"I still can't believe some of these youma have been around since the original war." He also still couldn't believe the war had started so ******** long ago and was contginuing now - in the modern age. Why the hell was something that ancient allowed to spill over to the modern day? Cats of course had to start it, he was certain of it. Waking up senshi and telling them to go fight...that there was some big bad enemy out there which they needed to fight - that they needed to do something. He was sure they'd started it all.
When the attack started he hung back, watching Wolframite to see what he'd do, he'd take his quie from the Captain. He knew he couldn't order a youma around like others were doing. He also didn't want to anger any youma by attacking them, he also sort of didn't want to upset Wolframite somehow either.
"If they are already attacking us I wonder how it'll go later on down the road..." As they got further into this mission. It didn't exactly lend itself to giving him warm fuzzy feelings that was for sure. Damn this all.
Cleeia screamed. He was not proud of himself, but he screamed, whent he eel dove for him, stumbling backwards and batting at it in pure instinctual panic.
"Get off me!" He gasped, but it wasn't as if he was exactly monumentally effective, and in that moment of absolute panic, even the thought of using his magic was the barest tickle in his mind. It wasn't going to help, anyway,t his thing probably didn't have imagination for him to inspire, and worse, that might just make it more inspired to attack him, and--
And there was a rush of fire, and another Senshi next to him, and Cleeia squeaked his relief.
"Thank you!!" He said, and he took a step back to give himself a little more space. He wasn't exactly rough-and-tumble in any way, and he was pretty sure that showed. Like, a lot.
"Of course," Nagya said. "I can--" he started, and he was fully prepared to explain his abilities to Kamacite, but--well--
A swear in Telugu tumbled from his lips at the feel of something smacking into his leg, but he took a sharp breath, taking a step back. Others seemed to have the pathetic little youma well and under control, and it wasn't that he didn't appreciate the help. He did, obviously, especially since he wasn't entirely sure his next trick was going to work.
But he did, in fact, have a trick up his sleeve, and he could at least demonstrate one of his abilities, if there wasn't time to explain.
"Stop that," he said, lacing his voice with hypnotic suggestion, and it was directed at the Gemini youma. "We're the same. I'd taste terrible, anyway."
Hopefully it actually obeyed the suggestion. He'd had few opportunities to flex this particular ability, though it had worked on the traitorous little brat of a Lieutenant--which, s**t, he needed to file a proper report about that. Oh well, now wasn't the time to worry about those things.
Being attacked by youma was expected. Lopezite had known this front the beginning.
But, he’d also known that the intention was to command them before destroying, and in the split second he had to decide, he didn’t know if he was more concerned with the amount of Senshi at risk, or at the amount of people who had jumped into attack mode. There weren’t so many people in the team that he couldn't do a quick sweep to get the general idea of what was going on with them.
Less than half of their team had received any sort of promotion, and while he wasn’t sure this place was even suited for a Captain or Super Senshi, he didn’t want to lose anyone who hadn’t even been given the chance to prove themselves.
So, he paid extra attention to them. He couldn’t be upset with Albite for attacking, maybe he’d just panicked. Cleeia had been attacked and done the same. Bloodstone and Carnallite had assisted and--maybe that was fine, they might not have had an ability to command youma effectively.
Titanite already had his attention from her colorful swearing, and she was attempting to handle the youma in front of her. Until Arsenopyrite attacked, and Lopezite’s mood sank. He could justify a Basic Senshi or a Lieutenant lashing out in alarm, but a General? If the youma had been inclined to listen to Titanite before, why should it now when it was still being attacked?
“Come,” he said to Atheneite, because he wasn’t going to leave her after he’d promised to keep an eye on her, but he wasn’t able to just stand back and do nothing.
He kept any biting words to himself and hoped Kamacite had been loud enough for everyone else to hear. It hadn’t been a reminder he needed, but maybe the words would be enough to get everyone back on the same page.
Cervantite attacking the youma with his magic might have been impressive, if there wasn’t a niggling concern in the back of his head that it would be very dangerous for everyone to start using their magic and swinging their weapons. His own sword was large--taller than him--and he could summon it to his hand in a second if he needed it but for now it was still strapped to his back so he could maneuver without worrying about hurting anyone.
He didn’t attack the youma; he was prepared to issue command if need be, and maybe it was presumptuous to assume that the other Generals had handled their current assailants. He just knew he wanted to be closer to assist those who couldn’t issue commands.
Especially if this was only the beginning.
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Lopezite rolled to command/not attack; his numbers failed so not quoting anyone for it! He had a lot of monologuing but very little interacting; characters referenced are bolded by no quotes.
Even under the protection of this senshi's collar and mass of rainbow hair, Gremlin was starting to wonder if there weren't better places for him to be. Cervantite was a loud, rambunctious, disgusting teenage boy, and following him into battle basically had to be a death sentence. Following anyone into battle- or maybe just going into battle, not ideal for a naked, scrawny Mauvian.
He flattened himself against Cervantite's shoulders, one paw lifted with claws extended as if he might make a swipe at anything. And it certainly seemed like that could be necessary as his stupid senshi launched himself at a youma that wasn't even paying attention to him.
Gremlin hissed violently in Cervantite's ear, "Stay with Cala, stay with Cala, don'tgooverthere!"
But obviously anything he said would be totally ignored. Fine, y'know what? Fine. As long as none of these monsters went for Cervantite's head first, Gremlin would have ample time to jump to a new host and leave this stupid boy for dead. He may have dusted one, but there'd be others, and he might as well just be a target now.
His lips curled back, and he craned his head over the fabric of his hood to stare down at the thing they'd had to charge into battle for: another senshi. A slim, squeaky thing donned in yellow. Who'd just flopped over and needed someone else to come save him. "Keep your footing, you useless wad," Gremlin spat. "Or you'll be food before anyone can save you."
He heard the very distinct sound of Cervantite sucking a strained breath between his teeth before the senshi blurted, "No, no, it's alright! Don't talk to people like that, Gremlin!" He wanted to roll his eyes at the flash of smile that he could all but hear as Cervantite said, "It's not a problem. You're not hurt, yeah?"
"I actually tried to go back to that bar, but a earthquake has blocked the road there. I haven't been able to get back. I only hope that village survived." He said, hoping that the community that had that town watched out for each other. It seemed like they did, and that made him wish there was a way for him to provide something back to them. A way to open communication between youma and those on the other side to help their community and give them anything they might desperately need. To think, maybe even a large capital just for youma. Their own kingdom again. Seeing as they were immortal in some ways, they had plenty of time to build.
The youma attacked were expected and they were the team designated to handle it, but using all their energy here for fights with youmas that were supposed to be on their side even before they got to the main battle was just a waste on all sides. "Stick close." He told Miyamoto.
"We need to send them back."
He called out to one of them, calling out. "Let us pass! Go back!" He shouted to a flying bat overhead, but the thing was too fast, too high up, and did nothing to stop their targets.
"We need to get as many out of here. We can't waste all our energy and troops just fighting them all."
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:34 am
The commotion was what drew it, the sound of scuffling and shouting. Youma fought down here all the time, of course, but these sounds were different. There were human voices, mixed in with the youma ones.
Slinking through the crystals and rocks, it crept closer, moving in a slow, deliberate creep that kept it out of view.
New things... It pondered as small, white slits peered into the open where bodies rushed about, fighting. Youma versus humans... versus negaverse officers. So many of them... It hadn't seen this many in a long time. They usually came in smaller groups, groups it always hid from. It was useless against a group, but... maybe, if one got separated... Long, spidery fingers moved restlessly over the stone before stilling abruptly as its whole, thin form froze with deadly intention.
The slits of its eyes widened, just a bit, and it stared, patient and ready.
Feathered wings whooshed overhead, and a coiling body spilled out from one of the cavernous holes above them. A serpent-like bird youma bared down on them, and Calaverite could only gape up at it in awe. He thought it was lovely for a monster, with pretty feathers (like his own!) and snakey scales. Cala wanted to touch, despite its warning hiss. He imagined that if he could just touch, it would realize-
But there was no chance for that. Cervantite ripped him away from it as the youma dove, smashing itself into a general behind them.
"Get offa me, get offa me!" Cala squawked, wedging a bony elbow into Cervantite's ribs to shove the other boy away from him. He didn't want to be caught smacked against a wall! He wanted to see. He wanted to see! It sounded like so much more was going on than just the one creature, and even Cala was pretty sure none of the sounds were friendly.
Cervantite was off of him in a beat, and Cala squeaked out a surprised noise as he stumbled and tried to regain his balance after the abrupt loss. There was fighting going on around him. It had erupted without even so much as a thought. Cervantite had thrown himself at some kind of eel. Some plant-creature was being kicked around between a few agents, and the feathered thing, the one that had lunged by him, it was under the command of some blue-haired general he'd never seen before.
It was still his favorite, so he made his way over to Titanite. "Can I touch it?" He sked, red eyes wide in a wild sort of way as his lips stretched back into a grin.
Arsenolite jumped back as the youma swarmed, but before he had any time to react, himself, the youma were swarmed by everyone else. Well. So much for him actually seeing any action, here, huh? He sighed, internally grateful to a degree that at least he wasn't attacked. He needed to get a handle on how these people fought these monsters anyway, before he rushed in without thinking, like some kind of moron. He knew he wasn't the smartest, but he wasn't the dumbest, either.
Still, he prepared to shoot anything that got close with his dinky little slingshot and baggie of pebbles. At least he could hit an eye or something.
genovianprince
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2021 8:38 pm
If you did not post after the first round, your character takes 25 damage from the surrounding youma.
Youma Gemini scuttled near enough that both halves almost joined, until Albite kicked them a considerable distance away. That was fine — the youma halves tried to join midair, but even at that, Bloodstone beat one into a particularly unfriendly Lieutenant (Carnallite) and the creature slowly lost hope of rejoining. However, that goal seemed somehow less important than Benitoite's words as he told the creature to stop attacking.
It did, in fact, stop attacking. Whether it did so because of the General's words, or because it was deeply concussed? Few could tell. For now, the creature laid with one half on one edge of their narrow path and the other half on the opposite edge.
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Youma Gemini HP: 32/50 — Incapacitated and under Benitoite's command for 2 turns Special: Nomicide — If Gemini joins and captures something in its mouth, it can double its damage by bathing the thing in digestive enzymes.
Youma Trion had little time to land a second attack — rather than gore the little yellow senshi that next attracted its attention, It felt a gout of fire burst against its side, then it felt nothing at all. What clouded down upon Cervantite's shoulders was ash, and a fine layer at that, even smearing into Gremlin's wrinkled skin.
Accompanying its rain of ash was a piece of feather, peacockesque and matching Kamacite's robes in color.
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Youma Trion HP: 0/250 — RIP Special: None
At first, Youma Quetzacoatl was attracted to Cleeia's shriek, then Titanite's resounding voice. Compulsion took root — the creature rasped out another harsh scream, but ceased its attack A pick came down on it, catching it in one of its scaly arms, and it garbled out another cry and snapped at the offending cane. Otherwise, its attention was on Titanite, though it seemed frazzled.
Its body undulating in slow dips and peaks, the creature flew closer to its aqua-haired General.
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Youma Quetzacoatl HP: 86/100 — Under Titanite's command, 4 turns - 1 turn from team attack for 3 turns Special: Venom bite — Can bite a character for regular damage, and that will take half as much damage on the next turn from the venom.
Lopezite and Wolframite's commands fell on deaf ears. Either the youma's attention spans reached capacity, or another's voice reached them first.
Arsenopyrite's personal youma finally reached the area, its unsettling trumpet call its preamble. They had another ally in Ödön, though it would foremost listen to its own General.
ssbrosb
As a flyer, Ödön can be used for various tasks, between fighting, scouting, and relaying messages. If sending the youma out to attack, roll 1d10 for it (2d10 if Arsenopyrite is also attacking). This youma has 100 HP and takes 2x damage from all sources.
For now, the Crags fell silent. The initial welcome over, either the remaining denizens allowed them inside, or found reason to wait until they could hem in the team. The Crags extended further down, dropping in a stepwise fashion deep into the Earth's violent darkness. It seemed an easy conclusion that they would find more irate youma further on, but it was just as promising a location for a target that thought itself hunted. Who could say what they would find?
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The group now have Youma Gemini and Youma Quetzacoatl under their control. These youma will follow basic commands until their timers expire.
There does not appear to be more youma at present; the team is able to move at their leader's discretion.
The group has found 1 clue. Keep it up! heart Strick
"Well, that was a shitfest," Arsenolite said as the quiet broke out, looking around. He scowled at his dumb slingshot weapon. Goddamn, he was completely useless out here, wasn't he? He was just glad at least he wasn't seriously hurt. But this mission felt increasingly like he wasn't doing jack s**t worth of anything for the Negaverse in general. Why the hell couldn't he be more useful as a captain yet or something? Couldn't fight with this stupid slingshot, couldn't teleport, couldn't hardly even go get energy or a starseed without getting his a** thoroughly kicked, apparently. He almost wanted to just write this whole thing off as a bad experience and ditch the place, but he had a sneaking suspicion that wasn't possible.
Somehow they’d come out of their first youma encounter fairly unscathed. There were a few agents who had been injured, but didn’t seem gravely so. Still, it could have been better. His heart was still racing. He thought for sure it would have ended worse than it did. But they still had a long way to go and still needed to fight the youma that he and Faustite couldn’t take down the first time they encountered it.
It was clear now that not everyone had been paying attention at the briefing when General Jet told them not to engage unless for self defense and General Faustite reiterated that they were trespassing. Had they also not read the cards that General Faustite left in their backpacks to help them familiarize themselves with the rules of the Rift?
With the number of youma that lived there, a single mis-step could be catastrophic. There was no rewinding what happened, and it was an experience to learn from. He just hoped he wasn’t the only one who took the impromptu reminder of what the Rift was capable of to heart.
“Generals and Captains,” Kamacite spoke up with a shaky voice as everything fell to silence. “We are relying on you to try and command each youma we encounter before fighting, please. Senshi… please conserve your magic. If the Generals and Captains can’t command a particular youma, then engage.”
He paused, swallowing thickly as he looked ahead of them at the darkness. But it wasn’t because he was nervous for himself. He was nervous about incapacitating his team.
“My magic will blind everyone around me,” he warned, wanting it to be absolutely clear what they were about to face. “I will try to give as much warning as possible so you can try to look away and close your eyes, but even that is not completely effective.” He knew before that even with sunglasses and covering eyes, it only lessened the blast, but in the dark of the caves they would all be super sensitive to the light.
“If any of you have magic or abilities or skills that you think will be useful or detrimental to our team, please let me know before moving forward. Otherwise… we should move as quickly as possible, and be prepared for the worst, please. Thank you.”
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Sorry for the extra quote! Want to make sure it's known that Kamacite is speaking to everyone (and now his throat hurts from talking ugh). Go team! whee
HP: 100 Damage: 1d10, hits assumed. Special: Can command youma, but it only works on certain youma. Roll 1d10; If a General's roll is an odd number, the youma will obey them. Quote Strickenized when this happens.
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Youma Quetzacoatl HP: 36/100 — Under Titanite's command, 4 turns - 1 turn from team attack for 3 turns Special: Venom bite — Can bite a character for regular damage, and that will take half as much damage on the next turn from the venom.
"Titanite has an opportunity to direct her youma (Quetzacoatl) to save Chalcanthite from a nasty fall. Doing so will expend 50 of the youma's HP, but will rescue the good General from some hefty damage. It's up to you! OOCly Chalcanthite will survive either way" Titanite takes this opportunity; RIP Quetzal's HP
Oh. Oh, it was listening to her, screeching and- well that was cool. "Hello, you creepy yet fantastic looking bird-snake," Titanite cooed to the youma as it approached, not reaching out to touch it.
A pretty little corrupt wanted to do that instead, and Titanite almost said yes, just because that face was too cute. "Is it not true that youma are not particularly fond of corrupted senshi?" she asked the lovely senshi (Calaverite) instead of agreeing, her brow furrowing. "As I do not know how long this control will last, and it is already quite stressed, I am not sure it is wis-"
But her eyes, moving towards the sky, caught on something falling. Something wearing a uniform. And long, pretty hair. "Catch that!" she told the youma, instructing it to save the Agent (Chalcanthite) that was falling from far above them. Letting an agent fall and get wounded not five minutes into this adventure was just poor teamwork.
Turning her attention to Kamacite, the watery-haired woman nodded. "Command first, fight later, do not look at the pretty magic." simple enough orders. "My only real 'skills' are fighting, paintball and video games, and I fear neither of the latter will come in handy here." Digging around in the dirt was hardly a special skill that would be needed in the rift, and... she couldn't imagine anyone would want to sample any fare found in the Rift.
It appeared that the fighting had calmed down for now. Other Youma were most likely hiding, for two reasons. Fear or finding the right chance to attack. He didn't like either of the possibilities. Somehow they had managed to "tame" the plant Youma for now. How that had been done after it had taken such a beating was beyond him. They had been pulverizing it as much as they could, and when it had been kicked away and crumpled to the floor, suddenly it was being cooed over. He was sure that plant wouldn't forget what had happened.
His thoughts were interrupted when Ödön flapped down silently and rested on his shoulder. For a moment it resisted the temptation to trumpet in Arseno's ear.
But only for a moment.
It couldn't hold back the temptation any longer and trumpeted right next to his head. Arseno sighed. If he hadn't been fully awake before, he certainly was now! "Ödön. Haven't seen you in a while." He said, letting the Youma take a look around at the group, pausing at the Corrupted Senshi a bit before its attention was away from them again. It rubbed it's "face" against his hat.
There was another interruption, something was falling from above and the General who had managed to command the Youma that attacked Arseno commanded it to catch whatever it was. It appeared to do as it was told and would most likely catch what now appeared to be a General. Arseno wasn't worried.
He walked over to the leader of the group, Kamacite. "If you need to, Ödön here can scout and help with sending messages to other teams." Arseno did not want the Youma to be fighting unless they had to. Even if it regenerated, he still cared for it and didn't want to put it in unnecessary danger. It made more sense to have it fight Senshi, it didn't like them and a dusting from them would send it back to the Rift. Here though? One didn't know and he wasn't going to experiment.
He took a step away again, in case the Corrupt Senshi decided that they should just move on. He would follow if they decided to move along.
