Egads, I'm so tired that this one will have to wait for the morning. I'll make it good, I promise heart
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:04 am
Gemstone HP: 150/150 Notes: It seems to be marching on. You can continue rolling 1d6 to learn about the youma. Characters with Rift experience receive +1 to their roll.
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Ransomite may not have had experience with youma in the way the others had, but that hadn't hindered him. In looking the youma over, he gleaned two features about Gemstone: one, that something was caught in the nest of crystals on its shell, and two, that one of its legs was broken off near the bottom, resulting in an uneven insectile march. Youma Gemstone continued unabated; it hadn't shown that it cared about Ransomite's snooping, or even that it noticed.
But Gemstone wasn't completely idle, either — it continued approaching until it met Prehnite, up at whom Gemstone looked. Crab's pincers emerged from underneath its shell, soft yellow things with long, thin tips more like needle nose pliers than genuine claws. They stayed shut.
Gemstone walked forward until the space between its eyes pressed against Prehnite's boot. Then its claws opened and shut, opened and shut, until it finally decided to use the flats of its claws for leverage. It pressed down on Prehnite's boot to push itself upward.
Viridian HP: 100/100 Notes: If youma were coffee-drinkers, it would seem like this one hasn't had enough coffee. Continue rolling 1d5 to interact with the youma.
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Taenite and Cymophane both cloased their hands over their starseeds, and Viridian's hand halted. It blinked, as if suddenly, deeply confused, looked at its own outstretched hand, and allowed that hand to fall to its side. The taller one of the two creatures spoke to it. Slowly, it recognized them as senshi. Viridian let out a baritone, rumbling hum at the question.
Trade starseed for lamp. Or question. Viridian knew it could do that. Another hum, and its branches creaked as it stepped over toward Malone. The rat-goblin youma, who had been excitedly chattering with its new visitors, was soon squished under Viridian's gargantuan hand while it leaned over him. More branches creaked as it plucked a stone-hewn desk lamp from the pile, shook other lamps off of it, and straightened up while Malone spit a spicy diatribe at his partner. The little creature finished with "not while I'm workin' here!!" while Viridian was already returning to present company.
"Hmmmm." Rejoining the two, Viridian offered up the stone desk lamp. Pushed it against Taenite's chest, even.
The tiny one (Cymophane) was speaking. It said a lot. Viridian hummed at this one too, and bent its knees to view it better. "Know that one," it said, its words elongated, as if its body was still remembering how to move. "It here."
But before it continued, another showed (Valeria). This one spoke of other things, and Viridian loosed a grumble upon hearing it. This one was also senshi. It pointed to Malone. The youma's posture tightened, its arm drew back with the other arm poised in front of its chest. Valeria kept talking, but Viridian appeared to not be registering her words. As Rakovanite looked on at them, Viridian swung its arm up at Valeria.
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Valeria takes 15 damage.
Malone HP: 300/300 Notes: Appears to be feeling reasonably grumpy after being squashed by its 'friend'. Continue rolling 1d10 to interact with the youma.
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"Don't be edgin' in on my business!" Malone yelled back at the other youma, fist shaking in the air. "Walkin' sticks. Turn your back for a second and they up n' rob ya. Can you believe it?" Malone shrugged, shook its head exasperatedly.
"Now. Where were we." It clapped its grubby, dirty hands together and rubbed them vigorously. "Riiiight, right. Sprinkles, I ain't gettin' a good vibe from that offering of yours. Gonna need you to up the ante, if you get my meanin'? You want a lamp from me, I'll trade you one. Reeeeal nice one, made it mostly myself, outta some pretty wild stuff. Y'see, we get Lieutenants pokin' 'round down here sometimes. Real dumbass ones, like your friend over here that's side talkin' Pretty." Malone jerked its head toward Feldspar and Amazonite. "Sometimes we just gotta deal with 'em, you know?" It leaned in, dropped its voice, "so's I gotta lamp made outta 'im. Good stuff, reeeeal good stuff."
Straightening up, Malone announced his deal to Sylvite in a boisterous voice. "Cut you a good deal on that lamp. Trade me your smart-mouthed lantern, or that cotton candy piece on his arm, and you get yourself a brand-new, one-of-a-kind lamp." It gestured to Faustite and Nembus, then steepled its hands together.
Now, Amazonite, however — damn fine specimen, that one — Amazonite it could listen to. All damn day. Those cute horns, those pretty scales, yep, it could listen to her for the next thousand years. "Tell ya what. I like you. Your friend there? Not so much," Malone shook out its hand, "but I'll forgive ya. Not everybody got good taste in friends, like me. So I'll tell ya. I'll give you a lamp, your choice, if you trade me that sweet sweet stone hangin' offa your wrist there. Yeah, that one. Took a real shine to that one, I did." Once again it rubbed its hands together.
Then opened them wide, as if hailing everyone. "So, you's thinkin' we got a deal? Cuz I thinkin' we got a deal."
Fulgurite may take notice that the cavern ground shivered whenever he touched one of the toys. Most were blocks, a few were carved into marginally more elaborate trains, but one was quite a real toy — a doll, it seemed.
Only when Prehnite heard the heavy 'thwack' from somewhere behind himself, within the group - did he peer up from the amorous orange eyed rock. Wincing as he registered the chatter of the rest of the team, and the new youma that'd appeared.
's**t...the Senshi...' an errant thought...
So enamored with exploring the cave, the dazzling distraction of glorious purple gems, that he'd forgotten to drag a few along with him. Only belatedly realized that it would've been better to split their wandering starseeded companions up amongst the group; just to ensure their safety unto the end of things.
He'd never commanded a youma before, and while the scuttling gemstone encrusted youma seemed to yield no answers to him - Prehnite thought it pertinent to ask it to yield; if only for a moment. "Can you please wait?" nudging the creature gently up with the toe of his boot it leveraged itself upon. His gaze slanted from the scuttle bug over to Ransomite with intent, as if to ask 'see anything?'
The yellow pincer like claws were only mildly ominous, but still enough so that Prehnite wasn't going to disturb the rock's steadily moving path, not just yet. They had generals with them - and half-youma generals with them. Even Faustite himself. Surely the others would manage for a few moments more...
If the rock turned over nothing, he'd let it continue on its meandering wobbly path.
He bent down to touch one of the smaller blocks, jumping when he noticed that the ground seemed to quake just slightly when he touched it. Bizarre. Alright.
So he touched another block.
The same thing happened.
Train, same thing.
Another train, same thing.
Maybe these weren't children's toys at all. Fulgurite was quickly starting to piece together that the toys strewn across the ground were causing some sort of general reaction that seemed to reverberate across the area; they were attached to something. The floor, maybe. Considering what he saw upon glancing upon the little area, he wondered, briefly, if what he was seeing was a youma. Maybe he should stop touching it.
The doll was different and caught his attention, and perhaps Fulgurite was better at telling himself to be cautious than actually being so. He reached out to it, asking, "Is anyone home?" before tapping it just lightly to see if the ground quaked again.
He realized in retrospect it might garner him an entirely different reaction.
Ransomite’s focus was on the crystal youma, especially as it began to try to climb Prehnite. At least, that’s what Ransomite assumed it was trying to do. If it was about to try to eat Prehnite, well…
Hopefully it was not trying to eat Prehnite.
But the glance his way was clear enough. “There’s something there,” he gestured toward the… whatever it was on the shell. The gait of the creature also caught his attention, but it didn’t seem to be bothering it… “And it’s a little damaged.”
With the way it had bumped against Prehnite, “maybe also blind.” A pause as the youma didn’t seem to heed Prehnite. “…Anything you need me to do?” Not that the youma would care about Ransomite, but…
Shiningamisgirl
Guine generated a random number between
1 and 5 ...
2!
“Oh, this is quite lovely, very Arts and Crafts,” Taenite admired the lamp that had been pushed against his chest, which he took hold of as one extra line of defense against having a branch hand reach so easily for his starseed.
He glanced at Cymophane, eyebrows raised high and obviously impressed with the information they were getting. It seemed like they might be getting somewhere, but then out of nowhere the Super Senshi (Valerina) that had been with their group decided to go in a completely different direction with the conversation.
Taenite cringed when the youma Viridian struck out at the other corrupt, but tried waving his hands to get the youma’s attention, the lamp he’d been handed held off to the side for a moment so it had a better look at the starseed in the hole in his chest that they’d been reaching for before.
“Woah, hey, it’s okay,” Taenite tried to promise, but he and Cymophane were not basically at the mercy of whatever the Super Senshi and General were going to do. If they decided to cause trouble with Viridian after he and Cymophane seemed to be getting some answers, Taenite was probably going to be pretty frustrated.
“Right, guys? You’re okay, right?” he quickly asked of the Super Senshi because he didn’t want her to be hurt, but it was also something to expect when dealing with youma. They would check her wounds once they were somewhere safer.
“You, uh... want to try anything with your, uh… General abilities?” Taenite tried to heavily hint out of the side of his mouth at the General (Rakovanite), because if someone was going to try and help calm it down, it should probably be someone it would maybe possibly listen to.
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Viridian HP: 100/100 Notes: If youma were coffee-drinkers, it would seem like this one hasn't had enough coffee. Continue rolling 1d5 to interact with the youma.
"Yes, actually? If you see something of any use on it, get it..." anything interesting at all, anything worth getting, and Prehnite assumed Ransomite saw something; the way he was looking at the creature so intently. If the creature was blind and hobbled, they could pluck from it at will. "I'm less worried with it crawling on me, and more worried about -- Fulgurite." viridian gaze cast back at the super senshi, playing with...what were those, toys? What sort of youma would play with toys?
The slightest hint of chastisement in Prehnites tone, as he called out just above a whisper to the bright blue sashed Senshi. All cautious ease. Everyone was poking things, or moving; a few too many pieces on the board in different places. "Is there something over there worth prodding at?" hand raised in question, a motion that was half beckon if the senshi wished to heed it.
The youma was a lumbering and inelegant thing. Nothing about it immediately suggested it would be able to help them. It seemed too slow to keep track of everything it saw and too confused by what was right before it to even recognize the presence of something it should hate, let alone anything else.
It trundled away to collect a lamp from the more chattery of the youma, and returned only to shove the souvenir dismissively at Taenite.
It would do business with the senshi. It seemed like most of the youma here would. So long as that was all it was doing, Rakovanite decided not to overwhelm it with any inquiries of his own. Viridian was already willing to engage peacefully with Taenite and Cymophane. He didn’t know what would prompt it to decide otherwise.
’It here.’
Rakovanite still wasn’t convinced it knew the youma the blond boy asked about, but it was pretty much the only even potentially useful thing he’d heard, and the scaled creature was supposed to be close. It could conceivably be “here,” he supposed, and the two senshi seemed equipped enough to question it.
And only those two, apparently. The third fared worse. Rakovanite snatched the girl’s (Valeria) arm and tugged her behind him, leaving it entirely unclear if it was out of concern for her safety, or concern of her offending their current source of intel. “Take care,” he muttered to her, though he was at least reasonably confident that one slow smack wouldn’t be the end of her. To the boy flapping his hands, he stated, “Please be calm. You were making progress. Try not to ruin it.”
With a sizzling draw of air through his teeth, Faustite's attention flickered off of Malone and onto Taenite, Cymophane, and Valeria. Rakovanite was there — he'd seen that one at the meeting for the last op, but as a Captain — which gave Faustite reason to suspect he hadn't much experience with youma.
The ground had rumbled, too, and behind him, a Super Senshi (Fulgurite) toyed with toys. Something was amiss there.
But, of everyone there, he was most suited to burning down a dried-out, old tree. He held a hand out to Nembus so she shouldn't follow, and he stalked toward the growing altercation between the four. Rakovanite was choosing half measures. This one was as useful as he was at the Farnsworth.
"Youma." All flame lick and snarl, the cindered General motioned for the creature to back away. "Back off or burn."
sunshine alouette
seiana_zi
sleet tempest snape
indigo_plateau
guine
Sunshine Alouette generated a random number between
1 and 5 ...
3!
Cymophane might be brave enough to talk to a youma who would probably like nothing more than to eat his starseed, but he also had a strong enough sense of self-preservation that he momentarily ducked behind Taenite when the youma (Viridian) attacked a Super Senshi (Valeria).
Glancing back at the General (Rakovanite) to make sure the Senshi was safe — and at least mostly in one piece — Cymophane quietly mouthed “You okay?” to her, then stepped out to smile at Mr. Stick again, making a placating gesture with one hand. (He kept the other planted firmly over the hole in his chest.)
“Hey, yeah, it’s okay,” Cymophane said, joining Taenite’s efforts to calm the youma down. “What’s going on? Was that too much talking? Sorry, we’re all so curious about this place. Most of us have never been here before.”
He spared a look over his shoulder at the General (Rakovanite), nodding at his comment, even if it was meant more for Taenite than for him. Cymophane was grateful for his presence, but he hoped they were able to get out of this without much more trouble.
They already got something out of Mr. Stick. If they could keep him talking…
Then Faustite was there, threatening. Cymophane winced, hoping the youma wasn’t about to take offence, that he’d obey the order.
“I think it was just confused,” Cymophane explained. “It’s a little slow, and the Super Senshi and I were talking about different things, so… maybe it was overwhelming. It said the youma’s here, though.”
To Viridian again, Cymophane continued, keeping his tone mild, “What do you mean by ‘here’? The area around this place, it’s pretty vast. Would you be able to direct us to it? We’d really appreciate the help.”
Sometimes Sylvite had bad thoughts that she didn't really want. Like, when she looked back at where the merchant youma was pointing, towards Faustite and his cute little senshi. Her eyes stayed on that senshi, just for a split second. His last mission had cost her someone, she thought. It'd only be fair.
But that was dumb, and petty, and not how any of this worked, and she knew it. People needed to survive. Nembus was cool, from the tiny bit she'd seen so far. She was way cooler than a lamp.
She was definitely cooler than a lamp made out of dead people. That was something that Sylvite didn't wanna think about too much, and anyway, the little rat monster who was selling them had managed to insult both her and her lieutenant in the same breath, only to, like, leer at one of the other Generals and offer her reasonable deals.
Just because she was sexy, or maybe because she was a dragon. Or just like, something about the sexy dragon vibes in general.
"No, it's fine," she muttered, having to bite down on her cheeks to keep from saying something about how the lamps were super overpriced, or that his business model was bad. "Just trade with her."
Nembus had spent time in Infiltration. Had gotten herself a communications degree. Still felt lost when trying to human -- but, of course, these people weren't terribly human, were they. She nodded quietly to Faustite's suggestion, even when the wheels were spinning in the mud of her mind trying to figure out how she was supposed to approach this.
"Irony that I'm afraid of them too," she murmured, a whisper on the edge of her lips, as she pondered how to not make that clear as she pondered her approach. She thought about it too long, perhaps; the youma had decided that instead of ignoring her, she might make a good barter for his apparent lamps made out of humans. Nembus couldn't help it. Her eyes widened. Her legs shook. She didn't have a good reason to not be used as trade. Sure, she was Faustite's, and he was theoretically leading this mission, but she didn't know Sylvite. Had no reason to think she wasn't one of the generals who hated her kind.
Had no reason to think she wouldn't be more useful as youma fuel.
She stayed tense, growing tenser when she saw Sylvite look at her.
And then the breath let out when Sylvite turned away, insisting that he should just trade with the other General.
Probably came just in time, considering Faustite was headed elsewhere. Without her. Made sense, considering there was already a concentration of senshi in that direction--
She turned her attention back to Malone.
They hate you because they're afraid of you. Could use that to your advantage.
"Listen," Nembus stayed further back than she should, putting distance between herself and any potential problems, but she hardened her voice in a mimic of something she very much wasn't. For one, anything anyone would ever be afraid of. Her tone came out as a warning in spite of her own nerves. "I'm not here as a bargaining chip. Do you want to keep being able to sell lamps?"
strickenized
mention, also attempting to interact with Malone and probably failing
noir songbird
proximity
stari_maga
nembus appreciates not being sacrificed to the youma
Well, compliments and questions on materials wasn't a good approach, who would have known? Maybe she wasn't so good at talking to others, not like she thought she was. She'd thought she might be best suited for this rather than the combat group, plus she really didn't want to get into as many fights as they were likely to get into. Instead she was getting hit in the face and chest by the youma. It wasn't just a light, little, smack either. It sent her back on her heels and if not for a General grabbing her she would have landed good and hard on the ground.
As it was she managed to just keep her balance when yanked behind the General. "I'm alright." Getting the words out as quickly, and calmly, as she could manage. She was however shaken up. She knew youma didn't like her kind but she had thought her approach might help as well...a different route of questioning which she thought might yeild something. Apparently not.
"I'll just have to use more make up for a few days." She tried to play it off but her face and chest ached and throbbed, especially her face.
Keeping behind the General she decided to watch, for now, and see what transpired. She wasn't looking to get further hurt when this mission was just starting, it would be a waste if she was taken out before anything really started.
Indigo_Plateau
Guine
Sunshine Alouette
Strickenized
(She was hoping he might use something from the big bad youma in the lamps...and she might find out. Poor girl)
Sleet Tempest Snape generated a random number between
1 and 5 ...
1!
Amazonite blinked, tilting her head to the side. She glanced down at the sparkly piece on her wrist, the one Malone had requested.
By all rights, she should be willing to hand it over. She should be willing to trade it for information on their quarry.
But she hesitated. Pulled her wrist close. Frowned, slightly. "I'm sorry, Malone. I know you're just looking to make a bargain, and it is a pretty piece of light, but this is....an important piece, to me, so I can't just give it away. Even for wares as fine as yours."
It was stupid and sentimental. It had been a gift given to Mimisbrunnr, the weak idiot she used to be. But it still meant something, and it wasn't something she was willing to let go of. Her comrades seemed to be falling back to deal with other youma, which meant she might be alone in this.
"Perhaps we can come to some other arrangement?" She smiled, again, tail swishing. "All I want is an answer to a question, really. So I think we can deal, yes?"
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