi feeling utterly bewildered as a flower bloom appeared in her hands and she glanced around towards anyone who'd be able to help with what she needed to do next.
Quote:
Sailor Scout Attack: Hylonome's Grace Hylonome calls her attack and brings her palms together. In her hands a single magical Edelweiss flower blooms. She will then pass the flower to an ally. Once in possession of an ally the flower lingers for twenty seconds. In this time if the ally chooses to they can eat the bloom. Eating the bloom will ease very minor ailments. If not eaten the bloom disappears.
(( 3 uses, can use it on herself too .. now down to 2 uses ))
MOOD: Elated ACTION: Assessing the situation, looking for a way to help
Still excited by his success and newly acquired starseed, Surly had gone in search of his fellow robots and... friends, to share his good fortune with. The commotion within the building at drawn him, as had Bo's own triumphant sending, but it had taken time to get there, his gate gone unwieldy and awkward with one leg damaged and inoperable.
Inside, when he finally made it there, was a chaotic rush of robots and people, some restrained and many fighting back. The damaged ones seemed to be trying to take these starseeds, which wasn't a bad thing considering how many were close to fully ceasing operation, but his concern lay in the possible damage to them in a struggle like this.
Datastream
Query: How may I assist?
I have already acquired my own starseed. I have taken damage, but I am still able enough.
Request: Please do not risk damage. I will help.
----------------
cibarium
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:57 pm
Home Helper's pleas garnered little sympathy from its crewmates. Instead, the one nearest to Encke -- resembling a large, curved, flickering lamp with an array of sparking and twitching medical tools at its base -- buzzed, "Indeed. The organic shall continue to help us, eternally. It is Astraya's gift to us!"
In a display of disdain at its comrade's hesitation, it tapped out a short tune on its rim and the orb it bore eagerly whined to life. Searching tendrils surged at Sailor Encke's chest while another pair of terminal machines wrapped limbs around Pendour's form and attempted to pull her away.
A fleshy piercing sound was barely audible to those near the restrained senshi. Unlike the others, it wormed its way in slowly, erratically. Messily. There was no blood, but there was resistance, and the glowing markes on Encke's skin belied the reason why to those who knew what they meant. It was about fifteen seconds of struggle, all the while magenta splinters of energy formed and struggled against the ancient technological invader.
It all ended with a great surge that traveled through the vessel through its wielder. It emitted a high-pitched whine of pain, then exploded violently.
The others hesitated, shocked and confused and dismayed at the sudden death of their friend.
datastream
XZ-1414 is OFFLINE.
datastream
There was no warning of this. How do you prevent it?
MOOD: Having the worst day of his life ACTION: Trying to remember how to turn the vessels off
"I didn't know they had those things, there weren't supposed to be any left!" called Kurma back at Surtur, his normally calm face creased with deep, anxious horror. "This whole place was supposed to be gone. I had it destroyed back before--" He shook his head irritably. "Never mind. We'll be able to leave once the beacon's off, and that's almost done. In the meanwhile, no one here is going anywhere until those star seeds are put back, and those vessels are put down."
He was now speaking in an even, stern, paternal tone, with pale eyes shooting birch daggers at Surly and Bo. Then, in a smooth gesture, a golden zither-like instrument appeared from his subspace.
"I've spent so long making sure no one ever finds out about this place, and now I have to teach you all the code to deactivate the vessels so I don't break my promise," he sighed, plucking experimentally at the strings. "Makes me wonder what the hell Cosmo's thinking, putting everyone on Earth..." Floating above the others, and experienced enough to stay out of reach of a high-level senshi or Knight, he was now settling somewhat back into the placid demeanor he normally kept.
"Now, how'd it go again? Gimme a sec, it's been a really long time..."
Quote:
Kurma knows the command to free a trapped star seed from the vessel... in theory. In practice, he's struggling to remember it and won't be able to recall it until the next turn. However, if you can whistle or have an instrument on you, you can try to guess the tune by rolling 2d10. Matching my roll will result in success, and any robots in proximity with a star seed will lose it (at player discretion).
The terminally damaged robots are shocked by the explosion and recalculating their moves!
MOOD: Panicked. ACTION: Really just wants to leave. Disinclined to help.
Ymir wanted to leave. That was his only concern. He wanted out of this room, out of this building, and off of this planet. He didn’t care about anyone who might be missing their starseed, or one of the robots exploding, or the strange man who knew too much but offered too little. He generally didn’t care about much of anything, not even himself — though he cared just enough to want nothing to do with the beds or the restraints, neither of which he could tear his eyes away from.
Surtur said something, but Surtur said a lot of things (all the time, endlessly). None of it filtered through Ymir’s muffled hearing. There were other voices. Too many voices. Too many people. Useless people. Couldn’t even save their own worlds, just like Ymir.
Useless. Unworthy. Better off dead, maybe, except Ymir didn’t want to die strapped down.
He stumbled into Surtur again, pushed at him weakly, grabbed Surtur’s arm like he could drag him along, only Ymir couldn’t find a safe path out of the mayhem. Everything seemed oddly distorted and out of focus. How had they gotten here? Through the dark and down some stairs?
MOOD: Angry but determined ACTION: Taking and eating the flower from Hylonome. Using his flute to try and speed up the process of Kurma’s experimenting.
Surtur looked up when the Senshi tainted by Chaos said something, something that didn’t belong to Chaos it seemed, and held out --
A flower.
He could have laughed. Not at the flower. Not at the woman’s attempt, but because it was a flower created by someone who had obviously been corrupted. And while she didn’t tell him what to do with it, he’d experienced countless others’ magic over the centuries of his life.
“You don’t belong to them,” Surtur frowned as he took the flower gently in his hand, cupping it like it was something to be treasured, even in the horrors that surrounded them, and lifted it to his lips to taste.
There were scratches from when the robots attacked him, from when they clawed at his uniform as he drew them close enough to use his magic -- and he could feel the pain from those wounds easing somewhat.
Who would have thought. Healing magic from someone tainted by Chaos.
Maybe there was hope for her yet.
As for whatever the mysterious man (Kurma) was doing, Surtur pulled open his subspace to quickly fish out a small flute he’d made. All the while keeping himself between Ymir and the robots. He would get Ymir -- and maybe the others -- to safety if Kurma wouldn’t.
If it was music that deactivated the vessels, then he would just have to figure out the tune quickly.
